Publications by authors named "Wei-Ling Sun"

Morel mushrooms (Morchella spp.) are highly regarded globally for their distinctive texture and savory flavor. In 2022, the cultivation area for morel mushrooms in China reached nearly 20,000 hectares, with predominant cultivars including M.

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School-choice policies are expected to generate healthy competition between schools, leading to improvements in school quality and better outcomes for students. However, the empirical literature testing this assumption yields mixed findings. This systematic review and meta-analysis tests this theory by synthesizing the empirical literature on the competitive effects of school choice on student achievement.

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Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is the most common type of hair loss dysfunction. Secreted frizzled related protein 1 (SFRP1) is found to be associated with hair loss, but its role in AGA and the regulation mechanism of its transcription level is unclear. The aim of our study is to explore the expression of SFRP1 in AGA samples and its transcriptional mechanism.

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Objective: To describe the clinical features of early-onset androgenetic alopecia (AGA) in a large cohort of Chinese patients.

Methods: This descriptive study recruited consecutive patients seeking medical treatment for AGA between 1 January 2013 and 30 November 2018. Patients were included in the study if they reported being ≤35 years old at AGA onset and if their pattern of hair loss was documented with photographs.

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A growing body of research examines the role of elite networks, power, and race in the advocacy for market-based reforms and their ultimate effects on students, teachers, and communities of color. Yet, less research explores how such reforms interact with gender in the workplace, especially how policies such as school choice, competition, and incentive-based pay impact female actors within K-12 schools (e.g.

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Background: The exposure of skin keratinocytes to Ultraviolet (UV) irradiation leads to Akt phosphorylation at Ser-473, which is important for the carcinogenic effects of excessive sun exposure. The present study investigated the underlying mechanism of Akt Ser-473 phosphorylation by UVB radiation.

Results: We found that DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs) and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) complex 2 (mTORC2) were both required for UVB-induced Akt Ser-473 phosphorylation in keratinocytes.

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Sediment quality criterion (SQC) is the concentrations of sediment-associated contaminants that are unlikely to be associated with sediment toxicity or other adverse effects on benthic invertebrates. Thus, the derivation of SQC is crucial to protect benthic invertebrates, and can serve as the tool for scientific sediment management. Sediment, interstitial water, and plant samples were collected at 43 sampling sites from the Xiangjiang River, and metal concentrations were determined.

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Microbial community structure and biomass in river water can reflect the situation of water quality in some extent. Nitrogen removal was mainly achieved by the nitrification and denitrification processes, and ammonia oxidation catalyzed by ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) is the first and rate-limiting step of nitrification. To explore the AOB community structure and biomass in nitrogen polluted river, water samples were collected from Buji River (Shenzhen) in wet season.

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We demonstrate here that a relative low dose of perifosine significantly enhanced UVB-induced apoptosis in skin cells (keratinocytes and fibroblasts), associated with a significant increase of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and ceramide production as well as multiple perturbations of diverse cell signaling pathways, shifting to a significant pro-apoptosis outcomes. Perifosine inhibited UVB-induced pro-survival Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and ERK activation, while facilitating pro-apoptotic AMP-activated protein kinas (AMPK), c-Jun-NH(2)-kinase (JNK), and p53 activation; these signaling changes together promoted a striking increase in skin cell apoptosis and a significantly reduced amount of DNA damages. Our results suggest that perifosine may represent a novel skin cancer prevention strategy.

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The aim of the current study is to investigate the effect of ceramides on genistein-induced anti-melanoma effects in vitro. We found that exogenously added cell-permeable short-chain ceramides (C6) dramatically enhanced genistein-induced growth inhibition and apoptosis in cultured melanoma cells. Genistein treatment only induced a moderate intracellular ceramides accumulation in B16 melanoma cells.

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The heavy metal (Pb, Zn, Cr, Cu, Cd, and Hg) concentrations in the A horizon and C horizon soils, collected around the Pb/Zn mining and smelting area of Shuikoushan in Hunan, China, were investigated, and the Pb isotopic compositions were also determined to identify the potential origin of Pb in the A horizon soil. Compared with C horizon soils, the A horizon soils exhibit elevated heavy metal concentrations, especially in the vicinity of the mining and smelting area. This reveals that the surface soil was contaminated to some degree.

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The study was aimed to explore the effects of T-bet (T-box expressed in T cell), GATA-3(GATA binding protein 3) and relevant signal transduction pathways on the immune-related pathogenesis of chronic aplastic anemia (CAA), and to investigate the immunological regulation mechanism in the treatment of CAA by using cyclosporine A (CsA) at the level of Th cell imbalance, transcriptional factors, and relevant signal pathways. The real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (real-time FQ-PCR) was used to determine the mRNA expression of T-bet, GATA-3, signal transducers and activators of transcription 4 (STAT4) and signal transducers and activators of transcription 6 (STAT6) in peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMNC) of CAA patients before and after treatment with CsA; the flow cytometry (FCM) and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were used to determine the Th1/Th2 proportion in peripheral blood, and levels of IFN-γ, IL-12 and IL-4 in PBMNC-cultured supernatant. Healthy people were included to test the above indexes.

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Bottom ash, a power plant waste, was used to remove the organic pollutants in coking wastewater and papermaking wastewater. Particular attention was paid on the effect of bottom ash particle size and dosage on the removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD). UV-vis spectra, fluorescence excitation-emission matrix (FEEM) spectra, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra, and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) photographs were investigated to characterize the wastewaters and bottom ash.

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The concentrations of total organic carbon (TOC) and the NaOH extracted humic substances were analyzed in three size fractions (I : 100 - 300 microm, II : 63 - 100 microm and III : < 63 microm) of sediments sampled in the middle Yellow River. Moreover, UV-visible absorption spectra, fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR) and three-dimensional excitation emission matrix fluorescence spectra (3DEEM) were used to characterize the chemical structures of the NaOH extracted humic substances in three sediment size fractions. The results show that sediment organic matter in all the size fractions of the collected sediments is dominated by humic substances absorbed on the clay minerals.

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Objective: To explore the effects of antisense epidermal growth factor receptor (EGF-R) oligodeoxynucleotides on ultraviolet-induced c-jun activity of keratinocytes after EGF-R oligodeoxynucleotides transfect to HaCaT in vitro.

Methods: c-jun DNA binding activity after ultraviolet-B (UVB) irradiation and EGF-R oligodeoxynucleotides transfection were determined with a highly sensitive and specific colorimetric method. After EGF-R oligodeoxynucleotides transfection, the mRNA level of EGF-R was detected by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction method.

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