Digital economy to promote the transformation and upgrading of international trade strategy research

With the rapid development of social economy, a variety of advanced technologies and equipment have emerged, which ushered in the era of digital economy, and then promote the upgrade and transformation of international trade, the development goal is in line with the inherent requirements of the current international economic environment. In the context of digital economy, can further promote the international trade subject diversifi cation, diversifi cation of trade products, trade cost structure of the depth of development, it can be seen that the need to continue to invest manpower, material resources and funds to promote the eff ective integration of digital economy and international trade, and ultimately help the upgrade and transformation of international trade. How to further promote the transformation and upgrading of international trade with the help of the development of digital economy is an important issue for current researchers to solve. This paper will launch an in-depth exploration around this issue, so as to comprehensively promote the high-quality development of international trade

Highly Sensitive Detection and Differentiation of Endotoxins Derived from Bacterial Pathogens by Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering.

Bacterial endotoxins, as major components of Gram-negative bacterial outer membrane leaflets and a well-characterized TLR4-MD-2 ligand, are lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) that are constantly shed from bacteria during growth and infection. For the first time, we report that unique surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra of enteric LPSs from , , , , species . CE3, and . NGR, as well as endotoxin structures, LPSs, lipid A, and KDO2-lipid A can be obtained. The characteristic peaks of the SERS spectra reveal that most of the tested LPS structures are from lipids and saccharides, i.e., the major components of LPSs, and these spectra can be successfully used to differentiate between endotoxins with principal components analysis. In addition, all the LPS samples here are measured at a concentration of 10 nmole/mL, which corresponds to their relevant pathophysiological concentrations in clinical infections. This study demonstrates that LPSs can be used as biomarkers for the highly sensitive detection of bacteria using SERS-based methods.R21-AI096364/NH/NIH HHS/United States NPRP12S-0224-190144/Qatar National Research Fund CBET-1064228/National Science Foundatio

Rapid detection of bacterial infections using nanotechnology-based point-of-care sensor with Raman spectroscopy

Background: Mass gathering is a risk factor for infectious diseases transmission. Therefore, rapid detection of infections is highly desirable. The current gold standard approach to detect bacterial infections in clinical samples (biological fluids) requires three days of bacterial culture to obtain the diagnosis and antibiotic sensitivity results1. This approach, although very accurate results in considerable delay in initiating proper treatment which increases the transmission of infection, mainly hospital-acquired infections. Therefore, rapid detection of infection would lead to rapid clinical interventions, which mitigate the spread of infection and support antibiotic stewardship consequently reducing the burden of hospital-acquired infections. The goal of this research is to develop a highly innovative sensor (point-of-care device) for rapid detection of bacterial infections in biological fluids. This project will also focus on identifying unique SERS spectra of bacterial infections commonly associated with mass gathering and early detection of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Methods: The proposed biosensor is a culture-free diagnostic method utilizing nanotechnology-based fabricated silver nanorod arrays (AgNR) as a substrate for the Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy. Results: We reported the proof-of-concept study using this novel SERS-based diagnostic where we showed that rapid detection of bacterial biomarkers in sputum and exhaled breath condensates (EBC) from patients with cystic fibrosis2,3. We further identified unique SERS spectra of various bacterial siderophores and small molecule metabolites. Conclusion: This method is highly sensitive, fast, cheap, and can be implemented at the bedside using a portable (hand-held) Raman spectroscope.qscienc

The compensation incentive effect of athletes: A structural equation model

This study explores the compensation incentive effect of athletes. Based on the related literature, we proposed theoretical hypotheses on the compensation incentive effect and established an assessment index system of the compensation incentive effect for athletes. A structural equation model was used to test the survey data of 352 athletes in six provinces to discover the truth of the compensation incentive effect. The results suggested that direct economic compensation satisfaction, direct non-economic compensation satisfaction, and indirect non-economic compensation satisfaction had significant positive effects on the compensation incentive effect of athletes, while indirect economic compensation satisfaction showed no significant effect. Moreover, the evaluation results of athletes’ compensation incentive effect showed that direct economic compensation satisfaction contributed the most to the influence factor of the compensation incentive effect. Therefore, the evaluation of athletes’ compensation incentive effect should focus on variables of direct economic compensation satisfaction, i.e., basic compensation satisfaction, bonus income satisfaction, and subsidy satisfaction. Finally, some strategies and recommendations were suggested to improve the compensation design for athletes

Effect of sugar transporter on galactose utilization in Streptococcus thermophilus

IntroductionStreptococcus thermophilus is a traditional starter for dairy products. The lactose rich in milk is the main carbon source for the growth of S. thermophilus. However, the utilization of galactose by S. thermophilus is strain-specific, and many genetic factors can affect the sugar utilization phenotype of S. thermophilus strains.MethodsIn this study, S. thermophilus A25, which is capable of utilizing lactose and galactose, was used as the starting strain to construct lactose permease-deficient mutant S. thermophilus ΔlacS. Subsequently, the complement vectors expressing complete lactose permease of S. thermophilus and its N-terminal 1–486 amino acid residues were constructed and transformed into S. thermophilus ΔlacS, respectively. Meanwhile, complement vectors expressing lactose permease and galactose/proton symporter of Escherichia coli were also constructed.Results and DiscussionResults showed that S. thermophilus ΔlacS lost the ability to utilize lactose and galactose. By measuring the growth of the recombinant strains, it was found that the strain expressing complete lactose permease of S. thermophilus recovered the growth ability in lactose and galactose medium, while the strain expressing N-terminal of lactose permease recovered the growth ability only in lactose medium. Furthermore, the transformation of S. thermophilus ΔlacS was not successful with the complement vector expressing E. coli lactose permease, while the strain expressing E. coli galactose/proton symporter could recover its growth ability in the galactose medium. These results suggest that the properties of sugar transporters play an important role in galactose utilization by S. thermophilus

Thermal Stability of Neodymium Aluminates High- κ

Thin films of neodymium aluminate (NdAlOx) have been deposited by liquid injection metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) using the bimetallic alkoxide precursor [NdAl(OPri)6(PriOH)]2. The effects of high-temperature postdeposition annealing on NdAlOx thin films are reported. The as-deposited thin films are amorphous in nature. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and medium energy ion scattering (MEIS) show, respectively, no crystallization or interdiffusion of metal ions into the substrate after annealing at 950°C. The capacitance-voltage (C-V) and current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the thin films exhibited good electrical integrity following annealing. The dielectric permittivity (κ) of the annealed NdAlOx was 12, and a density of interface states at flatband (Dit) of 4.01×1011  cm−2 eV−1 was measured. The deposited NdAlOx thin films are shown to be able to endure high-temperature stress and capable of maintaining excellent dielectric properties

Differentiation and classification of bacterial endotoxins based on surface enhanced Raman scattering and advanced machine learning

Bacterial endotoxin, a major component of the Gram-negative bacterial outer membrane leaflet, is a lipopolysaccharide shed from bacteria during their growth and infection and can be utilized as a biomarker for bacterial detection. Here, the surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra of eleven bacterial endotoxins with an average detection amount of 8.75 pg per measurement have been obtained based on silver nanorod array substrates, and the characteristic SERS peaks have been identified. With appropriate spectral pre-processing procedures, different classical machine learning algorithms, including support vector machine, k-nearest neighbor, random forest, etc., and a modified deep learning algorithm, RamanNet, have been applied to differentiate and classify these endotoxins. It has been found that most conventional machine learning algorithms can attain a differentiation accuracy of >99%, while RamanNet can achieve 100% accuracy. Such an approach has the potential for precise classification of endotoxins and could be used for rapid medical diagnoses and therapeutic decisions for pathogenic infections

Reactive Oxygen Species Released from Hypoxic Hepatocytes Regulates MMP-2 Expression in Hepatic Stellate Cells

Hypoxia is a common environmental stress factor and is associated with fibrogenesis. Matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2), produced by hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), plays an important role in liver fibrogenesis. However, inconsistent results have been reported on the impact of hypoxia on MMP-2 expression and activity in HSCs. We speculated that cell–cell interaction is involved in the regulation of MMP-2 expression and activity at low oxygen level in vivo. Therefore, in this report we investigated the mechanism by which hypoxic hepatocytes regulates MMP-2 expression in HSCs. Our results showed that the conditioned medium from hypoxia-treated rat hepatocytes strongly induced the expression of MMP-2 mRNA and protein in rat HSC-T6 cells. Reduced glutathione neutralized ROS released from hypoxic hepatocytes, leading to reduced MMP-2 expression in HSC-T6 cells. In addition, phospho-IκB-α protein level was increased in HSC-T6 cells treated with hypoxia conditioned medium, and NF-κB signaling inhibitor inhibited MMP-2 expression in HSC-T6 cells. Taken together, our data suggest that ROS is an important factor released by hypoxic hepatocytes to regulate MMP-2 expression in HSCs, and NF-κB signaling is crucially involved in ROS-induced MMP-2 expression in HSCs. Our findings suggest that strategies aimed at antagonizing the generation of ROS in hypoxic hepatocytes and inhibiting NF-κB signaling in HSCs may represent novel therapeutic options for liver fibrosis

Association of the Synapse-Associated Protein 97 (SAP97) Gene Polymorphism With Neurocognitive Function in Schizophrenic Patients

The SAP97 gene is located in the schizophrenia susceptibility locus 3q29, and it encodes the synaptic scaffolding protein that interacts with the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, which is presumed to be dysregulated in schizophrenia. In this study, we genotyped a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) (rs3915512) in the SAP97 gene in 1114 patients with schizophrenia and 1036 healthy-matched controls in a Han Chinese population through the improved multiplex ligation detection reaction (imLDR) technique. Then, we analyzed the association between this SNP and the patients' clinical symptoms and neurocognitive function. Our results showed that there were no significant differences in the genotype and allele frequencies between the patients and the controls for the rs3915512 polymorphism. However, patients with the rs3915512 polymorphism TT genotype had higher neurocognitive function scores (list learning scores, symbol coding scores, category instances scores and controlled oral word association test scores) than the subjects with the A allele (P = 4.72 × 10−5, 0.027, 0.027, 0.013, respectively). Our data are the first to suggest that the SAP97 rs3915512 polymorphism may affect neurocognitive function in patients with schizophrenia

Schizophrenia plausible protective effect of microRNA-137 is potentially related to estrogen and prolactin in female patients

BackgroundSchizophrenia (SCZ) is a serious chronic mental disorder. Our previous case–control genetic association study has shown that microRNA-137 (miR-137) may only protect females against SCZ. Since estrogen, an important female sex hormone, exerts neuroprotective effects, the relationship between estrogen and miR-137 in the pathophysiology of SCZ was further studied in this study.MethodsGenotyping of single-nucleotide polymorphism rs1625579 of miR-137 gene in 1,004 SCZ patients and 896 healthy controls was conducted using the iMLDR assay. The effect of estradiol (E2) on the miR-137 expression was evaluated on the human mammary adenocarcinoma cell line (MCF-7) and the mouse hippocampal neuron cell line (HT22). The relationships between serum E2, prolactin (PRL), and peripheral blood miR-137 were investigated in 41 SCZ patients and 43 healthy controls. The miR-137 and other reference miRNAs were detected by real-time fluorescent quantitative reverse transcription-PCR.ResultsBased on the well-known SNP rs1625579, the distributions of protective genotypes and alleles of the miR-137 gene were not different between patients and healthy controls but were marginally significantly lower in female patients. E2 upregulated the expression of miR-137 to 2.83 and 1.81 times in MCF-7 and HT22 cells, respectively. Both serum E2 and blood miR-137 were significantly decreased or downregulated in SCZ patients, but they lacked expected positive correlations with each other in both patients and controls. When stratified by sex, blood miR-137 was negatively correlated with serum E2 in female patients. On the other hand, serum PRL was significantly increased in SCZ patients, and the female patients had the highest serum PRL level and a negative correlation between serum PRL and blood miR-137.ConclusionThe plausible SCZ-protective effect of miR-137 may be female specific, of which the underlying mechanism may be that E2 upregulates the expression of miR-137. This protective mechanism may also be abrogated by elevated PRL in female patients. These preliminary findings suggest a new genetic/environmental interaction mechanism for E2/miR-137 to protect normal females against SCZ and a novel E2/PRL/miR-137-related pathophysiology of female SCZ, implying some new antipsychotic ways for female patients in future