article’s main point: This article retrospectively analyzes clinical data from a rare case of fetal retroperitoneal solid, mature teratoma, aiming to provide insights into diagnosing and treating ...fetal teratomas. This case of fetal retroperitoneal teratoma provides the following insights into diagnosis and treatment: 1) Due to the special nature of the retroperitoneal space, retroperitoneal tumours grow hidden, especially in fetal retroperitoneal tumours that are even more difficult to detect. Prenatal ultrasound screening is of great value for the diagnosis of this disease. 2) Although ultrasound can determine the location and blood flow of the tumour and monitor changes in its size and composition, there is a certain degree of misdiagnosis due to fetal position, clinical experience, and imaging resolution. When necessary, fetal MRI can provide further evidence for prenatal diagnosis. 3) Although fetal retroperitoneal teratoma is rare, a few tumours grow rapidly and have the potential for malignant transformation. When a solid cystic mass lesion in the retroperitoneal space is found during the fetal period, this disease should be considered as one of the differential diagnoses and distinguished from fetal renal tumours, adrenal tumours, pancreatic cysts, meconium peritonitis, parasitic fetus, and lymphangioma, among others. 4) Based on the situation of the pregnant woman, fetus, and tumour, the time and method of termination of pregnancy should be decided. After birth, the timing and manner of surgery and postoperative follow-up should be determined by neonatology and pediatric surgery.
Gut microbiota-derived endotoxin has been linked to human nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), but the specific causative agents and their molecular mechanisms remain elusive. In this study, we ...investigated whether bacterial strains of endotoxin-producing pathogenic species overgrowing in obese human gut can work as causative agents for NAFLD. We further assessed the role of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) cross talk in this pathogenicity. Nonvirulent strains of Gram-negative pathobionts were isolated from obese human gut and monoassociated with C57BL/6J germfree (GF) mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD). Deletion of
in the bacterial endotoxin synthetic pathway and knockout of TLR4 in GF mice were used to further study the underlying mechanism for a causal relationship between these strains and the development of NAFLD. Three endotoxin-producing strains,
B29,
PY102, and
A7, overgrowing in the gut of morbidly obese volunteers with severe fatty liver, induced NAFLD when monoassociated with GF mice on HFD, while HFD alone did not induce the disease in GF mice. The commensal
(ATCC 29148), whose endotoxin activity was markedly lower than that of
strains, did not induce NAFLD in GF mice. B29 lost its proinflammatory properties and NAFLD-inducing capacity upon deletion of the
gene. Moreover,
B29 did not induce NAFLD in TLR4-deficient GF mice. These nonvirulent endotoxin-producing strains in pathobiont species overgrowing in human gut may work as causative agents, with LPS-TLR4 cross talk as the most upstream and essential molecular event for NAFLD.
Recent studies have reported a link between gut microbiota and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), showing that germfree (GF) mice do not develop metabolic syndromes, including NAFLD. However, the specific bacterial species causing NAFLD, as well as their molecular cross talk with the host for driving liver disease, remain elusive. Here, we found that nonvirulent endotoxin-producing strains of pathogenic species overgrowing in obese human gut can act as causative agents for induction of NAFLD and related metabolic disorders. The cross talk between endotoxin from these specific producers and the host's TLR4 receptor is the most upstream and essential molecular event for inducing all phenotypes in NAFLD and related metabolic disorders. These nonvirulent endotoxin-producing strains of gut pathogenic species overgrowing in human gut may collectively become a predictive biomarker or serve as a novel therapeutic target for NAFLD and related metabolic disorders.
Abstract
Chronic inflammation induced by endotoxin from a dysbiotic gut microbiota contributes to the development of obesity-related metabolic disorders. Modification of gut microbiota by a diet to ...balance its composition becomes a promising strategy to help manage obesity. A dietary scheme based on whole grains, traditional Chinese medicinal foods, and prebiotics (WTP diet) was designed to meet human nutritional needs as well as balance the gut microbiota. Ninety-three of 123 central obese volunteers (BMI ≥ 28 kg m−2) completed a self-controlled clinical trial consisting of 9-week intervention on WTP diet followed by a 14-week maintenance period. The average weight loss reached 5.79 ± 4.64 kg (6.62 ± 4.94%), in addition to improvement in insulin sensitivity, lipid profiles, and blood pressure. Pyrosequencing of fecal samples showed that phylotypes related to endotoxin-producing opportunistic pathogens of Enterobacteriaceae and Desulfovibrionaceae were reduced significantly, while those related to gut barrier-protecting bacteria of Bifidobacteriaceae increased. Gut permeability, measured as lactulose/mannitol ratio, was decreased compared with the baseline. Plasma endotoxin load as lipopolysaccharide-binding protein was also significantly reduced, with concomitant decrease in tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, and an increase in adiponectin. These results suggest that modulation of the gut microbiota via dietary intervention may enhance the intestinal barrier integrity, reduce circulating antigen load, and ultimately ameliorate the inflammation and metabolic phenotypes.
Grain size and shape are important components determining rice grain yield, and they are controlled by quantitative trait loci (QTLs). Here, we report the cloning and functional characterization of a ...major grain length QTL, qGL3 , which encodes a putative protein phosphatase with Kelch-like repeat domain (OsPPKL1). We found a rare allele qgl3 that leads to a long grain phenotype by an aspartate-to-glutamate transition in a conserved AVLDT motif of the second Kelch domain in OsPPKL1. The rice genome has other two OsPPKL1 homologs, OsPPKL2 and OsPPKL3 . Transgenic studies showed that OsPPKL1 and OsPPKL3 function as negative regulators of grain length, whereas OsPPKL2 as a positive regulator. The Kelch domains are essential for the OsPPKL1 biological function. Field trials showed that the application of the qgl3 allele could significantly increase grain yield in both inbred and hybrid rice varieties, due to its favorable effect on grain length, filling, and weight.
Apart from sharing common ancestry with chordates, sea cucumbers exhibit a unique morphology and exceptional regenerative capacity. Here we present the complete genome sequence of an economically ...important sea cucumber, A. japonicus, generated using Illumina and PacBio platforms, to achieve an assembly of approximately 805 Mb (contig N50 of 190 Kb and scaffold N50 of 486 Kb), with 30,350 protein-coding genes and high continuity. We used this resource to explore key genetic mechanisms behind the unique biological characters of sea cucumbers. Phylogenetic and comparative genomic analyses revealed the presence of marker genes associated with notochord and gill slits, suggesting that these chordate features were present in ancestral echinoderms. The unique shape and weak mineralization of the sea cucumber adult body were also preliminarily explained by the contraction of biomineralization genes. Genome, transcriptome, and proteome analyses of organ regrowth after induced evisceration provided insight into the molecular underpinnings of visceral regeneration, including a specific tandem-duplicated prostatic secretory protein of 94 amino acids (PSP94)-like gene family and a significantly expanded fibrinogen-related protein (FREP) gene family. This high-quality genome resource will provide a useful framework for future research into biological processes and evolution in deuterostomes, including remarkable regenerative abilities that could have medical applications. Moreover, the multiomics data will be of prime value for commercial sea cucumber breeding programs.
The bleeding circuit is important for dropping the dc-bus voltage to safe voltage when electric vehicles (EVs) encounter an emergency. However, the bleeding circuit may be bulky and heavy to ensure ...that the total discharge operation can be completed in the specified time (5 seconds). In order to reduce the volume and weight of the bleeding circuit, this paper proposes a maximum discharge power method that can maintain the discharge power of the bleeding resistor and windings at the maximum discharge power. The mechanism and disadvantage of traditional uncontrolled rectification (UR) method is analyzed for illustrating the necessity of reducing the bleeding resistor at first. Then, the proposed maximum discharge power is developed based on the established power flow model. For the sake of improving the tracking performance and dynamic performance of the discharge power, an adaptive sliding mode power control (ASMPC) is proposed with the adaptive reaching law, which can effectively reduce the chatting effect on inner current loop. Finally, the proposed strategy is validated on a permanent magnet synchronous motor drive used for EVs, and the results show that the proposed discharge method can not only reduce the bleeding resistor size and weight but also improve the dynamic characteristics.
In order to better study the effect of blended English teaching, this paper proposes an evaluation method of influencing factors of blended English teaching effect based on network platform. Through ...collecting and analyzing the common influencing factors in the process of English teaching, this paper divides the influencing degree into grades. This paper calculates the influencing parameters of different levels of teaching effect with analytic hierarchy process, evaluates the influencing factors of different levels according to the calculation results, and finally evaluates the influencing factors of mixed English teaching effect. Finally, the experiment proves that the evaluation of influencing factors of mixed English teaching based on network platform has higher accuracy and timeliness
Vibrio parahaemolyticus (V. parahaemolyticus) carrying the toxic plasmid of pirA and pirB has been identified as the causative agent of acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND), which has ...caused serious economic loss to the aquaculture industry of penaeid shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei (L. vannamei) in recent years. To effectively control the outbreak of this disease, breeding of Vibrio resistant broodstocks of L. vannamei was regarded as an important approach. Due to the advantages in selection accuracy and efficiency, genomic selection (GS) was expected to be a feasible alternative to accelerate the genetic improvement of disease resistance traits. In the present study, the heritability of shrimp resistance to V. parahaemolyticus was estimated and the feasibility of GS was evaluated in L. vannamei based on the real and simulation data. The heritability of shrimp resistance against V. parahaemolyticus was around 0.15–0.24, which indicated that the genetic improvement can be achieved by selective breeding. Subsequent analysis for GS based on real data showed that the genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP) can result in more accurate prediction than the traditional pedigree-based best linear unbiased prediction (PBLUP), with a 6.8% increase in the prediction accuracy for the survival time, and a 3.5% increase for binary survival. Similarly, for the simulated data, a relative increase (3.0% and 5.0%) in the prediction accuracy was obtained for survival time and binary survival when comparing the PBLUP to GBLUP. Overall results suggest that GS could be an alternative approach to improve the genetic gains in L. vannamei for the resistance to V. parahaemolyticus.
•Near-to-moderate heritability has been detected for the resistance of Litopenaeus vannamei against Vibrio parahaemolyticus•Genomic selection can be a powerful tool to improve the resistance of L. vannamei against V. parahaemolyticus.•The GBLUP can be a promising model for the application of genomic selection in L. vannamei.
Increasing requirements for the safety of human-robot interaction and the cost-effectiveness of collision detection rapidly promote the development of collision detection technology without torque ...sensors. To address nonlinear disturbance factors in collision detection that may cause unstable or even incorrect detection, this paper proposed a research strategy that considered the friction as the disturbance term in manipulator motion for the collision detection. The manipulator joint disturbance model was established based on the LuGre dynamic friction model, and the external torque observer was designed based on the generalized momentum. Then, the friction measurement was realized using the external torque observer, and the model parameters were identified through the genetic algorithm. The collision detection can be reduced errors after the friction model by compensating the disturbance and can be applicable to variable working conditions. Finally, the accuracy of the constructed disturbance model and the performance of the proposed collision detection method were validated by the experimental studies.
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