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The histone demethylase JMJD1C is associated with human platelet counts. The JMJD1C knockout in zebrafish and mice leads to the ablation of megakaryocyte–erythroid lineage anemia. However, the specific expression, function, and mechanism of JMJD1C in megakaryopoiesis remain unknown. Here, we used cell line models, cord blood cells, and thrombocytopenia samples, to detect the JMJD1C expression. ShRNA of JMJD1C and a specific peptide agonist of JMJD1C, SAH-JZ3, were used to explore the JMJD1C function in the cell line models. The actin ratio in megakaryopoiesis for the JMJDC modulation was also measured. Mass spectrometry was used to identify the JMJD1C-interacting proteins. We first show the JMJD1C expression difference in the PMA-induced cell line models, the thrombopoietin (TPO)-induced megakaryocyte differentiation of the cord blood cells, and also the thrombocytopenia patients, compared to the normal controls. The ShRNA of JMJD1C and SAH-JZ3 showed different effects, which were consistent with the expression of JMJD1C in the cell line models. The effort to find the underlying mechanism of JMJD1C in megakaryopoiesis, led to the discovery that SAH-JZ3 decreases F-actin in K562 cells and increases F-actin in MEG-01 cells. We further performed mass spectrometry to identify the potential JMJD1C-interacting proteins and found that the important Ran GTPase interacts with JMJD1C. To sum up, JMJD1C probably regulates megakaryopoiesis by influencing the actin network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For high-resolution range profile (HRRP) radar target recognition in a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) scenario, traditional methods frequently perform denoising and recognition separately. In addition, they assume equivalent contributions of the target and the noise regions during feature extraction and fail to capture the global dependency. To tackle these issues, an integrated denoising and recognition network, namely, IDR-Net, is proposed. The IDR-Net achieves denoising through the denoising module after adversarial training, and learns the global relationship of the generated HRRP sequence using the attention-augmented temporal encoder. Furthermore, a hybrid loss is proposed to integrate the denoising module and the recognition module, which enables end-to-end training, reduces the information loss during denoising, and boosts the recognition performance. The experimental results on the measured HRRPs of three types of aircraft demonstrate that IDR-Net obtains higher recognition accuracy and more robustness to noise than traditional methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High yields and low carbon emissions are new challenges for modern crop production. Balancing the crop yield and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has become a new field of agronomic technology innovation. Cereal–legume intercropping is a typical diversification planting system, which has been expected to achieve the dual goals of high production and low GHG emissions. However, the synergistic effect of integrating various technologies in an intercropping system on GHG emissions and whether it will achieve the high yield and low emissions goal remains to be determined. Therefore, bibliometric analysis has investigated the worldwide development trend of cereal–legume intercropping designs. The literature on the GHG emissions of the cereal–legume intercropping system was summarized. Additionally, the effects and mechanisms of different agricultural management methods regarding soil nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide emissions in the cereal–legume intercropping system were summarized. The research on GHG emissions of cereal–legume intercropping systems in non-growing seasons must be revised. In situ observations of GHG emissions from intercropping systems in different regions should be strengthened. This work is valuable in supporting and evaluating the potential of GHG reduction in a cereal–legume intercropping system in various farming areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is based on ancient Chinese medical principles. In China, these medicines have played a marked role in treating various diseases and maintaining human health for thousands of years. TCM is also increasingly considered a potential alternative to the use of antibiotics in pig production and has attracted a great deal of research interest because it is simple, convenient, cheap, and effective. However, there are few studies on the effects of dietary TCM supplementation on the gut microbiota and the apparent nutrient digestibility of weaned piglets. In our study, dietary Fructus mume and Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi improved growth performance and increased the apparent ether extract (EE) digestibility by modulating gut microbial composition and structure, favoring the health of weaned piglets. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has long been demonstrated to exert a therapeutic effect on various diseases and has been used as a substitute for antibiotics in pig production. However, few studies have investigated the relationship between the intestinal microbiota and apparent nutrient digestibility when weaned piglet diets are supplemented with TCM. One hundred and sixty-two 25-day-old weaning piglets were housed in an environmentally controlled nursery facility and fed a basal diet (control group, n = 54) or a TCM complex (Fructus mume 1%, Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi 3%) (TCM group, n = 54), or a fermented diet with a complex of these two TCMs (F-TCM group, n = 54). Compared with the control group, in the TCM and F-TCM groups, the average daily gain (ADG) increased (p < 0.05), the F:G ratio and diarrhea rate decreased (p < 0.05), and the apparent digestibility of dry matter (DM) and ether extract (EE) of weaned piglets increased (p < 0.05). Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes were the predominant phyla, representing approximately 95% of all sequences. The abundance of four genera and 10 OTUs (belonging to Ruminococcaceae_UCG-014, Lachnoclostridium, Prevotellaceae_NK3B31 group, Prevotella_1) were negatively correlated with apparent EE digestibility (p < 0.05). The results suggest that weaned piglets fed with antibiotic-free diets supplemented with Fructus mume and Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi gained more weight and were healthier. When added to the diet, the complex of these two TCMs may have a direct impact on apparent EE digestibility by modifying the gut microbial composition, which favors the health of weaned piglets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes a numerical model to simulate the thermal characteristics of stratospheric airships (SA). This model introduces a simple yet accurate method for the selection of the optical bands for target detection based on multispectral features. The key to this model is the selection of the spectral bands in which a significant radiation difference exists between the target and its surrounding background. Using the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), detection probability, and false alarm rate as model evaluation metrics, and based on the analysis of the radiation differences between the target and atmospheric background, it is found that there are two narrow bands possible for SA detection: one with a central wavelength of 8.83 µm and a bandwidth of 0.35 µm and the other with a central wavelength of 11.51 µm and a bandwidth of 0.34 µm. Further numerical simulations and theoretical analyses under varying space environments demonstrate that considerable detection potential can be achieved; thus, the presented optical detection model is useful for the night detection of SA targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to provide insights into how various page views are influenced by public engagement with weather information and to shed light on the patterns of warning issuance across different seasons and regions, this study analyzes the multi-dimensional characteristics of city weather forecast page views and the spatiotemporal characteristics of early warning information in China, from 1 March 2020 to 31 August 2023. This is achieved by utilizing the daily page views of city weather forecasts and meteorological warning data, comparing the public's attention to weather during holidays versus regular days, assessing the public's attention to weather under different meteorological warning levels, and performing statistical analysis of the spatiotemporal scale of meteorological disasters. Our analysis shows that compared to weekends and holidays, the public pays more attention to the weather on weekdays, and the difference between weekdays and national statutory holidays is more significant. Due to the widespread impact of heat waves, typhoons, severe convective weather, and geological disasters caused by heavy rainfall, public awareness and participation in flood season weather forecasting have significantly increased. Under red alerts, flash floods, typhoons, and geological risks are the primary concerns. Orange alerts predominantly feature flash floods, rainstorms, typhoons, snowstorms, and cold waves, while sandstorms attract the most attention during yellow alerts. Droughts, however, receive relatively less attention regardless of the warning level. Seasonal patterns in the issuance of meteorological warnings reveal a peak in summer, particularly with typhoons and rainstorms being the main concerns in July, followed by high temperatures and additional typhoon warnings in August. Heavy sea surface wind warnings exhibit a strong seasonal trend, with the majority issued during the winter months. Regionally, southern China experiences the highest frequency of severe convection weather warnings, with provinces such as Jiangxi, Guangxi, and Hunan being the most affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomass pellets are a potential renewable and clean energy source. With the advantages of perfect combustion performance and easy storage and transport, biomass pellets have gradually replaced fossil fuels and become widely used. Rapid and accurate determination of biomass pellets' quality is critical to efficient energy use. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) combined with chemometric methods were utilized. The gross calorific value (CV) and ash content (Ash), volatile matter (VM) and fixed carbon (FC) were firstly measured and analyzed. LIBS spectra and their corresponding elements of biomass pellet samples were analyzed. Three quantitative analysis models for quality indexes including partial least-squares regression (PLSR), least squares-support vector machines (LS-SVM), extreme learning machines (ELM) were further built. All models performed well, especially the LS-SVM model which obtained the best determination results, with all R2 values over 0.95. Concurrently, the modeling performance of ash was slightly better than that of the other three quality indexes, which further confirmed the feasibility of using relevant elements to predict biomass quality indexes. The overall results indicated that LIBS coupled with suitable chemometrics could be an alternative promising method to determine quality indexes of biomass pellets and further improve energy utilization by using biomass materials with better quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The antioxidant activity of chitosan (CS) and three water-soluble derivatives was analyzed comparatively by in vitro and in vivo experiments, including hydroxypropyl chitosan (HPCS), quaternary ammonium salt of chitosan (HACC), and carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS). The results show that chitosan and its water-soluble derivatives have a scavenging ability on DPPH radicals, superoxide radicals, and hydroxyl radicals, and a reducing ability. A remarkable difference (p < 0.05) was found for HACC and HPCS compared with CS on DPPH radicals, hydroxyl radicals, and reducing ability. The antioxidant ability of the four chitosan samples was in the order of HPCS > HACC > CMCS > CS. Furthermore, antioxidant activity of all samples increased gradually in a concentration-dependent manner. The in vivo result indicates that oral CS and its derivatives samples result in a decrease in lipid peroxides (LPO) and free fatty acids (FFA) levels in serum with an increase in superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity. Especially for the HPCS and HACC groups, the LPO, FFA, and SOD activity in serum was different significantly in comparison with the high-fat controlgroup (HF) (p < 0.05). These results indicate that chitosan and its derivatives can be used as good antioxidants, and the antioxidant activity might be related to the molecular structure of chitosan derivatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In plants, the HAK (high-affinity K+)/KUP (K+ uptake)/KT (K+ transporter) family represents a large group of potassium transporters that play important roles in plant growth and environmental adaptation. Although HAK/KUP/KT genes have been extensively investigated in many plant species, they remain uncharacterized in wheat, especially those involved in the response to environmental stresses. In this study, 56 wheat HAK/KUP/KT (hereafter called TaHAKs) genes were identified by a genome-wide search using recently released wheat genomic data. Phylogenetic analysis grouped these genes into four clusters (Ι, II, III, IV), containing 22, 19, 7 and 8 genes, respectively. Chromosomal distribution, gene structure, and conserved motif analyses of the 56 TaHAK genes were subsequently performed. In silico RNA-seq data analysis revealed that TaHAKs from clusters II and III are constitutively expressed in various wheat tissues, while most genes from clusters I and IV have very low expression levels in the examined tissues at different developmental stages. qRT-PCR analysis showed that expression levels of TaHAK genes in wheat seedlings were significantly up- or downregulated when seedlings were exposed to K+ deficiency, high salinity, or dehydration. Furthermore, we functionally characterized TaHAK1b-2BL and showed that it facilitates K+ transport in yeast. Collectively, these results provide valuable information for further functional studies of TaHAKs, and contribute to a better understanding of the molecular basis of wheat development and stress tolerance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid detection of Cd content in soil is beneficial to the prevention of soil heavy metal pollution. In this study, we aimed at exploring the rapid quantitative detection ability of laser- induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) under the conditions of air and Ar for Cd in soil, and finding a fast and accurate method for quantitative detection of heavy metal elements in soil. Spectral intensity of Cd and system performance under air and Ar conditions were analyzed and compared. The univariate model and multivariate models of partial least-squares regression (PLSR) and least-squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) of Cd under the air and Ar conditions were built, and the LS-SVM model under the Ar condition obtained the best performance. In addition, the principle of influence of Ar on LIBS detection was investigated by analyzing the three-dimensional profile of the ablation crater. The overall results indicated that LIBS combined with LS-SVM under the Ar condition could be a useful tool for the accurate quantitative detection of Cd in soil and could provide reference for environmental monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the Quick Access Recorder (QAR) data covering over 9000 routes in China, the monthly and intra-day distribution characteristics of aircraft bumpiness at different levels were analyzed, and the relationships between the eddy dissipation rate (EDR) and other aircraft flight status elements during bumpiness occurrence were also analyzed. Afterward, aircraft bumpiness routes were constructed using 19 machine learning models. The analyses show that (1) aircraft bumpiness was mainly concentrated between 0:00 a.m. and 17:00 p.m. Severe aircraft bumpiness occurred more frequently in the early morning in January, especially between 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., and moderate bumpiness always occurred from 3:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. (2) The relationship between the left and right attack angles and aircraft bumpiness on the routes was more symmetrical, with a center at 0 degrees, unlike in the approach area where the hotspots were mainly concentrated in the range of −5 to 0 degrees. In the approach area, the larger the Mach number, the more severe the bumpiness. (3) The performances of the Automatic Relevance Determination Regression (ARD), Partial Least Squares Regression (PLS), Elastic-Net Regression (ENR), Classification and Regression Tree (CART), Passive Aggressive Regression (PAR), Random Forest (RF), Stochastic Gradient Descent Regression (SGD), and Tweedie Regression (TWD) based models were relatively good, while the performances of the Huber Regression (HUB), Least Angle Regression (LAR), Polynomial Regression (PLN), and Ridge Regressor (RR) based models were very poor. The aircraft bumpiness prediction models performed best over the approach area of ZBDT (airport in Datong), ZULS (airport in Lhasa), ZPPP (airport in Kunming), and ZLQY (airport in Qingyang). The model performed best in predicting the ZLLL-ZBDT air route (flight routes for Lanzhou to Datong) with different prediction times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese steamed bread (CSB) is a traditional food of the Chinese nation, and the preservation of its quality and freshness during storage is very important for its industrial production. Therefore, it is necessary to study the storage characteristics of CSB. Non-destructive CT technology was utilized to characterize and visualize the microstructure of CSB during storage, and also to further study of quality changes. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional images of CSBs were obtained through X-ray scanning and 3D reconstruction. Morphological parameters of the microstructure of CSBs were acquired based on CT image using image processing methods. Additionally, commonly used physicochemical indexes (hardness, flexibility, moisture content) for the quality evaluation of CSBs were analyzed. Moreover, a correlation analysis was conducted based on the three-dimensional morphological parameters and physicochemical indexes of CSBs. The results showed that three-dimensional morphological parameters of CSBs were negatively correlated with moisture content (Pearson correlation coefficient range−0.86~−0.97) and positively correlated with hardness (Pearson correlation coefficient range−0.87~0.99). The results indicate the inspiring capability of CT in the storage quality evaluation of CSB, providing a potential analytical method for the detection of quality and freshness in the industrial production of CSB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid detection of soil nutrient elements is beneficial to the evaluation of crop yield, and it’s of great significance in agricultural production. The aim of this work was to compare the detection ability of single-pulse (SP) and collinear double-pulse (DP) laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for soil nutrient elements and obtain an accurate and reliable method for rapid detection of soil nutrient elements. 63 soil samples were collected for SP and collinear DP signal acquisition, respectively. Macro-nutrients (K, Ca, Mg) and micro-nutrients (Fe, Mn, Na) were analyzed. Three main aspects of all elements were investigated, including spectral intensity, signal stability, and detection sensitivity. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and relative standard deviation (RSD) of elemental spectra were applied to evaluate the stability of SP and collinear DP signals. In terms of detection sensitivity, the performance of chemometrics models (univariate and multivariate analysis models) and the limit of detection (LOD) of elements were analyzed, and the results indicated that the DP-LIBS technique coupled with PLSR could be an accurate and reliable method in the quantitative determination of soil nutrient elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a common chronic inflammatory disease of the oral mucosa and considered a potential malignant disease, for which a method for complete cure is lacking. The dexamethasone and gentamicin mouthwash, combined with total glucosides of paeony (TGP), was tested in the treatment of OLP patients without fungal infection, with a view to provide evidence that may assist in resolving the dilemma. Methods: A randomized and single-blind clinical trial of 48 non-erosive and erosive OLP patients was conducted, with the patients divided into two groups. Group A was treated with dexamethasone plus gentamycin mouthwash and Group B received an additional TGP capsule together with the aforementioned mouthwash. All the patients were followed up with four times, at 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months. The clinical manifestations, sign score, and VAS scale were recorded. The total effective rate (%) was defined as (cases of complete resolution + cases of partial resolution)/total cases observed × 100%. Results: A total of 43 patients completed all follow-up appointments. Among the 21 patients in Group A, the total effective rate was 61.9%. Of the 22 patients in Group B, the total effective rate was 89.66%. The clinical manifestation, sign score, and VAS of the two groups all indicated improvements, and there were significant differences between the two groups (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Dexamethasone plus gentamycin mouthwash combined with TGP treatment for OLP patients is a safe and effective treatment of OLP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fast detection of toxic metals in crops is important for monitoring pollution and ensuring food safety. In this study, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was used to detect the chromium content in rice leaves. We investigated the influence of laser wavelength (532 nm and 1064 nm excitation), along with the variations of delay time, pulse energy, and lens-to-sample distance (LTSD), on the signal (sensitivity and stability) and plasma features (temperature and electron density). With the optimized experimental parameters, univariate analysis was used for quantifying the chromium content, and several preprocessing methods (including background normalization, area normalization, multiplicative scatter correction (MSC) transformation and standardized normal variate (SNV) transformation were used to further improve the analytical performance. The results indicated that 532 nm excitation showed better sensitivity than 1064 nm excitation, with a detection limit around two times lower. However, the prediction accuracy for both excitation wavelengths was similar. The best result, with a correlation coefficient of 0.9849, root-mean-square error of 3.89 mg/kg and detection limit of 2.72 mg/kg, was obtained using the SNV transformed signal (Cr I 425.43 nm) induced by 532 nm excitation. The results indicate the inspiring capability of LIBS for toxic metals detection in plant materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Ss) is a devastating fungal pathogen that causes Sclerotinia stem rot in rapeseed (Brassica napus), and is also detrimental to mulberry and many other crops. A wild mulberry germplasm, Morus laevigata, showed high resistance to Ss, but the molecular basis for the resistance is largely unknown. Here, the transcriptome response characteristics of M. laevigata to Ss infection were revealed by RNA-seq. A total of 833 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were detected after the Ss inoculation in the leaf of M. laevigata. After the GO terms and KEGG pathways enrichment analyses, 42 resistance-related genes were selected as core candidates from the upregulated DEGs. Their expression patterns were detected in the roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits of M. laevigata. Most of them (30/42) were specifically or mainly expressed in flowers, which was consistent with the fact that Ss mainly infects plants through floral organs, and indicated that Ss-resistance genes could be induced by pathogen inoculation on ectopic organs. After the Ss inoculation, these candidate genes were also induced in the two susceptible varieties of mulberry, but the responses of most of them were much slower with lower extents. Based on the expression patterns and functional annotation of the 42 candidate genes, we cloned the full-length gDNA and cDNA sequences of the Ss-inducible chitinase gene set (MlChi family). Phylogenetic tree construction, protein interaction network prediction, and gene expression analysis revealed their special roles in response to Ss infection. In prokaryotic expression, their protein products were all in the form of an inclusion body. Our results will help in the understanding of the molecular basis of Ss-resistance in M. laevigata, and the isolated MlChi genes are candidates for the improvement in plant Ss-resistance via biotechnology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]