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Maize (Zea mays L.) is an economically vital grain crop that is cultivated worldwide. In 2011, a maize foliar disease was detected in Lingtai and Lintao counties in Gansu Province, China. The characteristic signs and symptoms of this disease include irregular chlorotic lesions on the tips and edges of infected leaves and black punctate fruiting bodies in dead leaf tissues. Given favourable environmental conditions, this disease spread to areas surrounding Gansu. In this study, infected leaves were collected from Gansu and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region between 2018 and 2020 to identify the disease-causing pathogen. Based on morphological features, pathogenicity tests, and multi-locus phylogenetic analysis involving internal transcribed spacer (ITS), 18S small subunit rDNA (SSU), 28S large subunit rDNA (LSU), translation elongation factor 1-alpha (TEF), and β-tubulin (TUB) sequences, Eutiarosporella dactylidis was identified as the causative pathogen of this newly discovered leaf blight. Furthermore, an in vitro bioassay was conducted on representative strains using six fungicides, and both fludioxonil and carbendazim were found to significantly inhibit the mycelial growth of E. dactylidis. The results of this study provide a reference for the detection and management of Eutiarosporella leaf blight.

Background: Paravertebral muscles (PVM) degeneration (PMD) is closely associated with low back pain. Muscle stem cells (MuSCs) can promote muscle regeneration and repair. However, our understanding of the cellular composition of PVM and the key genes-mediated MuSCs functions is limited. Methods: We analyzed cells heterogeneity and identified key genes using scRNA-seq. To validate the presence of EGR1 + MuSCs, we performed Flow cytometry assays. We utilized pseudo-time, CytoTRACE, and RNA velocity to reconstruct cells differentiation trajectory. CellPhoneDB was used to identify the interactions between MuSCs and other cells. Results: We identified 22 cell clusters and 10 cell types, including MuSCs. We found EGR1 + MuSCs representing the activated subset. We observed the overall number of MuSCs decreased, while the proportion of EGR1 + MuSCs gradually increased during PMD. We demonstrated the target ATF3 of EGR1 and EGR1 were significantly upregulated in PMD, suggesting EGR1-ATF3 signaling may regulate MuSCs functions. Cell differentiation trajectory indicated EGR1 + MuSCs exhibited higher stemness. We discovered immune cells, fibroblasts, and endothelial cells may collaborate with MuSCs through specific ligand-receptor pairs to regulate MuSCs functions. Conclusion: These findings unveils the activation of EGR1-ATF3 signaling in EGR1 + MuSCs, providing new insights into the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying PMD.

Abstract Background Low back pain (LBP) is the main factor of global disease burden. Intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) has long been known as the leading reason of LBP. Increasing studies have verified that circular RNAs (circRNAs)‐microRNAs (miRNAs)‐mRNAs network is widely involved in the pathological processes of IVDD. However, no study was made to demonstrate the circRNAs‐mediated ferroptosis, oxidative stress, extracellular matrix metabolism, and immune response in IVDD. Methods We collected 3 normal and 3 degenerative nucleus pulposus tissues to conduct RNA‐sequencing to identify the key circRNAs and miRNAs in IVDD. Bioinformatics analysis was then conducted to construct circRNAs‐miRNAs‐mRNAs interaction network associated with ferroptosis, oxidative stress, extracellular matrix metabolism, and immune response. We also performed animal experiments to validate the therapeutic effects of key circRNAs in IVDD. Results We found that circ_0015435 was most obviously upregulated and circ_0071922 was most obviously downregulated in IVDD using RNA‐sequencing. Then we observed that hsa‐miR‐15a‐5p was the key downstream of circ_0071922, and hsa‐miR‐15a‐5p was the top upregulated miRNA in IVDD. Bioinformatics analysis was conducted to predict that 56 immunity‐related genes, 29 ferroptosis‐related genes, 23 oxidative stress‐related genes and 8 ECM‐related genes are the targets mRNAs of hsa‐miR‐15a‐5p. Then we constructed a ceRNA network encompassing 24 circRNAs, 6 miRNAs, and 101 mRNAs. Additionally, we demonstrated that overexpression of circ_0071922 can alleviate IVDD progression in a rat model. Conclusions The findings of this study suggested that circ_0071922‐miR‐15a‐5p‐mRNA signaling network might affect IVDD by modulating the nucleus pulposus cells ferroptosis, oxidative stress, ECM metabolism, and immune response, which is an effective therapeutic targets of IVDD.

Background Idiopathic membranous nephropathy is widely recognized as an autoimmune kidney disease that is accompanied by the discovery of several autoantibodies, and the antibody subclass in the circulation of patients with iMN is mainly IgG. However, the direct pathogenic effect of the containing anti-PLA2R IgG antibody on podocytes is not clear.Method A protein G affinity chromatography column was used to purify serum IgG antibodies. Containing anti-PLA2R IgG antibodies from iMN patients and IgG from healthy controls were also obtained. Based on the established in vitro podocyte culture system, purified IgG antibodies from the two groups were used to stimulate podocytes, and the expression of essential podocyte proteins (podocin), the levels of inflammatory cytokines in the cell supernatant, cytoskeletal disorders, and podocyte apoptosis were analyzed.Results Compared with that in the normal IgG group, the expression of podocin and podocin mRNA was reduced (p = 0.016 and p = 0.005, respectively), the fluorescence intensity of podocin on the surface of podocytes was reduced, the cytoskeleton of podocytes was disordered and reorganized, and the ratio of podocyte apoptosis was increased in the iMN group (p = 0.008).Conclusion The containing anti-PLA2R IgG antibody might have a direct damaging effect on podocytes in idiopathic membranous nephropathy.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a pathological condition that leading to serious nerve damage, disability and even death. Increasing evidence have revealed that circular RNAs (circRNAs) and mRNA are widely involved in the regulation of the pathological process of neurological diseases by sponging microRNAs (miRNAs). Nevertheless, the potential biological functions and regulatory mechanisms of circRNAs in the subacute stage of SCI remain unclear. We analyzed the expression and regulatory patterns of circRNAs and mRNAs in SCI mice models using RNA-sequencing and bioinformatics analysis. A total of 24 circRNAs and 372 mRNAs were identified to be differentially expressed. Then we identifying the immune-related genes (IRGs) from them. The protein-protein interaction network were constructed based on the STRING database and Cytoscape software. Furthermore, Go and KEGG enrichment analysis were conducted to predict the functions of the IRGs and host genes of DECs. These findings will contribute to elucidate the pathophysiology of SCI and provide effective therapeutic targets for SCI patients.

Study designCross-sectional study.ObjectiveTo identify whether Roussouly type 2 could evolve into type 1 as the deterioration progresses.MethodsThe study group comprised subjects with a low pelvic incidence (PI). All subjects underwent a standing whole spinal radiograph and sagittal parameters were measured: T1 pelvic angle (TPA), lumbar lordosis (LL), PI, pelvic tilt (PT), L4–S1 angle, thoracolumbar kyphosis (TLK), thoracic kyphosis (TK), lumbar sagittal apex (LSA), lordosis distribution index (LDI) and number of vertebrae included in the lordosis (NVL). All subjects were distributed into two groups; with primary (de novo) degenerative scoliosis (PDS) and without PDS. Subjects without PDS were divided into young adult, adult, middle-aged and elderly groups. The differences in sagittal parameters of each subgroup were compared.ResultsIn total, 270 subjects were included with a mean age of 58.6 years (range 20–87 years). There was a stepwise increase in the proportion of type 1 with age, whereas type 2 decreased. The TPA, PT, PI-LL, TK, TLK and LDI increased with age in subjects without PDS. The TPA, LDI, TLK and TK increased with age in subjects who displayed type 1, whereas the PT, LL, L4–S1 and PI-LL were unchanged. The TPA, PT, PI-LL and TLK increased with age in subjects who displayed type 2, whereas LL and L4-S1 were decreased, while the LDI and TK remained unchanged. The LSA of subjects without PDS became lower and the NVL decreased with age, with similar phenomena found in the subjects with type 2. There was no statistical difference among the groups for the LSA or NVL distribution of subjects with type 1. The TPA, PT and PI-LL of subjects with PDS were greater than those in Group IV, while the SS, LL and TK were less. The Roussouly-type, NVL and LSA distribution were identical between these two groups.ConclusionRoussouly type 1 shape may not be an actual individual specific spine type. Rather, type 2 could evolve into the “type 1” shape as deterioration of the sagittal spinal alignment progresses with age. Primary (de novo) degenerative scoliosis had little effect on whether type 2 became type 1. This should be taken into consideration during the assessment and restoration of sagittal balance.

Lower back pain (LBP) is the primary reason leading to dyskinesia in patients, which can be experienced by people of all ages. Increasing evidence have revealed that paraspinal muscle (PSM) degeneration (PSMD) is a causative contributor to LBP. Current research revealed that fatty infiltration, tissue fibrosis, and muscle atrophy are the characteristic pathological alterations of PSMD, and muscle atrophy is associated with abnormally elevated oxidative stress, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and inflammation. Interestingly, microgravity can induce PSMD and LBP. However, studies on the molecular mechanism of microgravity in the induction of PSMD are strongly limited. This study identified 23 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the PSM (longissimus dorsi) of mice which were flown aboard the Bion M1 biosatellite in microgravity by bioinformatics analysis. Then, we performed protein–protein interaction, Gene Ontology function, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analysis for the DEGs. We found that Il6ra, Tnfaip2, Myo5a, Sesn1, Lcn2, Lrg1, and Pik3r1 were inflammatory genes; Fbox32, Cdkn1a, Sesn1, and Mafb were associated with muscle atrophy; Cdkn1a, Sesn1, Lcn2, and Net1 were associated with ROS; and Sesn1 and Net1 were linked to oxidative stress. Furthermore, Lcn2, Fbxo32, Cdkn1a, Pik3r1, Sesn1, Net1, Il6ra, Myo5a, Lrg1, and Pfkfb3 were remarkably upregulated, whereas Tnfaip2 and Mafb were remarkably downregulated in PSMD, suggesting that they might play a significant role in regulating the occurrence and development of PSMD. These findings provide theoretical basis and therapeutic targets for the treatment of PSMD.

Fusarium ear rot (FER) caused by Fusarium verticillioides is a prevalent maize disease. To comprehensively characterize the genetic basis of the natural variation in FER resistance, a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population was used to map quantitative trait loci (QTL) for FER resistance. A total of 17 QTL were identified by linkage mapping in eight environments. These QTL were located on six chromosomes and explained 3.88–15.62% of the total phenotypic variation. Moreover, qFER1.03 had the strongest effect and accounted for 4.98–15.62% of the phenotypic variation according to analyses of multiple environments involving best linear unbiased predictions. The chromosome segment substitution lines (CSSLs) derived from a cross between Qi319 (donor parent) and Ye478 (recurrent parent) were used to verify the contribution of qFER1.03 to FER resistance. The line CL171, which harbored an introgressed qFER1.03, was significantly resistant to FER. Further fine mapping of qFER1.03 revealed that the resistance QTL was linked to insertion/deletion markers InDel 8 and InDel 2, with physical distances of 43.55 Mb and 43.76 Mb, respectively. Additionally, qFER1.03 differed from the previous resistance QTL on chromosome 1. There were three annotated genes in this region. On the basis of the RNA-seq data, which revealed the genes differentially expressed between the FER-resistant Qi319 and susceptible Ye478, GRMZM2G017792 (MPK3) was preliminarily identified as a candidate gene in the qFER1.03 region. The Pr-CMV-VIGS system was used to decrease the GRMZM2G017792 expression level in CL171 by 34–57%, which led to a significant decrease in FER resistance. Using RIL and CSSL populations combined with RNA-seq and Pr-CMV-VIGS, the candidate gene can be dissected effectively, which provided important gene resource for breeding FER-resistant varieties.

Diuretics have been one of the well-known nephrotoxic drugs which can lead to acute kidney injury (AKI). However, there are few real-world studies on the incidence of AKI in hospitalized patients received diuretics. In the present study, a single-center retrospective study was conducted in our center. The clinical data of hospitalized patients received diuretics from January 2018 to December 2020 was retrospectively analyzed. Among the 18,148 hospitalized patients included in the study, 2,589 patients (14.26%) were judged as incidence with AKI, while only 252 patients were diagnosed with AKI in the medical record. Among diuretics drugs in the study, the incidence rate of AKI with torasemide was the highest with 21.62%, and hydrochlorothiazide had the lowest incidence rate (6.80%). The multiple logistic regression analysis suggested that complicated with hypertension, anemia, pneumonia, shock, sepsis, heart failure, neoplastic diseases, combined use of proton pump inhibitors (PPI) were independent risk factors for AKI related to diuretics. The logic regression models for diuretics related AKI were developed based on the included data. The model for diuretics-AKI achieved the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC) with 0.79 on 10-fold cross validation. It is urgent to improve the understanding and attention of AKI in patients received diuretics for medical workers, and the assessment of risk factors before the use of diuretics should be contributed to the early prevention, diagnosis and treatment of AKI, and ultimately reducing morbidity and improving prognosis.

To further ascertain the origin of the Ordovician Majiagou Formation reservoirs in the Ordos Basin, the M54-M51 sub-members of the Ordovician Majiagou Formation in the eastern Sulige gasfield of Ordos Basin were taken as examples to analyze the vertical development characteristics of eogenetic karst and to discover the dissolution mechanism and its control on reservoirs through observation of a large number of cores and thin sections. According to detailed analysis of petrologic characteristics, the reservoir rock types include micritic dolomite, grain dolomite and microbialite which have mainly moldic pore, intergranular (dissolved) pore, and (dissolved) residual framework pore as main reservoir space respectively. The study area developed upward-shallowing sequences, with an exposure surface at the top of a single upward-shallowing sequence. The karst systems under the exposure surface had typical exposure characteristics of early dissolution and filling, indicating these reservoirs were related to the facies-controlled eogenetic karstification. With the increase of karstification intensity, the reservoirs became worse in physical properties.

In plants, branching is regulated by both hormones and external cues such as light. Here the authors show that in Arabidopsis, the phytochrome A-signaling components FHY3 and FAR1, and SMXL proteins that repress strigolactone signaling, both interact with SPL proteins to control expression of the branching regulator BRC1.

In gypsum–carbonate rock assemblages, multistage and complex fluids control the formation of dolomite reservoirs that are a focus of hydrocarbon exploration. It is difficult to determine the types of dolomite reservoirs and their formation mechanisms due to the diverse rock assemblages and multiple stages of diagenesis. In this study, we investigated the petrology, reservoir physical properties, and geochemistry of the 6th sub-member of member five of the Majiagou Formation (i.e. Ma 5 6 ) in the Ordos Basin, China. These data were used to determine the nature and types of gypsum–carbonate rocks, and constrain their reservoir characteristics and diagenetic history, and fluid-related mechanisms that led to dolomite reservoir development and preservation. The Ma 5 6 was deposited on a restricted evaporatic platform in the North China Craton, and contains three main types of dolomite reservoirs with variable types of reservoir space. Dolomite reservoir formation was closely related to penecontemporaneous dolomitization, karstification, and differential cementation. Early large-scale dolomitization produced dolomitized carbonate sediments that were resistant to compaction and dissolution, which was conducive to the preservation of primary and secondary pores. The intermittent exposure and dissolution of mound–shoal facies sediments, due to high-frequency sea-level fluctuations, was the dominant mechanism for formation of secondary dissolved pores and high-quality reservoirs. During burial, differential cementation occurred due to interaction between fluids and pore size, which determined the extent of reservoir preservation. In general, the studied dolomite reservoirs have undergone multistage diagenesis and alteration, which led to complex and multistage development of the reservoir porosity. However, the reservoir lithology and pore space developed mostly in the depositional to penecontemporaneous stages. Our results provide new insights into the origins of deeply buried dolomite reservoirs in carbonate–evaporite successions.

Drug induced nephrotoxicity is a major clinical challenge, and it is always associated with higher costs for the pharmaceutical industry and due to detection during the late stages of drug development. It is desirable for improving the health outcomes for patients to distinguish nephrotoxic structures at an early stage of drug development. In this study, we focused on in silico prediction and insights into the structural basis of drug induced nephrotoxicity, based on reliable data on human nephrotoxicity. We collected 565 diverse chemical structures, including 287 nephrotoxic drugs on humans in the real world, and 278 non-nephrotoxic approved drugs. Several different machine learning and deep learning algorithms were employed for in silico model building. Then, a consensus model was developed based on three best individual models (RFR_QNPR, XGBOOST_QNPR, and CNF). The consensus model performed much better than individual models on internal validation and it achieved prediction accuracy of 86.24% external validation. The results of analysis of molecular properties differences between nephrotoxic and non-nephrotoxic structures indicated that several key molecular properties differ significantly, including molecular weight (MW), molecular polar surface area (MPSA), AlogP, number of hydrogen bond acceptors (nHBA), molecular solubility (LogS), the number of rotatable bonds (nRotB), and the number of aromatic rings (nAR). These molecular properties may be able to play an important part in the identification of nephrotoxic chemicals. Finally, 87 structural alerts for chemical nephrotoxicity were mined with f-score and positive rate analysis of substructures from Klekota-Roth fingerprint (KRFP). These structural alerts can well identify nephrotoxic drug structures in the data set. The in silico models and the structural alerts could be freely accessed via https://ochem.eu/article/140251 and http://www.sapredictor.cn, respectively. We hope the results should provide useful tools for early nephrotoxicity estimation in drug development.

Improving the density tolerance and planting density has great importance for increasing maize production. The key to promoting high density planting is breeding maize with a compact canopy architecture, which is mainly influenced by the angles of the leaves and tassel branches above the ear. It is still unclear whether the leaf angles of different stem nodes and tassel branches are controlled by similar genetic regulatory mechanisms, which limits the ability to breed for density-tolerant maize. Here, we developed a population with 571 double haploid lines derived from inbred lines, PHBA6 and Chang7-2, showing significant differences in canopy architecture. Phenotypic and QTL analyses revealed that the genetic regulation mechanism was largely similar for closely adjacent leaves above the ears. In contrast, the regulation mechanisms specifying the angles of distant leaves and the angles of leaves vs. tassel branches are largely different. The liguless1 gene was identified as a candidate gene for QTLs co-regulating the angles of different leaves and the tassel branch, consistent with its known roles in regulating plant architecture. Our findings can be used to develop strategies for the improvement of leaf and tassel architecture through the introduction of trait-specific or pleiotropic genes, thus benefiting the breeding of maize with increased density tolerance in the future.

Permeability is a crucial parameter for enhancing shale oil recovery through CO2 injection in oil-bearing shale. After CO2 is injected into the shale reservoir, CO2 corrosion and adsorption-induced strain can change the permeability of the oil shale, affecting the recovery of shale oil. This study aimed to explore the influence of CO2 corrosion and adsorption-induced strain on the permeability of oil shale. The deformation of the internal pore diameter of oil shale induced by CO2 corrosion under different pressures was measured by low-pressure nitrogen gas adsorption in the laboratory, and the corrosion model was fitted using the experimental data. Following the basic definitions of permeability and porosity, a dynamic mathematical model of porosity and permeability was obtained, and a fluid–solid coupling mathematical model of CO2-containing oil shale was established according to the basic theory of fluid–solid coupling. Then the effects of adsorption expansion strain and corrosion compression strain on permeability evolution were considered to improve the accuracy of the oil shale permeability model. The numerical simulation results showed that adsorption expansion strain, corrosion compression strain, and confining pressure are the important factors controlling the permeability evolution of oil shale. In addition, adsorption expansion strain and corrosion compression strain have different effects under different fluid pressures. In the low-pressure zone, the adsorption expansion strain decreases the permeability of oil shale with increasing pressure. In the high-pressure zone, the increase in pressure decreases the influence of expansion strain while permeability gradually recovers. The compressive strain increases slowly with increasing pressure in the low-pressure zone, slowly increasing oil shale permeability. However, in the high-pressure area, the increase in pressure gradually weakens the influence of corrosion compressive strain, and the permeability of oil shale gradually recovers.

Leaf senescence is the terminal stage of leaf development. Both light and the plant hormone ethylene play important roles in regulating leaf senescence. However, how they coordinately regulate leaf senescence during leaf development remains largely unclear. In this study, we show that FHY3 and FAR1, two homologous proteins essential for phytochrome A-mediated light signaling, physically interact with and repress the DNA binding activity of EIN3 (a key transcription factor essential for ethylene signaling) and PIF5 (a bHLH transcription factor negatively regulating light signaling), and interfere with their DNA binding to the promoter of ORE1, which encodes a key NAC transcription factor promoting leaf senescence. In addition, we show that FHY3, PIF5, and EIN3 form a tri-protein complex(es) and that they coordinately regulate the progression of leaf senescence. We show that during aging or under dark conditions, accumulation of FHY3 protein decreases, thus lifting its repression on DNA binding of EIN3 and PIF5, leading to the increase of ORE1 expression and onset of leaf senescence. Our combined results suggest that FHY3 and FAR1 act in an age gating mechanism to prevent precocious leaf senescence by integrating light and ethylene signaling with developmental aging.

Abstract Thrombospondin type I domain‐containing 7A (THSD7A), is a specific autoantigen of adult idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN), whose circulating antibody (THSD7A‐AB) represents a promising biomarker for diagnosis of IMN. The objective of this meta‐analysis is to investigate the diagnostic efficiency of THSD7A‐AB for IMN. After rigorous data extraction, quality assessment, and data analysis, 10 articles (4545 patients) are included. For IMN, the summary sensitivity is 4% (2–7%), and the specificity is 99% (98–100%). The summary positive likelihood ratio (PLR) and negative likelihood ratio (NLR) are 5.40 (2.40–11.90) and 0.97 (0.95–0.99), respectively. The diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) is 6.00 (2.00–12.00). The area under the summary receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) is 0.78 (0.74–0.81). For M‐type phospholipase A2 receptor (PLA2R)‐negative IMN, the summary sensitivity is 8% (6–10%), specificity is 100% (99–100%). The summary PLR and NLR are 15.80 (5.70–44.00) and 0.93 (0.91–0.95), respectively. The DOR is 17.00 (6.00–48.00). The AUC is 0.99 (0.98–1.00). THSD7A‐AB has higher diagnostic value in PLA2R‐negative patients than in IMN patients. These results suggest that THSD7A‐AB could possibly be applied as an auxiliary non‐invasive diagnostic method for PLA2R‐negative IMN.

Abstract Background Plant Architecture Related Traits (PATs) are of great importance for maize breeding, and mainly controlled by minor effect quantitative trait loci (QTLs). However, cloning or even fine-mapping of minor effect QTLs is very difficult in maize. Theoretically, large population and high density genetic map can be helpful for increasing QTL mapping resolution and accuracy, but such a possibility have not been actually tested. Results Here, we employed a genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) strategy to construct a linkage map with 16,769 marker bins for 1021 recombinant inbred lines (RILs). Accurately mapping of well studied genes P1, pl1 and r1 underlying silk color demonstrated the map quality. After QTL analysis, a total of 51 loci were mapped for six PATs. Although all of them belong to minor effect alleles, the lengths of the QTL intervals, with a minimum and median of 1.03 and 3.40 Mb respectively, were remarkably reduced as compared with previous reports using smaller size of population or small number of markers. Several genes with known function in maize were shown to be overlapping with or close neighboring to these QTL peaks, including na1, td1, d3 for plant height, ra1 for tassel branch number, and zfl2 for tassel length. To further confirm our mapping results, a plant height QTL, qPH1a, was verified by an introgression lines (ILs). Conclusions We demonstrated a method for high resolution mapping of minor effect QTLs in maize, and the resulted comprehensive QTLs for PATs are valuable for maize molecular breeding in the future.

Urinary stone disease (USD) is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Western populations. However, the prevalence and relationship between USD and CVD risk have not been fully examined in the Chinese population. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study of 10,281 participants in rural China. All subjects underwent renal ultrasound to detect USD, brachial−ankle pulsewave velocity (baPWV) measurement to estimate arterial stiffness, and ankle−brachial index (ABI) examination to detect peripheral arterial disease (PAD) (defined as ABI

Plants employ developmental strategies to avoid shade and compete with neighbors for light. Here, Xie et al. show that phytochrome-interacting factors, which are regulated in a light-dependent manner, directly repress MIR156 genes and promote the expression of SPL genes to enhance shade-avoidance responses.

The Middle Ordovician Majiagou Formation in the eastern Ordos Basin, central China, is an important area in the exploration for tight carbonate gas, especially within weathering crust layers in the first and second submembers of the fifth member of the formation (herein referred to as Ma 5 1 + 2 ). However, karstification prevents a clear understanding of the petrological characteristics and facies distribution of these layers, which hinders exploration. Based on cores, thin sections, and cathodoluminescence analysis, we investigate the petrological characteristics of Ma 5 1 + 2 , determine the nature of lateral lithological variations in the eastern and central parts of the Ordos Basin, and constrain facies distribution in the region. In addition to karst breccias with unrecognizable parent rocks, Ma 5 1 + 2 comprises four lithologies: gypsum/halite mold-bearing micritic dolomite, micritic dolomite, grain dolomite, and microbial dolomite. We recognize three main sedimentary subfacies: restricted lagoon, grain shoal, and mound–shoal complex. Ma 5 1 + 2 records a complete transgression–regression cycle. The Ma 5 2 2 layer was deposited during a transgression associated with enhanced water circulation and abundant mound–shoal complexes, for which their frequency is positively correlated with the thickness of the unit. The Ma 5 1 2 layer and overlying deposits correspond to a regression cycle, and the abundance of mound–shoal complexes in these units is negatively correlated with layer thickness. The Ma 5 1 3 period represents the timing of maximum regression, when a gypsum-bearing dolomitic lagoon was dominant, associated with a restricted water body. The overall facies distribution is one of a restricted evaporite lagoon environment, similar to the central basin. Therefore, reservoir tightness is unlikely to be related to the sedimentary facies. The next phase of exploration should focus on “sweet spots” resulting from differential diagenesis or hydrocarbon accumulation. Our results provide guidance for research on tight carbonate reservoirs and hydrocarbon accumulation in other regions that experienced similar geological conditions.

Leaf width (LW) influences canopy architecture of population-cultured maize and can thus contribute to density breeding. In previous studies, almost all maize LW-related mutants have extreme effect on leaf development or accompanied unfavorable phenotypes. In addition, the identification of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) has been resolution-limited, with cloning and fine-mapping rarely performed. Here, we constructed a bin map for 670 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) using ∼1.2 billion 100-bp re-sequencing reads. QTL analysis of the LW trait directly narrowed the major effect QTL, qLW4, to a ∼270-kb interval. A fine-mapping population and near-isogenic lines (NILs) were quickly constructed using a key RIL harboring heterozygous genotypes across the qLW4 region. A recombinant-derived progeny testing strategy was subsequently used to further fine-map qLW4 to a 55-kb interval. Examination of NILs revealed that qLW4 has a completely dominant effect on LW, with no additional effect on leaf length. Candidate gene analysis suggested that this locus may be a novel LW controlling allele in maize. Our findings demonstrate the advantage of large-population high-density bin mapping, and suggest a strategy for efficiently fine-mapping or even cloning of QTLs. These results should also be helpful for further dissection of the genetic mechanism of LW variation, and benefit maize density breeding.

Recently, security issues of smart contracts are arising great attention due to the enormous financial loss caused by vulnerability attacks. There is an increasing need to detect similar codes for hunting vulnerability with the increase of critical security issues in smart contracts. Binary similarity detection that quantitatively measures the given code diffing has been widely adopted to facilitate critical security analysis. However, due to the difference between common programs and smart contract, such as diversity of bytecode generation and highly code homogeneity, directly adopting existing graph matching and machine learning based techniques to smart contracts suffers from low accuracy, poor scalability and the limitation of binary similarity on function level. Therefore, this paper investigates graph neural network to detect smart contract binary code similarity at the program level, where we conduct instruction-level normalization to reduce the noise code for smart contract pre-processing and construct contract control flow graphs to represent smart contracts. In particular, two improved Graph Convolutional Network (GCN) and Message Passing Neural Network (MPNN) models are explored to encode the contract graphs into quantitatively vectors, which can capture the semantic information and the program-wide control flow information with temporal orders. Then we can efficiently accomplish the similarity detection by measuring the distance between two targeted contract embeddings. To evaluate the effectiveness and efficient of our proposed method, extensive experiments are performed on two real-world datasets, i.e., smart contracts from Ethereum and Enterprise Operation System (EOS) blockchain-based platforms. The results show that our proposed approach outperforms three state-of-the-art methods by a large margin, achieving a great improvement up to 6.1% and 17.06% in accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Machine learning has been widely used for intelligent forwarding strategy in Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANET). However, machine learning has serious security and privacy issues. BRFD is a smart Receiver Forwarding Decision solution based on Bayesian theory for Named Data Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (NDN-VANET). In BRFD, every vehicle that received an interest packet is required to make a forwarding decision according to the collected network status information. And then decides whether it will forward the received interest packet or not. Therefore, the privacy information of a vehicle can be revealed to other vehicles during information exchange of the network status. In this paper, a Privacy-Aware intelligent forwarding solution PABRFD is proposed by integrating Homomorphic Encryption (HE) into the improved BRFD. In PABRFD, a secure Bayesian classifier is used to resolve the security and privacy issues of information exchanged among vehicle nodes. We informally prove that this new scheme can satisfy security requirements and we implement our solution based on HE standard libraries CKKS and BFV. The experimental results show that PABRFD can satisfy our expected performance requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Urinary stone disease (USD) has been associated with an increased risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end-stage renal disease in Western populations. However, the metabolic disorders associated with unilateral and bilateral renal stones and the association of these types of stones with CKD and kidney tubular injury markers, such as urine N-acetyl-ß-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) and alpha-1-microglobulin (a1-MG), have not been fully examined. Materials and Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study of 10,281 participants in rural China in 2014. All the subjects underwent renal ultrasound to detect USD; stone formers were divided into groups with unilateral or bilateral renal stones by ultrasound examinations. CKD was defined as a decreased estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR, <60 mL/minute/1.73 m2 ) and/or albuminuria (albumin-to-creatinine ratio (30 mg/gm). Increased urine NAG and a1-MG levels were defined as their values above the 75th percentile of the sample distribution. Results: Among all the participants, 4.9% (507) had unilateral renal stones, and 0.7% (75) had bilateral renal stones. The proportion of CKD in the nonstone, unilateral and bilateral renal stone formers was 11.0%, 19.2% and 29.7%, respectively (p for trend <0.001). Individuals with bilateral renal stones had the highest proportion of metabolic components, such as elevated blood pressure and serum glucose. In multivariate analyses after adjustment for multiple confounders, bilateral renal stones were significantly associated with an increased risk of decreased eGFR (OR 3.38; 95% CI 1.05e10.90), albuminuria (OR 3.01; 95% CI 1.76e5.13), CKD (OR 3.18; 95% CI 1.88e5.36), increased urine NAG-tocreatinine ratio (OR 1.95; 95% CI 1.21e3.16) and a1-MG-to-creatinine ratio levels (OR 2.54; 95% CI 1.56e4.12) compared with the lack of stones. Conclusions: Bilateral renal stones were associated with a higher risk of CKD and higher levels of kidney tubular injury markers. Clinicians should pay attention to metabolic disorders in bilateral renal stone formers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restoration of blood flow to the ischemic myocardium termed reperfusion unavoidably leads to many heart complications (such as rhythm abnormalities, and sequentially heart failure), together with the induced damage of cardiomyocytes, which can worsen infarct size and is termed myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. Electroacupuncture plays an important role in attenuating I/R injury. High mobility group box-1 protein (HMGB1) is upregulated in myocardial I/R injury and activates the inflammatory response which enhances the myocardial injury. In our study, we aimed to detect the roles of electrical acupuncture at Neiguan acupoints (PC6) in myocardial I/R injury and investigate the relationship between electrical acupuncture and HMGB1-related pathway. We found that electrical acupuncture pretreatment protected against myocardial I/R injury through inhibiting cell apoptosis. Electroacupuncture also decreased the expression levels of HMGB1 and inflammatory cytokines induced by I/R injury. In addition, the phosphorylation levels of JNK (c-Jun N-terminal kinase) was decreased by electroacupuncture in heart tissues. Furthermore, the effects of electrical acupuncture pretreatment were abrogated by the additional administration of recombinant HMGB1. Finally, the SP600125 administration, a selective JNK inhibitor, attenuated HMGB 1-dependent cell apoptosis and cytokines release in myocardial I/R injury. In conclusion, our data demonstrate that electrical acupuncture at PC6 plays a protective role in myocardial I/R injury, and this effect is associated with inhibited HMGB 1-JNK pathway, which provides a beneficial therapeutic strategy for patients with myocardial I/R injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Optimization of shade avoidance response (SAR) is crucial for enhancing crop yield in high-density planting conditions in modern agriculture, but a comprehensive study of the regulatory network of SAR is still lacking in monocot crops. Results: In this study, the genome-wide early responses in maize seedlings to the simulated shade (low red/far-red ratio) and also to far-red light treatment were transcriptionally profiled. The two processes were predominantly mediated by phytochrome B and phytochrome A, respectively. Clustering of differentially transcribed genes (DTGs) along with functional enrichment analysis identified important biological processes regulated in response to both treatments. Co-expression network analysis identified two transcription factor modules as potentially pivotal regulators of SAR and de-etiolation, respectively. A comprehensive cross-species comparison of orthologous DTG pairs between maize and Arabidopsis in SAR was also conducted, with emphasis on regulatory circuits controlling accelerated flowering and elongated growth, two physiological hallmarks of SAR. Moreover, it was found that the genome-wide distribution of DTGs in SAR and de-etiolation both biased toward the maize1 subgenome, and this was associated with differential retention of various cis-elements between the two subgenomes. Conclusions: The results provide the first transcriptional picture for the early dynamics of maize phytochrome signaling. Candidate genes with regulatory functions involved in maize shade avoidance response have been identified, offering a starting point for further functional genomics investigation of maize adaptation to heavily shaded field conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The response surface model for dechlorination process of zinc oxide dusts by microwave was built with an analysis of variance (ANOVA). It was introduced to analyze the dechlorination experimental results, and the model fit well. The central composite design (CCD) was applied to optimize and investigate the influence of roasting temperature, holding time, stirring speed and those interactions to dechlorination efficiency. According to the prediction and optimization function of Design Expert software, the optimum conditions of dechlorination by microwave roasting were found. When controlling roasting temperature to 626 °C, holding time 25 min and stirring speed 54 rpm, the experimental result of dechlorination efficiency could reach 90.13% which is very close to the predicted dechlorination efficiency of 90.48%, indicating that the response surface methodology optimization of process parameters for dechlorination of zinc oxide dusts by microwave roasting are reliable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Understanding genetic control of tassel and ear architecture in maize (Zea mays L. ssp. mays) is important due to their relationship with grain yield. High resolution QTL mapping is critical for understanding the underlying molecular basis of phenotypic variation. Advanced populations, such as recombinant inbred lines, have been broadly adopted for QTL mapping; however, construction of large advanced generation crop populations is time-consuming and costly. The rapidly declining cost of genotyping due to recent advances in next-generation sequencing technologies has generated new possibilities for QTL mapping using large early generation populations. Results A set of 708 F2 progeny derived from inbreds Chang7-2 and 787 were generated and genotyped by whole genome low-coverage genotyping-by-sequencing methods (average 0.04×). A genetic map containing 6,533 bin-markers was constructed based on the parental SNPs and a sliding-window method, spanning a total genetic distance of 1,396 cM. The high quality and accuracy of this map was validated by the identification of two well-studied genes, r1, a qualitative trait locus for color of silk (chromosome 10) and ba1 for tassel branch number (chromosome 3). Three traits of tassel and ear architecture were evaluated in this population, a total of 10 QTL were detected using a permutation-based-significance threshold, seven of which overlapped with reported QTL. Three genes (GRMZM2G316366, GRMZM2G492156 and GRMZM5G805008) encoding MADS-box domain proteins and a BTB/POZ domain protein were located in the small intervals of qTBN5 and qTBN7 (∼800 Kb and 1.6 Mb in length, respectively) and may be involved in patterning of tassel architecture. The small physical intervals of most QTL indicate high-resolution mapping is obtainable with this method. Conclusions We constructed an ultra-high-dentisy linkage map for the large early generation population in maize. Our study provides an efficient approach for fast detection of quantitative loci responsible for complex trait variation with high accuracy, thus helping to dissect the underlying molecular basis of phenotypic variation and accelerate improvement of crop breeding in a cost-effective fashion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Maize rough dwarf disease (MRDD) is a devastating viral disease that results in considerable yield losses worldwide. Three major strains of virus cause MRDD, including maize rough dwarf virus in Europe, Mal de Río Cuarto virus in South America, and rice black-streaked dwarf virus in East Asia. These viral pathogens belong to the genus fijivirus in the family Reoviridae. Resistance against MRDD is a complex trait that involves a number of quantitative trait loci (QTL). The primary approach used to minimize yield losses from these viruses is to breed and deploy resistant maize hybrids. Results: Of the 50 heterogeneous inbred families (HIFs), 24 showed consistent responses to MRDD across different years and locations, in which 9 were resistant and 15 were susceptible. We performed trait-marker association analysis on the 24 HIFs and found six chromosomal regions which were putatively associated with MRDD resistance. We then conducted QTL analysis and detected a major resistance QTL, qMrdd1, on chromosome 8. By applying recombinant-derived progeny testing to self-pollinated backcrossed families, we fine-mapped the qMrdd1 locus into a 1.2-Mb region flanked by markers M103-4 and M105-3. The qMrdd1 locus acted in a recessive manner to reduce the disease-severity index (DSI) by 24.2-39.3%. The genetic effect of qMrdd1 was validated using another F6 recombinant inbred line (RIL) population in which MRDD resistance was segregating and two genotypes at the qMrdd1 locus differed significantly in DSI values. Conclusions: The qMrdd1 locus is a major resistance QTL, acting in a recessive manner to increase maize resistance to MRDD. We mapped qMrdd1 to a 1.2-Mb region, which will enable the introgression of qMrdd1-based resistance into elite maize hybrids and reduce MRDD-related crop losses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: In this study, we analyzed the mRNA expression of serine/threonine (Ser/Thr) protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) in the human leukemic T-cell line Jurkat cells treated with rapamycin, to determine whether rapamycin inhibiting cell viability is accompanied with the change of mRNA expression of PP2A. Methods and results: Jurkat cells were incubated with various concentrations of rapamycin and cultured for different hours. Cell viability was assessed by MTT assay. The mRNA expressions of PP2A subunits were measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We found that rapamycin had an inhibitory effect on cell viability. IC50 was 343.3 nM at 48 h. We also found rapamycin had a dose and time-dependent effect on the gene expression of PP2A. When setting the concentration of rapamycin 500 nM, the mRNA expressions of PP2A subunits (Aa, Aβ, PR55a, PR556δ, PR61γ, PRT0, Ca and Cβ) were declined significantly at 48 h. When treated with various concentrations of rapamycin for 48 h, the mRNA expressions of PP2A subunits were down-regulated in the range from 10 nM to500 nM. Conclusions: Rapamycin inhibiting Jurkat T cells viability may be related to the reduction of PP2A mRNA expressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]