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Abstract Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are crucial modulators of post-transcriptional gene expression regulation, cell fate determination, and disease development. However, lncRNA functions during short-term heat stress in adult worker bees are poorly understood. Here, we performed deep sequencing and bioinformatic analyses of honeybee lncRNAs. RNA interference was performed by using siRNA targeting the most highly expressed lncRNA. The silencing effect on lncRNA and the relative expression levels of seven heat shock protein (HSP) genes, were subsequently examined. Overall, 7,842 lncRNAs and 115 differentially expressed lncRNAs (DELs) were identified in adult worker bees following heat stress exposure. Structural analysis revealed that the overall expression abundance, length of transcripts, exon number, and open reading frames of lncRNAs were lower than those of mRNAs. GO analysis revealed that the target genes were mainly involved in “metabolism,” “protein folding,” “response to stress,” and “signal transduction” pathways. KEGG analysis indicated that the “protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum” and “longevity regulating pathway-multiple species” pathways were most enriched. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) detection of the selected DELs confirmed the reliability of the sequencing data. Moreover, the siRNA experiment indicated that feeding siRNA yielded a silencing efficiency of 77.51% for lncRNA MSTRG.9645.5. Upon silencing this lncRNA, the expression levels of three HSP genes were significantly downregulated (p

Introduction Understanding the current burden of stomach cancer linked to smoking and the variations in trends across different locations, is crucial for developing effective prevention strategies. In this study, we present findings on the age-standardized death rate (ASDR) and age-standardized disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) rate attributed to smoking in 204 countries and territories spanning 21 regions from 1990 to 2019. Methods The data for this study were obtained from the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2019, which assessed 369 diseases and injuries, as well as 87 risk factors in 204 countries and 21 regions. To assess the trend in ASDR and agestandardized DALYs rate, the estimated annual percentage change (EAPC) was utilized. Results Between 1990 and 2019, smoking was found to be associated with a decrease in ASDR (EAPC = -2.20) and age-standardized DALYs (EAPC = -2.42) rates for gastric cancer. As the sociodemographic index (SDI) increased, the decline in rates also increased gradually. However, the decline was smallest in regions with low SDI (EAPC ASDR = -1.34; EAPC age-standardized DALYs rate = -1.38). In 21 regions, both ASDR and DALYs rates experienced a decline. The smallest decline in ASDR was observed in Western Sub-Saharan Africa, with an EAPC of -0.80, while the smallest decline in DALYs rate was found in Oceania, with an EAPC of -0.81. Among the 204 countries analyzed, the Dominican Republic showed the highest increase in ASDR and age-standardized DALYs rate (EAPC ASDR = 1.19; EAPC age-standardized DALYs rate = 1.21), followed by Afghanistan (EAPC ASDR = 1.09; EAPC age-standardized DALYs rate = 1.09) and Sao Tome and Principe (EAPC ASDR = 1.05; EAPC age-standardized DALYs rate = 1.03). In the year 2019, the highest ASDR and age-standardized DALYs rate was observed in East Asia, with the highest rates occurring in Mongolia. Conclusions The burden of stomach cancer worldwide, adjusted for age, and related to smoking, has shown a decline from 1990 to 2019. However, regional disparities have been identified, with some areas experiencing an increase in this burden. These regions with a higher burden emphasize the necessity for the implementation of strong tobacco control measures.

Membrane filtration is an effective water recycling and purification technology to remove various pollutants in water. Inorganic membrane filtration (IMF) technology has received widespread attention because of its unique high temperature and corrosion resistance. Commonly used inorganic membranes include ceramic membranes and carbon-based membranes. As novel catalytic inorganic membrane processes, IMF coupled with advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), can realize the separation and in situ degradation of pollutants, thus mitigating membrane contamination. In this paper, the types and performance of IMF are discussed. The influencing factors of inorganic membranes in practical wastewater treatment are summarized. The applications, advantages, and disadvantages of the coupled process of IMF and AOPs are summarized and outlined. Finally, the challenges and prospects of IMF and IMF coupled with AOPs are presented, respectively. This contributes to the design and development of coupled systems of membrane filtration with inorganic materials and IMF coupled with AOPs for practical wastewater treatment.

Single image super-resolution (SISR) with deep convolutional neural networks has recently attracted increasing attention due to its potentials to generate rich details. To obtain better fidelity and visual quality, most of existing methods are of heavy design with the depth of network. However, the lack of high-frequency information in the deep network and the limit of non-local context relations of pixels remain the core issue. In addition, there are many arbitrary-scale image super-resolution tasks, so it is a focus that provides an effective and efficient model for super resolution with arbitrary-scale. To this end, we propose a Feature Preserving and Enhancing Network (FPEN) based on implicit representation, which is aims to preserving high-frequency information in deep network and enhancing non-local contextual features of pixels to output more realistic images at arbitrary scales. In particular, our proposed High Frequency Preserving Block (HFPB) can divide the features into high-frequency components and low-frequency components, and allocate more operations to high-frequency components to ensure that high-frequency components can be preserved in the network. Since high-frequency information contains the details and texture of the image, it can restore the finer details of the image. Moreover, Pixel Continuity Attention (PiCA) module our proposed utilizes visual cues observed from pixels to adaptively recalibrate the pixel range that needs attention in the image to better achieve feature enhancement and generate smoother images. Extensive experiments conducted on benchmark SISR models and datasets show that Feature Preserving and Enhancing Network can be employed for various SISR tasks with arbitrary-scale to obtain the better visual quality than other state-of-the-art SR algorithms.

Plant proteins are a good source of active peptides, which can exert physiological effects on the body. Predicting the possible activity of plant proteins and obtaining active peptides with oral potential are challenging. In this study, the potential activity of peptides from Zizyphus jujuba proteins after in silico simulated gastrointestinal digestion was predicted using the BIOPEP-UWM™ database. The ACE-inhibitory activity needs to be further investigated. The actual peptides in mouse intestines after the oral administration of Zizyphus jujuba protein were collected and analyzed, 113 Zizyphus jujuba peptides were identified, and 3D-QSAR models of the ACE-inhibitory activity were created and validated using a training set (34 peptides) and a test set (12 peptides). Three peptides, RLPHV, TVKPGL and KALVAP, were screened using the 3D-QSAR model and were found to bind to the active sites of the ACE enzyme, and their IC50 values were determined. Their values were 6.01, 3.81, and 17.06 μM, respectively. The in vitro digestion stabilities of the RLPHV, TVKPGL, and KALVAP peptides were 82%, 90%, and 78%. This article provides an integrated method for studying bioactive peptides derived from plant proteins.

A novel angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory peptide ser-ala-ser-val-ile-pro-val-ser-ala-val-arg-ala (SASVIPVSAVRA) was purified and identified from yak bone by Electrospray Ionization-Time of Flight-Mass Spectrometry (ESI-TOF-MS). Results in vitro showed that the peptide exhibited strong ACE inhibition activities with an IC50 of 54.22 μM. Molecular docking results showed the binding between the peptide SASVIPVSAVRA and ACE mainly driven by van der Waals forces, hydrogen bonds and metal receptor. Interestingly, the ACE inhibition activities of the peptide increased about 19% after digestion, but none of its metabolites showed stronger activity than it. The in vivo experiment showed that the antihypertensive effect of peptide SASVIPVSAVRA at dose of 30 mg/kg is nearly equal to Captopril at dose of 10 mg/kg to spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs). The antihypertensive effect mechanism of SASVIPVSAVRA should be further studied through plasma metabolomics and bioanalysis. Structure analysis of amino acids and peptides produced during digestion may help better understand the antihypertensive effect of peptides.

Clubroot disease is a soil-borne disease caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae. It occurs in cruciferous crops exclusively, and causes serious damage to the economic value of cruciferous crops worldwide. Although different measures have been taken to prevent the spread of clubroot disease, the most fundamental and effective way is to explore and use disease-resistance genes to breed resistant varieties. However, the resistance level of plant hosts is influenced both by environment and pathogen race. In this work, we described clubroot disease in terms of discovery and current distribution, life cycle, and race identification systems; in particular, we summarized recent progress on clubroot control methods and breeding practices for resistant cultivars. With the knowledge of these identified resistance loci and R genes, we discussed feasible strategies for disease-resistance breeding in the future.

In the face of competition from great powers, the strategic choices that middle powers should make are a theoretical and practical issue that demands careful deliberation and in-depth research. In the post-Cold War era of U.S.–China strategic competition, the middle powers have adopted diverse strategies such as picking sides, hedging, and staying neutral. The behavioral choices of middle powers in the U.S.–China strategic competition are constrained not only by the intensity of U.S.– China competition and the type of dependence on the United States at the systemic level, but also by the strategic preferences of domestic policymakers and strategic elites. The intensity of U.S.–China competition and the dependency structures on great powers, as systemic factors, shape the range of behavioral choices for middle powers in the U.S.–China strategic competition. Meanwhile, domestic factors, acting as mediating variables, convey the directives issued by external structural variables, ultimately influencing and determining middle powers’ specific policies and behavioral patterns in the U.S.–China strategic competition. Canada, South Korea, and Argentina have chosen to pick a side, stay neutral, or hedge at different stages due to a combination of systemic and domestic factors, validating the core argument of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal gangue and fly ash are major industrial solid wastes containing some nutrients associated with organic or mineral matter. Vegetation restoration depends on high-quality soil in mining sites. Exploring the effects of wood vinegar (WV) irrigation and fly ash addition on the variation in chemical properties of the coal gangue substrate can provide a theoretical basis and data support for the reconstruction of mine soils and resource utilization of mine solid wastes. The indoor soil incubation experiment was conducted by adding fly ash at rates of 0, 10%, 20% and 50% to a coal gangue substrate mixed with coal gangue and raw soil. We analyzed the nutrients and salinity of the mixture of coal gangue substrate and fly ash (CGSFA) after irrigating distilled water (DW) and WV. The results showed that the addition of fly ash decreased the pH of the CGSFA mixture under DW irrigation, and WV irrigation increased the pH of the CGSFA mixture compared with DW irrigation. The addition of fly ash could increase the contents of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), available phosphorus (AP) and available potassium (AK) and decrease the contents of total organic carbon (TOC) and total nitrogen (TN) of the coal gangue substrate. Compared with DW irrigation, WV irrigation increased the contents of TOC, DOC, active organic carbon (AOC) and AP of the CGSFA mixture by 19.3%, 931.1%, 228.1% and 15.6% and decreased the contents of TN and AK by 10.6% and 35.1%, respectively. In addition, the addition of fly ash increased the contents of K+, Ca2+ and SO42– and decreased the Na+ content in the coal gangue substrate. The irrigation of WV increased the contents of Mg2+, HCO3–, Cl– and SO42– of the CGSFA mixture and reduced the contents of K+ and Na+. Overall, fly ash addition and WV irrigation can improve the nutrients and salinity of the mixture of the coal gangue substrate. Considering the accumulation of HCO3–, Cl– and SO42–, it is recommended to choose 10% to 20% fly ash addition to coal gangue substrate and irrigation with WV for the reconstruction of mine soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]