Treatment with 0.5 mM salicylic acid (SA) significantly alleviated growth inhibition induced by drought in wheat seedlings, manifested by less decreassed fresh mass, dry mass, plant height, root ...length, and less increased lipid peroxidation. Under drought stress, SA significantly increased the content of ascorbate (ASA) and glutathione (GSH). We determined the full-length cDNA sequences of genes encoding the glutathione-S-transferase 1 (GST1) and 2 (GST2) and we also measured the transcription of eight genes related to ASA-GSH cycle. The results indicated that exogenous SA significantly enhanced the transcription of GST1, GST2, glutathione reductase (GR), and monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR) genes during almost the entire drought period, but only increased those of dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR) at 12 h, glutathione peroxidase (GPX1) at 48 h, phospholipid hydroperoxide glutathione peroxidase (GPX2) at 12 and 24 h, and glutathione synthetase (GSHS) at 12, 24, and 48 h. This implies that SA alleviates the detrimental effects of drought stress on wheat seedling growth by influencing the ASA-GSH cycle.
This report describes the association between birth weight (BW) and obesity. Screening of 478 citations from five electronic databases resulted in the inclusion of 33 studies, most of medium quality. ...The meta-analysis included 20 of these published studies. The 13 remaining articles did not provide sufficient dichotomous data and were systematically reviewed, revealing results consistent with the meta-analysis. Our results revealed that high BW (>4000 g) was associated with increased risk of obesity (odds ratio OR, 2.07; 95% confidence interval CI, 1.91-2.24) compared with subjects with BW ≤ 4000 g. Low BW (<2500 g) was associated with decreased risk of obesity (OR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.46-0.80) compared with subjects with BW ≥ 2500 g. However, when two studies exhibited selection bias were removed, the results indicated no significant association between low BW and obesity (OR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.58-1.04). Sensitivity analyses showed that differences in the study design, sample size and quality grade of the study had an effect on the low BW/obesity association, which low BW was not associated with the risk of obesity in cohort studies, studies with large sample sizes and studies with high quality grades. Pooled results were similar when normal birth weight (2500-4000 g) was used as the reference category. Subgroup analyses based on different growth and developmental stages (pre-school children, school children and adolescents) also revealed that high BW was associated with increased risk of obesity from childhood to early adulthood. No significant evidence of publication bias was present. These results suggest that high BW is associated with increased risk of obesity and may serve as a mediator between prenatal influences and later disease risk.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors in combination with tyrosine kinase inhibitors are standard treatments for advanced clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC). This phase III RENOTORCH study compared the ...efficacy and safety of toripalimab plus axitinib versus sunitinib for the first-line treatment of patients with intermediate-/poor-risk advanced RCC.
Patients with intermediate-/poor-risk unresectable or metastatic RCC were randomized in a ratio of 1 : 1 to receive toripalimab (240 mg intravenously once every 3 weeks) plus axitinib (5 mg orally twice daily) or sunitinib 50 mg orally once daily for 4 weeks (6-week cycle) or 2 weeks (3-week cycle). The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS) assessed by an independent review committee (IRC). The secondary endpoints were investigator-assessed PFS, overall response rate (ORR), overall survival (OS), and safety.
A total of 421 patients were randomized to receive toripalimab plus axitinib (n = 210) or sunitinib (n = 211). With a median follow-up of 14.6 months, toripalimab plus axitinib significantly reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 35% compared with sunitinib as assessed by an IRC hazard ratio (HR) 0.65, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.49-0.86; P = 0.0028. The median PFS was 18.0 months in the toripalimab–axitinib group, whereas it was 9.8 months in the sunitinib group. The IRC-assessed ORR was significantly higher in the toripalimab–axitinib group compared with the sunitinib group (56.7% versus 30.8%; P < 0.0001). An OS trend favoring toripalimab plus axitinib was also observed (HR 0.61, 95% CI 0.40-0.92). Treatment-related grade ≥3 adverse events occurred in 61.5% of patients in the toripalimab–axitinib group and 58.6% of patients in the sunitinib group.
In patients with previously untreated intermediate-/poor-risk advanced RCC, toripalimab plus axitinib provided significantly longer PFS and higher ORR than sunitinib and had a manageable safety profile
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04394975
•Toripalimab plus axitinib provided significantly better PFS than sunitinib as a first-line treatment for advanced RCC.•A significantly higher ORR was found in patients who received toripalimab plus axitinib than those who received sunitinib.•The combination of toripalimab plus axitinib was generally well tolerated.•No new safety signals were identified in the combination outside the known safety profile of toripalimab or axitinib.
Summary
Background
Tinea capitis is still common in developing countries, such as China. Its pathogen spectrum varies across regions and changes over time.
Objectives
This study aimed to clarify the ...current epidemiological characteristics and pathogen spectrum of tinea capitis in China.
Methods
A multicentre, prospective descriptive study involving 29 tertiary hospitals in China was conducted. From August 2019 to July 2020, 611 patients with tinea capitis were enrolled. Data concerning demography, risk factors and fungal tests were collected. When necessary, the pathogens were further identified by morphology or molecular sequencing in the central laboratory.
Results
Among all enrolled patients, 74·1% of the cases were in patients aged 2–8 years. The children with tinea capitis were mainly boys (56·2%) and were more likely than adults to have a history of animal contact (57·4% vs. 35·3%, P = 0·012) and zoophilic dermatophyte infection (73·5% vs. 47%). The adults were mainly female (83%) and were more likely than children to have anthropophilic agent infection (53% vs. 23·9%). The most common pathogen was zoophilic Microsporum canis (354, 65·2%), followed by anthropophilic Trichophyton violaceum (74, 13·6%). In contrast to the eastern, western and northeastern regions, where zoophilic M. canis predominated, anthropophilic T. violaceum predominated in central China (69%, P < 0·001), where the patients had the most tinea at other sites (20%) and dermatophytosis contact (26%) but the least animal contact (39%). Microsporum ferrugineum was the most common anthropophilic agent in the western area, especially in Xinjiang province.
Conclusions
Boys aged approximately 5 years were the most commonly affected group. Dermatologists are advised to pay more attention to the different transmission routes and pathogen spectra in different age groups from different regions.
What is already known about this topic?
Tinea capitis is an infection of the scalp and hair caused by dermatophytes and is still common in developing countries. Prepubertal children are mainly affected.
The pathogen spectrum of tinea capitis varies across different geographical areas and changes over time.
Nationwide prospective epidemiological surveys of tinea capitis in China are rare and out of date.
What does this study add?
This study provides data concerning the epidemiological characteristics and pathogen spectrum of tinea capitis in contemporary China.
Boys aged approximately 5 years were most commonly affected and were more likely than adults to have zoophilic dermatophyte infection.
The main pathogens of tinea capitis in China are zoophilic dermatophytes, mainly Microsporum canis. In contrast to the other regions, the predominant pathogens in central China are anthropophilic dermatophytes.
Plain language summary available online
The distribution and fate of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs) and hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) in sediments from the East China Sea (ECS) and the Yellow Sea (YS) were compared and studied in ...this work. The ECS has directly large river‐dominated inputs of sediment‐associated pollutants while the YS does not. The results indicated that these mud deposits of the YS and ECS were the sinks of land‐originated DDTs and HCHs. The consistence of these OCP species and total organic carbon (TOC) and the sediment grain size in the YS indicated that the shelf mud depositional process was the dominant factor in controlling the distribution and fate of these organic compounds under the more homogeneous and hydrodynamic‐based sedimentary conditions of the YS. The distribution of these chemicals in the coastal ECS, however, showed a much different pattern where the concentrations of DDTs and HCHs decreased with distance from the coast, and the correlations between DDTs and HCHs with TOC were very poor. This indicates that the continuous transferring of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) into the coastal ECS by the direct riverine inputs and surface runoffs play a key role on the occurrence and fate of OCPs within this more heterogeneous environmental system.
Background and Aims
Mast cell activation interferes with the effects of allergen‐specific immunotherapy (SIT). Galectin‐1 (Gal‐1) is capable of regulating immune cells’ functions. This study tests ...the hypothesis that administration of Gal‐1 promotes and prolongs the efficacy of SIT via suppressing mast cell activation.
Methods
An intestinal allergy mouse model was developed. The coadministration of SIT and Gal‐1 on suppression of the allergic responses, prevention of mast cell activation, and generation of antigen‐specific regulatory T cells (Treg) in the intestine was observed in sensitized mice.
Results
The coadministration of Gal‐1 and SIT markedly suppressed the allergic responses in the mouse intestine vs the use of either SIT alone or Gal‐1 alone. The Gal‐1 binds to the IgE/FcɛRI complexes on the surface of mast cells to prevent mast cell activation during SIT. Gal‐1 promoted the SIT‐generated allergen‐specific Tregs in the intestine of sensitized mice. Coadministration of Gal‐1 and SIT significantly enhanced the efficacy of immunotherapy in suppressing allergic responses in the intestine, which lasted for at least for 12 months.
Conclusions
Long‐term effects of specific immunotherapy on intestinal allergy can be achieved with Gal‐1/SIT therapy by inhibiting mast cell activation and facilitating Treg development.
A critical challenge facing the basic long-pulse high-confinement operation scenario (H mode) for ITER is to control a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instability, known as the edge localized mode (ELM), ...which leads to cyclical high peak heat and particle fluxes at the plasma facing components. A breakthrough is made in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak in achieving a new steady-state H mode without the presence of ELMs for a duration exceeding hundreds of energy confinement times, by using a novel technique of continuous real-time injection of a lithium (Li) aerosol into the edge plasma. The steady-state ELM-free H mode is accompanied by a strong edge coherent MHD mode (ECM) at a frequency of 35-40 kHz with a poloidal wavelength of 10.2 cm in the ion diamagnetic drift direction, providing continuous heat and particle exhaust, thus preventing the transient heat deposition on plasma facing components and impurity accumulation in the confined plasma. It is truly remarkable that Li injection appears to promote the growth of the ECM, owing to the increase in Li concentration and hence collisionality at the edge, as predicted by GYRO simulations. This new steady-state ELM-free H-mode regime, enabled by real-time Li injection, may open a new avenue for next-step fusion development.
•A proactive thermal cloak with adaptive heat source is proposed.•A high thermal conductivity and a heat source zone are included in the cloak.•The object in the cloaked zone cannot be thermally ...affected by outside zones.•The background thermal field cannot be distorted.•The heat source in the cloak is designed based on background thermal field.
Thermal cloaks can thermally hide an object without disturbing background thermal field. The coordinate transformation method for designing conventional thermal cloaks face some challenges that the physical properties of metamaterials are required to be anisotropic and inhomogeneous. Furthermore, the coordinate transformation is not applicable for complex geometrical conditions. In this study, a proactive thermal cloak is proposed. The cloak contains two concentric annular zones: one with high thermal conductivity and another with adaptive heat source. The cloaked zone is surrounded by the high thermal conductivity zone. The high thermal conductivity zone keeps the object in the cloaked zone from thermally being affected by outside zones. The heat source zone adjusts the background thermal field without any distortion. The thermal cloak with an analytical heat source distribution is presented for the 2D and 3D background thermal fields with uniform gradient. The adaptive heat source in the thermal cloak is designed by inverse problem theory of a numerical method for the 2D arbitrary background thermal field. This proactive thermal cloak can avoid the issue of anisotropic physical properties for the conventional thermal cloak designed with coordinate transformation method. The heat source thermal cloak with relatively easy implementation can manipulate temperature field proactively without contact. This thermal cloak is applicable for arbitrary background thermal fields and complex geometrical conditions by a numerical design approach. The proposed thermal cloak opens a new strategy to manipulate the thermal field with adaptive heat source.
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