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The multi-resistance gene cfr is widely distributed among various gram-positive and gram-negative species in livestock in China. To better understand the epidemiology of cfr among Staphylococcus spp. and E. coli isolates, 254 Staphylococcus spp. and 398 E. coli strains collected from six swine farms in China were subjected to prevalence and genetic analysis. Forty (15.7%) Staphylococcus spp. isolates, including 38 Staphylococcus sciuri strains, one Staphylococcus chromogenes strain, and one Staphylococcus lentus strain, and two (0.5%) E. coli isolates were found to contain the cfr gene. Most of the 38 S. sciuri strains were clonally unrelated; however, clonal dissemination of cfr-positive S. sciuri was detected at the same farm. In eight randomly selected cfr-positive staphylococci, a cfr-harboring module (IS21-558-cfr-ΔtnpB) was detected in six S. sciuri isolates; cfr was bracketed by two copies of ISEnfa4 or IS256 in the remaining two S. sciuri isolates. In the two E. coli isolates, EP25 and EP28, cfr was flanked by two IS26 elements in the same or opposite orientation, respectively. Complete sequence analysis of the novel F43:A-:B- plasmid pHNEP28 revealed that it contains two multi-resistance regions: cfr together with floR, qnrS1 interspersed with IS26, ΔISCR2 and ISKpn19, and blaTEM-1 together with tet(M) interspersed with IS26, ISApl1, ΔTn2, and ΔIS1B. The coexistence of cfr with other resistance genes on a conjugative plasmid may contribute to the dissemination of these genes by co-selection. Thus, rational drug use and continued surveillance of cfr in swine farms are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New solid strong bases were fabricated at room temperature by grafting lithium-containing molecular precursors onto β-cyclodextrin. The solid bases show strong basicity with a molecular-level dispersion of lithium sites, which are highly active in transesterification reactions and impossible to realize through the traditional high-temperature method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Template-derived carbon is demonstrated to effectively promote the creation of strong basicity on mesoporous silica, for the first time. New materials owning ordered mesoporous structure, strong basicity, and excellent catalytic activity are thus successfully constructed at low temperatures, which are impossible to achieve using conventional methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The emergence and wide distribution of the transferable gene for linezolid resistance, cfr, in staphylococci of human and animal origins is of great concern as it poses a serious threat to the public health. In the present study, we investigated the emergence and presence of the multiresistance gene, cfr, in retail meat sourced from supermarkets and free markets of Guangzhou, China. Results A total of 118 pork and chicken samples, collected from Guangzhou markets, were screened by PCR for cfr. Twenty-two Staphylococcus isolates obtained from 12 pork and 10 chicken samples harbored cfr. The 22 cfr-positive staphylococci isolates, including Staphylococcus equorum (n = 8), Staphylococcus simulans (n = 7), Staphylococcus cohnii (n = 4), and Staphylococcus sciuri (n = 3), exhibited 17 major SmaI pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns. In 14 isolates, cfr was located on the plasmids. Sequence analysis revealed that the genetic structures (including ΔtnpA of Tn558, IS21-558, ΔtnpB, and tnpC of Tn558, orf138, fexA) of cfr in plasmid pHNTLD18 of a S. sciuri strain and in the plasmid pHNLKJC2 (including rep, Δpre/mob, cfr, pre/mob and partial ermC) of a S. equorum strain were identical or similar to the corresponding regions of some plasmids in staphylococcal species of animal and human origins. Conclusions To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report the presence of the multiresistance gene, cfr, in animal meat. A high occurrence of cfr was observed in the tested retail meat samples. Thus, it is important to monitor the presence of cfr in animal foods in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep desulfurization of transportation fuels via p-complexation adsorption is an effective method for the selective capture of aromatic sulfur compounds. Taking into consideration that the desulfurization of transportation fuels proceeds in the liquid phase, separation and recycling of adsorbents should be greatly facilitated if the adsorbents were endowed with magnetism. In this paper, magnetically responsive core-shell p-complexation adsorbent microspheres, AgNO[sub 3]/Fe[sub 3]O[sub 4]@mSiO[sub 2] (mSiO[sub 2] denotes mesoporous silica), which comprises a core of magnetite particles and a shell of mesoporous silica dispersed with AgNO[sub 3], was developed for the first time. The silica shell exhibits highly open mesopores with perpendicularly aligned pore channels, large surface area (694 m[sup 2] g[sup -1]) and uniform pore size (2.3 nm), which is quite beneficial to the accommodation of Ag(I) active species. As a result, AgNO[sub 3] can be well dispersed in the pores of silica shells and are highly accessible to adsorbate molecules. Our results show that the adsorbent is active in the adsorptive removal of a typical aromatic sulfur compound, thiophene, via p-complexation under ambient conditions. More importantly, the superparamagnetism allows the adsorbent to be separated conveniently from the adsorption system in several seconds by the use of an external field. After desulfurization, the adsorbents were regenerated by washing with isooctane and subsequent thermal dispersion in Ar. The regenerated adsorbent after six cycles still shows a good adsorption capacity (0.145 mmol g[sup -1] or 4.64 mg g[sup -1]), which is comparable to the fresh adsorbent (0.147 mmol g[sup -1] or 4.70 mg g[sup -1]). The magnetically responsive p-complexation adsorbent may be a promising candidate for the deep purification of transportation fuels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of stress in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia has only been investigated in a few studies, and the findings are not conclusive. We analyzed whether maternal bereavement shortly before or during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of preeclampsia. We conducted a cohort study of singleton births in Denmark during 1978-2008 and in Sweden during 1973-2006 (n=4122490) by linking national population-based registers. Mothers were considered exposed to bereavement if they lost a parent, a sibling, a partner, or a child the year before or during pregnancy (n=124 553). The risk of preeclampsia was slightly increased for women who lost a close relative during the 6 months before conception (odds ratio [OR], 1.14; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.06-1.23) or during the first trimester of pregnancy (OR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.03-1.29). Exposure during these periods tended to be more closely related to early preeclampsia (delivery before 34 weeks of gestation; OR, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.12-1.67) than to late preeclampsia (OR, 1.13; 95% CI, 1.06-1.20). The strongest association was observed between loss of a child and early preeclampsia when the exposure window was from 6 months before pregnancy until start of second trimester (OR, 4.03; 95% CI, 2.46-6.61). Our results related to timing of exposure suggest that severe stress may influence early placentation. However, the public health implications of our findings are limited in populations with a low prevalence of severe stress exposures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shone's complex is a rare and severe type of congenital left-sided obstructive lesion of multiple cardiovascular levels. This report aims to present the authors' experience diagnosing atypical Shone's complex using echocardiography. Atypical Shone's complex was diagnosed for 38 consecutive patients (18 boys and 20 girls, ages 1 day to 15 years) using echocardiography. All the diagnoses were confirmed by cardioangiography, surgery, or both. Among the congenital left-sided obstructive lesions, four levels of obstruction coexisted in 3 cases (7.9%), three levels in 10 cases (26.3%), and two levels in 25 cases (65.8%). Supra-annular mitral stenosis caused by a supravalvular mitral ring was diagnosed in 1 case. Mitral valvular stenosis was diagnosed in 24 cases including a parachute mitral valve (4 cases), a double-orifice mitral valve (1 case), and partly fused thickened mitral valvular leaflets (19 cases). Subaortic stenosis was diagnosed in 10 cases including circumferential membranous subaortic stenosis (1 case), tunnel-type subaortic narrowing (2 cases), and asymmetric obstructive fibrous ridge below the aortic valve (7 cases). Aortic stenosis was diagnosed in 25 cases including the bicuspid aortic valve (12 cases), the hypoplasia aortic annulus (3 cases), and partly fused or thickened tri-leaflet aortic valves (10 cases). Supra-aortic stenosis was diagnosed in 6 cases including the localized type (4 cases) and the diffused type (2 cases). Coarctation of the aorta was diagnosed in 26 cases. Of these, focal coarctation was described in 15 cases, long segment coarctation in 7 cases, and dysplastic isthmus and/or descending aorta in 4 cases. Secondary changes in Shone's complex manifested as left atrial dilation (26 cases), left ventricular hypertrophy (26 cases), and pulmonary hypertension (19 cases). Echocardiography plays an important role in the diagnosis of atypical Shone's complex, in comprehensive evaluation of the number, position, morphology, and severity of left-sided obstructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The zeolite Y was modified by a series of potassium compounds including KNO3, K2CO3, KHCO3, KOH, and KF. The obtained microporous materials exhibited quite different structural and basic properties. Such differences can be attributed to their different guest–host interaction. These materials displayed different catalytic activity on the vapor phase methylation of cyclopentadiene with methanol. The activity is well correlated with the basicity and surface areas of catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The androgen receptor (AR) is a ligand-inducible steroid hormone receptor that mediates androgen action, determining male sexual phenotypes and promoting spermatogenesis. As the androgens play a dominant role in male sexual development and function, steroidal androgen agonists have been used clinically for some years. However, there is a risk of potential side effects and most steroidal androgens cannot be dosed orally, which limits the use of these substances. 1,2-Dihydro-6- N, N-bis(2,2,2-trifluoroethyl)amino-4-trifluoromethyl-2-quinolinone (LGD2226) is a synthetic nonsteroidal ligand and a novel selective AR modulator. The crystal structure of the complex of LGD2226 with the androgen receptor ligand-binding domain (AR LBD) at 2.1 Å was solved and compared with the structure of the AR LBD–R1881 complex. It is hoped that this will aid in further explaining the selectivity of LGD2226 observed in in vitro and in vivo assays and in developing more selective and effective therapeutic agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates the role of apolipoprotein E in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. Association of lipoprotein E with neurofibrillary tangles; Presence of extracellular amyloid plaques; Neuropathogenical hallmarks of AD; Susceptibility of ApoE to truncation.

The valence of metal nodes in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) determines their performance in applications while developing an efficient approach for valence regulation is challenging. Here we present a strategy to make the valence regulation much easier by loosening metal nodes by thermal pretreatment. The typical MOF, HKUST1, with the tunable valence of Cu nodes, was used as a proof of concept. Thermal pretreatment (producing HK-T) changes the chemical environment and loosens Cu nodes, endowing them with enhanced reducibility. In the subsequent vapor-induced reduction, the yield of Cu+ from Cu2+ conversion in HK-T (producing HK-T-V) reaches 69%, which is higher than that in pristine HKUST-1 (producing HK-V) with a Cu+ yield of 19% as well as the reported yields of target-valence metal nodes in various MOFs (6%-30%). The obtained HK-T-V possessing abundant Cu+ sites can capture 0.809 mmol/g thiophene in adsorptive desulfurization, 2.5 times higher than HK-V and superior to most reported adsorbents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is to design an objective evaluation algorithm that automatically evaluates image quality and is consistent with the human visual system.In view of the fact that most traditional full reference image quality assessment methods only analyze images in the spatial domain,and have shortcomings in pooling strategies,this paper proposes a random forest based spatial-frequency domain joint feature full reference color image quality evaluation method.Firstly,this method extracts the chroma and gradient features in the spatial domain,which are used to characterize the color information and spatial structure information of images.The texture detail information of the response of the log-Gabor filter bank and spatial frequency features are extracted in the frequency domain,which are used to be joint features.Then,random forest is implemented for learning the mapping relationship between the feature vector and the subjective opinion score to predict the objective quality score.Experiments conducted on three standard databases,i.e.TID2013,TID2008,and CSIQ show that the comprehensive evaluation performance by our method is better than the state-of-the-art full reference assessment algorithms,especially on TID2013 database,the Pearson linear correlation coefficient value can reach 0.9397.

Aim: To investigate the potential protective effect of exogenous recombinant interleukin-22 (rIL-22) on L-arginine-induced acute severe pancreatitis (SAP)-associated lung injury and the possible signaling pathway involved., Methods: Balb/c mice were injected intraperitoneally with L-arginine to induce SAP. Recombinant mouse IL-22 was then administered subcutaneously to mice. Serum amylase levels and myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity in the lung tissue were measured after the L-arginine administration. Histopathology of the pancreas and lung was evaluated by hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining. Expression of B cell lymphoma/leukemia-2 (Bcl-2), Bcl-xL and IL-22RA1 mRNAs in the lung tissue was detected by real-time PCR. Expression and phosphorylation of STAT3 were analyzed by Western blot., Results: Serum amylase levels and MPO activity in the lung tissue in the SAP group were significantly higher than those in the normal control group (P < 0.05). In addition, the animals in the SAP group showed significant pancreatic and lung injuries. The expression of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL mRNAs in the SAP group was decreased markedly, while the IL-22RA1 mRNA expression was increased significantly relative to the normal control group (P < 0.05). Pretreatment with PBS did not significantly affect the serum amylase levels, MPO activity or expression of Bcl-2, Bcl-xL or IL-22RA1 mRNA (P > 0.05). Moreover, no significant differences in the degrees of pancreatic and lung injuries were observed between the PBS and SAP groups. However, the serum amylase levels and lung tissue MPO activity in the rIL-22 group were significantly lower than those in the SAP group (P < 0.05), and the injuries in the pancreas and lung were also improved. Compared with the PBS group, rIL-22 stimulated the expression of Bcl-2, Bcl-xL and IL-22RA1 mRNAs in the lung (P < 0.05). In addition, the ratio of p-STAT3 to STAT3 protein in the rIL-22 group was significantly higher than that in the PBS group (P < 0.05)., Conclusion: Exogenous recombinant IL-22 protects mice against L-arginine-induced SAP-associated lung injury by enhancing the expression of anti-apoptosis genes through the STAT3 signaling pathway.

Aim: To elucidate the clinical, radiological and laboratory profiles of renal abscess (RA) and perinephric abscess (PNA), along with related treatment and outcome., Methods: Ninety-eight patients diagnosed with RA or PNA using the primary discharge diagnoses identified from the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems Tenth Edition (ICD-10) codes (RA: N15.101, PNA: N15.102) between September 2004 and December 2014 in West China Hospital were selected. Medical records including patients' characteristics, symptoms and signs, high-risk factors, radiological features, causative microorganisms and antibiotic-resistance profiles, treatment approaches, and clinical outcomes were collected and analyzed., Results: The mean age of the patients was 46.49 years with a male to female ratio of 41:57. Lumbar pain (76.5%) and fever (53.1%) were the most common symptoms. Other symptoms and signs included chills (28.6%), anorexia and vomiting (25.5%), lethargy (10.2%), abdominal pain (11.2%), flank mass (12.2%), flank fistula (2.0%), gross hematuria (7.1%), frequency (14.3%), dysuria (9.2%), pyuria (5.1%) and weight loss (1.0%). Painful percussion of the costovertebral angle (87.8%) was the most common physical finding. The main predisposing factors were lithiasis (48.0%), diabetes mellitus (33.7%) followed by history of urological surgery (16.3%), urinary tract infections (14.3%), renal function impairment (13.3%), liver cirrhosis (2.0%), neurogenic bladder (1.0%), renal cyst (1.0%), hydronephrosis (1.0%), chronic hepatitis B (1.0%), post-discectomy (1.0%) and post-colectomy (1.0%). Ultrasound (US) and computed tomography were the most valuable diagnostic tools and US was recommended as the initial diagnostic imaging choice. Escherichia coli (51.4%), Staphylococcus aureus (10.0%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (8.6%) were the main causative microorganisms. Intravenous antibiotic therapy was necessary while intervention including surgical and nonsurgical approaches were reserved for larger abscesses, multiple abscesses, PNAs and non-responders., Conclusion: Heightened alertness, prompt diagnosis, and especially proper antibiotics in conjunction with interventional approaches allow a promising clinical outcome of renal and perinephric abscesses.

Pancreatic tuberculosis (TB) is a rare condition, even in immunocompetent hosts. A case is presented of pancreatic TB that mimicked pancreatic head carcinoma in a 40-year-old immunocompetent male patient. The patient was admitted to our hospital after suffering for nine days from epigastralgia and obstructive jaundice. Computed tomography revealed a pancreatic mass that mimicked a pancreatic head carcinoma. The patient had undergone an operation four months prior for thoracic TB and was undergoing anti-TB therapy. A previous abdominal ultrasound was unremarkable with the exception of gallbladder steroid deposits. The patient underwent surgery due to the progressive discomfort of the upper abdomen and a mass that resembled a pancreatic malignancy. A biopsy of the pancreas and lymph nodes was performed, revealing TB infection. The patient received a cholecystostomy tube and recovered after being administered standard anti-TB therapy for 15 mo. This case is reported to emphasize the rare contribution of pancreatic TB to pancreatic masses and obstructive jaundice.