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The swelling behavior of red-bed rocks is a significant factor in the abnormal uplift of subgrades for high-speed railways constructed on the red stratum in the Sichuan Basin, China. The prime objective of this paper is to investigate the impact of mineralogical composition, moisture content, and overburden load on the time-dependent unconfined and oedometric swelling behavior of red-bed siltstone in the context of differences in the slake durability. Twenty samples were prepared for the swelling test, with eleven used for the unconfined swelling and slake index tests and nine for the oedometric swelling test. The temporal dependency of swelling is characterized by the viscosity coefficient of water absorption in a proposed swelling model. Results indicate that the swelling deformation of red-bed rocks is due to a combination of hydration swelling within the rock matrix and crack expansion caused by air breakage. In the unconfined swelling test, the final axial swelling strain of red-bed rocks decreases linearly with increasing slake index, while the viscosity coefficient increases exponentially with the slake index. In the oedometric swelling test, red-bed rocks with lower slake durability show greater sensitivity to lateral constraint and overburden load compared to those with higher slake durability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate the distinct characteristics between young and elderly polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) patients based on the pachy- or non-pachychoroid phenotypes. Methods: PCV patients treated with intravitreal injections of Conbercept based on the 3 + PRN regimen from 27 centers of China PCV Research Alliance were included. Patients were categorized into the young and the elderly aged group based on the cut-off point determined using the Youden method according to the pachychoroid phenotypes. The characteristics of past medical history, lifestyle factors, fundus manifestations, and treatment response between the subgroups were analyzed. Results: Three hundred eight eligible patients were included. Multivariate logistic regression showed a significant association between age and PCV subtype classification (OR = 0.921, P = 0.002). A cutoff age of 64.5 effectively distinguished between pachychoroid PCV and non-pachychoroid PCV (P < 0.001). Elderly PCV patients had a higher incidence of hypertension history (P = 0.044) but a lower incidence of diabetes history (P = 0.027). In terms of lifestyle, smoking history (P = 0.015) and staying up late (P = 0.004) were more significant in the young group of PCV patients. For clinical characteristics, the proportion of hemorrhagic PCV in the young group was significantly higher (P = 0.038), with a higher proportion of sharp-peaked PED (P = 0.049), thicker choroid (P < 0.001) but a lower portion of double-layer sign (P = 0.023) in OCT. Both groups showed significant anatomical changes compared to baseline in each follow-up period (P < 0.05), with the young group having a higher proportion of good anatomical response after the first injection (P = 0.009). Conclusion: PCV patients stratified by subtype exhibit distinct characteristics between the young and elderly groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Link prediction in complex networks aims to mine hidden or to-be-generated links between network nodes, which plays a significant role in fields such as the cold start of recommendation systems, knowledge graph completion and biomedical experiments. The existing link prediction models based on graph neural networks, such as graph convolution neural networks, often only learn the low-frequency information reflecting the common characteristics of nodes while ignoring the high-frequency information reflecting the differences between nodes when learning node representation, which makes the corresponding link prediction models show over smoothness and poor performance. Focusing on links in complex networks, this paper proposes an edge convolutional graph neural network EdgeConvHiF that fuses high-frequency node information to achieve the representation learning of links so that link prediction can be realized by implementing the classification of links. EdgeConvHiF can also be employed as a baseline, and extensive experiments on real-world benchmarks validate that EdgeConvHiF not only has high stability but also has more advantages than the existing representative baselines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The driving factors of China's industrial carbon emissions are decomposed by generalized Divisia index method (GDIM), so as to study the reasons for the change of China's industrial carbon emissions. The decoupling effect of China's industrial carbon emissions and economic growth is examined by speed decoupling and quantity decoupling. The speed decoupling is calculated by Tapio decoupling elasticity and emission reduction effort function, and the quantity decoupling is measured by environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). The results show that the positive driving factors are output size effect > industrial energy consumption effect > population size effect, and the negative driving factors are investment carbon emission effect > output carbon intensity effect > per capita output effect > economic efficiency effect > energy intensity effect. The elasticity of emission reduction is basically greater than that of energy conservation, indicating that there is still abundant room for efforts in emission reduction. The overall decoupling effect of carbon emissions is undecoupling–strong decoupling–undecoupling. Quadratic EKC shape is "U" shape, and the inflection point is 11.0987; the shape of cubic EKC is "N," and the inflection points are − 0.0137 and 2.4069, respectively, which satisfies the hypothesis of EKC curve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aim: FKBP1A, a gene encoding the FK506-binding protein 1A, has emerged as a significant player in cancer progression and prognosis. This study aimed to comprehensively investigate the multifaceted role of FKBP1A in cancer, focusing on its differential expression patterns, prognostic implications, genetic alterations, and associations with the tumor microenvironment. Methods and results: Using large-scale datasets, including GTEx, TCGA, HPA, and cBioPortal, we analyzed FKBP1A expression across normal tissues and various cancer types. Our findings revealed that FKBP1A exhibited aberrant upregulation in most human cancers, making it a potential biomarker for malignancy. Moreover, FKBP1A expression correlated with poor overall survival, disease-specific survival, disease-free interval, and progression-free interval in several cancers, indicating its prognostic significance. Genetic alteration analysis showed that FKBP1A gene amplification was prevalent, particularly in ovarian cancer. Furthermore, FKBP1A expression was associated with tumor mutational burden and microsatellite instability, highlighting its potential involvement in tumor-immune response. Notably, FKBP1A expression positively correlated with stromal and immune cell scores, suggesting its role in shaping the tumor microenvironment. Additionally, according to the functional enrichment analysis, experimental validation in lung adenocarcinoma confirmed the role of FKBP1A through the regulation of EGFR signaling by apoptosis, which is consistent with drug sensitivity analysis to some extent. Conclusion: In conclusion, FKBP1A exhibits differential expression in cancer, serves as a prognostic indicator, undergoes genetic alterations, and influences the tumor-immune microenvironment. These findings shed light on the multifaceted role of FKBP1A in cancer development and progression, suggesting its potential as a therapeutic target and guidance of clinical drugs selection, and provide valuable insights into patient prognosis for interventions based on pharmaceuticals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The large superfamily of labdane-related diterpenoids is defined by the cyclization of linear geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate (GGPP), catalyzed by copalyl diphosphate synthases (CPSs) to form the basic decalin core, the copalyl diphosphates (CPPs). Three stereochemically distinct CPPs have been found in plants, namely (+)-CPP, ent-CPP and syn-CPP. Here, we used X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM methods to describe different oligomeric structures of a syn-copalyl diphosphate synthase from Oryza sativa (OsCyc1), and provided a cryo-EM structure of OsCyc1D367A mutant in complex with the substrate GGPP. Further analysis showed that tetramers are the dominant form of OsCyc1 in solution and are not necessary for enzyme activity in vitro. Through rational design, we identified an OsCyc1 mutant that can generate ent-CPP in addition to syn-CPP. Our work provides a structural and mechanistic basis for comparing different CPSs and paves the way for further enzyme design to obtain diterpene derivatives with specific chirality. Copalyl diphosphate synthases (CPSs) catalyze the crucial cyclization step in labdane diterpene biosynthesis to generate stereochemically distinct copalyl diphosphates (CPPs), however, the stereoselectivity within CPSs remains underexplored. Here, the authors report the 3D structure and oligomeric properties of syn-CPS from Oryza sativa, which originally produces syn-CPP but also ent-CPP after mutagenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poyang Lake is one of the largest freshwater lakes in China and the only two remaining lakes in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. It is an internationally important wetland with important ecological value. In recent years, due to the influence of natural and human factors, the ecology of Poyang Lake International Wetland has been greatly damaged. Using relevant research models and methods to study and predict land-use change can provide a scientific basis for relevant departments to manage land and has important demonstration significance for biodiversity conservation and ecological function restoration of wetlands with important ecological value. Based on Landsat remote sensing images from 1986 to 2020, land-use information data were obtained by supervised classification interpretation, and five land-use type maps with an interval of about 8 years were generated by ENVI and ArcGIS software. The land-use change of Poyang Lake wetland was analyzed by using land-use transfer matrix and land-use dynamic attitude. The land-use distribution in 2030 was predicted by the FLUS model. Based on the gray correlation model, the driving force of land-use change was discussed. The results show that the wetland land-use types in Poyang Lake will change greatly from 1986 to 2020: construction land, mudflat, paddy field, and dry land changed significantly and showed an increasing trend. The area of water and grassland decreased on the whole, and the transferred area was large, which was mainly transferred to construction land, paddy field, and dry land. The area of woodland increased slowly, but the change range was not large from the perspective of dynamic attitude. The change of wetland area of reed flat decreased first and then increased, and the overall land-use change was relatively gentle. Through the FLUS model prediction, it is found that the water area of the study area will be greatly reduced in 2030, the area of woodland and reed flat will be greatly increased, and the ecological situation will gradually improve. According to the gray correlation analysis, the total population and annual precipitation are the main driving factors of land-use change in the Poyang Lake wetland. This study studies the land-use change and driving force from the regional wetland scale, which can provide a theoretical basis for the future international important wetland protection and land resource management of Poyang Lake. At the same time, it provides a reference for further regional wetland habitat protection and ecological network construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poyang Lake National Nature Reserve (PLNNR) is an important resting place for wintering migratory birds on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF). In recent years, due to human activities and climate change, the area of wetlands has shown a downward trend, and the number and habitat of wintering migratory birds have been threatened. It is urgent to evaluate the habitat quality of wintering migratory birds in PLNNR. Therefore, the InVEST model and landscape index were used to evaluate the habitat quality of wintering migratory birds, and the grey correlation theory was used to reveal the response of typical wintering migratory bird population to habitat quality. The results showed that the habitat quality of the PLNNR was still at a high level, but showed a downward trend, with the average index of habitat quality decreasing from 0.872 to 0.817. The area of the highest quality habitat decreased by 3394.92 hm2, the area of the lowest, low, and medium quality habitats increased by 3112.11 hm2, and the area of the high quality habitat remained stable. The lowest, low, and medium quality habitat expanded from the middle to the south of the PLNNR mainly because of the expansion of construction land and cultivated land. The area with deterioration in habitat quality was 10,477.53 hm2, mainly concentrated in the center and south of the PLNNR. The area with restoration in habitat quality was 6148.26 hm2, mainly concentrated in the Bang Lake and Dacha Lake. The area with no change in habitat quality remained stable. The fragmentation degree and shape complexity of highest and high quality habitats increased, dominance degree and connectivity decreased, and the landscape pattern of habitat quality showed a downward trend. Typical wintering migratory birds have a strong correlation with highest, high, and low habitat quality, and there is a downward trend with the deterioration of habitat quality. Finally, this paper puts forward constructive suggestions on the degradation of habitat quality caused by land-use change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modulation of ions substitution has been regarded as a promising route to induce magnetic transition and tailor intrinsic properties for spinel ferrites as expected. Herein, Fe-substituted Co(Ga2-xFex)O4 spinel ferrites have been successfully prepared by a solid-state method. It is shown that the lattice constant increases gradually with the rising amount of Fe substitution due to a larger ionic radius of Fe than that of Ga. More importantly, a significant improvement in magnetic properties has been achieved under the effort of Fe substitution, especially in intrinsic coercivity (Hc). Correspondingly, the saturation magnetization (Ms), Hc, and Curie temperature (TC) increase from 11.01 emu/g, 0.29 kOe, and 10 K to 86.05 emu/g, 11.45 kOe, and 318 K respectively based on Fe substitution. Our work realizes a marked modulation of magnetic properties in Co(Ga2-xFex)O4, providing a fundamental strategy for magnetism tuning as well as the development of magnetic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The limited electrical performance of microelectronic devices caused by low inter-particle connectivity and inferior printing quality is still the greatest hurdle to overcome for Aerosol jet printing (AJP) technology. Despite the incorporation of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and specified solvents into functional inks can improve inter-particle connectivity and ink printability respectively, it is still challenging to consider multiple conflicting properties in mixture design simultaneously. This research proposes a novel hybrid multi-objective optimization method to determine the optimal functional ink composition to achieve low electrical resistivity and high printed line quality. In the proposed approach, silver ink, CNTs ink and ethanol are blended according to mixture design, and two response surface models (ReSMs) are developed based on the Analysis of Variance. Then a desirability function method is employed to identify a 2D optimal operating material window to balance the conflicting responses. Following that, the conflicting objectives are optimized in a more robust manner in the 3D mixture design space through the integration of a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm III (NSGA-III) with the developed ReSMs and the corresponding statistical uncertainty. Experiments are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, which extends the methodology of designing materials with multi-component and multi-property in AJP technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaf-color mutants are ideal genetic materials for studying the mechanism of chlorophyll (Chl) biosynthesis and chloroplast development. Here we isolated and identified a novel rice yellow-green-leaf mutant from a 60Co-irradiated mutant pool, named ygl219. In the ygl219 mutant, the pigments contents were decreased and the development of chloroplast was arrested. Map-based cloning and subsequent DNA sequencing analysis revealed a single nucleotide substitution happened in divinyl reductase (DVR) gene in the ygl219 mutant. Genetic complementation of the ygl219 mutant restored normal green leaf by expressing full length coding sequence of DVR. Subcellular localization indicated the DVR protein was located in the chloroplast. qRT-PCR analysis revealed that most of the genes associated with chlorophyll biosynthesis were significantly upregulated, while most of the genes associated with chloroplast development and photosynthesis were significantly downregulated in the ygl219 mutant. These data indicated that DVR plays an important role in chlorophyll biosynthesis and chloroplast development in rice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wetland is an important part of the natural ecosystem. The study of land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) and its prediction is of great significance to land-use optimization and ecological environment protection of wetlands. Based on the LULC data of Chongming Dongtan Wetland from 1986 to 2020, the paper analyzed the driving factors of LULCC and predicted the LULCC in the next 10 years by using CA–Markov model. The main land-use type of wetland is water, followed by cultivated land, and other types of land-use areas are small. The area of paddy fields, woodland and construction land continue to increase, while the grassland and mudflat continue to decrease. Waters are gradually transformed into natural wetlands due to sediment accumulation in nature reserves. Agricultural reclamation leads to large-scale conversion of natural wetlands into paddy fields in agricultural reclamation areas. The expansion of construction land and woodland has occupied a large scale of cultivated land. Economic development and agricultural population were the main driving factors of LULCC, with contribution rates of 69.02% and 15.06%, respectively. The impact on wetlands increased rapidly after 2002. Fiscal expenditure, agricultural and industrial output value explained wetland LULCC the most. In 2020–2030 years, the area of mudflat and waters increase, the area of reed beach and grassland will continue to decrease. The area of cultivated land will decrease by 964.72hm2. Woodland and construction land showed a downward trend different from the past. There was no obvious change in spatial distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel medium-Mn steel with 9.7 wt.% Mn content was developed through warm-rolling, cold-rolling and austenite-reverted transformation (ART) annealing processes, which presented an excellent combination of mechanical properties (the product of strength and ductility being ≥ 60 GPa⋅%). The tensile behavior and microstructure evolution of the novel medium-Mn steel with different ART processes were studied in detail. The steel inherited the banded microstructure produced by warm rolling when annealed at 600 °C. Heterogeneous microstructures composed of fine recrystallized equiaxed dual-phase grains and coarse non-recrystallization austenite grains were obtained after ART annealing at 700 °C and 750 °C. Moreover, the heterogeneous microstructure resulted in a higher strain-hardening rate than the banded microstructure. In addition, the different morphology distributions of austenite grains gave rise to austenite mechanical stability, thus triggering the multistage transformation and twinning-induced plasticity (TRIP and TWIP) effects during tensile deformation. Multiple strengthening and ductility-enhancing mechanisms including the TRIP effect, TWIP effect and dislocation strengthening contribute to the combination of ultrahigh strength and uncompromised ductility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Birds are a kind of environmental indicator organism, which can reflect the changes in the ecological environment and biodiversity, and recognition of birdsongs can further help understand and protect birds and natural environment. Extreme learning machine (ELM) has the advantages of fast learning speed and good generalization ability, which is widely used in classification and recognition problems. Input layer weights and hidden layer thresholds are two key factors affecting ELM performance. As one of swarm intelligence optimization methods, differential evolution (DE) can be used to optimize the parameters of ELM. In order to enhance the diversity, convergence speed and global search ability of the DE population, and improve the accuracy and stability of the classification model, this paper proposes a multi-strategy differential evolution method (M-SDE) to optimize the parameters of the ELM. And the differential MFCC feature parameters, extracted from birdsongs, are applied to build classification models of M-SDE_ELM and an ensemble M-SDE_EnELM with optimized ELM for bird species recognition. In the experiments, the ELM models optimized by the swarm intelligence algorithms PSO and GOA are compared and analyzed by hypothesis tests with the M-SDE_ELM and M-SDE_EnELM. Results show that the M-SDE_ELM and M-SDE_EnELM can achieve a classification accuracy of 86.70% and 89.05% in the classification of nine species of birds respectively, and the recognition effect and stability of the M-SDE_EnELM model outperform other models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental security is the guarantee of human well-being. This paper discusses the dynamic change process of wetland landscape pattern in Shengjin Lake of Anhui Province and establishes the ecological security Press-state-response model of Shengjin Lake and its driving forces in order to provide a scientific basis for further research and restoration on wetland protection of Shengjin Lake. With the support of remote sensing and GIS technology, four TM images in 1986, 1995, 2008 and 2019 were used as the basic information sources for analysis. The landscape pattern in Shengjin Lake has changed greatly with the significant increasing area of woodland and reed beach as well as the remarkable increasing area of water area, paddy field and construction land. The diversity index show an upward trend whereas the dominance index is contrary. The fragmentation degree is intensifying and the plaque types showed a trend of diversity. The intensified degree of landscape fragmentation and the growing number of patches will make the fragmentation of wetland ecosystem increasingly serious and influence the storage capacity of wetland, it will also change the hydrological conditions of the whole wetland and weaken the ecological benefits of wetland. In addition, the wetland ecological security index under the change of landscape pattern is decreasing years by years, the wetland ecological security form is in a state of warning and the situation is not optimistic. Through Pearson correlation analysis, it was found that agricultural development and utilization have a great impact on the population of white-headed crane in Shengjin Lake. In recent years, the economy development, increasing human population and construction land, and the intensification of reclamation activities as well as the transformation of the study area caused by human activities all have relatively reduced the area of natural wetland and affected the habitat of organisms. The ecological function of Shengjin Lake wetland is also continuing to decline. Natural and human factors have become the main driving forces of wetland pattern change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the intensification of ecosystem damage, birds have become the symbolic species of the ecosystem. Ornithology with interdisciplinary technical research plays a great significance for protecting birds and evaluating ecosystem quality. Deep learning shows great progress for birdsongs recognition. However, as the number of network layers increases in traditional CNN, semantic information gradually becomes richer and detailed information disappears. Secondly, the global information carried by the entire input may be lost in convolution, pooling, or other operations, and these problems will weaken the performance of classification. In order to solve such problems, based on the feature spectrogram from the wavelet transform for the birdsongs, this paper explored the multi-scale convolution neural network (MSCNN) and proposed an ensemble multi-scale convolution neural network (EMSCNN) classification framework. The experiments compared the MSCNN and EMSCNN models with other CNN models including LeNet, VGG16, ResNet101, MobileNetV2, EfficientNetB7, Darknet53 and SPP-net. The results showed that the MSCNN model achieved an accuracy of 89.61%, and EMSCNN achieved an accuracy of 91.49%. In the experiments on the recognition of 30 species of birds, our models effectively improved the classification effect with high stability and efficiency, indicating that the models have better generalization ability and are suitable for birdsongs species recognition. It provides methodological and technical scheme reference for bird classification research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chongming Dongtan is an important habitat for international migratory birds. It is of great significance to study its land use and habitat quality change for rare waterfowl protection and ecological environment restoration. Based on the land use data in 2002, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020, this paper analyzes the relationship between land-use change and habitat quality evolution in Chongming Dongtan in recent 18 years using InVEST model, land use dynamic degree and land use degree index. The results show that the main types of land use in the study area are water area and cultivated land, followed by woodland, reed beach, grass beach, bare beach and construction land. Among them, bare beach and construction land have changed dramatically, the former continuing to decrease while the latter continuing to increase. Moreover, the increasing speed began to slow down after 2012, and the increasing part was mainly from the surrounding cultivated land. Second, in terms of time change, the degradation of habitat quality in Chongming Dongtan has been gradually improved from aggravating trend in the past 18 years. In terms of spatial distribution, the habitat degradation degree of Chongming Dongtan is higher in the east and lower in the west, spreading from the center to the surrounding. Based on this, the change of land use and the interference of human activities are the important reasons for the change of ecological environment quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil salinization is one of the most important abiotic stresses adversely affecting plant growth and yield. In this study, we cloned and characterized a putative salt tolerance gene encoding a bHLH (basic helix-loop-helix) transcription factor, MdbHLH106L (MdbHLH106-like), in the genome of apple (Malus domestica Borkh.). The expression level and promoter activity of MdbHLH106L are increased under salt stress. Overexpressing MdbHLH106L in 'Orin' calli can promote the expression level of MdNHX1 (Na+/H+ exchanger 1). Further analysis showed that MdbHLH106L is able to bind the MdNHX1 promoter. Moreover, we also confirmed the interaction between MdbHLH106L and MdZAT10. In conclusion, MdbHLH106L participates in the salt-stress signaling pathway and may mediate salt tolerance by activating the MdNHX1 promoter and interacting with MdZAT10. Our findings may serve as a theoretical basis for further investigating molecular mechanisms of stress responses and for enriching genetic resources of stress-tolerant apple cultivars. Key Message: MdbHLH106-like transcription factor enhances apple salt tolerance MdbHLH106L binds to the MdNHX1 promoter MdbHLH106L interacts with MdZAT10 in vitro and in vivo [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immune evasion of pathogens can modify the course of infection and impact viral persistence and pathology. Here, using different strains of the lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) model system, we show that slower propagation results in limited type I interferon (IFN-I) production and viral persistence. Specifically, cells infected with LCMV-Docile exhibited reduced viral replication when compared to LCMV-WE and as a consequence, infection with LCMV-Docile resulted in reduced activation of bone marrow derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) and IFN-I production in vitro in comparison with LCMV-WE. In vivo, we observed a reduction of IFN-I, T cell exhaustion and viral persistence following infection of LCMV-Docile but not LCMV-WE. Mechanistically, block of intracellular protein transport uncovered reduced propagation of LCMV-Docile when compared to LCMV-WE. This reduced propagation was critical in blunting the activation of the innate and adaptive immune system. When mice were simultaneously infected with LCMV-Docile and LCMV-WE, immune function was restored and IFN-I production, T cell effector functions as well as viral loads were similar to that of mice infected with LCMV-WE alone. Taken together, this study suggests that reduced viral propagation can result in immune evasion and viral persistence. Using different strains of the lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV), Xu, Wang et al. show that a slow viral propagation limits type I interferon (IFN-I) production and viral persistence in mice. This study suggests a reduced viral propagation as a mechanism for immune evasion and viral persistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neoantigens are T-cell antigens derived from protein-coding mutations in tumor cells. Although neoantigens have recently been linked to anti-tumor immunity in long-term survivors of cancers such as melanoma, their prognostic and immune-modulatory role in many cancer types remain unexplored. We investigate neoantigens in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) through a combination of whole exome sequencing (WES), RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), computational bioinformation, and immunohistochemistry. Our analysis reveals that patients carried with TP53 neoantigen have a longer overall survival than others (p = 0.0371) and they showed higher Immune score (p = 0.0441), higher cytotoxic lymphocytes infiltration (p = 0.0428), and higher CYT score (p = 0.0388). In contrast, the prognosis is not associated with TMB and neoantigen load. Our study draws a preliminary conclusion that it is not TMB or neoantigen load but the TP53 specific neoantigen is related to overall survival of HCC patients. We suggest that the TP53 neoantigen may affect prognosis by regulating anti-tumor immunity and that the TP53 neoantigen may be harnessed as potential targets for immunotherapies of HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Caudate lobectomy via laparoscopic surgery has rarely been described. This multicenter, propensity score-matched study was performed to assess the safety and efficacy of laparoscopic caudate lobectomy (LCL). Methods: A multicenter retrospective study was performed including all patients who underwent LCL and open caudate lobectomy (OCL) in four institutions from January 2013 to December 2018. In total, 131 patients were included in this study and divided into LCL (n = 19) and OCL (n = 112) groups. LCLs were matched to OCLs (1:2) using a propensity score matching (PSM) based on nine preoperative variables, including patient demographics and tumor characteristics. The pathological results, perioperative and postoperative parameters, and short-term outcomes were compared between the two groups. Results: After PSM, there were 18 and 36 patients in the LCL and OCL groups, respectively. Baseline characteristics were comparable after matching. LCL was associated with less blood (100 vs. 300 ml, respectively; P < 0.001) and a shorter postoperative stay (6.0 vs 8.0 days, respectively; P = 0.003). Most patients' resection margins were > 10 mm in the LCL group (P = 0.021), and all patients with malignancy in both groups achieved R0 resection. In terms of early postoperative outcomes, the overall morbidity rate was identical in each group (11.1% vs. 11.1%, respectively; P = 1.000). No mortality occurred in either group. Conclusions: Laparoscopy is a feasible choice for resection of tumors located in the caudate lobe with acceptable perioperative results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Biliary tract cancer (BTC) comprises infrequently occurring neoplasms with poor prognoses. Red blood cell-related parameters are commonly reported prognostic factors. We aimed to compare and evaluate the clinical value of red blood cell-related parameters and develop a prognostic nomogram. Methods: The analysis involved 418 patients with BTC who underwent surgery from December 2003 to April 2017. Patients were divided into training and validation cohorts. Red blood cell-related parameters were compared using Kaplan-Meier analysis, the area under receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC), and C-index. Predictive abilities were evaluated using Cox regression. We developed a nomogram incorporating superior parameters verified using calibration curves, internal validation, and subgroup analysis. The nomogram was compared with the tumour-node-metastasis staging system through ROC, C-index, and Kaplan-Meier analysis. Results: A combined parameter comprising haemoglobin, albumin, lymphocytes, and platelets (HALP), which was superior to other red blood cell-related parameters, indicated a high risk of worse overall survival when low. Univariate analysis revealed that HALP together with other clinical characteristics was associated with overall survival. Multivariate analysis revealed that HALP, tumour-node-metastasis staging, and operative outcome were independent predictors of poor overall survival. Internal validation proved the predictive value of the nomogram. Additional statistical analyses established the advantages of the nomogram vs. tumour-node-metastasis staging. Conclusion: HALP was a superior red blood cell-related parameter and an independent predictor of prognosis. Our nomogram based on HALP, tumour-node-metastasis staging, and operative outcome is a promising model for predicting overall survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sugar content and cold tolerance are important apple (Malus × domestica) characteristics targeted by breeding programs. Here, a vacuolar membrane sucrose transporter, MdSWEET16, was cloned and characterized. A phylogenetic tree analysis found that MdSWEET16 was on the same polygenetic branch as Arabidopsis thaliana SWEET16 and SWEET17. MdSWEET16 was located on chromosome 2 and consists of six exons and five introns. The recombinant protein was obtained by prokaryotic induction, and the amino acid sequence and transmembrane domain were analyzed by bioinformatics. The encoded ~ 30-kDa protein has seven transmembrane domains and is localized on the tonoplasts of 'Orin' callus protoplasts. The expression of MdSWEET16 changed in response to sucrose and low temperature in 'Orin' calli. In addition, we also analyzed the expression level of MdSWEET16 during different fruit developmental stages using qRT-PCR. MdSWEET16 was highly expressed in young fruit, and its expression level during fruit development was significantly negatively correlated with sucrose content as assessed by a quantitative fluorescence analysis. Overexpression of MdSWEET16 in 'Orin' calli could reduce their sucrose content but increased their cold tolerance compared with MdSWEET16 RNA interference calli, which indicated that MdSWEET16 is involved in the sucrose transport and cold tolerance of apple. Key message: MdSWEET16's expression level was significantly correlated with the sucrose content and low temperature, and was induced by sucrose and low temperatures. Overexpression of MdSWEET16 increased 'Orin' calli cold tolerance. The prokaryotic expression of its recombinant protein can be used to further study the function of the MdSWEET16 protein in apple. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The WRKY transcription factors play key roles in plant growth and abiotic stress responses; however, the molecular mechanisms behind their involvement in anthocyanin biosynthesis are still unclear. In our study, we identified a Leu zipper motif and a WRKY domain in MdWRKY40 protein. Phylogenetic tree analysis showed that MdWRKY40, AtWRKY18 and AtWRKY40 were on the same evolutionary branch and were Group IIa WRKY proteins. Yeast two-hybrid and bimolecular fluorescence complementation assays showed that MdWRKY40 could interact with itself to form homodimers. Overexpressing MdMYB111 in red-fleshed callus inhibited the expression of MdANS and decreased the anthocyanin content. EMSA assay showed that MdMYB111 and MdWRKY40 could bind the MRE and the W box, respectively, in the MdANS promoter. Overexpressing MdWRKY40 in red-fleshed callus did not affect the expression of MdANS or the anthocyanin content. However, overexpressing MdWRKY40 in callus overexpressing MdMYB111 weakened the inhibitory effect of MdMYB111 on anthocyanin biosynthesis. Knocking out the Leu zipper motif of MdWRKY40 (LLSMdWRKY40) prevented its self-interaction, and knocking out C-x5-C sequence of MdWRKY40 (LCSMdWRKY40) prevented it from binding to W box. It did not weaken the inhibitory effect of MdMYB111 on anthocyanin biosynthesis when overexpressing LCSMdWRKY40 or LLSMdWRKY40 in callus overexpressing MdMYB111. Thus, MdMYB111 and MdWRKY40 may play important roles in the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway. Key message: MdWRKY40 interacts with itself to form homodimers by the Leu zipper motif at the N-terminal, and it binds two W boxes distantly separated in the MdANS promoter in the presence of C-x5-C sequence. MdMYB111 binds the MRE in the looped region induced by MdWRKY40. In addition, it weakens the inhibitory effect of MdMYB111 on expression of MdANS and anthocyanin biosynthesis when overexpressing MdWRKY40 in callus overexpressing MdMYB111. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition metal oxide electrodes, with rational structure as well as component design and combination with carbonaceous conductive support, are widely used in high-performance lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Herein, NiMoO4 nanowires in situ decorated on reduced graphene oxide (NiMoO4/rGO) were synthesized through a facile hydrothermal and subsequent annealing method. Due to the enhanced electrical conductivity and buffering matrix provided by rGO and the synergistic effect between NiMoO4 and rGO, the resultant NiMoO4/rGO exhibits short ion transport pathways and improved diffusion kinetics. The results reveal that NiMoO4/rGO hybrid shows much improved lithium storage performances compared with pure NiMoO4 nanowires including a high specific capacity (1212.4 mAh g−1 after 100 cycles at 0.2 A g−1), high rate capability (988.6 mAh g−1 at 2 A g−1 and 928.1 mAh g−1 at 4 A g−1) and excellent cycling performance at high current density (1007.6 mAh g−1 after 1000 cycles at 1 A g−1) when applied as anode material for LIBs, outperforming most of the reported metal molybdates-based electrodes. Besides, such excellent lithium storage performance, combined with the simple hydrothermal-annealing synthesis strategy, makes the NiMoO4/rGO a promising anode material for high-performance LIBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the cold resistance of plants is important, because their growth and development are negatively affected by cold stress. In this study, exogenous applications of methyl jasmonate could enhance the cold resistance of 'Orin' apple (Malus × domestica) calli by increasing the expression levels of the cold-signal response genes MdCIbHLH1, MdCBF1, MdCBF2 and MdCBF3. In addition, yeast two-hybrid and pull-down assays demonstrated that MdCIbHLH1 interacts with MdJAZ1/4 and MdMYC2 in vitro and in vivo. Protein degradation experiments demonstrated that the stability of the MdJAZ1/4 proteins were affected by the application of exogenous methyl jasmonate, which was followed by their degradation by the 26S proteasome. MdJAZ1/4 act as repressors, binding MdMYC2 in the jasmonate-signaling pathway. The overexpression of MdMYC2 in 'Orin' calli increased the expression levels of MdCIbHLH1, MdCBF1, MdCBF2 and MdCBF3, resulting in an increased freeze tolerance. Furthermore, the overexpression of MdJAZ1 or MdJAZ4 in transgenic red-fleshed apple calli weakened the promotive effect of MdMYC2 on cold tolerance. Yeast one-hybrid and chromatin immunoprecipitation-PCR analyses showed that MdMYC2 could bind the G-box element found in the MdCBF1 promoter. Thus, jasmonate may function as a critical upstream signal in the ICE-CBF/DREB1 pathway to positively regulate apple freeze tolerance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: The regulator MdERF1B in the apple (Malus × domestica) ethylene pathway mainly acts on MdMYB9 and MdMYB11 to regulate anthocyanin and proanthocyanidin accumulation.Abstract: Dietary anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins (PAs) have health benefits for humans, and are associated with decreased risks of coronary heart disease and cancer. Ethylene can enhance reddening of apple (Malus × domestica), but the regulatory mechanism is poorly understood. In this study, an ethylene response factor (ERF), MdERF1B, was identified and functionally characterized. ‘Orin’ calli overexpressing MdERF1B were generated and then analyzed by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR. Compared with the control calli, the MdERF1B-overexpressing calli showed increased expression levels of MdACO1, MdERF1, and MdERF3 in the ethylene pathway and MdCHS, MdCHI, MdF3H, MdDFR, MdANS, MdLAR, MdANR, MdMYB9 and MdMYB11 in the flavonoid pathway. As a result, the levels of anthocyanins and PAs were significantly increased in the MdERF1B-overexpressing calli. MdERF1B interacted with MdMYB9, MdMYB1, and MdMYB11 proteins in yeast two-hybrid, pull-down, and bimolecular fluorescence complementation assays. Furthermore, in yeast one-hybrid and electrophoretic mobility shift assays, MdERF1B also bound to the promoters of MdMYB9, MdMYB1, and MdMYB11. In a luciferase reporter assay, MdERF1B mainly activated proMdMYB9 and proMdMYB11, promoting their expression levels. This was in agreement with MdERF1B’s overexpression in calli, which barely affected MdMYB1 expression. Taken together, our findings provide an insight into the regulatory mechanisms in the ethylene pathway that increase anthocyanin and PA accumulation in apple. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrogen limitation stress is known to markedly promote anthocyanin accumulation and upregulate anthocyanin biosynthesis-related genes; however, the underlying molecular mechanisms have not been fully characterized. In this study, a callus was induced from the leaves of an R6 homozygous red-fleshed apple, the hybrid offspring of Malus sieversii f. niedzwetzkyana and Malus × domestica ‘Fuji.’ We analyzed the growth and accumulation of anthocyanin in callus under different nitrogen concentrations (0.01, 0.02, 0.04, and 0.06 M NO3−). The results showed that the callus growth in the 0.01 M NO3− condition was minimal, but its anthocyanin content was significantly elevated compared with those under the other nitrogen treatments. As the concentration of nitrogen increased from 0.01 to 0.04 M, the expression of the anthocyanin structural genes, MdCHS and MdDFR, and the transcription factor genes MdMYB9, MdMYB10, MdbHLH3, and MdbHLH33 were downregulated. On the contrary, the transcript levels of MdLOB52 and MdARF19 were increased by the nitrogen treatments. The overexpression of MdLOB52 inhibited anthocyanin accumulation in the callus. Subsequent yeast one-hybrid assays showed that MdARF19 can directly bind the promoter of MdLOB52, which may strengthen the activation of MdLOB52 and affect anthocyanin accumulation. Our findings provide new insights into the mechanisms by which the LOB genes respond to nitrogen to regulate anthocyanin biosynthesis in a red-fleshed apple callus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As cold stress greatly affects plant growth and development, understanding the mechanisms underlying cold tolerance in plants is important. In this study, we analyzed the expression levels of apple (Malus domestica) MdbHLH33 and MdCBF1-5 by semi-quantitative PCR after exposure to 4 °C for different amounts of time and generated evolutionary trees for MdbHLH33 and the MdCBFs. Overexpressing MdbHLH33 pro-GUS in ‘Orin’ callus, indicated that transgenic callus had higher GUS activity and was more deeply stained at 4 °C than at 25 °C. Subcellular localization showed that MdbHLH33 was located in the nucleus. Overexpressing MdbHLH33 in ‘Orin’ callus increased the expression level of MdCBF2, MdCOR15A-1, and MdCOR15A-2, and resulted in increased cold tolerance. EMSA and Chip-PCR analysis showed that MdbHLH33 could bind the LTR cis-acting element found in the MdCBF2 promoter. Overexpressing MdCBF2 in ‘Orin’ callus indicated that MdCBF2 could also increase the expression level of MdCOR15A-1 and MdCOR15A-2 and improve cold tolerance; we also found that transgenic callus overexpressing MdCBF2 had reduced MdCBF1 and MdCBF5 expression and increased MdCBF3 and MdCBF4 expression. Overall, these results show that MdbHLH33 can regulate the expression of MdCBF2 and improve the cold tolerance of transgenic callus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exposure to high salt concentrations is one of the main stresses adversely affecting crop growth, development, and yield. In this study, a putative salt stress-responsive gene ( MdMYB4) encoding an R2R3-MYB transcription factor was cloned and characterized. This gene belongs to the SG2 subgroup, and its C-terminal contains a conserved SG2 motif. The relative MdMYB4 expression levels in Malus × domestica Borkh. 'Orin' calli cultured under various NaCl concentrations were analyzed. Saline conditions upregulated the expression of MdMYB4, and the effects of the encoded transcription factor on salt tolerance were determined in MdMYB4-overexpressing (OE-MYB4) 'Orin' calli. The OE-MYB4 calli grew significantly better than the wild-type calli under salt stress conditions. Additionally, an analysis of the cis-acting elements in the MdNHX1 and MdSOS1 promoters revealed MYB-binding sites. However, the electrophoretic mobility shift assay results indicated that MdMYB4 can bind only to the MdNHX1 promoter. Moreover, the MdNHX1 expression levels were higher in OE-MYB4 calli than in wild-type calli at 150, 200, and 250 mM NaCl. In contrast, there were no significant changes to the MdSOS1 expression levels in OE-MYB4 calli. In conclusion, MdMYB4 is an R2R3-MYB transcription factor that mediates salt tolerance by activating the MdNHX1 promoter. Our findings may provide a theoretical basis for enriching the genetic resources associated with stress tolerance and for improving stress resistance in apple cultivars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, treatment of C57BL/6J (wild type, WT) mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD) with retinoic acid (RA) decreased body weight and subcutaneous and visceral fat content, reversed the apparent hepatosteatosis, and reduced hepatic intracellular triglyceride and serum alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) concentrations. Moreover, RA treatment improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in WT mice fed a HFD. However, these RA-induced effects in WT mice fed a HFD were alleviated in liver specific Sirtuin 1 ( Sirt1) deficient (LKO) mice fed a HFD. Furthermore, RA also could not improve glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in LKO mice fed a HFD. The mechanism studies indicated that RA indeed increased the expression of hepatic Sirt1 and superoxide dismutase 2 (Sod2), and inhibited the expression of sterol regulatory element binding protein 1c (Srebp-1c) in WT mice in vivo and in vitro. RA decreased mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in WT primary hepatocytes and increased mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) copy number in WT mice liver. However, these RA-mediated molecular effects were also abolished in the liver and primary hepatocytes from LKO mice. In summary, RA protected against HFD-induced hepatosteatosis by decreasing Srebp-1c expression and improving antioxidant capacity through a Sirt1-mediated mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction of CHI molecules with 100 fs 800 nm linearly polarized laser fields has been investigated at the intensity region from 2.6 × 10 to 5.8 × 10 W/cm by means of a velocity map imaging method. The kinetic energy distribution of the various atomic fragment ions I ( q = 1-3) has been measured and reproduced by a fit of multiple Gaussian functions. Several dissociative ionization and Coulomb explosion channels were identified for I ( q = 1-3). As expected for a geometric alignment dominated interaction process the anisotropic angular recoil distributions of the atomic ion fragments are peaked in the laser polarization direction. The kinetic energy release (KER) of I ( q = 1-3) depending upon the laser intensity has been investigated. The relative weight of the various contributions from the identified dissociative ionization (DI) and Coulomb explosion (CE) channels is found to depend strongly on the laser intensity. Graphical abstract: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: MdMYB16 forms homodimers and directly inhibits anthocyanin synthesis via its C-terminal EAR repressor. It weakened the inhibitory effect of MdMYB16 on anthocyanin synthesis when overexpressing MdbHLH33 in callus overexpressing MdMYB16. MdMYB16 could interact with MdbHLH33. Abstract: Anthocyanins are strong antioxidants that play a key role in the prevention of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes. The germplasm of Malus sieversii f. neidzwetzkyana is important for the study of anthocyanin metabolism. To date, only limited studies have examined the negative regulatory mechanisms underlying anthocyanin synthesis in apple. Here, we analyzed the relationship between anthocyanin levels and MdMYB16 expression in mature Red Crisp 1-5 apple ( M. domestica) fruit, generated an evolutionary tree, and identified an EAR suppression sequence and a bHLH binding motif of the MdMYB16 protein using protein sequence analyses. Overexpression of MdMYB16 or MdMYB16 without bHLH binding sequence (LBS MdMYB16) in red-fleshed callus inhibited MdUFGT and MdANS expression and anthocyanin synthesis. However, overexpression of MdMYB16 without the EAR sequence (LES MdMYB16) in red-fleshed callus had no inhibitory effect on anthocyanin. The yeast one-hybrid assay showed that MdMYB16 and LESMdMYB16 interacted the promoters of MdANS and MdUFGT, respectively. Yeast two-hybrid, pull-down, and bimolecular fluorescence complementation assays showed that MdMYB16 formed homodimers and interacted with MdbHLH33, however, the LBSMdMYB16 could not interact with MdbHLH33. We overexpressed MdbHLH33 in callus overexpressing MdMYB16 and found that it weakened the inhibitory effect of MdMYB16 on anthocyanin synthesis. Together, these results suggested that MdMYB16 and MdbHLH33 may be important part of the regulatory network controlling the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydroxyapatite (HA)-titania (TiO) composite coatings prepared on Ti6Al4V alloy surface can combine the excellent mechanical property of the alloy substrate and the good biocompatibility of the coating material. In this paper, HA-TiO composite coatings were deposited on Ti6Al4V substrates using suspension plasma spray (SPS). X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier infrared absorption spectrometry and friction tests were used to analyze the microstructure and tribological properties of the obtained coatings. The results showed that the spray distance had an important influence on coating microstructure and tribological performance. The amount of decomposition phases decreased as the spray distance increased. The increase in spray distance from 80 to 110 mm improved the crystalline HA content and decreased the wear performance of the SPS coatings. In addition, the spray distance had a big effect on the coating morphology due to different substrate temperature resulting from different spray distance. Furthermore, a significant presence of OH and CO was observed, which was favorable for the biomedical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We established a red callus from the leaves of a red-fleshed apple individual, which was a hybrid offspring of the cross between Malus sieversii f. niedzwetzkyana and Malus domestica cv. 'Fuji'. We analyzed callus growth and anthocyanin biosynthesis/metabolism under different combinations of temperature and light conditions. Incubation in darkness resulted in decreased anthocyanin accumulation, while it promoted callus growth. Exposure to light and low temperature (16 °C) induced the expression of MYB10 and bHLH3/33, which are responsible for coordinating the regulation of anthocyanin biosynthesis, as well as the expression of other structural genes. Treatments with light and high temperature (32 °C) induced MYB16 expression, which repressed anthocyanin biosynthesis. Additionally, low temperature (16 °C) inhibited the expression of MYB111. We analyzed the expression patterns of MYB and bHLH transcription factor genes by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Our data suggest that light-induced regulation of anthocyanin biosynthesis is primarily caused by altered MYB10 transcript levels, while temperature-induced regulation is the result of changes to the expression of bHLH3/33, MYB16, MYB17, MYB111, and other repressors. In conclusion, we investigated the reciprocal effects of light and temperature on anthocyanin biosynthesis in red-fleshed apple calli. Our findings may provide a theoretical basis for breeding red-fleshed apple varieties with high anthocyanin contents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a compact symplectic manifold which is s-Lefschetz which is weaker than the hard Lefschetz property, we prove that the Lefschetz decomposition for de Rham cohomology also holds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let ( M, g( t)) be a compact Riemannian manifold and the metric g( t) evolve by the Ricci flow. We derive the evolution equation for the eigenvalues of geometric operator −Δ + cR under the Ricci flow and the normalized Ricci flow, where Δ is the Witten-Laplacian operator, ϕ ∈ C( M), and R is the scalar curvature with respect to the metric g( t). As an application, we prove that the eigenvalues of the geometric operator are nondecreasing along the Ricci flow coupled to a heat equation for manifold M with some Ricci curvature condition when $$c > \tfrac{1} {4}$$. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Available tools in liver surgery planning rely on the future remnant liver (FRL) volume. Inappropriate decision might be made since the same FRL volume might represent different liver functions depending on the severity of underlying liver damage. This study developed an alternative system to estimate FRL function and to predict the risk of postoperative liver failure. Methods: Current study recruited 71 prehepatectomy patients and 71 healthy volunteers. A technetium-99-labelled asialoglycoproteins was given to participants and SPECT was used to capture the intensity of the signal, represented by uptake index (UI). The agreement between preoperative UI values, liver function tests, and Child scores were evaluated. Linear regression was used to evaluate the agreement between predicted UI for FRL and postoperative UI values. Area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUC) curve was used to evaluate the discriminative performance of UI in differentiating patient with high risk of liver failure. Results: Preoperative UIs are highly correlated with Child score ( P < 0.0001), especially to identify patients with ascites and elevated bilirubin. The predicted UIs were in close agreement with the actual postoperative UI values ( r = 0.95 P < 0.001). The AUC analysis indicated that UI values had a high accuracy in predicting the risk of liver failure (AUC = 0.95, P < 0.0001). The best cut-off point was 0.9 and the corresponding sensitivity was 100 % and specificity was 92 %. Conclusions: The new methodology reliably estimates FRL function and predicts the risk of liver failure. It provides a visual aid for liver surgeon in surgery planning and risk assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate a highly sensitive surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate, which consists of Ag nanoparticles (NPs) assembled on the surface of a nanopatterned polymer film. The fabrication route of a polymer/Ag core-shell nanorod (PACSN) array employed a direct nanoimprint technique to create a high-resolution polymer nanorod array. The obtained nanopatterned polymer film was subjected to electroless deposition to form a sea-cucumber-like Ag shell over the surface of the polymer nanorod. The morphology and structures of PACSNs were analyzed by using scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The as-synthesized PACSNs exhibited a remarkable SERS activity and Raman signal reproducibility to rhodamine 6G, and a concentration down to 10 M can be identified. The effect of electroless deposition time of Ag NPs onto the polymer nanorod surface was investigated. It was found that the electroless deposition time played an important role in SERS activity. Our results revealed that the combination of direct nanoimprint and electroless deposition provided a convenient and cost-effective way for large-scale fabrication of reliable SERS substrates without the requirement of expensive instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lianhuan Lake is found in the lowest point of the Songnen Plain in Eastern China and is a typical hardwater lake. Lianhuan Lake is constituted by eighteen lakes and Aobaopao Lake is located in the eastern portion. Geochemical features and pollution history of heavy metals in Aobaopao Lake were investigated. Total metal contents and chemical fractionations of Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Cd, Cr and Zn were analyzed for core sediment samples taken from north sampling site for Core AB1 and south sampling site for Core AB2 of the lake using the speciation extraction procedure proposed by the Commission of the European Communities Bureau of Reference (BCR) together with grain size and TOC measurements. Heavy metal analyses showed that sediments have similar geochemical features. In order to quantify the anthropogenic contamination of the metals according to their speciation composition, the RSP approach was applied. In Core AB1, Cd is moderate and significant contaminate while Mn is minor, moderate and significant contamination. In Core AB2, Cd is more significant contaminate from 3.75 cm to the surface. The risk assessment code (RAC) established by Perin et al. (Heavy Metals in the Environment, CEP Consultants, Edinburgh, ) was used to evaluate the risk of heavy metals in sediments of Aobaopao Lake. The results for both cores suggest that Mn and Cd posed a high risk to local environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]