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The effects of increasing atmospheric ozone (O3) concentrations on cool-season plant species have been well studied, but little is known about the physiological responses of cool-season turfgrass species such as Lolium perenne and Festuca arundinacea exposed to short-term acute pollution with elevated O3 concentrations (80 ppb and 160 ppb, 9 h d−1) for 14 days, which are widely planted in urban areas of Northern China. The current study aimed to investigate and compare O3 sensitivity and differential changes in growth, oxidative injury, antioxidative enzyme activities, and chloroplast ultrastructure between the two turf-type plant species. The results showed that O3 decreased significantly biomass regardless of plant species. Under 160 ppb O3, total biomass of L. perenne and F. arundinacea significantly decreased by 55.3% and 47.8% (p < 0.05), respectively. No significant changes were found in visible injury and photosynthetic pigment contents in leaves of the two grass species exposed to 80 ppb O3, except for 160 ppb O3. However, both 80 ppb and 160 ppb O3 exposure induced heavily oxidative stress by high accumulation of malondialdehyde and reactive oxygen species in leaves and damage in chloroplast ultrastructure regardless of plant species. Elevated O3 concentration (80 ppb) increased significantly the activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase and peroxidaseby 77.8%, 1.14-foil and 34.3% in L. perenne leaves, and 19.2%, 78.4% and 1.72-fold in F. arundinacea leaves, respectively. These results showed that F. arundinacea showed higher O3 tolerance than L. perenne. The damage extent by elevated O3 concentrations could be underestimated only by evaluating foliar injury or chlorophyll content without considering the internal physiological changes, especially in chloroplast ultrastructure and ROS accumulation.

Guanidinoacetate (GAA) is a naturally occurring amino acid derivative and the direct precursor of creatine, which is widely used in feed additives and the pharmaceutical industry. The current industrial synthesis of GAA is based on chemical methods, which limits the application of GAA. Here, a biological approach is developed for food safety GAA production via whole-cell biocatalysis by the generally regarded as safe (GRAS) bacterium Bacillus subtilis. First, we introduced a heterologous arginine: glycine amidinotransferase (AgaT) from Amycolatopsis kentuckyensis into B. subtilis and optimized its expression level using strategies including: promoter optimization, ribosome binding site (RBS) and N-terminal coding sequence (NCS) screening. In order to alleviate the waste of arginine and the inhibition of AgaT by ornithine, we optimized the natural ornithine cycle in B. subtilis. At the same time, the first gene in the glycine degradation pathway was knocked out. After optimization using these strategies, the titer of GAA was 4.26 g/L with a productivity of 0.21 g/L/h in 20 h, which provides a new method for the biosynthesis of GAA.

RNA interference (RNAi) is a sequence-specific gene silencing mechanism that holds great promise for effective management of agricultural pests. Previous studies have shown that the efficacy of RNAi varies among different insect species, which limits its wide spread application in the field of crop protection. In this study, we identified and characterized six core RNAi pathway genes including OfDicer1, OfDicer2, OfR2D2, OfAgo1, OfAgo2, and OfAgo3 from the transcriptomic database of the Asian corn borer (Ostrinia furnacalis). Domain analysis showed that the six deduced proteins contained the necessary functional domains. Insect developmental stage- and tissue-specific expression analysis showed that five genes were expressed in all the stages and tissues examined except OfAgo3, which showed low expression in larvae, and high expression in pupae and adults and in the midgut. RT-qPCR was performed to examine the response of these six genes to exogenous double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). Interestingly, the transcript levels of OfDicer2 and OfAgo2 were significantly enhanced after the injection of dsEGFP at different time points and tissues investigated. Consequently, the RNAi efficiency in targeting the insect endogenous genes can be greatly enhanced in the hemolymph or midgut. Taken together, our investigations suggest that RNAi efficiency can be enhanced by pre-injection of dsRNA to induce the RNAi core machinery genes, which could be a useful strategy to improving RNAi efficiency for studying gene functions under laboratory conditions.

The reservoir heterogeneity of Q oilfield is more severe after long-term water injection development, and water flooding is ineffective. In this study, the combined technologies of profile control, profile control and flooding, and oil displacement were proposed to improve the water flooding development effect. Then, the influence of the well pattern type on the remaining oil distribution, after development, was investigated. Cr3+ polymer gel, which has an optimal gel-forming effect, was used as the profile control agent. Moreover, the entire molecular structure had a “network” structure. A polymer microsphere was used as a profile control and flooding agent, which showed a good hydration expansion capacity. The initial particle size distribution had a range of 7.2–11.1 μm, and the expansion multiple was 4.35–5.64 after 7 days. The surfactant was an oil displacement agent, and the interfacial tension was approximately 5.08–5.11 × 10−1 mN/m. After the “profile control + profile control and flooding + oil displacement” technologies, the horizontal well pattern had a large seepage area. The effect of expanding the sweep volume was significant, and the remaining oil saturation in each stage was lower than those of the vertical and horizontal–vertical combined well patterns. Compared with the first water flooding stage, the remaining oil saturation values of the three permeable layers changed by 11.9%, 17.3%, and 19.8% during the subsequent water flooding stage.

ObjectiveTo determine whether the specific inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)—batimastat (BB-94)—could decrease the progression of liver tumor after radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and achieve better therapeutic efficacy in an animal model.MethodsIn vitro experiments, the proliferation of H22 liver tumor cells was detected by CCK 8 assay and cell migration was detected by Transwell method. In vivo experiments, H22 murine liver tumors were used. First, 32 mice with one tumor were randomized into four groups (n = 8 each group): control (PBS only), RFA alone (65°C, 5 min), BB-94 (30 mg/kg), RFA+BB-94. The growth rate of the residual tumor and the end point survival were calculated and the pathologic changes were evaluated. Secondly, a total of 48 tumors in 24 animals (paired tumors) were randomized into three groups (n = 8 each group): control, RFA alone, RFA+BB-94. Each mouse was implanted with two tumors subcutaneously, one tumor was treated by RFA and the other was evaluated for distant metastasis after applying BB-94.ResultsIn vitro, the proliferation assay demonstrated higher proliferation ability after heat treatment (0.82 ± 0.07 vs 1.27 ± 0.08, P = 0.008), and it could be inhibited by BB-94 (1.27 ± 0.08 vs 0.67 ± 0.06, P = 0.001). In the cell migration assay, the H22 cells demonstrated enhanced tumor invasiveness in the heat group than the control group (33.7 ± 2.1 vs 19.7 ± 4.9, P = 0.011). And it could be significantly suppressed after BB-94 incubation (33.7 ± 2.1 vs 23.0 ± 4.6, P = 0.009). With one tumor animal, the growth rate of the residual tumor in the BB-94+RFA group was slower than that in the RFA alone group (P = 0.003). And combination of BB-94 could significantly prolong the survival of the mice (40.3 ± 1.4d vs 47.1 ± 1.3d, P = 0.002). The expression of CD31 and VEGF at the coagulation margin were decreased after combined with BB-94. With two tumors animal, the growth of metastasis tumor in the BB-94+RFA group was slower than that in the RFA group (P < 0.001).ConclusionBB-94 combined with RFA reduced the invasiveness of the liver tumor and improved the end-point survival. Our data suggested that targeting the MMP process with the specific inhibition could help to increase overall ablation efficacy.

PurposeTo compare long-term outcomes of percutaneous radiofrequency ablation for colorectal liver metastases in perivascular versus non-perivascular locations.MethodsThis retrospective study included 388 consecutive patients with colorectal liver metastases (246 men, 142 women; age range 27–86 years) who underwent percutaneous radiofrequency ablation between January 2006 and December 2018. Propensity-score matching was performed for groups with perivascular and non-perivascular colorectal liver metastases. Rates of accumulative local tumor progression, overall survival, intra/extrahepatic recurrence, and complications were compared between the two groups.ResultsWe successfully matched 104 patients each in the perivascular and non-perivascular groups (mean age: 60.1 ± 11.5 and 60.1 ± 11.3 years, respectively). Cumulative local tumor progression rates at 6 months, 1 years, 3 years, and 5 years, respectively, were 8.8%,14.8%, 18.9%, and 18.9% in the perivascular group and 8.8%, 13.1%, 15.5%, and 15.5% in the non-perivascular group. The 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year overall survival rates, respectively, were 91.3%, 45.6%, 23.9%, and 18.7% in the perivascular group and 88.0%, 47.2%, 27.2%, and 22.6% in the non-perivascular group. No significant between-group differences were detected in cumulative local tumor progression (p=0.567, hazard ratio: 1.224) or overall survival (p = 0.801, hazard ratio: 1.047). The major complication rate was 1.0% (1/104, p > 0.999) in both groups. Tumor size was the only independent prognostic factor for local tumor progression (hazard ratio: 2.314; p = 0.002). On multivariate analysis for overall colorectal liver metastases, tumor diameter >3 cm, tumor location in the right colon, multiple tumors, and extrahepatic metastases before radiofrequency ablation (hazard ratios: 2.046, 1.920, 1.706, and 1.892, respectively; all p < 0.001) and intrahepatic recurrence (hazard ratio: 1.564; p = 0.002) were associated with poor overall survival.ConclusionCumulative local tumor progression, overall survival, and major complications rates did not differ significantly between perivascular and non-perivascular colorectal liver metastases after percutaneous radiofrequency ablation. For perivascular colorectal liver metastases, percutaneous radiofrequency ablation is a safe and effective treatment option.

Objective: To investigate the perfusion features of local recurrence in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after radiofrequency ablation (RFA) with contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) and pathological correlation, as well as to compare with those of initial HCC.Methods: From 2010 to 2018, 42 patients with recurrent HCC after RFA were enrolled in this study. The initial HCC patients included 32 males and 10 females with an average age of 58.2 ± 8.1 years. The CEUS images for initial HCC lesions and local recurrence after RFA were compared. The perfusion features were analyzed, including enhancement time, process, boundary, morphology, washout time, washout degree, feeding vessels, and internal necrosis. H&E staining and CD133/EpCAM staining were performed with biopsy samples for the stemness study.Results: According to CEUS, 59.5% of initial HCC lesions had centripetal enhancement, and 61.9% of recurrent HCC lesions had homogeneous enhancement in the arterial phase (p < 0.001). A total of 73.8% of initial HCC lesions had well-defined margins at the peak, and 81.0% of recurrent HCC lesions had poorly defined margins (p < 0.001). A total of 78.6% of initial HCC lesions had regular morphology at the peak, and 83.3% of recurrent HCC lesions were irregular (p < 0.001). Feeding vessels were more frequently found in initial HCC lesion (71.4%) than in recurrent HCCs (38.1%, p = 0.002). In the late phase, 60% of initial HCCs had marked washout while 83.3% of recurrent HCC lesion had marked washout (p = 0.019). A total of 31.3% of the initial HCC lesions had internal necrosis areas while only 7.1% of recurrent HCC lesions had internal necrosis areas (p = 0.035). In tumors 3–5 cm in size, the washout time of recurrent HCCs was shorter than that of initial HCCs (50.3 ± 13.5 s vs. 75.6 ± 45.8 s, p = 0.013). Pathological staining showed that the tumor stem cell markers (CD133 and EpCAM) were both highly expressed in recurrent samples compared with initial tumor samples (CD133+: 19 vs. 5%, p = 0.002; EpCAM+:15 vs. 6%, p = 0.005).Conclusions: Recurrent HCC after RFA had more homogeneous enhancement with a poorly defined border, marked washout, and fewer less feeding vessels and inner necrosis areas compared to initial HCC. The stemness study also found upregulated stemness in recurrent HCC. These specific features might be related to the aggressive biological behavior of recurrent HCC.

The world’s coastal areas are increasingly at risk of coastal flooding due to sea-level rise (SLR). We present a novel global dataset of extreme sea levels, the Coastal Dataset for the Evaluation of Climate Impact (CoDEC), which can be used to accurately map the impact of climate change on coastal regions around the world. The third generation Global Tide and Surge Model (GTSM), with a coastal resolution of 2.5 km (1.25 km in Europe), was used to simulate extreme sea levels for the ERA5 climate reanalysis from 1979 to 2017, as well as for future climate scenarios from 2040 to 2100. The validation against observed sea levels demonstrated a good performance, and the annual maxima had a mean bias (MB) of -0.04 m, which is 50% lower than the MB of the previous GTSR dataset. By the end of the century (2071–2100), it is projected that the 1 in 10-year water levels will have increased 0.34 m on average for RCP4.5, while some locations may experience increases of up to 0.5 m. The change in return levels is largely driven by SLR, although at some locations changes in storms surges and interaction with tides amplify the impact of SLR with changes up to 0.2 m. By presenting an application of the CoDEC dataset to the city of Copenhagen, we demonstrate how climate impact indicators derived from simulation can contribute to an understanding of climate impact on a local scale. Moreover, the CoDEC output locations are designed to be used as boundary conditions for regional models, and we envisage that they will be used for dynamic downscaling.

BACKGROUND:Schizophrenia is linked with abnormal brain neurodevelopment, on which IGF-2 (insulin-like growth factor-2) has a great impact. The purpose of this study was to assess the levels of serum IGF-2 and its binding proteins IGFBP-3 and IGFBP-7 in schizophrenia patients and the associations of these proteins with schizophrenia psychopathology and cognitive deficits. METHODS:Thirty-two schizophrenia patients and 30 healthy controls were recruited. The PANSS and a neurocognitive test battery were used to assess schizophrenic symptomatology and cognition, respectively. Serum IGF-2, IGFBP-3 and IGFBP-7 levels were determined using ELISA. RESULTS:The schizophrenia patients had a much lower content of serum IGF-2, IGFBP-3 and IGFBP-7 than controls. For the patients, IGF-2 levels were negatively correlated with the PANSS negative scores and positively associated with working memory, attention, and executive function. The correlations between IGF-2 and the PANSS negative scores, working memory or executive function were still significant after controlling for age, sex, education level, BMI, illness history and age of onset. No significant associations of IGFBP-3 or IGFBP-7 with the PANSS scores and cognitive function were observed in the patients. CONCLUSIONS:Our study demonstrates that serum IGF-2 was significantly correlated with negative and cognitive symptoms in patients with schizophrenia, suggesting that altered IGF-2 signaling may be implicated in the psychopathology and cognitive deficits in schizophrenia.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a serious global public health problem in the present. TB also affects other sites (extrapulmonary tuberculosis, EPTB), and accounts for a significant proportion of tuberculosis cases worldwide. In order to comprehensively understand epidemiology of EBTB in China, and improve early diagnosis and treatment, we conducted a large-scale multi-center observational study to assess the demographic data and the prevalence of common EPTB inpatients, and further evaluate the prevalence of EPTB concurrent with Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and the associations between multiple EPTB types and gender-age group in China. All consecutive age≥15yr inpatients with a confirmed diagnosis of EPTB during the period from January 2011 to December 2017 were included in the study. The descriptive statistical analysis included median and quartile measurements for continuous variables, and frequencies and proportions with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for categorical variables. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to compare the association of multiple EPTB types between age group and gender. The results showed that the proportion of 15-24 years and 25-34 years in EPTB inpatients were the most and the ratio of male: female was 1.51. Approximately 70% of EPTB inpatients were concurrent with PTB or other types of EPTB. The most common of EPTB was tuberculous pleurisy (50.15%), followed by bronchial tuberculosis (14.96%), tuberculous lymphadenitis of the neck (7.24%), tuberculous meningitis (7.23%), etc. It was found that many EPTB inpatients concurrent with PTB. The highest prevalence of EPTB concurrent with PTB was pharyngeal/laryngeal tuberculosis (91.31%), followed by bronchial tuberculosis (89.52%), tuberculosis of hilar lymph nodes (79.52%), tuberculosis of mediastinal lymph nodes (79.13%), intestinal tuberculosis (72.04%), tuberculous pleurisy (65.31%) and tuberculous meningitis (62.64%), etc. The results from EPTB concurrent with PTB suggested that females EPTB inpatients were less likely to be at higher risk of concurrent PTB (aOR = 0.819, 95%CI:0.803-0.835) after adjusted by age. As age increasing, the trend risk of concurrent PTB decreased (aOR = 0.994, 95%CI: 0.989-0.999) after adjusted by gender. Our study demonstrated that the common EPTB were tuberculous pleurisy, bronchial tuberculosis, tuberculous lymphadenitis of the neck, tuberculous meningitis, etc. A majority of patients with pharyngeal/laryngeal tuberculosis, bronchial tuberculosis, tuberculosis of hilar/mediastinal lymph nodes, intestinal tuberculosis, tuberculous pleurisy, tuberculous meningitis, etc. were concurrent with PTB. Female EPTB inpatients were less likely to be at higher risk of concurrent PTB, and as age increasing, the trend risk of concurrent PTB decreased. The clinicians should be alert to the presence of concurrent tuberculosis in EPTB, and all suspected cases of EPTB should be assessed for concomitant PTB to determine whether the case is infectious and to help for early diagnosis and treatment.

The Tongkuangyu copper deposit in Zhongtiaoshan at the southern margin of the North China Craton is one of the oldest porphyry Cu deposits in the world and its metallogenesis and tectonic evolution have been debated. Here, porphyritic intrusion geochemical and geochronological data are reported to identify the diagenetic age, mineralization, tectonic setting, and evolution of the deposit. Geochemical data show that granodiorite porphyry is a peraluminous rock, with low concentrations of Fe (~3.99%) and Ti (~0.29%) and high concentrations of alkali (~6.13%) and high Al (~15.42%) and Mg numbers (~51). The rocks show comparative enrichment of Na, K, and Mg; higher La/Yb ratios, no significant Eu anomaly, and obvious Nb–Ta–Ti negative anomaly, showing similar geochemical characteristics to Archean TTG and sanukitoid. ΣREE vary greatly, ranging from 33.47 × 10−6 to 277.81 × 10−6 (average 137.09 × 10−6). The characteristics of REE show obvious fractionation of LREE and HREE, enrichment of LREE, and depletion of HREE. Some of the LREE (La and Ce) and LILE (K, Rb, and Ba) are enriched, but some of the LILE (Th and U) are depleted. In addition, some of the HFSE (Nb, Ta, P, and Ti) are depleted while some (Zr and Hf) are enriched. High precision LA–MC–ICP MS zircon U–Pb dating yield concordant ages of 2159 ± 19 Ma, which is broadly coeval with ore formation (~2.1 Ga) in the area. Zircon εHf(t) values range from −3.8 to 1.13, with a model age of 2778 to 2959 Ma, indicating that the formation of porphyry is related to the partial melting of Archean crust (~2.7 Ga) with a minor amount of mantle material added. Tongkuangyu granodiorite porphyry formed in the tectonic setting of the post-orogenic extension in the Paleoproterozoic, and Tongkuangyu Cu deposit may be related to the extension of the North China Craton in the Paleoproterozoic.

Abstract Background Liver resection is the first-line treatment for patients with resectable colorectal liver metastasis (CRLM), while radiofrequency ablation (RFA) can be used for small unresectable CRLM because of disease extent, poor anatomical location, or comorbidities. However, the long-term outcomes are unclear for RFA treatment in resectable CRLM. This study aimed to compare the recurrence rates and prognosis between resectable CRLM patients receiving either liver resection or RFA. Methods Consecutive patients who underwent RFA or hepatic resection from November 2010 to December 2015 were assigned in this retrospective study. Propensity score analysis was used to eliminate baseline differences between groups. Survival and recurrence rates were compared between patients receiving liver resection and RFA. Results With 1:2 ratio of propensity scoring, 46 patients in the RFA group and 92 in the resection group were successfully matched. Overall survival was similar between the two groups, but the resection group had a higher disease-free survival (median, 22 months vs. 14 months). Whereas among patients with a tumor size of ≤ 3 cm, disease-free survival was similar in the two groups (median, 24 months vs. 21 months). Compared to the resection group, the RFA group had a higher rate of intrahepatic recurrence (34.8% vs. 12.0%) and a shorter recurrence free period. The local and systemic recurrence rate and recurrence-free period for the same were insignificant in the two groups. Poor disease-free survival was associated with RFA, T4, tumor diameter > 3 cm, and lymph node positivity. Conclusion Among patients with technically resectable CRLM, resection provided greater disease-free survival, although both treatment modalities provided similar overall survival.

Although most gifted education programs have included undergraduate research (UGR) in their training plans, scholars have not reached a consensus on UGR's effectiveness, especially for gifted college students. With a sample of 7460 students from 15 studies conducted worldwide during 1985-2022, this study explores the relationship between research experiences and academic achievement of gifted college students through meta-analysis. The study also investigates the moderating effects of seven variables: research design, research duration, region, publication time, literature type, intervention duration, and major. The results show that research experiences have a significant contribution to the academic achievement of gifted college students. Moreover, research design, literature type, intervention duration, and major are responsible for the differences in the effect sizes of included literature.

Global agriculture is facing an aging workforce and successor crisis, while the degradation of rural youths’ agricultural skills, which is indeed a concrete manifestation of young agricultural labor loss, has received little attention. Based on data from 1902 questionnaires in rural Southwest China, this study draws on a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the degradation of their skills to deepen the insights into the relationship between rural youth and agriculture. We found that rural youth have much lower agricultural skills than rural middle-aged and elderly residents, and their agricultural skills vary depending on gender, age, and occupation. Rural young non-agricultural workers’ large proportion among rural youth and low skills are the main sources of the reduction in rural youths’ skills. According to ordered logistic regression analysis, rural young non-agricultural workers who are older, have less education per person in their household, and have a larger cultivated land size have higher skills. As for rural students, 65.44% of the rural students have no skills, age and family’s agricultural income are significant positive influencing factors of their agricultural skills, and female youth have higher agricultural skills. The results provide references for policymakers to formulate targeted policies to cultivate rural young agricultural successors.

Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are non-coding RNAs with a length of 21~23 nucleotides (nt) and present in almost all eukaryotes. The formation of siRNA is a highly conserved post-transcriptional gene-silencing mechanism mediated by key proteins, including Dicer2, Argonaute2 (Ago2) and R2D2. R2D2 has been identified as a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-binding protein and reported as an integral component of the siRNA pathway in Drosophila. However, the involvement of R2D2 in the siRNA pathway of Locusta migratoria is still unknown. In the present study, we identified an LmR2D2 gene from the transcriptome of L. migratoria. It consists of a 954-bp open reading frame that encodes a protein of 318 amino acid residues. Further sequence analysis revealed that LmR2D2 possesses two tandem dsRNA-binding domains (dsRBD) at the N-terminus. Analysis of the developmental expression profile of LmR2D2 indicated that its transcript level was stable in third-instar nymphs of L. migratoria, whereas the tissue-dependent expression profile exhibited high levels of expression of LmR2D2 in the testis and ovary. When LmR2D2 was silenced by RNAi, the RNAi efficiency against Lmβ-tubulin as a marker gene was significantly diminished, as indicated by the 37.7% increased Lmβ-tubulin transcript level. Additionally, the prokaryotic expression system was used to obtain the LmR2D2 supernatant protein. By incubating the LmR2D2 protein with biotin-dsRNA, we found that LmR2D2 can bind to dsRNA in vitro, which supports our conclusion that LmR2D2 plays an essential role in the siRNA pathway of L. migratoria.

Most traditional hyperspectral image (HSI) classification methods relied on hand-crafted or shallow-based descriptors, which limits their applicability and performance. Recently, deep learning has gradually become the mainstream method of HSI classification, because it can automatically extract deep abstract features for classification. However, it remains a challenge to learn more meaningful features for HSI classification from a small training sample set. In this paper, a 3D cascaded spectral–spatial element attention network (3D-CSSEAN) is proposed to solve this issue. The 3D-CSSEAN integrates the spectral–spatial feature extraction and attention area extraction for HSI classification. Two element attention modules in the 3D-CSSEAN enable the deep network to focus on primary spectral features and meaningful spatial features. All attention modules are implemented though several simple activation operations and elementwise multiplication operations. In this way, the training parameters of the network are not added too much, which also makes the network structure suitable for small sample learning. The adopted module cascading pattern not only reduces the computational burden in the deep network but can also be easily operated via plug–expand–play. Experimental results on three public data sets show that the proposed 3D-CSSEAN achieved comparable performance with the state-of-the-art methods.

Abstract Sesbania cannabina, a multipurpose leguminous crop, is highly resistant to waterlogging stress. However, the scant genomic resources in the genus Sesbania have greatly hindered further exploration of the mechanisms underlying its waterlogging tolerance. Here, the genetic basis of flooding tolerance in S. cannabina was examined by transcriptome-wide gene expression changes using RNA-Seq in seedlings exposed to short-term (3 h) and long-term (27 h) waterlogging. After de- novo assembly, 213990 unigenes were identified, of which 145162 (79.6%) were annotated. Gene Ontology and pathway enrichment analyses revealed that the glycolysis and fermentation pathways were stimulated to produce ATP under hypoxic stress conditions. Energy-consuming biosynthetic processes were dramatically repressed by short and long term waterlogging, while amino acid metabolism was greatly induced to maintain ATP levels. The expression pattern of 10 unigenes involved in phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, glycolysis, and amino acid metabolism revealed by qRT-PCR confirmed the RNA-Seq data. The present study is a large-scale assessment of genomic resources of Sesbania and provides guidelines for probing the molecular mechanisms underlying S. cannabina waterlogging tolerance.

A backstepping-based robust adaptive fault tolerant control (FTC) scheme is proposed for the altitude and attitude dynamic model of the medium-scale unmanned autonomous helicopter (UAH) subjected to external disturbance and actuator fault. The external disturbance and actuator fault are integrated into the medium-scale UAH altitude and attitude dynamic model. Since the actuator fault is uncertain in occurring time instant, the adaptive control approach is adopted to compensate for its negative effect. Meanwhile, the upper bound of external disturbance is estimated and the estimation is employed to design the controller. Based on the backstepping control technique, a robust adaptive FTC law is developed, which guarantees the desired system stability as well as the satisfactory tracking property. Simulation studies verify the effectiveness of the designed controller.

In practical situations such as hostage rescue, earthquake and other similar events, the ultra-wideband (UWB) life-detection radar echo response from the respiration motion of the trapped person is always quasi-/non-periodic in respiration frequency or very weak in respiration amplitude, which can be called quasi-static vital sign. Although it is an extremely difficult task, considering the economic cost, the detection ability of the traditional UWB life-detection radars with only a pair of transceiver antennas is desired to be enhanced for locating the quasi-static trapped human being. This article proposes two different detection methods for quasi-static trapped human beings through the single/multiple observation points, which corresponds to the single-/multi-station radar operating mode, respectively. Proof-of-principle experiments were carried out by our designed radar prototypes, validating the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

Dectes texanus larvae girdles the stems of soybean and cultivated sunflowers causing significant yield losses in North America. The soybean Plant Introduction (PI) 165673 exhibits antibiosis resistance to the larval stage. The objectives of this study were: (1) to determine the inheritance of D. texanus resistance in PI165673; (2) evaluate PI165673 antibiosis resistance before 21 d post infestation; (3) evaluate girdling damage in PI16563 at the end of the season. K07-1544/PI165673 F2 and F2:3 populations were tested for resistance to D. texanus in 2011 and 2012, and PI165673 antibiosis resistance and girdling damage were evaluated in 2014. Segregation for resistance to D. texanus and heritability estimates in the F2 and F2:3 populations indicated that resistance was controlled by two genes with dominant and recessive epistasis. Antibiosis evaluations indicated: (1) PI165673 contained lower number of larvae and eggs relative to the number of oviposition punctures at 15 d post infestation; (2) the proportion of first-instar larvae was higher in PI165673 at 15 d post infestation; (3) larvae reach the sixth-instar stage in PI165673. None of the PI165673 plants were girdled at the end of the season. Identification of additional sources of D. texanus resistance is required to impair larval development in the stem.

In actual life-detection radar applications, a quasi-static person with weak respiration is difficult to find when relying on the echoes from a single fixed observation point. To effectively sense the weak respiration of a quasi-static person in complex through-wall and through-floor conditions, this paper proposes a novel multi-observation point detection system composed of multiple Golay complementary coded radars in which communication and synchronization are carried out wirelessly. The collaboration structure and Golay complementary coded transmitter improve the signal to noise ratio (SNR). Proof-of-principle experiments are carried out with our designed radar prototype and prove that the radar system can detect a respiring target 21 m behind a brick wall or a respiring target behind two levels of reinforced concrete floors, validating the effectiveness of a multi-observation point working mode for the efficient detection of weak human respiration.

This qualitative inquiry examines the tensions that general education colleges face while initiating reform in China, how students characterize these tensions, and what conditions account for the tensions. The views of 18 college students were documented through individual semi-structured interviews to uncover the themes related to the tensions, and the transcripts of the interviews were analyzed using thematic coding. This study identifies multiple tensions that arise surrounding general education programs including the tension of the "tao of universities" versus the "use of universities," "general-discipline fusion" versus "general-discipline separation," and "core curriculum" versus "fragmented curriculum." The study also discusses possible ways of easing and resolving these tensions so that services and programs can be enhanced.

Variable RNA interference (RNAi) efficiencies limit RNAi-based pest management strategies for many pests. Previous efforts to understand mechanisms contributing to low RNAi efficiency indicate that double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) is degraded in the European corn borer (ECB), Ostrinia nubilalis, due to nuclease activity. To investigate the contribution of dsRNA-degrading endonucleases (dsRNases) and lepidopteran-specific RNAi efficiency-related nucleases (REases) to dsRNA instability and low RNAi efficiency in ECB, five complementary DNAs putatively encoding four dsRNases (OndsRNase1, 2, 3, and 4) and one REase (OnREase) were sequenced. Characterization of these transcripts revealed that substrate specificity might vary among the four dsRNases due to different amino acid combinations in the substrate-binding sites. Gene expression analysis indicated that OndsRNase2 and OnREase were highly expressed in the larval gut, and OndsRNase1 showed the highest expression in hemolymph, especially in older developmental stages. Transcript level analysis after dsRNA exposure revealed that expression of OnREase rapidly increased upon dsRNA ingestion or injection, whereas OndsRNase4 expression only increased after long-term ingestion of dsRNA. While the biological function of these nucleases remains to be verified, our results suggest that OnREase and OndsRNase2, and OndsRNase1 and OndsRNase4 may be responsible for degradation of dsRNAs in the ECB gut and hemolymph, respectively, thereby contributing to low RNAi efficiency.

Farmland abandonment is considered as an important phenomenon for changing eco-environmental and sociocultural landscapes of mountainous rural landscape. Many studies have analyzed farmland abandonment, its driving factors, geophysical processes and consequences at landscape: however, very few have focused on mountainous developing countries such as in Nepal, which is a rapidly urbanizing country suffering from serious farmland abandonment. Therefore, our study was an attempt to (i) assess the spatiotemporal extent of farmland abandonment in Nepal, (ii) explore driving factors of farmland abandonment, and (iii) discuss on the eco-environmental and sociocultural consequences in Nepal. We reviewed various literature, documents, and national reports to obtain a dataset pertaining to the overall status of farmland use and changes along with political and socioeconomic changes, economic development processes, and policy and governance in Nepal. Our results showed that farmland abandonment is widespread; however, it is more prevalent in the hilly and mountainous regions of Nepal. A total of 9,706,000 ha, accounting for 23.9% of the total cultivated farmland in Nepal, was abandoned during the period of 2001 to 2010. The driving factors included population growth, scattered distribution of settlements, urbanization, socio-economic development, poor access to physical services, and poor implementation of agriculture development policies. Furthermore, the increasing extent of natural disasters, malaria eradication, land reform and resettlement programs, the complex system of land ownership, land fragmentation, political instabilities, and the intensification of trading in agricultural products also acted as drivers of farmland abandonment in Nepal. Farmland abandonment generates negative effects on rural societies eco-environmentally and sociologically. Abandoned plots were subjected to different forms of geomorphic damage (e.g. landslide, debris flows, gully formation, sinkhole development etc.). Farmland landscape fragmented into a group of smaller interspersed patches. Such patches were opened for grassland. Furthermore, farmland abandonment also has effects on the local population and the whole society in terms of the production of goods (e.g., foods, feed, fiber), as well as services provided by the multi-functionality (e.g. sociocultural practices, values and norms) of the agricultural landscape. Therefore, this study plays an important role in planning and implementing eco-environmental management and social development processes in Nepal.

Summary: In the primate visual system, direction-selective (DS) neurons are critical for visual motion perception. While DS neurons in the dorsal visual pathway have been well characterized, the response properties of DS neurons in other major visual areas are largely unexplored. Recent optical imaging studies in monkey visual cortex area 2 (V2) revealed clusters of DS neurons. This imaging method facilitates targeted recordings from these neurons. Using optical imaging and single-cell recording, we characterized detailed response properties of DS neurons in macaque V2. Compared with DS neurons in the dorsal areas (e.g., middle temporal area [MT]), V2 DS neurons have a smaller receptive field and a stronger antagonistic surround. They do not code speed or plaid motion but are sensitive to motion contrast. Our results suggest that V2 DS neurons play an important role in figure-ground segregation. The clusters of V2 DS neurons are likely specialized functional systems for detecting motion contrast. : Direction-selective (DS) neurons are widely distributed in the primate visual system. Hu et al. examined visual responses of DS neurons in the second largest visual area (V2) in macaque monkeys and demonstrate distinctive response properties of these neurons compared with DS neurons in the well-studied traditional motion area MT. Keywords: macaque, V2, direction selectivity, RF surround, motion contrast

Fusarium fungi are soil-borne pathogens, and the pathological effects on plant photosystems remain unclear. This study aimed to deeply reveal pathological characterization in apple seedlings infected with Fusarium solani by investigating photosystems performance and interaction. Roots were immersed in conidial suspension for inoculation. Thereafter, prompt and delayed chlorophyll a fluorescence and modulated 820 nm reflection were simultaneously detected. After 30 days of infection, leaf relative water content and dry weight were remarkably decreased by 55.7 and 47.1%, suggesting that the infected seedlings were subjected to Fusarium-induced water deficit stress. PSI reaction center was more susceptible than PSII reaction center in infected seedlings due to greater decrease in the maximal photochemical efficiency of PSI than that of PSII, but PSI reaction center injury was aggravated slowly, as PSII injury could partly protect PSI by restricting electron donation. PSII donor and acceptor sides were also damaged after 20 days of infection, and the restricted electron donation induced PSII and PSI disconnection by blocking PSI re-reduction. In accordance with greater damage of PSI reaction center, PSI oxidation was also suppressed. Notably, significantly increased efficiency of electron transport from plastoquinone (PQ) to PSI acceptors (REo/ETo) after 20 days of infection suggested greater inhibition on PQ reduction than re-oxidation, and the protection for PSI acceptors might alleviate the reduction of electron transport efficiency beyond PQ upon damaged PSI reaction center. Lowered delayed fluorescence in microsecond domain verified PSII damage in infected seedlings, and elevated delayed fluorescence in sub-millisecond domain during PQ reduction process conformed to increased REo/ETo. In conclusion, F. solani infection depressed PSII and PSI performance and destroyed their coordination by inducing pathological wilting in apple seedlings. It may be a pathogenic mechanism of Fusarium to induce plant photosystems damage.

In this paper, an adaptive sliding mode tracking control scheme is developed for the medium-scale unmanned autonomous helicopter with system uncertainties and external unknown disturbances. A simplified mathematical model is established, which is divided into position subsystem and attitude subsystem. The uncertainty term of the system is handled by the inherent approximation ability of the neural network. The sliding model control scheme under the backstepping frame is developed for tackling disturbances. The stability of the simplified system is proved by using the Lyapunov theory, and the tracking errors are guaranteed to be uniformly bounded. Numerical simulation results show that the proposed control strategy is effective.

Some cytochrome P450 (CYP) genes are known for their rapid up-regulation in response to insecticide exposures in insects. To date, however, limited information is available with respect to the relationships among the insecticide type, insecticide concentration, exposure duration and the up-regulated CYP genes. In this study, we examined the transcriptional response of eight selected CYP genes, including CYP4G7, CYP4Q4, CYP4BR3, CYP12H1, CYP6BK11, CYP9D4, CYP9Z5 and CYP345A1, to each of four insecticides in the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum. Reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) revealed that CYP4G7 and CYP345A1 can be significantly up-regulated by cypermethrin (1.97- and 2.06-fold, respectively), permethrin (2.00- and 2.03-fold) and lambda-cyhalothrin (1.73- and 1.81-fold), whereas CYP4BR3 and CYP345A1 can be significantly up-regulated by imidacloprid (1.99- and 1.83-fold) when 20-day larvae were exposed to each of these insecticides at the concentration of LC20 for 24 h. Our studies also showed that similar levels of up-regulation can be achieved for CYP4G7, CYP4BR3 and CYP345A1 by cypermethrin, permethrin, lambda-cyhalothrin or imidacloprid with approximately one fourth of LC20 in 6 h. Our study demonstrated that up-regulation of these CYP genes was rapid and only required low concentrations of insecticides, and the up-regulation not only depended on the CYP genes but also the type of insecticides. Our results along with those from previous studies also indicated that there were no specific patterns for predicting the up-regulation of specific CYP gene families based on the insecticide classification.

Accumulating data have identified the important roles of PA protein in replication and pathogenicity of influenza A virus (IAV). Identification of host factors that interact with the PA protein may accelerate our understanding of IAV pathogenesis. In this study, using immunoprecipitation assay combined with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, we identified 278 human cellular proteins that might interact with PA of H5N1 IAV. Gene Ontology annotation revealed that the identified proteins are highly associated with viral translation and replication. Further KEGG pathway analysis of the interactome profile highlighted cellular pathways associated with translation, infectious disease, and signal transduction. In addition, Diseases and Functions analysis suggested that these cellular proteins are highly related with Organismal Injury and Abnormalities and Cell Death and Survival. Moreover, two cellular proteins (nucleolin and eukaryotic translation elongation factor 1-alpha 1) identified both in this study and others were further validated to interact with PA using co-immunoprecipitation and co-localization assays. Therefore, this study presented the interactome data of H5N1 IAV PA protein in human cells which may provide novel cellular target proteins for elucidating the potential molecular functions of PA in regulating the lifecycle of IAV in human cells.

We identified and characterized the TcLgl gene putatively encoding lethal giant larvae (Lgl) protein from the red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum). Analyses of developmental stage and tissue-specific expression patterns revealed that TcLgl was constitutively expressed. To examine the role of TcLgl in insect development, RNA interference was performed in early (1-day) larvae, late (20-day) larvae, and early (1-day) pupae. The early larvae injected with double-stranded RNA of TcLgl (dsTcLgl) at 100, 200, and 400 ng/larva failed to pupate, and 100% mortality was achieved within 20 days after the injection or before the pupation. The late larvae injected with dsTcLgl at these doses reduced the pupation rates to only 50.3%, 36.0%, and 18.2%, respectively. The un-pupated larvae gradually died after one week, and visually unaffected pupae failed to emerge into adults and died during the pupal stage. Similarly, when early pupae were injected with dsTcLgl at these doses, the normal eclosion rates were reduced to only 22.5%, 18.0%, and 11.2%, respectively, on day 7 after the injection, and all the adults with abnormal eclosion died in two days after the eclosion. These results indicate that TcLgl plays an essential role in insect development, especially during their metamorphosis.

We developed a microarray based on 2895 unique transcripts assembled from 15,000 cDNA sequences from the European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis) larval gut. This microarray was used to monitor gene expression in early third-instar larvae of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)-susceptible O. nubilalis after 6 h feeding on diet, with or without the Bt Cry1Ab protoxin. We identified 174 transcripts, for which the expression was changed more than two-fold in the gut of the larvae fed Cry1Ab protoxin (p < 0.05), representing 80 down-regulated and 94 up-regulated transcripts. Among 174 differentially expressed transcripts, 13 transcripts putatively encode proteins that are potentially involved in Bt toxicity, and these transcripts include eight serine proteases, three aminopeptidases, one alkaline phosphatase, and one cadherin. The expressions of trypsin-like protease and three aminopeptidase transcripts were variable, but two potential Bt-binding proteins, alkaline phosphatase and cadherin were consistently up-regulated in larvae fed Cry1Ab protoxin. The significantly up and down-regulated transcripts may be involved in Cry1Ab toxicity by activation, degradation, toxin binding, and other related cellular responses. This study is a preliminary survey of Cry1Ab protoxin-induced transcriptional responses in O. nubilalis gut and our results are expected to help with further studies on Bt toxin-insect interactions at the molecular level.

Siji-kangbingdu mixture is an anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, and anti-viral herbal mixture which is frequently used by doctors to treat upper respiratory infections. It’s important to establish an efficient and economical quality-control method to ensure the quality consistency and efficacy stability of Siji-kangbingdu mixture. In this study, an integrated multi-evaluation method was established, sequentially involving UPLC-TripleTOF-MS analysis, UPLC fingerprint analysis, and the quantitative analysis of multi-components using the single-marker (QAMS) method. With one chromatographic condition, a total of 71 compounds were identified by MS and MS/MS information, with a mass error of less than 5 ppm; 49 peaks detected in 254 nm were selected to establish the fingerprint similarity model, and 7 chemical compounds were simultaneously determined, namely, chlorogenic acid, liquiritin, rutin, isochlorogenic acid A, forsythin, forsythoside A, and glycyrrhizic acid, with forsythoside A as the reference standard. There was no significant difference in the content of the seven compounds between the QAMS method and the external standard method (ESM). The established multi-evaluation method will largely promote the quality control and standardization process of Siji-kangbingdu mixture. It also provides a reference workflow for the overall evaluation of TCM patent medicines, from chemical profiling to fingerprint and quantitative analysis.

As an ideal candidate material for automobiles, twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) steels possess excellent formability, high strength and high energy absorption ability during collision. This is attributed to its deformation mechanism of mechanical twinning, resulting in a high work hardening rate. In the current study, deformation mechanisms of low-stacking fault energy TWIP steel, under different strain rates between 0.01/s to 1581/s, were investigated by high-energy X-ray diffraction. After compression, grains with {110}||compression direction became favourable. Higher intensity was observed near brass and A components in the selected orientation distribution function (ODF) section (φ2 = 45°) for all the compressed specimens. The activity of twinning was found to be the highest in the specimens that had been compressed with medium−high strain rates (e.g., 100/s and 10/s), while the texture component related to slip had stronger intensity in the specimen deformed with a quasi-static strain rate (0.01/s).

Residual effects of pyrethrin + methoprene aerosol dispensed at 4 and 16-µm particle sizes and an untreated control, was assessed against late-stage larvae of Trogoderma inclusum (LeConte), the larger cabinet beetle, and T. variabile (Ballion), the warehouse beetle. Treated arenas were stored at 25, 30, 35, and 40 °C and bioassays were conducted at 1, 3, or 6 weeks post-treatment. Larval development was monitored through adult emergence to compare the efficacy of treatments by using both the percentage of normal adult emergence and a developmental index as dependent variables. There was no overall effect of temperature on residual activity as measured using either adult emergence or developmental index values. Both the 4 and 16-µm particle sizes resulted in reduced adult emergence and low developmental index values compared to untreated controls. The insecticide was more effective on T. variabile than on T. inclusum. The impact of particle size varied between species, both particle sizes reduced adult emergence and developmental index in T. variabile, but only the 16-µm particle size resulted in reduction of adult emergence of T. inclusum. Furthermore, there was a reduction in activity of methoprene with residual exposure time. The variations in susceptibility of species to methoprene, differences in efficacy of particle sizes, and decrease in residual persistence at smaller particle sizes highlight the need for attaining optimal particle size to improve overall efficacy of aerosol mixtures containing methoprene.

In this paper, a simple and easy high-precision calibration method is proposed for the LRF-camera combined measurement system which is widely used at present. This method can be applied not only to mainstream 2D and 3D LRF-cameras, but also to calibrate newly developed 1D LRF-camera combined systems. It only needs a calibration board to record at least three sets of data. First, the camera parameters and distortion coefficients are decoupled by the distortion center. Then, the spatial coordinates of laser spots are solved using line and plane constraints, and the estimation of LRF-camera extrinsic parameters is realized. In addition, we establish a cost function for optimizing the system. Finally, the calibration accuracy and characteristics of the method are analyzed through simulation experiments, and the validity of the method is verified through the calibration of a real system.

The aim of the study was to examine the role of root abscisic acid (ABA) in protecting photosystems and photosynthesis in Jerusalem artichoke against salt stress. Potted plants were pretreated by a specific ABA synthesis inhibitor sodium tungstate and then subjected to salt stress (150 mM NaCl). Tungstate did not directly affect root ABA content and photosynthetic parameters, whereas it inhibited root ABA accumulation and induced a greater decrease in photosynthetic rate under salt stress. The maximal photochemical efficiency of PSII (Fv/Fm) significantly declined in tungstate-pretreated plants under salt stress, suggesting photosystem II (PSII) photoinhibition appeared. PSII photoinhibition did not prevent PSI photoinhibition by restricting electron donation, as the maximal photochemical efficiency of PSI (ΔMR/MR0) was lowered. In line with photoinhibition, elevated H2O2 concentration and lipid peroxidation corroborated salt-induced oxidative stress in tungstate-pretreated plants. Less decrease in ΔMR/MR0 and Fv/Fm indicated that PSII and PSI in non-pretreated plants could maintain better performance than tungstate-pretreated plants under salt stress. Consistently, greater reduction in PSII and PSI reaction center protein abundance confirmed the elevated vulnerability of photosystems to salt stress in tungstate-pretreated plants. Overall, the root ABA signal participated in defending the photosystem’s photoinhibition and protecting photosynthesis in Jerusalem artichoke under salt stress.

Abstract Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica Thunb.) is a traditional medicinal plant in China that is particularly rich in chlorogenic acids, which are phenolic compounds with various medicinal properties. This study aimed to examine the effects of salinity stress on accumulation of chlorogenic acids in honeysuckle, through hydroponic experiments and field trials, and to examine the mechanisms underlying the effects. NaCl stress stimulated the transcription of genes encoding key enzymes in the synthesis of chlorogenic acids in leaves; accordingly, the concentrations of chlorogenic acids in leaves were significantly increased under NaCl stress, as was antioxidant activity. Specifically, the total concentration of leaf chlorogenic acids was increased by 145.74% and 50.34% after 30 days of 150 and 300 mM NaCl stress, respectively. Similarly, the concentrations of chlorogenic acids were higher in the leaves of plants in saline, compared with non-saline, plots, with increases in total concentrations of chlorogenic acids of 56.05% and 105.29% in October 2014 and 2015, respectively. Despite leaf biomass reduction, absolute amounts of chlorogenic acids per plant and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) activity were significantly increased by soil salinity, confirming that the accumulation of chlorogenic acids in leaves was a result of stimulation of their synthesis under salinity stress. Soil salinity also led to elevated chlorogenic acid concentrations in honeysuckle flower buds, with significant increases in total chlorogenic acids concentration of 22.42% and 25.14% in May 2014 and 2015, respectively. Consistent with biomass reduction, the absolute amounts of chlorogenic acid per plant declined in flower buds of plants exposed to elevated soil salinity, with no significant change in PAL activity. Thus, salinity-induced chlorogenic acid accumulation in flower buds depended on an amplification effect of growth reduction. In conclusion, salinity stress improves the medicinal quality of honeysuckle by promoting accumulation of chlorogenic acids; however, the mechanisms underlying this process were not consistent in flower buds and leaves. Honeysuckle appears to be a promising plant for cultivation in saline land. Our study deepens knowledge of medicinal plant ecology and may provide a guide for developing saline agriculture.

This article presents a new sensor fusion method for visual simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) through integration of a monocular camera and a 1D-laser range finder. Such as a fusion method provides the scale estimation and drift correction and it is not limited by volume, e.g., the stereo camera is constrained by the baseline and overcomes the limited depth range problem associated with SLAM for RGBD cameras. We first present the analytical feasibility for estimating the absolute scale through the fusion of 1D distance information and image information. Next, the analytical derivation of the laser-vision fusion is described in detail based on the local dense reconstruction of the image sequences. We also correct the scale drift of the monocular SLAM using the laser distance information which is independent of the drift error. Finally, application of this approach to both indoor and outdoor scenes is verified by the Technical University of Munich dataset of RGBD and self-collected data. We compare the effects of the scale estimation and drift correction of the proposed method with the SLAM for a monocular camera and a RGBD camera.

A microarray developed on the basis of 2895 unique transcripts from larval gut was used to compare gut gene expression profiles between a laboratory-selected Cry1Ab-resistant (R) strain and its isoline susceptible (S) strain of the European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis) after the larvae were fed the leaves of transgenic corn (MON810) expressing Cry1Ab or its non-transgenic isoline for 6 h. We revealed 398 gut genes differentially expressed (i.e., either up- or down-regulated genes with expression ratio ≥2.0) in S-strain, but only 264 gut genes differentially expressed in R-strain after being fed transgenic corn leaves. Although the percentages of down-regulated genes among the total number of differentially expressed genes (50% in S-strain and 45% in R-strain) were similar between the R- and S-strains, the expression ratios of down-regulated genes were much higher in S-strain than in R-strain. We revealed that 17 and 9 significantly up- or down-regulated gut genes from S and R-strain, respectively, including serine proteases and aminopeptidases. These genes may be associated with Cry1Ab toxicity by degradation, binding, and cellular defense. Overall, our study suggests enhanced adaptation of Cry1Ab-resistant larvae on transgenic Cry1Ab corn as revealed by lower number and lower ratios of differentially expressed genes in R-strain than in S-strain of O. nubilalis.

Carboxylesterases (CarEs) belong to a superfamily of metabolic enzymes encoded by a number of genes and are widely distributed in microbes, plants and animals including insects. These enzymes play important roles in detoxification of insecticides and other xenobiotics, degradation of pheromones, regulation of neurodevelopment, and control of animal development. In this study, we characterized a total of 39 full-length cDNAs putatively encoding different CarEs from the migratory locust, Locusta migratoria, one of the most severe insect pests in many regions of the world, and evaluated the role of four CarE genes in insecticide detoxification. Our phylogenetic analysis grouped the 39 CarEs into five different clades including 20 CarEs in clade A, 3 in D, 13 in E, 1 in F and 2 in I. Four CarE genes (LmCesA3, LmCesA20, LmCesD1, LmCesE1), representing three different clades (A, D and E), were selected for further analyses. The transcripts of the four genes were detectable in all the developmental stages and tissues examined. LmCesA3 and LmCesE1 were mainly expressed in the fat bodies and Malpighian tubules, whereas LmCesA20 and LmCesD1 were predominately expressed in the muscles and hemolymph, respectively. The injection of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) synthesized from each of the four CarE genes followed by the bioassay with each of four insecticides (chlorpyrifos, malathion, carbaryl and deltamethrin) increased the nymphal mortalities by 37.2 and 28.4% in response to malathion after LmCesA20 and LmCesE1 were silenced, respectively. Thus, we proposed that both LmCesA20 and LmCesE1 played an important role in detoxification of malathion in the locust. These results are expected to help researchers reveal the characteristics of diverse CarEs and assess the risk of insecticide resistance conferred by CarEs in the locust and other insect species.

Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) are multifunctional enzymes that are involved in the metabolism of endogenous and exogenous compounds and are related to insecticide resistance. The purpose of this study was to provide new information on the molecular characteristics and the positive selection of locust GSTs. Based on the transcriptome database, we sequenced 28 cytosolic GSTs and 4 microsomal GSTs from the migratory locust (Locusta migratoria). We assigned the 28 cytosolic GSTs into 6 classes--sigma, epsilon, delta, theta, omega and zeta, and the 4 microsomal GSTs into 2 subclasses--insect and MGST3. The tissue- and stage-expression patterns of the GSTs differed at the mRNA level. Further, the substrate specificities and kinetic constants of the cytosolic GSTs differed markedly at the protein level. The results of likelihood ratio tests provided strong evidence for positive selection in the delta class. The result of Bayes Empirical Bayes analysis identified 4 amino acid sites in the delta class as positive selection sites. These sites were located on the protein surface. Our findings will facilitate the elucidation of the molecular characteristics and evolutionary aspects of insect GST superfamily.

Electrical signal guided drug release from conductive surface provides a simple and straightforward way for advanced drug delivery. In this study, we investigated the ibuprofen release from electrodeposited chitosan hydrogel by applying electrical signals. Specifically, chitosan hydrogel was electrodeposited on titanium plate and used as a matrix for ibuprofen load and release. The release of ibuprofen from the chitosan hydrogel on titanium plate was pH sensitive. By applying a positive or negative electrical potential, the release rate of ibuprofen from the electrodeposited chitosan can be facilely controlled. Thus, coupling chitosan electrodeposition and electrical signal control spurs new possibilities for biopolymeric coating and drug elution on conductive implants.