Nutritional Deficiencies,the Absence of Information and Caregiver Shortcomings: A Qualitative Analysis of Infant Feeding Practices in Rural China

MethodologyWe interviewed sixty caregivers participating in a large survey on child health and nutrition. We conducted three waves of interviews with children’s primary caregivers in seventeen rural villages within four nationally-designated poverty counties in the southern part of Shaanxi Province.ResultsThe qualitative analysis reveals that poor complementary feeding practices are common across our sample. Information gathered from our interviews suggests that complementary feeding practices are impeded by two constraints: absence of understanding topics related to infant health and nutrition under caregivers, as well as inadequate sources of information on these topics. Poverty does not appear to constrain child feeding practices.ConclusionOur results uncover lack of proper knowledge on infant and child nutrition among rural caregivers in China. This situation causes them to fail incorporating micronutrient rich foods in their children''s diet. Age-appropriate complementary feeding can stimulate children’s physical and cognitive development, but in its absence it leads to iron-deficiency anemia. We suggest that steps be taken to educate caregivers to improve complementary feeding of their infants and children.     

Heterologous expression of oxytetracycline biosynthetic gene cluster in Streptomyces venezuelae WVR2006 to improve production level and to alter fermentation process

Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology - Heterologous expression is an important strategy to activate biosynthetic gene clusters of secondary metabolites. Here, it is employed to activate and...     

MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF AUTOPHAGY‐RELATED GENE 5 FROM Spodoptera exigua AND EXPRESSION ANALYSIS UNDER VARIOUS STRESS CONDITIONS

Autophagy is not only involved in development, but also has been proved to attend immune response against invading pathogens. Autophagy protein 5 (ATG5) is an important autophagic protein, which plays a crucial role in autophagosome elongation. Although ATG5 has been well studied in mammal, yeast, and Drosophila, little is known about ATG5 in lepidopteran insects. We cloned putative SeAtg5 gene from Spodoptera exigua larvae by the rapid amplification of cDNA ends method, and its characteristics and the influences of multiple exogenous factors on its expression levels were then investigated. The results showed that the putative S. exigua SeATG5 protein is highly homologous to other insect ATG5 proteins, which has a conserved Pfm domain and multiple phosphorylation sites. Next, fluorescence microscope observation showed that mCherry‐SeATG5 was distributed in both nucleus and cytoplasm of Spodoptera litura Sl‐HP cells and partially co‐localized with BmATG6‐GFP, but it almost has no significant co‐localization with GFP‐HaATG8. Then, the Western blot analysis demonstrated that GFP‐SeATG5 conjugated with ATG12. Moreover, real‐time PCR revealed that its expression levels significantly increased at the initiation of pupation and the stage of adult. In addition, the expression levels of SeAtg5 can be enhanced by the starvation, UV radiation, and infection of baculovirus and bacterium. However, the expression levels of SeAtg5 decreased at 24 h post treatments in all these treatments except in starvation. These results suggested that SeATG5 might be involved in response of S. exigua under various stress conditions.     

超声联合钼靶X线对直径小于1 cm的乳腺癌诊断价值分析

目的:探讨超声联合钼靶X线对直径小于1 cm的乳腺癌诊断价值。方法:选择我院2012年1月至2017年12月收治的66例乳腺疾病患者,所有患者术前均经钼靶X线及彩色多普勒超声检查,分析其病理结果,分析钼靶X线、彩色多普勒超声及二者联合对乳腺肿块的检查结果(边缘毛刺征、血管、淋巴结、微小钙化),比较其对乳腺癌的灵敏度、特异度、准确度、阳性预测值及阴性预测值。结果:66例患者中,经病理检查发现恶性肿瘤34例,良性肿瘤32例。与病理检测相比,彩色多普勒超声联合钼靶X线对乳腺肿块的良恶性检出率无差异性(P0.05),而彩色多普勒超声,钼靶X线的良恶性检出率均显著降低(P0.05)。彩色多普勒超声与钼靶X线良恶性检出率对比无差异(P0.05),但均低于彩色多普勒超声联合钼靶X线的检出率(P0.05)。彩色多普勒超声与钼靶X线对乳腺癌的边缘毛刺征的检出率对比无统计学意义(P0.05);彩色多普勒超声对血管和淋巴结的检出率明显高于钼靶X线,而微小钙化的检出率明显低于钼靶X线,对比差异有统计学意义(P0.05)。彩色多普勒超声联合钼靶X线的灵敏度、特异度、准确度、阳性预测值及阴性预测值均明显高于彩色多普勒超声及钼靶X线(P0.05),钼靶X线及彩色多普勒超声间对比无统计学意义(P0.05)。结论:彩色多普勒超声与钼靶X线对直径小于1 cm乳腺癌的诊断各有优势,二者联合应用的诊断价值优于单一诊断方法。     

Monitoring the microbial community succession and diversity of Liangzhou fumigated vinegar during solid-state fermentation with next-generation sequencing

This study reveals the microbial community succession and diversity during the whole solid-fermentation processes of naturally fermented Liangzhou fumigated vinegar (LZFV). Dynamics and diversity of microbial community succession in “Daqu” starter and other fermentation stages (starch saccharification, alcoholic fermentation, and acetic acid fermentation) were monitored using a metagenomic approach involving high-throughput sequencing. Meanwhile, dynamic changes of characteristic flavor compounds of vinegar were determined by gas chromatograph (GC) analysis. The result showed that the microbiota composition exhibited rich diversity. Twenty-five bacterial and 18 fungal genera were found in the whole fermentation process where Lactobacillus, Acetobacter, Aspergillus, Saccharomyces, and Alternaria were the predominant microorganisms. Alpha diversity metrics showed that bacterial diversity in Daqu was greater than that in AF and AAF. By contrast, fungal diversity increased from Daqu to AF and decreased in the initial stage (5–8 days) of AAF then remained relatively steady. Hence, these results could help understand dynamics of microbial community succession in continuous fermentation of traditional Chinese vinegars. The LZFV fermentation is a continuous process with spontaneous growth that affects the dynamics of microbial communities. Continuous changes of micro-environment conditions in substrate affect the diversity and structure of microbiota. Microbial growth and metabolism were closely related to the changes in the physicochemical characteristics of the cultures. The microbial flora composition showed rich diversity, and with the increase in brewing time and the change in micro-ecological environmental conditions; the microbial community showed a complex dynamic changes.

     

A simple FRET system using two‐color CdTe quantum dots assisted by cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and its application to Hg(II) detection

In this study, we developed a novel simple fluorescence resonance‐energy transfer (FRET) system between two‐color CdTe quantum dots (QDs) assisted by cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). Mercaptopropionic (MPA)‐capped CdTe QDs serving as both donors and acceptors were successfully synthesized by changing the refluxing time in aqueous solution. CTAB micelles formed in water and minimized the distance between the donors and acceptors significantly by electrostatic interactions, improving FRET efficiency. Several factors that affected the fluorescence spectra of the FRET system were investigated. The prepared FRET system was feasible as an effective fluorescent probe to detect Hg(II) in aqueous solution. At pH 7.0, a linear relationship between the quenched fluorescence intensity of orange‐emitting acceptors (QDs_(A)) and Hg(II) concentration was acquired in the range 5–250 nmol/L with a detection limit of 1.95 nmol/L. The developed method showed excellent analytical performance for Hg(II) with high sensitivity and acceptable selectivity, reproducibility and stability. This finding indicated that the method has a promising potential application for environmental monitoring. This study demonstrated the great promise of QDs for expedient, low‐cost and high‐sensitivity detection of Hg(II).