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Qing-Fei-Shen-Shi decoction (QFSS) consists of Prunus armeniaca L., Gypsum Fibrosum, Smilax glabra Roxb., Coix lacryma-jobi L., Benincasa hispida (Thunb.) Cogn., Plantago asiatica L., Pyrrosia lingua (Thunb.) Farw., Houttuynia cordata Thunb., Fritillaria thunbergii Miq., Cicadae Periostracum, and Glycyrrhizae Radix Et Rhizoma Praeparata Cum Melle. QFSS shows significant clinical efficacy in the treatment of asthma. However, the specific mechanism of QFSS on asthma remains unclear. Recently, multiomics techniques are widely used in elucidating the mechanisms of Chinese herbal formulas. The use of multiomics techniques can better illuminate the multicomponents and multitargets of Chinese herbal formulas. In this study, ovalbumin (OVA) was first employed to induce an asthmatic mouse model, followed by a gavage of QFSS. First, we evaluated the therapeutic effects of QFSS on the asthmatic model mice. Second, we investigated the mechanism of QFSS in treating asthma by using an integrated 16S rRNA sequencing technology and untargeted metabolomics. Our results showed that QFSS treatment ameliorated asthma in mice. In addition, QFSS treatment affected the relative abundances of gut microbiota including Lactobacillus, Dubosiella, Lachnospiraceae_NK4A136_group, and Helicobacter. Untargeted metabolomics results showed that QFSS treatment regulated the metabolites such as 2-(acetylamino)-3-[4-(acetylamino) phenyl] acrylic acid, D-raffinose, LysoPC (15 : 1), methyl 10-undecenoate, PE (18 : 1/20 : 4), and D-glucose6-phosphate. These metabolites are associated with arginine and proline metabolism, arginine biosynthesis, pyrimidine metabolism, and glycerophospholipid metabolism. Correlation analysis indicated that arginine and proline metabolism and pyrimidine metabolism metabolic pathways were identified as the common metabolic pathways of 16s rRNA sequencing and untargeted metabolomics. In conclusion, our results showed that QFSS could ameliorate asthma in mice. The possible mechanism of QFSS on asthma may be associated with regulating the gut microbiota and arginine and proline metabolism and pyrimidine metabolism. Our study may be useful for researchers to study the integrative mechanisms of Chinese herbal formulas based on modulating gut microbiota and metabolism.

SAL could reduce the inflammatory response, oxidative stress, and airway remodeling and regulating host metabolism in asthmatic model mice.

The ramming technique is a traditional method used to improve the compactness of soil with impact and vibration energy. Based on the measured data of ramming force transmission and dissipation, this study reveals the mechanism of energy transfer and dissipation of single-layer ramming as well as the law of variation with ramming quality, laying thickness, and ramming times. It also establishes the ramming model and empirical formula of ramming quality, laying thickness, and ramming times, introduces the ramming layer changes associated with the constitutive relationship (elastic to elastoplastic parts) as a function of ramming times, and determines the influence depth and horizontal range based on real-time data monitoring. It was found that as the mass of the rammmer increases, the range of influence of the impact stress inside the earth also increases proportionally, and this effect is more pronounced vertically. However, the dissipation rate of energy in horizon direction is much greater than in the vertical direction. The traditional stacked ramming technique of “chong hai wo, hang yin ding” can effectively eliminate the defects of horizontal reversal upwelling impact and unevenness of the ramming layer during the ramming process. The research results provide a theoretical basis for evaluating the quality of the traditional ramming technique.

The North Chinese leopard (Panthera pardus japonensis), the least‐known big cat, disappeared in most historical range for decades, following the development of modern civilization. Unfortunately, we have scarce knowledge about the status of this big cat so far, apart from anecdotal reports. In this study, we investigated density, distribution, and habitat use of the leopard, the apex predator, in a complex forest landscape in the Loess Plateau. We used a camera‐trapping network to obtain population estimates for leopards over 2 years through spatially explicit capture–recapture models. Our results, based on maximum likelihood and Bayesian/MCMC methods, reveal that the largest wild population of the leopard was found widely distributed in remnant forests in central Loess plateau. The population is increasing in our study area, and the density of leopards (1.70 (SE = 0.48) − 2.40 (SE = 0.67)/100 km2) is higher than other areas of China. According to the analysis of 2 seasonal occupancy models, prey species drive partially the leopard habitat use, predicting that the big cat thrives from the recovery of prey community. However, human disturbances, especially oil wells, seem to have negative impacts on the habitat use of leopards. Specifically, it is necessary to have joint efforts by the government and researchers to improve human disturbances management and prey species population density, as well as strengthen the investment in research on the North Chinese leopard, which could all further strengthen protection ability and ensure the long‐term survival of this species., The study revealed a wild population of free‐ranging leopards with the highest density in China so far, which also provided the first comprehensive evidence documenting the status of the North Chinese leopard, the rarest known leopard subspecies. The big cat is living in a human‐dominated landscape and still negatively influenced by human associated activities.

In order to obtain a material with excellent microwave absorption performance, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) sponge was employed as the template. The porous structure of the sponge can facilitate faster and more uniform diffusion of the ferric nitrate liquid during the dipping and obtain a uniform distribution of the ferromagnetic particles, which serves as a functional phase to enhance the microwave absorption properties. The Fe@Fe3O4-C nanocomposite can then be fabricated through a dipping/carbonization process. The special core–shell structure effectively improves the dielectric and magnetic loss and provides proper impedance matching. The results indicate that the prepared samples show excellent microwave absorption performance, with maximum effective absorption bandwidth up to 7.9 GHz at a thickness of 2.27 mm. The maximum reflection loss can reach −48.36 dB at 9.6 GHz. Therefore, it is feasible to use PVA sponge as a template to fabricate porous Fe@Fe3O4-C nanocomposite with excellent microwave absorption performance.

In this paper, Ag/paper-based composites with low dielectric loss were obtained by introduce the concept of metamaterial into the fabrication process. In this kind of metacomposite, single-layer paper was used as basic block to build up a matrix with sandwich structure, in which Ag particles are embedded and silver particles are evenly distributed. The microstructure and phase composition were characterized by scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffractometer. The impedance spectrum of the composites in 20 Hz–1 MHz region was measured by using LCR Meter, which can be well fitted by equivalent circuit method. The results show that, compared to the composite in which Ag particles disorder distributed, the dielectric loss of the layer-by-layer structured metacomposite can be effectively reduced (tan θ ≤ 0.1), without negative effect on the dielectric constant. Moreover, the dielectric properties of metacomposites show obvious anisotropy in the horizontal and vertical directions, which might give a feasible way for flexible smart material in its design.

Novel Li3VO4/carbon sheets (LVO/CS) composites from cellulose were first prepared by simple freeze-drying and hydrothermal methods as a high-performance anode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), realizing the combination of biomass carbon materials and Li3VO4. Elemental composition and microstructures of the LVO/CS composites were characterized by X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and so on. Meanwhile, electrochemical performances were investigated by battery testing system and electrochemical workstation. Furthermore, the impact of the mass ratio of LVO and CS on battery performances was researched, and it was found that the LVO/CS-2.0 (mass ration of LVO:CS was 24:1) composites exhibited excellent performances. The specific capacity of LVO/CS-2.0 reached up to 716 mAh g-1 after 100 cycles at low current density 0.1 A g-1, which was better than those of LVO matrix materials such as LVO/carbon nanotubes, LVO/carbon nanofibers and LVO/N-doped graphene. Considering its advantages, our proposed technique can be used to fabricate other composites based on carbon materials from cellulose for LIBs.

Lisha Chi,1,&ast; Guojing Zhao,2,&ast; Naiche Chen,3,&ast; Guanghui Shen,4 Kai Huang,4 Xiaoyu Xia,1 Yijing Chen,1 Jian Liu,1 Ran Xu,5 Yanhan Chen,6 Weijie Dong,7 Jiexia Zheng8 1School of Pharmaceutical Science, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Institute of China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, People’s Republic of China; 3Renji College, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, People’s Republic of China; 4School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Natural Science, Affiliated School of Wenzhou University Town, Wenzhou, People’s Republic of China; 6School of Stomatology, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, People’s Republic of China; 7The 1th School of Medicine, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, People’s Republic of China; 8Department of Student Affairs, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Jiexia ZhengDepartment of Student Affairs, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail zhengjiexia2021@163.comBackground: Vaccination is an effective strategy to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. This study aimed to compare predictors of vaccination intention between healthcare workers (HCWs) and non-healthcare workers (non-HCWs) in China.Methods: A web-based cross-sectional survey was conducted among HCWs and non-HCWs. Several bivariate analysis techniques, eg, crosstab with Chi-square, independent t-test and single factor ANOVA, were performed to analyze the correlation. After that, a series of multivariate binary regressions were employed to determine predictors of vaccination intention.Results: Intention was closely and significantly related with gender, perceived vaccination knowledge, perceived importance and effectiveness of vaccine to prevent COVID-19. HCWs and non-HCWs were heterogeneous, since vaccination intention, perceived knowledge, and attitudes (eg, importance, severity, risk) toward COVID-19 or vaccine had statistically significant difference between the two groups. With comparison of predictors of vaccination intention, for HCWs, demographic factors were the major predictors of COVID-19 vaccination intention. Female HCWs and HCWs with a Master’s or higher degree were more hesitant about vaccination (P = 0.01 and P < 0.001, respectively), while HCWs had greater vaccination intention as their age increased (P = 0.02). For non-HCWs, perceived vaccination knowledge was the major predictor of COVID-19 vaccination intention (P < 0.001). Additionally, perceived importance and effectiveness of vaccine were predictors for both HCWs and non-HCWs.Conclusion: Vaccination intention of HCWs was greater than that of non-HCWs in China. Measures should be taken to improve the vaccination rate based on the predictors of vaccination intention identified in this study. For HCWs, especially those with a high level of education or who were females, the safety and effectiveness of vaccines in use may reinforce their vaccination intention. For non-HCWs, popularization of general medical knowledge, including of vaccine-preventable diseases, may increase their vaccination intention.Keywords: COVID-19 vaccine, intention, predictor, HCWs, non-HCWs

COVID-19 has made the entire society pay more attention to medical students training. Medicine development is inseparable from the spirit of innovation, focusing on cultivating medical students' innovative awareness and improving entrepreneurship education performance, which has an irreplaceable effect on both the students themselves and the society. This study is based on the ridge regression model to study the driving factors of the entrepreneurship education performance of medical students. Compared with traditional multiple regression, it can improve the consistency of parameter estimation and obtain more realistic results. Based on a large sample of empirical survey data of 24,677 medical students in China, this study analyzed the driving factors of the entrepreneurship education performance of medical students and found that medical students of different genders have differences in entrepreneurship education performance; the digital economy impacts entrepreneurship education performance of medical students; entrepreneurship course, entrepreneurship faculty, entrepreneurship competition, entrepreneurship practice, and entrepreneurship policy have a driving effect on the entrepreneurship education performance of medical students. Meanwhile, the impact of entrepreneurship policy is the most obvious, followed by entrepreneurship practice and entrepreneurship competition, followed by entrepreneurship course and entrepreneurship faculty.

Entrepreneurs face more pressure and challenges than ordinary workers, which has a serious impact on their physical and mental health. Therefore, the research focus has gradually shifted from objective indicators of entrepreneurial performance to exploration of entrepreneurs’ subjective well-being. However, previous studies were often limited to a net effect analysis of a single dimension under symmetric thinking in quantitative research. Therefore, this study uses fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to analyze the configuration path of entrepreneurs’ physical and mental health at the individual level, social capital at the collective level, and subjective well-being from the perspective of configuration. The sample was of 279 effective entrepreneurs from the 2017 China General Social Survey (CGSS). Four types of entrepreneurs were found to improve their high well-being profiles: optimistic efficiency-driven, trust efficiency-driven, strong psychology-driven, and weak relationship-driven. Research shows that the interaction between physical and mental health and social capital jointly affects the subjective well-being of entrepreneurs. The research findings reinforce the need for attention to the physical and mental health of entrepreneurs, which are conducive to their active participation in social life. Additionally, establishing weak relationship-oriented interpersonal networks and accumulating social resources to further achieve higher subjective well-being is required.

The volatile and changing healthcare landscape, heavily influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic and other contemporary crises, poses challenges to the sustainable development of medical education, and integrating innovation and entrepreneurship into medical education is the avenue by which to address the current and future medical challenges. Medical student entrepreneurship education (MSEE) contributes to the individual and social sustainable development of students in terms of their future careers. To investigate the effect of teacher entrepreneurship on MSEE, a hypothesis model of MSEE that includes teachers’ entrepreneurial competence (TEC), teachers’ entrepreneurial behaviors (TEB), and co-creation strategy (CCS) was constructed on the basis of symbolic interactionism. A total of 714 samples were collected from entrepreneurial teachers in Chinese medical universities for quantitative analysis. This study confirmed our hypothesis that TEC and TEB have a positive and statistically significant direct impact on MSEE. As demonstrated in the mediation effect test, when CCS was added as the mediating variable, TEC and TEB had a statistically significant indirect effect on MSEE. With empirical evidence from China, the study provided a new perspective for deepening the research on MSEE and laid the foundation for interdisciplinary research on medical education and entrepreneurship education. The findings contribute to entrepreneurial learning and pedagogical practices in medical education for the sustainable development of medical students.

Bubbling fluidized bed is extensively used in petrochemical and other process industries. The performance of the bubbling fluidized bed can be improved through the placement of various internals, among which structured packing is proposed to be a promising type of internal. To address the advantage of such packing over the bubbling fluidized bed without any internals, three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (3D CFD) simulations were performed to compare the gas-solids flow hydrodynamics and bubble behaviors in the bubbling fluidized beds with and without structured packing. A method of capturing and characterizing the bubble was proposed based on the simulation results. Experimental data from the pilot-scale bubbling fluidized bed was used to examine the accuracy of the CFD model. Simulation results show that the distributions of solids hold-up and velocity were more uniform in the bubbling fluidized bed with structured packing than that without internals. The bubble diameter and the bubble number in the packed bubbling fluidized bed were less than half and about 10 times, respectively, of those in the empty bubbling fluidized bed, indicating that much more amounts of smaller bubbles were present in the packed bed compared to the empty bed. It was found that the improved gas content in the fluidized bed at higher gas velocities was mainly due to the increased bubble diameter in empty bubbling bed while it was mainly due to the increased bubble number in packed bubbling bed. The degree of gas back-mixing was reduced slightly while the degree of solids back-mixing was reduced by around 50% in the packed bubbling fluidized bed compared to those in the empty bubbling fluidized bed. Simulation results indicate that the bubbling fluidized bed with structured packing can provide larger interfacial area between gas and solids and can significantly reduce solids back-mixing, which is beneficial for improving the performance of the bubbling fluidized bed.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the global job market, with increasing unemployment rates leading to an unstable social situation that has affected college students’ job prospects. This situation has drawn the attention of the Chinese government and universities to the promotion of entrepreneurship. The present study used field theory to analyze the entrepreneurial intentions of 4926 college students in Hangzhou, an emerging global digital city. It was found that college students who had received entrepreneurship education were more likely to insist on entrepreneurship, while the native environmental field had a significant positive effect on students’ sustainable entrepreneurial intention (SEI). These findings provide a good reference for universities to promote entrepreneurial intentions among college students and provide advice on the construction of entrepreneurship education fields.

Accurate brain tumor segmentation and survival prediction are two fundamental but challenging tasks in the computer aided diagnosis of gliomas. Traditionally, these two tasks were performed independently, without considering the correlation between them. We believe that both tasks should be performed under a unified framework so as to enable them mutually benefit each other. In this paper, we propose a multi-task deep learning model called segmentation then prediction (STP), to segment brain tumors and predict patient overall survival time. The STP model is composed of a segmentation module and a survival prediction module. The former uses 3D U-Net as its backbone, and the latter uses both local and global features. The local features are extracted by the last layer of the segmentation encoder, while the global features are produced by a global branch, which uses 3D ResNet-50 as its backbone. The STP model is jointly optimized for two tasks. We evaluated the proposed STP model on the BraTS 2020 validation dataset and achieved an average Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) of 0.790, 0.910, 0.851 for the segmentation of enhanced tumor core, whole tumor, and tumor core, respectively, and an accuracy of 65.5% for survival prediction.

Mesocarnivores uniquely and profoundly impact ecosystem function, structure, and dynamics. Sympatric species tend to spatially and temporally partition limited resources to facilitate coexistence. We investigated the seasonal spatial and temporal cooccurrences among six mesocarnivores, the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis), red fox (Vulpes vulpes), Asian badger (Meles leucurus), Siberian weasel (Mustela sibirica), masked palm civet (Paguma larvata) and yellow-throated marten (Martes flavigula), as well as a single apex predator (Northern Chinese leopard, Panthera pardus japonensis). We used a camera trapping dataset collected from June 2016 to May 2017 (16,636 camera trapping days, 52 camera locations). The activity patterns varied among seasons and species. Most species were most active during summer. Leopards were most active in winter. Siberian weasels and yellow-throated martens were mainly diurnal, tended to spatially avoid each other, and were temporally segregated from the other mesocarnivores. Leopard cats, Asian badgers, red foxes and masked palm civets were nocturnal and showed high overlap in every season, but their highest peaks of activity were staggered. Mesocarnivores may be affected by the threat of the apex carnivore; they mainly avoided leopards spatially, showing low spatial overlap with leopards in all seasons. Interestingly, we found that the animals may engage in temporal-spatial coordination to facilitate coexistence, as increased temporal overlap in a given season was associated with decreased spatial overlap. Our results provide new insight into the carnivore community of terrestrial mammals in northern China and will facilitate future studies on the mechanisms determining the coexistence of animal species within the trophic cascade. Keywords: Camera trap, Sympatric species, Mesocarnivore coexistence, Activity pattern, Spatial overlap

Accurate brain tumor segmentation using multi-sequence magnetic resonance (MR) imaging plays a pivotal role in clinical practice and research settings. Despite their prevalence, deep learning-based segmentation methods, which usually use multiple MR sequences as input, still have limited performance, partly due to their insufficient ability to image representation. In this paper, we propose a brain tumor segmentation (BraTSeg) model, which uses cross-sequence MR image generation as a self-supervision tool to improve the segmentation accuracy. This model is an ensemble of three image segmentation and generation (ImgSG) models, which are designed for simultaneous segmentation of brain tumors and generation of T1, T2, and Flair sequences, respectively. We evaluated the proposed BraTSeg model on the BraTS 2019 dataset and achieved an average Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) of 81.93%, 87.80%, and 83.44% in the segmentation of enhancing tumor, whole tumor, and tumor score on the testing set, respectively. Our results suggest that using cross-sequence MR image generation is an effective self-supervision method that can improve the accuracy of brain tumor segmentation and the proposed BraTSeg model can produce satisfactory segmentation of brain tumors and intra-tumor structures.

Staphylococcus aureus is a common foodborne pathogenic microorganism. A modified propidium monoazide (PMAxx) dye combined with recombinase aided amplification (RAA) was proposed for the rapid and real-time detection of viable S. aureus. PMAxx, a kind of nucleic acid dye is used to distinguish viable bacteria from dead bacteria. Additionally, RAA technique has the advantage of a short detection time (20 min) and uniform temperature (39 °C), which is of great significance for the efficient detection of S. aureus. The S. aureus nuc gene was used as primer and probe in a microplate assay. The effect of PMAxx treatment exhibited permeation of the dead cell membranes that was observed under confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM). After the enrichment of viable target bacteria ranging from 5.4 × 101 to 5.4 × 103 CFU/mL, the LOD for viable S. aureus was 102 CFU/mL under 3 h enrichment and 101 CFU/mL under 6 h enrichment in artificially contaminated milk, respectively. In the presence of nontarget bacteria at 106 CFU/mL, the system could detect 107 CFU/mL S. aureus in milk sample. The proposed PMAxx-RAA assay exhibited potential for the accurate and rapid viable S. aureus detection in milk.

A new multistage countercurrent melt crystallizer with sieve plates is proposed that combines the advantages of the TNO column crystallizer and the inclined column crystallizer. With the naphthalene-indene solid solution system, the purification process of organic materials in the new multistage countercurrent melt crystallizer with sieve plates under total reflux was investigated. Two of the influencing factors on the separation and purification performance in the new multistage countercurrent melt crystallizer with sieve plates were crystal settling velocity and crystal breakage, which were controlled by stirring speed, the sieve plates, the angle of the sieve plates, the diameter of the pores, particle sedimentation area, and the number of plates. The results of this study show that the optimum stirring speed was determined to be 20 rpm, sieve plates can obviously increase the separation and purification effect, the optimum angle of the sieve plates was determined to be 45o, the optimum diameter of the pores was determined to be 8 mm, the optimum particle sedimentation area was determined to be 0.5 r, and two plates in the crystallizer were shown to be the best.

We analyzed the scats of Amur tigers and Amur leopards, and examined their annual and seasonal food habits in Northeast China to comprehend their coexistence. Wild boar had the highest annual and seasonal consumption frequencies by the tigers, while both roe deer and sika deer were mostly preyed by the leopards annually. The three species appeared to be the key preys in terms of high proportion of consumed biomass by the two felids. Our data also revealed numerous mid-sized carnivores and small mammals included in the two felids’ food list. We used the relative abundance and biomass density estimation in prey density estimation to calculate the prey preferences of tigers and leopards, and both methods confirmed that Amur tigers strongly preferred wild boar. However, preference estimations of Amur leopards were not consistant, or even opposite to one another from the two methods. The results of the study suggested that prey preference of predators is largely determined by body size of the prey species. Variation in diet composition of the two felids suggests that resource partitioning may contribute to their coexistence.

Tannins have potential commercial applications in aquaculture for the prevention of piscine diseases and off-flavor in fish. Selected water quality variables, such as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, light intensity, total hardness and total alkalinity, and available nutrients found in fish ponds were examined for their influence on the fate of gallic acid, methyl gallate, propyl gallate, and tannic acid. It was determined that total hardness and alkalinity were the most effective factors in the dissipation of tannin compounds. High levels of selected water quality variables were significantly different from low levels in their ability to transform tannin compounds. It was also found that natural suspended solids were effective in precipitating 60% of the methyl gallate and 81.3% of the propyl gallate per week from solution. Abiotic processes, such as physical transportation and chemical transformation, affected the fate of tannin compounds in a simulated fish pond. This study may guide the use...

The effects of gallic acid, methyl gallate, propyl gallate and tannic acid on cell growth, protein synthesis, photosynthesis, membrane function and metabolic activity of Nostoc sp. strain MAC were quantitatively investigated. Treatment of MAC with 1/2 inhibitory concentrations of tannic acid and related compounds resulted in a severe decline in biological production. Chlorophyll a and c-phycocyanin syntheses were inhibited by over 90%. Glutamine synthetase and nitrate reductase activities were suppressed by at least 45% and 56%, respectively. The percentage inhibition of total cell yield was around 40%, whereas that of total protein was around 80%. In addition, cellular potassium loss was 2–5 times that of control cultures and was accompanied by a loss in phosphate of about 1.2 times that of control cultures. However, gallic acid did not inhibit c-phycocyanin synthesis, nor did tannic acid or propyl gallate inhibit the activity of glutamine synthetase. Methyl gallate had no effect on electrolyte efflux. The control of biomass accumulation in relation to the production of off-flavor compounds in cyanobacteria by natural tannin compounds may have important aquacultural implications.

Nostoc sp. strain MAC, a filamentous cyanobacterium, produces the compound geosmin, which causes off-flavor in commercially produced catfish. Tannic acid, propyl gallate, and gallic acid inhibited growth and pigment synthesis in both MAC and Agmenellum quadruplicatum strain PR-6, a cyanobacterium that does not cause off-flavor. These compounds were inhibitory in both laboratory growth media and in pond water augmented with growth medium, as demonstrated by disk agar diffusion assay. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of tannic acid, propyl gallate, and gallic acid in augmented pond water were respectively 320, 240, and 500 μg/disk for MAC and 20, 40, and 20 μg/disk for PR-6. Methyl gallate at a minimum inhibitory concentration of 80 μm/disk was active against PR-6 but was entirely inactive against MAC. Strain PR-6 was more susceptible to these chemicals than was strain MAC.

Tannic acid, propyl gallate, methyl gallate, and gallic acid were tested for their inhibitory effects on selected aquatic microorganisms by the well assay technique. Tannic acid, propyl gallate, and methyl gallate in deionized water inhibited the growth of Aeromonas hydrophila, A. sobria, Edwardsiella iclaluri, E. tarda, Pseudomonas fluorescens, and Escherichia coli, but gallic acid did not. When 500-μg/mL concentrations of these four compounds were tested in sterilized fish pond water at pH 7.0 and with a low bacterial inoculum of 103–104 colony-forming units (CFU) per milliliter, they inhibited the growth of P. fluorescens and (except for tannic acid) E. coli. Pseudomonas fluorescens inoculated at 103–104 CFU/mL in pond water was inhibited by methyl gallate, propyl gallate, and tannic acid concentrations as low as 50 μg/mL, but a gallic acid contration of 100 μg/mL was required for inhibition. Escherichia coli was inhibited by methyl gallate and propyl gallate at 250 μg/mL and by gallic acid at...

Genetic alterations serve as beacons for the involvement of specific pathways in tumorigenesis. It was previously shown that 5% of prostate tumors harbor CTNNB1 mutations, suggesting that this tumor type may involve a deregulated APC/CTNNB1 pathway. To explore this possibility further, we searched for mutations in genes implicated in this pathway in 22 samples that included cell lines, xenografts, and primary tumors. We identified seven alterations: two in CTNNB1, three in APC, and two in hTRCP1 (also known as BTRC) which controls the degradation of CTNNB1. Alterations in the CTNNB1 regulatory domain, APC, and hTRCP1 were mutually exclusive, consistent with their equivalent effects on CTNNB1 stability. These results suggest that CTNNB1 signaling plays a critical role in the development of a significant fraction of prostate cancers. Moreover, they provide the first evidence that hTRCP1 plays a role in human neoplasia. © 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.