This paper aims to introduce a new approach to enhance college English learning through an intelligent method that constructs a learning environment from a demand analysis perspective. The proposed ...model utilizes a bionic algorithm to structure the algorithm and adopts a highly efficient energy generation method to calculate the interaction energy. This study aims to find the optimal solution to the constraint problem by using a process of continuous generation, expansion, and replacement of magnetosomes. The methodology employed in this research involved constructing the college English learning environment in colleges and universities from a demand analysis perspective. This was achieved by analyzing the needs and requirements of college students and designing an ecological virtual learning environment (EVLE) that meets their demands. The findings of this study indicate that the proposed EVLE for college English is effective in improving the effectiveness of college English learning. The experimental verification results support the effectiveness of the proposed model in creating an interactive and engaging learning environment that facilitates the acquisition of English language skills. It is an innovative approach to college English learning that utilizes intelligent methods to construct a demand-driven learning environment that enhances students' learning outcomes.
Ischaemic stroke is becoming the most common cerebral disease in aging populations, but the underlying molecular mechanism of the disease has not yet been fully elucidated. Increasing evidence has ...indicated that an excess of iron contributes to brain damage in cerebral ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Although mitochondrial ferritin (FtMt) plays a critical role in iron homeostasis, the molecular function of FtMt in I/R remains unknown. We herein report that FtMt levels are upregulated in the ischaemic brains of mice. Mice lacking FtMt experience more severe brain damage and neurological deficits, accompanied by typical molecular features of ferroptosis, including increased lipid peroxidation and disturbed glutathione (GSH) after cerebral I/R. Conversely, FtMt overexpression reverses these changes. Further investigation shows that Ftmt ablation promotes I/R-induced inflammation and hepcidin-mediated decreases in ferroportin1, thus markedly increasing total and chelatable iron. The elevated iron consequently facilitates ferroptosis in the brain of I/R. In brief, our results provide evidence that FtMt plays a critical role in protecting against cerebral I/R-induced ferroptosis and subsequent brain damage, thus providing a new potential target for the treatment/prevention of ischaemic stroke.
Abstract
Utilization of rhizobacteria that have associated with plant roots in harsh environments could be a feasible strategy to deal with limits to agricultural production caused by soil salinity. ...Halophytes occur naturally in high-salt environments, and their roots may be associated with promising microbial candidates for promoting growth and salt tolerance in crops. This study aimed to isolate efficient halotolerant plant-growth-promoting rhizobacterial strains from halophytes and evaluate their activity and effects on sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) growth under salinity stress. A total of 23 isolates were initially screened for their ability to secrete 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase (ACD) as well as other plant-growth-promoting characteristics and subsequently identified by sequencing the 16S rRNA gene. Three isolates, identified as Micrococcus yunnanensis, Planococcus rifietoensis and Variovorax paradoxus, enhanced salt stress tolerance remarkably in sugar beet, resulting in greater seed germination and plant biomass, higher photosynthetic capacity and lower stress-induced ethylene production at different NaCl concentrations (50–125 mM). These results demonstrate that salinity-adapted, ACD-producing bacteria isolated from halophytes could promote sugar beet growth under saline stress conditions.
Investigation of the halotolerant plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria from halophytes and the detection of their capacity to affect the salt tolerance of crops.
The gut microbiota-derived metabolite, trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) plays an important role in cardiovascular disease (CVD). The fasting plasma TMAO was shown as a prognostic indicator of CVD ...incident in patients and raised the interest of intervention targeting gut microbiota. Here we develop a clinically applicable method called oral carnitine challenge test (OCCT) for TMAO-related therapeutic drug efforts assessment and personalising dietary guidance.
A pharmacokinetic study was performed to verify the design of OCCT protocol. The OCCT was conducted in 23 vegetarians and 34 omnivores to validate gut microbiota TMAO production capacity. The OCCT survey was integrated with gut microbiome, host genotypes, dietary records and serum biochemistry. A humanised gnotobiotic mice study was performed for translational validation.
The OCCT showed better efficacy than fasting plasma TMAO to identify TMAO producer phenotype. The omnivores exhibited a 10-fold higher OR to be high TMAO producer than vegetarians. The TMAO-associated taxa found by OCCT in this study were consistent with previous animal studies. The TMAO producer phenotypes were also reproduced in humanised gnotobiotic mice model. Besides, we found the faecal
gene was not associated with TMAO production; therefore, other key relevant microbial genes might be involved. Finally, we demonstrated the urine TMAO exhibited a strong positive correlation with plasma TMAO (r=0.92, p<0.0001) and improved the feasibility of OCCT.
The OCCT can be used to identify TMAO-producer phenotype of gut microbiota and may serve as a personal guidance in CVD prevention and treatment.
NCT02838732; Results.
Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) is the most common virus, with an estimated infection rate of 60⁻95% among the adult population. Once infected, HSV-1 can remain latent in the host for a lifetime ...and be reactivated in patients with a compromised immune system. Reactivation of latent HSV-1 can also be achieved by other stimuli. Though acyclovir (ACV) is a classic drug for HSV-1 infection, ACV-resistant strains have been found in immune-compromised patients and drug toxicity has also been commonly reported. Therefore, there is an urge to search for new anti-HSV-1 agents. Natural products with potential anti-HSV-1 activity have the advantages of minimal side effects, reduced toxicity, and they exert their effect by various mechanisms. This paper will not only provide a reference for the safe dose of these agents if they are to be used in humans, referring to the interrelated data obtained from in vitro experiments, but also introduce the main pharmacodynamic mechanisms of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) against HSV-1. Taken together, TCM functions as a potential source for HSV-1 therapy by direct (blocking viral attachment/absorption/penetration/replication) or indirect (reducing the susceptibility to HSV-1 or regulating autophagy) antiviral activities. The potential of these active components in the development of anti-HSV-1 drugs will also be described.
Chemotherapy resistance observed in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) may be related to the presence of cancer stem cells (CSCs), but the underlying mechanism(s) remain unclear. ...Carcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are intimately involved in tumor recurrence, and targeting them increases chemo-sensitivity. We investigated whether fibroblasts might increase CSCs thus mediating chemotherapy resistance. CSCs were isolated from either patient-derived xenografts or CRC cell lines based on expression of CD133. First, CSCs were found to be inherently resistant to cell death induced by chemotherapy. In addition, fibroblast-derived conditioned medium (CM) promoted percentage, clonogenicity and tumor growth of CSCs (i.e., CD133+ and TOP-GFP+) upon treatment with 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu) or oxaliplatin (OXA). Further investigations exhibited that exosomes, isolated from CM, similarly took the above effects. Inhibition of exosome secretion decreased the percentage, clonogenicity and tumor growth of CSCs. Altogether, our findings suggest that, besides targeting CSCs, new therapeutic strategies blocking CAFs secretion even before chemotherapy shall be developed to gain better clinical benefits in advanced CRCs.
Background
Children with learning disabilities (LD) are more likely to have health conditions that require hospital attendance than children without LD. Like all children, they can experience fear ...and distress related to procedural anxiety. Parents play a key role in managing procedural anxiety in children with LD. No previous published qualitative studies have explored parental experiences of caring for a child with LD and procedural anxiety in hospital.
Objectives
To explore how parents experienced caring for their child with LD and procedural anxiety in hospital.
Methods
A purposive sample of six participants were recruited through a Facebook group for parents of children with LD. Remote semi‐structured interviews were conducted via telephone, Microsoft Teams or Whatsapp. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.
Results
Five key themes were generated: (1) Emotional toll: parents characterized their experiences as highly emotional; reporting feeling stressed, anxious and worried. (2) Restraint and holding: parents spoke of their experiences of restraint which was largely viewed as negative and sometimes inappropriate. (3) Advocacy: parents articulated their responsibility as advocates for their children. (4) Going it alone: parents were extremely proactive in managing their child's anxieties but some also felt highly‐pressurized and isolated. (5) Inconsistency and uncertainty: parents experienced inconsistency and uncertainty in their children's care from healthcare professionals which led to anxiety and frustration.
Conclusion
Parents of children with both LD and procedural anxiety experienced many challenges. Parents' expertise must be utilized by clinicians when caring for children with LD and procedural anxiety whilst ensuring appropriate support for parents. Nurses require specific training in psychosocial interventions to enhance care for children with LD and procedural anxiety. Further research identifying effective nursing strategies to enhance parental experiences would be beneficial to improve care to this patient group.
African swine fever (ASF), characterized by acute, severe, and fast-spreading, is a highly lethal swine infectious disease caused by the African swine fever virus (ASFV), which has caused substantial ...economic losses to the pig industry worldwide in the past 100 years.
This study started with bioinformatics methods and verified the epitope fusion protein method's reliability that does not rely on traditional epitope identification. Meanwhile, it will also express and purify the constructed genes through prokaryotic expression and establish antibody detection methods.
The results indicated that the protein had good reactivity and did not cross-react with other swine diseases. The receiver-operating characteristic analysis was performed to verify the determination. The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve was 0.9991 (95% confidence interval 0.9973 to 1.001).
It was proved that the recombinant protein is feasible as a diagnostic antigen to distinguish ASFV and provides a new idea for ASFV antibody detection.
The emergence and sustenance of cooperative behavior is fundamental for a society to thrive. Recent experimental studies have shown that cooperation increases in dynamic networks in which subjects ...can choose their partners. However, these studies did not vary reputational knowledge, or what subjects know about other’s past actions, which has long been recognized as an important factor in supporting cooperation. They also did not give subjects access to global social knowledge, or information on who is connected to whom in the group. As a result, it remained unknown how reputational and social knowledge foster cooperative behavior in dynamic networks both independently and by complementing each other. In an experimental setting, we show that global reputational knowledge is crucial to sustaining a high level of cooperation and welfare. Cooperation is associated with the emergence of dense and clustered networks with highly cooperative hubs. Global social knowledge has no effect on the aggregate level of cooperation. A community analysis shows that the addition of global social knowledge to global reputational knowledge affects the distribution of cooperative activity: cooperators form a separate community that achieves a higher cooperation level than the community of defectors. Members of the community of cooperators achieve a higher payoff from interactions within the community than members of the less cooperative community.
Significance Cooperation is essential for societies to prosper. Recent experiments show that cooperation emerges in dynamic networks in which subjects can select their connections. However, these studies fixed the amount of reputation information available and did not display the network to subjects. Here, we systematically vary the knowledge available to subjects about reputation and the network to investigate experimentally their roles in determining cooperation in dynamic networks. Common knowledge about everyone’s reputation is the main driver of cooperation leading to dense and clustered networks. The addition of common knowledge about the network affects the distribution of cooperative activity: cooperators form a separate community and achieve a higher payoff from within-community interactions than members of the less cooperative community.