Comparative Genomic Analysis of PEBP Genes in Cucurbits Explores the Interactors of Cucumber CsPEBPs Related to Flowering Time.

The family of phosphatidylethanolamine-binding proteins (PEBPs) participates in various plant biological processes, mainly flowering regulation and seed germination. In cucurbit crops, several PEBP genes have been recognized to be responsible for flowering time. However, the investigation of PEBP family members across the genomes of cucurbit species has not been reported, and their conservation and divergence in structure and function remain largely unclear. Herein, PEBP genes were identified from seven cucurbit crops and were used to perform a comparative genomics analysis. The cucurbit PEBP proteins could be classified into MFT, FT, TFL, and PEBP clades, and further, the TFL clade was divided into BFT-like, CEN-like, and TFL1-like subclades. The MFT-like, FT-like, and TFL-like proteins were clearly distinguished by a critical amino acid residue at the 85th position of the Arabidopsis FT protein. In gene expression analysis, CsaPEBP1 was highly expressed in flowers, and its expression levels in females and males were 70.5 and 89.2 times higher, respectively, than those in leaves. CsaPEBP5, CsaPEBP6, and CsaPEBP7 were specifically expressed in male flowers, with expression levels 58.1, 17.3, and 15.7 times higher, respectively, than those of leaves. At least five CsaPEBP genes exhibited the highest expression during the later stages of corolla opening. Through clustering of time-series-based RNA-seq data, several potential transcription factors (TFs) interacting with four CsaPEBPs were identified during cucumber corolla opening. Because of the tandem repeats of binding sites in promoters, NF-YB (Csa4G037610) and GATA (Csa7G64580) TFs appeared to be better able to regulate the CsaPEBP2 and CsaPEBP5 genes, respectively. This study would provide helpful information for further investigating the roles of PEBP genes and their interacting TFs in growth and development processes, such as flowering time regulation in cucurbit crops.

Proximal vs. Total Gastrectomy: Is There a Difference in Quality of Life for Patients?

BACKGROUND: Proximal gastrectomy (PG) has been excluded from the arsenal of western surgical oncologists for fear of bile reflux and diet intolerance. However, it is often an appropriate, less morbid operation for patients requiring resection of a proximal gastric cancer. METHODS: Between 2013 and 2017, we performed 19 PG and 37 total gastrectomies (TGs), of whom 15 and 25 were alive at the time of data collection. In this single-center series, we present findings of a 10-question interview of patients who underwent proximal (n = 8) or TG (n = 16) regarding postgastrectomy food-related symptoms, based on a modified version of the validated Postgastrectomy Syndrome Assessment Scale. RESULTS: Out of 7 Likert scale questions, there were no statistically significant differences between the groups regarding bile reflux, early satiety, appetite, energy level, physical activity limitations, pain, or general dissatisfaction with their surgery. Patients from both groups reported eating similar amounts of their preoperative volume per meal and overall food volume for the day. Both groups reported eating a similar number of snacks and meals throughout the day. Food satisfaction scores, calculated by summation of the Likert scores, were not different. CONCLUSION: Although limited by the small population, we did not find a clinically relevant difference in food-related symptoms comparing PG and TG patients. This pilot study suggests that PG is an appropriate alternative to TG in certain populations. Anecdotal beliefs regarding potential bile reflux or diet intolerance should be reconsidered.

Named Entity Recognition of Medical Text Based on the Deep Neural Network.

Medical text data records detailed clinical data; named entity recognition is the basis of text information processing and an important part of mining valuable information in medical texts. The named entity recognition technology can accurately identify the information needed in medical texts and help medical staff make clinical decision-making, evidence-based medicine, and epidemic disease monitoring. This paper proposes a hybrid neural network medical text named entity recognition model. First, a coding method based on a fully self-attentive mechanism is proposed. The vector representation of each word is related to the entire sentence through the attention mechanism. It determines the weight distribution by scoring the characters or words in all positions and obtains the position information in the sentence that needs the most attention. The encoding vector at each position is integrated with the context information of full sentence, which solves the ambiguity problem. Second, a multivariate convolutional decoding method is proposed. This method can effectively pay attention to the characteristics of medical text named entity recognition in the decoding process. It uses two-dimensional convolutional decoding to associate the current position word with surrounding words to improve decoding efficiency while extracting features from the logic of the preceding and following words. Using the same number of convolution kernels as the entity category, it can effectively extract effective features from the label dimension. Besides, according to the characteristics of the named entity recognition task, a special mixed loss is designed. The experimental results verify that the proposed method is effective, and it is improved compared with some existing medical text named entity recognition methods.

Change of dominant phytoplankton groups in the eutrophic coastal sea due to atmospheric deposition.

Nutrient stoichiometry and input of trace metals may profoundly affect the growth and community structure of phytoplankton. A bioassay experiment was designed to explore the key components in atmospheric deposition that affect marine phytoplankton growth by adding aerosols and analogues nutrients and Cu to the surface water of the coastal East China Sea (ECS). Our results showed that atmospheric deposition along with the input of phosphate could largely enhance the chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentrations in this eutrophic water. Phosphorus addition lifted the proportions of T. oceanica in Diatoms and B. brevisulcata in Dinoflagellates. T. oceanica replaced S. costatum and became the dominant diatom species after the Chl a peak, probably associated with the N/P ratio approaching to 16. Atmospheric aerosols containing affluent N and little P showed limited promotion to Chl a, and the positive effect was very likely due to the soluble Cu and other trace metals supplied by the aerosol. Moreover, soluble aerosol Cu was found to be conducive to the relative abundance of most dominant class Coscinodiscophyceae, and both soluble aerosol Fe and Cu seemed to be very important for increasing the proportion of S. costatum. Soluble metals could be the key components in aerosols controlling the phytoplankton composition in the eutrophic sea and such impact might exceed affluent P provided by other exogenous sources.

The influence of terrestrial transport on visibility and aerosol properties over the coastal East China Sea.

Air pollutants from East Asia continent can affect the physio-chemical and optical properties of marine aerosols under seasonal winds. We investigated the change of visibility and haze frequency from 1974 to 2017 over the coastal East China Sea (ECS), and reconstructed the light extinction coefficients according to the chemical compositions of PM2.5 samples collected at Huaniao Island in the ECS. The annual average visibility significantly decreased from over 25 km in the early 1970s to <18 km in recent 4 years. The occurrence of daily maximum haze frequency was approximately 3-h later with respect to land sites, which could be explained by the diffusion of air pollutants from nearby cities (haze peak around rush hour) to the coastal ECS as well as the formation of secondary aerosols enhanced by photochemical reactions around noon at the condition of affluent gaseous precursors. Meanwhile, anthropogenic chloride transported from the land could increase the concentration of Cl- in marine aerosol, which may weaken the Cl- depletion phenomenon over coastal ECS and even induced considerable Cl- enrichment during the severe haze event in Jan. 2013. The largest contributor to the light extinction was (NH4)2SO4 followed by NH4NO3 and OM in almost all seasons. Especially in winter and spring, (NH4)2SO4 accounted for 45% and 52% of total light extinction, respectively. The estimated bext was lower than the monitored values, suggesting that the contribution of some aerosol components (e.g. NH4Cl and large mode components) might be underestimated. Further study on the combination of observation and estimation of specific aerosol contribution to the visibility impairment are needed.

Iridoid glycoside permethylation enhances chromatographic separation and chemical ionization.

RATIONALE: While natural products isolated from medicinal plants can serve as a rich source of biologically active metabolites, mixtures of structurally related compounds of a polar nature are often difficult to chemically resolve by traditional separation techniques. Chemical derivatization to reduce metabolite polarity combined with liquid chromatography (LC) is the strategy presented here to resolve a mixture of structurally related natural product glycosides solvent extracted from the medicinal herb Teucrium polium for mass spectrometric characterization. METHODS: The partially purified plant extract was subjected to chemical derivatization and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) fragmentation pattern analysis allowed for structural characterization of iridoid and secoiridoid glycosides. Selected ions were subjected to tandem mass spectrometric (MS/MS) analysis with a relatively higher-energy collision dissociation to assist in structural elucidation. RESULTS: Permethylation replaced all protons from free hydroxyl and amino groups with methyls and resulted in increases in both hydrophobicity, for facilitated chromatographic separation, and proton affinity, for enhanced chemical ionization. Protonated and/or sodiated adducts were observed for the six compounds detected in positive-ion mode ESI-MS with a mass accuracy of less than 2 ppm. CONCLUSIONS: Permethylation combined with LC/MS analysis is shown here to be an effective chemical practice for separating and characterizing iridoid glucosinolates and is expected to be well suited for the chemical characterization of other polar natural-product mixtures of closely related compounds. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Effect of Chronic Methamphetamine Exposure on the Hippocampal and Olfactory Bulb Neuroproteomes of Rats.

Nowadays, drug abuse and addiction are serious public health problems in the USA. Methamphetamine (METH) is one of the most abused drugs and is known to cause brain damage after repeated exposure. In this paper, we conducted a neuroproteomic study to evaluate METH-induced brain protein dynamics, following a two-week chronic regimen of an escalating dose of METH exposure. Proteins were extracted from rat brain hippocampal and olfactory bulb tissues and subjected to liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis. Both shotgun and targeted proteomic analysis were performed. Protein quantification was initially based on comparing the spectral counts between METH exposed animals and their control counterparts. Quantitative differences were further confirmed through multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) LC-MS/MS experiments. According to the quantitative results, the expression of 18 proteins (11 in the hippocampus and 7 in the olfactory bulb) underwent a significant alteration as a result of exposing rats to METH. 13 of these proteins were up-regulated after METH exposure while 5 were down-regulated. The altered proteins belonging to different structural and functional families were involved in processes such as cell death, inflammation, oxidation, and apoptosis.

Teucrium polium phenylethanol and iridoid glycoside characterization and flavonoid inhibition of biofilm-forming Staphylococcus aureus.

The chemical composition and biofilm regulation of 15 metabolites from Teucrium polium are reported. Compounds were isolated from a CH2Cl2-MeOH extract of the aerial parts of the plant and included iridoid and phenylethanol glycosides and a monoterpenoid, together with nine known compounds. The structures were elucidated based on standard spectroscopic (UV, (1)H and (13)C NMR), 2D NMR ((1)H-(1)H COSY, HMQC, HMBC, and NOESY), and/or LC-ESIMS/MS data analyses. Inhibition of the biofilm-forming strain Staphylococcus aureus was observed with exposure to compounds 7 and 8.

[Clinical features of a Chinese infant with inborn error of bile acid metabolism-3ß-hydroxy-Δ(5)-C27-steroid dehydrogenase deficiency and review of the literature].

OBJECTIVE: To study the clinical features of children with 3ß-hydroxy-Δ(5)-C27-steroid dehydrogenase deficiency and review the literature. METHOD: Clinical features and treatment of one Chinese infant with 3ß-hydroxy-Δ(5)-C27-steroid dehydrogenase deficiency confirmed by HSD3B7 gene mutation analysis were retrospectively reviewed, and 51 cases of 3ß-hydroxy-Δ(5)-C27-steroid dehydrogenase deficiency who were internationally reported since 2000 were also reviewed in this paper. RESULT: (1) A 3-month-old infant with neonatal cholestasis was admitted to our hospital because of hyperbilirubinemia and abnormal liver dysfunction (total bilirubin 110.7 µmol/L, direct bilirubin 74.5 µmol/L, γ-glutamyltransferase 24.4 IU/L, total bile acid 0.1 µmol/L).His jaundice disappeared within a few weeks, serum liver biochemistries improved and his growth in weight and height was excellent after oral cholic acid therapy.HSD3B7 gene analysis using peripheral lymphocyte genomic DNA from the patient identified compound heterozygous mutations. This child was confirmed as the most common inborn error of bile acid metabolism-3ß-hydroxy-Δ(5)-C27-steroid dehydrogenase deficiency by molecular analysis.(2) Retrospective review of the literature showed that the clinical features of 3ß-hydroxy-Δ(5)-C27-steroid dehydrogenase deficiency included neonatal cholestasis, some patients progressed to severe liver disease and needed liver transplantation without effective therapy; however, serum biochemical characteristics of normal γ-glutamyltransferase activity, normal or low total bile acid concentrations were not consistent with cholestasis, the replacement treatment with cholic acid produced a dramatic improvements in symptoms, biochemical markers of liver injury; 31 cases were diagnosed by HSD3B7 gene mutation analysis. CONCLUSION: The clinical characteristics of 3ß-hydroxy-Δ(5)-C27-steroid dehydrogenase deficiency include neonatal cholestasis, normal serum γ-glutamyltransferase activity, and normal or low serum total bile acid concentration.Oral cholic acid replacement is an effective therapy; definitive diagnosis of 3ß-hydroxy-Δ(5)-C27-steroid dehydrogenase deficiency can be identified by molecular genetic testing technology.

[Clinical analysis of children with severe hand-foot-and-mouth disease in Shanghai].

OBJECTIVE: To retrospectively analyzed the clinical features and epidemiology of children with severe hand-foot-and-mouth disease during 2009 and 2010 in Shanghai to investigate some risk factors with fatal cases. METHOD: All the clinical records and laboratory results of serious patients were collected. A retrospective study was performed. RESULT: A total of 748 serious patients were enrolled into this study, and the ratio of male to female was about 1.7:1; 724 patients were categorized into stage 2 with 254 patients in 2009 and 470 in 2010; 24 patients were categorized into stage 3 with 17 in 2009 and 7 in 2010. The rate of severity in 2010 (1.5%) was lower than in 2009 (6.3%) (χ2=12.836, P<0.01). Seven patients of stage 3 died, with the fatality 29.2%, which was higher than in stage 2 (P<0.01). The children aged between 3 months 10 days to 12 years 9 months with onset median age of 25 months. Among them, 77.1% patients aged between 1 and 4 years which also accounted for 79.2% of the fatal cases (19/24). But there was no significant difference between the age and the severity (χ2=0.804, P>0.05). Fever (100%), vomiting (57.0%) and myoclonus jerk (62.3%) were the most frequent symptoms occurred in those serious cases. The average period of fever in children of stage 2 and 3 was (4.10±1.40) d and (5.05±1.05) d, respectively, which indicated significant difference between the two groups (t=3.173, P<0.05). The average values of white-blood-cell counts and blood glucose in fatal patients were (14.8±6.25)×10(9)/L and (8.63±3.51) mmol/L. They were higher when compared to those in stage 2 with the white-blood-cell counts of (11.8±4.23)×10(9)/L and blood glucose of (5.51±2.14) mmol/L (P<0.05). But there was no significant difference in C-reactive protein or cerebrospinal fluid white-blood-cell counts; A total of 182 patients were enrolled for MRI study during the acute stage with 37 (37/182, 20.3%) presented abnormal findings. Among them, most frequent findings were hyperintense lesions seen in brain stem (11 cases). A stage 3 case who died presented brain edema on MRI examination. CONCLUSION: The epidemic of HFMD has some correlation with the area, season, health condition of the family and gender of the children. Children under 4 years of age especially those who lived in rural areas were susceptible to the HFMD. Frequent vomiting or myoclonus jerk may indicate the central nervous system involvement. But persistent high fever may indicate tendency to deteriorate. Some laboratory examinations can help find the fatal cases at an early time.