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Nighttime dehazing is a challenging ill-posed problem due to the severe haze pollution and color attenuation. Since available daytime dehazing approaches cannot be consistently adapted to the nighttime case, this paper specifically designs representation learning to enhance an end-to-end nighttime dehazing network. To explore attentive and problem-driven representations, we propose to realize effective learning via knowledge distillation together with neural architecture search (NAS), which are implemented via two parallel branches of networks, namely, representation learning network (RLN) and guided dehazing network (GDN). The challenges in nighttime dehazing come from distilling the clear elements from the hazy representation and the restoration of real color from ambient illumination or low light condition. To this end, we introduce the subnetwork of RLN to learn the feature of the clear elements of the ground truth. We specifically introduce a NAS for exploring the color subspace of the latent embedding space of both RLN and GDN. With the guidance from the representation learned by RLN, GDN could well learn the clear elements from the hazy image and recover the real color of it effectively. Extensive experimental results on the synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrate the superiority of our method over the state-of-the-arts in nighttime dehazing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: A prerequisite for the successful application of phytoliths in paleoenvironmental reconstruction is the correct interpretation of their environmental significance. In this context, key questions include: What magnitude of temperature/precipitation change is required to effect significant changes in surface soil phytolith percentages? When temperature/precipitation increases by a certain amount, what is the corresponding response of the percentages and assemblages of surface soil phytoliths? Additional detailed research is required to answer these questions. Materials and methods: We analyzed the phytoliths in 90 surface soil samples collected along the isohyets corresponding to the mean annual precipitation (MAP) of 400 mm (with the mean annual temperature (MAT) range of 3.24℃) and 600 mm (with the MAT range of 8.29℃) in Northeast China. Our objective was to determine the response of phytoliths to different temperature gradients. Soil phytoliths were extracted and identified using heavy liquid separation and microscope observations. Results: The DA of the phytolith percentages enabled the separation of samples collected along the two isohyets, with a total accuracy of 94.44%. MAT was the principal factor affecting the spatial distribution of phytoliths, with an explanation rate of 46.40%. In the surface soil samples collected along the two isohyets, the percentages of ELONGATE, ACUTE BULBOSUS, and PTERIDOPHYTE-TYPE morphotypes, were significantly negatively correlated with MAT, while the percentages of SQUARE were significantly positively correlated with MAT. However, the relationship between PAPILLATE percentages and MAT varied, showing both positive and negative correlations. A temperature gradient of ~ 3℃ was insufficient to significantly affect the percentages of SADDLE, BULLIFORM FLABELLATE, and BILOBATE. The phytolith index (C/W) can be effectively used to reconstruct the palaeoclimate in Northeast China. An MAP change of 200 mm resulted in significant changes in the percentages of ELONGATE, SADDLE, BULLIFORM FLABELLATE, and TRACHEARY (with the respective rates of 39.57%, 780.77%, 179.00% and 81.25%). However, the percentages of ACUTE BULBOSUS, SQUARE, RONDEL, BILOBATE, CRENATE, PTERIDOPHYTE-TYPE, SILICIFIED STOMATA, and PAPILLATE did not change significantly. Conclusions: Our results contribute to an improved understanding of the response of various phytolith morphotypes to temperature, and they provide a modern process basis for future phytolith-based paleoclimatic reconstruction in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of aerospace electronics towards lightweight and miniaturized designs has put forward higher requirements for the reliability of device interconnection. It is crucial to study the effects of space radiation and thermal cycle environments on the performance of micro-solder joints. This study uses experimental and simulation methods to study the comprehensive effects of electron irradiation and thermal cycling on the mechanical and electrical properties of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu (SAC305) micro-solder joints. The results show that the combined effect of electron irradiation at a dose of 100 Mrad(Si) and 200 thermal cycles causes the operating temperature of the resistor in the sample to increase while severely reducing the shear strength of the solder joint. Two fracture modes, brittle and plastic, are observed in solder joints during the shearing process. As the number of thermal cycles increases, the proportion of plastic fracture increases. The combined effects of electron irradiation and thermal cycling exacerbate the deterioration of the shear strength of solder joints, with the shear strength of solder joints with brittle fractures decreasing by 28.00% and those with plastic fractures decreasing by 23.34%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the shift of coal seam mining to the deep, the in-situ stress of coal and rock mass increases gradually. High ground stress can limit the generation of rock cracks caused by blasting, and blasting usually shows different crushing states than low stress conditions. In order to study the blasting expansion rule of rock mass with cavity under high ground stress and the rock mass fracture state under different side stress coefficients. In this paper, the effective range of blasting and the stress distribution under blasting load are analyzed theoretically. The RHT (Riedel-Hiermaier-Thoma) model is used to numerically simulate the blasting process of rock mass with cavity under different ground stress, and the influence of ground stress and lateral pressure coefficient on the crack growth of rock mass is studied. The results show that when there is no ground stress, the damage cracks in rock mass are more concentrated in the horizontal direction and the fracture development tends to the direction where the holes are located, which confirms the guiding effect and stress concentration effect of the holes in rock mass, which helps to promote the crack penetration between the hole and the hole. The length difference of horizontal and vertical damage cracks in rock mass increases with the increase of horizontal and vertical stress difference. Under the same lateral stress coefficient, the larger the horizontal and vertical stress difference is, the stronger the inhibition effect on crack formation is. For blasting of rock mass with high ground stress, the crack formation length between gun holes decreases with the increase of stress level, and the crack extends preferentially in the direction of higher stress. Therefore, the placement of gun holes along the direction of greater stress and the shortening of hole spacing are conducive to the penetration of cracks between gun holes and empty holes. The research can provide reference for rock breaking behavior of deep rock mass blasting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Video action recognition with semi-supervised learning is a challenging research topic due to the low-labeling ratio. Previous works mainly tackle the problem with two kinds of approaches: pseudo labeling and contrastive learning. Different from existing approaches that often treat the two parts separately, we propose an integrated learning framework that incorporates pseudo labeling and contrastive clustering in a coherent and mutually beneficial way. On one hand, the contrastive learning aggregates data from the same class into clusters, yielding more reliable pseudo labels for training the classifier; on the other hand, the re-trained classifier predicts categories for unlabeled data, thereby guiding contrastive learning to establish discriminative representations. We theoretically prove that the two iterative operations can be formulated as an E-M algorithm and validate its generalization ability upon the semi-supervised classification task with experiments. Specifically, we construct a MoCo-like structure to implement the proposed learning framework and explore the potential of employing the video tramsformer for semi-supervised action recognition. Furthermore, We also devise a global-local view sampling strategy for video data augmentation, which verifies to facilitate the representation learning and advance the performance. We implement extensive experiments on three video action recognition datasets with a series of data labeling ratios. Compared with state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods, the proposed approach achieves superior or competitive performances. For example, with 1 % labeling ratio, the top-1 accuracy increase to 49.1 % and 52.4 % on UCF-101 and Kinetics-400 datasets, respectively, surpassing SOTA by 2.8 % and 3.3 % . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Garlic has long been used as an antimicrobial spice and herbal remedy. The aim of this study was to isolate the antimicrobial agent in garlic water extract against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and investigate its antimicrobial mechanism. By an activity-guided separation, garlic lectin-derived peptides (GLDPs) with main molecular weight of around 12 kDa were extracted by liquid nitrogen grinding and identified with high bactericidal activity toward S. aureus, and the MIC was determined as 24.38 μg/mL. In-gel digestion-based proteomic analysis indicated that the peptide sequences were highly identical to the B strain of garlic protein lectin II. Structure analysis suggested that the secondary structure was strongly affected by lyophilization and thus resulted in the inactivation of GLDPs (P < 0.05). Mechanism study revealed that treatment of GLDPs resulted in cell membrane depolarization in a dose-dependent manner, and the disruptions of the cell wall and membrane integrities were observed under electric microscopies. GLDPs could successfully dock with cell wall component lipoteichoic acid (LTA) via van der Waals and conventional bonds in molecular docking analysis. These results suggested that GLDPs were responsible for the S. aureus targeting activity and might be promising candidates for antibiotic development against bacterial infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SoxB subfamily is an important branch of Sox family and plays a key role in animal physiological process, but little is known about their function in planarian regeneration. This study aims to evaluate the function of DjSoxB family genes in intact and regenerating planarians Dugesia japonica. Here, we amplify the full-length cDNA of DjSoxB1 and DjSoxB2 in D. japonica by rapid amplification of the cDNA ends (RACE), detect the expression of DjSoxB family genes in planarian. The results show that DjSoxBs are expressed in parenchymal tissue and the hybridization signals partially disappear after irradiation indicates DjSoxB family genes are expressed in neoblasts. After the RNA interference (RNAi) of DjSoxB1, DjSoxB2 and DjSoxB3 separately, the numbers of proliferative cells are all reduced that causes planarians show slower growth of blastema in the early stage of regeneration, and nerves of planarians are affected that the movement speed of planarians decreases in varying degrees. Specially, planarians in the DjSoxB3 RNAi group show shrinkage and twisting. Overall, this study reveals that DjSoxB family genes play a role in cell proliferation during regeneration. They also play an important role in the maintenance of normal nerve function and nerve regeneration. These results provide directions for the functional study of SoxB family genes and provide an important foundation for planarian regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

​Thermal deformation during soldering between the chip and the substrate is an important factor affecting the quality of high-density packaging of organic circuit boards. This study proposes a low-temperature pre-connection, package reinforcement, and secondary reflow process based on SAC305 and Sn-58Bi solders, which melts SnBi solder paste at a minimum temperature of 150 °C to connect the SAC305 solder ball and the substrates initially. In the subsequent packaging process, the composite solder joint undergoes a second high-temperature soldering process. Due to the reinforcement of the package structures, the deformation of the substrate at high temperatures is limited. This study investigates the effects of different pre-soldering temperatures on the microstructure and shear behavior of composite solder joints before and after secondary soldering. The results show that the boundary between the SAC region and the mixed region can be clearly observed in the pre-soldered joint. As the temperature increases, the melting degree of the SAC305 solder ball intensifies, and the area of the mixed microstructure increases. In the shear test, the average shear strength of the pre-soldered joints was about 50 MPa. As the pre-soldering temperature increased, the fracture mode changed from composite fracture to brittle fracture. After secondary reflow at 260 °C, SAC305 and Sn-58Bi were completely melted and fully mixed, and each phase was evenly distributed in the solder joints. The average shear strength increased to about 60 MPa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the problem of single-image haze removal based on retinex model and new deep retinex decomposition architecture. Reformulating dehazing as reverse retinex, we propose a depth-guided retinex decomposition network, which consists of the Decom-Net, with two-branches for the retinex decomposition on the reversed hazy image, and the Guide-Net, with depth information for guiding the estimation of ideal illumination. To promote the accuracy of retinex decomposition, we develop an effective boosted decoder with a fusion attention mechanism to optimize the illumination iteratively, giving rise to a refined reflectance. Additionally, due to the reversible relationship between haze and low-light images, our network could effectively realize dehazing in nighttime. Through sets of experiments on a variety of synthetic and natural images, we validate the effectiveness of the proposed model in haze removal, competitively in terms of visual appearance and metrics, considering both daytime and nighttime cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MoS2 has attracted intense interest in many applications. Natural MoS2 and field-effect transistors made of it generally exhibit n-type characteristics, but its origin is unknown. Herein, we show that C is the origin of the universal n-type doping of natural MoS2. Photoemission spectroscopies reveal that while many MoS2 samples with C detected are n-type, some without C exhibit p-type characteristics. The C-free, p-type MoS2 changes to n-type over time with the concurrent appearance of C that is out-diffused from bulk, indicating that C induces the n-type doping. The C-origin is verified by C-deposition and supported by theoretical calculations. This carbon appears as nanometer-scale defects frequently observed in scanning tunneling microscopy. In addition, we propose, based on the calculations, that S vacancies are responsible for the p-type characteristics, which contrasts with the widespread belief. This work provides new perspectives on MoS2 doping and presents a new direction for fabricating reliable MoS2 devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Osteoporosis is often considered to be a disease of women. Over the last few years, owing to the increasing clinical and economic burden, the awareness and imperative for identifying and managing osteoporosis in men have increased substantially. With the approval of agents to treat men with osteoporosis, more economic evaluations have been conducted to assess the potential economic benefits of these interventions. Despite this concern, there is no specific overview of cost-effectiveness analyses for the treatment of osteoporosis in men. Objectives: This study aims (1) to systematically review economic evaluations of interventions for osteoporosis in men; (2) to critically appraise the quality of included studies and the source of model input data; and (3) to investigate the comparability of results for studies including both men and women. Methods: A literature search mainly using MEDLINE (via Ovid) and Embase databases was undertaken to identify original articles published between 1 January, 2000 and 30 June, 2022. Studies that assessed the cost effectiveness of interventions for osteoporosis in men were included. The Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases and the International Osteoporosis Foundation osteoporosis-specific guideline was used to assess the quality of design, conduct, and reporting of included studies. Results: Of 2973 articles identified, 25 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria, classified into economic evaluations of active drugs (n = 8) or nutritional supplements (n = 4), intervention thresholds (n = 5), screening strategies (n = 6), and post-fracture care programs (n = 2). Most studies were conducted in European countries (n = 15), followed by North America (n = 9). Bisphosphonates (namely alendronate) and nutritional supplements were shown to be generally cost effective compared with no treatment in men over 60 years of age with osteoporosis or prior fractures. Two other studies suggested that denosumab was cost effective in men aged 75 years and older with osteoporosis compared with bisphosphates and teriparatide. Intervention thresholds at which bisphosphonates were found to be cost effective varied among studies with a 10-year probability of a major osteoporotic fracture that ranged from 8.9 to 34.2% for different age categories. A few studies suggested cost effectiveness of screening strategies and post-fracture care programs in men. Similar findings regarding the cost effectiveness of drugs and intervention thresholds in women and men were captured, with slightly greater incremental cost-effectiveness ratios in men. The quality of the studies included had an average score of 18.8 out of 25 (range 13–23.5). Hip fracture incidence and mortality risk were mainly derived from studies in men, while fracture cost, treatment efficacy, and disutility were commonly derived from studies in women or studies combining both sexes. Conclusions: Anti-osteoporosis drugs and nutritional supplements are generally cost effective in men with osteoporosis. Screening strategies and post-fracture care programs also showed economic benefits for men. Cost-effectiveness and intervention thresholds were generally similar in studies conducted in both men and women, with slightly greater incremental cost-effectiveness ratios in men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, endorhizospheric microbiota is realized to be able to promote the secondary metabolism in medicinal plants, but the detailed metabolic regulation metabolisms and whether the promotion is influenced by environmental factors are unclear yet. Here, the major flavonoids and endophytic bacterial communities in various Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch. roots collected from seven distinct places in northwest China, as well as the edaphic conditions, were characterized and analyzed. It was found that the soil moisture and temperature might modulate the secondary metabolism in G. uralensis roots partially through some endophytes. One rationally isolated endophyte Rhizobium rhizolycopersici GUH21 was proved to promote the accumulation of isoliquiritin and glycyrrhizic acid significantly in roots of the potted G. uralensis under the relatively high-level watering and low temperature. Furthermore, we did the comparative transcriptome analysis of G. uralensis seedling roots in different treatments to investigate the detailed mechanisms of the environment-endophyte-plant interactions and found that the low temperature went hand in hand with the high-level watering to activate the aglycone biosynthesis in G. uralensis, while GUH21 and the high-level watering cooperatively promoted the in planta glucosyl unit production. Our study is of significance for the development of methods to rationally promote the medicinal plant quality. Key points: • Soil temperature and moisture related to isoliquiritin contents in Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch. • Soil temperature and moisture related to the hosts' endophytic bacterial community structures. • The causal relation among abiotic factors—endophytes—host was proved through the pot experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This study is a model-based cost-effectiveness analysis of fracture liaison services (FLS) in China, suggesting that FLS could potentially lead to lifetime cost-saving in patients who have experienced a fracture. However, Chinese-specific real-world data is needed to confirm the results of our study. Purpose: The study aimed to assess the potential cost-effectiveness of fracture liaison services (FLS) from the Chinese healthcare perspective with a lifetime horizon. Methods: A previously validated Markov microsimulation model was adapted to estimate the cost-effectiveness of FLS compared to no-FLS. The evaluation was conducted in patients aged 65 years with a recent fracture. Treatment pathways were differentiated by gender, FLS attendance, osteoporosis diagnosis, treatment initiation, and adherence. Given the uncertainty in FLS cost, the cost in the base-case analysis was assumed at US$200. Analyses were also performed to determine the maximum cost for making the FLS cost-saving and cost-effective at the Chinese willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold. One-way sensitivity analyses were conducted. Results: When compared with no-FLS, the FLS was dominant (lower costs, higher quality-adjusted life years) in our target population at the FLS cost of US$200 per patient. For every 100 patients who were admitted to the FLS, approximately four hip fractures, nine clinical vertebral fractures, and three wrist fractures would be avoided over their lifetimes. Our findings were robust to numerous one-way sensitivity analyses; however, the FLS was not cost-effective in patients aged 80 years and older. Conclusion: FLS could potentially lead to lifetime cost-saving in patients who have experienced a fracture. Our study informs the potential cost-effectiveness of FLS and the knowledge gap in China; more future research incorporating Chinese-specific real-world data are needed to confirm the results of our study and to better evaluate the cost-effectiveness of FLS in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The new essential tremor (ET)-plus nomenclature was proposed by the 2018 Tremor Consensus Criteria. However, few studies have adopted this usage and the clinical differences between ET and ET-plus remains unclear. To address this issue, we reclassified and compared the characteristics of ET and ET-plus patients in a large Chinese tremor cohort. Methods: In this cross-sectional observational study, 766 patients originally diagnosed with ET underwent neurological examination. Scale ratings were used to evaluate motor and non-motor symptoms, and quality of life (QoL). We then reclassified the ET cohort and compared demographic and clinical characteristics between ET and ET-plus patients. A logistic regression analysis was used to explore whether the presence of neurological soft signs in ET-plus was associated with tremor severity or QoL. Results: Among 665 clinically confirmed ET syndrome patients, 274 were ET and 391 were ET-plus. The most prevalent neurological soft sign was resting tremor. ET-plus patients were older, had older age at onset and longer disease duration. ET-plus patients recorded higher scores in tremor severity evaluations and lower in cognitive evaluations, whereas a higher proportion of patients presented with depression or anxiety symptoms. Resting tremor and questionable cerebellar signs were associated with tremor severity. Cognitive impairment was associated with worse QoL. Conclusions: ET-plus patients were older, had longer disease durations, worse tremor manifestations, and more distinct non-motor symptoms. Certain additional soft signs of ET-plus were associated with tremor severity or worse QoL. ET-plus patients may include advanced ET patients with additional neurological soft signs presenting along with disease progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Freezing of gait (FOG) is a common disabling gait disturbance in Parkinson's disease (PD). The objectives of this study were to explore alterations in the topological organization of whole-brain functional networks in patients with PD who will develop FOG. Methods: We recruited 20 patients with PD who developed FOG (PD-FOGt) during a 5-year follow-up period, 20 patients with PD who did not developed FOG (PD-FOGn) within the follow-up period, and 20 healthy control subjects. Using graph theory approaches, we performed a comparative analysis of the topological organization of whole-brain functional networks among the groups, and further explored their potential relationships with latency to develop FOG. Results: At baseline, the global topological properties of functional brain networks in PD-FOGt and PD-FOGn showed no abnormalities. Additionally, regarding regional topological properties, compared with PD-FOGn patients, PD-FOGt patients exhibited decreased nodal centrality in the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG). Although there were no significant differences compared with PD-FOGn patients, the PD-FOGt group exhibited the lowest nodal centrality values in the frontal cortex (left gyrus rectus), and visual cortex (bilateral inferior occipital gyrus and left fusiform gyrus), and the highest nodal centrality values in the cerebellum (vermis_6) among the three groups. However, no relationship was found between the nodal centrality in above brain regions and latency to develop FOG. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the disrupted regional topological organization might contribute to the future development of FOG in PD patients, especially associated with damage to the left MFG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to solve the issues of caking, loss, and effluent color reversion in the application of traditional microelectrolysis, the iron-walnut shell powder microelectrolytic spherical filler was developed in this paper. The filler was prepared by walnut shell powder, iron powder, sodium silicate, and sodium humate activated by ZnCl2 as raw materials and calcined at high temperature. The effects of the mass ratios of Fe to walnut shell powder, sodium silicate content, sodium humate content, calcination temperature, and time on the removal rate of methylene blue by the spherical fillers were investigated, so as to determine the optimal preparation conditions of the spherical fillers. The pore-forming structure and the composition of the spherical fillers were also analyzed by an X-ray diffractometer (XRD), a scanning electron microscope (SEM), and an energy spectrometer (EDS). The results show that the optimal preparation conditions for the spherical fillers of 5 mm are as follows: the mass ratio of iron powder to walnut shell powder treated by 15% ZnCl2 is 1:1, sodium silicate is 15%, sodium humate is 20%, the calcination temperature is 800 °C, and the calcination time is 3 h. Compared with the conventional microelectrolysis, the removal rate of methylene blue by the spherical fillers can finally reach the same level as it did, and the phenomena of the filler hardening and clogging can be avoided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, tensor ring networks (TRNs) have been applied in deep networks, achieving remarkable successes in compression ratio and accuracy. Although highly related to the performance of TRNs, rank selection is seldom studied in previous works and usually set to equal in experiments. Meanwhile, there is not any heuristic method to choose the rank, and an enumerating way to find appropriate rank is extremely time-consuming. Interestingly, we discover that part of the rank elements is sensitive and usually aggregate in a narrow region, namely an interest region. Therefore, based on the above phenomenon, we propose a novel progressive genetic algorithm named progressively searching tensor ring network search (PSTRN), which has the ability to find optimal rank precisely and efficiently. Through the evolutionary phase and progressive phase, PSTRN can converge to the interest region quickly and harvest good performance. Experimental results show that PSTRN can significantly reduce the complexity of seeking rank, compared with the enumerating method. Furthermore, our method is validated on public benchmarks like MNIST, CIFAR10/100, UCF11 and HMDB51, achieving the state-of-the-art performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Bariatric surgery is the most effective therapy for obesity, but targeted weight reduction is not always achieved. Serum lipocalin-2 (LCN2) is closely associated with obesity, but its impact on weight loss after surgery is unknown. We aimed to access the reliability of LCN2 levels and other parameters as effective predictors of excellent weight loss (≥ 75% excess weight loss (EWL)) 1 year after bariatric surgery. Methods: This retrospective study evaluated 450 patients (aged 18–65 years) with obesity at 3 months and 1 year after laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) surgery. Seventy-four patients who underwent LSG surgery and met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in this study. Serum LCN2, thyroid function, and metabolic and anthropometric parameters were assessed. Weight reduction was expressed as %EWL and percent total weight loss (%TWL) at 3 months and 1 year post surgery. Multivariable logistic regression analysis and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were used to evaluate predictors of ≥ 75%EWL. Results: In our cohort, %EWL and %TWL were both strongly associated with preoperative serum LCN2 levels. The binary logistic regression analysis showed that preoperative LCN2, waist circumference, and glycated hemoglobin were independent predictors of excellent weight loss. Conclusions: Based on these results, we determined a new P index with better predictive value for excellent weight reduction (≥ 75%EWL) 1 year after LSG surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breeding rice (Oryza sativa L.) with high yield, superior quality, desired grain shape and high resistance is the goal of breeding to meet the needs of current consumers. It is usually hard to combine multiple complex traits based on traditional breeding methods because they are frequently antagonistic to each other. However, molecular design breeding, as a novel breeding method, is an optional alternative to this challenge. To demonstrate molecular design breeding, 15 favorable genes from five parent lines were pyramided together to develop elite rice with high-yield, superior-quality, desired grain shape and high resistance to brown planthopper (BPH). The parental lines were 9311, the recurrent parent, carrying APO1, Ghd7, Ghd8 and Gn1a for high yield, GS3 and qSW5 for grain shape, and Wx and ALK for eating and cooking quality; 1880 with Gn8.1 for large panicles; Luo-Yu-Xiang carrying GW7 for grain shape and SBE3, SSIV2 and SSIII for eating and cooking quality; Luoyang6 with Bph6 and Luoyang9 with Bph9 for BPH resistance. After careful screening for the 15 targeted genes, desired phenotype and maximum genetic background from 9311, three molecular design lines with desired phenotypes, named as MD1 (Molecular design 1), MD2 and MD3 were developed. MD3 carried all 15 targeted genes, and MD1 and MD2 had 14 of the 15 targeted genes. Only SBE3 was not introgressed into MD1 and MD2 but this had minimal impact on the gel consistency and alkali spreading value. These newly bred lines exhibited higher yield potential, better grain quality with slender grains, low amylose content, high gel consistency and alkali spreading value, and higher BPH resistance compared to the parent 9311. In this study, we successfully created three novel rice lines with high yield, superior quality and improved BPH resistance by rational molecular design. Our results demonstrate molecular design is a powerful strategy to improve multiple complex traits and will provide a reference for the future commercial rice improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate the proportion and clinical characteristics of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in Chinese patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) through home sleep apnea test (HSAT) and to evaluate the reproductive endocrine and metabolic characteristics in these patients. Methods: The study was a cross-sectional analysis of infertile PCOS patients who underwent sleep respiratory monitoring between January and December 2019 at Peking University Third Hospital Reproductive Medical Center and respiratory and critical care medicine department. The prevalence of OSA, body mass index (BMI), menstruation, reproductive endocrine, and metabolic characteristics were collected in patients with PCOS. Logistic regression was performed to identify significant relationships among these factors and OSA. Results: Amont 328 patients with PCOS, the prevalence of OSA was 40% (131/328), and six cases (5%) were severe. Univariate analysis showed that BMI and blood pressure were significantly higher in patients with OSA than in those without OSA (P < 0.05), whereas the anti-Mullerian hormone was lower than that in patients without OSA. In terms of glucose and lipid metabolism, the glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), fasting plasma glucose, and fasting insulin levels were significantly higher in patients with PCOS and comorbid OSA than in those without OSA (all P < 0.05). Patients with OSA also had higher triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein levels and lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels (P < 0.05). Logistic regression analysis revealed that higher BMI, elevated serum testosterone, and decreased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) are correlated with occurrence of OSA (P < 0.05). Conclusion: OSA in patients with PCOS was associated with multiple alterations in indexes of reproductive endocrine and metabolic disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Two scoping reviews were conducted to review recommendations and guidelines for communication regarding general health risk, and to investigate communication strategies regarding risk of fracture. Healthcare professionals are invited to apply these recommendations to optimize a patient-centered approach to reducing risk of fracture. Introduction : To conduct a scoping review of the medical literature regarding recommendations and tools for effective communication between healthcare professionals and patients regarding general health risk and risk of fracture. Methods: The scoping review was divided into two parts to search for (1) studies presenting recommendations and guidelines for communication regarding general health risk; (2) studies investigating communication regarding risk of fracture for individuals at risk for fractures. Medline was searched in April 2020 to identify relevant studies. Results: The scoping review included 43 studies on communication with regard to general health risk and 25 studies about communication regarding risk of fracture. Recommendations for effective communication with regard to risk are presented. Communication of numeric data on risk should be adapted to the literacy and numeracy levels of the individual patient. Patient understanding of numerical data can be enhanced with appropriate use of visual aids (e.g., pie charts, icon arrays, bar charts, pictograms). The FRAX® tool is the most recommended and most used tool for assessing risk of fracture. Communication sent as individualized letters to patients following DXA scans has been studied, although patient understanding of their risk of fracture is often reported as low using this technique. Use of visual aids may improve patient understanding. Conclusion: Healthcare professionals are encouraged to apply recommendations presented in this scoping review in their clinical practice. Patient understanding of risk of fracture should be confirmed by making sure that patients feel free to ask questions and express their concerns. This will contribute to an optimal patient-centered approach. Developing online tools to convert the probability of fracture into patient-friendly visual presentations could facilitate communication between healthcare professionals and patients about risk of fracture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to investigate the physicochemical properties and bioactivities of AgNPs prepared using green and chemical approaches and further explore the related antibacterial mechanism, one kind of chemical AgNPs (C-AgNPs) and three kinds of green AgNPs (G-AgNPs) mediated with aqueous extracts of Morus alba L. were prepared and characterized. All G-AgNPs displayed higher antioxidant activities in DPPH radical scavenging, reducing power and total antioxidant assays than C-AgNPs and extracts. Meanwhile, all G-AgNPs exerted significantly (P < 0.05) enhanced antimicrobial activities against various pathogens compared with C-AgNPs and extracts. Among prepared AgNPs, ML-AgNPs mediated with aqueous extract of Morus alba L. leaves exhibited the most powerful antibacterial effect with the largest inhibition zones (13.11 ± 0.76 mm for S. aureus, 13.27 ± 0.22 mm for E. coli) and the lowest minimum inhibition concentrations against S. aureus (6.125 μg/ml) and E. coli (3.125 μg/ml). ML-AgNPs could inhibit the growths of S. aureus and E. coli in time- and dose-dependent modes, and even could disrupt the bacterial structure integrality resulting in the leakage of intracellular contents. G-AgNPs, especially ML-AgNPs, with remarkable bioactivities could replace C-AgNPs as related agents applied in agriculture and medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image inpainting and denoising are two important preprocessing steps widely used in image and visual analysis. In this paper, by the maximum a posterior estimation, we present a new framework to remove multiplicative noise and artifacts simultaneously, when the locations of the artifacts/damaged pixels are unknown. By taking into account the statistical distribution of multiplicative noise as Gamma or Rayleigh noise, we give the special data fidelity term. To suppress the noise and repair the missing intensities, the proposed method applies spatial regularization to the desirable image, and ℓ 0 norm regularization to the artifacts. We introduce three typical spatial regularization: total variation, second-order total generalized variation (TGV) and fractional-order total variation (FOTV) for smoothing images. Due to the non-convexity and non-differentiability of the proposed minimization problem, we introduce additional auxiliary variables to simplify the original problem, and then use the alternating direction method of multipliers to solve it. A set of experiments on synthetic images and real medical ultrasound images show that the proposed method can efficiently remove the multiplicative noise, and more importantly fill in the missing pixels very well. Compared to other similar method, the TGV and FOTV regularization can not only preserve edges and texture details of the image but also avoid the staircase effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While previous structural-covariance studies have an advanced understanding of brain alterations in Parkinson's disease (PD), brain–behavior relationships have not been examined at the individual level. This study investigated the topological organization of grey matter (GM) networks, their relation to disease severity, and their potential imaging diagnostic value in PD. Fifty-four early-stage PD patients and 54 healthy controls (HC) underwent structural T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. GM networks were constructed by estimating interregional similarity in the distributions of regional GM volume using the Kullback–Leibler divergence measure. Results were analyzed using graph theory and network-based statistics (NBS), and the relationship to disease severity was assessed. Exploratory support vector machine analyses were conducted to discriminate PD patients from HC and different motor subtypes. Compared with HC, GM networks in PD showed a higher clustering coefficient (P = 0.014) and local efficiency (P = 0.014). Locally, nodal centralities in PD were lower in postcentral gyrus and temporal-occipital regions, and higher in right superior frontal gyrus and left putamen. NBS analysis revealed decreased morphological connections in the sensorimotor and default mode networks and increased connections in the salience and frontoparietal networks in PD. Connection matrices and graph-based metrics allowed single-subject classification of PD and HC with significant accuracy of 73.1 and 72.7%, respectively, while graph-based metrics allowed single-subject classification of tremor-dominant and akinetic–rigid motor subtypes with significant accuracy of 67.0%. The topological organization of GM networks was disrupted in early-stage PD in a way that suggests greater segregation of information processing. There is potential for application to early imaging diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonmotor symptoms in patients with multiple system atrophy (MSA) have received an increasing amount of attention in recent years, but no research on MSA patients' cognitive characteristics has been conducted in China. To evaluate the cognitive function of MSA patients in China. Using a case–control study design, 256 MSA patients and 64 controls were evaluated by the Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA) scale to characterize their cognitive function. Like the controls, 60.5% of the patients with MSA had cognitive impairment, but the characteristics of cognitive impairment between the two groups were different. The cognitive impairment in MSA patients was prominent in the cognitive domains of visuospatial/executive functions, naming, attention, and orientation; particularly, the visuospatial/executive functions were the most significantly impaired, while impairment in language function was mainly seen in the controls. Besides, impairments in visuospatial/executive functions, attention, language, and orientation were more prominent in MSA-P (MSA with predominant Parkinsonism) patients than in MSA-C (MSA with predominant cerebellar ataxia). The cognitive impairments were more severe in patients with probable MSA than in patients with possible MSA. In addition, the results showed that the level of cognitive function was negatively correlated with the severity of MSA. This study, which characterized the cognitive function of MSA patients with the largest sample size known so far in China, found that patients with MSA do have cognitive impairment and display specific characteristics. Therefore, the cognitive impairment of MSA should be paid more attention. The study has been registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) (Registration No: ChiCTR1900022462). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Considering the heavy economic burden of osteoporotic fractures, the limits of healthcare resources, and the recent availability of new anti-osteoporosis drugs, there is continuing interest in economic evaluation studies of osteoporosis management strategies. Objectives: This study aims to (1) systematically review recent economic evaluations of drugs for osteoporosis and (2) to apply an osteoporosis-specific guideline to critically appraise them. Methods: A literature search was undertaken using PubMed, EMBASE, National Health Service Economic Evaluation database, and the Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Registry to identify original articles containing economic evaluations of anti-osteoporosis drugs, published between 1 July, 2013 and 31 December, 2019. A recent European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases-International Osteoporosis Foundation (ESCEO-IOF) guideline for the conduct and reporting of economic evaluations in osteoporosis was used to assess the quality of included articles. Results: The database search retrieved 3860 records, of which 27 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria. These studies were conducted in 15 countries; 12 active drugs were assessed, including various traditional pharmacological treatments such as bisphosphonates, raloxifene, strontium ranelate, denosumab, and teriparatide, and new agents such as abaloparatide, romosozumab, and gastro-resistant risedronate. Eight out of 12 studies that compared traditional oral bisphosphonates to other active interventions (denosumab, zoledronic acid, gastro-resistant risedronate, and teriparatide) suggested that the other active agents were generally cost-effective or dominant. Additionally, the cost-effectiveness of sequential therapy has recently been assessed and indications are that it can lead to extra health benefits (larger gains in quality-adjusted life-year). The key drivers of cost effectiveness included baseline fracture risk, drug effect on the risk of fractures, drug cost, and medication adherence/persistence. The current average score for quality assessment was 17 out of 25 (range 2–15); room for improvement was observed for most studies, which could potentially be explained by the fact that most studies were published prior to the osteoporosis-specific guideline. Greater adherence to guideline recommendations was expected for future studies. The quality of reporting was also suboptimal, especially with regard to treatment side effects, treatment effect after discontinuation, and medication adherence. Conclusions: This updated review provides an overview of recently published cost-effectiveness analyses. In comparison with a previous review, recent economic evaluations of anti-osteoporosis drugs were conducted in more countries and included more active drugs and sequential therapy as interventions/comparators. The updated economic evidence could help decision makers prioritize health interventions and the unmet/unreported quality issues indicated by the osteoporosis-specific guideline could be useful in improving the transparency, quality, and comparability of future economic evaluations in osteoporosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: Although phytolith analysis is a promising tool for reconstructing the palaeovegetation in grassland ecosystems, no phytolith study has yet attempted to quantitatively reconstruct the corresponding plant community characteristics. Questions remain regarding whether or not soil phytoliths can quantitatively reflect various aspects of grassland physiognomy, and how well modern phytoliths represent the quantitative characteristics of grassland ecosystems. These are important scientific issues in the field of phytolith analysis, which require further research on the modern phytoliths of grassland ecosystems. Methods: In order to explore the potential of phytolith analysis in the temperate grassland region, we have for the first time established a modern soil phytolith reference dataset by exploring the relationships between soil phytoliths and plant species inventory data from 77 sites in the Songnen grassland in Northeast China. Results: The results show that phytolith assemblages can clearly distinguish Leymus chinensis grassland, Stipa grassland and mesophytic herb grassland. In addition, we found that the Ic phytolith index could discriminate samples of L. chinensis grassland from the other samples, while the Iph phytolith index proved to be less reliable in the region. In addition, in terms of quantitative plant community characteristics, the soil phytoliths showed a good correspondence with plant community cover and species richness, but not with biomass and diversity index. The transfer functions established in this study can provide reliable estimates of community cover and species richness in the Songnen grassland. In addition, phytoliths are shown to have the potential to reconstruct the taxonomic abundance of the aboveground plant community. Conclusion: This study is a major advance in the application of phytolith analysis to the quantitative estimation of plant community characteristics, and it provides a modern phytolith reference for the quantitative reconstruction of the paleovegetation of grassland ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to define the most consistent white matter microarchitecture pattern in Parkinson's disease (PD) reflected by fractional anisotropy (FA), addressing clinical profiles and methodology-related heterogeneity. Web-based publication databases were searched to conduct a meta-analysis of whole-brain diffusion tensor imaging studies comparing PD with healthy controls (HC) using the anisotropic effect size–signed differential mapping. A total of 808 patients with PD and 760 HC coming from 27 databases were finally included. Subgroup analyses were conducted considering heterogeneity with respect to medication status, disease stage, analysis methods, and the number of diffusion directions in acquisition. Compared with HC, patients with PD had decreased FA in the left middle cerebellar peduncle, corpus callosum (CC), left inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, and right inferior longitudinal fasciculus. Most of the main results remained unchanged in subgroup meta-analyses of medicated patients, early stage patients, voxel-based analysis, and acquisition with 30 diffusion directions. The subgroup meta-analysis of medication-free patients showed FA decrease in the right olfactory cortex. The cerebellum and CC, associated with typical motor impairment, showed the most consistent FA decreases in PD. Medication status, analysis approaches, and the number of diffusion directions have an important impact on the findings, needing careful evaluation in future meta-analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Populus can tolerant high concentration Al stress. However, the mechanisms of Mg alleviation to Al toxicity in populus remain unknown. Methods: In the present study, adequate Mg was supplied to poplar under high concentration Al toxicity stress, and the pH gradients of root surface, Mg and Al uptake from root apex were detected using electrophysiological analysis, fluorescence staining, etc. Furthermore, auxin distribution and transport dynamic kinetics in root tips were also detected. Results: In the present study, we found that adequate supply of Mg alleviated high concentration Al toxicity to populus root growth. Mg promoted the pH gradients of root surface in populus, leading to alkalization in the root transition zone, which prevented Al toxicity to root elongation. The auxin distribution in root tips of populus was detected using DR5:GFP reporter. The transport and distribution of polar auxin in root transition zone were inhibited by Al toxicity, but partially alleviated by Mg supply. Further electrophysiological experiments using auxin transporter mutant pin-formed 2 (pin2) showed that Mg alleviated Al toxicity by PIN2-based polar auxin transport, which regulated root surface alkalization in the transition zone. Transcriptomic analysis and yeast complementation experiments using mrs2 mutants also reveals same relationships among Mg, auxin and Al. Conclusions: The present study suggests that Mg promotes polar auxin transport and distribution, which leads to the elevated root surface pH regulation, and further alleviates the Al toxicity. Our results partially clarify the mechanism of Mg in alleviating the toxicity of high concentration Al in woody plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a cross-modality generation framework that learns to generate translated modalities from given modalities in MR images. Our proposed method performs Image Modality Translation (abbreviated as IMT) by means of a deep learning model that leverages conditional generative adversarial networks (cGANs). Our framework jointly exploits the low-level features (pixel-wise information) and high-level representations (e.g. brain tumors, brain structure like gray matter, etc.) between cross modalities which are important for resolving the challenging complexity in brain structures. Our framework can serve as an auxiliary method in medical use and has great application potential. Based on our proposed framework, we first propose a method for cross-modality registration by fusing the deformation fields to adopt the cross-modality information from translated modalities. Second, we propose an approach for MRI segmentation, translated multichannel segmentation (TMS), where given modalities, along with translated modalities, are segmented by fully convolutional networks (FCN) in a multichannel manner. Both of these two methods successfully adopt the cross-modality information to improve the performance without adding any extra data. Experiments demonstrate that our proposed framework advances the state-of-the-art on five brain MRI datasets. We also observe encouraging results in cross-modality registration and segmentation on some widely adopted brain datasets. Overall, our work can serve as an auxiliary method in medical use and be applied to various tasks in medical fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During growth of two-dimensional (2D) materials, abrupt growth of multilayers is practically unavoidable even in the case of well-controlled growth. In epitaxial growth of a quintuple-layered Bi 2 Se 3 film, we observe that the multilayer growth pattern deduced from in situ x-ray diffraction implies nontrivial interlayer diffusion process. Here we find that an intriguing diffusion process occurs at step edges where a slowly downward-diffusing Se adatom having a high step-edge barrier interacts with a Bi adatom pre-existing at step edges. The Se–Bi interaction lowers the high step-edge barrier of Se adatoms. This drastic reduction of the overall step-edge barrier and hence increased interlayer diffusion modifies the overall growth significantly. Thus, a step-edge barrier reduction mechanism assisted by hetero adatom–adatom interaction could be fairly general in multilayer growth of 2D heteroatomic materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-chain acyl-CoA synthetase (LACS) is one of the key enzymes involved in fatty acid metabolism, including phospholipid biosynthesis, triacylglycerol (TAG) biosynthesis, and fatty acid β-oxidation in plants. However, the characterization of LACSs family in seed oil biosynthesis of Brassica napus (B. napus) remains unknown. In the present study, we performed a comprehensive genome-wide analysis of this gene family in B. napus, and 34 B. napus LACS genes (BnaLACSs) were identified. Phylogenetic analysis classified the BnaLACS proteins into four groups (A, B, C, and D), which were supported by highly conserved gene structures and consensus motifs. RNA-Sequencing (RNA-Seq) and qRT-PCR combined analysis revealed that 18 BnaLACSs (BnaLACS1-2, 1–3, 1–4, 1–9, 1–10, 2–1, 2–2, 4–1, 4–2, 6–1, 6–2, 6–4, 7–1, 7–2, 8–1, 8–2, 9–3, and 9–4) were highly expressed in developmental seeds. Comparative expression analysis between extremely high oil content (P1-HO) and low oil content (P2-LO) B. napus cultivars revealed that BnaLACS6-4, BnaLACS9-3, and BnaLACS9-4 may be involved in fatty acid synthesis in chloroplast, and BnaLACS1-10 and 4–1 may play a vital role in lipid biosynthesis in B. napus, which is important for further seed oil accumulation in oilseed rape. The present study provides important information for functional characterization of BnaLACSs in seed oil metabolism in B. napus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: Magnesium (Mg) deficiency impacts many metabolic processes in Brassica napus (B. napus), leading to yield loss. However, the mechanism of Mg2+ uptake and translocation in B. napus remains unknown. Methods: After screening 39 genotypes of B. napus under Mg-deficient conditions, the cultivars P160 and P153 were selected according to their Mg transfer factor (TF) from root to shoot. We further characterized these two genotypes under Mg-deficiency by analyzing chlorophyll concentration, malondialdehyde and peroxidase activity, and reducing sugar concentration in leaves. Additionally, we performed transcriptomics and qRT-PCR assays on P153 and P160 shoots and roots. The identified functional genes involved in Mg transport were characterized by functional assays in yeast and Arabidopsis mutants. Results: The physiological analysis revealed that P160 (Mg tolerance cultivar; Mg-T) is more tolerant than P153 (Mg sensitive cultivar; Mg-S) under magnesium-deficient environments. Transcriptomics and qRT-PCR assays revealed that transcript levels of BnMGT1–2 and BnMGT6–1 were more significantly up-regulated in the shoot of Mg-T cultivar than that of the Mg-S cultivar under Mg limitation. Functional assays of BnMGT1–2 and BnMGT6–1 reveals that BnMGT1–2 and BnMGT6–1 are the two main functional Mg transporters mediating Mg translocation from root to shoot under low Mg conditions. Conclusion: Mg-T is more efficient in the translocation of Mg from root to shoot than Mg-S. BnMGT1–2 and BnMGT6–1 should be the two main Mg transporters associated with Mg translocation under Mg deficiency condition, which caused the different Mg efficiency between the Mg-T and Mg-S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Cadmium (Cd) is the most widespread toxic heavy metal to plant growth. As the second leading oil crop, some genotypes of Brassica napus (B. napus) are potential Cd accumulators. However, the Cd translocation mechanism from root to shoot in B. napus in response to Cd toxicity remains unknown. Methods: In the present study, a couple of B. napus genotypes with contrasting Cd uptake and root-to-shoot translocation abilities, named P78 (the high Cd accumulator, HC) and P72 (the low Cd accumulator, LC), were chosen from 39 B. napus genotypes with various Cd accumulation features. Results: Physiological comparison of P78 and P72 reveals that P72 is more sensitive to Cd toxicity than P78. With genomic resequencing, transcriptomics and qRT-PCR assay, BnNramp2;1 and BnNramp4;2 were focused with highly upregulation in shoot of P78 under Cd treatment condition. Furthermore, BnNramp2;1 and BnNramp4;2 can successfully complement the function of tonoplast localized Cd transporter YCF1. And when BnNramp2;1 and BnNramp4;2 were transferred in Arabidopsis atnramp mutants, the transgenic plants showed better growth rate than mutants under higher Cd stress conditions. Conclusions: The results reveals that BnNramp2;1 and BnNramp4;2 were two main Cd transporters associated with enhanced root-to-shoot translocation and accumulation of Cd in shoot of B. napus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interspecific mycelial interactions between white rot fungi are always accompanied by an increased production of laccase. In this study, the potential of the white rot fungus Dichomitus squalens to enhance laccase production during interactions with two other white rot fungi, Trametes versicolor or Pleurotus ostreatus, was assessed. To probe the mechanism of laccase induction and the role that laccase plays during combative interaction, we analyzed the differential gene expression profile of the laccase induction response to stressful conditions during fungal interaction. We further confirmed the expression patterns of 16 selected genes by qRT-PCR analysis. We noted that many differentially expressed genes (DEGs) encoded proteins that were involved in xenobiotic detoxification and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation or reduction, including aldo/keto reductase, glutathione S-transferases, cytochrome P450 enzymes, alcohol oxidases and dehydrogenase, manganese peroxidase and laccase. Furthermore, many DEG-encoded proteins were involved in antagonistic mechanisms of nutrient acquisition and antifungal properties, including glycoside hydrolase, glucanase, chitinase and terpenoid synthases. DEG analyses effectively revealed that laccase induction was likely caused by protective responses to oxidative stress and nutrient competition during interspecific fungal interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the effect of conserved domains reconstruction of alginate lyases on action mode is essential for their application and in-depth study. We report the expression and action mode of recombinant alginate lyase (AlyM) and its conserved domain reconstruction forms (AlyMΔCBM, cAlyM, and AlyMΔ58C). The enzymatic activities of AlyM, AlyMΔCBM, cAlyM, and AlyMΔ58C were 61.77, 150.57, 388.97, and 308.21 U/mg, respectively. The transcription level of cAlyM was 49.89-fold of AlyM. cAlyM and AlyMΔ58C showed higher thermal stability than AlyM, indicating that the removal of F5_F8_type_C domain was beneficial for the increase of thermal stability. The enzymes were bifunctional alginate lyases and preferred polyG to polyM. The enzymes degraded alginate to produce unsaturated disaccharide, trisaccharide, and tetrasaccharide as the main end-products. Pentamannuronic acid and pentaguluronic acid were the smallest substrates that could be degraded by AlyM, with unsaturated trisaccharide/tetrasaccharide (40.61%/44.42%) and disaccharide/trisaccharide (10.57%/83.85%) as the main products, respectively. The action modes of enzymes remain unaffected after conserved domain reconstruction, but the affinity of AlyMΔ58C toward polyM increased. This study provides a new strategy for rational modification of alginate lyase based on conserved domain reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern soil phytoliths can potentially provide analogues for phytolith assemblages from archaeological and palaeoecological contexts. To assess the reliability of soil phytoliths for representing different plant communities, we analysed phytoliths in surface soils and parent plants at 65 sites representing five types of regional vegetation in Northeast China. The results demonstrated that surface soil phytolith assemblages could clearly differentiate samples from herbaceous and woody communities, and samples from Poaceae and non-Poaceae communities could be separated statistically. In addition, woody communities could be differentiated into a broadleaf-Poaceae community, a broadleaf-non-Poaceae community and a conifer and broadleaf-non-Poaceae community, except for some overlapping samples. Soil phytolith assemblages are thus able to differentiate regional vegetation types into different plant community types. In the present study, soil phytoliths represented about 30% of the phytoliths present in the aboveground vegetation. In addition, soil phytoliths from different communities reflected the aboveground vegetation with slightly different degrees of accuracy, and in addition different morphotypes exhibited different degrees of representational bias. Some morphotypes (e.g. rondel, elongate psilate, lanceolate) overrepresented the abundance of the associated plant taxa; morphotypes such as tracheid, conical epidermal, stomata and others under-represented the original plant richness; and other morphotypes, e.g. saddle, trapeziform sinuate, scutiform, were in good agreement with the numbers of plant taxa in the plot inventory. Thus, any quantitative palaeovegetation reconstruction using phytoliths should begin with the calibration of soil phytolith assemblages. We conclude that our findings provide improved phytolith analogues for different plant communities, with applications in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, and they also provide additional insights into the mechanisms of phytolith production and deposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: Brassica napus (B. napus), one of the most important oil crop species, is highly tolerant to and accumulates high amounts of cadmium (Cd). Many iron transporters in plants have been identified to be Cd transporters. For example, some members of the heavy metal P1B-ATPase transporter family are responsible for Cd translocation in various plant species and play a vital role in Cd detoxification. However, the Cd translocation mechanism in B. napus and the characterization of the heavy metal ATPase (HMA) in B. napus remain unknown.Methods: B. napus plants were treated with 50 μM or 200 μM Cd in soil for 30 days during the initial flowering stage. The dry weight of the plants and the Cd contents within their various tissues were then measured, after which the RNA in the leaves was extracted for transcriptomic analysis and subsequent quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) assays. After all the significantly regulated iron transporters were screened in response to Cd stress, the BnHMA gene family was identified and shown to link BnHMA genes with Cd translocation in the leaves of B. napus.Results: The transcriptomic analysis of B. napus leaves in response to Cd treatment revealed that several HMA genes (BnHMA2;2, BnHMA2;3 and BnHMA2;5) respond to Cd stress. We further examined the whole HMA family in B. napus; 31 BnHMA genes were subsequently identified. Their expression levels in different tissues and stages as well as their phylogenetic tree, gene structure, chromosomal location, conserved motifs, 3D models and subcellular localization were analyzed. The results showed that these HMA genes exhibit typical characteristics of HMA genes. In addition, the qRT-PCR results showed that the BnHMA2;3 expression levels in the B. napus plants treated with 50 μM or 200 μM Cd were seven- and ninefold greater than those under Cd-free conditions, respectively. Additional yeast experiment assays verified that BnHMA2;3 can transport Cd.Conclusion: BnHMA2;3 may play an important role in Cd translocation in the leaves of B. napus. The results of this study may provide direction and useful information for increased understanding of the Cd stress-response mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This report discusses the preparation and microstructure of Co/Ni co-doped MgGaO nanoparticles. The nanoparticles with the size of 20-55 nm were synthesized by sol-gel method. The phase and crystallinity were confirmed by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) pattern. The particle size was estimated according to XRD data and transmission electron microscopy. The electronic structure was studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The XPS studies showed that Ga ions possess tetrahedral and octahedral sites of spinel structure and the inverse degree (two times of the fraction of tetrahedral Ga ions) has increased with the increase of the doping concentration of Co and Ni ions. For Co/Ni co-doped MgGaO, two broad absorption bands of 350~500 and 550~700 nm were observed in the absorption spectra. The broad band at 350~500 nm was assigned to the combination of the absorption of octahedral Co and Ni ions, whereas the absorption band at 550~700 nm is mainly due to tetrahedrally coordinated Co ions and octahedrally coordinated Ni ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a resonance frequency tracking and measuring system for MEMS cantilever array sensors. A cell constitutes five micro-cantilevers driven by a piezoactuator, and the resonance signal of each micro-cantilever is read out by a Wheatstone bridge. An analog resonance circuit is developed to track all resonance frequencies. Meanwhile, a digital circuit base on Microcontroller Unit is utilized to measure the resonance frequency and processes the data. The developed system has a frequency capture range from 190 to 310 kHz. The measurement accuracy of the frequency measuring circuit is 0.3 Hz. Moreover, the frequency stability of micro-cantilever in this system can achieve 4 Hz. This system provides a promising approach to apply micro-cantilever array sensors in a portable instrument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To prepare the high-thickness and Br-doping CHNHPbIBr thin film, the high concentration (1.7 M) PbI·DMSO complex precursor solution in DMF was successfully prepared by repeating the cycle of PbI-dissovling and DMSO-adding. The influence of PbI·DMSO complex precursor solution concentration on the formation and conversion of the PbI·DMSO complex thin film was investigated by X-ray diffraction, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible-near infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscope. The CHNHPbIBr thin films with the thickness of 337, 446 and 529 nm were obtained by spin-coating 1.3, 1.5 and 1.7 M PbI·DMSO complex precursor solutions in DMF and subsequently being converted by 0.465 M isopropanol solution of the methylammonium halide mixture with the molar ratio of CHNHI/CHNHBr = 85/15. The planar perovskite solar cell with the 529 nm-thick CHNHPbIBr thin film gave the best and the average photoelectric conversion efficiency of 12.83% and 11.55 ± 1.28% at the relative humidity of 50-54% under the illumination of simulated AM 1.5 sunlight (100 mW cm). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A total of five strains were isolated from two different hybrid rice seeds samples ( Oryza sativa L. Shenliangyou 5814 and Yliangyou 900) in Sanya city, Hainan province, China. Sequence analysis and physiological characteristics indicated that these strains were identical and represented a novel species. Molecular phylogenetic analysis of the D1/D2 domain of the large subunit rRNA gene and the internal transcribed spacer regions revealed that this new species is located in the Microsporomyces clade, with four closely related species, namely, M. magnisporus, M. orientalis, M. bloemfonteinensis, and M. pini. The novel species differed from these four described species in ability to assimilate sorbose, cellobiose, lactose, D-arabinose, and maltose. Based on these results, the following novel yeast species is proposed: Microsporomyces hainanensis sp. nov. with the type strain of Z8 (CICC 33066 = CBS 14092) belongs to phylum Basidiomycota, subphylum Pucciniomycotina, class Cystobasidiomycetes, family Microsporomycetaceae. The new species were registered in MycoBank under MB 815471. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel antitumor drug delivery system, docetaxel (DTX)-loaded oxidized single-wall carbon nanohorns (oxSWNHs) with anti-VEGF monoclonal antibody (mAb) as a target agent was constructed. DTX was absorbed onto the oxSWNHs via the physical adsorption or π-π interaction. DSPE-PEG-COOH was non-covalently wrapped to the hydrophobic surface of oxSWNHs to improve its water solubility and biocompatibility. The mAb was bonded to the PEG through amide bond. The DTX@oxSWNHs-PEG-mAb (DDS) exhibited suitable particle size (191.2 ± 2.1 nm), good particle size distribution (PDI: 0.196), and negative zeta potential (−24.3 ± 0.85 mV). These features enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect and reduced the drug molecule uptake by the reticuloendothelial system. The in vitro drug release followed non-Fickian diffusion ( n = 0.6857, R = 0.9924) with the cumulative release of DTX 59 ± 1.35 % at 72 h. Compared with free DTX, the DDS enhanced the cytotoxicity in MCF-7 cell lines in vitro efficiently (IC: 2.96 ± 0.6 μg/ml), and provided higher antitumor efficacy (TGI: 69.88 %) in vivo. The histological analysis indicated that the DDS had no significant side effect. Therefore, the new DDS is promising to attain higher pharmaceutical efficacy and lower side effects than free DTX for cancer therapy. The research demonstrated that DTX@oxSWNHs-PEG-mAb might have promising biomedical applications for future cancer therapy. Graphical Abstract: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to investigate the characteristics of sensorimotor cortex during motor execution (ME), voluntary, stimulated and imaginary finger flexions were performed by ten volunteer subjects. Electroencephalogram (EEG) data were recorded according to the modified 10-20 International EEG System. The patterns were compared by the analysis of the motion-evoked EEG signals focusing on the contralateral (C3) and ipsilateral (C4) channels for hemispheric differences. The EEG energy distributions at alpha (8-13 Hz), beta (14-30 Hz) and gamma (30-50 Hz) bands were computed by wavelet transform (WT) and compared by the analysis of variance (ANOVA). The timefrequency (TF) analysis indicated that there existed a contralateral dominance of alpha post-movement event-related synchronization (ERS) pattern during the voluntary task, and that the energy of alpha band increased in the ipsilateral area during the stimulated (median nerve of wrist) task. Besides, the contralateral alpha and beta event-related desynchronization (ERD) patterns were observed in both stimulated and imaginary tasks. Another significant difference was found in the mean power values of gamma band( p<0.01)between the imaginary and other tasks. The results show that significant hemispheric differences such as alpha and beta band EEG energy distributions and TF changing phenomena (ERS/ERD) were found between C3 and C4 areas during all of the three patterns. The largest energy distribution was always at the alpha band for each task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By means of the reaction between a DOTA-NHS-ester bifunctional reagent and N-terminal peptides of proteins, and then chelation of lanthanide metal ions as tags, we established a novel method for the identification of N-terminal peptides of proteins and their relative quantification using metal-element-chelated tags coupled with mass spectrometry. The experimental results indicate that metal elements are able to completely label N-terminal peptides at the protein level. The N-terminal peptides are enriched as the peptides digested with trypsin are selectively eliminated by isothiocyanate-coupled silica beads. We successfully identified the N-terminal peptides of 158 proteins of Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis incubated at 55 and 75 °C, among which N-terminal peptides of 24 proteins are partially acetylated. Moreover, metal-element tags with high molecule weights make it convenient for N-terminal peptides consisting of less than 6 amino acids to be identified; these make up 55 percent of the identified proteins. Finally, we developed a general approach for the relative quantification of proteins based on N-terminal peptides. We adopted lysozyme and ribonuclease B as model proteins; the correlation coefficients ( R) of the standard curves for the quantitative method were 0.9994 and 0.9997, respectively, with each concentration ratio ranging from 0.1 to 10 and both relative standard derivations (RSD) measured at less than 5%. In T. tengcongensis at two incubation temperatures, 80 proteins possess quantitative information. In addition, compared with the proteins of T. tengcongensis incubated at 55 °C, in T. tengcongensis incubated at 75 °C, 7 proteins upregulate whereas 16 proteins downregulate, and most differential proteins are related to protein synthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]