Search

Liriomyza trifolii is a significant pest of vegetable and ornamental crops across the globe. Microwave radiation has been used for controlling pests in stored products; however, there are few reports on the use of microwaves for eradicating agricultural pests such as L. trifolii, and its effects on pests at the molecular level is unclear. In this study, we show that microwave radiation inhibited the emergence of L. trifolii pupae. Transcriptomic studies of L. trifolii indicated significant enrichment of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in ‘post-translational modification, protein turnover, chaperones’, ‘sensory perception of pain/transcription repressor complex/zinc ion binding’ and ‘insulin signaling pathway’ when analyzed with the Clusters of Orthologous Groups, Gene Ontology and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes databases, respectively. The top DEGs were related to reproduction, immunity and development and were significantly expressed after microwave radiation. Interestingly, there was no significant difference in the expression of genes encoding heat shock proteins or antioxidant enzymes in L. trifolii treated with microwave radiation as compared to the untreated control. The expression of DEGs encoding cuticular protein and protein takeout were silenced by RNA interference, and the results showed that knockdown of these two DEGs reduced the survival of L. trifolii exposed to microwave radiation. The results of this study help elucidate the molecular response of L. trifolii exposed to microwave radiation and provide novel ideas for control.

Atopic dermatitis(AD) is a common inflammatory skin disorder induced by dysfunction of immune suppression, which resembles the mechanism of autoimmune diseases. To explore the association between autoimmune diseases and AD in their children, we linked the birth data from National Birth Registry with National Health Insurance Research Database. Demographic characteristics from 1174,941 parent-child linkages were obtained. There were 312,329 children diagnosed with AD before 5 years old, and they would be compared with the other 862,612 children without AD in the control group. Conditional logistic regression was utilized to calculate adjusted odds ratio (aOR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). After adjusting infant’s characteristics, perinatal factors, and other parental diseases, the odds ratio of parental rheumatoid arthritis(RA) was 2.269 (95% CI 1.333–3.861) and parental psoriasis was1.610 (95% CI, 1.094–2.369). Parental allergic diseases such as AD (aOR 2.071, 95% CI 1.952–2.198) and asthma (aOR 1.494, 95% CI 1.400-1.594) were also significant predictors for childhood AD. The subgroup analysis showed significant difference between children’s sex. Parental RA (aOR 3.070, 95% CI, 1.532–6.154) was crucial for boys, while parental psoriasis (aOR 1.945, 95% CI, 1.129–3.350)was a risk factor for girls. In conclusion, parental autoimmune diseases were found to be related to AD in their children before 5 years old. Additionally, there were different risk factors for AD between children’s sex.

The leafminer Liriomyza trifolii is an important insect pest of ornamental and vegetable crops worldwide. Cyromazine is an effective, commonly-used insecticide that functions as a growth regulator, but its effect on L. trifolii has not been previously reported. In this study, transcriptome analysis was undertaken in L. trifolii exposed to cyromazine. Clusters of orthologous groups analysis indicated that a large number of differentially expressed genes responding to cyromazine were categorized as "lipid transport and metabolism", "post-translational modification, protein turnover, chaperones", and "cell wall/membrane/envelope biogenesis". Gene ontology analysis indicated that pathways associated with insect hormones, growth and development, and cuticle synthesis were significantly enriched. In general, the transcriptome results showed that the genes related to insect hormones were significantly expressed after treatment with cyromazine. Furthermore, the combined exposure of L. trifolii to cyromazine and the hormone analogues 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) or juvenile hormone (JH) indicated that hormone analogues can change the expression pattern of hormone-related genes (20EP and JHEH) and pupal length. The combined application of cyromazine with 20E improved the survival rate of L. trifolii, whereas the combination of JH and cyromazine reduced survival. The results of this study help elucidate the mechanistic basis for cyromazine toxicity and provide a foundation for understanding cyromazine resistance.

The Xinqiao Cu–S–Fe–Au deposit in the Tongling ore district, an important part of the Middle-Lower Yangtze River Valley metallogenic belt in eastern China, is located along the northern margin of the Yangtze Block. The deposit consists of two major mineralization types: stratiform and skarn (the genesis of the former is disputed). The more important stratiform orebody (90% of the total Cu, S and Fe reserves) has abundant garnet as the main gangue mineral, similar to the skarn orebody hosted in the intrusive contact. Garnets from the Xinqiao stratiform orebody range from pure andradite (And 100 ) to And 50 Gro 46 , and can be divided into the early (Grt1) and late (Grt2) generation. Both generations contain low MnO (0.19–0.89%), wide range of Y/Ho (39.0–40.7 for Grt1, 29.8–67.9 for Grt2), and do not contain melt or fluid-melt inclusions, indicative of a magmatic-hydrothermal replacement origin. Grt1 and the Grt2 cores are grandite, whilst the Grt2 rims are mainly andradite with some grandite zones. Grandite is enriched in heavy rare earth elements (HREEs), and displays low ΣLREE/ΣHREE, La N /Yb N and U concentrations with negative Eu anomalies, whereas andradite is HREE-depleted, and displays high ΣLREE/ΣHREE, La N /Yb N ratios and U concentrations with positive Eu anomalies. The distinct trace element features suggest that the hydrothermal fluids for Grt1 and the Grt2 cores were of nearly neutral (pH), relatively oxidized and HREE-enriched, whereas those for the Grt2 rims had experienced episodic inflections between a mildly acidic, relatively reduced and HREE-depleted fluid and a nearly neutral, relatively oxidized and HREE-enriched fluid. Meanwhile, they also reveal that Grt1 and the Grt2 cores may have formed by diffusive metasomatism in a closed system, whereas the Grt2 rims may have formed by infiltration metasomatism in an open fracture system, possibly related to the unconformity that hosts the Xinqiao stratiform orebody. We propose that the Xinqiao stratiform orebody may have formed from Early Cretaceous magmatic-hydrothermal fluids associated with the Jitou stock, similar to the skarn-type orebodies in the district.

The wireless sensor network (WSN) has received increasing attention since it has many potential applications such as the internet of things and smart city. The localization technology is critical for the application of the WSN. The obstacles induce the larger non-line of sight (NLOS) error and it may decrease the localization accuracy. In this paper, we mainly investigate the non-line of sight localization problem for WSN. Firstly, the Pearson's chi-squared testing is employed to identify the propagation condition. Secondly, the particle swarm optimization based localization method is proposed to estimate the position of unknown node. Finally the simulation experiments are implemented. The simulation results show that the proposed method owns higher localization accuracy when compared with other two methods.

In east Asia, “Baishouwu” has been used as an herbal drug and functional dietary supplement for hundreds of years. Actually, “Baishouwu” is the common name of the roots of Cynanchum auriculatum, Cynanchum bungei, and Cynanchum wilfordii. In the present study, roots of these three specie were extracted and then fractionated using petroleum ether (PE), dichloromethane (DCM), ethyl acetate (EA), and water. DPPH scavenging experiments revealed high antioxidant activity of DCM and EA fractions of C. bungei and the EA fraction of C. wilfordii. Treatments with these three fractions significantly reduced malondialdehyde content in heat‐stressed Daphnia magna, validating in vivo antioxidant activity. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometer (GC‐MS) analyses demonstrated that the chemical components of fractions extracted from C. bungei, C. bungei, and C. wilfordii were different. Further determination of total phenol and total flavonoids contents showed that DCM and EA fractions of C. bungei and EA fraction of C. wilfordii had much higher contents of total phenol and total flavonoids, which might be the reason to explain their strong antioxidant activity. Overall, the present study suggested that these three plants have different chemical components and biological activities. They could not be used as the same drug.