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As one of the most extensively studied glycosaminoglycan lyases, heparinase I has been used in producing low or ultra-low molecular weight heparin. Its' important applications are to neutralize the heparin in human blood and analyze heparin structure in the clinic. However, the low productivity and activity of the enzyme have greatly hindered its applications. In this study, a novel Hep-I from Bacteroides cellulosilyticus (BcHep-I) was successfully cloned and heterologously expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3) as a soluble protein. The molecular mass and isoelectric point (pI) of the enzyme are 44.42 kDa and 9.02, respectively. And the characterization of BcHep-I after purified with Ni-NTA affinity chromatography suggested that it is a mesophilic enzyme. BcHep-I can be activated by 1 mM Ca2+, Mg2+, and Mn2+, while severely inhibited by Zn2+, Co2+, and EDTA. The specific activity of the enzyme was 738.3 U⋅mg-1 which is the highest activity ever reported. The Km and Vmax were calculated as 0.17 mg⋅mL-1 and 740.58 U⋅mg-1, respectively. Besides, the half-life of 300 min at 30°C showed BcHep-I has practical applications. Homology modeling and substrate docking revealed that Gln15, Lys74, Arg76, Lys104, Arg149, Gln208, Tyr336, Tyr342, and Lys338 were mainly involved in the substrate binding of Hep-I, and 11 hydrogen bonds were formed between heparin and the enzyme. These results indicated that BcHep-I with high activity has great potential applications in the industrial production of heparin, especially in the clinic to neutralize heparin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is much variation in hospice use with respect to geographic factors such as area-based deprivation, location of patient's residence and proximity to services location. However, little is known about how the association between geographic access to inpatient hospice and hospice deaths varies by patients' region of settlement. Study aim: To examine regional differences in the association between geographic access to inpatient hospice and hospice deaths. Methods: A regional population-based observational study in England, UK. Records of patients aged ≥ 25 years (n = 123088) who died from non-accidental causes in 2014, were extracted from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) death registry. Our cohort comprised of patients who died at home and in inpatient hospice. Decedents were allocated to each of the nine government office regions of England (London, East Midlands, West Midlands, East, Yorkshire and The Humber, South West, South East, North West and North East) through record linkage with their postcode of usual residence. We defined geographic access as a measure of drive times from patients' residential location to the nearest inpatient hospice. A modified Poisson regression estimated the association between geographic access to hospice, comparing hospice deaths (1) versus home deaths (0). We developed nine regional specific models and adjusted for regional differences in patient's clinical & socio-demographic characteristics. The strength of the association was estimated with adjusted Proportional Ratios (aPRs). Findings: The percentage of deaths varied across regions (home: 86.7% in the North East to 73.0% in the South East; hospice: 13.3% in the North East to 27.0% in the South East). We found wide differences in geographic access to inpatient hospices across regions. Median drive times to hospice varied from 4.6 minutes in London to 25.9 minutes in the North East. We found a dose-response association in the East: (aPRs: 0.22–0.78); East Midlands: (aPRs: 0.33–0.63); North East (aPRs: 0.19–0.87); North West (aPRs: 0.69–0.88); South West (aPRs: 0.56–0.89) and West Midlands (aPRs: 0.28–0.92) indicating that decedents who lived further away from hospices locations (≥ 10 minutes) were less likely to die in a hospice. Conclusion: The clear dose-response associations in six regions underscore the importance of regional specific initiatives to improve and optimise access to hospices. Commissioners and policymakers need to do more to ensure that home death is not due to limited geographic access to inpatient hospice care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increasing evidence that acute aerobic exercise is associated with improved cognitive function. However, neural correlates of its cognitive plasticity remain largely unknown. The present study examined the effect of a session of acute aerobic exercise on working memory task-evoked brain activity as well as task performance. A within-subjects design with a counterbalanced order was employed. Fifteen young female participants (M = 19.56, SD = 0.81) were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a working memory task, the N-back task, both following an acute exercise session with 20 minutes of moderate intensity and a control rest session. Although an acute session of exercise did not improve behavioral performance, we observed that it had a significant impact on brain activity during the 2-back condition of the N-back task. Specifically, acute exercise induced increased brain activation in the right middle prefrontal gyrus, the right lingual gyrus, and the left fusiform gyrus as well as deactivations in the anterior cingulate cortexes, the left inferior frontal gyrus, and the right paracentral lobule. Despite the lack of an effect on behavioral measures, significant changes after acute exercise with activation of the prefrontal and occipital cortexes and deactivation of the anterior cingulate cortexes and left frontal hemisphere reflect the improvement of executive control processes, indicating that acute exercise could benefit working memory at a macro-neural level. In addition to its effects on reversing recent obesity and disease trends, our results provide substantial evidence highlighting the importance of promoting physical activity across the lifespan to prevent or reverse cognitive and neural decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there have been many case-control studies proposed to test for association between haplotypes and disease, which require the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) assumption of haplotype frequencies. As such, haplotype inference of unphased genotypes and development of haplotype-based HWE tests are crucial prior to fine mapping. The goodness-of-fit test is a frequently-used method to test for HWE for multiple tightly-linked loci. However, its degrees of freedom dramatically increase with the increase of the number of loci, which may lack the test power. Therefore, in this paper, to improve the test power for haplotype-based HWE, we first write out two likelihood functions of the observed data based on the Niu's model (NM) and inbreeding model (IM), respectively, which can cause the departure from HWE. Then, we use two expectation-maximization algorithms and one expectation-conditional-maximization algorithm to estimate the model parameters under the HWE, IM and NM models, respectively. Finally, we propose the likelihood ratio tests LRT and LRT for haplotype-based HWE under the NM and IM models, respectively. We simulate the HWE, Niu's, inbreeding and population stratification models to assess the validity and compare the performance of these two LRT tests. The simulation results show that both of the tests control the type I error rates well in testing for haplotype-based HWE. If the NM model is true, then LRT is more powerful. While, if the true model is the IM model, then LRT has better performance in power. Under the population stratification model, LRT is still more powerful. To this end, LRT is generally recommended. Application of the proposed methods to a rheumatoid arthritis data set further illustrates their utility for real data analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although research has provided abundant evidence for Taichi-induced improvements in psychological and physiological well-being, little is known about possible links to brain structure of Taichi practice. Using high-resolution MRI of 22 Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) practitioners and 18 controls matched for age, sex and education, we set out to examine the underlying anatomical correlates of long-term Taichi practice at two different levels of regional specificity. For this purpose, parcel-wise and vertex-wise analyses were employed to quantify the difference between TCC practitioners and the controls based on cortical surface reconstruction. We also adopted the Attention Network Test (ANT) to explore the effect of TCC on executive control. TCC practitioners, compared with controls, showed significantly thicker cortex in precentral gyrus, insula sulcus and middle frontal sulcus in the right hemisphere and superior temporal gyrus and medial occipito-temporal sulcus and lingual sulcus in the left hemisphere. Moreover, we found that thicker cortex in left medial occipito-temporal sulcus and lingual sulcus was associated with greater intensity of TCC practice. These findings indicate that long-term TCC practice could induce regional structural change and also suggest TCC might share similar patterns of neural correlates with meditation and aerobic exercise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background:For years, emerging infectious diseases have appeared worldwide and threatened the health of people. The emergence and spread of an infectious-disease outbreak are usually unforeseen, and have the features of suddenness and uncertainty. Timely understanding of basic information in the field, and the collection and analysis of epidemiological information, is helpful in making rapid decisions and responding to an infectious-disease emergency. Therefore, it is necessary to have an unobstructed channel and convenient tool for the collection and analysis of epidemiologic information in the field. Methodology/Principal Findings: Baseline information for each county in mainland China was collected and a database was established by geo-coding information on a digital map of county boundaries throughout the country. Google Maps was used to display geographic information and to conduct calculations related to maps, and the 3G wireless network was used to transmit information collected in the field to the server. This study established a decision support system for the response to infectious-disease emergencies based on WebGIS and mobile services (DSSRIDE). The DSSRIDE provides functions including data collection, communication and analyses in real time, epidemiological detection, the provision of customized epidemiological questionnaires and guides for handling infectious disease emergencies, and the querying of professional knowledge in the field. These functions of the DSSRIDE could be helpful for epidemiological investigations in the field and the handling of infectious-disease emergencies. Conclusions/Significance:The DSSRIDE provides a geographic information platform based on the Google Maps application programming interface to display information of infectious disease emergencies, and transfers information between workers in the field and decision makers through wireless transmission based on personal computers, mobile phones and personal digital assistants. After a 2-year practice and application in infectious disease emergencies, the DSSRIDE is becoming a useful platform and is a useful tool for investigations in the field carried out by response sections and individuals. The system is suitable for use in developing countries and low-income districts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has shown that the geographical distribution patterns of freshwater fishes and amphibians have been influenced by past climatic oscillations in China resulting from Pleistocene glacial activity. However, it remains unknown how these past changes have impacted the present-day distribution of Chinese freshwater crabs. This work describes the diversity and endemism of freshwater crabs belonging to Sinopotamon, a highly speciose genus endemic to China, and evaluates its distribution in terms of topography and past climatic fluctuations. Species diversity within Sinopotamon was found to be concentrated in an area from the northeastern edge of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau to the Jiangnan Hills, and three areas of endemism were identified. Multiple regression analysis between current climatic variables and Sinopotamon diversity suggested that regional annual precipitation, minimum temperature in the coldest month, and annual temperature range significantly influenced species diversity and may explain the diversity patterns of Sinopotamon. A comparison of ecological niche models (ENMs) between current conditions and the last glacial maximum (LGM) showed that suitable habitat for Sinopotamon in China severely contracted during the LGM. The coincidence of ENMs and the areas of endemism indicated that southeast of the Daba Mountains, and central and southeastern China, are potential Pleistocene refuges for Sinopotamon. The presence of multiple Pleistocene refuges within the range of this genus could further promote inter- and intraspecific differentiations, and may have led to high Sinopotamon species diversity, a high endemism rate and widespread distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Fascin-1, ezrin and paxillin, cytoskeleton-associated proteins, have been implicated in several human cancers, but their role in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) is unknown. We investigated the association of their expression and clinicopathologic factors and their prognostic value in LSCC. Materials and Methods: Quantitative RT-PCR and western blot analyses were used to examine mRNA and protein levels in 10 fresh LSCC specimens and 10 corresponding adjacent normal margin (ANM) tissues from patients undergoing surgery in 2012. We used immunohistochemistry to retrospectively study 216 paraffin blocks of LSCC samples from patients (193 men) who had undergone surgery between 2000 and 2006 and had not received special treatment before the diagnosis. Univariate analysis of patient survival involved the Kaplan--Meier method. Multivariate analyses involved the Cox proportional hazards model. Results: The relative mRNA and protein levels of fascin-1, ezrin and paxillin were significantly greater in LSCC than ANM tissue (P<0.05). The high expression of fascin-1, ezrin or paxillin was positively correlated with poor tumor differentiation, cervical lymph node metastasis (N+), and advanced clinical stage (III+IV) (P,0.05) but not sex or metastasis. In addition, a high expression of fascin-1 (P = 0.007) or ezrin (P = 0.047) was associated with advanced tumor stage (T3+T4). The expression of fascin-1 was higher in smokers than non-smokers (P = 0.019). A high expression of fascin-1, ezrin or paxillin was associated with poor prognosis. Conclusions: Fascin-1, ezrin and paxillin may be prognostic of poor outcome with LSCC after surgery. Our study may lead to establishing new molecular therapeutic targets and/or prognostic biomarkers in LSCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is known that the conservation of protein-coding genes is associated with their sequences both various species, such as animals and plants. However, the association between microRNA (miRNA) conservation and their sequences in various species remains unexplored. Here we report the association of miRNA conservation with its sequence features, such as base content and cleavage sites, suggesting that miRNA sequences contain the fingerprints for miRNA conservation. More interestingly, different species show different and even opposite patterns between miRNA conservation and sequence features. For example, mammalian miRNAs show a positive/negative correlation between conservation and AU/GC content, whereas plant miRNAs show a negative/positive correlation between conservation and AU/GC content. Further analysis puts forward the hypothesis that the introns of protein-coding genes may be a main driving force for the origin and evolution of mammalian miRNAs. At the 5' end, conserved miRNAs have a preference for base U, while less-conserved miRNAs have a preference for a non-U base in mammals. This difference does not exist in insects and plants, in which both conserved miRNAs and less-conserved miRNAs have a preference for base U at the 59 end. We further revealed that the non-U preference at the 5' end of less-conserved mammalian miRNAs is associated with miRNA function diversity, which may have evolved from the pressure of a highly sophisticated environmental stimulus the mammals encountered during evolution. These results indicated that miRNA sequences contain the fingerprints for conservation, and these fingerprints vary according to species. More importantly, the results suggest that although species share common mechanisms by which miRNAs originate and evolve, mammals may develop a novel mechanism for miRNA origin and evolution. In addition, the fingerprint found in this study can be predictor of miRNA conservation, and the findings are helpful in achieving a clearer understanding of miRNA function and evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaria is re-emerging in Anhui Province, China after a decade long' low level of endemicity. The number of human cases has increased rapidly since 2000 and reached its peak in 2006. That year, the malaria cases accounted for 54.5% of total cases in mainland China. However, the spatial and temporal patterns of human cases and factors underlying the reemergence remain unclear. We established a database containing 20 years' (1990-2009) records of monthly reported malaria cases and meteorological parameters. Spearman correlations were used to assess the crude association between malaria incidence and meteorological variables, and a polynomial distributed lag (PDL) time-series regression was performed to examine contribution of meteorological factors to malaria transmission in three geographic regions (northern, mid and southern Anhui Province), respectively. Then, a two-year (2008-2009) prediction was performed to validate the PDL model that was created by using the data collected from 1990 to 2007. We found that malaria incidence decreased in Anhui Province in 1990s. However, the incidence has dramatically increased in the north since 2000, while the transmission has remained at a relatively low level in the mid and south. Spearman correlation analyses showed that the monthly incidences of malaria were significantly associated with temperature, rainfall, relative humidity, and the multivariate El Niño/Southern Oscillation index with lags of 0-2 months in all three regions. The PDL model revealed that only rainfall with a 1-2 month lag was significantly associated with malaria incidence in all three regions. The model validation showed a high accuracy for the prediction of monthly incidence over a 2-year predictive period. Malaria epidemics showed a high spatial heterogeneity in Anhui Province during the 1990- 2009 study periods. The change in rainfall drives the reemergence of malaria in the northern Anhui Province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been reported that binding of STAT3 protein to the 5'-flanking region of the relaxin gene may result in downregulation of the relaxin expression. There is a Guanine(G)-rich segment located in about 3.8 Kb upstream of the relaxin gene and very close to the STAT3's binding site. In our study, NMR spectroscopy revealed the formation of Gquadruplex by this G-rich strand, and the result was confirmed by ESI mass spectrometry and CD spectroscopy. The theoretical structure of RLX G-quadruplex was constructed and refined by molecular modeling. When this relaxin Gquadruplex was stabilized by berberine(ΔTm= 10°C), a natural alkaloid from a Chinese herb, the gene expression could be up-regulated in a dose-dependent manner which was proved by luciferase assay. This result is different from the general Gquadruplex function that inhibiting the telomere replication or down-regulating many oncogenes expression. Therefore, our study reported a novel G-quadruplex in the relaxin gene and complemented the regulation mechanism about gene expression by G-quadruplexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Swine influenza is an acute respiratory disease in pigs caused by swine influenza virus (SIV). Highly virulent SIV strains cause mortality of up to 10%. Importantly, pigs have long been considered ''mixing vessels'' that generate novel influenza viruses with pandemic potential, a constant threat to public health. Since its emergence in 2009 and subsequent pandemic spread, the pandemic (H1N1) 2009 (H1N1pdm) has been detected in pig farms, creating the risk of generating new reassortants and their possible infection of humans. Pathogenesis in SIV or H1N1pdm-infected pigs remains poorly characterized. Proinflammatory and antiviral cytokine responses are considered correlated with the intensity of clinical signs, and swine macrophages are found to be indispensible in effective clearance of SIV from pig lungs. In this study, we report a unique pattern of cytokine responses in swine macrophages infected with H1N1pdm. The roles of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases in the regulation of the host responses were examined. We found that proinflammatory cytokines IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, and TNF-α were significantly induced and their induction was ERK1/2-dependent. IFN-β and IFN-inducible antiviral Mx and 2959-OAS were sharply induced, but the inductions were effectively abolished when ERK1/2 was inhibited. Induction of CCL5 (RANTES) was completely inhibited by inhibitors of ERK1/2 and JNK1/2, which appeared also to regulate FasL and TNF-α, critical for apoptosis in pig macrophages. We found that NFδB was activated in H1N1pdm-infected cells, but the activation was suppressed when ERK1/2 was inhibited, indicating there is cross-talk between MAP kinase and NFδB responses in pig macrophages. Our data suggest that MAP kinase may activate NFδB through the induction of RIG-1, which leads to the induction of IFN-b in swine macrophages. Understanding host responses and their underlying mechanisms may help identify venues for effective control of SIV and assist in prevention of future influenza pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Rice paddies have been identified as major methane (CH4) source induced by human activities. As a major rice production region in Northern China, the rice paddies in the Three-Rivers Plain (TRP) have experienced large changes in spatial distribution over the recent 20 years (from 1990 to 2010). Consequently, accurate estimation and characterization of spatiotemporal patterns of CH4 emissions from rice paddies has become an pressing issue for assessing the environmental impacts of agroecosystems, and further making GHG mitigation strategies at regional or global levels. Methodology/Principal Findings: Integrating remote sensing mapping with a process-based biogeochemistry model, Denitrification and Decomposition (DNDC), was utilized to quantify the regional CH4 emissions from the entire rice paddies in study region. Based on site validation and sensitivity tests, geographic information system (GIS) databases with the spatially differentiated input information were constructed to drive DNDC upscaling for its regional simulations. Results showed that (1) The large change in total methane emission that occurred in 2000 and 2010 compared to 1990 is distributed to the explosive growth in amounts of rice planted; (2) the spatial variations in CH4 fluxes in this study are mainly attributed to the most sensitive factor soil properties, i.e., soil clay fraction and soil organic carbon (SOC) content, and (3) the warming climate could enhance CH4 emission in the cool paddies. Conclusions/Significance: The study concluded that the introduction of remote sensing analysis into the DNDC upscaling has a great capability in timely quantifying the methane emissions from cool paddies with fast land use and cover changes. And also, it confirmed that the northern wetland agroecosystems made great contributions to global greenhouse gas inventory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Nucleic acid detection by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is emerging as a sensitive and rapid diagnostic tool. PCR assays on serum have the potential to be a practical diagnostic tool. However, PCR on bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) has not been well established. We performed a systematic review of published studies to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of PCR assays on BALF for invasive aspergillosis (IA). Methods: Relevant published studies were shortlisted to evaluate the quality of their methodologies. A bivariate regression approach was used to calculate pooled values of the method sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative likelihood ratios. Hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic curves were used to summarize overall performance. We calculated the post-test probability to evaluate clinical usefulness. Potential heterogeneity among studies was explored by subgroup analyses. Results: Seventeen studies comprising 1191 at-risk patients were selected. The summary estimates of the BALF-PCR assay for proven and probable IA were as follows: sensitivity, 0.91 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.79-0.96); specificity, 0.92 (95% CI, 0.87-0.96); positive likelihood ratio, 11.90 (95% CI, 6.80-20.80); and negative likelihood ratio, 0.10 (95% CI, 0.04-0.24). Subgroup analyses showed that the performance of the PCR assay was influenced by PCR assay methodology, primer design and the methods of cell wall disruption and DNA extraction. Conclusions: PCR assay on BALF is highly accurate for diagnosing IA in immunocompromised patients and is likely to be a useful diagnostic tool. However, further efforts towards devising a standard protocol are needed to enable formal validation of BALF-PCR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been reported that increasingly microRNAs are associated with diseases. However, the patterns among the microRNA-disease associations remain largely unclear. In this study, in order to dissect the patterns of microRNA-disease associations, we performed a comprehensive analysis to the human microRNA-disease association data, which is manually collected from publications. We built a human microRNA associated disease network. Interestingly,microRNAs tend to show similar or different dysfunctional evidences for the similar or different disease clusters, respectively. A negative correlation between the tissue-specificity of a microRNA and the number of diseases it associated was uncovered. Furthermore, we observed an association between microRNA conservation and disease. Finally, we uncovered that microRNAs associated with the same disease tend to emerge as predefined microRNA groups. These findings can not only provide help in understanding the associations between microRNAs and human diseases but also suggest a new way to identify novel disease-associated microRNAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]