BackgroundThe piglets’ transition from milk to solid feed induces a succession of bacterial communities, enhancing the hosts’ ability to harvest energy from dietary carbohydrates. To reconstruct microbial carbohydrate metabolism in weanling pigs, this study combined 16S rRNA gene sequencing (n = 191) and shotgun metagenomics (n = 72).ResultsTime and wheat content in feed explained most of the variation of the microbiota as assessed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing in weanling pigs. De novo metagenomic binning reconstructed 360 high-quality genomes that represented 11 prokaryotic and 1 archaeal phylum. Analysis of carbohydrate metabolism in these genomes revealed that starch fermentation is carried out by a consortium of Firmicutes expressing extracellular α-(1 → 4)-glucan branching enzyme (GH13) and Bacteroidetes expressing periplasmic neopullulanase (GH13) and α-glucosidase (GH97). Fructans were degraded by extracellular GH32 enzymes from Bacteriodetes and Lactobacillus. Lactose fermentation by β-galactosidases (GH2 and GH42) was identified in Firmicutes. In conclusion, the assembly of 360 high-quality genomes as the first metagenomic reference for swine intestinal microbiota allowed identification of key microbial contributors to degradation of starch, fructans, and lactose.ConclusionsMicrobial consortia that are responsible for degradation of these glycans differ substantially from the microbial consortia that degrade the same glycans in humans. Our study thus enables improvement of feeding models with higher feed efficiency and better pathogen control for weanling pigs.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s40168-019-0662-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

EHY 2019, 'Effect of delayed interval delivery of remaining fetus(es) in multiple pregnancies on survival: a systematic review and meta-analysis', American journal of obstetrics and gynecology.

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Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide. Edible medicinal mushrooms have been used in traditional medicine as regimes for cancer patients. Recently anti-cancer bioactive components from some mushrooms have been isolated and their anti-cancer effects have been tested. Pleurotus ferulae, a typical edible medicinal mushroom in Xinjiang China, has also been used to treat cancer patients in folk medicine. However, little studies have been reported on the anti-cancer components of Pleurotus ferulae. This study aims to extract bioactive components from Pleurotus ferulae and to investigate the anti-cancer effects of the extracts. We used ethanol to extract anti-cancer bioactive components enriched with terpenoids from Pleurotus ferulae. We tested the anti-tumour effects of ethanol extracts on the melanoma cell line B16F10, the human gastric cancer cell line BGC 823 and the immortalized human gastric epithelial mucosa cell line GES-1 in vitro and a murine melanoma model in vivo. Cell toxicity and cell proliferation were measured by MTT assays. Cell cycle progression, apoptosis, caspase 3 activity, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), migration and gene expression were studied in vitro. PFEC suppressed tumor cell growth, inhibited cell proliferation, arrested cells at G0/G1 phases and was not toxic to non-cancer cells. PFEC also induced cell apoptosis and necrosis, increased caspase 3 activity, reduced the MMP, prevented cell invasion and changed the expression of genes associated with apoptosis and the cell cycle. PFEC delayed tumor formation and reduced tumor growth in vivo. In conclusion, ethanol extracted components from Pleurotus ferulae exert anti-cancer effects through direct suppression of tumor cell growth and invasion, demonstrating its therapeutic potential in cancer treatment.

Exemplar-based image inpainting, as proposed by Criminisi et al. (IEEE Trans Image Process 13(9):1200-1212, 2004, fills missing regions by using a similar exemplar. However, when the missing region is a unique texture patch, an incorrect texture is filled in the missing region because a similar exemplar of damaged patch could not be found. A new image inpainting method based on an eight-direction or arbitrary direction symmetrical exemplar is proposed, suitable for damaged images containing local symmetry. The following three steps are the keys of this method. (1) According to certain similarity criteria, the symmetrical exemplars of damaged regions in eight directions or arbitrary directions are found. (2) The most similar symmetrical exemplar is selected from eight-direction or arbitrary-direction symmetrical exemplars. (3) Finally, the damaged region is filled using the most similar symmetrical exemplar. It is shown that the results of image inpainting are good when missing image regions have similar symmetry. Image inpainting is a single, efficient method. In addition, a new evaluation method of image restoration results based on similar exemplars is proposed for the inpainting effect, which is closely related to the repair algorithm. Therefore, the methods can more objectively measure the inpainting effect.

Background: Diagnosis of enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) associated diarrhea is complicated by the diversity of E.coli virulence factors. This study developed a multiplex quantitative PCR assay based on high-resolution melting curves analysis (HRMqPCR) to identify and quantify genes encoding five ETEC fimbriae related to diarrhea in swine, i.e. K99, F41, F18, F6 and K88.

This manuscript is intended to explore and establish a management system and working model which can maximise the development of clinical pharmacy in China. With a study of a series of documents about clinical pharmacists issued by China Ministry of Health and practical experience in clinical pharmacist training, the authors have reached the conclusion that the management system and working model of clinical pharmacist in China can be realized by making a standard work flow chart and series of standard registration forms, pharmaceutical and practical manuals and clinical pharmacy information support system, with features of the hospital and the specialty of clinical pharmacy.

Background The global burden of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) remains formidable. Identifying factors predictive of aggressive tumour behaviour, disease progression and reduced survival time may assist in early identification of “high‐risk” patients and appropriately target combination cancer therapies. Methods A retrospective review of 467 OSCC patients treated over a 19‐year period facilitated detailed clinico‐pathological database analysis and determination of clinical outcome categories based upon time to progressive disease (loco‐regional tumour recurrence and/or distant metastasis), overall death and OSCC‐related death (death directly attributable to OSCC). Odds ratio (OR) and hazard ratio (HR) statistical measures were used to investigate relationships between patient demographics and clinico‐pathological tumour features with clinical outcome. Results Older age at presentation (P = .002) and a history of previous non–head and neck cancer (P = .010) increased the risk of overall death. OR for progressive disease development (P = .008) and OSCC‐related death (P = .019) was most significant for buccal tumours. HR confirmed advanced‐stage disease increased the risk of progressive disease (P < .001), overall death (P < .001) and OSCC‐related death (P < .001). Positive resection margins were associated with a higher risk of OSCC‐related death (P = .023). Significantly lower risks of progressive disease development (P = .002) and OSCC‐related death (P = .012) were seen in patients undergoing neck dissection, whilst combination chemoradiotherapy reduced HR for overall death (P < .001) and OSCC‐related death (P = .011). Conclusion Statistical profiling of OSCC clinico‐pathological data identifies significant influences on clinical outcome. This study adds evidence to the hypothesis that buccal SCC displays aggressive tumour behaviour and poor clinical outcome.