Attitudes to animals have been extensively studied for people in developed countries, but not for those in developing countries. The attitudes of prospective stakeholders in the livestock sectors in south-east and east Asia toward transport and slaughter were examined by surveying university students studying veterinary medicine and animal science in Malaysia, Thailand, China and Vietnam, with a total of 739 students taking part. Students had greater acceptability of transport than slaughter issues for livestock, and female students found most transport and slaughter issues of greater concern than male students. Veterinary students were more accepting of several issues than animal science students, in particular killing animals that were injured or ill. Religion had a major effect on attitudes. Muslim students found using animals that died naturally for products least acceptable. Compared to them, Hindu students were less accepting of killing injured or ill animals and Buddhist students less accepting of euthanasing healthy pets. Students with more experience of pets were less accepting of both transport and slaughter issues. It is concluded that concern was exhibited by future stakeholders in the SE and E Asian livestock industries for slaughter and, to a lesser extent, transport issues, although attitudes were influenced by their religion, gender and experience of pet-keeping.

High-performance electrodes with outstanding catalysts play a vital role in the commercial application of direct ethanol fuel cells. In the present study, a supported catalyst with controllable Pd loading, prepared using a facile impregnation method with sepiolite as a carrier, was synthesized and tested for electrocatalytic oxidation of ethanol. Physical characterization revealed the pore structure and large specific surface area of the sepiolite, which provided excellent conditions for the loading of nanometal clusters. The Pd-sepiolite had greater electrocatalytic ethanol activity and anti-intermediate product poisoning performance than a metallic Pd disc electrode under alkaline conditions. Under these experimental conditions, the electrochemical activity in terms of ethanol oxidation increased significantly with increasing Pd loading. Considering both the activity and stability of the electrodes, 23 wt.% Pd loading on sepiolite was selected with a coating amount of 140 μg cm–2 on glassy carbon. Factors such as ethanol/potassium hydroxide concentration, scanning rate and temperature had direct impacts on peak current densities as well as on reaction kinetics as depicted by Tafel plots. The electrochemical impedance test showed that Pd intercalation could improve significantly the conductivity of sepiolite and reduce the electron-transfer resistance in the electrocatalytic process. Thus, Pd-loaded sepiolite is a simple and effective catalyst for direct ethanol fuel cells.

Hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) is one of the rate-determining enzymes in the hydrolysis of TAG, playing a crucial role in lipid metabolism. However, the role of HSL-mediated lipolysis in systemic nutrient homoeostasis has not been intensively understood. Therefore, we used CRISPR/Cas9 technique and Hsl inhibitor (HSL-IN-1) to establish hsla-deficient (hsla -/-) and Hsl-inhibited zebrafish models, respectively. As a result, the hsla -/- zebrafish showed retarded growth and reduced oxygen consumption rate, accompanied with higher mRNA expression of the genes related to inflammation and apoptosis in liver and muscle. Furthermore, hsla -/- and HSL-IN-1-treated zebrafish both exhibited severe fat deposition, whereas their expressions of the genes related to lipolysis and fatty acid oxidation were markedly reduced. The TLC results also showed that the dysfunction of Hsl changed the whole-body lipid profile, including increasing the content of TG and decreasing the proportion of phospholipids. In addition, the systemic metabolic pattern was remodelled in hsla -/- and HSL-IN-1-treated zebrafish. The dysfunction of Hsl lowered the glycogen content in liver and muscle and enhanced the utilisation of glucose plus the expressions of glucose transporter and glycolysis genes. Besides, the whole-body protein content had significantly decreased in the hsla -/- and HSL-IN-1-treated zebrafish, accompanied with the lower activation of the mTOR pathway and enhanced protein and amino acid catabolism. Taken together, Hsl plays an essential role in energy homoeostasis, and its dysfunction would cause the disturbance of lipid catabolism but enhanced breakdown of glycogen and protein for energy compensation.

The gut microbiota plays an important role in animals’ survival in their local environments. The intertidal rocky shore is a key interface of oceanic, atmospheric and terrestrial environments, and the transmission modes of microbes between an intertidal host and the environment are complex and largely ignored. In the present study, we characterized the gut microbiota of the intertidal snail Nerita yoldii, which is experiencing a northward range shift under the combined impacts of climate change and anthropogenic seascape transformation, and also determined the nearby environmental microbiota on the rock and in the seawater at five locations along the snail's distribution range in China. The gut microbial communities were significantly different from the environmental microbial communities, and the dominant phyla were Tenericutes, Cyanobacteria and Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria in the gut, rock and seawater microbial communities, respectively. At the genus level, Mycoplasma, with a relative abundance of 48.0 ± 10.2%, was the dominant genus in the gut microbial community, however, the relative abundances of this genus on the rock and in the water were low. These results imply that the gut microbial community of the intertidal snail N. yoldii is relatively independent from the environmental microbial community, and the dominant genus Mycoplasma in the gut, that is rare in the environment, can potentially assist the snail living in the harsh intertidal environment, especially at its northernmost distribution range edge.

The wheat aphid Sitobion miscanthi (CWA) is an important harmful pest in wheat fields. Insecticide application is the main method to effectively control wheat aphids. However, CWA has developed resistance to some insecticides due to its extensive application, and understanding resistance mechanisms is crucial for the management of CWA. In our study, a new P450 gene, CYP4CJ6, was identified from CWA and showed a positive response to imidacloprid and thiamethoxam. Transcription of CYP4CJ6 was significantly induced by both imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, and overexpression of CYP4CJ6 in the imidacloprid-resistant strain was also observed. The sensitivity of CWA to these two insecticides was increased after the knockdown of CYP4CJ6. These results indicated that CYP4CJ6 could be associated with CWA resistance to imidacloprid and thiamethoxam. Subsequently, the posttranscriptional regulatory mechanism was assessed, and miR-316 was confirmed to participate in the posttranscriptional regulation of CYP4CJ6. These results are crucial for clarifying the roles of P450 in the resistance of CWA to insecticides.

The association between the ABO blood group and the risk of malaria during pregnancy has not been clearly established. The present study summarised relevant knowledge and reassessed the association through meta-analysis. Articles in MEDICINE and PubMed published before 30 November 2021 were searched. Five studies satisfied the inclusion criteria and were enrolled in the meta-analysis. It was shown that primiparae with different ABO blood group, multiparae with blood group A and non-A, AB and non-AB had a comparable risk of malaria. However, multiparae with blood group B had a significantly higher risk than non-B group [odds ratio (OR) = 1.23, 95% confidence interval (CI) was 1.01 to 1.50, P = 0.04], while multiparae with blood group O had a significantly lower risk than non-O group (OR = 0.78, 95% CI was 0.63 to 0.97, P = 0.03). Therefore, the ABO blood group may not result in a different risk of malaria in primiparae. Blood group B is potentially a risk factor while blood group O is a protective factor for multiparae.

The mid-latitude Westerlies (MLW) are one of the most important atmospheric circulation systems in the Northern Hemisphere, exerting a huge influence on the climate of the region downwind, and thus on vegetation, water resources, and human wellbeing. However, the seasonal variation of the MLW during the Holocene is not yet been fully understood, especially when its contribution is the most important. Here, we used end-member (EM) modeling analysis of the grain-size distributions of a high-altitude aeolian sedimentary sequence (4452 m a.s.l.) from the Yarlung Zangbo River valley in the southern Tibetan Plateau to reveal variations in the winter MLW during the Holocene. Analysis of seasonal differences in modern atmospheric circulation suggests that the southern Tibetan Plateau was heavily influenced by the mid-latitude Westerlies at the 400, 500, and 600 hPa levels in winter, while it was seldom influenced at these levels in summer. Four grain-size end-members are identified, representing distinct aerodynamic environments, of which EM1 (modal grain size 8.1 μm) can be used as a proxy of the winter MLW. A reconstruction of the variation of the winter MLW during the Holocene based on EM1 revealed that a weaker winter MLW occurred during the Early to Middle Holocene, and a stronger winter MLW during the Middle to Late Holocene. Overall, we suggest that this change in the winter MLW was closely related to the insolation/temperature/pressure gradient between low and high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere.

Coastal surveillance video helps officials to obtain on-site visual information on maritime traffic situations, which benefits building up the maritime transportation detection infrastructure. The previous ship detection methods focused on detecting distant small ships in maritime videos, with less attention paid to the task of ship detection from coastal surveillance video. To address this challenge, a novel framework is proposed to detect ships from coastal maritime images in three typical traffic situations in three consecutive steps. First the Canny detector is introduced to determine the potential ship edges in each maritime frame. Then, the self-adaptive Gaussian descriptor is employed to accurately rule out noisy edges. Finally, the morphology operator is developed to link the detected separated edges to connected ship contours. The model's performance is tested under three typical maritime traffic situations. The experimental results show that the proposed ship detector achieved satisfactory performance (in terms of precision, accuracy and time cost) compared with other state-of-the-art algorithms. The findings of the study offer the potential of providing real-time visual traffic information to maritime regulators, which is crucial for the development of intelligent maritime transportation.

The present study evaluated whether fat mass assessment using the triceps skinfold (TSF) thickness provides additional prognostic value to the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) framework in patients with lung cancer (LC). We performed an observational cohort study including 2672 LC patients in China. Comprehensive demographic, disease and nutritional characteristics were collected. Malnutrition was retrospectively defined using the GLIM criteria, and optimal stratification was used to determine the best thresholds for the TSF. The associations of malnutrition and TSF categories with survival were estimated independently and jointly by calculating multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HR). Malnutrition was identified in 808 (30·2 %) patients, and the best TSF thresholds were 9·5 mm in men and 12 mm in women. Accordingly, 496 (18·6 %) patients were identified as having a low TSF. Patients with concurrent malnutrition and a low TSF had a 54 % (HR = 1·54, 95 % CI = 1·25, 1·88) greater death hazard compared with well-nourished individuals, which was also greater compared with malnourished patients with a normal TSF (HR = 1·23, 95 % CI = 1·06, 1·43) or malnourished patients without TSF assessment (HR = 1·31, 95 % CI = 1·14, 1·50). These associations were concentrated among those patients with adequate muscle mass (as indicated by the calf circumference). Additional fat mass assessment using the TSF enhances the prognostic value of the GLIM criteria. Using the population-derived thresholds for the TSF may provide significant prognostic value when used in combination with the GLIM criteria to guide strategies to optimise the long-term outcomes in patients with LC.

The prevention, treatment and control of Haemonchus contortus have been increasingly problematic due to its widespread occurrence and anthelmintic resistance. There are very few descriptions of recombinant antigens being protective for H. contortus, despite the success of various native antigen preparations, including Barbervax. We recently identified an H. contortus excretory–secretory antigen, H. contortus adhesion-regulating molecule 1 (HcADRM1), that served as an immunomodulator to impair host T-cell functions. Given the prophylactic potential of HcADRM1 protein as a vaccine candidate, we hereby assessed the efficacies of HcADRM1 preparations against H. contortus infection. Parasitological and immunological parameters were evaluated throughout all time points of the trials, including fecal egg counts (FEC), abomasal worm burdens, complete blood counts, cytokine production profiles and antibody responses. Active vaccination with recombinant HcADRM1 (rHcADRM1) protein induced protective immunity in inoculated goats, resulting in reductions of 48.9 and 58.6% in cumulative FEC and worm burdens. Simultaneously, passive administration of anti-HcADRM1 antibodies generated encouraging levels of protection with 46.7 and 56.2% reductions in cumulative FEC and worm burdens in challenged goats. In addition, HcADRM1 preparations-immunized goats showed significant differences in mucosal and serum antigen-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) levels, total mucosal IgA levels, haemoglobin values and circulating interferon-γ, interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-17A production compared to control goats in both trials. The preliminary data of these laboratory trials validated the immunoprophylactic effects of rHcADRM1 protein. It can be pursued as a potential vaccine antigen to develop an effective recombinant subunit vaccine against H. contortus under field conditions.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) has been confirmed as the causative agent for cervical cancer. In this study, a total of 301 880 women were recruited from four different regions of Western China, with 301 880 exfoliated cervical cell samples collected from women for DNA isolation and purification. The HPV genotype was tested by polymerase chain reaction. The overall HPV prevalence rate, high-risk (HR) HPV infection rate, low-risk (LR) HPV infection rate and mixed HPV infection rate was 18.24%, 79.14%, 12.56% and 8.30%, respectively. The four most common HR HPV subtypes were HPV-52, 16, 58 and 53, which accounted for 20.49%, 19.93%, 14.54% and 10.01%, respectively. In LR HPV genotype, HPV-6 ranked the highest (28.17%), followed by HPV-81 (9.09%) and HPV-11 (3.78%). HPV genotype subgroup analysis also showed that single-type infection was the most common (77.26%) among HPV-positive individuals. Among multi-infection genotypes, double infection was the most common with frequencies of 76.04%. The overall prevalence of HPV is high in Western China, whose distribution demonstrates different patterns across different ages and regions. Viral genotypes HPV 53, 6 were frequently detected in this population, which is worth of significant clinical attention.

Saetaspongia so far cannot be confidently assigned to any class-level crown group. Clarifying its phylogenetic position requires new information provided by more detailed studies of previously described and/or new material. Some sponge fossils with the typical skeletal architecture of Saetaspongia have recently been recognized in the Cambrian (Stage 4) Balang Biota of Guizhou, China, including S. jianhensis new species and S. cf. S. densa. The new taxon is characterized by the following features: spicules are fine monaxons and are inclined to be loosely to densely arranged into plumose arrays; skeleton is composed primarily of one major plumose bundle, with an uncertain number (perhaps two) of small plumose arrays; and primary skeleton is occasionally interspersed with some irregularly oriented individual spicules. An additional specimen consisting of large monaxons, with plumose structures and overlying irregular coarse monaxons, closely fits the description and illustrations of previously described S. cf. S. densa. By combining information from previous studies and the present research, fossil evidence indicates that the plumose architecture is a critical feature diagnostic of Saetaspongia and that there are no hexactine-based spicules in this genus. The new material from the Balang Biota further supports the notion that Saetaspongia has a protomonaxonid rather than a hexactinellid affinity. Fossil evidence suggests that Saetaspongia had a wide biogeographic distribution during the early Cambrian and the stratigraphic distribution of this genus extends up to Stage 4.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/e9ca5e4a-134c-4daa-9266-19085e32614f.

As an attractive collector medium for hypervelocity particles, combined with outstanding physical properties and suitable compositional characteristics, SiO2 aerogel has been deployed on outer space missions and laser shock-loaded collection experiments. In this paper, impact experiments were conducted to understand the penetration process of irregular grains, irregular Al2O3 grains with two different sizes and speeds (~110 μm@7 km/s, ~251 μm@2.3 km/s) at various density silica aerogels. By classifying the shapes of projectile residues and tracks, the morphology of tracks was analyzed. It was observed that there were several kinds of typical tracks in the penetration of irregular grains, accompanied by residues with the shapes of near-sphere, polyhedron, streamlined body wedge, and rotator. The rotational behavior was demonstrated by the final status of one flake projectile as direct evidence. In addition, there was no obvious relationship between the track length and experimental parameters, which may be caused by the uncertain interaction between aerogels and irregular particles. In addition, it confirmed the existence of fragmentation, melting situation by observing the shape of the impact entrance hole. At the same time, optical coherence tomography was used to observe the detail of tracks clearly, which provided a method to characterize the tracks nondestructively.

Poor utilisation efficiency of carbohydrate always leads to metabolic phenotypes in fish. The intestinal microbiota plays an important role in carbohydrate degradation. Whether the intestinal bacteria could alleviate high-carbohydrate diet (HCD)-induced metabolic phenotypes in fish remains unknown. Here, a strain affiliated to Bacillus amyloliquefaciens was isolated from the intestine of Nile tilapia. A basal diet (CON), HCD or HCD supplemented with B. amy SS1 (HCB) was used to feed fish for 10 weeks. The beneficial effects of B. amy SS1 on weight gain and protein accumulation were observed. Fasting glucose and lipid deposition were decreased in the HCB group compared with the HCD group. High-throughput sequencing showed that the abundance of acetate-producing bacteria was increased in the HCB group relative to the HCD group. Gas chromatographic analysis indicated that the concentration of intestinal acetate was increased dramatically in the HCB group compared with that in the HCD group. Glucagon-like peptide-1 was also increased in the intestine and serum of the HCB group. Thus, fish were fed with HCD, HCD supplemented with sodium acetate at 900 mg/kg (HLA), 1800 mg/kg (HMA) or 3600 mg/kg (HHA) diet for 8 weeks, and the HMA and HHA groups mirrored the effects of B. amy SS1. This study revealed that B. amy SS1 could alleviate the metabolic phenotypes caused by HCD by enriching acetate-producing bacteria in fish intestines. Regulating the intestinal microbiota and their metabolites might represent a powerful strategy for fish nutrition modulation and health maintenance in future.