Diverse Aquatic Animal Matrices Play a Key Role in Survival and Potential Virulence of Non-O1/O139 <i>Vibrio cholerae</i> Isolates

Vibrio cholerae can cause pandemic cholera in humans. The waterborne bacterium is frequently isolated from aquatic products worldwide. However, current literature on the impact of aquatic product matrices on the survival and pathogenicity of cholerae is rare. In this study, the growth of eleven non-O1/0O139 V. cholerae isolates recovered from eight species of commonly consumed fish and shellfish was for the first time determined in the eight aquatic animal matrices, most of which highly increased the bacterial biomass when compared with routine trypsin soybean broth (TSB) medium. Secretomes of the V. cholerae isolates (draft genome size: 3,852,021–4,144,013 bp) were determined using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE-GE) and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) techniques. Comparative secretomic analyses revealed 74 differential extracellular proteins, including several virulence- and resistance-associated proteins secreted by the V. cholerae isolates when grown in the eight matrices. Meanwhile, a total of 8,119 intracellular proteins were identified, including 83 virulence- and 8 resistance-associated proteins, of which 61 virulence-associated proteins were absent from proteomes of these isolates when grown in the TSB medium. Additionally, comparative genomic and proteomic analyses also revealed several strain-specific proteins with unknown functions in the V. cholerae isolates. Taken, the results in this study demonstrate that distinct secretomes and proteomes induced by the aquatic animal matrices facilitate V. cholerae resistance in the edible aquatic animals and enhance the pathogenicity of the leading waterborne pathogen worldwide

Blind box over-engagement and suicide risk among adolescents and young adults: Results of a large-scale survey

Summary: Background: Gambling appears to be an independent risk factor for suicide among the young population worldwide. Blind boxes are collectable toys packed randomly in the box, which share certain similarities with gambling and are popular among the young population. This is the first study that examined the association between blind box engagement and suicide risk in the young population, the leading consumption group of blind boxes. Methods: This study is part of a large-scale, cross-sectional study using convenience sampling conducted Oct 26 to Nov 18, 2021, which covered all the university and college students in the Jilin province, China. A total of 73,206 participants completed the survey with valid data for the current study (male: N = 28,762; female: N = 44,444; Mean age = 19·59). Participants’ blind box engagement, suicide risk, depression, anxiety, alcohol use, smoking habit, and sociodemographic characteristics were assessed. First, we used univariate and multivariable binary logistic regression models to examine the relationship between blind box engagement and suicide risk in all participants. Second, we tested whether depression and anxiety would mediate the association between blind box engagement and suicide risk. Third, we analysed the association between “Frequency (i.e., frequency of blind box engagement),” “Bet (i.e., expenditure on the blind box that exceeds affordability),” “Tolerance (i.e., level of addiction),” “Borrowed (i.e., the amount of money borrowed for blind box engagement),” and suicide risk in the group with blind box engagement history. Findings: 4,195 participants (5·73%) have engaged in blind boxes, with 3,255 females (77·59%) and 940 males (22·41%). In the univariate models, binary logistic regression showed that blind box engagement was associated with suicide risk in both male and female participants (male: OR = 2·21, 95% CI = 1·86-2·63; female: OR = 1·64, 95% CI = 1·50-1·78). In the multivariable models, after controlling age, subjective socioeconomic status, per capita disposable income, alcohol use, and smoking habit, blind box engagement still was associated with suicide risk across genders (male: OR = 2·25, 95% CI = 1·89-2·68; female: OR = 1·58, 95% CI = 1·45-1·73). Depression (male: indirect effect = 0·31, SE = 0·04, p < 0·001; female: indirect effect = 0·20, SE = 0·02, p < 0·001) and anxiety (male: indirect effect = 0·26, SE = 0·03, p < 0·001; female: indirect effect = 0·13, SE = 0·02, p < 0·001) mediate the association between blind box engagement and suicide risk. Within the blind box engagement group, forward binary logistic regression revealed that “Tolerance” was associated with participants’ suicide risk in both males (p = 0·001) and females (p < 0·001); “Borrowed” (p = 0·019) alone was associated with the male participants’ suicide risk. Interpretation: Our findings showed that blind box over-engagement is positively associated with suicide risk in both young males and females, and this association persisted after adjusting for influencing factors. In spite of the limitations in this study (e.g., cross-sectional, convenience sampling), current findings can assist policymakers in developing regulations for such a prosperous youth-dominant consumption industry while protecting youth's mental health worldwide. Funding: None

Simultaneous Detection and Analysis of Free Amino Acids and Glutathione in Different Shrimp

An amino acid analyzer method for the simultaneous determination of 20 free amino acids (FAAs) and glutathione (GSH) in Penaeus vannamei (PV), Penaeus vannamei, Penaeus hidulis (PH) and Penaeus japonicus (PJ) were developed. The effects of different concentrations of trichloroacetic acid (TCA) and ethanol on the extraction of free amino acids were investigated, and 120 g&middot;L&minus;1 TCA was found to be ideal. The target analytes were eluted in sodium citrate buffer B1 (pH = 3.3) containing 135 mL&middot;L&minus;1 ethanol and 1 mol&middot;L&minus;1 sodium hydroxide (7 mL) and at the optimizing conversion time of sodium citrate buffer B2 (pH = 3.2) and sodium citrate buffer B3 (pH = 4.0) of 5.6 min, and the effective separation was achieved within 29.5 min. The developed method showed good linearity (R2 &ge; 0.9991) in the range of 1&ndash;250 &micro;g&middot;mL&minus;1 with good intra-day and inter-day precision (relative standard deviations &le; 2.38%) and spike recovery (86.42&ndash;103.64%). GSH and cysteine were used to identify marine prawn and freshwater shrimp. Hydroxyproline and serine were used to distinguish PV and Macrobrachium nipponense (MN) from others, respectively. The highest content of the total FAAs was found in PV, and principal component analysis revealed that PV had the highest comprehensive score for FAAs and GSH. Arginine was found to have the greatest influence on shrimp flavor

Associations between PTSD symptoms and other psychiatric symptoms among college students exposed to childhood sexual abuse: a network analysis

Background: Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is one of the prevalent forms of trauma experienced during childhood and adolescence. Previous research underscores its associations with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and psychosis. Objective: This study examined symptom connections between depression, anxiety, PTSD, and psychosis while simultaneously investigating whether these connections differed by gender among CSA survivors. Methods: A large-scale, cross-sectional study among 96,218 college students was conducted in China. Participants’ CSA was measured by the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF). Participants’ PTSD, psychosis, depression, and anxiety were measured by the Trauma Screening Questionnaire (TSQ), the Psychosis Screener (PS), the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), respectively. Network analysis was used to explore the potential associations between these symptoms and to compare the sex differences in the symptoms model. Results: Among participants who suffered from CSA, females were more likely from left-behind households, while males were more likely from households with a high annual income (P < .001, Cohen’s W = 0.07). In addition, compared to male victims, female victims were more likely to report depression, anxiety, and PTSD (P < .001, Cohen’s d≈0.2), while male victims were more likely to report psychosis (P < .001, Cohen’s d = 0.36). Results from network estimation showed that psychosis, depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms were positively correlated. Moreover, psychosis had a stronger connection with PTSD symptoms, including hypervigilance, intrusive thoughts, and physiological and emotional reactivity. Conclusions: The current study explores the associations between PTSD symptoms and psychiatric symptoms among college students exposed to CSA using a network analysis approach. These crucial symptoms of PTSD may have potential connections to psychosis. Target intervention and strategy should be developed to improve mental health and quality of life among these CSA victims. Furthermore, longitudinal studies are warranted to advance our understanding of PTSD and psychosis

Semantic-Aware Top-k Multirequest Optimal Route

In recent years, research on location-based services has received a lot of interest, in both industry and academic aspects, due to a wide range of potential applications. Among them, one of the active topic areas is the route planning on a point-of-interest (POI) network. We study the top-k optimal routes querying on large, general graphs where the edge weights may not satisfy the triangle inequality. The query strives to find the top-k optimal routes from a given source, which must visit a number of vertices with all the services that the user needs. Existing POI query methods mainly focus on the textual similarities and ignore the semantic understanding of keywords in spatial objects and queries. To address this problem, this paper studies the semantic similarity of POI keyword searching in the route. Another problem is that most of the previous studies consider that a POI belongs to a category, and they do not consider that a POI may provide various kinds of services even in the same category. So, we propose a novel top-k optimal route planning algorithm based on semantic perception (KOR-SP). In KOR-SP, we define a dominance relationship between two partially explored routes which leads to a smaller searching space and consider the semantic similarity of keywords and the number of single POI’s services. We use an efficient label indexing technique for the shortest path queries to further improve efficiency. Finally, we perform an extensive experimental evaluation on multiple real-world graphs to demonstrate that the proposed methods deliver excellent performance

Bioorthogonal microglia-inspired mesenchymal stem cell bioengineering system creates livable niches for enhancing ischemic stroke recovery via the hormesis

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) experience substantial viability issues in the stroke infarct region, limiting their therapeutic efficacy and clinical translation. High levels of deadly reactive oxygen radicals (ROS) and proinflammatory cytokines (PC) in the infarct milieu kill transplanted MSCs, whereas low levels of beneficial ROS and PC stimulate and improve engrafted MSCs' viability. Based on the intrinsic hormesis effects in cellular biology, we built a microglia-inspired MSC bioengineering system to transform detrimental high-level ROS and PC into vitality enhancers for strengthening MSC therapy. This system is achieved by bioorthogonally arming metabolic glycoengineered MSCs with microglial membrane-coated nanoparticles and an antioxidative extracellular protective layer. In this system, extracellular ROS-scavenging and PC-absorbing layers effectively buffer the deleterious effects and establish a micro-livable niche at the level of a single MSC for transplantation. Meanwhile, the infarct's inanimate milieu is transformed at the tissue level into a new living niche to facilitate healing. The engineered MSCs achieved viability five times higher than natural MSCs at seven days after transplantation and exhibited a superior therapeutic effect for stroke recovery up to 28 days. This vitality-augmented system demonstrates the potential to accelerate the clinical translation of MSC treatment and boost stroke recovery

Perioperative and long-term outcomes of liver resection for hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma without versus with hepatic inflow occlusion: study protocol for a prospective randomized controlled trial

Background: The high prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) imposes a huge burden of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in Asia. Surgical resection remains an important therapeutic strategy for HCC. Hepatic inflow occlusion, known as the Pringle maneuver, is the most commonly used method of reducing blood loss during liver parenchymal transection. A major issue with this maneuver is ischemia-reperfusion injury to the remnant liver, and the hemodynamic disturbance it induces in the tumor-bearing liver raises an oncological concern. Given the technical advances in living donor liver transplantation, vascular occlusion in liver resection can be avoided in experienced hands. The aim of this study is to compare the perioperative and long-term outcomes of liver resection for HBV-related HCC without versus with hepatic inflow occlusion. Methods/design This study will include eligible patients with HBV-related HCC elected for liver resection. Fifty-seven patients will be enrolled in each randomization arm to detect a 20 % difference in the serum level of total bilirubin on postoperative day 5 (80 % power and α = 0.05). The secondary endpoints include procedural parameters, perioperative liver function and inflammatory response, postoperative morbidity and mortality, and long-term outcomes. Patients will be followed for up to 5 years. Data will be statistically analyzed on an intention-to-treat basis. Discussion This prospective randomized controlled trial is designed to compare the perioperative and long-term outcomes of liver resection for HBV-related HCC without versus with vascular occlusion. The clinical implications of these outcomes may change current surgical practice and fill the oncological gaps therein. Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT02563158. Registered on 28 September 2015. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13063-016-1621-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users