Study on Employment Pressure on Chinese College Students and Constructing Higher Education Strategies in The Post—Epidemic Era

During the post epidemic era, Chinese university students are confronted with multiple pressures regarding employment, including unprecedented competition, significantly elevated employment thresholds, a pronounced tendency towards limited job options, and a growing number of students with inadequate employability skills. This paper aims to analyze the current employment situation of university graduates and its underlying causes, while proposing corresponding solutions, in an effort to provide a reference for higher education institutions in enhancing their graduate employment education initiatives

Upconversion NIR-II fluorophores for mitochondria-targeted cancer imaging and photothermal therapy

Acknowledgements: The work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2020YFA0908800), NSFC (81773674, 81573383), Shenzhen Science and Technology Research Grant (JCYJ20190808152019182), Hubei Province Scientific and Technical Innovation Key Project, National Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (2017CFA024, 2017CFB711), the Applied Basic Research Program of Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology (2019020701011429), Tibet Autonomous Region Science and Technology Plan Project Key Project (XZ201901-GB-11), the Local Development Funds of Science and Technology Department of Tibet (XZ202001YD0028C), Project First-Class Disciplines Development Supported by Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (CZYJC1903), Health Commission of Hubei Province Scientific Research Project (WJ2019M177, WJ2019M178), the China Scholarship Council, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Novel NIR-II organic fluorophores for bioimaging beyond 1550 nm

This work was partially supported by grants from NSFC (81773674, 81573383, and 21473041), NSFHP (2017CFA024, 2017CFB711, and 2016ACA126), the Applied Basic Research Program of WMBST (2019020701011429), Tibet Autonomous Region Science and Technology Plan Project Key Project (XZ201901-GB-11), Project First-Class Disciplines Development Supported by Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (CZYJC1903), and Health Commission of Hubei Province Scientific Research Project (WJ2019M177 and WJ2019M178).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Aroma Quality Evaluation of High-Quality and Quality-Deficient Black Tea by Electronic Nose Coupled with Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

According to the results of sensory evaluation performed by experts, 14 black tea samples were divided into two groups based on their aroma quality: high-quality and quality-deficient black tea. Using fast gas chromatography-electronic-nose (GC-E-Nose) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) combined with multivariate statistical analysis, discriminant analysis of the two groups were carried out, and the key differential components between these groups were selected. The results showed that 117-dimensional dataset was obtained by the fusion of the GC-E-Nose (44-dimensional) and GC-MS (73-dimensional) data and used to establish a model for accurate classification of the two types of black tea employing orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA). The model’s explanatory and predictive capacity (R2Y = 0.976, Q2 = 0.959) were better than those of the model established based on the GC-E-Nose or GC-MS data. Based on variable important in projection (VIP) scores > 1.6 and P < 0.05, eight key aroma components including dimethyl sulfide (B3 and B25), β-ionone (A59), (3E)-4,8-dimethylnon-1,3,7-triene (A20), dihydroactinidiolide (A64), linalool (A17), phenylethyl alcohol (A19), δ-octyl lactone (A41) and γ-nonalatone (A45) were selected, which played an important role in the classification. These results showed that GC-E-Nose combined with GC-MS allows rapid and accurate discrimination between quality-deficient and high-quality black tea, which can be used as a supplement to traditional sensory evaluation, providing technical support for quality control and improvement of black tea

Characterization of Gardenia tea based on aroma profiles using GC-E-Nose, GC-O-MS and GC × GC-TOFMS combined with chemometrics

Gardenia tea (GET) is one of the typical representatives of Chinese scented tea and is loved by consumers for its pleasant aroma. In the present study, the volatile profiles of GET were characterized by gas chromatography electronic nose (GC-E-Nose), comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC-TOFMS) and gas chromatography-olfactory-mass spectrometry (GC-O-MS) combined with chemometrics. Satisfactory discrimination was obtained by GC-E-Nose combined with principal component analysis, with the cumulative contribution rate reaching 86.74%. A total of 202 volatile compounds were identified in GET by GC × GC-TOFMS, among which esters, alkenes and alcohols were the dominant volatile components. Moreover, 24 key odorants were screened out from GET based on odor activity value ≥ 1 and GC-O-MS results. The aroma wheel of GET with six attributes of 'fruity', 'green', 'floral', 'other', 'woody', and 'roasted' was constructed to visualize the contributions of those key volatile compounds. The results provide a new strategy to elucidate the volatile profiles and aroma wheel of scented tea

Macrophage Polarization, Metabolic Reprogramming, and Inflammatory Effects in Ischemic Heart Disease

Macrophages are highly plastic cells, and the polarization-activating actions that represent their functional focus are closely related to metabolic reprogramming. The metabolic reprogramming of macrophages manifests itself as a bias toward energy utilization, transforming their inflammatory phenotype by changing how they use energy. Metabolic reprogramming effects crosstalk with the biological processes of inflammatory action and are key to the inflammatory function of macrophages. In ischemic heart disease, phenotypic polarization and metabolic shifts in circulating recruitment and tissue-resident macrophages can influence the balance of inflammatory effects in the heart and determine disease regression and prognosis. In this review, we present the intrinsic link between macrophage polarization and metabolic reprogramming, discussing the factors that regulate macrophages in the inflammatory effects of ischemic heart disease. Our aim is to estabilsh reliable regulatory pathways that will allow us to better target the macrophage metabolic reprogramming process and improve the symptoms of ischemic heart disease

Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Clinical Characteristics, Psychological Factors, and Peripheral Cytokines

Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Psychosocial factors and low-grade colonic mucosal immune activation have been suggested to play important roles in the pathophysiology of IBS. In total, 94 patients with IBS and 13 healthy volunteers underwent a 10 g lactulose hydrogen breath test (HBT) with concurrent Tc99m scintigraphy. All participants also completed a face-to-face questionnaire survey, including the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Life Event Stress (LES), and general information. Serum tumour necrosis factor-α, interleukin- (IL-) 6, IL-8, and IL-10 levels were measured. The 89 enrolled patients with IBS and 13 healthy controls had no differences in baseline characteristics. The prevalence of SIBO in patients with IBS was higher than that in healthy controls (39% versus 8%, resp.; p=0.026). Patients with IBS had higher anxiety, depression, and LES scores, but anxiety, depression, and LES scores were similar between the SIBO-positive and SIBO-negative groups. Psychological disorders were not associated with SIBO in patients with IBS. The serum IL-10 level was significantly lower in SIBO-positive than SIBO-negative patients with IBS

Detection of Very Low-Level Somatic Mosaic COL4A5 Splicing Variant in Asymptomatic Female Using Droplet Digital PCR

BackgroundAlport syndrome is a hereditary glomerulopathy featured by haematuria, proteinuria, and progressive renal failure. X-linked Alport syndrome (XLAS) due to COL4A5 disease-causing variants is the most common form. In the case of XLAS resulting from 10–18% presumed de novo COL4A5 disease-causing variants, there are only a few studies for mosaicism in the probands or parents. Very low-level (&amp;lt;1.0%) somatic mosaicism for COL4A5 disease-causing variants has not been published.Materials and MethodsChinese XLAS families with suspected parental mosaicism were enrolled in the present study to evaluate the forms of mosaicism, to offer more appropriate genetic counseling. PCR and direct sequencing were used to detect COL4A5 disease-causing variants harbored by the affected probands in parental multi-tissue DNAs (peripheral blood, urine sediments, saliva, hair), and droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) was used to quantify the mutant COL4A5 allelic fractions in parental different samples such as peripheral blood, saliva, and urine sediments.ResultsA Chinese asymptomatic female with suspected somatic and germline mosaicism was enrolled in the present study. She gave birth to two boys with XLAS caused by a hemizygous disease-causing variant c. 2245-1G&amp;gt;A in COL4A5 (NM_033380) intron 28, whereas this disease-causing variant was not detected in genomic DNA extracted from peripheral blood leukocytes in the woman using Sanger sequencing. She had multiple normal urine test results, and continuous linear immunofluorescence staining of α2 (IV) and α5 (IV) chains of skin tissue. Sanger sequencing demonstrated that COL4A5 disease-causing variant c. 2245-1G&amp;gt;A was not detected in her genomic DNAs isolated from urine sediments, saliva, and hair roots. Using ddPCR, the wild-type and mutant-type (c.2245-1G&amp;gt;A) COL4A5 was identified in the female's genomic DNAs isolated from peripheral blood, saliva, and urine sediments. The mutant allelic fractions in these tissues were 0.26% (peripheral blood), 0.73% (saliva), and 1.39% (urine), respectively.ConclusionsGermline and very low-level somatic mosaicism for a COL4A5 splicing variant was detected in an asymptomatic female, which highlights that parental mosaicism should be excluded when a COL4A5 presumed de novo disease-causing variant is detected.</jats:sec