Insufficient secretion of pancreatic FGF21 is the toxicological mechanism and therapeutic target of asparaginase-associated pancreatitis.

Asparaginase-associated pancreatitis (AAP) is a severe and potentially life-threatening drug-induced pancreas targeted toxicity in the combined chemotherapy of acute lymphoblastic leukemia among children and adolescents. The toxicological mechanism of AAP is not yet clear, and there are no effective preventive and treatment measures available clinically. Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is a secretory hormone that regulates lipid, glucose, and energy metabolism balance. Acinar tissue is the main source of pancreatic FGF21 protein and plays an important role in maintaining pancreatic metabolic balance. In this study, we found that the decrease of FGF21 in pancreas is closely related to AAP. Pegaspargase (1 IU/g) induces widespread edema and inflammatory infiltration in the pancreas of rats/mice. The specific expression of FGF21 in the acinar tissue of AAP rats was significantly downregulated. Asparaginase caused dysregulation of the ATF4/ATF3/FGF21 axis in acinar tissue or cells, and thus mediated the decrease of FGF21. It greatly activated ATF3 in the acinar, which competed with ATF4 for the Fgf21 promoter, thereby inhibiting the expression of FGF21. Pharmacological replacement of FGF21 (1 mg/kg) or PERK inhibitors (GSK2656157, 25 mg/kg) can significantly mitigate the pancreatic tissue damage and reduce markers of inflammation associated with AAP, representing potential strategies for the prevention and treatment of AAP.

Engineering cell-free systems by chemoproteomic-assisted phenotypic screening.

Phenotypic screening is a valuable tool to both understand and engineer complex biological systems. We demonstrate the functionality of this approach in the development of cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) technology. Phenotypic screening identified numerous compounds that enhanced protein production in yeast lysate CFPS reactions. Notably, many of these were competitive ATP kinase inhibitors, with the exploitation of their inherent substrate promiscuity redirecting ATP flux towards heterologous protein expression. Chemoproteomic-guided strain engineering partially phenocopied drug effects, with a 30% increase in protein yield observed upon deletion of the ATP-consuming SSA1 component of the HSP70 chaperone. Moreover, drug-mediated metabolic rewiring coupled with template optimization generated the highest protein yields in yeast CFPS to date using a hitherto less efficient, but more cost-effective glucose energy regeneration system. Our approach highlights the utility of target-agnostic phenotypic screening and target identification to deconvolute cell-lysate complexity, adding to the expanding repertoire of strategies for improving CFPS.

Analysis of Characteristics of Endometrial Carcinoma in Peri- and Postmenopausal Women with Abnormal Uterine Bleeding.

Objective: To analyze the menstrual characteristics of endometrial carcinoma and investigate whether abnormal uterine bleeding in the perimenopausal period differs from postmenopausal bleeding. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 928 cases of endometrial carcinoma in patients admitted from January 2016 to December 2022. We gathered fundamental clinical data and analyzed distinct clinical risk factors between the perimenopausal and postmenopausal groups. Furthermore, we computed the statistical variances in menarche, regular menstrual cycles, and the duration of abnormal uterine bleeding. Results: Perimenopausal patients with endometrial carcinoma exhibit similar factors to postmenopausal patients, especially if they have a history of menstrual cycles lasting more than 30 years, hypertension, abnormal uterine bleeding for over 1 year, and a high risk of endometrial carcinoma. Early intervention for abnormal uterine bleeding during the perimenopausal stage can prevent up to 80% of women from developing endometrial carcinoma. Conclusion: Perimenopause women experiencing abnormal uterine bleeding should be mindful of the risk of endometrial carcinoma, as this awareness can substantially decrease the occurrence of the disease.

Function of Cortactin/N-cadherin signal axis in pathological myocardial hypertrophy / 中国药理学通报

Aim To investigate the regulatory effect of Cortaetin on pathological myocardial hypertrophy induced by isoprenaline (ISO) and the underlying mechanism. Methods ISO was used to stimulate neonatal rat cardiomyocytes for 24 h, and myocardial hypertrophy model was established at the cellular level. C57BL/6 mice were injected subcutaneously with ISO for one week to establish myocardial hypertrophy model at animal level. RT-qPCR was used to detect the changes of mRNA and Western blot was used to detect the changes of relative protein content. Immunofluorescence was used to measure the subcellular location of Cortaetin and the change of its expression. The overex-pression of Cortaetin by adenovirus infection and the knockdown of Cortaetin by transfection of small interfering RNA were studied. Results On the cellular and animal levels, ISO-induced myocardial hypertrophy models were successfully established, and it was observed that ISO caused the decrease of Cortaetin and N-cadherin protein levels. Overexpression of Cortaetin could reverse the decrease of N-cadherin protein level and myocardial hypertrophy caused by ISO. Knockdown of Cortaetin showed the opposite effect. Conclusion Cortaetin, in combination with N-cadherin, may play a role in combating myocardial hypertrophy by enhancing the connections between cardiomyocytes.

Role of beam parameters in the spin-orbit interactions of light.

We employ a full-wave theory to systematically investigate two types of spin-orbit interactions and their topological phase transitions for various light beams (e.g., Laguerre-Gaussian, Bessel, and Bessel-Gaussian beams) at optical interfaces, and explore the influence of beam parameters on the spin-Hall shift. It is demonstrated that at small-angle incidence, the beam profile and spin-Hall shift are significantly affected by the beam parameters (e.g., waist radius, radial index, azimuthal index, and cone angle), whereas at large-angle incidence, only the azimuthal index has a salient influence on them. We further find that the Bessel beam and the Gaussian-modulated ones (i.e., Laguerre-Gaussian and Bessel-Gaussian beams) have similar topological phase transition phenomena but different shifts. Quantitative dependences of beam parameters, such as waist radius, radial index, azimuthal index, and cone angle, on the shift are also presented. Our findings offer alternative degrees of freedom in controlling the topological phase transitions of light, and suggest a valuable insight for exploring the applications of SOIs of diverse light fields.

Mortality in Women across the FMR1 CGG Repeat Range: The Neuroprotective Effect of Higher Education.

Higher education has been shown to have neuroprotective effects, reducing the risk of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, slowing the rate of age-related cognitive decline, and is associated with lower rates of early mortality. In the present study, the association between higher education, fragile X messenger ribonucleoprotein 1 (FMR1) cytosine-guanine-guanine (CGG) repeat number, and mortality before life expectancy was investigated in a population cohort of women born in 1939. The findings revealed a significant interaction between years of higher education and CGG repeat number. Counter to the study's hypothesis, the effects of higher education became more pronounced as the number of CGG repeats increased. There was no effect of years of higher education on early mortality for women who had 25 repeats, while each year of higher education decreased the hazard of early mortality by 8% for women who had 30 repeats. For women with 41 repeats, the hazard was decreased by 14% for each additional year of higher education. The interaction remained significant after controlling for IQ and family socioeconomic status (SES) measured during high school, as well as factors measured during adulthood (family, psychosocial, health, and financial factors). The results are interpreted in the context of differential sensitivity to the environment, a conceptualization that posits that some people are more reactive to both negative and positive environmental conditions. Expansions in CGG repeats have been shown in previous FMR1 research to manifest such a differential sensitivity pattern.

Multilayer Semantic Features Adaptive Distillation for Object Detectors.

Knowledge distillation (KD) is a well-established technique for compressing neural networks and has gained increasing attention in object detection tasks. However, typical object detection distillation methods use fixed-level semantic features for distillation, which might not be best for all training stages and samples. In this paper, a multilayer semantic feature adaptive distillation (MSFAD) method is proposed that uses a routing network composed of a teacher and a student detector, along with an agent network for decision making. Specifically, the inputs to the proxy network consist of the features output by the neck structures of the teacher and student detectors, and the output is a decision on which features to choose for distillation. The MSFAD method improves the distillation training process by enabling the student detector to automatically select valuable semantic-level features from the teacher detector. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method increased the mAP50 of YOLOv5s by 3.4% and the mAP50-90 by 3.3%. Additionally, YOLOv5n with only 1.9 M parameters achieved detection performance comparable to that of YOLOv5s.

Symmetry-breaking enabled topological phase transitions in spin-orbit optics.

The topological phase transitions (TPT) of light refers to a topological evolution from one type of spin-orbit interaction to another, which has been recently found in beam scattering at optical interfaces and propagation in uniaxial crystals. In this work, the focusing of off-axis and partially masked circular-polarization Gaussian beams are investigated by using of a full-wave theory. Moreover, two different types of spin-orbit interactions (i.e., spin-dependent vortex generation and photonic spin-Hall effect) in the focusing system are unified from the perspective of TPT. It is demonstrated that as the off-axis distance or the masked area increases, a TPT phenomenon in the focused optical field takes place, evolving from the spin-dependent vortex generation to the spin-Hall shift of the beam centroids. The intrinsic mechanism is attributed to the cylindrical symmetry-breaking of the system. This symmetry-breaking induced TPT based on the method of vortex mode decomposition is further examined. The main difference between the TPT phenomenon observed here and that trigged by oblique incidence at optical interfaces or oblique propagation in uniaxial crystals is also uncovered. Our findings provide fruitful insights for understanding the spin-orbit interactions in optics, providing an opportunity for unifying the TPT phenomena in various spin-orbit photonics systems.

Clinical outcomes of an olive wire and external fixator versus a metallic screw in the treatment of inferior tibiofibular syndesmosis injuries in ankle fractures.

BACKGROUND: Metal screws are the most widely used in treating syndesmotic injuries, but failure and the rigidity of the screws can threaten the success of the treatment and increase the cost of care. We have provided an alternative with an olive wire and external fixator(OWEF) used for syndesmotic fixation. METHODS: A retrospective longitudinal follow-up study was conducted. From February 2011 to January 2018, 58 of 72 patients with ankle fractures and associated syndesmotic disruption were treated with either screw or OWEF fixation. The costs, complications, and clinical outcomes using Olerud-Molander score and Visual Analog score in screw and OWEF fixation group were compared. RESULTS: We found the severity of the injury, BMI of the patients and the different fixation methods were determinants of the complications and clinical outcomes. But if no malreduction of the syndesmosis was present, no difference in clinical result was detected. CONCLUSION: The OWEF method appeared to be at least equally functional and effective to screw fixation while maintaining possible lower complication rate. LEVELS OF CLINICAL EVIDENCE: Level 3.

FMR1 CGG Repeats and Stress Influence Self-Reported Cognitive Functioning in Mothers.

Variation in the FMR1 gene may affect aspects of cognition, such as executive function and memory. Environmental factors, such as stress, may also negatively impact cognitive functioning. Participants included 1,053 mothers of children with and without developmental disabilities. Participants completed self-report measures of executive function, memory, and stress (i.e., life events, parenting status), and provided DNA to determine CGG repeat length (ranging from 7 to 192 CGGs). Stress exposure significantly predicted greater self-reported difficulties in executive function and the likelihood of memory problems. Cubic CGG effects independently predicted executive function and memory difficulties, suggesting effects of both genetic variation and environmental stress exposure on cognitive functioning.

Screening of quality markers and activity verification of Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma based on small molecule compound-protein interaction / 中国中药杂志

In order to solve the problem of weak correlation between quality control components and efficacy of Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma, this study detected the interaction between small molecular chemical components of Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma and total proteins of various organs of mice by fluorescence quenching method to screen potential active components. The 27 chemical components in Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma were detected by HPLC and their deletion rates in 34 batches of Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma were calculated. Combined with the principle of component effectiveness and measurability, the potential quality markers(Q-markers) of Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma were screened. RAW264.7 macrophage injury model was induced by microplastics. The cell viability and nitric oxide content were detected by CCK-8 and Griess methods. The levels of inflammatory factors(TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, CRP) and oxidative stress markers(SOD, MDA, GSH) were detected by the ELISA method to verify the activity of Q-markers. It was found that the interaction strength between different chemical components and organ proteins in Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma was different, reflecting different organ selectivity and 18 active components were screened out. Combined with the signal-to-noise ratio of the HPLC chromatographic peaks and between-run stability of the components, seven chemical components such as liquiritin apioside, liquiritin, isoliquiritin apioside, isoliquiritin, liquiritigenin, isoliquiritigenin and ammonium glycyrrhizinate were finally screened as potential Q-markers of Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma. In vitro experiments showed that Q-markers of Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma could dose-dependently alleviate RAW264.7 cell damage induced by microplastics, inhibit the secretion of inflammatory factors, and reduce oxidative stress. Under the same total dose, the combination of various chemical components could synergistically enhance anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects compared with the single use. This study identified Q-markers related to the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects of Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma, which can provide a reference for improving the quality control standards of Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma.

Toxicity attenuation processing technology and mechanism of Rhizoma Dioscoreae Bulbiferae stir-fried with Paeoniae Radix Alba decoction / 中国中药杂志

This study explored toxicity attenuation processing technology of Rhizoma Dioscoreae Bulbiferae stir-fried with Paeoniae Radix Alba decoction for the first time, and further explored its detoxification mechanism. Nine processed products of Rhizoma Dioscoreae Bulbiferae stir-fried with Paeoniae Radix Alba decoction were prepared by orthogonal experiment with three factors and three levels. Based on the decrease in the content of the main hepatotoxic component diosbulbin B before and after processing of Rhizoma Dioscoreae Bulbiferae by high-performance liquid chromatography, the toxicity attenuation technology was preliminarily screened out. On this basis, the raw and representative processed products of Rhizoma Dioscoreae Bulbiferae were given to mice by gavage with 2 g·kg~(-1)(equival to clinical equivalent dose) for 21 d. The serum and liver tissues were collected after the last administration for 24 h. The serum biochemical indexes reflecting liver function and liver histopathology were combined to further screen out and verify the proces-sing technology. Then, the lipid peroxidation and antioxidant indexes of liver tissue were detected by kit method, and the expressions of NADPH quinone oxidoreductase 1(NQO1) and glutamate-cysteine ligase(GCLM) in mice liver were detected by Western blot to further explore detoxification mechanism. The results showed that the processed products of Rhizoma Dioscoreae Bulbiferae stir-fried with Paeoniae Radix Alba decoction reduced the content of diosbulbin B and improved the liver injury induced by Rhizoma Dioscoreae Bul-biferae to varying degrees, and the processing technology of A_2B_2C_3 reduced the excessive levels of alanine transaminase(ALT) and aspartate transaminase(AST) induced by raw Rhizoma Dioscoreae Bulbiferae by 50.2% and 42.4%, respectively(P<0.01, P<0.01). The processed products of Rhizoma Dioscoreae Bulbiferae stir-fried with Paeoniae Radix Alba decoction reversed the decrease protein expression levels of NQO1 and GCLM in the liver of mice induced by raw Rhizoma Dioscoreae Bulbiferae to varying degrees(P<0.05 or P<0.01), and it also reversed the increasing level of malondialdehyde(MDA) and the decreasing levels of glutathione(GSH), glutathione peroxidase(GPX), and glutathione S-transferase(GST) in the liver of mice(P<0.05 or P<0.01). In summary, this study shows that the optimal toxicity attenuation processing technology of Rhizoma Dioscoreae Bulbiferae stir-fried with Paeoniae Radix Alba decoction is A_2B_2C_3, that is, 10% of Paeoniae Radix Alba decoction is used for moistening Rhizoma Dioscoreae Bulbiferae and processed at 130 ℃ for 11 min. The detoxification mechanism involves enhancing the expression levels of NQO1 and GCLM antio-xidant proteins and related antioxidant enzymes in the liver.

Application of partial least squares algorithm to explore bioactive components of crude and stir-baked hawthorn for invigorating spleen and promoting digestion / 中国中药杂志

This study was aimed at identifying the bioactive components of the crude and stir-baked hawthorn for invigorating spleen and promoting digestion, respectively, to clarify the processing mechanism of hawthorn by applying the partial least squares(PLS) algorithm to build the spectrum-effect relationship model. Firstly, different polar fractions of crude and stir-baked hawthorn aqueous extracts and combinations of different fractions were prepared, respectively. Then, the contents of 24 chemical components were determined by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The effects of different polar fractions of crude hawthorn and stir-baked hawthorn aqueous extracts and combinations of different fractions were evaluated by measuring the gastric emptying rate and small intestinal propulsion rate. Finally, the PLS algorithm was used to establish the spectrum-effect relationship model. The results showed that there were significant differences in the contents of 24 chemical components for different polar fractions of crude and stir-baked hawthorn aqueous extracts and combinations of different fractions, and the gastric emptying rate and small intestinal propulsion rate of model rats were improved by administration of different polar fractions of crude and stir-baked hawthorn aqueous extracts and combinations of different fractions. The bioactive components of crude hawthorn identified by PLS models were vitexin-4″-O-glucoside, vitexin-2″-O-rhamnoside, neochlorogenic acid, rutin, gallic acid, vanillic acid, citric acid, malic acid, quinic acid and fumaric acid, while neochlorogenic acid, cryptochlorogenic acid, rutin, gallic acid, vanillic acid, citric acid, quinic acid and fumaric acid were the bioactive components of stir-baked hawthorn. This study provided data support and scientific basis for identifying the bioactive components of crude and stir-baked hawthorn, and clarifying the processing mechanism of hawthorn.

Meta-analysis of Simotang Oral Liquid in treatment of functional dyspepsia in adults / 中国中药杂志

This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Simotang Oral Liquid in the treatment of functional dyspepsia in adults. "Simotang Oral Liquid" "Simotang" "Si Mo Tang" "Si Mo Tang Oral Liquid" were used for retrieval of the relevant papers from CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, SinoMed, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Springer Link, and Web of Science from database inception to June 2021. Randomized controlled trial(RCT) of Simotang Oral Liquid in the treatment of functional dyspepsia in adults was screened out for Meta-analysis which was conducted in RevMan 5.3. A total of 16 RCTs were included. Meta-analysis showed that compared with the control group, Simotang Oral Liquid increased the total response rate and lowered the traditional Chinese medicine syndrome scores, serum cholecystokinin(CCK), serum nitric oxide(NO), and incidence of adverse reactions. However, the serum substance P(SP) had no statistical difference between the two groups. Simotang Oral Liquid is effective and safe in the treatment of functional dyspepsia in adults. However, this study has evidence and limitations, so the conclusions need to be further verified by large sample and multicenter clinical studies.

Design and development of a novel infrared mild moxibustion device / 中国针灸

To make up for the shortcomings of traditional mild moxibustion, according to the principle and technical operation characteristics of traditional mild moxibustion, combined with temperature control technology, a novel infrared mild moxibustion device is developed, which is capable of real-time accurate temperature control. This novel infrares mild moxibustion device is composed of a host computer and an infrared radiation head. The host computer includes four modules: power supply, human-computer interaction interface, micro control unit (MCU) and drive circuit. The infrared radiation head mainly includes an infrared heater and a temperature sensor. This novel infrared mild moxibustion device is easy to operate. The electrothermal heating tablet can generate infrared radiation of 3 000-13 000 nm. After the temperature of the infrared heater is stabilized, the range of temperature change is ±0.50 ℃, realizing the goal of precise temperature control. In addition, it can operate moxibustion treatment at multiple acupoints at the same time, which is conducive to the dose-effect evaluation of mild moxibustion.

Study of prefrontal cortex activation characteristics of patients with psychiatric disorders in verbal fluency task using functional near-infrared spectroscopy / 四川精神卫生

BackgroundFunctional near-infrared spectroscopy （fNIRS） is a new generation of imaging tool that can be used to assist the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders. However， whether the patterns of prefrontal cortex activation observed by fNIRS are specific for different psychiatric disorders remains to be explored. ObjectiveTo investigate the characteristics of prefrontal cortex activation in patients with depression， anxiety disorder， bipolar disorder and schizophrenia in verbal fluency task （VFT） using fNIRS. MethodsFrom September to December 2021， 39 patients with schizophrenia， 205 patients with depressive disorder， 212 patients with anxiety disorder and 77 patients with bipolar disorder meeting the diagnostic criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders， fifth edition （DSM-5） were recruited in the outpatient and inpatient department of West China Hospital， Sichuan University. fNIRS was used to monitor the prefrontal cortex hemodynamic changes of patients under VFT， and the clinical symptoms of patients were assessed by Symptom Checklist 90 （SCL-90） and Hypomania Checklist-32 items（HCL-32）. Differences in mean oxyhemoglobin （HbO2） concentration and the initial slope from 2 to 7 second during VFT were compared among patients with different diseases， and the correlation between mean HbO2 concentration/initial slope and clinical symptoms was analyzed by partial correlation analysis. ResultsThe concentration of HbO2 in channel 4 （Z=2.828， P=0.028） and channel 6 （Z=2.912， P=0.022） in patients with depression were significantly higher than those in patients with schizophrenia. Patients with anxiety had significantly higher changes in mean HbO2 concentration in channel 4 （Z=3.154， P=0.010）， channel 5 （Z=3.021， P=0.015）， channel 6 （Z=2.980， P=0.017） and of all channels （Z=2.881， P=0.024） than those of schizophrenia patients. There was a statistically significant difference in the initial slope of channel 3 between patients with depressive disorder and those with bipolar disorder （Z=2.691， P=0.039）. Among patients with bipolar disorder， the anger-hostility scores of SCL-90 were negatively correlated with the mean HbO2 concentration changes in channel 4 （r=-0.505， P=0.004）， channel 6 （r=-0.390， P=0.004）， channel 15 （r=-0.546， P=0.002）， channel 16 （r=-0.550， P=0.002） and the mean HbO2 concentration changes of all channels （r=-0.491， P=0.006）. ConclusionPatients with schizophrenia had lower activation in frontopolar and orbitofrontal region than patients with depression and anxiety disorder， and the initial slope of the right frontopolar， inferior frontal and orbitofrontal region in patients with depression is higher than patients with bipolar disorder. In addition， patients with bipolar disorder had less activation in the frontopolar and orbitofrontal lobe， the insular cover of Broca's area and the upper outer frontal cortex， and were more irritable and hostile. ［Funded by 1·3·5 Project for Disciplines of Excellence-Clinical Research Incubation Project， West China Hospital， Sichuan University （number， ZYJC21083）］

Three cases of occupational acute trimethyltin chloride poisoning / 中华劳动卫生职业病杂志

Trimethyltin chloride is a highly toxic substance, which is absorbed through respiratory tract, skin and digestive tract, with central nervous system injury as the main clinical manifestations, and can be accompanied by damage to various organs. In this paper, the treatment process of 3 patients with acute trimethyltin chloride poisoning was reviewed, and their clinical manifestations, auxiliary examination, diagnosis and treatment were analyzed. Three patients were misdiagnosed as mental abnormality, encephalitis, and hepatic encephalopathy in different hospitals in the early stage of medical treatment, suggesting that clinicians should pay attention to the occupational contact history of poisoned patients and conduct toxicant detection in time to avoid misdiagnosis and mistreatment.

Cross-sectional study on the use of masks among occupational groups with high-risk positions for overseas import and pollution transmission / 中华劳动卫生职业病杂志

Objective: To investigate the wearing of masks and the knowledge of masks among high-risk positions for overseas import and pollution transmission. Methods: From May 14 to 17, 2022, a convenient sampling method was used to conduct an online survey among 963 workers in high-risk positions for overseas import and pollution transmission in Beijing. The behaviors of individual use and wearing masks, the distribution and supervision of the unit, the knowledge of personal mask protection and the subjective feelings of wearing masks were analyzed. The χ(2) test and logistic regression model were used to analyze the influencing factors of the correct selection of masks. Results: The majority of the workers in high-risk positions for overseas import and pollution transmission were male (86.0%, 828/963), age concentration in 18-44 years old (68.2%, 657/963), and the majority of them had college or bachelor degrees (49.4%, 476/963). 79.4%(765/963) of the workers chose the right type of masks, female, 45-59 years old and high school education or above were the risk factors for correct selection of masks (P <0.05). Workers had good behaviors such as wearing/removing masks, but only 10.5% (101/963) could correctly rank the protective effect of different masks. 98.4% (948/963) of the workers believed that their work units had provided masks to their employees, and 99.1% (954/963) and 98.2%(946/963) of them had organized training and supervision on the use of masks, respectively. 47.4%(456/963) of the workers were uncomfortable while wearing masks. Conclusion: The overall selection and use of masks among occupational groups in high-risk positions for overseas import and pollution transmission in China need to be further standardized. It is necessary to strengthen supervision and inspection on the use of masks among occupational groups, and take improvement measures to improve the comfort of wearing masks.

Contamination of common food-borne pathogens in foods sold in Changzhou / 公共卫生与预防医学

Objective To understand the contamination status of common food-borne pathogens in foods sold in Changzhou, and to provide evidence for food safety risk assessment and prevention of food-borne diseases. Methods From 2010 to 2020 , 2 513 samples of 17 types of foods were collected in Changzhou area. The detection of pathogenic bacteria was carried out in accordance with the standard operation procedure specified in the “Workbook for Surveillance on Food Microorganisms and Pathogenic Factors in Jiangsu Province”. Results A total of 260 positive samples of common food-borne pathogens were detected in all 2 513 samples with an overall detection rate of 10.30%. Single factor analysis showed that the detection rate of pathogenic bacteria in non-ready-to-eat samples was higher than that in ready-to-eat samples (χ2=148.875，P =0.000). The detection rate of pathogenic bacteria in bulk samples was higher than that in prepackaged ones (χ2=70.956，P=0.000). There is a difference in the detection rate of food-borne pathogens from different types of sampling sites (χ2=65.017，P=0.000). Logistic regression analysis showed that ready-to-eat food, packaging type, and sampling season were significantly correlated with the detection rate of food-borne pathogens. The detection rate of pathogenic bacteria in samples collected in the third or fourth quarters was higher than that in the first quarter. Conclusion The commercial foods sold in Changzhou have a relatively high level of contamination of food-borne pathogenic bacteria, and they should be fully heated and sterilized before consumption. The relevant departments should strengthen supervision and health education in summer and autumn.

The chemical reprogramming of unipotent adult germ cells towards authentic pluripotency and de novo establishment of imprinting

Although somatic cells can be reprogrammed to pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) with pure chemicals, authentic pluripotency of chemically induced pluripotent stem cells (CiPSCs) has never been achieved through tetraploid complementation assay. Spontaneous reprogramming of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) was another non-transgenic way to obtain PSCs, but this process lacks mechanistic explanation. Here, we reconstructed the trajectory of mouse SSC reprogramming and developed a five-chemical combination, boosting the reprogramming efficiency by nearly 80- to 100-folds. More importantly, chemical induced germline-derived PSCs (5C-gPSCs), but not gPSCs and chemical induced pluripotent stem cells, had authentic pluripotency, as determined by tetraploid complementation. Mechanistically, SSCs traversed through an inverted pathway of in vivo germ cell development, exhibiting the expression signatures and DNA methylation dynamics from spermatogonia to primordial germ cells and further to epiblasts. Besides, SSC-specific imprinting control regions switched from biallelic methylated states to monoallelic methylated states by imprinting demethylation and then re-methylation on one of the two alleles in 5C-gPSCs, which was apparently distinct with the imprinting reprogramming in vivo as DNA methylation simultaneously occurred on both alleles. Our work sheds light on the unique regulatory network underpinning SSC reprogramming, providing insights to understand generic mechanisms for cell-fate decision and epigenetic-related disorders in regenerative medicine.