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Abstract To evaluate the role of focal cortical dysplasia co‐localization to cortical functional networks in the development of pharmacoresistance. One hundred thirty‐six focal cortical dysplasia patients with 3.0 T or 1.5 T MRI were identified from clinical databases at Children's National Hospital. Clinico‐radio‐pathologic factors and network co‐localization were determined. Using binomial logistic regression, limbic network co‐localization (odds ratio 4.164 95% confidence interval 1.02–17.08, p = 0.048), and focal to bilateral tonic–clonic seizures (4.82, 1.30–18.03, p = 0.019) predicted pharmacoresistance. These findings provide clinicians with markers to identify patients with focal cortical dysplasia‐related epilepsy at high risk of developing pharmacoresistance and should facilitate earlier epilepsy surgical evaluation.

Tonle Sap Lake (TSL) in Cambodia and its many tributaries have a rich biodiversity. Many residents of the floating villages on TSL dispose of household wastes directly into the lake, which has resulted in large accumulations of plastic waste that seriously affect the quality of the watershed and its surrounding soils. It is therefore necessary to manage plastic waste more effectively, especially in rural regions in which there are no basic public waste collection services. The objective of the study was to capture the villagers’ perceptions of plastic waste. A perception survey was conducted using in-depth interview based on a standard questionnaire in the target area. The questions were designed to maximise the response rate and participant concentration. The collected data were analysed using statistical methods. The study captured the villagers’ perceptions of plastic waste, i.e. the reasons for using specific plastic items for consumption, avoidance of certain plastic items, plastic waste disposal methods and the willingness to participate in plastic waste separation and collection systems. Plastic bags accounted for most (27 %) of the plastic waste discharged into the lake or disposed of on land. Most respondents understood pollution problems were caused by discarding plastic waste directly into the lake. Of the 25 participants, 22 chose incentives (cash) as the most important factor that would motivate them to separate and collect plastic waste. Economic incentives have proven to be the most important factor for encouraging villagers on TLS to undertake waste separation and collection. The results of this study will assist in promoting plastic waste separation and collection in the floating villages of Cambodia.

There are many researches on different aspects of responsibility accounting system, but none of those researches has focused on the impact of responsibility accounting system on the performance of textile enterprises. The aim of this paper is to identify factors affecting the implementation of responsibility accounting and its effect on the performance of Vietnamese listed textile companies. Using the qualitative and quantitative methodology, qualitative method was used to prepare the questionnaire, while quantitative method was used to measure the scale and analyze the level of impact of each factor. Further, the study employs the Structural equation modeling (SEM) with AMOS—SPSS, results show that factors in the research model aside from measurement technology and level of competition had certain impacts, including the ability of accounting staffs (TDKT), the awareness of managers at different level (NTQL), the decentralization (PQQL), the reward systems (HTKT), and the forecast for responsibility centers (DTTT). In addition, the structural management (CCTC), the competitive strategy (CLCT), the competitive advantages (YTCT) and the responsibility centers’ reports (BCTT) that have greatly affected performance of listed firms. In addition, the implementation of responsibility accounting has the greatest effect on the performance of listed companies. In fact, the implementation of responsibility accounting changes by 1 point (level), it will increase/decrease the performance of listed companies by 0.409 points without considering the other factors

Changes in urinary bladder function and somatic sensation may be mediated, in part, by inflammatory changes in the urinary bladder including the expression of chemokines. Male and female C57BL/6 mice were treated with cyclophosphamide (CYP; 75 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg, i.p.) to induce bladder inflammation (4 h, 48 h, chronic). We characterized the expression of CXC chemokines (CXCL9, CXCL10 and CXCL11) in the urinary bladder and determined the effects of blockade of their common receptor, CXCR3, at the level urinary bladder on bladder function and somatic (hindpaw and pelvic) sensation. qRT-PCR and Enzyme-Linked Immunoassays (ELISAs) were used to determine mRNA and protein expression of CXCL9, CXCL10 and CXCL11 in urothelium and detrusor. In urothelium of female mice treated with CYP, CXCL9 and CXCL10 mRNA significantly (p ≤ 0.01) increased with CYP treatment whereas CXC mRNA expression in the detrusor exhibited both increases and decreases in expression with CYP treatment. CXC mRNA expression urothelium and detrusor of male mice was more variable with both significant (p ≤ 0.01) increases and decreases in expression depending on the specific CXC chemokine and CYP treatment. CXCL9 and CXCL10 protein expression was significantly (p ≤ 0.01) increased in the urinary bladder with 4 h CYP treatment in female mice whereas CXC protein expression in the urinary bladder of male mice did not exhibit an overall change in expression. CXCR3 blockade with intravesical instillation of AMG487 (5 mg/kg) significantly (p ≤ 0.01) increased bladder capacity, reduced voiding frequency and reduced non-voiding contractions in female mice treated with CYP (4 h, 48 h). CXCR3 blockade also reduced (p ≤ 0.01) hindpaw and pelvic sensitivity in female mice treated with CYP (4 h, 48 h). CXC chemokines may be novel targets for treating urinary bladder dysfunction and somatic sensitization resulting from urinary bladder inflammation.

Production of Cambodian rice wine involves complex microbial consortia. Indeed, previous studies focused on traditional microbial starters used for this product revealed that three microbial strains with complementary metabolic activities are required for an effective fermentation, i.e., filamentous fungi ( Rhizopus oryzae), yeast ( Saccharomyces cerevisiae ), and lactic acid bacteria ( Lactobacillus plantarum ). Modulating the ratio between these three key players led to significant differences, not only in terms of ethanol and organic acid production, but also on the profile of volatile compounds, in comparison with natural communities. However, we observed that using an equal ratio of spores/cells of the three microbial strains during inoculation led to flavor profile and ethanol yield close to that obtained through the use of natural communities. Compartmentalization of metabolic tasks through the use of a biofilm cultivation device allows further improvement of the whole fermentation process, notably by increasing the amount of key components of the aroma profile of the fermented beverage (i.e., mainly phenylethyl alcohol, isobutyl alcohol, isoamyl alcohol, and 2-methyl-butanol) and reducing the amount of off-flavor compounds. This study is a step forward in our understanding of interkingdom microbial interactions with strong application potential in food biotechnology.

Many cyclic peptides and analogues derived from marine sources are known to possess biological properties, including anticancer, antitumor, antibacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic, anti-inflammation, anti-proliferative, anti-hypertensive, cytotoxic, and antibiotic properties. These compounds demonstrate different activities and modes of action according to their structure such as cyclic oligopeptide, cyclic lipopeptide, cyclic glycopeptide and cyclic depsipeptide. The recent advances in application of the above-mentioned cyclic peptides were reported in dolastatins, soblidotin, didemnin B, aplidine, salinosporamide A, kahalalide F and bryostatin 1 and they are currently in clinical trials. These cyclic peptides are possible novel drugs discovered and developed from marine origin. Literature data concerning the potential properties of marine cyclic peptides were reviewed here, and the structural diversity and biological activities of marine cyclic peptides are discussed in relation to the molecular mechanisms of these marine cyclic peptides., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Seventeen edible mushrooms commercially available in Korea were analysed for their umami taste compounds (5'-nucleotides: AMP, GMP, IMP, UMP, XMP; free amino acids: aspartic, glutamic acid) and subjected to human sensory evaluation and electronic tongue measurements. Amanita virgineoides featured the highest total 5'-nucleotide content (36.9 ± 1.50 mg/g), while monosodium glutamate-like components (42.4 ± 6.90 mg/g) were highest in Agaricus bisporus. The equivalent umami concentration (EUC) ranged from 1.51 ± 0.42 to 3890 ± 833 mg MSG/g dry weight; most mushrooms exhibited a high umami taste. Pleurotus ostreatus scored the highest in the human sensory evaluation, while Flammulina velutipes obtained the maximum score in the electronic tongue measurement. The EUC and the sensory score from the electronic tongue test were highly correlated, and also showed significant correlation with the human sensory evaluation score. These results suggest that the electronic tongue is suitable to determine the characteristic umami taste of mushrooms., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The aim of this study was to optimize the culture conditions of Fusarium solani KCCM90040 on cereal grain for the production of neoN-methylsansalvamide, a novel low-molecular-weight cyclic pentadepsipeptide exhibiting cytotoxic and multidrug resistance reversal effects. From the analysis of variance results using response surface methodology, temperature, initial moisture content, and growth time were shown to be important parameters for the production of neoN-methylsansalvamide on cereal grain. A model was established in the present study to describe the relationship between environmental conditions and the production of neoN-methylsansalvamide on rice, the selected cereal grain. The optimal culture conditions were determined at 25.79 °C with the initial moisture content of 40.79%, and 16.19 days of growth time. This report will give important information concerning the optimization of environmental conditions using statistic methodology for the production of a new cyclic pentadepsipeptide from fungi.

The objective of this study was to monitor the occurrence and levels of fumonisin B1 (FB1) and fumonisin B2 (FB2) in animal feeds distributed in South Korea in 2011. The contamination levels of FB1 and FB2 were investigated in 150 samples of compound feeds and in 40 samples of feed ingredients. The contamination rate of feed ingredients with FB1 and FB2 was 50 and 40%, respectively. FB2 was only found in samples contaminated with FB1. Of the compound feeds, 85% were contaminated by FB1 and 47% were contaminated by FB2. The highest contamination rate of FBs was observed in compound feeds for cattle (FB1: 100%; FB2: 80%), followed by poultry feed (FB1: 78%; FB2: 40%) and swine feed (FB1: 76%; FB2: 22%). The highest contamination level (14,600 ng/g) for FB1 were found in poultry broiler feed (early feeding period) samples, which had 82% contamination rate (9/11), and the highest level of FB2 (2,280 ng/g) was found in feed for fatting calves,which had a contamination rate of 100%.

NeoN-methylsansalvamide is a novel low-molecular-weight cyclic pentadepsipeptide that exerts cytotoxic effects on various human cancer cell lines. Its structural analysis using liquid chromatography mass/mass spectrometry showed the cyclic structure sequence -phenylalanine-leucine-valine-N-methylleucine-leucic acid-. The intrinsic cytotoxic and multidrug resistance reversal effects of neoN-methylsansalvamide were evaluated on the human cancer cell lines MES-SA and HCT15 as well as on their multidrug resistance sublines (MES-SA/DX5 and HCT15/CL05, respectively) using the sulforhodamine B assay. The EC50 values of paclitaxel for MES-SA, HCT15, and for the multidrug resistance sublines MES-SA/DX5 and HCT15/CL05 were 1.00±0.20, 0.85±0.63, 10.00±0.53, and >1000 nmol/l, respectively. However, the EC50 values for paclitaxel including 3 μmol/l neoN-methylsansalvamide for MES-SA/DX5, HCT15, and HCT15/CL02 were 1.58±0.12, 0.10±0.02, and 288.40±21.02 nmol/l, respectively. The in-vitro multidrug resistance reversal activity of neoN-methylsansalvamide was similar to that of the control verapamil. These finding suggests that a novel cyclic pentadepsipeptide, neoN-methylsansalvamide, is effective in reversing multidrug resistance in vitro, and this activity may be a major applicable biological function of this compound.