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Light-flavor Baijiu (LFB) fermentation is a representative spontaneous mixedculture solid-state fermentation process in which sorghum is used as the raw material. Raw materials and microorganisms are crucial to the flavor formation and quality of LFB. However, the microbial and physicochemical dynamics of different sorghum varieties during LFB fermentation, as well as their impact on flavor compounds are still largely unknown. Herein, PacBio single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing and headspace solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) were applied to investigate microbial community succession and volatile flavor formation in glutinous/non-glutinous sorghum-based fermented grains during LFB fermentation. Fermented grains made of glutinous sorghum Liangnuo No. 1 (GLN) had higher bacterial α-diversity and lower fungal α-diversity than those with fermented grains prepared with non-glutinous red sorghum (NRS) (p < 0.05). The dominant microbial species were Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Acetobacter pasteurinus, and Lactobacillus helveticus, the latter two of which were the predominant bacteria observed at the end of fermentation in GLN and NRS, respectively. Moisture content and reducing sugar had a more significant impact on the microorganisms in GLN, while amino acid nitrogen, total free amino acids, and residual starch were the main driving factors driving the microbial community in NRS. The correlation network and discriminant analysis indicated that a relatively high content of 4-vinylguaiacol showed a significant positive association with significant differential microbial species in GLN. These results provided valuable insights for improving the quality of LFB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Green-covering and red-heart" Guanyin Tuqu (GRTQ), as a type of special fermentation starter, is characterized by the "green-covering" formed on the surface of Guanyin Tuqu (SQ) and the "red-heart" in the center of Guanyin Tuqu (CQ). However, the mechanisms that promote temporal succession in the GRTQ microbial ecology and the formation of "green-covering and red-heart" characteristics remain unclear. Herein, we correlated the temporal profiles of microbial community succession with the main environmental variables (temperature, moisture, and acidity) and spatial position (center and surface) in GRTQ throughout fermentation. According to the results of high-throughput sequencing and culture-dependent methods, the microbial communities in the CQ and SQ demonstrated functional complementarity. For instance, the bacterial richness index of the CQ was greater than that of SQ, and the fungal richness index of the SQ was greater than that of CQ at the later stage of fermentation. Furthermore, Saccharomycopsis, Saccharomyces, Aspergillus, Monascus, Lactobacillus, Bacillus, Rhodanobacter, and Chitinophaga were identified as the dominant microorganisms in the center, while the surface was represented by Saccharomycopsis, Aspergillus, Monascus, Lactobacillus, Acetobacter, and Weissella. By revealing the physiological characteristics of core microorganisms at different spatial positions of GRTQ, such as Aspergillus clavatus and Monascus purpureus, as well as their interactions with environmental factors, we elucidated the color formation mechanism behind the phenomenon of "green" outside and "red" inside. This study provides fundamental information support for optimizing the production process of GRTQ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early weaning leads to weaning stress in calves, which hinders healthy growth and development. As an excellent sweetener applied in food, steviol glycosides (STE) has also been shown to exhibit positive biological activity in monogastric animals. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the impact of incorporating STE as a dietary supplement on rumen development, fermentation, and microbiota of rumen in weaned calves. This study selected 24 healthy Holstein bull calves and randomly allocated them into two groups (CON and STE). The results indicated that supplementation STE group improved rumen development in weaned calves, as demonstrated by a marked increase in the weight of the rumen, as well as the length and surface area of the rumen papilla. Compared with the CON group, the concentrations of total volatile fatty acids (TVFA), propionate, butyrate, and valerate were higher in the STE group. Moreover, STE treatment increased the relative abundance of Firmicutes and Actinobacteria at the phylum level. At the genus level, the STE group showed a significantly increased relative abundance of Succiniclasticum, Lachnospiraceae_NK3A20_ group, and Olsenella, and a decreased relative abundance of Acinetobacter compared to the CON group. Pusillimonas, Lachnospiraceae_NK3A20_group, Olsenella, and Succiniclasticum were significantly enriched in rumen chyme after supplementation with STE, as demonstrated by LEfSe analysis. Overall, our findings revealed that rumen bacterial communities altered in response to the dietary supplementation with STE, and some bacterial taxa in these communities may have positive effects on rumen development during this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formaldehyde is susceptible to illegal addition to foodstuffs to extend their shelf life due to its antimicrobial, preservative and bleaching properties. In this study, a self-supporting "nanosheet on nanosheet" arrays electrocatalyst with core-shell heterostructure was prepared in situ by coupling NiCo layer double hydroxide with 2D ZIF derived Co-nitrogen-doped porous carbon on carbon cloth (Co-N/C@NiCo-LDH NSAs/CC). Co-N/C nanosheet arrays act as a scaffold core with good electrical conductivity, providing more NiCo-LDH nucleation sites to avoid NiCo-LDH agglomeration, thus having fast mass/charge transfer performance. While the NiCo-LDH nanosheet arrays shell with high specific surface area provide more active sites for electrochemical reactions. As an electrocatalytic sensing electrode, Co-N/C@NiCo-LDH NSAs/CC has a wide linear range of 1 µM to 13 mM for formaldehyde detection, and the detection limit is 82 nM. Besides, the sensor has been applied to the detection of formaldehyde in food samples with satisfactory results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aim: Vancomycin, a glycopeptide antimicrobial drug. PPK has problems such as difficulty in accurately reflecting inter-individual differences, and the PPK model may not be accurate enough to predict individual pharmacokinetic parameters. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate whether the application of machine learning combined with the PPK method can improve the prediction of vancomycin CL in adult Chinese patients. Methods: In the first step, a vancomycin CL prediction model for Chinese adult patients is given by PPK and Hamilton Monte Carlo sampling is used to obtain the reference CL of 1,000 patients; the second step is to obtain the final prediction model by machine learning using an appropriate model for the predictive factor and the reference CL; and the third step is to randomly select, in the simulated data, a total of 250 patients for prediction effect evaluation. Results: XGBoost model is selected as final machine learning model. More than four-fifths of the subjects' predictive values regarding vancomycin CL are improved by machine learning combined with PPK. Machine learning combined with PPK models is more stable in performance than the PPK method alone for predicting models. Conclusion: The first combination of PPK and machine learning for predictive modeling of vancomycin clearance in adult patients. It provides a reference for clinical pharmacists or clinicians to optimize the initial dosage given to ensure the effectiveness and safety of drug therapy for each patient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hay fever, characterized by seasonal allergic reactions, poses a significant health challenge. Existing therapies encompass standard drug regimens, biological agents, and specific immunotherapy. This study aims to assess and compare the effectiveness of anti-IgE (omalizumab), medication therapy, and subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT) for hay fever. Methods: Conducted as a retrospective cohort study, this research involved 98 outpatient hay fever patients who underwent routine medication, omalizumab treatment, or SCIT before the onset of the spring pollen season. A follow-up was performed one month after the start of the pollen season. The comprehensive symptoms and drug scores were used to evaluate patients with different intervention methods, facilitating a comparative analysis of therapeutic outcomes. Results: Compared with before treatment, the symptoms of patients treated with the three methods were all significantly relieved, and the medication score were significantly reduced. Patients treated with omalizumab demonstrated higher symptoms and medication scores than SCIT group before treatment, but similar scores after treatment, which were both lower than medicine treatment group. After treatment with omalizumab or SCIT, patients in both groups had significantly lower medication scores than the medication group and were close to no longer using medication for symptom relief. The mountain juniper-sIgE was significantly higher after treatment than before treatment in both medicine treatment group and omalizumab treatment group. Conclusion: Omalizumab and SCIT offer superior effects than medication therapy in hay fever patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acne vulgaris, one of the most common skin diseases, is a chronic cutaneous inflammation of the upper pilosebaceous unit (PSU) with complex pathogenesis. Inflammation plays a central role in the pathogenesis of acne vulgaris. During the inflammatory process, the innate and adaptive immune systems are coordinately activated to induce immune responses. Understanding the infiltration and cytokine secretion of differential cells in acne lesions, especially in the early stages of inflammation, will provide an insight into the pathogenesis of acne. The purpose of this review is to synthesize the association of different cell types with inflammation in early acne vulgaris and provide a comprehensive understanding of skin inflammation and immune responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyclic GMP-AMP synthetase (cGAS), recognized as the primary DNA sensor within cells, possesses the capability to identify foreign DNA molecules along with free DNA fragments. This identification process facilitates the production of type I IFNs through the activator of the interferon gene (STING) which induces the phosphorylation of downstream transcription factors. This action characterizes the most archetypal biological functionality of the cGAS-STING pathway. When treated with anti-tumor agents, cells experience DNA damage that triggers activation of the cGAS-STING pathway, culminating in the expression of type I IFNs and associated downstream interferon-stimulated genes. cGAS-STING is one of the important innate immune pathways, the role of type I IFNs in the articulation between innate immunity and T-cell antitumour immunity.type I IFNs promote the recruitment and activation of inflammatory cells (including NK cells) at the tumor site. Type I IFNs also can promote the activation and maturation of dendritic cel(DC), improve the antigen presentation of CD4+T lymphocytes, and enhance the cross-presentation of CD8+T lymphocytes to upregulating anti-tumor responses. This review discussed the cGAS-STING signaling and its mechanism and biological function in traditional tumor therapy and immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern pollen datasets are essential for pollen-based quantitative paleoclimate (e.g. precipitation) reconstructions, which can aid to better understand recent climate change and its underlying forcing mechanisms. A modern pollen dataset based on surface sediments from 90 lakes in the shrub, meadow, steppe and desert regions of the central and western Tibetan Plateau (TP) was established to fill geographical gaps left by previous datasets. Ordination analyses of pollen data and climatic parameters revealed that annual precipitation is the dominant factor for modern pollen distribution on the central and western TP. A regional transfer function for annual precipitation was developed with the weighted averaging partial least squares (WAPLS), which suggests a good inference power of the modern pollen dataset for annual precipitation. A case study in which the transfer function was effectively applied to a fossil pollen record from Lake Tangra Yumco on the central TP for paleoprecipitation reconstruction demonstrated the significance of the modern pollen dataset in less data region for paleoclimate change studies. Data from this study are openly available via the Zenodo portal (Ma et al., 2023; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8008474). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lung cancer patients tend to have strong intratumoral and intertumoral heterogeneity and complex tumor microenvironment, which are major contributors to the efficacy of and drug resistance to immunotherapy. From a new perspective, single-cell techniques offer an innovative way to look at the intricate cellular interactions between tumors and the immune system and help us gain insights into lung cancer and its response to immunotherapy. This article reviews the application of single-cell techniques in lung cancer, with focuses directed on the heterogeneity of lung cancer and the efficacy of immunotherapy. This review provides both theoretical and experimental information for the future development of immunotherapy and personalized treatment for the management of lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: There is controversial evidence that FMR1 premutation or "gray zone" (GZ) allele (small CGG expansion, 45-54 repeats) was associated with Parkinson's disease (PD). We aimed to explore further the association between FMR1 CGG repeat expansions and PD in a large sample of Chinese origin. Methods: We included a cohort of 2,362 PD patients and 1,072 controls from the Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Multicenter Database and Collaborative Network in China (PD-MDCNC) in this study and conducted repeat-primed polymerase chain reaction (RP-PCR) for the size of FMR1 CGG repeat expansions. Results: Two PD patients were detected with FMR1 premutation (61 and 56 repeats), and the other eleven PD patients were detected with the GZ allele of FMR1 CGG repeat expansions. Those thirteen PD patients responded well to levodopa and were diagnosed with clinically established PD. Specifically, one female PD patient with GZ allele was also found with premature ovarian failure. However, compared to healthy controls, we found no significant enrichment of GZ allele carriers in PD patients or other subgroups of PD cases, including the subgroups of female, male, early-onset, and late-onset PD patients. Furthermore, we did not find any correlation between the FMR1 gene CGG repeat sizes and age at onset of PD. Conclusion: It suggested that FMR1 premutation was related to PD, but the GZ allele of FMR1 CGG repeat expansions was not significantly enriched in PD cases of Chinese origin. Further larger multiple ethnic studies are needed to determine further the role of the FMR1 GZ allele in PD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims/hypothesis: It is widely thought that the intestinal microbiota plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of metabolic disorders. However, the gut microbiota composition and characteristics of schizophrenia patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS) have been largely understudied. Herein, we investigated the association between the metabolic status of mainland Chinese schizophrenia patients with MetS and the intestinal microbiome. Methods: Fecal microbiota communities from 115 male schizophrenia patients (57 with MetS and 58 without MetS) were assessed by 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing. We assessed the variations of gut microbiome between both groups and explored potential associations between intestinal microbiota and parameters of MetS. In addition, the Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt) based on the KEGG database was used to predict the function of intestinal microbiota. We also conducted Decision Tree Analysis to develop a diagnostic model for the MetS in patients with schizophrenia based on the composition of intestinal microbiota. Results: The fecal microbial diversity significantly differed between groups with or without MetS (a-diversity (Shannon index and Simpson index): p=0.0155, p=0.0089; b-diversity: p=0.001). Moreover, the microbial composition was significantly different between the two groups, involving five phyla and 38 genera (p<0.05). In addition, a significant correlation was observed between the metabolic-related parameters and abundance of altered microbiota including HDL-c (r2 = 0.203, p=0.0005), GLU (r2 = 0.286, p=0.0005) and WC (r2 = 0.061, p=0.037). Furthermore, KEGG pathway analysis showed that 16 signaling pathways were significantly enriched between the two groups (p<0.05). Importantly, our diagnostic model based on five microorganisms established by decision tree analysis could effectively distinguish between patients with and without MetS (AUC = 0.94). Conclusions/interpretation: Our study established the compositional and functional characteristics of intestinal microbiota in schizophrenia patients with MetS. These new findings provide novel insights into a better understanding of this disease and provide the theoretical basis for implementing new interventional therapies in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depression and macrovascular diseases are globally recognized as significant disorders that pose a substantial socioeconomic burden because of their associated disability and mortality. In addition, comorbidities between depression and macrovascular diseases have been widely reported in clinical settings. Patients afflicted with coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease or peripheral artery disease exhibit an elevated propensity for depressive symptoms. These symptoms, in turn, augment the risk of macrovascular diseases, thereby reflecting a bidirectional relationship. This review examines the physiological and pathological mechanisms behind comorbidity while also examining the intricate connection between depression and macrovascular diseases. The present mechanisms are significantly impacted by atypical activity in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Elevated levels of cortisol and other hormones may disrupt normal endothelial cell function, resulting in vascular narrowing. At the same time, proinflammatory cytokines like interleukin-1 and C-reactive protein have been shown to disrupt the normal function of neurons and microglia by affecting blood-brain barrier permeability in the brain, exacerbating depressive symptoms. In addition, platelet hyperactivation or aggregation, endothelial dysfunction, and autonomic nervous system dysfunction are important comorbidity mechanisms. Collectively, these mechanisms provide a plausible physiological basis for the interplay between these two diseases. Interdisciplinary collaboration is crucial for future research aiming to reveal the pathogenesis of comorbidity and develop customised prevention and treatment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Studies have found a varying degree of cognitive, psychosocial, and functional impairments in patients with unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs), whereas the neural correlates underlying these impairments remain unknown. Methods: To examine the brain morphological alterations and white matter lesions in patients with UIA, we performed a range of structural analyses to examine the brain morphological alterations in patients with UIA compared with healthy controls (HCs). Twenty-one patients with UIA and 23 HCs were prospectively enrolled into this study. Study assessment consisted of a brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan with high-resolution T1-weighted and T2-weighted imaging data, a Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and laboratory tests including blood inflammatory markers and serum lipids. Brain MRI data were processed for cortical thickness, local gyrification index (LGI), volume and shape of subcortical nuclei, and white matter lesions. Results: Compared to the HCs, patients with UIA showed no significant differences in cortical thickness but decreased LGI values in the right posterior cingulate cortex, retrosplenial cortex, cuneus, and lingual gyrus. In addition, decreased LGI values correlated with decreased MoCA score (r = 0.498, p = 0.021) and increased white matter lesion scores (r = 0.497, p = 0.022). The LGI values were correlated with laboratory values such as inflammatory markers and serum lipids. Patients with UIA also showed significant regional atrophy in bilateral thalami as compared to the HCs. Moreover, the LGI values were significantly correlated with thalamic volume in the HCs (r = 0.4728, p = 0.0227) but not in the patients with UIA (r = 0.11, p = 0.6350). Discussion: The decreased cortical gyrification, increased white matter lesions, and regional thalamic atrophy in patients with UIA might be potential neural correlates of cognitive changes in UIA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salmonella is a food-borne pathogen that can cause zoonoses. The emergence of drug-resistant strains of Salmonella is of great concern. It is necessary to understand the prevalence of antibiotic resistance, antibiotic resistance genes and virulence genes in human Salmonella. In this study, drug susceptibility test was used to detect and analyze the drug resistance of 24 Salmonella strains collected from human. A multi-drug resistant strain QLUF123 was selected for whole genome sequencing, and its drug resistance genes and virulence genes were analyzed. The results showed that 24 Salmonella strains were resistant to the tested antibiotics, 87.50% of the strains had multi-drug resistance, the resistance rate to ceftazidime, sulfamethoxazole and tilmicosin reached more than 80%. The alignment results based on the whole genome sequence showed that there were multiple types of drugresistant genes in QLUF123, among which efflux pump system genes were the most abundant, including sdiA, mdtK, baeR and other multidrug-resistant efflux pump system genes. QLUF123 carried 46 kinds of virulence factors and 249 related virulence genes, among which the three functions of secretory system, adhesion and motility accounted for the most virulence genes, accounting for 93.57%. In this study, antibiotic resistance of human Salmonella was detected by drug sensitivity test, and drug resistance and virulence genes in Salmonella were analyzed by whole genome sequencing technology, which is of great significance for scientific treatment and rational drug use of related diseases caused by Salmonella infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern economic studies, the population heterogeneity of multiple strata and high dimensionality of predictors pose major challenges. In this study, we introduce an integrative procedure that can be used to explore group and sparsity structures of high-dimensional and heterogeneous stratified models. Furthermore, we propose K-regression modelling as a hybrid of complex and simple models that exhibits arbitrary dependence on the stratum features, but linear dependence on the other variables. K-regression models exhibit the following features:(i) they are essentially nonparametric with respect to the stratified feature, and have parametric linear effects in the other variables with a potentially integrative pattern, because the effects and the corresponding sparsity structures can be the same for the strata in common groups, but vary across different groups; (ii) the devised K-regression algorithm automatically integrates the strata pertaining to a common regression model, and simultaneously estimates the corresponding effects; (iii) the proposed method quickly recovers subpopulation and sparsity structure of the K-regression models within massive high-dimensional strata; and (iv) the resulting estimators exhibit two-layer oracle properties, that is, the oracle estimator obtained using the known group and sparsity structures is the local minimizer of the objective function, with high probability. The stratum-specific bootstrap sampling scheme improves the integration accuracy. The results of simulation show that the proposed method performs appropriately for finite samples, and we demonstrate the usefulness of the method using real data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine distributed estimation and support recovery for ultrahigh-dimensional linear regression models under a potentially arbitrary noise distribution. The composite quantile regression is an efficient alternative to the least squares method, and provides robustness against heavy-tailed noise while maintaining reasonable efficiency in the case of light-tailed noise. The highly nonsmooth nature of the composite quantile regression loss poses challenges to both the theoretical and the computational development in an ultrahigh-dimensional distributed estimation setting. Thus, we cast the composite quantile regression into the least squares framework, and propose a distributed algorithm based on an approximate Newton method. This algorithm is efficient in terms of both computation and communication, and requires only gradient information to be communicated between the machines. We show that the resultant distributed estimator attains a near-oracle rate after a constant number of communications, and provide theoretical guarantees for its estimation and support recovery accuracy. Extensive experiments demonstrate the competitive empirical performance of our algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking Zhahan village in Qiongzhong County, Hainan, as an example, and based on its 160,000 tourist arrivals in 2019 and taking into account the real circumstances of Hainan, this research composes the emission models of carbon emissions from tourism transportation, tourism accommodation, tourism catering, other tourism activities and pollutants in this village. The outcomes indicate that Zhahan village's tourism catering consumes the most energy and emits the most carbon, accounting for 53.95% of all carbon emissions. Furthermore, the emission of tourism accommodation is the second, occupying 24.13%. Then, its tourism waste emission is the third, constituting 13.61%. In addition, its annual sewage discharge from tourism activities amounts to 15,144 t. This article promoted 1MW photovoltaic and 10 square solar hot water in the entire village, scientifically developing the evaluation system of rural tourism carbon emission, and making a low carbon brand of emission reduction coupling. The research and operation can be replicated and extended to enable the harmonious development of tourism development and organic unity of energy resource utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sensitive silicon-based hot-electron photodetector based on a self-aligned metal-semiconductor-metal junction is developed. Nearly perfect absorption is achieved with the metamaterial optical coupling, whereas the absorption difference between the upper and lower interdigital gratings is as large as 70% near the resonant wavelength. Arising from the asymmetric photo-absorption, the measured responsivity values of the self-aligned interdigital grating devices reach 1.89 and 0.78mA/W under zero biasing conditions at the wavelengths of 1310 and 1550 nm, respectively. These values approach the reported record photo-responsivity of hot-electron photodetectors with conventional metal-semiconductor junctions. In addition, the indication of polarity-switchable photocurrent appears due to the wavelength-dependent absorption of the upper and lower metal interdigital gratings. Our device, combining the self-aligned metamaterial interdigital electrodes with highly asymmetric absorption, shows prospects for applications in photodetection, photovoltaics, integrated optoelectronics, and optical communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crystallization of active pharmaceutical ingredients is essential in pharmaceutical production. Pervaporation, a thermally-driven membrane process, has not been explored in API crystallization. Here we demonstrated PV-assisted crystallization (PVaC) for simultaneous recovery of API ortho-aminobenzoic acid (o-ABA) and pure solvent. The PERVAP 4060 made of organophilic polymer was found suitable given the reasonable flux of ethanol of 3.69 ​kg/m²/h at 45 ​°C with saturated solution and 99.9% o-ABA rejection. A parametric study showed that the membrane permeance increased with feed flow rate and temperature, but decreased with supersaturation. In the sequential PVaC, the stable form I of o-ABA was obtained with 25 ​°C PV; while with 45 ​°C PV, only metastable form II crystallized. In the simultaneous PVaC, at 0 time lag pure form II was produced; by increasing time lag, form I increased significantly. The results indicated potential routes to control polymorph formation via PVaC, providing a promising alternative for API production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a C13-norisoprenoid aroma substance, β-damascenone is a highly important aromatic compound and an active constituent. The purpose of this study was to investigate the change law of β-damascenone during the light-flavor Baijiu brewing process, and screen the indigenous microbial strains that produce this compound and optimize fermentation parameters for improving β-damascenone production using a statistical approach. In this project, Wickerhamomyces anomalus YWB-1 exhibited the highest producing activity of β-damascenone. Fermentation conditions were optimized for β-damascenone production using a one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT) approach. A Plackett-Burman design was subsequently adopted to assess the effects of initial pH, incubation temperature, inoculum size, fermentation period, and original Brix degree. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the correlation coefficient (R2 ) of the executive model was 0.9795, and this value was significant (p < 0.05). Three significant variables were optimized at three different coded levels using a Box-Behnken design (BBD) of response surface methodology (RSM). Here, 7.25 µg/L β-damascenone was obtained under the following optimum conditions: initial pH of 3.31, original Brix degree of 10.53%, and fermentation period of 52.13 h. The yield was increased 3.02-fold compared with that obtained under unoptimized conditions. This information is conducive to the control of flavor production by regulating variable parameters in Baijiu fermentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An ideal independence test should possess three properties: it should be zero-independence equivalent, numerically efficient, and asymptotically normal. We introduce a slicing procedure for estimating a popular measure of nonlinear dependence, leading to the resultant sliced independence test simultaneously possessing all three properties. In addition, the power performance of the sliced independence test improves as the number of observations within each slice increases. The popular rank test corresponds to a special case of the sliced independence test that contains two observations within each slice. The sliced independence test is thus more powerful than the rank test. The size performance of the sliced independence test is insensitive to the number of slices, in that the slicing estimation is consistent and asymptotically normal for a wide range of slice numbers. We further adapt the sliced independence test to account for the presence of multivariate control variables. The theoretical properties are confirmed using comprehensive simulations and an application to an astronomical data set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a distributed sufficient dimension reduction to process massive data characterized by high dimensionality, a huge sample size, and heterogeneity (heterogeneity, and huge sample sizes). To address the high dimensionality, we replace the high-dimensional explanatory variables with a small number of linear projections that are sufficient to explain the variabilities of the response variable. We allow for distinctive function maps for data scattered at different locations, thus addressing the problem of heterogeneity. We assume that the dimension reduction subspaces at different local nodes are identical. This allows us to aggregate the local results obtained from each local node to yield a final estimate on a central server. We explicitly examine the sliced inverse regression and cumulative slicing estimation, and investigate the nonasymptotic error bounds of the resulting dimensionality reduction. Our theoretical results are further supported by simulation studies and an application to meta-genome data from the American Gut Project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Green-covering” Tuqu (TQ), as one of Xiaoqu, is a special fermentative starter (also known as Jiuqu in Chinese) that originated in southern China and is characterized by a layer of green mold covering (Aspergillus clavatus) the surface and (sometimes) with a red heart. It plays a vital role in producing light-aroma-type Baijiu (LATB). However, to date, the microbiota that causes red heart of TQ remain largely unexplored, and it is still unclear how these microbiota influence on the quality of LATB. In this study, two types of TQ, one with a red heart (RH) and another with a non-red heart (NRH), were investigated by high throughput sequencing (HTS) and directional screening of culture-dependent methods. The obtained results revealed the differences in the microbial communities of different TQ and led to the isolation of two species of Monascus. Interestingly, the results of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) detection showed that citrinin was not detected, indicating that Monascus isolated from TQ was no safety risk, and the contents of gamma-aminobutyric acid in the fermented grains of RH were higher than that of NRH during the fermentation. Selecting the superior autochthonous Monascus (M1) isolated from the TQ to reinoculate into the TQ-making process, established a stable method for producing the experimental “red heart” Tuqu (ERH), which confirmed that the cause of “red heart” was the growth of Monascus strains. After the lab-scale production test, ERH increased ethyl ester production and reduced higher alcohols production. In addition, Monascus had an inhibitory effect on the growth of Saccharomyces and Aspergillus. This study provides the safe, health-beneficial, and superior fermentation strains and strategies for improving the quality of TQ and LATB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Allergic rhinoconjunctivitis (ARC) is an allergic disease that is characterized by conjunctival and nasal symptoms such as edema and congestion of conjunctiva, rhinorrhea, sneezing, and blocked nose. Seasonal ARC (SARC) is usually induced by seasonal allergens and often occurs at specific times during the year. Traditional treatments of SARC include nasal corticosteroids, antihistamines, and mast cell membrane stabilizers. Biological agents such as omalizumab have also been proved effective in the treatment of SARC. Objectives: We aim to certify the preventative efficacy of omalizumab for SARC and explore its influence factors. Methods: Medical records of 64 SARC patients were retrospectively analyzed, and generalized linear models were used to analyze influence factors of efficacy of omalizumab. Results: Compared with forepassed pollen season without omalizumab treatment, the combined symptom and medication score (CSMS) of ARC with pre-seasonal omalizumab was significantly lower (with omalizumab: 0.67[0.00,1.83], without omalizumab: 4.00[2.83,4.96], p<0.001, max score=6). Subgroup analysis was conducted to explore the influence factor of preventative efficacy of omalizumab. The CSMS with omalizumab treatment were not significantly different among different age, gender, dosage, number of injections, and injection date subgroups (p>0.05). Conclusion: Pre-seasonal omalizumab treatment could significantly relieve SARC related symptoms and reduce medication use. This preventative efficacy would not be influenced by the dosage and number of injections of omalizumab. A single dose of 150mg omalizumab could achieve a satisfactory outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mobile Phone Addiction Index (MPAI) is a short instrument to assess mobile phone addiction. The Chinese version of this scale has been widely used in Chinese students and shows promising psychometric characteristics. The present study tested the construct validity and measurement invariance of the MPAI by gender in middle school adolescents. The data were collected from 1,395 high school students (females, n = 646; M age = 15.3 years). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and multiple-group CFA (MG-CFA) for invariance tests were conducted on the MPAI model which consisted of 17 observed items and 4 latent factors. Findings showed that the data fit the four-factor structure model well for both males and females. Furthermore, configural, metric, scalar, and residual invariance were established by gender. The results indicated that the MPAI has acceptable psychometric properties when used in adolescents. In addition, with the strict invariance requirements being satisfied, the underlying factor scores for MPAI can be meaningfully compared across genders. To our knowledge, this study is the first attempt to test the measurement invariance of the MPAI across male and female adolescents. Our results will support future research on mobile phone addiction in adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three important projection-pursuit correlations, namely, the distance, projection, and multivariate Blum-Kiefer-Rosenblatt (BKR) correlations, have been proposed in the literature to test for independence between two random vectors in arbitrary dimensions. In this study, we compare the asymptotic power performance of independence tests built upon these three projection-pursuit correlations, in a uniform sense. We show that in the presence of outliers, the projection and multivariate BKR correlation tests are still powerful, whereas the distance correlation test may lose power. We also analyze the minimax optimality of these independence tests. We show that their minimum separation rates are of order n-1, where n stands for the sample size, and that this minimax optimal rate is tight in terms of the projection, distance, and multivariate BKR correlations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conditional independence is a fundamental concept in many scientific fields. In this article, we propose a projective approach to measuring and testing departure from conditional independence for dependent processes. Through projecting high-dimensional dependent processes on to low-dimensional subspaces, our proposed projective approach is insensitive to the dimensions of the processes. We show that, under the commonß-mixing conditions, our proposed projective test statistic is n-consistent if these processes are conditionally independent and root-n-consistent otherwise. We suggest a bootstrap procedure to approximate the asymptotic null distribution of the test statistic. The consistency of this bootstrap procedure is also rigorously established. The finite-sample performance of our proposed projective test is demonstrated through simulations against various alternatives and an economic application to test for Granger causality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding climate and monsoonal dynamics on the Tibetan Plateau is crucial, as recent hydrological changes, evidenced by rising lake levels, will be accelerated by current global warming and may alter aquatic habitats and species inventories. This study combines chironomid assemblages with sedimentological, mineralogical and geochemical data of a short sediment core (37.5 cm) from the highaltitude (>4,733 m asl), saline (9 g L-1) and shallow (~5 m water depth) Shen Co, located in the southern part of the central Tibetan Plateau. The predominantly littoral, species-poor (10 chironomid morphotypes) chironomid assemblages are dominated by salt-tolerant taxa, that are highly sensitive to lake level fluctuations and macrophyte vegetation dynamics, making them ideally suited for tracking lake level changes over time. Results indicate a period (from ca. 1830 to 1921 CE) of drier conditions with low runoff and high evaporation rates in the Shen Co catchment, as indicated by a dominance of low-Mg calcite and dolomite and increased Ca/Fe and Sr/Rb ratios. This resulted in a decline in lake levels, an increase in salinity and the periodic occurrence of desiccation events at the sampling site. The first chironomid morphotype to appear after the dry period is Acricotopus indet. morphotype incurvatus, which indicate still low (<2 m) but rising lake levels after 1921 CE due to increasing runoff and a lower evaporation/precipitation ratio, as reflected by coarser grain size, higher quartz content and increased TN, TOC and Al/Si ratios. A replacement of A. indet. morphotype incurvatus by Procladius is observed as lake level rise continued after 1950 CE. The highest lake level is proposed for the period since 2006 CE. From 1955 to 1960 CE and from 2011 to 2018 CE, the presence of the phytophilic taxon Psectrocladius sordidellus-type supported abundant macrophyte growth. These changes are consistent with climate reconstructions from the northern and central Tibetan Plateau, indicating warmer and wetter climate conditions since the beginning of the 20th century, which have led to an increase in lake level in a number of Tibetan lakes. Our study specifically highlights 1920 and 1950 as years with enhanced precipitation. This can be attributed to strong overlapping multidecadal cycles of Westerlies and monsoon systems. This study demonstrates the significance of studying small, shallow lakes, as they frequently contain aquatic communities that respond more rapidly to the changes in the lake system. In addition, this study expands our understanding of the ecology of Tibetan chironomid morphotypes, highlighting this group's potential as paleolimnological proxies for investigating past environmental and climatic changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tibetan Plateau, known as "the third pole of the Earth", is a region susceptible to climate change. With little human disturbance, lake storage changes serve as a unique indicator of climate change, but comprehensive lake storage data are rare in the region, especially for the lakes with an area less than 10 km² which are the most sensitive to environmental changes. In this paper, we completed a census of annual lake volume change for 976 lakes larger than 1 km² in the endorheic basin of the Tibetan Plateau (EBTP) during 1989-2019 using Landsat imagery and digital terrain models. Validation and comparison with several existing studies indicate that our data are more reliable. Lake volume in the EBTP exhibited a net increase of 193.45 km³ during the time period with an increasing rate of 6.45 km³ year-1. In general, the larger the lake area, the greater the lake volume change, though there are some exceptions. Lakes with an area less than 10 km² have more severe volume change whether decreasing or increasing. This research complements existing lake studies by providing a comprehensive and long-term lake volume change data for the region. The dataset is available on Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5543615, Wang et al., 2021). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sufficient dimension-reduction (SDR) methods characterize the relationship between a response Y and the covariates x using a few linear combinations of the covariates. Extensive SDR techniques have been developed, among which, the inverse regression-based methods are perhaps the most appealing in practice, because they do not involve multi-dimensional smoothing and are easy to implement. However, these methods require two distributional assumptions on the covariates. In particular, the first-order methods, such as the sliced inverse regression, require the linear conditional mean (LCM) assumption, while the second-order methods, such as the sliced average variance estimation, also require the constant conditional variance (CCV) assumption. We check the validity of the LCM and CCV conditions using mean independence tests, which are facilitated by the martingale difference divergence. We propose a consistent bootstrap procedure to decide the critical values of the test. Monte Carlo simulations and an application to a horse mussels data set demonstrate the finite-sample performance of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many tests are available to test the homogeneity of two random samples, that is, the exact equivalence of their statistical distributions. When the two random samples are high dimensional or not normally distributed, the asymptotic null distributions of most existing two-sample tests are rarely tractable. This limits their usefulness in high dimensions, even when the sample sizes are sufficiently large. In addition, existing tests require a careful selection of the tuning parameters to enhance their power performance. However, doing so is very challenging, especially in high dimensions. In this paper, we propose a robust and fully nonparametric two-sample test to detect the heterogeneity of two random samples. Our proposed test is free of tuning parameters. It is built upon the Cramér-von Mises distance, and can be readily used in high dimensions. In addition, our proposed test is robust to the presence of outliers or extreme values in that no moment condition is required. The asymptotic null distribution of our proposed test is standard normal when both the sample sizes and the dimensions of the two random samples diverge to infinity. This facilitates the implementation of our proposed test dramatically, in that no bootstrap or re-sampling technique has to be used to decide an appropriate critical value. We demonstrate the power performance of our proposed test through extensive simulations and real-world applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compared the performance of phosphorescent white organic light emitting diodes (WOLEDs) with red-blue-green and green-blue-red sequent emissive layers. It was found that the influence of red and green dopants on electron and hole transport in emissive layers leads to the large difference in the efficiency of fabricated WOLEDs. This improvement mechanism is well investigated by the current density-voltage characteristics of single-carrier devices based on dopant doped emissive layers and the comparison of electroluminescent and photoluminescence spectra, and attributed to the different change of charge carrier transport by the dopants. The optimized device achieves a maximum power efficiency, current efficiency, and external quantum efficiency of 37.0 lm/W, 38.7 cd/A, and 17.7%, respectively, which are only reduced to 32.8 lm/W, 38.5 cd/A, and 17.3% at 1000 cd/m2 luminance. The critical current density is as high as 210 mA/cm2. It can be seen that the efficiency roll-off in phosphorescent WOLEDs can be well improved by effectively designing the structure of emissive layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compared the performance of phosphorescent white organic light emitting diodes (WOLEDs) with red-blue-green and green-blue-red sequent emissive layers. It was found that the influence of red and green dopants on electron and hole transport in emissive layers leads to the large difference in the efficiency of fabricated WOLEDs. This improvement mechanism is well investigated by the current density-voltage characteristics of single-carrier devices based on dopant doped emissive layers and the comparison of electroluminescent and photoluminescence spectra, and attributed to the different change of charge carrier transport by the dopants. The optimized device achieves a maximum power efficiency, current efficiency, and external quantum efficiency of 37.0 lm/W, 38.7 cd/A, and 17.7%, respectively, which are only reduced to 32.8 lm/W, 38.5 cd/A, and 17.3% at 1000 cd/m² luminance. The critical current density is as high as 210 mA/cm². It can be seen that the efficiency roll-off in phosphorescent WOLEDs can be well improved by effectively designing the structure of emissive layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quadratic regressions extend linear models by simultaneously including the main effects and the interactions between the covariates. As such, estimating interactions in high-dimensional quadratic regressions has received extensive attention. Here, we introduce a novel method that allows us to estimate the main effects and the interactions separately. Unlike existing methods for ultrahigh-dimensional quadratic regressions, our proposal does not require the widely used heredity assumption. In addition, our proposed estimates have explicit formulae and obey the invariance principle at the population level. We estimate the interactions in matrix form under a penalized convex loss function. The resulting estimates are shown to be consistent, even when the covariate dimension is an exponential order of the sample size. We develop an efficient alternating direction method of multipliers algorithm to implement the penalized estimation. This algorithm fully exploits the cheap computational cost of the matrix multiplication and is much more efficient than existing penalized methods, such as the all-pairs LASSO. We demonstrate the promising performance of the proposed method using extensive numerical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is an important inhibitory neurotransmitter in the human body, but its content decreases with age. So it is suitable to supplement the body's GABA from diet. Hongqu wine is popular because of the addition of Monascus strains in the saccharification process, which makes the wine rich in functional ingredients such as GABA, and monacolin K. In this study, the fermentation parameters of Hongqu wine were optimised to maximise the GABA content through response surface methodology (RSM). The optimal conditions were as follows: 500 g of steamed rice was mixed with 115.4% of boiled water containing 10 g of sodium glutamate and adjusted to pH 3.8 with lactic acid, and then 32% of Hongqu seed inoculum was added. After 5 days of fermentation at 28 °C, 1.5 g of activated yeast was inoculated for ethanol fermentation at 30 °C for 5 days. Finally, the average content of GABA in Hongqu wine amounted to 710.24 mg L-1, which is close to the value predicted by RSM model (692.44 mg L-1), indicating the statistical fit is good. This provided technical support and theoretical guidance for the production of Hongqu wine rich in GABA by two-stage fermentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By adopting an ultra-thin non-doped orange emission layer sandwiched between two blue emission layers, high efficiency white organic light-emitting diodes (WOLEDs) with reduced efficiency roll-off were fabricated. The optimized devices show a balanced white emission with Internationale de L'Eclairage of (0.41, 0.44) at the luminance of 1000 cd/m2, and the maximum power efficiency, current efficiency (CE), and external quantum efficiency reach 63.2 lm/W, 59.3 cd/A, and 23.1%, which slightly shift to 53.4 lm/W, 57.1 cd/A, and 22.2% at 1000 cd/m2, respectively, showing low efficiency roll-off. Detailed investigations on the recombination zone and the transient electroluminescence (EL) clearly reveal the EL processes of the ultra-thin non-doped orange emission layer in WOLEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of sufficient dimension reduction (SDR), the sliced inverse regression (SIR) successfully reduces the covariate dimension of a high-dimensional nonlinear regression. When the covariate is low or moderate dimensional, the performance of the SIR is insensitive to the number of slices. However, our empirical studies indicate that the performance of the SIR relies heavily on the number of slices when the covariate is high or ultrahigh dimensional. Determining the optimal number of slices remains an open problem in the SDR literature, despite its importance to the effectiveness of SIR in high- and ultrahigh-dimensional regressions. Thus, we propose an improved version of the SIR, called the cumulative slicing estimation (CUME) method, that does not require selecting an optimal number of slices. We provide a general framework in which to analyze the phase transitions of the CUME method. We show that, without the sparsity assumption, the CUME method is consistent if and only if p/n → 0, where p denotes the covariate dimension, and n denotes the sample size. If we include certain sparsity assumptions, then the thresholding estimate for the CUME method is consistent as long as log(p)/n → 0. We demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed method using extensive numerical experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phenylalanine levels are associated with pulmonary hypertension in metabolic profiling clinical studies. However, the pathophysiological role of phenylalanine on pulmonary circulation is still unclear. We experimentally addressed the direct impact of phenylalanine on pulmonary circulation in rats and explored the underlying molecular pathway. Phenylalanine was injected intraperitoneally into Sprague-Dawley rats (400 mg/100 g body wt) as a single dose or daily in a chronic manner for 2, 3, and 4 wk. Chronic injection of phenylalanine induced pulmonary hypertension with time-dependent severity, evidenced by elevated pulmonary artery pressure and pulmonary vascular resistance as well as pulmonary artery and right ventricular hypertrophy. Using tandem mass spectrometry analysis, we found a quick twofold increase in blood level of phenylalanine 2 h following injection. This increase led to a significant accumulation of phenylalanine in lung after 4 h, which remained sustained at up to a threefold increase after 4 wk. In addition, a cellular thermal shift assay with lung tissues from phenylalanine-injected rats revealed the binding of phenylalanine to the calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR). In vitro experiments with cultured pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells showed that phenylalanine activated CaSR, as indicated by an increase in intracellular calcium content, which was attenuated or diminished by the inhibition or knockdown of CaSR. Finally, the global knockout or lung-specific knockdown of CaSR significantly attenuated phenylalanine-induced pulmonary hypertension. Chronic phenylalanine injection induces pulmonary hypertension through binding to CaSR and its subsequent activation. Here, we demonstrate a pathophysiological role of phenylalanine in pulmonary hypertension through the CaSR. This study provides a novel animal model for pulmonary hypertension and reveals a potentially clinically significant role for this metabolite in human pulmonary hypertension as a marker, a mediator of disease, and a possible therapeutic target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers often need to infer how the conditional mean of a response varies with the predictors. Sufficient dimension-reduction techniques reduce the dimension by identifying a minimal set of linear combinations of the original predictors, without loss of information. This study tests whether a given small number of linear combinations of the original ultrahigh-dimensional covariates is sufficient to characterize the conditional mean of the response. We first introduce a novel consistent lack-of-fit test statistic for the case when the dimensionality of the covariates is moderate. The proposed test is shown to be n-consistent under the null hypothesis, and root-n-consistent under the alternative hypothesis. A bootstrap procedure is developed to approximate the p-values, and the consistency of the test is studied theoretically. To deal with the ultrahigh dimensionality, we introduce a two-stage lack-of-fit test with screening (LOFTS) procedure, based on a datasplitting strategy. The data are randomly partitioned into two equal halves. In the first stage, we apply the martingale difference correlation-based screening to one half of the data, and select a moderate set of covariates. In the second stage, we perform the proposed test, based on the selected covariates, using the second half of the data. The data-splitting strategy is crucial to eliminate the effect of spurious correlations and to prevent an increase in the type-I error rates. We also demonstrate the effectiveness of our two-stage test procedure by means of comprehensive simulations and a real-data application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whole exome sequencing (WES) was used in the research of familial pulmonary arterial hypertension (FPAH). CAV1 and KCNK3 were found as two novel candidate genes of FPAH. However, few pathogenic genes were identified in idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH). We conducted WES in 20 unrelated IPAH patients who did not carry the known PAH-pathogenic variants among BMPR2, CAV1, KCNK3, SMAD9, ALK1, and ENG. We found a total of 4,950 variants in 3,534 genes, including 4,444 single-nucleotide polymorphisms and 506 insertions/deletions (In-Dels). Through the comprehensive and multilevel analysis, we disclosed several novel signaling cascades significantly connected to IPAH, including variants related to cadherin signaling pathway, dilated cardiomyopathy, glucose metabolism, immune response, mucintype O-glycosylation, phospholipase C (PLC)-activating G proteincoupled receptor (GPCR) signaling pathway, vascular contraction and generation, and voltage-dependent Ca2+ channels. We also conducted validation studies in five mutant genes related to PLC-activating GPCR signaling pathway potentially involved in intracellular calcium regulation through Sanger sequencing for mutation accuracy, qRTPCR for mRNA stability, immunofluorescence for subcellular localization, Western blotting for protein level, Fura-2 imaging for intracellular calcium, and proliferation analysis for cell function. The validation experiments showed that those variants in CCR5 and C3AR1 significantly increased the rise of intracellular calcium and the variant in CCR5 profoundly enhanced proliferative capacity of human pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells. Thus, our study suggests that multiple genetically affected signaling pathways take effect together to cause the formation of IPAH and the development of right heart failure and may further provide new therapy targets or putative clues for the present treatments such as limited therapeutic effectiveness of Ca2+ channel blockers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maple-ball-like Mg–Al layered double hydroxides (LDHs) were successfully prepared via a microwave-assisted heating method in the presence of ethylene glycol water as a solvent, and the synthesis efficiency was significantly improved through the design approach. The product was characterized by a series of techniques, including X-ray diffraction, Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller. The as-synthesized Mg–Al LDHs display considerable adsorption performance for the cationic dye methylene orange from aqueous solution within extremely short processing time. This study offers a low-cost approach for the synthesis of an Mg–Al LDH material that could be used as an effective adsorbent for the removal of dyes from wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calcium-dependent protein kinase (CPK) is crucial in Ca2+ signal transduction, and is a large gene family in plants. In our previous work, we reported Hevea brasiliensis CPKs were important for natural rubber biosynthesis. However, this CPK gene family in other rubber producing plants has not been investigated. Here, we report the CPKs in five representative Asteraceae species, including three rubber-producing and two non-rubber species. A total of 34, 34, 40, 34 and 30 CPKs were identified from Taraxacum koksaghyz, Lactuca sativa, Helianthus annuus, Chrysanthemum nankingense and Cynara cardunculus, respectively. All CPKs were classified into four individual groups (group I to IV). In addition, 10 TkCPKs, 11 LsCPKs, 20 HaCPKs, 13 CnCPKs and 7 CcCPKs duplicated paralogs were identified. Further evolutionary analysis showed that, compared to other subfamilies, the group III had been expanded in the Asteraceae species, especially in the rubber-producing species. Meanwhile, the CPKs in group III from Asteraceae species tend to expand with low calcium binding capacity. This study provides a systematical evolutionary investigation of the CPKs in five representative Asteraceae species, suggesting that the sub-family specific expansion of CPKs might be related to natural rubber producing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]