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Abstract Background Manila clam (Ruditapes philippinarum) is a worldwide commercially important marine bivalve species. In recent years, however, microbial diseases caused high economic losses and have received increasing attention. To understand the molecular basis of the immune response to pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) in R. philippinarum, transcriptome libraries of clam hepatopancreas were constructed at 24 h post-injection with Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), peptidoglycan (PGN), and polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (poly(I:C)) and phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) control by using RNA sequencing technology (RNA-seq). Results A total of 832, 839, and 188 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were found in LPS, PGN, and poly(I:C) challenge group compared with PBS control, respectively. Several immune-related genes and pathways were activated in response to the different PAMPs, suggesting these genes and pathways might specifically participate in the immune response to pathogens. Besides, the analyses provided useful complementary data to compare different PAMPs challenges in vivo. Functional enrichment analysis of DEGs demonstrated that PAMPs responsive signal pathways were related to apoptosis, signal transduction, immune system, and signaling molecules and interaction. Several shared or specific DEGs response to different PAMPs were revealed in R. philippinarum, including pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), interferon-induced proteins (IFI), and some other immune-related genes were found in the present work. Conclusions This is the first study employing high throughput transcriptomic sequencing to provide valuable genomic resources and investigate Manila clam response to different PAMPs through in vivo challenges with LPS, PGN, and poly(I:C). The results obtained here provide new insights to understanding the immune characteristics of R. philippinarum response to different PAMPs. This information is critical to elucidate the molecular basis of R. philippinarum response to different pathogens invasion, which potentially can be used to develop effective control strategies for different pathogens.

Purpose: To investigate the protective effects of dexmedetomidine (Dex) on post cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) lung injury in rats and to explore the possibility of underlying mechanisms involving phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt. Materials and Methods: Forty healthy male Sprague–Dawley rats were randomly divided into five groups (n = 8 for each). A left lung ischemia-reperfusion injury model of CPB was established in all five groups. Rats were given saline, dexmedetomidine (Dex), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), wortmannin (Wtm), and Dex plus Wtm during the CPB process, in Group Saline, Dex, DMSO, Wtm, and Dex + Wtm, respectively. Mean arterial pressure, oxygenation index (OI), and respiratory index (RI) were measured at the following three timepoints: before CPB (T1), at the onset of opening of the left hilus pulmonis (T2), and at the end of the CPB process (T3). At T3, hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining was conducted to evaluate pathology of lung injury. The rate of lung tissue apoptosis was determined by flow-cytometry. The expression of Akt, p-Akt, caspase-3, and caspase-9 was assessed by Western blot. Results: Dex treatment during CPB protected rat lungs from post-CPB lung injury, manifested by improved lung function, mitigated pathological damage, and reduced lung tissue apoptosis. The expression and phosphorylation of Akt was significantly enhanced by Dex treatment compared to the saline/DMSO-treated group. Wtm, a recognized PI3K inhibitor, abolished the protective effect of Dex. The levels of caspase-3 and caspase-9 were also significantly elevated in the Wtm-treated group. Conclusions: Dex reduces post-CPB lung injury in rats, at least partially, by activating the PI3K/Akt pathway and inhibiting lung tissue apoptosis.

Abstract Background With the recent emergence of immune checkpoint inhibitors, microsatellite instability (MSI) status has become an important biomarker for immune checkpoint blockade therapy. There are growing technical demands for the integration of different genomic alterations profiling including MSI analysis in a single assay for full use of the limited tissues. Methods Tumor and paired control samples from 64 patients with primary colorectal cancer were enrolled in this study, including 14 MSI-high (MSI-H) cases and 50 microsatellite stable (MSS) cases determined by MSI-PCR. All the samples were sequenced by a customized NGS panel covering 2.2 MB. A training dataset of 28 samples was used for selection of microsatellite loci and a novel NGS-based MSI status classifier, USCI-msi, was developed. NGS-based MSI status, single nucleotide variant (SNV) and tumor mutation burden (TMB) were detected for all patients. Most of the patients were also independently detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining. Results A 9-loci model for detecting microsatellite instability was able to correctly predict MSI status with 100% sensitivity and specificity compared with MSI-PCR, and 84.3% overall concordance with IHC staining. Mutations in cancer driver genes (APC, TP53, and KRAS) were dispersed in MSI-H and MSS cases, while BRAF p.V600E and frameshifts in TCF7L2 gene occurred only in MSI-H cases. Mismatch repair (MMR)-related genes are highly mutated in MSI-H samples. Conclusion We established a new NGS-based MSI classifier, USCI-msi, with as few as 9 microsatellite loci for detecting MSI status in CRC cases. This approach possesses 100% sensitivity and specificity, and performed robustly in samples with low tumor purity.

Lymphatic metastases are closely associated with tumor relapse and reduced survival in colorectal cancer (CRC). Here, the authors analysed the primary tumours, lymph node metastasis and liver metastasis of ten CRC patients and reveal co-existence of diverse modes of metastasis in the same patient.

Metalenses based on dielectric nanostructures operating in the transmission mode are of great practical significances. As large-area, multifunctional metalenses are increasingly demanded at higher volumes nowadays, the quality and efficiency of the nanofabrication processes for these lenses are made even more important. Yet, no fabrication is without defects or errors. By using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) calculation method, we study, in simulation, a set of common fabrication-induced errors such as inclined sidewall, critical dimension (CD) bias and process defects, and analyze their influences on the optical performances of two types of metalenses - one made of amorphous silicon and the other of silicon nitride. The study concludes that the lens behavior generally relies on the resonant nature of the nanostructure array. While most types of defects discussed in this work linearly decrease the focusing efficiency, a few would also influence the quality of the focal spot. Potential solutions to mitigate the effect of the process-induced defects are also investigated. The study provides the particular knowledge to understand the actual metalens performance when fabricated.

Bipolar disorder (BPD) and schizophrenia (SCZ) are two severe worldwide psychiatric disorders. Identifying genetic components contributing to both disorders will provide meaningful insights into their pathogenesis and widely-existed misdiagnosis. In this study, we employ allele-skewed DNA modification (ASM-SNP) data to investigate the two psychiatric disorders via state-of-the-art manifold learning, data-driven feature selection, and novel pathway analysis. We propose a novel manifold learning analysis for ASM-SNP data of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia based on a data-driven feature selection algorithm: nonnegative singular value approximation (NSVA). Our results indicate that t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) outperforms its peers in distinguishing psychiatric disorder samples from normal ones in both visualization and phenotype classification. It achieves the best phenotype diagnosis results with the average AUC 0.95 by using only about 20% top-ranked SNPs. Furthermore, our results from manifold learning along with support vector machine analysis suggest that the possible non-separability of SCZ and BPD in genetics. We also validate that SCZ and BPD both share the same or similar genetic variations from pathway analysis. This study indicates the inevitable misdiagnosis issue between BPD and SCZ from a machine learning and systems biology approach. The result sheds light on the existing psychiatry research to reexamine the existing behavior-based classification for BPD and SCZ. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first comprehensive investigation of BPD and SCZ in bioinformatics.

In the field of failure analysis and reliability evaluation, truncated and censored lifetime data due to observational constraints and periodic inspection schemes are highly common. The expectation-maximization algorithm is a widely employed approach for the parameter estimations of truncated and censored lifetime data. In this study, a new hierarchical grid algorithm is proposed to estimate the model parameters based on left-truncated and fully-censored data. An improved expectation-maximization algorithm is also adapted under incomplete information. These two methods are compared using Monte Carlo simulations. The confidence intervals corresponding to different quantile methods of the nonparametric bootstrap are compared in terms of coverage probabilities. In a case study, the failure analysis and prediction intervals for individual coupler knuckles of rail wagons are discussed. This simulation study and case study verify the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

The single factory production is shifting to multi-factory production which brings new challenges. Hybrid flow shop problem (HFSP) as a common problem in production-manufacturing has been studied extensively, however distributed hybrid flow shop problem (DHFSP) has not been paying sufficient attention. Fuzzy distributed hybrid flow shop problem (FDHFSP) is studied and a shuffled frog leaping algorithm with collaboration of multiple search strategies (SFLA-CMSS) is proposed to optimize multiple objectives simultaneously. In SFLA-CMSS, multiple search-mode collaboration strategy in memeplex search consists of multiple search strategies. A search strategy is selected according to the historical search status of the solution. Dynamic memeplex number adjustment strategy is used to provide more search opportunity to the memeplex which has better search capability. Experiments are conducted and the computational results reveal that SFLA-CMSS has promising advantages on FDHFSP.

Despite recent evidence suggesting that nerve transfer techniques help improve clinical outcomes, the underlying manner by which collateral-regenerated nerve enters skeletal muscles to restore an organized pattern of the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) is unclear. To construct the animal models of collateral regeneration, the proximal peroneal nerve was fixed to the distal tibial nerve stump. Three months after surgery, the spatial distribution of motor endplates (MEPs) and corresponding in-muscle nerve branches in long flexor digitorum muscles were observed with tissue optical clearing combined with light-sheet microscopy in transgenic fluorescent mice. The results showed that the number of fibers in the proximal donor peroneal nerve was 415 ± 11, while regenerated nerve fibers in the distal tibial stump were 781 ± 43, which indicates a collateral regeneration ratio of 1.88. The spatial distribution of MEPs was restored to an organized pattern of the lamella, and the corresponding in-muscle nerve branches reverted to the normal manner such as after collateral regeneration. Beyond this, the numbers of MEPs dominated by the single distal nerve fiber were 25.58 ± 0.50 and 26.42 ± 0.94, respectively (n = 6, p > 0.05, collateral regeneration group vs. normal group). However, the numbers of distal-regenerated nerve fibers were less than those in normal control groups (781 ± 43 vs. 914 ± 55, n = 6, p < 0.05), and the number and perforations of MEPs were lower than those in normal control groups as such. In summary, this is the first study to show the manner of collateral regeneration of the peripheral nerve that the smaller proximal donor nerve can sprout more axonal buds to connect distal larger nerves and finally restore to an organized pattern of lamella dominated by corresponding in-muscle nerve branches.

Background Although numerous studies have described the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in diabetic retinopathy (DR) screening among diabetic populations, studies among populations in rural areas are rare. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the application value of an AI-based diagnostic system for DR screening in rural areas of midwest China. Methods In this diagnostic accuracy study, diabetes mellitus (DM) patients in the National Basic Public Health Information Systems of Licheng County and Lucheng County of Changzhi city from July to December 2020 were selected as the target population. A total of 7824 eyes of 3933 DM patients were enrolled in this screening; the patients included 1395 males and 2401 females, with an average age of 19–87 years (63±8.735 years). All fundus photographs were collected by a professional ophthalmologist under natural pupil conditions in a darkroom using the Zhiyuan Huitu fundus image AI analysis software EyeWisdom. The AI-based diagnostic system and ophthalmologists were tasked with diagnosing the photos independently, and the consistency rate, sensitivity and specificity of the two methods in diagnosing DR were calculated and compared. Results The prevalence rates of DR according to the ophthalmologist and AI diagnoses were 22.7% and 22.5%, respectively; the consistency rate was 81.6%. The sensitivity and specificity of the AI system relative to the ophthalmologists’ grades were 81.2% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 80.3% 82.1%) and 94.3% (95% CI: 93.7% 94.8%), respectively. There was no significant difference in diagnostic outcomes between the methods (χ2 = 0.329, P = 0.566, P>0.05), and the AI-based diagnostic system had high consistency with the ophthalmologists’ diagnostic results (κ = 0.752). Conclusion Our research demonstrated that DR patients in rural area hospitals can be screened feasibly. Compared with that of the ophthalmologists, however, the accuracy of the AI system must be improved. The results of this study might lend support to the large-scale application of AI in DR screening among different populations.

Expansive soils are widely distributed and often cause serious damage to structures. Hanzhong expansive soil and Yulin salt-lake solution were adopted to investigate the effect of salt-lake salt solution on the strength of expansive soil. Expansive soils modified with salt-lake salt solutions with different concentrations (0.1, 0.5, and 1.0 mol/L) were evaluated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Atterberg limit, free swelling, no load swelling ratio, and triaxial compression tests. The improved expansive soil research using salt-lake salt solution was carried out based on the macroscopic mechanical characteristics. Test results showed that the addition of salt-lake solution effectively inhibited the expansibility of soil. With the increase of the concentration of salt-lake solution, liquid limit, plastic limit, plastic index, free expansion rate, no load swelling, cohesion, and internal friction angle of expansive soil were decreased in varying degrees, and stress-strain relationship curve gradually showed strain softening trend. The reason for the above results was believed to be that salt-lake salt solution reduced the force between particles on shear surface and reduced mutual hindrance.

Background Ewing sarcoma-associated transcript 1 (lncRNA EWSAT1) is reported to have a close relationship with the overall survival in many cancers. However, the role of its prognosis and correlations with the clinicopathological features in different cancers haven’t been explored yet. Herein, we intend to assess the prognostic value and correlations with the clinicopathological features in several cancers. Methods PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and The Cochrane Library were searched for literature review from inception to October 25, 2021. Valid data was extracted to make forest and sensitivity analysis plots using Review Manager 5.4 and Stata software. Hazard ratio (HR) or odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to evaluate the relationship between different expression of EWSAT1 and patients’ prognosis and clinicopathological features. Results 7 studies were screened for this review, including 550 samples. Meta-analysis showed that high expression of lncRNA EWSAT1 was associated with poor overall survival (OS) (HR = 2.10, 95% CI, 1.60–2.75, p < 0.0001) in cancers reported. In addition, patients in high expression group of EWAST1 tended to have more metastasis (OR = 2.20, 95% CI 1.47–3.31, p = 0.0001), and higher TNM stage (I+II vs. III: OR = 0.34, 95% CI 0.21–0.56, p < 0.0001), but in the same time with higher differentiation (well + moderate vs. Poor: OR = 2.21, 95% CI 1.02–4.76, p = 0.04). Age (OR = 1.47, 95% CI 0.94–2.30, p = 0.09) was not significantly different in patients with aberrant expression of EWSAT1. Conclusions Our study shows that high expression of EWSAT1 may indicate poor overall survival and associated with several clinicopathological features, which can be used as a potential prognosis biomarker for multiple cancers.

In this study, the effect of powdered detergent content in grey water on the evaporation and cracking characteristics of soils used in agricultural irrigation was investigated. Soil samples treated with different concentrations of detergent solutions (mass of powder detergent to soil mass of 0, 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.8%, 1.6%, and 3.2%) were used in laboratory evaporation testing to obtain the variation water content and cracking images during the evaporation process. Through image processing technology, the crack ratio and fractal dimensions of the cracks were used as evaluation indexes to quantitatively analyze the crack development of samples during the evaporation process. The results show that the water content of the soil samples treated with the detergent solution slightly increases compared to the control soil sample with no detergent. The maximum difference in water content between the samples with and without 0.8% detergent is 7.8%. The total time of the appearance of initial cracks of soil samples treated with detergent was shorter at a higher water content. The final crack ratio and fractal dimensions of the samples treated with different detergent solutions were all larger than the control sample. The soil samples with 1.6% and 3.2% detergent have precipitation of the grains during the evaporation process and form a flocculent layer on the surface of the sample. The dispersion of the soil samples was enhanced significantly after testing. The purpose of this study is to provide some valuable insights into application and management of grey water irrigation in arid and semi-arid areas.

This experiment was conducted to explore the effect of long-term supplementation of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25-OHD) as a vitamin D3 (VD3) substitute on performance, bone traits, and egg quality of laying hens from 1 day to 72 weeks of age. In total, 900 one-day-old Lohman pullets were randomly allotted into three dietary groups (three treatments × 15 replicates × 20 birds per replicate): VD3 2800 IU/kg; 25-OHD 69 μg/kg; 25-OHD 125 μg/kg. At the end of the 20th w, five replicates from each group were selected to feed on the same vitamin D diets, as used during the rearing stage (1–20 w) until 72 w. The result showed that the 25-OHD 125 μg/kg treatment had the lowest average daily feed intake (ADFI) at 1–8 or 1–19 w, body weight at 8 w, body weight gain between 1 and 8 w and shank length at 4 w (p < 0.05). The 25-OHD 125 μg/kg treatment had a lower shank length at 7 w, compared with the 25-OHD 69 μg/kg treatment. The shank length of the birds in each treatment reached the maximum (about 103 mm) at about 18 w of age. For the bone traits, the 25-OHD 125 μg/kg treatment had the lowest femur bone diameter at 20 w (p < 0.001) and femur bone plumpness at 20 w (p = 0.002). The 25-OHD 125 μg/kg treatment had a lower tibia strength at 10 w (p = 0.023) and keel length at 10 w (p = 0.046), compared with the 25-OHD 69 μg/kg treatment. However, both 25-OHD 69 and 125 μg/kg treatments had a greater femur strength at 72 w (p = 0.006), compared with the VD3 2800 IU/kg treatment. No difference in laying performance was observed among all treatments. The overall (21–72 w) ADFI in the 25-OHD 125 μg/kg treatment was significantly lower than that in the 25-OHD 69 μg/kg treatment (p = 0.030). At 60 w, the 25-OHD 125 μg/kg treatment had a lower eggshell thickness (p = 0.012) and proportion of eggshell (p = 0.022), compared with the 25-OHD 69 μg/kg treatment. No significant differences in egg quality parameters were observed at 50 and 70 w among treatments. In general, supplementary 2800 IU/kg doses of VD3 at the early stage were sufficient to maintain the bone quality and growth and development of pullets. Feeding birds at a higher 25-OHD level (125 μg/kg) resulted in the reduced ADFI and growth at the rearing period, but the long-term supplementation of 25-OHD as a VD3 substitute improved the bone quality in the late laying period.

Since heavy metal ion-contaminated water pollutionis becoming a serious threat to human and aquatic lives, new methods for highly efficient removal of heavy metal ions from wastewater are important to tackle environmental problems and sustainable development. In this work, we investigate the removal performances of heavy metal copper (II) ions from aqueous solutions using a gas hydrate-based method. Efficient removal of heavy metal copper (II) ions from wastewater via a methane hydrate process was demonstrated. The influence of the temperature, hydration time, copper (II) ions concentration, and stirring rate on the removal of heavy metal copper (II) ions were evaluated. The results suggested that a maximum of 75.8% copper (II) ions were removed from aqueous solution and obtained melted water with 70.6% yield with a temperature of −2 °C, stirring speed 800 r/min, and hydration time of 4 h with aninitial copper concentration of 100 mg/L. The initial concentration of copper (II) ions in the aqueous solution could be increased to between 100 and 500 mg/L. Meanwhile, our study also indicated that 65.6% copper (II) ions were removed from aqueous solution and the yield of melted water with 56.7%, even with the initial copper concentration of 500 mg/L. This research work demonstrates great potential for general applicability to heavy metal ion-contaminated wastewater treatment and provides a reference for the application of the gas hydrate method in separation.

Exploring the spatial relationship of various neuron pools in the spinal cord is crucial and difficult due to its complexity. The single-labelling tracing and sectioning were employed in previous studies exploring the distribution of spinal motor neuron pools, which could only delineate one single motor neuron pool in one specimen and could not achieve intact-tissue observation. Here, with combination of neuroanatomy tracing techniques and the optical clearing technique, we developed a multiple retrograde tracing method compatible with 3DISCO clearing. Fluoro-Gold, Fluoro-Ruby, Cholera Toxin Subunit B, Alexa Fluor 488 and 647 Conjugate were injected intramuscularly in hindlimbs of C57BL/6 adults. After labelling, the harvested spinal cords were optically cleared by 3DISCO method and imaged using confocal microscope. There were positive signals of all four tracers and four motor neurons pools targeting injected muscles were labelled. Three-dimension model of four motor neuron pools was successfully reconstructed based on tomography images showing the spatial relationship of different neuron pools. In conclusion, using this method, we first delineated the spatial relationship of four different motor neuron pools targeting four skeletal muscles in one spinal cord at the same time, which provide a holistic view of motor neuron pools in the spinal cord.

Phosphorus is the second most important macronutrient after nitrogen and it has many vital functions in the life of plants. Most soils have a low available P content, which has become a key limiting factor for increasing crop production. Also, low P use efficiency (PUE) of crops in conjunction with excessive application of P fertilizers has resulted in serious environmental problems. Thus, dissecting the genetic architecture of crop PUE, mining related quantitative trait loci (QTL) and using molecular breeding methods to improve high PUE germplasm are of great significance and serve as an efficient approach for the development of sustainable agriculture. In this review, molecular and phenotypic characteristics of maize inbred lines with high PUE, related QTL and genes as well as low-P responses are summarized. Based on this, a breeding strategy applying genomic selection as the core, and integrating the existing genetic information and molecular breeding techniques is proposed for breeding high PUE maize inbred lines and hybrids.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the association between base excess (BE) and the risk of 30-day mortality among patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) in the intensive care unit (ICU).Methods: This retrospective study included patients with AKI from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC)-IV database. We used a multivariate Cox proportional-hazards model to obtain the hazard ratio (HR) for the risk of 30-day mortality among patients with AKI. Furthermore, we utilized a Cox proportional-hazard model with restricted cubic splines (RCS) to explore the potential non-linear associations.Results: Among the 14,238 ICU patients with AKI, BE showed a U-shaped relationship with risk of 30-day mortality for patients with AKI, and higher or lower BE values could increase the risk. Compared with normal base excess (−3~3 mEq/L), patients in different groups (BE ≤ −9 mEq/L, −9 mEq/L < BE ≤ −3 mEq/L, 3 mEq/L < BE ≤ 9 mEq/L, and BE > 9 mEq/L) had different HRs for mortality: 1.57 (1.40, 1.76), 1.26 (1.14, 1.39), 0.97 (0.83, 1.12), 1.53 (1.17, 2.02), respectively. The RCS analyses also showed a U-shaped curve between BE and the 30-day mortality risk.Conclusion: Our results suggest that higher and lower BE in patients with AKI would increase the risk of 30-day mortality. BE measured at administration could be a critical prognostic indicator for ICU patients with AKI and provide guidance for clinicians.

BackgroundTotal laboratory automation (TLA) has the potential to reduce specimen processing time, optimize workflow, and decrease turnaround time (TAT). The purpose of this research is to investigate whether the TAT of our laboratory has changed since the adoption of TLA, as well as to optimize laboratory workflow, improve laboratory testing efficiency, and provide better services of clinical diagnosis and treatment.Materials and MethodsLaboratory data was extracted from our laboratory information system in two 6-month periods: pre-TLA (July to December 2019) and post-TLA (July to December 2020), respectively.ResultsThe median TAT for positive cultures decreased significantly from pre-TLA to post-TLA (65.93 vs 63.53, P0.05). Further analysis found that the incidence of broth growth only for pre-TLA was 12.4% (14/133), while for post-TLA, it was 3.4% (4/119). The difference was statistically significant (P=0.01). The common isolates from CSF samples were Cryptococcus neoformans, coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Klebsiella pneumonia.ConclusionUsing TLA and setting up three shifts shortened the TAT of our clinical microbiology laboratory, especially for CSF samples.

Post-stroke complications are the second most frequent cause of death and the third leading cause of disability worldwide. The motor function of post-stroke patients is often assessed by measuring the postural sway in the patients during quiet standing, based on sway measures, such as sway area and velocity, which are obtained from temporal variations of the center of pressure. However, such approaches to establish a relationship between the sway measures and patients' demographic factors have hardly been successful (e.g., days after onset). This study instead evaluates the postural sway features of post-stroke patients using the clustering method of machine learning. First, we collected the stroke patients' multi-variable motion-capture standing-posture data and processed them into t s long data slots. Then, we clustered the t-s data slots into K cluster groups using the dynamic-time-warping partition-around-medoid (DTW-PAM) method. The DTW measures the similarity between two temporal sequences that may vary in speed, whereas PAM identifies the centroids for the DTW clustering method. Finally, we used a post-hoc test and found that the sway amplitudes of markers in the shoulder, hip, knee, and center-of-mass are more important than their sway frequencies. We separately plotted the marker amplitudes and frequencies in the medial-lateral direction during a 5-s data slot and found that the post-stroke patients' postural sway frequency lay within the bandwidth of 0.5–1.5 Hz. Additionally, with an increase in the onset days, the cluster index of cerebral hemorrhage patients gradually transits in a four-cluster solution. However, the cerebral infarction patients did not exhibit such pronounced transitions over time. Moreover, we found that the postural-sway amplitude increased in clusters 1, 3, and 4. However, the amplitude of cluster 2 did not follow this pattern, owing to age effects related to the postural sway changes with age. A rehabilitation doctor can utilize these findings as guidelines to direct the post-stroke patient training.

Summary: Designing effective carrier-selective contact is a prerequisite for high-efficiency crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells. Compared to doped silicon thin films, wide-band-gap transition metal oxides (TMOs) feature low parasitic absorption, but their carrier selectivity and passivation being poor leads to a mediocre cell efficiency. Herein, we introduce a NiOx/MoOx bilayer as an efficient hole-selective contact in c-Si solar cells. A power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 21.31% is achieved using NiOx/MoOx bilayer, outperforming cells with a single layer of NiOx or MoOx. Upon depositing NiOx on MoOx, interfacial reactions modify the stoichiometry and defect chemistry in both oxides, leading to a band alignment beneficial for hole selectivity. By inserting a SiOx tunneling layer on c-Si surface to further suppress recombination, we achieve a PCE of 21.60% (fill factor 83.34%). Our work highlights a promising approach to improve the performance of dopant-free c-Si solar cells by employing cost-effective TMOs as hole-selective contact.

The supersonic mixing layer is a typical flow structure in an aircraft’s optical seeker. The free incoming flow and cooling jet form a mixing layer through shearing. In most cases, the flow has become a fully developed turbulent due to complex factors during flight. This paper mainly focuses on the influence of the inlet Reynolds number on the development of the supersonic mixing layer. The rescaling/recycle method is used to generate turbulence at the inlet of the mixing layer. The results show that when the turbulence of the high-speed flow is strong, the transition position of the mixing layer will be advanced and the mixedness will be enhanced. The mixing efficiency is high at the position corresponding to the vortex in the mixing layer. Finally, the Lagrangian coherent structure and particle tracking methods are used to analyze different mixing processes, and the entrainment characteristics of the vortex are studied.

Backgrounds Acute myocardial infarction (MI) is the common clinical manifestation of coronary heart disease. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) act key roles in cardiomyocytes growth and angiogenesis. However, their functions in MI are not entirely clear. This research intended to investigate the role and underlying mechanisms of circ_0030235 in H9c2 cells. Methods H9c2 cells were conducted to oxygen glucose deprivation/reperfusion (OGD/R) inducement to establish the MI model. Circ_0030235 and miR-526b expression was tested and altered by qRT-PCR and transfection. Cell viability, apoptosis and reactive oxygen species (ROS) injury were tested by CCK-8 assay, TUNEL assay kit, and ROS Detection Assay Kit, respectively. Assessment of cell injury-related factors was performed by employing ELISA, Mitochondrial Viability Staining and the JC-1-Mitochondrial Membrane Potential Assay Kit. The relationship between circ_0030235 and miR-526b was analyzed by dual luciferase reporter assay. The expression of key proteins was analyzed by western blot. Results Circ_0030235 was highly expressed in OGD/R-induced H9c2 cells. OGD/R inducement cell viability, while accelerated apoptosis. Besides, the level ROS, cell injury-related factors, mitochondrial membrane potential were notably elevated by OGD/R inducement, while mitochondrial viability was remarkably declined. Whereas, these impacts were all noticeably remitted by circ_0030235 knockdown. miR-526b was a target of circ_0030235. Circ_0030235 knockdown-induced impacts were all notably abrogated by miR-526b inhibition, including the activating impacts on PI3K/AKT and MEK/ERK pathways. Conclusions This research implied that circ_0030235 knockdown might remit OGD/R-induced impacts via activation of PI3K/AKT and MEK/ERK pathways and regulation of miR-526b.

Heterosis contributes a big proportion to hybrid performance in maize, especially for grain yield. It is attractive to explore the underlying genetic architecture of hybrid performance and heterosis. Considering its complexity, different from former mapping method, we developed a series of linear mixed models incorporating multiple polygenic covariance structures to quantify the contribution of each genetic component (additive, dominance, additive-by-additive, additive-by-dominance, and dominance-by-dominance) to hybrid performance and midparent heterosis variation and to identify significant additive and non-additive (dominance and epistatic) quantitative trait loci (QTL). Here, we developed a North Carolina II population by crossing 339 recombinant inbred lines with two elite lines (Chang7-2 and Mo17), resulting in two populations of hybrids signed as Chang7-2 × recombinant inbred lines and Mo17 × recombinant inbred lines, respectively. The results of a path analysis showed that kernel number per row and hundred grain weight contributed the most to the variation of grain yield. The heritability of midparent heterosis for 10 investigated traits ranged from 0.27 to 0.81. For the 10 traits, 21 main (additive and dominance) QTL for hybrid performance and 17 dominance QTL for midparent heterosis were identified in the pooled hybrid populations with two overlapping QTL. Several of the identified QTL showed pleiotropic effects. Significant epistatic QTL were also identified and were shown to play an important role in ear height variation. Genomic selection was used to assess the influence of QTL on prediction accuracy and to explore the strategy of heterosis utilization in maize breeding. Results showed that treating significant single nucleotide polymorphisms as fixed effects in the linear mixed model could improve the prediction accuracy under prediction schemes 2 and 3. In conclusion, the different analyses all substantiated the different genetic architecture of hybrid performance and midparent heterosis in maize. Dominance contributes the highest proportion to heterosis, especially for grain yield, however, epistasis contributes the highest proportion to hybrid performance of grain yield.

Glucose is the mandatory fuel for the brain, yet the relative contribution of glucose and lactate for neuronal energy metabolism is unclear. We found that increased lactate, but not glucose concentration, enhances the spiking activity of neurons of the cerebral cortex. Enhanced spiking was dependent on ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channels formed with KCNJ11 and ABCC8 subunits, which we show are functionally expressed in most neocortical neuronal types. We also demonstrate the ability of cortical neurons to take-up and metabolize lactate. We further reveal that ATP is produced by cortical neurons largely via oxidative phosphorylation and only modestly by glycolysis. Our data demonstrate that in active neurons, lactate is preferred to glucose as an energy substrate, and that lactate metabolism shapes neuronal activity in the neocortex through KATP channels. Our results highlight the importance of metabolic crosstalk between neurons and astrocytes for brain function.

This paper is part of a series of studies on the development of a multi-temperature thermodynamically consistent model for salt lake brine systems. The objective of this study is to extend the sulfate binary models published in our previous study to multi-component systems, i.e. Li+-Na+-K+-Mg2+-Ca2+-SO42−-H2O and its sub- ternary, quaternary and quinary systems. The model is based on our revised Pitzer–Simonson–Clegg equations and the CALPHAD-type thermodynamic framework. Ternary PSC mixing parameters of 10 systems and standard Gibbs energy of double salts occurred in these ternary systems are determined by fitting ternary solubility data at various temperatures. The standard Gibbs energy of triple salts 2Li2SO4·Na2SO4·K2SO4(cr) and polyhalite are determined by fitting their solubility data in corresponding quaternary systems (i.e. Li2SO4+Na2SO4+K2SO4+H2O and K2SO4+MgSO4+CaSO4+H2O). The ternary model reproduces these fitted data well for most systems. With the help of these ternary models, complete phase diagrams of these ternary systems are critically constructed from the lowest eutectic temperature to approximately 373.15 K. In addition, phase diagrams of 10 quaternary systems and invariant points in a quinary system are predicted using the PSC parameters determined from binary and ternary systems. These results are consistent with most available experimental data, indicting a very good predictive ability of the model for multi-component systems. In the following study of our series work, we will combine the multi-component sulfate part and our previously published multi-component chloride part to achieve a complete model for the core salt brine system Li+-Na+-K+-Mg2+-Ca2+-SO42−-Cl−-H2O.

Tassieri et al. have introduced a novel rheological tool called “i-Rheo GT” that allows the evaluation of the frequency-dependent materials’ linear viscoelastic properties from a direct Fourier transform of the time-dependent relaxation modulus G(t), without artifacts. They adopted i-Rheo GT to exploit the information embedded in G(t) derived from molecular dynamics simulations of atomistic and quasi-atomistic models, and they estimated the polymers’ entanglement characteristic time (τe) from the crossover point of the moduli at intermediate times, which had never been possible before because of the poor fitting performance, at short time scales, of the commonly used generalized Maxwell models. Here, we highlight that the values of τe reported by Tassieri et al. are significantly different (i.e., an order of magnitude smaller) from those reported in the literature, obtained from either experiments or molecular dynamics simulations of different observables. In this work, we demonstrate that consistent values of τe can be achieved if the initial values of G(t), i.e., those governed by the bond-oscillation dynamics, are discarded. These findings have been corroborated by adopting i-Rheo GT to Fourier transform the outcomes of three different molecular dynamics simulations based on the following three models: a dissipative particle dynamics model, a Kremer–Grest model, and an atomistic polyethylene model. Moreover, we have investigated the variations of τe as function of (i) the ‘cadence’ at which G(t) is evaluated, (ii) the spring constant of the atomic bone, and (iii) the initial value of the shear relaxation modulus G(O). The ensemble of these results confirms the effectiveness of i-Rheo GT and provide new insights into the interpretation of molecular dynamics simulations for a better understanding of polymer dynamics.

Genotype-by-environment interaction (G-by-E) is a common but potentially problematic phenomenon in plant breeding. In this study, we investigated the genotypic performance and two measures of plasticity on a phenotypic and genetic level by assessing 234 maize doubled haploid lines from six populations for 15 traits in seven macro-environments with a focus on varying soil phosphorus levels. It was found intergenic regions contributed the most to the variation of phenotypic linear plasticity. For 15 traits, 124 and 31 quantitative trait loci (QTL) were identified for genotypic performance and phenotypic plasticity, respectively. Further, some genes associated with phosphorus use efficiency, such as Zm00001eb117170, Zm00001eb258520, and Zm00001eb265410, encode small ubiquitin-like modifier E3 ligase were identified. By significantly testing the main effect and G-by-E effect, 38 main QTL and 17 interaction QTL were identified, respectively, in which MQTL38 contained the gene Zm00001eb374120, and its effect was related to phosphorus concentration in the soil, the lower the concentration, the greater the effect. Differences in the size and sign of the QTL effect in multiple environments could account for G-by-E. At last, the superiority of G-by-E in genomic selection was observed. In summary, our findings will provide theoretical guidance for breeding P-efficient and broadly adaptable varieties.

Nanofiber bundles with specific areas bring a new opportunity for selective adsorption and oil/water or air separation. In this work, nanofiber bundles were prepared by the electrospinning of immiscible polystyrene (PS)/N-trifluoroacetylated polyamide 6 (PA6-TFAA) blends via the introduction of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) or a copolymer of styrene and 3-isopropenyl-α, α’-dimethylbenzene isocyanate (TMI), which was denoted as PS-co-TMI. Herein, CNT was used to increase the conductivity of the precursor for enhancing the stretch of PS droplets under the same electric field, and PS-co-TMI was used as a reactive compatibilizer to improve the compatibility of a PS/PA6-TFAA blend system for promoting the deformation. Those obtained nanofiber bundle membranes showed an increase in tensile strength and high hydrophobicity with a water contact angle of about 145.0 ± 0.5°. Owing to the special structure, the membranes also possessed a high oil adsorption capacity of 31.0 to 61.3 g/g for different oils. Moreover, it exhibits a high potential for gravity-driven oil/water separation. For example, those membranes had above 99% separation efficiency for silicon oil/water and paraffin wax/water. Furthermore, the air filtration efficiency of nanofiber bundle membranes could reach above 96%, which might be two to six times higher than the filtration efficiency of neat PS membranes.

More extensive personalized product requirements and shorter product life cycles have put forward higher requirements for the rapid establishment, commissioning, and operation of corresponding manufacturing systems. However, the traditional manufacturing system development process is complicated, resulting in a longer delivery time. Many manufacturing enterprises, especially small and micro enterprises, may not have the necessary manufacturing knowledge or capabilities to meet these requirements. Therefore, it is essential to promote the construction of turnkey projects under the paradigm of Industry 4.0, parallelizing and integrating the existing manufacturing system development process based on mass manufacturing equipment to quickly provide turnkey solutions for manufacturing systems’ configuration and implementation for these enterprises. This paper aims to extract and refine the configuration and operation key views of the Industry 4.0-oriented Turnkey Project (I4TP) from Reference Architecture Model Industrie 4.0 (RAMI4.0) and use it to guide the development of key functional processes of turnkey projects to achieve rapid configuration and efficient operation management of manufacturing systems. The turnkey project platform in the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Center (AMTC) is taken as a demonstration case to provide a reference idea for the rapid configuration and intelligent operation of the turnkey manufacturing system.

The accurate prediction of the status of PLNM preoperatively plays a key role in treatment strategy decisions in early-stage cervical cancer. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a radiomics-based nomogram for the preoperative prediction of pelvic lymph node metastatic status in early-stage cervical cancer. One hundred fifty patients were enrolled in this study. Radiomics features were extracted from T2-weighted MRI imaging (T2WI). Based on the selected features, a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm was used to build the radiomics signature. The radiomics-based nomogram was developed incorporating radiomics signature and clinical risk factors. In the training cohort (AUC = 0.925, accuracy = 81.6%, sensitivity = 70.3%, and specificity = 92.0%) and the testing cohort (AUC = 0.839, accuracy = 74.2%, sensitivity = 65.7%, and specificity = 82.8%), clinical models that combine stromal invasion depth, FIGO stage, and MTD perform poorly. The combined model had the highest AUC in the training cohort (AUC = 0.988, accuracy = 95.9%, sensitivity = 92.0%, and specificity = 100.0%) and the testing cohort (AUC = 0.922, accuracy = 87.1%, sensitivity = 85.7%, and specificity = 88.6%) when compared to the radiomics and clinical models. The study may provide valuable guidance for clinical physicians regarding the treatment strategies for early-stage cervical cancer patients.

The properties of microencapsulated fish oil, prepared with spray drying and freeze-drying processes using emulsions of konjac glucomannan (KGM) and soybean protein isolate (SPI) was investigated. Comparative analysis of microcapsules showed the encapsulation efficiency of spray drying and freeze-drying were 90.10% and 83.52% respectively. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) results exhibited that microcapsules prepared with spray drying were spherical particles with a compact structure, while microcapsules prepared with freeze-drying were irregular particles with a pore-like structure. Release kinetics test further indicated retention rate of core materials for microcapsules prepared with spray drying were better than with freeze-drying. In addition, a human epithelial microfold cell (M-cell) transcytotic assay demonstrated that the M-cells had greater transport activity for the exogenous microcapsules.

Abstract The combination of complex perception, defense, and camouflage mechanisms is a pivotal instinctive ability that equips organisms with survival advantages. The simulations of such fascinating multi‐stimuli responsiveness, including thigmotropism, bioluminescence, color‐changing ability, and so on, are of great significance for scientists to develop novel biomimetic smart materials. However, most biomimetic color‐changing or luminescence materials can only realize a single stimulus‐response, hence the design and fabrication of multi‐stimuli responsive materials with synergistic color‐changing are still on the way. Here, a bioinspired multi‐stimuli responsive actuator with color‐ and morphing‐change abilities is developed by taking advantage of the assembled cellulose nanocrystals‐based cholesteric liquid crystal structure and its water/temperature response behaviors. The actuator exhibits superfast, reversible bi‐directional humidity and near‐infrared (NIR) light actuating ability (humidity: 9 s; NIR light: 16 s), accompanying with synergistic iridescent appearance which provides a visual cue for the movement of actuators. This work paves the way for biomimetic multi‐stimuli responsive materials and will have a wide range of applications such as optical anti‐counterfeiting devices, information storage materials, and smart soft robots.

PurposeTo build and evaluate a radiomics-based nomogram that improves the predictive performance of the LVSI in cervical cancer non-invasively before the operation.MethodThis study involved 149 patients who underwent surgery with cervical cancer from February 2017 to October 2019. Radiomics features were extracted from T2 weighted imaging (T2WI). The radiomic features were selected by logistic regression with the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) penalty in the training cohort. Based on the selected features, support vector machine (SVM) algorithm was used to build the radiomics signature on the training cohort. Incorporating radiomics signature and clinical risk factors, the radiomics-based nomogram was developed. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and area under the curve (AUC) and Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were calculated to assess these models.ResultThe radiomics model performed much better than the clinical model in both training (AUCs 0.925 vs. 0.786, accuracies 87.5% vs. 70.5%, sensitivities 83.6% vs. 41.7% and specificities 90.9% vs. 94.7%) and testing (AUCs 0.911 vs. 0.706, accuracies 84.0% vs. 71.3%, sensitivities 81.1% vs. 43.4% and specificities 86.4% vs. 95.0%). The combined model based on the radiomics signature and tumor stage, tumor infiltration depth and tumor pathology yielded the best performance (training cohort, AUC = 0.943, accuracies 89.5%, sensitivities 85.4% and specificities 92.9%; testing cohort, AUC = 0.923, accuracies 84.6%, sensitivities 84.0% and specificities 85.1%).ConclusionRadiomics-based nomogram was a useful tool for predicting LVSI of cervical cancer. This would aid the selection of the optimal therapeutic strategy and clinical decision-making for individuals.

EgMADS16, one of the MADS-box transcription factors in oil palm, has a high expression level in the late fruit development of the oil palm fruit mesocarp. At the same time, it is also predicted to be the target gene of EgmiR5179, which has been identified in previous research. In this paper, we focused on the function and regulatory mechanism of the EgMADS16 gene in oil palm lipid metabolism. The results indicated that the transcription level of EgMADS16 was highest in the fourth stage, and a dual-luciferase reporter assay proved that the EgMADS16 expression level was downregulated by EgmiR5179. In both the OXEgMADS16 Arabidopsis seeds and oil palm embryonic calli, the total lipid contents were significantly decreased, but the contents of C18:0 and C18:3 in OXEgMADS16 lines were significantly increased. As expected, EgmiR5179 weakened the inhibitory effect of EgMADS16 on the oil contents in transgenic Arabidopsis plants that coexpressed EgmiR5179 and EgMADS16 (OXEgmiR5179-EgMADS16). Moreover, yeast two-hybrid and BiFC analyses suggested that there was an interaction between the EgMADS16 protein and EgGLO1 protein, which had been proven to be capable of regulating fatty acid synthesis in our previous research work. In summary, a model of the molecular mechanism by which miRNA5179 targets EgMADS16 to regulate oil biosynthesis was hypothesized, and the research results provide new insight into lipid accumulation and molecular regulation in oil palm.

Microplastic pollution in marine environments has increased rapidly in recent years, with negative influences on the health of marine organisms. Scleractinian coral, one of the most important species in the coral ecosystems, is highly sensitive to microplastic. However, whether microplastic causes physiological disruption of the coral, via oxidative stress, immunity, and energy metabolism, is unclear. In the present study, the physiological responses of the coral Acropora sp. were determined after exposure to polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyamide 66 (PA66), and polyethylene (PE) microplastic for 96 h. The results showed that there were approximately 4–22 items/nubbin on the surface of the coral skeleton and 2–10 items/nubbin on the inside of the skeleton in the MPs exposure groups. The density of endosymbiont decreased (1.12 × 105–1.24 × 105 cell/cm2) in MPs exposure groups compared with the control group. Meanwhile, the chlorophyll content was reduced (0.11–0.76 μg/cm2) after MPs exposure. Further analysis revealed that the antioxidant enzymes in coral tissues were up-regulated (Total antioxidant capacity T-AOC 2.35 × 10–3–1.05 × 10–2 mmol/mg prot, Total superoxide dismutase T-SOD 3.71–28.67 U/mg prot, glutathione GSH 10.21–10.51 U/mg prot). The alkaline phosphatase (AKP) was inhibited (1.44–4.29 U/mg prot), while nitric oxide (NO) increased (0.69–2.26 μmol/g prot) for cell signal. Moreover, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) was down-regulated in the whole experiment period (0.19–0.22 U/mg prot), and Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH) for cell the phosphate pentoses pathway was also reduced (0.01–0.04 U/mg port). Results showed that the endosymbiont was released and chlorophyll was decreased. In addition, a disruption could occur under MPs exposure, which was related to anti-oxidant, immune, and energy metabolism.

Abstract Flexible thin-film solar cells with high weight-specific power density are highly desired in the emerging portable/wearable electronic devices, solar-powered vehicles, etc. The conventional flexible metallic or plastic substrates are encountered either overweight or thermal and mechanical mismatch with deposited films. In this work, we proposed a novel substrate for flexible solar cells based on graphene paper, which possesses the advantages of being lightweight and having a high-temperature tolerance and high mechanical flexibility. Thin-film amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells were constructed on such graphene paper, whose power density is 4.5 times higher than that on plastic polyimide substrates. In addition, the a-Si:H solar cells present notable flexibility whose power conversion efficiencies show little degradation when the solar cells are bent to a radius as small as 14 mm for more than 100 times. The application of this unique flexible substrate can be extended to CuInGaSe and CdTe solar cells and other thin-film devices requiring high-temperature processing.

Summary: Ruditapes philippinarum is an economically important bivalve with remarkable diversity in its shell coloration patterns. In this study, we sequenced the whole genome of the Manila clam and investigated the molecular basis of its adaptation to hypoxia, acidification, and parasite stress with transcriptome sequencing and an RNA sequence analysis of different tissues and developmental stages to clarify these major issues. A number of immune-related gene families are expanded in the R. philippinarum genome, such as TEP, C3, C1qDC, Hsp70, SABL, and lysozyme, which are potentially important for its stress resistance and adaptation to a coastal benthic life. The transcriptome analyses demonstrated the dynamic and orchestrated specific expression of numerous innate immune-related genes in response to experimental challenge with pathogens. These findings suggest that the expansion of immune- and stress-related genes may play vital roles in resistance to adverse environments and has a profound effect on the clam's adaptation to benthic life. : Biological Sciences; Genetics; Genomics Subject Areas: Biological Sciences, Genetics, Genomics

Abstract Background In order to maximize later health, there are established components and guidelines for quality follow-up care of breast cancer survivors. However, adherence to quality follow-up in Canada may not be optimal, and may vary by province. We determined and compared the proportion of patients in each province who received adherent and non-adherent surveillance for recurrence, new cancers and late effects, recommended preventive care, and recommended physician visits for comorbidities. Methods Cohorts consisted of all adult women diagnosed with incident invasive breast cancer between 2007 and 2010/2012 in four Canadian provinces (British Columbia (BC) N = 9338; Manitoba N = 2688; Ontario N = 23,700; Nova Scotia (NS) N = 2735), identified from provincial cancer registries, alive and cancer-free at 30 months post-diagnosis. Their healthcare utilization was determined from one to 5 years post-treatment, using linked administrative databases. Adherence, underuse, and overuse of recommended services were evaluated yearly and compared using descriptive statistics. Results In all provinces and follow-up years, the majority of survivors had more than the recommended number of visits to either an oncologist or primary care physician (range 53.8% NS Year 3; 85.8% Ontario Year 4). The proportion of patients with the guideline-recommended number of oncologist visits varied by province (range 29.8% BC Year 5; 74.8% Ontario Year 5), and the proportion of patients with less than the recommended number of specified breast cancer-related visits with either an oncologist or primary care physician ranged from 32.6% (Ontario Year 2) to 84.4% (NS Year 3). Underuse of surveillance breast imaging was identified in NS and BC. The proportion of patients receiving imaging for metastatic disease (not recommended in the guidelines) in BC, Manitoba, and Ontario (not reported in NS) ranged from 20.3% (BC Year 5) to 53.3% (Ontario Year 2). Compliance with recommended physician visits for patients with several chronic conditions was high in Ontario and NS. Preventive care was less than optimal in all provinces with available data. Conclusions Quality of breast cancer survivor follow-up care varies among provinces. Results point to exploration of factors affecting differences, province-specific opportunities for care improvement, and the value of administrative datasets for health system assessment.

A fruitful investigation of strawberry production A newly-acquired collection of gene regulatory elements gives researchers a powerful toolbox for studying fruit production in strawberry plants. Tissue-specific gene expression is governed by DNA sequences known as promoters, and researchers led by Rachel Shahan and Zhongchi Liu at the University of Maryland recently set out to identify promoters that regulate the initiation of strawberry formation. Most fruits form in the plant ovary, but strawberries originate from the same ‘receptacle’ structure that gives rise to flowers. Liu and Shahan therefore used RNA sequencing to identify genes that are expressed specifically in this tissue but not elsewhere in the strawberry plant. Their efforts uncovered seven promoters that appear to operate in a highly receptacle-specific fashion. Armed with these sequences, researchers can now begin to manipulate and thereby dissect the genetic mechanisms governing strawberry fruit formation.

Defect density reduction is pertinent for halide perovskite solar cells but a universal strategy has not been exploited. Here Chen et al. show that by fine tuning the alkaline environment in precursor solution, they can greatly suppress defects density and obtain high certified efficiency of 20.87%.

Crop genetics: pathways to ripe strawberries Researchers in China have uncovered the genetic factors through which the plant hormone ABA controls strawberry ripening. Zisheng Luo’s team at Zhejiang University used high-throughput sequencing to compare gene expression in strawberry plants after they were treated with ABA or an ABA-blocker. They discovered that ABA changes the expression of genes related to other hormones, metabolite synthesis, and breaking down cell walls. The team also checked the expression of short RNA molecules which regulate gene expression, known as microRNAs (miRNAs). They found 26 miRNAs which changed expression in response to ABA, six of which were novel, and identified 18 genes regulated by these miRNAs, including a cell wall gene which may be involved in fruit enlargement. These findings clarify the molecular mechanisms linking ABA with strawberry ripening and lay the groundwork for detailed functional studies.

Convolutional neural networks are powerful models that yield hierarchies of features. In the paper, we present a new approach for general object tracking based on the fully convolutional network with multi-layer feature fusion. The designed network combines semantic information from deep, coarse layers, and appearance information from shallow, fine layers to make accurate pixel-wise objectness prediction. The network is first pretrained offline using a large set of videos with annotated heatmap groundtruths to obtain a general notion of foreground objects, and later fine-tuned using the first frame to adapt to the particular object instance. In online tracking, the location corresponding to the maximum target objectness in the search image is determined as the new target location, and the scale estimation is handled by incorporating a correlation filter branch into the network. An efficient updating strategy is proposed to further improve tracking performance. The extensive experiments performed on the widely used tracking benchmark OTB100 show that the proposed algorithm outperforms many other state-of-the-art trackers.

By doping appropriate lanthanide ions, LiYF4 as a host luminescent material can simultaneously exhibit bright visible-light emission. A series of LiYF4:Yb3+/Ho3+ microparticles with different Mg2+ doping concentrations were synthesized and investigated. The crystal structure of the synthesized microparticles was tested by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Notably, a significant increase in the upconversion photoluminescence intensity of upconversion microparticles (UCMPs) was obtained by introducing Mg2+ ions under 980 nm laser excitation, and achieved a maximum level when the concentration of Mg2+ ions was 8 mol%. Additionally, the practicality of the resultant UCMPs used as the raw material of anti-counterfeiting ink was systematically investigated. These results prove that the Mg2+-doped LiYF4:Yb3+/Ho3+ are very promising as screen-printing materials for anti-counterfeiting recognition labels.

Self-healing materials as a type of promising smart materials are gradually applied to electronics, biology, and engineering. In this study, we used in situ polymerization to make melamine-formaldehyde (MF) resin microcapsules to wrap the epoxy oxide as a repairing agent and Cu(MI)4Br2 as a latent-curing agent to protect epoxy oxide E-51 from broken melamine-formaldehyde resin microcapsules. In addition, graphene oxide was used as a reinforcing phase through its two-dimensional-layered structure to increase the tensile strength to 41.91 MPa, which is higher than the initial materials. The melamine-formaldehyde capsules and latent-curing agents were uniformly distributed in the materials according to the digital photos and scanning electron microscope (SEM) pictures. It is worth noting that the mechanical strength of the broken materials can be restored to 35.65 MPa after heating to 130°C for 2 h to repair the damage, and the self-healing efficiency reached up to 85.06%. Furthermore, we also fabricated the 4D printed material with a tensile strength of 50.93 MPa through a 3D printer. The obtained materials showed excellent repair effect, with a recovery rate of up to 87.22%. This study confirms that the designed self-healing system has potential applications in many areas due to its excellent self-healing performance, which provides valuable guidance for designing the 4D system.

The multimodal sensory channel transient receptor potential vanilloid-3 (TRPV3) is expressed in epidermal keratinocytes and implicated in chronic pruritus, allergy, and inflammation-related skin disorders. Gain-of-function mutations of TRPV3 cause hair growth disorders in mice and Olmsted syndrome in humans. Nevertheless, whether and how TRPV3 could be therapeutically targeted remains to be elucidated. We here report that mouse and human TRPV3 channel is targeted by the clinical medication dyclonine that exerts a potent inhibitory effect. Accordingly, dyclonine rescued cell death caused by gain-of-function TRPV3 mutations and suppressed pruritus symptoms in vivo in mouse model. At the single-channel level, dyclonine inhibited TRPV3 open probability but not the unitary conductance. By molecular simulations and mutagenesis, we further uncovered key residues in TRPV3 pore region that could toggle the inhibitory efficiency of dyclonine. The functional and mechanistic insights obtained on dyclonine-TRPV3 interaction will help to conceive therapeutics for skin inflammation.

Transient receptor potential vanilloid subtype 2 (TRPV2) channel is a polymodal receptor regulating neuronal development, cardiac function, immunity and oncogenesis. The activity of TRPV2 is regulated by the molecular interactions in the subplasmalemmel signaling complex. Here by yeast two-hybrid screening of a cDNA library of mouse dorsal root ganglia (DRG) and patch clamp electrophysiology, we identified that flotillin-1, the lipid raft-associated protein, interacts with TRPV2 channel and regulates its function. The interaction between TRPV2 and flotillin-1 was validated through co-immuoprecipitation in situ using endogenous DRG neurons and the recombinant expression model in HEK 293T cells. Fluorescent imaging and bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) further revealed that flotillin-1 and TRPV2 formed a functional complex on the cell membrane. The presence of flotillin-1 enhanced the whole-cell current density of TRPV2 via increasing its surface expression levels. Using site-specific mapping, we also uncovered that the SPFH (stomatin, prohibitin, flotillin, and HflK/C) domain of flotillin-1 interacted with TRPV2 N-termini and transmembrane domains 1–4, respectively. Our findings therefore demonstrate that flotillin-1 is a key element in TRPV2 signaling complex and modulates its cellular response.

Urban public parks can provide convenience for residents to get close to nature and provide places for daily ecosystem services. It is of practical and theoretical significance to choose urban public parks as the entry point to explore the changing trends and supply paths of urban residents' daily ecosystem service consumption. Based on the government 's research? of urban public parks in Beijing from 1993 to 2018, this study explores the residents' ecosystem services consumption demands and the contributions of park constructions to these demands. The results show that: (1) in the past 25 years, the frequency, duration, participation rate, and evaluation of people's daily ecosystem service consumption have increased significantly. In other words, the ecosystem services demands are increasing. (2) different constructions of a park have distinct contributions to the increasing demands of ecosystem service consumption. The contributions from constructions of the natural landscape and the infrastructure have been in decline since 1993, yet they contribute the most to the demands of residents' ecosystem services consumption until 2018. The contributions made by constructions of management and maintenance, and transportation around urban public parks have been on the rise and the significant points occurring after the 2008 Olympic Games. Our research proposes a method to determine the relation between the demands of residents' ecosystem services consumption and the contributions of park constructions to these demands, which has significant implications for optimizing the constructions of urban public parks to better meet the demands of ecosystem services consumption.

At present, no suitable method exists for tendon fixation after artificial prosthetic implantation. Researching and determining the optimal factors for biological fixation between the tendon and prosthesis is the crux for restoring limb function. In order to increase the growth of tendon fibers into the scaffold and reduce the formation of cicatricial tissue, selective laser melting (SLM) three-dimensional (3D) printing was used to prepare four types of cylindrical scaffold. The actual pore sizes of cuboids, which were used as the monomers, were 657.65, 527.15, 348.68, and 169.20 μm. Cell experiments showed that the greatest number of fibroblasts became adhered to and grew into the scaffold with an actual pore size of 527.15 μm. Each group of scaffolds was surgically implanted into a rabbit model of acute injury to the supraspinatus tendon. Micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) and hard tissue section staining were used to analyze the growth of tendon tissue in each group. We concluded that 527.15 μm is the best pore size for a titanium alloy surface to promote tendon ingrowth. The current study provides a reference for the clinical design of the pore size of tendon attachments onto the surfaces of tumor prostheses.

Phosphorus (P) is an essential macronutrient for plants, but also a limited resource worldwide. Strict regulations for fertilizer applications in the European Union are a consequence of the negative environmental effects in case of improper use. Maize is typically grown with the application of P starter fertilizer, which, however, might be reduced or even omitted if suitable varieties were available. This study was performed with the 20 commercially most important maize hybrids in Germany evaluated in multi-location field trials with the aim to investigate the potential to breed for high-performing maize hybrids under reduced P starter fertilizer. At the core location, three starter fertilizers with either phosphate (triple superphosphate, TSP), ammonium nitrate (calcium ammonium nitrate, CAN), or a combination of ammonium and phosphate (diammonium phosphate, DAP) were evaluated relative to a control and traits from youth development to grain yield were assessed. Significant differences were mainly observed for the DAP starter fertilizer, which was also reflected in a yield increase of on average +0.67 t/ha (+5.34%) compared to the control. Correlations among the investigated traits varied with starter fertilizer, but the general trends remained. As expected, grain yield was negatively correlated with grain P concentration, likely due to a dilution effect. Importantly, the genotype-by-starter fertilizer interaction was always non-significant in the multi-location analysis. This indicates that best performing genotypes can be identified irrespective of the starter fertilizer. Taken together, our results provide valuable insights regarding the potential to reduce starter fertilizers in maize cultivation as well as for breeding maize for P efficiency under well-supplied conditions.