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China is one of the largest wheat production countries in the world. The wheat quality determines the price and many other aspects. The detection methods of wheat quality mainly depend on manual labor. It costs high amount of manpower and time, and the classification results are partly affected by different individuals. With the development of machine vision, an automatic classification system was presented in this study. A wheat unsound kernel identification method based on the improved YOLOv5 algorithm was designed by adding efficient channel attention (ECA). Compared with convolutional block attention module (CBAM) and squeeze-and-excitation network (SENet), the improved YOLOv5 algorithm was selected to fit the model better. The recognition results showed that YOLOv5 with the addition of the attention mechanism had a significant improvement in average accuracy over that without it. The most significant improvement was observed with the addition of ECA-YOLOv5, with an average accuracy of 96.24%, a 10% improvement over the other two models, and a 13% improvement over the original YOLOv5. This satisfied the application requirements for detection of wheat unsound kernel.

Logistics tracking technology at normal temperature is quite mature, but there are few tracking methods for the high-temperature production process. The main difficulties are that the label materials generally used cannot withstand the high temperature for a long time, and the detection devices are vulnerable to environmental impact. A high-temperature logistics tracking solution was developed for a carbon anode used in an aluminum electrolysis factory. It is based on concave coding and a multiscale low-level feature fusion and attention-DeepLabV3+ (MLFFA-DeepLabV3+) network extraction technique for the coded region of the concave coding. The concave coding is printed on the product as a tag that can endure a high temperature of more than 1,200°C, ensuring its integrity and identifiability. Because there is no obvious color distinction between the coding area and the background, direct recognition is ineffective. The MLFFA-DeepLabV3+ network extracts the coding region to improve the recognition rate. The DeepLabV3+ network is improved by replacing the backbone network and adding of a multiscale low-level feature fusion module and convolutional block attention module. Experimental results showed that the mean pixel accuracy and mean intersection over union of the MLFFA-DeepLabV3+ network increased by 2.37% and 2.45%, respectively, compared with the original DeepLabV3+ network. The network structure has only 11.24% of the number of parameters in the original structure. The solution is feasible and provides a basis for high-temperature logistics tracking technology in intelligent manufacturing.

Recently, intelligent city construction has been promoted with the development of the Internet of things (IoT). The edge IoT gateway plays a critical role as the data aggregation core and processing center. Most existing gateways mainly solve heavy data storage and processing loads in cloud computing centers. There is less attention paid to multi-protocol data transmission and fusion. However, multiple products with different protocols in an IoT system require a flexible gateway compatible with multiple protocols. This paper proposes a multi-protocol edge gateway. The frame design was based on the actual demand for edge data acquisition. The gateway hardware platform used an RK3399 chip transplanted from the embedded operating system. It could support simultaneous multi-protocol access to ZigBee, LoRa, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. We combined the plug-and-play (PnP) hardware device access detection scheme with the system onboard interface driver to realize dynamic access detection and unified device management. In addition, the gateway also integrated data storage and access functions and partial edge computing functions. Finally, the experiment results verified that the multi-protocol edge gateway could meet the demand for data access and device control.

Glycogen accumulating organisms (GAOs) are closely related to the deterioration of enhanced biological phosphorus removal systems. However, the metabolic mechanisms that drive GAOs remain unclear. Here, the two-thirds supernatant of a reactor were decanted following the anaerobic period to enrich GAOs. Long-term monitoring demonstrated that the system was stable and exhibited typical characteristics of GAOs metabolism. Acetate was completely consumed after 60 min of the anaerobic phase. The level of glycogen decreased from 0.20 to 0.14 g/gSS during the anaerobic phase, whereas the level of glycogen significantly increased to 0.21g/gSS at the end of the aerobic period. Moreover, there was almost no phosphate release and absorption in the complete periods, thus confirming the successful construction of a GAOs enrichment system. Microbial community analysis demonstrated that Ca. Contendobacter was among the core functional genera and showed the highest activity among all of the communities. Furthermore, our study is the first to identify the involvement of the ethyl-malonyl-CoA pathway in the synthesis of polyhydroxyvalerate via croR, ccr, ecm, mcd, mch and mcl genes. The Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas (EMP) pathway was preferentially used via glgP. Furthermore, the glyoxylate cycle was the main source of ATP under anaerobic conditions, whereas the tricarboxylic acid cycle provided ATP under aerobic conditions. aceA and mdh appeared to be major modulators of the glyoxylate pathway for controlling energy flow. Collectively, our findings not only revealed the crucial metabolic mechanisms in a GAOs enrichment system but also provided insights into the potential application of Ca. Contendobacter for wastewater treatment.

Knowledge of nerve fascicular structures is essential for managing peripheral nerve disorders. This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of z-axis high-resolution magnetic resonance (MR) microneurography (zH-MRMN) in displaying the three-dimensional structures of tibial nerve fascicles in vivo using a 3T MR scanner.Twelve volunteers underwent z-axis conventional-resolution MR microneurography (zC-MRMN) and zH-MRMN of tibial nerves. The visibility scores of the nerve fascicles (VSNFs) on axial zC-MRMN images and axial zH-MRMN multiplanar reformation (MPR) images were compared. The nerve fascicle appearances on the longitudinal zH-MRMN MPR images were described.In the nerve segments whose long axes were perpendicular to the imaging planes of both zC-MRMN and zH-MRMN, the VSNFs were not significantly different between the axial images of the two modalities (P = 0.083). In the nerve segments whose long axes were not perpendicular to the imaging planes of zC-MRMN, the VSNFs on the axial zC-MRMN images were significantly lower than those on the axial zH-MRMN MPR images that were angled perpendicular to the long axis of the tibial nerve (P0.001).The longitudinal zH-MRMN MPR images clearly displayed the changing features of the intraneural fascicles as well as the gross morphology of the tibial nerves. zH-MRMN can clearly delineate the topography of the tibial nerve fascicles in vivo through use of a 3T MR scanner.

Meningeal lymphatic vessels (mLVs), the functional lymphatic system present in the meninges, are the key drainage route responsible for the clearance of molecules, immune cells, and cellular debris from the cerebrospinal fluid and interstitial fluid into deep cervical lymph nodes. Aging and ApoE4, the two most important risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), induce mLV dysfunction, decrease cerebrospinal fluid influx and outflux, and exacerbate amyloid pathology and cognitive dysfunction. Dysfunction of mLVs results in the deposition of metabolic products, accelerates neuroinflammation, and promotes the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the brain. Thus, mLVs represent a novel therapeutic target for treating neurodegenerative and neuroinflammatory diseases. This review aims to summarize the structure and function of mLVs and to discuss the potential effect of aging and ApoE4 on mLV dysfunction, as well as their roles in the pathogenesis of AD.

An integrated pulping process was proposed that simultaneously produced pulp and useful lignin by-product from eucalyptus along with the recycling of chemicals and water.

International audience; Electrocatalytic water splitting to produce hydrogen (H2) is a sustainable way of meeting energy demands at no environmental cost. However, the sluggish anodic reaction imposes a considerable overpotential requirement. By contrast, the electrocatalytic urea oxidation reaction offers the prospect of energy-saving H2 production together with urea-rich wastewater purification. In this work, a 0D/2D Co3O4/Ti3C2 MXene composite was synthesized by a simple solution reaction approach under mild conditions and applied as an efficient and stable electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and urea oxidation reaction (UOR) in basic medium (1 M KOH+0.5 M urea). The Co3O4/Ti3C2 MXene electrodes delivered a current density of 10 mA cm–2 at an overpotential of 124 mV for HER and required 1.40 V to reach 10 mA cm–2 for UOR. The hybrid catalyst could maintain high activity after 40 h continuous catalytic reaction for both UOR and HER. Its catalytic performance was significantly improved compared to that of pure Ti3C2 MXene and Co3O4 solving the problem of insufficient exposure of active sites caused by too large particle size and agglomeration of Co3O4 particles. Notably, Co3O4/Ti3C2 MXene was applied as a bifunctional catalyst for overall urea-containing water splitting, and showed certain energy saving advantages compared with other reported Co-based catalysts. This work provides a strategy for application other than noble metal-based electrode materials for urea-containing wastewater purification coupled with H2 production.

This work proposed ratiometric fluorescence capillary sensing system-integrated molecular imprinting with highly sensitive and selective detection for two biological indicators of Parkinson's disease (homovanillic acid (HVA) and Al

Background Chieh-qua (Benincasa hispida Cogn. var. Chieh-qua How.) early fruit development started post pollination. With the continuous expansion of the fruit, the soluble solid content of the fruit decreased. Although there was transcriptomics study on the early fruit development of cucumber, there was no report on the early fruit development of chieh-qua. In this study, fruit transcriptome of 0-, 3- and 7-days post pollination were compared. Results 104747 unigenes in the range of 201–14,209bp with a N50 length of 2119bp and 161282 transcripts were assembled from clean reads and comparing with 6 public databases for similarity searching. Principal component analysis separated the fruit ages into three groups. Compared with the 0 dpp (C), there were differences in the expression of 12982 and 6541 genes in the fruit tissue 3 dpp and 7dpp respectively. Compared with 3 dpp (B), there were 14314 differentially expressed genes in the fruit of 7dpp (A). According to the analysis of transcription factors, 213 nuigenes in MYB_superfamily was obtained. Among them 94 unigenes of MYB_superfamily differentially expressing in three stages. In the differential expression analysis of pairwise comparison, eight unigenes (Gene_id: TRINITY_DN32880_c1_g2, TRINITY_DN35142_c2_g2, TRINITY_DN32454_c11_g6, TRINITY_DN34105_c2_g7, TRINITY_DN32758_c3_g3, TRINITY_DN33604_c4_g10, TRINITY_DN34466_c3_g1, TRINITY_DN35924_c3_g2) are homologous to MYB59, MYB-GT3b, MYB18, MYB4, MYB108, MYB306, MYB340, MYB-bHLH13. And these unigenes are significant differences among the three groups of comparison. Further, MYB59 and MYB18 exhibited higher expression during the fruit pollinated for one week. While, MYB4, MYB-GT3b, MYB108 and MYB306 showed the highest expression levels in the fruits that have been pollinated for three days. Additionally, MYB340 and MYB-bHLH13 have showed higher expressions at the stage of unpollinated. Conclusion These results indicate that MYB59, MYB-GT3b, MYB18, MYB4, MYB108, MYB306, MYB340, MYB-bHLH13 could play crucial roles in chieh-qua fruit development, defence, and blossom. Overall, this study provides a basis for further investigations of the MYB_superfamily genes of early fruit expansion in chieh-qua.

BackgroundFunctional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) identifies neurophysiological differences between psychiatric disorders by assessing cortical hemodynamic function. Few trials have studied differences in brain functional activity between first-episode medication-naïve depression patients (FMD) and recurrent major depression (RMD). We aimed to determine the differences between FMD and RMD in oxygenated hemoglobin concentration ([oxy-Hb]), and to investigate the correlation between frontotemporal cortex activation and clinical symptoms.MethodsWe recruited 40 patients with FMD, 53 with RMD, and 38 healthy controls (HCs) from May 2021 to April 2022. Symptom severity was assessed with the 24-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) and the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A). A 52-channel fNIRS measured changes in [oxy-Hb] during VFT performance.ResultsBoth patient groups performed poorly during the VFT task compared with HC (FDR p < 0.05), but there was no significant difference between the two patient groups. Analysis of variance showed that mean [oxy-Hb] activation was lower in both the frontal and temporal lobes in the MDD group compared with HCs (FDR p < 0.05). Additionally, patients with RMD had a significantly lower hemodynamic response in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and dorsal frontal pole cortex (DFPC) than patients with FMD (FDR p < 0.05). No significant correlation was found between changes in mean [oxy-Hb] and either medical history or clinical symptoms (FDR p < 0.05).ConclusionThe presence of different neurofunctional activity in some of the same brain regions in FMD and RMD patients implied a link between the level of complexity activation in frontal regions and the stage of MDD. Cognitive impairment may already be present at the beginning of an MDD episode.Clinical trial registrationwww.chictr.org.cn, identifier ChiCTR2100043432.

Background Beryllium and its compounds are carcinogenicity, but the mechanisms through which this occurs have yet to be clarified. Accumulating evidence exists that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an important role in occurrence and development of cancer. Aims and Methods To explore the carcinogenic mechanism of beryllium, human bronchial epithelial cells (16HBE) were treated with 50 μM beryllium sulfate (BeSO4) for 45 passages (~23 weeks). The expression levels of lncRNA SNHG7, SNHG11, SNHG15, MIR22HG, GMPS, and SIK1 were detected at passage 0 (P0), 15 (P15), 25 (P25), 35 (P35), and 45 (P45). Results The results indicated that enhanced cell proliferation, extensive clones in soft agar, protein expressions of up-regulated matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9), matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2), proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), cyclin D1, and down-regulated p53 were all observed at the 45th passage in 16HBE cells. Thus, BeSO4-transformed 16HBE cells (T-16HBE) were established. Meanwhile, the study found that the expression of lncRNA SNHG11 was elevated during malignant transformation. Knockdown of SNHG11 in T-16HBE cells blocked cell proliferation, invasion, and migration, and decreased the protein levels of MMP9, MMP2, PCNA, cyclin D1, but increased p53. Conclusions The studies revealed that SNHG11 acts as an oncogene in the malignant transformation of 16HBE cells induced by BeSO4, which signifies progress in the study of the carcinogenic mechanism of beryllium.

High-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a widely used and effective biological treatment for depression. Although previous studies have shown that astrocyte function may be modified by rTMS, the specific neurobiological mechanisms underlying its antidepressant action are not clear. Substantial evidence has accumulated indicating that neurotrophin dysfunction and neuronal apoptosis play a role in the development of depression. To evaluate this hypothesis, we applied a chronical unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) protocol to induce depression-like behaviors in rats, followed by the delivery of 10-Hz rTMS for 3 weeks. Behavioral outcome measures consisted of a sucrose preference test, forced swimming test, and open field test. Histological analysis focused on apoptosis, expression of GFAP and FGF2, and FGF2 pathway-related proteins. The results showed that after rTMS treatment, the rats' sucrose preference increased, open field performance improved while the immobility time of forced swimming decreased. The behavioral changes seen in rTMS treated rats were accompanied by marked reductions in the number of TUNEL-positive neural cells and the level of expression of BAX and by an increase in Bcl2. Furthermore, the expression of GFAP and FGF2 was increased, along with activation of FGF2 downstream pathway. These results suggest that rTMS treatment can improve depression-like behavior, attenuate neural apoptosis, and reverse reduction of astrocytes in a rat model of depression. We hypothesize that the therapeutic action of rTMS in CUMS-induced rats is linked to the activation of the FGF2/FGFR1/p-ERK signaling pathway.

The aggregation and prion-like propagation of α-synuclein are involved in the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease. However, the underlying mechanisms regulating the assembly and spreading of α-synuclein fibrils remain poorly understood. Tau co-deposits with α-synuclein in the brains of Parkinson’s disease patients, suggesting a pathological interplay between them. Here we show that tau interacts with α-synuclein and accelerates its aggregation. Compared with pure α-synuclein fibrils, the tau-modified α-synuclein fibrils show enhanced seeding activity, inducing mitochondrial dysfunction, synaptic impairment and neurotoxicity in vitro. Injection of the tau-modified α-synuclein fibrils into the striatum of mice induces more severe α-synuclein pathology, motor dysfunction and cognitive impairment when compared with the mice injected with pure α-synuclein fibrils. Knockout of tau attenuates the propagation of α-synuclein pathology and Parkinson’s disease-like symptoms both in mice injected with α-syn fibrils and α-syn A53T transgenic mice. In conclusion, tau facilitates α-synuclein aggregation and propagation in Parkinson’s disease.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have received significant and ongoing attention. To establish favorable regulatory policies, it is vital to investigate the occurrence, source, and budgets of POPs worldwide. POPs including phthalic acid esters (PAEs), organophosphate esters (OPEs), brominated flame retardants (BFRs), and highly chlorinated flame retardants (HFRs) have not yet been examined in the Eastern Indian Ocean (EIO). In this study, the distribution of POPs has been investigated from surface sediments with the depth of 4369-5742 m in the Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB) and Wharton Basin (WB) of EIO. The average (±SD) concentrations of ∑

In this paper, an event-triggering mechanism (ETM) and a predictor compensation control strategy are proposed for cyber-physical systems (CPSs) with stochastic disturbance under malicious denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. First, a novel ETM excluded Zeno behaviour for CPSs is designed without considering DoS attacks, and the input-to-state stability (ISS) of the closed-loop systems is guaranteed. Second, given that DoS attacks could block the transmission of information, a predictor is used to compensate for the lost signals of CPSs. Then, a control strategy is proposed by combining the ETM and predictor, which can reduce the times of data transmission and control updates. Furthermore, a sufficient condition is derived to guarantee the ISS of the closed-loop system. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is verified by an example.

In this study, a functionalized Co3O4-Bi2O3-Ti catalytic membrane (CBO-Ti-M) was prepared and applied for removing organic pollutants via activating peroxymonosulfate (PMS) in the dead-end filtration mode. Characterizations including scanning electron microcopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) showed that the Co3O4-Bi2O3 catalyst was successfully supported on the Ti membrane. The CBO-Ti-M /PMS system could efficiently remove various organic pollutants such as sulfamethoxazole, methyl orange, bisphenol A and methylene blue, achieving removal efficiencies of 98.0%-99.5%. The effects of PMS concentration, flow rate and solution environment on degradation efficiency were investigated in detail. Furthermore, quenching experiments, electron spin resonance (ESR) and in-situ open circuit potential (OCP) tests collectively demonstrated that singlet oxygen as well as the non-radical electron transfer pathway mainly contributed in the reaction mechanism. The synergistic effect of Co and Bi was illustrated according to XPS results, and the possible degradation pathway of MB was proposed based on LC-MS analysis. Reusability test showed that pollutant removal efficiency with the CBO-Ti-M /PMS system remained stable in four runs and limited metal leaching was observed.

An event-triggered tracking control problem is investigated for a class of unknown nonlinear systems in this paper. First, to approximate the unknown function, the radial basis function neural network is used. Then, we propose an event-triggered adaptive neural network control scheme with dynamic gain. Both the event-triggered mechanism in the controller-to-actuator channel and the dynamic gain in the sensor-to-controller channel are considered to reduce the communication load between the controller and the actuator and in the meantime to alleviate the burden of parameter adjustment as well. This scheme makes full use of the advantage that the dynamic gain is driven by the tracking error to ensure that the system output signal can track the reference signal within a prespecified accuracy without adjusting the parameters in use. Moreover, a detailed theoretical proof is given to illustrate that Zeno behavior can be excluded under the designed event-triggered controller. Finally, a simulation example is provided to show the effectiveness of our control scheme.

Nuclear energy is a clean and popular form of energy, but leakage and loss of nuclear material pose a threat to public safety. Radiation detection in public spaces is a key part of nuclear security. Common security cameras equipped with complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensors can help with radiation detection. Previous work with these cameras, however, required slow, complex frame-by-frame processing. Building on the previous work, we propose a nuclear radiation detection method using convolution neural networks (CNNs). This method detects nuclear radiation in changing images with much less computational complexity. Using actual video images captured in the presence of a common Tc-99m radioactive source, we construct training and testing sets. After training the CNN and processing our test set, the experimental results show the high performance and effectiveness of our method.

Zhaohui Zhang,1 Hao Hu,2 Qian Li,1 Fumei Yi,1 Yan’e Liu1 1Department of Tumor Chemotherapy and Radiation Sickness, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, 100191, People’s Republic of China; 2Beijing 100biotech Co., Ltd., Beijing, 100006, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Zhaohui ZhangDepartment of Tumor Chemotherapy and Radiation Sickness, Peking University Third Hospital, Huayuan Bei Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100191, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail zhaobj429@sina.comIntroduction: Circular RNAs (circRNAs), a new type of non-coding RNA, have been demonstrated to play critical roles in the progression of various of malignant cancers. However, the function of circRNAs in breast cancer is not clearly understood.Methods: qPCR was used to evaluate the gene expression. Function studies including MTT, transwell, wound healing and colony formation assay were performed to evaluate the function of circPTCD3 in breast cancer. Luciferase and RNA pull-down assays were used to verify the interaction between circPTCD3 and miR-198. The xenograft model was established to evaluate the function of circPTCD3 in vivo.Results: In the present study, we identified a novel circRNA termed as circPTCD3 which was indicated to be significantly up-regulated in breast cancer tissues and cell lines. The results revealed that ectopic expression of circPTCD3 promoted the cell proliferation, migration and colony formation ability of breast cancer cells. Constantly, silencing of circPTCD3 inhibited those of breast cancer cells. Furthermore, we identified that circPTCD3 was able to target miR-198 in breast cancer cell. miR-198 has the function of inhibiting proliferation and migration of breast cancer cells which can be reversed by circPTCD3.Conclusion: Taken together, our findings for the first time identified a novel circRNA (circPTCD3) and revealed its oncogenic role in breast cancer. Mechanically, we reported that circPTCD3 served as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) to sponge miR-198. These findings provide insights into breast cancer progression and also potential new targets for diagnosis or treatment of breast cancer.Keywords: circPTCD3, breast cancer, miR-198

In response to brain injury, resident astrocytes become reactive and play dynamic roles in neural repair and regeneration. The signaling pathways underlying such reactive astrogliosis remain largely unclear. We here show that NEK6, a NIMA-related serine/threonine protein kinase, is rapidly induced following pathological stimulations and plays critical roles in reactive astrogliosis. Enhanced NEK6 expression promotes reactive astrogliosis and exacerbates brain lesions; and conversely, NEK6 downregulation dampens injury-induced astrocyte reactivity and reduces lesion size. Mechanistically, NEK6 associates with and phosphorylates STAT3. Kinase activity of NEK6 is required for induction of GFAP and PCNA, markers of reactive astrogliosis. Interestingly, NEK6 is also localized in the nucleus and binds to STAT3-responsive genomic elements in astrocytes. These results indicate that NEK6 constitutes a molecular target for the regulation of reactive astrogliosis.

Compared with carbon nanotube (CNT) and graphene (GE) aerogels, the synthesis of three-dimensional (3D) carbon nanofiber (CNF) aerogels that are highly compressible, resilient under cyclic strains, and creep and fatigue resistant remains extremely challenging. Herein, a revolutionary green and scalable biosynthesis is presented, by which a novel 3D CNF aerogel derived from natural bacterial cellulose (BC) decorated with its mother bacteria is created. The as-prepared CNF aerogel possesses excellent mechanical resilience, ultra-low energy loss coefficient, and outstanding cycling stability, which are by far among the best performances for CNT and GE aerogels reported thus far. Furthermore, the CNF aerogel exhibits excellent creep and fatigue resistance and sensitive electrical conductivity change upon compression. Surprisingly, the as-prepared 3D CNF aerogel exhibits superhydrophilicity. These superb properties are attributed to the existing carbonized bacteria in the carbonized BC matrix that serve as crosslinks to strengthen the aerogel and buffers to store deformation energy. This study presents a breakthrough method for the construction of superb and cost-effective 3D CNF aerogel from natural biomass material.

The aggregation of α-synuclein plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD). Epidemiological evidence indicates that high level of homocysteine (Hcy) is associated with an increased risk of PD. However, the molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we report that homocysteine thiolactone (HTL), a reactive thioester of Hcy, covalently modifies α-synuclein on the K80 residue. The levels of α-synuclein K80Hcy in the brain are increased in an age-dependent manner in the TgA53T mice, correlating with elevated levels of Hcy and HTL in the brain during aging. The N-homocysteinylation of α-synuclein stimulates its aggregation and forms fibrils with enhanced seeding activity and neurotoxicity. Intrastriatal injection of homocysteinylated α-synuclein fibrils induces more severe α-synuclein pathology and motor deficits when compared with unmodified α-synuclein fibrils. Increasing the levels of Hcy aggravates α-synuclein neuropathology in a mouse model of PD. In contrast, blocking the N-homocysteinylation of α-synuclein ameliorates α-synuclein pathology and degeneration of dopaminergic neurons. These findings suggest that the covalent modification of α-synuclein by HTL promotes its aggregation. Targeting the N-homocysteinylation of α-synuclein could be a novel therapeutic strategy against PD.

Galectin-9 (Gal-9) is a crucial immunoregulatory mediator in the central nervous system. Microglial activation and neuroinflammation play a key role in the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (SN) in Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, it remains unknown whether Gal-9 is involved in the pathogenesis of PD. We found that MPP+ treatment promoted the expression of Gal-9 and pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, IL-1β, TNF-α, and MIP-1α) in a concentration-dependent manner in BV2 cells. Gal-9 enhanced neurodegeneration and oxidative stress induced by MPP+ in SH-SY5Y cells and primary neurons. Importantly, deletion of Gal-9 or blockade of Tim-3 ameliorated microglial activation, reduced dopaminergic neuronal loss, and improved motor performance in an MPTP-induced mouse model of PD. These observations demonstrate a pathogenic role of the Gal-9/Tim-3 pathway in exacerbating microglial activation, neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, and dopaminergic neurodegeneration in the pathogenesis of PD.

Open pile manganese ore generates heavy metal pollution, which affects the surrounding environment, and it is necessary to monitor and remediate heavy metals in the mine area. In this study, we investigated the correlation between the accumulation of heavy metals in Philonotis thwaitesii and the content of heavy metals in soil by investigating the characteristics of heavy metals in Philonotis thwaitesii, Spirogyraand soil in the wetland around the manganese mine area in Zhaiying Town, Songtao County, Guizhou Province，in order to provide a scientific basis for ecological restoration and soil heavy metal pollution management in manganese mine area. The main results are as follows: the soil in the study area is moderately polluted by heavy metals and above; the correlation between heavy metals in Philonotis thwaitesiiis significant and influenced by soil; compared with Spirogyra, Philonotis thwaitesii has a stronger ability to enrich heavy metals; it is advantageous for remediation of moist polluted environment. In conclusion, Philonotis thwaitesii has a certain degree of enrichment capacity for heavy metals, and can be used for the comprehensive treatment of heavy metal pollution in manganese mining sites, as well as the bioremediation of polluted areas associated with it. And the content of Mn in Philonotis thwaitesii is up to 11799mg/kg, whether it can be used as a manganese hyperaccumulator, further research is needed.