ALBERT

Description: Background: Strengthening adherence to self-care behaviors in patients with periodontal disease (PD) and reducing the plaque index is crucial for improving PD treatment. We evaluated the effectiveness of a theory of planned behavior (TPB)-based health education intervention involving a planning strategy on self-care behaviors in patients with PD. Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted; 158 and 139 patients comprised the experimental group (EG) and control group (CG), respectively. Both groups received a leaflet, and the EG also received a planning intervention, which was a brief one-on-one counseling session with a planning sheet. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Results: Between-group comparisons of TPB measures revealed significant differences in all domains when controlling for baseline covariates. The EG exhibited significantly higher levels of action and coping planning than the CG at two-week follow-up (effect size (ES) = 5.54 and 5.57, respectively) and six-week follow-up (ES = 5.66 and 5.66, respectively). Between-group differences in changes of brushing behaviors increased significantly. More frequent use of dental floss was observed in the EG than in the CG at two-week and six-week follow-ups (24.7% and 22.8%, respectively). Conclusions: The intervention involving planning strategy effectively promoted adherence to self-care behaviors in patients with PD.

Description: Galactinol synthases (GolSs) are the key enzymes that participate in raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFO) biosynthesis, which perform a big role in modulating plant growth and response to biotic or abiotic stresses. To date, no systematic study of this gene family has been conducted in cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz). Here, eight MeGolS genes are isolated from the cassava genome. Based on phylogenetic background, the MeGolSs are clustered into four groups. Through predicting the cis-elements in their promoters, it was discovered that all MeGolS members act as hormone-, stress-, and tissue-specific related elements to different degrees. MeGolS genes exhibit incongruous expression patterns in various tissues, indicating that different MeGolS proteins might have diverse functions. MeGolS1 and MeGolS3–6 are highly expressed in leaves and midveins. MeGolS3–6 are highly expressed in fibrous roots. Quantitative real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis indicates that several MeGolSs, including MeGolS1, 2, 5, 6, and 7, are induced by abiotic stresses. microRNA prediction analysis indicates that several abiotic stress-related miRNAs target the MeGolS genes, such as mes-miR156, 159, and 169, which also respond to abiotic stresses. The current study is the first systematic research of GolS genes in cassava, and the results of this study provide a basis for further exploration the functional mechanism of GolS genes in cassava.

Description: Background: Haemophilus influenzae is one of the main pathogens that cause community-acquired respiratory infections in children. Our previous study showed that H. influenzae is the second most common pathogen causing pneumonia and accounts for 30?50% of bacterial meningitis among Chinese children. H. influenzae carriage in children and its resistance to commonly used antimicrobials varies widely both geographically and over time. Results: Surveys of the nasopharyngeal carriage of H. influenzae in children younger than 5 years of age with acute respiratory tract infection (ARI) were conducted in Beijing Children?s Hospital, China in 2000, 2002, 2010, and 2012. The overall annual carriage rates of H. influenzae among children younger than 5 years of age with ARI were 35.5%, 20.6%, 14.4%, and 18.7%, and the percentages of H. influenzae isolates producing ?-lactamase were 4%, 13%, 27.1%, and 31%, respectively. The percentages of susceptibility to ampicillin progressively decreased from 96% (2000) to 87% (2002) to 63% (2010) to 61% (2012). All of the ampicillin-resistant isolates were found to be beta-lactamase producers. The susceptibility to tetracycline increased from 54% (2000) to 60% (2002) to 91.5% (2010) to 94.5% (2012). No statistically significant differences were observed in the susceptibility to cefaclor, cefuroxime, sulfamethoxazole, and chloramphenicol. Amoxicillin/clavulanic acid and ceftriaxone were the most effective antimicrobials for the isolates of H. influenzae across the 10-year period. Conclusions: This report on the H. influenzae carriage rates in children and the susceptibility of these bacteria to commonly used antibiotics showed that H. influenzae carriage decreased from 2000 to 2012. Additionally, the percentage of ?-lactamase-producing isolates increased while their susceptibility to ampicillin progressively decreased during this time. These results indicate that the appropriate empirical antimicrobial therapy should be changed for pediatric patients in China.

Description: The strong strain-mediated magnetoelectric (ME) coupling found in thin-film ME heterostructures has attracted an ever-increasing interest and enables realization of a great number of integrated multiferroic devices, such as magnetometers, mechanical antennas, RF tunable inductors and filters. This paper first reviews the thin-film characterization techniques for both piezoelectric and magnetostrictive thin films, which are crucial in determining the strength of the ME coupling. After that, the most recent progress on various integrated multiferroic devices based on thin-film ME heterostructures are presented. In particular, rapid development of thin-film ME magnetometers has been seen over the past few years. These ultra-sensitive magnetometers exhibit extremely low limit of detection (sub-pT/Hz1/2) for low-frequency AC magnetic fields, making them potential candidates for applications of medical diagnostics. Other devices reviewed in this paper include acoustically actuated nanomechanical ME antennas with miniaturized size by 1–2 orders compared to the conventional antenna; integrated RF tunable inductors with a wide operation frequency range; integrated RF tunable bandpass filter with dual H- and E-field tunability. All these integrated multiferroic devices are compact, lightweight, power-efficient, and potentially integrable with current complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, showing great promise for applications in future biomedical, wireless communication, and reconfigurable electronic systems.

Description: Background: Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) of the arterial wall play a critical role in the development of occlusive vascular diseases. Cysteine-rich protein 2 (CRP2) is a VSMC-expressed LIM-only protein, which functionally limits VSMC migration and protects against pathological vascular remodeling. The multifunctional cytokine TGFbeta has been implicated to play a role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis through numerous downstream signaling pathways. We showed previously that TGFbeta upregulates CRP2 expression; however, the detailed signaling mechanisms remain unclear. Results: TGFbeta treatment of VSMCs activated both Smad2/3 and ATF2 phosphorylation. Individually knocking down Smad2/3 or ATF2 pathways with siRNA impaired the TGFbeta induction of CRP2, indicating that both contribute to CRP2 expression. Inhibiting TbetaRI kinase activity by SB431542 or TbetaRI knockdown abolished Smad2/3 phosphorylation but did not alter ATF2 phosphorylation, indicating while Smad2/3 phosphorylation was TbetaRI-dependent ATF2 phosphorylation was independent of TbetaRI. Inhibiting Src kinase activity by SU6656 suppressed TGFbeta-induced RhoA and ATF2 activation but not Smad2 phosphorylation. Blocking ROCK activity, the major downstream target of RhoA, abolished ATF2 phosphorylation and CRP2 induction but not Smad2 phosphorylation. Furthermore, JNK inhibition with SP600125 reduced TGFbeta-induced ATF2 (but not Smad2) phosphorylation and CRP2 protein expression while ROCK inhibition blocked JNK activation. These results indicate that downstream of TbetaRII, Src family kinase-RhoA-ROCK-JNK signaling pathway mediates TbetaRI-independent ATF2 activation. Promoter analysis revealed that the TGFbeta induction of CRP2 was mediated through the CRE and SBE promoter elements that were located in close proximity. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that two signaling pathways downstream of TGFbeta converge on the CRE and SBE sites of the Csrp2 promoter to cooperatively control CRP2 induction in VSMCs, which represents a previously unrecognized mechanism of VSMC gene induction by TGFbeta.

Description: Nanostructured hollow MgO microspheres were prepared by the template method. First, D-Anhydrous glucose was polymerized by the hydrothermal method to form a template. Second, a colorless solution was obtained by mixing magnesite with hydrochloric acid in a 1:2 proportion and heating in an 80 °C water bath for 2 h. Finally, the template from the first step was placed in the colorless solution, and the resulting precipitate was calcined at 550 °C for 2 h. The phase composition and microstructure of the calcined samples were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The XRD results indicated that the main crystal is periclase. The SEM results indicates that the template carbon microsphere surface is smooth, and the its size is uniform and concentrated in the range of 100–200 nm. The diameters of the samples range from 60 to 90 nm, which is smaller than the size of the carbon microsphere. The TEM results indicates that the sample is hollow with a shell thickness of about 6–10 nm. The specific surface area of the calcined hollow sphere is 59.5 m²·g−1.

Description: With the global consensus on the need for sustainability practices, green governance has attracted increasing attention from international business (IB) scholars and multinational enterprise (MNE) managers. In this study, we propose a more fine-grained framework of the green governance context along two dimensions: foreign direct investment (FDI) policy and environmental regulation. Then, we examine the framework using cluster analysis. On the basis of a multiple-case study comprising 11 Chinese MNEs in pollution-intensive industries operating in four different green governance contexts, we conclude that (1) the green governance context is a significant factor in MNEs’ global location choices and is an important driving force behind MNEs’ response patterns; (2) environmental capabilities enable MNEs to surmount a host country’s environmental entry barrier and facilitate wider global business deployment; (3) technological capabilities increase MNEs’ competitive edge and allow them to better harness a host country’s growth opportunities; (4) there are four types of green governance response patterns, and the details of the proposed classification structure and its validation are presented; and (5) both strict environmental regulation and friendly FDI policy can positively influence MNEs’ adoption of more active response patterns, and greater availability of environmental and technological capabilities does not affect MNEs’ environmental commitment. This study contributes to the international strategy-capability-environment alignment of emerging economies’ multinational enterprises (EMNEs) in different green governance contexts.

Description: Adhesive bonded structure damage of hidden frame glass curtain wall will cause falling glass, which threatens the security of people and property. Therefore, the damage detection of the adhesive bonded structure of glass curtain wall has great significance. In this paper, active thermal sensing technology for bonding structure damage detection was introduced. Firstly, the thermal wave propagation of bonded structure was analyzed. Second, the simulated annealing algorithm and TracePro simulation were utilized to design the heat source. Thirdly, the platform of active thermal sensing was built, and experiments were conducted. Finally, image fusion enhancement of Laplacian pyramid was utilized to the enhancement process of thermal images. The simulation results showed that the irradiance of the cross-optimization was more uniform, and the uniformity was 17.50% higher than the original design value. The experiments results showed that defects of different sizes and depths can be distinguished. The gray differences of the damages on the depth of 0 mm and 4 mm were 0.025 and 0.045, respectively. The thermal wave testing can detect damage intuitively and rapidly, which is significant for the future research of unmanned detection of bonding structure damage of hidden frame glass curtain wall.

Description: Background: Metastasis is the primary cause of death for cancer patients. TWIST1, an evolutionarily conserved basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor, is a strong promoter of metastatic spread and its expression is elevated in many advanced human carcinomas. However, the molecular events triggered by TWIST1 to motivate dissemination of cancer cells are largely unknown. Results: Here we show that TWIST1 induces the production of interleukin 8 (IL8), which activates matrix metalloproteinases and promotes invasion of breast epithelial and cancer cells. In this novel mechanism, TWIST1-mediated IL8 transcription is induced through the TWIST1 carboxy-terminal WR (Trp-Arg) domain instead of the classic DNA binding bHLH domain. Co-immunoprecipitation analyses revealed that the WR domain mediates the formation of a protein complex comprised of TWIST1 and the nuclear factor- kappaB (NF-kappaB) subunit RELA (p65/NF-kappaB3), which synergistically activates the transcriptional activity of NF-kappaB. This activation leads to increased DNA binding affinity of RELA to the IL8 promoter and thus induces the expression of the cytokine. Blockage of IL8 signaling by IL8 neutralizing antibodies or receptor inhibition reduced the invasiveness of both breast epithelial and cancer cells, indicating that TWIST1 induces autonomous cell invasion by establishing an IL8 antocrine loop. Conclusions: Our data demonstrate that the TWIST1 WR domain plays a critical role in TWIST1-induced IL8 expression through interactions with and activation of NF-kappaB. The produced IL8 signals through an autocrine loop and promotes extracellular matrix degradation to enable cell invasion across the basement membrane.

Description: Background: The evolutionary history and relationships of the mud shrimps (Crustacea: Decapoda: Gebiidea and Axiidea) are contentious, with previous attempts revealing mixed results. The mud shrimps were once classified in the infraorder Thalassinidea. Recent molecular phylogenetic analyses, however, suggest separation of the group into two individual infraorders, Gebiidea and Axiidea. Mitochondrial (mt) genome sequence and structure can be especially powerful in resolving higher systematic relationships that may offer new insights into the phylogeny of the mud shrimps and the other decapod infraorders, and test the hypothesis of dividing the mud shrimps into two infraorders. Results: We present the complete mitochondrial genome sequences of five mud shrimps, Austinogebia edulis, Upogebia major, Thalassina kelanang (Gebiidea), Nihonotrypaea thermophilus and Neaxius glyptocercus (Axiidea). All five genomes encode a standard set of 13 protein-coding genes, two ribosomal RNA genes, 22 transfer RNA genes and a putative control region. Except for T. kelanang, mud shrimp mitochondrial genomes exhibited rearrangements and novel patterns compared to the pancrustacean ground pattern. Each of the two Gebiidea species (A. edulis and U. major) and two Axiidea species (N. glyptocercus and N. thermophiles) share unique gene order specific to their infraorders and analyses further suggest these two derived gene orders have evolved independently. Phylogenetic analyses based on the concatenated nucleotide and amino acid sequences of 13 protein-coding genes indicate the possible polyphyly of mud shrimps, supporting the division of the group into two infraorders. However, the infraordinal relationships among the Gebiidea and Axiidea, and other reptants are poorly resolved. The inclusion of mt genome from more taxa, in particular the reptant infraorders Polychelida and Glypheidea is required in further analysis. Conclusions: Phylogenetic analyses on the mt genome sequences and the distinct gene orders provide further evidences for the divergence between the two mud shrimp infraorders, Gebiidea and Axiidea, corroborating previous molecular phylogeny and justifying their infraordinal status. Mitochondrial genome sequences appear to be promising markers for resolving phylogenetic issues concerning decapod crustaceans that warrant further investigations and our present study has also provided further information concerning the mt genome evolution of the Decapoda.