Cyclic hexadepsipeptides from the fermentation of Fusarium sp. DCJ-A and their cytotoxic activities.

Beauvercin H (1), a new cyclic hexadepsipeptide, and two known ones (2 and 3) were isolated from the EtOH extract of the solid culture of Fusarium sp. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic analysis, including extensive 1D and 2D NMR techniques, as well as comparison with literature values. Additionally, compounds 1-3 were tested for their cytotoxic activities. The results showed that all isolated compounds exhibited cytotoxic activities against five human cancer cell lines with IC50 values ranging from 1.379 to 13.12 µM.

The complete chloroplast genome of Chimonobambusa utilis (Keng) P. C. Keng, known as 'the king of bamboo shoots'.

The whole chloroplast (cp) genome sequence of Chimonobambusa utilis (Keng) P. C. Keng has been characterized using Illumina pair-end sequencing. The complete cp genome (GenBank accession: OK040769) was 139,540 bp in length, containing a large single copy region (LSC) of 83,133 bp and a small single copy region (SSC) of 12,811 bp, which were separated by a pair of 21,798 bp inverted repeat regions (IRs). The genome contained 133 genes (114 unique), including 86 protein-coding genes (81 unique), 39 tRNA genes (29 unique), and eight rRNA genes (four unique). The overall GC content of C. utilis cp genome is 38.88%. Phylogenetic analysis of 32 cp genomes within the supertribe Bambusatae suggests that C. utilis is closely related to C. quadrangularis.

The complete chloroplast genome of Chimonobambusa angustifolia C. D. Chu et C. S. Chao, a fiber and bamboo shoot species in Poaceae.

Chimonobambusa angustifolia is a famous ornamental and edible bamboo species. Here, the complete chloroplast (cp) genome of C. angustifolia was assembled and annotated. The cp genome is 139,611 bp in size, consisting of two copies of inverted repeat (IR) regions of 21,799 bp, one large single-copy (LSC) region of 83,202 bp, and one small single-copy (SSC) region of 12,811 bp. It encodes 133 genes (110 unique), including 86 protein-coding genes (77 unique), 39 tRNA genes (29 unique), and 8 rRNA genes (4 unique). Phylogenetic analysis based on 21 cp genome sequences within four genera of family Poaceae indicated that genus Chimonobambusa were closely related to genus Shibataea, both belong to subtribe Shlbataeinae.

Analysis of an ABE Scheme with Verifiable Outsourced Decryption.

Attribute-based encryption (ABE) is a popular cryptographic technology to protect the security of users' data in cloud computing. In order to reduce its decryption cost, outsourcing the decryption of ciphertexts is an available method, which enables users to outsource a large number of decryption operations to the cloud service provider. To guarantee the correctness of transformed ciphertexts computed by the cloud server via the outsourced decryption, it is necessary to check the correctness of the outsourced decryption to ensure security for the data of users. Recently, Li et al. proposed a full verifiability of the outsourced decryption of ABE scheme (ABE-VOD) for the authorized users and unauthorized users, which can simultaneously check the correctness of the transformed ciphertext for both them. However, in this paper we show that their ABE-VOD scheme cannot obtain the results which they had shown, such as finding out all invalid ciphertexts, and checking the correctness of the transformed ciphertext for the authorized user via checking it for the unauthorized user. We first construct some invalid ciphertexts which can pass the validity checking in the decryption algorithm. That means their "verify-then-decrypt" skill is unavailable. Next, we show that the method to check the validity of the outsourced decryption for the authorized users via checking it for the unauthorized users is not always correct. That is to say, there exist some invalid ciphertexts which can pass the validity checking for the unauthorized user, but cannot pass the validity checking for the authorized user.

An Identity-Based (IDB) Broadcast Encryption Scheme with Personalized Messages (BEPM).

A broadcast encryption scheme with personalized messages (BEPM) is a scheme in which a broadcaster transmits not only encrypted broadcast messages to a subset of recipients but also encrypted personalized messages to each user individually. Several broadcast encryption (BE) schemes allow a broadcaster encrypts a message for a subset S of recipients with public keys and any user in S can decrypt the message with his/her private key. However, these BE schemes can not provide an efficient way to transmit encrypted personalized messages to each user individually. In this paper, we propose a broadcast encryption scheme with a transmission of personalized messages. Besides, the scheme is based on multilinear maps ensure constant ciphertext size and private key size of each user and the scheme can achieve statically security. More realistically, the scheme can be applied to the Conditional Access System (CAS) of pay television (pay-TV) efficiently and safely.

Urinary arsenic metabolism in a Western Chinese population exposed to high-dose inorganic arsenic in drinking water: influence of ethnicity and genetic polymorphisms.

To investigate the differences in urinary arsenic metabolism patterns of individuals exposed to a high concentration of inorganic arsenic (iAs) in drinking water, an epidemiological investigation was conducted with 155 individuals living in a village where the arsenic concentration in the drinking water was 969µg/L. Blood and urine samples were collected from 66 individuals including 51 cases with skin lesions and 15 controls without skin lesions. The results showed that monomethylated arsenic (MMA), the percentage of MMA (%MMA) and the ratio of MMA to iAs (MMA/iAs) were significantly increased in patients with skin lesions as compared to controls, while dimethylated arsenic (DMA), the percentage of DMA (%DMA) and the ratio of DMA to MMA (DMA/MMA) were significantly reduced. The percent DMA of individuals with the Ala/Asp genotype of glutathione S-transferase omega 1 (GSTO1) was significantly lower than those with Ala/Ala. The percent MMA of individuals with the A2B/A2B genotype of arsenic (+3 oxidation state) methyltransferase (AS3MT) was significantly lower than those with AB/A2B. The iAs and total arsenic (tAs) content in the urine of a Tibetan population were significantly higher than that of Han and Hui ethnicities, whereas MMA/iAs was significantly lower than that of Han and Hui ethnicities. Our results showed that when exposed to the same arsenic environment, different individuals exhibited different urinary arsenic metabolism patterns. Gender and ethnicity affect these differences and above polymorphisms may be effectors too.

[A systematic review regarding the effects of different kinds of selenium supplementations on Kaschin-Beck disease].

OBJECTIVE: To systematically assess the efficacy of different programs regarding the selenium supplementation formulae used for prevention and treatment of Kaschin-Beck disease (KBD) in children. METHODS: PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, SCI expanded, CNKI (Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure), VIP (Chinese Science and Technique Journals Database), CBM (The Chinese Biomedical Database), Wanfang Database, CSCD (Chinese Science Citation Database) had been electronically searched. All the searching processes were up-dated to Dec 2012 to identify randomized trials (RCTs) and non-RCTs to compare the selenium supplementation formulae with placebo or with no intervention. Two reviewers assessed the methodological quality of the study design, including RCTs or non-RCTs according to Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions 5.1 or a checklist described by Deeks JJ, et al, respectively. Data was extracted independently. RESULTS: There were 14 RCTs and 12 non-RCTs papers included, but showing low methodological quality. Data from Meta analysis showed that selenium supplementation had caused the following progresses: radiologic improvement (RR = 3.28, 95%CI: 2.06 - 5.22), higher hair selenium (SMD = 2.05, 95%CI: 1.00 - 3.11) lower new radiologic lesions (OR = 0.18, 95%CI: 0.09 - 0.36) than in the placebo or with no treatment groups. Both selenium and vitamin C supplementation did not show differences in radiologic improvement of metaphysis (RR = 1.01, 95%CI: 0.84 - 1.22). Combination of selenium and vitamin E supplementation showed higher radiologic improvement than the placebo group. Combination of selenium and vitamin C supplementation had no influence on the difference in radiologic improvement or hair selenium than selenium supplementation. Selenium-enriched yeast showed higher radiologic improvement than sodium selenite (70.83% vs. 48.84%, P < 0.05). Selenium fertilization showed higher radiologic improvement than the non-treatment group (RR = 3.98, 95%CI: 2.25 - 7.05). Comprehensive intervention program and 'grain drying approach' also showed certain effects. CONCLUSION: Selenium supplementation could lead to better radiologic improvement and hair selenium, with lower new radiologic lesions. Current evidence supported its benefits on prevention and treatment of KBD. Large sample sized and well-designed trials together with the reporting on adverse outcome remained necessary.

[The tendency of prevalence of hypertension in two countries in Gansu province from 1990 to 2012].

OBJECTIVE: To study the variation tendency of hypertension in two rural areas in Gansu, and provide epidemiological evidence to evaluate the hypertension of rural residents. METHODS: Using equidistant random sampling method and cross-sectional sentinel monitoring, two remote natural villages, Yangzhuang and Xiangming, at Yellow river and Yangtze river valley were selected as hypertension monitoring site. From 1990 to 2012, clinical examination to the resident above 18 years old was carried out continuously for 23 years, 11 164 cases were included. RESULTS: Hypertension prevalence of tested cases increased with years, Yangzhuang monitoring site increased from 6.9% (16/232) in 1990 to 36.7% (216/597) in 2012 with an increase of 29.8%, and Xiangming monitoring site increased from 3.4% (16/474) in 1995 to 20.6% (120/582) in 2011 with an increase of 17.2%. Total prevalence of Yangzhuang (24.1%, 1505/6240) was significantly higher than Xiangming (11.4%, 578/4924) (χ(2) = 277.9, P < 0.01). Total hypertension prevalence of 18 - 35 years old group was 9.9% (292/2944) in Yangzhuang and 4.2% (63/1495) in Xiangming, Yangzhuang was higher than Xiangming (χ(2) = 43.7, P < 0.01). Total hypertension prevalence of above 35 years old group was 36.8% (1213/3296) in Yangzhuang and 14.1% (515/3429) in Xiangming, Yangzhuang was higher than Xiangming (χ(2) = 417.7, P < 0.01). The growth rates of hypertension prevalence in 18 - 35 years old group of both areas (Yangzhuang: 823.5%, Xiangming: 614.3%) were higher than 35 years old group (Yangzhuang:310.5%, Xiangming: 368.0%), but the hypertension prevalence of above 35 years old group was higher than 18 - 35 years old group. Hypertension prevalence of male was 25.4% (761/2992) in Yangzhuang and 11.7% (238/2047) in Xiangming, Yangzhuang was higher than Xiangming (χ(2) = 145.8, P < 0.01), hypertension prevalence of female was 22.7% (738/3248) in Yangzhuang and 11.2% (340/2877)in Xiangming, Yangzhuang was higher than Xiangming (χ(2) = 125.1, P < 0.01). While the difference between male and female had no statistical significance in both areas. CONCLUSION: Hypertension of the two monitoring points was in high epidemic trend, but with different epidemic trend. From different region and environment research to discuss the cause of hypertension can provide scientific evidence for prevention and control.