Plant polysaccharide-derived edible film packaging for instant food: Rapid dissolution in hot water coupled with exceptional mechanical and barrier characteristics.

A comprehensive multiscale analysis was conducted to explore the effects of different ratios of these materials on its properties. The results show that KC played a crucial role in controlling solution viscosity and gel and sol temperatures. The dissolution time at high water temperatures primarily decreased with an increase in SA content. Higher KC and CS content increased tensile strength (TS) and elongation at break (ε), while also exhibiting better thermal stability. Water vapor transmission (WVT) and permeability (PV) initially decreased, then increased with the increase of SA and CS contents. Finally, an SA:KC:CS ratio of 1:3:2 showed optimal comprehensive properties, with a dissolution time of about 60.0 ± 3.8 s, TS of 23.80 ± 0.29 MPa, ε of 18.61 ± 0.34 %, WVT of 21.74 ± 0.62 g/m2·24h, and PV of 5.39 ± 0.17 meq/kg. Meanwhile, the SA:KC:CS edible food packaging only introduced minimal effects on food after dissolution, and the total bacterial count met regulatory standards.

F18:A-:B1 Plasmids Carrying blaCTX-M-55 Are Prevalent among Escherichia coli Isolated from Duck-Fish Polyculture Farms.

We determined the prevalence and molecular characteristics of blaCTX-M-55-positive Escherichia coli (E. coli) isolated from duck-fish polyculture farms in Guangzhou, China. A total of 914 E. coli strains were isolated from 2008 duck and environmental samples (water, soil and plants) collected from four duck fish polyculture farms between 2017 and 2019. Among them, 196 strains were CTX-M-1G-positive strains by PCR, and 177 (90%) blaCTX-M-1G-producing strains were blaCTX-M-55-positive. MIC results showed that the 177 blaCTX-M-55-positive strains were highly resistant to ciprofloxacin, ceftiofur and florfenicol, with antibiotic resistance rates above 95%. Among the 177 strains, 37 strains carrying the F18:A-:B1 plasmid and 10 strains carrying the F33:A-:B- plasmid were selected for further study. Pulse field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) combined with S1-PFGE, Southern hybridization and whole-genome sequencing (WGS) analysis showed that both horizontal transfer and clonal spread contributed to dissemination of the blaCTX-M-55 gene among the E. coli. blaCTX-M-55 was located on different F18:A-:B1 plasmids with sizes between ~76 and ~173 kb. In addition, the presence of blaCTX-M-55 with other resistance genes (e.g., tetA, floR, fosA3, blaTEM, aadA5 CmlA and InuF) on the same F18:A-:B1 plasmid may result in co-selection of resistance determinants and accelerate the dissemination of blaCTX-M-55 in E. coli. In summary, the F18:A-:B1 plasmid may play an important role in the transmission of blaCTX-M-55 in E. coli, and the continuous monitoring of the prevalence and transmission mechanism of blaCTX-M-55 in duck-fish polyculture farms remains important.

Antimicrobial resistome during the transition from an integrated to a monoculture aquaculture farm in southern China.

Integrated and monoculture freshwater aquaculture systems are often regarded as important reservoirs for antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) and antimicrobial resistance bacteria (ARBs), yet only a few studies have assessed differences in the antimicrobial resistome and antibiotic residues between aquaculture modes. In this study, a metagenomic approach was used to comprehensively explore the dynamic patterns and potential transmission mechanisms of ARGs in ducks, human workers, fish, water and sediments during the transition from an integrated to a monoculture freshwater aquaculture mode and to investigate the associations of ARGs with potential hosts in microbial communities using network analysis and a binning approach. The results showed that the abundance and diversity of ARGs were higher under integrated fish-duck farming than in single fish ponds. During the transition from an integrated to a monoculture aquaculture farm, ARGs in workers and sediments were not easily removed. However, ARGs in the aquatic environment underwent regular changes. In addition, duck manure was probably the most dominant source of ARGs in the duck farm environment. Network analysis indicated that Escherichia spp. were the most dominant hosts of ARGs. Variation partitioning analysis (VPA) showed that in water samples, the bacterial community played an important role in the ARG profile. In addition, we identified a potential risk of the presence of highly virulent and antimicrobial-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae in workers. These results help assess the risk of ARG transmission in integrated and monoculture aquaculture farms and suggest that we should strengthen the monitoring of long-term resistance in integrated aquaculture environments.

Crosstalk between PML and p53 in response to TGF-ß1: A new mechanism of cardiac fibroblast activation.

Cardiac fibrosis is a common pathological cardiac remodeling in a variety of heart diseases, characterized by the activation of cardiac fibroblasts. Our previous study uncovered that promyelocytic leukemia protein (PML)-associated SUMO processes is a new regulator of cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. The present study aimed to explore the role of PML in cardiac fibroblasts activation. Here we found that PML is significantly upregulated in cardiac fibrotic tissue and activated cardiac fibroblasts treated with transforming growth factor-ß1 (TGF-ß1). Gain- and loss-of-function experiments showed that PML impacted cardiac fibroblasts activation after TGF-ß1 treatment. Further study demonstrated that p53 acts as the transcriptional regulator of PML, and participated in TGF-ß1 induced the increase of PML expression and PML nuclear bodies (PML-NBs) formation. Knockdown or pharmacological inhibition of p53 produced inhibitory effects on the activation of cardiac fibroblasts. We further found that PML also may stabilize p53 through inhibiting its ubiquitin-mediated proteasomal degradation in cardiac fibroblasts. Collectively, this study suggests that PML crosstalk with p53 regulates cardiac fibroblasts activation, which provides a novel therapeutic strategy for cardiac fibrosis.

Garcinia Biflavonoid 1 Improves Lipid Metabolism in HepG2 Cells via Regulating PPARα.

Garcinia biflavonoid 1 (GB1) is one of the active chemical components of Garcinia kola and is reported to be capable of reducing the intracellular lipid deposition, which is the most significant characteristic of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. However, its bioactive mechanism remains elusive. In the current study, the lipid deposition was induced in HepG2 cells by exposure to oleic acid and palmitic acid (OA&PA), then the effect of GB1 on lipid metabolism and oxidative stress and the role of regulating PPARα in these cells was investigated. We found that GB1 could ameliorate the lipid deposition by reducing triglycerides (TGs) and upregulate the expression of PPARα and SIRT6, suppressing the cell apoptosis by reducing the oxidative stress and the inflammatory factors of ROS, IL10, and TNFα. The mechanism study showed that GB1 had bioactivity in a PPARα-dependent manner based on its failing to improve the lipid deposition and oxidative stress in PPARα-deficient cells. The result revealed that GB1 had significant bioactivity on improving the lipid metabolism, and its potential primary action mechanism suggested that GB1 could be a potential candidate for management of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Real-time artificial intelligence for detection of upper gastrointestinal cancer by endoscopy: a multicentre, case-control, diagnostic study.

BACKGROUND: Upper gastrointestinal cancers (including oesophageal cancer and gastric cancer) are the most common cancers worldwide. Artificial intelligence platforms using deep learning algorithms have made remarkable progress in medical imaging but their application in upper gastrointestinal cancers has been limited. We aimed to develop and validate the Gastrointestinal Artificial Intelligence Diagnostic System (GRAIDS) for the diagnosis of upper gastrointestinal cancers through analysis of imaging data from clinical endoscopies. METHODS: This multicentre, case-control, diagnostic study was done in six hospitals of different tiers (ie, municipal, provincial, and national) in China. The images of consecutive participants, aged 18 years or older, who had not had a previous endoscopy were retrieved from all participating hospitals. All patients with upper gastrointestinal cancer lesions (including oesophageal cancer and gastric cancer) that were histologically proven malignancies were eligible for this study. Only images with standard white light were deemed eligible. The images from Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center were randomly assigned (8:1:1) to the training and intrinsic verification datasets for developing GRAIDS, and the internal validation dataset for evaluating the performance of GRAIDS. Its diagnostic performance was evaluated using an internal and prospective validation set from Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (a national hospital) and additional external validation sets from five primary care hospitals. The performance of GRAIDS was also compared with endoscopists with three degrees of expertise: expert, competent, and trainee. The diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of GRAIDS and endoscopists for the identification of cancerous lesions were evaluated by calculating the 95% CIs using the Clopper-Pearson method. FINDINGS: 1 036 496 endoscopy images from 84 424 individuals were used to develop and test GRAIDS. The diagnostic accuracy in identifying upper gastrointestinal cancers was 0·955 (95% CI 0·952-0·957) in the internal validation set, 0·927 (0·925-0·929) in the prospective set, and ranged from 0·915 (0·913-0·917) to 0·977 (0·977-0·978) in the five external validation sets. GRAIDS achieved diagnostic sensitivity similar to that of the expert endoscopist (0·942 [95% CI 0·924-0·957] vs 0·945 [0·927-0·959]; p=0·692) and superior sensitivity compared with competent (0·858 [0·832-0·880], p<0·0001) and trainee (0·722 [0·691-0·752], p<0·0001) endoscopists. The positive predictive value was 0·814 (95% CI 0·788-0·838) for GRAIDS, 0·932 (0·913-0·948) for the expert endoscopist, 0·974 (0·960-0·984) for the competent endoscopist, and 0·824 (0·795-0·850) for the trainee endoscopist. The negative predictive value was 0·978 (95% CI 0·971-0·984) for GRAIDS, 0·980 (0·974-0·985) for the expert endoscopist, 0·951 (0·942-0·959) for the competent endoscopist, and 0·904 (0·893-0·916) for the trainee endoscopist. INTERPRETATION: GRAIDS achieved high diagnostic accuracy in detecting upper gastrointestinal cancers, with sensitivity similar to that of expert endoscopists and was superior to that of non-expert endoscopists. This system could assist community-based hospitals in improving their effectiveness in upper gastrointestinal cancer diagnoses. FUNDING: The National Key R&D Program of China, the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, the Science and Technology Program of Guangdong, the Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

[Effects of Plastic Film Mulching Patterns and Irrigation on Yield of Summer Maize and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Intensity of Field].

In order to evaluate the effect of different treatments on yield and greenhouse gas emissions during the summer maize growing season, a two-year film mulching experiment was conducted in 2014 and 2015. In this experiment, the two main experimental factors were rainfed treatment (R) and irrigated treatment (I), and the secondary experimental factors included control treatment (CK), half film mulching treatment (HM), and full film mulching treatment (FM). The emissions of soil greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, and N2O) were monitored using a static opaque chamber and chromatography method. Moreover, the greenhouse gas emissions intensity (GHGI) was used to evaluate the effect of carbon sequestration in different treatments. The results of this study showed that the yields of the RHM and RFM treatments did not differ significantly in 2014, but increased by 19.6% and 26.8%, respectively, in 2015 compared with that of RCK. The yield of IHM was not improved, and that of IFM significantly increased by 14.1% and 55.8% in 2014 and 2015, respectively, compared with that of ICK. The irrigated treatments only promoted CO2 emissions in 2015 (P<0.01), and all film mulching treatments (regardless of HM and FM treatments) had no effect on CO2 emissions under rainfed and irrigated conditions (P>0.05). Irrigated treatments had no effect on the absorption of CH4 (P>0.05), whereas the film mulching treatments had an inhibitory effect. Compared with values of RCK, the amount of seasonal N2O emissions for ICK showed a significant difference in 2015 with a decrease of 22.3%. Compared with values of RCK, the amounts of N2O emissions for RHM and RFM had no significant differences in 2014, but significantly decreased by 50.7% and 51.4% in 2015, respectively. Compared with ICK, IHM and IFM significantly decreased the amounts of N2O emissions by 47.5% and 54.2% in 2014, and by 9.6% and 52.2% in 2015, respectively. The GHGIs of RHM and RFM were significantly reduced by 60.1% and 61.7% in 2015, respectively, compared with values of RCK, and the GHGIs of IHM and IFM were significantly reduced by 39.7% and 53.2% in 2014, and reduced by 22.2% and 67.5% in 2015, respectively, compared with that of ICK. This means that the effect of FM on reducing GHGI was better than that of HM. It was also found that the significantly reduced GHGI in irrigated treatments may be attributed to the increased yields. Therefore, FM under irrigation conditions was recommended for summer maize for stabilizing the yield and reducing the GHGI.

[Influences of different irrigation amounts on carbon sequestration in wheat-maize rotation system]. / 不同灌溉量对小麦-玉米轮作农田生态系统净碳汇的影响.

Irrigation can influence greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and carbon footprint in agricultural production. In this study, annual GHG emissions (including CO2, CH4, and N2O) were monitored with static opaque chamber and gas chromatography from a wheat-maize rotation system under different irrigation treatments in the Guanzhong Plain of China during 2014-2015. A total of four different irrigation treatments were conducted, e.g. W0, W120, W180, and W240, where the subscripts represented the irrigation amounts in mm. Net global warming potential (NGWP) and carbon footprint were used to evaluate the influence of different irrigation amounts on GHG emission and composition of carbon footprint of crop production. Compared with treatment W0, wheat yield of treatments W120, W180, and W240 increased by 31.3%, 44.3% and 33.7%, while corn yield increased by 9.9%, 22.6%, and 33.8%, respectively. Similarly, annual CO2 emission increased by 22.2%, 24.3% and 15.1% and annual N2O emission by 18.6%, 67.8%, and 91.5%, respectively, while annual CH4 absorption decreased by 51.7%, 79.6% and 97.8%, respectively. The values of NGWP increased by 20.1%, 31.6%, and 31.4%, respectively. The carbon footprint of treatment W120 was 19.1% lower than that of W0, while W180 and W240 showed no significant difference. Treatments W120 and W240 increased carbon footprint per unit crop yield by 44.5% and 23.3%, respectively, while W180 showed no significant difference. Considering both the economic and environmental effects of different irrigation amounts, we recommend the irrigating amount of 180 mm for the wheat-maize rotation system in the Guanzhong Plain of China for the purposes of water saving and carbon sequestration.

[Hereditary tendency of varicocele].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the hereditary tendency of varicocele. METHODS: We included in this study 112 varicocele patients, 117 direct male relatives of the patients, and 100 healthy men as controls. We compared the incidence of varicocele tween the direct relative group and the control group. RESULTS: The direct male relatives of the varicocele patients had a significantly higher incidence of varicocele than the healthy controls (36.8% vs 17%, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The increased incidence of varicocele in the direct male relatives of the patients indicated a hereditary tendency of the disease.

[Relationship of body mass index with cancer detection in prostate biopsy].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship of body mass index with cancer detection on prostate biopsy. METHODS: A total of 168 patients undergoing a prostate biopsy were divided into obese and non-obese groups by BMI ≥ 25 or < 25. Then the differences of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level, prostate volume, prostate cancer detection rate and pathology result between two groups. RESULTS: The obese group had a higher rate of cancer detection than the non-obese group [67.1% (51/76) vs 48.9% (45/92), P < 0.05]. Logistics regression analysis showed that BMI ≥ 25 had a positive correlation with cancer detection on biopsy. CONCLUSION: Body mass index can raise the risk of prostate cancer on biopsy.

[Serum osteoprotegerin as a novel marker of bone metastasis in prostate cancer].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the diagnostic usefulness of serum osteoprotegerin (OPG) in prostate cancer bone metastasis. METHODS: Serum osteoprotegerin were measured by ELISA assay in 30 healthy men, 30 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia, 66 patients with prostate cancer including 36 without bone metastasis (30 with localized cancer, 6 with lymph node metastasis) and 30 with bone metastasis. The results associated with clinical data were calculated statistically. RESULTS: Serum osteoprotegerin were significantly increased in patients with bone metastasis compared with others (P<0.001). OPG level had a positive correlation with either prostate specific antigen (PSA) or Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) level (r=0.427, 0.277; P<0.001); and a positive correlation with either Gleason score or grade (r=0.427, 0.277; P<0.001). ROC analysis proved that OPG had better diagnostic accuracy than ALP for detecting bone metastasis in prostate cancer. CONCLUSION: Serum osteoprotegerin could be used as a marker for diagnosis of bone metastasis in prostate cancer.