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Introduction: Under the background of increasingly severe aging of agricultural labor force and relatively slow land circulation, agricultural production outsourcing has become the main means of agricultural modernization. Despite the existence of a voluminous literature on outsourcing service of pest control, little is known about its effect on biopesticides use. Methods: To fill this knowledge gap, this study uses rice planting data from 1,045 Chinese farm households to analyze the impact of different aging agricultural households and the pest control outsourcing service on the application of biopesticides by using the logit regression model. Results and Discussion: The study results showed that: (1) Participation in pest control outsourcing services significantly promotes biopesticide application. But this positive effect varied across age groups. (2) Compared with aging households, non-aging farmers tend to use biopesticides. Given this, it is recommended that pay attention to the ecological effect of pest control outsourcing services, strengthen the assistance to the aging labor group in the green pesticide promotion policy, and guide the aged planting decision makers to participate in pest control outsourcing services, thereby effectively improving the sustainable development of green agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Thermal ablation is the primary procedure for the local treatment of lung metastases. It is known that radiotherapy and cryoablation can stimulate an abscopal effect, while the occurrence of abscopal effect induced by microwave ablation is less; the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in the abscopal effect after microwave ablation should be further elucidated. Methods: CT26 tumor-bearing Balb/c mice were treated with microwave ablation with several combinations of ablation power and time duration. The growth of primary or abscopal tumors and the survival of mice were both monitored; moreover, immune profiles in abscopal tumors, spleens, and lymph nodes were examined by flow cytometry. Results: Microwave ablation suppressed tumor growth in both primary and abscopal tumors. Both local and systemic T-cell responses were induced by microwave ablation. Furthermore, the mice exhibiting significant abscopal effect after microwave ablation markedly elevated Th1 cell proportion both in the abscopal tumors and spleens. Conclusions: Microwave ablation at 3 w-3 min not only suppressed tumor growth in the primary tumors but also stimulated an abscopal effect in the CT26-bearing mice via the improvement of systemic and intratumoral antitumor immunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Accurate diagnosis of highly aggressive papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) may greatly help avoid overdiagnosis and overtreatment of PTC. However, there is still a lack of a convenient and accurate method. Targeted microbubbles, an emerging ultrasound contrast agent, have the potential to accurately diagnose highly aggressive PTC. Purpose: To design and prepare a targeted microbubble for specific contrastenhanced ultrasound (CEUS) imaging of highly invasive PTC. Methods: Using β-galactoside-binding protein galectin-3 (Gal-3) overexpressed on the surface of highly invasive PTC cells as a target, C12 polypeptide (ANTPCGPYTHDCPVKR) with high affinity and specificity for Gal-3 was coupled to the surface of lipid microbubbles to prepare targeted microbubbles (Gal-3-C12@lipo MBs). The targeted microbubbles were prepared by thin-film hydration method and mechanical shaking method. The morphology, diameter, concentration and stability of microbubbles were investigated by fluorescence microscopy and an AccuSizer. The biosafety of microbubbles was studied using BCPAP cells through CCK8 assay. Confocal laser scanning microscope and flow cytometry were applied to research the cellular uptake of microbubbles to investigate the targeting ability to highly aggressive PTC. Finally, the specific contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging of microbubbles in highly invasive PTC was validated on the mice bearing subcutaneous BCPAP tumor model via a clinically ultrasound imaging system. Results: Gal-3-C12@lipo MBs were successfully prepared which showed a well-defined spherical morphology with an average diameter of 1.598 ± 0.848 µm. Gal-3-C12@lipo MBs showed good stability without rupture within 4 hours after preparation. At the cellular level, Gal-3-C12@lipo MBs exhibited favorable biosafety and superior targeting ability to BCPAP cells, with 2.8-fold higher cellular uptake than non-targeted lipid microbubbles (Lipo MBs). At the animal level, Gal-3-C12@lipo MBs significantly improved the quality of contrastenhanced ultrasound imaging in highly invasive PTC, with an echo intensity of tumor significantly higher than that of Lipo MBs. Conclusion: We designed and fabricated a novel targeted microbubble for the specific ultrasound imaging diagnosis of highly aggressive PTC. The targeted microbubbles have good stability, superior biosafety and high targeting specificity, which can significantly improve the tumor signal-to-noise ratio of highly invasive PTC, and have the potential to facilitate and accurately diagnose highly invasive PTC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Uterine lipoleiomyoma is a rare lipomatous variant of uterine leiomyoma composed of a variable mixture of mature smooth muscle cells and adipocytes, typically found in peri or postmenopausal women. Malignancies arising from the tumor have rarely been reported though it is considered benign. Cases: We present three cases of uterine lipoleiomyoma and review literature to explore its etiology, characteristics, diagnosis and malignant transformation potential. Conclusion: Imaging examinations especially magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) play an important role in preoperative diagnosis. For large size and rapid growth of lipoleiomyoma, malignant transformation potential should be considered and surgery is required. Follow-up is still necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This research article effort to empirically assess the effect of microcredit on household economic welfare consequences, for example income and consumption in rural Pakistan. The valuation is based on the difference‐in‐difference method that is a progressively popular technique of tackling the selection bias issue in measuring the influences of microcredit. This paper uses a 2‐year panel data set, together with both primary and secondary data gained through a household survey in rural Pakistan. Our empirical outcomes favour the full belief in the literature that participates in microcredit programme helps expand households' economic welfare, for example income and consumption. Despite the positive results on how microcredit has improved the rural households' living status, our outcomes display that the huge majority of the program applicants are non‐poor, which casts roughly uncertainties on the social potential (for example poverty alleviation) of Pakistan's microcredit programs. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Objectives] To determine the content of oleanolic acid in 10 batches of Achyranthes aspera L. from different production areas, and to establish a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for the determination of oleanolic acid in A, aspeea. [Methods] Agilent C liquid chromatography column (250 mm x 4.6 mm, 5 |xm) was used for gradient elution with acetonitrile: water = 61 M39 a the mobile phase. The flow rate was 1 mLLmin, the detection wavelength was 210 nm, and the column temperature was 3 5 Q. [Results] The oleanolic acid injection volume showed a good linear relationship with the peak area in the range of 0.382 -7.640 |xg. The linear equation of oleanolic acid was & A = 530,16C, R = 1.000 0; the range of sample recovery rate was 96. 03 V - 102.73 V, and the RSD value was 2.16 V (n = 9). The content of the oleanolic acid was the highest in A, aspeea produced in Guilin City of Guangxi (0 .92V), and the lowest oleanolic acid content was in sample of Sitang in Nanning City of Guangx (0. 27 V). It is recommended that the oleanolic acid content of A. aspeea should not be lower than 0. 20V. [Conclusions] The HPLC method is accurate, reliable, easy to operate, and has good resolution. It is suitable for the determination of the content of oleic acid in A. aspera. It can provide reference for the quality control and standard drafting of A. aspera. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]