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Stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformisf. sp. tritici(Pst), is a devastating disease in wheat worldwide. Discovering and characterizing new resistance genes/QTL is crucial for wheat breeding programs. In this study, we fine-mapped and characterized a stripe rust resistance gene, YRAYH, on chromosome arm 5BL in the Chinese wheat landrace Anyuehong (AYH). Evaluations of stripe rust response to prevalent Chinese Pstraces in near-isogenic lines derived from a cross of Anyuehong and Taichung 29 showed that YrAYHconferred a high level of resistance at all growth stages. Fine mapping using a large segregating population of 9748 plants, narrowed the YRAYHlocus to a 3.7 Mb interval on chromosome arm 5BL that included 61 annotated genes. Transcriptome analysis of two NIL pairs identified 64 upregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the resistant NILs (NILs-R). Annotations indicated that many of these genes have roles in plant disease resistance pathways. Through a combined approach of fine-mapping and transcriptome sequencing, we identified a serine/threonine-protein kinase SRPK as a candidate gene underlying YrAYH. A unique 25 bp insertion was identified in the NILs-R compared to the NILs-S and previously published wheat genomes. An InDel marker was developed and co-segregated with YrAYH. Agronomic trait evaluation of the NILs suggested that YrAYHnot only reduces the impact of stripe rust but was also associated with a gene that increases plant height and spike length.

Preeclampsia (PE), a multisystem disorder in pregnancy, is one of the leading causes of perinatal morbidity and mortality that poses financial and physical burdens worldwide. Preterm PE with delivery at <37 weeks of gestation is associated with a higher risk of adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes than term PE with delivery at ≥37 weeks of gestation. A myriad of first trimester screening models have been developed to identifying women at risk of preterm PE. In fact, the Fetal Medicine Foundation (FMF) first trimester prediction model has undergone successful internal and external validation. The FMF triple test enables the estimation of patient-specific risks, using Bayes theorem to combine maternal characteristics and medical history together with measurements of mean arterial pressure, uterine artery pulsatility index, and serum placental growth factor. Establishing a quality control process for regular monitoring and to ensure data standardization, reliability, and accuracy is key to maintaining optimal screening performance. The rate of preterm PE can be reduced by 62% by using the FMF prediction model, followed by the administration of low-dose aspirin. Recent evidence has also demonstrated that metformin has the potential for preventing PE in patients at high-risk of the disorder. In this article, we will summarize the existing literature on the different screening methods, different components of risk assessment, therapeutic interventions, and clinical implementation of the first trimester screening and prevention program for PE with specific considerations for Chinese mainland.

Over the past two decades, population-based studies employing semiautomatic computer-assisted programs have uncovered associations between retinal microvascular features and various systemic conditions. As the recognition of retinal imaging in cardiometabolic health grows, there is increasing evidence supporting its application in women’s health, particularly during the reproductive age. This review aims to summarize the indications of retinal imaging in women’s health and intergenerational health, where suboptimal retinal imaging has been found to mirror pathological systemic changes, such as suboptimal hemodynamic circulation, inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, oxidative stress, and hypoxia in vivo. Findings from Singapore Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes and Singapore Preconception Study of Long-Term Maternal and Child Outcomes cohorts have reported serial changes in retinal conventional microvascular features (e.g., retinal arteriolar narrowing, retinal venular widening) and retinal geometric microvascular features (e.g., sparse fractal dimension, enlarged branching angle, and increased curvature tortuosity) during the preconception and antenatal phases. These morphological abnormalities were found to be related to female fertility, maternal antenatal health conditions, postnatal maternal cardiometabolic health, and intergenerational health in the fetus. Given the compelling evidence of the ability to detect microvascular changes through noninvasive methods at an early stage, retinal imaging holds the potential to facilitate timely interventions, mitigate the progression of complications, and prevent adverse pregnancy outcomes. Looking ahead, the convergence of artificial intelligence and advanced imaging techniques heralds a promising era in women’s health research and clinical practice.

The recent increase in placenta accreta spectrum has been correlated with a rise in the rate of cesarean sections. A recent study provides evidence that hampered wound healing results in cesarean scar defects that lead to a failure in the normal process of decidualization and deeper adherence of trophoblasts. Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) is crucial in every step of wound healing as it alters the wound matrix, facilitating cell migration, as well as tissue remodeling. MMP-9 expression is higher in placental and decidual tissue in cases of placenta accreta. Based on these findings, assessment of MMP-9 expression can shed new light on the etiopathology of placenta accreta spectrum disorder and can be a potential diagnostic marker.

The emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from asphalt during construction processes presents substantial risks to human health and the environment. To advance sustainable transportation development, this review offers a comprehensive study of the methods for characterization, release characteristics, influencing factors, release mechanisms, and environmental impacts of asphalt VOCs. At present, research has been conducted on characterization methods, component characteristics, influencing factors, and environmental and health risks. The findings indicate that gas chromatography–mass spectrometry is the most comprehensive method for characterizing asphalt VOCs. Asphalt VOCs mainly comprise alkanes, aromatics, and aliphatic hydrocarbons. Factors including the temperature, asphalt source, and ultraviolet radiation can all affect the release characteristics of asphalt VOCs. Elevated VOC levels contribute to the photochemical production of ozone and fine particulate matter, exacerbating air pollution and climate change. Additionally, specific asphalt VOCs, including benzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, pose health risks to humans. While progress has been achieved in the current research, challenges persist in quantifying VOCs, assessing their environmental impacts and health risks, and implementing effective mitigation technologies. To address these challenges, future research should focus on establishing asphalt VOC fingerprints, quantitative methods, evaluation criteria, material innovation, optimization of construction processes, exposure assessment, and collaborative solution implementation.

The growing interest in addressing minimax optimization problem has been fueled by recent applications in machine learning. Although extensively studied in the convex–concave regime, where a global solution can be efficiently computed, this paper delves into the minimax problem within the nonconvex–concave setup. We propose an alternating gradient projection algorithm with momentum (M-AGP), belonging to single-loop algorithms that not only are easier to implement but also require only the computation of gradient projection updates. We demonstrate that the proposed algorithm identifies an ε-stationary point of the nonconvex–strongly concave minimax problem in O(ε-2)iterations, representing the best-known rate in the literature. Finally, we utilize two test problems, namely robust nonlinear regression and an image classification problem, to showcase the efficacy of the proposed algorithm.

This study aimed to determine patients’ perceived benefits of a WeChat applet for self-management of patients with neurogenic bladder (NGB) and identify the key factors hindering their adoption.

The aim of this paper is to improve the accuracy and efficiency of ground penetrating Radar (GPR) detection of internal road surface disease images. Based on the YOLOv4 target detection algorithm, this study introduces MobileNetV2 and CBAM attention mechanism, and combines the Focal loss confidence loss function to iterate the model, so as to design an efficient and lightweight GPR pavement disease image recognition algorithm, MC-YOLOv4. At the same time, in order to alleviate the problem of data scarcity in GPR, we redesign an unsupervised generative adversarial neural network based on self-attention mechanism, namely SAGAN-W. Experiments show that MC-YOLOv4 not only has faster reasoning ability, but also occupies only 23% of the memory of YOLOv5-S. After using the SAGAN data augmentation, the mAP@ .0.5 evaluation index is further improved by 2.63%, and the collapse and mode collapse that may occur in the training process of the traditional Convolutional Generative Adversarial Neural Network (DCGAN) are avoided. After introducing the Focal loss confidence loss function to participate in the training, It significantly improves the imbalance between the precision and recall of the detection model, and this scheme is verified and supported by real scenes. The experimental results show that the proposed method has significant advantages in automatic detection and data expansion of lightweight GPR pavement invisible diseases, which has a wide range of application value and research significance.

Solar-energy-driven catalytic CO2reduction for the production of value-added carbon-based materials and chemical raw materials has attracted great interest to alleviate the global climate change and energy crisis. The production of multicarbon (C2) products through CO2reduction is extremely attractive, however, the yield and selectivity of C2 products remain low because of the low reaction temperature required and the low photoelectron density of the substrate. Here, we introduce WO3–x, which contains oxygen vacancies and exhibits an excellent photothermal conversion efficiency, to improve the generation of C2 products (C2H4and C2H6) under simulated sunlight (UV-Vis-IR) irradiation. WO3–xproduced 5.30 and 0.93 μmol·g–1C2H4and C2H6, respectively, after 4 h, with a selectivity exceeding 34%. In situFourier transform infrared spectra and theoretical calculations showed that the oxygen vacancies enhanced the water activation and hydrogenation of adsorbed CO for the formation of C2 products viaC–C coupling from CH2/CH3intermediates. The findings of this study could assist in the design of highly active solar-energy-driven catalysts to produce C–C coupling products through CO2reduction.

ABSTRACTThe association between spinal cord injury (SCI) and bladder symptoms has been intensively described. Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell (hUC-MSC) treatment is beneficial to the recovery of bladder function after SCI, but its mechanism is unclear. We established an SCI model, and prepared hUC-MSCs in advance, followed by verification using flow cytometry. The Basso, Beattie and Bresnahan (BBB) score and urodynamic index were employed to evaluate motor function and bladder functions, respectively. Hematoxylin–eosin staining, luxol fast blue staining, and Masson’s trichrome staining were utilized to assess pathological changes. Real-time quantitative PCR and Western blot were used to determine the mRNA and protein expressions in bladder tissues. The immunophenotypes of the HUC-MSCs were CD90+and CD105+, but CD34−, CD45−and HLA-DR−. Rats appeared severe motor dysfunction after SCI, but the BBB score was increased in hUC-MSCs after the second week. Pathologically, the improvement of the lesion area on the dorsal spinal cord, augmented anterior gray horn neuron cells of the spinal cord and lessened bladder tissue remodeling (fibrosis, collagen deposition) as well as modulated inflammation could be observed. Besides, SCI increased bladder weight, bladder capacity, urine volume and residual urine volume, and decreased urination efficiency. HUC-MSCs ameliorated SCI-induced pathological changes and bladder functions, the expressions of Collagen I, Collagen III, fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2), phospho-p38, transient receptor potential vanilloid 1, Toll-like receptor 4 and phospho-nuclear factor-kappa B (p-NF-κB). To sum up, HUC-MSCs contribute to the reconstruction of bladder function after SCI by repressing p38 MAPK/NF-κB pathway.

Although the health effects of exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation have been the focus of many studies, the affected biological functions and underlying regulatory mechanisms are not well-understood. In particular, the influence of radiation exposure at doses of less than 200 mGy on the regulation of genes and pathways remains unclear. To investigate the molecular alterations induced by varying doses of low-dose radiation (LDR), transcriptomic analysis was conducted based on ribonucleic acid (RNA) sequencing following exposure to 50 and 150 mGy doses. Human peripheral blood was collected, and the samples were divided into three groups, including two treatments and one control (no radiation). A total of 876 (318 upregulated and 558 downregulated) and 486 (202 upregulated and 284 downregulated) differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified after exposure to 50 mGy and 150 mGy, respectively. Most upregulated genes in both the 50 mGy and 150 mGy groups were associated with ‘antigen processing and presentation,’ which appeared to be the major targets affected by LDR exposure. Several interacting genes, including HLA-DQA1, HLA-DQA2, HLA-DQB2, HLA-DRB1, and HLA-DRB5were mapped to ‘antigen processing and presentation,’ ‘immune system-related diseases’ and the ‘cytokine-mediated signaling pathway,’ suggesting that these genes might drive the downstream transmission of these signal transduction pathways. Our results suggest that exposure to LDR may elicit changes in key genes and associated pathways, probably helping further explore the biological processes and molecular mechanism responsible for low-dose occupational or environmental exposures in humans.

We aimed to evaluate the influence of early pregnancy stage 1 hypertension and mean arterial pressure (MAP) on the risk of pregnancy complications, including gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Pregnant women without early pregnancy hypertension were consecutively recruited in 2010 in Shanghai, China. Total 6104 women with blood pressure (BP) <140/90 mmHg were categorized according to early pregnancy BP and MAP levels, respectively. Multivariate adjusted logistic regression and cox regression was used to test the potential associations. Finally 313 (5.1%) pregnant women identified as stage 1 hypertension. Compared with normotensive women, women with early pregnancy stage 1 hypertension increased the risk of gestational hypertension (GH) [Adjust odds ratio (AOR) 2.295, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.578–3.338], GDM [AOR 1.185, 95% CI 1.010–1.391], preeclampsia [AOR 2.295 95% CI 1.578–3.338], preterm delivery [AOR 1.326, 95% CI 1.026–1.713]and infants with low-birth weight [AOR 1.487, 95% CI 1.082–2.045]; Compared women with MAP < 76 mmHg, the risk of GDM increased, with an adjust hazard ratio (AHR) of 1.387 (95%CI 1.048–1.835) for 76 ≤ MAP < 88 mmHg and an AHR of 1.451 (95%CI 1.053–1.998) for MAP ≥ 88 mmHg. Especially, high MAP levels (≥ 88 mmHg) are associated with GH [AOR 2.775, 95%CI 1.805–4.266], preeclampsia [AOR 3.936, 95%CI 2.358–6.570] and preterm delivery [AOR 1.412, 95%CI 1.035–1.926]. In summary early pregnancy stage 1 hypertension is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. Relative higher BP levels in early pregnancy, especially elevated MAP levels should be aware by clinicians to decrease the risk of pregnancy complications.

Convolutional networks bring the performance of many computer vision tasks to unprecedented heights, but at the cost of enormous computation load. To reduce this cost, many model compression tasks have been proposed by eliminating insignificant model structures. For example, convolution filters with small absolute weights are pruned and then fine-tuned to restore reasonable accuracy. However, most of these works rely on pre-trained models without specific analysis of the changes in filters during the training process, resulting in sizable model retraining costs. Different from previous works, we interpret the change of filter behaviour during training from the associated angle, and propose a novel filter pruning method utilising the change rule, which can remove filters with similar functions later in training. According to this strategy, not only can we achieve model compression without fine-tuning, but we can also find a novel perspective to interpret the changing behaviour of the filter during training. Moreover, our approach has been proved to be effective for many advanced CNN architectures.

In this paper, the photocatalytic activity of industrial titanium dioxide (TiO2) based nacreous pigments was researched as functional building materials for photocatalytic NO remove. Three industrial TiO2based nacreous pigments were selected to estimate the photocatalytic activity for NO remove. This study is a good proof that pearlescent pigments can eliminate NO, and its performance is positively correlated with its titanium dioxide content. And this research will widen the application of nacreous pigments in functional building materials, and provide a new way to eliminate in door nitric oxide pollution.

AbstractObjective:In recent years, increasing studies found that pre-treatment red blood cell distribution width (RDW) could predict clinical outcomes in various cancers. However, the prognostic value of pre-treatment RDW in lung cancer was inconsistent. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis to determine prognostic value of pre-treatment RDW in lung cancer.Methods:We performed a search in PubMed, The Cochrane Library, EMBASE (via OVID), Web of Science, CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, SinoMed databases, then we identified all records up to February 15, 2019. Outcomes of interest were overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). Hazard ratios (HRs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated to assess the relevance of pre-treatment RDW to OS in lung cancer.Results:We included ten articles in total. Pooled results revealed that elevated pre-treatment RDW was significantly associated with poor OS (HR = 1.55, 95% CI: 1.26–1.92, p < 0.001) and DFS (HR = 1.53, 95% Cl: 1.15–2.05; p = 0.004) in lung cancer. Further subgroup analysis manifested that lung cancer patients with elevated pre-treatment RDW had worse prognosis.Conclusions:A higher value of pre-treatment RDW indicated worse survival of patients with lung cancer. RDW may serve as a reliable and economical marker for prediction of lung cancer prognosis.

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) rely on the balance in place of quiescence and self-renewal to sustain stem cell potential and differentiation to generate mature blood cells. Appropriate regulation of cellular and mitochondrial metabolic processes such as glycolysis, OXPHOS, fatty acid metabolism, and amino acid metabolism are required for HSC maintenance. However, the mechanisms by which cellular and mitochondrial metabolisms regulate HSC quiescence, proliferation, and differentiation remain to be fully understood. Fatty acid oxidation (FAO) is a metabolic process involving the breakdown of fatty acids into acetyl-CoA, which is then transported into mitochondria by carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1a (CPT1a). It has been reported that inhibiting FAO using non-specific inhibitors of CPT1a impairs HSC maintenance. Interestingly, CPT1a forms a complex with the Fanconi anemia complementation group D2 (FANCD2) protein (T Zhang et al., Scientific Reports, 2017). Given that Fanconi anemia is associated with HSC defects, this CPT1a complex may play a critical role in maintaining fatty acid dependent mitochondrial metabolism that mediates HSC dormancy and stemness. However, the exact role, in HSCs, of mitochondrial CPT1a, the rate-limiting enzyme in FAO, remains unknown. Here, we find that CPT1a is highly enriched in hematopoietic stem cells. Further, we investigated the role of CPT1a in hematopoiesis utilizing a CPT1aconditional knockout in mice driven by Vav1-Cre. The CPT1a knockout ( Cpt1aΔ/Δ) displays profound HSC defects, including loss of HSC self-renewal and accelerated differentiation. Mechanistically, we find that loss of Cpt1aresults in increased ATP production, mitochondrial membrane potential (Δφm), and mitochondrial ROS accumulation in long-term HSCs (LT-HSCs), as well as defective LT-HSC function indicated by bone marrow transplantation and 5-FU genotoxic stress assays. Furthermore, utilizing mitochondrial complex formation assays and measurements of mitochondrial complex activity, BM cells of Cpt1aΔ/Δmice display enhanced mitochondrial complex formation and up-regulation of mitochondrial complex activity. Our results suggest that Cpt1a regulates FAO transport and that loss of Cpt1a deregulates mitochondrial metabolisms including oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). Taken together, our study suggests that CPT1a plays a key role in LT-HSC maintenance by controlling the balance between FAO and OXPHOS in mitochondria. Because of the noncanonical relationship between CPT1a and FANCD2 for the regulation of mitochondrial metabolism, correction of fatty acid metabolism and OXPHOS may present a novel therapeutic avenue for Fanconi anemia.

The resilient modulus, MR, of subgrade soils had been used extensively as an important unbound material property in the pavement design and analysis. The stress state and the humidity of cohesive soils have significant impacts on the resilient modulus. To predict the resilient modulus of cohesive soils in South China, the material indicator tests, an improved repeated load triaxial test and the pressure plate test were carried out. Then the SWCC was described using the Fredlund and Xing’s model with a relatively high coefficient of determination. Subsequently, the variation of resilient modulus with the stress state and the humidity characterized by the matric suction for cohesive soils were evaluated. A correlation between the matric suction and resilient modulus of cohesive soils was built, which has high correlation coefficients. In the following, a new resilient modulus estimation model for cohesive soils in South China incorporating the stress state and matric suction was proposed, which has a simple form, less parameters and only requires a universal triaxial testing system. After that, the new model was verified using the data of different cohesive soils from existing literature. The results show that the developed model has a high prediction accuracy.

The development of low cost, metal free semiconductor photocatalysts for CO2reduction to fuels and valuable chemical feedstocks is a practically imperative for reducing anthropogenic CO2emissions. In this work, black phosphorus quantum dots (BPQDs) were successfully dispersed on a graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) support viaa simple electrostatic attraction approach, and the activities of BP@g-C3N4composites were evaluated for photocatalytic CO2reduction. The BP@g-C3N4composites displayed improved carrier separation efficiency and higher activities for photocatalytic CO2reduction to CO (6.54 μmol g−1h−1at the optimum BPQDs loading of 1 wt%) compared with pure g-C3N4(2.65 μmol g−1h−1). This work thus identifies a novel approach towards metal free photocatalysts for CO2photoreduction. 开发还原二氧化碳生成燃料和有价值化学品的低成本、非金属半导体光催化剂, 是减少二氧化碳浓度的一种有效方案. 本工作通 过简单的静电吸引方法成功地将黑磷量子点(BPQDs)分散在石墨相氮化碳(g-C3N4)载体上, 成功制备了BP@g-C3N4复合材料, 并对其在紫 外-可见光激发下光催化还原CO2的性能进行了研究. 电化学表征, 瞬态吸收光谱和荧光光谱数据表明BPQDs的负载提高了g-C3N4的载流 子分离效率. 在氙灯的照射下, 与g-C3N4(CO的生成速率为2.1 μmol g−1h−1)相比, BP@g-C3N4复合材料光催化还原CO2活性显著提高(当 BPQDs的负载量为1 wt%时, CO的生成速率为6.54 μmol g−1h−1). 本工作发展了一种新型的可还原CO2的非金属基光催化剂.

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Objective: Excessive activated proinflammatory cytokines may promote extracellular matrix alterations which induce adverse left ventricular remodeling in systolic heart failure (SHF). We sought to identify whether high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) levels were independently associated with SHF. Methods: In our retrospective case-control study, 2236 subjects were included, and 260 patients had SHF. Blood sample collection, clinical laboratory tests, electrocardiogram and echocardiography examinations were performed. The questionnaires were completed by professional interviews. Results: In 2236 subjects, the prevalence rate of SHF were 1.7, 1.8, 8.4 and 32.6% between hsCRP concentrations (<1 mg/L, ≥1 to <3 mg/L, ≥3 to <10 mg/L and ≥10 mg/L, respectively) (p=0.000). hsCRP concentrations (<1 mg/L, ≥1 to <3 mg/L, ≥3 to <10 mg/L and ≥10 mg/L) were associated in a linear trend with N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP, p=0.000) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF, p=0.000). hsCRP was also significantly related to NT-proBNP, LVEF and SHF (r=0.232, p=0.000; r=-0.358, p=0.000 and r=0.413, p=0.000, respectively). In logistic regression model, after adjusting for heart failure risk factors, compared with the low concentration of hsCRP (<1 mg/L), the high concentration of hsCRP (≥10 mg/L) was significantly independently associated with SHF (odds ratio = 10.78 [1.303 to 89.10], p=0.027). Conclusion: Low to high concentration of hsCRP showed a linear trend association with SHF. A high concentration of hsCRP was independently associated with SHF.

t-BuOK-promoted synthesis of bis(indolyl)arylmethanes from aromatic aldehydes and indoles is achieved. Substrates bearing different functional groups, especially groups which are sensitive to acidic media, are well tole-rated under the optimal condition, making this reaction particularly attractive for expanding the scope of the present protocols that provides bis(1H-indol-3-yl)arylmethanes.

Blended amines synthesize the absorption characteristics of different amine solvents and show a great potential in carbon capture. However, a comprehensive techno-economic analysis (TEA) of the CO2absorption process using blended amines is still lacking. In this study, we investigated three blended amine solvents: MEA/MDEA, PZ/MEA, and PZ/MDEA, with commercially available amine MEA used as the benchmark. Rigorous process simulation and techno-economic analysis were applied to evaluate the performance of the carbon capture process in a steel plant. CO2molar loading in the lean solvent (αlean) and stripper pressure (P) were optimized to minimize the total annualized cost (TAC). The results demonstrated that PZ/MDEA-based process is most cost-effective (31.43$/tCO2) under the operating conditions of αlean = 0.15 and P = 1.25 bar. The cost breakdown analysis revealed that αleanand Psignificantly impact the TAC through the regeneration heat, equipment investment, and amines make-up cost. Furthermore, the energy analysis indicated that using a solvent with a low reaction enthalpy and heat capacity as well as high reactivity and absorption capacity could minimize the energy consumption of the process.