The production of bioactive agents from lignocelluloses has received limited attention due to the fact that plant cell walls are essentially non-bioactive. In this study, we first report a chemical reaction that produces a lignin-derived antiviral substance from sugarcane bagasse by a microwave heating at 200 °C in aqueous glycerol containing 0.5% H 2 SO 4 . The purified fraction, designated as FR 200 , strongly inhibited replication of encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) in L929 cells without cytotoxicity. HSQC NMR spectra demonstrated that the principal interunit linkages in the native lignin were cleaved by the reaction. GPC and pyrolysis-GCMS revealed that FR 200 is composed of oligomeric lignin with a weight average molecular weight of approximately 2,000. When the bagasse was reacted at lower temperatures, 140 °C and 160 °C, the native lignin substructures were partially retained and the antiviral activity significantly decreased. Our results thus indicate that the antiviral activity emerged through severe alteration of the native lignin structure.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/ly2874455.html  Furthermore, it was revealed that the antiviral lignin inactivated the EMCV virions through direct contact, as the innate immune system of L929 was not activated by FR 200 treatment, and no antiviral activity was found when L929 was pre-treated with the lignin before viral infection. © 2020 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.Most neurons must last a lifetime and their microtubule cytoskeleton is an important contributor to their longevity. Neurons have some of the most stable microtubules of all cells, but the tip of every microtubule remains dynamic and, although requiring constant GTP consumption, microtubules are always being rebuilt. While some ongoing level of rebuilding always occurs, overall microtubule stability can be modulated in response to injury and stress as well as the normal developmental process of pruning. Specific microtubule severing proteins act in different contexts to increase microtubule dynamicity and promote degeneration and pruning. After axon injury, complex changes in dynamics occur and these are important for both neuroprotection induced by injury and subsequent outgrowth of a new axon. Understanding how microtubule dynamics is modulated in different scenarios, as well as the impact of the changes in stability, is an important avenue to explore for development of strategies to promote neuroprotection and regeneration. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.In drug development, treatments are most often selected at Phase 2 for further development when an initial trial of a new treatment produces a result that is considered positive. This selection due to a positive result means, however, that an estimator of the treatment effect, which does not take account of the selection is likely to over-estimate the true treatment effect (ie, will be biased). This bias can be large and researchers may face a disappointingly lower estimated treatment effect in further trials. In this paper, we review a number of methods that have been proposed to correct for this bias and introduce three new methods. We present results from applying the various methods to two examples and consider extensions of the examples. We assess the methods with respect to bias of estimation of the treatment effect and compare the probabilities that a bias-corrected treatment effect estimate will exceed a decision threshold. Following previous work, we also compare average power for the situation where a Phase 3 trial is launched given that the bias-corrected observed Phase 2 treatment effect exceeds a launch threshold. Finally, we discuss our findings and potential application of the bias correction methods. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Termites (Blattodea, Termitoidea, or Isoptera) constitute one of the major lineages of eusocial insects. In termite societies, multiple types of functional individuals, that is, castes, perform divisions of labors to coordinate social behaviors. Among other castes, the soldier caste is distinctive since it is sterile and exclusively specialized into defensive behavior with largely modified morphological features. Therefore, many of the previous studies have been focused on soldiers, in terms of ecology, behavior, and evolution as well as developmental and physiological mechanisms. This article overviews the accumulation of studies especially focusing on the developmental and physiological mechanisms underlying the soldier differentiation in termites. Furthermore, the evolutionary trajectories that have led the acquisition of soldier caste and have diversified the soldier characteristics in association with the social evolution are discussed. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.As a skeleton component of plants, lignin is a kind of organic macromolecule polymer which can be regenerated and naturally degraded. Annually, plant growth produces about 150 billion tons of lignin. In recent industrial processes, large amounts of lignin are remained as by-products, such as the paper industry and the biomass refining industry. Most of technical lignins were direct combusted to obtain heat, which not only caused by the waste of organic matter, but also led to environmental pollution and other issues. Interestingly, lignin can be used as slow release carriers and coating materials for fertilizers due to its excellent slow release property, chelating, and and other functions. Manufactures of lignin-based slow/controlled release fertilizer are studied by sustainable chemical (ammoxidation, Mannich reaction, and other chemical modification), coating (without or with chemical modification), and chelation modification. This review systematically summarizes the methods, mechanisms, and application of the above methods for preparing lignin-based slow/controlled release fertilizers. Although the evaluation standards and methods of lignin-based slow/controlled release fertilizers are not perfect, it is believed that more and more scholars will pay more attention to them to accelerate the development and application of lignin-based slow/controlled release fertilizers, so as to improve their relevant standards. In short, there is an urgent need to improve the preparation process of lignin-based slow/controlled release fertilizer, and apply lignin-based slow/controlled release fertilizer to production practice as soon as possible. © 2020 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.