Ecological compensation in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region based on ecosystem services flow.

Under a background of unbalanced regional economic development and ecological environments, the accurate identification of ecological compensation (EC) areas and the determination of compensation standards have become research key and hotspots. Their aim is to improve the long-term mechanisms of interregional EC. In this study, ecosystem services value (ESV) in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region (BTH) in 2000, 2010 and 2019 are calculated using modelling and ecological economics methods. The region is divided into ecological output and input areas according to ecosystem services supply and demand. The breakpoint formula and field strength model are introduced to reveal the characteristics of ecosystem services flow (ESF) from output areas to input areas. By integrating a transfer correction coefficient system of natural, economic and social factors, an EC model based on ESF is constructed, and EC amounts for the BTH are calculated. The results are as follows: (1) The ESV of the BTH shows an increasing trend, with little change in spatial distribution characteristics. The high-value areas are distributed in the Taihang and Yanshan Mountains and Bashang Plateau in the northwest, while the low-value areas are concentrated in the Southeast Hebei Plain. (2) ESF mainly occurs in the western and northern regions of the BTH. Output areas are mainly distributed in the Taihang and Yanshan Mountains and Bashang Plateau, and their number is increasing. The flow radius, flow intensity and ESV transfer amounts also show increasing trends. (3) The ratio of EC paid by Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei is 1:0.2:2.56, the EC amounts are all provided to the Hebei Province, and the funds mainly flow to Chengde City, Zhangjiakou City and Baoding City. The proposed EC model based on ESF provides a basis and reference for the construction of an inter-regional EC mechanism in the BTH.

Noncovalent microarrays from synthetic amino-terminating glycans: Implications in expanding glycan microarray diversity and platform comparison.

Glycan microarrays have played important roles in detection and specificity assignment of glycan recognition by proteins. However, the size and diversity of glycan libraries in current microarray systems are small compared to estimated glycomes, and these may lead to missed detection or incomplete assignment. For microarray construction, covalent and noncovalent immobilization are the two types of methods used, but a direct comparison of results from the two platforms is required. Here we develop a chemical strategy to prepare lipid-linked probes from both naturally derived aldehyde-terminating and synthetic amino-terminating glycans that addresses the two aspects: expansion of sequence-defined glycan libraries and comparison of the two platforms. We demonstrate the specific recognition by plant and mammalian lectins, carbohydrate-binding modules and antibodies and the overall similarities from the two platforms. Our results provide new knowledge on unique glycan-binding specificities for the immune receptor Dectin-1 toward ß-glucans and the interaction of rotavirus P[19] adhesive protein with mucin O-glycan cores.

Vaccination with virus-like particles of atypical porcine pestivirus inhibits virus replication in tissues of BALB/c mice.

Congenital tremor (CT) type A-II in piglets is a worldwide disease caused by an emerging atypical porcine pestivirus (APPV). Preparation and evaluation of vaccines in laboratory animals is an important preliminary step toward prevention and control of the disease. Here, virus-like particles (VLPs) of APPV were prepared and VLPs vaccine was evaluated in BALB/c mice. Purified Erns and E2 proteins expressed in E. coli were allowed to self-assemble into VLPs, which had the appearance of hollow spherical particles with a diameter of about 100 nm by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The VLPs induced strong antibody responses and reduced the viral load in tissues of BALB/c mice. The data from animal challenge experiments, RT-PCR, and immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated that BALB/c mice are an appropriate laboratory model for APPV. These results suggest the feasibility of using VLPs as a vaccine for the prevention and control of APPV and provide useful information for further study of APPV in laboratory animals.

Osteopontin regulates the proliferation of rat aortic smooth muscle cells in response to gingipains treatment.

OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to explore the possible effects of osteopontin (OPN) in the proliferation of rat aortic smooth muscle cells (RASMCs) stimulated by gingipains. METHODS: The proliferation of RASMCs in response to active gingipains treatment was evaluated by CCK-8 assay. OPN siRNA was designed, constructed and transfected into RASMCs at different concentrations. The cell cycle of RASMCs was analyzed by flow cytometry. OPN, α-SMA and calponin expression were examined by real-time PCR and western blot analysis. RESULTS: Gingipains promoted the proliferation of RASMCs and OPN expression. With siRNA-mediated OPN expression knockdown, the cell cycle of RASMCs was blocked in the G0/G1 phase. Furthermore, the expression of specific differentiation markers, α-SMA and calponin, also decreased. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that OPN has an impact on the proliferation and differentiation of RASMCs stimulated by gingipains.

The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Pinus bhutanica (Pinaceae) and its phylogenetic implications.

Pinus bhutanica is a critically endangered conifer and occurs only in central Bhutan, northwestern Yunnan and southeastern Xizang in China. In this study, the complete chloroplast genome of Pinus bhutanica was first assembled based on next-generation sequencing. The genome sequence was 116,919 bp in length with an overall GC content of 38.75%. A total of 106 functional genes were detected in the genome, including 72 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 30 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, and four ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes. The phylogenetic tree reconstructed by 12 chloroplast genomes revealed that P. bhutanica is most closely related to Pinus wangii in subsection Strobus of Pinus.

Polypyrrole pre-intercalation engineering-induced NH4+ removal in tunnel ammonium vanadate toward high-performance zinc ion batteries.

Ammonium vanadate with stable bi-layered structure and superior mass-specific capacity have emerged as competitive cathode materials for aqueous rechargeable zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs). Nevertheless, fragile NH…O bonds and too strong electrostatic interaction by virtue of excessive NH4+ will lead to sluggish Zn2+ ion mobility, further largely affects the electro-chemical performance of ammonium vanadate in AZIBs. The present work incorporates polypyrrole (PPy) to partially replace NH4+ in NH4V4O10 (NVO), resulting in the significantly enlarged interlayers (from 10.1 to 11.9 Å), remarkable electronic conductivity, increased oxygen vacancies and reinforced layered structure. The partial removal of NH4+ will alleviate the irreversible deammoniation to protect the laminate structures from collapse during ion insertion/extraction. The expanded interlayer spacing and the increased oxygen vacancies by the virtue of the introduction of polypyrrole improve the ionic diffusion, enabling exceptional rate performance of NH4V4O10. As expected, the resulting polypyrrole intercalated ammonium vanadate (NVOY) presents a superior discharge capacity of 431.9 mAh g-1 at 0.5 A g-1 and remarkable cycling stability of 219.1 mAh g-1 at 20 A g-1 with 78 % capacity retention after 1500 cycles. The in-situ electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), in-situ X-ray diffraction (XRD), ex-situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and ex-situ high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) analysis investigate a highly reversible intercalation Zn-storage mechanism, and the enhanced the redox kinetics are related to the combined effect of interlayer regulation, high electronic conductivity and oxygen defect engineering by partial substitution NH4+ of PPy incorporation.

Pyridinylpyrimidines selectively inhibit human methionine aminopeptidase-1.

Cellular protein synthesis is initiated with methionine in eukaryotes with few exceptions. Methionine aminopeptidases (MetAPs) which catalyze the process of N-terminal methionine excision are essential for all organisms. In mammals, type 2 MetAP (MetAP2) is known to be important for angiogenesis, while type 1 MetAP (MetAP1) has been shown to play a pivotal role in cell proliferation. Our previous high-throughput screening of a commercial compound library uncovered a novel class of inhibitors for both human MetAP1 (HsMetAP1) and human MetAP2 (HsMetAP2). This class of inhibitors contains a pyridinylpyrimidine core. To understand the structure-activity relationship (SAR) and to search for analogues of 2 with greater potency and higher HsMetAP1-selectivity, a total of 58 analogues were acquired through either commercial source or by in-house synthesis and their inhibitory activities against HsMetAP1 and HsMetAP2 were determined. Through this systematic medicinal chemistry analysis, we have identified (1) 5-chloro-6-methyl-2-pyridin-2-ylpyrimidine as the minimum element for the inhibition of HsMetAP1; (2) 5'-chloro as the favored substituent on the pyridine ring for the enhanced potency against HsMetAP1; and (3) long C4 side chains as the essentials for higher HsMetAP1-selectivity. At the end of our SAR campaign, 25b, 25c, 26d and 30a-30c are among the most selective and potent inhibitors of purified HsMetAP1 reported to date. In addition, we also performed crystallographic analysis of one representative inhibitor (26d) in complex with N-terminally truncated HsMetAP1.

Diabetes Mellitus Increases the Risk of Apical Periodontitis in Endodontically-Treated Teeth: A Meta-Analysis from 15 Studies.

INTRODUCTION: At present, the incidence of diabetes mellitus (DM) is gradually increasing globally. In clinical practice, many patients with diabetes with apical periodontitis (AP) have poor and slow healing of periapical lesions. However, the potential relationship between the 2 is still unclear and controversial. The consensus is that DM can be deemed a risk factor for AP in endodontically-treated teeth. Therefore, we pooled existing studies and carried out a meta-analysis to explore the potential association between the 2. METHODS: Studies that met the inclusion criteria were selected from the database, and relevant data were extracted. Stata SE 17.0 software was used to analyze the relevant data, and the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to assess the literature's quality. The pooled odds ratio (OR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to determine the strength of the association between DM and the prevalence of AP after root canal treatment (RCT). RESULTS: After searching, 262 relevant studies were retrieved, fifteen of which met the inclusion criteria. A total of 1087 patients with 2226 teeth were included in this meta-analysis. According to the findings, diabetics showed a higher prevalence of AP after RCT than controls at the tooth level (OR = 1.51, 95% CI = 1.22-1.87, P < .01). At the patient level, DM increased the probability of developing AP in RCT teeth more than 3 times (OR = 3.38, 95% CI = 1.65-6.93, P < .01). Additionally, subgroup analysis was performed by blood glucose status, preoperative AP, and study design. Except for the status of blood glucose, the results were significant in the other 2 groups (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: Available scientific evidence suggests that DM may increase the risk of AP in endodontically-treated teeth. In teeth with preoperative AP, DM might promote the development of AP.

Enantioselective and collective syntheses of xanthanolides involving a controllable dyotropic rearrangement of cis-ß-lactones.

Let's swap: a scalable, atom-economic, enantio-, and diastereoselective synthetic route to trisubstituted γ-butyrolactones based on a Wagner-Meerwein-type dyotropic rearrangement of cis-ß-lactones is described. This methodology was applied in efficient and protecting-group-free formal syntheses and total syntheses of various xanthanolide natural products.

Spatiotemporal changes in net primary productivity before and after the development of unused land in the hilly areas of Hebei, China.

Net primary productivity (NPP) plays an important role in the carbon cycle of an ecosystem. To explore the impact of unused land development on NPP, this study adopted an improved Carnegie Ames Stanford Approach (CASA) model to analyze the changes in NPP before and after the development of unused land in Tang County, Hebei Province, in 2000, 2007, and 2018. The results showed that, due to the changes in land use types from unused land, forestland, arable land with high NPP values to urban and rural residential land, traffic land with low NPP values, and the changes in precipitation and temperature, the NPP in the study area showed an overall trend of decreasing first and then rising from 2000 to 2018. Before the development of unused land in 2000, the total NPP was 38.45×1010 g C. After the development in 2007 and 2018, the total NPP was 36.44×1010 g C and 41.05×1010 g C, respectively. The NPP of each land type in 2018 was arable land (1046.18 g C m-2) > forestland (464.42 g C m-2) > unused land (356.34 g C m-2) > grassland (343.77 g C m-2) > waters (182.56 g C m-2) > urban and rural settlements (120.86 g C m-2) > traffic land (120.70 g C m-2). The distribution of NPP was generally high in the north and low in the south before and after development. NPP was mainly concentrated in the interval of 300 g C m-2 yr-1-400 g C m-2 yr-1, and the range of NPP change was mostly within 100 g C m-2. The influence of elevation, temperature and precipitation on the spatial distribution of NPP was significant. Elevation and precipitation were positively correlated with NPP, while temperature was negatively correlated with NPP. The increase in NPP mainly originated from the conversion of unused land to forestland and arable land. The loss of NPP was mainly due to the conversion from forestland with high vegetation productivity to a land use type with low vegetation productivity, such as the conversion from forestland to urban and rural residential land. The results can provide references for making reasonable land planning decisions and ecological environment construction.

Emergence of spontaneously occurring neoplastic disease caused by reticuloendotheliosis virus in breeding Muscovy ducks in China, 2019.

Reticuloendotheliosis virus (REV) has a wide range of avian hosts leading to reticuloendotheliosis, and its characteristic of vertical transmission makes it to be one of the most important diseases in breeder avian populations. Up to date, reports on neoplastic disease caused by REV in breeding ducks are few. Here, spontaneously occurring neoplastic disease caused by REV in breeding Muscovy ducks was reported in Guangdong province, China. The most significant gross lesions of sick ducks were tumour-bearing liver and enlarged spleen. Histopathological examination found proliferation of malignant lymphoreticular cells in the liver and reticuloendothelial cells in the spleen. REV strain, CH-GD2019, was successfully isolated using DF-1 cells, and the presence of REV was confirmed by PCR detection and transmission electron microscopy. The length of complete proviral genome is 8,238 nucleotides. Genetic and phylogenetic analyses revealed that CH-GD2019 was closely related to chicken-origin REV strains circulating in China. The results will provide a basic data for better understanding of REV in breeding ducks and suggest that REV from chickens may be a threat to ducks.

Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of a Series of Bile Acid Derivatives as FXR Agonists for Treatment of NASH.

Farnesoid X receptor (FXR) has become a particularly attractive target for the discovery of drugs for the treatment of liver and metabolic diseases. Obeticholic acid (INT-747), a FXR agonist, has advanced into clinical phase III trials in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), but adverse effects (e.g., pruritus, LDL increase) were observed. Pruritus might be induced by Takeda G-protein-coupled receptor 5 (TGR5, GPBAR1), and there are chances to develop FXR agonists with higher selectivity over TGR5. In this letter, novel bile acids bearing different modifications on ring A and side chain of INT-747 are reported and discussed. Our results indicated that the side chain of INT-747 is amenable to a variety of chemical modifications with good FXR potency in vitro. Especially, compound 18 not only showed promising FXR potency and excellent pharmacokinetic properties, but also proved superior pharmacological efficacy in the HFD + CCl4 model.

[Study on extracting oil of radix Angelica sinensis with supercritical CO2].

OBJECTIVE: To study the extraction of angelica oil by SFE-CO2 (CO2 Supercritical Fluid Extraction). METHODS: Investigating the influence of the granule size of medical material, extraction temperature, extraction pressure, extraction time, releasing and separating condition on the extraction of angelica oil by the orthogonal design and other methods. RESULTS: The optimum extraction is as follows: the granule size of medical material, 40 mu; extraction temperature, 40 degrees C; extraction pressure, 25Mpa; extraction time, 2 hours; flow of CO2, 20 L/h; pressure of separation pot I, 8Mpa; temperature of separation pot I, 50 degrees C; pressure of separation pot II, 6Mpa; temperature of separation pot II, 50 degrees C. CONCLUSION: The optimum extraction has high extraction ratio of angelica oil. The optimum extraction is reasonable and practicable.

Matrix Metalloproteinase-3 -1171 5A/6A Polymorphism (rs35068180) is Associated with Risk of Periodontitis.

Matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP3) plays a key role in tissue degradation in periodontitis. The relationship between the MMP3 -1171 5A/6A polymorphism (rs35068180) and periodontitis has been widely studied. However, existing studies have yielded contradictory results. We therefore conducted a meta-analysis to comprehensively investigate these inconclusive findings. Several electronic databases were searched for eligible articles. Seven case-control studies from 6 articles were searched without any language restrictions. Pooled estimates indicated that MMP3 -1171 5A/6A polymorphism is associated with a decreased risk of periodontitis (allelic genetic model: OR = 0.70, 95% CI: 0.62-0.80, P(heterogeneity) = 0.315; heterozygous model: OR = 0.50, 95% CI: 0.39-0.65, P(heterogeneity) = 0.221; homozygous model: OR = 0.42, 95% CI: 0.25-0.69, P(heterogeneity) = 0.265; dominant model: OR = 0.49, 95% CI: 0.38-0.62, P(heterogeneity) = 0.238, respectively). Similar results were also found in chronic periodontitis (CP), Asian, Asian&CP, and non-smokers subgroups. Moreover, MMP3 rs35068180 polymorphism might be associated with a lower risk of aggressive periodontitis (AgP) in Asians (allelic genetic model: OR = 0.66, 95% CI: 0.48-0.91, P(heterogeneity) = 0.945), and CP in Caucasians and Brazilians. In conclusion, this meta-analysis demonstrates that MMP3 -1171 5A/6A polymorphism may be associated with decreased risk of both CP and AgP in Asians. Large independent studies to replicate these results are necessary to validate these associations in other populations.

Enantioselective biomimetic total syntheses of katsumadain and katsumadain C.

Enantioselective total syntheses of katsumadain and katsumadain C were achieved concisely through a biomimetic approach. Assembly of styryl-2-pyranone (3) and monoterpene 6 via acid-promoted regio- and stereoselective C-C bond formation afforded katsumadain (2), which underwent the photoinduced [2 + 2] dimerization in a head-to-tail mode to furnish katsumadain C (1).

Cyclodepsipeptide toxin promotes the degradation of Hsp90 client proteins through chaperone-mediated autophagy.

Promoting the degradation of Hsp90 client proteins by inhibiting Hsp90, an important protein chaperone, has been shown to be a promising new anticancer strategy. In this study, we show that an oxazoline analogue of apratoxin A (oz-apraA), a cyclodepsipeptide isolated from a marine cyanobacterium, promotes the degradation of Hsp90 clients through chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA). We identify a KFERQ-like motif as a conserved pentapeptide sequence in the kinase domain of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) necessary for recognition as a CMA substrate. Mutation of this motif prevents EGFR degradation by CMA and promotes the degradation of EGFR through the proteasomal pathway in oz-apraA-treated cells. Oz-apraA binds to Hsc70/Hsp70. We propose that apratoxin A inhibits Hsp90 function by stabilizing the interaction of Hsp90 client proteins with Hsc70/Hsp70 and thus prevents their interactions with Hsp90. Our study provides the first examples for the ability of CMA to mediate degradation of membrane receptors and cross talks of CMA and proteasomal degradation mechanisms.