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Microvitellogenin (mVg) belongs to the lepidopteran-specific lipoprotein_11 super family and is thought to be involved in insect reproduction. However, the function of mVg in reproduction has not been established. In this study, we identified and characterized MsmVg in Mythimna separata, a destructive insect pest of grain crops. MsmVg is comprised of a 1,310 bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding 437 amino acids. Structural analysis showed that MsmVg contains three conserved domains in the lipoprotein_11 super family, including the all-α-N-terminal domain (NTD), a Pseudomonas putida homologous domain (PPD), and an all-β-C-terminal domain (CTD). MsmVg was highly expressed in mature female adults and enriched in the ovaries of 3-day-old female adults. Disruption of MsmVg by RNA interference did not change the expression of MsmVg, vitellogenin (MsVg) or the vitellogenin receptor (MsVgR) in fat bodies, but it inhibited their transcription in ovaries. Phenotype analysis showed that knockdown of MsmVg did not affect yolk deposition in ovaries, but impaired eggshell formation and led to a reduction in the reproductive capacity. Furthermore, knockdown of MsmVg significantly inhibited the expression of genes associated with eggshell formation (MsChP1-3 and MsFcP3C). Taken together, these data suggest that MsmVg plays an important role in female reproduction by affecting eggshell formation in M. separata, which provides a potential target for managing this insect pest.

Abstract CD2-associated protein (CD2AP) is a scaffolding/adaptive protein that regulates intercellular adhesion and multiple signaling pathways. Although emerging evidence suggests that CD2AP is associated with several malignant tumors, there is no study investigating the expression and biological significance of CD2AP in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Here by studying public datasets, we found that CD2AP expression was significantly elevated in GBM and that glioma patients with increased CD2AP expression had a worse prognosis. We also confirmed the increase of CD2AP expression in clinical GBM samples and GBM cell lines. CD2AP overexpression in GBM cells promoted their proliferation, colony formation, migration, and invasion in vitro and their tumorigenesis in vivo, and reduced cell apoptosis both at basal levels and in response to temozolomide. While CD2AP knockdown had the opposite effects. Mechanistically, we revealed that CD2AP interacted with TRIM5, an NF-κB modulator. CD2AP overexpression and knockdown increased and decreased TRIM5 levels as well as the NF-κB activity, respectively. Moreover, downregulation of TRIM5 reversed elevated NF-κB activity in GBM cells with CD2AP overexpression; and inhibition of the NF-κB activity attenuated malignant features of GBM cells with CD2AP overexpression. Our findings demonstrate that CD2AP promotes GBM progression through activating TRIM5-mediated NF-κB signaling and that downregulation of CD2AP can attenuate GBM malignancy, suggesting that CD2AP may become a biomarker and the CD2AP-TRIM5-NF-κB axis may become a therapeutic target for GBM.

Abstract. Background:. In East Asia, Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection and related diseases are common, primarily during childhood and adolescence. The rates of primary antibiotic resistance in H. pylori among East Asian children and adolescents have not been extensively explored; few relevant systematic reviews or meta-analyses have been conducted. We evaluated the rates of antibiotic resistance in H. pylori among East Asian children and adolescents, with the goal of facilitating individualized treatment recommendations. Methods:. We searched PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library for studies in any language published up to February 2023 that explored antibiotic resistance in H. pylori among East Asian children and adolescents. We used MeSH and non-MeSH terms related to the topic, including terms related to children, adolescents, antibiotic resistance, H. pylori, and nations or regions. Additionally, we reviewed the reference lists of relevant articles. Studies that matched our strict predefined eligibility criteria were included in the screening process. Using established assessment methods, we evaluated the quality of the included studies. Results:. We identified 15 observational studies involving 4831 H. pylori isolates, all published between 2001 and 2022. There was substantial primary antibiotic resistance in H. pylori isolates from East Asian children and adolescents. The rates of primary resistance were 51% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 40–62%) for metronidazole; 37% (95% CI: 20–53%) for clarithromycin; 19% (95% CI: 11–28%) for levofloxacin; and less than 3% each for amoxicillin, tetracycline, and furazolidone. Subgroup analysis revealed a prominent increase in metronidazole resistance over time. Clarithromycin and levofloxacin resistance rates fluctuated between 2005 and 2015, then remained stable; other antibiotic resistance rates were generally stable. Metronidazole, clarithromycin, and levofloxacin resistance rates were significantly higher in the Chinese mainland than in other East Asian regions. The rates of dual and multiple antibiotic resistance were 28% (95% CI: 21–36%) and 10% (95% CI: 7–14%), highlighting the potential for diverse resistance patterns. Conclusions:. H. pylori isolates from East Asian children and adolescents exhibit high levels of metronidazole and clarithromycin resistance, particularly in the Chinese mainland. The non-negligible rates of dual and multiple resistance highlight the complexity of this problem. Registration:. PROSPERO, No. CRD42023402510.

Background: Questioned document examination (QDE) is a crucial sub-discipline of forensic science, and over the years, this discipline has developed a vast amount of research results and literature. However, the current studies have only reviewed the development of QDE for a period of time or a particular research direction, lacking a comprehensive review of this discipline since its origins. Aim: The aim of this study is to utilize bibliometric methods to review the history and development of QDE since 1934 and also to predict its future research trends. Materials: This study collects the literature of questioned document examination (QDE) from the Web of Science Core Collection database and uses four bibliometric analysis tools: CiteSpace, VOSviewer, SciMAT, and Bibliometric, to process relevant literature data. Methods: Through the analysis methods of journal co-citation analysis, keyword co-occurrence network analysis, literature cocitation analysis, and theme evolutionary analysis, the bibliometric data information in the QDE field is obtained, and a visualized knowledge mapping is constructed. Results: The results show that four research directions have been formed, basically. As far as the development trend of QDE research is concerned, the research field shows the change in content from cursory to detailed and in analysis from qualitative to quantitative, while the research field maintains a close relationship with chemical technology and computer science. Conclusions: The changes in QDE can be attributed to advancements in science and technology, which have influenced research methods. QDE also has a legal aspect, with a focus on enhancing scientific accuracy and evidentiary value. These developments aim to strengthen QDE’s identification power and promote its scientific and standardized growth. This will gradually enhance the reliability and strength of QDE evidence, making it more valuable in judicial practice.

The prevalence of infections by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has led to dramatically increased mortality and threated the public health worldwide. Pleuromutilin compound 14-O-[(4-(pyrrolidine-1-yl)-6-methylpyrimidine-2-yl) thioacetyl] mutilin (PMTM) is a new antibacterial agent with excellent antibacterial efficacy against Gram positive bacteria. For further developing PMTM as a potential drug against MRSA infections, the in vitro antibacterial efficacy and preclinical safety were explored in this study. The results revealed that PMTM presented the higher anti-MRSA activity, increasing post-antibiotic effect (PAE) and limited potential to develop resistance. In safety evaluation, PMTM demonstrated low cytotoxicity, poor hemolytic activity, tolerable oral acute toxic effects in rats, devoid of mutagenic response and weak inhibitory potential on CYP3A4, but displayed moderate potential hERG K+ channel inhibition. Furthermore, two salts of PMTM with sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid were prepared and confirmed. The sulfate salt of PMTM exhibited the highest solubility based on powder dissolution experiments and was chosen to evaluate pharmacokinetics properties, in which it displayed improved mouse pharmacokinetics parameters and oral bioavailability. The present study successfully provides a good foundation of PMTM for new antibacterial drug development.

BackgroundCompetitive anxiety is a common stress response in competitive environments, influencing sports performance, particularly among elite swimmers.PurposeThis study aims to examine how the characteristics of competitive anxiety impact sports performance across different phases of competitive preparation, alongside its correlation with trait anxiety.MethodsA longitudinal research design, integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches, was employed with 20 swimmers from the Chinese national swimming team participating in both the 2023 Fukuoka World Championships and the Hangzhou Asian Games. The mental readiness form-3 (MRF-3) scale was employed at four time points during the preparation period for longitudinal tracking, complemented by the trait anxiety inventory (T-AI) scale to assess trait anxiety.ResultsThe study identified a negative correlation between cognitive anxiety and somatic anxiety among elite swimmers, with confidence demonstrating a positive correlation. Additionally, there was a significant between trait anxiety and competitive anxiety (p

IntroductionOur study investigated the potential of peripheral blood T cell CD25, CD28, and CTLA-4 gene transcription levels as predictive biomarkers for acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT).MethodsReal-time reverse transcription fluorescent quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) analysis was conducted on day +7, +14, and +21 post-transplantation in patients undergoing allo-HSCT.ResultsElevated levels of CD25 and CTLA-4 mRNA were found to be associated with the occurrence of aGVHD, as well as severe and gastrointestinal aGVHD. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was utilized to assess the predictive value of each biomarker. Combined analysis of CD25 and CTLA-4 mRNA levels demonstrated promising predictive potential for aGVHD.ConclusionOur results confirmed that the transcription levels of CD25 and CTLA-4 genes could be used as early predictive biomarkers for aGVHD post-allo-HSCT.

Coastal change detection holds significant importance in the management of marine resources, coastal city change analysis, coastal land planning, and utilization. Deep learning-based remote sensing semantic change detection has evolved into a crucial method for identifying alterations in coastal areas. However, commonly used land cover type annotations lack specific multiclass semantic change detection type annotations unique to coastal areas. Additionally, existing datasets for coastal change detection lack rich spectral details. Therefore, this study has created a finely annotated coastal high spatial resolution multiclass semantic change detection dataset, namely CHRM-SCD, which includes 5 land cover types and 20 semantic change types. This is the first high-resolution semantic change benchmark dataset for coastal areas based on Gaofen-2 imagery. Based on this dataset, a multiclass semantic change detection network based on multiband spatial-spectral attention mechanism has been proposed in this study to achieve multiclass semantic change detection in coastal areas. It achieves 89.20% overall accuracy, 81.48% mean intersection over union, and 50.26% separated kappa coefficient, showing improvements of 7.28%, 11.58%, and 21.39% over the BiSRNet method, respectively. The stability of this research method is also demonstrated on the semantic change detection dataset. The dataset developed in this study is applicable for tasks related to detecting changes in coastal areas. The proposed method demonstrates practical effectiveness in the field of multispectral high-resolution remote sensing for coastal change detection.

In this article, an intelligent method for inverting wind direction from quad-polarized Gaofen-3 (GF-3) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images is proposed. Specifically, 11300 acquired in wave (WAV) mode are used to retrieve the wind directions using a spectrum-transformation approach and prior information from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts reanalysis at version 5 (ERA-5) data at 1-h intervals with 0.25° grids. The dependence of the wind direction on the polarimetric correlation coefficient (PCC) between the co- (vertical-vertical and horizontal-horizontal) and cross-polarization [vertical-horizontal and horizontal-vertical] channels is studied. It is found that the PCCs in four combination polarizations have asymmetric characteristics with respect to the wind direction with correlation coefficients of greater than 0.4 or less than −0.4. Following this rationale, the scheme for inverting wind direction from quad-polarized SAR is trained according to machine learning, in which the matrix PCCs, wind directions, azimuthal angles, and slopes from SAR intensity spectra at the peaks are used as inputs. Subsequently, this intelligent approach is applied to 1300 images in quad-polarization stripmap mode, and the retrieval results are validated against advanced scatterometer (ASCAT) measurements. The statistical analysis shows that the root-mean- squared error (RMSE) of the wind direction is 17.7°, the COR is 0.98, and the scatter index is 0.11. In addition, the wind speeds inverted using a geophysical model function CSARMOD-GF are compared with well-calibrated ASCAT products, resulting in an RMSE of 1.85 m/s, a COR of 0.78, and an SI of 0.28 for the wind speed. Thus, this article provides an automatic scheme for inverting wind from quad-polarized GF-3 SAR images without any external information.

The existing residual film-recycling machines struggle to efficiently recover and separate film stubble in a single operation. With roller-type film-rolling device unloading difficulties and other problems, in order to improve the recovery efficiency of film stubble and the separation effect while reducing human labor and to improve work efficiency, we designed an automatic hydraulic unloading film stubble-recycling integrated residual film-recycling machine. The angle of the membrane lifting device was determined by theoretical calculations using the method of coupled simulation of EDEM and ANSYS Workbench. We analyzed the amount of resistance as well as the maximum stress and deformation during the working process of the membrane-lifting device and focused on the design of the membrane–soil separating device and membrane-rolling device. The depth of the film shovel, the forward speed of the machine, and the rotational speed of the driving wheel of the jogging chain were selected as the test factors, and the residual film recovery rate was taken as the evaluation index. A three-factor, three-level test was designed by applying the principles of the Box–Behnken experimental design. The results show that when the forward speed is 1.36 m/s, the soil depth is 147.16 mm, and the rotational speed of the driving wheel of the shaking chain is 77.89 r/min, the recovery rate of the residual film is 87.56%, and the relative error between the experimental value and the optimized value is 2.73%. The experimental results can provide a theoretical basis for the design of the residual film-recycling machine.

In this study, a novel algorithm to retrieve the current speed along the range direction under extreme sea states is developed from C-band synthetic aperture radar imagery. To this aim, a Sentinel-1 (S-1) dual-polarized synthetic aperture radar (SAR) dataset consisting of 2300 images is collected during 200 tropical cyclones (TCs). The dataset is complemented with collocated wave simulations from the Wavewatch-III (WW3) model and reanalysis currents from the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM). The corresponding TC winds are officially released by IFRMER, while the Stokes drift following the wave propagation direction is estimated from the waves simulated by WW3. In this study, first the dependence of wind, Stokes drift, and range current on the Doppler centroid anomaly is investigated, and then the extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) machine learning model is trained on 87% of the S-1 dataset for range current retrieval purposes. The rest of the dataset is used for testing the retrieval algorithm, showing a root mean square error (RMSE) and a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.11 m/s and 0.97, respectively, with the HYCOM outputs. A validation against measurements collected from two high-frequency (HF) phased-array radars is also performed, resulting in an RMSE and r of 0.12 m/s and 0.75, respectively. Those validation results are better than the 0.22 m/s RMSE and 0.28 r achieved by the empirical CDOP model. Hence, the experimental results confirm the soundness of the XGBoost, exhibiting a certain improvement over the empirical model.

ABSTRACT: Duck adenovirus type-3 (DAdV-3) is a poorly characterized duck virus. A comprehensive analysis of the DAdV-3 pathogenicity and host immune response could be a valuable addition. Herein, DAdV-3 was isolated from Muscovy duck and virus-specific genes were confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The obtained gene fragments were sequenced and compared with the reference sequence. Results confirmed that the clinically isolated virus was DAdV-3, named as HF-AN-2020. To evaluate DAdV-3 host immune response, the expression levels of MDA5, STING, IRF7, MAVS, and NF-κB, and inflammatory cytokines (IFN-β, IFN-γ, and IL-1β) were determined by quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (qRT-PCR). The expression levels of IFN-β and IFN-γ were 32.6- and 28.6-fold, respectively, higher (P < 0.01) than the control group. It was found that the upregulation of STING and NF-κB pathways was directly involved in the regulation of inflammatory cytokines (IFN-β, IFN-γ, and IL-1β). Furthermore, the gene regulation pathways consecutively upregulated the expression levels of MDA5, STING, IRF7, MAVS, and NF-κB up to 31.6, 10.5, 31.4, 2.2, and 2.6-fold, respectively, higher (P < 0.01) than the control group. The TCID50 of DAdV-3 for Muscovy duck and chicken was 10−3.24/0.1 mL with 0% mortality, indicating low pathogenicity in both Muscovy ducks and chickens, but DAdV-3 can induce higher expression of interferons. Genome analysis showed mutations in 4 amino acids located in ORF19B (Ser to Thr), ORF66 (Leu to Phe, Ile to Leu), and ORF67 (Gly to stop codon). This study provides essential and basic information for further research on the mechanism of the cellular immune responses against adenoviruses.

Abstract Infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have threated the public health worldwide, which emphasizes the urgent need for new drugs with novel mechanism of actions. 14-O-[(5-ethoxycarbonyl-4,6-dimethylpyrimidine-2-yl) thioacetyl] mutilin (EDT) is a pleuromutilin compound with high activity against several Gram-positive bacteria in vitro and in vivo. This study aimed to verifying the potential anti-MRSA activity and evaluating the safety of EDT. In in vitro antibacterial activity assays, EDT exhibited potent antibacterial activity against MRSA isolated from clinic (minimum inhibitory concentration = 0.0313–0.125 μg/mL), increased post-antibiotic effect (PAE) values and limited potential for the development of resistance. Docking model and green fluorescent protein (GFP) inhibition assay further elucidated the higher antibacterial activities of EDT via mechanism of action. In safety evaluation, EDT exhibited low cytotoxic effect and acute oral toxicity in mice and avoided to significantly increase the number of revertant colonies of six tested strains in the Ames study. Furthermore, EDT displayed a moderate inhibitory effect on CYP3A4 and moderate stability in mouse and human liver microsomes, providing a promising agent for the development of new antimicrobial candidate.

Nickel-based superalloy (DZ411) is widely used in aerospace and other fields due to its excellent physical properties, and the improvement of surface roughness is necessary in practical applications. In this paper, a machining platform that uses a beam shaper to modulate a circular spot into a line spot is used to perform laser polishing on the initial material surface by changing the scanning speed and scanning times, respectively. The results show that the line spot laser polishing can make the surface shallow melting to achieve the purpose of smoothing the surface. By changing the number of scanning times, the roughness of the polished surface Ra can be reduced from 0.702 μm to 0.354 μm. The percentage of improvement in surface roughness is 49.5%. The formation of oxides on the surface results in a slight increase in microhardness. In the test of changing the scanning speed, the roughness of polished surface roughness Ra can be reduced to 0.390 μm, Ra first decreases and then increases as the scanning speed increases. The polishing surface processing speed can reach 26.209 cm2/min, which has the potential to achieve efficient laser polishing. This research work can provide guidance for the optimization of line spot laser polishing parameters based on beam modulation and provide process data support for the efficient processing of nickel-based superalloys with line spot.

Silicon Oxide nanoparticle (SiO2-NP) with appropriate surface functionalization has tremendous potential in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) via wettability alternation, interfacial tension reduction, disjoining pressure enhancement, electric charge modification, etc. Prior to the application of SiO2 to EOR, an effective functionalization and an accurate characterization of the surface properties are indispensable. Though many experimental works have been performed in this area, a systematic review is still lacking. Therefore, a review of the above content is presented. Current research gaps are identified, and future outlooks are indicated. This review provides guidance for SiO2-NP surface functionalization, characterization, and evaluation.

Abstract For water-rich areas, tunnel elevation arches under high water pressure often cause elevation arch cracking and leakage, bulging and other failures. When the drainage system is not designed properly, these failures occur more frequently, and conventional road tunnel drainage cannot effectively reduce the water pressure at the elevation arch. Therefore, this paper proposes a new concept of "three-way drainage". The three-way drainage system is based on a conventional drainage system with a new drainage inlet at the elevation arch. On this basis, a series of numerical simulation studies are conducted to verify the pressure-reducing performance of the three-way drainage system on the lining. After demonstration and analysis, the three-way drainage concept can not only effectively reduce the water pressure at the elevation arch of the tunnel but also have a significant effect on the overall drainage effect of the tunnel. The factors affecting the performance of the three-way drainage system are assessed by varying the model parameters. It is found that the hydraulic conduction coefficient of the surrounding rock and initial support, the number of reverse diversion holes in the elevation arch, the change in head height, and the change in secondary lining parameters all have a significant effect on the water pressure outside the tunnel.

Abstract Protein aggregate species play a pivotal role in the pathology of various degenerative diseases. Their dynamic changes are closely correlated with disease progression, making them promising candidates as diagnostic biomarkers. Given the prevalence of degenerative diseases, growing attention is drawn to develop pragmatic and accessible protein aggregate species detection technology. However, the performance of current detection methods is far from satisfying the requirements of extensive clinical use. In this review, we focus on the design strategies, merits, and potential shortcomings of each class of detection methods. The review is organized into three major parts: native protein sensing, seed amplification, and intricate program, which embody three different but interconnected methodologies. To the best of our knowledge, no systematic review has encompassed the entire workflow, from the molecular level to the apparatus organization. This review emphasizes the feasibility of the methods instead of theoretical detection limitations. We conclude that high selectivity does play a pivotal role, while signal compilation, multilateral profiling, and other patient‐oriented strategies (i.e. less invasiveness and assay speed) are also important.

Abstract Background Mutations in colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) are known to cause adult-onset leukoencephalopathy with axonal spheroids and pigmented glia (ALSP), which has been recently demonstrated as a primary microgliopathy characterized by cognitive impairment. Although the molecular mechanism underlying CSF1R-mediated microgliopathy remains unclear, therapeutic strategies have generally targeted modulation of microglial function. In particular, the microglial inhibitor, minocycline, has been shown to attenuate learning and memory deficits in several neurodegenerative diseases. The objectives of this study were to investigate the pathogenic mechanisms underlying ALSP and to explore the therapeutic effects of minocycline in an in vivo model of ALSP. We hypothesized that inhibiting microglial activation via minocycline could reverse the behavior and pathological defects in ALSP model mice. Methods We generated a Csf1r haploinsufficiency mouse model of ALSP using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing and conducted electrophysiological recordings of long-term potentiation (LTP) and behavioral tests to validate the recapitulation of clinical ALSP characteristics in 8- to 11-month-old mice. RNA-sequencing was used to explore enriched gene expression in the molecular pathogenesis of ALSP. Microglial activation was assessed by immunofluorescent detection of Iba1 and CD68 in brain sections of male ALSP mice and pro-inflammatory activation and phagocytosis were assessed in Csf1r +/− microglia. Therapeutic effects were assessed by behavioral tests, histological analysis, and morphological examination after four weeks of intraperitoneal injection with minocycline or vehicle control in Csf1r +/− mice and wild-type control littermates. Results We found that synaptic function was reduced in LTP recordings of neurons in the hippocampal CA1 region, while behavioral tests showed impaired spatial and cognitive memory specifically in male Csf1r +/− mice. Increased activation, pro-inflammatory cytokine production, and enhanced phagocytic capacity were also observed in Csf1r +/− microglia. Treatment with minocycline could suppress the activation of Csf1r +/− microglia both in vitro and in vivo. Notably, the behavioral and pathological deficits in Csf1r +/− mice were partially rescued by minocycline administration, potentially due to inhibition of microglial inflammation and phagocytosis in Csf1r +/− mice. Conclusions Our study shows that CSF1R deficiency results in aberrant microglial activation, characterized by a pro-inflammatory phenotype and enhanced phagocytosis of myelin. Our results also indicate that microglial inhibition by minocycline can ameliorate behavioral impairment and ALSP pathogenesis in CSF1R-deficient male mice, suggesting a potential therapeutic target for CSF1R-related leukoencephalopathy. Collectively, these data support that minocycline confers protective effects against CSF1R-related microgliopathy in male ALSP model mice.

Pear fruit senescence under high- and low-temperature conditions has been reported to be mediated by microRNAs. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), which can function as competing endogenous RNAs that interact with microRNAs, may also be involved in temperature-affected fruit senescence. Based on the transcriptome and microRNA sequencings, in this study, 3 330 lncRNAs were isolated from Pyrus pyrifolia fruit. Of these lncRNAs, 2 060 and 537 were responsive to high- and low-temperature conditions, respectively. Of these differentially expressed lncRNAs, 82 and 24 correlated to the mRNAs involved in fruit senescence under high- and low-temperature conditions, respectively. Moreover, three lncRNAs were predicted to be competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) that interact with the microRNAs involved in fruit senescence, while one and two ceRNAs were involved in fruit senescence under high- and low-temperature conditions, respectively. A dual-luciferase assay showed that the interaction of an lncRNA with a microRNA disrupts the action of the microRNA on the expression of its target mRNA(s). Furthermore, four alternative splicing-derived lncRNAs interacted with miR172i homologies (Novel_88 and Novel_69) to relieve the repressed expression of their target and produce an miR172i precursor. Correlation analysis of microRNA expression suggested that Novel_69 is likely involved in the cleavage of the pre-miR172i hairpin to generate mature miR172i. Taken together, lncRNAs are involved in pear fruit senescence under high- or low-temperature conditions through ceRNAs and the production of microRNA.

ALK-positive histiocytosis (APH) is a rare type of histiocytic neoplasm with characteristic ALK (Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase) gene translocation and fusion, with only 27 reported cases in the literature. In this study, we report the first case of synchronous bilateral breast involvement of ALK-positive histiocytosis on initial presentation in a 46-year-old Hispanic woman. APH was diagnosed by the confirmation of clonal histiocyte proliferation with ALK overexpression on IHC and the presence of KIF5B-ALK gene fusion from her breast and lung biopsies. The patient in our study is currently under complete and long-term remission with crizotinib treatment (an ALK inhibitor). This report expands on the clinical manifestation of APH, emphasizes the importance of ALK detection in histiocytic diseases, and provides the efficacy and long-term prognosis of the ALK inhibitor therapy for APH.

In the case of fires in inclined immersed tunnels, smoke flow patterns differ from those of horizontal tunnels, and require a unique approach to lateral centralized smoke exhaust. In this study, we propose a prediction model for the exhausted mass flow rate near each vent and use Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) to analyze the flow field and components. Our findings indicate that temperature and smoke velocity distributions follow exponential decay with varying slopes, with exhaust efficiency and entrainment coefficient first increasing then decreasing at 1% and 2% slopes, and continuously decreasing at 3%, 4%, and 5% slopes. Only at a 6% slope can the smoke reach the nearest vent. Exhausted mass flow rate and exhaust volume have a positive correlation, and calculated values and simulated results agree well. This study can guide the design and management of lateral centralized smoke exhaust systems for inclined tunnels.

Building structural type (BST) information is vital for seismic risk and vulnerability modeling. However, obtaining this kind of information is not a trivial task. The conventional method involves a labor-intensive and inefficient manual inspection process for each building. Nowadays, a few methods have explored to use remote sensing images and some building-related knowledge (BRK) to realize automated BST recognition. However, these methods have many limitations, such as insufficient mining of multimodal information and difficulty obtaining BRK, which hinders their promotion and practical use. To alleviate the shortcomings above, we propose a deep multimodal fusion model, which combines satellite optical remote sensing image, aerial synthetic aperture radar image, and BRK (roof type, color, and group pattern) obtained by domain experts to achieve accurate automatic reasoning of BSTs. Specifically, first, we use a pseudo-siamese network to extract the image feature. Second, a knowledge graph (KG) based on the BRK is constructed, and then, we use a graph attention network to extract the semantic feature from the KG. Third, we propose a novel multistage gated fusion mechanism to fuse the image and semantic feature. Our method's best overall accuracy and kappa coefficient on the dataset collected in the study area are 90.35% and 0.83, which outperforms a series of existing methods. Through our model, high-precision BST information can be obtained for earthquake disaster prevention, reduction, and emergency decision making.

ObjectiveThe aim of the study is to assess the effect of maternal prolonged oxygen exposure during labor on fetal acid–base status, fetal heart rate tracings, and umbilical cord arterial metabolites.DesignThe study was conducted as a secondary analysis.Setting(s)The study was set in three tertiary teaching hospitals in Beijing, China.ParticipantsApproximately 140 women in the latent phase of labor with no complications participated in the study.InterventionParticipants were randomly allocated in a 1:1 ratio to receive either 10 L of oxygen per minute in a tight-fitting simple facemask until delivery or room air only.Main outcome measuresThe primary outcome was the umbilical cord arterial lactate.ResultsBaseline demographics and labor outcomes were similar between the oxygen and room air groups; the time from randomization to delivery was 322 ± 147 min. There were no differences between the two groups in the umbilical cord arterial lactate (mean difference 0.3 mmol/L, 95% confidence interval −0.2 to 0.9), the number of participants with high-risk category II fetal heart rate tracings (relative risk 0.94, 95% confidence interval 0.68 to 1.32), or the duration of those high-risk tracings (mean difference 3.6 min, 95% confidence interval −9.3 to 16.4). Prolonged oxygen exposure significantly altered 91 umbilical cord arterial metabolites, and these alterations did not appear to be related to oxidative stress.ConclusionMaternal prolonged oxygen exposure during labor did not affect either the umbilical cord arterial lactate or high-risk category II fetal heart rate tracings but might result in alterations to the umbilical cord arterial metabolic profile.Clinical trial registrationwww.clinicaltrials.gov, identifier NCT03764696.

In most clinical trials, the main interest is to test whether there are differences in the mean outcomes among the treatment groups. When the outcome is continuous, a common statistical test is a usual t-test for a two-group comparison. For more than 2 groups, an ANOVA setup is used and the test for equality for all groups is based on the F-distribution. A key assumption for these parametric tests is that data are normally, independently distributed and the response variances are equal. The robustness of these tests to the first two assumptions is quite well investigated, but the issues arising from heteroscedasticity are less studied. This paper reviews different methods for ascertaining homogeneity of variance across groups and investigates the consequences of heteroscedasticity on the tests. Simulations based on normal, heavy-tailed, and skewed normal data demonstrate that some of the less known methods, such as the Jackknife or Cochran’s test, are quite effective in detecting differences in the variances.

ABSTRACT: Fowl adenovirus serotype-4 (FAdV-4) is highly lethal to poultry, making it one of the leading causes of economic losses in the poultry industry. However, a small proportion of poultry can survive after FAdV-4 infection. It is unclear whether there are genetic factors that protect chickens from FAdV-4 infection. Therefore, the livers from chickens uninfected with FAdV-4 (Normal), dead after FAdV-4 infection (Dead) or surviving after FAdV-4 infection (Survivor) were collected for RNA-seq, and 2,649 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Among these, many immune-related cytokines and chemokines were significantly upregulated in the Dead group compared with the Survivor group, which might indicate that death is related to an excessive inflammatory immune response (cytokine storm). Subsequently, the KEGG results for DEGs specifically expressed in each comparison group indicated that cell cycle and apoptosis-related DEGs were upregulated and metabolism-related DEGs were downregulated in the Dead group, which also validated the reliability of the samples. Furthermore, GO and KEGG results showed DEGs expressed in all three groups were mainly associated with cell cycle. Among them, BRCA1, CDK1, ODC1, and MCM3 were screened as factors that might influence FAdV-4 infection. The qPCR results demonstrated that these 4 factors were not only upregulated in the Dead group but also significantly upregulated in the LMH cells after 24 h infection by FAdV-4. Moreover, interfering with BRCA1, CDK1, ODC1, and MCM3 significantly attenuated viral replication of FAdV-4. And interfering of BRCA1, CDK1, and MCM3 had more substantial hindering effects. These results provided novel insights into the molecular changes following FAdV-4 infection but also shed light on potential factors driving the survival of FAdV-4 infection in chickens.

BackgroundIntracorporeal anastomosis (IA) is a difficult but popular anastomotic approach for reconstruction of digestive tract after laparoscopic right hemicolectomy, which may reduce some limitations faced during extracorporeal anastomosis (EA).MethodsA retrospective review of 78 patients who underwent laparoscopic right hemicolectomy by a veteran surgeon in a high-volume public tertiary hospital, including 50 patients with IA and 28 patients with EA. The intraoperative-related factors and short-term results of the two anastomotic approaches were compared.ResultsThere was no significant difference in demographics and clinical characteristics between the two groups (P>0.05). The intraoperative blood loss was less (P=0.010) and the incision length was shorter (P

Introduction Postoperative renal function decline is a major concern for thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) and endovascular abdominal aortic repair (EVAR). Diluting contrast medium in the power injector may be helpful in reducing the risk of contrast-induced nephropathy, but it can also blur fluoroscopic vision during surgery. The quality of the current evidence is very low; thus, this study is designed to investigate the effect of contrast dilution in the power injector on renal function changes in patients after endovascular aortic repair.Method and analysis The study is a prospective, single-blind, parallel, non-inferiority, randomised controlled trial with two independent cohorts: Cohort TEVAR and EVAR. Individuals will enter the appropriate cohort based on clinical interviews if they meet the eligibility criteria. Participants in Cohort TEVAR and EVAR will be randomly allocated to the intervention group (diluting contrast medium to 50% in the power injector) and control group (pure contrast medium in the power injector) separately in a 1:1 ratio. The primary study points consist of the proportion of patients who develop acute kidney injury within 48 hours after TEAVR or EVAR (first stage) and freedom of major adverse kidney events at 12 months after TEAVR or EVAR (second stage). The safety endpoint is freedom of all types of endoleaks at 30 days after TEVAR or EVAR. Follow-up will be conducted at 30 days and 12 months after intervention.Ethics and dissemination The trial was approved by the Ethics Committee on Biomedical Research, West China Hospital of Sichuan University (approval number: 20201290). The results of the study will be disseminated through publications in peer-reviewed journals and presentations at academic conferences.Trial registration number Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR2100042555).

This research developed a pressure-based thrust vectoring angle estimation method for fluidic thrust vectoring nozzles. This method can accurately estimate the real-time in-flight thrust vectoring angle using only wall pressure information on the inner surface of the nozzle. We proposed an algorithm to calculate the thrust vectoring angle from the wall pressure inside the nozzle. Non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II was applied to find the optimal sensor arrays and reduce the wall pressure sensor quantity. Synchronous force and wall pressure measurement experiments were carried out to verify the accuracy and real-time response of the pressure-based thrust vectoring angle estimation method. The results showed that accurate estimation of the thrust vectoring angle can be achieved with a minimum of three pressure sensors. The pressure-based thrust vectoring angle estimation method proposed in this study has a good prospect for engineering applications; it is capable of accurate real-time in-flight monitoring of the thrust vectoring angle. This method is important and indispensable for the closed-loop feedback control and aircraft attitude control of fluidic thrust vectoring control technology.

Maternally inherited obligate endosymbionts codiverge with their invertebrate hosts and reflect their host’s evolutionary history. Whiteflies (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) harbor one obligate endosymbiont, Candidatus Portiera aleyrodidarum (hereafter Portiera). Portiera was anciently acquired by whitefly and has been coevolving with its host ever since. Uncovering the divergence of endosymbionts provides a fundamental basis for inspecting the coevolutionary processes between the bacteria and their hosts. To illustrate the divergence of Portiera lineages across different whitefly species, we sequenced the Portiera genome from Aleyrodes shizuokensis and conducted a comparative analysis on the basic features and gene evolution with bacterial genomes from five whitefly genera, namely Aleurodicus, Aleyrodes, Bemisia, Pealius, and Trialeurodes. The results indicated that Portiera from Bemisia possessed significantly larger genomes, fewer coding sequences (CDSs), and a lower coding density. Their gene arrangement differed notably from those of other genera. The phylogeny of the nine Portiera lineages resembled that of their hosts. Moreover, the lineages were classified into three distinct genetic groups based on the genetic distance, one from Aleurodicus (Aleurodicinae), one from Bemisia (Aleyrodinae), and another from Aleyrodes, Pealius, and Trialeurrodes (Aleyrodinae). Synonymous and nonsynonymous rate analyses, parity rule 2 plot analyses, neutrality plot analyses, and effective number of codons analyses supported the distinction of the three genetic groups. Our results indicated that Portiera from distant hosts exhibit distinct genomic contents, implying codivergence between hosts and their endosymbionts. This work will enhance our understanding of coevolution between hosts and their endosymbionts.

Abstract Background Py-mulin is a new pleuromutilin derivative with potent antibacterial activities in vitro and in vivo, suggesting this compound may lead to a promising antibacterial drug after further development. The present study is aimed to evaluate the acute and subacute oral toxicity, and the genotoxicity with the standard Ames test according to standard protocols. Methods Acute oral toxicity of Py-mulin was determined using Kunming mice. The 28-day repeated dose oral toxicity study in SD rats was performed according to OECD guideline No. 407. The bacterial reverse mutation (Ames test) was carried out using four Salmonella typhimurium (S. typhimurium) strains TA97, TA98, TA100 and TA1535 with and without S9 metabolic activation. Results The LD50 values in acute oral toxicity were 2973 mg/kg (female mice) and 3891 mg/kg (male mice) calculated by the Bliss method. In subacute toxicity study, 50 mg/kg Py-mulin did not induce any abnormality in body weight, food consumption, clinical sign, hematology, clinical chemistry, organ weight, and histopathology in all of the treatment groups. However, high doses of Py-mulin (100 and 300 mg/kg) displayed slightly hepatotoxicity to female rats. Furthermore, Py-mulin did not significantly increase the number of revertant colonies of four standard S. typhimurium strains with the doses of 0.16–1000 μg/plate in the Ames study. Conclusions Based on our findings, our study provides some information for the safety profile of Py-mulin.

Abstract The high Zn ion desolvation energy, sluggish Zn deposition kinetics, and top Zn plating pattern are the key challenges toward practical Zn anodes. Herein, these key issues are addressed by introducing zinc pyrovanadate (ZVO) as a solid zinc‐ion conductor interface to induce smooth and fast Zn deposition underneath the layer. Electrochemical studies, computational analysis, and in situ observations reveal the boosted desolvation and deposition kinetics, and uniformity by ZVO interface. In addition, the anti‐corrosion ability of Zn anodes is improved, resulting in high Zn stripping/plating reversibility. Consequently, the ZVO layer renders fast rechargeability and durable life in both Zn symmetric cells (1050 h at 10 mA cm−2, 1 mAh cm−2) and Zn/V2O5 batteries (79.1% capacity retention after 1000 cycles at 2 A g−1) with low electrode polarization. This work provides insights into the design of solid zinc‐ion conductor interface to enhance the interface stability and kinetics of Zn metal anodes.

Summary: Influenza A virus poses a constant challenge to human health. The highly conserved influenza matrix-2 (M2) protein is an attractive target for the development of a universal antibody-based drug. However, screening using antigens with subphysiological conformation in a nonmembrane environment significantly reduces the generation of efficient antibodies. Here, M2(1-46) was incorporated into nanodiscs (M2-nanodiscs) with M2 in a membrane-embedded tetrameric conformation, closely resembling its natural physiological state in the influenza viral envelope. M2-nanodisc generation, an antigen, was followed by Chiloscyllium plagiosum immunization. The functional vNARs were selected by phage display panning strategy from the shark immune library. One of the isolated vNARs, AM2H10, could specifically bind to tetrameric M2 instead of monomeric M2e (the ectodomain of M2 protein). Furthermore, AM2H10 blocked ion influx through amantadine-sensitive and resistant M2 channels. Our findings indicated the possibility of developing functional shark nanobodies against various influenza viruses by targeting the M2 protein.

BackgroundLaparoscopic total gastrectomy (LTG) with Roux-en-Y (RY) is often accompanied by a series of complications. Uncut RY (URY) can effectively reduce Roux stasis syndrome (RSS) in laparoscopic distal gastrectomy. To determine whether totally LTG (TLTG) with URY for gastric cancer (GC) can replace RY in short-term and long-term prognosis.MethodsThis comparative retrospective study selected GC patients from 2016 to 2022. The patients were divided into URY group and RY group. Cox multivariate proportional hazard regression analysis was used to explore the independent prognostic factors. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to reduce bias.ResultsA total of 100 GC patients met the inclusion criteria. Compared to RY group, URY group showed significant advantages in operation time and length of hospital stay. In addition, URY group can significantly reduce short-term and long-term complications, especially RSS. The 1-, 3- and 5-year progression free survival (PFS) of URY group and RY group were 90.4% vs. 67.8% (P=0.005), 76.6% vs. 52.6% (P=0.009) and 76.6% vs. 32.8% (P

Pre-supported pipe roof grouting is difficult to be satisfied due to various influences, which may have an impact on its bearing characteristics. In order to determine the impact of grouting plumpness on the bearing behavior of pipe roof, based on the preliminary experimental research a refined numerical model that takes into account the bonding between the steel pipe and cement mortar was established in this paper. It was used to analyze the bending moment-deflection curve, variation laws of ultimate bearing capacity coefficient, and disengagement rate of pipe roof under different grouting plumpness. Meanwhile, the working conditions of reinforcement and casing in the pipe were conducted. The results show that compared with full grouting, the ultimate bearing capacity of the grouting pipe roof, pipe roof with reinforcement bundles and casing pipe decreases by 4.6%, 5.2%, and 4.8% respectively when grouting incompleteness is 2%, and decreases by 35.3%, 40.4%, and 37.1% respectively, when grouting incompleteness rises to 25%; The ultimate bearing capacity of the pipe roof can be greatly enhanced by adding reinforcement bundles and casing pipe, and the increases of this case is 7.7%–18.3%, 31.4%–51.6%, respectively; The disengagement rate of pipe roof and mortar under the same load increases with the increase of grouting incompleteness, which growing relatively slowly when the grouting incompleteness is less than 2%, and develops rapidly when it is 2%–30%, while growing little when it is more than 30%. Under the same grouting incompleteness, adding reinforcement bundles and casing pipe in the pipe roof can effectively reduce its debonding rate and the latter has a better effect, and the corresponding disengagement rate is 62.8%–97.9% and 29.1%–91.9% of the grouting pipe roof respectively.

Backgroundβ-Thalassemia cellular immunity is associated with iron overload. However, the relationship between varying degrees of iron deposition and T cell immune recovery after allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation(allo-HSCT) in children remain unclear.MethodsA retrospective analysis was performed on 84 children with β-Thalassemia undergoing sibling allo-HSCT. According to the degrees of hepatic iron deposition, patients were divided into four classes. T lymphocyte counts were measured. Hepatic iron deposition was assessed by T2* MRI. Epstein–Barr virus and cytomegalovirus infection rates and graft-vs.-host disease incidence were recorded.ResultsImmune recovery after allo-HSCT was compared between the two groups. Normal vs. mild group: CD4 cells were higher at 1, 3, and 6 months (P

Ferroptosis is a regulatory form of iron-dependent cell death caused by the accumulation of lipid-based reactive oxygen species (ROS) and differs from apoptosis, pyroptosis, and necrosis. Especially in neoplastic diseases, the susceptibility of tumor cells to ferroptosis affects prognosis and is associated with complex effects. Gliomas are the most common primary intracranial tumors, accounting for disease in 81% of patients with malignant brain tumors. An increasing number of studies have revealed the particular characteristics of iron metabolism in glioma cells. Therefore, agents that target a wide range of molecules involved in ferroptosis may regulate this process and enhance glioma treatment. Here, we review the underlying mechanisms of ferroptosis and summarize the potential therapeutic options for targeting ferroptosis in glioma.

Idiopathic spontaneous intraperitoneal hemorrhage (ISIH) is a phenomenon caused by spontaneous rupture of intra-abdominal visceral vessels, and vascular malformations (VMs) leading to ISIH are rare in previously reported cases. VMs of the gastric wall, which are commonly located in the mucosa and submucosa, mostly lead to upper gastrointestinal bleeding rather than intraperitoneal hemorrhage. To our knowledge, this is the first report of ISIH caused by VMs in gastric muscularis. In the current case, a 22-year-old male patient presented with sudden abdominal pain for 4 h, accompanied by tachycardia and hypotension. CT revealed a hematoma in the omental bursa and fluids in abdominopelvic cavities. Then intraperitoneal hemorrhage was confirmed after abdominal paracentesis. Furthermore, ultrasonic gastroscopy indicated that vascular malformation in the muscularis of the stomach probably led to intraperitoneal hemorrhage. The patient recovered after conservative treatment based on fluid resuscitation and remained stable for 12 months of follow-up. This case suggests that VMs located in the gastrointestinal tract may lead to ISIH and ultrasonic gastroscopy is helpful in the diagnosis of VMs in the gastrointestinal tract.

In this work, three types of machine learning algorithms are applied for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) wind retrieval in tropical cyclones (TCs), and the optimal method is confirmed. In total, 30 Sentinel-1 (S-1) images in dual-polarization (vertical–vertical [VV] and vertical–horizontal [VH] were collected during the period from 2016 to 2021, which were acquired in interferometric-wide and extra-wide modes with pixels of 10 m and 40 m, respectively. More than 100,000 sub-scenes with a spatial coverage of 3 km are extracted from these images. The dependences of variables estimated from sub-scenes, i.e., VV-polarized and VH-polarized normalized radar cross-section (NRCS), as well as the azimuthal wave cutoff wavelength, on wind speeds from the stepped-frequency microwave radiometer (SFMR) and the soil moisture active passive (SMAP) radiometer are studied, showing the linear relations between wind speed and these three parameters; however, the saturation of VV-polarized NRCS and the azimuthal wave cutoff wavelength is observed. This is the foundation of selecting input variables in machine learning algorithms. Two-thirds of the collocated dataset (20 images) are used for training the process using three machine learning algorithms, i.e., eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), Multi-layer Perceptron, and K-Nearest Neighbor, and the coefficients are fitted after training completion through 20 images collocated with SFMR and SMAP data. Another 10 images are taken for validation up to 70 m/s, yielding a 2.53 m/s root mean square error (RMSE) with a 0.96 correlation and 0.12 scatter index (SI) using XGBoost. The result is better than the >5 m/s error achieved using the existing cross-polarized geophysical model function and the other two machine learning algorithms; moreover, the comparison between wind retrievals using XGBoost and Level-2 CyclObs products shows about 4 m/s RMSE and 0.18 SI. This suggests that the machine learning algorithm XGBoost is an effective method for inverting the TC wind field utilizing SAR measurements in dual-polarization.

BackgroundEndovascular abdominal aortic repair (EVAR) and thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) have become the first-line treatment for aortic diseases, but current evidence is uncertain regarding whether a percutaneous approach has better outcomes than cutdown access, especially for patient-centered outcomes (PCOs). This study is designed to compare these outcomes of percutaneous access vs. cutdown access after endovascular aortic repair.MethodThe SWEET study is a randomized, controlled, single-blind, single-center non-inferiority trial with two parallel groups in two cohorts respectively. After eligibility screening, subjects who meet the inclusion criteria will be divided into Cohort EVAR or Cohort TEVAR according to clinic interviews. And then participants in two cohorts will be randomly allocated to either intervention groups receiving percutaneous access endovascular repair or controlled groups receiving cutdown access endovascular repair separately. Primary clinician-reported outcome (ClinRO) is access-related complication, and primary patient-centered outcome (PCO) is time back to normal life. Follow-up will be conducted at 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months postoperatively.DiscussionThe choice of either percutaneous or cutdown access may not greatly affect the success of EVAR or TEVAR procedures, but can influence the quality of life and patient-centered experience. Given the very low evidence for ClinROs and few data for PCOs, comparison of the percutaneous vs. cutdown access EVAR and TEVAR is essential for both patient-centered care and clinical decision making in endovascular aortic repair.Trial registrationChinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR2100053161 (registered on 13th November, 2021).

In this study, cement mortar was used to make specimens containing groups of parallel joints with different inclination angles to simulate natural rock mass, and the specimens were subjected to shear tests under different normal stresses. By analyzing the crack propagation path, failure modes, and strength characteristics of these rock specimens, the effects of normal stress and joint inclination angles on the strength and failure characteristics of this type of rock mass were studied. The following conclusions are drawn: 1) when the inclination angles of the joints are 0° and 15°, the changing of the normal stress did not affect the failure mode of the rock mass. The rock mass was mainly in the mode of shear failure, and the increase in the normal stress only increased the spalling area of the rock mass. 2) When the inclination angles of the joints are 30°, 45°, and 60°, with the increasing of the normal stress, the number of those approximately parallel cracks in the specimens increased, the friction marks caused by shearing increased, and the failure mode of the rock mass changed from tension failure to tension–shear composite failure. 3) Under different joint inclination angles, the propagation and penetration paths of cracks generated in the rock mass and the damage mode of the rock mass were different. With an increase in the joint inclination angles, the damage mode of the rock mass gradually changes from shear damage to tensile–shear composite damage and the α and β angles between the through cracks and the vertical direction on the left and right sides of the specimens tended to decrease. 4) The shear resistance of the rock mass was affected by the inclination angle of the joints and the normal pressure. The shear resistance of rock mass was improved due to the increasing of normal stress. Within a certain range, with the increasing of the inclination angles of the joint, the shear resistance of the rock mass tended to decrease first and then to increase.

Senescence is a necessary stage of plant growth and development, and the early senescence of rice will lead to yield reduction and quality decline. However, the mechanisms of rice senescence remain obscure. In this study, we characterized an early-senescence rice mutant, designated zj-es (ZheJing-early senescence), which was derived from the japonica rice cultivar Zhejing22. The mutant zj-es exhibited obvious early-senescence phenotype, such as collapsed chloroplast, lesions in leaves, declined fertility, plant dwarf, and decreased agronomic traits. The ZJ-ES gene was mapped in a 458 kb-interval between the molecular markers RM5992 and RM5813 on Chromosome 3, and analysis suggested that ZJ-ES is a novel gene controlling rice early senescence. Subsequently, whole-transcriptome RNA sequencing was performed on zj-es and its wild-type rice to dissect the underlying molecular mechanism for early senescence. Totally, 10,085 differentially expressed mRNAs (DEmRNAs), 1,253 differentially expressed lncRNAs (DElncRNAs), and 614 differentially expressed miRNAs (DEmiRNAs) were identified, respectively, in different comparison groups. Based on the weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), the co-expression turquoise module was found to be the key for the occurrence of rice early senescence. Furthermore, analysis on the competing endogenous RNA (CeRNA) network revealed that 14 lncRNAs possibly regulated 16 co-expressed mRNAs through 8 miRNAs, and enrichment analysis showed that most of the DEmRNAs and the targets of DElncRNAs and DEmiRNAs were involved in reactive oxygen species (ROS)-triggered autophagy-related pathways. Further analysis showed that, in zj-es, ROS-related enzyme activities were markedly changed, ROS were largely accumulated, autophagosomes were obviously observed, cell death was significantly detected, and lesions were notably appeared in leaves. Totally, combining our results here and the remaining research, we infer that ROS-triggered autophagy induces the programmed cell death (PCD) and its coupled early senescence in zj-es mutant rice.

Bioleaching processes or microbially mediated iron/sulfur redox processes in acid mine drainage (AMD) result in mineral dissolution and transformation, the release of mercury and other heavy metal ions, and changes in the occurrence forms and concentration of mercury. However, pertinent studies on these processes are scarce. Therefore, in this work, the Fe/S redox-coupled mercury transformation mediated by Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans ATCC 23270 under aerobic and/or anaerobic conditions was studied by combining analyses of solution behavior (pH, redox potential, and Fe/S/Hg ion concentrations), the surface morphology and elemental composition of the solid substrate residue, the Fe/S/Hg speciation transformation, and bacterial transcriptomics. It was found that: (1) the presence of Hg2+ significantly inhibited the apparent iron/sulfur redox process; (2) the addition of Hg2+ caused a significant change in the composition of bacterial surface compounds and elements such as C, N, S, and Fe; (3) Hg mainly occurred in the form of Hg0, HgS, and HgSO4 in the solid substrate residues; and (4) the expression of mercury-resistant genes was higher in earlier stages of growth than in the later stages of growth. The results indicate that the addition of Hg2+ significantly affected the iron/sulfur redox process mediated by A. ferrooxidans ATCC 23270 under aerobic, anaerobic, and coupled aerobic–anaerobic conditions, which further promoted Hg transformation. This work is of great significance for the treatment and remediation of mercury pollution in heavy metal-polluted areas.

Jet deflection rate is an essential index in the research of thrust vector control technology. The vectoring deflection of the jet is an unsteady flow. In this study, a pulse jet actuator with adjustable frequency was used to control the flow field of the thrust vectoring nozzle. The experimental results show that the unsteady pulse jet with the same characteristic frequency as the separated bubble structure can effectively deflect and adhere to the wall. The deflection rate of the main jet is susceptible to the pulse frequency of the pulse jet, and the flow field can reach the optimal deflection rate only under the unsteady excitation of a specific frequency. The transient flow field results show that the vortex shedding frequency of the flow field can be effectively destroyed by the unsteady excitation of a specific frequency and can evenly distribute the Coanda wall pressure of the vectoring nozzle. This flow phenomenon can increase the pressure difference of the passive secondary flow, accelerate the deflection rate of the main jet, and reduce the deflection hysteresis caused by the separation bubble structure. In this study, the wall deflection rate of the thrust vectoring jet was studied by the active flow control of the unsteady pulsed jet.

Bacterial blight (BB) of rice caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) is one of the most serious bacterial diseases that hinder the normal growth and production of rice, which greatly reduces the quality and yield of rice. The effect of traditional methods such as chemical control is often not ideal. A series of production practices have shown that among the numerous methods for BB controlling, breeding and using resistant varieties are the most economical, effective, and environmentally friendly, and the important basis for BB resistance breeding is the exploration of resistance genes and their functional research. So far, 44 rice BB resistance genes have been identified and confirmed by international registration or reported in journals, of which 15 have been successfully cloned and characterized. In this paper, research progress in recent years is reviewed mainly on the identification, map-based cloning, molecular resistance mechanism, and application in rice breeding of these BB resistance genes, and the future influence and direction of the remained research for rice BB resistance breeding are also prospected.

Background: Ginsenosides accumulation responses to temperature are critical to quality formation in cold-dependent American ginseng. However, the studies on cold requirement mechanism relevant to ginsenosides have been limited in this species. Methods: Two experiments were carried out: one was a multivariate linear regression analysis between the ginsenosides accumulation and the environmental conditions of American ginseng from different sites of China and the other was a synchronous determination of ginsenosides accumulation, overall DNA methylation, and relative gene expression in different tissues during different developmental stages of American ginseng after experiencing different cold exposure duration treatments. Results: Results showed that the variation of the contents as well as the yields of total and individual ginsenosides Rg1, Re, and Rb1 in the roots were closely associated with environmental temperature conditions which implied that the cold environment plays a decisive role in the ginsenoside accumulation of American ginseng. Further results showed that there is a cyclically reversible dynamism between methylation and demethylation of DNA in the perennial American ginseng in response to temperature seasonality. And sufficient cold exposure duration in winter caused sufficient DNA demethylation in tender leaves in early spring and then accompanied the high expression of flowering gene PqFT in flowering stages and ginsenosides biosynthesis gene PqDDS in green berry stages successively, and finally, maximum ginsenosides accumulation occurred in the roots of American ginseng. Conclusion: We, therefore, hypothesized that cold-induced DNA methylation changes might regulate relative gene expression involving both plant development and plant secondary metabolites in such cold-dependent perennial plant species.

BackgroundData are limited concerning the survival outcomes of patients with gastric outlet obstruction (GOO) caused by advanced gastric cancers according to laparoscopic gastrojejunostomy (LGJ) combined with multimodality therapy (MMT). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the feasibility and efficacy of these therapies.MethodsThis single-centered, retrospective analysis included data of 184 patients with GOO due to advanced gastric cancer (AGC). Treatment models were: laparoscopic gastrojejunostomy combined with multimodality therapy (LGJ+MMT), endoscopic metal stent placement combined with multimodality therapy (EMSP+MMT), and multimodality therapy (MMT).ResultsImproved oral intake, better nutritional indices, and better response to chemotherapy were observed in the LGJ+MMT group. Subsequent gastrectomy was performed in 43 (61.4%) patients in the LGJ+MMT group, 23 (37.7%) in the EMSP+MMT group, and 11 (20.8%) in the MMT group (P

Although ribosomal RNA processing 15 Homolog (RRP15) has been implicated in the occurrence of various cancers and is considered a potential target for cancer treatment, its significance in colon cancer (CC) is unclear. Thus, this present study aims to determine RRP15 expression and biological function in CC. The results demonstrated a strong expression of RRP15 in CC compared to normal colon specimens, which was correlated with poorer overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) of the patients. Among the nine investigated CC cell lines, RRP15 demonstrated the highest and lowest expression in HCT15 and HCT116 cells, respectively. In vitro assays demonstrated that the knockdown of RRP15 inhibited the growth, colony-forming ability and invasive ability of the CC cells whereas its overexpression enhanced the above oncogenic function. Moreover, subcutaneous tumors in nude mice showed that RRP15 knockdown inhibited the CC growth while its overexpression enhanced their growth. Additionally, the knockdown of RRP15 inhibited the epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT), whereas overexpression of RRP15 promoted the EMT process in CC. Collectively, inhibition of RRP15 suppressed tumor growth, invasion and EMT of CC, and might be considered a promising therapeutic target for treating CC.

It is essential to estimate the quality of transmission (QoT) of lightpaths before their establishment for efficient planning and operation of optical networks. Due to the nonlinear effect of fibers, the deployed lightpaths influence the QoT of each other; thus, multi-channel QoT estimation is necessary, which provides complete QoT information for network optimization. Moreover, the different interfering channels have different effects on the channel under test. However, the existing artificial-neural-network-based multi-channel QoT estimators (ANN-QoT-E) neglect the different effects of the interfering channels in their input layer, which affects their estimation accuracy severely. In this paper, we propose a self-attention mechanism-based multi-channel QoT estimator (SA-QoT-E) to improve the estimation accuracy of the ANN-QoT-E. In the SA-QoT-E, the input features are designed as a sequence of feature vectors of channels that route the same path, and the self-attention mechanism dynamically assigns weights to the feature vectors of interfering channels according to their effects on the channel under test. Moreover, a hyperparameter search method is used to optimize the SA-QoT-E. The simulation results show that, compared with the ANN-QoT-E, our proposed SA-QoT-E achieves higher estimation accuracy, and can be directly applied to the network wavelength expansion scenarios without retraining.

When urban subway tunnels cross existing bridge pile foundations, having a pile foundation underpinning that ensures the safe operation of existing bridges while enabling the safe construction of subway tunnels is the focus of attention. This paper takes the running tunnel project from Huaguoyuan West Station to Huaguoyuan East Station of Rail Transit Line 3 in Guiyang City, Guizhou Province as the background. The reasonableness and feasibility of the passive underpinning construction scheme for the Guihuang Viaduct was studied. The construction plan includes the following steps: underpinning pile construction, foundation pit excavation, the concreting of the underpinning bearing platform, and existing pile truncation. In order to ensure the structural safety of the existing viaduct during the construction of the pile foundation underpinning, a 3D numerical model of the construction of pile foundation underpinning and the whole process of tunnel construction was established. The settlement calculation results of the foundation pit and bridge pier were compared and analyzed with the field monitoring data to verify the accuracy of the numerical model. Further detailed analysis of the settlement of the bridge deck, the deformation of the existing piles, the axial forces of the existing piles, and the forces on the underpinning bearing platform was carried out. The results show that the bridge superstructure load can be transferred to the underpinning bearing platform smoothly after the existing pile truncation construction. The removal of obstacle piles during tunnel excavation has a very limited impact on the superstructure of the bridge, proving the reasonableness and feasibility of the construction plan.

Mercury (Hg) is a highly toxic and persistent heavy metal pollutant. The acid mine drainage (AMD) environment in sulfide-mining areas is a typical Hg pollution source. In this paper, the transformation of Hg2+ during anaerobic S0 reduction by an AMD environmental enrichment culture was studied by multiple spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. The experimental results showed that the microbial S0 reduction of the AMD enrichment culture was significantly inhibited in the presence of Hg2+. The results of cell surface morphology and composition analysis showed that there was obvious aggregation of flocculent particles on the cell surface in the presence of Hg2+, and the components of extracellular polymeric substances on the cell surface changed significantly. The results of surface morphology and C/S/Hg speciation transformation analyses of the solid particulate showed that Hg2+ gradually transformed to mercuric sulfide and Hg0 under anaerobic S0 reduction by the AMD enrichment culture. The microbial community structure results showed that Hg2+ significantly changed the enrichment community structure by decreasing their evenness. The dominant microorganisms with S0 reduction functions are closely related to mercury transformation and are the key driving force for the transformation of substrate solid particulate and cellular substances, as well as the fixation of Hg2+.