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•Water-extracted pomelo albedo pectin (PAP) was high methoxyl pectin.•PAP was composed of arabinose, glucose and galacturonic acid.•Apparent viscosity of PAP was ...concentration-dependently increased.•Interaction between PAP and konjac glucomannan was occurred.
Pomelo albedo was extracted with water to obtain the high methoxyl pectin, labeled as PAP. The physicochemical and rheological properties of PAP were determined. The effects of PAP addition on rheological property and thermal stability of konjac glucomannan (KGM) were evaluated. Results indicated that PAP was composed of arabinose, glucose and galacturonic acid with a relative mass percentage of 7.2%: 9.5%: 83.3%, and exhibited an average molecular weight of 56.6 kDa. The degree of esterification of PAP was 65.5%, showing PAP was a kind of high methoxyl pectin. Apparent viscosity of PAP was concentration-dependently increased, while it was slightly enhanced with salt (NaCl or CaCl2) addition. Moreover, the addition of PAP declined the apparent viscosity, elastic property and thermal stability of KGM. It can be concluded that interaction was occurred between KGM and PAP. Meanwhile, the interaction mechanism between KGM and PAP has been preliminarily proposed. The present study can provide some references for the application of PAP and support the combination usage of this pectin and KGM in food and other industries.
Water resources are the basis of both regional sustainable development and a sustainable socioeconomy. Moreover, the evaluation of water resource security is a prerequisite for effective water ...resources management. Existing water resource problems have become one of the most significant factors limiting sustainable development. How to effectively identify stress factors and assess existing water resource management measures is important basis to achieve security issues. With Chongqing City of China, stress factors and the efficiency of water management measures were evaluated in this paper. The pressure, status, and response framework allows for the assessment of water resources based on three subsystems: the pressure subsystem, the status subsystem, and the response subsystem. Using an entropy-weighted set pair model, Chongqing’s water resource security from 2000 to 2011 was evaluated in an effort to determine the source of the pressure on the water resources system and to evaluate the efficiency of present response measures. The results show that water resource security has generally improved in Chongqing, which was in the Moderate Warning Level from 2000 to 2006 and in the Critical Safety Level from 2007 to 2011. The pressure on the water resources system in Chongqing mainly comes from rapid economic growth, urbanization, and the development of agriculture in Three Gorges Reservoir. However, some response measures have exhausted their capacity for improvement, while the enforcement of others has not been adequate. The main reason for improvement in the water resources system in Chongqing is the increase in forest coverage and the continuous investment in ecological management of the Three Gorges Reservoir.
Modular steel construction (MSC) consists of the off-site prefabrication of a fully finished module and the on-site assembling of the module unit. The popularity of MSC is on the rise, attributable ...to its technical advantages of speed and quality of buildings with repetitive units. Inter-module connection is critical for the overall stability and load-bearing capacity of MSC. An innovative, fully prefabricated liftable connection (FPLC) using standard corner fittings and long stay bolts is proposed in this paper. This paper focuses on the axial compressive behavior and design of FPLC. Five full-scale specimens were tested under axial compression. Local buckling of the column and shear of the long stay bolts were observed during the test. It can be concluded from the test results that the load-bearing capacity may decrease as the number and diameter of the stay bolts increase. A three-dimensional nonlinear finite element model (FEM) was developed and validated against the test results by general purpose finite element software ABAQUS. Furthermore, a parametric study was conducted using the verified FEM to provide a better understanding of the axial compressive behavior of the FPLC. The results of the parametric study indicated that the corner fitting can be up to 15% lighter for columns with thicknesses of 6 mm and 8 mm without substantial reduction of the axial load-bearing capacity of the FPLC. Moreover, the location of the column can be adjusted to achieve a uniform Von Mises stress and equivalent plastic strain (PEEQ) distribution of the connection. The presented research work provides an engineering-practical inter-module connection on its axial compressive behavior, which will provide helpful references for further application of MSC.
Japonica
rice is widely planted in north-eastern China because of its superior food quality and stable grain yields. Nitrogen (N) is an essential element for rice growth, and development and its ...availability directly impacts on rice yields. The knowledge of N uptake and its utilization characteristics in
japonica
are thus important areas of research. Three
japonica
rice cultivars, SN265, SN1401, and SN9816, which are planted across large areas of north-eastern China, were used here to evaluate the uptake and utilization along the life cycle of both ammonium
(
N
H
4
+
)
and nitrate
(
N
O
3
−
)
in hydroponically grown plants. The plants were grown in one of three different solutions with varying
N
H
4
+
:
N
O
3
−
ratios: 1:0, 0:1, and 1:1 (The total N content was 40 mg L
−1
for each treatment). At the tillering stage, when only
N
O
3
−
was provided, lower rates of N uptake and enzyme activities of three rice plants resulted in reduced tiller numbers. During the reproductive stage, the
N
H
4
+
and
(
N
H
4
+
)
uptake rates in SN1401 were consistently maintained at high levels, whereas the rates in SN265 and SN9816 were significantly lower, across all three treatments. At the booting stage, when only
N
O
3
−
was provided, SN1401 plants had significantly higher expression levels of
OsNRT2.1
and
OsNRT2.2
, higher activity of nitrate reductase in the roots, and higher activity levels of glutamine synthetase and glutamate synthase in the leaves, compared with the SN265 and SN9816 plants. The higher enzyme activity was beneficial to the secondary assimilation of N, which ultimately promoted panicle development in SN1401. Consequently, the grain yield per plant of SN1401 was the highest with solutions of both
N
H
4
+
and
N
O
3
−
. These results indicate that selecting a rice cultivar with higher utilization of
N
O
3
−
is beneficial for increasing the number of grains per panicle, grain yield, and N use efficiency.
The Venus A-Valve is the first commercially approved transcatheter aortic valve in China that now holds the largest market share. ...patients being sent to Venus’ core laboratory can be considered as ...representative. The perimeter of aortic annulus was smaller than the lower bound of the sizing chart of Venus A-Valve (53 mm) in 0.1% (2/1822) of patients and greater than the upper bound (91 mm) in 7.4% (135/1822) of patients. The major findings are (a) at a mean age of 73 years, the proportion of BAV morphology in this cohort was 54%, higher than similar registries of more elderly patients in industrialized countries. (b) Type 0 subtype accounted for over 40% of BAV in China, different from the type 1 dominance seen in other registries. (c) The volume of aortic leaflet calcification was higher in Chinese patients. (d) BAV patients had a relatively larger anatomy and higher calcification volume than tricuspid aortic valve, but their annulus was less elliptical in the current cohort. (e) Type 0 subtype had a smaller but less elliptical aortic annulus and less calcification than type 1 subtype. (f) Regional differences exist in aortic root dimensions and calcification burden in China. 7 Whether it may bring clinical benefits comparing with devices of higher conformability, along with a tailored treatment strategy and device design taking characteristics of Chinese patients into consideration, warrants further research studies.
The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanism of YM155 cytotoxicity in human chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) cells. YM155-induced apoptosis of human CML K562 cells was characterized by ...ROS-mediated p38 MAPK activation, mitochondrial depolarization, and survivin and MCL1 downregulation. Moreover, YM155-induced autophagy caused degradation of HuR mRNA and downregulation of HuR protein expression, which resulted in destabilized survivin and MCL1 mRNA. Interestingly, survivin and MCL1 suppression contributed to autophagy-mediated HuR mRNA destabilization in YM155-treated cells. Pretreatment with inhibitors of p38 MAPK or autophagy alleviated YM155-induced autophagy and apoptosis in K562 cells, as well as YM155-induced downregulation of HuR, survivin, and MCL1. Ectopic overexpression of HuR, survivin, or MCL1 attenuated the cytotoxic effect of YM155 on K562 cells. Conversely, YM155 sensitized K562 cells to ABT-199 (a BCL2 inhibitor), and circumvented K562 cell resistance to ABT-199 because of its inhibitory effect on survivin and MCL1 expression. Overall, our data indicate that YM155-induced apoptosis is mediated by inducing autophagic HuR mRNA degradation, and reveal the pathway responsible for YM155-induced downregulation of survivin and MCL1 in K562 cells. Our findings also indicate a similar pathway underlying YM155-induced death in human CML MEG-01 cells.
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•YM155 induces apoptosis of leukemia cells via downregulation of survivin and MCL1.•YM155-induced autophagy causes degradation of HuR mRNA in leukemia cells.•YM155-induced HuR mRNA downregulation destabilizes survivin and MCL1 mRNA.•Survivin and MCL1 suppression contributes to HuR mRNA destabilization.•YM155 sensitizes leukemia cells to ABT-199 via suppression of survivin and MCL1.
Lycoris tsinlingensis P.C. Zhang, Y.J. Lu & T. Wang (Amaryllidaceae), a new species from the Tsinling Mountains in Shaanxi Province, China, is described and illustrated. It closely resembles L. ...chinensis in having leaves appearing in spring and stamens nearly as long as to slightly longer than perianth, but can be distinguished by the larger spathe bracts (4–4.5 × 1–1.2 cm), yellow buds with red stripes, and orange-red tepals with undulate and recurved margins.
Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) is a major challenge in the field of hepatology. While mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy can improve the prognosis of patients with ACLF, the molecular ...mechanisms through which MSCs attenuate ACLF remain poorly understood. We performed global miRNA and mRNA expression profiling via next-generation sequencing of liver tissues from MSC-treated ACLF mice to identify important signaling pathways and major factors implicated in ACLF alleviation by MSCs.
Carbon tetrachloride-induced ACLF mice were treated with saline or mouse bone marrow-derived MSCs. Mouse livers were subjected to miRNA and mRNA sequencing. Related signal transduction pathways were obtained through Gene Set Enrichment Analysis. Functional enrichment, protein-protein interaction, and immune infiltration analyses were performed for the differentially expressed miRNA target genes (DETs). Hub miRNA and mRNA associated with liver injury were analyzed using LASSO regression. The expression levels of hub genes were subjected to Pearson's correlation analysis and verified using RT-qPCR. The biological functions of hub genes were verified in vitro.
The tricarboxylic acid cycle and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor pathways were activated in the MSC-treated groups. The proportions of liver-infiltrating NK resting cells, M2 macrophages, follicular helper T cells, and other immune cells were altered after MSC treatment. The expression levels of six miRNAs and 10 transcripts correlated with the degree of liver injury. miR-27a-5p was downregulated in the mouse liver after MSC treatment, while its target gene E2f2 was upregulated. miR-27a-5p inhibited E2F2 expression, suppressed G1/S phase transition and proliferation of hepatocytes, in addition to promoting their apoptosis.
This is the first comprehensive analysis of miRNA and mRNA expression in the liver tissue of ACLF mice after MSC treatment. The results revealed global changes in hepatic pathways and immune subpopulations. The miR-27a-5p/E2F2 axis emerged as a central regulator of the MSC-induced attenuation of ACLF. The current findings improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms through which MSCs alleviate ACLF.
Hepatic steatosis plays a detrimental role in the onset and progression of alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD). Mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor (MANF) is an evolutionarily ...conserved protein related to the unfolded protein response. Recent studies have demonstrated that MANF plays an important role in liver diseases. In this study, we investigated the role of MANF in ethanol-induced steatosis and the underlying mechanisms. We showed that the hepatic MANF expression was markedly upregulated in mouse model of ALD by chronic-plus-single-binge ethanol feeding. Moreover, after chronic-plus-binge ethanol feeding, hepatocyte-specific MANF knockout (HKO) mice displayed more severe hepatic steatosis and liver injury than wild-type (WT) control mice. Immunoprecipitation-coupled MS proteomic analysis revealed that arginosuccinate synthase 1 (ASS1), a rate-limiting enzyme in the urea cycle, resided in the same immunoprecipitated complex with MANF. Hepatocyte-specific MANF knockout led to decreased ASS1 activity, whereas overexpression of MANF contributed to enhanced ASS1 activity in vitro. In addition, HKO mice displayed unique urea cycle metabolite patterns in the liver with elevated ammonia accumulation after ethanol feeding. ASS1 is known to activate AMPK by generating an intracellular pool of AMP from the urea cycle. We also found that MANF supplementation significantly ameliorated ethanol-induced steatosis in vivo and in vitro by activating the AMPK signaling pathway, which was partly ASS1 dependent. This study demonstrates a new mechanism in which MANF acts as a key molecule in maintaining hepatic lipid homeostasis by enhancing ASS1 activity and uncovers an interesting link between lipid metabolism and the hepatic urea cycle under excessive alcohol exposure.
Helicobacter pylori
(
H. pylori
) infection is a major cause of duodenal ulcers, gastric ulcers, and gastric cancer. However, the optimal duration for
H. pylori
eradication therapy remains ...controversial. Most studies have mainly focused on triple therapy, and there is insufficient research on bismuth-containing quadruple therapy. The aim of this study was to compare the clinical effect of the 10-day bismuth-containing quadruple treatment regimen with the 14-day regime in eradicating
H. pylori
. We searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library for randomized controlled trials published in English until May 2022 according to the eligibility criteria. Summary risk ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for eradication rates, adverse effects, and compliance were calculated for included studies. Four studies, involving 1173 patients, were eligible for inclusion. The eradication rate was similar in the 10-day treatment group and the 14-day treatment group in the intention-to-treat analysis (RR 0.97, 95% CI 0.93 to 1.01). Meanwhile, the incidence of adverse effects was lower in patients who received 10 days of treatment than in those who received 14 days of treatment and patients’ compliance was almost the same between two groups. Compared to the 14-day bismuth-containing quadruple regimens, 10-day regimens had similar efficacy and lower incidence of adverse effects. Therefore, the 10-day regimen is safe and well-tolerated and should be recommended for
H. pylori
infection.
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