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ObjectiveTo investigate the social support status and influencing factors of schizophrenics in remission in Northeast Sichuan， and to provide ideas for improving their social support.MethodsFrom May to September 2020， a total of 533 patients who met the diagnosis criteria of the International Classification of Diseases， tenth edition （ICD-10） for schizophrenics in remission at the mental health institutions in Guangyuan， Bazhong and Dazhou cities were selected for the survey， and patients were assessed by self-made demographic and clinical data inventory and Social Support Rating Scale （SSRS）. Then the social support status of schizophrenic in remission and influencing factors were analyzed， meantime， the impact of the second round reimbursement policy of medical insurance benefits on their social support was addressed particularly.Results①The SSRS total score， objective support， subjective support， and utilization of support scores of schizophrenics in remission were lower than those of the national norm （t=5.065~30.382， P5 000 yuan （F=15.892）， patient's economic income （t=4.083）， and outpatient or online follow-up （F=3.954）， with statistically significant differences （P

Precision agriculture, and more specifically Site-Specific Crop Management (SSCM), has been implemented in some form across nearly all agricultural production systems over the past 25 years. Adoption has been greatest in developed agricultural countries. In this review article, the current situation of SSCM adoption and application is investigated from the perspective of a developed (UK) and developing (China) agricultural economy. The current state-of-the art is reviewed with an emphasis on developments in position system technology and satellite-based remote sensing. This is augmented with observations on the differences between the use of SSCM technologies and methodologies in the UK and China and discussion of the opportunities for (and limitations to) increasing SSCM adoption in developing agricultural economies. A particular emphasis is given to the role of socio-demographic factors and the application of responsible research and innovation (RRI) in translating agri-technologies into China and other developing agricultural economies. Several key research and development areas are identified that need to be addressed to facilitate the delivery of SSCM as a holistic service into areas with low precision agriculture (PA) adoption. This has implications for developed as well as developing agricultural economies.

Simple Summary: Traditional musk is a scarce resource of traditional Chinese medicine in China, which is difficult to obtain. Few studies have been reported on the search for alternatives to musk. To this end, we collected muskrat musk, which is widely regarded as a substitute for musk, and performed Gas Chromatography Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (GC–TOF–MS) metabolomics analysis together with musk. The results showed that muskrat musk and musk had certain similarities in terms of their composition, but the important active components of muscone were missing. Analysis of muskrat musk at different ages showed that amino acids, fatty acids, and steroids were significantly enriched, which may affect the function of muskrat scent glands through local enrichment for a short time. Muskrat musk is considered to be a potential substitute for traditional musk. However, little is known about the similarity between muskrat musk and musk, and whether it is related to muskrat age. In this study, muskrat musk (MR1, MR2, and MR3) were from 1, 2, and 3-year-old muskrats, respectively, and white musk (WM) and brown musk (BM) were picked from male forest musk deer. The results indicated that muskrat musk had higher similarity to WM than BM. Further research showed that RM3 had the highest matched degree with WM. By significantly different metabolite analysis, we found that 52 metabolites continue to increase from 1- to 3-year-old muskrats. In total, 7 and 15 metabolites were significantly decreased in RM1 vs. RM2 and RM2 vs. RM3, respectively. Meanwhile, 30 and 17 signaling pathways were observed from increased and decreased metabolites, respectively. The increased metabolites mainly entailed enrichment in amino acid biosynthesis and metabolism, steroid hormone biosynthesis, and fatty acid biosynthesis. In conclusion, muskrat musk from three-year-old muskrat is a relatively good substitute for white musk, and the result also implies that these biological processes of amino acid biosynthesis and metabolism, steroid hormone biosynthesis, and fatty acid biosynthesis are beneficial to the secretion of muskrat musk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Mesoderm, derived from a new layer between epiblast and hypoblast during gastrulation, can differentiate into various tissues, including muscles, bones, kidneys, blood, and the urogenital system. However, systematic elucidation of mesoderm characteristics and specific markers remains a challenge. This study aims to screen and identify candidate genes important for mesoderm development. Materials and Methods: Cells originating from the three germ layers were obtained by laser capture microdissection, followed by microcellular RNA sequencing. Mesoderm‐specific differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified by using a combination of three bioinformatics pipelines. Candidate mesoderm‐specific genes expression were verified by real‐time quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis and immunohistochemistry. Functional analyses were verified by ESCs‐EBs differentiation and colony‐forming units (CFUs) assay. Results: A total of 1962 differentially expressed mesoderm genes were found, out of which 50 were candidate mesoderm‐specific DEGs which mainly participate in somite development, formation of the primary germ layer, segmentation, mesoderm development, and pattern specification process by GO analysis. Representative genes Cdh2, Cdh11, Jag1, T, Fn‐1, and Pcdh7 were specifically expressed in mesoderm among the three germ layers. Pcdh7 as membrane‐associated gene has hematopoietic‐relevant functions identified by ESCs‐EBs differentiation and CFUs assay. Conclusions: Spatial transcriptomic profiling with multi‐method analysis and confirmation revealed candidate mesoderm progenitors. This approach appears to be efficient and reliable and can be extended to screen and validate candidate genes in various cellular systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RING finger protein 135 has an important role in the occurrence of many cancers; however its regulation and function of RNF135 in hepatocellular carcinoma remains unknown. The promoter methylation status and mRNA expression of RNF135 was evaluated by methylation-specific PCR, semi-quantitative RT-PCR, and real-time quantitative PCR in HCC tissues and cell lines, and further analyzed from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. Wound healing assay, transwell migration, cell viability, and colony formation assay were performed to investigate the function of RNF135. GSEA analysis, TIMER database, and ESTIMATE algorithm were used to decipher the associated pathway and immune infiltration. The survival analysis was applied to assess the prognostic value of RNF135. RNF135 expression was downregulated in HCC tissues and 5 of 8 HCC cell lines, and was negatively correlated with its promoter hypermethylation. Demethylating regent decitabine restored RNF135 expression on the cellular level. Knockdown of RNF135 expression enhanced the migration of HCC cells, while RNF135 overexpression and decitabine treatment repressed cell migration. Bioinformatics analysis and immunohistochemistry revealed a positive relationship between RNF135 expression and six immune cell infiltrates (B cells, CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, neutrophils, macrophages, and dendritic cells). Survival analysis disclosed that RNF135 hypermethylation is independently associated with poor clinical outcomes in HCC. Decreased RNF135 expression driven by promoter hypermethylation frequently occurred in HCC and associated with prognosis of HCC. RNF135 functions as a tumor suppressor and is involved in tumor immune microenvironment in HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animal gut microbiota begins to colonize after birth and is functionally indispensable for maintaining the health of the host. It has been reported that gender and age influence the composition of the intestinal microbiome. However, the effects of gender and age on the intestinal microorganism of forest musk deer (FMD) remain unclear. The aim of this study was to establish the relationship between the structure and composition of fecal microbiota of male and female forest musk deer with age. Here, Illumina Miseq 300PE sequencing platform targeting 16S rRNA V3–V4 hypervariable region applied to define the fecal microbiota of male and female FMD with two age groups, juvenile (age 1–2 years) and adult (age 4–10 years). Alpha diversity index did not show significant difference in bacterial diversity between the males and females or among age groups. The intestinal microbiota of FMD was dominated by three phyla, the Firmicutes, Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes regardless of gender and different ages. Higher proportions of Proteobacteria were found in adult male and juvenile female individuals. The composition of Bacteroidetes was stable with the gender and age of FMD. Interestingly, the relative abundance of genera Clostridiales and Bacteroidales were higher in the juvenile FMD. Conversely, proportions of Pseudomonas and Lachnospiraceae were abundant in the adult FMD. Higher proportions of Ruminococcaceae, Dore, and 5-7N15 were found in the juvenile male groups. They may reflect the different immune resistance of male and female individuals at different stages of development. This study explored the fecal microbiota composition of forest musk deer in relation to gender and age, which may provide an effective strategy for developing intestinal microecological preparations and potential musk deer breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The organizational properties of complex lipid mixtures can give rise to functionally important structures in cell membranes. In model membranes, ternary lipid-cholesterol (CHOL) mixtures are often used as representative systems to investigate the formation and stabilization of localized structural domains (“rafts”). In this work, we describe a self-consistent mean-field model that builds on molecular dynamics simulations to incorporate multiple lipid components and to investigate the lateral organization of such mixtures. The model predictions reveal regions of bimodal order on ternary plots that are in good agreement with experiment. Specifically, we have applied the model to ternary mixtures composed of dioleoylphosphatidylcholine:18:0 sphingomyelin:CHOL. This work provides insight into the specific intermolecular interactions that drive the formation of localized domains in these mixtures. The model makes use of molecular dynamics simulations to extract interaction parameters and to provide chain configuration order parameter libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese forest musk deer (Moschus berezovskii) is an economically important species distributed throughout southwest China and northern Vietnam. Occurrence and development of disease are aggravated by inbreeding and genetic diversity declines in captive musk deer populations. Deep transcriptomics investigation may provide a promising way to improve genetic health of captive and wild FMD population. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), which regulate gene expression by targeting and suppressing of mRNAs, play an important role in physiology and organism development control. In this study, RNA-seq technology was adopted to characterize the miRNA transcriptome signature among six tissues (heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney, and muscle) in Chinese forest musk deer at two years of age. Deep sequencing generated a total of 103,261,451 (~87.87%) good quality small RNA reads; of them 6,622,520 were unique across all six tissues. A total of 2890 miRNAs were identified, among them 1129 were found to be expressed in all tissues. Moreover, coexpression of 20 miRNAs (>2000RPM) in all six tissues and top five highly expressed miRNAs in each tissue implied the crucial and particular function of them in FMD physiological processes. Our findings of forest musk deer miRNAs supplement the database of transcriptome information for this species and conduce to our understanding of forest musk deer biology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A structure‐based statistical potential is developed for transcription factor binding site (TFBS) prediction. Besides the direct contact between amino acids from TFs and DNA bases, the authors also considered the influence of the neighbouring base. This three‐body potential showed better discriminate powers than the two‐body potential. They validate the performance of the potential in TFBS identification, binding energy prediction and binding mutation prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, aptamer-based quantum-dot detectors of K^+ made of two-different K^+ aptamers are compared. These deoxyribonucleic acid-based aptamers are TBA (5^\prime GGT TGG TGT GGT TGG 3^\prime) and AG3 (5^\prime GGG TTA GGG TTA GGG TTA GGG 3^\prime). The nanoscale aptamer-quantum-dot-based detectors described in this paper are synthesized and tested in DI water aliquots that contain KCl. The results including data suggest that beacons made of AG3 and TBA serve better as an ion indicator in different potassium level regions. As a result, aptamer beacon made of AG3 has better potential in the design of take-home diagnostic devices for hyperkalemia and hypokalemia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Three new germacrane sesquiterpenes (1), (2), (3), along with eleven known sesquiterpenes, namely, tirotundin-3-O-methyl ether (4), deacetylvguiestin (5), 1β-hydroxydiversifolin-3-O-methyl ether (6), tagitinin C (7), 1β-hydroxytirotundin-3-O-methyl ether (8), 1β-hydroxytirotundin-1,3-O-dimethyl ether (9), tagitinin F-3-O-methyl ether (10), tagitinin F (11), tagitinin A (12), 3β-acetoxy-4α-hydroxyeduesm-11(13)-en-12-oic acid (13) and ilicic acid (14) were isolated from the aerial parts of Tithonia diversifolia. Their structures were established by spectroscopic analysis, while the relative configuration of compound 1 was confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis. In addition, compounds 1–14 were evaluated in vitro for their anti-hyperglycemic activity by glucose uptake in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. It was found that 10μg/mL 1, 3, 6 and 8 could significantly increase glucose uptake without significant toxic effects. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) are found naturally in dairy products. Two isomers of CLA, that differ only in the location of cis and trans double bonds, are found to have distinct and different biological effects. The cis 9 trans 11 (C9T11) isomer is believed to have anti-carcinogenic effects, while the trans 10 cis 12 (T10C12) isomer is believed to be associated with anti-obesity effects. In this paper we extend earlier molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of pure CLA–phosphatidylcholine bilayers to investigate the comparative effects of cholesterol on bilayers composed of the two respective isomers. Simulations of phosphatidylcholine lipid bilayers in which the sn-2 chains contained one of the two isomers of CLA were performed in which, for each isomer, the simulated bilayers contained 10% and 30% cholesterol (Chol). From MD trajectories we calculate and compare structural properties of the bilayers, including areas per molecule, thickness of bilayers, tilt angle of cholesterols, order parameter profiles, and one and two-dimensional radial distribution function (RDF), as functions of Chol concentration. While the structural effect of cholesterol is approximately the same for both isomers, we find differences at an atomistic level in order parameter profiles and in two-dimensional radial distribution functions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) are found naturally in dairy products. Two isomers of CLA, that differ only in the location of cis and trans double bonds, are found to have distinct and different biological effects. The cis 9 trans 11 (C9T11) isomer is attributed to have the anti-carcinogenic effects, while the trans 10 cis 12 (T10C12) isomer is believed to be responsible for the anti-obesity effects. Since dietary CLA are incorporated into membrane phospholipids, we have used Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate the comparative effects of the two isomers on lipid bilayer structure. Specifically, simulations of phosphatidylcholine lipid bilayers in which the sn-2 chains contained one of the two isomers of CLA were performed. Force field parameters for the torsional potential of double bonds were obtained from ab initio calculations. From the MD trajectories we calculated and compared structural properties of the two lipid bilayers, including areas per molecule, density profiles, thickness of bilayers, tilt angle of tail chains, order parameters profiles, radial distribution function (RDF) and lateral pressure profiles. The main differences found between bilayers of the two CLA isomers, are (1) the order parameter profile for C9T11 has a dip in the middle of sn-2 chain while the profile for T10C12 has a deeper dip close to terminal of sn-2 chain, and (2) the lateral pressure profiles show differences between the two isomers. Our simulation results reveal localized physical structural differences between bilayers of the two CLA isomers that may contribute to different biological effects through differential interactions with membrane proteins or cholesterol. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Epicauta apteraKaszab(E. aptera), an endangered species used to extract cantharidin in Chinese traditional medicine, has a limited geographical distribution in the southwest China. The complete mitochondrial genome ofE. apterais 15 645bp which contains an A + T rich region and 37 genes, including 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes and two rRNA genes (GenBank accession No. KX023302). All protein-coding genes are initiated by ATN start codon. Moreover, the largest non-coding A + T-rich region with a length of 1039 bp is at the end of 12S rRNA. It is the first report involved in the complete mitochondrial genome ofE. aptera. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: The human severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and the NL63 coronaviruses are human respiratory pathogens for which no effective antiviral treatment exists. The papain-like cysteine proteases encoded by the coronavirus (SARS-CoV: PLpro; NL63: PLP1 and PLP2) represent potential targets for antiviral drug development. Three recent inhibitor-bound PLpro structures highlight the role of an extremely flexible six-residue loop in inhibitor binding. The high binding site plasticity is a major challenge in computational drug discovery/design efforts. From conventional molecular dynamics and accelerated molecular dynamics (aMD) simulations, we find that with conventional molecular dynamics simulation, PLpro translationally samples the open and closed conformation of BL2 loop on a picosecond–nanosecond timescale but does not reproduce the peptide bond inversion between loop residues Tyr269 and Gln270 that is observed on inhibitor GRL0617 binding. Only aMD simulation, starting from the closed loop conformation, reproduced the 180° ϕ–ψ dihedral rotation back to the open loop state. The Tyr–Gln peptide bond inversion appears to involve a progressive conformational change of the full loop, starting at one side, and progressing to the other. We used the SARS-CoV apo X-ray structure to develop a model of the NL63-PLP2 catalytic site. Superimposition of the PLP2 model on the PLpro X-ray structure identifies binding site residues in PLP2 that contribute to the distinct substrate cleavage site specificities between the two proteases. The topological and electrostatic differences between the two protease binding sites also help explain the selectivity of non-covalent PLpro inhibitors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]