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Abstract Mycobacterium phlei is a gram‐positive acid‐fast mycobacterium from the family Mycobacteriaceae. It is a valuable resource for both natural drugs and microecological preparations. It has been widely used in the field of human medicine; however, in the field of animal husbandry and veterinary medicine, the research and application of M. phlei is still in the preliminary exploration stage. This study aims to summarize the research progress of M. phlei in the field of veterinary medicine and provide a valuable reference for future research. Key words, such as ‘M. phlei’, ‘veterinary field’, ‘immune balancer’, ‘genome’ and other relevant words to this study, were used to search through PubMed, Web of Science, SciELO, Science Direct and Google Scholar databases. The results showed that the culture conditions of M. phlei were relatively simple, but its bacterial composition and genome sequence were relatively complex, and various components in the cell wall may have immunoregulatory effects. Therefore, the inactivated preparation made from M. phlei can have various applications in the veterinary field, such as growth regulation, immune regulation, antitumour, anti‐parasite and asthma treatment. The literature review indicates that M. phlei preparation is an efficient and convenient immune system balance agent. Despite the challenges associated with the use of M. phlei preparations, it has a strong potential for application in veterinary medicine.

Neural progenitor cells (NPCs) capable of self-renewal and differentiation into neural cell lineages offer broad prospects for cell therapy for neurodegenerative diseases. However, cell therapy based on NPC transplantation is limited by the inability to acquire sufficient quantities of NPCs. Previous studies have found that a chemical cocktail of valproic acid, CHIR99021, and Repsox (VCR) promotes mouse fibroblasts to differentiate into NPCs under hypoxic conditions. Therefore, we used VCR (0.5 mM valproic acid, 3 μM CHIR99021, and 1 μM Repsox) to induce the reprogramming of rat embryonic fibroblasts into NPCs under a hypoxic condition (5%). These NPCs exhibited typical neurosphere-like structures that can express NPC markers, such as Nestin, SRY-box transcription factor 2, and paired box 6 (Pax6), and could also differentiate into multiple types of functional neurons and astrocytes in vitro. They had similar gene expression profiles to those of rat brain-derived neural stem cells. Subsequently, the chemically-induced NPCs (ciNPCs) were stereotactically transplanted into the substantia nigra of 6-hydroxydopamine-lesioned parkinsonian rats. We found that the ciNPCs exhibited long-term survival, migrated long distances, and differentiated into multiple types of functional neurons and glial cells in vivo. Moreover, the parkinsonian behavioral defects of the parkinsonian model rats grafted with ciNPCs showed remarkable functional recovery. These findings suggest that rat fibroblasts can be directly transformed into NPCs using a chemical cocktail of VCR without introducing exogenous factors, which may be an attractive donor material for transplantation therapy for Parkinson’s disease.

The plant species Gelsemium elegans Benth. (GEB) promotes pig and sheep growth; however, little is known about its effects in chickens. In this study, a GEB extract (GEBE) was prepared, and its effects on the growth, slaughter, antioxidant performance, meat quality, serum biochemical indices, intestinal morphology, and microflora of yellow-feathered chickens were evaluated. In total, 600 chickens aged 15 days were randomly divided into four groups with five replicates each and fed a basal diet containing 0% (control), 0.25% (0.25 GEBE), 0.75% (0.75 GEBE), or 1.25% (1.25 GEBE) GEBE until 49 days of age. Chickens were then killed, and their meat, organs, and serum and cecal contents were collected. GEBE reduced the feed conversion ratio, particularly in the 0.75 and 1.25 GEBE groups. Furthermore, the GEBE diet improved meat tenderness and reduced the meat expressible moisture content and liver malondialdehyde content, indicating high meat quality. Whereas the 0.25 GEBE diet increased the level of Lactobacillus acidophilus in the cecum, the 0.75 GEBE diet decreased the Escherichia coli level therein. These findings demonstrate that GEBE may improve the meat quality and cecal microbiota of yellow-feathered chickens, providing a basis for identifying candidate alternatives to conventional antibiotics as growth promoting feed additives.

IntroductionGelsemium elegans (G. elegans) as a traditional medicinal plant used in livestock production. The use of G. elegans in veterinary clinics may pose safety risks to human health.ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to investigate tissue residue depletion in pigs fed G. elegans powder.MethodsA precise quantitation method and a simultaneous semi-quantitation method for multiple components independently of standards in pig tissues were developed for the first time. The two methods were validated in terms of specificity, LODs, LOQs, linearity, accuracy, precision, and matrix effects. They were then applied to a tissue residue depletion study after G. elegans powder at a dose of 2% per kg feed were fed to pigs.ResultsCompared with precise quantitation, the method validation results indicated that the semi-quantitation method was reliable and acceptable for multicomponent quantification independent of standards. Many G. elegans alkaloids are widely distributed in most tissues of pigs. Tissue residue depletion studies indicated that 14-hydroxygelsenicine, 11-hydroxygelsenicine, and gelsemoxonine could be used as potential residue markers, and pancreas, small intestine, and lung tissues could be considered as potential residue target tissues of G. elegans. In addition, both urine and plasma could be used to predict 14-hydroxygelsenicine and gelsemoxonine residues in the liver, pancreas, and small intestinal tissues of pigs.ConclusionThe developed semi-quantification method can be applied to monitor the application and residue of G. elegans. The results provide scientific evidence for evaluating the safety of animal-derived food from G. elegans for consumers and will be helpful for its application and future development.

Ampelopsis grossedentata (AG) is mainly distributed in Chinese provinces and areas south of the Yangtze River Basin. It is mostly concentrated or scattered in mountainous bushes or woods with high humidity. Approximately 57 chemical components of AG have been identified, including flavonoids, phenols, steroids and terpenoids, volatile components, and other chemical components. In vitro studies have shown that the flavone of AG has therapeutic properties such as anti-bacteria, anti-inflammation, anti-oxidation, enhancing immunity, regulating glucose and lipid metabolism, being hepatoprotective, and being anti-tumor with no toxicity. Through searching and combing the related literature, this paper comprehensively and systematically summarizes the research progress of AG, including morphology, traditional and modern uses, chemical composition and structure, and pharmacological and toxicological effects, with a view to providing references for AG-related research.

Introduction Neck pain causes serious social and economic burden. Research on the use of acupuncture for managing cervical spondylosis has increased over time, with the quality of studies showing an improved trend. The present study seeks to use a systematic review approach to understand efficacy and safety of acupuncture for treatment of neck pain caused by cervical spondylosis.Methods and analysis We will search PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese BioMedical Literature, Wanfang database and VIP databases, from their inception to July 2020, to identify and retrieve all randomised controlled trials, describing the use of acupuncture for treatment of cervical spondylosis. Thereafter, two reviewers will independently select the studies, extract data and assess the risk of bias. Any disagreements, between them, will be resolved through a discussion with a third reviewer. Data synthesis and statistical analyses will be performed using the Revman V.5.3 software. Specifically, data will be synthesised by either fixed-effects (heterogeneity less than 50%) or random-effects models, following a heterogeneity test, with outcome measures focusing on pain intensity, functional disability, psychological improvements and adverse events. In cases where no considerable heterogeneity is detected, a meta-analysis will be conducted.Ethics and dissemination No ethical approval will be required for this study, since it does not infringe on anyone’s interests. The findings will be published in a peer-reviewed journal or disseminated through conferences.PROSPERO registration number CRD42020152379.

Numerous estuaries of the world have been strongly modified by human activities. These interferences can make great adjustments of not only sediment transport processes, but also the collective behavior of the estuary. This paper provides a typical case of a heavily modified coastal plain estuary of Sheyang on the China coast, where a sluice barrage was built in 1956 to stop the intrusions of storm surges and saline water. Four sets of instrumented tripods were simultaneously deployed along a cross-shore transect to continuously observe near-bed flow currents and sediment transport. The in-situ surveys lasted over a spring and neap tide cycle when a strong wind event occurred in the neap tide. Comparisons of flows and sediment transport between tide-dominated and wind-dominated conditions demonstrated the important role of episodic wind events in flows and sediment transport. The wind-induced currents, bottom stresses, and sediment transport rates were significantly greater when wind was present than corresponding quantities induced by the tides. The long-shore sediment transport induced by winds exceeds the cross-shore component, especially near the river mouth bar. These results indicate the noticeable importance of wave-dominated coastal processes in shaping topographic features. A regime shift of estuarine evolution under highly intense human forcing occurs from fluvial to marine processes. This finding suggests that the management strategy of the estuarine system should focus on the restoration of estuarine processes, rather than the present focus on inhibition of marine dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reactions of seven-coordinate [FeIIIdapsox)(H2O)2]CIO4·H2O (1), [FeII(H2dapsox)(H2O)2](NO3)2·H2O (2), and [MnII(H2dapsox)(CH3OH)(H2O)](CIO4)2(H2O) (3) complexes of the acyclic and rigid pentadentate H2dapsox ligand [H2dapsox = 2,6-diacetylpyridinebis (semioxamazide)] with superoxide have been studied spectrophotometrically, electrochemically, and by a submillisecond mixing UV/vis stopped-flow in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). The same studies were performed on the seven-coordinate [MnII(Me2[15]pyridinaneN5)(H2O)2]Cl2·H2O (4) complex with the flexible macrocyclic Me2[15]pyndinaneN5 ligand (Me2[15]pyhdinaneN5 = trans-2 , 13-dimethyl-3,6,9,12,18-pentaazabicyclo-[12.3.1]octadeca-1(18),14,16-triene), which belongs to the class of proven superoxide dismutase (SOD) mimetics. The X-ray crystal structures of 2–4 were determined. All complexes possess pentagonal-bipyramidal geometry with the pentadentate ligand in the equatorial plane and solvent molecules in the axial positions. The stopped-flow experiments in DMSO (0.06% of water) reveal that all four metal complexes catalyze the fast disproportionation of superoxide under the applied experimental conditions, and the catalytic rate constants are found to be (3.7 ± 0.5) × 106, (3.9 ± 0.5) × 106, (1.2 ± 0.3) × 107, and (5.3 ± 0.8) × 106 M-1 s-1 for 1–4, respectively. The cytochrome c McCord—Fridovich (McCF) assay in an aqueous solution at pH = 7.8 resulted in the IC50 values (and corresponding kMCCF constants) for 3 and 4, 0.013 ± 0.001 μM (1.9 ± 0.2 × 108 M-1 s-1) and 0.024 ± 0.001 μM (1.1 ± 0.3 × 108 M-1 s-1), respectively. IC50 values from a nitroblue tetrazolium assay are found to be 6.45 ± 0.02 and 1.36 ± 0.03 ±M for 1 and 4, respectively. The data have been compared with those obtained by direct stopped-flow measurements and discussed in terms of the side reactions that occur under the conditions of indirect assays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the prevalence and characteristics of MCRPEC in pig farms, 278 pig fecal samples were collected from a pig farm in Jiangxi Province. Ten MCRPEC strains were laboratory isolated by culture, PCR, and gel electrophoresis. The brothmicrodilution was adopted for the drug sensitivity test. After whole-genome sequencing, the resistance genes and plasmid typing were analyzed, and the transferability of mcr-1 was verified through plasmid conjugation transfer. The results showed that all ten strains were resistant to colistin, gentamicin, florfenicol, trimethoprim, cefotaxime, and tetracycline, with a MDR rate of 100%. The ten MCRPEC strains were found to belong to seven STs, and mcr-1 was mainly located on the IncI2 plasmid, featuring a typical plasmid coupling transfer part, type IV secretion system, and antimonite protein gene; horizontal transfer occurred in nine strains. These results indicate that MCRPEC exists on this pig farm and is MDR. Bacterial monitoring should be strengthened, the use of antibiotics on farms should be reduced, and the spread of ARGs should be controlled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade,end-to-end automatic speech recognition (ASR) frameworks have developed rapidly.End-to-end ASR has shown not only very different characteristics from traditional ASR based on hidden Markov models (HMMs),but also advanced performances.Thus,end-to-end ASR is being more and more popular and has become another major type of ASR frameworks.A keyword search (KWS) framework based on end-to-end ASR and frame-synchronous alignment is proposed for solving the problem that end-to-end ASR cannot provide accurate keyword timestamps and confidence scores,and experimental verification on a Vietnamese dataset is made.First,utterances are decoded by an end-to-end Uyghur ASR system,obtaining N-best hypotheses.Next,a dynamic programming-based alignment algorithm is implemented on each of these ASR hypotheses and per-frame phoneme probabilities,which are provided by a phoneme classifier jointly trained with the ASR model,to compute time stamps and confidence scores for each word in N-best hypotheses.Then,final KWS result is obtained by detecting keywords within N-best hypotheses and removing duplicated keyword occurrences according to time stamps and confident scores.Experimental results on a Vietnamese conversational telephone speech dataset show that the proposed KWS system achieves an F1 score of 77.6%,which is relatively 7.8% higher than the F1 score of the traditional HMM-based KWS system.The proposed system also provides reliable keyword confidence scores.