Protein restriction and cancer.

Protein restriction without malnutrition is currently an effective nutritional intervention known to prevent diseases and promote health span from yeast to human. Recently, low protein diets are reported to be associated with lowered cancer incidence and mortality risk of cancers in human. In murine models, protein restriction inhibits tumor growth via mTOR signaling pathway. IGF-1, amino acid metabolic programing, FGF21, and autophagy may also serve as potential mechanisms of protein restriction mediated cancer prevention. Together, dietary intervention aimed at reducing protein intake can be beneficial and has the potential to be widely adopted and effective in preventing and treating cancers.

System optimisation quantitative model of on-line NIR: a case of Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch extraction process.

INTRODUCTION: The on-line analysis of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) during the extraction process in herbal medicine is a challenge. Establishing a reliable and robust model is a critical procedure for the industrial application of on-line near-infrared (NIR) technology. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the advantages of on-line NIR model development using system optimisation strategy, Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch was used as a case. The content of liquiritin and glycyrrhizic acid was monitored during pilot scale extraction process of Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch in three batches. METHODS: High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used as reference method for content determination of liquiritin and glycyrrhizic acid. The quantitative models of on-line NIR were developed by system optimisation of processing trajectory. For comparison, the models were simultaneously developed by stepwise optimisation. Moreover, the modelling parameters obtained through system optimisation and stepwise optimisation were reused in three batches. Root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) and residual predictive deviation (RPD) were used to assess the model quality. RESULTS: The average values of RMSEP and RPD of systematic model for liquiritin in three batches were 0.0361, 4.1525 (first batch), 0.0348, 4.7286 (second batch) and 0.0311, 4.9686 (third batch), respectively. In addition, the modelling parameters of systematic model for glycyrrhizic acid in three batches were same, and the average values of RMSEP and RPD were 0.0665 and 5.2751, respectively. The predictive performance and robustness of systematic models for the three batches were better than the comparison models. CONCLUSION: The work demonstrated that system optimisation quantitative model of on-line NIR could be used to determine the contents of liquiritin and glycyrrhizic acid during Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch extraction process.

[Critical quality attribute assessment of big brand traditional Chinese medicine: study on NIR field detection method of chemical properties of moisture in Tongren Niuhuang Qingxin Pills].

For the field detection problems of critical quality attribute(CQA) of moisture content in traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) manufacturing process, big brand TCM Tongren Niuhuang Qingxin Pills were used as the carrier, to establish a moisture content NIR field detection model with or without cellophane in real world production with use of near infrared(NIR) spectroscopy combined with stoichiometry. With the moisture content determined by drying method as reference value, the partial least square method(PLS) was used to analyze the correlation between the spectrum and the moisture reference value. Then the spectral pretreatment methods were screened and optimized to further improve the accuracy and stability of the model. The results showed that the best quantitative model was developed by the spectral data pretreatment of standard normal variate(SNV) with the latent variable factor number of 2 and 7 of Tongren Niuhuang Qingxin Pills with or without cellophane samples. The prediction coefficient of determination(R_(pre)~2) and standard deviation of prediction(RMSEP) of the model with cellophane samples were 0.765 7 and 0.157 2%; R_(pre)~2 and RMSEP of the model without cellophane samples were 0.772 2 and 0.207 8%. The NIR quantitative models of moisture content of Tongren Niuhuang Qingxin Pills with and without cellophane both showed good predictive performance to realize the rapid, accurate and non-destructive quantitative analysis of moisture content in such pills, and provide a method for the field quality control of the critical chemical attributes of moisture in the manufacturing of big brand TCM.

Circadian rhythms and obesity: Timekeeping governs lipid metabolism.

Almost all living organisms have evolved autoregulatory transcriptional-translational feedback loops that produce oscillations with a period of approximately 24-h. These endogenous time keeping mechanisms are called circadian clocks. The main function of these circadian clocks is to drive overt circadian rhythms in the physiology of the organisms to ensure that main physiological functions are in synchrony with the external environment. Disruption of circadian rhythms caused by genetic or environmental factors has long-term consequences for metabolic health. Of relevance, host circadian rhythmicity and lipid metabolism are increasingly recognized to cross-regulate and the circadian clock-lipid metabolism interplay may involve in the development of obesity. Multiple systemic and molecular mechanisms, such as hormones (ie, melatonin, leptin, and glucocorticoid), the gut microbiome, and energy metabolism, link the circadian clock and lipid metabolism, and predictably, the deregulation of circadian clock-lipid metabolism interplay can increase the risk of obesity, which in turn may exacerbate circadian disorganization. Feeding time and dietary nutrients are two of key environmental Zeitgebers affecting the circadian rhythm-lipid metabolism interplay, and the influencing mechanisms in obesity development are highlighted in this review. Together, the characterization of the clock machinery in lipid metabolism aimed at producing a healthy circadian lifestyle may improve obesity care.

The transcription factor GATA10 regulates fertility conversion of a two-line hybrid tms5 mutant rice via the modulation of UbL40 expression.

The thermosensitive genic male sterile 5 (tms5) mutation causes thermosensitive genic male sterility in rice (Oryza sativa) through loss of RNase ZS1 function, which influences ubiquitin fusion ribosomal protein L40 (UbL40 ) messenger RNA levels during male development. Here, we used ATAC-seq, combined with analysis of H3K9ac and H3K4me2, to identify changes in accessible chromatin during fertility conversion of the two-line hybrid rice Wuxiang S (WXS) derived from a mutant tms5 allele. Furthermore, RNA-seq and bioinformatic analyses identified specific transcription factors (TFs) in differentially accessible chromatin regions. Among these TFs, only GATA10 targeted UbL40 . Osgata10 knockout mutations, which resulted in low expression of UbL40 and a tendency toward male fertility, confirmed that GATA10 regulated fertility conversion via the modulation of UbL40 . Meanwhile, GATA10 acted as a mediator for interactions with ERF65, which revealed that transcriptional regulation is a complex process involving multiple complexes of TFs, namely TF modules. It appears that the ERF141/MADS7/MADS50/MYB modules affect metabolic processes that control anther and pollen development, especially cell wall formation. Our analysis revealed that these modules directly or indirectly affect metabolic pathway-related genes to coordinate plant growth with proper anther development, and furthermore, that GATA10 regulates fertility conversion via the modulation of UbL40 expression.

Circular RNA profiling of the rice photo-thermosensitive genic male sterile line Wuxiang S reveals circRNA involved in the fertility transition.

BACKGROUND: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are known to play an important role in the regulation of gene expression in eukaryotes. Photo-thermosensitive genic male sterile (PTGMS) is a very important germplasm resource in two-line hybrid rice breeding. Although many circRNAs have been identified in rice (Oryza sativa L.), little is known about the biological roles of circRNAs in the fertility transition of the PTGMS rice line. RESULTS: In the present study, RNA-sequencing libraries were constructed from the young panicles of the Wuxiang S sterile line rice (WXS (S)) and its fertile line rice (WXS (F)) at three development stages with three biological replicates. A total of 9994 circRNAs were obtained in WXS rice based on high-throughput strand-specific RNA sequencing and bioinformatic approaches, of which 5305 were known circRNAs and 4689 were novel in rice. And 14 of 16 randomly selected circRNAs were experimentally validated with divergent primers. Our results showed that 186 circRNAs were significantly differentially expressed in WXS (F) compared with WXS (S), of which 97, 87 and 60 circRNAs were differentially expressed at the pollen mother cell (PMC) formation stage (P2), the meiosis stage (P3) and the microspore formation stage (P4), respectively. Fertility specific expression patterns of eight circRNAs were analysis by qRT-PCR. Gene ontology (GO) and KEGG pathway analysis of the parental genes of differentially expressed circRNAs (DECs) revealed that they mainly participated in various biological processes such as development, response to stimulation, hormonal regulation, and reproduction. Furthermore, 15 DECs were found to act as putative miRNA sponges to involved in fertility transition in PTGMS rice line. CONCLUSION: In the present study, the abundance and characteristics of circRNAs were investigated in the PTGMS rice line using bioinformatic approaches. Moreover, the expression patterns of circRNAs were different between WXS (F) and WXS (S). Our findings primarily revealed that circRNAs might be endogenous noncoding regulators of flower and pollen development, and were involved in the fertility transition in the PTGMS rice line, and guide the production and application of two-line hybrid rice.

Comparative Analysis of Proteomics and Transcriptomics during Fertility Transition in a Two-Line Hybrid Rice Line Wuxiang S.

The two-line hybrid rice is an important factor of a global crop, but its fertility transition mechanism is unclear. Here, a comparative proteomics and transcriptomics analysis was completed on the two-line hybrid rice line Wuxiang S (WXS) to explore its molecular mechanism and protein regulation during fertility transition. A total of 340 differentially abundant proteins (DAPs) were identified using iTRAQ between the pollen mother cell formation stage (P2) and the meiosis stage (P3). There were 3541 and 4247 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in P2 and P3 between WXS (Sterile, S)-WXS(S) and WXS (Fertile, F)-WXS(F), respectively, of which 92 and 71 DEGs had corresponding DAPs. Among the DAPs and DEGs, 65 (SP2 vs. FP2) and 55 (SP3 vs. FP3) corresponding DEGs and DAPs (cor-DEGs-DAPs) showed the same expression trend, indicating the cor-DEGs-DAPs genes might play vital roles in WXS fertility transition. Further analysis indicated that cor-DEGs-DAPs proteins were related to energy metabolism-related proteins in anther development and were accompanied by the activation of the stress response pathway and modifications to the cell wall, which ultimately affected the fertility transition of the PTGMS rice line WXS.

Effects of dietary ramie powder at various levels on growth performance, antioxidative capacity and fatty acid profile of finishing pigs.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of ramie (Boehmeria nivea, previously known as a fibre crop and also called "China grass") included in diets on growth performance, antioxidative capacity and muscular fatty acid profile of finishing pigs. A total of 180 Xiangcun Black pigs (initial body weight =70.71 ± 1.21 kg) were randomly allotted to 1 of 5 dietary treatments with six pens of six pigs per pen. The pigs were provided a basal diet or a diet contained 3%, 6%, 9% or 12% of ramie powder during a 50-day experiment period. The results showed that the inclusion of ramie increased (quadratic, p < 0.05) the average daily gain (ADG) and gain:feed ratio (G:F) with the highest value of ADG and G:F in 3% ramie group, but ramie content in the diet up to 9% reduced the growth performance of the pigs compared with that of 3% ramie group. The activity of serum total superoxide dismutase (SOD) was increased (linear, p < 0.05) by ramie, while content of malondialdehyde was decreased (linear, p < 0.05). As increasing the dietary ramie level, the mRNA expression level of SOD1 was increased quadratically (p < 0.05) in muscle tissues. Moreover, the addition of ramie linearly increased (p < 0.05) polyunsaturated fatty acids content, whereas it linearly reduced (p < 0.05) the lipid indices of atherogenicity (AI) and thrombogenicity (TI) in muscle tissues, and lower values of AI and TI reflect a "healthier" fat composition. The results indicated that ramie in a diet not more than 9% may improve antioxidative capacity with no detrimental impact on growth performance of Chinese native finishing pigs; meanwhile, it could beneficially change the pork fatty acid pattern which has a positive impact on consumer's health.

[Research of classical prescription based on QbD concept:optimization of extraction process for modified Siwu Decoction].

As an advanced concept in international pharmaceutical research,quality by design( QbD) can fulfill the strategic requirements of drug quality from testing to design. In this paper,the extraction process of Yanggong Prescription which was the modified Siwu Decoction was optimized based on QbD concept. With the extraction amount of solid matter,the content of ferulic acid and the content of paeoniflorin as critical quality attributes( CQAs),the failure mode and effect analysis( FMEA) was used to screen potential critical process parameters( p CPPs). The mathematical model was established by Box-Behnken experimental design to investigate the interaction between critical process parameters( CPPs) and CQAs. Then the design space for the extraction process of Yanggong Prescription was further established and optimized. Analysis of variance showed that the variance of all models was significant( P<0. 01),and the lack-of-fit value was not significant,indicating that the model was statistically significant. The relationship between various factors and the response values could be functionalized by the established models. Finally,through the optimization of the design space,the optimum extraction process of Yanggong Prescription was obtained as follows: 3 extraction times,122 minutes extraction,and 7 times of water adding. The extraction process of Yanggong Prescription based on the QbD concept was robust and reliable,which would provide guidance for the process development and quality control of its formulations.

[Study on famous prescription of prestigious traditional Chinese medicine master Lu Zhizheng based on QbD concept: optimization of extraction process and granule forming process of Meiyan Shuqi Prescription].

Based on the concept of quality by design( QbD),the design space of Meiyan Shuqi Prescription extraction process was established,and its granules forming process was optimized. The content of total flavonoids was the critical quality attribute( CQA).The amount of water,extraction time and frequency were used as the critical process parameters( CPPs). Box-Behnken experimental design was used to optimize the extraction process. The design space of Meiyan Shuqi Prescription extraction process was established and verified. The results of variance analysis showed that the P value of the quadratic regression model was less than 0. 01,which indicated that the model had a statistical significance,and the relationship between each factor and response value could be functionalized by the established model. Through further optimization of design space,the optimal extraction process of Meiyan Shuqi prescription was13-fold volume of water,extraction for 3 times and each extraction time of 1. 4 hours. Furthermore,the forming process optimized by single factor was as follows: the excipient was dextrin; the ratio of extract powder to excipient was 1 ∶1; the wetting agent was 70% ethanol; and the amount of wetting agent was 0. 3 m L·g-1. The Meiyan Shuqi Prescription extraction process and the forming process based on QbD concept provide reference for the study of other traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions.

[Study on famous prescription of prestigious traditional Chinese medicine based on QbD concept: optimization of extraction process and granule forming process of Tuomin Dingchuan Prescription].

The quality of compound traditional Chinese medicine is the prerequisite and foundation for its stable efficacy. Based on the quality by design( QbD) concept,the controllable extraction times,extraction time and the ratio of water were the critical process parameters( CPPs) in the Tuomin Dingchuan Prescription extraction process. The CQAs corresponding to CPPs were screened from the four potential critical quality attributes( p CQAs),namely the extraction amount of solid matter,the content of amygdalin,the content of cimicifugoside and the content of 5-O-methylvisammioside by orthogonal experiment. The extraction amount of solid matter and the content of amygdalin were determined as CQAs in the extraction process by the variance analysis of Box-Behnken experimental. The optimal extraction process based on the linear model between CQAs and CPPs of the extraction process was immersion in water for 30 minutes,extraction for three times,extraction for 100 minutes each time and 10 times of water volume. The control space was established for the extraction amount of solid matter and the content of amygdalin,and both of them could be controlled simultaneously to achieve the optimization objective. The molding ratio of Tuomin Dingchuan granules was regarded as CQA in forming process. On the basis of the single factor investigation,the ratio of dry extract powder to excipient and the ratio of ethanol were determined as CPPs. The central composite design( CCD) was used to optimize the forming process of Tuomin Dingchuan granules. The results showed that the dextrin was used as the filler; the ratio of dry paste to dextrin was 1 ∶1; and 0. 3 m L·g-1 of 70% ethanol was added as binder. The soft material and granules conformed to the actual production requirements.

Melatonin reprogramming of gut microbiota improves lipid dysmetabolism in high-fat diet-fed mice.

Melatonin has been shown to improve lipid metabolism and gut microbiota communities in animals and humans; however, it remains to know whether melatonin prevents obesity through gut microbiota. Here, we found that high-fat diet promoted the lipid accumulation and intestinal microbiota dysbiosis in mice, while oral melatonin supplementation alleviated the lipid accumulation and reversed gut microbiota dysbiosis, including the diversity of intestinal microbiota, relative abundances of Bacteroides and Alistipes, and functional profiling of microbial communities, such as energy metabolism, lipid metabolism, and carbohydrate metabolism. Interestingly, melatonin failed to alleviate the high-fat-induced lipid accumulation in antibiotic-treated mice; however, microbiota transplantation from melatonin-treated mice alleviated high-fat diet-induced lipid metabolic disorders. Notably, short-chain fatty acids were decreased in high-fat diet-fed mice, while melatonin treatment improved the production of acetic acid. Correlation analysis found a marked correlation between production of acetic acid and relative abundances of Bacteroides and Alistipes. Importantly, sodium acetate treatment also alleviated high-fat diet-induced lipid metabolic disorders. Taken together, our results suggest that melatonin improves lipid metabolism in high-fat diet-fed mice, and the potential mechanisms may be associated with reprogramming gut microbiota, especially, Bacteroides and Alistipes-mediated acetic acid production. Future studies are needed for patients with metabolic syndrome to fully understand melatonin's effects on body weight and lipid profiles and the potential mechanism of gut microbiota.

Lysine Restriction Affects Feed Intake and Amino Acid Metabolism via Gut Microbiome in Piglets.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Our previous reports suggested that dietary supplementation with lysine influenced intestinal absorption and metabolism of amino acids. In this study, we further investigated the effect of lysine restriction (30%) on feed intake and we also tested the hypothesis that gut microbiome contributed to the potential mechanism of lysine restriction-mediated feeding behavior. Here, we profiled gut microbial communities by sequencing 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) genes from gut samples as well as growth performance, serum hormones, and intestinal lysine transport in a piglet model. RESULTS: Piglets preferred to the lysine restricted diet when giving three diets and the feed intake was markedly higher in the lysine-restricted group than that in the control group. Altered hormones (leptin, CCK, and ghrelin) might contribute to the feeding behavior caused by lysine restriction. Meanwhile, lysine transporting ability (SLC7A1 and SLC7A2 expression, intestinal electrophysiological changes, and amino acid pool in mesenteric vein) was decreased in response to lysine restriction. Through deep sequencing of bacterial rRNA markers, we observed that bacterial diversity was enhanced in the lysine-restricted group (Shannon H, PD, and Chao1). At the phylum level, lysine restriction enhanced gut Actinobacteria, Saccharibacteria, and Synergistetes abundances. At the family level, Moraxellaceae, Halomonadaceae, Shewanellaceae, Corynebacteriaceae, Bacillaceae, Comamonadaceae, Microbacteriaceae, Caulobacteraceae, and Synergistaceae abundances were increased in response to lysine restriction. Predictive functional profiling of microbial communities by PICRUSt also confirmed that dietary lysine restriction affected gut microbiome, which might further mediate amino acid metabolism, membrane transport, and endocrine system. CONCLUSION: Our results indicated that lysine restriction inhibited intestinal lysine transport and promoted feed intake, which might be associated with gut microbiome.

Dietary supplementation with L-glutamate and L-aspartate alleviates oxidative stress in weaned piglets challenged with hydrogen peroxide.

This study was to evaluate the protective roles of L-glutamate (Glu) and L-aspartate (Asp) in weaned piglets challenged with H2O2. Forty weaned piglets were assigned randomly into one of five groups (8 piglets/group): (1) control group (NC) in which pigs were fed a corn- and soybean meal-based diet and received intraperitoneal administration of saline; (2) H2O2 group (PC) in which pigs were fed the basal diet and received intraperitoneal administration of 10 % H2O2 (1 ml/kg body weight once on days 8 and repeated on day 11); (3) PC + Glu group (PG) in which pigs were fed the basal diet supplemented with 2.0 % Glu before intraperitoneal administration of 10 % H2O2; (4) PC + Asp group (PA) in which pigs were fed the basal diet supplemented with 1.0 % Asp before intraperitoneal administration of 10 % H2O2; (5) PC + Glu + Asp group (PGA) in which pigs were fed the basal diet supplemented with 2.0 % Glu plus 1.0 % Asp before intraperitoneal administration of 10 % H2O2. Measured parameters included daily feed intake (DFI), average daily gain (ADG), feed conversion rate (FCR), and serum anti-oxidative enzyme activities (catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase-1), serum malondialdehyde and H2O2 concentrations, serum amino acid (AA) profiles, and intestinal expression of AA transporters. Dietary supplementation with Glu, Asp or their combination attenuated the decreases in DFI, ADG and feed efficiency, the increase in oxidative stress, the alterations of serum AA concentrations, and the changed expression of intestinal AA transporters in H2O2-challenged piglets. Thus, dietary supplementation with Glu or Asp alleviates growth suppression and oxidative stress, while restoring serum the amino acid pool in H2O2-challenged piglets.

Dietary Lactobacillus delbrueckii Affects Ileal Bacterial Composition and Circadian Rhythms in Pigs.

Intestinal bacteria, synchronized with diet and feeding time, exhibit circadian rhythms and anticipate host gut function; however the effect of dietary probiotics on gut bacterial diurnal rhythms remains obscure. In this study, bacteria were sequenced at 6 Zeitgeber times (ZT) from a pig model of ileal T-shaped fistula to test ileal bacterial composition and circadian rhythms after Lactobacillus delbrueckii administration. The results showed that dietary L. delbrueckii enhanced ileal bacterial α-diversity at Zeitgeber time (ZT) 16, evidenced by an increased Simpson index compared with control pigs. At the phylum level, Firmicutes was identified as the largest phyla represented in pigs, but dietary L. delbrueckii only increased the abundance of Tenericutes at ZT16. At the genus level, 11/100 genera (i.e., Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, Leptotrichia, Pediococcus, Bifidobacte, Cellulosilyticum, Desulfomicrobium, Sharpea, Eubacterium, Propionivibrio, and Aerococcus) were markedly differentiated in L. delbrueckii-fed pigs and the effect was rhythmicity-dependent. Meanwhile, dietary L. delbrueckii affected six pathways of bacterial functions, such as membrane transport, metabolism of cofactors and vitamins, cell motility, the endocrine system, signaling molecules and interaction, and the nervous system. Cosinor analysis was conducted to test bacterial circadian rhythm in pigs, while no significant circadian rhythm in bacterial α-diversity and phyla composition was observed. Lactobacillus, Terrisporobacter, and Weissella exhibited significant rhythmic fluctuation in the control pigs, which was disturbed by probiotic exposure. In addition, dietary L. delbrueckii affected circadian rhythms in ileal Romboutsia, Erysipelatoclostridium, Cellulosilyticum, and Eubacterium abundances. Dietary L. delbrueckii affected both ileal bacterial composition and circadian rhythms, which might further regulate gut function and host metabolism in pigs.

Spatial Structure Constraints for Weakly Supervised Semantic Segmentation.

The image-level label has prevailed in weakly supervised semantic segmentation tasks due to its easy availability. Since image-level labels can only indicate the existence or absence of specific categories of objects, visualization-based techniques have been widely adopted to provide object location clues. Considering class activation maps (CAMs) can only locate the most discriminative part of objects, recent approaches usually adopt an expansion strategy to enlarge the activation area for more integral object localization. However, without proper constraints, the expanded activation will easily intrude into the background region. In this paper, we propose spatial structure constraints (SSC) for weakly supervised semantic segmentation to alleviate the unwanted object over-activation of attention expansion. Specifically, we propose a CAM-driven reconstruction module to directly reconstruct the input image from deep CAM features, which constrains the diffusion of last-layer object attention by preserving the coarse spatial structure of the image content. Moreover, we propose an activation self-modulation module to refine CAMs with finer spatial structure details by enhancing regional consistency. Without external saliency models to provide background clues, our approach achieves 72.7% and 47.0% mIoU on the PASCAL VOC 2012 and COCO datasets, respectively, demonstrating the superiority of our proposed approach. The source codes and models have been made available at https://github.com/NUST-Machine-Intelligence-Laboratory/SSC.

Lactobacillus delbrueckii Ameliorated Blood Lipids via Intestinal Microbiota Modulation and Fecal Bile Acid Excretion in a Ningxiang Pig Model.

Lactobacillus delbrueckii intervention can regulate body lipid metabolism, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Our study investigated the effects of L. delbrueckii on serum lipid levels, tissular fat metabolism and deposition, bile acid metabolism, and gut microbiota in Ningxiang pigs. Ninety-six pigs were divided into two groups and fed basal diets containing either 0 (CON) or 0.1% L. delbrueckii (LD) for 60 days. Dietary L. delbrueckii promoted fecal total bile acid (TBA) excretion and increased hepatic enzyme activities related to cholesterol and bile synthesis but decreased hepatic and serum lipid concentrations. L. delbrueckii downregulated gene expression associated with fatty acid synthesis but upregulated gene expression related to lipolysis and ß-fatty acid oxidation in liver and subcutaneous fat. L. delbrueckii elevated gut Lactobacillus abundance and colonic short-chain fatty acid (SCFA)-producing bacteria but declined the abundance of some pathogenic bacteria. These findings demonstrated that L. delbrueckii modulated intestinal microbiota composition and facilitated fecal TBA excretion to regulate hepatic fat metabolism, which resulted in less lipid deposition in the liver and reduced levels of serum lipids.

Characterizing core microbiota and regulatory functions of the pig gut microbiome.

Domestic pigs (Sus scrofa) are the leading terrestrial animals used for meat production. The gut microbiota significantly affect host nutrition, metabolism, and immunity. Hence, characterization of the gut microbial structure and function will improve our understanding of gut microbial resources and the mechanisms underlying host-microbe interactions. Here, we investigated the gut microbiomes of seven pig breeds using metagenomics and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. We established an expanded gut microbial reference catalog comprising 17 020 160 genes and identified 4910 metagenome-assembled genomes. We also analyzed the gut resistome to provide an overview of the profiles of the antimicrobial resistance genes in pigs. By analyzing the relative abundances of microbes, we identified three core-predominant gut microbes (Phascolarctobacterium succinatutens, Prevotella copri, and Oscillibacter valericigenes) in pigs used in this study. Oral administration of the three core-predominant gut microbes significantly increased the organ indexes (including the heart, spleen, and thymus), but decreased the gastrointestinal lengths in germ-free mice. The three core microbes significantly enhanced intestinal epithelial barrier function and altered the intestinal mucosal morphology, as was evident from the increase in crypt depths in the duodenum and ileum. Furthermore, the three core microbes significantly affected several metabolic pathways (such as "steroid hormone biosynthesis," "primary bile acid biosynthesis," "phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis," and "phenylalanine metabolism") in germ-free mice. These findings provide a panoramic view of the pig gut microbiome and insights into the functional contributions of the core-predominant gut microbes to the host.

Robust-EQA: Robust Learning for Embodied Question Answering With Noisy Labels.

Embodied question answering (EQA) is a recently emerged research field in which an agent is asked to answer the user's questions by exploring the environment and collecting visual information. Plenty of researchers turn their attention to the EQA field due to its broad potential application areas, such as in-home robots, self-driven mobile, and personal assistants. High-level visual tasks, such as EQA, are susceptible to noisy inputs, because they have complex reasoning processes. Before the profits of the EQA field can be applied to practical applications, good robustness against label noise needs to be equipped. To tackle this problem, we propose a novel label noise-robust learning algorithm for the EQA task. First, a joint training co-regularization noise-robust learning method is proposed for noisy filtering of the visual question answering (VQA) module, which trains two parallel network branches by one loss function. Then, a two-stage hierarchical robust learning algorithm is proposed to filter out noisy navigation labels in both trajectory level and action level. Finally, by taking purified labels as inputs, a joint robust learning mechanism is given to coordinate the work of the whole EQA system. Empirical results demonstrate that, under extremely noisy environments (45% of noisy labels) and low-level noisy environments (20% of noisy labels), the robustness of deep learning models trained by our algorithm is superior to the existing EQA models in noisy environments.

Hierarchical Co-Attention Propagation Network for Zero-Shot Video Object Segmentation.

Zero-shot video object segmentation (ZS-VOS) aims to segment foreground objects in a video sequence without prior knowledge of these objects. However, existing ZS-VOS methods often struggle to distinguish between foreground and background or to keep track of the foreground in complex scenarios. The common practice of introducing motion information, such as optical flow, can lead to overreliance on optical flow estimation. To address these challenges, we propose an encoder-decoder-based hierarchical co-attention propagation network (HCPN) capable of tracking and segmenting objects. Specifically, our model is built upon multiple collaborative evolutions of the parallel co-attention module (PCM) and the cross co-attention module (CCM). PCM captures common foreground regions among adjacent appearance and motion features, while CCM further exploits and fuses cross-modal motion features returned by PCM. Our method is progressively trained to achieve hierarchical spatio-temporal feature propagation across the entire video. Experimental results demonstrate that our HCPN outperforms all previous methods on public benchmarks, showcasing its effectiveness for ZS-VOS. Code and pre-trained model can be found at https://github.com/NUST-Machine-Intelligence-Laboratory/HCPN.