While the rural tourism industry is developing and expanding rapidly, the structural adjustment and optimization of the traditional culture industry has also gradually attracted academic attention. ...This paper explores the deep integration of two industries based on the coupling mechanism of conventional culture and the development of rural tourism industries. Then, it constructs the index system of the development level of the traditional culture industry and rural tourism industry in Shandong, utilizes the entropy value method to calculate the weights of the indexes of the development level of the two industries, and adopts the linear weighting method to calculate the comprehensive evaluation value. Among them, “the development scale of the traditional culture industry (0.444)” and “the scale of the rural tourism industry (0.2918)” have the largest weight value. The comprehensive evaluation value of the development level of traditional culture and rural tourism industry of Shandong Province in 10 years rises respectively by Finally, by constructing the coupling degree model of conventional culture and rural tourism industry and the coupling coordination degree model, the stage-specific coupling evaluation of traditional culture and rural tourism industry is measured as 0.85<C≤1, which indicates that the development level of conventional culture and rural tourism industry of Shandong Province is in the stage of high coupling. The study provides a decision-making reference for promoting the high-quality development of traditional culture and rural tourism industries, which has important theoretical and practical significance.
The assembly mechanism for aggregation of amyloid fibril is important and fundamental for any quantitative and physical descriptions because it needs to have a deep understanding of both molecular ...and statistical physics. A theoretical model with three states including coil, helix and sheet is presented to describe the amyloid formation. The corresponding general mathematical expression of N molecule systems are derived, including the partition function and thermodynamic quantities. We study the equilibrium properties of the system in the solution and find that three molecules have the extreme value of free energy. The denaturant effect on molecular assemble is also discussed. Furthermore, we apply the kinetic theories to take account of the nucleation and growth of the amyloid in the solution. It has been shown that our theoretical results can be compared with experimental results.
This article is a comprehensive review of the literature pertaining to the antidepressant effects and mechanisms of regular tea consumption. Meta-data supplemented with recent observational studies ...were first analyzed to assess the association between tea consumption and depression risk. The literature reported risk ratios (RR) were 0.69 with 95% confidence intervals of 0.62-0.77. Next, we thoroughly reviewed human trials, mouse models, and in vitro experiments to determine the predominant mechanisms underlying the observed linear relationship between tea consumption and reduced risk of depression. Current theories on the neurobiology of depression were utilized to map tea-mediated mechanisms of antidepressant activity onto an integrated framework of depression pathology. The major nodes within the network framework of depression included hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis hyperactivity, inflammation, weakened monoaminergic systems, reduced neurogenesis/neuroplasticity, and poor microbiome diversity affecting the gut-brain axis. We detailed how each node has subsystems within them, including signaling pathways, specific target proteins, or transporters that interface with compounds in tea, mediating their antidepressant effects. A major pathway was found to be the ERK/CREB/BDNF signaling pathway, up-regulated by a number of compounds in tea including teasaponin, L-theanine, EGCG and combinations of tea catechins and their metabolites. Black tea theaflavins and EGCG are potent anti-inflammatory agents via down-regulation of NF-κB signaling. Multiple compounds in tea are effective modulators of dopaminergic activity and the gut-brain axis. Taken together, our findings show that constituents found in all major tea types, predominantly L-theanine, polyphenols and polyphenol metabolites, are capable of functioning through multiple pathways simultaneously to collectively reduce the risk of depression.
This paper is based upon 12 months of ethnographic study while living among the Tuva and Kazakh people in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. Based on observation, interviews, participation and ...secondary documents the paper uses Coser's theory of Social Conflict to suggest a four part model of how tourism engenders different forms of social conflict and fluctuating alliances between stakeholders in an environment where tourism has been introduced by agents external to the indigenous community. The actors are ethnic groupings and members of those groups, governmental officials at local, regional and national level, intermediaries of the tourism industry and private sector entrepreneurs drawn from the majority and minority ethnic groups. Tensions are identified as being based on beliefs, resources and power, and a sequential pattern of primacy is identified consistent with stages of the tourist area life cycle.
► It is based upon 12 months fieldwork in an ethnic community of Xinjiang in China. ► It applies Coser's theories of social conflict to the impacts of tourism. ► Examples of social tension are provided. ► A tension-directed tourism destination development model is suggested. ► Emic approach is needed in both tourism research and destination management policies.
Although tumor necrosis factor‐related apoptosis‐inducing ligand (TRAIL) has shown efficacy in a phase 2 clinical trial, development of resistance to TRAIL by tumor cells is a major roadblock. We ...investigated whether quercetin, a flavonoid, can sensitize human ovarian cancer cells to TRAIL. Results indicate that quercetin sensitized cancer cells to TRAIL. The quercetin induced expression of death receptor DR5 but did not affect expression of DR4 in cancer cells. The induction of DR5 was mediated through activation of JNK and through upregulation of a transcription factor CCAAT enhancer‐binding protein homologous protein (CHOP); as silencing of these signaling molecules abrogated the effect of quercetin. Upregulation of DR5 was mediated through the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), as ROS scavengers reduced the effect of quercetin on JNK activation, CHOP upregulation, DR induction, TRAIL sensitization, downregulated the expression of cell survival proteins and upregulated the proapoptotic proteins. Furthermore, quercetin enhances TRAIL mediated inhibition of tumor growth of human SKOV‐3 xenograft was associated with induction of apoptosis, activation of caspase‐3, CHOP and DR5. Overall, our data suggest that quercetin enhances apoptotic death of ovarian cancer cells to TRAIL through upregulation of CHOP‐induced DR5 expression following ROS mediated endoplasmic reticulum‐stress.
Mitochondrial proteins (ROS) are mediating the apoptotic process, downstream or in parallel, CHOP might be a crucial player for DR5 upregulation and cancer cell killing by quercetin. IRE1a‐JNK signaling could also be considered to be the major ER‐stress pathway for quercetin induced CHOP expression, thus contributing to the enhanced apoptotic death of ovarian cancer cells to TRAIL. Quercetin could be an attractive candidate for combined chemotherapy against cancer.
Mitochondria are the main sites for oxidative phosphorylation and synthesis of adenosine triphosphate in cells, and are known as cellular power factories. The phrase “secondary mitochondrial ...diseases” essentially refers to any abnormal mitochondrial function other than primary mitochondrial diseases, i.e., the process caused by the genes encoding the electron transport chain (ETC) proteins directly or impacting the production of the machinery needed for ETC. Mitochondrial diseases can cause adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthesis disorder, an increase in oxygen free radicals, and intracellular redox imbalance. It can also induce apoptosis and, eventually, multi-system damage, which leads to neurodegenerative disease. The catechin compounds rich in tea have attracted much attention due to their effective antioxidant activity. Catechins, especially acetylated catechins such as epicatechin gallate (ECG) and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), are able to protect mitochondria from reactive oxygen species. This review focuses on the role of catechins in regulating cell homeostasis, in which catechins act as a free radical scavenger and metal ion chelator, their protective mechanism on mitochondria, and the protective effect of catechins on mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). This review highlights catechins and their effects on mitochondrial functional metabolic networks: regulating mitochondrial function and biogenesis, improving insulin resistance, regulating intracellular calcium homeostasis, and regulating epigenetic processes. Finally, the indirect beneficial effects of catechins on mitochondrial diseases are also illustrated by the warburg and the apoptosis effect. Some possible mechanisms are shown graphically. In addition, the bioavailability of catechins and peracetylated-catechins, free radical scavenging activity, mitochondrial activation ability of the high-molecular-weight polyphenol, and the mitochondrial activation factor were also discussed.
Despite tremendous efforts to exploit effective therapeutic strategies, most glioblastoma (GBM) inevitably relapse and become resistant to therapies, including radiotherapy and immunotherapy. The ...tumor microenvironment (TME) of recurrent GBM (rGBM) is highly immunosuppressive, dominated by tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). TAMs consist of tissue-resident microglia and monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs), which are essential for favoring tumor growth, invasion, angiogenesis, immune suppression, and therapeutic resistance; however, restricted by the absence of potent methods, the heterogeneity and plasticity of TAMs in rGBM remain incompletely investigated. Recent application of single-cell technologies, such as single-cell RNA-sequencing has enabled us to decipher the unforeseen diversity and dynamics of TAMs and to identify new subsets of TAMs which regulate anti-tumor immunity. Here, we first review hallmarks of the TME, progress and challenges of immunotherapy, and the biology of TAMs in the context of rGBM, including their origins, categories, and functions. Next, from a single-cell perspective, we highlight recent findings regarding the distinctions between tissue-resident microglia and MDMs, the identification and characterization of specific TAM subsets, and the dynamic alterations of TAMs during tumor progression and treatment. Last, we briefly discuss the potential of TAM-targeted strategies for combination immunotherapy in rGBM. We anticipate the comprehensive understanding of the diversity and dynamics of TAMs in rGBM will shed light on further improvement of immunotherapeutic efficacy in rGBM.
Elastocaloric refrigeration requires refrigerants with a good heat transfer ability and a high fatigue life. A million-level fatigue life can be normally obtained for NiTi refrigerants via ...compressive loading. However, existing compression-based NiTi elastocaloric prototypes only focus on tube refrigerants, and no research has been reported on the cross-sectional geometry design and its influence on the compression fatigue behavior of NiTi refrigerants. Here, we propose tubular NiTi refrigerants of hole-type, fin-type, and layer-type cross sections and compare their compression fatigue behavior with NiTi tubes of the same cross-sectional area under cyclic loading of 20 Hz and 900 MPa. Results show that to achieve a larger specific heat transfer area (SA), the compression fatigue life of NiTi tubes monotonically decreases because of the decrease in the wall-thickness, while the layer-type NiTi refrigerant maintains a relatively high fatigue life of 1.7 × 106 cycles at a high SA level (3.83 cm2 g−1). This gives us insight into enhancing elastocaloric refrigerants’ heat transfer ability and fatigue life via geometry design.
NAC (NAM, ATAF1/2, and CUC2) transcription factors are ubiquitously distributed in eukaryotes and play significant roles in stress response. However, the functional verifications of NACs in Picea ...(P.) wilsonii remain largely uncharacterized. Here, we identified the NAC transcription factor PwNAC11 as a mediator of drought stress, which was significantly upregulated in P. wilsonii under drought and abscisic acid (ABA) treatments. Yeast two-hybrid assays showed that both the full length and C-terminal of PwNAC11 had transcriptional activation activity and PwNAC11 protein cannot form a homodimer by itself. Subcellular observation demonstrated that PwNAC11 protein was located in nucleus. The overexpression of PwNAC11 in Arabidopsis obviously improved the tolerance to drought stress but delayed flowering time under nonstress conditions. The steady-state level of antioxidant enzymes’ activities and light energy conversion efficiency were significantly increased in PwNAC11 transgenic lines under dehydration compared to wild plants. PwNAC11 transgenic lines showed hypersensitivity to ABA and PwNAC11 activated the expression of the downstream gene ERD1 by binding to ABA-responsive elements (ABREs) instead of drought-responsive elements (DREs). Genetic evidence demonstrated that PwNAC11 physically interacted with an ABA-induced protein—ABRE Binding Factor3 (ABF3)—and promoted the activation of ERD1 promoter, which implied an ABA-dependent signaling cascade controlled by PwNAC11. In addition, qRT-PCR and yeast assays showed that an ABA-independent gene—DREB2A—was also probably involved in PwNAC11-mediated drought stress response. Taken together, our results provide the evidence that PwNAC11 plays a dominant role in plants positively responding to early drought stress and ABF3 and DREB2A synergistically regulate the expression of ERD1.
Almost all flowers of the tea plant (
) are white, which has caused few researchers to pay attention to anthocyanin accumulation and color changing in tea flowers. A new purple-leaf cultivar, Baitang ...purple tea (BTP) was discovered in the Baitang Mountains of Guangdong, whose flowers are naturally pink, and can provide an opportunity to understand anthocyanin metabolic networks and flower color development in tea flowers. In the present study, twelve anthocyanin components were identified in the pink tea flowers, namely cyanidin
-syringic acid, petunidin 3-
-glucoside, pelargonidin 3-
-beta-d-glucoside, which marks the first time these compounds have been found in the tea flowers. The presence of these anthocyanins seem most likely to be the reason for the pink coloration of the flowers. Twenty-one differentially expressed genes (DEGs) involved in anthocyanin pathway were identified using KEGG pathway functional enrichment, and ten of these DEG's screened using venn and KEGG functional enrichment analysis during five subsequent stages of flower development. By comparing DEGs and their expression levels across multiple flower development stages, we found that anthocyanin biosynthesis and accumulation in BTP flowers mainly occurred between the third and fourth stages (BTP3 to BTP4). Particularly, during the period of peak anthocyanin synthesis 17 structural genes were upregulated, and four structural genes were downregulated only. Ultimately, eight critical genes were identified using weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), which were found to have direct impact on biosynthesis and accumulation of three flavonoid compounds, namely cyanidin 3-
-glucoside, petunidin 3-
-glucoside and epicatechin gallate. These results provide useful information about the molecular mechanisms of coloration in rare pink tea flower of anthocyanin-rich tea, enriching the gene resource and guiding further research on anthocyanin accumulation in purple tea.
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