The Chemical Signatures of Water Extract of Zingiber officinale Rosc.

Background: Ginger (Z. officinale Rosc.) is a common herb and is widely used as a diet-based or home therapy in traditional medicine worldwide. However, fresh ginger turns into dried ginger after kiln drying and shows a different treatment effect in clinical practice. Objective: To characterize the changes of major bioactive constituents in dried ginger after the processing of fresh ginger. Methods: A novel, ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC−QTOF/MS) method was established to characterize the changes in the bioactive constituents of dried ginger. The novel strategy was split into two steps: firstly, the MS selected the most intense precursor ions of tandem MS; then, target MS/MS acquisition with different collision energies (10, 20, and 40 eV) was used to characterize the compound's accurate MS/MS spectra and compare the MS/MS spectrum with the building MS reference library and reference standards. Result: Fifty-three compounds, including diarylheptanoids, gingerols, gingerodiols, gingerdiones, and shogaol-related compounds, were identified based on summarized fragmentation patterns. Fifteen out of fifty-three compounds were diarylheptanoids, which was different from fresh ginger. Conclusion: These identified compounds could be used to characterize the quality of dried ginger, pharmacologic studies should focus on diarylheptanoids explaining the different treatment effects between fresh ginger and dried ginger.

Mycoplasma synoviae induces serum amyloid A upregulation and promotes chicken synovial fibroblast cell proliferation.

Mycoplasma synoviae (MS) infection causes infectious synovitis and arthritis with hyperplasia of synovial cells in the chicken joint. However, its mechanism is unknown. We used primary chicken synovial fibroblast (CSF) as the research object to study the role of MS in the proliferation of MS-infected CSF and determine the mechanisms involved. Using integrated transcriptomic and proteomic analyses of the interaction between CSF and MS, we screened a proliferation-regulated factor, serum amyloid A (SAA), that may regulate proliferation of MS-infected CSF. SAA appears to be associated with MS-induced CSF proliferation. To study the role of SAA in MS-induced CSF proliferation, a eukaryotic expression vector overexpressing SAA and a small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting Saa were constructed to manipulate the expression of SAA. Cell proliferation and apoptosis were detected via cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8), 5-Ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU), or terminal deoxyribonucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-dnd labeling (TUNEL) assays, respectively. Western blot analysis was used to examine the protein expression level of SAA, cyclin E1, and cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2). In vitro, MS significantly promoted the proliferation of CSF and increased the production of SAA. Overexpression of SAA accelerated the proliferative ability of CSF, whereas knockdown of SAA depressed the proliferative ability of CSF. A TUNEL assay indicated that MS did not induce apoptosis. Silencing of SAA suppressed the expression of cyclin E1 and CDK2. These results suggest that MS may upregulate the expression of SAA, accelerate the cell cycle, and promote proliferation of CSF.

Immune-related miRNA-mRNA regulation network in the livers of DHAV-3-infected ducklings.

BACKGROUND: Duck hepatitis A virus type 3 (DHAV-3) is one of the most harmful pathogens in the duck industry. However, the molecular mechanism underlying DHAV-3 infection in ducklings remains poorly understood. To study the genetic regulatory network for miRNA-mRNA and the signaling pathways involved in DHAV-3 infection in ducklings, we conducted global miRNA and mRNA expression profiling of duckling liver tissues infected with lethal DHAV-3 by high-throughput sequencing. RESULTS: We found 156 differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) and 7717 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in livers of mock-infected and DHAV-3-infected duckling. A total of 19,606 miRNA-mRNA pairs with negatively correlated expression patterns were identified in miRNA-mRNA networks constructed on the basis of these DEMs and DEGs. Moreover, immune-related pathways, including the cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, apoptosis, Toll-like receptor, Jak-STAT, and RIG-I-like receptor signaling pathway, were significantly enriched through analyzing functions of mRNAs in the network in response to DHAV-3 infection. Furthermore, apl-miR-32-5p, apl-miR-125-5p, apl-miR-128-3p, apl-miR-460-5p, and novel-m0012-3p were identified as potential regulators in the immune-related signaling pathways during DHAV-3 infection. And some host miRNAs were predicted to target the DHAV-3 genome. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first integrated analysis of miRNA and mRNA in DHAV-3-infected ducklings. The results indicated the important roles of miRNAs in regulating immune response genes and revealed the immune related miRNA-mRNA regulation network in the DHAV-3-infected duckling liver. These findings increase our knowledge of the roles of miRNAs and their target genes in DHAV-3 replication and pathogenesis. They also aid in the understanding of host-virus interactions.

HOXB8 enhances the proliferation and metastasis of colorectal cancer cells by promoting EMT via STAT3 activation.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have demonstrated that the expression of homeobox8 (HOXB8) is higher in colorectal cancer (CRC) tissues than in normal tissues; however, the precise role of HOXB8 in human CRC cells remains to be elucidated. METHODS: We generated lentiviral constructs to overexpress and silence HOXB8 in CRC cell lines, and examined their biological functions through MTT, wound healing, colony and transwell, expression of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) related factors through western-blot. RESULTS: HOXB8 knockdown inhibited cellular proliferation and invasion in vitro as well as carcinogenesis and metastasis in vivo. HOXB8 also induced EMT, which is characterized by the down-regulation of E-cadherin and the up-regulation of Vimentin, N-cadherin, Twist, Zeb1 and Zeb2. Moreover, HOXB8 activated STAT3, which is known to play an oncogenic role in diverse human malignancies. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that HOXB8 may be an independent prognostic factor in CRC. Therefore, deserved a deeper research.

Interplay between Trx-1 and S100P promotes colorectal cancer cell epithelial-mesenchymal transition by up-regulating S100A4 through AKT activation.

We previously reported a novel positive feedback loop between thioredoxin-1 (Trx-1) and S100P, which promotes the invasion and metastasis of colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. In this study, we examined the roles of Trx-1 and S100P in CRC epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and their underlying mechanisms. We observed that knockdown of Trx-1 or S100P in SW620 cells inhibited EMT, whereas overexpression of Trx-1 or S100P in SW480 cells promoted EMT. Importantly, S100A4 and the phosphorylation of AKT were identified as potential downstream targets of Trx-1 and S100P in CRC cells. Silencing S100A4 or inhibition of AKT phosphorylation eliminated S100P- or Trx-1-mediated CRC cell EMT, migration and invasion. Moreover, inhibition of AKT activity reversed S100P- or Trx-1-induced S100A4 expression. The expression of S100A4 was higher in human CRC tissues compared with their normal counterpart tissues and was significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis and poor survival. The overexpression of S100A4 protein was also positively correlated with S100P or Trx-1 protein overexpression in our cohort of CRC tissues. In addition, overexpression of S100P reversed the Trx-1 knockdown-induced inhibition of S100A4 expression, EMT and migration and invasion in SW620 cells. The data suggest that interplay between Trx-1 and S100P promoted CRC EMT as well as migration and invasion by up-regulating S100A4 through AKT activation, thus providing further potential therapeutic targets for suppressing the EMT in metastatic CRC.

Erratum: Thioredoxin 1 supports colorectal cancer cell survival and promotes migration and invasion under glucose deprivation through interaction with G6PD: Erratum.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.7150/ijbs.71809.].

Neural bases of motivated forgetting of autobiographical memories.

It is important for mental health to be able to control unwanted intrusive memories. Previous studies suggest that middle frontal gyrus (MFG) down regulates pathways underlie the suppression of retrieval of general memories. However, the neural basis of motivated forgetting of autobiographical memories is unclear. Therefore, this study used two samples to explore the neural mechanisms of motivated forgetting of self-referential memories. Every participant provided 40 life events (20 negative and 20 neutral) from their past personal experience, and then completed the Think/No-Think task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The first sample showed a significant reduction in recall in the No-Think condition relative to the Think condition. Attempting to exclude negative autobiographical memories from awareness was associated with increased activity in the right MFG, superior frontal gyrus (SFG), and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), while reduced activity was observed in the bilateral Brodmann areas BA18 and BA19, bilateral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), bilateral precuneus, bilateral post cingulate cortex (PCC), the left parahippocampus, and the left hippocampus. Functional connectivity analyses showed that the right MFG projected into the bilateral mPFC, bilateral precuneus, and bilateral middle occipital gyrus (MOG) for negative autobiographical memories. The second sample replicated the results of the first sample at both the behavioral and brain levels. These results suggest that retrieval suppression of autobiographical memories involve the pathway between the MFG and the mPFC and precuneus to exclude self-referential memories. These results reveal how people engage in motivated forgetting of negative events in their daily lives.

Matching degree of embodied carbon trade and value-added trade among Chinese provinces (regions).

This paper constructs a matching index model to research the matching degree of embodied carbon trade and value-added trade among eight regions and 31 provinces in China in 2012 and 2015. The study finds that (1) At the regional level, a mismatch is shown between embodied carbon trade and value-added trade among regions, for example, in 2015, the northwest region has output embodied carbon to the north coast, while input the value-added trades from the north coast. (2) At the provincial level, a mismatch is displayed between embodied carbon transaction and value-added trade, for example, Beijing had a net shift of embodied carbon from Xinjiang in 2015, but Xinjiang had a net transfer of added value from Beijing. Therefore, the Chinese government needs to establish an ecological compensation mechanism to improve the mismatch between embodied carbon trade and value-added trade among Chinese regions (provinces).

Reduced cell invasion may be a characteristic of placental defects in pregnant women of advanced maternal age at single-cell level.

The mechanisms underlying pregnancy complications caused by advanced maternal age (AMA) remain unclear. We analyzed the cellular signature and transcriptomes of human placentas in AMA women to elucidate these mechanisms. Placental tissues from two AMA women and two controls were used for single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq). Controls consisted of AMA women who did not experience any pregnancy complications and pregnant women below the age of 35 years without pregnancy complications. Trophoblast cells were obtained from the placentas of another six pregnant women (three AMA women and three controls), and in-vitro transwell assays were conducted to observe the cell invasion ability. Thirty additional samples (from 15 AMA women and 15 controls) were analyzed to verify the specific expression of serine protease inhibitor clade E member 1 (SERPINE1). Preliminary study of the role of SERPINE1 in cell invasion was carried out with HTR8-S/Vneo cells. High-quality transcriptomes of 27 |607 cells were detected. Three types of trophoblast cells were detected, which were further classified into eight subtypes according to differences in gene expression and Gene Ontology (GO) function. We identified 110 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in trophoblast cells between the AMA and control groups, and the DEGs were enriched in multiple pathways related to cell invasion. In-vitro transwell assays suggested that the invading trophoblast cells in AMA women were reduced. SERPINE1 was specifically expressed in the trophoblast, and its expression was higher in AMA women (P<0.05). Transfection of human SERPINE1 (hSERPINE1) into HTR8-S/Vneo trophoblast cells showed fewer invading cells in the hSERPINE1 group. Impaired cell invasion may underlie the increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes in AMA women. Abnormal expression of SERPINE1 in extravillous trophoblast (EVT) cells appears to play an important role.

Estimating the frequency of causal genetic variants in foetuses with congenital heart defects: a Chinese cohort study.

BACKGROUND: The belief that genetics plays a major role in the pathogenesis of congenital heart defects (CHD) has grown popular among clinicians. Although some studies have focused on the genetic testing of foetuses with CHD in China, the genotype-phenotype relationship has not yet been fully established, and hotspot copy number variations (CNVs) related to CHD in the Chinese population are still unclear. This cohort study aimed to assess the prevalence of chromosomal abnormalities in Chinese foetuses with different types of CHD. RESULTS: In a cohort of 200 foetuses, chromosomal abnormalities were detected in 49 (24.5%) after a prenatal chromosome microarray analysis (CMA), including 23 foetuses (11.5%) with aneuploidies and 26 (13.0%) with clinically significant CNVs. The additional diagnostic yield following whole exome sequencing (WES) was 11.5% (6/52). The incidence of total chromosomal abnormality in the non-isolated CHD group (31.8%) was higher than that in the isolated CHD group (20.9%), mainly because the incidence of aneuploidy was significantly increased when CHD was combined with extracardiac structural abnormalities or soft markers. The chromosomal abnormality rate of the complex CHD group was higher than that of the simple CHD group; however, the difference was not statistically significant (31.8% vs. 23.6%, P = 0.398). The most common CNV detected in CHD foetuses was the 22q11.2 deletion, followed by deletions of 5p15.33p15.31, deletions of 15q13.2q13.3, deletions of 11q24.2q25, deletions of 17p13.3p13.2, and duplications of 17q12. CONCLUSIONS: CMA is the recommended initial examination for cases of CHD in prenatal settings, for both simple heart defects and isolated heart defects. For cases with negative CMA results, the follow-up application of WES will offer a considerable proportion of additional detection of clinical significance.

Synthesis of red/black phosphorus-based composite nanosheets with a Z-scheme heterostructure for high-performance cancer phototherapy.

Two dimensional black phosphorus nanosheets (BP NSs) have attracted plenty of attention in the research field of cancer photonic therapy. However, the poor stability and relatively low efficiency of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation of BP NSs limit their practical application. To address these drawbacks, herein we report a red/black phosphorus (RP/BP) composite nanosheet, M-RP/BP@ZnFe2O4, which was synthesized by (1) partially converting red phosphorus (RP) to black phosphorus (BP) followed by liquid-phase ultrasonic exfoliation to form RP/BP NSs, (2) in situ synthesis of ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles on the surface of RP/BP NSs, (3) and wrapping with the MCF-7 cell membrane. Due to the presence of RP, BP, ZnFe2O4 and the cell membrane, the M-RP/BP@ZnFe2O4 NSs exhibited high performance in cancer phototherapy with the following features: (i) a Z-scheme heterojunction structure was formed between RP/BP NSs thus enabling high separation efficiency of the photogenerated electrons and holes; (ii) the photoexcitation holes in the valence band of RP can break the tumor microenvironment by oxidizing glutathione; (iii) the NSs could decompose water to produce H2O2 and O2, which can be further converted to toxic ˙OH through the ZnFe2O4 catalyzed Fenton reaction and 1O2 through energy transfer, respectively; and (iv) the cell membrane wrapping improved the targeting of the composite NSs at the tumor site and photonic therapy can be finally triggered by a 660 nm laser to convert O2 to ˙O2- and 1O2. The in vitro cytotoxicity experiments showed that more than 90% cells were killed after photodynamic therapy (PDT) at 0.3 mg mL-1 M-RP/BP@ZnFe2O4 NSs, and the animal experiments with xenograft tumor model mice indicated that tumor growth was completely inhibited and the highest survival rate of 83.3% at 60 days post PDT was obtained.

Clinical evaluation of non-invasive prenatal screening for the detection of fetal genome-wide copy number variants.

OBJECTIVE: This study explores and discusses the possible factors affecting the positive predictive value (PPV) of non-invasive prenatal screening (NIPS) for the detection of fetal copy number variants (CNVs) in pregnant women. METHODS: NIPS was performed for 50,972 pregnant women and 212 cases were suspected as fetal CNVs. Post additional genetic counseling for these women, 96 underwent invasive prenatal diagnosis (amniocentesis), following which they received chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA). We analyzed the PPV of NIPS for the detection of fetal CNVs and the possible interference factors that could affect the PPV. RESULTS: Among the 96 pregnant women that received prenatal diagnosis by CMA, 37 cases were confirmed to be true positive for fetal CNVs with a PPV of 38.5%. There was no significant difference between the women with different NIPS indications. Five cases were reported as the false positive and false negative of fetal CNVs and the differences were mainly reflected in the inconsistency of chromosome fragments. Depending on the sizes of the CNVs, the PPVs were 48.7% for CNVs < 3 Mb, 41.4% for CNVs falling within 3 ~ 5 Mb, 42.9% for the CNVs falling within 5 ~ 10 Mb, and 14.3% for CNVs > 10 Mb. Based on the chromosomal locations of CNVs, the PPV(4.8%) of the chromosomes of group C(including chromosomes 6 ~ 12), was lower than that of the other groups (41.2% ~ 66.7%) (p = 0.021). However, there were no significant differences in the CNV characteristics, fetal fractions, unique reads, and the Z-scores between these groups. CONCLUSION: NIPS with a low-coverage sequencing depth has a certain effect on detection of fetal CNVs with the PPV of 38.5%. Chromosomal locations of CNVs may be the main factor that influences its effect. This study can contribute to an increased accuracy in genetic counseling and in predicting NIPS results that are positive for fetal CNVs.

Superior frontal gyrus and middle temporal gyrus connectivity mediates the relationship between neuroticism and thought suppression.

Thought suppression, which is defined as an effort "not to think about" a particular thought, is essential to maintain good mental health. Despite previous functional imaging studies on thought suppression and related functional activity, the neural basis of thought suppression in individual difference is still unclear. Many studies have focused on the relationship between neuroticism and thought suppression; however, the neural basis of this relationship is not well known. Thus, in the present study, we investigated the neural basis of thought suppression and further explored the neural mechanisms underlying the relationship between neuroticism and thought suppression. The first step was to use voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to investigate the neuroanatomical basis of thought suppression in healthy subjects. We found a significant positive correlation between thought suppression and the gray matter volume (GMV) of the right superior frontal gyrus (SFG). The second step was to use resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) to investigate the neural functional basis of thought suppression. The results showed that thought suppression was positively correlated with rsFC between the right SFG and the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG). Interestingly, the relationship between neuroticism and thought suppression was mediated by the strength of rsFC between the right SFG and the left MTG. The results suggest that better ability to suppress unwanted intrusive thoughts is supported by greater GMV of the right SFG and stronger functional connectivity between the SFG and MTG. They also indicate that weak rsFC between the SFG and MTG can partly explain the negative association between neuroticism and thought suppression.

Thioredoxin 1 supports colorectal cancer cell survival and promotes migration and invasion under glucose deprivation through interaction with G6PD.

Overcoming energy stress is a critical step for cells in solid tumors. Under this stress microenvironment, cancer cells significantly alter their energy metabolism to maintain cell survival and even metastasis. Our previous studies have shown that thioredoxin-1 (Trx-1) expression is increased in colorectal cancer (CRC) and promotes cell proliferation. However, the exact role and mechanism of how Trx-1 is involved in energy stress are still unknown. Here, we observed that glucose deprivation of CRC cells led to cell death and promoted the migration and invasion, accompanied by upregulation of Trx-1. Increased Trx-1 supported CRC cell survival under glucose deprivation. Whereas knockdown of Trx-1 sensitized CRC cells to glucose deprivation-induced cell death and reversed glucose deprivation-induced migration, invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Furthermore, we identified glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) interacting with Trx-1 by HuPortTM human protein chip, co-IP and co-localization. Trx-1 promoted G6PD protein expression and activity under glucose deprivation, thereby increasing nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) generation. Moreover, G6PD knockdown sensitized CRC cells to glucose deprivation-induced cell death and suppressed glucose deprivation-induced migration, invasion, and EMT. Inhibition of Trx-1 and G6PD, together with inhibition of glycolysis using 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG), resulted in significant anti-tumor effects in CRC xenografts in vivo. These findings demonstrate a novel mechanism and may represent a new effective therapeutic regimen for CRC.

Research on China's embodied carbon import and export trade from the perspective of value-added trade.

The development of globalization has separated the production and consumption of products spatially, and the international trade of products has become a carrier of embodied carbon trade. This paper adopted the perspective of value-added trade to calculate the amount of embodied carbon trade of China from 2006 to 2015 and perform a structural decomposition analysis of the changes in China's embodied carbon trade. This study found that: (1) China's embodied carbon exports are much larger than its embodied carbon imports, and there are differences between countries. China imported the largest amount of embodied carbon from South Korea, and it exported the largest amount of embodied carbon to the United States. (2) The structural decomposition analysis shows that changes in the value-added carbon emission coefficient during the study period would have caused China's embodied carbon trade to decrease, and changes in value-added trade would have caused China's embodied carbon trade to increase. Therefore, countries trading with China need to strengthen their cooperation with China in energy conservation, emission reduction, and product trade. In order to accurately reflect China's embodied carbon trade, it is necessary to calculate embodied carbon trade from the perspective of value-added trade.

Social network analysis of virtual water trade among major countries in the world.

This study utilizes multi-region input-output model to calculate the virtual water trade among 19 major countries (the Group 20 countries, except the EU) from 2006 to 2015. Moreover, this paper uses network analysis method to study the characteristics of virtual water trade networks. Results show that: (1) the import and export of the virtual water trade among 19 major countries in 2015 increased in varying degrees. Among them, the growth rates of China's import and Russia's export were the highest. (2) The density(average value) and asymmetry(differences between import and export)of the virtual water trade network among the major countries in 2006-2015 increased throughout the whole industry and the three major industries. In comparison with the secondary and tertiary industries, the virtual water trade network formed by the primary industry is denser. (3) The Out-Degree(corresponding to export) and In-Degree(corresponding to import)of countries in the virtual water trade network of the whole industry increased in varying degrees in 2015. Major countries exhibited the largest export and import within the primary industry, except for Japan and South Korea. Therefore, in order to alleviate the contradiction between supply and demand of water resources in various countries, it is necessary to further strengthen the construction of transportation facilities and reduce the logistics cost of trade in industrial and agricultural products, especially the trade cost of agricultural products such as grain, so as to further expand the virtual water import and export trade to expand the import and export trade of the virtual water network further.

Thermal-triggered packing of lipophilic NIR dye IR780 in hepatitis B core at critical ionic strength and cargo-host ratio for improved stability and enhanced cancer phototherapy.

Virus-like particles (VLPs) holding internal cavity with diameter from tens up to one hundred nanometers are attractive platform for drug delivery. Nevertheless, the packing of drugs in the nanocage mainly relies on complicated disassembly-reassembly process. In this study, hepatitis B core protein (HBc) VLPs which can withstand temperature up to 90 °C was employed as carrier to load a lipophilic near infrared dye IR780. It was found that an attaching-dis-atching-diffusing process was involved for the entering of IR780 in the cavity of HBc. The first two steps were associated with the electrostatic interactions between oppositely charged HBc and IR780, which was critically manipulated by ionic strength and HBc/IR780 mass ratio at which they were mixed; while the diffusion of IR780 across the shell of HBc showed a temperature-dependent manner that can be triggered by thermal induced pore-opening of the HBc capsid. At optimized condition, about 1055 IR780 molecules were encapsulated in each HBc by simply mixing them for 10 min at 60 °C. Compared with free IR780, the HBc-IR780 particles showed significantly improved aqueous and photostability, as well as enhanced photothermal and photodynamic performance for cancer therapy. This study provides a novel drug loading strategy and nanomemedicine for cancer phototherapies.

Comparative Genomics of Mycoplasma synoviae and New Targets for Molecular Diagnostics.

Mycoplasma synoviae is an important pathogen of poultry, causing significant economic losses in this industry. Analysis of the unique genes and shared genes among different M. synoviae strains and among related species is helpful for studying the molecular pathogenesis of M. synoviae and provides valuable molecular diagnostic targets to facilitate the identification of M. synoviae species. We selected a total of 46 strains, including six M. synoviae strains, from 25 major animal (including avian) Mycoplasma species/subspecies that had complete genome sequences and annotation information published in GenBank, and used them for comparative genomic analysis. After analysis, 16 common genes were found in the 46 strains. Thirteen single-copy core genes and the 16s rRNA genes were used for genetic evolutionary analysis. M. synoviae was found to have a distant evolutionary relationship not only with other arthritis-causing mycoplasmas, but also with another major avian pathogen, Mycoplasma gallisepticum, that shares the major virulence factor vlhA with M. synoviae. Subsequently, six unique coding genes were identified as shared among these M. synoviae strains that are absent in other species with published genome sequences. Two of the genes were found to be located in the genetically stable regions of the genomes of M. synoviae and were determined to be present in all M. synoviae isolated strains (n = 20) and M. synoviae-positive clinical samples (n = 48) preserved in our laboratory. These two genes were used as molecular diagnostic targets for which SYBR green quantitative PCR detection methods were designed. The two quantitative PCR methods exhibited good reproducibility and high specificity when tested on positive plasmid controls and genomic DNA extracted from different M. synoviae strains, other major avian pathogenic bacteria/mycoplasmas, and low pathogenic Mycoplasma species. The detection limit for the two genes was 10 copies or less per reaction. The clinical sensitivity and specificity of the quantitative PCR methods were both 100% based on testing chicken hock joint samples with positive or negative M. synoviae infection. This research provides a foundation for the study of species-specific differences and molecular diagnosis of M. synoviae.

Identification of key sectors of water resource utilization in China from the perspective of water footprint.

We identified the key sectors of water resource use in China from the perspective of the water footprint to improve the use of water resources. The empirical results showed that there were six key sectors (including Crop Cultivation; Forestry; Livestock and Livestock Products; Fishery, Technical Services for Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock and Fishing; Other Food Products, and Scrap and Waste) for water consumption in China in 2015.We analyzed the use of green water, blue water, and grey water. These six sectors accounted for 66.15% of the total impact and 90.76% of the direct impact. Seven key sectors (the six sectors above plus Steel Processing)for the consumption of blue water in China can explain 59.70% of the total impact and 86.94% of the direct effect in 2015. Eight key sectors (Crop cultivation, Other food products, Scrap and Waste, Railway Freight Transport, Highway Freight and Passengers Transport, Water Freight and Passengers Transport, Pipeline Transport, and Health Services) responsible for the consumption of grey water in China in 2015 can explain 81.28% of the total impact and 95.73% of the direct impact. Therefore, the Chinese government should focus on the departments that manage water resources in these sectors when designing water-saving policies and improving water-use efficiency, such as promoting water-saving irrigation technology (including sprinkler irrigation and drip irrigation) in the agricultural sector.

Black phosphorus quantum dots encapsulated in anionic waterborne polyurethane nanoparticles for enhancing stability and reactive oxygen species generation for cancer PDT/PTT therapy.

Black phosphorus quantum dots (BPQDs) with excellent biocompatibility, outstanding photothermal and photodynamic efficacies have attracted significant attention in cancer therapy. However, the low environmental stability and poor dispersity of BPQDs limit their practical applications. In the present work, biocompatible anionic waterborne polyurethane (WPU) nanoparticles were synthesized from castor oil to encapsulate the BPQDs. The WPU-BPQDs with a BPQDs loading capacity of about 13.8% (w/w) exhibited significantly improved dispersion and environmental stability without affecting the photothermal efficiency of BPQDs. Intriguingly, it was found that WPU encapsulation led to significant enhancement in the reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation of BPQDs, which indicated the enhanced photodynamic efficacy of the encapsulated BPQDs as compared to the bare BPQDs. The effect of solution pH on the ROS generation efficiency of BPQDs and the pH variation caused by BPQDs degradation was then investigated to explore the possible mechanism. In acidic solution, ROS generation was suppressed, while BPQDs degradation led to the acidification of the solution. Fortunately, after being encapsulated inside the WPU nanoparticles, the degradation rate of BPQDs became slower, while the acidic environment around BPQDs was favorably regulated by WPU nanoparticles having a special electrochemical double layer consisting of interior COO- and exterior NH(Et3)+, thus endowing the WPU-BPQDs-boosted production of ROS as compared to the bare BPQDs. Considering the undesired acidic tumor environment, this unique pH regulation effect of WPU-BPQDs would be beneficial for in vivo photodynamic efficacy. Both in vitro and in vivo experiments showed that WPU-BPQDs could effectively improve photodynamic therapy (PDT) and maintain outstanding photothermal therapy (PTT) effects. Together with the excellent dispersity, biocompatibility, and easy biodegradability, WPU-BPQDs can be a promising agent for PDT/PTT cancer treatments.