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The landscape of pharmacological treatment for Alzheimer's disease (AD) has undergone significant transformations with the advent of disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) targeting β-Amyloid (Aβ) accumulation, one of the hallmark pathologies of AD. The approval and market introduction of monoclonal antibodies mark the dawn of a new era in AD therapeutics as well. Furthermore, considerable progress has also been made in the development of new drugs targeting non-Aβ and non-Tau protein pathways. These advancements are key in tackling the root causes of AD, offering hope for treatments that both relieve symptoms and slow disease progression, improving patient outcomes and quality of life. This review aims to provide a comprehensive update on the advances in drug development and application for AD, including those currently in clinical trials and those already approved for the market to treat patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By utilizing the properties of positive definite matrices, mathematical expectations, and positive linear functionals in matrix space, the Kantorovich inequality and Wielandt inequality for positive definite matrices and random variables are obtained. Some novel Kantorovich type inequalities pertaining to matrix ordinary products, Hadamard products, and mathematical expectations of random variables are provided. Furthermore, several interesting unified and generalized forms of the Wielandt inequality for positive definite matrices are also studied. These derived inequalities are then exploited to establish an inequality regarding various correlation coefficients and study some applications in the relative efficiency of parameter estimation of linear statistical models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TIR1/AFB proteins are a class of auxin receptors with key roles in plant development and biotic and abiotic stress responses; several have been identified as targets of the auxin-mimicking herbicide picloram. In this study, we identified five putative TIR1/AFB gene family members in the important vegetable crop Solanum melongena (eggplant) and characterized them using bioinformatics tools and gene expression analyses. Phylogenetic analysis of the TIR1/AFBs classified them into three subgroups based on their Arabidopsis and Solanum lycopersicum homologs. AFB6 homologs were present only in S. melongena and S. lycopersicum, whereas AFB2/3 homologs were found only in Arabidopsis. One pair of S. melongena TIR1 homologs were located in syntenic regions in the genome and appeared to have arisen by segmental duplication. Promoter analysis revealed 898 cis-elements in the TIR1/AFB promoters, 125 of which were related to hormones, stress, light, or growth responses, but only SmAFB5 had a cis-acting regulatory element involved in auxin responsiveness (AuxRR-core). RNA sequencing and expression profiling showed that the TIR1/AFB genes were differentially expressed at different growth stages and in response to light, temperature, and drought. Only SmTIR1A expression was significantly induced by picloram treatment and different growth stages. TIR1/AFB expression is regulated by microRNAs (miRNAs) in other plant species, and we identified 6 or 29 miRNAs that potentially targeted the five TIR1/AFB genes on the basis of comparisons with S. lycopersicum and S. tuberosum miRNAs, respectively. Three-dimensional protein structure predictions revealed that all the TIR1/AFB proteins were very similar in structure, differing only in the numbers of alpha helices and in one angle linking an α helix and a β sheet. For measuring the function of TIR1/AFB genes in response to drought, SmAFB5 was selected, and knockdown by virus-induced gene silence (VIGS) 35S::SmAFB5 lines showed resistance to drought compared to controls. These analyses provide insight into the potential functions of TIR1/AFBs during growth and in response to stress; they highlight differences among the SmTIR1/AFBs that may be useful for eggplant breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Once excavated, cultural relics face immediate threats from oxidation, water loss, mold growth, etc., which are caused due to severe environmental changes. Covering with plastic films, spraying water, or applying biocides followed by mechanical polish are common conservation practices, which are effective to some extent, but with obvious side effects. Menthol, often used as volatile binding material (VBM) in heritage conservation, has been proved to be safe to conservators and cultural relics and can be removed easily via sublimation with no residue. In this study, the possibility of using menthol coatings as a reversible environmental barrier to protect cultural relics during excavation is examined. Laboratory results show that menthol coating has an excellent ability to prevent oxygen and water molecules from passing through it, to stop various fungal growths and cut off radiation below 300 nm. On-site antifungal applications on a mural tomb of the Tang Dynasty, located in the north of Xi'an Xianyang International Airport, provided satisfactory results. Laboratory and field results show that menthol coating has high potential of being used for the emergency protection of relics against sudden environmental changes during excavation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior studies have yielded mixed findings concerning the association between apolipoprotein E(APOE)-ε4 and serum lipids in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and healthy individuals. Some studies suggested a relationship between APOEε4 and serum lipids in patients with AD and healthy individuals, whereas others proposed that the APOEε4 allele affects lipids only in patients with AD. Our study aimed to investigate whether APOE alleles have a distinct impact on lipids in AD. We conducted a comprehensive search of the PubMed and Embase databases for all related studies that investigate APOE and serum lipids of AD from the inception to 30 May 2022. Elevated total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels were found in APOEε4 allele carriers compared with non-carriers. No significant differences were found for high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and triglyceride (TG) levels in APOEε4 allele carriers compared to non-carriers. Notably, elevated TC and LDL levels showed considerable heterogeneity between patients with AD and healthy controls. A network meta-analysis did not find a distinct effect of carrying one or two APOEε4 alleles on lipid profiles. Higher TC and LDL levels were found in APOEε4 allele carriers compared with non-carriers, and the difference was more significant in patients with AD than in healthy controls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shaoxing rice wine is a notable exemplar of Chinese rice wine. Its superior quality is strongly correlated with the indigenous natural environment. The results indicated that Firmicutes (75%), Actinobacteria (15%), Proteobacteria (5%), and Bacteroidetes (3%) comprised the prevailing bacterial groups. Among the main bacterial genera, Lactobacillus was the most abundant, accounting for 49.4%, followed by Lactococcus (11.9%), Saccharopolyspora (13.1%), Leuconostoc (4.1%), and Thermoactinomyces (1.1%). The dominant fungal phyla were Ascomycota and Zygomycota. Among the dominant genera, Saccharomyces (59.3%) prevailed as the most abundant, followed by Saccharomycopsis (10.7%), Aspergillus (7.1%), Thermomyces (6.2%), Rhizopus (4.9%), Rhizomucor (2.2%), and Mucor (1.3%). The findings demonstrate that the structure of the bacterial and fungal communities remains stable in the environment, with their diversity strongly influenced by climatic conditions. The continuous fluctuations in environmental factors, such as temperature, air pressure, humidity, rainfall, and light, significantly impact the composition and diversity of microbial populations, particularly the dominant bacterial community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is a rapidly progressive malignancy, and its mortality rate is very high. In this study, we aimed at finding novel prognosis-related genes and constructing a credible prognostic model to improve the prediction for LUAD patients. Differential gene expression, mutant subtype, and univariate Cox regression analyses were conducted with the dataset from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database to screen for prognostic features. These features were employed in the following multivariate Cox regression analysis and the produced prognostic model included the stage and expression of SMCO2, SATB2, HAVCR1, GRIA1, and GALNT4, as well as mutation subtypes of TP53. The exactness of the model was confirmed by an overall survival (OS) analysis and disease-free survival (DFS) analysis, which indicated that patients in the high-risk group had a poorer prognosis compared to those in the low-risk group. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was 0.793 in the training group and 0.779 in the testing group. The AUC of tumor recurrence was 0.778 in the training group and 0.815 in the testing group. In addition, the number of deceased patients increased as the risk scores raised. Furthermore, the knockdown of prognostic gene HAVCR1 suppressed the proliferation of A549 cells, which supports our prognostic model that the high expression of HAVCR1 predicts poor prognosis. Our work created a reliable prognostic risk score model for LUAD and provided potential prognostic biomarkers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surface water dynamics are sensitive to climate change and anthropogenic activity, and they exert important feedback to the above two processes. However, it is unclear how climate and human activity affect surface water variation, especially in semi-arid regions, such as Horqin Sandy Land (HQSL), a typical part of the fragile region for intensive interaction of climate and land use change in northern China. We investigated the changes of spatiotemporal distribution and the influence of climatic and anthropogenic factors on Surface Water Area (SWA) in HQSL. There are 5933 Landsat images used in this research, which were processed on the Google Earth Engine cloud platform to extract water bodies by vegetation index and water index method. The results revealed that the area and number of water bodies showed a significant decrease in HQSL from 1985 to 2020. Spatially, the SWA experienced different amplitudes of variation in the Animal Husbandry Dominated Region (AHDR) and in the Agriculture Dominated Region (ADR) during two periods; many water bodies even dried up and disappeared in HQSL. Hierarchical partitioning analysis showed that the SWA of both regions was primarily influenced by climatic factors during the pre-change period (1985–2000; the mutation occurred in 2000), and human activity has become more and more significantly important during the post-change period (2001–2020). Thus, it is predictable that SWA variation in the following decades will be influenced by the interaction of climate change and human activity, even more by the later in HQSL, and the social sectors have to improve their ability to adapt to climate change by modifying land use strategy and techniques toward the sustainable development of water resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and weight gain tests were performed on carbon fiber/vinyl ester and carbon fiber/bismaleimide composites in 3.5% NaCl solution to study the electrochemical and water absorption behaviors. The microstructure morphology and the flexural property of the composites in the long-term exposure process were analyzed with the scanning electron microscope and four-point bending tests. The results revealed that after long-time immersion (>200 d), the water absorption of the two composites is less than 0.5%. This has little effect on the microstructural integrity, only with slight damage on the fiber/resin interfaces, but results in a significant decrease (about 84%) in the composite flexural property. The variation of the water absorption percentage shows good consistency with that of the resin capacitance (Qc) and is negatively related to the variation of the resin resistance (Rpo) and the low-frequency impedance (|Z|0.01Hz) of the composites. A good linear relationship exists between the variations of phase angles in the middle-frequency range (0.1−10 Hz) and the |Z|0.01Hz. The phase angle at 10 Hz (θ10Hz) may be suggested as a suitable parameter to rapidly evaluate the performance of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites, just like for evaluating the protective performance of polymer-coated metals in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyclins are involved in cell division and proliferation by activating enzymes required for the cell cycle progression. Our genome-wide analysis identified 76 cyclin genes in Brassica rapa, which were divided into nine different types (A-, B-, C-, D-, H-, L-, P-, T-, and SDS-type). Cyclin genes were unevenly scattered on all chromosomes, with a maximum of 10 on A08 and a minimum of 2 on A04. The gene structure and conserved motif analysis showed that the cyclins which belonged to the same type or subgroup have a comparable intron/exon pattern or motif. A total of 14 collinear gene pairs suggested that the B. rapa cyclin genes experienced a mass of segmental duplication. The Ka/Ks analysis revealed that the Brcyclin gene family has undergone an extensive purifying pressure. By analyzing the cis-elements in the promoters, we identified 11 cis-elements and five of them are related to the hormone response. We observed 48 potential miRNAs targeting 44 Brcyclin genes, which highlighted the involvement of miRNAs in the regulation of cyclin genes. An association analysis between the leaf size and SNPs in mutants and a transcriptome analysis of two Chinese cabbage-cabbage translocation lines also showed that the Brcyclin gene family was involved in the development of the leaves. The functional characterization of the B. rapa cyclin gene family will provide the foundation for future physiological and genetic studies in the regulation of leaf growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaf size is a crucial trait in eggplant breeding, as it influences photosynthesis, plant biomass and management. However, little is known about the molecular mechanism regulating leaf size in eggplant. This study reports a small leaf mutant (slf) generated with the mutagen ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS). The slf mutant showed restricted cell proliferation and an increased content of auxin. Transcriptome analysis revealed that several genes involved in auxin signaling are upregulated in slf. Exogenous application of auxinole, an auxin antagonist of TIR1/AFB receptors, repressed the expression of these genes and restored leaf growth of slf, suggesting that the small leaf size of slf is likely associated with auxin signaling. This study provides essential clues to unveil the molecular mechanism of leaf size regulation in eggplant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sedimentary microorganisms play crucial roles in maintaining the functional stability of aquatic ecosystems. However, their taxonomic composition and assembly processes are not well known in estuarine–coastal margins because of their complex environment. We investigated microbial communities, co-occurrence relationships, and underlying mechanisms in 33 surface sediment samples collected in the Jiulong River Estuary and the Taiwan Strait to reveal their composition dynamics. The abundance, diversity, and composition of microorganisms demonstrated obvious spatial variables. Methanobacterium and Methanosarcina, as well as Candidatus_Nitrosopumilus and Nitrososphaeraceae were the main methanogenic and ammonia-oxidizing archaea, with an average abundance of more than 5.91% and 4.27%, respectively. Along with a salinity gradient increase, the relative abundance of methanogenic archaea (from 42.9% to 16.6%) contrasted with the trend of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (from 6.04% to 18.7%). The number of methanogenic archaea gradually decreased with increasing geographic distance (p < 0.05), whereas ammonia-oxidizing archaea showed no significant change (p > 0.05). In co-occurrence patterns, closer inter-taxa connections were observed among archaea–archaea and bacteria–bacteria than in archaea–bacteria, which indicated that coexistence within the same kingdom was greater than interaction between different kingdoms in shaping the community structure along the salinity gradient. Furthermore, null model analyses of the microbial community showed that undominated was the most prominent process, explaining over 44.9% of community variation, followed by heterogeneous selection and dispersal limitation, which contributed to 27.7% and 16.3%, respectively. We demonstrated that stochasticity, rather than determinism, regulates community assembly. These results further highlight that intra-kingdom co-occurrence and stochastic processes shape the structure and assembly of microbial communities in estuarine–coastal margins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inhibition effect and mechanism of cerium tartrate (CeTar) as a pigment in epoxy coating on AA2024-T3 aluminum alloy in 3.5% NaCl solution were studied. Two kinds of coatings were applied on the substrate, including a single-layer epoxy coating with CeTar distributed uniformly and a double-layer coating composed of an inner layer doped with CeTar and an outer layer with no CeTar. The protective performances of the coatings were assessed by a Machu test and an Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) technique. The corrosion inhibition mechanism of CeTar in the coating was analyzed with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and Fourier transform spectroscopy (FTIR). The results show that the addition of CeTar can evidently improve the protective performance of the epoxy coating for a long time (>520 d). This might have relationship with the modification effect on the epoxy coating by cerium salts, and also may be due to the synergistic inhibitory effect by tartrate group and cerium ions on the alloy substrate after their continuous releasing to the coating/alloy interface and forming of a protective film. The double-layer coating provides similar protective properties to the single-layer coating. This suggested that creating a protective film on the aluminum alloy substrate could result in a greater contribution to improving the protection performance of the coating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, plant invasion has become a global ecological threat to local biodiversity and ecosystem stability. Spartina alterniflora encroaches on the ecological niches of local species and changes the soil's nutrient cycle. However, few comprehensive assessments focus on the effects of S. alterniflora invasion. Here, we investigated how soil sulfur changed with spatiotemporal variation and life forms of native species after S. alterniflora invasion and speculated the possible mechanism of the sulfur increase based on the references. The invasion of S. alterniflora increased soil total sulfur by 57.29% and phytotoxic sulfide by 193.29%. In general, the invasion of S. alterniflora enhanced the total plant biomass and soil nutrients, e.g., soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, and soil microbial biomass carbon, further increasing soil sulfur content. The sulfur accumulation caused by S. alterniflora might result in the poisoning of native species. Thus, we hypothesized that the success of S. alterniflora invasion was closely connected with soil sulfur, especially toxic sulfide. Our study suggests that researchers should give more attention to the correlation between S. alterniflora invasion and the soil sulfur increase. More research is needed to investigate the mechanisms of the successful invasion by accumulating phytotoxic sulfide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purple eggplant fruits often turn brown during maturity stages, severely influencing their market value and shelf life. However, the metabolites and genes accounting for the fruit color changes are largely unknown. Here, metabolites and gene expression analyses were used to explore the candidates underlying the differences in fruit color changes between two eggplant genotypes, '14-345' and 'CGN23829', with contrasting fruit color changes during fruit development. We found that flavonoids are the most differentially accumulated metabolites between '14-345' and 'CGN23829'. Higher contents of D3R and D3G are important for keeping the purple color at the maturity stage. Naringenin chalcone likely accounts for the color changes from purple to brown in '14-345'. Notably, at the physiological maturity stage, lower expression of early biosynthetic genes (EBGs) involved in the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway is important to keep lower contents of metabolites upstream of anthocyanins, thus leading to more purple coloring. Taken together, the results indicate that delphinidins and naringenin chalcone play important roles in determining eggplant fruit color changes at maturity stages, which is helpful for further dissecting the mechanisms underlying fruit color differences and changes in eggplants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have become a favored approach in wastewater treatment due to the high efficiency and diverse catalyzed ways. Iron-based materials were the commonly used catalyst due to their environmental friendliness and sustainability in the environment. We collected the published papers relative to the application of the modified iron-based materials in AOPs between 1999 and 2020 to comprehensively understand the related mechanism of modified materials to improve the catalytic performance of iron-based materials in AOPs. Related data of iron-based materials, modification types, target pollutants, final removal efficiencies, and rate constants were extracted to reveal the critical process of improving the catalytic efficiency of iron-based materials in AOPs. Our results indicated that the modified materials through various mechanisms to enhance the catalytic performance of iron-based materials. The principal aim of iron-based materials modification in AOPs is to increase the content of available Fe2+ and enhance the stability of Fe2+ in the system. The available Fe2+ is elevated by the following mechanisms: (1) modified materials accelerate the electron transfer to promote the Fe3+/Fe2+ reaction cycle in the system; (2) modified materials form chelates with iron ions and bond with iron ions to avoid Fe3+ precipitation. We further analyzed the effect of different modifying materials in improving these two mechanisms. Combining the advantages of different modified materials to develop iron-based materials with composite modification methods can enhance the catalytic performance of iron-based materials in AOPs for further application in wastewater treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Early accurate detection of coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the most important medical research areas. Researchers are motivated to utilize machine learning techniques for quick and accurate detection of CAD. Methods: To obtain the high quality of features used for machine learning, we here extracted the coronary bifurcation features from the coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) images by using the morphometric method. The machine learning classifier algorithms, such as logistic regression (LR), decision tree (DT), linear discriminant analysis (LDA), k-nearest neighbors (k-NN), artificial neural network (ANN), and support vector machine (SVM) were applied for estimating the performance by using the measured features. Results: The results showed that in comparison with other machine learning methods, the polynomial-SVM with the use of the grid search optimization method had the best performance for the detection of CAD and had yielded the classification accuracy of 100.00%. Among six examined coronary bifurcation features, the exponent of vessel diameter (n) and the area expansion ratio (AER) were two key features in the detection of CAD. Conclusions: This study could aid the clinicians to detect CAD accurately, which may probably provide an alternative method for the non-invasive diagnosis in clinical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abscisic acid (ABA) is an endogenous phytohormone that plays important roles in the regulation of plant growth, development, and stress responses. The pyrabactin resistance 1-like (PYR/PYL) protein is a core regulatory component of ABA signaling networks in plants. However, no details regarding this family in Brassica napus are available. Here, 46 PYLs were identified in the B. napus genome. Based on phylogenetic analysis, BnPYR1 and BnPYL1-3 belong to subfamily I, BnPYL7-10 belong to subfamily II, and BnPYL4-6 and BnPYL11-13 belong to subfamily III. Analysis of BnPYL conserved motifs showed that every subfamily contained four common motifs. By predicting cis-elements in the promoters, we found that all BnPYL members contained hormoneand stress-related elements and that expression levels of most BnPYLs were relatively higher in seeds at the germination stage than those in other organs or at other developmental stages. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment showed that BnPYL genes mainly participate in responses to stimuli. To identify crucial PYLs mediating the response to abiotic stress in B. napus, expression changes in 14 BnPYL genes were determined by quantitative real-time RT-PCR after drought, heat, and salinity treatments, and identified BnPYR1-3, BnPYL1-2, and BnPYL7-2 in respond to abiotic stresses. The findings of this study lay a foundation for further investigations of PYL genes in B. napus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capture, storage and utilization of CO2 through hydrate-related technology is a promising approach to addressing the global warming issue. Dissociation is required after the transportation of CO2 gas in the form of a self-preserving hydrate. In order to investigate the dissociation behaviors as the self-preservation effect is removed, CO2 hydrates were frozen, and then the self-preservation effect was removed through uniform heating. An evident dependence of hydrate dissociation duration on the initial dissociation rates after losing the preservation effect was observed. The results in the silica gel powder and sodium dodecyl sulphate solution showed significant reductions in the initial dissociation temperatures and a slight decrease in the initial dissociation rates when compared with those of pure water. The reductions in the former were 2.88, 2.89, and 5.73 °C in silica gel, sodium dodecyl sulphate, and a combination of the two, respectively, while the reductions in the latter were 0.12, 0.12, and 0.16 mmol/min, respectively. As the results are inconsistent with the conventional mechanism elucidating a self-preservation effect, the ice shell theory was hence further supplemented by introducing innovative contribution factors—nonenclathrated liquid water and gas molecules dissolved inside. These findings are expected to provide references for CO2 gas transportation and usage of the self-preservation effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phthalates, widely used in flexible plastics and consumer products, have become ubiquitous contaminants worldwide. This study evaluated the acute toxicity and estrogenic endocrine disrupting activity of butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP), di(n-butyl) phthalate (DBP), bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP), diisononyl phthalate (DINP), di-n-octyl phthalate (DNOP) and their mixtures. Using a 72 h zebrafish embryo toxicity test, the LC50 values of BBP, DBP and a mixture of the six phthalates were found to be 0.72, 0.63 and 0.50 ppm, respectively. The other four phthalates did not cause more than 50% exposed embryo mortality even at their highest soluble concentrations. The typical toxicity symptoms caused by phthalates were death, tail curvature, necrosis, cardio edema and no touch response. Using an estrogen-responsive ChgH-EGFP transgenic medaka (Oryzias melastigma) eleutheroembryos based 24 h test, BBP demonstrated estrogenic activity, DBP, DEHP, DINP and the mixture of the six phthalates exhibited enhanced-estrogenic activity and DIDP and DNOP showed no enhanced- or anti-estrogenic activity. These findings highlighted the developmental toxicity of BBP and DBP, and the estrogenic endocrine disrupting activity of BBP, DBP, DEHP and DINP on intact organisms, indicating that the widespread use of these phthalates may cause potential health risks to human beings.