Your browser doesn't support javascript.
loading
Show: 20 | 50 | 100
Results 1 - 20 de 23
Filter
Add more filters










Publication year range
1.
PLoS One ; 19(5): e0297442, 2024.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38728324

ABSTRACT

In the post-epidemic era, the restart of China's inbound tourism is imminent. However, there are gaps in our current understanding of how distance perception dynamically affects inbound tourism in China. In order to understand the past patterns of inbound tourism in China, we mapped the data of 61 countries of origin from 2004 to 2018 into a dynamic expanding gravity model to understand the effects of cultural distance, institutional distance, geographical distance, and economic distance on inbound tourism in China and revealed the dynamic interaction mechanism of non-economic distance perception on inbound tourism in China. Our research results show that cultural distance has a positive impact on China's inbound tourism, while institutional distance has a negative impact. The significant finding is that the dynamic interaction of the above two kinds of perceived distance can still have a positive impact on China's inbound tourism. Its practical significance is that it can counteract the influence of institutional distance by strengthening the cultural distance. Generally speaking, geographical distance and institutional distance restrict China's inbound tourism flow, while cultural distance, economic distance, and interactive perceptual distance promote China's inbound tourism flow.


Subject(s)
Tourism , China , Humans , Models, Theoretical , Distance Perception , Travel/economics , Gravitation
2.
Sci Total Environ ; 918: 170642, 2024 Mar 25.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38320694

ABSTRACT

The emergence of microplastics as contaminants has raised concerns regarding their potential toxicity. Recent studies on microplastic pollution caused by food packaging have drawn attention to its impact on health. However, despite being used extensively in food packaging, there is little knowledge about the toxicity of polyethylene microplastics (PE-MPs). Here, we studied the toxicity of PE-MPs on the model animal honeybees using different particle sizes (1 µm, 10 µm, 100 µm in diameter). Oral exposure to 100-µm PE-MPs resulted in elevated honeybee mortality and increased their susceptibility to pathogens. This is likely due to the mechanical disruption and gut microbial dysbiosis by PE-MPs. Snodgrassella, a core functional gut bacteria, was specifically enriched on the surface of PE-MPs, which perturbs the gut microbial communities in honeybees. Furthermore, the increased mortality in challenge trials with the opportunistic pathogen Hafnia alvei for PE-MPs pre-exposed honeybees revealed a potential health risk. These findings provide fresh insights into evaluating the potential hazards associated with PE-MPs.


Subject(s)
Gastrointestinal Microbiome , Polyethylene , Bees , Animals , Polyethylene/toxicity , Microplastics , Plastics , Dysbiosis
3.
J Orthop Surg Res ; 18(1): 695, 2023 Sep 18.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37718444

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is characterized by joint wear and degeneration. Unfortunately, the medical community currently lacks effective treatment options for this disease. Suspension exercise therapy is considered an effective form of non-weight-bearing exercise for treating KOA. However, its mechanism of intervention in KOA is unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the protective effects of non-weight-bearing exercise on rats with KOA and attempted to explore the underlying mechanisms. METHODS: In this study, a papain-induced KOA model was constructed, and the pathological changes in cartilage tissue were observed by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and scored according to the Mankin scoring principle. The serum levels of interleukin (IL)-1ß, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting were used to detect the expression of mRNA and proteins in the TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling pathway. RESULTS: H&E staining and Mankin score data confirmed that non-weight-bearing exercise significantly improved articular cartilage degradation compared with that in the model group. Further, we observed that non-weight-bearing exercise differentially reduced serum levels of IL-1ß, IL-6, and TNF-α. Mechanistically, non-weight-bearing exercise downregulated gene and protein expression of TLR4, MyD88, and NF-κB in cartilage tissue. CONCLUSION: Non-weight-bearing exercise resulted in the progression of KOA by modulating the TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling pathway and decreasing the levels of the inflammatory cytokines IL-1ß, IL-6, and TNF-α to slow down the degeneration of articular cartilage.


Subject(s)
NF-kappa B , Osteoarthritis, Knee , Physical Conditioning, Animal , Animals , Rats , Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing , Interleukin-6 , Myeloid Differentiation Factor 88 , Osteoarthritis, Knee/chemically induced , Osteoarthritis, Knee/therapy , Papain/adverse effects , Signal Transduction , Toll-Like Receptor 4 , Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha
4.
Antioxidants (Basel) ; 12(7)2023 Jun 25.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37507881

ABSTRACT

Acerola powder has been experiencing a surge in demand as a functional food ingredient, particularly due to its usage in vitamin C supplements. However, limited research has been conducted on its other bioactive compounds. In this study, we employed metabolomics and object-oriented data-processing protocols to comprehensively characterize acerola powder. To ensure maximum coverage of metabolomics, we selected a 50% methanol aqueous solution as the extraction solvent and utilized the HSS T3 column for chromatography analysis. Through this approach, we successfully identified a total of 175 compounds in acerola powder, encompassing amino acids and peptides, polyphenols, organic acids, and various other compounds. Additionally, we measured the total phenolic content (TPC) and assessed the antioxidant activity of acerola powder. Furthermore, we analyzed the differential composition of acerola fruit and juice powder, identifying polyphenols and lipids as primary markers in fruit powder, while peptides emerged as key markers in juice powder. Notably, two specific peptides, Thr-Trp and Val-Tyr, were identified as antioxidant peptides. Overall, our study provides novel composition data for acerola powder, shedding light on its potential as a functional food ingredient. These findings contribute to the development and utilization of acerola powder in the formulation of functional food products.

5.
Environ Res ; 224: 115510, 2023 05 01.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36796606

ABSTRACT

Hydrodynamics played an important role in the design and operation of bioreactors for wastewater treatment. In this work, an up-flow anaerobic hybrid bioreactor built-in with fixed bio-carriers was designed and optimized using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. The results indicated that the flow regime involving with vortex and dead zone was greatly affected by the positions of water inlet and bio-carrier modules. The ideal hydraulic features were obtained when the water inlet and bio-carrier modules located 9 cm and 60 cm above the bottom of reactor. Using the optimum hybrid system for nitrogen removal from wastewater with low carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (C/N = 3), the denitrification efficiency could reach 80.9 ± 0.4%. Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons revealed that the microbial community divergence occurred among the biofilm on bio-carrier, the suspended sludge phase and the inoculum. Especially, the relative abundance of denitrifying genera Denitratisoma in the biofilm of bio-carrier reaches 5.73%, 6.2 times higher than that in the suspended sludge, implying the imbedded bio-carrier was conductive to enrich the specific denitrifiers to polish the denitrification performance with low carbon source. This work provided an effective method for the design optimization of bioreactor based on CFD simulation, and developed a hybrid reactor with fixed bio-carrier for nitrogen removal from wastewater with low C/N ratio.


Subject(s)
Sewage , Wastewater , Denitrification , Hydrodynamics , RNA, Ribosomal, 16S , Bioreactors , Nitrogen/analysis , Biofilms , Carbon , Waste Disposal, Fluid
6.
Curr Res Food Sci ; 6: 100454, 2023.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36815996

ABSTRACT

A high intake of sugar-sweetened fruity beverage (FB) is associated with a higher risk of metabolic syndromes, but the health outcome of 100% fruit juice (FJ) intake remains unclear. We aim to reveal health outcomes of diet intervention (FJ or FB) with system profiling via interaction of gut microbiota and metabolomics in a rat (Rattus norvegicus) model. Firstly, the glucose, sucrose, fructose, and bioactive metabolites of FJ and FB were analyzed, and FJ possessed higher sucrose and flavonoids, while FB showed higher glucose and fructose. Secondly, C0 was set as the control group on Day 0, and a 4-week diet invention was performed to control, FJ-intake, and FB-intake groups with normal saline, FJ, and FB, respectively. The results showed that FJ improved alpha diversity and decreased the Firmicutes/Bacteroidota ratio (F/B ratio) of gut microbiota and prevented insulin resistance. However, FB possessed unchanged microbial diversity and enhanced F/B ratio, causing insulin resistance with renal triglyceride accumulation. In summary, FJ, although naturally containing similar amounts of total free sugars as FB, could be a healthier drink choice.

7.
Viruses ; 16(1)2023 12 19.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38275939

ABSTRACT

The 2023 International African Swine Fever Workshop (IASFW) took place in Beijing, China, on 18-20 September 2023. It was jointly organized by the U.S.-China Center for Animal Health (USCCAH) at Kansas State University (KSU) and the Chinese Veterinary Drug Association (CVDA) and sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA-FAS), Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, and Zoetis Inc. The objective of this workshop was to provide a platform for ASF researchers around the world to unite and share their knowledge and expertise on ASF control and prevention. A total of 24 outstanding ASF research scientists and experts from 10 countries attended this meeting. The workshop included presentations on current ASF research, opportunities for scientific collaboration, and discussions of lessons and experiences learned from China/Asia, Africa, and Europe. This article summarizes the meeting highlights and presents some critical issues that need to be addressed for ASF control and prevention in the future.


Subject(s)
African Swine Fever Virus , African Swine Fever , Swine , Animals , Humans , African Swine Fever/prevention & control , African Swine Fever/epidemiology , Asia , China/epidemiology , Africa/epidemiology , Sus scrofa , Disease Outbreaks/veterinary
8.
Nutrients ; 14(17)2022 Aug 25.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36079746

ABSTRACT

The consumption of processed foods has increased compared to that of fresh foods in recent years, especially due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Here, we evaluated the health effects of clarified apple juices (CAJs, devoid of pectin and additives) processed to different degrees, including not-from-concentrate (NFC) and from-concentrate (FC) CAJs. A 56-day experiment including a juice-switch after 28 days was designed. An integrated analysis of 16S rRNA sequencing and untargeted metabolomics of cecal content were performed. In addition, differences in the CAJs tested with respect to nutritional indices and composition of small-molecule compounds were analyzed. The NFC CAJ, which showed a higher phenolic content resulting from the lower processing degree, could improve microbiota diversity and influence its structure. It also reduced bile acid and bilirubin contents, as well as inhibited the microbial metabolism of tryptophan in the gut. However, we found that these effects diminished with time by performing experiment extension and undertaking juice-switching. Our study provides evidence regarding the health effects of processed foods that can potentially be applied to public health policy decision making. We believe that NFC juices with a lower processing degree could potentially be healthier than FC juice.


Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Gastrointestinal Microbiome , Malus , Animals , Fruit and Vegetable Juices , Malus/chemistry , Metabolomics/methods , RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics , Rats
9.
Food Chem ; 393: 133334, 2022 Nov 01.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35653989

ABSTRACT

Merchants used frozen chicken to pass it off as chilled chicken, resulting in Economically Motivated Adulteration incidents. Here in this work, firstly, we established OPLS-DA and OPLS-R models based on metabolomics to obtain differential metabolites in chilled and frozen chicken (with different storage times), the PLS-DA model based on above differential compounds could achieve accuracy of 91% (training) and 100% (testing) for the adulteration identification of uncooked chilled and frozen chicken. Secondly, cooking study was carried out to identify the discrepancy of the cooked chilled and frozen chicken. Higher nicotinamide, o-acetyl-l-carnitine, hypoxanthine, and IMP levels indicated better nutrition quality and more desirable flavor in chilled chicken nuggets, while higher bitter and sour peptides in frozen chicken nuggets indicated the loss of freshness.


Subject(s)
Chickens , Cooking , Animals , Biomarkers , Cooking/methods , Freezing , Metabolomics
10.
Sci Total Environ ; 842: 156819, 2022 Oct 10.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35738383

ABSTRACT

Micro- (MPs) and nano-plastics (NPs) have become emerging pollutants in the environment. Their wide distribution and capacity as a vector of hazardous materials threaten various organisms. Honeybees have been used as bioindicators for pollutants as their gut microbiota offers advantages for addressing how it alters the host health and exploring the processes of environmental pollutants affecting gut community dynamics. In this study, the effects of plastic particles of different sizes on honeybees' health were investigated. Oral exposure to polystyrene (PS) particles with a diameter of 100 nm significantly decreased the whole-body weight and survival rate of honeybees and induced intestinal dysplasia. As the increase of the feeding time from Day 0 to Day 15, the MPs moved to and accumulated in the rectum, where most bee gut symbionts colonized. Scanning electron microscope observation showed that 100-nm PS particles adhered to the germination pore of pollen, while 1- and 10-µm PS particles were attached by gut bacteria. We found that 100-nm PS treatment decreased the relative abundance of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium in the guts. Correspondingly, PS treatment stimulated immune inhibitory genes and depressed genes related to detoxification and energy balance. Furthermore, 100-nm PS treated honeybees became more susceptible to the pathogenic Hafnia alvei, leading to a five-times higher mortality rate. These results indicated the adverse impacts of NPs on honeybees, which extends our knowledge regarding the emerging health risks of plastic debris, especially at the nanoscale.


Subject(s)
Environmental Pollutants , Gastrointestinal Microbiome , Water Pollutants, Chemical , Animals , Bees , Immune System , Polystyrenes
11.
Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr ; 62(24): 6761-6782, 2022.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33783272

ABSTRACT

Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.), which has been categorized as a "medicine food homology" fruit by China's National Health Commission for both nutritional and medicinal purposes, has nearly 200 kinds of nutritive and bioactive compounds such as polyunsaturated fatty acids, carotenoids, sugar alcohols, superoxide dismutase and phytosterols. Significant bioactivity, including cardiovascular improvement, antidiabetic and anti-obesity activity, have highlighted the application of sea buckthorn. This review compiled a database of the phytochemical compounds in sea buckthorn, which contains the contents of 106 nutrients and 74 bioactive compounds. The health benefits of sea buckthorn and its extracts were summarized and the mechanism of anti-oxidation and anti-inflammation were introduced in detail. Seventeen common marketed products of sea buckthorn from 8 countries were collected. A future scope is really needed to explore the mechanism of sea buckthorn bioactive compounds along with the incorporation cost-effective functional food products.


Subject(s)
Hippophae , Phytosterols , Carotenoids/analysis , Fruit/chemistry , Functional Food , Hippophae/chemistry , Phytosterols/analysis
12.
Food Chem ; 373(Pt B): 131430, 2022 Mar 30.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34731802

ABSTRACT

The NOVA food classification system, divides foods into four categories, namely unprocessed and minimally processed foods, processed culinary ingredients, processed foods, and ultra-processed foods. With the recently increasing pursuit of healthy diets, special attention to minimally processed foods has become crucial. According to NOVA, freshly squeezed, high pressure processing (HPP) and pasteurized orange juice are minimally processed foods. In this study, the differences in the quality and composition of these minimally processed juice are explored, as it was found that their traditional quality characteristics were too weak to illustrate their difference. However, based on untargeted metabolomics, two differential compounds were identified between freshly squeezed and HPP orange juice, in addition to 15 differential compounds between freshly squeezed and pasteurized orange juice. Moreover, all the pasteurized orange juice in this study was deemed to be out of the acceptance area of freshly squeezed and HPP orange juice in a data-driven soft independent modeling of class analogy (dd-SIMCA) model based on volatile overview. The results of this study provide data for clarifying the compositional differences between minimally processed juice for their further subclassification.


Subject(s)
Citrus sinensis , Fast Foods , Food Handling , Fruit and Vegetable Juices , Metabolomics
13.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33578280

ABSTRACT

The aim of this work is to contribute to the assessment of multi-residue analysis of veterinarian and human pharmaceuticals using UHPLC-QTOF in livestock urine and blood (cattle, chicken, sheep and pig). Firstly, an in-house database including compound name, monoisotopic mass, chemical formula, retention time, chemical structure, and three CID MS-MS spectra of the 234 selected drugs were built for qualitative detection. Secondly, the method validation result showed that all the 234 drugs exhibited good linearity with determination coefficients (R2) higher than 0.999. Then, the distribution of the drugs recoveries, intra-day RSD and inter-day RSD results for all seven matrices were tested. Finally, after a carefully cross check, 150 veterinarian and human pharmaceuticals could meet the methodological requirements (recovery, 50-120%; intra-day RSD ≤ 15%, inter-day RSD ≤ 20%) in all seven matrices. Our results suggested that although the main applications of UHPLC-QTOF are directed towards detection and identification of the compounds, this method should be also applied for quantitative purposes.


Subject(s)
Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid/methods , Veterinary Drugs , Animals , Cattle , Chickens , Linear Models , Livestock , Reproducibility of Results , Sensitivity and Specificity , Sheep , Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization , Swine , Veterinary Drugs/blood , Veterinary Drugs/isolation & purification , Veterinary Drugs/urine
14.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32618496

ABSTRACT

A method for simultaneous determination of multi-class antibiotics and steroid hormone analysis in faeces of livestock and poultry was developed using liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF MS). An in-house database was built for 156 detected drugs using Personal Compound Database Library software (PCDL) including compound name, monoisotopic mass, chemical formula, RT, chemical structure and three CID MS/MS spectra. The linearity result showed that all the drugs exhibited good linearity with determination coefficients (R2) higher than 0.99. The drug recoveries and their RSDs for all three faeces samples (pig, cattle and chicken) were tested and 81, 96 and 92 drugs were chosen for analysis in pig, cattle and chicken faeces, respectively. Further validation showed that 73 veterinary drugs in all three kinds of faeces samples can be quantified in one analytical run. This work shows that qualitative and quantitative analysis using LC-QTOF MS represents a simple, sensitive, low-cost and high-throughput methodology in routine laboratory analyses.


Subject(s)
Anti-Bacterial Agents/analysis , Feces/chemistry , Gonadal Steroid Hormones/analysis , Animals , Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid , Mass Spectrometry , Poultry
15.
Arch Microbiol ; 202(6): 1507-1515, 2020 Aug.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32222778

ABSTRACT

Pyocyanin produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a key virulence factor that often causes heavy damages to airway and lung in patients. Conversion of phenazine-1-carboxylic acid to pyocyanin involves an extrametabolic pathway that contains two enzymes encoded, respectively, by phzM and phzS. In this study, with construction of the rpoS-deficient mutant, we first found that although phenazine production increased, pyocyanin produced in the mutant YTΔrpoS was fourfold much higher than that in the wild-type strain YT. To investigate this issue, we constructed phzM-lacZ fusion on a vector and on the chromosome. By quantifying ß-galactosidase activities, we confirmed that expression of the phzM was up-regulated when the rpoS gene was inactivated. However, no changes occurred in the expression of phzS and phzH when the rpoS was knocked out. Taken together, overproduction of the SAM-dependent methyltransferase (PhzM) might contribute to the increased pyocyanin in the absence of RpoS in P. aeruginosa.


Subject(s)
Bacterial Proteins/biosynthesis , Bacterial Proteins/genetics , Methyltransferases/biosynthesis , Mixed Function Oxygenases/biosynthesis , Pseudomonas aeruginosa/metabolism , Pyocyanine/biosynthesis , Sigma Factor/genetics , Humans , Methyltransferases/genetics , Mixed Function Oxygenases/genetics , Phenazines/metabolism , Pseudomonas aeruginosa/genetics , Virulence Factors/metabolism
16.
Plant Pathol J ; 35(4): 351-361, 2019 Aug.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31481858

ABSTRACT

In our previous study, pyrrolnitrin produced in Pseudomonas chlororaphis G05 plays more critical role in suppression of mycelial growth of some fungal pathogens that cause plant diseases in agriculture. Although some regulators for pyrrolnitrin biosynthesis were identified, the pyrrolnitrin regulation pathway was not fully constructed. During our screening novel regulator candidates, we obtained a white conjugant G05W02 while transposon mutagenesis was carried out between a fusion mutant G05ΔphzΔprn::lacZ and E. coli S17-1 (pUT/mini-Tn5Kan). By cloning and sequencing of the transposon-flanking DNA fragment, we found that a vfr gene in the conjugant G05W02 was disrupted with mini-Tn5Kan. In one other previous study on P. fluorescens, however, it was reported that the deletion of the vfr caused increased production of pyrrolnitrin and other antifungal metabolites. To confirm its regulatory function, we constructed the vfr-knockout mutant G05Δvfr and G05ΔphzΔprn::lacZΔvfr. By quantifying ß-galactosidase activities, we found that deletion of the vfr decreased the prn operon expression dramatically. Meanwhile, by quantifying pyrrolnitrin production in the mutant G05Δvfr, we found that deficiency of the Vfr caused decreased pyrrolnitrin production. However, production of phenazine-1-carboxylic acid was same to that in the wild-type strain G05. Taken together, Vfr is required for pyrrolnitrin but not for phenazine-1-carboxylic acid biosynthesis in P. chlororaphis G05.

17.
J Microbiol Biotechnol ; 29(8): 1299-1309, 2019 Aug 28.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31387340

ABSTRACT

As an opportunistic bacterial pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 contains two phenazineproducing gene operons, phzA1B1C1D1E1F1G1 (phz1) and phzA2B2C2D2E2F2G2 (phz2), each of which is independently capable of encoding all enzymes for biosynthesizing phenazines, including phenazine-1-carboxylic acid and its derivatives. Other previous study reported that the RpoS-deficient mutant SS24 overproduced pyocyanin, a derivative of phenazine-1- carboxylic acid. However, it is not known how RpoS mediates the expression of two phz operons and regulates pyocyanin biosynthesis in detail. In this study, with deletion of the rpoS gene in the PAΔphz1 mutant and the PAΔphz2 mutant respectively, we demonstrated that RpoS exerted opposite regulatory roles on the expression of the phz1and phz2 operons. We also confirmed that the phz1 operon played a critical role and especially biosynthesized much more phenazines than the phz2 operon when the rpoS gene was knocked out in P. aeruginosa. By constructing the translational reporter fusion vector lasR'-'lacZ and the chromosomal fusion mutant PAΔlasR::lacZ, we verified that RpoS deficiency caused increased expression of lasR, a transcription regulator gene in a first quorum sensing system (las) that activates overexpression of the phz1 operon, suggesting that in the absence of RpoS, LasR might act as an intermediate in overproduction of phenazine biosynthesis mediated by the phz1 operon in P. aeruginosa.


Subject(s)
Bacterial Proteins/metabolism , Phenazines/metabolism , Pseudomonas aeruginosa/metabolism , Sigma Factor/metabolism , Trans-Activators/metabolism , Bacterial Proteins/genetics , Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial , Gene Fusion , Operon , Pseudomonas aeruginosa/genetics , Pyocyanine/biosynthesis , Sigma Factor/genetics
18.
J Basic Microbiol ; 59(9): 914-923, 2019 Sep.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31294863

ABSTRACT

Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1, a common opportunistic bacterial pathogen, contains two phenazine-biosynthetic operons, phz1 (phzA1 B1 C1 D1 E1 F1 G1 ) and phz2 (phzA2 B2 C2 D2 E2 F2 G2 ). Each of two operons can independently encode a set of enzymes involving in the biosynthesis of phenazine-1-carboxylic acid. As a global transcriptional regulator, RpoS mediates a lot of genes involving secondary metabolites biosynthesis in many bacteria. In an other previous study, it was reported that RpoS deficiency caused overproduction of pyocyanin, a derivative of phenazine-1-carboxylic acid in P. aeruginosa PAO1. But it is not known how RpoS mediates the expression of each of two phz operons and modulates phenazine-1-carboxylic acid biosynthesis in detail. In this study, by deleting the rpoS gene in the mutant PNΔphz1 and the mutant PNΔphz2, we found that the phz1 operon contributes much more to phenazine-1-carboxylic acid biosynthesis than the phz2 operon in the absence of RpoS. With the construction of the translational and transcriptional fusion vectors with the truncated lacZ reporter gene, we demonstrated that RpoS negatively regulates the expression of phz1 and positively controls the expression of phz2, and the regulation of phenazine-1-carboxylic acid biosynthesis mediated by RopS occurs at the posttranscriptional level, not at the transcriptional level. Obviously, two copies of phz operons and their differential expression mediated by RpoS might help P. aeruginosa adapt to its diverse environments and establish infection in its hosts.


Subject(s)
Bacterial Proteins/genetics , Pseudomonas aeruginosa/genetics , Pseudomonas aeruginosa/metabolism , Sigma Factor/genetics , Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial , Operon/genetics , Phenazines/metabolism , Sequence Deletion
19.
Med Phys ; 46(7): 3101-3116, 2019 Jul.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31009085

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: In diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI), the fiber orientation distribution function (fODF) is of great importance for solving complex fiber configurations to achieve reliable tractography throughout the brain, which ultimately facilitates the understanding of brain connectivity and exploration of neurological dysfunction. Recently, multi-shell multi-tissue constrained spherical deconvolution (MSMT-CSD) method has been explored for reconstructing full fODFs. To achieve a reliable fitting, similar to other model-based approaches, a large number of diffusion measurements is typically required for MSMT-CSD method. The prolonged acquisition is, however, not feasible in practical clinical routine and is prone to motion artifacts. To accelerate the acquisition, we proposed a method to reconstruct the fODF from downsampled diffusion-weighted images (DWIs) by leveraging the strong inference ability of the deep convolutional neural network (CNN). METHODS: The method treats spherical harmonics (SH)-represented DWI signals and fODF coefficients as inputs and outputs, respectively. To compensate for the reduced gradient directions with reduced number of DWIs in acquisition in each voxel, its surrounding voxels are incorporated by the network for exploiting their spatial continuity. The resulting fODF coefficients are fitted with applying the CNN in a multi-target regression model. The network is composed of two convolutional layers and three fully connected layers. To obtain an initial evaluation of the method, we quantitatively measured its performance on a simulated dataset. Then, for in vivo tests, we employed data from 24 subjects from the Human Connectome Project (HCP) as training set and six subjects as test set. The performance of the proposed method was primarily compared to the super-resolved MSMT-CSD with the decreasing number of DWIs. The fODFs reconstructed by MSMT-CSD from all available 288 DWIs were used as training labels and the reference standard. The performance was quantitatively measured by the angular correlation coefficient (ACC) and the mean angular error (MAE). RESULTS: For the simulated dataset, the proposed method exhibited the potential advantage over the model reconstruction. For the in vivo dataset, it achieved superior results over the MSMT-CSD in all the investigated cases, with its advantage more obvious when a limited number of DWIs were used. As the number of DWIs was reduced from 95 to 25, the median ACC ranged from 0.96 to 0.91 for the CNN, but 0.93 to 0.77 for the MSMT-CSD (with perfect score of 1). The angular error in the typical regions of interest (ROIs) was also much lower, especially in multi-fiber regions. The average MAE for the CNN method in regions containing one, two, three fibers was, respectively, 1.09°, 2.75°, and 8.35° smaller than the MSMT-CSD method. The visual inception of the fODF further confirmed this superiority. Moreover, the tractography results validated the effectiveness of the learned fODF, in preserving known major branching fibers with only 25 DWIs. CONCLUSION: Experiments on HCP datasets demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed method in recovering fODFs from up to 11-fold reduced number of DWIs. The proposed method offers a new streamlined reconstruction procedure and exhibits promising potential in acquisition acceleration for the reconstruction of fODFs with good accuracy.


Subject(s)
Deep Learning , Diffusion Tensor Imaging , Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/methods , Time Factors
20.
Vet Microbiol ; 229: 117-123, 2019 Feb.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-30642586

ABSTRACT

Highly pathogenic porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (HP-PRRSV) is characterized by high fever and high mortality in pigs of all ages and has severely affected the pork industry of China in the last decades. This study evaluated the differences in protection conferred by of three MLV PRRS vaccines derived from classical PRRSV (C-PRRSV, VR2332) and HP-PRRSV (TJM-F92 and JXA1-R) against the field challenge of HP-PRRSV TP strain (JXA1-R like). Compared to the experiment pigs in control group which were vaccinated with normal saline, the MLV PRRS vaccinated pigs had milder clinical symptoms, fewer pathological changes in the lung, and higher body weight gain at the end of the study. However, piglets vaccinated with VR2332 had higher body temperature, higher viral loads and lower body weight gain when compared with piglets vaccinated with TJM-F92 or JXA1-R vaccines at the end of the study. The results demonstrated that VR2332 vaccine provided a limited cross-protection against the HP-PRRSV TP strain infection, while in contrast the TJM-F92 and JXA1-R vaccines provided more efficacious protection. The findings of this study could serve as a valuable reference guide for the pig producers and veterinarians when considering the choice of which type of MLV PRRS vaccines to protect their pig herds against field challenge by HP-PRRSV TP strain.


Subject(s)
Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome/prevention & control , Porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome virus/pathogenicity , Animals , Antibodies, Viral/blood , RNA, Viral , Random Allocation , Swine , Vaccination/veterinary , Vaccines, Attenuated , Viral Vaccines/immunology , Viremia , Virulence
SELECTION OF CITATIONS
SEARCH DETAIL
...