Ontogenetic morphological changes of the venom apparatus in 4 eupelmid egg parasitoids.

Parasitoid wasps, notably egg parasitoids of the family Eupelmidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea), a key natural enemy of insect pests, offer a sustainable approach to pest management in agriculture. This study investigated the venom apparatus's developmental dynamics across 4 species of eupelmid egg parasitoids: Anastatus. japonicus, Anastatus fulloi, Mesocomys trabalae and Mesocomys albitarsis. A comprehensive anatomical investigation revealed differences in the dimensions of the venom apparatus across different developmental stages in adult females. We found that the venom apparatus of these 4 studied species consists of a venom gland and a reservoir with an associated Dufour's gland. As the length of post-emergence increases, a significant enlargement in the venom apparatus is evident across all the studied parasitoid species. Notably, M. albitarsis consistently exhibites the shortest venom gland length, whereas that of A. fulloi is the longest among the observed species. At the high day age, the width of venom glands of the 2 Mesocomys species surpasses those of the Anastatus species; for the volume of the venom reservoir, there is a steady increase in all 4 species before the age of 6­7 days, with a decline on 8th day, especially for A. japonicus. This research provided new insights into the developmental trajectories of venom apparatus in eupelmid egg parasitoids and the potential impact of venom potency on their success.

Comparison of the biology of Frankliniella intonsa and Megalurothrips usitatus on cowpea pods under natural regimes through an age-stage, two-sex life table approach.

Two thrips, Megalurothrips usitatus (Bagnall) and Frankliniella intonsa (Trybom) are major pests of cowpea in South China. To realistically compare the growth, development and reproductive characteristics of these two thrips species, we compared their age-stage, two-sex life tables on cowpea pods under summer and winter natural environmental regimes. The results showed that the total preadult period of M. usitatus was 8.09 days, which was significantly longer than that of F. intonsa (7.06 days), while the adult female longevity of M. usitatus (21.14 days) was significantly shorter than that of F. intonsa (25.77 days). Significant differences were showed in male adult longevity (10.68 days for F. intonsa and 16.95 days for M. usitatus) and the female ratio of offspring (0.67 for F. intonsa and 0.51 for M. usitatus), and the total preadult period of M. usitatus (16.20 days) was significantly longer than that of F. intonsa (13.66 days) in the winter regime. The net reproductive rate (summer: R0 = 85.62, winter: R0 = 105.22), intrinsic rate of increase (summer: r = 0.3020 day-1, winter: r = 0.2115 day-1), finite rate of increase (summer: λ = 1.3526 day-1, winter: λ = 1.2356 day-1) and gross reproduction rate (summer: GRR = 139.34, winter: GRR = 159.88) of F. intonsa were higher than those of M. usitatus (summer: R0 = 82.91, r = 0.2741, λ = 1.3155, GRR = 135.71; winter: R0 = 80.62, r = 0.1672, λ = 1.1820, GRR = 131.26), and the mean generation times (summer: T = 14.73 days, winter: T = 22.01 days) of F. intonsa were significantly shorter than those of M. usitatus (summer: T = 16.11 days, winter: T = 26.25 days). These results may contribute to a better understanding of the bioecology of different thrips species, especially the interspecific competition between two economically important cowpea thrips with the same ecological niche in a changing environment.

Disease-free survival as a surrogate endpoint for overall survival in adjuvant trials of pancreatic cancer: a meta-analysis of 20 randomized controlled trials.

BACKGROUND: We aimed to assess whether disease-free survival (DFS) could serve as a reliable surrogate endpoint for overall survival (OS) in adjuvant trials of pancreatic cancer. METHODS: We systematically reviewed adjuvant randomized trials for non-metastatic pancreatic cancer after curative resection that reported a hazard ratio (HR) for DFS and OS. We assessed the correlation between treatment effect (HR) on DFS and OS, weighted by sample size or precision of hazard ratio estimate, assuming fixed and random effects, and calculated the surrogate threshold effect (STE). We also performed sensitivity analyses and a leave-one-out cross validation approach to evaluate the robustness of our findings. RESULTS: After screening 450 relevant articles, we identified a total of 20 qualifying trails comprising 5170 patients for quantitative analysis. We noted a strong correlation between the treatment effects for DFS and OS, with coefficient of determination of 0.82 in the random effect model, 0.82 in the fixed effect model, and 0.80 in the sample size weighting; the robustness of this finding was further verified by the leave-one-out cross-validation approach. Sensitivity analyses with restriction to phase 3 trials, large trials, trials with mature follow-up periods, and trials with adjuvant therapy versus adjuvant therapy strengthened the correlation (0.75 to 0.88) between DFS and OS. The STE was 0.96 for DFS. CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, DFS could be regarded as a surrogate endpoint for OS in adjuvant trials of pancreatic cancer. In future similar adjuvant trials, a hazard ratio for DFS of 0.96 or less would predict a treatment impact on OS.

Bursectomy for advanced gastric cancer: an update meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The present meta-analysis was to explore the surgical and oncological outcomes of bursectomy for advanced gastric cancer (AGC). METHODS: Relevant studies that evaluated the role of bursectomy for AGC were comprehensively examined to perform a meta-analysis. The primary outcomes were overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). The secondary outcomes were the number of harvested lymph nodes (LNs), operation time, operative bleeding, hospital stay, postoperative complication and mortality. RESULTS: A total of seven studies comprising 2633 cases (1176 cases in the bursectomy group and 1457 cases in the non-bursectomy group) were finally included. There was no significant difference in OS (HR 0.95, P = 0.647) and DFS (HR 0.99, P = 0.936) between the two groups. Even for patients with serosa-penetrating tumours, OS was comparable between the two groups (HR 0.87, P = 0.356). The operation time of the bursectomy group was longer (weighted mean difference, WMD 32.76 min, P = 0.002). No significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of the number of dissected LNs (WMD 5.86, P = 0.157), operative bleeding (WMD 66.99 ml, P = 0.192) and hospital stay (WMD - 0.15 days, P = 0.766). The overall postoperative complication (relative risk, RR 1.08, P = 0.421) and mortality (RR 0.44, P = 0.195) were similar between two groups. CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis indicated that bursectomy is time-consuming without increasing the number of harvested LNs. Although bursectomy can be safely performed without increasing complications and mortality, it does not prolong the OS and DFS of AGC patients, including patients with serosa-penetrating tumours. Therefore, bursectomy should not be recommended as a standard procedure for AGC.

Expression and Significance of Th17 and Treg Cells in Pulmonary Infections with Gram-Negative Bacteria.

The aim of this study was to investigate the expression and significance of T helper type 17 (Th17) and regulatory T (Treg) cells in severe pulmonary infection with gram-negative bacteria (GNB). The peripheral venous blood (PVB) and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were collected from patients receiving mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit (ICU) owing to: (1) pulmonary GNB infection (group I) and (2) nonpulmonary infection (group NI). Patients from the two groups were matched based on their Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) scores and were recruited in the same period. The levels of Th17 and Treg cells in the PVB and BALF were measured by flow cytometry. (1) The levels of Th17 and Treg cells in the PVB and BALF of the infection group (I) were significantly higher than those of the noninfection group (NI) (p < 0.01), and the levels decreased significantly after treatment (p < 0.01). (2) The Treg/Th17 cell ratio in the PVB and BALF of group I was significantly lower than those of group NI and after treatment (p < 0.01). (3) The levels of Th17 and Treg cells in the PVB and BALF could not predict the 28-day mortality (p > 0.05). The expression of Th17 and Treg cells was abnormal in patients with severe pulmonary GNB infection. Our data suggest an overactive immune response in the early stages of inflammation, but the levels of Treg and Th17 cells failed to predict the 28-day mortality.

Endoscopic ultrasonography compared with multidetector computed tomography for the preoperative staging of gastric cancer: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The current study sought to perform a meta-analysis to compare the preoperative staging of endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) and multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) in gastric carcinoma. METHODS: Articles published between January 1, 2000, and April 1, 2016, that compared EUS with MDCT were included, and data were presented as 2 × 2 tables. The sensitivities, specificities and summary receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for T and N staging were calculated using a bivariate mixed effects model. Data were weighted by generic variance and then pooled by random-effects modeling. RESULTS: Eight studies comprising 1736 patients were included in this meta-analysis. For T1 staging, the sensitivity value for EUS (82%) was significantly higher than that for MDCT (41%) (relative risk (RR): 2.06, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07-3.94; P = 0.030). For lymph node involvement, the sensitivity value for EUS (91%) was also significantly higher than that for MDCT (77%) (RR 1.14, 95% CI 1.05-1.23; P = 0.001). However, the specificity values of both EUS and MDCT were quite low, at 49 and 63%, respectively. No significant differences in T2-4 staging between EUS and MDCT were noted. CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis indicates that EUS may be superior to MDCT in preoperative T1 and N staging. Additionally, the low specificity values of EUS and MDCT for N staging merits attention.

Significant Role of Palliative Gastrectomy in Selective Gastric Cancer Patients with Peritoneal Dissemination: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to explore whether palliative gastrectomy is suitable for gastric cancer patients with peritoneal metastasis, and for patients in whom the type of peritoneal metastasis should be selected to receive palliative gastrectomy. METHODS: A total of 747 patients diagnosed with gastric adenocarcinoma with peritoneal metastasis at our centers between January 2000 and April 2014 were retrospectively analyzed. After propensity score matching, the clinicopathologic characteristics and clinical outcomes of patients with peritoneal dissemination were analyzed. RESULTS: After propensity score matching, the median overall survival (OS) of patients in the gastrectomy group was longer than that for patients in the non-gastrectomy group (11.87 vs. 9.27 months; p = 0.020). Patients who received first-line chemotherapy had a significantly longer median OS than those who did not (11.97 vs. 7.03 months; p < 0.001); among these patients, those undergoing more than eight periods of first-line chemotherapy benefited the most (p < 0.001). Subgroup analyses revealed that patients classified as P1 who were undergoing chemotherapy benefited from gastrectomy (p = 0.024), and patients without multisite metastasis also benefited from gastrectomy with regard to OS (p = 0.007). In the multivariate survival analysis, multisite distant metastasis was the independent poor prognostic factor (p < 0.001), while palliative gastrectomy (p = 0.006) and a period of first-line chemotherapy (p < 0.001) were good prognostic factors. Morbidity rates in the gastrectomy and non-gastrectomy groups were 10.4 and 1.0 %, respectively (p = 0.003); however, no difference in mortality was noted between the two groups (p = 0.590). CONCLUSIONS: Palliative gastrectomy can prolong the survival of P1 patients without multisite distant metastasis when combined with more than five periods, and particularly more than eight periods, of first-line chemotherapy.

Quick Discrimination of Rice Storage Period Based on Manifold Dimensionality Reduction Methods and Near Infrared Spectroscopy Techniques.

This paper proposed a method for rapid identification of rice storage period based on manifold dimensionality reduction algorithms and near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technique. The reflection spectrum curve of old rice and new rice were obtained with a field spectroradiometer and the acquired spectral data was preprocessed with direct orthogonal signal correction method (DOSC) to filter the independent signal from the spectral data which is irrelevant with the dependent variable Y array and eliminate the influence and interference of the irrelevant information in the following chemometric analysis. The Durbin-Watson test and Run test methods were utilized to detect the nonlinearity which exists in the spectral data structure. The enhanced partial residual plot analysis method (Augmented partial residual plot) was employed to quantitative analysis of the degree of nonlinearity of the spectral data. Popular linear manifold dimensionality reduction methods including principal component analysis (PCA) method and multidimensional scaling analysis (MDS) method and popular nonlinear manifold dimensionality reduction methods including Isometries mapping method (ISOMAP), locally linear embedding (LLE) method and Laplacian Eigenmap method (LE) were used to extract the real variable from the preprocessed spectral data. Then, the intrinsic variable was taken as the input of the kernel partial least squares method (KPLS) to establish the relationship between the intrinsic variables and the storage time of rice samples. The number of experiment samples of the new rice and the old rice were 200 respectively and randomly separated into the training set with 300 samples and the test set with 100 samples. Through comparing the prediction results of the regression models which were established with different manifold reduction methods, the experiment results show that the prediction effects of the nonlinear-based models are superior to the linear-based models. Finally, the KPLS model established with 40 true variables extracted with ISOMAP approach achieved the optimal prediction effect. The prediction correlation coefficient (R2p), RMSEP (RMSEP) and relative prediction error value (RPD) were 0.917, 0.187 and 2.698, respectively. It was concluded that NIRS combined with ISOMAP-KPLS method can be successfully used to determine the storage period of rice accurately and quickly. The study provides a scientific means for rapid non-destructive detecting for rice storage period research in the future.

[Prediction of Encapsulation Temperatures of Copolymer Films in Photovoltaic Cells Using Hyperspectral Imaging Techniques and Chemometrics].

A novel method of combination of the chemometrics and the hyperspectral imaging techniques was presented to detect the temperatures of Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate copolymer (EVA) films in photovoltaic cells during the thermal encapsulation process. Four varieties of the EVA films which had been heated at the temperatures of 128, 132, 142 and 148 °C during the photovoltaic cells production process were used for investigation in this paper. These copolymer encapsulation films were firstly scanned by the hyperspectral imaging equipment (Spectral Imaging Ltd. Oulu, Finland). The scanning band range of hyperspectral equipemnt was set between 904.58 and 1700.01 nm. The hyperspectral dataset of copolymer films was randomly divided into two parts for the training and test purpose. Each type of the training set and test set contained 90 and 10 instances, respectively. The obtained hyperspectral images of EVA films were dealt with by using the ENVI (Exelis Visual Information Solutions, USA) software. The size of region of interest (ROI) of each obtained hyperspectral image of EVA film was set as 150 x 150 pixels. The average of reflectance hyper spectra of all the pixels in the ROI was used as the characteristic curve to represent the instance. There kinds of chemometrics methods including partial least squares regression (PLSR), multi-class support vector machine (SVM) and large margin nearest neighbor (LMNN) were used to correlate the characteristic hyper spectra with the encapsulation temperatures of of copolymer films. The plot of weighted regression coefficients illustrated that both bands of short- and long-wave near infrared hyperspectral data contributed to enhancing the prediction accuracy of the forecast model. Because the attained reflectance hyperspectral data of EVA materials displayed the strong nonlinearity, the prediction performance of linear modeling method of PLSR declined and the prediction precision only reached to 95%. The kernel-based forecast models were introduced to eliminate the impact of nonlinear hyperspectral data to some extent through mapping the original nonlinear hyperspectral data to the high dimensional linear feature space, so the relationship between the nonlinear hyperspectral data and the encapsulation temperatures of EVA films was fully disclosed finally. Compared with the prediction results of three proposed models, the prediction performance of LMNN was superior to the other two, whose final recognition accuracy achieved 100%. The results indicated that the methods of combination of LMNN model with the hyperspectral imaging techniques was the best one for accurately and rapidly determining the encapsulation temperatures of EVA films of photovoltaic cells. In addition, this paper had created the ideal conditions for automatically monitoring and effectively controlling the encapsulation temperatures of EVA films in the photovoltaic cells production process.

Parasitic behavior and developmental morphology of Mesocomys trabalae (Hymenoptera: Eupelmidae), a promising parasitoid of the Japanese giant silkworm Caligula japonica (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae).

The egg parasitoid Mesocomys trabalae Yao, Yang, and Zhao is used as a biocontrol agent against the emerging defoliator pest Caligula japonica Moore in East Asia. It has been proven that the eggs of Antheraea pernyi Guérin-Méneville can be used as a factitious host for the mass production of M. trabalae. We examined the parasitic behavior and morphological characteristics of the developmental stages of M. trabalae reared on A. pernyi eggs. The parasitic behavior of M. trabalae encompasses 10 steps, involving searching, antennation, locating the oviposition site, drilling, probing, detecting, oviposition, host feeding, grooming, and resting, with the oviposition step further divided into 3 stages. We determined that the parasitoid released an egg during the second stage of the oviposition step, while her body remained in a relatively static state. Among all the steps in parasitic behavior, probing occupied the longest time, accounting for 26.33% of the entire parasitism process. It was followed by oviposition (15.88%), drilling (15.10%), antennation (13.09%), detecting (10.79%), host feeding (10.02%), and the remaining steps, each occupying less than 5.00% of the total time in steps. The pre-emergence of adult M. trabalae comprised of 4 stages: egg (0-1 day), larva (2-6 days), prepupa (7-11 days), pupa (12-20 days), followed by the development into an adult, and it usually took 20-22 days to develop from an egg into an adult at 25°C. This study advances our understanding of the biology of Mesocomys parasitoids and their mass-rearing for use in augmentation programs.

Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 alleviates liver fibrosis through the renin-angiotensin system.

The present letter to the editor is related to the study titled 'Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 improves liver fibrosis in mice by regulating autophagy of hepatic stellate cells'. Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 can alleviate liver fibrosis by regulating autophagy of hepatic stellate cells and affecting the renin-angiotensin system.

The beneficial effects of neutrophil elastase inhibitor on gastrointestinal dysfunction in sepsis.

To investigate the effects of neutrophil elastase inhibitor (sivelestat sodium) on gastrointestinal function in sepsis. A reanalysis of the data from previous clinical trials conducted at our center was performed. Septic patients were divided into either the sivelestat group or the non-sivelestat group. The gastrointestinal dysfunction score (GIDS), feeding intolerance (FI) incidence, serum levels of intestinal barrier function and inflammatory biomarkers were recorded. The clinical severity and outcome variables were also documented. A total of 163 septic patients were included. The proportion of patients with GIDS ≥2 in the sivelestat group was reduced relative to that in the non-sivelestat group (9.6% vs. 22.5%, p = 0.047) on the 7th day of intensive care unit (ICU) admission. The FI incidence was also remarkably reduced in the sivelestat group in contrast to that in the non-sivelestat group (21.2% vs. 37.8%, p = 0.034). Furthermore, the sivelestat group had fewer days of FI [4 (3, 4) vs. 5 (4-6), p = 0.008]. The serum levels of d-lactate (p = 0.033), intestinal fatty acid-binding protein (p = 0.005), interleukin-6 (p = 0.001), white blood cells (p = 0.007), C-reactive protein (p = 0.001), and procalcitonin (p < 0.001) of the sivelestat group were lower than those of the non-sivelestat group. The sivelestat group also demonstrated longer ICU-free days [18 (0-22) vs. 13 (0-17), p = 0.004] and ventilator-free days [22 (1-24) vs. 16 (1-19), p = 0.002] compared with the non-sivelestat group. In conclusion, sivelestat sodium administration appears to improve gastrointestinal dysfunction, mitigate dysregulated inflammation, and reduce disease severity in septic patients.

Perioperative toripalimab and chemotherapy in locally advanced gastric or gastro-esophageal junction cancer: a randomized phase 2 trial.

Perioperative chemotherapy is the standard treatment for locally advanced gastric or gastro-esophageal junction cancer, and the addition of programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) inhibitor is under investigation. In this randomized, open-label, phase 2 study (NEOSUMMIT-01), patients with resectable gastric or gastro-esophageal junction cancer clinically staged as cT3-4aN + M0 were randomized (1:1) to receive either three preoperative and five postoperative 3-week cycles of SOX/XELOX (chemotherapy group, n = 54) or PD-1 inhibitor toripalimab plus SOX/XELOX, followed by toripalimab monotherapy for up to 6 months (toripalimab plus chemotherapy group, n = 54). The primary endpoint was pathological complete response or near-complete response rate (tumor regression grade (TRG) 0/1). The results showed that patients in the toripalimab plus chemotherapy group achieved a higher proportion of TRG 0/1 than those in the chemotherapy group (44.4% (24 of 54, 95% confidence interval (CI): 30.9%-58.6%) versus 20.4% (11 of 54, 95% CI: 10.6%-33.5%)), and the risk difference of TRG 0/1 between toripalimab plus chemotherapy group and chemotherapy group was 22.7% (95% CI: 5.8%-39.6%; P = 0.009), meeting a prespecified endpoint. In addition, a higher pathological complete response rate (ypT0N0) was observed in the toripalimab plus chemotherapy group (22.2% (12 of 54, 95% CI: 12.0%-35.6%) versus 7.4% (4 of 54, 95% CI: 2.1%-17.9%); P = 0.030), and surgical morbidity (11.8% in the toripalimab plus chemotherapy group versus 13.5% in the chemotherapy group) and mortality (1.9% versus 0%), and treatment-related grade 3-4 adverse events (35.2% versus 29.6%) were comparable between the treatment groups. In conclusion, the addition of toripalimab to chemotherapy significantly increased the proportion of patients achieving TRG 0/1 compared to chemotherapy alone and showed a manageable safety profile. ClinicalTrials.gov registration: NCT04250948 .

Comparative Analysis of the Venom Proteins from Two Eupelmid Egg Parasitoids Anastatus japonicus and Mesocomys trabalae.

Parasitic wasps are abundant and diverse Hymenoptera insects that lay their eggs inside or on the external surface of the host and inject venom into the host to create a more favorable environment for the larvae to survive and regulate the host's immunity, metabolism, and development. But research on the composition of egg parasitoid venom is very limited. In this study, we used a combination of transcriptomic and proteomic approaches to identify the protein fractions of the venom in both eupelmid egg parasitoids, Anastatus japonicus and Mesocomys trabalae. We identified 3422 up-regulated venom gland genes (UVGs) in M. trabalae and 3709 in A. japonicus and analyzed their functions comparatively. By proteome sequencing, we identified 956 potential venom proteins in the venom pouch of M. trabalae, of which 186 were contained in UVGs simultaneously. A total of 766 proteins were detected in the venom of A. japonicus, of which 128 venom proteins were highly expressed in the venom glands. At the same time, the functional analysis of these identified venom proteins was carried out separately. We found the venom proteins in M. trabalae are well known but not in A. japonicus, which may be related to the host range. In conclusion, identifying venom proteins in both egg parasitoid species provides a database for studying the function of egg parasitoid venom and its parasitic mechanism.

Comparative demographics, population projections and egg maturation patterns of four eupelmid egg parasitoids on the factitious host Antherae pernyi.

BACKGROUND: The genera Anastatus and Mesocomys (both Hymenoptera: Eupelmidae) are important solitary egg endoparasitoids as biological control agents for lepidopterous and hemipterous pests worldwide. Here, we comparatively evaluated the demographic parameters of four important eupelmid egg parasitoids (Anastatus fulloi, A. japonicus, Mesocomys albitarsis and M. trabalae) reared on the factitious host eggs of the Chinese oak silkworm Antheraea pernyi, using age-stage two-sex life tables, their population projections as well as egg maturation patterns. RESULTS: Both the age-specific net reproductive rate (lx mx ) and reproductive value (vxj ) increased initially and then gradually decreased with increasing age in all four parasitoid species. Overall, the two Mesocomys species had higher survival rates at stable age-stage distribution, peak reproductive values, and intrinsic rates of increase than the two Anastatus species. Mesocomys albitarsis had the longest longevity, whereas A. japonicus had the longest oviposition days and mean generation time. The two Mesocomys species are thus projected to have faster population increase than the two Anastatus species. Adult females of all four parasitoid species emerged with only a few mature eggs (< 6 eggs) and most of their eggs were matured post-emergence (strict synovigeny). The estimated 90% of lifetime complement of reproduction (offspring) and realized days were 374 and 32 for A. japonicus, 337 and 22 for M. trabalae, 330 and 19 for M. albitarsis and 147 and 28 for A. fulloi. CONCLUSION: Our results indicated that the two Mesocomys species have higher control capacity than the two Anastatus species. Provision of adult food for these strictly synovigenic parasitoids would be essential to prolong their lifespan and continuously produce eggs for parasitizing their hosts for mass rearing or augmentative biological control programs. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.

Prognostic Significance of PD-L1 Expression in Gastric Cancer Patients with Peritoneal Metastasis.

BACKGROUND: Recently, many studies have explored the relationship between the expression of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) and prognosis in gastric cancer, but there is still controversy. Additionally, few studies have specifically investigated the expression of PD-L1 in patients with peritoneal metastasis. METHODS: Immunohistochemistry was used to analyze the expression of PD-L1 in gastric cancer patients with peritoneal metastasis. The combined positive score (CPS) was calculated to evaluate the expression of PD-L1, and the clinicopathological data were analyzed to explore prognostic significance. RESULTS: In total, 147 gastric cancer patients with peritoneal metastasis were enrolled. The negative PD-L1 expression was defined as a CPS < 1, and high PD-L1 expression was defined as a CPS ≥ 10. PD-L1 expression with CPS ≥ 1 and CPS-negative was detected in 67 (45.58%) and 80 (54.42%) patients, respectively. High PD-L1 expression at PD-L1 CPS ≥ 10 was detected in 21(14.29%) patients. The median overall survival (OS) was 18.53 months in the CPS < 10 group and 27.00 months in the CPS ≥ 10 group; the OS difference between the two groups was significant (p = 0.015). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that a poor Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance score (ECOG PS) (p = 0.002) and severe peritoneal metastasis (p = 0.033) were significantly associated with poor survival, while palliative chemotherapy (p = 0.002) and high PD-L1 expression (p = 0.008) were independent and significantly favorable prognostic factors. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrated that PD-L1 expression was widely presented in gastric cancer patients with peritoneal metastasis, while a CPS no less than 10 predicted better prognosis.

Demography and Fitness of Anastatus japonicus Reared from Antheraea pernyi as a Biological Control Agent of Caligula japonica.

Japanese giant silkworm (JGS), Caligula japonica Moore, is an emerging defoliator pest of forest and fruit trees in East Asia, causing severe economic losses. To develop a cost-effective biological control program against JGS, we used eggs of the Chinese oak silkworm (COS) Antheraea pernyi Guérin-Méneville as an alternative host to rear the most dominant JGS egg parasitoid Anastatus japonicus Ashmead. We compared the demographic parameters and total parasitism (killing) rates of A. japonicus parasitizing JGS and COS eggs using an age-stage, two-sex life table method. The results showed that A. japonicus performed differently on these two different hosts. Anastatus japonicus reared from COS eggs had a higher fecundity (369.7 eggs per female) and a longer oviposition period (35.9 days) on the COS than JGS eggs (180.9 eggs; 24.0 days). Consequently, A. japonicus parasitizing COS eggs had a higher intrinsic rate of increase (r = 0.1466 d-1), finite rate of increase (λ = 1.1579 d-1) and net reproductive rate (R0 = 284.9 offspring) than those parasitizing JGS eggs (r = 0.1419 d-1, λ = 1.1525 d-1, R0 = 150.0 offspring). The total net parasitism rate (the number of parasitized hosts in which the parasitoids successfully developed) of A. japonicus parasitizing COS eggs was 284.9, significantly higher than that of A. japonicus parasitizing JGS eggs (150.0), while the net non-effective parasitism rate (the number of parasitized hosts in which the parasitoids failed to develop) of the former (0.0) was significantly lower than that of the latter (9.6). These results suggest that A. japonicus can be efficiently reared on the alternative (or factitious) COS eggs, and the reared parasitoids have a high biological control potential against the target JGS.

Chinese oak silkworm Antherae pernyi egg, a suitable factitious host for rearing eupelmid egg parasitoids.

BACKGROUND: Eupelmid egg parasitoids in the genera Anastatus and Mesocomys are important biological control agents for lepidopterous and hemipterous pests worldwide. The egg of Chinese oak silkworm Antheraea pernyi has been widely used for mass rearing of Trichogramma parasitoids. This study evaluated the suitability and optimal use methods of A. pernyi egg as a factitious host for the rearing of six eupelmid egg parasitoids (Anastatus fulloi, Anastatus gansuensis, Anastatus japonicus, Anastatus meilingensis, Mesocomys albitarsis and Mesocomys trabalae). Each parasitoid was tested for its oviposition preference and offspring performance on various differently treated host eggs (extracted from virgin moths or laid naturally by virgin or mated moths, and washed or unwashed prior to the use) in both no-choice and choice tests. RESULTS: All treated A. pernyi eggs were readily parasitized by the six parasitoids. In general, A. gansuensis and M. trabalae preferred washed over unwashed eggs regardless of the fertilization status of host eggs, A. fulloi and A. meilingensis parasitized more unfertilized than fertilized host eggs, and A. japonicus and M. albitarsis did not show a preference among differently treated host eggs. Host egg treatment did not significantly affect offspring fitness (development time, survival, sex ratio and body size) nor reproductive potential of developed adult females for each parasitoid species, except for M. albitarsis (whose females contained more eggs when reared from unfertilized than fertilized host eggs). CONCLUSION: Results suggest that manually extracted, unfertilized and washed A. pernyi eggs are most suitable for mass rearing of these eupelmid egg parasitoids in biological control programs.

Production of natural chitin film from pupal shell of moth: Fabrication of plasmonic surfaces for SERS-based sensing applications.

Commercially available types of chitin or chitin isolate are usually in powder form and are nanofibrous in microstructure. However, the surface characteristics of natural chitin in the body of insects are currently understudied. Herein, natural chitin film was successfully produced from bio-waste of insect pupae of the Japanese giant silkworm. Two different surface morphologies of the chitin film were observed. We report for the first time a micropapillary surface structure of chitin which was observed on the dorsal side of the film. To further potential of the micropapillary structured natural chitin in sensing applications, we develop a protocol for generating a nanoscopic film of Ag using thermal evaporation. The Ag-deposited natural chitin films exhibited surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity to an extent depending on the structure of the film. In conclusion, materials science has been expanded by addition of a natural, three-dimensional chitin film with utilizable properties.

Effects of permissive hypocaloric vs standard enteral feeding on gastrointestinal function and outcomes in sepsis.

BACKGROUND: Intestinal mucosal barrier injury and gastrointestinal dysfunction are important causes of sepsis. However, few studies have investigated the effects of enteral underfeeding on gastrointestinal function in sepsis. Moreover, no consensus on goal enteral caloric intake has been reached in sepsis. AIM: To investigate the effects of different goal caloric requirements of enteral nutrition on the gastrointestinal function and outcomes in the acute phase of sepsis. METHODS: Patients were randomly assigned to receive 30% (defined as group A), 60% (group B), or 100% (group C) of goal caloric requirements of enteral nutrition in this prospective pilot clinical trial. The acute gastrointestinal injury (AGI) grades, incidence of feeding intolerance (FI), daily caloric intake, nutritional and inflammatory markers, and biomarkers of mucosal barrier function were collected during the first 7 d of enteral feeding. The clinical severity and outcome variables were also recorded. RESULTS: A total of 54 septic patients were enrolled. The days to goal calorie of group C (2.55 ± 0.82) were significantly longer than those of group A (3.50 ± 1.51; P = 0.046) or B (4.85 ± 1.68; P < 0.001). The FI incidence of group C (16.5%) was higher than that of group A (5.0%) or B (8.7%) (P = 0.009). No difference in the incidence of FI symptoms was found between groups A and B. The serum levels of barrier function biomarkers of group B were significantly lower than those of group A (P < 0.05) on the 7th day of feeding. The prealbumin and IL-6 levels of group A were lower than those of group B (P < 0.05) on the 7th day of feeding. No significant differences in the clinical outcome variables or 28-d mortality were found among the three groups. CONCLUSION: Early moderate enteral underfeeding (60% of goal requirements) could improve the intestinal barrier function and nutritional and inflammatory status without increasing the incidence of FI symptoms in sepsis. However, further large-scale prospective clinical trials and animal studies are required to test our findings. Moreover, the effects of different protein intake on gastrointestinal function and outcomes should also be investigated in future work.