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It has been established that maize/soybean intercropping can improve nitrogen use efficiency. However, few studies have addressed how maize/soybean intercropping affects nitrogen-fixing bacterial diversity and N fixation efficiency of intercropped soybean. In this study, nitrogen-fixing bacterial communities, N fixation efficiency, and their relationships with soil properties under three nitrogen fertilization application rates (N0 0 kg/ha, N1 40 kg/ha, N2 80 kg/ha) were explored through field experiments. Nitrogen fixation and nitrogen-fixing bacteria diversity were assessed using 15N natural abundance, Illumina high-throughput sequencing, and nifH (nitrogen fixation) gene copies quantification in the rhizosphere soil of intercropped soybean. The results showed that nitrogen application rates significantly decreased the nitrogen-fixing bacteria diversity, nitrogen fixation efficiency, and nifH gene copies in the rhizosphere soil. Nitrogen fixation efficiency, nodule number, and dry weight of intercropped soybean were highest in the N0 treatment, and nitrogen fixation was the highest in the N1 treatment. The nitrogen-fixing efficiency in N0, N1, and N2 treatments increased by 69%, 59%, and 42% and the nodule number of soybean was 10%, 22%, and 21%, respectively, compared with monocultures. The soybean nitrogen-fixing bacteria diversity in intercropping under N0 and N1 treatments significantly increased compared with monocultures. There was a significant positive correlation between soil nifH gene copies and N fixation efficiency and a negative correlation with soil available nitrogen. Bradyrhizobium abundance in soybean rhizosphere soil decreased significantly with the increase in nitrogen application rates and was significantly correlated with soil AN (available nitrogen) and pH content in the soybean rhizosphere. These results help us to understand the mechanisms by which nitrogen use efficiency was improved, and nitrogen fertilizer could be reduced in legume/Gramineae intercropping, which is important to improve the sustainability of agricultural production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The synthesis, structure, and optical properties are reported for a series of yttria-stabilized zirconia crystals in which some Y3+ was replaced by Eu3+. These crystals were grown by the optical floating zone (OFZ) method and were transparent without inclusions, cracks, or bubbles. They were all exclusively in the cubic phase, whereas the corresponding ceramic samples had a mixture of monoclinic and cubic phases. Absorption spectra showed a charge transfer band at 268 nm and a series of narrow peaks in the range 308–540 nm from Eu3+ f–f transitions. The crystals were efficiently excited at 393 nm, and exhibited excellent orange-red photoluminescence (PL) centred at 610 nm, from the 5D0 → 7F1 transition. The maximum PL intensity was observed with crystals prepared with 2.00 mol% Eu2O3, and compared with other rare earth ions; Eu3+-doped ZrO2–Y2O3 single crystals have a high concentration quenching threshold. The critical distance for Eu3+ ions was calculated as 11.8 Å, which indicates that multipole–multipole interactions dominate the non-radiative energy transfer between Eu3+ ions. Finally, the chromaticity coordinates (CIE) for all the samples were similar, and those for the (ZrO2)92(Y2O3)6(Eu2O3)2 crystal were (x = 0.6339, y = 0.3657) with a colour purity >98%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transparent single crystals of (ZrO2)92(Y2O3)8−x(Nd2O3)x (x = 0.30, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00, 1.25, 1.50) were prepared by the optical floating zone method, and shown by XRD to have a cubic phase structure. Nd3+ entered into the crystal structure during crystal growth, and the lattice parameters and cell volume increased with increasing Nd2O3 concentration as Nd3+ replaced the smaller Y3+. A series of absorption peaks involving transitions from the Nd3+ ground state (4I9/2) were observed in the UV-vis-NIR absorption spectra. Under excitation with yellow light at 589 nm, up-conversion luminescence spectra showed three distinct emission peaks, corresponding to the 4D5/2 → 4I9/2 (334 nm), 4D3/2 → 4I9/2 (363 nm) and 2P1/2 → 4I9/2 (442 nm) transitions. The maximum intensity of the emission spectra was with 0.75 mol% Nd2O3, and higher concentrations resulted in quenching through electric dipole–quadrupole interactions. From analysis of the absorption and emission spectra using the Judd–Ofelt theory, values for the strength parameters Ωt (t = 2, 4, 6) and radiative transition properties were obtained for the (ZrO2)92(Y2O3)7.25(Nd2O3)0.75 single crystal. These showed Ω4> Ω2> Ω6, with the large Ω2 value indicating a highly covalent interaction and asymmetric local environment for Nd3+. The spectroscopic quality factor (χ) and radiative properties, such as the transition probability, radiation lifetime and branching ratio, indicate that this sample is a potential material for near-UV up-conversion luminescence and laser output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single crystals of Ho2O3-doped Y2O3 stabilized ZrO2 (YSZ) with different Y2O3 and Ho2O3 contents were grown by the optical floating zone method. XRD and Raman spectra were measured and showed that crystal samples all had tetragonal structures. Measurements of positron annihilation lifetime spectra indicated that the increase in Y2O3 concentration led to the increases of defects and mean positron lifetime, which enhanced the scattering of light and reduced the luminous intensity and the quantum yield (QY) of the crystal. Under the excitation at 446 nm, photoluminescence (PL) spectra of Ho2O3-doped YSZ crystals showed emission peaks at 540, 551, 670, and 757 nm corresponding to Ho3+ transitions from 5S2, 5F4, 5F5, and 5I4 excited states to the 5I8 ground state, respectively. At low Ho2O3-doped concentrations (0.10–0.50 mol%), the overall emission intensity increased with Ho2O3 contents, reached the maximum value at 0.50 mol%, then decreased with higher Ho2O3 contents, probably as a result of increased non-radiative relaxation caused by increased interactions between Ho3+ ions. Quenching of the PL occurred at Ho2O3 concentrations > 0.5 mol% and due to the electric dipole–dipole interaction. The calculated chromaticity coordinates (CIE) were approximately (0.307, 0.683) and the color purity achieved 99.6%. The results showed that Ho2O3: YSZ crystals were suitable for green light-emitting devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Target identification of small molecules is an important and still changeling work in the area of drug discovery, especially for botanical drug development. Indistinct understanding of the relationships of ligand–protein interactions is one of the main obstacles for drug repurposing and identification of off-targets. In this study, we collected 9063 crystal structures of ligand-binding proteins released from January, 1995 to April, 2021 in PDB bank, and split the complexes into 5133 interaction pairs of ligand atoms and protein fragments (covalently linked three heavy atoms) with interatomic distance ≤5 Å. The interaction pairs were grouped into ligand atoms with the same SYBYL atom type surrounding each type of protein fragment, which were further clustered via Bayesian Gaussian Mixture Model (BGMM). Gaussian distributions with ligand atoms ≥20 were identified as significant interaction patterns. Reliability of the significant interaction patterns was validated by comparing the difference of number of significant interaction patterns between the docked poses with higher and lower similarity to the native crystal structures. Fifty-one candidate targets of brucine, strychnine and icajine involved in Semen Strychni (Mǎ Qián Zǐ) and eight candidate targets of astragaloside-IV, formononetin and calycosin-7-glucoside involved in Astragalus (Huáng Qí) were predicted by the significant interaction patterns, in combination with docking, which were consistent with the therapeutic effects of Semen Strychni and Astragalus for cancer and chronic pain. The new strategy in this study improves the accuracy of target identification for small molecules, which will facilitate discovery of botanical drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inhibition effect and mechanism of water glass and EDTA on fluorite and bastnaesite were studied and compared through pure mineral flotation test, Zeta potential test, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. The results showed that the inhibition of water glass on fluorite was stronger than that on bastnaesite. EDTA has strong inhibition effect on fluorite, but no inhibition effect on bastnaesite. When EDTA was used as the inhibitor, the separation factor of bastnaesite and fluorite was 12.66, which was much higher than that of sodium silicate (2.00). The selective inhibition of fluorite could be realized by using EDTA. The XPS results showed that the inhibition effect of sodium silicate is due to the adsorption on the mineral surface, while the inhibition effect of EDTA is due to the complexing dissolution of metal cations on the mineral surface. EDTA has a weak ability to complex Ce active sites on the surface of bastnaesite, and has little effect on the adsorption of OHA on the surface of bastnaesite, while EDTA has a strong ability to complex Ca active sites on the surfaces of fluorite, which greatly reduces the density of Ca active sites and hinders the adsorption of OHA on the surfaces of fluorite, thus achieving a selective inhibition effect and enabling the two to be efficiently separated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Efficient ground-glass opacities (GGOs) diagnosis is challenging. A diagnostic method distinguishing malignant from benign GGOs is warranted. In this study, we sought to construct a noninvasive method based on tumor educated platelet (TEP) RNA profiles for malignant GGOs diagnosis and explore the molecular mechanism of the potential biomarker for the first time., Methods: Based on TEP RNA-sequencing (TEP RNA-seq) in benign and malignant GGOs, a classification model was constructed using differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and was used to evaluate diagnostic performance. High-throughput quantitative polymerase chain reaction (HT-qPCR) verified 23 genes selected from the top 60 DEGs between benign and malignant GGOs. The correlation between 17 verified DEGs and 22 key glycolytic genes was analyzed. Tripartite motif-containing 27 (TRIM27) overexpressing and knockdown (KD) cell models were constructed using A549 and PC-9 cells, respectively in which cell growth, apoptosis, migration and invasion were evaluated. The protein levels of HK-1/2, PKM1/2, LDHA and GLUT1 were evaluated by western blot. Glycolysis was evaluated through adenosine triphosphate (ATP), reactive oxygen species (ROS), lactate acid (LD) production, glucose uptake, and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity assays. RNA-seq was performed in loss-of TRIM27-KD PC-9 cells to clarify the downstream factors of TRIM27 which was verified using western blot and immunofluorescence double staining., Results: In 81 samples, the 1,647-DEG-based classification model exhibited area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity values of 0.99 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.972-1.000], 100%, and 91%, respectively, while the top 60-DEG-based classification model exhibited AUC, sensitivity, and specificity values of 0.986 (95% CI: 0.962-1.000), 98%, and 91%, respectively. TRIM27 achieved AUC of 0.87 in the diagnosis of malignant GGOs, with 83.93% sensitivity, 78.79% specificity, 81.15% accuracy, 77.05% positive predictive value (PPV) and 85.25% negative predictive value (NPV). TRIM27 was highly expressed in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells, and accelerated cell migration and invasion. In addition, TRIM27 was found to promote glycolysis in NSCLC cells partially through HMOX1 which was negatively correlated with TRIM27., Conclusions: We constructed a novel TEP RNA-seq based classifier for malignant GGOs diagnosis. TRIM27, an important target discovered, could accelerate migration, invasion and regulate glycolysis partially through HMOX1 in NSCLC cells, thus providing scientific support for TRIM27 as a diagnostic biomarker for malignant GGO diagnosis., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://tlcr.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/tlcr-24-157/coif). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (2024 AME Publishing Company. All rights reserved.)

Background: This study aimed to comprehensively summarize the knowledge structure and research hotspots of ophthalmology in the field of neuroscience through bibliometric and visual analysis., Methods: We searched the Web of Science Core Collection database for articles from 2002 to 2021 related to ophthalmology in the field of neuroscience. Using VOSviewer and CiteSpace, bibliometric analysis was conducted on the number of annual ophthalmology publications, authors, organizations, countries, journals, cited references, keywords, and burst keywords., Results: A total of 9,179 articles were published from 34,073 authors, 4,987 organizations, and 87 countries. The cited references in these articles were published in 23,054 journals. Moreover, there were 30,864 keywords among the 9,179 articles. Notably, scholars have increasingly begun paying attention to ophthalmology in the field of neuroscience in the past 20 years. Claudio Babiloni published the most articles. The University of Washington had the greatest number of articles. The United States, Germany, and England led in the number of articles published. The Journal of Neuroscience was the most cited. The article with the highest outbreak intensity was an article published by Maurizio Corbetta in Nature Reviews Neuroscience in 2002 entitled "Control of goal-directed and stimulus-driven attention in the brain." The most important keyword was the brain, and the top burst keyword was functional connectivity., Conclusion: This study visualized ophthalmology research in the field of neuroscience through bibliometric analysis and predicted potential research trends in future to help clinicians and basic researchers provide diversified perspectives and further carry out in-depth research on ophthalmology., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Xia, Li, Cheng, Chen, Huang, Yu and Shang.)