Nudging and the Ecological and Social Roots of Human Agency

List of Stress Shared Gene

The FruitShell French synthesis system at the Blizzard 2023 Challenge

This paper presents a French text-to-speech synthesis system for the Blizzard Challenge 2023. The challenge consists of two tasks: generating high-quality speech from female speakers and generating speech that closely resembles specific individuals. Regarding the competition data, we conducted a screening process to remove missing or erroneous text data. We organized all symbols except for phonemes and eliminated symbols that had no pronunciation or zero duration. Additionally, we added word boundary and start/end symbols to the text, which we have found to improve speech quality based on our previous experience. For the Spoke task, we performed data augmentation according to the competition rules. We used an open-source G2P model to transcribe the French texts into phonemes. As the G2P model uses the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), we applied the same transcription process to the provided competition data for standardization. However, due to compiler limitations in recognizing special symbols from the IPA chart, we followed the rules to convert all phonemes into the phonetic scheme used in the competition data. Finally, we resampled all competition audio to a uniform sampling rate of 16 kHz. We employed a VITS-based acoustic model with the hifigan vocoder. For the Spoke task, we trained a multi-speaker model and incorporated speaker information into the duration predictor, vocoder, and flow layers of the model. The evaluation results of our system showed a quality MOS score of 3.6 for the Hub task and 3.4 for the Spoke task, placing our system at an average level among all participating teams

Anti-tumor activity of polysaccharides extracted from Senecio scandens Buch, -Ham root on hepatocellular carcinoma

Purpose: To optimize the extraction conditions of polysaccharides from the root of Senecio scandens Buch,-Ham. (PRS) and evaluate its anti-tumor effect on hepatocellular carcinoma.Methods: Response surface methodology (RSM) applied with a Box-Behnken design (BBD, three levels and three factors) was employed to determine the effect of extraction time, number of extraction and ratio of water to raw material on the yield of PRS. The anti-tumor effect of PRS on A549, HL60, S180 and H22 cell lines was evaluated in vitro by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl) -2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, while in vivo anti-tumor effect was evaluated in H22 tumor transplanted mice. Furthermore, expressions of proteins including caspase-3, caspase-9, Bcl-2 and Bax were determined by western blotting assay.Results: The established BBD model was highly significant and the optimal conditions were: extraction time, 3.06 h; number of extractions, 2; and ratio of water to raw material, 16.17 mL/g. PRS showed significant inhibitory effect on H22 cells (IC50 = 42.4 μg/mL), and significantly inhibited the growth of transplanted H22 tumors in mice at the doses of 20, 40 and 80 mg/kg (p < 0.05, p < 0.05 and p < 0.01, respectively). Treatment with PRS (20, 40 and 80 μg/mL) significantly up-regulated the expressions of Bax, caspase-3 and caspase-9 in H22 cells, whereas Bcl-2 protein was significantly down-regulated.Conclusion: The results suggest that PRS possesses significant anti-tumor activity on H22 cell line in vitro and in vivo, and the mechanism may be closely related to the induction of mitochondria-mediated apoptosis.Keywords: Senecio scandens, Polysaccharides, Hepatocellular carcinoma, Response surface methodology, Anti-tumor activity, Apoptosi

Preparation and biological activity of the monoclonal antibody against the second extracellular loop of the angiotensin II type 1 receptor

The current study was to prepare a mouse-derived antibody against the angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1-mAb) based on monoclonal antibody technology, to provide a foundation for research on AT1-AA-positive diseases. Balb/C mice were actively immunized with the second extracellular loop of the angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1R-ECII). Then, mouse spleen lymphocytes were fused with myeloma cells and monoclonal hybridomas that secreted AT1-mAb were generated and cultured, after which those in logarithmic-phase were injected into the abdominal cavity of mice to retrieve the ascites. Highly purified AT1-mAb was isolated from mouse ascites after injection with 1 × 107 hybridomas. A greater amount of AT1-mAb was purified from mouse ascites compared to the cell supernatant of hybridomas. AT1-mAb purified from mouse ascites constricted the thoracic aorta of mice and increased the beat frequency of neonatal rat myocardial cells via the AT1R, identical to the effects of AT1-AA extracted from patients’ sera. Murine blood pressure increased after intravenous injection of AT1-mAb via the tail vein. High purity and good biological activity of AT1-mAb can be obtained from mouse ascites after intraperitoneal injection of monoclonal hybridomas that secrete AT1-mAb. These data provide a simple tool for studying AT1-AA-positive diseases

Diverse set of microRNAs are responsive to powdery mildew infection and heat stress in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding regulatory RNAs that regulate gene expression by guiding target mRNA cleavage or translational inhibition. MiRNAs can have large-scale regulatory effects on development and stress response in plants.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To test whether miRNAs play roles in regulating response to powdery mildew infection and heat stress in wheat, by using Solexa high-throughput sequencing we cloned the small RNA from wheat leaves infected by preponderant physiological strain <it>Erysiphe graminis f. sp. tritici </it>(<it>Egt</it>) or by heat stress treatment. A total of 153 miRNAs were identified, which belong to 51 known and 81 novel miRNA families. We found that 24 and 12 miRNAs were responsive to powdery mildew infection and heat stress, respectively. We further predicted that 149 target genes were potentially regulated by the novel wheat miRNA.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results indicated that diverse set of wheat miRNAs were responsive to powdery mildew infection and heat stress and could function in wheat responses to both biotic and abiotic stresses.</p

General survey of Fructus Psoraleae from the different origins and chemical identification of the roasted from raw Fructus Psoraleae

Fructus Psoraleae, a traditional Chinese medicine, is widely used for preventing and treating various diseases such as vitiligo, osteoporosis and psoriasis. Coumarin, such as psoralenoside, isopsoralenoside, psoralen and isopsoralen, are important compounds in Fructus Psoraleae. In our study, ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detector was employed for an excellent method validation for simultaneous quantification of psoralenoside, isopsoralenoside, psoralen and isopsoralen, which was further applied in performing general survey of Fructus Psoraleae from the different origins and chemical identification of the roasted from raw Fructus Psoraleae in the light of illuminating the transformed rule of psoralenoside and isopsoralenoside. There is a reciprocal relationship between (iso)psoralenoside and (iso)psoralen, and the total content remains balance in Fructus Psoraleae from the different origins. In addition, we found that (iso)psoralenoside in the powder of the raw Fructus Psoraleae could be easily transformed into (iso)psoralen in methanol aqueous solution, especially above 50% water, rather than the roasted one. Thus, we proposed a hypothesis that transformation between (iso)psoralenoside and (iso)psoralen was hindered by inactivation of β-glucosidase in the process of roasting Fructus Psoraleae, which was further verified by observing transformation of (iso)psoralenoside under the different conditions, such as temperature, pH and β-glucosidase. Therefore, we developed a feasible method to distinguish the roasted from raw Fructus Psoraleae by observing conversion from (iso)psoralenoside to (iso)psoralen in 50% methanol aqueous solution. In summary, these results pave the way for elevating quality standard for Fructus Psoraleae and distinguishing the salt-processed from raw Fructus Psoraleae

Prognostic changes after sudden deafness in patients with inner ear malformations characterized by LSCC: a retrospective study

IntroductionThis study aimed to investigate the clinical features and prognosis of sudden sensorineural hearing loss in patients with lateral semicircular canal (LSCC) malformation.MethodsThis study enrolled patients with LSCC malformation and sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) who were admitted to Shandong ENT Hospital between 2020 and 2022. We collected and analyzed data on examinations of audiology, vestibular function, and imaging records of patients and summarized the clinical characteristics and prognosis of these patients.ResultsFourteen patients were enrolled. Patients with LSCC malformation was noted in 0.42% of all SSNHL cases during the same period. One patients had bilateral SSNHL and the rest had unilateral SSNHL. Of them, eight and six patients had unilateral and bilateral LSCC malformations, respectively. Flat hearing loss was noted in 12 ears (80.0%) and severe or profound hearing loss was noted in 10 ears (66.7%). After treatment, the total efficacy rate of SSNHL with LSCC malformation was 40.0%. Vestibular function was abnormal in all patients, but only five patients (35.7%) had dizziness. There were statistically significant differences in the vestibular functions between patients with LSCC malformation and matched patients without the malformation hospitalized during the same period (p &lt; 0.05).ConclusionPatients with SSNHL and LSCC malformation had flat-type and severe hearing loss and worse disease prognosis compared to those with SSNHL without LSCC malformation. Vestibular function is more likely to be abnormal; however, there was no significant difference in vestibular symptoms between patients with and without LSCC malformation. LSCC is a risk factor for the prognosis of SSNHL