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AbstractFood festivals play a significant role in driving economic growth and facilitating cultural exploration. However, they also present challenges to sustainability, particularly concerning food waste, which is further exacerbated by the pervasive "Camera Eats First" (CEF) phenomenon. Despite its importance, academic literature has given limited attention to this issue. This study bridges this gap by applying an extended value-attitude-behavior theory to explore food waste behaviors at food festivals, focusing on the moderating role of CEF. Employing partial least squares structural equation modeling and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, it develops the Food Festival Consumption Values (FFCVs) model, incorporating factors like food taste, healthiness, appearance, peer influence, and festival atmosphere, tested with data from 452 consumers at the 22nd Macau Food Festival. Findings reveal direct influences of factors such as food taste, healthiness, and festival atmosphere on food waste behavior. However, the mediating and moderating effects of attitudes toward food waste and CEF exhibit mixed results. These results underscore the need for targeted waste reduction strategies, contributing to sustainable food festival management and aligning with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, enhancing policy and stakeholder efforts toward sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the role of distal (parents' education, family's income, parents' expectations, and parents' attitudes to the home teaching of literacy) and proximal (formal and informal home literacy environment, access to literacy resources, and extracurricular activities) parental factors in children's early literacy skills and whether the relations vary across affluent and disadvantaged societies in China. Five hundred fifty-three third-year kindergarten Chinese children (Mage = 74.59 months) were recruited from Jining, Luqiao, and Mapo and were assessed on measures of phonological awareness, vocabulary, pinyin knowledge, and word reading. Their parents filled out a questionnaire on their education and income as well as on the frequency of engaging in different home literacy activities, their expectations and attitudes to the home teaching of literacy, and their children's extracurricular activities. Results of multigroup analyses and mediation analyses revealed both direct and indirect effects of both distal and proximal parental factors on emergent literacy skills and word reading. In addition, the models were strikingly similar across the two settings. The findings suggest that the pathways of differential influences from parental factors to children's early literacy skills may be similar across socioeconomic contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bridge decks need to be routinely inspected to ensure their serviceability, capacity, and safety under current traffic conditions. Traditionally, bridge deck inspection is performed on the ground by having inspectors either visually inspect surface conditions or interpret the acoustic feedback from hammer sounding or chain dragging to determine subsurface conditions. These traditional methods have many limitations, including but not limited to, expensive, labour-intensive, time-consuming, subjective, can exhibit a high degree of variability, requiring specialized staff on a regular basis, and unsafe. Recent advancements in remote sensing, especially small-uncrewed aircraft systems (S-UAS) based airborne imaging techniques and advanced image analysis techniques, have shown promise in improving current bridge deck inspection practices by providing an above-ground inspection method. This research explored the utility of S-UAS-based airborne imaging techniques and image processing techniques to develop a complete aerial data acquisition and analysis system to accurately detect and assess bridge deck wearing surface distresses in a timely and cost-effective manner. As part of the research project, a robust tool was also developed with the aim of being able to detect, extract, and map bridge deck wearing surface distresses with an adequate degree of accuracy while maximizing the ability to assist bridge inspectors with varying expertise. Research results revealed that the developed tool is able to effectively detect and map bridge deck wearing surface distresses at a high accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical aerial photos are important historical records, and subsequently, they have been widely used in many fields to study the physical and human characteristics of a place. Unfortunately, most historical aerial photos remain un-digitized and un-georeferenced on aging photographic film rolls, which significantly limits their usefulness for research and practice. This article is dedicated to discussing a funded initiative focusing on digitizing, georeferencing, creating metadata, indexing, archiving, and web-publishing New Mexico's historical aerial photos. As part of this initiative, a web application was developed to enable online georeferencing to increase georeferencing productivity, bounding box display to present the ground coverage extent of each historical aerial photo, and spatial search to increase the discoverability and use of historical aerial photos. Based on a set of open standards and open source software and libraries, application programming interfaces for the aforementioned web application were also developed and freely shared with archival and record management organizations across the United States to enable them to develop similar web applications, and ultimately, promoting the access and use of historical aerial photos for various purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the developmental relationship between cognitive-linguistic skills (nonverbal IQ, vocabulary, phonological awareness, rapid automatised naming [RAN]), home environment factors (direct teaching, shared book reading, access to literacy resources, parents' expectations, family's socioeconomic status [SES]), and pinyin letter knowledge in kindergarten, pinyin reading accuracy at the beginning of Grade 1, and pinyin reading fluency at the middle of Grade 1 in a sample of 159 Chinese children (mean age = 72.70 months). Results showed that phonological awareness, RAN, and direct teaching were associated with pinyin letter knowledge. RAN consistently predicted pinyin reading accuracy and fluency. Moreover, parents' expectations and family's SES predicted pinyin reading indirectly through RAN and direct teaching. These findings suggest that the cognitive-linguistic and home environment predictors of pinyin reading are similar to those for Chinese reading, except that vocabulary and access to literacy resources may be less important for pinyin reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A supramolecular solvent (SUPRAS)-based sample preparation method was proposed for the determination of lignans in Schisandra chinensis (S. chinensis) fruit. The optimal conditions were: proportion of hexafluoroisopropanol in SUPRAS: 35% (v/v), solid-to-liquid ratio: 20:1 mg/mL, and vortex time: 30 s. Additionally, simple, rapid, and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry and multiple reaction monitoring was employed to simultaneously quantify seven lignans in S. chinensis. The validation showed that the linearity from 0.01 to 20.83 µg/mL was excellent (all R2 ≥ 0.99). The lowest limits of quantification were from 0.14 to 17.79 ng/mL. The relative standard deviation (RSD) of the intra-day retention time and peak area were from 0.12% to 0.21% and 2.35% to 6.41%. The RSD of retention time and peak area for the inter-day precision ranged from 0.17% to 0.32% and 3.83% to 7.39%. The average recoveries (80.21%–114.53%) demonstrated good accuracy for all analytes. The developed procedure was employed to determine lignans in processed and raw S. chinensis fruit. The lignans were concentrated in the seeds and the wine-processed material had the highest content. This study provides a reference for the analysis of S. chinensis fruit for lignans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Operating with a conceptual workflow for the appropriate processing of high-spatial resolution small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) data for hydrologic modelling of floodplains during flood events, this research investigated the effects of input data fidelity on hydrologic model generation. A digital surface model (DSM) and co-registered orthophoto mosaic of a stretch of the Drau River in southern Austria was generated. A digital terrain model (DTM) was then approximated from the generated DSM to within a vertical root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 4.65 cm. Horizontal and random metrics of roughness were calculated based on the DSM and then used to determine spatially-varying values of Manning's n coefficient across an observed floodplain. A distributed two-dimensional hydrologic model of a river channel and simulated floodplain was performed using open source hydraulic modelling software. The effectiveness of each roughness metric at multiple pixel resolutions to model significant variations in reported velocity, water surface elevation and depth during a flood event was tested in a controlled sensitivity analysis. Results indicated that accuracy in hydrologic modelling is impacted by image spatial resolution. Research results conclude by emphasizing the importance of context in hydrologic modelling scenarios to effectively meet the needs of end users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flavonoids and lignin are valuable phytochemicals derived from plant secondary metabolism and play important roles in regulating multiple plant developmental processes and signaling networks. The biosynthetic pathways leading to flavonoids and lignin are known to be originated from the general phenylpropanoid pathway. Key regulators controlling the pathway structural genes have been isolated from many species. However, cooperative regulations of flavonoid and lignin biosynthesis and the resulting effects on the carbon flow in the general phenylpropanoid pathway have not systematically summarized and discussed. New discoveries have begun to reveal that the biosynthesis of flavonoids and lignin are linked through transcription regulatory networks sharing certain specific regulators, such as transcription factors, mediators and microRNAs. This review article summarizes recent progress on function and mechanism of these regulators and assesses how they co-modulate the biosynthesis of flavonoids and lignin. A simplified discussion for the different co-regulation networks involved with flavonoid and lignin biosynthesis is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different pretreatments can affect the quality of Hypsizygus marmoreus (HM). In this study, the effects of thermal treatment or combined with color protection and hardening on color, texture, microstructure, polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and Peroxidase (POD) C-1: Explain the first time? activities, and the volatile components of HM were investigated. The results showed compared with the control group, both heating group (H group) and color protection, hardening and heating (CHH group) significantly enhanced the color difference, and reduced all texture parameters as well as PPO and POD activities. Additionally, in two treatment groups, the structure of HM became loose, the amounts of alcohols, ketones, and aldehydes were changed significantly. Compared with the H group, the color difference and PPO activities in CHH group were significantly decreased, while all texture parameters were increased significantly, the fibers of HM showed regular arrangement. In conclusion, the combination of CHH performed better effects on hardness, chewiness, microstructure, and enzymes activities related to enzymatic browning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unmanned airborne systems (UAS), particularly the class of UAS referred to as small-unmanned airborne systems (S-UAS), have the potential to revolutionize the science, practice, and role of remote sensing. S-UAS-collected remote sensing data differ from that acquired from larger airborne and space-borne platforms in myriad ways. To provide an indication of the novel remote sensing capabilities that S-UAS are poised to enable and identify research priorities for realizing the full potential of remote sensing from these novel platforms, characteristics of S-UAS platforms and their impact on data and information products are analysed in the context of remote sensing model and the remote sensing communication model. Results indicate that S-UAS will not only enable a range of novel remote sensing capabilities but also present clear challenges to the remote sensing community. These challenges, including increased data volume, a paucity of appropriate analysis approaches, and restrictions on autonomous operation (both regulatory and technological), point towards several near-term research priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By describing different voices, practices, and understandings centred on Langzhong’s Feng Shui, this research explores a vernacular way of manifesting, practicing and valuing the past. The analysis shows that as a living heritage, Feng Shui still exists in Langzhong in both a physical and social sense. The study of Feng Shui demonstrates how a non-western discourse of narrating the historic urban form could be deployed in Chinese heritage practice to interweave the past and present. Through this study, a vernacular way of practicing and conceptualising heritage is established. Moreover, it is argued that Feng Shui as a locally meaningful heritage, which has spiritually enriched the historic neighbourhood, should be cherished and utilised for contemporary heritage conservation and cultural construction in China. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

All transportation management agencies face the yearly challenge of inspecting the condition of myriad miles of road surface. With routinely acquired and publicly available geospatial data and geospatial modelling techniques, there is potential to substantially reduce the number of survey sites required to characterize overall pavement surface distress condition. Using roadway pavement assets in the State of New Mexico as an example, this study investigated if overall pavement surface conditions could be estimated based on geospatial modelling. A total of 17 explanatory variables, which were extracted from three types of geospatial data, including traffic volumes, environmental conditions and topography, were used to estimate overall pavement surface distress conditions. Results show that overall pavement surface conditions can be effectively (R2 > 0.9) estimated based on the extent of geospatial data and inferential modelling techniques with fewer survey sites, substantially reducing the cost and time for pavement surface distress condition survey. These results also open the way for the future application of geospatial modelling techniques for automated assessment of overall pavement surface distress conditions, which only require users to collect the geospatial data for the surveyed sites and upload the geospatial data to the system, while the computing-intensive process such as model development is fully automated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A lattice Boltzmann model is proposed with a newly modified equilibrium distribution function for solving the conservation form of the energy equation to treat the interphase conjugate heat transfer problems under both steady state and unsteady state. The temperature and heat flux continuity conditions at the interface can be inherently satisfied without needing any additional treatments, such as iterative computation, correcting procedure for the incoming distribution function, and the complicated calculation procedure for the source term, to account for the interphase conjugate heat transfer. The implementation of the present LB model, therefore, is more straightforward and more efficient than those in most previous models, especially for problems with complex interfaces. The applicability and accuracy of the proposed LB model were evaluated by some benchmark problems including both simple flat interface and complex interface geometry. The results show excellent agreements with analytical solutions or finite volume results, demonstrating that the present model can serve as a promising numerical technique for dealing with fluid flow and heat transfer in complex heterogeneous systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When locations of individual-level health data are released in the form of published maps, the identity of these individuals could be identified through reverse geocoding. Spatial data can, therefore, not be released unless the locations have been modified, for example, using aggregation or geographic masking. Geographic masking techniques apply translation or perturbations to decrease the likelihood of re-identification of individuals through reverse geocoding. The current study proposes a new geographic masking technique referred to as “location swapping.” Location swapping replaces an original location with a masked location selected from all possible locations with similar geographic characteristics within a specified neighborhood. Strengths and weaknesses of location swapping will be discussed relative to existing geographic masking techniques. The approach will be illustrated using several example data sets and a custom toolset developed for ArcGIS to automate the location swapping algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There are two main parameters describing the amount of water in vegetation: the gravimetric water content (GWC) and the equivalent water thickness (EWT). In this study, we investigated the applicability of hyperspectral water-sensitive indices from canopy spectra for estimating canopy EWT (CEWT) and GWC. First, the spectral reflectance’s response to different levels of canopy water content was analysed and a noticeable increase in the slope of the near-infrared (NIR) shoulder of the canopy spectrum was observed. Next, the correlation between the CEWT and various hyperspectral water-sensitive indices was investigated. It was found that all of the indices could retrieve the CEWT of winter wheat well, with the coefficients of determination (R2) all being higher than 0.80. Finally, the retrieval performance of these indices for canopy GWC was evaluated and no significant correlation was observed between canopy GWC and the water-sensitive indices except for the spectral ratio index in the NIR shoulder region (NSRI). These results showed that the traditional water-sensitive vegetation indices are more sensitive to CEWT than to GWC, especially when the LAI is not highly correlated with the GWC, and that the NSRI is a potential vegetation index for use in the retrieval of GWC. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In recent years, unmanned airborne systems (UAS) have emerged as an important platform for collecting hyper-spatial resolution airborne remote sensing data. Using this hyper-spatial resolution imagery as input, modern aerial triangulation (AT) techniques, also known as structure-from-motion or SfM, can rapidly produce orthophotos and digital surface models (DSMs) at fine scales. Such data hold great promise for a number of applications, including routine and post-disaster assessment of transportation infrastructure, which provided the impetus for this research. Using hyper-spatial resolution (0.002 m) natural colour digital aerial photography acquired from a low-altitude UAS as input images, this research systematically investigated the horizontal and vertical accuracy of the AT generated orthophotos and DSMs, respectively. Hyper-spatial resolution aerial data were collected for a total of 28 study sites and, for each study site, coordinate information of 16 ground control points (GCPs) was collected using a survey grade real-time kinematic (RTK) Global Navigation Satellite System. Among the 16 GCPs for each site, 10 were used to calibrate the AT process while the remaining six GCPs were reserved to evaluate the horizontal and vertical accuracy of the orthophotos and DSMs. An average horizontal root mean squared error (RMSE) of 0.004 m and a vertical RMSE of 0.007 m across all sites indicate great promise for AT processed hyper-spatial resolution airborne remote sensing data to play a significant role in transportation infrastructure monitoring, particularly when considering the horizontal and vertical accuracy of the surveyed GCPs (0.004 and 0.006 m, respectively). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Software vulnerabilities are the major cause of cyber security problems. The National Vulnerability Database (NVD) is a public data source that maintains standardized information about reported software vulnerabilities. Since its inception in 1997, NVD has published information about more than 43,000 software vulnerabilities affecting more than 17,000 software applications. This information is potentially valuable in understanding trends and patterns in software vulnerabilities so that one can better manage the security of computer systems that are pestered by the ubiquitous software security flaws. In particular, one would like to be able to predict the likelihood that a piece of software contains a yet-to-be-discovered vulnerability, which must be taken into account in security management due to the increasing trend in zero-day attacks. We conducted an empirical study on applying data-mining techniques on NVD data with the objective of predicting the time to next vulnerability for a given software application. We experimented with various features constructed using the information available in NVD and applied various machine learning algorithms to examine the predictive power of the data. Our results show that the data in NVD generally have poor prediction capability, with the exception of a few vendors and software applications. We suggest possible reasons for why the NVD data have not produced a reasonable prediction model for time to next vulnerability with our current approach, and suggest alternative ways in which the data in NVD can be used for the purpose of risk estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

AbstractEngineering problems, such as fire and explosion caused by mechanical damage, have restricted the further development of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The paper aims to present an effective method for studying the impact responses of cylindrical LIBs under localized impact loadings. An impact model in which the cell is simplified to a beam is developed considering the interaction between bending and stretching. The membrane factor (fn) of the beam with a circular cross-section is introduced, and then the motion control equations for the cell with large deformation are derived. The accuracy of the theoretical method is verified based on the results from the mass block impact experiment and finite element simulation. A method for cell failure detection is established based on the force-displacement-voltage response from the impact experiment. It is shown that higher impact velocities and smaller punch widths increase cell deformation. Moreover, a larger punch mass results in greater displacement when the impact energy remains unchanged, and the strengthening tendency increases with the punch width. The research will provide theoretical guidance for the safety assessment and dynamic optimization design of LIBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional and global prediction of crop yield by remote sensing is of vital importance for food security in China. Vegetation indices (VIs) sensitive to leaf area index (LAI), such as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), have been widely used for crop yield prediction. However, chlorophyll content is the key component for crops to convert light energy to organics in the process of photosynthesis, and crop yield may be more accurately predicted by remote sensing models based on a spectral index sensitive to chlorophyll content, such as the medium resolution imaging spectrometer (MERIS) Terrestrial Chlorophyll Index (MTCI). In this study, we investigated the potential of MTCI for crop yield prediction. Firstly, the MTCI and the NDVI products in Henan Province, China, from 2003 to 2011 with a temporal resolution of half a month were calculated from the daily level-2 reduced resolution ENVISAT MERIS reflectance product (MER_RR_2P) using a Maximum Value Composite algorithm. Secondly, we established winter wheat prediction models based on MTCI and NDVI. Then, the accuracy of MTCI for winter wheat yield prediction was examined and compared to the NDVI through a leave-one-out cross-validation approach. The results show that (1) the correlation coefficient between yield and MTCI is significantly higher than that of models based on NDVI and the errors of models based on MTCI are lower than those of models based on NDVI except for milking stages. Moreover, the crop yield prediction model based on accumulated MTCI through the reviving stage to milking is most significantly correlated to crop yield with a coefficient of determination of 0.849 for MTCI; (2) the optimum phase for crop yield prediction based on MTCI is the heading stage, about 30 days earlier than that of NDVI (milking stage), which is another advantage of MTCI in crop yield prediction; and (3) the validation error of the crop yield model based on the accumulated MTCI is half of that based on the accumulated NDVI. The study indicates that MTCI is potentially a better VI for crop yield prediction compared to NDVI. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An alternating direction method is proposed for solving convex semidefinite optimization problems. This method only computes several metric projections at each iteration. Convergence analysis is presented and numerical experiments in solving matrix completion problems are reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing reactions of [α-GeW11O39]8− and Eu3+ under different pH conditions, two types of polymer chains, Cs3K[Eu4(H2O)18Ge2W22O78] · 16.5H2O (1) and Cs3K2[Eu(H2O)2GeW11O39] · 10H2O (2), have been isolated and characterized by elemental analysis, IR spectroscopy, thermal analysis, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The Eu/[α-GeW11O39]8− ratio is 1 : 1 in polyanion 2a and is an infrequent 2 : 1 in polyanion 1a. The Ln : POM ratio can be increased by controlling the reaction conditions. The solid photoluminescence spectra of 1 and 2 have been investigated at room temperature. The luminescence of 1 and 2 are distinctly different owing to their different Eu coordination geometries. UV spectra and electrochemical properties of 1 and 2 have been investigated. Compound 1 displays good electrocatalytic activity toward the reduction of nitrite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the role of mutations of receptor tyrosine kinases as well as their downstream scaffold molecules in leukemogenesis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in Chinese patients. Genes of interest included FLT3, PDGFRβ, KDR, CSF2Rβ, SOCS1, PIAS3 and SHIP. The coding sequence of these genes was analysed by the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction to search novel mutations. A novel mutation (A > T, Q1154L) of SHIP (1 of 192, 0.52%) was identified and another novel mutation (C > T, R685C) of PDGFRβ (2 of 192, 1.04%). In addition, FLT3 mutations were seen in three of five patients with AML following myelodysplastic syndrome (60%) and 39 of 268 (14.6%) de novo AML patients (P < 0.05). No mutations were found in the coding sequence regions of KDR, CSF2Rβ, SOCS1 or PIAS3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire is an important wood boring pest of Fraxinus species in the family Oleaceae. Oxacyclotridecan-2-one is an attractant of A. planipennis. Traps with attractive lures can be used in mass trapping of insect pests, but the traps are a bit expensive and they must be set up and dismantled in the field. To develop an attract and kill method for A. planipennis, we enveloped oxacyclotridecan-2-one into sustained-released microspheres. The attractant microspheres were prepared using the solvent evaporation method. An orthogonal test L16(45) was used to optimize the five preparation factors: the quantities of polylactic acid (PLA), gelatin, Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), attractant, and the rotational speed. The results showed that optimal conditions for preparation of microspheres were 2.5 g PLA, 0.5 g gelatin, 1.25 g PVA, 2 mL attractant and 600 r min–1 rotational speed. The encapsulation efficiency of the prepared microspheres was 95.22%, and the attractant loading rate was 15.61%. The release rate of attractant from prepared microspheres was about 26.74% on the first day, and then gradually entered a sustained-release stage for about 10 days that lasted for 17 days. Preliminary field control experiments showed that the prepared microspheres could attract and kill A. planipennis adults when sprayed together with insecticide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study was to report the frequency of thalassemia traits and other hemoglobinopathies in Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, People’s Republic of China (PRC), and for the future management of hemoglobinopathies. A total of 8578 pregnant women in the Huzhou region was analyzed for thalassemia traits and other hemoglobinopathies from July 1 2012 to November 30 2015. Complete blood count (CBC), and hemoglobin (Hb) variant analyses were performed with automatic counters and capillary electrophoresis (CE). High resolution melting (HRM) analysis was applied for genetic diagnosis of thalassemia. The prevalence of patients with the α-thalassemia (α-thal) trait was 1.01% (87/8578). β-Thalassemia (β-thal) was carried by 112 women with a frequency of 1.3%. The carrier rate of thalassemia genes in the studied samples was nearly 2.32%. We excluded those without iron studies, with 159 cases as our sample, a total of 63/159 cases (39.6%) also had iron deficiencies. Moreover, Hb E (HBB: c.79G > A), and Hb D-Punjab (HBB: c.364G > C) were the most common Hb variants after thalassemia trait with frequencies of 0.16 and 0.06%, respectively. Only two Hb S (HBB: c.20A > T) carriers were detected in 20 months of screening time. Hb A1cresults could be confidently reported on all cases except the Hb D-Punjab and Hb E variants. This study provided a detailed prevalence and molecular characterization of thalassemia in the Huzhou region, and will contribute toward the development of prevention strategies and reducing excessive health care costs in this area, allowing better management of hemoglobinopathies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: A population-based case-control study was conducted in Yangjiang and Enping areas in South China to assess whether the risk of lens opacity induced by natural high background radiation exposure is modulated by polymorphisms of ATM and TP53. Materials and methods: A total of 133 cases who were diagnosed with cortical and posterior subcapsular (PSC) opacity were recruited, and 419 healthy controls were selected through counter-matching in terms of radiation status. Genomic DNA from all the participants was genotyped with the Illumina platform for four single nucleotide polymorphisms of ATM (rs189037, rs373759, and rs4585) and TP53 (rs1042522). The cumulative lens dose received during the entire life was estimated based on annual indoor and outdoor radiation doses and gender- and age-specific occupancy factors. Non-conditional logistic regression was performed to calculate odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Results:ATM rs189037 and TP53 rs1042522 were significantly related to cortical and PSC opacity. The risk of opacity was higher when individuals carried the A allele of ATM rs189037 and C allele of TP53 rs1042522, compared with GG genotype. ATM rs189037 A allele carriers (AG/AA) and TP53 rs1042522 C allele carriers (CG/CC) combined with a cumulative lens dose of 100 mGy or higher showed statistically significant opacity risks (OR = 5.51, 95% CI: 1.47–20.66; OR = 2.69, 95% CI: 1.10–6.60). Conclusion: The A allele of ATM rs189037 and C allele of TP53 rs1042522 increased the risk of lens opacity induced by radiation. These polymorphisms in ATM and TP53 might modify the risk of cortical and PSC opacity induced by chronic and prolonged low-dose radiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

S-(−)-trans-Verbenol (1) and its antipode, R-(+)-trans-verbenol (1′) have been confirmed as the critical pheromone components of bark beetles. Synthesis of these two active secondary alcohols (1 and 1′) from commercially available starting materials S-α-pinene and R-α-pinene was reported. The key steps were mainly depended on the effective SN2 stereo-inversion of the hydroxy group of sterically hindered alcohols (3 and 3′), using Mitsunobu reaction or hydrolysis of mesylate ester, alternatively. Our results provide a new and stereo-selectivity way to obtain optically active insect pheromones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of elderlies is increasing but prevalence of malnutrition has been reported. The aim of the study was to determine the significance of short-term nutritional deficiencies in mice. Immune status was assessed through flow cytometry of leucocytes in Peyer's patches (PP) and mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN), and intestinal microbiota was evaluated by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP). C57BL/6NCrl mice fed standard diet (StD) or experimental diet high in fat, and low in carbohydrates, protein, fibre, vitamins, and minerals (ExpD) for 2 or 4 weeks. ExpD-animals gained less weight, increased liver lipids, and developed splenomegaly. Diet affected regulatory T-cells, gut homing receptors and TLR2 and TLR4 in PP and MLN and the microbiota was influenced. Partial least squares models on flow cytometry- and T-RFLP data demonstrated correlations between microbial communities and immune phenotyping. Our model shows similarities to malnourished elderly and interactions between intestinal bacteria and the immune system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new spirocyclic compound named (2S, 5S, 7S)-3α-hydroxyl-exogonic acid (1) was isolated from the liquid culture of entomogenous fungus Isaria cateniannulata. The structure and relative stereochemistry of 1 were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analysis and by comparison of its NMR data with those of known compound. Compound 1 showed weak inhibitory activity against HeLa with IC50 value of 80.5 μg ml− 1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a model of finite-step lattice random walk with absorbent boundaries. We address a problem of optimal stop for this model, which is defined as the absorbent boundary value with maximum profit. Compared with many existing optimal stop investigations in the random process, our study only considers the small-sample behaviour (i.e., small number of steps behaviour) and does not consider the limit behaviour of the walk. The optimal stop time is given based on classical probability computation. Since the small-sample is more practical and common than the large-sample in many real world problems, the result obtained in this paper may provide some useful guidelines for real applications associated with the finite-step random walk such as the stock market and gambling games. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A crude extract (B10) of Aspergillus niger spores showed effective antibacterial activity against Agrobacterium tumefaciens T-37. The inhibition rate was 98.22%, and the half maximal inhibitory concentration was 0.035 ± 0.018 mg/mL. To study the primary antibacterial mechanism, this study used relative electric conductivity, release of proteins and nucleic acids, sodium dodecyl sulphate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS–PAGE) and detection of reactive oxygen species (ROS). After adding B10, the relative electric conductivity increased in the supernatant indicating electrolyte transport from intracellular to extracellular space. Compared with the control group and the benzylpenicillin potassium (BP) group, the B10 group had a significant increase in extracellular nucleic acid and protein within 0–18 h, showing that the cell and cytoplasmic membranes were damaged by B10. The SDS–PAGE results confirmed that the extracellular protein and nucleic acid levels were in agreement with lower intracellular total protein. Finally, the intracellular levels of ROS indicated that B10 caused an increase in ROS. In summary, B10 showed clear antibacterial activity against A. tumefaciens through damaging cytoplasmic membranes. The research provided a scientific basis for the prevention and treatment of bacteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a method was established for discriminating the true Cervus antlers from its counterfeits using TaqMan real-time quantitative PCR. The method combines the use of true Cervus antlers-specific primers, that amplify a 226 bp fragment from true Cervus antlers DNA, and mammalian-specific primers amplifying a 146 bp fragment from mammalian species DNA, which are used as endogenous control. A TaqMan probe that hybridizes in the 'Cervus antler' and also in the 'mammalian' DNA fragments is used to monitor the amplification of the target gene. The Cervus antler mitochondrial DNA was used as target gene to design the primers and TaqMan probes. The data revealed that the TaqMan real-time PCR-based assay can be used for identification of the true Cervus antlers from counterfeits in a single step. The limit of detection (LOD) was lower than 1 pg of DNA per reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the purpose of studying the response of the Vallisneria natans antioxidant enzyme defense system to different water depths, we selected seedlings with well-preserved rhizomes, consistent germination and positive growth as experimental plants and put them into 10 plexiglass barrels at depth gradients. After 60 days of simulation experiments, we tested the malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), chlorophyll and soluble protein contents and root activity. The results showed that (1) the contents of Chla, Chlb, Chl (a + b) and Car first increased with water depth and then decreased, reaching maximum values of 0.99, 0.38, 1.37 and 0.20 mg/g, at 110 cm respectively; (2) SOD and POD decreased with increased water depth, with a significant decreasing trend particularly between 30 and 60 days, and MDA showed the same trend as POD. CAT decreased with increased water depth but then showed a two-fold increase trend, probably due to the gradual effects of long-term water stress the antioxidant enzyme system in V. natans leaves. (3) Soluble protein had the same trend as MDA. Root activity implied that the more active the root system is, the more ramets and biomass are produced. In this experiment, the plant grew well at depths of less than 120 cm and showed clear signs of aging or death beyond this depth; the results showed that the antioxidant enzyme defense system engaged a series of antioxidant protection mechanisms to increase plant stress resistance ability and reduce or eliminate the damage of plants, but when the stress increased beyond the tolerance of the plant, the antioxidant defense system was destroyed, which eventually led to the death of the plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The present study investigated the effect of foam thickness on postural stability in patients with unilateral vestibular hypofunction (UVH) during foam posturography. Methods: Static and foam posturography were performed in 33 patients (UVH group) and 30 healthy subjects (control group) with eyes open (EO) and closed (EC) on firm surface and on 1-5 foam pad(s). Sway velocity (SV) of center of pressure, standing time before falling (STBF) and falls reaction were recorded and analyzed. Results: (1) SVs had an increasing tendency in both groups as the foam pads were added under EO and EC conditions. (2) STBFs, only in UVH group with EC, decreased with foam thickness increasing. (3) Significant differences in SV were found between the control and UVH group with EO (except for standing on firm surface, on 1 and 2 foam pad(s)) and with EC (all surface conditions). (4) Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that the SV could better reflect the difference in postural stability between the two groups while standing on the 4 foam pads with EC. Conclusion: Our study showed that diagnostic value of foam posturography in detecting postural instability might be enhanced by using foam pad of right thickness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conclusion: Our study showed that sensory organization test (SOT) could principally reflect utricular function, and our cut-score of VEST ratio (the indicator of inputs from the vestibular system in balance performance) in SOT could help to screen patients with unilateral peripheral vestibular dysfunction in non-fallers. Objectives: We aimed to know SOT reflects the function of which vestibular end organs and to assess the possibility of screening patients with peripheral vestibular dysfunction in non-fall population by means of SOT. Methods: A total of 75 patients with unilateral peripheral vestibular dysfunction underwent SOT, ocular vestibular-evoked myogenic potential (oVEMP), cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic potential (cVEMP) and caloric tests. Results: Regression model indicated that oVEMP, as an independent variable, exerted the greatest influence on VEST ratio, followed by age and cVEMP. There were no significant differences in VEST ratio among groups with different extents of peripheral vestibular involvement (p>.05). VEST ratio in the vestibular impairment groups was significantly lower than in the control group and significantly higher than in fall group (p<.01). VEST ratio in group with normal oVEMP was significantly higher than in group with abnormal oVEMP (p=.013). The cut-score between populations with functional and dysfunctional vestibule was 0.649. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conclusion:Intra-tympanic dexamethasone injection (ITD) could serve as a first-line intra-tympanic (IT) treatment for Meniere’s disease (MD), regardless of hearing level. Even if the response to initial ITD course was unsatisfactory, a repeated course may be beneficial with some patients. Objectives:This study examined the effect of repeated courses of ITD administered on demand and investigated the possibility of ITD as an initial IT treatment for medically intractable MD patients. Method:Fifty-one patients who had been diagnosed with definite MD and given course(s) of ITD treatment were included. Vertigo control, pure tone average and functional disability scores were evaluated against the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery guidelines for MD. Results:Vertigo disappeared or was substantially controlled in 58.8% and 23.5% of the patients, respectively, after the first ITD course. A repeated course further raised the complete vertigo control rate by 15.7% and intra-tympanic gentamycin injection could be postponed or avoided in 78.6% of the patients who required repeated IT treatment. Hearing was unchanged after the first course of ITD (p > .05). No significant differences were detected in the clinical profiles or laboratory findings between patients receiving single course of ITD and those on multiple courses (p > .05). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Prolonged exposure to opiates induces a constellation of neuroadaptations, especially in the mesolimbic dopamine system (MLDS), which leads to alteration in the function of motivational circuitry. The neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) mediates cell–cell interactions and plays an important role in processes associated with neural plasticity. Moreover, it has been shown that NCAM were related to risk of alcoholism in human populations. Here, coimmunoprecipitation and western blotting were used to investigate whether morphine treatment induced alteration of the expression of NCAM or its signaling level in MLDS. The rats receiving escalating dose of morphine treatment were divided into three groups: morphine 1d, 3d and 5d group, which were injected subcutaneously with morphine hydrochloride for 1 day, 3 days and 5 days, respectively. Twelve hours after the last injection, animals were sacrificed and the tissues of ventral tegmental area (VTA), prefrontal cortex (PFC) and nucleus accumbens (NAc) were punched out to examine the expression of NCAM or its signaling level. The results showed that morphine treatment had no significant effect on the expression of NCAM, but downregulated the phosphorylation of NCAM-associated focal adhesion kinase (FAK) in the VTA and PFC of rats. In the NAc of rats, however, the expression of NCAM and its signaling were not altered significantly by morphine treatment. These results indicated that the downregulation of NCAM signaling in the VTA and PFC might be involved in the formation of morphine addiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To establish optimum conditions for anti-tumour therapy, we evaluated the efficacy of doxorubicin using liposomal doxorubicin and local hyperthermia to improve the anti-tumour efficacy over liposomal doxorubicin alone in rabbit VX2 tumours.Materials and methods: A VX2 tumour model was established in New Zealand white rabbits, which were randomly divided into five groups: 1) control, 2) free doxorubicin hydrochloride (Dox), 3) liposomal doxorubicin hydrochloride (L-Dox), 4) L-Dox plus 41 °C thermotherapy (L-Dox + 41 °C TT); and 5) L-Dox plus 43 °C thermotherapy (L-Dox + 43 °C TT). To achieve complete tumour remission, multiple high-dose administrations (5 mg/kg, once per week for a total of 3 weeks) were given. An ultrasound hyperthermia instrument was used to induce local hyperthermia and the systemic toxicity of Dox was evaluated by changes in weight, blood count and serum lactic dehydrogenase. The anti-tumour effect of Dox was evaluated by observing the gross tumour volume, weight and rabbit survival.Results: The white blood cell count following administration of Dox or L-Dox was lower than for control animals and those treated with L-Dox + 41 °C TT. There was no difference between the groups with regard to the red blood cell count. Compared with the control and Dox groups, tumour proliferation was significantly inhibited following administration of L-Dox, L-Dox + 41 °C TT and L-Dox + 43 °C TT, as evidenced by the difference in tumour volume, weight and survival time. Differences in tumour proliferation were also found between the L-Dox and thermotherapy groups.Conclusion: Local hyperthermia combined with L-Dox can significantly improve anti-tumour efficacy and reduce systemic toxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

NPM1 mutation is the most common molecular abnormality in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), especially normal karyotype AML (NK-AML), and is associated with a favorable prognosis in the absence of concomitant FLT3-ITD. Like other molecular abnormalities such as FLT3-ITD, C/EBPα and c-Kit mutation, NPM1 mutation normally presents as a recurrent molecular abnormality. The NPM1 mutation is generally used as a molecular marker in the prognosis evaluation of a patient with AML. Here, we report a different case. He was first diagnosed with NPM1 mutation-positive acute monocytic leukemia. However, he achieved no remission, but the NPM1 mutation dramatically became negative after induction chemotherapy. Finally, he achieved complete remission after salvage chemotherapy and the NPM1 mutation was still negative. To our knowledge, this is a rare case according to the worldwide published literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to investigate the effect of extract of Ginkgo biloba (EGb) on the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Wistar rats were divided into non-SAH, SAH, vehicle, EGb1 (low-dose), and EGb2 (high-dose) groups. VEGF mRNA and VEGF protein were measured from brain tissues. The expressions of VEGF mRNA in SAH and vehicle groups were enhanced 24 and 72 hr after the establishment of SAH. Increased VEGF positive cells were found in the brain tissues in SAH and vehicle groups. The expressions of VEGF mRNA and VEGF protein were further increased by the pretreatment of EGb. We concluded that EGb exerts protective effects on secondary cerebral ischemic injury after SAH via the promotion of the expression of VEGF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As JAK2 V617F, MPL W515L is a novel acquired mutation that induces constitutive cytokine-independent activation of the JAK-STAT pathway in myeloproliferative disorders (MPD). The discovery of this mutation provides a novel mechanism for activation of signal transduction in hematopoietic malignancies. To investigate its prevalence in Chinese patients with MPD, we introduced allele-specific PCR (AS-PCR) combined with sequence analysis to simultaneously screen MPL W515L and JAK2 V617F mutations in 190 MPD patients. MPL W515L mutation was found to be harbored in only one of 102 patients, who had essential thrombocythemia (ET, 1.0%) and was not detected in patients with polycythemia vera (PV), idiopathic myelofibrosis (IMF), and chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Sixty-eight BCR/ABL-negative MPD patients (46.3%) were found harboring JAK2 V617F mutation (PV, 62.5%; ET, 42.1%; IMF 38.1%). Furthermore, MPL W515L and JAK2 V617F mutations were not detected in patients of acute myeloid leukemia, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, and CML. It has been shown that MPL W515L mutations may contribute to the primary molecular pathogenesis of Chinese patients with ET. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate in effect of extract of Ginkgo biloba (EGb) on cerebral blood perfusion in a subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) rat model. SAH lead to an increase in intracranial pressure and decrease in cranial perfusion pressure and regional cerebral blood flow in all groups. However, the intracranial pressure increases in EGb groups were less than that of the vehicle group (p < .01), whereas the reduction in cranial perfusion pressure and regional cerebral blood flow in the EGb group was less than that of the vehicle and SAH groups (p < .01). It was concluded that EGb attenuates the increase in intracranial pressure and reduction in cerebral blood perfusion after SAH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]