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Background: ZBTB42 is a transcription factor that belongs to the ZBTB transcript factor family and plays an important role in skeletal muscle development. Dysregulation of ZBTB42 expression can lead to a variety of diseases. However, the function of ZBTB42 in glioma development has not been studied by now. Methods: We analyzed the expression of ZBTB42 in LGG and GBM via the The Cancer Genome Atlas CGA and Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas database. Gene Ontology, KEGG, and GSVA analyses were performed to illustrate ZBTB42-related pathways. ESTIMATE and CIBERSORT were applied to calculate the immune score and immune cell proportion in glioma. One-class logistic regression OCLR algorithm was used to study the stemness of glioma. Multivariate Cox analysis was employed to detect the prognostic value of five ZBTB42-related genes. Results: Our results show that ZBTB42 is highly expressed in glioma and may be a promising prognostic factor for Low Grade Glioma and GBM. In addition, ZBTB42 is related to immune cell infiltration and may play a role in the immune suppression microenvironment. What’s more, ZBTB42 is correlated with stem cell markers and positively associated with glioma stemness. Finally, a five genes nomogram based on ZBTB42 was constructed and has an effective prognosis prediction ability. Conclusion: We identify that ZBTB42 is a prognostic biomarker for Low Grade Glioma and GBM and its function is related to the suppressive tumor microenvironment and stemness of glioma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and anthropogenic interventions have obviously altered the eco-hydrological regimes. A quantitative evaluation and attribution of the eco-hydrological alterations are urgently required. In this study, we evaluated the various attributions of eco-hydrological regimes in the Weihe River Basin (WRB). Firstly, the trends and change-point analysis of hydrological elements were examined, and the natural streamflow was reproduced based on the variable infiltration capacity model. Then, the most ecologically relevant hydrological indicators (ERHIs) were selected and combined with the eco-deficit and eco-surplus indicators to assess the degree of eco-hydrological regime alterations. Finally, the relative contributions to eco-hydrological alterations were quantified using the 'simulated-observed comparison' method. The results showed that (1) the streamflow of the WRB exhibited significant decreasing trends (p,0.01), and a significant change point (p, 0.01) of the streamflow series was identified in 1990. (2) Seven representative indicators of hydrological alteration were selected as ERHIs. (3) During the human-induced period (1991-2017), human activities were the dominant factors in the eco-hydrological alterations as well as the variations of the ERHI indexes and the eco-deficit and eco-surplus metrics. Overall, the proposed framework may improve the understanding of the driving forces of eco-hydrological regime alterations under a changing environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae is a common pathogen responsible for pig erysipelas. However, the molecular basis for the pathogenesis of E. rhusiopathiae remains to be elucidated. In this study, the complete genome sequence of the E. rhusiopathiae strain WH13013, a pathogenic isolate from a diseased pig, was generated using a combined strategy of PacBio RSII and Illumina sequencing technologies. The strategy finally generated a single circular chromosome of approximately 1.78 Mb in size for the complete genome of WH13013, with an average GC content of 36.49%. The genome of WH13013 encoded 1633 predicted proteins, 55 tRNAs, as well as 15 rRNAs. It contained four genomic islands and several resistance-associated genes were identified within these islands. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that WH13013 was close to many other sequenced E. rhusiopathiae virulent strains. The comprehensive comparative analysis of eight E. rhusiopathiae virulent strains, includingWH13013, identified a total of 1184 core genes. A large proportion (approximately 75.31%) of these core genes participated in nutrition and energy uptake and metabolism as well as the other bioactivities that are necessary for bacterial survival and adaption. The core genes also contained those encoding proteins participating in the biosynthesis and/or the components of the proposed virulence factors of E. rhusiopathiae, including the capsule (cpsA, cpsB, cpsC), neuraminidase (nanH), hyaluronidase (hylA, hylB, hylC), and surface proteins (spaA, rspA, rspB). The obtaining of the complete genome sequence of this virulent strain,WH13013, and this comprehensive comparative genome analysis will help in further studies of the genetic basis of the pathogenesis of E. rhusiopathiae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has become a useful spectroscopic tool for studying biomolecule structures. The main types of plasmonic substrates used in biological systems are Au nanoparticles (AuNPs), whose surface plasmon resonance depends on the nanoparticle size, morphology, particle interspace, and so on. Methods: In this study, AuNP colloids with different sizes were synthesized and used as the sensors to probe SERS signals of different biomarkers and biomolecules. Results: The results showed that an AuNP colloid of ~50 nm had excellent SERS effects in probing various molecules, and could be preserved for about 3 months with excellent repeatability and reproducibility (RSD <5%) in terms of the probed signal intensity (rhodamine 6G and crystal violet). Meanwhile, the fabricated AuNPs were applied to study the SERS signals and structural information of bovine serum albumin (BSA) in aqueous solution. It was found that SERS could rapidly provide the structural information and vibration characteristics of BSA. Conclusion: It was concluded that biocompatible AuNP colloid may be a promising biosensor in the rapid and label-free detection of biological systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The slurry chemical action affects chemical reaction between the wafer and slurry, and self-conditioning performance of the pad in nano machining process. Fixed abrasive polishing, one of important nano machining technologies, was adopted to achieve a nano precision surface quality of CaF2 crystal. Five kinds of alkaline regulators, triethanolamine, sodium citrate, sodium carbonate, ethylenediamine and sodium phosphate in slurries with pH 10, were screened in nano machining CaF2 crystal. The effect on material removal rate (MRR), surface topography and surface roughness was investigated in fixed abrasive polishing of CaF2 crystal. The results indicated that surface quality is getting better with MRR decreasing. The optimal surface quality of CaF2 crystal with surface roughness Sa 4.13 nm can be obtained by sodium phosphate slurry with MRR224 nm/min in fixed abrasive polishing of CaF2 crystal. The nanometer precision surface quality with high material removal was achieved in nano machining CaF2 crystal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve the dispersibility of CeO2nanoparticles and reduce the environmental pressure, the dispersibility and stability of CeO2nano-powder in water-ethanol suspensions was investigated in this paper. The results show that with the increasing of volume fraction of ethanol, the sedimentation rate of CeO2nanoparticles firstly decreases and then increases. When the volume fraction of ethanol is between 30% and 50%, the dispersibility of CeO2nanoparticles is better. Only mixing water and ethanol at a certain proportion as the dispersion medium can nano-sized CeO2polishing slurry have the advantages of both and better dispersing effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The magnetic hard-soft CoFeO-CoFe nanocomposite microfibers have been synthesized by the sol-gel and partial reduction process, where CoFeO ferrite is the hard phase with a grain size range from 43 to 62 nm and CoFe alloy the soft phase with grain sizes around 30 nm. These nanocomposite microfibers exhibit the magnetization behavior like a single phase magnetic material, and the magnetic exchange coupling effects are observed between the hard and soft phases. The specific saturation magnetization of CoFeO-CoFe nanocomposite microfibers shows an increase tendency with the increasing weight fraction of CoFe, while the coercivity is consequently reduced. The nanocomposite microfibers have a maximum remanence 51.7 Am/kg when the phase contents of CoFe around 28 wt% and CoFeO about 72 wt%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The composite nanofibers of xSrSiO/(100 − x)SrFeO ( x = 0-13 wt%) with diameters around 110 nm have been prepared by calcination of the electrospun SrSiO/SrFeO/poly (vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) composite fibers at 800-900 °C. The composite nanofibers were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and vibrating sample magnetometer. After calcined at 800° the M-type strontium ferrite is formed and the strontium silicate exists as an amorphous state when the calcination temperature below about 950 °C. The addition of SrSiO has an obvious suppression effect on the strontium ferrite grain growth and the ferrite grain size decreases from 66.9 to 33.5 nm corresponding SrSiO content from 0 to 9 wt% in the composite. The specific saturation magnetization ( Ms) of the xSrSiO/(100 − x)SrFeO composite nanofibers exhibits a continuous reduction from 58.0 to 45.6 A m kg with the increase of SrSiO content from 0 to 13 wt%. With addition of SrSiO from 0 to 13 wt%, the coercivity of the composite nanofibers obtained at 900 °C initially increases, reaching a maximum value 501.1 kA m at the silicate content 7 wt%, and then shows a reduction tendency with the strontium silicate content increase further up to 13 wt%. This influence on the coercivity by strontium silicate can be attributed mainly to the ferrite grain growth suppression and the non-magnetic phase barrier for the domains misalignment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of pieces of music, including classical and popular music,are composed using music scales, such as keys. The key or the scale information of a piece provides important clues on its high level musical content, like harmonic and melodic context. Automatic key detection from music data can be useful for music classification, retrieval or further content analysis. Many researchers have addressed key finding from symbolically encoded music(MIDI); however, works for key detection in musical audio is still limited. Techniques for key detection from musical audio mainly consist of two steps:pitch extraction and key detection. The pitch feature typically characterizes the weights of presence of particular pitch classes in the music audio. In the existing approaches to pitch extraction, little consideration has been taken on pitch mistuning and interference of noisy percussion sounds in the audio signals, which inevitably affects the accuracy of key detection. In this paper, we present a novel technique of precise pitch profile feature extraction, which deals with pitch mistuning and noisy percussive sounds. The extracted pitch profile feature can characterize the pitch content in the signal more accurately than the previous techniques, thus lead to a higher key detection accuracy. Experiments based on classical and popular music data were conducted. The results showed that the proposed method has higher key detection accuracy than previous methods, especially for popular music with a lot of noisy drum sounds. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]