Search

Wall‐associated kinases (WAKs) have been determined to recognize pathogenic signals and initiate plant immune responses. However, the roles of the family members in host resistance against Valsa canker, a serious fungal disease of apples and pears, are largely unknown. Here, we identified MbWAK1 in Malus baccata, a resistant germplasm differentially expressed during infection by Valsa mali (Vm). Over‐expression of MbWAK1 enhanced the Valsa canker resistance of apple and pear fruits and 'Duli‐G03' (Pyrus betulifolia) suspension cells. A large number of phloem, cell wall, and lipid metabolic process‐related genes were differentially expressed in overexpressed suspension cell lines in response to Valsa pyri (Vp) signals. Among these, the expression of xyloglucan endotransglucosylase/hydrolase (XTH) gene PbeXTH1 and sieve element occlusion B‐like (SEOB) gene PbeSEOB1 were significantly inhibited. Transient expression of PbeXTH1 or PbeSEOB1 compromised the expressional induction of MbWAK1 and the resistance contributed by MbWAK1. In addition, PbeXTH1 and PbeSEOB1 suppressed the immune response induced by MbWAK1. Our results enriched the molecular mechanisms for MbWAK1 against Valsa canker and resistant breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetes foot ulcer (DFU) is one of the most intractable complications of diabetes and is related to a number of risk factors. DFU therapy is difficult and involves long‐term interdisciplinary collaboration, causing patients physical and emotional pain and increasing medical costs. With a rising number of diabetes patients, it is vital to figure out the causes and treatment techniques of DFU in a precise and complete manner, which will assist alleviate patients' suffering and decrease excessive medical expenditure. Here, we summarised the characteristics and progress of the physical therapy methods for the DFU, emphasised the important role of appropriate exercise and nutritional supplementation in the treatment of DFU, and discussed the application prospects of non‐traditional physical therapy such as electrical stimulation (ES), and photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT) in the treatment of DFU based on clinical experimental records in ClinicalTrials.gov. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ionic liquids (ILs) loading ketoconazole (KCZ) have shown better efficacy on rats with tinea pedis than the marketed Daktarin® but clinical studies are still lacking. In this study, we described the clinical translation of ILs containing KCZ (KCZ‐ILs) from the lab into the clinic and evaluated the efficacy and safety of KCZ‐ILs in patients with tinea pedis. Thirty‐six enrolled participants were randomized to receive either KCZ‐ILs (KCZ, 4.72 mg/g) or Daktarin® (control group; KCZ, 20 mg/g) topically twice daily, making the lesion be covered with a thin layer of medication. The randomized controlled trial lasted for 8 weeks including 4 weeks of intervention and 4 weeks of follow‐up. Primary efficacy outcome was the proportion of treatment success responders, defined as patients achieving negative mycological result and ≥60% relative reduction in total clinical symptom score (TSS) from baseline at week 4. Secondary outcomes mainly for evaluating the relapse of disease included the proportion of treatment success individuals at week 8 and fungal recurrence rate at weeks 2, 3, 4, and 8. After 4 weeks of medication, 47.06% of the KCZ‐ILs subjects were treatment successes compared with only 25.00% of those using Daktarin®. Throughout the trial period, KCZ‐ILs induced a significantly lower recurrence rate (52.94%) than that of control patients (68.75%). Furthermore, KCZ‐ILs were found to be safe and well‐tolerated. In conclusion, ILs loading only 1/4 KCZ dose of Daktarin® showed a better efficacy and safety profile in the management of tinea pedis, creating a new opportunity for the treatment of skin diseases caused by fungal infection and is worthy of clinical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The core rhizosphere microbiome is critical for plant fitness. However, its contribution to the belowground biomass and saponin contents of Panax notoginseng remains unclear. High‐throughput sequencing of amplicon and metagenome was performed to obtain the microbiome profiles and functional traits in P. notoginseng rhizosphere across a large spatial scale. We obtained 639 bacterial and 310 fungal core OTUs, which were mainly affected by soil pH and organic matter (OM). The core taxa were grouped into four ecological clusters (i.e. high pH, low pH, high OM and low OM) for sharing similar habitat preferences. Furthermore, structural equation modelling (SEM) and correlation analyses revealed that the diversity and composition of core microbiomes, as well as the metagenome‐derived microbial functions, were related to belowground biomass and saponin contents. Key microbial genera related to the two plant indicators were also identified. In short, this study explored the main driving environmental factors of core microbiomes in the P. notoginseng rhizosphere and revealed that the core microbiomes and microbial functions potentially contributed to the belowground biomass and saponin contents of the plant. This work may enhance our understanding of interactions between microbes and perennial plants and improve our ability to manage root microbiota for the sustainable production of herbal medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the Internet of Things (IoT) is rapidly integrated into our daily life, the demand for high performance readout integrated circuit (ROIC) design for sensor arrays is boosting. This paper presents a low power, low noise ROIC with 14-bit column-parallel extended counting (EC) ADCs for sensor arrays targeting the IoT applications. The proposed EC-ADC adopts a pseudodifferential architecture to cancel even-order nonlinearity. The analog front-end is a G m stage, which employs a current-reuse topology to boost the transconductance and reduce noise without increasing current consumption. The upper 9-bit conversion is implemented during integration, and the residual voltage is converted by a 5-bit single-slope (SS) ADC, where the comparator is reused. A ping-pong integrator is proposed to reduce the reset time and improve linearity, eliminating the power-hungry CTIA structure. The ROIC is designed in 0.18 μm 1P5M CMOS process for a 640 × 480 sensor array. Power consumption of the ROIC is 33 mW, and each column ADC consumes 40.1 μW. Simulation results show an input-referred noise of 0.89 LSB (1.74 μVrms), an integral nonlinearity of +0.92/-0.70 LSB, an ENOB of 12.87 bits, and a FoM of 131.1 fJ/step. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Endophytes may participate in the conversion of metabolites within medicinal plants, influencing the efficacy of host. However, the distribution of endophytes within medicinal plants P. notoginseng and how it contributes to the conversion of saponins are not well understood. Here, we determined the distribution of saponins and endophytes within P. notoginseng compartments and further confirm the saponin conversion by endophytes. We found metabolites showed compartment specificity within P. notoginseng. Potential saponin biomarkers, such as Rb1, Rg1, Re, Rc and Rd, were obtained. Endophytic diversity, composition and co‐occurrence networks also showed compartment specificity, and bacterial alpha diversity values were highest in root compartment, consistently decreased in the stem and leaf compartments, whereas those of fungi showed the opposite trend. Potential bacterial biomarkers, such as Rhizobium, Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Enterobacter, Klebsiella, Pantoea and fungal biomarkers Phoma, Epicoccum, Xylariales, were also obtained. Endophytes related to saponin contents were found by Spearman correlation analysis, and further verification experiments showed that Enterobacter chengduensis could convert ginsenoside Rg1 to F1 at a rate of 13.24%; Trichoderma koningii could convert ginsenoside Rb1 to Rd at a rate of 40.00% and to Rg3 at a rate of 32.31%; Penicillium chermesinum could convert ginsenoside Rb1 to Rd at a rate of 74.24%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A low‐power, high‐linearity, high‐charge handling capability two‐stage ADC‐based 384 × 288 size digital readout integrated circuits (ROIC) for infrared focal plane arrays are presented. A novel high‐speed, low‐power‐consumption comparator structure is proposed in this work. Moreover, the two‐stage ADC combines the pulse frequency modulation (PFM)‐based pixel‐level ADC and fine quantify module, improving the charge handling capability and the linearity of the readout circuit. The ROIC with 25 μm pixel pitch has been realised in 0.18 μm 1P6M CMOS process. The power consumption of the two‐stage ADC is 50 μW. The charge handling capability of the pixel is 2.3 Ge− and the non‐linearity of the proposed circuit is 0.09%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A low‐power time‐to‐digital converter (TDC) scheme for column‐level single‐slope analogue‐to‐digital converters for infrared imager is presented. This scheme greatly improves the TDC's timing precision with a novel 3‐bit fine gray counter, which makes use of multi‐phase clocks from a delay‐lock‐loop. Aimed for 384 × 288 array size uncooled infrared imager with 17 μm pixel pitch, the TDC circuits have been developed and simulated employing 0.18 μm CMOS technology. Compared with conventional two‐step TDC methods, this method saves more chip area and reduces the sampling power consumption by >50%, and also eliminates the coarse‐fine inconsistency problem with a simulated ±0.1 least‐significant‐bit differential non‐linearity performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives This study was designed to explore the pathogenesis of psoriasis and to identify potential bio-targets. Genome array technology was used to analyze the gene expression profiles of lesional and non-lesional psoriatic skin samples and normal skin samples. Methods Gene expression profile GSE14905 was downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus ( GEO) database. This included skin biopsy samples from normal healthy donors ( n = 21), lesional skin biopsy samples from psoriasis patients ( n = 33), and non-lesional skin biopsy samples from psoriasis patients ( n = 28). Differentially expressed genes ( DEGs) were identified using the Limma package in R language. Functions of specific DEGs were predicted by Gene Ontology ( GO) enrichment analysis. A protein-protein interaction network was constructed to display the interactions among common DEGs. Finally, DAVID and WebGestalt were used to achieve a functional analysis of common DEGs. Results Totals of 1020, 562, and 643 genes, respectively, were identified as being differentially expressed in normal versus lesional, normal versus non-lesional, and lesional versus non-lesional samples. The specific DEGs in the three groups were enriched for several GO terms, including mitotic cell cycle, immune response, and response to organic matter. The 40 common DEGs in the three groups may be involved in the defense response pathway in the development of psoriasis. Furthermore, three genes ( RGS1, SOCS3, and NAMPT) may play key roles in distinguishing lesional and non-lesional tissues from normal tissues, and 10 genes ( PTRRC, ALDH1A3, SAMSA1, C15orf48, ZC3H12A, SOD2, IL8, LTF, RHCG, and IL7R) may play key roles in distinguishing non-lesional from normal and lesional samples. Conclusions These genes may be considered as potential diagnostic markers and targets of therapeutics in psoriasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A column‐level two‐step analogue‐to‐digital converter (ADC) structure for infrared focal‐plane array (IRFPA) is proposed. The first step adopts a 16‐column‐shared 6‐bit flash ADC to accomplish the coarse conversion of 16 columns one by one. Owing to the staggered code and correction, a dynamic comparator is adopted in the flash ADC and the power dissipation of a flash ADC averaged to one column in period is only 0.386 μW. The second step is SAR conversion of which the cycle time is prolonged. The input voltage variation of the comparator in the charge redistribution structure is decreased to tens of millivolts; so a 1.8 V power supply is adequate in spite of 5 V VFS. The power dissipation of this comparator is reduced to 5.966 μW. Also, the lower clock frequency of the SAR logic reduces the dynamic power. A 14‐bit two‐step ADC is designed in 0.18 μm process and the equivalent power dissipation of the proposed ADC structure for one column is <20 μW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A low‐noise analogue frontend readout circuit is presented for VOx microbolometer infrared imager without thermo‐electrical cooler. A modified differential mirror structure with substrate temperature and self‐heating effect compensation ability is used, targeting below 40 mK noise equivalent temperature difference (NETD) with 17 μm pixel pitch. Noise characteristics are investigated to give an optimal trade‐off approach to reach lower NETD at same power consumption compared with traditional readout structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel odd-even column-level passive sample and column-shared active readout structure is proposed to realise a high speed, low power and low noise readout integrated circuit (ROIC). This structure reduces the number of operational amplifiers (OPAs) in each column and decreases the power consumption of the column capacitive transimpedance amplifier (CTIA) and output buffer. Compared to the traditional design for medium-scale array ROIC, power consumption of a single column is reduced by 80%. A 320 × 320 array ROIC has been designed for indium antimonide (InSb) cooled infrared detector using the novel structure. The chip is fabricated in the 0.35 μm CMOS process. The total power consumption is <55 mW when operating at 200 Hz frame rate with four outputs and the linearity is 99.95%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]