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Campylobacteriosis outbreaks have previously been linked to dairy foods. While the genetic diversity of Campylobacter is well understood in high-income countries, it is largely unknown in low-income countries, such as Ethiopia. This study therefore aimed to conduct the first genomic characterization of Campylobacter isolates from the Ethiopian dairy supply chain to aid in future epidemiological studies. Fourteen C. jejuni and four C. coli isolates were whole genome sequenced using an Illumina platform. Sequences were analyzed using the bioinformatics tools in the GalaxyTrakr platform to identify MLST types, and single nucleotide polymorphisms, and infer phylogenetic relationships among the studied isolates. Assembled genomes were further screened to detect antimicrobial resistance and virulence gene sequences. Among 14 C. jejuni, ST 2084 and ST 51, which belong to the clonal complexes ST-353 and ST-443, respectively, were identified. Among the 4 sequenced C. coli isolates, two isolates belonged to ST 1628 and two to ST 830 from the clonal complex ST-828. The isolates of C. jejuni ST 2084 and ST 51 carried β-lactam resistance gene blaOXA-605, a fluoroquinolone resistance-associated mutation T86I in the gryA gene, and a macrolide resistance-associated mutation A103V in 50S L22. Only ST 2084 isolates carried the tetracycline resistance gene tetO. Conversely, all four C. coli ST 830 and ST 1628 isolates carried tetO, but only ST 1628 isolates also carried blaOXA-605. Lastly, C. jejuni ST 2084 isolates carried a total of 89 virulence genes, and ST 51 isolates carried up to 88 virulence genes. Among C. coli, ST 830 isolates carried 71 genes involved in virulence, whereas two ST 1628 isolates carried up to 82 genes involved in virulence. Isolates from all identified STs have previously been isolated from human clinical cases, demonstrating a potential food safety concern. This finding warrants further monitoring of Campylobacter in dairy foods in Ethiopia to better understand and manage the risks associated with Campylobacter contamination and transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index has been determined to play a role in the onset of metabolic syndrome (MetS). Whether the TyG index and TyG with the combination of obesity indicators are associated with the clinical outcomes of the MetS population remains unknown. Method: Participants were extracted from multiple cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1999 and 2018 years. Three indicators were constructed including TyG index, TyG combining with waist circumference (TyG-WC), and TyG combining with waist-to-height ratio (TyG-WHtR). The MetS was defined according to the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCPE) Adult Treatment Panel III. Kaplan-Meier (KM) curves, restricted cubic splines (RCS), and the Cox proportional hazard model were used to evaluate the associations between TyG-related indices and mortality of the MetS population. The sensitive analyses were performed to check the robustness of the main findings. Results: There were 10,734 participants with MetS included in this study, with 5,570 females and 5,164 males. The median age of the study population was 59 years old. The multivariate Cox regression analyses showed high levels of TyG-related indices were significantly associated with the all-cause mortality of MetS population [TyG index: adjustedhazard ratio (aHR): 1.36, 95%confidence interval (CI): 1.18–1.56, p < 0.001; TyG-WHtR index: aHR = 1.29, 95%CI: 1.13–1.47, p < 0.001]. Meanwhile, the TyG-WC and TyG-WHtR index were associated with cardiovascular mortality of the MetS population (TyG-WC: aHR = 1.45, 95%CI: 1.13–1.85, p = 0.004; TyG-WHtR: aHR = 1.50 95%CI: 1.17–1.92, p = 0.002). Three TyG-related indices showed consistent significant correlations with diabetes mortality (TyG: aHR = 4.06, 95%CI: 2.81–5.87, p < 0.001; TyG-WC: aHR = 2.55, 95%CI: 1.82–3.58, p < 0.001; TyG-WHtR: aHR = 2.53 95%CI: 1.81–3.54, p < 0.001). The RCS curves showed a non-linear trend between TyG and TyG-WC indices with all-cause mortality (p for nonlinearity = 0.004 and 0.001, respectively). The sensitive analyses supported the positive correlations between TyG-related indices with mortality of the MetS population. Conclusion: Our study highlights the clinical value of TyG-related indices in predicting the survival of the MetS population. TyG-related indices would be the surrogate biomarkers for the follow-up of the MetS population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Listeriosis caused by Listeria monocytogenes often poses a significant threat to vulnerable populations. Dairy products have been implicated in outbreaks of listeriosis worldwide. In Ethiopia, studies have identified Listeria spp. and L. monocytogenes in various dairy products, but the genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships of these bacteria remain largely unknown in the low- and middle-income countries. Therefore, we conducted whole-genome sequencing on 15 L. monocytogenes and 55 L. innocua isolates obtained from different levels of the dairy supply chains across three regions in Ethiopia. Genomes were assembled and used for MLST genotyping and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis to infer phylogenetic relationships. We identified a total of 3 L. monocytogenes (i.e., 2, 145, and 18) and 12 L. innocua (i.e., 1489, 1619, 603, 537, 1010, 3186, 492, 3007, 1087, 474, 1008, and 637) MLST sequence types among the studied isolates. Some of these sequence types showed region-specific occurrence, while others were broadly distributed across regions. Through high-quality SNP analysis, we found that among 13 L. monocytogenes identified as ST 2, 11 of them were highly similar with low genetic variation, differing by only 1 to 10 SNPs, suggesting potential selection in the dairy food supply chain. The L. innocua isolates also exhibited low intra-ST genetic variation with only 0–10 SNP differences, except for the ST 1619, which displayed a greater diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article in Liver International discusses a meta-analysis on the impact of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and its subgroup MetALD on mortality risks. While previous studies found a positive association between MASLD and all-cause mortality, recent research suggests that systemic cardiometabolic dysfunctions, rather than steatotic liver disease itself, may be the primary factor influencing clinical outcomes in MASLD. The use of surrogate equations to diagnose steatotic liver disease may lead to misestimations and immortal time bias, highlighting the need for more accurate diagnostic processes in future studies. The authors call for further research to explore the heterogeneity of cardiometabolic risk factors in MASLD and to determine more precise management strategies for this population. [Extracted from the article]

• 125 P vivax samples were genotyped at PvMSP1 and PvMSP3α. • High haplotype diversity was observed with 60 PvMSP1 and 98 PvMSP3α haplotypes. • The MOI analysis indicated high transmission intensity. • Neutrality tests and network analysis suggested a recent parasite population expansion. This study aimed to assess the baseline genetic diversity of the Plasmodium vivax population in an endemic area of northeast Myanmar at the onset of the malaria elimination campaign in the Greater Mekong Subregion. We genotyped 125 P vivax clinical samples at two merozoite surface protein loci, PvMSP1 and PvMSP3α , by amplicon deep sequencing. Our study revealed that the parasite population in this region was highly diverse, identifying 60 PvMSP1 and 98 PvMSP3α haplotypes, with haplotype diversity of 0.929 and 0.944, respectively. Remarkably, 97.6 % (122/125) of the patients harbored multiclonal infections with a mean multiplicity of infection of 4.18, indicating a relatively high transmission intensity. Neutrality tests and network analysis suggested a recent parasite population expansion, consistent with the concurrent malaria outbreak in the region. These findings underscore the existence of a highly diverse P. vivax population at the China-Myanmar border, highlighting the need for effective malaria control strategies to achieve the goal of regional malaria elimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the effect of acoustic load on electromechanical characteristics of sandwiched piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers in time and frequency domains. The acoustic load includes aluminum and steel bars. It is shown that when the length of the acoustic load satisfies positive integer multiple of half-wavelength, the first resonant frequencies generate a smaller increase. With the increase of the length and characteristic impedance of acoustic load, the first resonant frequencies, and the tailing length of the received signal are increased, while the receiving signal amplitude, effective electromechanical coupling coefficient, and mechanical quality factor are decreased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that exosomes could serve as anti-microbial immune factors in animals. However, despite growing evidences have shown that the homeostasis of the hemolymph microbiota was vital for immune regulation in crustaceans, the relationship between exosomes and hemolymph microbiota homeostasis during pathogenic bacteria infection has not been addressed. Here, we reported that exosomes released from Vibrio parahaemolyticus-infected mud crabs (Scylla paramamosain) could help to maintain the homeostasis of hemolymph microbiota and have a protective effect on the mortality of the host during the infection process. We further confirmed that miR-224 was densely packaged in these exosomes, resulting in the suppression of HSP70 and disruption of the HSP70-TRAF6 complex, then the released TRAF6 further interacted with Ecsit to regulate the production of mitochondrial ROS (mROS) and the expression of Anti-lipopolysaccharide factors (ALFs) in recipient hemocytes, which eventually affected hemolymph microbiota homeostasis in response to the pathogenic bacteria infection in mud crab. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first document that reports the role of exosome in the hemolymph microbiota homeostasis modulation during pathogen infection, which reveals the crosstalk between exosomal miRNAs and innate immune response in crustaceans. Author summary: Exosomes are small membrane vesicles of endocytic origin which are widely involved in the regulation of a variety of pathological processes in mammals. Yet, although the antibacterial function of exosomes has been discovered for many years, the relationship between exosomes and hemolymph microbiota homeostasis remains unknown. In the present study, we identified the miRNAs packaged by exosomes that were possibly involved in Vibrio parahaemolyticus infection by modulating hemolymph microbiota homeostasis in crustacean mud crab Scylla paramamosain. Moreover, it was found that miR-224 was densely packaged in exosomes after Vibrio parahaemolyticus challenge, resulting in the suppression of HSP70 and disruption of the HSP70-TRAF6 complex in recipient hemocytes, then the released TRAF6 was further interacted with Ecsit to regulate ROS and ALFs levels, which eventually affected hemolymph microbiota homeostasis to cope with pathogenic bacteria infection. Our finding is the first to reveal the relationship between exosomes and hemolymph microbiota homeostasis in animals, which shows a novel molecular mechanism of invertebrate resistance to pathogenic microbial infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LINKED CONTENT: This article is linked to Massironi et al papers. To view these articles, visit https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.16949 and https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.17552 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The full bridge high-voltage pulser for excitation of sandwiched piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers (SPUTs) used in long rail detection is designed. By using the single SPUT and pitch-catch setup test platforms, the comparison between the designed pulser and the conventional pulser is performed in time and frequency domains. Then the effect of turn-off snubber circuit on the designed pulser is investigated using simulation and experiment. To further improve power transmission efficiency for SPUTs, electrical impedance matching (EIM) network and snubber circuit are considered. Compared with the conventional pulser, the designed pulser has more superior performance which makes peak-to-peak, frequency spectrum amplitude and power spectrum density of the received signal increase 31.8%, 34.1% and 32.9%, respectively at 50 m test distance. It can be found that turn-off snubber circuit can efficiently reduce switch loss and the simulated results are well consistent with the measured ones. In addition, the combination of EIM network and snubber circuits can make power transmission efficiency higher. It can be concluded that the designed pulser can well meet the excitation requirements of SPUTs and contributes to reduce algorithm complexity and hardware costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An automatic optimal excitation frequency tracking method for SPUT is proposed. • The optimal excitation frequency is determined by analyzing the receiving signals. • The received signal energy is greatly improved under SPUT working in the frequency. Based on digital tracking filters and wireless communication technology, an automatic optimal excitation frequency tracking method for sandwiched piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers (SPUTs) is proposed. The proposed frequency tracking method uses a variable-step frequency search strategy and the optimal excitation frequency is determined by analyzing the receiving signals in time and frequency domains. Then the field test is carried out by the pitch-catch setup under different test distances: 50 m, 100 m, and 150 m. It is proved that compared with SPUTs excited at series resonance frequency, the FFT (Fast Fourier Transformation) amplitude, power spectrum density and Peak-to-Peak value are greatly improved and the maximum time-frequency energy becomes more concentrated when SPUTs are actuated at the optimal excitation frequency. Specially, the FFT amplitude, power spectrum density and Peak-to-Peak value can achieve the largest increase by 104.42%, 31.54%, 71.36%, respectively when the test distance is equal to 50 m. It can be concluded that the proposed frequency tracking method can efficiently track the optimal excitation frequency and be easy to achieve integration and automation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve high power transmission efficiency and high signal-to-noise ratio of sandwiched piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers (SPUTs) over a wide bandwidth, broadband electrical impedance matching (EIM) is investigated in-depth. Firstly, L type, T type, III type, IV type and V type EIM networks are designed and the corresponding component parameters are determined by the Smith chart with a quality factor Q constraint. Secondly, the above EIM networks are compared by reflection coefficient S 11 , transducer power gain (TPG) and active power. It is shown that they can effectively improve the TPG, and active power by two times and greatly reduce S 11. Then the emitted voltage and received voltage under different excitation frequencies and EIM networks are analyzed. It is shown that the III type network presents optimal performance, which can make the aforementioned voltage values increase by two times over entire frequency range of interest. Finally, the effect of III type and IV type networks on electromechanical characteristics is studied by using the PSpice model of SPUTs. Compared to non-matching, the electro-acoustical gain ratio is improved almost two times, while the electro-acoustical power ratio is greatly reduced. [Display omitted] • Compared to L type and T type networks, other networks have a smaller S11 value, especially for V type network. • For the emitted and received voltages, III type, IV type, and V type networks have superior performance than other networks. • The electro-acoustical gain ratio is improved almost two times when the designed III type and IV type networks are utilized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As pattern recognition receptors, C-type lectins (CTLs) play important roles in immune system of crustaceans through identifying and binding to the conservative pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) on pathogen surfaces. In this study, a new CTL, Sp CTL-B, was identified from the hemocytes of mud crab Scylla paramamosain . The full-length of Sp CTL-B cDNA was 1278 bp with an open reading frame (ORF) of 348 bp. The predicted Sp CTL-B protein contains a single carbohydrate-recognition domain (CRD). Sp CTL-B transcripts were distributed in all examined tissues with the highest levels in hepatopancreas. After challenged with Vibrio parahaemolyticus, LPS, polyI:C and white spot syndrome virus (WSSV), the mRNA levels of Sp CTL-B in hemocytes and hepatopancreas were up-regulated. The recombinant Sp CTL-B (r Sp CTL-B) purified by Ni-affinity chromatography showed stronger binding activities with Staphylococcus aureus, β- hemolytic Streptococcus, Escherichia coli , Aeromonas hydrophila, Vibrio alginolyticus than those with V. parahaemolyticus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae . r Sp CTL-B exhibited a broad spectrum of microorganism-agglutination activities against Gram-positive bacteria ( S. aureus, β- hemolytic Streptococcus ) and Gram-negative bacteria ( E. coli, V. parahaemolyticus , A. hydrophila, V. alginolyticus ) in a Ca 2+ -dependent manner. The agglutination activities of r Sp CTL-B could be inhibited by D-mannose and LPS, but not by d -fructose and galactose. The antimicrobial assay showed that r Sp CTL-B exhibited the growth inhibition against all examined gram-positive bacteria and gram-negative bacteria. When Sp CTL-B was silenced by RNAi, the bacterial clearance ability in mud crab was decreased and the transcript levels of five antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) ( Sp Crustin, Sp Histin, Sp ALF4 (anti-lipopolysaccharide factor), Sp ALF5 and Sp ALF6) were significantly decreased in hemocytes. In our study, knockdown of Sp CTL-B could down-regulate the expression of Sp STAT at mRNA transcriptional level and protein translational level in mud crab. Meantime, the phagocytosis rate and the expression of three phagocytosis related genes were declined after RNAi of Sp CTL-B in hemocytes in mud crab. Collectively, our results suggest that Sp CTL-B might play its roles as a pattern recognition receptor (PRR) in immune response towards pathogens infection through influencing the expression of AMPs and the phagocytosis of hemocytes in mud crab S. paramamosain . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the absolute quantification of breakpoint cluster region-abelson leukemia virus 1 (BCR-ABL1) fusion protein transcripts in pediatric chronic myeloid leukemia. The study involves serial dilution samples to determine the limit of detection, quantitative linearity, and reproducibility of results of each method. An assessment of the concordance of quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) is also noted.

Simple Summary: The beneficial and functional roles of the gut microbiota in maintaining host health are becoming clearer. In general, the swine intestinal bacterial population is predominated by two phyla, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, followed by Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Spirochaetes, among others. This general profile is relatively stable, although variations exhibit below the phylum level when the gut microbiota experiences dysbiosis. At weaning, dietary and environmental changes often result in gut microbiota dysbiosis, which is frequently associated with post-weaning diarrhea and enteric infections. A healthy gut microbiota possesses specific capacities involving nutrient metabolism, immunomodulation, controlling inflammation, and maintaining intestinal barrier function and structure. Manipulating the gut microbiota through diet is a useful strategy to attenuate weaning stress and restore microbiota homeostasis. Understanding the interaction between feed additives and gut microbiota would facilitate the development of effective feeding strategies to improve the gut health, growth performance, and well-being of nursery pigs. This review summarizes certain feed additives, which are used to modulate gut microbiota with some success. Weaning is one of the most stressful events in the life of a pig. Unsuccessful weaning often leads to intestinal and immune system dysfunctions, resulting in poor growth performance as well as increased morbidity and mortality. The gut microbiota community is a complex ecosystem and is considered an "organ," producing various metabolites with many beneficial functions. In this review, we briefly introduce weaning-associated gut microbiota dysbiosis. Then, we explain the importance of maintaining a balanced gut microbiota. Finally, we discuss dietary supplements and their abilities to restore intestinal balance and improve the growth performance of weaning pigs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A short-term wind power prediction model based on BiLSTM–CNN–WGAN-GP (LCWGAN-GP) is proposed in this paper, aiming at the problems of instability and low prediction accuracy of short-term wind power prediction. Firstly, the original wind energy data are decomposed into subsequences of natural mode functions with different frequencies by using the variational mode decomposition (VMD) algorithm. The VMD algorithm relies on a decision support system for the decomposition of the data into natural mode functions. Once the decomposition is performed, the nonlinear and dynamic behavior are extracted from each natural mode function. Next, the BiLSTM network is chosen as the generation model of the generative adversarial network (WGAN-GP) to obtain the data distribution characteristics of wind power's output. The convolutional neural network (CNN) is chosen as the discrimination model, and the semi-supervised regression layer is utilized to design the discrimination model to predict wind power. The minimum–maximum game is formed by the BiLSTM and CNN network models to improve the quality of sample generation and further improve the prediction accuracy. Finally, the actual data of a wind farm in Jiuquan City, Gansu Province, China is taken as an example to prove that the proposed method has superior performance compared with other prediction algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rail defects cause numerous railway accidents. Trains are derailed and serious consequences often occur. Compared to traditional bulk wave testing, ultrasonic guided waves (UGWs) can provide larger monitoring ranges and complete coverage of the waveguide cross-section. These advantages are of significant importance for the non-destructive testing (NDT) of the continuously welded rail, and the technique is therefore widely used in high-speed railways. UGWs in continuous welded rail (CWR) and their propagation characteristics have been discussed in this paper. Finite element methods (FEMs) were used to accomplish a vibration modal analysis, which is extended by a subsequent dispersion analysis. Wave structure features were illustrated by displacement profiles. It was concluded that guided waves have the ability to detect defects in the rail via choice of proper mode and frequency. Additionally, thermal conduction that is caused by temperature variation in the rail is added into modeling and simulation. The results indicated that unbalanced thermal distribution may lead to the attenuation of UGWs in the rail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, β-Cu 2+x Se/SiC nano-multilayer films with different modulation period were successfully deposited on SiO 2 /Si substrates by sputtering alternately using Cu–Se and SiC targets. The deposited films were observed on both surface and cross-section, and the thermoelectric properties were studied. The results show that both carrier concentration and mobility at room temperature decreased with the reducing modulation period for the nano-multilayer films. The conductivity slightly decreased and Seebeck coefficient greatly increased with the reducing modulation period. As a result of competition, the power factor of the nano multilayer films increased with the reducing modulation period because the positive effect of the Seebeck coefficient exceeded the negative effect of the conductivity. In the case of β-Cu 2+x Se/SiC nano multilayer film with the smallest modulation periods (210 ​nm), the power factor reached 0.39 ​mWm−1K−2 and 0.59 ​mWm−1K−2 at room temperature and 325 ​°C, respectively. The enhanced power factor for nano multilayer films is attributed to the scattering process at the β-Cu 2+x Se/SiC layer interface, which reduces the carrier concentration and the mobility. It is concluded that the thermoelectric properties of β-Cu 2+x Se films can be effectively improved by designing nano multilayer structure. [Display omitted] • β-Cu 2+x Se/SiC nano-multilayer films were prepared on Si substrates by sputtering. • The carrier concentration and the mobility decreased with the reducing modulation period. • The conductivity reduced and Seebeck coefficient enhanced by the inserting interface. • An increase in power factor is attributed to the scattering at β-Cu 2+x Se/SiC interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To develop a rapid detectionmethod of Staphylococcus aureus using loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), four specific primers were designed according to six distinct sequences of the nuc gene. In addition, the specificity and sensitivity of LAMP were verified and compared with those of PCR. Results showed that the LAMP reaction was completed within 45 min at 62.5°C, and ladder bands were appeared in LAMP products analyzed by gel electrophoresis. After adding 1x SYBR Green l, the positive reaction tube showed green color and the negative reaction tube remained orange, indicating that the LAMP has high specificity. The minimal detectable concentration of LAMP was 1 × 10² CFU/mL and that of PCR was 1 × 104 CFU/mL, indicating that the LAMP was 100 timesmore sensitive than the PCR. The LAMP method for detection of Staphylococcus aureus hasmany advantages, such as simple operation, high sensitivity, high specificity, and rapid analysis. Therefore, this method is more suitable for the rapid on-site detection of Staphylococcus aureus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To develop a rapid detectionmethod of Staphylococcus aureus using loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), four specific primers were designed according to six distinct sequences of the nuc gene. In addition, the specificity and sensitivity of LAMP were verified and compared with those of PCR. Results showed that the LAMP reaction was completed within 45 min at 62.5°C, and ladder bands were appeared in LAMP products analyzed by gel electrophoresis. After adding 1x SYBR Green l, the positive reaction tube showed green color and the negative reaction tube remained orange, indicating that the LAMP has high specificity. The minimal detectable concentration of LAMP was 1 × 10² CFU/mL and that of PCR was 1 × 104 CFU/mL, indicating that the LAMP was 100 timesmore sensitive than the PCR. The LAMP method for detection of Staphylococcus aureus hasmany advantages, such as simple operation, high sensitivity, high specificity, and rapid analysis. Therefore, this method is more suitable for the rapid on-site detection of Staphylococcus aureus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The application of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) to improve swine growth performance has been sporadically studied. Most of these studies used a single microbiota source and thus the effect of donor characteristics on recipient pigs' fecal microbiota development and growth performance is largely unknown. Results: In this study, we collected feces from six donors with heavy (H) or light (L) body weight and different ages (d 42, nursery; d 96, growing; and d 170, finisher) to evaluate their effects on the growth performance and fecal microbiota development of recipient pigs. Generally, recipients that received two doses of FMT from nursery and finisher stages donor at weaning (21 ± 2 days of age) inherited the donor's growth pattern, while the pigs gavaged with grower stage material exerted a numerically greater weight gain than the control pigs regardless of donor BW. FMT from heavier donors (NH, GH, and FH) led to the recipients to have numerically increased growth compared to their lighter counterparts (NL, GL, and FL, respectively) throughout the growing and most finishing stages. This benefit could be attributed to the enrichment of ASV25 Faecalibacterium, ASV61 Faecalibacterium, ASV438 Coriobacteriaceae_unclassified, ASV144 Bulleidia, and ASV129 Oribacterium and decrease of ASV13 Escherichia during nursery stage. Fecal microbiota transplantation from growing and finishing donors influenced the microbial community significantly in recipient pigs during the nursery stage. FMT of older donors' gut microbiota expedited recipients' microbiota maturity on d 35 and 49, indicated by increased estimated microbiota ages. The age-associated bacterial taxa included ASV206 Ruminococcaceae, ASV211 Butyrivibrio, ASV416 Bacteroides, ASV2 Streptococcus, and ASV291 Veillonellaceae. The body weight differences between GL and GH pigs on d 104 were associated with the increased synthesis of the essential amino acid, lysine and methionine, mixed acid fermentation, expedited glycolysis, and sucrose/galactose degradation. Conclusions: Overall, our study provided insights into how donor age and body weight affect FMT outcomes regarding growth performance, microbiota community shifts, and lower GI tract metabolic potentials. This study also provided guidance to select qualified donors for future fecal microbiota transplantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dental fluorosis is a very prevalent endemic disease. Although oral microbiome has been reported to correlate with different oral diseases, there appears to be an absence of research recognizing any relationship between the severity of dental fluorosis and the oral microbiome. To this end, we investigated the changes in oral microbial community structure and identified bacterial species associated with moderate and severe dental fluorosis. Salivary samples of 42 individuals, assigned into Healthy (N = 9), Mild (N = 14) and Moderate/Severe (M&S, N = 19), were investigated using the V4 region of 16S rRNA gene. The oral microbial community structure based on Bray Curtis and Weighted Unifrac were significantly changed in the M&S group compared with both of Healthy and Mild. As the predominant phyla, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes showed variation in the relative abundance among groups. The Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes (F/B) ratio was significantly higher in the M&S group. LEfSe analysis was used to identify differentially represented taxa at the species level. Several genera such as Streptococcus mitis, Gemella parahaemolysans, Lactococcus lactis, and Fusobacterium nucleatum, were significantly more abundant in patients with moderate/severe dental fluorosis, while Prevotella melaninogenica and Schaalia odontolytica were enriched in the Healthy group. In conclusion, our study indicates oral microbiome shift in patients with moderate/severe dental fluorosis. We identified several differentially represented bacterial species enriched in moderate and severe fluorosis. Findings from this study suggests that the roles of these bacteria in oral health and related diseases warrant more consideration in patients with moderate and severe fluorosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The greatest impact on profitability of a commercial beef operation is reproduction. However, in beef heifers, little is known about the vaginal and fecal microbiota with respect to their relationship with fertility. To this end, we followed heifers through gestation to examine the dynamics of vaginal and fecal microbial composition throughout pregnancy. Results: Heifers were exposed to an estrus synchronization protocol, observed over a 12-day period, artificially inseminated 12 h to 18 h after observed estrus, and subsequently exposed to bulls for a 50-day breeding season. Vaginal samples were taken at pre-breeding (n = 72), during the first (n = 72), and second trimester (n = 72) for all individuals, and third trimester for individuals with confirmed pregnancies (n = 56). Fecal samples were taken at pre-breeding (n = 32) and during the first trimester (n = 32), including bred and open individuals. Next generation sequencing of the V4 region of the16S rRNA gene via the Illumina MiSeq platform was applied to all samples. Shannon indices and the number of observed bacterial features were the same in fecal samples. However, significant differences in vaginal microbiome diversity between gestation stages were observed. No differences in beta-diversity were detected in vaginal or fecal samples regarding pregnancy status, but such differences were seen with fecal microbiome over time. Random Forest was developed to identify predictors of pregnancy status in vaginal (e.g., Histophilus, Clostridiaceae, Campylobacter) and fecal (e.g., Bacteroidales, Dorea) samples. Conclusions: Our study shows that bovine vaginal and fecal microbiome could be used as biomarkers of bovine reproduction. Further experiments are needed to validate these biomarkers and to examine their roles in a female's ability to establish pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Camera pose estimation from 3D points and their 2D projections, known as the perspective- n -point (P n P) problem, is a fundamental task in computer vision. In this paper, we propose a robust direct linear transformation method for the PnP problem. The novelty lies in that a plane constraint based on the pinhole camera model is introduced, and an over-constrained linear equation system is obtained by merging the linear form of both the measured point correspondences and the plane constraint. As a result, our method successfully reduces the minimal number of point correspondences required by the linear solver to 4, and yields a unique solution for 4-point, 5-point, and n-point pose estimation. Experiment results, using both synthetic and real data, show that our method is substantially faster, and offers the accuracy and precision comparable with that of state-of-the-art methods. • A plane constraint is introduced to add the information redundancy. • The proposed method yields a unique solution to the PnP problem. • The proposed method reduces the minimal required point correspondences to 4. • The proposed method has high accuracy and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inspection of rail defects is of importance in high-speed railway operation and maintenance. As a highly efficient method for both nondestructive testing and structural health monitoring of the rail, ultrasonic guided waves (UGWs) inspection provide increased sensitivity to smaller defects. These advantages can be fully exploited only if the complexities of UGWs propagation between the medium of air and rail are unveiled and managed for the given inspection method. The development and validation of modeling procedure for the rail based on coupled structural–acoustic model is presented in this paper. Acoustic–structure interaction between air and rail is simulated based on COMSOL Multiphysics software. The transient response and natural characteristics of UGWs in the rail was computed and predicted. Moreover, the displacement distribution of UGWs in the defective rail and nondefective rail are analyzed both in time and frequency domain. A feasible method for detecting small defects in the rail is proposed in the paper. The results indicated that a defect of 8 mm in rail head can be inspected effectively using UGWs with frequencies of 40 kHz and above. And for small defects in rail web, the X-crystallographic direction ultrasonic transducer should be chosen for inspection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tolls and Toll-like receptors (TLRs) were the first pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) identified to play key roles in host innate immunity. However, relatively little is known about other types of Toll-like receptors in Scylla paramamosain , although a Toll-like receptor ( Sp Toll1) has recently been cloned. In this study, we cloned and characterized another novel Toll-like receptor 2 ( Sp Toll2) from S. paramamosain . The full-length cDNA of Sp Toll2 is 3391 bp with a 2646 bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding a putative protein of 881 amino acids, and predicted to contain six extracellular leucine-rich repeat (LRR) domains, a transmembrane domain and an intracellular Toll/IL-1 receptor (TIR) domain. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that Sp Toll2 clustered with Drosophila Toll1, and shared high homology with Pt Toll4. Real-time qPCR analysis showed that Sp Toll2 was widely expressed in all tissues tested, with the highest level found in hemocytes and hepatopancreas while the lowest in heart and muscle. The transcript levels of both Sp Toll1 and Sp Toll2 in mud crabs hemocytes was induced following challenge with Vibrio parahaemolyticus , Staphylococcus aureus , Polyinosinic: polycytidylic acid (Poly I:C) and white spot syndrome virus (WSSV). In addition, recombinant Sp Toll1-LRR and Sp Toll2-LRR proteins could bind to V. parahaemolyticus , S. aureus , Escherichia coli , and Beta Streptococcus . In order to study the signaling pathway of AMPs' expression in mud crab, RNA interference were used to test the expression of Sp AMPs after the challenges with V. parahaemolyticus or S. aureus . The data suggested that Sp Toll1and Sp Toll2 could regulate the transcripts of several AMPs and four immune related mediators ( Sp MyD88, Sp Tube, Sp Pelle and Sp TRAF6) at different scale. While silencing of Sp Toll1 post pathogens challenge attenuated the expression of Sp Histin, Sp ALF1 and Sp ALF5 in mud crab's hemocytes, depletion of Sp Toll2 post pathogens challenge inhibited the expression of Sp ALF1-6, Sp GRP, Sp Arasin and Sp Hyastastin. Furthermore, the results of overexpression assay also showed Sp Toll1 and Sp Toll2 could enhance the promoter activities of Sp ALFs in mud crab. Taken together, these results indicated that Sp Toll1 and Sp Toll2 might play important roles in host defense against pathogen invasions in S. paramamosain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Few studies on cluster-based synthetic effects of multiple risk factors for birth defects have been reported. The present study aimed to identify maternal exposure clusters, explore the association between clusters of risk factors and birth defects, and further screen women with high risk for birth defects among expectant mothers.Methods: Data were drawn from a large-scale, retrospective epidemiological survey of birth defects from 2006 to 2008 in six counties of Shanxi Province, China, using a three-level stratified random cluster sampling technique. Overall risk factors were extracted using eight synthetic variables summed and examined as a total risk factor score: maternal delivery age, genetic factors, medical history, nutrition and folic acid deficiency, maternal illness in pregnancy, drug use in pregnancy, environmental risk factors in pregnancy, and unhealthy maternal lifestyle in pregnancy. Latent class cluster analysis was used to identify maternal exposure clusters based on these synthetic variables. Adjusted odds ratios (AOR) were used to explore associations between clusters and birth defects, after adjusting for confounding variables using logistic regression.Results: Three latent maternal exposure clusters were identified: a high-risk (6.15%), a moderate-risk (22.39%), and a low-risk (71.46%) cluster. The prevalence of birth defects was 14.08%, 0.85%, and 0.52% for the high-, middle- and low-risk clusters respectively. After adjusting for maternal demographic variables, women in the high-risk cluster were nearly 31 times (AOR: 30.61, 95% CI: [24.87, 37.67]) more likely to have an infant with birth defects than low-risk women.Conclusions: A high-risk group of mothers in an area with a high risk for birth defects were screened in our study. Targeted interventions should be conducted with women of reproductive age to improve neonatal birth outcomes in areas with a high risk of birth defects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Poultry litter and wheat straw were used for anaerobic co-digestion (ACoD). • The ACoD was creatively started up by gradually increasing organic loading rate. • The started ACoD process showed continuous methane production performance. • Overall microbial community and the archaeal community were both analyzed. • The dominant methanogen, aceticlastic Methanosaeta , was enriched. Anaerobic co-digestion (ACoD) of poultry litter (PL) and wheat straw (WS) in an anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR) for continuous bio-energy generation was started up for the first time by gradually increasing the organic loading rate (OLR). A steady-state was reached with a daily biogas production of (13.06 ± 0.21) L and methane content of (54.38 ± 0.53) %. The subsequent regular operation achieved a daily methane yield of (100.41–188.65) mL CH 4 /g VS added and a total chemical oxygen demand (tCOD) removal rate of (70.3–85.9) % in the effluent under different operating parameters. The overall microbial community became more uniform, and the dominant aceticlastic methanogen of Methanosaeta was enriched after the start-up. While the microbial community was largely stable in the overall structure since the regular operation. Therefore, the start-up of the ACoD of PL and WS was successful with stable and continuous methane production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adolescent differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) is a rare type of thyroid cancer that represents a special entity of all endocrine-related cancer. This study aims to establish the first nomogram for predicting the regional (central and lateral) lymph node metastasis (LNM) in the adolescent population for better surgical management.Method: We retrospectively reviewed the clinicopathology characteristics of adolescent patients with DTC in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database between 2010 and 2015.Results: A total of 1,930 adolescent patients between the ages of 10 and 24 years from the SEER database were enrolled in this study. Six predictive factors including age, race, histology, multifocality, extrathyroidal invasion (EI) and tumor size were identified to be significantly associated with the regional LNM via univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. These indicators were used to construct a nomogram for predicting the regional LNM in adolescent patients with DTC. Moreover, a satisfied predictive ability of the model was determined with a C-index of 0.794, supported by an internal validation group with a C-index of 0.776. The Decision Curve Analysis and calibration curve further conducted a great agreement in our model.Conclusion: The first predictive model containing multiple factors has been successfully established with good discrimination for predicting the regional LNM in adolescent patients with DTC. This nomogram could effectively help surgeons to make better individualized surgical decision intraoperatively, especially in terms of whether cervical lymph node dissection (LND) is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Archaea is identified as the key link in the interaction between gut microbiota and host metabo-lism. Studies on human and mice have reported archaea, especially methanogenic archaea, makes an important impact on the energy harvesting capacity of the host by improving fermentation. But, in pigs, the metabolic potential of archaea at different production stages are still largely unknown. Herein, we re-analyzed 276 metagenomic samples to explore the diversity, composi-tion, and potential functions of archaea in pigs. The results showed significant regional variations in archaeal composition. Furthermore, the Metacyc pathway related to hydrogen consumption (METHANOGENESIS-PWY) was only observed in archaeal reads, and archaea may be involved in carbohydrate metabolism and de novo synthesis of some kinds of essential amino acid. Overall, metagenomic re-analysis revealed that the composition and functional potential of archaea in the swine gut and suggested that archaea may make an important function in pigs. Archaea are an essential class of gut microorganisms in humans and animals. Despite the substantial progress in gut microbiome research in the last decade, most studies have focused on bacteria, and little is known about archaea in mammals. In this study, we investigated the composition, diversity, and functional potential of gut archaeal communities in pigs by re-analyzing a published metagenomic dataset including a total of 276 fecal samples from three countries: China (n = 76), Denmark (n = 100), and France (n = 100). For alpha diversity (Shannon Index) of the archaeal communities, Chinese pigs were less diverse than Danish and French pigs (p < 0.001). Consistently, Chinese pigs also possessed different archaeal community structures from the other two groups based on the Bray–Curtis distance matrix. Methanobrevibacter was the most dominant archaeal genus in Chinese pigs (44.94%) and French pigs (15.41%), while Candidatus methanomethylophilus was the most predominant in Danish pigs (15.71%). At the species level, the relative abundance of Candidatus methanomethylophilus alvus, Natrialbaceae archaeon XQ INN 246, and Methanobrevibacter gottschalkii were greatest in Danish, French, and Chinese pigs with a relative abundance of 14.32, 11.67, and 16.28%, respectively. In terms of metabolic potential, the top three pathways in the archaeal communities included the MetaCyc pathway related to the biosynthesis of L-valine, L-isoleucine, and isobutanol. Interestingly, the pathway related to hydrogen consumption (METHANOGENESIS-PWY) was only observed in archaeal reads, while the pathways participating in hydrogen production (FERMENTATION-PWY and PWY4LZ-257) were only detected in bacterial reads. Archaeal communities also possessed CAZyme gene families, with the top five being AA3, GH43, GT2, AA6, and CE9. In terms of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), the class of multidrug resistance was the most abundant ARG, accounting for 87.41% of archaeal ARG hits. Our study reveals the diverse composition and metabolic functions of archaea in pigs, suggesting that archaea might play important roles in swine nutrition and metabolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]