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Grapholita molesta Busck (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) is a major fruit pest of a wide range of Rosaceae trees. Olfaction plays a crucial role in insect behavioral activities, and insects primarily rely on odorant receptors (ORs) to detect odorant molecules. Several olfactory-related genes in G. molesta have been studied; however, the ORs of G. molesta are unclear. Here, GmolOR7, a general OR gene, was cloned and characterized. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic tree analysis showed that GmolOR7 is closely related to Cydia pomonella OR54, with the amino acid sequence identity of 80.21%. Furthermore, the different developmental stages and tissues of GmolOR7 in G. molesta were analyzed by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The results demonstrated that GmolOR7 was expressed at higher levels in adults, and particularly in the antennae of females. GmolOR7 expression was the highest in 3-d-old adults. These results will provide an indication for further functional study of the GmolOR7 in G. molesta and its role in the detection of host-plant volatiles by insects in general.

The Joule–Thomson expansion of Einstein–Skyrmion black holes in four dimensions was studied in the extended phase space. We obtained the inversion curves and isenthalpic curves for different values of parameters K and λ, which represent the coupling strength between the gravity field and matter field. We found that parameters K and λ have the same effects during the entire Joule–Thomson expansion and larger parameter K or λ corresponds to smaller inversion pressure. Analogously, the phase space { T, P} consists of cooling–heating regions. In addition, the dispersion point of the Joule–Thomson coefficient μ is in correspondence with the zero point of the Hawking temperature T, and the ratio of the minimum inversion temperature [Formula: see text] and the critical temperature Tc is a constant.

The highly conductive Ni-metal-organic framework/reduced graphene oxide (Ni-MOG/rGO) heterostructure shows an excellent catalytic activity through the modification of active sites, considerably enabling the electron transfer between rGO and Ni-MOF. However, the detailed mechanisms, i.e., the functions of separate metal sites and organic ligands and electron transfer orientation between Ni-MOFs and rGO, remain to be discussed. Here, the electrocatalytic mechanism of Ni-MOF/rGO was experimentally analyzed on the basis of the density functional theory. The dominant active sites of radical and nonradical generation were determined. Findings indicated that radicals (O

Ecdysis triggering hormone (ETH) was originally discovered as a key hormone that regulates insect moulting via binding to its receptor, ETH receptor (ETHR). However, the precise role of ETH in moth reproduction remains to be explored in detail. ETH function was verified in vivo using Mythimna separata (Walker), an important cereal crop pest. RT-qPCR analysis revealed that transcriptional expression profiles of MsepETH showed evident sexual dimorphism in the adult stage. MsepETH expression increased in the females on day 3 and persisted thereafter till day 7, consistent with female ovarian maturation, and was merely detectable in males. Meanwhile, MsepETH expression levels were significantly higher in the trachea than in other tissues. MsepETHR-A and MsepETHR-B were expressed in both sexes and were significantly higher in the antennae than in other tissues. MsepETH and MsepETHR knockdown in females by RNA interference significantly reduced the expression of MsepETH, MsepETHR-A, MsepETHR-B, MsepJHAMT, and MsepVG, which delayed egg-laying and significantly reduced egg production. RNAi 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) receptor (EcR) decreased MsepETH expression whereas injecting 20E restored egg production that had been disrupted by MsepETH interference. Meanwhile, RNAi juvenile hormone (JH) methoprene tolerant protein (Met) also decreased MsepETH expression and smearing JH analog methoprene (Meth) restored egg production. In conclusion, the reproduction roles of ETH, JH, and 20E were investigated in M. separata. These findings will lay the foundation for future research to develop an antagonist that reduces female reproduction and control strategies for pest insects.

Background: Epigenetics has been playing an increasingly important role in the study of the origin and development of bladder cancer (BC). This study aimed to investigate the correlation between promoter hypomethylation of the heparanase (HPSE) gene and clinicopathologic characteristics of bladder cancer (BC). Materials and Methods: The promoter hypomethylation profile was evaluated by methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using 27 BC tissue specimens and 15 normal control specimens. The aim was to help decipher the underlying relationship between the clinicopathologic characteristics and the hypomethylation status. Results: Experimental results showed that 16 (59.26%) BC specimens demonstrated the promoter hypomethylation of HPSE, including 2 cases with complete demethylation. For normal control groups, only 3 specimens (20%) indicated hypomethylation (P0.05). Conclusion: The promoter hypomethylation of HPSE gene is a common epigenetic event occurring in BC and is positively correlated with a poor prognosis. This study suggested that the promoter hypomethylation could be used as a potential biological marker for the early screening of BC.

BACKGROUND Given the rapidly ageing nature of our global population, policy makers around the world are now more actively promoting active ageing. Researchers have begun exploring the use of assistive technologies in the form of social robots as companions for older persons to address their psychosocial needs, a key component of active ageing. However, there has been limited evidence on the efficacy of such social robots, especially in the Asian context. This article elucidates the protocol of a study to investigate the acceptance and quality of interaction between a Japanese social robot, LOVOT, and elderly singletons in Hong Kong and Singapore. OBJECTIVE This article outlines the protocol of a pioneer study investigating the efficacy of the social robot, LOVOT, as companions for older people in Hong Kong and Singapore. This study introduces innovative solutions to improving the psychosocial health and engagement of older people. This protocol can be adapted to explore the efficacy of these assistive technologies in other elder care settings as well. METHODS In this multimethod study design, 15 elderly singletons from Hong Kong and another 15 from Singapore were recruited: participants were 60-75 years of age, living alone, and had no known cognitive or mental issues. The primary outcome is the participants’ differences in responses to and acceptance of LOVOT prior to and following their interaction with the social robot, as outlined in the baseline assessment: the Qualtrics survey measured the senior technology acceptance (Chen & Lou, 2020), loneliness (Russell, 1996), older people’s quality of life (Bowling et al., 2013 & Herdman et al., 2011), subjective happiness (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999), cultural values (Triandis & Gelfand, 1998), willingness to pay, and demographic characteristics, along with the LOVOT’s sociability (Heerink et al., 2010) and system usability (Brooke, 1996). During the first session, participants were interviewed about their opinions on gerontechnology, social robots, and pets. Following the interview, participants were given 15 minutes to freely interact with LOVOT. This interaction was succeeded by a Qualtrics survey and interview to measure the elders’ acceptance and attitudes toward LOVOT. The interaction, post-interaction survey and interview, was repeated for two subsequent sessions for a total of three interactions with LOVOT. The study was conducted in both Hong Kong and Singapore. RESULTS The study began recruiting in March 2022 and recruitment completed at the end of Oct 2022. Data collection and dataset construction were completed at end of Jan 2023. A total of 30 participants successfully completed the longitudinal study. We are planning to publish the results by mid-2023. The interventional protocol is available in English and Traditional Chinese and will be available upon request from the corresponding author. CONCLUSIONS This article outlines the protocol of a pioneer study investigating the efficacy of the social robot, LOVOT, as companions for older people in Hong Kong and Singapore. This study introduces innovative solutions to improving the psychosocial health and engagement of older people. This protocol can be adapted to explore the efficacy of these assistive technologies in other elder care settings as well. CLINICALTRIAL Human Research Ethics Committee at The University of Hong Kong (HREC Reference Number: EA220116).

Review of: The Landscape of Historical Memory: The Politics of Museums and Memorial Culture in Post-Martial Law Taiwan, Kirk A. Denton (2021)Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 284 pp.,ISBN 978-9-88852-8-578, h/bk, HKD 620.00

Background The backup nurses are created to meet emergencies in the case of inadequate nursing staff and emergency circumstances, and there are no clear definitions of the core competencies for training and evaluation of backup nurses in the acute care hospitals in China. Methods This study used a modified Delphi process where an initial list of potential competencies is established following a framework of training need analysis (TNA), literature review, and focus groups. This process generated as a list of 47 core competencies, which is presented to an expert panel (n = 20) for consideration in two rounds. Results As determined by the survey, a combination of 26 core competencies in three specified categories is identified: professional practice ability, critical thinking ability, and interpersonal skills. A total of 154.99 h is required to complete all 26 core competencies, and each item has a corresponding evaluation method. Conclusions The core competencies provide a scientific basis for the hospital nursing managers to train and evaluate backup nurses, and it may ensure consistency in standards across the country.

In this paper, we propose a data-adaptive empirical likelihood-based approach for treatment effect estimation and inference, which overcomes the obstacle of the traditional empirical likelihood-based approaches in the high-dimensional setting by adopting penalized regression and machine learning methods to model the covariate-outcome relationship. In particular, we show that our procedure successfully recovers the true variance of Zhang's treatment effect estimator (Zhang, 2018) by utilizing a data-splitting technique. Our proposed estimator is proved to be asymptotically normal and semiparametric efficient under mild regularity conditions. Simulation studies indicate that our estimator is more efficient than the estimator proposed by Wager et al. (2016) when random forests are employed to model the covariate-outcome relationship. Moreover, when multiple machine learning models are imposed, our estimator is at least as efficient as any regular estimator with a single machine learning model. We compare our method to existing ones using the ACTG175 data and the GSE118657 data, and confirm the outstanding performance of our approach., Comment: 37 pages, 3 figures

Genetic control strategies such as the Release of Insects Carrying a Dominant Lethal (RIDL) gene and Transgenic Embryonic Sexing System (TESS) have been demonstrated in the laboratory and/or deployed in the field. These strategies are based on tetracycline-off (Tet-off) systems which are regulated by antibiotics such as Tet and doxycycline (Dox). Here, we generated several Tet-off constructs carrying a reporter gene cassette mediated by a 2A peptide. Different concentrations (0.1, 10, 100, 500, and 1,000 μg/mL) and types (Tet or Dox) of antibiotics were used to evaluate their effects on the expression of the Tet-off constructs in the Drosophila S2 cells. One or both of the two concentrations, 100 and 250 μg/mL, of Tet or Dox were used to check the influence on the performances of a Drosophila suzukii wild-type strain and female-killing (FK) strains employing TESS. Specifically, the Tet-off construct for these FK strains contains a Drosophila suzukii nullo promoter to regulate the tetracycline transactivator gene and a sex-specifically spliced pro-apoptotic gene hidAla4 to eliminate females. The results suggested that the in vitro expression of the Tet-off constructs was controlled by antibiotics in a dose-dependent manner. ELISA experiments were carried out identifying Tet at 34.8 ng/g in adult females that fed on food supplemented with Tet at 100 μg/mL. However, such method did not detect Tet in the eggs produced by antibiotic-treated flies. Additionally, feeding Tet to the parents showed negative impact on the fly development but not the survival in the next generation. Importantly, we demonstrated that under certain antibiotic treatments females could survive in the FK strains with different transgene activities. For the strain V229_M4f1 which showed moderate transgene activity, feeding Dox to fathers or mothers suppressed the female lethality in the next generation and feeding Tet or Dox to mothers generated long-lived female survivors. For the strain V229_M8f2 which showed weak transgene activity, feeding Tet to mothers delayed the female lethality for one generation. Therefore, for genetic control strategies employing the Tet-off system, the parental and transgenerational effects of antibiotics on the engineered lethality and insect fitness must be carefully evaluated for a safe and efficient control program.

It is of great significance to find new effective drugs for an adjuvant therapy targeting lung cancer to improve the survival rate and prognosis of patients with the disease. Previous studies have confirmed that certain Chinese herbal extracts have clear anti-tumor effects, and in our preliminary study, betulinaldehyde was screened for its potential anti-tumor effects. The current study thus aimed to confirm the anti-tumor effect of betulinaldehyde, using in vitro experiments to explore its underlying molecular mechanism. It was found that betulinaldehyde treatment significantly inhibited the viability, proliferation, and migration of A549 cells in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, betulinaldehyde inhibited the activation of Akt, MAPK, and STAT3 signaling pathways in A549 cells in a time-dependent manner. More importantly, betulinaldehyde also decreased the expression level of SQSTM1 protein, increased the expression level of LC3 II, and increased the autophagy flux in A549 cells. The pretreatment of A549 cells with the autophagy inhibitor, 3-methyladenine, could partially negate the anti-tumor effects of betulinaldehyde. These findings suggest that betulinaldehyde could significantly inhibit the oncological activity of A549 cells by regulating the intracellular autophagy level, making it a potentially effective option for the adjuvant therapy used to treat lung cancer in the future.

Supplementary Material 1

Cognitive complexity can provide insight into how people make decisions, ranging from the most minor to the most impactful. Here, we present a novel approach to inferring the complexity of processes associated with preference and decision making. We measured the complexity of participant-generated descriptive features of consumer products and the relationship to preference rankings. In order to measure cognitive complexity over a sparse set of features, we developed a natural language processing approach that compared the descriptive words generated by participants to those generated by a machine learning model; words that were more distinct from those generated by the model were rated more complex. We show preliminary evidence that cognitive complexity is related to preference for products, explaining unique variance in rankings and also capturing a new facet of the process through which preference is revealed through choice. We also show the value of participant-generated features for understanding choice processes.

Additional file 1. Details of results by LIA, WB, qPCR, Murex-ELISA and Roche-ECLIA.

Retinal ganglion cell apoptotic death is the main pathological characteristic of glaucoma, which is the leading cause of irreversible blindness. Disruption of Ca

Imaging the vibrations of nanomechanical resonators means measuring their flexural mode shapes from the dependence of their frequency response on in-plane position. Applied to two-dimensional resonators, this technique provides a wealth of information on the mechanical properties of atomically-thin membranes. We present a simple and robust system to image the vibrations of few layer graphene (FLG) resonators at room temperature and in vacuum with an in-plane displacement precision of ≈0.20 μm. It consists of a sturdy vacuum enclosure mounted on a three-axis micropositioning stage and designed for free space optical measurements of vibrations. The system is equipped with ultraflexible radio frequency transmission lines to electrically actuate resonators. With it we characterize the lowest frequency mode of FLG resonators by measuring its frequency response as a function of position on the membrane and by extracting its effective mass. We use the background noise of the undriven vibrational spectrum to calibrate in-plane displacement. Finally, we measure the first three vibration modes of a resonator whose membrane is partially folded and find that folds locally suppress vibrations.

We designed a study to compare the newly developed 5-mg flunarizine hydrochloride capsules (test) to that of its marketed counterpart (5-mg; reference) among healthy adult Chinese volunteers. We performed an open-label, single-center study that consisted of 2 randomized, crossover trials, including a fasting trial and a fed trial. In each part of the study, the subjects were randomly assigned to either receive the test or reference products (5-mg flunarizine) in a 1:1 ratio. Subjects then received the alternative products, following a 14-day washout period. Concentrations of plasma flunarizine were analyzed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Pharmacokinetic parameters (noncompartmental model) were evaluated using the WinNonlin software. The analysis of variance and Food and Drug Administration bioequivalence statistical criterion of 90% confidence interval for 80% to 125% range (set at P ≤ .05) of geometric means ratios of test: reference product for peak plasma concentration, area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) from time 0 to time t, and AUC from time 0 to infinity were determined. Tolerability was evaluated during the entire study period. Overall, 23 volunteers completed the fasting study, while 40 volunteers completed the fed study. The test formulation was found to be bioequivalent to the marketed formulation, as the 90% confidence interval for the ratio of geometric means of peak plasma concentration (fasting: 87.61%-101.67%; fed: 87.38%-104.06%), AUC from time 0 to time t (fasting: 89.44%-99.92%; fed: 92.65%-98.28%), and AUC from time 0 to infinity (fasting: 95.02%-104.33%; fed: 90.41%-96.96%) were within equivalence limits (80-125%) under both the fasting and fed conditions. When flunarizine was given alongside high-fat meals, time to maximum concentration was delayed ≈3.5 hours compared to fasting conditions. Meantime, high-fat meals increased its exposure by nearly 50%. Furthermore, there were no serious adverse events found among the subjects. This study confirmed that test and reference flunarizine hydrochloride capsules were bioequivalent under fasting and postprandial conditions.

Two new species of oribatid mites are described based on adult specimens from China. Similobates linzhiensis sp. nov. differs from S. deficiens Wallwork, 1977 by its lanceolate shaped bothridial setae, and it also differs from S. staryi Ermilov, 2018 and S. demetororum Mahunka, 1982 by shorter adanal setae ad1 and ad2. Annobonzetes hamatus sp. nov. differs from A. sphaericus Pérez-Íñigo, 1983 by barbed prodorsal setae. The genera Annobonzetes and Similobates are recorded in China for the first time. The updated description and an identification key for the genus Annobonzetes are given.

BACKGROUND The incidence of primary cardiac lymphoma (PCL) is increasing, but the optimal management approach remains unclear. We assessed the clinical characteristics of a single-centre cohort with the goal of determining the optimal management approach. The treatment outcomes and prognostic factors are reported. MATERIAL AND METHODS All PCL patients were diagnosed via biopsy guided by whole-body imaging (positron emission tomography/computed tomography [PET/CT] and/or contrast-enhanced CT]. Curative therapy involved either surgery or prephase steroids followed by definitive immunochemotherapy, depending on the histological type. The primary outcomes were overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS); the secondary outcome was the treatment response. RESULTS Twenty-two PCL patients (14 males, 8 females; age: 59.5 ± 14.7 years [mean ± S.D.]) were histologically confirmed to have diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL; n = 17 [77.3%]), fibrin-associated DLBCL (FA-DLBCL) (n = 4 [18.2%]) and Burkitt lymphoma (n = 1 [4.5%]). Seven patients underwent cardiotomy (three for biopsy, four with curative intent). The median and longest follow-up periods were 16.3 and 180.0 months, respectively. The 16 patients who received curative therapy (complete response [CR], n = 15 [93.8%]; partial response [PR], n = 1 [6.2%]) showed better survival than those who did not (5-year OS: 83.0 ± 11.3% vs. 0%; hazard ratio [HR]: 0.025[95% confidence interval, CI: 0.003-0.187], p

Summary Objectives Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the public health problems worldwide. Rapid, sensitive and cost-effective diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) is critical for TB control. Methods We developed a novel M.tb DNA detection platform (nominated as TB-QUICK) which combined loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and CRISPR-Cas12b detection. TB-QUICK was performed on pulmonary or plasma samples collected from 138 pulmonary TB (PTB) patients, 21 non-TB patients and 61 close contacts to TB patients. Acid-fast bacillus (AFB) smear, M.tb culture and GeneXpert MTB/RIF (Xpert) assays were routinely conducted in parallel. Results By targeting M.tb IS6110, TB-QUICK platform could detect as low as 1.3 copy/μL M.tb DNA within 2 h. In pulmonary TB samples, TB-QUICK exhibited improved overall sensitivity of 86.8% over M.tb culture (66.7%) and Xpert (70.4%), with the specificity of 95.2%. More significantly, TB-QUICK exhibited a superior sensitivity in AFB-negative samples (80.5%) compared to Xpert (57.1%) and M.tb culture (46.2%). In the detection of plasma M.tb DNA by TB-QUICK, 41.2% sensitivity for AFB-positive and 31.7% for AFB-negative patients were achieved. Conclusion In conclusion, TB-QUICK exhibits rapidity and sensitivity for M.tb DNA detection with the superiority in smear-negative paucibacillary TB patients. The clinical application of TB-QUICK in TB diagnosis needs to be further validated in larger cohort.

M protein is often expressed in multiple myeloma and also can be detected in several lymphoma such as Waldenstrm macroglobulinaemia. M protein level can reflect the malignant degree and even genetic abnormality of multiple myeloma and lymphoma to some extent to predict the progress of the diseases, and the therapeutic response and prognosis of the disease can be evaluated by monitoring the M protein level and its change degree. This article reviews the role of M protein in the progression and prognosis of multiple myeloma and lymphoma, and discusses the differences in M protein expression between multiple myeloma and lymphoma, in order to provide new insights for clinical diagnosis, monitoring and evaluation of therapeutic effect.M蛋白在多发性骨髓瘤与淋巴瘤中的临床作用.M蛋白常表达于多发性骨髓瘤中，也可在华氏巨球蛋白血症等多种淋巴瘤中检测到。M蛋白水平可在一定程度上反映多发性骨髓瘤和淋巴瘤的恶性程度甚至是遗传异常从而预测疾病进展，并可通过监测M蛋白水平及其变化程度评估疾病治疗反应和预后。本文主要介绍M蛋白在多发性骨髓瘤和淋巴瘤中的进展判断及预后评估中的作用，并讨论M蛋白在多发性骨髓瘤和淋巴瘤中的表达差异，以期为临床提供疾病诊断、监测及疗效评估的新思路。.

Senile thymus atrophy is an important factor leading to decreased immune function. Repairing the atrophic thymus tissue structure, rebuilding immune function, and replenishing the number of exogenous stem cells may be ideal methods. In this study, bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells were intravenously infused into elderly macaques. We found that thymus volume was substantially increased, some thymus tissue regeneration was observed, the degree of thymus tissue fibrosis decreased, collagen fiber deposition decreased, cortical and medulla structures emerged gradually, the number of apoptotic cells decreased significantly, and the expression of apoptosis-related proteins decreased. For the effects of stem cell therapy on aging-related genes, we performed transcriptomic analysis of thymus tissue. The results show the expression pattern of the tissue transcriptome tended to be similar to the thymus expression pattern in young macaques compared with the elderly group, reverse aging-related proteins. Based on the results, it is suggested that stem cell therapy is an ideal method to prevent or reverse the aging of the thymus.

Alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS) is a rare soft tissue sarcoma harboring an ASPL-TFE3 fusion gene. Herein, we report a case of ASPS associated with brain metastasis. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) for TFE3 antigen expression and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for TFE3 rearrangement were performed to arrive at an accurate diagnosis.A 47-year-old man was hospitalized for a headache and numbness of the lower limbs.Preoperative computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging revealed 2 brain masses, 1 each in the right parietal and temporal bones. We diagnosed this case as ASPS with brain metastasis based on histological morphology, IHC, and FISH.The patient underwent right skull titanium mesh implantation and supratentorial superficial lesion resection.: The patient recovered well after discharged from hospital.The diagnosis of ASPS depends on careful clinical, radiographic, histopathological, IHC, and FISH assessments to arrive at the correct diagnosis. Thus, TFE3 may be useful in the diagnosis and treatment of ASPS.