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Cisplatin is the first and most widely used platinum-based chemotherapy drug and is the cornerstone agent in treating a broad spectrum of cancers. However, its clinical application is often limited by severe toxic side effects and drug resistance. Based on the discovered dissociative electron transfer mechanism of cisplatin, a novel combination of cisplatin with [9-(2-carboxyphenyl)-6-diethylamino-3-xanthenylidene]-diethylammonium chloride (basic violet 10, BV10) is proposed to potentiate the chemotherapeutic effect of cisplatin. Here, we show that this combination enhances the anti-cancer effect of cisplatin in both in vitro cell lines and in vivo xenograft mouse models of cisplatin-sensitive and -resistant lung, ovarian and cervical cancers while introducing minimal additional toxic side effects. Furthermore, femtosecond time-resolved laser spectroscopic measurements demonstrate that cisplatin reacts with BV10 via an electron transfer mechanism. These results indicate that the combination of cisplatin with BV10 is promising for improving the chemotherapy of cancers with various extents of cisplatin resistance.

Distributed fiber acoustic sensing (DAS) technology can continuously spatially detect disturbances along the sensing fiber over long distance in real time. It has many unique advantages, including, large coverage, high time-and-space resolution, convenient implementation, strong environment adaptability, etc. Nowadays, DAS becomes a versatile technology in many fields, such as, intrusion detection, railway transportation, seismology, structure health monitoring, etc. In this paper, the sensing principle and some common performance indexes are introduced, and a brief overview of recent DAS researches in Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (SIOM) is presented. Some representative research advances are explained, including, quantitative demodulation, interference fading suppression, frequency response boost, high spatial resolution, and distributed multi-dimension localization. The engineering applications of DAS, carried out by SIOM and other groups, are summarized and reviewed. Finally, possible future directions are discussed and concluded. It is believed that, DAS has great development potential and application prospect.

Epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) is known to be highly expressed in a variety of epithelial carcinomas, and it is involved in cell adhesion and proliferation. However, its expression profile and biological function in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) remains unclear. In this study, higher expression of EpCAM was found in NPC samples compared with non-cancer nasopharyngeal mucosa by qRT-PCR. Additionally, immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis of NPC specimens from 64 cases showed that high EpCAM expression was associated with metastasis and shorter survival. Multivariate survival analysis identified high EpCAM expression as an independent prognostic factor. Ectopic EpCAM expression in NPC cells promoted epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), induced a cancer stem cell (CSC)-like phenotype, and enhanced metastasis in vitro and in vivo without an effect on cell proliferation. Notably, EpCAM overexpression reduced PTEN expression and increased the level of AKT, mTOR, p70S6K and 4EBP1 phosphorylation. Correspondingly, an AKT inhibitor and rapamycin blocked the effect of EpCAM on NPC cell invasion and stem-like phenotypes, and siRNA targeting PTEN rescued the oncogenic activities in EpCAM knockdown NPC cells. Our data demonstrate that EpCAM regulates EMT, stemness and metastasis of NPC cells via the PTEN/AKT/mTOR pathway.

The extant amphibians have developed uncanny abilities to adapt to their environment. I compared the genes of amphibians to those of other vertebrates to investigate the genetic changes underlying their unique traits, especially salamanders’ regeneration and longevity. Using the well-supported Batrachia tree, I found that salamander genomes have undergone accelerated adaptive evolution, especially for development-related genes. The group-based comparison showed that several genes are under positive selection, rapid evolution, and unexpected parallel evolution with traits shared by distantly related species, such as the tail-regenerative lizard and the longer-lived naked mole rat. The genes, such as EEF1E1, PAFAH1B1, and OGFR, may be involved in salamander regeneration, as they are involved in the apoptotic process, blastema formation, and cell proliferation, respectively. The genes PCNA and SIRT1 may be involved in extending lifespan, as they are involved in DNA repair and histone modification, respectively. Some genes, such as PCNA and OGFR, have dual roles in regeneration and aging, which suggests that these two processes are interconnected. My experiment validated the time course differential expression pattern of SERPINI1 and OGFR, two genes that have evolved in parallel in salamanders and lizards during the regeneration process of salamander limbs. In addition, I found several candidate genes responsible for frogs’ frequent vocalization and caecilians’ degenerative vision. This study provides much-needed insights into the processes of regeneration and aging, and the discovery of the critical genes paves the way for further functional analysis, which could open up new avenues for exploiting the genetic potential of humans and improving human well-being.

Vaccination against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become an important public health solution. To date, there has been a lack of data on COVID-19 vaccination willingness, vaccine hesitancy, and vaccination coverage in China since the vaccine has become available. We designed and implemented a cross-sectional, population-based online survey to evaluate the willingness, hesitancy, and coverage of the COVID-19 vaccine among the Chinese population. 8742 valid samples were recruited and classified as the vaccine-priority group (n = 3902; 44.6%) and the non-priority group (n = 4840; 55.4%). The proportion of people’s trust in the vaccine, delivery system, and government were 69.0%, 78.0% and 81.3%, respectively. 67.1% of the participants were reportedly willing to accept the COVID-19 vaccination, while 9.0% refused it. 834 (35.5%) reported vaccine hesitancy, including acceptors with doubts (48.8%), refusers (39.4%), and delayers (11.8%). The current coverage was 34.4%, far from reaching the requirements of herd immunity. The predicted rate of COVID-19 vaccination was 64.9%, 68.9% and 81.1% based on the rates of vaccine hesitancy, willingness, and refusal, respectively. The COVID-19 vaccine rate is far from reaching the requirements of herd immunity, which will require more flexible and comprehensive efforts to improve the population’s confidence and willingness to vaccinate. It should be highlighted that vaccination alone is insufficient to stop the pandemic; further efforts are needed not only to increase vaccination coverage but also to maintain non-specific prevention strategies.

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging infectious disease with an increasing case number and extensive geographical expansion, raising concerns locally and globally; however, the description of its clinical features needs to be addressed by large studies. We aimed to determine all the clinical features of SFTS in a large population of patients in an endemic area. In this prospective observational study, data were collected on patients admitted to the People's Liberation Army Hospital in Xinyang, Henan Province, China, with laboratory-diagnosed SFTS. Demographic, clinical, laboratory, and treatment data were collected for each patient, and patients were followed up within 2 weeks after discharge or discontinuation of treatment. The association between each demographic, clinical, and laboratory variable with a fatal outcome was assessed. A clinical scoring model was designed for the early prediction of a fatal outcome, and the effect of treatment on outcome was analysed. Between April 1, 2011, and Oct 31, 2017, 2096 patients with laboratory-confirmed SFTS were admitted. Mean age at admission was 61·4 years (SD 12·2) and 1239 (59%) patients were female. The case fatality rate (CFR) was 16·2% (95% CI 14·6–17·8). A higher risk was associated with being male (unadjusted odds ratio [OR] 1·45, 95% CI 1·15–1·83; p=0·002), older age (for a 10-year increase, unadjusted OR 1·82, 95% CI 1·62–2·04; p<0·0001), longer delay in admission (for every extra day taken before admission to hospital, unadjusted OR 1·18, 1·12–1·24; p<0·0001), presence of diarrhoea (adjusted OR 1·44, 1·12–1·87; p=0·005) or dyspnoea (adjusted OR 8·35, 5·97–11·69; p<0·0001), and development of haemorrhagic signs (adjusted OR 2·79, 95% CI 2·18–3·57; p<0·0001) or neurological symptoms (adjusted OR 30·26, 21·39–42·81; p<0·0001). Laboratory variables that were associated with death included abnormal concentrations of lactate dehydrogenase, aspartate aminotransferase, and blood urea nitrogen, and abnormal neutrophil percentage, which together with age and neurological symptoms were combined in the clinical scoring system. A total score of more than 8 was the optimal threshold to predict risk of death for patients who were evaluated within 6 days after symptom onset (area under the curve 0·879, 95% CI 0·855–0·902). For all participants, viraemia was a strong predictor of fatal outcome (all p<0·0001). Ribavirin therapy was effective in reducing CFR from 6·25% (15 of 240 participants) to 1·16% (two of 173 participants), but only in patients with a viral load below 1×106 copies per mL (hazard ratio 9·72, 95% CI 1·30–72·87; p=0·027). The changing epidemiological features and high CFR of SFTS underscore the necessity of continued surveillance. Early prediction of fatal outcome can be attained by monitoring of clinical and laboratory data. Ribavirin should be applied early, with best results achieved before the viral load reaches 1 × 106 copies per mL. National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Stable representation of information in distributed neural connectivity is critical to function effectively in the world. Despite the dynamic nature of the brain’s functional architecture, characterizing its temporal stability within a continuous state has been largely neglected. Here we characterized stability of functional architecture at a dynamic timescale (~1 min) for each brain voxel by measuring the concordance of dynamic functional connectivity (DFC) over time, compared between association and unimodal regions, and established its reliability using test-retest resting-state fMRI data of adults from an open dataset. After the measure of functional stability was established, we further employed another fMRI open dataset which included movie-watching and resting-state data of children and adolescents, to explore how stability was modified by natural viewing from its intrinsic form, with specific focus on the associative and primary visual cortices. The results showed that high-order association regions, especially the default mode network, demonstrated high stability during resting-state scans, while primary sensory-motor cortices revealed relatively lower stability. During movie watching, stability in the primary visual cortex was decreased, which was associated with larger DFC variation with neighboring regions. By contrast, higher-order regions in the ventral and dorsal visual stream demonstrated increased stability. The distribution of functional stability and its modification describes a profile of the brain’s stability property, which may be useful reference for examining distinct mental states and disorders. •Functional stability is the concordance of dynamic functional connectivity over time.•High-order association regions show higher intrinsic stability than unimodal regions.•Natural viewing task increases stability in associative visual areas.•Natural viewing task decreases stability in primary visual areas.

This thesis uses the family systems theory and interviews to analyze the current situation of education in families with three children, focusing on the changes in parenting styles before and after the birth of the third child. It summarizes the issues from the adaptability of family roles, parental educational beliefs, and expectations for children. Finally, it provides suggestions for education in families with three children.

Salivary elicitors secreted by herbivorous insects can be perceived by host plants to trigger plant immunity. However, how insects secrete other salivary components to subsequently attenuate the elicitor-induced plant immunity remains poorly understood. Here, we study the small brown planthopper, Laodelphax striatellus salivary sheath protein LsSP1. Using Y2H, BiFC and LUC assays, we show that LsSP1 is secreted into host plants and binds to salivary sheath via mucin-like protein (LsMLP). Rice plants pre-infested with ds LsSP1- treated L. striatellus are less attractive to L. striatellus nymphs than those pre-infected with ds GFP -treated controls. Transgenic rice plants with LsSP1 overexpression rescue the insect feeding defects caused by a deficiency of LsSP1 secretion, consistent with the potential role of LsSP1 in manipulating plant defenses. Our results illustrate the importance of salivary sheath proteins in mediating the interactions between plants and herbivorous insects. Salivary elicitors secreted by herbivorous insects can be perceived by host plants to trigger plant immunity. Here, the authors show that the small brown planthopper salivary sheath protein LsSP1 binds to salivary sheath proteins and contributes to insect feeding by manipulating rice plant defenses.