Telehealth Usage Among Low-Income Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Retrospective Observational Study.

BACKGROUND: Despite considerable efforts to encourage telehealth use during the COVID-19 pandemic, we witnessed a potential widening of health inequities that may continue to plague the US health care system unless we mitigate modifiable risk factors. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine the hypothesis that there are systemic differences in telehealth usage among people who live at or below 200% of the federal poverty level. Factors that we consider are age, gender, race, ethnicity, education, employment status, household size, and income. METHODS: A retrospective observational study was performed using the COVID-19 Research Database to analyze factors contributing to telehealth inequities. The study period ranged from March 2020 to April 2021. The Office Ally database provided US claims data from 100 million unique patients and 3.4 billion claims. The Analytics IQ PeopleCore Consumer database is nationally representative of 242.5 million US adults aged 19 years and older. We analyzed medical claims to investigate the influence of demographic and socioeconomic factors on telehealth usage among the low-income racial and ethnic minority populations. We conducted a multiple logistic regression analysis to determine the odds of patients in diverse groups using telehealth during the study period. RESULTS: Among 2,850,831 unique patients, nearly 60% of them were female, 75% of them had a high school education or less, 49% of them were unemployed, and 62% of them identified as non-Hispanic White. Our results suggest that 9.84% of the patients had ≥1 telehealth claims during the study period. Asian (odds ratio [OR] 1.569, 95% CI 1.528-1.611, P<.001) and Hispanic (OR 1.612, 95% CI 1.596-1.628, P<.001) patients were more likely to use telehealth than non-Hispanic White and -Black patients. Patients who were employed full-time were 15% (OR 1.148, 95% CI 1.133-1.164, P<.001) more likely to use telehealth than unemployed patients. Patients who identified as male were 12% (OR 0.875, 95% CI 0.867-0.883, P<.001) less likely to use telehealth than those who identified as female. Patients with high school education or less were 5% (OR 0.953, 95% CI 0.944-0.962, P<.001) less likely to use telehealth than those with a bachelor's degree or higher. Patients in the 18-44-year age group were 32% (OR 1.324, 95% CI 1.304-1.345, P<.001) more likely to use telehealth than those in the ≥65-year age group. CONCLUSIONS: Factors that impact telehealth usage include age, gender, race, education, employment status, and income. While low-income racial and ethnic minority communities are at greater risk for health inequities among this group, Hispanic communities are more likely to use telehealth, and non-Hispanic Black patients continue to demonstrate telehealth inequity. Gender, age, and household income contribute to health inequities across gradients of poverty. Strategies to improve health use should consider characteristics of subgroups, as people do not experience poverty equally.

MiR-4284 inhibits sensitivity to paclitaxel in human ovarian carcinoma SKOV3ip1 and HeyA8 cells by targeting DMC1.

An increasing number of studies have confirmed that microRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in various biological processes, including tumor growth and drug resistance. MiR-4284 has been proved to be abnormally regulated in several cancers, but the function of miR-4284 in ovarian carcinoma (OC) is unclear. Paclitaxel resistance is a key obstacle in OC treatment. Here, the role of miR-4284 in cell sensitivity to paclitaxel in OC was investigated. Two OC cell lines (SKOV3ip1 and HeyA8) were utilized for the establishment of paclitaxel-resistant cell lines. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) was applied to analyze the levels of miR-4284 and potential mRNAs in OC cell lines. Western blotting was performed to evaluate the levels of DNA meiotic recombinase 1 (DMC1) protein and cell cycle-associated proteins. Identification of the relationship between miR-4284 and DMC1 was achieved by luciferase reporter assay. CCK-8 and flow cytometry assays were utilized for evaluating the impact of miR-4284 on the malignant characteristics of paclitaxel-resistant OC cells. MiR-4284 was upregulated in paclitaxel-resistant OC cell lines and correlated with an adverse prognosis in OC patients. Depletion of miR-4284 suppressed cell proliferation and cell cycle progression of paclitaxel-resistant OC. MiR-4284 targeted DMC1 which was downregulated in paclitaxel-resistant cells and reversed the inhibitory influence of miR-4284 silencing on the malignant characters of paclitaxel-resistant OC cells. MiR-4284 targets DMC1 to suppress sensitivity to paclitaxel in human OC cells.

Research on the Application of Visual Recognition in the Engine Room of Intelligent Ships.

In the engine room of intelligent ships, visual recognition is an essential technical precondition for automatic inspection. At present, the problems of visual recognition in marine engine rooms include missing detection, low accuracy, slow speed, and imperfect datasets. For these problems, this paper proposes a marine engine room equipment recognition model based on the improved You Only Look Once v5 (YOLOv5) algorithm. The channel pruning method based on batch normalization (BN) layer weight value is used to improve the recognition speed. The complete intersection over union (CIoU) loss function and hard-swish activation function are used to enhance detection accuracy. Meanwhile, soft-NMS is used as the non-maximum suppression (NMS) method to reduce the false rate and missed detection rate. Then, the main equipment in the marine engine room (MEMER) dataset is built. Finally, comparative experiments and ablation experiments are carried out on the MEMER dataset to verify the strategy's efficacy on the model performance boost. Specifically, this model can accurately detect 100.00% of diesel engines, 95.91% of pumps, 94.29% of coolers, 98.54% of oil separators, 64.21% of meters, 60.23% of reservoirs, and 75.32% of valves in the actual marine engine room.

The Impact of Waste Paper Recycling on the Carbon Emissions from China's Paper Industry.

As China's demand for paper products increases, China's paper industry faces enormous pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. By using material flow analysis in combination with input-output analysis, this study measured the waste paper recovery rate in a more accurate method and analyzed the impact of waste paper recycling on the carbon emissions from China's paper industry. China's waste paper recovery rate estimated in this study was close to 70% in 2017, much higher than that of 48% obtained with the traditional method. The regression results displayed a negative relationship between waste paper recovery rate and CO2 emissions per unit of paper consumption during 2000-2017 in China. The rolling regression results further indicated that the impact of waste paper recycling was becoming stronger on reducing CO2 emissions per unit of paper consumption in China. Since an inverted "U" shape relationship exists between waste paper recovery rate and its reduction effect on carbon emissions from the paper industry, the regression results suggested that China's waste paper recovery rate has not reached the optimal level with regard to carbon emissions from China's paper industry. Thus, although China's waste paper recovery rate has reached a relatively high level, currently waste paper recycling is still an effective method to reduce carbon emissions from China's paper industry.

Electricity Consumption Forecasting Scheme via Improved LSSVM with Maximum Correntropy Criterion.

In recent years, with the deepening of China's electricity sales side reform and electricity market opening up gradually, the forecasting of electricity consumption (FoEC) becomes an extremely important technique for the electricity market. At present, how to forecast the electricity accurately and make an evaluation of results scientifically are still key research topics. In this paper, we propose a novel prediction scheme based on the least-square support vector machine (LSSVM) model with a maximum correntropy criterion (MCC) to forecast the electricity consumption (EC). Firstly, the electricity characteristics of various industries are analyzed to determine the factors that mainly affect the changes in electricity, such as the gross domestic product (GDP), temperature, and so on. Secondly, according to the statistics of the status quo of the small sample data, the LSSVM model is employed as the prediction model. In order to optimize the parameters of the LSSVM model, we further use the local similarity function MCC as the evaluation criterion. Thirdly, we employ the K-fold cross-validation and grid searching methods to improve the learning ability. In the experiments, we have used the EC data of Shaanxi Province in China to evaluate the proposed prediction scheme, and the results show that the proposed prediction scheme outperforms the method based on the traditional LSSVM model.

MicroRNA-218 inhibits the proliferation, migration, and invasion and promotes apoptosis of gastric cancer cells by targeting LASP1.

The present study aims to investigate the effects of microRNA-218 (miR-218) on the proliferation, migration, invasion, and apoptosis of gastric cancer (GC) cells by targeting LIM and SH3 domain protein 1 (LASP1). The GC cells in the logarithmic phase were selected and divided into five groups: the blank group, negative control (NC) group, miR-218 inhibitors group, miR-218 inhibitors + siLASP1 group, and miR-218 mimics + siLASP1 group. The miR-218 expression in each group was also detected by qRT-PCR. The CCK8 assay, Transwell migration, and invasion assays and flow cytometry were performed to determine the effects of miR-218 on cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and apoptosis of GC cells. Western blotting was conducted to measure LASP1 protein expression in GC cells after transfection. The qRT-PCR revealed that the transfection of miR-218 mimics could upregulate the miR-218 expression, and the transfection of miR-218 inhibitors could downregulate the miR-218 expression in the GC cells. Compared with the blank and NC groups, the proliferation, migration, and invasion of GC cells were significantly reduced in the miR-218 mimics, miR-218 inhibitors + siLASP1, and miR-218 mimics + siLASP1 groups but enhanced in the miR-218 inhibitors group. Similarly, compared with the blank and NC groups, the cell apoptosis rates in the miR-218 mimics, miR-218 inhibitors + siLASP1, and the miR-218 mimics + siLASP1 groups were significantly increased, while the miR-218 inhibitors group had a lower apoptosis rate. In conclusion, these results indicate that miR-218 could inhibit the proliferation, migration, and invasion and promote apoptosis of GC cells by downregulating LASP1 expression.

Telehealth for Chronic Disease Management Among Vulnerable Populations.

Chronic diseases disproportionately affect patients in low-income minority groups who traditionally use in-person healthcare services. COVID-19 disrupted their routines and limited options for people to receive care; this could exacerbate health inequities. The study examined telehealth chronic disease management among low-income minority groups. We used Florida Medicaid claims data from March to December 2020 and the American Consumer Survey to examine the study objectives. Data were analyzed using Linear and Logistic Regression. We retrieved claim records of 52,904 unique patients; 31,999 were female and 49% of the sample had at least one telehealth visit. Medicaid patients were 8% less likely to use telehealth and 21% more likely to have audio visits when compared to Medicare patients. The analyses suggest that Non-Hispanic Black patients and individuals with a lack of education experience significant health inequities. People with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (5%) and heart failure (14%) were less likely to use telehealth than patients with diabetes. Telehealth will continue to be a health delivery option; thus we recommend that strategies are enacted to educate, and resources are provided to promote equity among Non-Hispanic Black patients. Without priority attention to people among low-income minority populations, health inequities will continue to plague this community.

Telehealth Uptake Among Hispanic People During COVID-19: Retrospective Observational Study.

Background: The Hispanic community represents a sizeable community that experiences inequities in the US health care system. As the system has moved toward digital health platforms, evaluating the potential impact on Hispanic communities is critical. Objective: The study aimed to investigate demographic, socioeconomic, and behavioral factors contributing to low telehealth use in Hispanic communities. Methods: We used a retrospective observation study design to examine the study objectives. The COVID-19 Research Database Consortium provided the Analytics IQ PeopleCore consumer data and Office Alley claims data. The study period was from March 2020 to April 2021. Multiple logistic regression was used to determine the odds of using telehealth services. Results: We examined 3,478,287 unique Hispanic patients, 16.6% (577,396) of whom used telehealth. Results suggested that patients aged between 18 and 44 years were more likely to use telehealth (odds ratio [OR] 1.07, 95% CI 1.05-1.1; P<.001) than patients aged older than 65 years. Across all age groups, patients with high incomes were at least 20% more likely to use telehealth than patients with lower incomes (P<.001); patients who had a primary care physician (P=.01), exhibited high medical usage (P<.001), or were interested in exercise (P=.03) were more likely to use telehealth; patients who had unhealthy behaviors such as smoking and alcohol consumption were less likely to use telehealth (P<.001). Male patients were less likely than female patients to use telehealth among patients aged 65 years and older (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.93-0.95; P<.001), while male patients aged between 18 and 44 years were more likely to use telehealth (OR 1.05, 95% CI 1.03-1.07; P<.001). Among patients younger than 65 years, full-time employment was positively associated with telehealth use (P<.001). Patients aged between 18 and 44 years with high school or less education were 2% less likely to use telehealth (OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.97-0.99; P=.005). Results also revealed a positive association with using WebMD (WebMD LLC) among patients aged older than 44 years (P<.001), while there was a negative association with electronic prescriptions among those who were aged between 18 and 44 years (P=.009) and aged between 45 and 64 years (P=.004). Conclusions: This study demonstrates that telehealth use among Hispanic communities is dependent upon factors such as age, gender, education, socioeconomic status, current health care engagement, and health behaviors. To address these challenges, we advocate for interdisciplinary approaches that involve medical professionals, insurance providers, and community-based services actively engaging with Hispanic communities and promoting telehealth use. We propose the following recommendations: enhance access to health insurance, improve access to primary care providers, and allocate fiscal and educational resources to support telehealth use. As telehealth increasingly shapes health care delivery, it is vital for professionals to facilitate the use of all available avenues for accessing care.

Use of Telehealth Among Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups in the United States Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: The COVID-19 pandemic has propelled the use of technology for health care services delivery. Because of inequities in health care and technology access, we investigated the use of telehealth services among racial and ethnic minority groups before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: For this retrospective study, we examined the electronic health records of privately insured patients in the Healthjump database, provided by the COVID-19 Research Database Consortium. We examined 17.98 million unique visit records of 2.93 million patients from March through December 2019 and 22.17 million records of 3.55 million patients from March through December 2020. We conducted a descriptive analysis and used multiple logistic regression to examine differences in the use of telehealth services among 3 racial and ethnic groups: non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, and Hispanic people. RESULTS: Telehealth visits before and during COVID-19 accounted for 8.3% and 10.9% of total visits, respectively, with a peak of 15.5% in April 2020. Pre-COVID-19, Hispanic patients had a significantly lower monthly utilization rate (5.3%) than non-Hispanic White patients (8.4%, P < .001) and non-Hispanic Black patients (10.4%, P = .001). During the pandemic study period, Hispanic patients were 41% less likely than non-Hispanic White patients to have a telehealth visit, controlling for age and sex. CONCLUSIONS: The likelihood of using telehealth was lower among Hispanic patients than among non-Hispanic White and non-Hispanic Black patients during the pandemic. Culturally sensitive measures are needed to support telehealth use among the Hispanic population.

Retraction of "miR-223-3p alleviates TGF-ß-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition and extracellular matrix deposition by targeting SP3 in endometrial epithelial cells".

[This retracts the article DOI: 10.1515/med-2022-0424.].

Prognostic Significance of Tumor Mutation Burden among Patients with Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Who Received Platinum-based Adjuvant Chemotherapy: An Exploratory Study.

This study aimed to investigate the prognostic significance of tumor mutation burden (TMB) among patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who received platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy. Tumor tissue specimens after surgical resection were collected for DNA extraction. Somatic mutation detection and TMB analysis were conducted using next-generation sequencing (NGS). Recurrence status of the patients was assessed in the hospital during the adjuvant chemotherapy period, and long-term survival data of patients were obtained by telephone follow-up. Univariate analysis between TMB status and prognosis was carried out by survival analysis. A retrospective review of 78 patients with non-squamous NSCLC who received platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy showed a median disease-free survival of 3.6 years and median overall survival (OS) of 5.3 years. NGS analysis exhibited that the most common mutated somatic genes among the 78 patients were tumor suppressor protein p53 (TP53), epidermal growth factor receptor, low-density lipoprotein receptor related protein 1B, DNA methyltransferase 3 alpha and FAT atypical cadherin 3, and their prevalence was 56.4%, 48.7%, 37.2%, 30.7%, and 25.6%, respectively. TMB status was divided into TMB-L (≤ 4.5/Mb) and TMB-H (> 4.5/Mb) based on the median TMB threshold. Relevance of TMB to prognosis suggested that the median OS of patients with TMB-L was significantly longer than that of patients with TMB-H (NR vs. 4.6, P = 0.014). Higher TMB status conferred a worse implication on OS among patients with non-squamous NSCLC who received platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy.

miR-223-3p alleviates TGF-ß-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition and extracellular matrix deposition by targeting SP3 in endometrial epithelial cells.

Intrauterine adhesion (IUA) is the clinical manifestation of endometrial fibrosis. The dysregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) has been confirmed to implicate in a diversity of human diseases, including IUA. Nevertheless, the specific function of miR-223-3p in IUA remains to be clarified. Reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis displayed the downregulation of miR-223-3p in IUA tissues and endometrial epithelial cells (EECs). Results from wound healing assay, Transwell assay and western blotting showed that TGF-ß facilitated the migration and invasion of EECs and induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process as well as extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition. Overexpression of miR-223-3p in EECs was shown to suppress the effects induced by TGF-ß. Bioinformatics analysis and luciferase reporter assay revealed the binding relation between miR-223-3p and SP3. SP3 was highly expressed in IUA and its expression was inversely correlated with miR-223-3p expression in IUA tissue samples. Additionally, upregulation of SP3 reversed the influence of miR-223-3p on the phenotypes of EECs. In conclusion, miR-223-3p alleviates TGF-ß-induced cell migration, invasion, EMT process and ECM deposition in EECs by targeting SP3.

Two Hybrid Histidine Kinases Involved in the Ethylene Regulation of the Mycelial Growth and Postharvest Fruiting Body Maturation and Senescence of Agaricus bisporus.

Ethylene regulates mycelial growth, primordium formation, and postharvest mushroom maturation and senescence in the white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus. However, it remains unknown how ethylene is detected by the mushroom. In this study, we found that two hybrid histidine kinases in the mushroom, designated AbETR1 and AbETR2, showed domain structures similar to those of plant ethylene receptors. The transmembrane helices of AbETR1 and AbETR2 were expressed in yeast cells and showed ethylene-binding activities. Mushroom strains with downregulated expressions of AbETR1 and AbETR2 showed reduced sensitivity to the ethylene inhibition of mycelial growth, ethylene regulation of their own synthesis, postharvest mushroom maturation, and senescence and expression of maturation- and senescence-related genes. Therefore, AbETR1 and AbETR2 are expected to be biologically functional ethylene receptors and exhibit a different mode of action from that of the receptors of plants. Here, we fill gaps in the knowledge pertaining to higher fungus ethylene receptors, discover a novel mode of action of ethylene receptors, confirm ethylene as a novel fungal hormone, and provide a facilitated approach for preventing the maturation and senescence of postharvest button mushrooms. IMPORTANCE Ethylene regulates diverse physiological activities in bacteria, cyanobacteria, fungi, and plants, but how to perceive ethylene by fungi only remains unknown. In this study, we identify two biologically functional ethylene receptors in the basidiomycete fungus Agaricus bisporus, which fills the gaps of deficient fungal ethylene receptors. Furthermore, we found that decreased expression of the ethylene receptors facilitates preventing the maturation and senescence of postharvest button mushrooms, indicating that the two fungal ethylene receptors positively regulate the ethylene response, in contrast to that in plants.

Concordance Study of a 520-Gene Next-Generation Sequencing-Based Genomic Profiling Assay of Tissue and Plasma Samples.

INTRODUCTION: Next-generation sequencing (NGS) enables simultaneous detection of actionable somatic variants and estimation of genomic signatures such as tumor mutational burden (TMB) or microsatellite instability (MSI) status, which empowers therapeutic decisions in clinical oncology. OBJECTIVE: Our retrospective study investigated the clinical performance of somatic variant detection in paired tissue and blood samples using a large targeted gene panel, the OncoScreen Plus, which interrogates 520 cancer-related genes. METHODS: We analyzed sequencing data derived from paired tissue and blood samples of 3005 patients spanning 20 solid tumor types, including lung (n = 1971), gastrointestinal (n = 625), breast (n = 120) and gynecological (n = 110), genitourinary (n = 38), and other cancers (n = 141). RESULTS: Across tumor types, the OncoScreen Plus panel achieved a high tissue detection rate, with an average of 97.9%. The average plasma detection rate was 72.2%, with an average tissue concordance rate of 36.6%. Considering all variant types, the plasma assay yielded an average sensitivity/true positive rate of 45.7%, with a positive predictive value of 64.7% relative to tissue assay. Pearson correlation analysis revealed a strong correlation in TMB estimated from blood and tissue samples (correlation coefficient 0.845, R2 = 0.756). MSI-high status was identified in five tumor types, including endometrial cancer (28.6%), colorectal cancer (2.5%), ovarian cancer (2.0%), gastric cancer (1.5%), and lung adenocarcinoma (0.2%). CONCLUSION: Paired tumor and blood samples from a large cohort of patients spanning 20 tumor types demonstrated that the OncoScreen Plus is a reliable pan-cancer panel for the accurate detection of somatic variants and genomic signatures that could guide individualized treatment strategies to improve the care of patients with advanced cancer.

The characteristics of the synonymous codon usage in hepatitis B virus and the effects of host on the virus in codon usage pattern.

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is one of the main human health problem and causes a large-scale of patients chronic infection worldwide.. As the replication of HBV depends on its host cell system, codon usage pattern for the viral gene might be susceptible to two main selections, namely mutation pressure and translation selection. In this case, a deeper investigation between HBV evolution and host adaptive response might assist control this disease. RESULT: Relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU) values for the whole HBV coding sequence were studied by Principal component analysis (PCA). The characteristics of the synonymous codon usage patterns, nucleotide contents and the comparison between ENC values of the whole HBV coding sequence indicated that the interaction between virus mutation pressure and host translation selection exists in the processes of HBV evolution. The synonymous codon usage pattern of HBV is a mixture of coincidence and antagonism to that of host cell. But the difference of genetic characteristic of HBV failed to be observed to its different epidemic areas or subtypes, suggesting that geographic factor is limited to influence the evolution of this virus, while genetic characteristic based on HBV genotypes could be divided into three groups, namely (i) genotyps A and E, (ii) genotype B, (iii) genotypes C, D and G. CONCLUSION: Codon usage patterns from PCA for identification of evolutionary trends in HBV provide an alternative approach to understand the evolution of HBV. Further more, a combined selection of mutation pressure with translation selection on codon usage might shed a light on understanding the evolutionary trends of HBV genotypes.

MiR-455-5p upregulation in umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells attenuates endometrial injury and promotes repair of damaged endometrium via Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 signaling.

Umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UCMSCs) are regarded as an ideal source for clinical use. Increasing evidence has suggested that microRNAs (miRNAs) work as a crucial regulator in the development of plentiful diseases, including intrauterine adhesions (IUA). Herein, we investigated the specific impacts of UCMSCs overexpressing miR-455-5p in IUA. UCMSCs were cocultured with endometrial stromal cells (ESCs). Thirty-two female mice were divided into four different treated groups: sham, model, model + UCMSC-miR-NC and model + UCMSC-miR-455-5p. Mice in model groups were induced by uterine curettage. MiR-455-5p overexpressed UCMSCs facilitated the proliferation and cell cycle progression of ESCs according to 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine assay and flow cytometry analysis. Hematoxylin-eosin and Masson staining revealed that miR-455-5p upregulation in UCMSCs increased the number of endometrial glands and suppressed endometrial fibrosis in murine uterine tissues. Western blotting displayed that miR-455-5p overexpressed UCMSCs promoted the activation of Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (JAK/STAT3) signaling in ESCs and murine uterine tissues. Mechanistically, miR-455-5p targeted 3' untranslated region of suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3), which was confirmed by luciferase reporter assay. Reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction demonstrated that miR-455-5p was lowly expressed and SOCS3 was highly expressed in murine uterine tissues of IUA model. Moreover, Pearson correlation analysis showed that their expression was inversely correlated. Rescue assays suggested that inhibiting JAK/STAT3 signaling reversed effects of miR-455-5p on the behaviors of ESCs. The results indicated that miR-455-5p overexpression in UCMSCs helps to attenuate endometrial injury and repair damaged endometrium by activating SOCS3-mediated JAK/STAT3 signaling.

Taisui TS-2007S, a Large Microbial Mat Discovered in Soil in China.

In this study, Taisui TS-2007S, a previously unidentified biological object discovered in soil in China, was identified. TS-2007S was shown to contain abundant carbohydrates but a scarcity of protein, fat, and minerals. The exopolymers of TS-2007S showed FT-IR spectra that were similar to those of xanthan gum (XG) but that were dissimilar to those of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The NMR spectra of TS-2007S exopolymers in D2O were similar to those of PVA but differed from those of xanthan gum. Unlike PVA, TS-2007S exopolymers and xanthan gum were not soluble in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Furthermore, the exopolymers contained many monosaccharide components, including fucose, rhamnose, mannose, and glucuronic acid in a molar ratio of 87.90:7.49:4.45:0.15. The exopolymers also included traces of glucuronic acid, galactose, and xylose. Taken together, these results suggest that the exopolymers are microbial extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs). The microbial community structure in TS-2007S showed that the predominant bacterial, archaeal, and fungal phyla were Proteobacteria, Euryarchaeota, and Ascomycota at high relative abundances of 90.77, 97.15, and 87.43%, respectively, different from those observed in water and soil environments. Based on these results, we strongly propose that TS-2007S should be defined as a microbial mat formed in soil.

Enhancing the 1-Aminocyclopropane-1-Carboxylate Metabolic Rate of Pseudomonas sp. UW4 Intensifies Chemotactic Rhizocompetence.

1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) is a strong metabolism-dependent chemoattractant for the plant beneficial rhizobacterium Pseudomonas sp. UW4. It is unknown whether enhancing the metabolic rate of ACC can intensify the chemotaxis activity towards ACC and rhizocompetence. In this study, we selected four promoters to transcribe the UW4 ACC deaminase (AcdS) gene in the UW4 ΔAcdS mutant. PA is the UW4 AcdS gene promoter, PB20, PB10 and PB1 are synthetic promoters. The order of the AcdS gene expression level and AcdS activity of the four strains harboring the promoters were PB20 > PA > PB10 > PB1. Interestingly, the AcdS activity of the four strains and their parent strain UW4 was significantly positively correlated with their chemotactic activity towards ACC, rhizosphere colonization, roots elongation and dry weight promotion. The results released that enhancing the AcdS activity of PGPRenable them to achieve strong chemotactic responses to ACC, rhizocompetence and plant growth promotion.

Gene polymorphism of DNA repair gene X-ray repair cross complementing group 1 and xeroderma pigmentosum group D and environment interaction in non-small-cell lung cancer for Chinese nonsmoking female patients.

An association between genetic polymorphisms in encoding X-ray repair cross complementing group 1 (XRCC1) and encoding xeroderma pigmentosum group D (XPD) and risks of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in East Chinese Han population has been observed. Herein we hypothesized that genetic polymorphisms in these two DNA repair genes are likely to be important in the NSCLC in Chinese nonsmoking female patients. We recruited 327 nonsmoking female patients with NSCLC and 342 individuals with benign lung diseases or healthy controls. Genotype frequencies of XRCC1 T-77C, Arg194Trp, Arg280His and Arg399Gln, Pro206Pro, and XPD Asp312Asn and Lys751Gln were calculated after Polymerase Chain Reaction amplification and sequencing. Generalized multifactor dimensionality reduction (GMDR) was used to detect the interactive effect of XRCC1 and XPD gene polymorphisms. The ratio of cooking oil mist exposure history and soot exposure history, and the gene frequencies of XRCC1 T-77C TC + CC, XRCC1 AG + GG, XRCC1 399Gln/Gln, and XPD 751Gln/Gln were higher in female patients with NSCLC than those with benign lung diseases or healthy controls. The haplotypes of XRCC1 T-Arg-Arg-Gln and XRCC1 C-Arg-Arg-Arg were positively associated with the NSCLC occurrence in nonsmoking female patients. GMDR discovered that there was an interactive model of XRCC1 and XPD genes in multiple gene loci. Logistic regression analysis showed that XRCC1 T-77C, XRCC1 Pro206Pro polymorphism, cooking oil mist and soot exposure history and tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage were related to NSCLC occurrence for nonsmoking female patients. Taken together, XRCC1 and XPD polymorphisms, cooking oil mist, and soot exposure history may be interactively correlated with NSCLC incidence for nonsmoking female patients.

Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in the PTPN1 Gene Are Associated with Susceptibility to Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Case-Control Study in Inner Mongolia, China.

OBJECTIVE: This case-control study investigated the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms in the PTPN1 gene with susceptibility to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) in Inner Mongolia, China. METHODS: A total of 302 patients living in Inner Mongolia China who were pathologically diagnosed with ESCC between April 2012 and 2016 were selected for the ESCC group; 373 healthy individuals were selected for the control group. The rs2904268 C>G, rs2230605 A>G, and rs16995309 C>T polymorphisms in the PTPN1 gene were detected by bidirectional polymerase chain reaction amplification of specific alleles. The haplotype frequencies were analyzed by SHEsis software. Binary logistic regression analysis was conducted to analyze risk factors associated with ESCC. RESULTS: Statistical differences between the ESCC and control groups were observed for history of smoking, drinking, and poor eating habits (all p < 0.05). Both the rs2904268 C>G CG and GG genotype frequencies were markedly higher in the ESCC group relative to the control group (both p < 0.05). However, the genotype frequencies of rs2230605 A>G and rs16995309 C>T were similar between the ESCC and control groups (all p > 0.05). Compared with the control group, the ESCC group had notably elevated frequencies of the GGC and GAT haplotypes and significantly reduced frequencies of CGC and GGT haplotypes (all p < 0.05). A history of smoking, drinking, poor eating habits, the rs2904268 C>G CG+GG genotypes, and the GAT haplotype were all identified as risk factors for ESCC (all p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: These results indicated that the PTPN1 gene polymorphism rs2904268 is associated with susceptibility to ESCC in Inner Mongolia.