The YeaZ protein of V. harveyi was expressed in Escherichia coli and purified. The purified recombinant protein YeaZ exhibited the protease activity. The proteolytic activities with azocasein as substrate were 39130 U mg-1 . The mutation of the amino acid in active sites such as Asp88 , Ser185 and Trp169 were performed. The enzyme activities of the purified mutant proteins with Asp88 -Ala, Ser185 -Leu and Trp169 -Glu were decreased to 24.28%, 35.27% and 41.66%, respectively. The mutant protein with two amino acid residues (Asp88 -Ala/Ser185 -Leu) lost the protease activity completely. Addition of the purified recombinant YeaZ increased resuscitation of the viable but non-culturable state (VBNC) cells to culturable state, and the culturable cell count increased from 1.35×102 cfu ml-1 to 3.10×106 cfu ml-1 . While addition of the mutant YeaZ without protease activities did not show obvious promoting effect on resuscitation of VBNC cells. Moreover, the purified YeaZ also showed lower muralytic activity, and the activities of proteins with single amino acids mutation (Thr71 and Asp112 ) were reduced from 7.05 U mg-1 to 4.75 U mg-1 and 2.50 U mg-1 , the resuscitation promoting effect on VBNC cells was not affected by these mutant proteins. BAY-805 These results implied that resuscitation promoting effect of YeaZ on VBNC cell was partly related to its protease activities, but not with the muralytic activity. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.OBJECTIVES The objectives of this study were 1) to assess the prevalence of ultrasound features of adenomyosis in an infertile population undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF), 2) to define the inter- and intra-rater agreement in three-dimensional ultrasound (3D US) assessment of adenomyosis, and 3) to evaluate sonographic features of adenomyosis with respect to pregnancy outcomes following transfer of a single thawed euploid blastocyst. METHODS A prospective cohort study was undertaken. Subjects planning to undergo a single thawed euploid blastocyst transfer between April and December 2017 at a large IVF center were eligible for inclusion. Enrolled subjects underwent endometrial preparation for frozen embryo transfer. 3D US was performed on the day prior to embryo transfer, with images stored for subsequent evaluation. Subjects then underwent transfer of a single thawed euploid blastocyst and pregnancy outcomes were accrued. All 3D US images were de-identified and independently reviewed by five reproductivticle is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.OBJECTIVES Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common metabolic diseases. Tropisetron, as a 5-HT3 receptor antagonist, has a considerable role in the inflammation and oxidative stress lowering. This study aimed to investigate the effect of this 5-HT3 receptor antagonist on insulin secretion in male diabetic rats and the possible mechanisms. METHODS Animals were divided into five equal groups; the control, tropisetron, diabetes, tropisetron-diabetes and glibenclamide-diabetes (7 in each group). Tropisetron and glibenclamide were administrated for 2 weeks after inducing type 1 diabetes. KEY FINDINGS We demonstrated that insulin secretion improved robustly in diabetes-tropisetron compared with the diabetic group. Oxidative stress biomarkers were lower in a diabetes-tropisetron group than in diabetic rats. Simultaneously, tropisetron administration promoted the expression of ZnT8 and GLUT2 and also beta-cell mass in pancreatic tissue, while the expression of uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) was restrained. The histological evaluation confirmed our results. These effects were equipotent with glibenclamide, indicating that tropisetron can protect islets from the abnormal insulin secretion and morphological changes induced by type 1 diabetes. CONCLUSIONS This effect might be partly related to the modulated UCP2/ZnT8 signal pathway and improved oxidative stress-induced damage. © 2020 Royal Pharmaceutical Society.Genome wide association studies can identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) putatively underlying traits of interest, and nested association mapping can further assess allelic series. Near-isogenic lines (NILs) can be used to characterize, dissect, and validate QTL, but the development of NILs is costly. Previous studies have utilized limited numbers of NILs and introgression donors. We characterized a panel of 1,270 maize NILs derived from crosses between 18 diverse inbred lines and the recurrent inbred parent B73, referred to as the nested NILs (nNILs). The nNILs were phenotyped for flowering time, height, and resistance to three foliar diseases and genotyped with genotyping-by-sequencing. Across traits, broad-sense heritability (0.4-0.8) was relatively high. The 896 genotyped nNILs contain 2,638 introgressions, which span the entire genome with substantial overlap within and among allele donors. Genome wide association with the whole panel identified 29 QTL for height and disease resistance with allelic variation across donors. To date, this is the largest and most diverse publicly available panel of maize NILs to be phenotypically and genotypically characterized. The nNILs are a valuable resource for the maize community, providing an extensive collection of introgressions from the founders of the maize nested association mapping population in a B73 background combined with data on six agronomically important traits and from genotyping-by-sequencing. We demonstrate that the nNILs can be used for QTL mapping and allelic testing. The majority of nNILs had four or fewer introgressions and could readily be used for future fine mapping studies. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.The current study examines the developmental changes (internalizing and externalizing symptoms, social competence, and experiences of school climate) in children who follow distinct trajectories of peer victimization in a sample of elementary school children across 2 years. Data were from children, and their parents and teachers, in Grades 1-3 followed across five waves. Latent class analyses revealed four distinct victimization trajectory groups characterized by chronically high, increasing, decreasing, or low-stable levels across time. Multilevel analyses showed that children in the chronically high peer victimization group had higher initials levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms, lower levels of social competence, and poorer experiences of school climate compared to children in the low-stable group. Over time, children in the increasing group had slower rates of increases in social competence than children in the low-stable group and had worsening experiences of school climate compared to children in the low-stable peer victimization group.