Gelation behavior and mechanism of low methoxyl pectin in the presence of erythritol and sucrose: The role of co-solutes.

Co-solutes such as sucrose and sugar alcohol play a significant part in low methoxyl pectin (LMP) gelation. To explore their gelation mechanism, we investigated the gelation behavior of LMP in the presence of erythritol and sucrose with Ca. Results revealed that the introduction of erythritol and sucrose improved the hardness of the gels, fixed more free water, accelerated the rate of gel structuring, and enhanced the gel strength.

Effect of enzymatic de-esterification and RG-I degradation of high methoxyl pectin (HMP) on sugar-acid gel properties.

The influence of RG-I domains on high methoxyl pectin (HMP) sugar-acid gel properties has rarely been reported. In our work, HMP was modified by enzymatic de-esterification and degradation of RG-I domains to compare and analyze the relationship between the structure and final sugar-acid gel properties. The results showed that the degree of esterification (DE) of REP (pectin degraded by rhamnosidase) and GEP (pectin debranched by galactosidase) was the same as that of untreated HMP, whereas the DE of PMEP (pectin de-esterified by pectin methyl esterase) decreased from 59.

[Delivery of epididymis-specific mRNAs from mouse epididymosomes into N2a and TM4 cells].

Objective: To investigate whether mouse epididymis-specific mRNAs Adam7 and Crisp1 can be delivered into N2a and TM4 cells, and to provide an experimental basis for exploring the function of epididymal mRNAs.

Methods: Using RT-PCR, we detected the presence of epididymis-specific genes (Adam7, Crisp1, Defb22, Wfdc2, and Wfdc9) in the testis, epididymis, epididymosome and sperm of adult male BALB/c mice as well as in the human testis, seminal vesicles and sperm. We isolated epididymosomes of BALB/c mice by low-speed centrifugation, filtration and ultracentrifugation, fluorescently labeled them by PKH26, co-incubated them for 1 hour with the N2a and TM4 cells after 24 hours of starvation culture, and observed whether they were fused with the N2a and TM4 cells and ingested using the epididymosomes without PKH26 labeling, PKH26 dye without epididymosomes, and non- epididymosome or -PKH26 dye as controls.

Helicity-resolved Raman scattering of MoS bulk crystal.

Helicity-resolved Raman spectroscopy (HRRS) can effectively distinguish the Raman modes of two-dimensional (2D) layered materials by phonon symmetry. In this paper, we systematically investigated the phonon helicity selection of basal and edge planes of MoS bulk by HRRS. We find that the symmetry of the crystal structure changes the helicity selection of the E, E , and A modes in the edge plane.

Translation and validation of the Chinese version of the MD Anderson symptom inventory for measuring perioperative symptom burden in patients with gynecologic cancer.

Background: Gynecologic cancers are among the most prevalent malignancies in China. Cervical and uterine cancer respectively account for the sixth and eighth highest incidence of cancer among Chinese women. Abdominal surgery is one of the important treatment methods for gynecological tumors.

Novel approach reveals genomic landscapes of single-strand DNA breaks with nucleotide resolution in human cells.

Single-strand breaks (SSBs) represent the major form of DNA damage, yet techniques to map these lesions genome-wide with nucleotide-level precision are limited. Here, we present a method, termed SSiNGLe, and demonstrate its utility to explore the distribution and dynamic changes in genome-wide SSBs in response to different biological and environmental stimuli. We validate SSiNGLe using two very distinct sequencing techniques and apply it to derive global profiles of SSBs in different biological states.

USP11 regulates p53 stability by deubiquitinating p53.

The p53 tumor suppressor protein coordinates the cellular responses to a broad range of cellular stresses, leading to DNA repair, cell cycle arrest or apoptosis. The stability of p53 is essential for its tumor suppressor function, which is tightly controlled by ubiquitin-dependent degradation primarily through its negative regulator murine double minute 2 (Mdm2). To better understand the regulation of p53, we tested the interaction between p53 and USP11 using co-immunoprecipitation.

Development of an acellular tumor extracellular matrix as a three-dimensional scaffold for tumor engineering.

Tumor engineering is defined as the construction of three-dimensional (3D) tumors in vitro with tissue engineering approaches. The present 3D scaffolds for tumor engineering have several limitations in terms of structure and function. To get an ideal 3D scaffold for tumor culture, A549 human pulmonary adenocarcinoma cells were implanted into immunodeficient mice to establish xenotransplatation models.

[Detecting testis- and epididymis-specific methylated promoters in human cell-free seminal DNA by MeDIP-qPCR].

Objective: To establish a method of methyl-DNA immunoprecipitation (MeDIP)-real time quantitative PCR (qPCR) for detecting the promoter methylation level in cell-free seminal DNA (cfsDNA).

Methods: We obtained cfsDNA samples from 6 normozoospermia men (the NZ group) and 6 post-vasectomy patients (the PV group), and mixed the samples from different individuals of each group, respectively. Then we made DNA fragments by ultrasonication, separated the methylated DNA fragments by MeDIP, and determined the methylation level of the promoters in cfsDNA by qPCR.

The changing trends of HIV/AIDS in an ethnic minority region of China: modeling the epidemic in Liangshan prefecture, Sichuan Province.

Objective: This study was to investigate the HIV current situation in Liangshan prefecture, in order to predict prevalence and transmission trends.

Methods: Region-specific population, behavior, serosurveillence, and policy/program data (from 1995 to 2010) were gathered from various local and national organizations and applied to the Asian Epidemic Model (AEM) and used to derive estimates of future HIV prevalence, epidemic trends, and outcomes of intervention strategies.

Results: The AEM projections for 2020 included increased number of people living with HIV (PLHIV; to 136 617), increased HIV prevalence (2.

Casual sex and concurrent sexual partnerships among young people from an Yi community with a high prevalence of HIV in China.

Liangshan Prefecture in Sichuan province, China, has a high prevalence of HIV infection, which is reflective of a change in the mode of transmission from injection drug use (IDU) to heterosexual intercourse. However, few studies focus on HIV-related heterosexual risk behaviours among the majority Yi population. The objectives of this study were to explore the characteristics of an egocentric sexual network and estimate the prevalence of casual sexual behaviour.

Variation in protein intake induces variation in spider silk expression.

Background: It is energetically expensive to synthesize certain amino acids. The proteins (spidroins) of spider major ampullate (MA) silk, MaSp1 and MaSp2, differ in amino acid composition. Glutamine and proline are prevalent in MaSp2 and are expensive to synthesize.

[Genetic structure of wild Macrobrachium nipponense populations in Taihu Lake based on microsatellite analysis].

By using eight highly polymorphic microsatellite DNA loci, this paper analyzed the genetic structure of wild Macrobrachium nipponense populations in Taihu Lake. For the 15 M. nipponense populations in the Lake, there were at least three of the loci presenting heterozygosity deficiency and obvious deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium after Bonferroni correction.

New electrocatalysts for unitized regenerative fuel cell: Pt-Ir alloy deposited on the proton exchange membrane surface by impregnation-reduction method.

In this paper, a modified technique to prepare Pt-Ir catalyst layer on the proton exchange membrane (PEM) surface using the impregnation-reduction (IR) method is proposed to improve the electrocatalytic activity as well as the life cycle of the bifunctional oxygen electrode (BOE). The resulted electrocatalysts were characterized by the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Electron Probe Micro-Analysis (EPMA), and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). The electrocatalytic properties of the Pt-Ir layer on PEM surface for the oxygen reduction and water oxidation reactions as well as the life cycle of MEA were investigated.

Dynamics and evolution of the inverted repeat-large single copy junctions in the chloroplast genomes of monocots.

Background: Various expansions or contractions of inverted repeats (IRs) in chloroplast genomes led to fluxes in the IR-LSC (large single copy) junctions. Previous studies revealed that some monocot IRs contain a trnH-rps19 gene cluster, and it has been speculated that this may be an evidence of a duplication event prior to the divergence of monocot lineages. Therefore, we compared the organizations of genes flanking two IR-LSC junctions in 123 angiosperm representatives to uncover the evolutionary dynamics of IR-LSC junctions in basal angiosperms and monocots.