American dream or American obsession? The economic benefits and costs of homeownership

Homeownership, like baseball and hotdogs, is an integral part of the American culture. Over the past 70 years, the U.S. government has devoted significant public resources to encouraging and promoting homeownership. The recent financial crisis has prompted the government to spend even more on preserving homeownership, despite the fact that the financial crisis itself was led by the meltdown of the U.S. housing market. Now, an increasing number of academicians and media reporters are questioning the previously unquestionable: Has the American dream turned into an American obsession? In “American Dream or American Obsession? The Economic Benefits and Costs of Homeownership,” Wenli Li and Fang Yang analyze the economic benefits and costs associated with owning one’s residence. They re-examine a variety of rationales that have been put forward in support of homeownership and examine the evidence for an economic cost associated with homeownership.Home ownership

Consumption and time use over the life cycle

The authors incorporate home production in a dynamic general equilibrium model of consumption and saving with illiquid housing and a collateralized borrowing constraint. They show that the model is capable of explaining life-cycle patterns of households' time use and consumption of different categories. Specifically, households' market hours and home hours are fairly stable early in the life cycle. Market hours start to decline sharply at age 50, while home hours begin to increase at age 55. Households' consumption of the market good, home input, and housing services all exhibit hump shapes over the life cycle, with the market good having the most pronounced hump, followed by the home input, and then housing services. A plausibly parameterized version of the authors' model predicts that the interaction of the labor efficiency profile and the availability of home production technology explain households' time use over the life cycle. The resulting income profiles, the endogenous borrowing constraint and the presence of home production account for the initial hump in all three consumption goods. The consumption profiles in the second half of the life cycle are mostly driven by the complementarity of home hours, home input, and housing in home production.Consumption (Economics) ; Production (Economic theory)

Vasohibin-1 suppresses colon cancer

Vasohibin-1 (VASH1) is an endogenous angiogenesis inhibitor. However, the clinical relevance of VASH1 in colon cancer and its regulations on cancer angiogenesis and cancer cell biological characteristics are still unknown. Here we showed that stromal VASH1 levels were negatively correlated with tumor size, advanced clinical stage and distant metastases in colon cancer patients. Overexpression of VASH1 in colon cancer cells induced apoptosis and senescence, inhibiting cancer cell growth and colony formation in vitro and tumor growth in vivo. In addition, knockdown of VASH1 in cancer cells promoted cell growth, adhesion and migration in vitro, and enhanced tumorigenesis and metastasis in vivo

Comparative study of gait parameters of patients undergoing distal femoral resections with non-operated and healthy limbs: a meta-analysis study

IntroductionGait analysis is one of the most important components of functional outcome evaluation in patients with lower-extremity tumors. Disparities between operated limbs when compared with non-operated limbs and healthy populations based on gait parameters have rarely been studied. In the present study, we attempted to analyze the gait difference and its impacts on daily life.MethodsThe gait parameters of distal femoral tumor-resected patients were collected from PubMed, CNKI, MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane, and Google Scholar till September 30, 2022, by strictly following the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Differences between gait parameters in the operated and non-operated limbs or healthy limbs of distal femoral tumor patients were analyzed based on stance phase, swing phase, cadence, and velocity. The fixed-effects and random-effects models were used to conduct a meta-analysis.ResultsSix studies were included according to the selection criteria. There were 224 patients in total in these studies. Standard mean differences were calculated for all of our outcomes. Our results showed that there was a minimal difference in the standard mean difference of gait parameters between operated and non-operated limbs and healthy limbs.ConclusionDistal femoral tumor resections have been associated with deficient muscle function and strength and impaired gait parameters. Minimal differences in the gait parameters highlighted the advantage of distal femoral resection when replaced with a prosthesis

Analysis of sugar content in formula foods and complementary foods for infants and young children aged 0-36 months in China

ObjectiveTo investigate the implementation of the standards （formula foods and complementary foods for infants and young children）， the contents of glucose， galactose， fructose， lactose， sucrose and maltose in formula foods and complementary foods for infants aged 0-36 months， and provide data support for the management of food safety standards related to infant formula and infant complementary food in China.MethodsBased on the principle of random sampling， 83 formula food and complementary food for infants and young children， including infant formula foods， older infant formula foods， young children formula foods， cereal complementary foods and canned foods for infants and young children， were collected from the domestic market， the content of glucose， galactose， fructose， lactose， sucrose and maltose were determined by ion chromatography-pulse ampere method and the results were analyzed.ResultsThe median of total sugar content in formula foods for infants and young children was 433.43-476.99 g/kg； the proportion of lactose in all kinds of products was higher than 95%， and the content from high to low was infant formula， older infant formula and formula for young children. The detection rate of sugar in infant cereal supplementary food was 36.8%， the median content was 0-28.35 g/kg； the medians of lactose and sucrose were 84.30 and 70.17 g/kg； while the third quartile（Q3） of sucrose was 53.43 g/kg. There was no significant difference in the content of added sugar between domestic and imported formula foods（P>0.05）.ConclusionThe lactose content in formula foods for infants and young children sold in China is higher than that of other sugars. The content of total sugar in cereal supplementary food is low， but the content of sucrose in biscuit should be concerned. It is suggested that enterprises should strictly control added sugar， and government departments should continue to push the implementation of the sugar content regulation in the newly released national standards

Based on Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking to Discuss the Mechanism of Antitussive and Expectorant Action of Ruanerli

The antitussive and expectorant effects of Ruanerli and its mechanism were investigated by methods of network pharmacology. The outcomes predicted were verified by molecular docking and animal experiments. The components and targets of Ruanerli were obtained by literature investigation and TCMSP database screen. Mapping with two groups of genes related to "cough" and "sputum" from GeneCards database, the target genes of antitussive and expectorant effects of Ruanerli were obtained. GO and KEGG enrichment analysis of the target genes was performed by Metascape platform. The PPI network among the target genes was constructed through STRING data platform. Cytoscape plugin CytoHubba was used to screen the Top10 genes related to antitussive and expectorant effects of Ruanerli, and KEGG pathway enrichment was performed on the Top10 genes through Metascape data platform to predict the possible signal pathways involved in antitussive and expectorant effects of Ruanerli. Autodock Vina was used for molecular docking between the predicted Top10 gene proteins and the Top 3 active ingredients of Ruanerli. Finally, the predicted results were verified by ammonia induced cough test and phenol red excretion test. According to the analysis of multiple databases, 51 chemical components and 282 corresponding targets have been reported, eighty of them were related to the antitussive and expectorant effects of Ruanerli. The Top10 genes selected by Degree value were mainly concentrated in infection and immune-related pathways. Molecular docking test showed that the Top10 genes had strong binding activity with the Top3 chemical components (Caffeic acid, Rutin and Valeraldehyde) in PPI network. Animal experiments showed that the cough induced by ammonia was significantly inhibited when treated with Ruanerli in mice. The levels of IL-6 and IL-13 in serum were reduced and the excretion of phenol red in mice trachea was increased. PCR and WB detection showed that the mRNA levels and protein expressions of inflammatory genes IL6, IL1B, VEGFA, PTGS2 and MAPK3 were decreased, suggesting that the antitussive and expectorant effects of Ruanerli might be related to decreasing the expression of inflammatory genes and the release of inflammatory factors

Synthesis and Anticancer Activity Evaluation of Novel Phenanthridine Derivatives

Based on the structure of sanguinarine, fourteen phenanthridine derivatives were designed and synthesized in the current study. The cytotoxic activities of synthesized compounds were evaluated against five human cancer cell lines (MCF-7, PC3, Hela, A549, and HepG2 cell lines) via MTT assay. Among all the compounds tested, molecule 8a exhibited significant cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 cells with a IC50 value of 0.28 μM. A following up enzymatic assay indicated that compound 8a could inhibit the activity of DNA topoisomerase I/II. Further mechanistic studies performed in the MCF-7 cell line revealed that compound 8a could arrest cell cycle in S phase and induce cell apoptosis via downregulation of Bcl-2 and upregulation of Bax. Collectively, a potent DNA topoisomerase inhibitor (8a) was discovered, which exhibited potential as a candidate chemotherapeutic agent for the management of tumors in the present study

Genome-wide characterization of L-aspartate oxidase genes in wheat and their potential roles in the responses to wheat disease and abiotic stresses

L-aspartate oxidase (AO) is the first enzyme in NAD+ biosynthesis and is widely distributed in plants, animals, and microorganisms. Recently, AO family members have been reported in several plants, including Arabidopsis thaliana and Zea mays. Research on AO in these plants has revealed that AO plays important roles in plant growth, development, and biotic stresses; however, the nature and functions of AO proteins in wheat are still unclear. In this study, nine AO genes were identified in the wheat genome via sequence alignment and conserved protein domain analysis. These nine wheat AO genes (TaAOs) were distributed on chromosomes 2, 5, and 6 of sub-genomes A, B, and D. Analysis of the phylogenetic relationships, conserved motifs, and gene structure showed that the nine TaAOs were clustered into three groups, and the TaAOs in each group had similar conserved motifs and gene structure. Meanwhile, the subcellular localization analysis of transient expression mediated by Agrobacterium tumetioniens indicated that TaAO3-6D was localized to chloroplasts. Prediction of cis-elements indicated that a large number of cis-elements involved in responses to ABA, SA, and antioxidants/electrophiles, as well as photoregulatory responses, were found in TaAO promoters, which suggests that the expression of TaAOs may be regulated by these factors. Finally, transcriptome and real-time PCR analysis showed that the expression of TaAOs belonging to Group III was strongly induced in wheat infected by F. graminearum during anthesis, while the expression of TaAOs belonging to Group I was heavily suppressed. Additionally, the inducible expression of TaAOs belonging to Group III during anthesis in wheat spikelets infected by F. graminearum was repressed by ABA. Finally, expression of almost all TaAOs was induced by exposure to cold treatment. These results indicate that TaAOs may participate in the response of wheat to F. graminearum infection and cold stress, and ABA may play a negative role in this process. This study lays a foundation for further investigation of TaAO genes and provides novel insights into their biological functions