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Histone acetyltransferase (HAT) catalyzes histone acetylation and is involved in plant growth and development and stress responses. Here, 37 CitHAT genes were identified in Citrus clementina. Their physicochemical properties, chromosomal location, gene structure, conserved domain and motif, and cis-acting elements were characterized. CitHATs were classified into four subfamilies, HAG (32), HAC (2), HAF (2), and HAM (1), based on protein sequence homology, which was strongly supported by gene structure, conserved domain, and motif analysis. The cis-acting elements in gene promoter regions were predicted to be associated with the regulation of plant growth, stress resistance, and response to hormones. We further treated citrus callus with HAT inhibitor, the result showed that HAT inhibitor treatment effectively increased the citric acid content in citrus callus, and the transcript levels of several citric acid metabolism genes were inhibited, which means that CitHAT may regulate citric acid metabolism through these genes. Our study associates the potential function of histone acetyltransferases in citrate metabolism and extends the molecular mechanism of citrate metabolism in fruits.

Immune-related adverse events (irAEs) clinically resemble autoimmune diseases, indicating autoantibodies could be potential biomarkers for the prediction of irAEs. This study aimed to assess the predictive value of peripheral blood antinuclear antibody (ANA) status for irAEs, considering the time and severity of irAEs, as well as treatment outcome in liver cancer patients administered anti-PD-1 therapy. Ninety-three patients with advanced primary liver cancer administered anti-PD-1 treatment were analyzed retrospectively. They were divided into the ANA positive (ANA+, titer ≥ 1:100) and negative (ANA-, titer < 1:100) groups. Development of irAEs, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) were assessed. Compared with ANA- patients, ANA+ cases were more prone to develop irAEs (43.3% vs. 19.2%, P = 0.031). With the increase of ANA titers, the frequency of irAEs increased. The time interval between anti-PD-1 therapy and the onset of irAEs was significantly shorter in ANA+ patients compared with the ANA- group (median, 1.7 months vs. 5.0 months, P = 0.022). Moreover, the time between anti-PD-1 therapy and irAE occurrence decreased with increasing ANA titer. In addition, PFS and OS were decreased in ANA+ patients compared with the ANA− group (median PFS, 2.8 months vs. 4.2 months, P = 0.043; median OS, 21.1 months vs. not reached, P = 0.041). IrAEs occur at higher frequency in ANA+ liver cancer patients undergoing anti-PD-1 therapy. ANA titer could help predict irAE development and treatment outcome in these patients.

Background Abnormal miRNA and mRNA expression and dysregulated immune microenvironment have been found to frequently induce the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in recent reports. In particular, the immune-related competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNA) mechanism plays a crucial role in HCC progression. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Methods Differentially expressed immune-related genes were obtained from the Immport, GEO, and TCGA databases. The mRNA and protein expression levels in HCC tissues and adjacent normal tissues were confirmed, and we further investigated the methylation levels of these biomarkers to explore their function. Then, the TIMER and TISCH databases were used to assess the relationship between immune infiltration and hub genes. Survival analysis and univariate and multivariate Cox models were used to evaluate the association between hub genes and HCC diagnosis. Hub gene expression was experimentally validated in six HCC cell lines and 15 HCC samples using qRT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. The hub genes were uploaded to DSigDB for drug prediction enrichment analysis. Results We identified that patients with abnormal miRNAs (hsa-miR-125b-5p and hsa-miR-21-5p) and their targeted genes (NTF3, PSMD14, CD320, and SORT1) had a worse prognosis. Methylation analysis of miRNA-targeted genes suggested that alteration of methylation levels is also a factor in the induction of tumorigenesis. We also found that the development of HCC progression caused by miRNA-mRNA interactions may be closely correlated with the infiltration of immunocytes. Moreover, the GSEA, GO, and KEGG analysis suggested that several common immune-related biological processes and pathways were related to miRNA-targeted genes. The results of qRT-PCR, immunohistochemistry, and western blotting were consistent with our bioinformatics results, suggesting that abnormal miRNAs and their targeted genes may affect HCC progression. Conclusions Briefly, our study systematically describes the mechanisms of miRNA-mRNA interactions in HCC and predicts promising biomarkers that are associated with immune filtration for HCC progression.

Introduction: This preliminary real-world study (RWS) was designed to evaluate the antiviral efficacy, safety, and feasibility of the 2-drug regimen (2DR), dolutegravir plus lamivudine as the initial antiretroviral therapy (ART) among antiretroviral (ARV)-naïve adults with HIV-1 in West China. Methods: This RWS included the treatment of treatment-naïve adults applying 2DR of dolutegravir 50 mg once daily (QD) plus lamivudine 300mg QD with negative HBsAg from one single center of People’s Hospital of Chongqing Banan District in West China. Viral load (VL), CD4+ T-cell count, and laboratory indicators were collected at baseline; weeks 4, 12, and 24, and thereafter every 24 weeks up to 144 weeks. The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients with HIV-1 RNA ＜50 copies/mL at week 24. Results: A total of 54 ART-naïve patients were treated with the 2-drug regimen of DTG plus 3TC and were enrolled in this study since April 1st, 2020. Twenty-one patients received 24-week VL tests at screening as required by inclusion criteria. Median HIV-1 RNA at entry was 95,700 copies/ mL (interquartile range (IQR): 28,300-310,000) and the median baseline CD4+ cell count was 249 per cubic millimetre(IQR: 118-310). At week 24, 15 (71.4%) of 21 participants achieved virological success, defined as HIV-1 RNA ＜ 50 copies/mL, while 10 (90.9%) of 11 participants with a baseline HIV-1 RNA ＜ 100,000 copies/mL achieved virological success compared with 5 (50%) of 10 participants with a baseline HIV-1 RNA ≥100,000 copies/mL [Relative Risk (RR) 1.818; 95% CI 1.018-1.927]. In participants with CD4+ cell counts ≥ 200 cells/mm3, 9 (75%) of 12 participants achieved virological success compared with 6 (66.7%) of 9 participants with baseline CD4+ cell count ＜ 200 cells/mm3 achieved it (RR 1.124; 95% CI 0.641-1.970). No major tolerability/toxicity issues were observed. Conclusions: This real-world study suggested that the 2-drug regimen of DTG plus 3TC could be considered as an alternative for ART-naïve patients in West China, especially with HIV-1 RNA less than 100,000 copies/mL at baseline, regarding the limits of viral load test frequency and the absence of HIV genotypic testing of viral resistance.

The zinc l-cysteine functional layer was constructed by in situ etching Zn anode in 1 M l-cysteine solution. This functional layer not only improves the hydrophobicity and corrosion resistance of zinc anode, but also guides uniform zinc deposition.

Supplementary Material 1 Tables

Numerical simulations are important tools for exploring the dynamic scaling properties of the nonlinear Kadar-Paris-Zhang (KPZ) equation. Yet the inherent nonlinearity frequently causes numerical divergence within the strong-coupling regime using conventional simulation methods. To sustain the numerical stability, previous works either utilized discrete growth models belonging to the KPZ universality class or modify the original nonlinear term by the designed specified operators. However, recent studies revealed that these strategies could cause abnormal results. Motivated by the above-mentioned facts, we propose a convolutional neural network-based method to simulate the KPZ equation driven by uncorrelated and correlated noises, aiming for overcoming the challenge of numerical divergence, and obtaining reliable scaling exponents. We first train the neural network to represent the determinant terms of the KPZ equation in a data-driven manner. Then, we perform simulations for the KPZ equation with various types of temporally and spatially correlated noises. The experimental results demonstrate that our neural network could estimate effectively the scaling exponents eliminating numerical divergence.

Additional file 1: Figure S1. Quantile normalization of miRNA microarray data (GSE69580) containing five tumors and five normal tissues. Figure S2. Overlapping genes between miRNA (seven upregulated and two downregulated miRNAs) target genes and immune genes from the ImmPort Portal database. Figure S3. The normalization of 393 genes from the TCGA database. Figure S4. (A) Expression levels and (B) overall survival rate of 11 genes obtained from the TCGA database. (*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001, n.s. not statistically significant). Figure S5. The heatmap of CD320, PSMD14, NTF3, and SORT1 expression in different immune cells. Figure S6. The correlation analyses between (A) miR-21-5p, (B) miR-125b-5p and related methyltransferase genes (DNMT1, DNMT3A, and DNMT3B). Figure S7. (A–D) The calibration analysis of the 4 prognostic nomogram models (CD320, PSMD14, SORT1, and NTF3). Figure S8. (A–D) Immunohistochemistry validation of gene protein expression (CD320, PSMD14, NTF3, and SORT1) from the Human Protein Atlas database. Figure S9. Investigate the 4 hub genes (CD320, PSMD14, SORT1, and NTF3) expression level in the GSE14520 (T = 247; N = 241) (A), GSE76427 (T = 115; N = 52) (B), and TCGA (T = 371; N = 160) (C) expression matrix. (*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001, n.s. not statistically significant). Figure S10. Prediction of DEIRGs-related drugs. Table S1. Prediction of DEIRGs-related top 10 drugs.

Background Lung cancer is one of the most lethal malignant tumors that endangers human health. Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) has increased dramatically in recent decades, accounting for nearly 40% of all lung cancer cases. Increasing evidence points to the importance of the competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) intrinsic mechanism in various human cancers. However, behavioral characteristics of the ceRNA network in lung adenocarcinoma need further study. Methods Groups based on SLC2A1 expression were used in this study to identify associated ceRNA networks and potential prognostic markers in lung adenocarcinoma. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database was used to obtain the patients' lncRNA, miRNA, and mRNA expression profiles, as well as clinical data. Informatics techniques were used to investigate the effect of hub genes on prognosis. The Cox regression analyses were performed to evaluate the prognostic effect of hub genes. The methylation, GSEA, and immune infiltration analyses were utilized to explore the potential mechanisms of the hub gene. The CCK-8, transwell, and colony formation assays were performed to detect the proliferation and invasion of lung cancer cells. Results We eventually identified the ITGB1-DT/ARNTL2 axis as an independent fact may promote lung adenocarcinoma progression. Furthermore, methylation analysis revealed that hypo-methylation may cause the dysregulated ITGB1-DT/ARNTL2 axis, and immune infiltration analysis revealed that the ITGB1-DT/ARNTL2 axis may affect the immune microenvironment and the progression of lung adenocarcinoma. The CCK-8, transwell, and colonu formation assays suggested that ITGB1-DT/ARNTL2 promotes the progression of lung adenocarcinoma. And hsa-miR-30b-3p reversed the ITGB1/ARNTL2-mediated oncogenic processes. Conclusion Our study identified the ITGB1-DT/ARNTL2 axis as a novel prognostic biomarker affects the prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma.

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have inspired the potential for widespread use in energy storage owing to the advantages of abundant resources and low cost. Benefiting from the layered structure, 2D-layered materials enable fast interlayer transport of sodium ions and thus are considered promising candidates as anodes for SIBs. Herein, a strategy of adjusting crystal orientation is proposed via a solvothermal method to improve sodium-ion transport at the edge of the interlayers in 2D-layered materials. By introducing surfactants and templates, the 2D-layered V

Citrate is one of the most important metabolites determining the flavour of citrus fruit. It has been reported that nitrogen supply may have an impact on acid level of fruit. Here, the relationship between nitrogen metabolism and citrate catabolism was studied in pumelo juice sacs. Differences in metabolites, gene expression and flux distributions were analyzed in juice sacs incubated in medium with and without NH4+. Compared with those incubated with NH4+, juice sacs under nitrogen deficiency exhibited enhanced flux through phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) and accelerated consumption of citrate, while the other two TCA cycle efflux points, through malic enzyme (ME) and glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH), were both repressed. Consistent with the estimated fluxes, the expression of PEPCK1 was upregulated under nitrogen deficiency, while that of GDH1, GDH2, NAD-ME1 and NADP-ME2 were all repressed. Thus, we propose that PEPCK1 contributes to citrate degradation under nitrogen limitation.

Cadmium (Cd) contamination of paddy soil affects safe crop production. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of plant biostimulant amino acid fertilizer on the phytoremediation capability of an emergent accumulator plant Nasturtium officinale R. Br. for Cd-contaminated paddy soils. A pot study was carried out to study the effects of different concentrations of amino acid fertilizer on the Cd accumulation of N. officinale grown in Cd-contaminated paddy soil. The amino acid fertilizer increased the biomass of N. officinale. The amino acid fertilizer concentration exhibited a quadratic polynomial regression relationship with the root and shoot biomass. The fertilizer also increased the photosynthetic pigment (chlorophyll and carotenoid) contents, peroxidase (POD; EC 1.11.1.7) activity, and catalase (CAT; EC 1.11.1.6) activity of N. officinale, but decreased the soluble protein content and had no significant effect on the superoxide dismutase (SOD; EC 1.15.1.1) activity. Furthermore, the amino acid fertilizer increased the Cd content and Cd extraction of N. officinale. The shoot Cd extraction increased by 29.06%, 63.05%, 77.22%, and 17.40% at 1500-, 1200-, 900-, and 600-fold dilutions of the amino acid fertilizer, respectively, compared with the control. Moreover, the amino acid fertilizer promoted the Cd transport from the roots to shoots of N. officinale. The amino acid fertilizer concentration also exhibited a quadratic polynomial regression relationship with the root Cd content, shoot Cd content, root Cd extraction, and shoot Cd extraction, respectively. The correlation, grey relational, and path analyses revealed that the root biomass, shoot biomass, chlorophyll content, catalase activity, shoot Cd content, and root Cd extraction were closely associated with the shoot Cd extraction. Therefore, the amino acid fertilizer can promote Cd uptake and improve the phytoremediation capability of N. officinale to remediate Cd-contaminated paddy soils, and 900-fold dilution is the most suitable concentration.

When a sprayer travels on a ramp or a rough road, the load exerted on each wheel changes. If an unbalanced wheel load is maintained for long periods of time, the wheels may slip, the sprayer’s manoeuvrability is affected, and a rollover accident may occur. In this study, the air suspension of a self-propelled sprayer chassis was investigated, and the potential load imbalance conditions of the sprayer suspension were analysed. A mathematical model of the inflation/deflation of the suspension was established based on air nonlinear thermodynamics and vertical dynamics theory and a ¼-scale vertical dynamics model of the sprayer chassis was developed. A control strategy to balance the sprayer’s wheel load was developed. Considering the nonlinear characteristics of the air suspension, a sliding mode variable structure control method was used to balance the wheel load. Simulation experiments were conducted under different working conditions. The simulation results showed that the sliding mode variable structure control provided good control response and precision. The proposed auto load-levelling controller was tested under different working conditions, including different roll and pitch angles and navigating a rough road; the controller successfully changed the load on each spring to ensure that the sprung mass of the suspension was equal and the wheel load was balanced. The results of this study provide reference information for auto load-levelling control of large sprayers.

Sorafenib resistance is often developed and impedes the benefits of clinical therapy in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. However, the relationship between sorafenib resistance and tumor immune environment and adjuvant drugs for sorafenib-resistant HCC are not systemically identified. This study first analyzed the expression profiles of sorafenib-resistant HCC cells to explore immune cell infiltration levels and differentially expressed immune-related genes (DEIRGs). The prognostic value of DEIRGs was analyzed using Cox regression and Kaplan–Meier analysis based on The Cancer Genome Atlas. The primary immune cells infiltrated in sorafenib-resistant HCC mice were explored using flow cytometry (FCM). Finally, small-molecule drugs for sorafenib-resistant HCC treatment were screened and validated by experiments. The CIBERSORT algorithm and mice model showed that macrophages and neutrophils are highly infiltrated, while CD8+ T cells are downregulated in sorafenib-resistant HCC. Totally, 34 DEIRGs were obtained from sorafenib-resistant and control groups, which were highly enriched in immune-associated biological processes and pathways. NR6A1, CXCL5, C3, and TGFB1 were further identified as prognostic markers for HCC patients. Finally, nalidixic acid was identified as a promising antagonist for sorafenib-resistant HCC treatment. Collectively, our study reveals the tumor immune microenvironment changes and explores a promising adjuvant drug to overcome sorafenib resistance in HCC.

Background Though circular RNAs (circRNAs) are the key regulators in tumor carcinogenesis, they remain largely unexplored in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods The expression of RanGAP1-derived circRNAs (circ_0063531, circ_0063534, circ_0063513, circ_0063518, circ_0063507, circ_0063723) were evaluated in eight paired HCC and normal tissues, and the correlation between circRanGAP1 (circ_0063531) expression and clinicopathological characteristics in 40 HCC patients was determined. The association between miR-27b-3p and circRanGAP1 or NRAS was predicted using bioinformatics analysis. The expression of circRanGAP1, miR-27b-3p, and NRAS were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The potential oncogenic role of circ-RanGAP1 was assessed using CCK-8, colony formation, transwell assays in vitro, subcutaneous tumor mouse model, vein tail metastatic model, and orthotopically implanted intrahepatic HCC model in vivo. Luciferase reporter and RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assays were used to explore the binding site between miR-27b-3p and circ-RanGAP1 or NRAS. Protein expression was detected using western blotting. The localization of miR-27b-3p and circ-RanGAP1 was investigated using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). The level of immune infiltration was assessed by bioinformatics analysis, flow cytometry, and orthotopically implanted intrahepatic HCC models. Results Here, we found elevated circRanGAP1 in the cells and clinical tissues of patients with HCC. Increased circRanGAP1 levels are associated with enlarged tumors and the advanced stage of TNM. CircRanGAP1 promotes the growth, migration, and HCC cell invasion, concurrently with the growth and metastasis of tumors in-vivo. Moreover, circRanGAP1 is mainly located inside the cytoplasm. Mechanistically, circRanGAP1 as an oncogene promotes HCC progression by miR-27b-3p/NRAS/ERK axis, furthermore, affects the infiltration level of tumor-associated macrophages probably by sponging miR-27b-3p. Immune infiltration analysis shows that NRAS is positively correlated with the levels of CD68+ tumor-associated macrophages in HCC samples and that NRAS and CD68 are related to the poor outcome of HCC. Conclusion These results reveal that circRanGAP1 is a HCC oncogene that function by the miR-27b-3p/NRAS/ERK axis and regulates the infiltration levels of tumor-associated macrophages by sponging miR-27b-3p. Therefore, circRANGAP1/ NRAS axis may be an important potential treatment target against HCC.

Nanoparticles (NPs) are prevalent in dewatered sludge, and their presence increases the environmental risks associated with the subsequent sludge treatment process. However, until now, their potential effects on sludge vermicomposting have not been clarified. This study investigated the effects of NPs on sludge humification and microbial profiles during vermicomposting by comparing fresh dewatered sludge substrates with substrates mixed with 0 mg/kg NPs (control), 100 mg/kg TiO2, 500 mg/kg TiO2, 100 mg/kg ZnO, and 500 mg/kg ZnO. The results showed that addition of TiO2 and ZnO NPs to sludge did not significantly affect the growth rate of earthworms and the superoxide dismutase activity in their guts during vermicomposting. Moreover, higher concentrations of the selected NPs promoted the humification index of sludge by 20.7–49.6%, through the formation of polysaccharides, aromatic substances, and organic acids in final vermicomposts. Compared with the control without NP addition, bacterial community diversity was enhanced in treatments with TiO2 and ZnO NPs, and dominant genera differed according to the type and concentration of NPs. This study suggests that the presence of TiO2 and ZnO NP residuals modify the microbial community of sludge, thus promoting sludge humification during vermicomposting.

Objective: Recently, several studies have found that obesity had a protective effect against varicocele, but no meta-analysis has confirmed this finding. Therefore, we conducted this meta-analysis to investigate the association between body mass index (BMI) and varicocele. Material and Methods: We searched for studies in PubMed, Science Direct and the Cochrane Library from inception until February 2018. The association between BMI and varicocele was assessed by pooling the odds ratios (ORs). Results: Eleven eligible studies with a total study population of 1.376.658 participants were included in our analysis. According to BMI, the subjects were defined as belonging to the obese, overweight and underweight groups. Our results showed that the obese group had a lower risk of varicocele when compared with the normal weight group (odds ratio [OR] 0.46, 95% confidence intervals [CIs] 0.37-0.58). Additionally, an overweight BMI had a protective effect against varicocele (OR 0.70, 95% CIs, 0.56-0.86). However, underweight patients had a more than 30% higher risk of varicocele (OR 1.31, 95% CI, 1.04-1.64). Furthermore, there was no publication bias in any of the analyses. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates that BMI is negatively associated with the presence of varicocele.

Sorafenib resistance is often developed and impedes the benefits of clinical therapy in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. However, the relationship between sorafenib resistance and tumor immune environment and adjuvant drugs for sorafenib-resistant HCC are not systemically identified. This study first analyzed the expression profiles of sorafenib-resistant HCC cells to explore immune cell infiltration levels and differentially expressed immune-related genes (DEIRGs). The prognostic value of DEIRGs was analyzed using Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier analysis based on The Cancer Genome Atlas. The primary immune cells infiltrated in sorafenib-resistant HCC mice were explored using flow cytometry (FCM). Finally, small-molecule drugs for sorafenib-resistant HCC treatment were screened and validated by experiments. The CIBERSORT algorithm and mice model showed that macrophages and neutrophils are highly infiltrated, while CD8

We investigate numerically the effects of long-range temporal and spatial correlations based on probability distribution of interface width $W(L,t)$ within the early growth regimes in the (1+1)-dimensional Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) growth system. Through extensive numerical simulations, we find that long-range temporally correlated noise could not significantly impact the distribution form of interface width. Generally, $W(L,t)$ obeys Tracy-Widom Gaussian symplectic ensembles(TW-GSE) when the temporal correlation exponent $\theta \ge 0$. On the other hand, the effects of long-range spatially correlated noise are evidently different from the temporally correlated case. Our results show that, when the spatial correlation exponent $\rho \le 0.20$, the distribution form of $W(L,t)$ approaches to TW-GSE, and when $\rho > 0.20$, the distribution becomes more asymmetric, leptokurtic, and fat-tailed, and tends to an unknown form, which is similar to Gumbel distribution.

The pinning-depinning phase transitions of interfaces for two classes of discrete elastic-string models are inverstigated numerically. In the (1+1)-dimensions, we revisit these two elastic-string models with slight modification on growth rule, and compare with the previous numerical results. In the (2+1)-dimensional case, we perform extensive simulations on pinning-depinning transitions in these quenched models. For full comparisons in the physically relevant spatial dimensions, we also visit numerically two distinct quenched universality classes, including the quenched Edwards-Wilkinson (QEW) and the quenched Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (QKPZ) equations with and without external driving forces. The critical exponents of these quenched systems are numerically estimated. Our results show that the critical exponents satisfy scaling relations well, and these two discrete elastic-string models do not fall into the existing universality classes. In order to visually comparisons of these quenched systems in (2+1)-dimensional cases, we also exhibit surface morphologies with various external driving forces during the saturated time regimes.

Background Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most malignant tumors to threaten human life, and the survival rate remains low due to delayed diagnosis. Meanwhile, lncRNAs have great potential for application in tumor prognosis, therefore relevant research in hepatocellular carcinoma is indispensable. Methods Based on the EZH2 expression, the differentially expressed lncRNAs DElncRNAs), miRNAs (DEmiRNAs), and mRNAs (DEmRNAs) were identified in hepatocellular carcinoma by using the TCGA database. Bioinformatics technology was utilized to determine the effect of key genes in HCC progression. The methylation and immune infiltration analyses were performed to explore the underlying function of hub genes. Finally, cellular function experiments were performed to investigate the association between identified genes and biological phenotypes in HCC. Results lncRNA-AC079061.1, hsa-miR-765, and VIPR1 were identified as independent factors that affect the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma. The immune infiltration analyses revealed that lncRNA-AC079061.1 can alter the immune microenvironment and thus inhibit the development of HCC by regulating the expression of an immune-related gene (VIPR1). Methylation analyses demonstrated that VIPR1 expression is negatively related to the methylation level in HCC. Experimental results suggested that lncRNA-AC079061.1 and VIPR1 were frequently downregulated in HCC cells, while hsa-miR-765 was significantly upregulated. Moreover, the lncRNA-AC079061.1/VIPR1 axis suppressed the proliferation and invasion of HCC cells. Conclusion The present study identified the lncRNA-AC079061.1/VIPR1 axis as a novel biomarker that inhibited the proliferation and invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma, affecting the ultimate disease outcome.

According to the operation characteristics of high clearance self-propelled sprayer, an independent vertical shaft air suspension system with auxiliary chamber was designed. On the basis of the damping characteristic analysis and experiment of the air suspension with auxiliary chamber, the sprayer suspension control strategy was developed. Aiming at strong non-linearity and hysteresis for air suspension with auxiliary chamber, and when the sprayer performed road transportation and spraying operation, there was a contradiction between ride comfort and road friendliness, a hybrid sliding mode control method for sprayer chassis suspension based on skyhook reference sliding mode and ground-hook reference sliding mode was proposed. Finally, Matlab/Simulink was used to analyse the effect of the control method in different mixing coefficients. The simulation results showed that according to the requirements of different working conditions of the sprayer, by properly selecting the mixing coefficient γ value, the hybrid sliding mode control could simultaneously take into account the sprayer ride comfort and road friendliness, which was important to improve the sprayer overall performance and operating efficiency.

Backgrounds Emerging evidences has demonstrated that dysregulation of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) is critically involved in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) progression. However, the function of lncRNA PSMA3-AS1 in ESCC is unclear. Therefore, we aimed to explore the functions and potential mechanisms of PSMA3-AS1 in ESCC cells progression. Results Here, we found that PSMA3-AS1 expression was significantly up-regulated in ESCC tissues. Forced PSMA3-AS1 expression was correlated with tumor size, distant metastasis, and poor prognosis in ESCC patients. Functionally, PSMA3-AS1-overexpression promoted ESCC cells proliferation, invasion, and migration in vitro. Mechanistically, PSMA3-AS1 up-regulated EZH2 expression by competitively binding to miR-101. Conclusion PSMA3-AS1 is significantly up-regulated in ESCC tissues, and the PSMA3-AS1/miR-101/EZH2 axis plays a critical role in ESCC progression. Taken together, our results may provide promising targets for ESCC therapy. Methods PSMA3-AS1 and miR-101 expression were explored using qRT-PCR in ESCC tissues and cell lines. Immunohistochemistry assays were carried out to analyze EZH2 (enhancer of zeste homolog) protein expression. RIP, dual-luciferase reporter, fluorescence in situ hybridization, and biotin pull-down assays were used to detect the interactions of PSMA3-AS1, miR-101 and EZH2. The biological functions of PSMA3-AS1 in PSMA3-AS1-altered cells were explored using CCK-8, colony formation, wound healing, and transwell assays in vitro.

Aging can induce oxidative stress, inflammation and mucosal impairment, and few works have been conducted to investigate the protective effects of WP on the natural intestinal aging process.The present work aimed to examine the protective effect of wheat oligopeptides (WP) on intestine mucosal impairment in aged mice, and investigate the potential antioxidation, anti-inflammatory effects of WP.Seventy-two aged mice (24 months old) were randomly divided into six groups, 12 for each group. Twelve young mice (6 months old) were regarded as the young control group. WP (25, 50, 100, 200, or 400 mg/kg) or distilled water were administered daily by gavage for 30 days.Histological observations showed that intestinal mucosal degeneration was attenuated by WP pretreatment. WP exhibited remarkable antioxidant activity via increasing superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, total antioxidant capacity and catalase activities, and decreasing the malondialdehyde levels in small intestine mucosa. WP pretreatment significantly suppressed intestinal mucosa inflammation through the reduction of TNF-α, TGF-β, IFN-γ IL-1β and IL-6. WP markedly protect the intestinal mucosal barrier by decreasing the ICAM-1 level, and increasing ZO-1 and JAMA-A levels. WP significantly down-regulated protein expression levels of TLR4, Myd88, and MAPK, suggesting that WP have a potential effect on inhibiting aging-induced inflammatory responses by blocking TLR4/Myd88/MAPK signal transduction.WP administration effectively alleviated intestinal mucosal impairment in aged mice. The potential mechanism was associated with enhancement of antioxidation and anti-inflammatory action and protection of the intestinal mucosal barrier.

Most black-box adversarial attack schemes for object detectors mainly face two shortcomings: requiring access to the target model and generating inefficient adversarial examples (failing to make objects disappear in large numbers). To overcome these shortcomings, we propose a black-box adversarial attack scheme based on semantic segmentation and model inversion (SSMI). We first locate the position of the target object using semantic segmentation techniques. Next, we design a neighborhood background pixel replacement to replace the target region pixels with background pixels to ensure that the pixel modifications are not easily detected by human vision. Finally, we reconstruct a machine-recognizable example and use the mask matrix to select pixels in the reconstructed example to modify the benign image to generate an adversarial example. Detailed experimental results show that SSMI can generate efficient adversarial examples to evade human-eye perception and make objects of interest disappear. And more importantly, SSMI outperforms existing same kinds of attacks. The maximum increase in new and disappearing labels is 16%, and the maximum decrease in mAP metrics for object detection is 36%., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures

Additional file 1: Supplementary materials.

Anopheles anthropophagus (Xu and Feng 1975) is the major vector of malaria in Eastern and Southern China. The species An. anthropophagus is considered a synonym of An. lesteri (Baisas & Hu, 1936), although they differ in several key biological characteristics. Here, we report the complete mitochondrial genome of An. anthropophagus for the first time. The mitogenome of An. anthropophagus is a typical circular, double-stranded molecule with a total length of 15,413 base pairs, and contains 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, two ribosomal RNA genes, and an AT-rich control region. A phylogenetic analysis of the complete mitogenomes of 16 species of Anopheles (Culicidae) revealed that An. anthropophagus is closely related to An. sinensis (Wiedemann 1828), in the family Culicidae. The An. anthropophagus mitogenome provides new data for further taxonomic and phylogenetic studies of the genus Anopheles.

Additional file 1: Figure S1. Characterization of circRanGAP1 in HCC. Figure S2. circRanGAP1 expression in HCC cells. Figure S3. CircRanGAP1 acted as a sponge of miR-27b-3p in HCC cells. Figure S4. miR-27b-3p plays tumor-suppressive roles in HCC. Figure S5. Figure S6. The effect of NRAS in cirRanGAP1 knockdown cells. Figure S7. Immune infiltration analysis of miR-27b-3p and NRAS. Figure S8. The effects of circRanGAP1 on immunocytes infiltration. Table S1. Sequences of Primers used for qRT-PCR. Table S2. List of Primary Antibodies Used in the Study. Table S3. Target sequences of hsa_circ_0063513 shRNAs. Table S4. circ_0063513 and miR-27b-3p FISH probe sequences. Table S5. The potential targets of RanGAP1.

During the generation of invisible backdoor attack poisoned data, the feature space transformation operation tends to cause the loss of some poisoned features and weakens the mapping relationship between source images with triggers and target labels, resulting in the need for a higher poisoning rate to achieve the corresponding backdoor attack success rate. To solve the above problems, we propose the idea of feature repair for the first time and introduce the blind watermark technique to repair the poisoned features lost during the generation of poisoned data. Under the premise of ensuring consistent labeling, we propose a low-poisoning rate invisible backdoor attack based on feature repair, named FRIB. Benefiting from the above design concept, the new method enhances the mapping relationship between the source images with triggers and the target labels, and increases the degree of misleading DNNs, thus achieving a high backdoor attack success rate with a very low poisoning rate. Ultimately, the detailed experimental results show that the goal of achieving a high success rate of backdoor attacks with a very low poisoning rate is achieved on all MNIST, CIFAR10, GTSRB, and ImageNet datasets.

Anopheles anthropophagus (Xu and Feng 1975) is the major vector of malaria in Eastern and Southern China. The species An. anthropophagus is considered a synonym of An. lesteri (Baisas & Hu, 1936), although they differ in several key biological characteristics. Here, we report the complete mitochondrial genome of An. anthropophagus for the first time. The mitogenome of An. anthropophagus is a typical circular, double-stranded molecule with a total length of 15,413 base pairs, and contains 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, two ribosomal RNA genes, and an AT-rich control region. A phylogenetic analysis of the complete mitogenomes of 16 species of Anopheles (Culicidae) revealed that An. anthropophagus is closely related to An. sinensis (Wiedemann 1828), in the family Culicidae. The An. anthropophagus mitogenome provides new data for further taxonomic and phylogenetic studies of the genus Anopheles.

Black-box attacks usually face two problems: poor transferability and the inability to evade the adversarial defense. To overcome these shortcomings, we create an original approach to generate adversarial examples by smoothing the linear structure of the texture in the benign image, called AdvSmo. We construct the adversarial examples without relying on any internal information to the target model and design the imperceptible-high attack success rate constraint to guide the Gabor filter to select appropriate angles and scales to smooth the linear texture from the input images to generate adversarial examples. Benefiting from the above design concept, AdvSmo will generate adversarial examples with strong transferability and solid evasiveness. Finally, compared to the four advanced black-box adversarial attack methods, for the eight target models, the results show that AdvSmo improves the average attack success rate by 9% on the CIFAR-10 and 16% on the Tiny-ImageNet dataset compared to the best of these attack methods., Comment: 6 pages,3 figures

Additional file 1: Table S1. The functional enrichment analysis of 100 VIPR1-related genes. Figure S1. Immune infiltration analysis of VIP and ADCYAP1 A. C. Explored the correlation between immune infiltration and VIP and ADCYAP1 through the ssGSEA algorithm in the “GSVA” R package. B. D. Evaluated the correlation between Treg/Tem/NK/iDC cells and VIP, Tem/NK/iDC/Mast cells and ADCYAP by the Pearson correlation analysis. *P

Periodic pillars of semiconductor in sub-wavelength size can serve multiple roles as diffracting, trapping and absorbing light for effective photoelectric conversion which has been intensively studied in the visible range. Here, we design and fabricate the micro-pillar arrays of AlGaAs/GaAs multi quantum wells(QWs) for high performance detection of long wavelength infrared light. Compared to its planar counterpart, the array offers 5.1 times intensified absorption at peak wavelength of 8.7 µm with 4 times shrinked electrical area. It’s illustrated by simulation that the normal incident light is guided in the pillars by HE11 resonant cavity mode to form strengthened Ez electrical field, which enables the inter-subband transition of n-type QWs. Moreover, the thick active region of dielectric cavity that contains 50 periods of QWs with fairly low doping concentration will be beneficial to the optical and electrical merits of the detectors. This study demonstrates an inclusive scheme to substantially raise the signal to ratio of infrared detection with all-semiconductor photonic structures.