Effects of mini-basketball training program on social communication impairments and regional homogeneity of brain functions in preschool children with autism spectrum disorder.

BACKGROUND: Social communication impairments (SCI) is a core symptom of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and is marked by challenges in social interaction. Although physical exercise has been shown to improve SCI, this finding has not been supported by comprehensive scientific evidence. Existing research has established a strong link between the SCI in children with ASD and abnormalities in regional homogeneity (ReHo). Therefore, investigating the effects of physical exercise on SCI and Reho in patients with ASD may help to elucidate the neurological mechanisms involved. METHODS: The present study included 30 preschool children diagnosed with ASD, with 15 participants in each group (experimental and control). The experimental group underwent a 12-week mini-basketball training program (MBTP) based on routine behavioral rehabilitation, while the control group only received routine behavioral rehabilitation. The Social Responsiveness Scale-Second Edition (SRS-2) was employed to assess SCI in both groups. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging technology was used to evaluate ReHo in both groups. RESULTS: After 12-week of MBTP, significant group × time interactions were observed between the experimental and control groups in total SRS-2 scores (F = 14.514, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.341), as well as in the domains of social cognition (F = 15.620, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.358), social communication (F = 12.460, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.308), and autistic mannerisms (F = 9.970, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.263). No statistical difference was found in the scores for the social awareness subscale and social motivation subscale in the group × time interaction (all p > 0.05). The experimental group exhibited increased ReHo in the right Cerebellum_Crus1 and right parahippocampal gyrus, coupled with decreased ReHo in the left middle frontal gyrus (orbital part), left superior frontal gyrus (dorsolateral), left postcentral gyrus, and right superior parietal gyrus. Furthermore, a decrease in ReHo in the left postcentral gyrus positively correlated with changes in social communication scores in SCI behaviors (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our study underscores the effectiveness of a 12-week MBTP in ameliorating SCI and abnormalities in ReHo among preschool children with ASD. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial is retrospectively registered on the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR1900024973; August 5, 2019).

Behavioral Characteristics of China's NEET-Prone University Students and Graduates: A Survey from Southwest China.

The NEET phenomenon (not in education, employment or training) has significant implications, both for individuals and society at large. While China's higher education students are particularly susceptible to becoming NEET, relatively little attention has been given to understanding this issue. To address this research gap and contribute to the study of NEET in China, this paper collected a total of 12,616 samples from current higher education students and those who graduated within the past three years from universities in seven provinces of Southwest China, finding that 21.91% of the students surveyed fall into the NEET-prone student category. The underlying factors contributing to NEET-prone status are identified through logit regression analysis and categorized into three levels: individual, family, and society. At the individual level, factors such as personal ability, confidence in job-hunting, and attitude towards NEET significantly influence a student's likelihood of being NEET-prone. Family-level factors include being an only child, consumption level, economic dependence on family members, and the presence of NEET relatives. And social-level factors encompass school provision (or non-provision) of employment services, the number of employment services offered, and the possibility of obtaining loans from society. Finally, this paper concludes by offering recommendations, which are drawn from individual, family, and social perspectives, to help Chinese higher education students avoid NEET status.

A bibliometric analysis of carbon neutrality: Research hotspots and future directions.

Global attention has shifted in recent years to climate change and global warming. The international community has set the objective of carbon neutrality to address the climate crisis. Carbon neutrality has drawn significant attention as a crucial step in the fight against climate change, with individual nations having established their carbon neutrality targets. This paper aims to use bibliometric analysis to investigate research hotspots and trends in carbon neutrality research, and accesses the literature through the Web of Science (WoS) core database and undertakes an in-depth examination of 909 publications linked to carbon neutrality around the world using Vosviewer and Bibliometrix software. According to the findings, the number of carbon neutrality publications has increased dramatically in recent years. There are also notable differences in carbon neutrality research across countries and regions. China and the US are the primary drivers and leaders of carbon neutrality research, and developing countries have relatively little carbon neutrality research. Research has concentrated on carbon neutrality's practical, technical, policy, and economic aspects, as well as renewable energy sources, carbon conversion technologies, and carbon capture and storage technologies are also research hotspots. The paper also outlines opportunities for the advancement of carbon neutrality research in the future, including how it might be further integrated with Artificial intelligence (AI) and the metaverse, and how to attack the difficulties and uncertainties faced by the post-epidemic rebound. This study aids in understanding the current state of the field of carbon neutrality research and can be used to guide future studies.

Pancreatic adverse events of immune checkpoint inhibitors therapy for solid cancer patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: This review aims to determine the incidence and risk of pancreatic adverse events (AEs) associated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) therapy for solid tumors. Methods: We conducted a comprehensive systematic literature search in PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library up to March 15, 2023, to identify all randomized controlled trials comparing ICIs with standard treatment in solid tumors. We included studies that reported immune-related pancreatitis or elevation of serum amylase or lipase levels. Following protocol registration in PROSPERO, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis. Results: 59 unique randomized controlled trials with at least one ICI-containing arm (41 757 patients) were retrieved. The incidences for all-grade pancreatitis, amylase elevation and lipase elevation were 0.93% (95% CI 0.77-1.13), 2.57% (95% CI 1.83-3.60) and 2.78% (95% CI 1.83-4.19), respectively. The incidences for grade ≥3 pancreatitis, amylase elevation and lipase elevation were 0.68% (95% CI 0.54-0.85), 1.17% (95% CI 0.83-1.64) and 1.71% (95% CI 1.18-2.49), respectively. The use of ICIs was associated with an increased risk of all-grade pancreatic immune-related AEs (irAEs) including pancreatitis (OR=2.04, 95% CI 1.42-2.94, P =0.0001), amylase elevation (OR=1.91, 95% CI 1.47-2.49, P < 0.0001) and lipase elevation (OR=1.77, 95% CI 1.37-2.29, P < 0.0001). In addition to these, the post-hoc analysis found that PD-1 inhibitors had a significant higher risk of pancreatic AEs compared with PD-L1 inhibitors and the patients undergoing dual ICI therapy were at a significantly higher risk of pancreatic AEs than the patients receiving single ICI therapy. Conclusion: Our study provides an overview of the incidence and risk of ICI-associated pancreatitis and pancreatic enzyme elevations in the treatment of solid tumors. Our findings may help raise awareness among clinicians of the potential for ICI-associated pancreatic AEs in clinical practice. Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO, identifier 345350.

Effects of pegylated recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor on lymphocytes and white blood cells of patients with malignant tumor.

We investigated the effect of pegylated recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (PEG-rhG-CSF) on lymphocytes and white blood cells of patients with malignant tumors. After PEG-rhG-CSF treatment, the count of lymphocytes increased in 66 cases, remained unchanged in 2 cases, and decreased in 20 cases. The difference in lymphocyte count before and after treatment was statistically significant (P < 0.001). White blood cell changes were positively correlated with lymphocyte changes (r = 0.36, P = 0.001). In the subgroup with increased white blood cells (n = 80), there were 62 cases with increased lymphocytes, 1 case with unchanged lymphocytes, and 17 cases with decreased lymphocytes after PEG-rhG-CSF treatment. There was significant difference in the count of lymphocytes and white blood cells (P < 0.001). In the subgroup with 6 mg of PEG-rhG-CSF (n = 66) and the subgroup with 3 mg of PEG-rhG-CSF (n = 22), the changes of white blood cell and lymphocyte counts before and after treatment were statistically significant (P < 0.001). The two were positively correlated in the 6 mg PEG-rhG-CSF subgroup, with correlation coefficient r = 0.34 (P = 0.002). PEG-rhG-CSF can increase the count of lymphocytes and white blood cells in patients with malignant tumors, and the increase of lymphocytes is positively correlated with the increase of white blood cells.

Relationship between Overweight/Obesity and Social Communication in Autism Spectrum Disorder Children: Mediating Effect of Gray Matter Volume.

With advances in medical diagnostic technology, the healthy development of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is receiving more and more attention. In this article, the mediating effect of brain gray matter volume (GMV) between overweight/obesity and social communication (SC) was investigated through the analysis of the relationship between overweight/obesity and SC in autism spectrum disorder children. In total, 101 children with ASD aged 3-12 years were recruited from three special educational centers (Yangzhou, China). Overweight/obesity in children with ASD was indicated by their body mass index (BMI); the Social Responsiveness Scale, Second Edition (SRS-2) was used to assess their social interaction ability, and structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging (sMRI) was used to measure GMV. A mediation model was constructed using the Process plug-in to analyze the mediating effect of GMV between overweight/obesity and SC in children with ASD. The results revealed that: overweight/obesity positively correlated with SRS-2 total points (p = 0.01); gray matter volume in the left dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus (Frontal_Sup_L GMV) negatively correlated with SRS-2 total points (p = 0.001); and overweight/obesity negatively correlated with Frontal_Sup_L GMV (p = 0.001). The Frontal_Sup_L GMV played a partial mediating role in the relationship between overweight/obesity and SC, accounting for 36.6% of total effect values. These findings indicate the significant positive correlation between overweight/obesity and SC; GMV in the left dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus plays a mediating role in the relationship between overweight/obesity and SC. The study may provide new evidence toward comprehensively revealing the overweight/obesity and SC relationship.

Knowledge mapping of population health: A bibliometric analysis.

In recent years, population health has aroused great interest, especially after the outbreak of Covid-19. The related research increases substantially year by year. There are many kinds of research about population health, but few scholars use the bibliometric method to discuss them. Motivated by keeping abreast of emerging trends and critical turns in population health, this study adopts the bibliometric method to analyze the development history and status quo of population health, providing a summary description for it. This study adopts CiteSpace to conduct a bibliometric analysis of publications related to population health in Web of Science from 1971 to 2021. The most productive countries, authors, institutions, and research direction changes are analyzed. The research results show that: First, the number of publications and citations related to population health increases for years, especially in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Second, the number of publications by different countries or institutions in population health varies greatly, and they cooperate closely. Third, the co-occurrence of disciplines and keywords in population health is displayed. Finally, this study reveals the primary research force, the major themes, significant milestones, landmarks, and the evolution of the hot fronts. In all, the comprehensive analysis of this study would provide some enlightenment for future research.

Functional Analyses of a Small Secreted Cysteine-Rich Protein ThSCSP_14 in Tilletia horrida.

Tilletia horrida is a biotrophic basidiomycete fungus that causes rice kernel smut, one of the most significant diseases in hybrid rice-growing areas worldwide. Little is known about the pathogenic mechanisms and functions of effectors in T. horrida. Here, we performed functional studies of the effectors in T. horrida and found that, of six putative effectors tested, only ThSCSP_14 caused the cell death phenotype in epidermal cells of Nicotiana benthamiana leaves. ThSCSP_14 was upregulated early on during the infection process, and the encoded protein was secreted. The predicted signal peptide (SP) of ThSCSP_14 was required for its ability to induce the necrosis phenotype. Furthermore, the ability of ThSCSP_14 to trigger cell death in N. benthamiana depended on suppressing the G2 allele of Skp1 (SGT1), required for Mla12 resistance (RAR1), heat-shock protein 90 (HSP90), and somatic embryogenesis receptor-like kinase (SERK3). It is important to note that ThSCSP_14 induced a plant defense response in N. benthamiana leaves. Hence, these results demonstrate that ThSCSP_14 is a possible effector that plays an essential role in T. horrida-host interactions.

Cardiovascular Toxicity With PD-1/PD-L1 Inhibitors in Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors have significantly improved the outcomes of those patients with various malignancies. However, the incidence of adverse events also increased. This meta-analysis aims to systematically evaluate the risk of cardiovascular toxicity in patients treated with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors. Materials and methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library databases for all randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing all-grade and grade 3-5 cardiovascular toxicity of single-agent PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors to placebo/chemotherapy, PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors combined with chemotherapy to chemotherapy, or PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors combined with CTLA-4 inhibitors to single-agent immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and pooled our data in a meta-analysis stratified by tumor types and PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitors. The Mantel-Haenszel method calculated the odds ratio (OR) and its corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: A total of 50 trials were included in the analysis. Single-agent PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors increased the risk of all-grade cardiotoxicity compared with placebo (OR=2.11, 95%CI 1.02-4.36, P=0.04). Compared with chemotherapy, patients receiving PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors combined with chemotherapy had a significant higher risk of all-grade (OR=1.53, 95%CI 1.18-1.99, P=0.001) and grade 3-5 cardiotoxicity (OR=1.63, 95%CI 1.11-2.39, P=0.01) cardiotoxicity, especially patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) [all-grade cardiotoxicity (OR=1.97, 95%CI 1.14-3.41, P=0.02) and grade 3-5 cardiotoxicity (OR=2.15, 95%CI 1.08-4.27, P=0.03)]. Subgroup analysis showed that PD-1 inhibitors combined with chemotherapy were associated with a higher risk of grade 3-5 cardiotoxicity (OR=2.08, 95%CI 1.18-3.66, P=0.01). Compared with placebo or chemotherapy, single-agent PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors did not increase the risk of all-grade of myocarditis, arrhythmia and hypertension. However, PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors combined with chemotherapy increased the risk of all-grade arrhythmia (OR=1.63, 95%CI 1.07-2.46, P=0.02) [PD-L1 inhibitor-containing treatment (OR=1.75, 95%CI 1.09-2.80, P=0.02)], and the risk of all-grade hypertension (OR=1.34, 95%CI 1.02-1.77, P=0.04) and grade 3-5 hypertension (OR=1.54, 95%CI 1.10-2.15, P=0.01). Conclusions: Our results suggest that single-agent PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors increase the risk of all-grade cardiotoxicity, PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors combined with chemotherapy increase the risk of all-grade and grade 3-5 cardiotoxicity, especially in those patients treated with PD-1 inhibitor-containing treatment and those with NSCLC. In addition, PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors combined with chemotherapy increase the risk of arrhythmia and hypertension. Therefore, this evidence should be considered when assessing the benefits and risks of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in treating malignancies. Systematic Review Registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier CRD42022303115.

Can Basic Medical Insurance Reduce Elderly Family Income Inequality in China?

Basic medical insurance is the critical medical security system to realize common prosperity in China. This study explores the impact of basic medical insurance on elderly family income inequality in China using the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data in 2018. Our finding shows that basic medical insurance is significantly negatively correlated with elderly family income inequality, indicating basic medical insurance has a positive impact on narrowing the elderly family income inequality. The heterogeneity analysis shows that basic medical insurance has a more significant reduction effect among the eastern elderly and the younger elderly family. The results also suggest that health performance significantly mediates the relationship between basic medical insurance and elderly family income inequality. This study implies that the Chinese government should increase the proportion of basic medical insurance reimbursement and expand the scope of reimbursement for basic medical insurance to realize income fairness among elderly families.

Does Economic Policy Uncertainty Matter for Healthcare Expenditure in China? A Spatial Econometric Analysis.

A growing body of research has documented the determinants of healthcare expenditure, but no known empirical research has focused on investigating the spatial effects between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and healthcare expenditure. This study aims to explore the spatial effects of EPU on healthcare expenditure using the panel data of 29 regions in China from 2007 to 2017. Our findings show that healthcare expenditure in China has the characteristics of spatial clustering and spatial spillover effects. Our study also shows that EPU has positive spatial spillover effects on healthcare expenditure in China; that is, EPU affects not only local healthcare expenditure but also that in other geographically close or economically connected regions. Our study further indicates that the spatial spillover effects of EPU on healthcare expenditure only exist in the eastern area. The findings of this research provide some key implications for policymakers in emerging markets.

High Electrochemical Performance of Bi2WO6/Carbon Nano-Onion Composites as Electrode Materials for Pseudocapacitors.

Bi2WO6/CNO (CNO, carbon nano-onion) composites are synthesized via a facile low-cost hydrothermal method and are used pseudocapacitor electrode material. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), N2 adsorption-desorption techniques, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements are used to characterize the synthesized composite powders. The electrochemical performances of the composite electrodes are studied by cycle voltammetry, charge-discharge, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The results indicate that the specific capacitance of the Bi2WO6/CNO composite materials reaches up to 640.2 F/g at a current density of 3 mA/cm2 and higher than that of pristine Bi2WO6, 359.1 F/g. The capability of the prepared pseudocapacitor remains 90.15% after 1,000 cycles of charge-discharge cycling measurement. The cell performance and stability can be enhanced by further optimization and modification of the composition and microstructure of the electrode of the cell.

Activated Carbon Based Supercapacitors with a Reduced Graphene Oxide Additive: Preparation and Properties.

We have successfully enhanced the performance of commercial supercapacitors that use Japan Kuraray 80F activated carbon and Super-P conductive carbon black as the conductive agent with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) additive. The ratios of conductive carbon black to rGO studied are 3:1, 5:1, 10:1, 15:1 and 1:0. The enhancement is most pronounced at 15:1, and the specific capacitance being 137.5 F g-1, which is a 23.8% improvement over the 1:0 control. The specific capacitance retention is 70.1% after 10000 cycles. The impedance resistance is also reduced to 1.5 Ω, which is 3.3 times lower than the 1:0 control. Additionally, the rGO additive does not alter the favorable pore size distribution of the primary matrix and successfully preserves its small mesoporous structure, which facilitates facile transport of electrolyte.

Photocatalytic Performance of SiO2/CNOs/TiO2 to Accelerate the Degradation of Rhodamine B under Visible Light.

A silicon dioxide/carbon nano onions/titanium dioxide (SiO2/CNOs/TiO2) composite was synthesized by a simple sol-gel method and characterized by the methods of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electronic microscope (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TG), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra (UV-Vis DRS). In this work, the photocatalytic activity of the SiO2/CNOs/TiO2 photocatalyst was assessed by testing the degradation rate of Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light. The results indicated that the samples exhibited the best photocatalytic activity when the composite consisted of 3% CNOs and the optimum dosage of SiO2/CNOs/TiO2(3%) was 1.5 g/L as evidenced by the highest RhB degradation rate (96%). The SiO2/CNOs/TiO2 composite greatly improved the quantum efficiency of TiO2. This work provides a new option for the modification of subsequent nanocomposite oxide nanoparticles.

Spatial-Temporal Effects of PM2.5 on Health Burden: Evidence from China.

By collecting the panel data of 29 regions in China from 2008 to 2017, this study used the spatial Durbin model (SDM) to explore the spatial effect of PM2.5 exposure on the health burden of residents. The most obvious findings to emerge from this study are that: health burden and PM2.5 exposure are not randomly distributed over different regions in China, but have obvious spatial correlation and spatial clustering characteristics. The maximum PM2.5 concentrations have a significant positive effect on outpatient expense and outpatient visits of residents in the current period, and the impact of PM2.5 pollution has a significant temporal lag effect on residents' health burden. PM2.5 exposure has a spatial spillover effect on the health burden of residents, and the PM2.5 concentrations in the surrounding regions or geographically close regions have a positive influence on the health burden in the particular region. The impact of PM2.5 exposure is divided into the direct effect and the indirect effect (the spatial spillover effect), and the spatial spillover effect is greater than that of the direct effect. Therefore, we conclude that PM2.5 exposure has a spatial spillover effect and temporal lag effect on the health burden of residents, and strict regulatory policies are needed to mitigate the health burden caused by air pollution.

A Group Decision Making Approach Considering Self-confidence Behaviors and Its Application in Environmental Pollution Emergency Management.

Self-confidence as one of the human psychological behaviors has important influence on emergency management decision making, which has been ignored in existing methods. To fill this gap, we dedicate to design a group decision making approach considering self-confidence behaviors and apply it to the environmental pollution emergency management. In the proposed method, the self-confident fuzzy preference relations are utilized to express experts' evaluations. This new type of preference relations allow experts to express multiple self-confidence levels when providing their evaluations, which can deal with the self-confidence of them well. To apply the proposed group decision making method to environmental pollution emergency management, a novel determination of the decision weights of experts is given combining the subjective and objective weights. The subjective weight can be directly assigned by organizer, while the objective weight is determined by the self-confidence degree of experts on their evaluations. Afterwards, by utilizing the weighted averaging operator, the individuals' evaluations can be aggregated into a collective one. To do that, some operational laws for self-confident fuzzy preference relations are introduced. And then, a self-confidence score function is designed to get the best solution for environmental pollution emergency management. Finally, some analyses and discussions show that the proposed method is feasible and effective.

Inshore Ship Detection Based on Level Set Method and Visual Saliency for SAR Images.

Inshore ship detection is an important research direction of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. Due to the effects of speckle noise, land clutters and low signal-to-noise ratio, it is still challenging to achieve effective detection of inshore ships. To solve these issues, an inshore ship detection method based on the level set method and visual saliency is proposed in this paper. First, the image is fast initialized through down-sampling. Second, saliency map is calculated by improved local contrast measure (ILCM). Third, an improved level set method based on saliency map is proposed. The saliency map has a higher signal-to-noise ratio and the local level set method can effectively segment images with intensity inhomogeneity. In this way, the improved level set method has a better segmentation result. Then, candidate targets are obtained after the adaptive threshold. Finally, discrimination is employed to get the final result of ship targets. The experiments on a number of SAR images demonstrate that the proposed method can detect ship targets with reasonable accuracy and integrity.

DOA Estimation for Coprime Linear Array Based on MI-ESPRIT and Lookup Table.

In order to improve the angle measurement performance of a coprime linear array, this paper proposes a novel direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation algorithm for a coprime linear array based on the multiple invariance estimation of signal parameters via rotational invariance techniques (MI-ESPRIT) and a lookup table method. The proposed algorithm does not require a spatial spectrum search and uses a lookup table to solve ambiguity, which reduces the computational complexity. To fully use the subarray elements, the DOA estimation precision is higher compared with existing algorithms. Moreover, the algorithm avoids the matching error when multiple signals exist by using the relationship between the signal subspace of two subarrays. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Novel magnetically retrievable Bi2WO6/magnetic carbon nano-onions composite with enhanced photoactivity under visible light.

The novel magnetically retrievable Bi2WO6/MCNOs (MCNOs, magnetic carbon nano-onions) composite was synthesized via a simple hydrothermal method. The characteristics of the as-prepared materials were explored by XRD, Raman, SEM, TEM, XPS, UV-vis DRS, N2 adsorption-desorption techniques and FT-IR techniques, and the paramagnetic nature of the as-prepared composite was determined by hysteresis loops measurements. In this work, rhodamine B (RhB), methyl orange (MO), methylene blue (MB), tetracycline (TC) and p-nitrophenol (PNP) were chosen as the typical organic pollutants to evaluate the photodegradation efficiency of the as-prepared composite. The results indicated that Bi2WO6/MCNOs have a superior performance on photocatalytic activity than pure Bi2WO6. Furthermore, a possible mechanism was proposed based on the physic-chemical and photocatalytic properties. This work will provide new methodology for designing next generation photocatalyst for environmental purification.

A Multifunctional Monooxygenase XanO4 Catalyzes Xanthone Formation in Xantholipin Biosynthesis via a Cryptic Demethoxylation.

Xantholipin and several related polycyclic xanthone antibiotics feature a unique xanthone ring nucleus within a highly oxygenated, angular, fused hexacyclic system. In this study, we demonstrated that a flavin-dependent monooxygenase (FMO) XanO4 catalyzes the oxidative transformation of an anthraquinone to a xanthone system during the biosynthesis of xantholipin. In vitro isotopic labeling experiments showed that the reaction involves sequential insertion of two oxygen atoms, accompanied by an unexpected cryptic demethoxylation reaction. Moreover, characterizations of homologous FMOs of XanO4 suggested the generality of the XanO4-like-mediated reaction for the assembly of a xanthone ring in the biosynthesis of polycyclic xanthone antibiotics. These findings not only expand the repertoire of FMO activities but also reveal a novel mechanism for xanthone ring formation.