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Introduction: The mortality rate associated with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) has seen a significant rise in regions heavily affected by the disease over the past few decades. The traditional methods for diagnosing and differentiating tuberculosis (TB) remain thorny issues, particularly in areas with a high TB epidemic and inadequate resources. Processing numerous images can be time-consuming and tedious. Therefore, there is a need for automatic segmentation and classification technologies based on lung computed tomography (CT) scans to expedite and enhance the diagnosis of TB, enabling the rapid and secure identification of the condition. Deep learning (DL) offers a promising solution for automatically segmenting and classifying lung CT scans, expediting and enhancing TB diagnosis., Methods: This review evaluates the diagnostic accuracy of DL modalities for diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) after searching the PubMed and Web of Science databases using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines., Results: Seven articles were found and included in the review. While DL has been widely used and achieved great success in CT-based PTB diagnosis, there are still challenges to be addressed and opportunities to be explored, including data scarcity, model generalization, interpretability, and ethical concerns. Addressing these challenges requires data augmentation, interpretable models, moral frameworks, and clinical validation., Conclusion: Further research should focus on developing robust and generalizable DL models, enhancing model interpretability, establishing ethical guidelines, and conducting clinical validation studies. DL holds great promise for transforming PTB diagnosis and improving patient outcomes., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2025 Zhang, Han, Li, Tian, Zhang, Yang, Guo, Li, Wang, Wang and Liu.)

Background: The purpose of this study is to determine the variations in the prevalence of self-reported asthma among the adult population in the United States of America (USA), analyzing demographic characteristics, physical indicators, living habits, and sarcopenia., Methods: 10,566 participants from the 2009 to 2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) of the USA who were 20 years of age or older and not pregnant were included in the study., Results: The prevalence of patients with asthma varies by age, gender, and race. The weighted prevalence is 15.5%, estimated to represent 19.36 million people in the USA (95% CI, 14.5% to 16.6%). The prevalence of self-reported asthma decreases with age, with the highest prevalence among young adults aged 20-25 for both males and females. Females were also more susceptible to asthma compared to males. The increase in asthma prevalence attributed to smoking was most pronounced among African American and Caucasian participants ( p  < 0.05), while its effect on Mexican American and Asian participants was relatively minor. Notably, the prevalence of asthma was significantly higher in African American and Caucasian participants with sarcopenia compared to those without sarcopenia., Conclusions: The prevalence of asthma is associated to varying degrees with factors such as age, gender, smoking, and the presence of sarcopenia. The elevated prevalence of asthma among young people and females warrants attention. Intensifying efforts toward smoking cessation and the scientific management of sarcopenia could be instrumental in reducing the incidence of asthma.

In this study, impacts and optimal strategies of water-saving system are identified through developing a novel stochastic bi-level programming-based water saving and trading simulation model for water resources regulation (SB-WSTM). The link between socio-economic and water resources under uncertain conditions, as well as participation of government water-saving subsidy and water-saving facilities (i.e., sprinkler irrigation, micro-irrigation, low-pressure pipe irrigation) are elaborated. The SB-WSTM is then applied to Dagu River watershed in China with water-scarce characteristics for demonstrating its efficiency. The responses of the water resources system to water-saving facilities and subsidies are disclosed quantitively. Micro-irrigation facility construction is recommended to cope with extremely dry condition; 50% of subsidy rate combined with 70% of efficient irrigation area is the optimal water-saving scheme based on multi-criterion analysis and should be recommended. Recognizing the effect of water saving, generating efficient water allocation patterns, and taking water-saving strategies are key adaptation means for water system sustainable utilization., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest We declare that we have no financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that can inappropriately influence our work, there is no professional or other personal interest of any nature or kind in any product, service and/or company that could be construed as influencing the position presented in, or the review of, the manuscript entitled., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Urachal carcinoma (UrC) is a rare malignancy with no known specific early symptoms. It is often diagnosed at advanced stages and is associated with poor prognosis., Case Presentation: This study presents a rare case of urachal adenocarcinoma (UrAC) invading the bladder and vagina in a female patient. Initially, the patient was misdiagnosed as having a primary cervical adenocarcinoma 2.5 years prior. Subsequently, anterior pelvic exenteration and bilateral ureterocutaneostomies were performed. Twenty months after the first surgery, the patient was diagnosed with rectal metastasis and received gemcitabine chemotherapy. After achieving a stable disease state, the patient underwent laparoscopic ultralow rectal anterior resection, ultralow anastomosis of the sigmoid colon and rectum, prophylactic transverse colostomy, and right common iliac and external iliac lymph node dissection. The patient then received a cycle of postoperative chemotherapy with oxaliplatin and capecitabine; however, treatment was stopped due to adverse reactions. The patient continues to receive regular follow-ups, and her general condition is good., Conclusions: UrC is rare, and preoperative differential diagnosis is difficult. This is the first report of UrC being misdiagnosed as cervical cancer. The presented case highlights the importance of accurate histopathological examination and comprehensive analysis. Anterior pelvic exenteration was also identified as a potentially effective treatment strategy for patients with local pelvic recurrence of UrC, although further investigation is required., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Wang, Li, Yang, Li and Wang.)

Dysregulated proteome is an essential contributor in carcinogenesis. Protein fluctuations fuel the progression of malignant transformation, such as uncontrolled proliferation, metastasis, and chemo/radiotherapy resistance, which severely impair therapeutic effectiveness and cause disease recurrence and eventually mortality among cancer patients. Cellular heterogeneity is widely observed in cancer and numerous cell subtypes have been characterized that greatly influence cancer progression. Population-averaged research may not fully reveal the heterogeneity, leading to inaccurate conclusions. Thus, deep mining of the multiplex proteome at the single-cell resolution will provide new insights into cancer biology, to develop prognostic biomarkers and treatments. Considering the recent advances in single-cell proteomics, herein we review several novel technologies with particular focus on single-cell mass spectrometry analysis, and summarize their advantages and practical applications in the diagnosis and treatment for cancer. Technological development in single-cell proteomics will bring a paradigm shift in cancer detection, intervention, and therapy., (© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

To clarify the impacts of tidal hydrological process shifts caused by sea level rise on the blue carbon cycle, a typical coastal wetland in Jiaozhou Bay was selected for this study. The soils of Suaeda salsa (SS) and Phragmites australis (PA) wetlands were collected to simulate the effects of three types of tidal hydrological processes (Neap tide group, NT; Middle tide group, MT; Spring tide group, ST) on the soil-water dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) dynamic. The results showed that the concentration of water dissolved inorganic carbon (WDIC) increased rapidly (115% higher) at early stage (days 0-4) under the influence of the tidal hydrological processes. Significant differences were found in WDIC concentration during different tidal hydrological processes (P < 0.05), which were expressed as MT (52.7 ± 13.3 mg L -1 ) > ST (52.5 ± 12.9 mg L -1 ) > NT (48.4 ± 10.1 mg L -1 ). After experiencing the tidal hydrological processes, the soil DIC content showed a net accumulation (55.1 ± 1.29 mg L -1 vs. 46.7 ± 1.76 mg L -1 , P < 0.001), whereas the soil inorganic carbon (SIC) decreased (2.73 ± 1.64 mg L -1 vs. 4.61 ± 1.71 mg L -1 ), which may be attributed to the dissolution of SIC caused by the uptake of CO 2 to form DIC. The accumulation of soil DIC was directly related to the SIC (λ = 1.03, P < 0.01), and indirectly related to soil nutrients (SOC substrate, λ = -0.003) and microbes (microbial biomass, λ = -0.10), and was mainly dominated by abiotic processes (abiotic: 58.1 ± 1.8% to 82.7 ± 2.46% vs. biotic: 17.4 ± 2.46% to 41.9 ± 1.76%). The increase of tidal frequency generally inhibited the accumulation of soil DIC content and promoted the output of WDIC. However, the response of soil DIC in different wetland types to tidal frequency was divergent, which was mainly regulated by the trade-off between soil nutrients and SIC content. Taken together, tidal hydrological processes and their frequency changes reshaped DIC dynamics, promoted the dissolution of SIC and the potential uptake of CO 2 . These findings enhance the comprehension of the inorganic carbon cycle within coastal wetlands, particularly amidst the backdrop of climate change and the rising sea levels., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Latent fingerprints (LFPs) is one of the most important physical evidence in the criminal scene, playing an important role in forensic investigations. Therefore, developing highly sensitive and convenient materials for the visualization of LFPs is of great significance. We designed and synthesized an organic fluorescent molecule TP-PH with aggregation-induced enhanced emission (AIEE) activity. By simply soaking, blue fluorescent images with high contrast and resolution are readily developed on various surfaces including tinfoil, steel, glass and plastic. Remarkably, LFPs can be visualized within 5 min including the first-, second- and tertiary-level details. In addition, TP-PH exhibits interesting photoactivated fluorescence enhancement properties. Under irradiation of 365 nm UV light with a power density of 382 mW/cm 2 , the fluorescence quantum yield displays approximately 21.5-fold enhancement. Mechanism studies reveals that the photoactivated fluorescence is attributed to the irreversible cyclodehydrogenation reactions under UV irradiation. This work provides a guideline for the design of multifunctional AIEE fluorescent materials., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

In this paper, we describe a graph-based algorithm that uses the features obtained by a self-supervised transformer to detect and segment salient objects in images and videos. With this approach, the image patches that compose an image or video are organised into a fully connected graph, in which the edge between each pair of patches is labeled with a similarity score based on the features learned by the transformer. Detection and segmentation of salient objects can then be formulated as a graph-cut problem and solved using the classical Normalized Cut algorithm. Despite the simplicity of this approach, it achieves state-of-the-art results on several common image and video detection and segmentation tasks. For unsupervised object discovery, this approach outperforms the competing approaches by a margin of 6.1%, 5.7%, and 2.6% when tested with the VOC07, VOC12, and COCO20 K datasets. For the unsupervised saliency detection task in images, this method improves the score for Intersection over Union (IoU) by 4.4%, 5.6% and 5.2%. When tested with the ECSSD, DUTS, and DUT-OMRON datasets. This method also achieves competitive results for unsupervised video object segmentation tasks with the DAVIS, SegTV2, and FBMS datasets.

Background: Despite numerous treatments available, clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) remains a deadly and invasive cancer. Anoikis-related genes (ARGs) are essential regulators of tumor metastasis and development. However, the potential roles of ARGs in ccRCC remain unclear., Methods: Based on the TCGA-KIRC cohort and GeneCards database, we identified differentially expressed ARGs in ccRCC. Then a 4 ARGs risk model was created by Cox regression and LASSO. The Kaplan-Meier and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were utilized to verify the predictive efficacy of the prognostic signature. Subsequently, the possible molecular mechanism of ARGs was investigated by functional enrichment analysis. To assess the immune infiltration, immune checkpoint genes, and immune function in various risk groups, single sample gene set enrichment (ssGSEA) algorithm was employed. Furthermore, the low-risk and high-risk groups were compared in terms of tumor mutation burden (TMB). Ultimately, we analyzed the protein expression of these four ARGs utilizing the western blot test., Results: Four genes were utilized to create a risk signature that may predict prognosis, enabling the classification of KIRC patients into groups with low or high risk. The reliability of the signature was examined utilizing survival analysis and ROC analysis. According to the multivariate Cox regression result, the risk score was a reliable independent prognostic predictor for KIRC patients. The novel risk model could differentiate between KIRC patients with various clinical outcomes and represent KIRC's specific immune status. An analysis of the correlation of TMB and risk score indicated a positive correlation between them, with high TMB being potentially linked to worse outcomes., Conclusion: Based on our findings, the prognostic signature of ARGs may be employed as an independent prognostic factor for ccRCC patients. It may introduce alternative perspectives on prognosis evaluation and serve as a prominent reference for personalized and precise therapy in KIRC., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Wu, Sun, Qin, Li, Huang, Wang and Weng.)

Background: Prostatectomy often causes urinary incontinence, especially stress Urinary incontinence, which has a serious impact on the quality of life of patients. Previous studies have proved that pelvic floor muscle training can help restore pelvic floor function and reduce Urinary incontinence, but the quantitative evaluation and systematic analysis of its effect have not yet been clear. This meta-analysis aimed to systematically evaluate the therapeutic effect of pelvic floor muscle training on managing stress urinary incontinence after prostatectomy., Methods: The literature on pelvic floor muscle training for patients after prostatectomy was searched in PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, CNKI, VIP, Wanfang, and China Biology Medical Literature Database (CBM) from database establishment up to January 30th, 2023. Risk bias assessment was conducted using RoB1, a risk assessment tool recommended by Cochrane for evaluating RCTs literature. Publication bias was evaluated through funnel plots. Meta-analysis of effect size was performed using R 4.2.2., Results: Eleven randomized controlled studies were included. The risk of bias assessment showed that three studies had a moderate risk of bias and eight had a low risk. The meta-analysis results showed that the patient-reported incontinence was improved after one month [odds ratio (OR): 2.71, 95% 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.86-3.94, P<0.01]; improved after three months (OR: 3.42, 95% CI: 1.96-5.98, P<0.01); improved after six months (OR: 3.77, 95% CI: 1.51-9.41, P<0.01); improved after 12 months (OR: 1.21, 95% CI: 1.11-1.31, P<0.01); and the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Simple Form (ICIQ-SF) score decreased [mean difference (MD): -2.74, 95% CI: -4.96 to -0.52, P=0.02]. Subgroup analysis showed that the ICIQ-SF score decreased after one month (MD: -0.61, 95% CI: -0.81 to -0.40) and three months (MD: -3.43, 95% CI: -6.85 to -0.02)., Conclusions: Pelvic floor muscle training significantly improves stress urinary incontinence after prostatectomy, which can be improved by 2.77 times at most. However, due to the limited number of studies included, further validation is needed., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://tau.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/tau-23-337/coif). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (2023 Translational Andrology and Urology. All rights reserved.)

Anthocyanin is one of the flavonoids, which has strong antioxidant properties. Functional rice rich in anthocyanins can not only improve immunity, but also anti-radiation, beauty, anti-aging effect, very popular in the market. In this study, we used Zibaoxiangnuo 1 (ZBXN 1), a functional rice variety which is rich in total flavonoids and anthocyanins, as the experimental material to construct Recombination Inbred Lines (RILs) with Minghui63 (MH63), a variety without anthocyanins. The contents of anthocyanins and total flavonoids of RILs and two parents were determined for three consecutive generations. The average anthocyanin content of parent ZBXN 1 was 319.31 mg/kg, and the anthocyanin inheritance of RIL population was relatively stable, with 10 samples higher than ZBXN 1. In addition, there was no significant difference in the total flavonoids content between the two parents, the total flavonoids content of Z25 in RIL population was 0.33%. Based on these studies, we believe that ZBXN 1 has abundant and stable anthocyanins, which can be used as an intermediate breeding material for breeding high-quality varieties with high anthocyanins, and lay a foundation for breeding more anthocyanin-rich rice varieties., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Zhou, Xie, Jing, Fu, Li, Bian, Xu, Cai, He and Zhou.)

Nitrogen fertilizers significantly increase crop yield; however, the negative impact of excessive nitrogen use on the environment and soil requires urgent attention. Improving crop nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is crucial to increase yields and protect the environment. Foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.), a gramineous crop with significant tolerance to barren croplands, is an ideal model crop for studying abiotic stress resistance in gramineous crops. However, knowledge of the regulatory network for NUE in foxtail millet is fragmentary. Herein, we identified an R2R3-like MYB transcription factor in foxtail millet, SiMYB30, which belongs to MYB subfamily 17. The expression of SiMYB30 is responsive to low nitrogen (LN) concentration. Compared with wildtype Kitaake, seedlings of rice lines overexpressing SiMYB30 showed significantly increased shoot fresh and dry weights, plant height, and root area under LN treatment indoors. Consistently, overexpression of SiMYB30 in field experiments significantly increased grain and stem nitrogen contents, grain yield per plant, and stem weight in rice. Furthermore, qRT-PCR revealed that SiMYB30 effectively activated the expression of nitrogen uptake-related genes-OsNRT1, OsNRT1.1B, and OsNPF2.4-and nitrogen assimilation-related genes-OsGOGAT1, OsGOGAT2, and OsNIA2. Notably, SiMYB30 directly bound to the promoter of OsGOGAT2 and regulated its expression. These results highlight the novel and pivotal role of SiMYB30 in improving crop NUE., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest This study was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Seed aging is the key factor leading to the loss of genetic integrity. In this study, the seeds of Dongxiang wild rice, Xianggu, 9194 and Nipponbare were kept in a plant incubator with constant temperature and humidity for artificial aging treatment. The genetic integrity of germplasm resources with different germination gradients were analyzed using 44 SSR markers. The results suggested that different accessions could be ranked in order of aging resistance from highest to lowest as common wild rice > Xianggu > 9194 > Nipponbare. In order to maintain the genetic diversity of rice, the population size for reproduction and regeneration should be between 60 and 140. After aging, the number of polymorphic alleles, the number of specific single plant, the ratio of polymorphic bands, the number of alleles, the number of effective alleles, gene diversity index and Shannon index of different accessions all decreased with the decrease of germination rate. The germination rate of 60% was the critical value to maintain genetic integrity. Besides, the genetic integrity of eighteen SSR markers was rapidly lost or significantly increased. The regions of these markers were closely related to seed viability or genetic integrity. This study provides a theoretical basis for determining the population size for reproduction and regeneration and the critical value of germination rate of rice resources., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Quantitatively and accurately analyzing nonpoint-source (NPS) pollution is essential for efficiently preventing the input of NPS loads into inland waters. However, the accuracy of previous NPS pollution models is limited by the accuracy of ground parameter data. In addition, there are few effective methods that thoroughly verify modeling results at large scales. This paper presents a framework for accurate NPS pollution estimation by coupling satellite and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) monitoring data, and the results are verified by both field sampling and a newly developed inlet NPS pollution "observation" simulation method. Fractional vegetation coverage (FVC) data obtained by satellite were used to improve the accuracy of the runoff module of the framework. Satellite and UAV data were coupled to acquire livestock data, determine inlets, and identify reservoir buffer zones and vegetation types. These new data were then used to improve the accuracy of the livestock and runoff modules in the framework. The results show that the estimation accuracy of total nitrogen, total phosphorus, ammonia nitrogen, and chemical oxygen demand with FVC were improved by 39.96%, 69.29%, 54.05% and 47.22% (in relative error), respectively. The high-resolution livestock data acquisition improved the estimation accuracy of the NPS pollution load by 7-53%. The high-resolution inlet extraction improved the accuracy by 3-24%. The high-resolution buffer zone identification improved the accuracy with the estimated NPS pollutant concentration into reservoir decreasing by 60-99%. Finally, the high-resolution vegetation type identification improved the accuracy by 10-72%. The framework performs satisfactorily, which was verified based on the simulated NPS observations with an average relative error of 11.54-24.31%. We found that the FVC, livestock number, and inlet number are key parameters for NPS pollution modeling; the introduction of monthly variation in the FVC makes the modeled NPS pollution load much higher in areas with mature complex forested ecosystems or densely distributed vegetation but much lower in areas with sparsely distributed vegetation. The above methods provide a scientific reference for high-efficiency NPS pollution prevention in inland waters, laying a solid basis for decision-making regarding water quality management in data-scarce regions around the world., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Cold stress is a major threat to the sustainability of rice yield. Brassinosteroids (BR) application can enhance cold tolerance in rice. However, the regulatory mechanism related to cold tolerance and the BR signaling pathway in rice has not been clarified. In the current study, the seedling shoot length (SSL), seedling root length (SRL), seedling dry weight (SDW), and seedling wet weight (SWW) were used as the indices for identifying cold tolerance under cold stress and BR-combined cold treatment in a backcross recombinant inbred lines (BRIL) population. According to the phenotypic characterization for cold tolerance and a high-resolution SNP genetic map obtained from the GBS technique, a total of 114 QTLs were identified, of which 27 QTLs were detected under cold stress and 87 QTLs under BR-combined cold treatment. Among them, the intervals of many QTLs were coincident under different treatments, as well as different traits. A total of 13 candidate genes associated with cold tolerance or BR pathway, such as BRASSINAZOLE RESISTANT1 (OsBZR1), OsWRKY77, AP2 domain-containing protein, zinc finger proteins, basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) protein, and auxin-induced protein, were predicted. Among these, the expression levels of 10 candidate genes were identified under different treatments in the parents and representative BRIL individuals. These results were helpful in understanding the regulation relationship between cold tolerance and BR pathway in rice.

Low temperature is one of the major abiotic stresses limiting seed germination and early seedling growth in rice. Brassinosteroid (BR) application can improve cold tolerance in rice. However, the regulatory relationship between cold tolerance and BR in rice remains undefined. Here, we constructed a population of 140 backcross recombinant inbred lines (BRILs) derived from a cross between a wild rice (Dongxiang wild rice, DXWR) and a super rice (SN265). The low-temperature germination rate (LTG), survival rate (SR), plant height (PH), and first leaf length (FLL) were used as indices for assessing cold tolerance under cold stress and BR-combined cold treatment at seed germination and bud burst stages. A high-resolution SNP genetic map, covering 1,145 bin markers with a distance of 3188.33 cM onto 12 chromosomes, was constructed using the GBS technique. A total of 73 QTLs were detected, of which 49 QTLs were identified under cold stress and 24 QTLs under BR-combined cold treatment. Among these, intervals of 30 QTLs were pairwise coincident under cold stress and BR-combined cold treatment, as well as different traits including SR and FLL, and PH and FLL, respectively. A total of 14 candidate genes related to cold tolerance or the BR signaling pathway, such as CBF/DREB (LOC&#95;Os08g43200), bHLH (LOC&#95;Os07g08440 and LOC&#95;Os07g08440), WRKY (LOC&#95;Os06g30860), MYB (LOC&#95;Os01g62410 and LOC&#95;Os05g51160), and BRI1-associated receptor kinase 1 precursor (LOC&#95;Os06g16300), were located. Among these, the transcript levels of 10 candidate genes were identified under cold stress and BR-combined cold treatment by qRT-PCR. These findings provided an important basis for further mining the genes related to cold tolerance or the BR signaling pathway and understanding the molecular mechanisms of cold tolerance in rice., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Guo, Wang, Yao, Cheng, Zhang, Xu, Li, Huang and Zhao.)

Hybridization between Xian/indica (XI) and Geng/japonica (GJ) rice combined with utilization of plant ideotypes has greatly contributed to yield improvements in modern GJ rice in China over the past 50 years. To explore the genomic basis of improved yield and disease resistance in GJ rice, we conducted a large-scale genomic landscape analysis of 816 elite GJ cultivars representing multiple eras of germplasm from China. We detected consistently increasing introgressions from three XI subpopulations into GJ cultivars since the 1980s and found that the XI genome introgressions significantly increased the grain number per panicle (GN) and decreased the panicle number per plant. This contributed to the improvement of plant type during modern breeding, changing multi-tiller plants to moderate tiller plants with a large panicle size and increasing the blast resistance. Notably, we found that key gene haplotypes controlling plant architecture, yield components, and pest and disease resistance, including IPA1, SMG1, DEP3, Pib, Pi-d2, and Bph3, were introduced from XI rice by introgression. By GWAS analysis, we detected a GN-related gene Gnd5, which had been consistently introgressed from XI into GJ cultivars since the 1980s. Gnd5 is a GRAS transcription factor gene, and Gnd5 knockout mutants showed a significant reduction in GN. The estimated genetic effects of genes varied among different breeding locations, which explained the distinct introgression levels of XI gene haplotypes, including Gnd5, DEP3, etc., to these GJ breeding pedigrees. These findings reveal the genomic contributions of introgressions from XI to the trait improvements of GJ rice cultivars and provide new insights for future rice genomic breeding., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Oxidative stress (OS), characterized by the excessive accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), is an emerging hallmark of cancer. Tumorigenesis and development driven by ROS require an aberrant redox homeostasis, that activates onco-signaling and avoids ROS-induced programmed death by orchestrating antioxidant systems. These processes are revealed to closely associate with noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs). On the basis of the available evidence, ncRNAs have been widely identified as multifarious modulators with the involvement of several key redox sensing pathways, such as NF-κB and Nrf2 signaling, therefore potentially becoming effective targets for cancer therapy. Furthermore, the vast majority of ncRNAs with property of easy detected in fluid samples (e.g., blood and urine) facilitate clinicians to monitor redox homeostasis, indicating a novel method for cancer diagnosis. Herein, focusing on carcinoma initiation, metastasis and chemoradiotherapy resistance, we aimed to discuss the ncRNAs-ROS network involved in cancer progression, and the potential clinical application as biomarkers and therapeutic targets., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Cellular metabolism constitutes a fundamental process in biology. During tumor initiation and progression, each cellular component in the cancerous niche undergoes dramatic metabolic reprogramming, adapting to a challenging microenvironment of hypoxia, nutrient deprivation, and other stresses. While the metabolic hallmarks of cancer have been extensively studied, the metabolic states of the immune cells are less well elucidated. Here we review the metabolic disturbance and fitness of the immune system in the tumor microenvironment (TME), focusing on the impact of oncometabolites to the function of immune cells and the clinical significance of targeting metabolism in anti-tumor immunotherapy. Metabolic alterations in the immune system of TME offer novel therapeutic insight into cancer treatment., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

The mature basal stipe of mushroom Coprinopsis cinerea loses wall extensibility. We found that an endo-β-1,3-glucanase ENG from C. cinerea could restore mature basal stipe wall extensibility via pretreatment such that the ENG-pretreated basal stipe walls could be induced to extend by chitinase ChiIII. ENG pretreatment released glucose, laminaribiose, and 3-O-D-gentiobiose-D-glucose from the basal stipe walls, consistent with ENG-digested products of β-1,6-branched β-1,3-glucan. Different effects of endo-β-1,3-glucanase ENG and exo-β-1,3-glucanase EXG pretreatment on the structure, amount and ratio (β-1,3-glucoside bonds to β-1,6-glucoside bonds) of products from the basal stipe and the apical stipe cell walls, respectively, and on the cell wall extensibility and the cell wall ultra-architecture of the basal stipes were analyzed. All results demonstrate that the more accumulation and cross-linkage of β-1,6-branched β-1,3-glucan with wall maturation lead to loss of wall extensibility of the basal stipe regions compared to the apical stipe cell walls., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Aims: To examine the safety and feasibility of three-dimensional (3-D) laparoscopic partial nephrectomy for clinically complex renal tumors., Materials and Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 76 patients who underwent a 3-D ( n = 42; age, 54.6 ± 12.2 years) or two-dimensional (2-D) laparoscopic partial nephrectomy ( n = 34; age, 54.8 ± 13.2 years) for renal tumors with RENAL nephrectomy scores of ≥10 points from the same surgical group between January 2017 and April 2020 in Ningbo Urology and Nephrology Hospital. Mean tumor diameter, operation time, warm ischemic time, amount of intraoperative blood loss, postoperative hospitalization time, hospitalization cost, perioperative complication rate, and renal function were compared., Results: The operation time (154.6 ± 45.1 min) and warm ischemic time (22.5 ± 6.8 min) in the 3-D laparoscopic group were significantly lower than those in the 2-D laparoscopic group (193.0 ± 59.2 min, p = 0.001 and 28.7 ± 7.8 min, p = 0.0002, respectively). No significant differences in amount of intraoperative blood loss ( p = 0.642), length of postoperative hospital stay ( p = 0.541), perioperative complication rate ( p = 0.860), total hospital cost ( p = 0.641), and renal function changes including estimated glomerular filtration rate and serum creatinine ( p > 0.05) were found between the two groups., Conclusion: Our preliminary experience showed that the 3-D laparoscopic imaging system significantly shortened the operation and renal ischemic times, which are more conducive to partial resection of highly complex renal tumors., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Maomao Li et al.)

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) controls the fate of a variety of nutrients and trace metals in river estuary systems. The aim of our study is to explore the sources, structure characteristics of sediment DOM, and potential ecological release risk (heavy metal, N and P) under the environmental conditions of Dagu River estuary. The relative contribution of DOM source was calculated by carbon stable isotope (combining δ 13 C DOM and C/N ratios). The structural characteristics of sediment DOM in Dagu River estuary were determined by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis) absorbance and fluorescence spectroscopy. The potential ecological risks of heavy metals and N and P release were also assessed. Results show that the relative contributions of rural area and aquaculture are high in Dagu River estuary. The humification degree of DOM in downstream river is higher than that in the estuary, and the sediment DOM in Dagu River estuary is influenced by both terrestrial input and biological metabolism. The potential risk of eutrophication in the estuary is high. Moreover, under the effect of aquaculture and rural area, there is higher potential ecological release risk of heavy metal in the estuary. And samples in the middle transect have the highest potential ecological risks of heavy metal. Therefore, a framework has been proposed to predict the ecological status of the estuary by analyzing the sources, content, and structural characteristics of sediment DOM. These results provide a new insight on ecological indication of DOM in Dagu River estuary.

Background: There is little understanding on how brief relaxation practice and viewing greenery images would affect brain responses during cognitive tasks. In the present study, we examined the variation in brain activation of the prefrontal cortex during arithmetic tasks before and after viewing greenery images, brief relaxation practice, and control task using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)., Method: This randomized controlled study examined the activation patterns of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in three groups of research participants who were exposed to viewing greenery images ( n = 10), brief relaxation practice ( n = 10), and control task ( n = 11). The activation pattern of the PFC was measured pre- and post-intervention using a portable fNIRS device and reported as mean total oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO μm). Primary outcome of the study is the difference in HbO μm between post- and pre-intervention readings during a cognitive task that required the research participants to perform arithmetic calculation., Results: In terms of intervention-related differences, there was significant difference in average HbO μm when performing arithmetic tasks before and after brief relaxation practice ( p < 0.05). There were significant increases in average HbO μm in the right frontopolar cortex ( p = 0.029), the left frontopolar cortex ( p = 0.01), and the left orbitofrontal cortex ( p = 0.033) during arithmetic tasks after brief relaxation practice. In contrast, there were no significant differences in average HbO μm when performing arithmetic tasks before and after viewing greenery images ( p > 0.05) and the control task ( p > 0.05)., Conclusion: Our preliminary findings show that brief relaxation practice but not viewing greenery images led to significant frontal lobe activation during arithmetic tasks. The present study demonstrated, for the first time, that there was an increase in activation in neuroanatomical areas including the combined effort of allocation of attentional resources, exploration, and memory performance after the brief relaxation practice. Our findings suggest the possibility that the right frontopolar cortex, the left frontopolar cortex, and the left orbitofrontal cortex may be specifically associated with the benefits of brief relaxation on the brain.

Coastal wetland is the transitional area between land and ocean, which has a unique and sensitive ecosystem. In this study, the effects of moisture and salinity on dissolved organic matter (DOM) and adsorption of heavy metal ions (Cr(VI), Cd(II) and Pb(II)) by soil are investigated. Meanwhile, ecological risks for the potential release of N, P and heavy metals are also predicted. UV-Vis spectrophotometry and three-dimensional fluorescence spectroscopy are used to study the content and structural of DOM under different soil moisture and salinity. Soil adsorption of heavy metal ions is determined by inductively coupled plasma (ICP). The results show that soil moisture and salinity have significant effects on the basic physical and chemical properties of soil. DOM content is the highest in medium moisture and high salinity areas. In addition, the content of protein-like substances in DOM is the highest under all treatment conditions. The results also reveal that the increase of DOM promotes Cr(VI) adsorption and inhibits Cd(II) adsorption by soil. When Pb(II) concentration is high (150 mg/L), the increase of DOM inhibits Pb(II) adsorption by soil. The comprehensive ecological risk of heavy metals is the highest under high salinity. The potential release risk of N and P is the lowest at high moisture and low moisture, respectively. Base on above, effects of soil moisture and salinity on the surrounding ecological environment in coastal wetlands have been revealed, which provides a theoretical basis for the protection of coastal wetland ecological environment., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest This manuscript has not been published or presented elsewhere in part or in entirety, and is not under consideration by another journal. All the authors have approved the manuscript and agree with submission to your esteemed journal. There are no conflicts of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Foxtail millet ( Setaria italica ), which originated in China, has a strong tolerance to low nutrition stresses. However, the mechanism of foxtail millet tolerance to low-nitrogen stress is still unknown. In this study, the transcriptome of foxtail millet under low-nitrogen stress was systematically analyzed. Expression of 1891 genes was altered, including 1318 up-regulated genes and 573 down-regulated genes. KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) analysis revealed that 3% of these genes were involved in membrane transport and 5% were involved in redox processes. There were 74 total transcription factor (TF) genes in the DEGs (differentially expressed genes), and MYB-like transcription factors accounted for one-third (25) of the TF genes. We systematically analyzed the characteristics, expression patterns, chromosome locations, and protein structures of 25 MYB-like genes. The analysis of gene function showed that Arabidopsis and rice overexpressing SiMYB3 had better root development than WT under low-nitrogen stress. Moreover, EMSA results showed that SiMYB3 protein could specifically bind MYB elements in the promoter region of TAR2 , an auxin synthesis related gene and MYB3-TAR2 regulate pair conserved in rice and foxtail millet. These results suggested that SiMYB3 can regulate root development by regulating plant root auxin synthesis under low-nitrogen conditions.

Dongxiang common wild rice (Oryza rufipogon Griff.) is believed to have the northernmost distribution of any wild rice species. Many favorable genes were lost during rice domestication, and Dongxiang common wild rice is a potential source of many genes related to biological and abiotic stress resistance and high grain yield. Despite its importance, japonica rice has not yet been used as a background material for the construction of introgression lines carrying Dongxiang common wild rice chromosome segments. In this study, we used Dongxiang common wild rice as the donor parent and Nipponbare (Oryza sativa L), a reference-sequence japonica cultivar, as the recurrent parent to develop a set of 104 chromosome segment substitution lines (CSSLs) through crossing and backcrossing with marker-assisted selection based on 203 polymorphic molecular markers evenly distributed across 12 chromosomes. The 104 CSSLs covered 87.94% of the genome of Dongxiang common wild rice. Each CSSL contained an average of four introgressed segments, and the average segment length was 3.3 Mb. Quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis of the panicle-related traits of the CSSLs at two sites (Beijing and Nanchang, Jiangxi Province) revealed 18 QTLs for eight traits. Among these 18 QTLs were two known grain length- and width-related genes and four novel QTLs. In addition, two QTLs were verified, and two novel QTLs were identified, for panicle neck length, a domestication-related trait. The developed CSSLs potentially represent a valuable population for detecting favorable genes in common wild rice and creating germplasm resources for japonica rice breeding., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

We previously reported that an endo-β-1,3(4)-d-glucanase, Eng16A, from C. cinerea shows a higher degradation activity toward barley β-glucan than laminarin. HPAEC-PAD and Q-TOF-MS/MS analyses show that Eng16A-digestion products of barley β-glucan not only contain some oligosaccharides with (1 → 3)-β-linkage adjacent to the reducing end, which is consistent with β-1,3(4)-glucanase-digestion products, but also include some oligosaccharides containing (1 → 4)-β-linkage adjacent to the reducing end which is consistent with cellulase-digestion products. Thus, Eng16A possesses both cellulase and β-1,3(4)-glucanase activities. Because Eng16A does not degrade cellulose, we propose that the insertion of a (1 → 3)-β-linkage among the groups of (1 → 4)-β-linkages may make these (1 → 4)-β-linkages prone to cleavage by Eng16A. Furthermore, Eng16A also possesses transglycosylation activity which leads to some products containing one or a few consecutive (1 → 3)-β-linkages adjacent to the non-reducing end. Therefore, HPAEC-PAD and Q-TOF-MS/MS analyses provide an efficient approach to reveal complicated modes of action of some endo-β-1,3(4)-d-glucanases on barley β-glucan., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Rationale: Hepatoid adenocarcinoma (HAC) of the fallopian tubes is a rare malignant tumor in the female reproductive system., Patient Concerns: An 81-year-old Chinese woman presented with an elevated serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level., Diagnosis: Positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) scan revealed a mass of approximately 47 × 27 mm located in the right adnexa. The tumor was diagnosed as a HAC arising from fallopian tube by immunohistochemical and histochemical technique., Interventions: This patient underwent surgical treatment including a bilateral adnexectomy and appendectomy. In addition, the patient underwent 5 cycles of postoperative chemotherapy., Outcomes: The disease has recurred approximately six months after surgery and therefore, this patient will continue to be observed., Lessons: Up to this point, only 4 known cases of HAC originating in fallopian tube have been published in the English literature. Further studies are needed to better understand the clinical characteristics, the prognosis, and the pathological mechanism of HAC development in the fallopian tubes.

ChiEn3 from Coprinopsis cinerea was characterized as an exo-acting chitinase with a processivity. ChiEn3 hydrolyzed only soluble chitin and exhibited a hyperhydrolytic activity toward 85% deacetylated chitosan which was 33.6-fold higher than its hydrolytic activity toward glycol chitin. Its maximum hydrolytic activity was observed at 60 °C and retained 66.2% of hydrolytic activity after 60 min incubation at 60 °C. Commercial 85% deacetylated chitosan was degraded by ChiEn3 to a series of COSs with a DP of 2-20 in which COSs with a DP of 3-6 were dominant, whereas, lab-prepared chitosan (F A  = 0.65) was degraded by ChiEn3 to COSs with a DP of 2-10 in which the AA dimer was dominant. DPPH-radical-scavenging activity of ChiEn3-digested products of 85% deacetylated chitosan was 3.32-fold higher than that of undigested 85% deacetylated chitosan. Therefore, ChiEn3 shows a valuable advantage for application to the preparation of COSs from commercial 85% deacetylated chitosan., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To study the mechanism and clinical significance of B-cell lymphoma/leukemia 11A (BCL11A) gene in the development of endometrial carcinoma (EC)., Methods: 100 EC, 20 normal endometrium and 20 atypical hyperplasia endometrium specimens were collected from West China Second University Hospital from January 2005 to January 2015. The expression of BCL11A was detected by immunohistochemistry and its relationships with clinicopathological features and survival were analyzed., Results: The expression of BCL11A in ER-/PR-EC was higher than that in normal endometrium, atypical hyperplasia endometrium, and ER+/PR+EC (P < 0.001). The expression of BCL11A in EC was associated with age, menopause, EC classification, para-aortic lymph node metastasis, tumor differentiation, histological type, ER/PR expression and p53 expression (P < 0.05). The expression of BCL11A in the deceased group was significantly higher than that in the survival group (P = 0.011). Survival analysis indicated that the high expression of BCL11A was associated with low survival rate (P < 0.001)., Conclusions: BCL11A may play an important role in the development of ER-/PR-EC. It may serve as a potential target for therapy and a predict factor for prognosis. It can also provide molecular basis for new EC classification., Competing Interests: None., (IJCEP Copyright © 2018.)

Rationale: Primary leiomyosarcoma (LMS) of the fallopian tube is extremely uncommon. To the best of our knowledge, so far only 21 cases of primary fallopian tube LMS have been reported in English-language literature. No new case has been reported in the past 7 years., Patient Concerns: A 44-year-old premenopausal patient presented with a 5-day history of lower abdominal pain., Diagnoses: Pelvic ultrasonography detected an 8.8 × 7.8 × 6.5 cm solid and cystic mass in the left side of the pelvic cavity. The tumor was diagnosed as a primary fallopian tube LMS on paraffin section., Interventions: The patient treated surgically followed by 4 cycles of postoperative chemotherapy with dacarbazine and DDP., Outcomes: The patient succumbed to the disease 27 months after the initial therapy., Lessons: Tube LMS is a rare malignant tumor with unknown etiology, difficult early diagnosis, highly invasiveness, high local recurrence and distant metastasis rate, rapid progress, and poor prognosis. It is extremely rare so we can only summarize limited experience from limited data. Every case of tubal LMS is worth being reported.

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is a necrotrophic plant-pathogenic fungus that infects more than 400 species of plants. In this study the nascent polypeptide-associated complex α subunit gene of S. sclerotiorum (SsNACα; accession No. XP&#95;001593856.1) was cloned and characterized. The relative transcript expression of SsNACα at different morphological stages of asexual development of S. sclerotiorum were analyzed by quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR). RNAi-mediated gene silencing was successful for SsNACα, and the mutated strains exhibited less than 15% of the relative expression of SsNACα were obtained and used for studying the biological functions of the gene. A delay in sclerotial maturation for S. sclerotiorum was observed in the SsNACα mutants. The significant elevations for both the activities of pectin-degrading enzymes and the expression of polygalacturonase genes also were associated with the mutated strains, indicating that SsNACα could negatively influence polygalacturonases expression and modulate the pathogenicity of S. sclerotiorum., (© 2015 by The Mycological Society of America.)

Several studies reported Prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA) rs2294008 was susceptibly associated with bladder cancer (BC) risk. However, the results were not entirely consistent. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between rs2294008 and BC risk. Comprehensive meta-analysis was preformed to provide a more precise assessment of the association between rs2294008 and BC risk. Twenty five studies involving 14,244 BC patients and 53,963 controls were included in our meta-analysis. The crude odds ratios (ORs) and the 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were used to evaluate the strength of the association. Pooled results indicated that the PSCA variant rs2294008-T was significantly connected with an increased risk of BC (OR = 1.15, 95% CI = 1.12-1.18, P(z) < 0.0001). Moreover, stratified analyses showed that rs2294008 significantly increased BC risk in European (OR = 1.10, 95% CI = 1.05-1.15, P(z) < 0.0001), North American (OR = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.12-1.24, P(z) < 0.0001), and Asian (OR = 1.17, 95% CI = 1.13-1.22, P(z) < 0.0001). In conclusion, our meta-analysis demonstrated that the PSCA rs2294008 is a risk factor for BC in European, Asian and North American. Further large case-control studies are needed to assess the relationship in other populations. Biologically functional studies are needed to verify the molecular mechanisms in the pathogenesis of BC.