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Background: Although a growing number of studies have demonstrated that patients' health literacy is associated with health outcomes, the exact relationship between them is not clear. Aims and objectives: The aim of this study was to explore latent classes of health literacy in patients with heart failure and analyze the differences among different groups. Design and Methods: This is a cross-sectional survey. Patients diagnosed with heart failure were selected from 3 tertiary hospitals in Tianjin, China, from March 2019 to November 2019. We measured patients' health literacy using the Health Literacy Scale for Chronic Patients. Latent class analysis was carried out based on the patients' Health Literacy Scale for Chronic Patients scores. Multinomial logistic regression was used to identify the predictive indicators of the latent classes. Results: The health literacy of patients with heart failure was divided into 3 different latent classes, named "high health literacy group," "low literacy high dependence group," and "moderate literacy high willingness group." There were statistically significant differences in gender, age, smoking history, marital status, education level, household income level, and quality of life among different health literacy classes. Low education level and household income level predicted poor health literacy. Conclusion: There were 3 latent classes for the health literacy of patients with heart failure. Different health literacy classes exhibited their own distinctive characteristics. Patients in the "moderate literacy high willingness group" had the worst quality of life. Understanding the specific types of health literacy in patients with heart failure facilitates targeted nursing interventions to improve their quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, but effective therapies remain the topic of many research activities. Many recent studies have thus focused on particular gut microbiota due to their important roles in treating cancers, but very few microbes of therapeutic value have been reported. In this study, we isolated four bacterial strains, BY38, BY40, BY43 and BY45, from the fecal specimens of healthy individuals and cancer patients. The treatment of cancer cells with the products of these cultured bacteria induced significant inhibitory effects on the proliferation of ovarian cancer cells and colorectal cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner. A phylogenetic analysis showed that the four anticancer strains belong to the genus Bacillus, and flow cytometry assays indicated that the inhibitory effects might be achieved through the induction of cell apoptosis. These results suggest that these bacteria could be novel and promising anticancer agents against cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacterioplankton communities play a critical role in biogeochemical cycling in freshwater environments, but how the hydrological regime impacts the assembly of bacterioplankton communities remains unclear. This study examined differences in bacterioplankton community structures between wet (July and September) and dry (October and November) seasons in two consecutive years (2016 and 2017) in Poyang Lake, the largest seasonal freshwater lake in China. Our results revealed no overall difference in bacterioplankton compositions and their predicted functions among spatially separated sites. However, bacterioplankton communities did show significant temporal shifts, mainly between samples in November and other months. Transitions from the dry to the wet season were observed in October in both sampling years. Meanwhile, insignificant spatial but significant temporal differences were also found for physicochemical variables. Moreover, redundancy analysis indicates that compared with water depth, water temperature was found to better explain changes in the bacterioplankton community. These findings consistently indicate that the bacterioplankton community in Poyang Lake is relatively less sensitive to annual hydrology shifts than water temperature and nutrient conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three new compounds, namely massonside C (1), massonianoside F (2), and 3, 8-dimethyl- herbacetin-7-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (3), together with five known compounds (4–8), were isolated from the fresh needles of Pinus massoniana. Their structures were established by 1D, 2D NMR, HRMS and comparison with the literature data. The absolute configuration of 1 was confirmed by a combination of X-ray single crystal analysis. All isolated compounds were evaluated for the protective effect of human umbilical vein endothelial cells against oxidative damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heavy metal pollution threatens the health and life of animals and humans through the food chain. This study was performed to survey the heavy metal contamination in feedstuffs and feeds in Hubei Province, People's Republic of China, from 2012 to 2016. Samples were analyzed for cadmium (306 samples), mercury (117 samples), chromium (149 samples), and arsenic (4,358 samples) using atomic absorption spectrometry or atomic fluorescence spectrometry. The incidence rates of cadmium, mercury, chromium, and arsenic contamination of feedstuffs and feeds were high, and feeds were most often contaminated with chromium, followed by arsenic, cadmium, and mercury. The concentrations of heavy metals in samples positive for cadmium, mercury, chromium, and arsenic ranged from 0.001 to 1.200, 0.002 to 6.540, 0.060 to 8737.000, and 0.070 to 33.000 mg/kg, respectively. The mineral and additive samples had higher concentrations of heavy metals. The present study findings highlight the importance of monitoring heavy metals in feedstuffs and feeds and implementing feed management and bioremediation strategies to reduce heavy metal exposure. The study is a survey about the contamination of animal feeds in Hubei Province. Feeds were most often polluted with Cr, followed by As, Cd, and Hg. The mineral and additive samples had higher concentrations of heavy metals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rainfall can cause serious soil loss in the Loess Plateau hilly and gully region, but little focus has been placed on the extreme rainstorm effects on unpaved loess road soil erosion. A field survey method was used to investigate the erosional effects of the "7.26" heavy rainfall event on unpaved loess roads in the Jiuyuangou watershed of the Loess Plateau, China. The results showed that the average and maximum widths of the eroded gullies that formed on the unpaved roads were 0.65–1.48 m and 1.00–3.60 m, respectively. The average and maximum depths of the eroded gullies were 0.42–1.13 m and 0.75–4.30 m, respectively. The average width-to-depth ratio was 1.31, indicating that the widening effect was greater than the downcutting effect in the eroded gullies. In addition, the gully density ranged from 0.07 to 0.29 m m−2, and the road surface dissection degree ranged from 0.03 to 0.41 km2 km−2. Eroded gullies generally developed at the slope toe of the cut bank side. The average eroded gully width and depth at turns in the road were 1.47–2.64 times and 1.30–3.47 times greater, respectively, than those in other road sections. The road erosion modulus increased from the upper section to the lower section of the roads. The average road erosion modulus of the study catchment was 235,000 t km−2. Turns in the road were associated with collapses, sinkholes and other gravitational erosion phenomena. The amount of road erosion under extreme rainfall conditions is mainly related to the interactions among road length, width, slope and soil bulk density. Our results provide a useful reference for developing further measures for preventing road erosion on the Loess Plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pandemic of the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) has caused huge economic losses and continues to threaten the swine industry worldwide. Nucleocapsid protein (N protein) is the primary antigen of PRRSV for development of sensitive diagnostic assays. Two high affinity nanobodies against N protein, Nb12 and Nb35, were selected and employed to develop a sandwich ELISA. Further we improved the ELISA method to obtain greater sensitivity, a trivalent nanobody (3 × Nb35) and a bivalent nanobody-HRP fusion protein (2 × Nb12-HRP) were expressed and used. This modified ELISA was found to have high sensitivity for detecting PRRSV, with a detection limit of 10 TCID 50 /ml (median tissue culture infectious dose), which was approximately 200-fold greater than the single-copy nanobody-based sandwich ELISA. The developed assay shows high specificity and can detect almost all circulating lineages of PRRSV-2 in China. This study provides suggestions for reforming nanobodies and for the further development of multivalent nanobody-based ELISAs for other various viruses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of vegetation coverage and topography on soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks has been intensively studies. However, very few of the studies have recognized the potential combining effects of vegetation types and topographic positions onto SOC distribution, especially on the Chinese Loess Plateau where vegetation recovery has generated complex combination of fragmented topography and vegetation coverage. This study systematically sampled soil cores (259) from four vegetation types (woodland, grassland, cropland, and orchard) at three topographic positions (tableland, slope and valley bottom). Each soil core was divided into three layers: surface soil (0–20 cm), subsoil (20–60 cm) and deep soil (60–200 cm). Our results show that: (1) the SOC concentration declined over soil depths, regardless topographic positions or vegetation types. The absence of ancient cultivation layers at the valley bottoms further made the SOC stocks deep to 200 cm there much less than the tableland with thick loess soil layers (8.3 kg km –2 vs. 13.4 kg km –2 ). (2) The SOC concentration of cropland varied evidently with topographic positions, with the greatest on the tableland (8.0 g kg –1 ), and the least along the slope (5.3 g kg –1 ). However, grassland was rather stable across the three topographic positions. (3) In addition, the SOC concentrations of the three vegetation types were comparable on the tableland (6.1 g kg –1 ), while differed noticeably at the valley bottoms (5.0 g kg –1 ). Overall, our findings in this study call for the account for each combination of topographic position and vegetation type, so as to properly assess regional SOC stocks for sustainable land use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rill erosion is one of the main forms of soil erosion of the hillslopes on the Loess Plateau of China. Few studies have evaluated the effects of land use on the distribution and morphology of rills under extreme rainstorms. A total of 50 rill survey sites were selected in a typical watershed of the Loess Plateau of China to investigate the rill distribution and morphology of three land uses (fallow land, FL; slope farmland, SF; and annual grassland, AG) under extreme rainstorm conditions (called "7·26" rainstorm). Seven parameters (rill width, rill depth, width-depth ratio, cross-section area, rill density, degree of rill dissection and rill erosion modulus) were used to characterize rill morphology, and the basic soil and vegetation properties (bulk density, particle size distribution, and vegetation coverage) and topographic factors (slope length, gradient, direction) were measured. It was found that rills developed on three land uses, and those with widths ranging from 5 to 20 cm accounted for >80%. Rills developed on FL were deeper than those on SF and AG. Almost all rills on FL had a depth of 5–20 cm (90.3%), while the depth of rills on SF and AG were mainly smaller than 15 cm (91.5% and 91.9%, respectively). In addition to width, rill depth and cross-section area of SF and AG were also significantly less than those of FL. SF and FL had a relatively high width-depth ratio and dissection degree. However, land use had no significant effect on rill density. Crop plantations (SF) and grass restoration (AG) significantly reduced rill erosion modulus (28.70% and 45.07% reduction, respectively). Land use, topography, soil, and vegetation factors significantly affected rill morphology (p = 0.001) based on redundancy analysis (RDA) and can explain 48.0% of the total variability of rill morphology, with slope length, vegetation coverage and slope gradient having the greatest influences. Most of the rill morphological parameters significantly decreased as the vegetation coverage increased but they significantly increased with increasing slope length and slope gradient. This study clearly illustrates the severe rill erosion caused by this rainstorm, and indirectly indicates that crop harvesting (FL) aggravates rill erosion and that revegetation (AG) can effectively contain rill erosion. Therefore, rehabilitation efforts should be focused on revegetation (grassland and/or woodland) on steep slopes to control soil erosion. • Rill development of three land uses was investigated under extreme rainfall. • Crop and grass can contain the development of rills >15 cm wide and 10–20 cm deep. • Cropland and grassland reduce rill erosion rate by 28.70% and 45.07%, respectively. • Land use, topography, soil and plant explain 48% of variability of rill morphology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: Hepatitis B x protein (HBx) is required to initiate and maintain the replication of hepatitis B virus (HBV). Protein arginine methyltransferases 5 (PRMT5) negatively regulates HBV transcription. WD repeat domain 77 protein (WDR77) greatly enhances the methyltransferase activity of PRMT5. However, the role of WDR77 in the modulation of cccDNA transcription and HBV replication is poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the mechanism by which HBx modulated HBV replication involving WDR77 in the liver. Methods: A human liver-chimeric mouse model was established. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining, Western blot analysis, Southern blot analysis, Northern blot analysis, immunofluorescence assays, ELISA, RT-qPCR, CoIP assays, and ChIP assays were performed in human liver-chimeric mouse model, primary human hepatocytes (PHHs), HepG2-NTCP, dHepaRG and HepG2 cell lines. Results: HBV infection and HBx expression remarkably reduced the protein levels of WDR77 in human liver-chimeric mice and HepG2-NTCP cells. WDR77 restricted cccDNA transcription and HBV replication in PHHs and HepG2-NTCP cells. Mechanically, WDR77 enhanced PRMT5-triggered symmetric dimethylation of arginine 3 on H4 (H4R3me2s) on the cccDNA minichromosome to control cccDNA transcription. HBx drove the cellular DDB1-containing E3 ubiquitin ligase to degrade WDR77 through recruiting WDR77, leading to the disability of methyltransferase activity of PRMT5. Thus, HBx promoted HBV replication by driving a positive feedback loop of HBx-DDB1/WDR77/PRMT5/H4R3me2s/cccDNA/HBV/HBx in the liver. Conclusions: HBx attenuates the WDR77-mediated HBV repression by driving DDB1-induced WDR77 degradation in the liver. Our finding provides new insights into the mechanism by which HBx enhances HBV replication in the liver., Competing Interests: Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interest exists., (© The author(s).)

An indoor rainfall simulation experiment was conducted to examine the hydrodynamic characteristics, erosion characteristics, and erosion dynamics mechanisms of earth (excluding gra-vel) and earth-rock (gravel mass fraction 30%) Lou soil engineering accumulation in the Loess area across different rainfall intensities and slope gradients. Results showed that the presence of gravel changed the hydrodynamic characteristics of the engineering accumulation slope. The flow velocity, froude number, unit stream power, and unit energy of water-carrying section of the earth-rock slope were 1.7%-49.7%, 6.7%-60.6%, 2.0%-44.6% and 1.0%-26.7% lower than those of the earth slope, while the Manning roughness coefficient and runoff shear stress of the earth-rock slope were 6.2%-169.4% and 5.7%-79.3% higher than those of the earth slope respectively. Under the intensity of 2.0 and 2.5 mm·min -1 , erosion rate of the earth-rock slope was 26.2%-89.9% lower than that of earth slope. The gravel significantly reduced slope erosion of the Lou soil engineering accumulation. Erosion rate and hydrodynamic parameters of the two accumulations were linearly related. The erodibility parameters of earth-rock slope were 56.1%-73.3% lower than that of earth slope. In the critical hydrodynamic parameters, runoff shear stress of earth-rock slope was 11.1% higher, while the stream power, unit stream power and unit energy of water-carrying section were 25.4%, 64.0% and 5.0% lower than those of the earth slope, respectively. The existence of gravel controlled rainfall erosion process on the slope of the engineering accumulation to some extent.

Background: Escherichia coli are mostly commensals but also contain pathogenic lineages. It is largely unclear whether the commensal E. coli as the potential origins of pathogenic lineages may consist of monophyletic or polyphyletic populations, elucidation of which is expected to lead to novel insights into the associations of E. coli diversity with human health and diseases., Methods: Using genomic sequencing and pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) techniques, we analyzed E. coli from the intestinal microbiota of three groups of healthy individuals, including preschool children, university students, and seniors of a longevity village, as well as colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, to probe the commensal E. coli populations for their diversity., Results: We delineated the 2280 fresh E. coli isolates from 185 subjects into distinct genome types (genotypes) by PFGE. The genomic diversity of the sampled E. coli populations was so high that a given subject may have multiple genotypes of E. coli, with the general diversity within a host going up from preschool children through university students to seniors. Compared to the healthy subjects, the CRC patients had the lowest diversity level among their E. coli isolates. Notably, E. coli isolates from CRC patients could suppress the growth of E. coli bacteria isolated from healthy controls under nutrient-limited culture conditions., Conclusions: The coexistence of multiple E. coli lineages in a host may help create and maintain a microbial environment that is beneficial to the host. As such, the low diversity of E. coli bacteria may be associated with unhealthy microenvironment in the intestine and hence facilitate the pathogenesis of diseases such as CRC.

The diagnosis and treatment of fever of unknown origin (FUO) are huge challenges to clinicians. Separating the etiologies of FUO into infectious and non-infectious disease is conducive to clinical physicians not only on making decisions rapidly concerning the prescription of suitable antibiotics but also on further analysis of the final diagnosis. In order to develop and validate a diagnostic tool to efficiently distinguish the etiologies of adult FUO patients as infectious or non-infectious disease, FUO patients from the departments of infectious disease and internal medicine in three Chinese tertiary hospitals were enrolled retrospectively and prospectively. By using polynomial logistic regression analysis, the diagnostic formula and the associated scoring system were developed. The variables included in this diagnostic formula were from clinical evaluations and common laboratory examinations. The proposed tool could discriminate infectious and non-infectious causes of FUO with an area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.83, sensitivity of 0.80 and specificity of 0.75. This diagnosis tool could predict the infectious and non-infectious causes of FUO in the validation cohort with an AUC of 0.79, sensitivity of 0.79 and specificity of 0.70. The results suggested that this diagnostic tool could be a reliable tool to discriminate between infectious and non-infectious causes of FUO.

Ephemeral gully erosion is an important erosion type in hilly and gully regions of Loess Plateau. While previous studies mainly focused on ephemeral gullies in agricultural land, little is known about the effects of naturally restored grassland on ephemeral gully erosion. In this study, taking the bare ephemeral gullies as the baseline, we conducted in-situ flushing tests to explore runoff and sediment yield characteristics and erosion mechanism of grassland ephemeral gullies under the runoff conditions of 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 L·min -1 . Compared to the bare ephemeral gully, average flow velocity, stable runoff rate, Reynolds number and Froude number of grassland ephe-meral gullies was reduced by 25.4%-67.3%, 8.4%-26.6%, 54.9%-80.5%, 18.6%-65.1%, respectively, whereas resistance coefficient was increased by 0.09-7.18 folds. Compared to the bare ephemeral gully, the maximum sediment yield rate, stable sediment yield rate, average sediment yield rate of grassland ephemeral gullies was decreased by 55.1%-90.9%, 61.8%-95.4%, and 64.8%-92.4%, respectively. The sediment yield reduction benefit of the naturally restored grassland under the discharge flow rate of 5-25 L·min -1 could reach 65.9%-88.8%, which decreased with increasing discharge flow rate. Compared to the bare ephemeral gully, average stream power and average shear stress of grassland ephemeral gullies was reduced by 54.9%-80.5% and 12.4%-51.1%, respectively, whereas the critical stream power and critical shear stress was increased by 1.43 folds and 33.7%, respectively. The average sediment yield of grassland and bare ephemeral gullies was signifi-cantly linearly related to average stream power and shear stress. Naturally restored grassland significantly increased the erosion resistance and reduced runoff erosion potential of ephemeral gullies.

To explore the effect of different biochars on Cassia alata L. growth and heavy metal immobilization in multi-metal mine tailings, a 100-day pot experiment was conducted. Three biochars derived from Hibiscus cannabinus core (HB), sewage sludge (SB) and chicken manure (MB), were added to mine tailings at rates of 0.4%, 1% and 3% ( w / w ). The results showed that the root biomass, shoot biomass, plant height and root length were 1.2-2.8, 1.7-3.2, 1-1.5 and 1.6-3.3 times of those in the control group, respectively. Pb, Zn, Cu, Cd and As contents in the shoot decreased by 63.9-89.5%, 46.9-66.0%, 32.7-62.4%, 40.4-76.4% and 54.9-77.5%, respectively. The biochar significantly increased the pH and decreased the mild acid-soluble Pb and Cu concentrations in the mine tailings. Specifically, SB immobilized Pb and Cu better than MB and HB did, although it did not immobilize As, Zn or Cd. Meanwhile, more attention should be paid to the potential As release as the biochar application rate increases. In conclusion, Cassia alata L. coupled with 3% of SB could be an effective measure for restoring multi-metal mine tailings. This study herein provided a promising ecological restoration technique for future practice of heavy metal stabilization in mine tailings., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor (AT/RT) is a very rare and highly malignant embryonal tumor in the central nervous system (CNS). Five patients (4 girls and 1 boy) with AT/RT were treated in our hospital. The clinical histories, symptoms, neuroimaging aspects, therapies, histological and immunohistochemical findings and follow-up information were reviewed. The patients ranged from 8 to 40 months with a mean age of 20.6 months. One tumor was located in the spinal cord, two in cerebellum and two in the pineal region. The imagings of the tumors resemble medulloblastomas. Pathological examinations showed that one patient had medulloblastoma differentiation, one had choroid plexus carcinoma differentiation, and one had mesenchymal components. Immunohistochemical staining showed that all of the tumors lost the nuclear expression of integrase interactor 1 (INI1), and were positive for Vimentin, S-100 protein and epithelial membrane antigen. One case with no recurrence after 24 months may have benefited from radical excision and postoperative radiotherapy. The other 4 patients died 8, 4, 1 and 1-month respectively after operation without radiotherapy. The diagnosis of AT/RT depends on full sampling, careful observation the morphological characteristics and INI1 examination, even when the tumor are presented in uncommon sites, such as the spinal cord and the pineal region.

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the effectiveness and safety of topical application of 50 mg penicillin G potassium troches in the treatment of minor recurrent aphthous ulcerations (MiRAU) in a Chinese cohort., Material and Methods: A randomized, double-blinded, placebo and no-treatment-controlled, multicenter clinical trial was performed. Troches were consecutively applied 4 times per day for 4 days. The size and pain level of ulcers were measured and recorded on days 0, 3, 4, 5, and 6., Results: A total of 258 subjects with minor recurrent aphthous ulcerations (86 subjects in penicillin G potassium group, 88 subjects in placebo control group, and 84 subjects in no-treatment control group) fulfilled the study. Penicillin G potassium significantly reduced ulcer size (P < .00001 for days 3, 4, 5, and 6) and alleviated ulcer pain (P < .00001 for days 3, 4, 5, and 6). No severe adverse reactions were observed. Only 4 subjects experienced mild adverse reaction., Conclusions: Penicillin G potassium troches are effective in reducing ulcer size and alleviating ulcer pain of the patients in the treatment of a single episode of MiRAU in this Chinese cohort. Few adverse effects were observed with this therapeutic approach., (Copyright 2010 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.)