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Background Measurement of the Chinese burden of disease with disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) requires disability weight (DW) that quantify health losses for all non-fatal consequences of disease and injury. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2013 DW study indicates that it is limited by lack of geographic variation in DW data and by the current measurement methodology. We aim to estimate DW for a set of health states from major diseases in the Wuhan population. Methods We conducted the DW measurement study for 206 health states through a household survey with computer-assisted face-to-face interviews and a web-based survey. Based on GBD 2013 DW study, paired comparison (PC) and Population health equivalence (PHE) method was used and different PC/PHE questions were randomly assigned to each respondent. In statistical analysis, the PC data was analyzed by probit regression. The probit regression results will be anchored by results from the PHE data analyzed by interval regression on the DW scale units between 0 (no loss of health) and 1 (loss equivalent to death). Results A total of 2610 and 3140 individuals were included in the household and web-based survey, respectively. The results from the total pooled data showed health state “mild anemia” (DW = 0.005, 95% UI 0.000–0.027) or “allergic rhinitis (hay fever)” (0.005, 95% UI 0.000–0.029) had the lowest DW and “heroin and other opioid dependence, severe” had the highest DW (0.699, 95% UI 0.579–0.827). A high correlation coefficient (Pearson’s r = 0.876; P Conclusions This set of DWs could be used to calculate local diseases burden for health policy-decision in Wuhan population. The DW differences between the GBD’s survey and Wuhan’s survey suggest that there might be some contextual or culture factors influencing assessment on the severity of diseases.

Overexpression of miR171 restored SE competence in the recalcitrant citrus callus, and inhibition of miR171 function weakened SE competence in the strongly embryogenic citrus callus. Somatic embryogenesis (SE) is an important way of in vitro regeneration for plants. For perennial woody crops such as citrus, embryogenic callus is usually induced from unfertilized aborted ovules and widely used in biotechnology aided breeding. However, SE capacity always declines in callus during subculture, which makes regeneration difficult and hinders the application of biotechnology. We previously found that miR171 may be a regulator of SE in citrus, based on the abundant expression of csi-miR171c in the embryogenic callus and during SE of citrus. Here, we report that miR171 promotes SE and is required for SE in citrus. Overexpression of miR171 restored SE competence in the recalcitrant callus of 'Guoqing No.1' Satsuma mandarin (G1), whereas inhibition of miR171 function by Short Tandem Target Mimic (STTM) weakened SE competence in the strongly embryogenic callus of 'Valencia' sweet orange (V). The comparative transcriptomic analysis in miR171 overexpressed callus line (OE) and the wild type callus (WT) indicated that overexpression of miR171 decreased the expression level of its SCARECROW-LIKE (CsSCL) targets, and activated stress response related biological processes and metabolic processes that are required for cell differentiation. However, CsSCLs were up-regulated in the OE callus during SE induction process, which activated the cell division and developmental processes that are required for embryogenesis progress. Our results validate the function of miR171 in regulation of SE and reveal the biological responses provoked by miR171 in citrus that may promote SE.

Mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress are thought to play a dominant role in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD). Mogroside V (MV), extracted from Siraitia grosvenorii, exhibits antioxidant-like activities. The aim of this study was to investigate the function of MV in neuroprotection in PD and to reveal its mechanism of action. To that end, we firstly set up mice models of PD with unilateral striatum injection of 0.25 mg/kg rotenone (Rot) and co-treated with 2.5 mg/kg, 5 mg/kg, and 10 mg/kg MV by gavage. Results showed that Rot-induced motor impairments and dopaminergic neuronal damage were reversed by treatment of 10 mg/kg MV. Then, we established cellular models of PD using Rot-treated SH-SY5Y cells, which were divided into six groups, including control, Rot, and co-enzyme Q10 (CQ10), as well as MV groups, MV25, MV50, and MV100 treated with 25 μM, 50 μM, and 100 μM MV doses, respectively. Results demonstrated that MV effectively attenuates Rot neurotoxicity through a ROS-related intrinsic mitochondrial pathway. MV reduced overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS), recovered the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), and increased the oxygen consumption rate and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production in a dose-dependent manner. Hence, treatment with MV led to a reduction in the number of apoptotic cells, as reflected by Annexin-V/propidium iodide co-staining using flow cytometry and TdT-mediated dUTP Nick-End Labeling (TUNEL) assay. In addition, the Sirtuin3 (SIRT3) protein level and activity were decreased upon exposure to Rot both in substantia nigra (SN) of mice and SH-SY5Y cells. SIRT3 impairment hyperacetylated a key mitochondrial antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase 2 (SOD2). MV alleviates SIRT3 and SOD2 molecular changes. However, after successfully inhibiting SIRT3 by its specific inhibitor 3-1H-1, 2, 3-triazol-4-yl pyridine (3TYP), MV was not able to reduce ROS levels, reverse abnormal MMP, or decrease apoptotic cells. Motor impairments and dopaminergic neuronal injury in the SN were alleviated with the oral administration of MV in Rot-treated PD mice, indicating a relationship between protection against defective motility and preservation of dopaminergic neurons. Therefore, we conclude that MV can alleviate Rot-induced neurotoxicity in a PD model, and that SIRT3 may be an important regulator in the protection of MV.

Background Most cancer disability-adjusted life year (DALY) studies worldwide have used broad, generic disability weights (DWs); however, differences exist among populations and types of cancers. Using breast cancer as example, this study aimed to estimate the population-level DALYs in females in China and the impact of screening as well as applying local DWs. Methods Using multisource data, a prevalence-based model was constructed. (1) Overall years lived with disability (YLDs) were estimated by using numbers of prevalence cases, stage-specific proportions, and local DWs for breast cancer. Numbers of females and new breast cancer cases as well as local survival rates were used to calculate the number of prevalence cases. (2) Years of life lost (YLLs) were estimated using breast cancer mortality rates, female numbers and standard life expectancies. (3) The prevalence of and mortality due to breast cancer and associated DALYs from 2020 to 2030 were predicted using Joinpoint regression. (4) Assumptions considered for screening predictions included expanding coverage, reducing mortality due to breast cancer and improving early-stage proportion for breast cancer. Results In Chinese females, the estimated number of breast cancer DALYs was 2251.5 thousand (of 17.3% were YLDs) in 2015, which is predicted to increase by 26.7% (60.3% among those aged ≥ 65 years) in 2030 (2852.8 thousand) if the screening coverage (25.7%) stays unchanged. However, if the coverage can be achieved to 40.7% in 2030 (deduced from the “Healthy China Initiative”), DALYs would decrease by 1.5% among the screened age groups. Sensitivity analyses found that using local DWs would change the base-case values by ~ 10%. Conclusion Estimates of DALYs due to breast cancer in China were lower (with a higher proportion of YLDs) than Global Burden of Disease Study numbers (2527.0 thousand, 8.2% were YLDs), suggesting the importance of the application of population-specific DWs. If the screening coverage remains unchanged, breast cancer-caused DALYs would continue to increase, especially among elderly individuals.

Background Myocardial infarction (MI) is characterized by coronary artery occlusion, ischemia and hypoxia of myocardial cells, leading to irreversible myocardial damage. Therefore, it is urgent to explore the potential mechanism of myocardial injury during the MI process to develop effective therapies for myocardial cell rescue. Methods We downloaded the GSE71906 dataset from GEO DataSets, and the R software was used to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in mouse heart tissues of MI and sham controls. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment were performed to understand the significantly activated signaling pathways in MI. Protein–protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed to highlight the hub genes in DEGs. The Western Blot, qRT-PCR and TUNEL staining were used to explore the function of hub gene in hypoxia-induced cardiomyocytes in vitro. Results A total of 235 DEGs were identified in GSE71906 dataset. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that the upregulated genes were primarily associated with the inflammatory response and apoptosis. 20 hub genes were identified in PPI network, and the early growth response 2 (EGR2) was highlighted. In vitro. We confirmed the EGR2 was upregulated induced by hypoxia and revealed the upregulated EGR2 aggravates pro-inflammation and pro-apoptotic genes expression. In addition, EGR2 knockout mitigates hypoxia-induced inflammation and apoptosis in cardiomyocytes. Conclusion The present study identified the EGR2 was a hub gene in myocardial damage during MI process, the excessive EGR2 aggravates hypoxia-induced myocardial damage by accelerating inflammation and apoptosis in vitro. Therefore, targeting EGR2 offers a potential pharmacological strategy for myocardial cell rescue in MI.

The interface adhesive properties and mechanical properties of shape memory alloy composites were experimentally investigated. The two diameters of shape memory alloy (SMA) wire were surface modified by sandpaper, acid corrosion and alkali corrosion. Pull-out tests of single fiber and tensile tests of composite laminates were carried out. The results show that SMA after acid corrosion is the most effective to improve interface adhesive properties. With the increase of SMA diameter, the contact area between the matrix and SMA increases, so the degree of interfacial bonding is more obvious. The mechanical properties of SMA-modified composite laminates polished by sandpaper have been fully improved. SMA plays a full role in tensile resistance as long as the interface adhesive strength is large enough. Scanning electron microscopy shows that the surface roughness of the SMA wire treated in H2SO4 is more obvious than the other two.

In this letter, the high-order harmonic generation (HHG) of wurtzitic and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) under ultrafast intense laser field was studied by solving an extended multiband semiconductor Bloch equations (SBEs). The results showed that for both the wurtzitic and hexagonal structures, the cutoff energy of the HHG was extended linearly by increasing the field strength, and the efficiency was suppressed as the wavelength of laser increased. It was worth noting that for hexagonal structure, the efficiency of HHG was 1–2 orders of magnitude higher than that of the wurtzitic structure. At the same time, the hexagonal structure significantly improved the cutoff energy of HHG from BN.

Background Benchmark data on the population-level economic burden are critical to inform policymakers about liver cancer control. However, comprehensive data in China are currently limited. Methods A prevalence-based approach from a societal perspective was used to quantify the annual economic burden of liver cancer in China from 2019 to 2030. Detailed per-case data on medical/non-medical expenditure and work-loss days were extracted from a multicenter survey. The numbers/rates of new/prevalent cases and deaths, survival, and population-related parameters were extracted from the Global Burden of Disease 2019 and the literature. All expenditure data were reported in both 2019 Chinese Yuan (CNY) and United States dollar (US$, for main estimations). Result The overall economic burden of liver cancer was estimated at CNY76.7/US$11.1 billion in China in 2019 (0.047% of the local GDP). The direct expenditure was CNY21.6/US$3.1 billion, including CNY19.7/US$2.9 billion for medical expenditure and CNY1.9/US$0.3 billion for non-medical expenditure. The indirect cost was CNY55.1/US$8.0 billion (71.8% of the overall burden), including CNY3.0/US$0.4 billion due to disability and CNY52.0/US$7.5 billion due to premature death. The total burden would increase to CNY84.2/US$12.2 billion, CNY141.7/US$20.5 billion, and CNY234.3/US$34.0 billion in 2020, 2025, and 2030, accounting for 0.102%, 0.138%, and 0.192% of China's GDP, respectively. However, if China achieves the goals of Healthy China 2030 or the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals for non-communicable diseases, the burden in 2030 would be Conclusions The population-level economic burden of liver cancer in China is currently substantial and will consistently increase in the future. Sustainable efforts in primary and secondary interventions for liver cancer need to be further strengthened.

Primary cilia dyskinesia (PCD) is a rare genetic disease caused by ciliary structural or functional defects. It causes severe outcomes in patients, including recurrent upper and lower airway infections, progressive lung failure, and randomization of heterotaxy. To date, although 50 genes have been shown to be responsible for PCD, the etiology remains elusive. Meanwhile, owing to the lack of a model mimicking the pathogenesis that can be used as a drug screening platform, thereby slowing the development of related therapies. In the current study, we identified compound mutation of DNAH9 in a patient with PCD with the following clinical features: recurrent respiratory tract infections, low lung function, and ultrastructural defects of the outer dynein arms (ODAs). Bioinformatic analysis, structure simulation assay, and western blot analysis showed that the mutations affected the structure and expression of DNAH9 protein. Dnah9 knock-down (KD) mice recapitulated the patient phenotypes, including low lung function, mucin accumulation, and increased immune cell infiltration. Immunostaining, western blot, and co-immunoprecipitation analyses were performed to clarify that DNAH9 interacted with CCDC114/GAS8 and diminished their protein levels. Furthermore, we constructed an airway organoid of Dnah9 KD mice and discovered that it could mimic the key features of the PCD phenotypes. We then used organoid as a drug screening model to identify mitochondrial-targeting drugs that can partially elevate cilia beating in Dnah9 KD organoid. Collectively, our results demonstrated that Dnah9 KD mice and an organoid model can recapture the clinical features of patients with PCD and provide an excellent drug screening platform for human ciliopathies.

In cloud computing environments, it is a great challenge to schedule a workflow application because it is an NP-complete problem. Particularly, scheduling workflows with different Quality of Service (QoS) constraints makes the problem more complex. Several approaches have been proposed for QoS workflow scheduling, but most of them are focused on a single QoS constraint. Therefore, this paper presents a new algorithm for multi-QoS constrained workflow scheduling, cost, and time, named Budget-Deadline Constrained Workflow Scheduling (BDCWS). The algorithm builds the task optimistic available budget based on the execution cost of the task on the slowest virtual machine and the optimistic spare budget, and then builds the set of affordable virtual machines according to the task optimistic available budget to control the range of virtual machine selection, and thus effectively controls the task execution cost. Finally, a new balance factor and selection strategy are given according to the optimistic spare deadline and the optimistic spare budget, so that the execution cost and time consumption of the control task are more effective. To evaluate the proposed algorithm, we experimentally evaluated our algorithm using real-world workflow applications. The experimental results show that compared with DBWS (Deadline-Budget Workflow Scheduling) and BDAS (Budget-Deadline Aware Scheduling), the proposed algorithm has a 26.3–79.7% higher success rate. Especially when the deadline and budget are tight, the improvement is more obvious. In addition, the best cost frequency of our algorithm achieves a 98%, which is more cost-competitive than DBWS.

Ambient air pollution (AAP) has been widely associated with increased morbidity of ischemic heart disease (IHD). However, no prior studies have investigated the effects of AAP exposure on the length of stay (LOS) due to IHD. Hospital data during 2015–2017 were obtained from hospital information system in five cities of Hubei province, China. We collected daily mean concentrations of air pollutants, including PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, O3, and CO, and meteorological data during the same time period. Poisson regression was applied to estimate the acute impacts of AAP on the LOS of IHD inpatients. A total of 42,114 inpatients with primary diagnosis of IHD were included, 50.63% of which were chronic IHD inpatients. Annual average concentrations of PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, O3, and CO were 61.93 μg/m3, 95.47 μg/m3, 18.59 μg/m3, 35.87 μg/m3, 100.30 μg/m3, and 1.117 mg/m3, respectively. After adjusting for temperature, relative humidity, gender, age group, payment method, number of hospital beds, location of hospital, and surgery or not, exposures to PM2.5, PM10, SO2, O3, and CO were associated with increased LOS for all IHD patients in both single- and multi-pollutant models, and stronger associations were observed among chronic IHD patients. In addition, subgroup analyses demonstrated that males and the group aged 65+ years were more vulnerable to air pollution, and the adverse effects were also promoted by low temperature in cold season. This study provides the first investigation of the adverse effects of AAP on the LOS for IHD patients. In order to shorten the LOS of IHD, measures should be taken to strengthen the AAP management and protect the high-risk population.

Phytosterols have been attached much attention for its thermal stability, but few research concerned the potential antioxidant activity of stigmasterol with two double bonds and the fate stigmasterol may experience through the whole process. The aim of this research was to comprehensively explore the realistic usage of soybean oil and the antioxidant role that stigmasterol may play. In this research, the degradation of stigmasterol added in soybean oil was evaluated with the treatments of 10-day heating at 60 °C, 9-h heating at 180 °C and 9-h frying at 180 °C. Phytosterol oxidation products and the proposed oxidation mechanisms of stigmasterol in soybean oil were investigated by GC–MS. The results showed that stigmasterol acted as a pro-oxidant at 60 °C but as an antioxidant at 180 °C. The decrease of phytosterol was usually accompanied by the increase amounts of oxidation products. After 10-day heating at 60 °C, the degradation of phytosterol was around 2.52–23.07% with 20.81–241.42 μg/g increase of oxidation products and 7-ketostigmasterol dominated. Heating at 180 °C underwent the most decreased phytosterol of 30.00–37.03% with the most rise of oxidation products 4.6–8.9 times higher than 60 °C. Differently, 5,6β-epoxy and 7β-hydroxy are the main products. According to the results of frying at 180 °C, stigmasterol literally presented excellent thermal stability in soybean oil. This indicated that stigmasterol exhibited antioxidant activity, and soybean oil with added stigmasterol could be suitable for home cooking or frying.

Background The purpose of this study was to retrospectively analyze clinical characteristics and prognostic risk factors of urosepsis patients admitted to two intensive care units in Shanghai, China. Methods Clinical data from patients diagnosed with urosepsis were retrospectively retrieved and analyzed from ICU in two regional medical centers from January 2015 to December 2019. Results Two hundred two patients were included in the subsequent analysis eventually, with an average age of 72.02 ± 9.66 years, 79.21% of the patients were female and the mortality rate of 15.84%.The proportion of patients with chronic underlying diseases such as diabetes and hypertension was relatively high (56.44, 49.50%, respectively), and the incidence of shock was also high (41.58%) correspondingly. The most common pathogen isolated was Escherichia coli (79.20%), of which the extended-spectrumβ-lactamases (ESBLs)(+) accounted for 42.57%. In multivariate analysis, the strongest predictors for death were mechanical ventilation (OR 7.260, 95% CI 2.200–23.963; P = 0.001),chronic kidney disease (CKD) (OR 5.140, 95% CI 1.596–16.550; P = 0.006), APACHE II score (OR 1.321, 95% CI 1.184–1.473; P P = 0.020). Both APACHE II score and lactate had the ideal predictive value, with the area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.858 and 0.805 respectively. Conclusion The patients with urosepsis were characterized by a higher proportion of female, older age, more percentage of comorbidities in this region, and patients with ESBLs (+) Escherichia coli infection were more prone to shock. Mechanical ventilation, comorbidity with CKD, APACHE II score and lactate were independent risk factors for death in urosepsis patient, but lactate level and APACHE II score had better predictive value for prognosis.

The goal of this meta-analysis is to explore the overall efficacy as well as the safety of anterior versus posterior approach for the therapy of patients with multilevel cervical spondylotic myelopathy based on qualified studies. Three electronic databases, PubMed, Cochrane, Embase were searched updated to January 2018 to identify all relevant and qualified studies using the index words. The qualified studies were including prospective or retrospective comparative studies. Relative risk (RR) and mean difference (MD) along with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were used to analyze the main outcomes. In this meta-analysis, there were a total of 24 studies with 959 patients in the anterior approach group and 1072 patients in the posterior approach group. The final results showed, in comparison of the posterior approach group, the anterior approach group significantly increased the JOA score (SMD: 0.36, 95% CI 0.10–0.62), the operation time (WMD: 49.87, 95% CI 17.67–82.08), and the neurological recovery rate (WMD: 10.55, 95% CI 3.99–17.11) with higher complication rate (RR: 1.53, 95% CI 1.24–1.89). Besides, there was no significant difference of the blood loss (SMD: − 0.40, 95% CI − 1.12 to 0.32) and ROM (SMD: − 0.28, 95% CI − 0.78 to − 0.22) between posterior approach group and anterior approach group. Studies found a significant increase of JOA score as well as neurological recovery rate by the anterior approach treatment when compared with posterior approach treatment. However, increased operation time and complications could also occur through the anterior approach treatment. More high-quality randomized controlled trials with larger sample size, multi-centric and longer follow-ups are needed to support our current conclusions.

Computer servers in cloud data centers are known to consume a huge amount of energy in their operations. For energy saving, load balancing has been used but it is only effective when CPU loads are predicted accurately. Noise in the energy consumption data is often a detrimental factor responsible for the CPU load prediction error. In prior arts, denoising has not been considered as an approach to subside the prediction error. Therefore, a novel prediction approach called CEEMDAN-RIDGE that is centered on denoising is proposed and reported in this paper. Firstly, CEEMDAN is applied to decompose the CPU consumption data which is in the form of a time series. The curvature similarity between a pair of the original series and its corresponding decomposed series is measured. By referencing to this similarity measure, an effective series is obtained from filtration of the noise series. The effective series after the noise series is filtered out is reconstructed to a new fitting curve for CPU load prediction. The prediction accuracy is further enhanced by doing some error correction called RIDGE, which is made possible by predicting the error a priori from the historical error data from the previous prediction. In order to validate CEEMDAN-RIDGE, a series of experiments are conducted with Google trace data. The experiment results show that the LSTM model using the proposed CPU load prediction approach outperforms other models significantly in three performance metrics: RMSE, MAE and MAPE.

Background: To estimate the accuracy of one-step nucleic acid amplification (OSNA) assay as an intra-operative sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) for sentinel lymph node (SLN) metastasis in breast cancer. Methods: PubMed, Cochrane Library and Web of Science databases were searched by two independent reviewers to retrieve literature with per-patient analysis. The deadline was up until December 2016. A meta-analysis was performed using STATA, Meta-Disc, and Revman software. A random-effects model was used and subgroup analysis was carried out to identify possible sources of heterogeneity. Results: According to the inclusion criteria, 2833 patients from 12 studies were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) and the area under the sROC curve (AUC) for detecting SLN metastasis were 0.87 (95% CI 0.81–0.91), 0.92 (95% CI 0.86–0.95), 10.65 (95% CI 6.18–18.34), 0.14 (95% CI 0.10–0.20), 75.08 (95% CI 37.77–149.22) and 0.94 (95% CI 0.91–0.95), respectively. Conclusions: The present study adds the evidence that OSNA assay is an accurate molecular diagnostic tool for intra-operatively detecting SLN metastasis in breast cancer. One-step nucleic acid amplification assay might be introduced into clinical usage for replacing traditional intro-operative diagnostic methods of SLNB.

This work is a retrospective analysis to investigate the critical risk factor for the therapeutic effect of endoscopic keel placement on anterior glottic web. Altogether, 36 patients with anterior glottic web undergoing endoscopic lysis and silicone keel placement were enrolled. Their voice qualities were evaluated using the voice handicap index-10 (VHI-10) questionnaire, and improved significantly 3 months after surgery (21.53 ± 3.89 vs 9.81 ± 6.68, P

Background Although synonymous single nucleotide variants (sSNVs) do not alter the protein sequences, they have been shown to play an important role in human disease. Distinguishing pathogenic sSNVs from neutral ones is challenging because pathogenic sSNVs tend to have low prevalence. Although many methods have been developed for predicting the functional impact of single nucleotide variants, only a few have been specifically designed for identifying pathogenic sSNVs. Results In this work, we describe a computational model, IDSV (Identification of Deleterious Synonymous Variants), which uses random forest (RF) to detect deleterious sSNVs in human genomes. We systematically investigate a total of 74 multifaceted features across seven categories: splicing, conservation, codon usage, sequence, pre-mRNA folding energy, translation efficiency, and function regions annotation features. Then, to remove redundant and irrelevant features and improve the prediction performance, feature selection is employed using the sequential backward selection method. Based on the optimized 10 features, a RF classifier is developed to identify deleterious sSNVs. The results on benchmark datasets show that IDSV outperforms other state-of-the-art methods in identifying sSNVs that are pathogenic. Conclusions We have developed an efficient feature-based prediction approach (IDSV) for deleterious sSNVs by using a wide variety of features. Among all the features, a compact and useful feature subset that has an important implication for identifying deleterious sSNVs is identified. Our results indicate that besides splicing and conservation features, a new translation efficiency feature is also an informative feature for identifying deleterious sSNVs. While the function regions annotation and sequence features are weakly informative, they may have the ability to discriminate deleterious sSNVs from benign ones when combined with other features. The data and source code are available on website http://bioinfo.ahu.edu.cn:8080/IDSV. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12920-018-0455-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background The yeast Kluyveromyces marxianus is an emerging cell factory for heterologous protein biosynthesis and its use holds tremendous advantages for multiple applications. However, which genes influence the productivity of desired proteins in K. marxianus has so far been investigated by very few studies. Results In this study, we constructed a K. marxianus recombinant (FIM1/Est1E), which expressed the heterologous ruminal feruloyl esterase Est1E as reporter. UV-60Co-γ irradiation mutagenesis was performed on this recombinant, and one mutant (be termed as T1) was screened and reported, in which the productivity of heterologous Est1E was increased by at least tenfold compared to the parental FIM1/Est1E recombinant. Transcriptional perturbance was profiled and presented that the intracellular vesicle trafficking was enhanced while autophagy be weakened in the T1 mutant. Moreover, whole-genome sequencing combined with CRISPR/Cas9 mediated gene-editing identified a novel functional protein Mtc6p, which was prematurely terminated at Tyr251 by deletion of a single cytosine at 755 loci of its ORF in the T1 mutant. We found that deleting C755 of MTC6 in FIM1 led to 4.86-fold increase in the production of Est1E compared to FIM1, while the autophagy level decreased by 47%; on the contrary, when reinstating C755 of MTC6 in the T1 mutant, the production of Est1E decreased by 66% compared to T1, while the autophagy level increased by 124%. Additionally, in the recombinant with attenuated autophagy (i.e., FIM1 mtc6C755Δ and T1) or interdicted autophagy (i.e., FIM1 atg1Δ and T1 atg1Δ), the productivity of three other heterologous proteins was also increased, specifically the heterologous mannase Man330, the β-1,4-endoxylanase XynCDBFV or the conventional EGFP. Conclusions Our results demonstrated that Mtc6p was involved in regulating autophagy; attenuating or interdicting autophagy would dramatically improve the yields of desired proteins in K. marxianus, and this modulation could be achieved by focusing on the premature mutation of Mtc6p target. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12934-018-0993-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Targets in layered media can be detected and located using a time reversal (TR)-reversed-time migration (RTM) mixed method. In this study, this single emission-multiple receiving method is tested experimentally by using two types of layered media and three types of targets. The signal reflected at the interface and the signal scattered by the target are measured by each receiver to obtain the travel time for several transmitter-receiver pairs. Thereafter, the amplitude ratio between the two measured signals is compared with the theoretical amplitude. The RTM process involves the convolution of the forward acoustic beam from the source with the backward acoustic beam from the receiver which adds an appropriate delay determined on the measured travel time data. By using this approach, the acoustic field distribution can be obtained, and the position of the target can be determined. Moreover, the measured positions of the target are compared with the actual position to validate the accuracy of this technique.

Although coating engineering on metallic nanostructures has been frequently applied in organic solar cells (OSCs) for improving the device performance by preventing the possible exciton quenching and charge recombination at the metal surface, there have been few theoretical researches addressing how the dielectric-coating of metal nanostructures influences the optical performance of OSCs. Here, we theoretically investigate the effect of coating a comb silver nanograting by a dielectric film on the absorption performance of OSCs. It is found that, under transverse-magnetic (TM) polarization, when the refractive index or thickness of the dielectric-coating is tuned, different orders of plasmonic waveguide modes are excited by the P3HT:PC61BM/coating/Ag triple-layered system. The dispersion relationship of such a plamsonic waveguide mode is solved and analyzed for clarifying the physical mechanism of the induced light trapping effect. It shows that for optimizing the light absorption in active layer under TM polarization, it is more favorable to coat a thin dielectric film (of 1 nm thick) with a suitable refractive index. While under transverse-electric (TE) polarization, the higher refractive index of dielectric-coating, the better the effect of light trapping.

A series of low band gap terpolymers (PBDT–DFBx–DPPy) incorporating various ratios of two acceptor units, difluorobenzene (DFB) and diketopyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole (DPP), were synthesized by Pd-catalyzed Stille polymerization. The effects of the DFB and DPP units on UV–Vis absorption, highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy levels, and terpolymer: PC60BM solar cell performance, especially the short-circuit current (J sc), were investigated. The polymer films exhibited broad and intense absorption spectra, covering the spectral range from 300 nm up to 900 nm. The optical properties of these random terpolymers can be easily controlled by tuning the ratio between DFB and DPP; an increase in DFB induced increased absorption between 300 and 550 nm and a lower HOMO energy level. The terpolymer PBDT–DFB50–DPP50 with the percentage of DFB up to 50 % in the bulk heterojunction polymer solar cell showed a high open-circuit voltage of 0.74 V and a J sc of 7.83 mA cm−2. This study demonstrated that significant changes in polymer electronic properties can be tuned by the strategic combination of simple electron-deficient monomers and their composition in the random terpolymers.

Volutella blight of boxwood, caused by the fungus Pseudonectria buxi, can cause extensive losses in commercial nurseries. To assess chemical methods for management, several fungicides commonly used to control diseases on ornamental plants were used in inhibition tests of fungal growth on amended media and on whole plants. Among 106 isolates from Ontario and 26 isolates from British Columbia, discriminatory threshold concentrations of propiconazole (1 μg/ml) and benomyl (10 μg/ml) fully inhibited growth, while iprodione (100 μg/ml) allowed minor hyphal growth of 4–11 % of the non-fungicidal control in agar tests. In pre-infection tests on whole plants, fungicides were applied and then 7 days later, leaf tips were cut, and the plants inoculated with a spore suspension of P. buxi. All treatments at 7 days after inoculation showed statistically significant disease control, all giving less than 13 % disease compared to the inoculated control at 91 % disease. Four of the treatments (chlorothalonil, copper-myclobutanil, thiophanate methyl, and propiconazole) were not significantly different from the non-inoculated control which showed no disease. In post-infection applications on whole plants where leaf tips were injured and immediately inoculated, followed 7 days later by fungicide application, all six fungicides (including mancozeb and iprodione) were found to significantly decrease sporodochial production by 57–89 % compared to the inoculated control, although diseased leaves did not recover. Further work is needed on the timing of applications.

Background Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) has been known to function as a signalling molecule involved in the modulation of various physiological processes in plants. H2O2 has been shown to act as a promoter during adventitious root formation in hypocotyl cuttings. In this study, RNA-Seq was performed to reveal the molecular mechanisms underlying H2O2-induced adventitious rooting. Results RNA-Seq data revealed that H2O2 treatment greatly increased the numbers of clean reads and expressed genes and abundance of gene expression relative to the water treatment. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses indicated that a profound change in gene function occurred in the 6-h H2O2 treatment and that H2O2 mainly enhanced gene expression levels at the 6-h time point but reduced gene expression levels at the 24-h time point compared with the water treatment. In total, 4579 differentially expressed (2-fold change > 2) unigenes (DEGs), of which 78.3% were up-regulated and 21.7% were down-regulated; 3525 DEGs, of which 64.0% were up-regulated and 36.0% were down-regulated; and 7383 DEGs, of which 40.8% were up-regulated and 59.2% were down-regulated were selected in the 6-h, 24-h, and from 6- to 24-h treatments, respectively. The number of DEGs in the 6-h treatment was 29.9% higher than that in the 24-h treatment. The functions of the most highly regulated genes were associated with stress response, cell redox homeostasis and oxidative stress response, cell wall loosening and modification, metabolic processes, and transcription factors (TFs), as well as plant hormone signalling, including auxin, ethylene, cytokinin, gibberellin, and abscisic acid pathways. Notably, a large number of genes encoding for heat shock proteins (HSPs) and heat shock transcription factors (HSFs) were significantly up-regulated during H2O2 treatments. Furthermore, real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) results showed that, during H2O2 treatments, the expression levels of ARFs, IAAs, AUXs, NACs, RD22, AHKs, MYBs, PIN1, AUX15A, LBD29, LBD41, ADH1b, and QORL were significantly up-regulated at the 6- and/or 24-h time points. In contrast, PER1 and PER2 were significantly down-regulated by H2O2 treatment. These qRT-PCR results strongly correlated with the RNA-Seq data. Conclusions Using RNA-Seq and qRT-PCR techniques, we analysed the global changes in gene expression and functional profiling during H2O2-induced adventitious rooting in mung bean seedlings. These results strengthen the current understanding of H2O2-induced adventitious rooting and the molecular traits of H2O2 priming in plants. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-017-3576-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Largemouth bronze gudgeon (Coreius guichenoti) is an endemic freshwater fish in the upper reaches of the Yangtze river in China (Ding 1994). As a typical migratory river fish, broodstocks of C. guichenoti spawn in the middle and lower reaches of the Jinsha river, which is part of the upper reaches of the Yangtze river. The eggs hatch in the process of drifting downstream, then the juvenile fish is traced towards upstream of the Yangtze river to spawn (Cao 2008). The impoundment of Xiangjia dam in 2012 and Xiluodu dam in 2013 on the lower reaches of the Jinsha river have blocked the migration routes of C. guichenoti supplementary stocks because of which the number of broodstocks declined significantly. Artificial propagation of C. guichenoti has been developed to conserve the resources. Besides increasing the number ofC. guichenoti populations, maintaining the genetic diversity of populations should also be concerned in the conservation strategy. To date, 29 polymorphic microsatellites have been published for C. guichenoti, and 25 of their motifs are dinucleotide repeats (Liao et al. 2007; Xu et al. 2007). Genetic diversity in seven populations of C. guichenoti has been examined using 11 loci isolated by Liao et al. (2006, 2007). Dramatic population differentiation among populations which were seperated by dams was observed (Zhang and Tan 2010). No significant variation occurred among populations in continuous habitat (Zhang and Tan 2010), which was consistent with the study by Yuan et al. (2008). Therefore it is necessary to analyse the genetic diversity of populations seperated by Xiangjia dam and Xiluodu dam. Dinucleotide microsatellites have been demonstrated to be less polymorphic and stable than trinucleotide and

Mitochondrial ferritin (FtMt) has a significant effect on the regulation of cytosolic and mitochondrial iron levels. However, because of the deficiency of iron regulatory elements (IRE) in FtMt’s gene sequence, the exact function of FtMt remains unclear. In the present study, we found that FtMt dramatically inhibited SH-SY5Y cell proliferation and tumor growth in nude mice. Interestingly, excess FtMt did not adversely affect the development of drosophila. Additionally, we found that the expression of FtMt in human normal brain tissue was significantly higher than that of neuroblastoma, but not higher than that of neurospongioma. However, the expression of transferrin receptor 1 is completely opposite. We therefore hypothesized that increased expression of FtMt may negatively affect the vitality of neuronal tumor cells. Therefore, we further investigated the underlying mechanisms of FtMt’s inhibitory effects on neuronal tumor cell proliferation. As expected, FtMt overexpression disturbed the iron homeostasis of tumor cells and significantly downregulated the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen. Moreover, FtMt affected cell cycle, causing G1/S arrest by modifying the expression of cyclinD1, cyclinE, Cdk2, Cdk4 and p21. Remarkably, FtMt strongly upregulated the expression of the tumor suppressors, p53 and N-myc downstream-regulated gene-1 (NDRG1), but dramatically decreased C-myc, N-myc and p-Rb levels. This study demonstrates for the first time a new role and mechanism for FtMt in the regulation of cell cycle. We thus propose FtMt as a new candidate target for inhibiting neuronal tumor cell proliferation. Appropriate regulation of FtMt expression may prevent tumor cell growth. Our study may provide a new strategy for neuronal cancer therapy. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00018-014-1730-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Hydrothermal reactions of CuII or NiII with risedronic acid (H4Ris) in the presence of organic amine afforded two-layered metal phosphonates with different types of structures, namely [Cu2(HRis)]·(H2O)·0.5(NH2CH2CH2NH2) (1) and [Ni(HRis)2]2{Ni(H2O)2}2]·H2O (2). In compound 1, the adjacent equivalent [Cu1O5] square pyramids are linked by two μ2-O atoms into an edge-sharing {Cu2(μ2-O)2} dimer. These dimers are linked together by four {PCO3} tetrahedra, leading to an inorganic chain. The adjacent chains are further connected by Cu atoms through the phosphonate oxygen atoms from one chain and one pyridyl nitrogen atom (N1) from the other chain to give an organic–inorganic layer. In compound 2, the Ni is connected by O–P–O units into a chain structure, which is further connected by {NiO6} octahedra into a double-chain structure. Neighboring double chains are linked by HRis3− ligands into a layered structure. Magnetic susceptibility measurements indicate that antiferromagnetic interactions dominate in both complexes.

An outbreak of a boxwood disease was observed in nurseries in southern Ontario in 2008, but the disease appears to have been present in Ontario for at least 15 years. From 2008 to 2010, over 300 fungal isolates were obtained from diseased samples, which included cuttings and whole plants. Almost half of the isolates (144) were found to belong to a single cultural morphotype which was confirmed as Pseudonectria buxi by DNA sequencing of several isolates. The remaining isolates were grouped into another seven major morphotypes, the largest of which accounted for 11 % of the isolates. Single representatives of all eight morphotypes were identified to species using morphological and molecular techniques, and were subjected to pathogenicity testing. Among them, only Pseudonectria buxi successfully satisfied Koch’s postulates on detached leaves, small twigs and rooted cuttings, which confirmed it as the causal agent of Volutella blight. Inoculation tests showed that wounds may be the major infection courts for P. buxi, since non-wounded inoculated tissues did not become diseased. Among several commonly grown boxwood cultivars in Ontario, ‘Green Gem’ was the most susceptible compared to ‘Green Velvet’, ‘Green Mound’, ‘Green Mountain’ or ‘Pincushion’, but all were found to be susceptible. Rather than behaving just as a saprophyte or secondary invader, P. buxi is capable of primary invasion after wounding, and causing extensive disease on live boxwood tissues.

When the synthetic aperture focusing technology (SAFT) is used for the detection of the concrete, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and detection depth are not satisfactory. Therefore, the application of SAFT is usually limited. In this paper, we propose an improved SAFT technique for the detection of concrete based on the pulse compression technique used in the Radar domain. The proposed method first transmits a linear frequency modulation (LFM) signal, and then compresses the echo signal using the matched filtering method, after which a compressed signal with a narrower main lobe and higher SNR is obtained. With our improved SAFT, the compressed signals are manipulated in the imaging process and the image contrast is improved. Results show that the SNR is improved and the imaging resolution is guaranteed compared with the conventional short-pulse method. From theoretical and experimental results, we show that the proposed method can suppress noise and improve imaging contrast, and can also be used to detect multiple defects in concrete.

Simulating regeneration tests of Potassium-Based sorbents that supported by Suzhou River Channel Sediment were carried out in order to obtain parameters of regeneration reaction. Potassium-based sediment sorbents have a better morphology with the surface area of 156.73 m2·g−1, the pore volume of 357.5×10−3 cm3·g−1 and the distribution of pore diameters about 2–20 nm. As a comparison, those of hexagonal potassium-based sorbents are only 2.83 m2g−1, 7.45×10−3 cm3g−1 and 1.72–5.4 nm, respectively. TGA analysis shows that the optimum final temperature of regeneration is 200 and the optimum loading is about 40%, with the best heating rate of 10 °C·min−1. By the modified Coats-Redfern integral method, the activation energy of 40% KHCO3 sorbents is 102.43 kJ·mol−1. The results obtained can be used as basic data for designing and operating CO2 capture process.

Canthaxanthin crystal and three isomeric samples generated by different processes (solvent dissolving, iodine catalysis, and melting) were selected to study the chemical changes during different isomerization processing. No sharp difference could be found when the nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of canthaxanthin crystal and canthaxanthin obtained by solvent dissolving and iodine catalysis were compared, suggesting that only isomerization occurred in those isomeric samples. However, the content of unsaturated hydrogen decreased during the melting of canthaxanthin, and the measurements of gel permeation chromatography and UV/Vis spectroscopy showed that the canthaxanthin melt contained few compositions of polymer and degradation products. A high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis system consisting of a C30 column and an elution system of methanol/methyl tert-butyl ether/water/dichloromethane (60:25:12:3, v/v/v/v) was employed to identify the compositions detected in HPLC. Using the combination of HPLC–diode array detector and HPLC–atmospheric pressure chemical ionization–mass spectrometry, ten isomers and four epoxides of canthaxanthin were successfully isolated. The isomer compositions were identified as 9,13′-di-cis-, 13,15-di-cis-, 9,15-di-cis-, 15-cis-, 13-cis-, 9,13-di-cis-, all-trans-, 11-cis-, 7-cis-, and 9-cis-canthaxanthin. The chromatographic purity and content of canthaxanthin sample also can be determined based on the C30-HPLC method.