First Report of Neofusicoccum parvum Causing Fruit Rot on Psidium guajava in China.

Guava (Psidium guajava L.), a nutrient-rich and economically significant fruit, is extensively cultivated in southern China. In six continuous years (from 2018 to 2023), dark-purple rotted guava with sunken lesion were observed on guava trees (variety 'Zhenzhu', aged over 5 years) in Dongguan and Panyu districts, Guangdong Province. Annually, the incidence of fruit rot disease in the affected fields reached 30% to 50% and significantly reduced the yield and quality of harvest guava. The initial symptoms on the epicarp of the fruits were black, needle-like dots that rapidly spread, causing partial or complete fruit rot within two to three weeks. To identify the causative agent, six symptomatic fruits were collected from two different orchards. Samples of 0.5 cm³ were excised from the lesion margins of each fruit. These samples were surface-sterilized with 70% ethanol for 30 seconds, followed by 0.2% NaClO for 2-3 minutes, and rinsed in sterile water three times. The samples were then cultured on potato dextrose agar (PDA) at 25°C for five days. This process yielded eight fungal isolates with similar morphological. Initially, the colonies were white with dense aerial mycelium becoming dark gray after 4 to 5 days. The mycelia were septate and branched. No spores were observed on PDA. To induce spore formation, the isolates were cultured on water agar for 20 days. This process led to the production of hyaline, aseptate, ellipsoid conidia, which were thin-walled, smooth-surfaced, and measured 3.7-5.1 × 1.6-2.2 µm (n = 100). Three isolates, including at least one from each orchard (Np1, Np2, Np3), were selected for further analysis. Genomic DNA was extracted using Axygen MAG-FRAG-I-50 (Axygen Bio-Tek). The internal transcribed spacer of rDNAs (ITS), beta-tubulin (tub2), the nuclear ribosomal large subunit (LSU), and translation elongation factor 1-α (tef1-α) gene regions were amplified using the primers ITS1/4, Bt2a/Bt2b, LR5/LR0R, and EF1-728F/EF1-986R (Golzar and Burgess 2011) and sequenced. Sequence analysis using MEGA 7.0 (Kumar et al., 2018) revealed 100% similarity among the isolates. BLAST searches of the ITS, tub2, LSU, and tef1-α sequences (accession nos. MN907637, MT537938, MT528156, MT537939) showed the highest nucleotide similarities (99.24 to 100%) to Neofusicoccum parvum strains (Crous et al. 2006). A phylogenetic tree was constructed with MEGA 7.0 based on the nucleotide sequence tub2 using the maximum likelihood method. Pathogenicity tests on 10 healthy guava fruits using mycelium-inoculated and control fruits confirmed the causative agent. The inoculated fruits, maintained at 25°C under a 12-h light/dark cycle, exhibited symptoms identical to the field infections within four to seven days, while control fruits remained symptomless. The fungus, reisolated from the inoculated fruits, was morphologically identical to the original isolates, fulfilling Koch's postulates. In conclusion, based on molecular, morphological, and pathogenic analysis, N. parvum as the causal agent of the fruit rot disease on guava. Previously, N. parvum has been reported in association with fruit rot on Eriobotrya japonica and Juglans regia (Zhai et al. 2019; Chen et al. 2019). To our knowledge, this is the first report of N. parvum affecting guava in China.

First Report of Coptis Wilt Disease Caused by Plectosphaerella cucumerina in China.

Coptis (Coptis chinensis) belongs to the Ranunculaceae family, the rhizomes used in traditional Chinese medicine. Since 2021, an uncommon stem and leaf wilt disease, with an average disease incidence of 70%~90%, has been observed in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. The early wilt symptoms were observed on older leaves and stems, and the whole seedling wilted and died. The rhizome of the diseased seedlings changed in color, became necrotic, and rotted. Symptomatic roots and stems were surface-sterilized with 70% ethanol for 30 s, followed by 0.2% NaClO for 2-3 min, rinsed in sterile water three times, and then placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA) at 25℃for 14 days. Fungal growth was observed, and six isolates with similar morphology were obtained. The 14-day-old colonies on PDA were buff with few aerial hyphae and slimy surfaces. Aerial hyphae were sparse with simple or branched conidiophores. Conidia were hyaline, smooth, ovoid, septate or aseptate, and 5.77 to 9.53 × 2.15 to 3.32 µm (n = 50). Three of the six isolates were subjected to further analysis. The genomic DNA of three isolates (CCF1-1, CCF1-2, CCF1-3) was extracted using Axygen MAG-FRAG- I-50 (Axygen Bio-Tek) for molecular identification. Partial sequences of the internal transcribed spacer of rDNA (ITS) and large subunit rDNA (LSU) were amplified using the primers ITS1/4 and LR5F/LROR, respectively (Vilgalys and Hester 1990). Their sequences were aligned by MEGA X (Kumar et al., 2018), and the sequences of each region showed 100% sequence similarity among our isolates. A BLAST search of ITS and LSU sequences (accession nos. ON377369, ON428244) showed that both regions had the highest nucleotide similarities (99.43 to 99.89%) to the Plectosphaerella cucumerina strains. Based on morphological and molecular analyses, the isolates were identified as P. cucumerina (Palm et al. 1995). The pathogenicity of our isolates CCF1-1, CCF1-2, CCF1-3 was tested on ten 2-month-old healthy seedlings of coptis, respectively. For the seedlings, 30 ml of fungal conidial suspension (1×106 conidia/ml) or sterile water, as control, were poured into their root area. Conidia suspension were prepared from 14-day-old cultures on PDA by eluting with sterilized water. The seedlings were incubated at 25°C and 75% relative humidity under a 12-h/12-h light/dark cycle. The test was repeated three times. After 20 days, only seedlings inoculated with P. cucumerina exhibited symptoms similar to those diseased seedlings in the field. The control seedling had no symptoms. The morphologically similar fungus was re-isolated from the tested seedlings, thus fulfilling Koch's postulates. Based on molecular, morphological, and pathogenic properties, P. cucumerina is the causal fungal pathogen of coptis wilt disease. Previously, P. cucumerina has been related to wilt disease in strawberry and Chinese cabbage (Yang et al. 2023; Gao et al. 2022), but to our knowledge, this is the first report of P. cucumerina causing wilt disease on coptis in China. Coptis wilt disease tends to occur in a warm and rainy environment, and strengthening the detection and quarantine of seedlings is the key to preventing the occurrence and spread of the disease.

A mathematical model reveals the influence of NPIs and vaccination on SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant.

An SVEIR SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant model is proposed to provide some insights to coordinate non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and vaccination. Mathematically, we define the basic reproduction number R 0 and the effective reproduction number R e to measure the infection potential of Omicron variant and formulate an optimal disease control strategy. Our inversion results imply that the sick period of Omicron variant in the United States is longer than that of Delta variant in India. The decrease in the infectious period of the infection with infectiousness implies that the risk of hospitalization is reduced; but the increasing period of the infection with non-infectiousness signifies that Omicron variant lengthens the period of nucleic acid test being negative. Optimistically, Omicron's death rate is only a quarter of Delta's. Moreover, we forecast that the cumulative cases will exceed 100 million in the United States on February 28, 2022, and the daily confirmed cases will reach a peak on February 2, 2022. The results of parameters sensitivity analysis imply that NPIs are helpful to reduce the number of confirmed cases. In particular, NPIs are indispensable even if all the people were vaccinated when the efficiency of vaccine is relatively low. By simulating the relationships of the effective reproduction number R e , the vaccination rate and the efficacy of vaccine, we find that it is impossible to achieve the herd immunity without NPIs while the efficiency of vaccine is lower than 88.7 % . Therefore, the herd immunity area is defined by the evolution of relationships between the vaccination rate and the efficacy of vaccine. Finally, we present that the disease-induced mortality rate demonstrates the periodic oscillation and an almost periodic function is deduced to match the curve. A discussion completes the paper.

The association between body mass index and varicocele: A meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Recently, several studies have found that obesity had a protective effect against varicocele, but no meta-analysis has confirmed this finding. Therefore, we conducted this meta-analysis to investigate the association between body mass index (BMI) and varicocele. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We searched for studies in PubMed, Science Direct and the Cochrane Library from inception until February 2018. The association between BMI and varicocele was assessed by pooling the odds ratios (ORs). RESULTS: Eleven eligible studies with a total study population of 1.376.658 participants were included in our analysis. According to BMI, the subjects were defined as belonging to the obese, overweight and underweight groups. Our results showed that the obese group had a lower risk of varicocele when compared with the normal weight group (odds ratio [OR] 0.46, 95% confidence intervals [CIs] 0.37-0.58). Additionally, an overweight BMI had a protective effect against varicocele (OR 0.70, 95% CIs, 0.56-0.86). However, underweight patients had a more than 30% higher risk of varicocele (OR 1.31, 95% CI, 1.04-1.64). Furthermore, there was no publication bias in any of the analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates that BMI is negatively associated with the presence of varicocele.

An almost periodic Ross-Macdonald model with structured vector population in a patchy environment.

An almost periodic Ross-Macdonald model with age structure for the vector population in a patchy environment is considered. The basic reproduction ratio [Formula: see text] for this model is derived and a threshold-type result on its global dynamics in terms of [Formula: see text] is established. It is shown that the disease is uniformly persistent if [Formula: see text], while the disease will die out if [Formula: see text]. Numerical simulations show that the biting rate greatly affects the disease transmission, and human migration sometimes could reduce the transmission risk. We further obtain a condition numerically to determine whether a control strategy on migration is necessary. Moreover, numerical results indicate that prolonging the length of maturation period of vector is beneficial to the disease control, and the threshold length of the maturation period for disease outbreak can be computed. Finally, the comparison between the almost periodic and periodic models shows that the periodic model may overestimate or underestimate the disease transmission risk.

[Research progress of computer-aided diagnosis in cancer based on deep learning and medical imaging].

The dramatically increasing high-resolution medical images provide a great deal of useful information for cancer diagnosis, and play an essential role in assisting radiologists by offering more objective decisions. In order to utilize the information accurately and efficiently, researchers are focusing on computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) in cancer imaging. In recent years, deep learning as a state-of-the-art machine learning technique has contributed to a great progress in this field. This review covers the reports about deep learning based CAD systems in cancer imaging. We found that deep learning has outperformed conventional machine learning techniques in both tumor segmentation and classification, and that the technique may bring about a breakthrough in CAD of cancer with great prospect in the future clinical practice.

Influence of visual observational conditions on tongue motor learning.

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of visual observational conditions on performance during a standardized tongue-protrusion training (TPT) task and to evaluate subject-based reports of helpfulness, disturbance, pain, and fatigue, due to the observational conditions on 0-10 numerical rating scales. Forty-eight healthy participants performed a 1-h standard TPT task. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the following three groups with different observational conditions: group 1, model observation (participants watched a prerecorded video showing standard TPT before optimal TPT being performed); group 2, self-observation (participants watched live video feedback of their own TPT performance); and group 3, control group (participants performed the TPT with no conditioning). There was no overall difference between groups but TPT performance increased over time. A significant group×time interaction indicated that the self-observation group performed significantly better than the model-observation group in the last 20 min of TPT. The subject-based reports of video helpfulness showed that the model-observation group rated the prerecorded video as more helpful for TPT performance compared with the other groups but there was no significant difference between groups regarding the level of disturbance, pain, or fatigue. Self-observation of tongue-training facilitated behavioral aspects of tongue motor learning compared with model observation but not compared with control.

[Computer-aided Diagnosis in Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Malignant Tumor:A Technical Review of Current Research].

Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging(DCE-MRI)may provide more information in diagnosis of malignant tumor compared to conventional magnetic resonance imaging(MRI).Nowadays,in order to utilize the information expediently and efficiently,many researchers are aiming at the development of computer-aided diagnosis(CAD)of malignant tumor based on DCE-MRI.In this review,we survey the research in this field and summarize the literature in four parts,i.e.1image preprocessing--noise reduction and image registration;2region of interests(ROI)segmentation;3feature extraction--exploring the image characteristics by analyzing the ROI quantitatively;4tumor lesion recognition and classification--distinguishing and classifying tumor lesions by learning the features of ROI.We summarize the application of CAD techniques of DCE-MRI for cancer diagnosis and,finally,give some discussion on how to improve the efficiency of CAD in the future research.

Long-term sustained-released in situ gels of a water-insoluble drug amphotericin B for mycotic arthritis intra-articular administration: preparation, in vitro and in vivo evaluation.

Amphotericin B (AMB) was often used in intra-articular injection administration for fungal arthritis, because it could often bring a satisfactory therapeutic efficacy and a minimum systemic toxic side effect. However, because of the multiple operations and the frequent injections, the compliance of the patients was bad. Therefore, to develop a long-term sustained-released preparation of AMB for mycotic arthritis intra-articular administration is of great significance. The purpose of present study was to develop a long-term sustained-released in situ gel of a water-insoluble drug AMB for mycotic arthritis intra-articular administration. Based on the evaluations of the in vitro properties of the formulations, the formulation containing 10% (w/w) ethanol, 15% (w/w) PG, 0.75% (w/w) HA, 5% (w/w) purified soybean oil, 0.03% (w/w) α-tocopherol, 15% (w/w) water and 55% (w/w) glyceryl monooleate was selected as a suitable intra-articular injectable in situ gel drug delivery system for water-insoluble drug AMB. Furthermore, the results of the in vivo study on rabbits showed that the selected formulation was a safe and effective long-term sustained-released intra-articular injectable AMB preparation. Therefore, the presented in situ AMB gel could reduce the frequency of the administration in the AMB treatment of fungal arthritis, and then would get a good patient compliance.

Safety and anatomical outcome analysis after flow diverter coverage of the anterior cerebral artery.

OBJECTIVES: Few studies on ischemic complications and flow changes after a flow diverter covering the anterior cerebral artery. The purpose of the study was to explore the ischemic complications and anatomical alterations associated with the flow diverter after it covers the anterior cerebral artery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this single-center study, patients treated with FD covering the anterior cerebral artery at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University were retrospectively collected. The primary endpoint was ischemic complications related to the anterior cerebral artery. Secondary endpoints were anatomical changes in the anterior cerebral artery postoperatively and at follow-up. RESULTS: A total of 59 patients were included in this study. Four (6.8%) patients presented with ischemic stroke symptoms. Immediately after the procedure, complete occlusion of A1 and decreased blood flow was observed in 13 (22.0%) and 21 patients (35.6%), respectively. At follow-up, A1 artery was occluded in 34 patients (57.6%) and decreased blood flow was observed in 10 patients (16.9%). Symptoms of neurological deficits related to the anterior cerebral artery were not observed in all patients at follow-up. CONCLUSION: Coverage of A1 is safe, with a low incidence of ischemic stroke, when using an FD to treat aneurysms. Risk of reduced perfusion of the anterior cerebral artery postoperatively even if the anterior communicating artery is open. In cases with A1 occlusion, the blood flow in the distal the anterior cerebral artery can be adequately compensated by opening the anterior communicating artery and good vascular anastomoses.

Hierarchical NiOx nanotube arrays/CoP nanosheets heterostructure enables robust alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction.

Rational design of low-cost and high-efficiency electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is critical for scalable and sustainable hydrogen production from economical water-alkali splitting. Herein, density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that coupling NiOx and CoP could effectively boost overall HER kinetics through lowing the H2O dissociation barrier, accelerating the OH* transfer process, and providing the rapid H* migration kinetics as well as the appropriate H* energetics. Based on these findings, we successfully prepared a three-dimensional (3D) self-supported electrode of ultrathin CoP nanosheets directly grown on the surface-oxidized Ni nanotube arrays via a simple and scalable electrochemical synthesis method. As expected, such a heterostructure electrode exhibits superior alkaline HER performance with low overpotentials of 51 and 164 mV to drive the current densities of 10 and 500 mA cm-2, respectively, outperforming most of the efficient alkaline HER electrocatalysts.

Estimation and sensitivity analysis of a COVID-19 model considering the use of face mask and vaccination.

To model the COVID-19 infection and develop effective control measures, this paper proposes an SEIR-type epidemic model considering the impact of face-mask wearing and vaccination. Firstly, the effective reproduction number and the threshold conditions are obtained. Secondly, based on the data of South Korea from January 20, 2022 to March 21, 2022, the model parameters are estimated. Finally, a sensitivity analysis and the numerical study are conducted. The results show that the face-mask wearing is associated with [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] reductions in the numbers of cumulative cases and newly confirmed cases, respectively, after a period of 60 days, when the face mask wearing rate increases by [Formula: see text]. Furthermore, the vaccination rate is associated with [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] reductions in the numbers of cumulative cases and the newly confirmed cases, respectively, after the same period of 60 days when the vaccination rate is increased by [Formula: see text]. A combined measure involving face-mask wearing and vaccination may be more effective and reasonable in preventing and controlling this infection. It is also suggested that disease control departments should strongly recommended the wearing of face masks s as well as vaccination to prevent the unvaccinated people from becoming infected.

The growth inhibitory effects and non-targeted metabolomic profiling of Microcystis aeruginosa treated by Scenedesmus sp.

The health of the aquatic ecosystem has recently been severely affected by cyanobacterial blooms brought on by eutrophication. Therefore, it is critical to develop efficient and secure methods to control dangerous cyanobacteria, such as Microcystis aeruginosa. In this research, we tested the inhibition of M. aeruginosa growth by a Scenedesmus sp. strain isolated from a culture pond. Scenedesmus sp. culture filtrate that had been lyophilized was added to M. aeruginosa, and cultivation for seven days, the cell density, chlorophyll a (Chl-a) concentration, maximum quantum yield of photosystem II (Fv/Fm), the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and the concentration of malondialdehyde (MDA) and glutathione (GSH) were measured. Moreover, non-targeted metabolomics was carried out to provide light on the inhibitory mechanism in order to better understand the metabolic response. According to the results, M. aeruginosa is effectively inhibited by the lyophilized Scenedesmus sp. culture filtrate at a rate of 51.2%. Additionally, the lyophilized Scenedesmus sp. clearly inhibit the photosystem and damages the antioxidant defense system of M. aeruginosa cells, resulting in oxidative damage, which worsens membrane lipid peroxidation, according to changes in Chl-a, Fv/Fm, SOD, CAT enzyme activities and MDA, GSH. Metabolomics analysis revealed that the secondary metabolites of Scenedesmus sp. significantly interfere with the metabolism of M. aeruginosa involved in amino acid synthesis, membrane creation and oxidative stress, which is coherent with the morphology and physiology outcomes. These results demonstrate that the secondary metabolites of Scenedesmus sp. exert algal inhibition effect by breaked the membrane structure, destroyed the photosynthetic system of microalgae, inhibited amino acid synthesis, reduced antioxidant capacity, and eventually caused algal cell lysis and death. Our research provides a reliable basis for the biological control of cyanobacterial blooms on the one hand, and on other hand supply application of non-targeted metabolome on the study of microalgae allelochemicals.

Stationary distribution and extinction of a stochastic influenza virus model with disease resistance.

Influenza is a respiratory infection caused influenza virus. To evaluate the effect of environment noise on the transmission of influenza, our study focuses on a stochastic influenza virus model with disease resistance. We first prove the existence and uniqueness of the global solution to the model. Then we obtain the existence of a stationary distribution to the positive solutions by stochastic Lyapunov function method. Moreover, certain sufficient conditions are provided for the extinction of the influenza virus flu. Finally, several numerical simulations are revealed to illustrate our theoretical results. Conclusively, according to the results of numerical models, increasing disease resistance is favorable to disease control. Furthermore, a simple example demonstrates that white noise is favorable to the disease's extinction.

Effects of pearl powder extract and its fractions on fibroblast function relevant to wound repair.

The water soluble matrix (WSM) of pearl powder [Hyriopsis cumingii Lea (Unionidae)] was extracted, and the insoluble residue was demineralized, size-fractionated, and named as MR14 (> 14 kDa), MR3-14 (3-14 kDa), and MR3 (< 3 kDa). The effects of WSM, MR14, MR3-14, and MR3 on primary mouse oral fibroblast proliferation, collagen accumulation, matrix metalloproteinase-2, -9 (MMP-2, -9) activities, and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1) production were tested by MTT assay, chloramine T method, gelatin zymography, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), respectively. The results showed that the WSM and MR14 could significantly (p < 0.05) promote fibroblast proliferation; all of the fractions could significantly promote collagen accumulation; MR14 significantly (p < 0.05) inhibited MMP-2 activity; and all of the fractions could significantly promote TIMP-1 production. This study has proved that the mechanism by which pearl powder promotes wound healing is partly due to its ability to stimulate fibroblast mitosis, collagen deposition, and TIMP-1 production, and the major active fraction may be MR14.

Abnormalities of Cortical Thickness in Pediatric Mesial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy with Hippocampal Sclerosis.

OBJECTIVE: Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE-HS) is the most common intractable seizure type of pediatric epilepsy, with alterations in the cortex across the whole brain. The aim of this study is to investigate the abnormalities of cortical thickness in pediatric MTLE-HS. METHODS: Subjects were recruited from Shenzhen Children's Hospital between September 2015 and December 2016. MTLE was confirmed by the experienced neurological physician based on International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) diagnosis criteria, and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed at 3T for quantitative assessment of cortical thickness. A general linear model with age and gender as covariates was used to examine the vertex-wise differences in cortical thickness between 1) left MTLE-HS (LMTLE-HS) and healthy controls (HC), and 2) right MTLE-HS (RMTLE-HS) and HC. The family-wise error corrected significance threshold was set at P < 0.05. Through a combination of probability and cluster-size thresholding, cluster-wise P values were obtained for the resulting clusters. RESULTS: 13 LMTLE-HS, 6 RMTLE-HS, and 20 age-matched HC were finally enrolled in the study. No significant difference in the mean age (LMTLE-HS vs. HC, p=0.57; RMTLE-HS vs. HC, p=0.39) and gender ratio (LMTLE-HS vs. HC, p=0.24; RMTLE-HS vs. HC, p=0.72) was found between MTLE-HS and HC. In LMTLE-HS, cortical thickness was found significantly decreased in the ipsilateral caudal middle frontal gyrus (p=0.012) and increased in the contralateral inferior temporal gyrus (p=0.020). In RMTLE-HS, cortical thickness significantly decreased in the ipsilateral posterior parietal lobe (superior, p<0.001 and inferior parietal gyrus, p=0.03), the anterior parietal lobe (postcentral gyrus, p=0.006), the posterior frontal lobe (precentral gyrus, p=0.04 and the lateral occipital gyrus, p<0.001), and the contralateral lateral occipital gyrus, middle frontal (p<0.0001) and superior frontal gyrus (p<0.001), and pericalcarine cortex (p=0.020). CONCLUSION: We detected significant cortical abnormalities in pediatric MTLE-HS patients compared with HC. These cortical abnormalities could be explained by specific pathogenesis in MTLE-HS, and may finally contribute to understanding the intrinsic mechanism of MTLE-HS.

Voxel-based morphometry analysis and machine learning based classification in pediatric mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis.

Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE-HS) is a common type of pediatric epilepsy. We sought to evaluate whether the combination of voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and support vector machine (SVM), a machine learning method, was feasible for the classification of MTLE-HS. Three-dimensional T1-weighted MRI was acquired in 37 participants including 22 with MTLE-HS (16 left, 6 right) and 15 healthy controls (HCs). VBM was used to detect the regions of gray matter volume (GMV) abnormalities. The volumes of these regions were then calculated for each participant and used as the features in SVM. The SVM model was trained and tested with leave-one-out cross validation (LOOCV). We performed VBM-based comparison and SVM-based classification between left HS (LHS) and HC as well as between right HS (RHS) and HC. Both GMV increase and reduction were found in the group comparisons with VBM. Using SVM, we reached an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.870, 0.976 and 0.902 for the classification between LHS and HC, between RHS and HC and between HS and HC respectively. The VBM findings were concordant with the clinical findings. Thus, our proposed method combining VBM findings with SVM, were applicable in the classification of padiatric MTLE-HS with high accuracy.

Changtai granule, a traditional Chinese drug, protects hapten-induced colitis by attenuating inflammatory and immune dysfunctions.

The study was aimed to investigate the effects and mechanism of action of Changtai granule (CT), a traditional compound Chinese medicinal formula, in rodent 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS) colitis. Rats with TNBS/ethanol-induced colitis were used. The colonic wet weight, myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity, macroscopic and histological colon injury was observed. Inflammation cytokines were determined by ELISA methods and semi-quantitative RT-PCR. When dosed orally once daily, CT markedly attenuated TNBS-induced colitis. CT significantly attenuated colonic wet weight, macroscopic and histological colon injury. CT decreased mucosal mRNA levels for several inflammatory mediators: inducible nitric oxide synthase, cyclooxygenase 2, and macrophage inflammatory protein 2. CT also decreased mucosal mRNA and protein levels of T effectors cytokines: tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma). Systemic levels of these cytokines were also dramatically attenuated. CD3/CD28-mediated costimulation of T helper 1 effector cytokines release in lamina propria mononuclear cells (LPMC) was markedly inhibited by CT ex vivo and in vitro. Also CT prevented cytokines production by nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB). The potential anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effect of CT in TNBS colitis suggests that CT may be an effective treatment approach for inflammatory bowel disease.

Meta-analysis of voxel-based morphometry studies of gray matter abnormalities in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy and unilateral hippocampal sclerosis.

We aimed to perform a meta-analysis to systematically determine the most consistent regions of gray matter volume (GMV) abnormality in patients of unilateral mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE-HS), and to reveal the difference of GMV abnormality between the patients with left-sided and right-sided MTLE-HS. A comprehensive and systematic search was performed in PubMed for voxel-based morphometry (VBM) studies of MTLE-HS. A total of 12 MTLE-HS studies, including 9 left-sided MTLE-HS (LMTLE-HS) and 8 right-sided MTLE-HS (RMTLE-HS) studies were included. The activation likelihood estimation (ALE) method was applied in our meta-analysis. Compared to the healthy controls, MTLE-HS patients showed significant GMV decrease in the parahippocampal gyrus, left pulvinar and right pyramis. For LMTLE-HS, the most consistent GMV decrease was detected in the left parahippocampal gyrus. For RMTLE-HS, the most consistent GMV decrease was found in the right parahippocampal gyrus. No shared regions of significant GMV reduction were found between LMTLE-HS and RMTLE-HS either. This meta-analysis revealed that MTLE-HS patients had significant GMV reduction even beyond the hippocampus, and the subtypes showed distinct reduction patterns. Our findings, if were further verified with larger samples, would have implications for the clinical diagnosis of MTLE-HS.

[Tumor necrosis factor-α regulates the osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells in chronic periodontitis].

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) and ideal adult stem cells for alveolar bone regeneration considerably help restore the structure and function of the periodontium and promote the healing of periodontal disease. Thus, BMSC features, especially the mechanism of osteogenic differentiation, has recently become a research hotspot. Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), which is the main factor in the periodontal inflammatory microenvironment, is directly related to the osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs. Exploring the TNF-α-regulated differentiation mechanism of BMSCs aids in the search for new treatment targets. Such investigation also promotes the development of stem cell therapy for periodontal diseases. This article aims to describe the potential of TNF-α in regulating the osteogenic differentiation of stem cells.