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Background: This study aims to evaluate the ability of laboratories to perform spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) genetic testing in newborns based on dried blood spot (DBS) samples, and to provide reference data and advance preparation for establishing the pilot external quality assessment (EQA) scheme for SMA genetic testing of newborns in China., Methods: The pilot EQA scheme contents and evaluation principles of this project were designed by National Center for Clinical Laboratories (NCCL), National Health Commission. Two surveys were carried out in 2022, and 5 batches of blood spots were submitted to the participating laboratory each time. All participating laboratories conducted testing upon receiving samples, and test results were submitted to NCCL within the specified date., Results: The return rates were 75.0% (21/28) and 95.2% (20/21) in the first and second surveys, respectively. The total return rate of the two examinations was 83.7% (41/49). Nineteen laboratories (19/21, 90.5%) had a full score passing on the first survey, while in the second survey twenty laboratories (20/20, 100%) scored full., Conclusions: This pilot EQA survey provides a preliminary understanding of the capability of SMA genetic testing for newborns across laboratories in China. A few laboratories had technical or operational problems in testing. It is, therefore, of importance to strengthen laboratory management and to improve testing capacity for the establishment of a national EQA scheme for newborn SMA genetic testing.

Background: We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic capabilities of Chinese laboratories for inherited metabolic disorders (IMDs) using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) on urine samples. Meanwhile, based on the result of the pilot external quality assessment (EQA) scheme, we hope to establish a standardized and reliable procedure for future EQA practice., Methods: We recruited laboratories that participated in the EQA of quantitative analysis of urinary organic acids with GC-MS before joining the surveys. In each survey, a set of five real urine samples was distributed to each participant. The participants should analyze the sample by GC-MS and report the "analytical result", "the most likely diagnosis", and "recommendation for further tests" to the NCCL before the deadline., Results: A total of 21 laboratories participated in the scheme. The pass rates were 94.4% in 2020 and 89.5% in 2021. For all eight IMDs tested, the analytical proficiency rates ranged from 84.7% - 100%, and the interpretational performance rate ranged from 88.2% - 97.0%. The performance on hyperphenylalaninemia (HPA), 3-methylcrotonyl-CoA carboxylase deficiency (MCCD), and ethylmalonic encephalopathy (EE) samples were not satisfactory., Conclusions: In general, the participants of this pilot EQA scheme are equipped with the basic capability for qualitative organic acid analysis and interpretation of the results. Limited by the small size of laboratories and samples involved, this activity could not fully reflect the state of clinical practice of Chinese laboratories. NCCL will improve the EQA scheme and implement more EQA activities in the future.

To address the needs of polarized light navigation for accurate position information of feature points in the sky, an accurate solar position detection method based on an all-sky polarization pattern imaging system is proposed. Unlike the traditional spot-based solar position detection method, this method uses the polarization information inherent in the atmosphere to accurately measure solar position. This approach is characterized by simple detection, high accuracy, and wide application range. The optical acquisition system is composed of three miniature large-field camera modules and polarizers, which enables a more compact structure, smaller size, and lesser height. Based on this principle, the solar position solution algorithm was simulated and then verified in various weather environments using the optical acquisition system built as part of this study. Solar position was detected at different moments on the same day in clear weather, and the accuracy of the measured solar altitude and azimuth angles was 0.024° and 0.03°, respectively. The accuracy of the measured solar altitude and azimuth angles was 0.08° and 0.05°, respectively, when the sun was shielded by high-rise buildings and 0.3° and 0.1° when the sun was shielded by branches and tree leaves. Aerosol concentrations exceeding a certain amount destroyed the Rayleigh distribution pattern of polarized light, thus affecting solar position detection accuracy. It is concluded that this novel detection method can not only meet the needs of polarized light navigation for solar position, but also provide a new exploration idea for enthusiasts who are eager to explore the mysteries of the universe.

Actively targeted nanomedicines though conceptually attractive for tumor therapy are extremely hard to realize due to problems of premature drug leakage, excessive liver accretion, inadequate tumor uptake, and/or retarded drug release inside tumor cells. Here, we systemically studied the influence of disulfide crosslinking on the in vitro and in vivo performance of integrin-targeting micellar docetaxel (t-MDTX). Of note, t-M5DTX with a high disulfide content was clearly advantageous in terms of stability, intracellular drug release, anti-tumor activity toward α V β 3 -overexpressing A549 cells, blood circulation and therapeutic efficacy in orthotopic A549-luc lung tumor-bearing mice. t-MDTX induced extraordinary tumor targetability with tumor-to-normal tissue ratios of 1.7-8.3. Further studies indicated that t-M5DTX could effectively eradicate α V β 3 -overexpressing lung and prostate cancer patient-derived xenografts (PDX), in which ca. 80% mice became tumor-free. This integrin-targeting disulfide-crosslinked micellar docetaxel emerges as a promising actively targeted nanoformulation for tumor therapy. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Nanomedicines have a great potential in treating advanced tumor patients; however, their tumor-targeting ability and therapeutic efficacy remain unsatisfactory. In addition to PEGylation and ligand selection, particle size, stability and drug release behavior are also critical to their performance in vivo. In this paper, we find that small and cRGD-guided disulfide-crosslinked micellar docetaxel (t-MDTX) induces superior tumor uptake and retention but without increasing liver burden, leading to extraordinary selectivity and inhibition of α v β 3 overexpressing lung tumors. t-MDTX is further shown to effectively treat α v β 3 -positive patient-derived tumor models, lending it a high potential for clinical translation., 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 © 2023 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Nanomedicines while showing a great potential in improving the performance of chemotherapeutics like docetaxel (DTX) are distressed by a high liver deposition and poor tumor penetration, which might not only cause liver toxicity but also moderate therapeutic effect. Herein, we report that cRGD-directed 24 nm disulfide-crosslinked micellar docetaxel (cRGD-MDTX) presents low liver accumulation, high tumor uptake, and deep tumor penetration, leading to the potent suppression of different solid tumors. cRGD-MDTX was optimized with a cRGD density of 4% and DTX loading of 10 wt%. Interestingly, cRGD-MDTX enabled an extraordinary tumor-liver ratio of 2.8/1 with a DTX uptake of 8.3 %ID/g in α v β 3 over-expressing PC3 prostate tumor. The therapeutic studies demonstrated striking antitumor effects of cRGD-MDTX toward PC3 prostate tumor, prostate cancer patient-derived xenografts (PDX), orthotopic A549-Luc lung cancer and orthotopic SKOV3-Luc ovarian tumor models, in which tumor growth was effectually inhibited and 6-8 times better improvement of median survival time over free DTX was observed. This small disulfide-crosslinked micellar drug capable of relegating liver deposition opens a new avenue to nanomedicines for targeted therapy., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is considered a cost-effective alternative approach capable of determining the consumption and prevalence of drug use in communities, however, the application of WBE for estimating the prevalence of depression has seldom been reported. In this study, the prevalence of antidepressants was estimated in five cities in Qinghai Province, west China to examine the feasibility of using WBE to estimate the depression prevalence. Residual concentrations of the drugs varied from different wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in five cities. Venlafaxine (0.06-720 ng/L), O-desmethylvenlafaxine (1.31-1659 ng/L), paroxetine (

Main Conclusion: Transcriptomics and methylomics were used to identify the potential effects resulting from GM rice breeding stacks, which provided scientific data for the safety assessment strategy of stacked GM crops in China. Gene interaction is one of the main concerns for stacked genetically modified crop safety. With the development of technology, the combination of omics and bioinformatics has become a useful tool to evaluate the unintended effects of genetically modified crops. In this study, transcriptomics and methylomics were used as molecular profiling techniques to identify the potential effects of stack through breeding. Stacked transgenic rice En-12 × Ec-26 was used as material, which was obtained through hybridization using parents En-12 and Ec-26, in which the foreign protein can form functional EPSPS protein by intein-mediated trans-splitting. Differentially methylated region (DMR) analysis showed that the effect of stacking breeding on methylation was less than that of genetic transformation at the methylome level. Differentially expressed gene (DEG) analysis showed that the DEGs between En-12 × Ec-26 and its parents were far fewer than those between transgenic rice and Zhonghua 11 (ZH11), and no unintended new genes were found in En-12 × Ec-26. Statistical analysis of gene expression and methylation involved in shikimic acid metabolism showed that there was no difference in gene expression, although there were 16 and 10 DMR genes between En-12 × Ec-26 and its parents (En and Ec) in methylation, respectively. The results indicated that the effect of stacking breeding on gene expression and DNA methylation was less than the effect of genetic transformation. This study provides scientific data supporting safety assessments of stacked GM crops in China., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

In the present study, a practical method for synthesizing the key intermediate 5,7-dichlorotetrahydroisoquinoline-6-carboxylic acid ( 1 ) of Lifitegrast was proposed. First, an investigation was conducted into the utilization of the impurity and recrystallization method in the synthesis of 5,7-dichlorotetrahydroisoquinoline ( 5 ·HCl) via Friedel-Crafts cyclization. Through the screening of different protection groups, a previously unreported quaternary ammonium salt ( 13 ) was isolated with a 95.9% yield and 99.6% purity by simply adjusting the pH during the carboxylation reaction. Subsequently, free state 1 was obtained by controlling the pH to 4-5 with HCl(aq), thereby avoiding the need for a free operation in the synthesis of the API of Lifitegrast. Further, the triphenylmethanol (TrOH) was recycled to triphenylmethyl chloride (TrCl) using CaCl 2 /HCl(aq) with 93.0% yield and 98.0% purity., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

Lack of knowledge on the destiny of organic micropollutants (OMPs) in the Tibetan Plateau region of China prevents the public from being aware of the need for protecting these unique aquatic ecosystems that are precious water resources and source areas of the Yellow River. To address this knowledge gap, this study systematically investigated the multi-residue analysis, distribution, and potential risks of six types of OMPs, namely, neonicotinoid pesticides (NEOs), fungicides, organophosphate esters (OPEs), organophosphorus pesticides (OPPs), psychoactive substances (PSs), and antidepressants (ADs), in surface waters of major cities in Qinghai. A total of 31 compounds, consisting of 8 NEOs, 1 fungicide, 12 OPEs, 2 OPPs, 5 PSs, and 3 ADs, were detected in >50% of the sites, showing their ubiquitous nature in the study area. Results showed that the total OMP concentration in surface water was 28.3-908 ng/L, and OPEs were the dominant composition (48.6%-97.4%). The risk quotient values of the detected diazinon and dursban regularly exceeded 1 for aquatic organisms at all sampling sites, indicating moderate-high chronic ecological risk. The joint probability curves showed that dursban and NEOs have higher risk levels than other OMPs. Although the results of the non-carcinogenic total hazard quotient of the OMPs in the surface water was less than 1 in all age groups and the carcinogenic risk was lower than the negligible risk level, the potential risks to children and infants were considerably greater and should not be underestimated. In addition to pollutant concentration and exposure duration, ingestion rate and body weight (BW) are also important factors affecting health risk, with BW having a negative effect. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this report is the first to describe OMP pollution in Qinghai, and the results provide new insight into the ecological security of the water resources of the Tibetan Plateau., 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 © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Recently, layered BeN 4 as a novel Dirac semimetal has been fabricated (M. Bykov, T. Fedotenko, S. Chariton et al. Phys. Rev. Lett ., 2021, 126 , 175501). Motivated by the experiment, we perform first-principles calculations to predict the stability, magnetic configurations, and electronic structures of unsaturated BeN 4 nanoribbons with an armchair-terminated edge. The magnetic interactions and electronic properties of BeN 4 nanoribbons are sensitively influenced by the edge morphology. The BeN 4 nanoribbons with both edges occupied by Be atoms undergo a transition from a ferromagnetic (FM) metal to an antiferromagnetic (AFM) semiconductor with the increase of ribbon width. The configurations with edges situated by Be and N atoms are FM/ferrimagnetic (FIM) metals or nearly half-metals, and the spin polarizability is as high as 85% when the ribbon width is N = 5. The nanoribbons with both edge sites occupied by pentagonal N atoms are nonmagnetic (NM), while the nanoribbons terminated by N atoms in a hexagonal ring are FM metals. We also explore the magnetic properties and band structures of BeN 4 nanoribbons with hydrogen passivation. Our results open up a versatile edge engineering avenue to design BeN 4 -based spintronic and nanoelectronic devices.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the third pole of the world, and information on the consumption of psychoactive substances (PSs) in this area is scarce. In this study, we selected Qinghai Province as the research area, and the per capita consumption and prevalence of PSs were investigated using wastewater-based epidemiology. Samples from 17 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in 5 major cities in Qinghai Province were monitored, and 11 PSs were detected by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Results showed that the target compounds were detected in all samples, with relatively high concentrations of ephedrine (2.1-4825.3 ng/L) and methamphetamine (1.5-295.7 ng/L). The consumption of methamphetamine in Xining City, Haidong City, and Haixi City was up to 78.4, 16.8, and 21.2 mg/1000 inh/d (the PS consumption per 1000 inhabitants in 1 day), respectively, higher than that in the other two cities, which was the result of the different consumption patterns and its relationship with the economic levels of each city. High consumption of methadone (47.9 mg/1000 inh/day) was found in Xining City, which might be related to the methadone maintenance therapy sites in the city. Methamphetamine was the most prevalent drug, with the prevalence ranging from 0.003 (Guoluo) to 0.197% (Xining), and the prevalence of other PSs was low. The ecological risk assessment of PSs in the effluent of WWTPs showed that methadone exerted a low risk to aquatic organisms in three sites, while other substances posed potential risk or no risk. However, the long-term effect of PSs cannot be ignored., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Thiamethoxam (THM) is a commercial neonicotinoid insecticide with broad-spectrum insecticidal activity. It has been widely detected in the aquatic environment, but its behavioral toxicity on aquatic organisms received limited attention. In this study, adult zebrafish were exposed to THM at three levels (0.1, 10, and 1000 μg/L) for 45 days to investigate its effect on their ecological behavior, histopathology, bioaccumulation, and stress response. The bioconcentration factor in zebrafish brain was significantly higher (p < 0.05) at low concentration of THM (0.1 μg/L) than in other treatment groups. In terms of individual behavior, the locomotor activity, aggregation, and social activity of fish were enhanced after THM exposure, but the memory of the food zone was disturbed and abnormal swimming behavior was observed. THM exposure caused brain tissue necrosis, erythrocyte infiltration, cloudy swelling, and other pathological changes in brain tissue and affected the concentrations of acetylcholinesterase and cortisol related to neurotoxicity. The condition factor and organ coefficients (brain, heart, and intestine) of zebrafish were markedly impacted by THM treatment at 0.1 and 1000 μg/L, respectively. This finding showed that THM was more harmful to fish behavior than lethality, reproduction, and growth, and a behavioral study can be a useful tool for ecological risk assessment., 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 B.V. All rights reserved.)

Since the first introduction of sodium iodide I-131 for use with thyroid patients almost 80 years ago, more than 50 radiopharmaceuticals have reached the markets for a wide range of diseases, especially cancers. The nuclear medicine paradigm also shifts from solely molecular imaging or radionuclide therapy to imaging-guided radionuclide therapy, which is deemed a vital component of precision cancer therapy and an emerging medical modality for personalized medicine. The imaging-guided radionuclide therapy highlights the systematic integration of targeted nuclear diagnostics and radionuclide therapeutics. Regarding this, nuclear imaging serves to "visualize" the lesions and guide the therapeutic strategy, followed by administration of a precise patient specific dose of radiotherapeutics for treatment according to the absorbed dose to different organs and tumors calculated by dosimetry tools, and finally repeated imaging to predict the prognosis. This strategy leads to significantly enhanced therapeutic efficacy, improved patient outcomes, and manageable adverse events. In this review, we provide an overview of imaging-guided targeted radionuclide therapy for different tumors such as advanced prostate cancer and neuroendocrine tumors, with a focus on development of new radioligands and their preclinical and clinical results, and further discuss about challenges and future perspectives., 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 B.V. All rights reserved.)

At present, with the accelerated development of the global biotechnology industry, novel transgenic technologies represented by gene editing are developing rapidly. A large number of gene-edited products featuring one or a few base indels have been commercialized. These have led to great challenges in the use of traditional nucleic acid detection technology and in safety regulation for genetically modified organisms (GMOs). In this study, we developed a portable clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated proteins 12a-based (CRISPR/Cas12a-based) biosensing platform named Cas12aFVD (fast visual detection) that can be coupled with recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) for on-site detection of mutants in gene-edited rice in one tube. The detection procedure can be accomplished in 40 min with a visible result, which can be observed by the naked eye under blue light (470-490 nm). By accurate recognition of targets based on Cas12a/CRISPR RNA (crRNA), Cas12aFVD exhibits excellent performance for the detection of two- and three-base deletions, one-base substitution, and one-base insertion mutants with a limit of detection (LOD) of 12 copies/μl showing great potential for mutant detection, especially single-base mutants. The Cas12aFVD biosensing platform is independent of laboratory conditions, making it a promising and pioneering platform for the detection of gene-edited products., 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 Wang, Liu, Yang, Wang, Wang and Wang.)

In recent years, integrated polarized light/inertial heading measurement systems have been widely used to obtain autonomous heading measurements of small unmanned combat platforms in the case of satellite navigation rejection. However, existing polarized light/inertial heading measurement systems have certain limitations. For example, they can only measure the heading angle in environments where continuous observations can be obtained. When encountering a complex environment with trees and/or tall buildings, the measured heading angle will contain sharp noise which greatly affects its accuracy. In particular, when encountering an underpass, it will lead to the complete loss of lock of the polarized light compass signal. Therefore, for the problem of sharp noise arising from a complex environment, a robust Cubature Kalman filter (CKF) data-fusion algorithm is proposed and verified by experiments. It is proved that the robust CKF algorithm has a certain ability to filter out the effects of poor measurements. After application of the robust CKF algorithm, the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of the heading angle reaches 0.3612°. This method solves the problem of low precision and poor stability of the polarized light/inertial system when high buildings and/or trees are contained in a complex environment. Next, in view of the problem that the polarized light compass signal is completely lost due to passing through an underground passage, a random forest regression (RFR) neural network model is established and introduced into the combined system. Simulated and outdoor experiments are carried out to verify the designed model using data obtained with a vehicle. The RMSE of the heading angle obtained in the experiment is 1.1894°, which solves the problem that the polarized light/inertial system cannot utilize discontinuous observations when attempting to detect the carrier heading angle.

Cotton is an important natural fiber crop and economic crop worldwide. The quality of cotton fiber directly determines the quality of cotton textiles. Identifying cotton fiber development-related genes and exploring their biological functions will not only help to better understand the elongation and development mechanisms of cotton fibers but also provide a theoretical basis for the cultivation of new cotton varieties with excellent fiber quality. In this study, RNA sequencing technology was used to construct transcriptome databases for different nonfiber tissues (root, leaf, anther and stigma) and fiber developmental stages (7 days post-anthesis (DPA), 14 DPA, and 26 DPA) of upland cotton Coker 312. The sizes of the seven transcriptome databases constructed ranged from 4.43 to 5.20 Gb, corresponding to approximately twice the genome size of Gossypium hirsutum (2.5 Gb). Among the obtained clean reads, 83.32% to 88.22% could be compared to the upland cotton TM-1 reference genome. By analyzing the differential gene expression profiles of the transcriptome libraries of fiber and nonfiber tissues, we obtained 1205, 1135 and 937 genes with significantly upregulated expression at 7 DPA, 14 DPA and 26 DPA, respectively, and 124, 179 and 213 genes with significantly downregulated expression. Subsequently, Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) metabolic pathway analyses were performed, which revealed that these genes were mainly involved in catalytic activity, carbohydrate metabolism, the cell membrane and organelles, signal transduction and other functions and metabolic pathways. Through gene annotation analysis, many transcription factors and genes related to fiber development were screened. Thirty-six genes were randomly selected from the significantly upregulated genes in fiber, and expression profile analysis was performed using qRT-PCR. The results were highly consistent with the gene expression profile analyzed by RNA-seq, and all of the genes were specifically or predominantly expressed in fiber. Therefore, our RNA sequencing-based comparative transcriptome analysis will lay a foundation for future research to provide new genetic resources for the genetic engineering of improved cotton fiber quality and for cultivating new transgenic cotton germplasms for fiber quality improvement., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of tibial transverse transport (TTT) combined with nose ring drain (NRD) in the treatment of severe diabetic foot ulcer., Methods: The clinical data of 60 patients with severe diabetic foot (Wagner grade 3 or 4) ulcer who were admitted between April 2017 and August 2020 and met the selection criteria were retrospectively analyzed. Among them, 30 cases were treated with TTT combined with NRD (TTT+NRD group), and 30 cases were treated with TTT (TTT group). There was no significant difference in gender, age, diabetes duration, preoperative glycated hemoglobin, comorbidities, wound area, and duration, side, and grade of diabetic foot ( P >0.05). The wound healing time, wound healing rate, amputation rate, recurrence rate, duration of antibiotic therapy, hospital stay, number of hospitalizations, and number of operations were recoreded and compared between the two groups., Results: No obvious surgical complications occurred in the two groups. Patients in both groups were followed up 3-13 months, with an average of 5.7 months. The duration of antibiotic therapy and hospital stay in the TTT+NRD group were significantly shorter than those in the TTT group ( P <0.05). There was no significant difference in wound healing time, wound healing rate, number of hospitalizations, and number of operations between the two groups ( P >0.05). During follow-up, there was no recurrence of ulcer in the TTT+NRD group while 2 recurrent cases (6.7%) in the TTT group. The difference in recurrence rate was not significant ( P =0.492). One case (3.3%) in the TTT+NRD group underwent amputation due to acute lower extremity vascular embolism, and 1 case (3.3%) in the TTT group underwent amputation due to secondary necrosis. The difference in amputation rate was not significant between the two groups ( P =1.000)., Conclusion: TTT combined with NRD is an effective method for the treatment of severe diabetic foot ulcers with deep infections or relatively closed cavities or sinuses. It can shorten the time of antibiotic use and the length of hospitalization; and the NRD has a good drainage effect without obvious comorbidities, procedure and the postoperative care are simple and easy to obtain materials.

The irrational or excessive use of antibiotics causes the emergence of bacterial resistance, making antibiotics less effective or ineffective. As the number of resistant antibiotics increases, it is crucial to develop new strategies and innovative approaches to potentiate the efficacy of existing antibiotics. In this paper, we report that some existing antibiotics can produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) directly under light irradiation. Thus, a novel antibacterial photodynamic therapy (PDT) strategy is proposed by using existing antibiotics for which the activities are potentiated via light-activation. This antibiotic-based PDT strategy can achieve efficient bacteria killing with a low dosage of antibiotics, indicating that bacterial killing can be enhanced by the light-irradiated antibiotics. Moreover, the specific types of ROS produced by different antibiotics under light irradiation were studied for better elucidation of the antibacterial mechanism. The findings can extend the application of existing antibiotics and provide a promising strategy for treatment of bacterial infections and even cancers.

Background: The safety assessment and control of stacked transgenic crops is increasingly important due to continuous crop development and is urgently needed in China. The genetic stability of foreign genes and unintended effects are the primary problems encountered in safety assessment. Omics techniques are useful for addressing these problems. The stacked transgenic maize variety 12-5 × IE034, which has insect-resistant and glyphosate-tolerant traits, was developed via a breeding stack using 12-5 and IE034 as parents. Using 12-5 × IE034, its parents (12-5 and IE034), and different maize varieties as materials, we performed proteomic profiling, molecular characterization and a genetic stability analysis., Results: Our results showed that the copy number of foreign genes in 12-5 × IE034 is identical to that of its parents 12-5 and IE034. Foreign genes can be stably inherited over different generations. Proteomic profiling analysis found no newly expressed proteins in 12-5 × IE034, and the differences in protein expression between 12 and 5 × IE034 and its parents were within the range of variation of conventional maize varieties. The expression levels of key enzymes participating in the shikimic acid pathway which is related to glyphosate tolerance of 12-5 × IE034 were not significantly different from those of its parents or five conventional maize varieties, which indicated that without selective pressure by glyphosate, the introduced EPSPS synthase is not has a pronounced impact on the synthesis of aromatic amino acids in maize., Conclusions: Stacked-trait development via conventional breeding did not have an impact on the genetic stability of T-DNA, and the impact of stacked breeding on the maize proteome was less significant than that of genotypic differences. The results of this study provide a theoretical basis for the development of a safety assessment approach for stacked-trait transgenic crops in China.

In the natural world, insects such as bees and sand ants can navigate with the aid of polarized skylight. Inspired by this, bio-inspired navigation systems based on polarized skylight have attracted considerable attention recently. As an important navigation parameter, attitude information is critical for control and navigation of a vehicle. In this paper, the structural characteristics of full-sky atmospheric polarization mode are studied to calculate the attitude of a vehicle relative to the observation point. The heading angle is obtained by subtraction between two angles. One is the angle between the solar meridian and the geographic north. The other is the angle between the solar meridian and the body coordinate system, which can be obtained from the polarization data detected by the sensor. And the solar position can also gain from the polarization data. Then based on the solar position and the coordinates of solar projection point, the zenith point can be determined. With the coordinates of the zenith point in the body and the reference coordinate system, the pitch angle and roll angle are solved. Simulation and practical experiments are conducted to validate the performance of the attitude calculation method. Experiment results with high accuracy show its feasibility and effectiveness.

Stacked traits have become an important trend in the current development of genomically modified crops. The bidirectional promoter can not only prevent the co-suppression of multigene expression, but also increase the efficiency of the cultivation of transgenic plants with multigenes. In Gossypium hirsutum , Ghrack1 and Ghuhrf1 are head-to-head gene pairs located on chromosome D09. We cloned the 1429-bp intergenic region between the Ghrack1 and Ghuhrf1 genes from Gossypium hirsutum . The cloned DNA fragment GhZU had the characteristics of a bidirectional promoter, with 38.7% G+C content, three CpG islands and no TATA-box. Using gfp and gus as reporter genes, a series of expression vectors were constructed into young leaves of tobacco. The histochemical GUS (Beta-glucuronidase) assay and GFP (green fluorescence protein) detection results indicated that GhZU could drive the expression of the reporter genes gus and gfp simultaneously in both orientations. Furthermore, we transformed the expression vectors into Arabidopsis and found that GUS was concentrated at vigorous growth sites, such as the leaf tip, the base of the leaves and pod, and the stigma. GFP was also mainly expressed in the epidermis of young leaves. In summary, we determined that the intergenic region GhZU was an orientation-dependent bidirectional promoter, and this is the first report on the bidirectional promoter from Gossypium hirsutum . Our findings in this study are likely to enhance understanding on the regulatory mechanisms of plant bidirectional promoters.

The traditional processing model of the temperature error for a gyroscope is serial, meaning that de-noising and temperature drift compensation are implemented in a two-step procedure. Hence, the result of the latter depends on the performance of the former; in particular, negative de-noising produces a negative compensation result. To reduce this dependence, we propose a parallel processing algorithm of the temperature error based on variational mode decomposition (VMD) and an augmented nonlinear differentiator (AND). An application to a micro-electro-mechanical system gyroscope is described to demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed algorithm. Its major advantages are (i) a combination of VMD, extreme learning machines, and AND is proposed, and an adaptive accelerometer factor determination method for AND is given based on the VMD, both of which improve the effectiveness of the de-noising process; (ii) temperature drift and noise in the temperature error can be extracted and processed synchronously, thereby reducing the dependency of drift compensation on the de-noising result and making the temperature error process more efficient.

This paper presents a global positioning method based on a polarized light compass system. A main limitation of polarization positioning is the environment such as weak and locally destroyed polarization environments, and the solution to the positioning problem is given in this paper which is polarization image de-noising and segmentation. Therefore, the pulse coupled neural network is employed for enhancing positioning performance. The prominent advantages of the present positioning technique are as follows: (i) compared to the existing position method based on polarized light, better sun tracking accuracy can be achieved and (ii) the robustness and accuracy of positioning under weak and locally destroyed polarization environments, such as cloudy or building shielding, are improved significantly. Finally, some field experiments are given to demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed global positioning technique. The experiments have shown that our proposed method outperforms the conventional polarization positioning method, the real time longitude and latitude with accuracy up to 0.0461° and 0.0911°, respectively.

The emergence of drug-resistant bacteria severely challenges the antimicrobial agents and antibacterial strategy. Here, we demonstrate a novel, simple, and highly efficient combination therapy strategy by direct combinations of cationic conjugated polymers (CCPs) with polypeptide antibiotics against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria based on a synergistic antibacterial effect. The combination therapy method enhances the antibacterial efficacy with a significantly reduced antibiotic dosage. Also, the highly efficient and synergistic killing of drug-resistant bacteria is realized. Using combinations of CCPs and antibiotics to show increased antibacterial activity, this strategy will provide a much wider scope of the discovery of efficient antibacterial systems than that of antibiotic-antibiotic combinations. The proposed combination therapy method provides a universal and powerful platform for the treatment of pathogens, in particular, the drug-resistant bacteria, and also opens a new way for the development of efficient antibacterial systems.

Glyphosate is a widely used herbicide, due to its broad spectrum, low cost, low toxicity, high efficiency, and non-selective characteristics. Rice farmers rarely use glyphosate as a herbicide, because the crop is sensitive to this chemical. The development of transgenic glyphosate-tolerant rice could greatly improve the economics of rice production. Here, we transformed the Pseudomonas fluorescens G2 5-enolpyruvyl shikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) gene G2-EPSPS, which conferred tolerance to glyphosate herbicide into a widely used japonica rice cultivar, Zhonghua 11 (ZH11), to develop two highly glyphosate-tolerant transgenic rice lines, G2-6 and G2-7, with one exogenous gene integration. Seed germination tests and glyphosate-tolerance assays of plants grown in a greenhouse showed that the two transgenic lines could greatly improve glyphosate-tolerance compared with the wild-type; The glyphosate-tolerance field test indicated that both transgenic lines could grow at concentrations of 20,000 ppm glyphosate, which is more than 20-times the recommended concentration in the field. Isolation of the flanking sequence of transgenic rice G2-6 indicated that the 5'-terminal of T-DNA was inserted into chromosome 8 of the rice genome. An event-specific PCR test system was established and the limit of detection of the primers reached five copies. Overall, the G2-EPSPS gene significantly improved glyphosate-tolerance in transgenic rice; furthermore, it is a useful candidate gene for the future development of commercial transgenic rice.

The functionality of flexible metal electrodes relies on the stable performance of a metallic film. In this study, highly stretchable anisotropic structures are designed to investigate the behaviour of silver electrodes on polydimethylsiloxane. Treated using both the oxygen plasma and the surface chemical functionalization technology, the film resistivity was reduced to 5.856 × 10(-9) Ω m after annealing at 150 °C for 30 min, which is equal to that of commercial silver films on glass. The maximum variation in the resistance was approximately 5.315 % with a strain of 50 % along the four directions, and the films also show remarkable tolerance to repetitive strain. These results prove the excellent anisotropy performance of these structures to minimize resistive strain sensitivity and thus enable durable flexible electronics.

A vectorial strain gauge method using a single sensing element is reported based on the double-sided polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) Fraunhofer diffraction gratings structures. Using O2 plasma treatment steps, orthogonal wrinkled gratings were fabricated on both sides of a pre-strained PDMS film. Diffracted laser spots from this structure have been used to experimentally demonstrate, that any applied strain can be quantitatively characterized in both the x and y directions with an error of less than 0.6% and with a gauge factor of approximately 10. This simple and low cost technology which is completely different from the traditional vectorial strain gauge method, can be applied to surface vectorial strain measurement and multi-axis integrated mechanical sensors.

This paper demonstrates a fabrication technology of Ag wrinkled electrodes with application in highly stretchable wireless sensors. Ag wrinkled thin films that were formed by vacuum deposition on top of pre-strained and relaxed polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates which have been treated using an O2 plasma and a surface chemical functionalization process can reach a strain limit up to 200%, while surface adhesion area can reach 95%. The electrical characteristics of components such as resistors, inductors and capacitors made from such Ag conductors have remained stable under stretching exhibiting low temperature and humidity coefficients. This technology was then demonstrated for wireless wearable electronics using compatible processing with established micro/nano fabrication technology.

In this work, the wafer-scale silver nanoparticles fabricated by a self-assembly method was demonstrated based on a magnetron sputtering and plasma treatment process. Silver nanoparticles of different sizes and shapes were prepared, and the effects of the plasma treatment time, plasma gas composition, and power were systematically investigated to develop a method for low-cost and large-scale fabrication of silver nanoparticles. Furthermore, the surface-enhanced Raman scattering experiments: crystal violet, as the probe, was absorbed on the silver nanoparticles film of different size and density, and get the phenomena of surface-enhanced Raman scattering and surface-enhanced fluorescence. The results show that the proposed technique provides a rapid method for the fabrication of silver nanomaterial; the method is adaptable to large-scale production and is compatible with the fabrication of other materials and biosensors.

Astrocytes, the most common cell type in the brain, play a principal role in the repair of damaged brain tissues during external radiotherapy of brain tumours. As a downstream gene of p53, the effects of Krüppel-like factor 4 (KLF4) in response to X-ray-induced DNA damage in astrocytes are unclear. In the present study, KLF4 expression was upregulated after the exposure of astrocytes isolated from the murine brain. Inhibition of KLF4 expression using lentiviral transduction produced less double-strand DNA breaks (DSB) determined by a neutral comet assay and flow cytometric analysis of phosphorylated histone family 2A variant and more single-strand DNA breaks (SSB) determined by a basic comet assay when the astrocytes were exposed to 4 Gy of X-ray radiation. These data suggest that radiation exposure of the tissues around brain tumour during radiation therapy causes KLF4 overexpression in astrocytes, which induces more DSB and reduces SSB. This causes the adverse effects of radiation therapy in the treatment of brain tumours., (Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

To establish a model for nerve grafts and determine the anatomic characteristics of the brachial plexus in rhesus monkeys. Ten specimens of the brachial plexus were obtained from five rhesus monkey cadavers. Anatomic dissection of the brachial plexus was systemically performed. The length of each root, trunk, and each division was measured using a Vernier caliper proximodistally. The anatomic distributions of the suprascapular, axillary, and musculocutaneous nerve were documented. The brachial plexus of rhesus monkeys included the spinal nerves or roots of C5, C6, C7, C8, and T1 (80%, 8/10), with a small contribution from the C4 root (20%, 2/10) occasionally. The upper trunk was not measurable because of their irregular structures. The lower trunk had a mean length of 1.62 (range, 0.96-2.1 mm) and a mean diameter of 2.29 (range, 1.9-2.94 mm). For the upper trunk, the C5 and C6 roots either divided into two very short divisions or sent out very long divisions before they joined together. For the middle trunk, the C7 root had a straight course after leaving the foramen and blended imperceptibly into the middle trunk before dividing into the anterior and posterior divisions. The lower trunk was noted in almost all the specimens (80%, 8/10), which was formed by C8 and T1. The brachial plexus in rhesus monkeys varies from that of humans, and defects can be made at the level of C5 and C6 roots and the C7 root should also be cut off and ligated.

Transcription factor forkhead box protein 3 (FOXP3) is a specific marker of naturally occurring regulatory T cells (Tregs). Recently, various reports have suggested that FOXP3 may represent a tumor escape mechanism in cancer cells apart from its roles in Tregs. In the present study, the clinical and biological characteristics of FOXP3 were evaluated in human gastric cancer. The expression and localization of FOXP3 in gastric cancer cell lines was analyzed to evaluate its cellular biological features. Sections of human gastric cancer specimens were stained using immunohistochemistry (IHC) to assess the relationship between FOXP3 expression and tumor differentiation, in order to identify its clinical characteristics in gastric cancer. Expression of FOXP3 mRNA and protein was found in four gastric cancer cell lines (AGS, SGC-7901, MKN-28 and MKN-45). IHC of the gastric cancer sections revealed that more than 56% of gastric cancers displayed nuclear or cytoplasmic FOXP3 staining. Furthermore, a linear relationship between the differentiation of the gastric cancer tissues and FOXP3 expression intensity was shown. IHC and confocal analysis showed that the expression of FOXP3 was mainly present in the nucleus of tumor cells in the tissues and cell lines. Thus, FOXP3 nuclear staining may be associated with the risk of poor tumor differentiation. Apart from the lymphocytes, no FOXP3 staining was noted in the normal gastric tissues and para-tumor tissues. The high frequency of FOXP3 expression in gastric cancer tissue is a significant finding in the investigation of tumor differentiation and immune escape. This mechanism provides a further understanding of gastric cancer and a novel therapeutic strategy is presented.