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Background: Retinoblastoma is a potentially fatal disease, and its incidence and mortality varies among different countries and periods. Methods: This is a nationwide population-based retrospective study from January 1980 to December 2019 in Taiwan. Patients diagnosed as retinoblastoma were identified from the Taiwan National Cancer Registry. To update the literature on retinoblastoma incidence, mortality and trends in Taiwan, we analysed changes in incidence and survival rates over time according to sex, diagnostic age, laterality and treatment. Results: During 1980–2019, the incidence of retinoblastoma in Taiwan was 1 per 16 489 live births (95% CI: 13 415–19 564). The diagnostic age decreased from 2.21 ± 0.26 during 1980–1984 to 1.24 ± 0.26 during 1985–2019. Compared with that observed during 1980–1989, the incidence rate observed after 1990 increased significantly in children aged <10 years (RR: 1.62–2.40, P= 0.0049 to < 0.0001). From 1980 to 2019, the incidence rate for the 0–4-year age group increased and that for the 5–9-year age group remained constant. The mean diagnostic age for bilateral retinoblastoma (0.36 ± 0.47 years) was significantly less than that for unilateral retinoblastoma (1.37 ± 0.35 years) during 2007–2019 (P< 0.0001). The 10-year survival rate was highest in the enucleation group (89.8%) compared with radiotherapy (52.2%) and others (70.0%; P< 0.0001). Conclusions: During 1980–2019 in Taiwan, the incidence of retinoblastoma increased significantly, and the diagnostic age decreased, which are similar to the ones from other developed countries. However, the survival rate was still lower than that of most developed countries.

In this paper, based on the need for high-strength connections between all-tungsten-oriented plasma materials and thermal sinking materials of copper and its alloys in nuclear fusion devices, a study on the effect of tungsten surface laser micro structuring on the interfacial bonding properties of W/Cu joints was carried out. In the experiment, the connectors were prepared by vacuum fusion infiltration technology, and the effects of microgroove structure on the mechanical and thermal conductivity of W/Cu connectors were investigated under different parameters (including microgroove pitch, microgroove depth, and microgroove taper). The maximum shear strength is 126.0 MPa when the pitch is 0.15 mm and the depth is 34 μm. In addition, the negative taper structure, i.e., the width of the entrance of the microstructure is smaller than the width of the interior of the microstructure, is also investigated. The shear tests show that there is an approximately linear relationship between the shear strength of W/Cu and taper. Compared with the positive taper, the shear strength of the samples with the same morphological density and depth of the tungsten surface is significantly higher.

One key challenge in postoperative glioblastoma immunotherapy is to guarantee a potent and durable T-cell response, which is restricted by the immunosuppressive microenvironment within the lymph nodes (LNs). Here, we develop an in situ sprayed exosome-cross-linked gel that acts as an artificial LN structure to directly activate the tumor-infiltrating T cells for prevention of glioma recurrence. Briefly, this gel is generated by a bio-orthogonal reaction between azide-modified chimeric exosomes and alkyne-modified alginate polymers. Particularly, these chimeric exosomes are generated from dendritic cell (DC)-tumor hybrid cells, allowing for direct and robust T-cell activation. The gel structure with chimeric exosomes as cross-linking points avoids the quick clearance by the immune system and thus prolongs the durability of antitumor T-cell immunity. Importantly, this exosome-containing immunotherapeutic gel provides chances for ameliorating functions of antigen-presenting cells (APCs) through accommodating different intracellular-acting adjuvants, such as stimulator of interferon genes (STING) agonists. This further enhances the antitumor T-cell response, resulting in the almost complete elimination of residual lesions after surgery. Our findings provide a promising strategy for postsurgical glioma immunotherapy that warrants further exploration in the clinical arena.

Person re-identification aims to retrieve pedestrians with the same identity across different cameras. However, current methods increase attention to interfering regions when dealing with complex backgrounds and occlusion, especially in the presence of similar interfering features. To enhance the robustness of the model, we propose the Reverse Pyramid Attention Guidance (RPAG) network, using a reverse pyramid structure to learn features at multiple granularities. To mitigate the impact of occlusion, we introduce the Similar Feature Filtering (SFF) attention module at the pixel level, using graph convolution to adaptively select occluded regions, thereby enhancing retrieval accuracy by filtering out irrelevant parts. Combining the reverse pyramid structure with the pixel-level attention module strengthens adaptability to complex scenes, guides multi-granularity feature learning, and effectively handles various occlusion scenarios. RPAG achieved Rank-1 accuracies of 96.2%, 93.2%, 88.7%, and 73.2% on the Market1501, DukeMTMC-ReID, MSMT17, and Occluded-Duke datasets, respectively.

The objective is to study the vortical structural behaviors of a transient pitching hydrofoil and their effects on the hydrodynamic performance. The pitching motion of the hydrofoil is set to pitch up with an almost constant rate from 5° to 15° and then back to 5°, with the Reynolds number 4.4×105and the frequency 2 Hz. The results show that the main coherent structures around the pitching hydrofoil include small-scale laminar separation bubble (LSB), large-scale second vortex (SV) and trailing edge vortex (TEV) which are all vortical. The relationship between the vortical structure and the lift is investigated with the finite-domain impulse theory. It indicates that the major part of the lift is contributed by the LSB, whereas the shedding and the formation of the SV and TEV cause the fluctuation of the lift. The proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) method is applied to capture the most energetic modes, revealing that the LSB mode occupies a large amount of energy in the flow field. The dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) method accurately extracts the dominant frequency and modal characteristics, with the first mode corresponding to the mean flow, the second mode corresponding to the LSB structure and the third and fourth modes corresponding to the vortex shedding.

Post COVID-19 infections resulting in long COVID symptoms remain persistent yet neglected in healthcare priorities. Although long COVID symptoms are expected to decline after some time, many people continue to endure its debilitating effects affecting their daily lives. The diversity of characteristics amongst long COVID patients adds to the complexity of communicating personal health predicaments to healthcare providers. Recent research towards building an evidence base for long COVID with the aim of delivering responsive healthcare interventions for long COVID patients has utilised datasets generated from wearable devices. This paper examines the prospects presented by wearable devices for long COVID patients and physicians. It highlights distinct ethical and legal challenges arising from their use in practice. Several recommendations aiming to support their usage amongst long COVID patients are outlined for future research using wearable devices for long COVID treatment.

Large data-intensive health research programmes benefit from collaboration amongst researchers who may be located in different institutions and international contexts. However, complexities in navigating privacy frameworks and data protection laws across various jurisdictions pose significant challenges to researchers seeking to share or transfer data outside of institutional boundaries. Research on the awareness of data protection and privacy laws amongst stakeholders is limited. Our qualitative study, drawn from a larger project in Singapore, revealed insights into stakeholders’ perceptions of the role of law in cross-national health data research. Stakeholders in our study demonstrated a range of perceptions regarding the role of data protection law in governing the collection and transfer of health data for research. The main criticisms included inadequate legal protection to data and lack of uniformed data protection standards. Despite these criticisms, participants recognised the importance of data protection law in supporting cross-border data transfers and proposed measures to improve perceived limitations of existing laws. These measures include strengthening existing legal framework, establishing contractual agreements and imposing severe punishments for data misuse.

ABSTRACTA brief daily body-mind-spirit (BMS) workplace well-being program has been developed for community mental health workers (CMHW). Aiming to evaluate the program’s efficacy, this study adopted a multi-site randomized controlled trial design. Primary outcome measures included work engagement and burnout. The data analysis included 175 participants. ANOVA revealed significant group x time interaction effects on work engagement (η2 = 0.037, p = 0.039) and on one of its sub-scores: absorption (η2 = 0.048, p = 0.014). Regarding burnout, ANOVA revealed that at T4 there were significant group x time effects on burnout total score and all three of its sub-scores, including work-related burnout, client-related burnout and personal burnout. Partial eta squared ranged between 0.028 and 0.071, suggesting a small-to-medium effect size. Overall findings demonstrated the protective effect of the Brief Daily BMS program in preserving work engagement during challenging conditions, and to a lesser extent in reducing burnout among CMHW.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a disorder with endocrinal and metabolic problems in reproductive aged women. Evidence shows that PCOS is in a high prone trend to develop kidney diseases. In this study, we investigated the mediators responsible for PCOS-related kidney injury. We found that tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) levels were significantly increased in serum and primary cultured granulosa cells (GCs) from PCOS patients. Serum TNF-α levels were positively correlated with serum testosterone and luteinizing hormone (LH)/follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) ratio, suggesting its positive role in the severity of PCOS. Serum TNF-α levels were also positively correlated with the levels of urinary KapU, LamU, α1‐MU and β2‐MU, the markers for renal tubular cell-derived proteinuria. We established a PCOS mouse model by resection of the right kidney, followed by daily administration of dihydrotestosterone (DHT, 27.5 μg, i.p.) from D7 for 90 days. We found that TNF-α levels were significantly increased in the ovary and serum of the mice, accompanied by increased renal tubular cell apoptosis, inflammation and fibrosis in kidneys. Furthermore, the receptor of TNF-α, tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 (TNFR1), was significantly upregulated in renal tubular cells. We treated human ovarian granulosa-like tumor cells (KGN) with DHT (1 μg/ml) in vitro, the conditioned medium derived from the granulosa cell culture greatly accelerated apoptotic injury in human proximal tubular epithelial cells (HKC-8), which was blocked after knockdown of TNF-α in KGN cells. Furthermore, knockdown of TNFR1 in renal tubular epithelial cells greatly ameliorated cell injury induced by granulosa cell-derived conditioned medium. These results suggest that serum TNF-α plays a key role in mediating inflammation and apoptosis in renal tubular cells associated with PCOS-related kidney injury.

Heterogeneity is a major obstacle to the success of CAR-T therapy in treating solid tumors. The complex tumor microenvironment and varying phenotypes of tumor cells might result in antigen escape, drug resistance, and tumor recurrence. To address this issue, we proposed to use lipid-modified fluorescein isothiocyanate (Lip-FITC) as an artificial ligand to normalize the phenotypes of solid tumor cells. In murine cutaneous melanoma and colon adenocarcinoma that prefer to utilize exogenous long-chain fatty acids, we observed much more uptake of Lip-FITC and significantly increased FITC fluorescence on tumor cell membranes than normal cells. This specific exogenous labeling with FITC enhanced the recognition and selectivity of CART cells in solid tumors, bypassing the limitations derived from antigen expression differences in adoptive cell therapies. Lipid metabolism analysis and in vitroexperiments demonstrated the sufficient uptake of long-chain fatty acid (LCFAs)-modified Lip-FITC by solid tumor cells, as well as satisfactory ligand assembly on cell membranes. In solid tumor model, the treatment induced the recognition and initiation of CART cells and successfully suppressed tumor progression through T-cell immunity.

In the COVID-19 pandemic, delivering learning content to students via the use of technologies has become mainstream. Among various technology-supported learning modes, game-based language learning (GBLL) has been considered an effective approach to engaging learners in joyful and interactive contexts. This study aims to provide an overview of GBLL using bibliometric mapping analysis and coding analysis. This systematic review provides a scoping overview of empirical evidence on the use and impacts of games in language learning from 1989 to 2020. Based on a set of criteria retrieved from the Web of Science, 101 articles were analyzed. The coding analysis were three aspects to identify the research issues, performance issues, and interaction issues. Moreover, in a comprehensive review of the research on GBLL, insights are provided for educators and future research. The findings differing from those of previous reviews can serve as a reference for researchers on GBLL-related studies.

Background and aimsCurrent practice on Helicobacter pyloriinfection mostly focuses on individual-based care in the community, but family-based H. pylorimanagement has recently been suggested as a better strategy for infection control. However, the family-based H. pyloriinfection status, risk factors and transmission pattern remain to be elucidated.MethodsFrom September 2021 to December 2021, 10 735 families (31 098 individuals) were enrolled from 29 of 31 provinces in mainland China to examine family-based H. pyloriinfection, related factors and transmission pattern. All family members were required to answer questionnaires and test for H. pyloriinfection.ResultsAmong all participants, the average individual-based H. pyloriinfection rate was 40.66%, with 43.45% for adults and 20.55% for children and adolescents. Family-based infection rates ranged from 50.27% to 85.06% among the 29 provinces, with an average rate of 71.21%. In 28.87% (3099/10 735) of enrolled families, there were no infections; the remaining 71.13% (7636/10 735) of families had 1–7 infected members, and in 19.70% (1504/7636), all members were infected. Among 7961 enrolled couples, 33.21% had no infection, but in 22.99%, both were infected. Childhood infection was significantly associated with parental infection. Independent risk factors for household infection were infected family members (eg, five infected members: OR 2.72, 95% CI 1.86 to 4.00), living in highly infected areas (eg, northwest China: OR 1.83, 95% CI 1.57 to 2.13), and large families in a household (eg, family of three: OR 1.97, 95% CI 1.76 to 2.21). However, family members with higher education and income levels (OR 0.85, 95% CI 0.79 to 0.91), using serving spoons or chopsticks, more generations in a household (eg, three generations: OR 0.79, 95% CI 0.68 to 0.92), and who were younger (OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.70) had lower infection rates (p<0.05).ConclusionFamilial H. pyloriinfection rate is high in general household in China. Exposure to infected family members is likely the major source of its spread. These results provide supporting evidence for the strategic changes from H. pyloriindividual-based treatment to family-based management, and the notion has important clinical and public health implications for infection control and related disease prevention.

Twenty new malabaricane triterpenoids, astramalabaricosides A–T (1–20), were isolated from the roots of Astragalus membranaceusvar. mongholicus(Astragali Radix). Their structures were determined by spectroscopic analysis, and the use of the circular dichroism exciton chirality method, quantum chemical calculations, and chemical methods. Malabaricane triterpenoids, an unusual group with the 6-6-5-tricyclic core, are distributed in plants (e.g., Simaroubaceae, Polypodiaceae, and Fabaceae), a marine sponge, and fungi, and their number obtained to date is limited. Compounds 1–20were characterized as glycosides with a highly oxygenated side chain, and 13–20were the first cyclic carbonate derivatives among the malabaricane triterpenoids. The stereocluster formed from the continuous hydroxylated chiral carbons in each highly oxygenated side chain and the 6-6-5-tricyclic core system were entirely segregated, and the independent identification of their stereoconfigurations required considerable effort. The migratory inhibitory and antiproliferative activities of 1–20were evaluated by wound-healing and cell-viability assays, respectively. Most compounds showed significant migratory inhibitory activity, and a preliminary structure–activity relationship was developed. Malabaricane triterpenoids are being reported in the genus Astragalusfor the first time.

Aging is characterized with a progressive decline in many cognitive functions, including behavioral flexibility, an important ability to respond appropriately to changing environmental contingencies. However, the underlying mechanisms of impaired behavioral flexibility in aging are not clear. In this study, we reported that necroptosis-induced reduction of neuronal activity in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) plays an important role in behavioral inflexibility in 5-month-old mice of the senescence-accelerated mice prone-8 (SAMP8) line, a well-established model with age-related phenotypes. Application of Nec-1s, a specific inhibitor of necroptosis, reversed the impairment of behavioral flexibility in SAMP8 mice. We further observed that the loss of glycogen synthase kinase 3α (GSK-3α) was strongly correlated with necroptosis in the BLA of aged mice and the amygdala of aged cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis). Moreover, genetic deletion or knockdown of GSK-3α led to the activation of necroptosis and impaired behavioral flexibility in wild-type mice, while the restoration of GSK-3α expression in the BLA arrested necroptosis and behavioral inflexibility in aged mice. We further observed that GSK-3α loss resulted in the activation of mTORC1 signaling to promote RIPK3-dependent necroptosis. Importantly, we discovered that social isolation, a prevalent phenomenon in aged people, facilitated necroptosis and behavioral inflexibility in 4-month-old SAMP8 mice. Overall, our study not only revealed the molecular mechanisms of the dysfunction of behavioral flexibility in aged people but also identified a critical lifestyle risk factor and a possible intervention strategy.

Metastable austenitic stainless steels (ASSs) have excellent ductility but low strength, so that their usage as load-bearing components is significantly limited. Rolling is an effective method of increasing strength, whereas the effect of rolling temperature on microstructural evolution, the hydrogen embrittlement (HE) sensitivity and fracture mechanisms is still unclear. In present study, the effect of cold/warm rolling on detailed microstructural characteristics of 304 ASS was quantitatively investigated, and the corresponding HE sensitivity was evaluated via slow strain rate test (SSRT). The results suggest that cold-rolling led to high strength but poor plasticity and deteriorated HE sensitivity, while warm-rolled samples provided combination of high strength and ductility and also superior HE resistance. Compared with 18% α′-martensite in cold -rolled steel, warm-rolled specimens consisted of complete austenite, less twins and lower dislocation density，moreover, the favorable {112} ND and {110} ND textures replaced the harmful {001} ND texture. Based on in-situEBSD observation during SSRT, the HE sensitivity was governed by the combined effect of pre-deformation microstructures and the dynamic microstructural evolution. Advanced method of time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry was used to observe the distribution of hydrogen, and the hydrogen content of specimens was determined by the gas chromatograph thermal desorption analysis method. An exceedingly small amount of hydrogen entered the warm-rolled samples, while a large amount of hydrogen was trapped at grain boundaries of cold-rolled sample, leading to complete intergranular fracture. Therefore, warm rolling is an effective pathway for obtaining high combination of strength and ductility together with excellent HE sensitivity.

Enantioselective synthesis of axially chiral sulfur-containing biaryl derivatives through the electrophilic sulfenylation of biaryl phenols has been achieved for the first time. This catalytic asymmetric system, which involves sequential desymmetrization and kinetic resolution, is enabled by a combination of a novel 3,3′-disubstituted BINOL-derived selenide catalyst and an achiral sulfonic acid. Control experiments and computational studies suggest that multiple noncovalent interactions between the cocatalysts and substrate, especially a network of hydrogen bond interactions, play a crucial role in determining the enantioselectivity and reactivity.

Digestive tract cancers are the common cause of cancer deaths in both China and worldwide. This study aimed to describe the burden, recent trends and lifetime risks in the incidence and mortality of digestive tract cancers in an urban district of Shanghai, China. Our study extracted data on stomach, colon, rectum and liver cancers diagnosed in Changning District between 2010 and 2019 from the Shanghai Cancer Registry. We calculated age-standardized incidence and mortality rates, the risks of developing and dying from cancer, and the estimated annual percent changes. Between 2010 and 2019, 8619 new cases and 5775 deaths were registered with digestive tract cancers in the district. The age-standardized incidence rates (ASIRs) of liver cancer decreased steadily, whereas the ASIRs of stomach, colon and rectum cancers remained stable from 2010 to 2019. The age-standardized mortality rates (ASMRs) of stomach and liver cancers showed significant declining changes from 2010 to 2019 in both sexes, but that of colon and rectum cancers remained stable during the entire period. The risks of developing and dying from digestive tract cancers were substantially higher in men than women. The burden of digestive tract cancer and its disparities between sex and age group remain major public health challenges in urban Shanghai. To reduce the burden of digestive tract cancers, the government and researchers should develop and promote a healthy diet, organize a screening, and reduce the prevalence of smoking, alcohol drinking, and hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus infections.

ABSTRACTMacroautophagy/autophagy (hereafter autophagy), the process of mass degradation of unnecessary elements within the cell, is often dysregulated in many diseases such as cancer, atherosclerosis, and neurodegenerative diseases. Hence, autophagy modulating agents have a great potential to be therapeutic agents for the autophagy-related diseases. Here we report that an anti-depressant drug sertraline (Sert) is an autophagy-inducing agent. Mechanistically, Sert potentially binds to and antagonizes the mitochondrial VDAC1 (voltage dependent anion channel 1), resulting in reduced cellular ATP (adenosine triphosphate) level, activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and inhibition of its downstream, MTOR (mechanistic target of rapamycin kinase)-RPS6KB1 (ribosomal protein S6 kinase B1) signaling pathway. Cells lacking VDAC1 expression completely abrogate the modulatory effect of Sert on AMPK-MTOR pathway and autophagy-inducing activity. We further show that Sert suppresses tauopathy by promoting the autophagic degradation of MAPT (microtubule associated protein tau) protein via inducing autophagy. Our study demonstrates the potential of Sert as a novel small molecule autophagy-inducing agent and provides a new drug candidate to treat autophagy related diseases by targeting VDAC1.Abbreviations:AMP: adenosine monophosphate; AMPK: AMP-activated protein kinase; ATP: adenosine triphosphate; Baf: bafilomycin A1; BiFC: biomolecular fluorescence complementation; CAMKK2/CAMKKB: calcium/calmodulin dependent protein kinase kinase 2; CC: compound C; DARTS: drug affinity responsive target stability; HUVECs: human umbilical vein endothelial cells; Inda: indatraline; STK11/LKB1: serine/threonine kinase 11; MAPT: microtubule associated protein tau; MAP1LC3/LC3: microtubule associated protein 1 light chain 3; 3-MA: 3-methyladenine; MEFs: mouse embryonic fibroblasts; MTOR: mechanistic target of rapamycin kinase; PI3K: phosphoinositide 3-kinase; Rapa: rapamycin; Sert: sertraline; RPS6KB1: ribosomal protein S6 kinase B1; SQSTM1/p62: sequestosome 1; SLC6A4/SERT1: solute carrier family 6 member 4; TFEB: transcription factor EB; VDAC1: voltage dependent anion channel 1; WT: wild-type; WM: wortmannin.

ABSTRACTDuring COVID-19 pandemic, people experienced lockdown and associated distress. As face-to-face intervention was unfeasible, an 8-week Strength-based Online Community Intervention (SOCI) was developed and evaluated with a quasi-experimental design in Hubei Province, China from February to April 2020. Participants (N = 150) self-elected to join either the SOCI group or a casual discussion control group. Pre-/post-measures on post-traumatic stress, positive and negative affect, resilience, and spirituality were taken. Multivariate ANOVA revealed a significant combined effect with a medium effect size (partial eta squared = 0.11). Specifically, significant group × time interaction effects were revealed for resilience, spirituality, and positive affect.

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a range of responses from countries across the globe in managing and containing infections. Considerable research has highlighted the importance of trust in ethically and effectively managing infectious diseases in the population; however, considerations of reciprocal trust remain limited in debates on pandemic response. This paper aims to broaden the perspective of good ethical practices in managing an infectious disease outbreak by including the role of reciprocal trust. A synthesis of the approaches drawn from South Korea and Taiwan reveals reciprocal trust as an important ethical response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Reciprocal trust offers the opportunity to reconcile the difficulties arising from restrictive measures for protecting population health and individual rights.

A simple wet-chemical route for the preparation of core–shell-structured catalysts was developed to achieve high oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity with a low Pt loading amount. Nickel nitride (Ni3N) nanoparticles were used as earth-abundant metal-based cores to support thin Pt layers. To realize the site-selective formation of Pt layers on the Ni3N core, hydrogen molecules (H2) were used as a mild reducing agent. As H2oxidation is catalyzed by the surface of Ni3N, the redox reaction between H2and Pt(IV) in solution was facilitated on the Ni3N surface, which resulted in the selective deposition of Pt on Ni3N. The controlled Pt formation led to a subnanometer (0.5–1 nm)-thick Pt shell on the Ni3N core. By adopting the core–shell structure, higher ORR activity than the commercial Pt/C was achieved. Electrochemical measurements showed that the thin Pt layer on Ni3N nanoparticle exhibits 5 times higher mass activity and specific activity than that of commercial Pt/C. Furthermore, it is expected that the proposed simple wet-chemical method can be utilized to prepare various transition-metal-based core–shell nanocatalysts for a wide range of energy conversion reactions.

Wheat relative species are important for agriculture production, functional genomics study and wheat improvement as useful genetic resources. In this study, a regeneration related wheat gene TaWOX5was applied to establish the Agrobacterium-mediated transformation systems of Triticum monococcum, hexaploid triticale, and rye (Secale cerealeL.) using their immature embryos. Transgenic plants were efficiently generated. During the transformation process, the Agrobacteriuminfection efficiency was assessed by histochemical staining for β-glucuronidase (GUS). Finally, the transgenic nature of regenerated plants was verified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based genotyping for presence of the GUSand bialaphos resistance(bar) genes, histochemical staining for GUS protein, and QuickStix strip assay for bar protein. The transformation efficiency of T. monococcumgenotype PI428182 was 94.4%; the efficiencies of four hexaploid triticale genotypes Lin456, ZS3297, ZS1257, and ZS3224 were 52.1, 41.2, 19.4, and 16.0%, respectively; the transformation efficiency of rye cultivar Lanzhou Heimai was 7.8%. Fluorescence in situhybridization (FISH) and genomic in situhybridization (GISH) analysis indicated that the GUStransgenes were integrated into the distal or near centromere (proximal) region of the chromosomes in transgenic T. monococcumand hexaploid triticale plants; in the transgenic hexaploid triticale plants, the foreign DNA fragment was randomly integrated into the AABB genome and RR genome. Furthermore, the transgene was proved to be almost stably inherited in the next generation by Mendel’s law. The findings in this study will promote genetic improvement for grain or forage production of the three plant species and for functional genomics study of cereal species including wheat.

Recent expansions in databases containing clinical, research, or genetic information have created opportunities for other uses which differ from their original purposes. Legislative changes in some jurisdictions broadening the powers of law enforcement agencies to access these databases for criminal investigations have renewed concerns regarding protecting public safety through DNA profiling for criminal investigations and defending individuals’ interests in protecting their personal information. This article addresses the ethical and legal considerations around the widening of law enforcement agencies’ powers to collect DNA information and potential access to DNA databases for criminal investigations, focusing on the recent developments in Singapore in comparison with selected jurisdictions. It advocates for a tiered access approach to third-party research databases for specific crimes only. A tiered access approach facilitates the aims of safeguarding public interests through appropriate exercise of access powers, protecting individuals’ expectations of privacy of their personal information contained in these databases and supporting the continued sustainability of third-party research databases.

Prenatal emotional distress is common in pregnant women. Altered emotional distress can occur from the very beginning to the end of pregnancy. Heart rate variability (HRV) has recently become considered to be a potentially reliable psychophysiological stress biomarker in adults. In the current study, we evaluated ultra-short-term HRV (1-minute measurement) as a psychophysiological biomarker by examining the association between HRV parameters and self-reported prenatal emotional distress among pregnant women (N= 230) across three trimesters of pregnancy.

A selenium-catalyzed trifluoromethylsulfinylation/rearrangement of allylic and propargylic alcohols for synthesizing triflones was developed for the first time. Various allylic and allenic triflones were delivered in moderate to excellent yields. After numerous control experiments were performed, it was suggested that this transformation includes an unusual [+SCF3] group disproportionation process that forms [+SOCF3] that is in-situ-catalyzed by selenium, and H2O was used as an oxygen source. This reaction features mild reaction conditions and good compatibility of substrates, and it is transition-metal-free.

C30H48O4, orthorhombic, P212121(no. 19), a= 12.34133(14) Å, b= 16.50759(15) Å, c= 26.8804(2) Å, V= 5476.23(9) Å3, Z= 8, Rgt(F) = 0.0422, wRref(F2) = 0.0990, T = 293 K.

C30H48O5, orthorhombic, P212121(no. 19), a= 11.6608(10) Å, b= 14.8098(15) Å, c= 15.9975(16) Å, V= 2762.7(5) Å3, Z= 4, Rgt(F) = 0.0586, wRref(F2) = 0.1580, T= 293(2) K.