Two new species of Yunnanomonticola Telnov (Coleoptera, Anthicidae) from China

Two new species of the genus Yunnanomonticola Telnov, 2002 are described based on the specimens collected in China. Yunnanomonticola latissima sp. n. is collected from Yunnan and Y. tenuipenis sp. n. is from Guizhou. Photographes of the new species are provided, with a key to the three species of Yunnanomonticola

Physics-informed Deep Super-resolution for Spatiotemporal Data

High-fidelity simulation of complex physical systems is exorbitantly expensive and inaccessible across spatiotemporal scales. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in leveraging deep learning to augment scientific data based on the coarse-grained simulations, which is of cheap computational expense and retains satisfactory solution accuracy. However, the major existing work focuses on data-driven approaches which rely on rich training datasets and lack sufficient physical constraints. To this end, we propose a novel and efficient spatiotemporal super-resolution framework via physics-informed learning, inspired by the independence between temporal and spatial derivatives in partial differential equations (PDEs). The general principle is to leverage the temporal interpolation for flow estimation, and then introduce convolutional-recurrent neural networks for learning temporal refinement. Furthermore, we employ the stacked residual blocks with wide activation and sub-pixel layers with pixelshuffle for spatial reconstruction, where feature extraction is conducted in a low-resolution latent space. Moreover, we consider hard imposition of boundary conditions in the network to improve reconstruction accuracy. Results demonstrate the superior effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method compared with baseline algorithms through extensive numerical experiments

Penicillamine Increases Free Copper and Enhances Oxidative Stress in the Brain of Toxic Milk Mice

Wilson disease (WD) is characterized by the accumulation of copper arising from a mutation in the ATP7B gene. Penicillamine (PA) makes 10–50% of the patients with neurologic symptoms neurologically worse at the early stage of administration. The aim of this study was to determine how the copper metabolism changes and whether the change impairs the brain of toxic milk (tx) mice, an animal model of WD, during the PA administration. The free copper and protein-bound copper concentrations in the serum, cortex and basal ganglia of tx mice with PA administration for 3 days, 10 days and 14 days, respectively, were investigated. The expression of copper transporters, ATP7A and CTR1,was analyzed by real-time quantitative PCR, immunofluorescence and Western blot. Then SOD, MDA and GSH/GSSG were detected to determine whether the oxidative stress changed correspondingly. The results revealed the elevated free copper concentrations in the serum and brain, and declined protein-bound copper concentrations in the brain of tx mice during PA administration. Meanwhile, transiently increased expression of ATP7A and CTR1 was observed generally in the brain parenchyma by immunofluorescence, real-time quantitative PCR and Western blot. Additionally, ATP7A and CTR1 were observed to locate mainly at Golgi apparatus and cellular membrane respectively. Intense staining of ATP7A in the choroid plexus was found in tx mice on the 3rd and 10th day of PA treatment, but rare staining of ATP7A and CTR1 in the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Decreased GSH/GSSG and increased MDA concentrations were also viewed in the cortex and basal ganglia. Our results suggested the elevated free copper concentrations in the brain might lead to the enhanced oxidative stress during PA administration. The increased free copper in the brain might come from the copper mobilized from brain parenchyma cells but not from the serum according to the ATP7A and CTR1 expression analysis

Quantitative detection of cytokeratin 20 mRNA in urine samples as diagnostic tools for bladder cancer by real-time PCR

Aim: To determine and compare cytokeratin 20 (CK20) mRNA expression in urine of patients with transitional cell carcinomas of bladder (TCCB), urological benign diseases, and healthy volunteers. Methods: Taqman probe was designed according to the sequence of CK20 cloned gene. The quantitative PCR reaction system was optimized and evaluated. The CK20 mRNA level was screened by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in 95 urine samples and analyzed according to the following parameters: urinary cytology, nuclear matrix protein 22 (NMP22) expression, tumor stage and grade. Results: For 60 TCCB patients urinary cytology was positive in 28 (46.7%), control group had no false-positive results (specificity 100%). CK20 expression was positive in RT-PCR of 51 cases (85%) of TCCB, but control group was positive in 2 cases (specificity 94.3%) with a cutoff value of crossover point (CT) = 30. Two methods have significant variation in sensitivity (p < 0.001), NMP22 expression was positive in 47 cases (78.3%), but control group was positive in 9 cases (specificity 85%). In the simultaneous evaluation of CK20 and NMP22 mRNA expression, there were 54 positive cases (90%). CK20 mRNA values in TCCB group (mean 27712.57 copies/µl) were significantly higher than in non-cancer disease urological group (mean 74.45 copies/µl) and control group (mean 8.47 copies/µl) (p < 0.001, p < 0.001, respectively). CK20 mRNA values increased gradually with higher tumor grade and stage: G1 differs significantly from G2 (p = 0.016); Tis/Ta differs significantly from T1–2 (p = 0.022). Conclusion: Our results indicate that CK20 mRNA expression could be regarded as a potential marker for TCCB. We demonstrated correlation between CK20 expression and the clinicopathologic features of TCCB (tumor stage and grade); simultaneous use of CK20 and NMP22 markers will elevate the sensitivity of the method. CK20 RT-PCR is a sensitive, quantitative, rapid and specific method to detect free cancer cells in the urine, and could be recommended for be wide application in the diagnostics of TCCB and evaluation of therapeutic effect

Latest Cosmological Constraints on Cardassian expansion models including the updated Gamma-ray bursts

In this paper, we constrain the Cardassian expansion models from the latest observations including the updated Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), which calibrated cosmology-independently from the Union2 compilation of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). By combining the GRB data to the joint observations with the Union2 SNe Ia set, along with the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation observation from the seven-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe result, the baryonic acoustic oscillation observation from the spectroscopic Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release galaxy sample, we find significant constraints on model parameters of the original Cardassian model $\Omega_{{\rm M0}}=0.282_{-0.014}^{+0.015}$, $n= 0.03_{-0.05}^{+0.05}$; and $n= -0.16_{-3.26}^{+0.25}$, $\beta=0.76_{-0.58}^{+0.34}$ of the modified polytropic Cardassian model, which are consistent with the $\Lambda$CDM model in 1-$\sigma$ confidence region. From the reconstruction of the deceleration parameter $q(z)$ in Cardassian models, we obtain the transition redshift $z_{\rm T}=0.73\pm{0.04}$ for the original Cardassian model, and $z_{\rm\rm T}=0.68\pm{0.04}$ for the modified polytropic Cardassian model.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in Res. Astron. Astrophy

Distinct time trends in colorectal cancer incidence in countries with SDI levels from 1990 to 2019: an age–period–cohort analysis for the Global Burden of Disease 2019 study

IntroductionThe burden of colorectal cancer (CRC) plays a pivotal role in the global cancer epidemic. Our study reported the incidence trends in CRC and the associated effects of age, period, and birth cohort in 204 countries and territories over the past 30 years.MethodsThe incidence data of CRC were extracted from the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2019. We performed the age–period–cohort (APC) model to estimate the overall annual percentage change (net drift) in the incidence rate, the annual percentage change by age group (local drift), and the relative risk (period and cohort effects) of the period and cohort in CRC during 1990–2019. This approach allows examining and distinguishing age, period, and cohort effects in incidence and potentially distinguishing colorectal cancer gaps in prevention and screening.ResultsIn 2019, the incidence of CRC was 2.17 (95% UI 2.00–2.34) million, of which China, the United States of America, and Japan had the highest incidence population, accounting for 45.9% of the global population. The age–standardized incidence rate (ASIR) was 26.7 (95% UI 28.9–24.6) per 100,000 people, of which 30 countries had an incidence rate greater than 40.0 per 100,000 people. From 1990 to 2019, the middle SDI region had the largest increase in incidence rate, with a net drift of 2.33% (95% CI 2.2–2.46%, p &lt; 0.001). Globally, the incidence population was concentrated in the age group of 50–69 years, and the age group of 30–34 years had the largest increase in incidence rate (local drift 1.19% (95% CI 1.01–1.37%)). At the same time, the sex and age distributions of CRC incidence had significant heterogeneity across regions and countries. In the past 30 years, the incidence rate in 31 countries has been well controlled (net drift &lt;0), and most of them were concentrated in high–and high–middle–SDI regions, such as Australia, Czechia, and Belgium, and the relative risk of incidence generally improved over time and consecutive young birth cohorts. CRC incidence showed an unfavorable trend (net drift ≥1%) in 89 countries, of which 27 countries were more significant (net drift &gt;2%), mostly concentrated in the middle SDI region, such as China, Mexico, and Brazil, and the risk of period and birth cohort was unfavorable.ConclusionGlobally, the incidence of CRC has shown an overall upward trend over the past 30 years, with the exception of some countries with higher SDI values. Significant age–period–cohort differences were observed in the risk of incidence in CRC worldwide. Effective prevention and control policies need to take into account the age–period–cohort effect characteristics of different regions

Chemical profiling of Sanjin tablets and exploration of their effective substances and mechanism in the treatment of urinary tract infections

Introduction: Sanjin tablets (SJT) are a well-known Chinese patent drug that have been used to treat urinary tract infections (UTIs) for the last 40 years. The drug consists of five herbs, but only 32 compounds have been identified, which hinders the clarification of its effective substances and mechanism.Methods: The chemical constituents of SJT and their effective substances and functional mechanism involved in the treatment of UTIs were investigated by using high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-ion trap-time of flight-mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-IT-TOF-MSn), network pharmacology, and molecular docking.Results: A total of 196 compounds of SJT (SJT-MS) were identified, and 44 of them were unequivocally identified by comparison with the reference compounds. Among 196 compounds, 13 were potential new compounds and 183 were known compounds. Among the 183 known compounds, 169 were newly discovered constituents of SJT, and 93 compounds were not reported in the five constituent herbs. Through the network pharmacology method, 119 targets related to UTIs of 183 known compounds were predicted, and 20 core targets were screened out. Based on the “compound–target” relationship analysis, 94 compounds were found to act on the 20 core targets and were therefore regarded as potential effective compounds. According to the literature, 27 of the 183 known compounds were found to possess antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities and were verified as effective substances, of which 20 were first discovered in SJT. Twelve of the 27 effective substances overlapped with the 94 potential effective compounds and were determined as key effective substances of SJT. The molecular docking results showed that the 12 key effective substances and 10 selected targets of the core targets have good affinity for each other.Discussion: These results provide a solid foundation for understanding the effective substances and mechanism of SJT