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Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is one of the most important food crops worldwide and its leaves provide a dietary source of nutrients and various bioactive compounds. These constituents of sweet potato leaves (SPL) vary among varieties and play important roles in treating and preventing various diseases. Recently, more attentions in health-promoting benefits have led to several in vitro and in vivo investigations, as well as the identification and quantification of bioactive compounds in SPL. Among them, many new compounds have been reported as the first identified compounds from SPL with their dominant bioactivities. This review summarizes the current knowledge of the bioactive compositions of SPL and their health benefits. Since SPL serve as a potential source of micronutrients and functional compounds, they can be further developed as a sustainable crop for food and medicinal industries.

Activation of the Nod-like receptor 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome is important for activation of innate immune responses, but improper and excessive activation can cause inflammatory disease. We previously showed that glycolysis, a metabolic pathway that converts glucose into pyruvate, is essential for NLRP3 inflammasome activation in macrophages. Here, we investigated the role of metabolic pathways downstream glycolysis – lactic acid fermentation and pyruvate oxidation—in activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome. Using pharmacological or genetic approaches, we show that decreasing lactic acid fermentation by inhibiting lactate dehydrogenase reduced caspase-1 activation and IL-1β maturation in response to various NLRP3 inflammasome agonists such as nigericin, ATP, monosodium urate (MSU) crystals, or alum, indicating that lactic acid fermentation is required for NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Inhibition of lactate dehydrogenase with GSK2837808A reduced lactate production and activity of the NLRP3 inflammasome regulator, phosphorylated protein kinase R (PKR), but did not reduce the common trigger of NLRP3 inflammasome, potassium efflux, or reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. By contrast, decreasing the activity of pyruvate oxidation by depletion of either mitochondrial pyruvate carrier 2 (MPC2) or pyruvate dehydrogenase E1 subunit alpha 1 (PDHA1) enhanced NLRP3 inflammasome activation, suggesting that inhibition of mitochondrial pyruvate transport enhanced lactic acid fermentation. Moreover, treatment with GSK2837808A reduced MSU-mediated peritonitis in mice, a disease model used for studying the consequences of NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Our results suggest that lactic acid fermentation is important for NLRP3 inflammasome activation, while pyruvate oxidation is not. Thus, reprograming pyruvate metabolism in mitochondria and in the cytoplasm should be considered as a novel strategy for the treatment of NLRP3 inflammasome-associated diseases.

As defects frequently govern the properties of crystalline solids, the precise microscopic knowledge of defect atomic structure is of fundamental importance. We report a new class of point defects in single-layer transition metal dichalcogenides that can be created through 60° rotations of metal–chalcogen bonds in the trigonal prismatic lattice, with the simplest among them being a three-fold symmetric trefoil-like defect. The defects, which are inherently related to the crystal symmetry of transition metal dichalcogenides, can expand through sequential bond rotations, as evident from in situ scanning transmission electron microscopy experiments, and eventually form larger linear defects consisting of aligned 8–5–5–8 membered rings. First-principles calculations provide insights into the evolution of rotational defects and show that they give rise to p-type doping and local magnetic moments, but weakly affect mechanical characteristics of transition metal dichalcogenides. Thus, controllable introduction of rotational defects can be used to engineer the properties of these materials. Defects in a crystalline solid can have a dramatic effect on the material’s properties. Here, the authors demonstrate a class of defects in two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides mediated by chalcogen vacancies and inherently related to the crystal symmetry

Semantic segmentation of street view images is an important step in scene understanding for autonomous vehicle systems. Recent works have made significant progress in pixel-level labeling using Fully Convolutional Network (FCN) framework and local multi-scale context information. Rich global context information is also essential in the segmentation process. However, a systematic way to utilize both global and local contextual information in a single network has not been fully investigated. In this paper, we propose a global-and-local network architecture (GLNet) which incorporates global spatial information and dense local multi-scale context information to model the relationship between objects in a scene, thus reducing segmentation errors. A channel attention module is designed to further refine the segmentation results using low-level features from the feature map. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed GLNet achieves 80.8% test accuracy on the Cityscapes test dataset, comparing favorably with existing state-of-the-art methods.

Malnutrition is one of commonly issues in patients with stroke. The Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) is a widely used measure for assessing nutritional status in patients with stroke. A nutritional measure with acceptable test-retest reliability allows clinicians to consistently assess patients' nutritional status. Knowledge of the relationship between nutritional status and quality of life (QOL) could guide clinicians to improve QOL in patients with stroke more effectively. This study aimed to examine test-retest reliability of the MNA and its relationship with QOL in patients with stroke. Fifty-nine patients participated in the test-retest reliability study and the correlation between the MNA and WHO Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) study. A repeated-assessments design (1 week apart) was used to examine the test-retest reliability of the MNA. The intraclass correlation coefficient for the MNA was 0.91. The minimal detectable change and percentage of minimal detectable change for the MNA were 2.1 and 8.2%, respectively. The MNA was positively associated with the QOL (r = 0.32; p = 0.013). The result of linear regression analysis shows that after controlling for age, sex and activities of daily living functions, only the MNA was significantly associated with the WHOQOL-BREF (r2 = 0.104; p = 0.008). The MNA has satisfactory test-retest reliability that is useful for repeatedly assessing the nutritional status of patients with stroke. The MDC of the MNA has acceptable random measurement error which is useful for determining whether the change score of a patient is outside the range of random measurement error. Future studies that recruit stroke patients in the acute stage is needed to further examine the relationship between the nutritional status and QOL.

Key messagePiriformospora indica symbiosis promoted the growth and photosynthesis, and simultaneously enhanced the resistance against insect herbivory by regulating sporamin-dependent defense in sweet potato.Piriformospora indica (P. indica), a versatile endophytic fungus, promotes the growth and confers resistance against multiple stresses by root colonization in plant hosts. In this study, the effects of P. indica colonization on the growth, physiological change, and herbivore resistance of leaf-vegetable sweet potato cultivar were investigated. P. indica symbiosis significantly improved the biomass in both above- and under-ground parts of sweet potato plants. In comparison with the non-colonized plants, the content of photosynthetic pigments and the efficiency of photosynthesis were increased in P. indica-colonized sweet potato plants. Further investigation showed that the activity of catalase was enhanced in both leaves and roots of sweet potato plants after colonization, but ascorbate peroxidase, peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase were not enhanced. Furthermore, the interaction between P. indica and sweet potato plants also showed the biological function in jasmonic acid (JA)-mediated defense. The plants colonized by P. indica had greatly increased JA accumulation and defense gene expressions, including IbNAC1, IbbHLH3, IbpreproHypSys, and sporamin, leading to elevated trypsin inhibitory activity, which was consistent with a reduced Spodoptera litura performance when larvae fed on the leaves of P. indica-colonized sweet potato plants. The root symbiosis of P. indica is helpful for the plant promoting growth and development and has a strong function as resistance inducers against herbivore attack in sweet potato cultivation by regulating sporamin-dependent defense.

Increasing evidence suggests that walking while performing a concurrent task negatively influences gait performance. However, it remains unclear how higher-level cognitive processes and coordination of limb movements are altered in challenging walking environments. This study investigated the influence of cognitive task complexity and walking road condition on the neutral correlates of executive function and postural control in dual-task walking. Twenty-four healthy young adults completed a series of overground walks with three walking road conditions (wide, narrow, with obstacles) with and without the concurrent n-back working memory tasks of two complexity levels (1-back and 3-back). Prefrontal brain activation was assessed by functional near-infrared spectroscopy. A three-dimensional motion analysis system was used simultaneously to measure gait performance and lower-extremity kinematics. Repeated measures analysis of variance were performed to examine the differences between the conditions. In comparison with standing still, participants showed lower n-back task accuracy while walking, with the worst performance from the road with obstacles. Spatiotemporal gait parameters, lower-extremity joint movements, and the relative changes in oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO) concentration levels were all significantly different across the task complexity and walking path conditions. While dual-tasking participants were found to flex their hips and knees less, leading to a slower gait speed, longer stride time, shorter step length, and greater gait variability than during normal walking. For narrow-road walking, smaller ankle dorsiflexion and larger hip flexion were observed, along with a reduced gait speed. Obstacle negotiation was mainly characterized by increased gait variability than other conditions. HbO levels appeared to be lower during dual-task walking than normal walking. Compared to wide and obstacle conditions, walking on the narrow road was found to elicit a smaller decrement in HbO levels. The current study provided direct evidence that, in young adults, neural correlates of executive function and dynamic postural control tend to be altered in response to the cognitive load imposed by the walking environment and the concurrent task during ambulation. A shift of brain activation patterns between functionally connected networks may occur when facing challenging cognitive-motor interaction.

Ferroptosis, a unique form of programmed cell death trigged by lipid peroxidation and iron accumulation, has been implicated in embryonic erythropoiesis and aging. Our previous research demonstrated that lysophosphatidic acid receptor 3 (LPA3) activation mitigated oxidative stress in progeria cells and accelerated the recovery of acute anemia in mice. Given that both processes involve iron metabolism, we hypothesized that LPA3 activation might mediate cellular ferroptosis. In this study, we used an LPA3 agonist, 1-Oleoyl-2-O-methyl-rac-glycerophosphothionate (OMPT), to activate LPA3 and examine its effects on the ferroptosis process. OMPT treatment elevated anti-ferroptosis gene protein expression, including solute carrier family 7 member 11 (SLC7A11), glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4), heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), and ferritin heavy chain (FTH1), in erastin-induced cells. Furthermore, OMPT reduced lipid peroxidation and intracellular ferrous iron accumulation, as evidenced by C11 BODIPY™ 581/591 Lipid Peroxidation Sensor and FerroOrange staining. These observations were validated by applying LPAR3 siRNA in the experiments mentioned above. In addition, the protein expression level of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor (NRF2), a key regulator of oxidative stress, was also enhanced in OMPT-treated cells. Lastly, we verified that LPA3 plays a critical role in erastin-induced ferroptotic human erythroleukemia K562 cells. OMPT rescued the erythropoiesis defect caused by erastin in K562 cells based on a Gly A promoter luciferase assay. Taken together, our findings suggest that LPA3 activation inhibits cell ferroptosis by suppressing lipid oxidation and iron accumulation, indicating that ferroptosis could potentially serve as a link among LPA3, erythropoiesis, and aging.

Endophytic plant-growth-promoting bacteria help plants to cope with severe environmental stresses. A Klebsiella sp. strain San01 isolated from sweet potato roots exhibited diverse plant-growth-promoting activities, including indole acetic acid production, ammonia production, and phosphate solubilization. San01 inoculation significantly increased the growth characteristics of sweet potato. Moreover, the sweet potato inoculated with San01 resulted in the alleviation of drought and salinity stresses. In comparison with the non-inoculated plants, the wilting symptom and the inhibition of photochemical response were significantly diminished in San01-inoculated plants under stress conditions. In the presence of San01, the enhancement of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging ability and elevated activities of ascorbate peroxidase and superoxide dismutase were observed to combat the oxidative stress in sweet potato. Further investigation showed that the San01 inoculation enhanced the expression of the IbLEA gene in sweet potato under salinity and drought. These results confer a promising biotechnological approach through San01 interaction to develop stress-tolerant sweet potato plants.

Coriander ( Coriandrum sativum L.) contains abundant antioxidants and essential oils which can provide antibacterial, antifungal, and antioxidant activities in the pharmaceutical, health and food production industry. To improve the economic values of coriander, the relationships between optimal light treatments for maximizing both plant growth and the antioxidant and essential oil content of coriander leaves need to be determined. Plants were exposed to five light-emitting diodes spectral color mixtures, high blue light (BL) intensity induced the levels of reducing power response. The light treatments were then adjusted for the analysis of secondary metabolite compounds of coriander leaves. Among 30 identified compounds, the amounts of decamethyl-cyclopentasiloxane and dodecane were significantly reduced in the R80 + G50 + B50 condition, whereas dodecamethyl-cyclohexasiloxane level was significantly reduced in R50 + G50 + B80 condition. Various light quality and intensity combinations influenced the accumulations of chlorophyll and phytochemical contents, mediated antioxidative properties, and secondary metabolites of coriander leaves, which may be useful in developing a new LED lighting apparatus optimized for coriander production in plant factories.