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Soil is a highly significant resource for human survival, and agglomerates, as the basic unit of the soil structure, not only enhance the soil fertility and control the biological validity of nutrients but also strengthen the soil’s erosion resistance. The mass application of fertilizers may significantly affect crop growth and the soil structure, and the rational application and dispensing of fertilizers will be an urgent issue to be addressed. Therefore, the effect of fertilizer application on the stability of water-stable soil aggregates needs to be studied under different meteorological and soil conditions to draw more general and feasible conclusions. Our meta-analysis of data from 220 independent observations from 56 published studies found that fertilizer application increased the mean weight diameter (MWD) by an average of 18% compared to the no-fertilizer treatment. Among the nitrogen (N), phosphate (P), and organic (OM) fertilizer treatments, the organic fertilizer treatment had a more significant stimulatory effect on the MWD (26%). Among the different fertilizer levels, a low level of phosphorus (120 kg·ha−1·yr−1), and a low level of organic fertilizer (

Viruses can survive only in living cells, where they depend on the host's enzymatic system for survival and reproduction. Virus-host interactions are complex. On the one hand, hosts express host-restricted factors to protect the host cells from viral infections. On the other hand, viruses recruit certain host factors to facilitate their survival and transmission. The identification of host factors critical to viral infection is essential for comprehending the pathogenesis of contagion and developing novel antiviral therapies that specifically target the host. Receptor for activated C kinase 1 (RACK1), an evolutionarily conserved host factor that exists in various eukaryotic organisms, is a promising target for antiviral therapy. This review primarily summarizes the roles of RACK1 in regulating different viral life stages, particularly entry, replication, translation, and release.

Excessive nitrogen fertilizer application is harmful to the environment and reduces the quality of cereal crops. Maintaining crop yields under low nitrogen (LN) conditions and improving quality are important goals for cereal crop breeding. Although the effects of nitrogen assimilation on crop nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE) have been intensively studied, natural variations of the key assimilation genes underlying grain development and quality are largely unclear. Here, we identified an NUE-associated gene, OsGS1;1, encoding glutamine synthase, through genome-wide association analysis, followed by validation experiments and functional analysis. Fifteen single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the OsGS1;1 region led to alternative splicing that generated two functional transcripts: OsGS1;1a and OsGS1;1b. The elite haplotype of OsGS1;1 showed high OsGS1;1b activity, which improved NUE, affected grain development, and reduced amylose content. The results show that OsGS1;1, which is induced under LN conditions, affects grain formation by regulating sugar metabolism and may provide a new avenue for the breeding of high-yield and high-quality rice (Oryza sativa).

Painful tic convulsif syndrome is ipsilateral facial trigeminal neuralgia combined with hemifacial spasm, which is relatively rare in the clinic. Microvascular decompression is currently considered to be an effective treatment. We report extracranial radiofrequency treatment of painful tic convulsif syndrome under local anesthesia, a technique which provides a safer and more economical treatment for this kind of patient.We report a case of painful tic convulsif syndrome which was treated with extracranial radiofrequency therapy of the trigeminal nerve and facial nerve. After operations, the symptoms of pain and spasm were relieved immediately, but the right facial numbness and facial paralysis (House-Brackmann grade III) were left. The facial paralysis was completely relieved after 3 months of follow-up, and there was no recurrence of trigeminal neuralgia or hemifacial spasm after 35 months.Painful tic convulsif syndrome is a combination of ipsilateral facial trigeminal neuralgia and hemifacial spasm, which is relatively rare in the clinic. So far, only one treatment method of microvascular decompression has been reported for the disease. We report the first case of CT-guided extracranial radiofrequency therapy for painful tic convulsif syndrome.Extracranial radiofrequency therapy can provide safe and economical treatment for patients with painful tic convulsif syndrome.

Soil is an extremely significant resource for human survival, and agglomerates, as the basic unit of soil structure, not only enhance soil fertility and control the biological validity of nutrients, but also strengthen the soil's erosion resistance. The mass application of fertilizers may have a significant impact on crop growth and soil structure, and the rational application and dispensing of fertilizers will be an urgent issue to be addressed. Therefore, the effect of fertilizer application on the stability of water-stable soil aggregates needs to be studied under different meteorological and soil conditions to draw more general and feasible conclusions. Our Meta-analysis of data from 220 of 56 published studies found that fertilizer application increased mean weight diameter (MWD) by an average of 18% compared to the no-fertilizer treatment. Among the nitrogen (N), phosphate (P), and organic (OM) fertilizer treatments, the organic fertilizer treatment had a greater stimulatory effect on MWD (26%). Among the different fertilizer levels, low level of phosphorus (120kg·hm-2·yr-1), and low level of organic fertilizer (

A study was conducted to investigate the inclusion effects of sugar beet pulp and rice straw mixture silage with inoculation (BRMS), in place of whole-plant corn silage (CS), on the dry matter intake, total-tract nutrient digestibility, plasma metabolites, rumen fermentation, and lactation performance in high-production dairy cows. Sixteen multiparous Holstein cows (body weight, 622 ± 35 kg; days in milk, 90 ± 11 d; mean ± standard deviation) were used in our experiments; the experiments were based on a repeated 4 × 4 Latin square design for 21 d, and each experimental period consisted of 14 d of adaptation, followed by 7 d of data collection. The 4 dietary treatments used were (dry matter basis): (1) 0% BRMS and 28.6% CS (0BRMS); (2) 4.3% BRMS and 24.3% CS (15BRMS); (3) 8.60% BRMS and 20.0% CS (30BRMS); and (4) 12.9% BRMS and 15.7% CS (45BRMS). The increasing inclusion of dietary BRMS was observed to linearly increase the total volatile fatty acids and the propionate concentration. The dry matter intake and digestibility values of neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber increased linearly as the percentage of BRMS increased up to 45%. Milk yield linearly increased with the increase in the content of BRMS (39.0, 39.8, 40.9, and 40.3 kg/d for 0BRMS, 15BRMS, 30BRMS, and 45BRMS, respectively). The increasing inclusion of dietary BRMS induced a decrease in the ammonia nitrogen and milk urea nitrogen concentration, leading to a linear increase in milk protein production (1.15, 1.26, 1.35, and 1.27 kg/d for 0BRMS, 15BRMS, 30BRMS, and 45BRMS, respectively). In conclusion, the diets with the replacement of CS with BRMS up to 45% were beneficial to the production performance of high-production dairy cows, indicating that this method may be an appropriate use of sugar beet pulp and rice straw.

Doxorubicin (DOX) has been an emerging environmental pollutant due to its significant genotoxicity to mankind. Advanced oxidation processes are a potential strategy to remove DOX in water solution. To develop a highly efficient catalytic agent to remove DOX, bimetal MOFs were synthesized, with Cu

Centromere dysfunctions leading to numerical chromosome alterations are believed to be closely related to human cancers. As a centromere-specific protein, centromere protein A (CENP-A) replaces the histone H3 in centromeres and is therefore considered a key factor of centromere identity. Researches have shown that CENP-A is overexpressed in many types of human cancers. However, the behavior and function of CENP-A in tumorigenesis have not yet been systematically summarized. In this article, we describe the pleiotropic roles of CENP-A in human cells. Moreover, we provide a comprehensive review of the current knowledge on the relationship between aberrant expression and ectopic localization of CENP-A and tumorigenesis, and the mechanism of the ectopic deposition of CENP-A in cancers. Furthermore, we note that some oncogenic viruses can modulate the expression and localization of this centromere protein along with its chaperone. At last, we also discuss the therapeutic potential of targeting CENP-A for cancer therapy.

To support the social-aware content uploading for users (clients) with a poor uplink channel quality in cellular networks, we propose a cooperative device-to-device (D2D) communication scheme. Under this scheme, mobile clients are able to communicate directly and the ones with social relationship form a multi-hop D2D chain, the head of which is in charge of transmitting the desired content to the base station (BS). A promising feature of this scheme is to stimulate effective cooperation among all clients by making use of social-aware relationship. To establish the D2D chain in this scheme, we first employ coalitional game to divide all clients with social relationship into multi-chains, and then propose a coalition formation algorithm to select the optimal chain according to the cost of content uploading such as energy and time. Finally, simulation results are presented to verify the efficiency of our proposed scheme in terms of the total content uploading time and energy consumption.

Novel double yolk–shell structure molecularly imprinted polymers were synthesized by surface polymerization with 17β-estradiol as the template, followed by chemical etching.

This study aimed to investigate where acidification occurred in soil profiles of Guizhou tea gardens, in addition to the influence of acidification on the availability of soil mineral elements in order to inform soil nutrient management and improvement practices in tea gardens. Important tea-producing areas of Guizhou were investigated in this study and samples were collected from tea gardens with similar soil parent material and management measures. The acidification characteristics were investigated in soils from plantations grown for various numbers of years and across different soil layer profiles. Moreover, the pH buffering capacities (pHBC) of soils were evaluated and changes in soil Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Mo, B, As, Pb, Cr, and Cd concentrations due to soil acidification were explored. With increased tea plantation age, the acidification rate of 0–20-cm soil layers reached 0.025 pH unit/year. Soil acidification extended from the surface layer downwards through profiles, while the pH of entire soil layers were

The sense of taste plays a crucial role in herbivorous insects by discriminating nutrients from complex plant metabolic compounds. The peripheral coding of taste has been thoroughly studied in many insect species, but the central gustatory pathways are poorly described. In the present study, we characterized single neurons in the gnathal ganglion of Helicoverpa armigera larvae using the intracellular recording/staining technique. We identified different types of neurons, including sensory neurons, interneurons, and motor neurons. The morphologies of these neurons were largely diverse and their arborizations seemingly covered the whole gnathal ganglion. The representation of the single neurons responding to the relevant stimuli of sweet and bitter cues showed no distinct patterns in the gnathal ganglion. We postulate that taste signals may be processed in a manner consistent with the principle of population coding in the gnathal ganglion of H. armigera larvae. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

This paper addresses a problem of global optimization in a non-Archimedean fuzzy metric space context without fuzzy P-property. Specifically, it concerns the determination of the fuzzy distance between two subsets of a non-Archimedean fuzzy metric space. Our approach to solving this problem is to find an optimal approximate solution to a fixed point equation. This approach has been well studied within a category of problems called proximity point problems. We explore some new types of (ψ−ϕ)-weak proximal contractions and investigate the existence of the unique best proximity point for such kinds of mappings. Subsequently, some fixed point results for corresponding contractions are proved, and some illustrative examples are presented to support the validity of the main results. Moreover, an interesting application in computer science, particularly in the domain of words has been provided. Our work is a fuzzy generalization of the proximity point problem by means of fuzzy fixed point method.

To study the influence of the micromorphology and structure of modified asphalt on pavement performance under combined action of multiple modifiers, styrene–butadiene–styrene, styrene–butadiene–rubber, stabilizer and furfural extract oil were selected to modify the matrix asphalt, and short-term aging experiments were carried out. The cross-linking and distribution of the modifiers were analyzed by fluorescence microscopy, the micromorphology of the modified asphalt before and after short-term aging was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, and the change in molecular weight of the modifier and asphalt phase was analyzed by gel permeation chromatography. The results showed that the content of saturated and aromatic of Panjin asphalt was more than 65%, and the content of aromatic was more than 33%, which was suitable for simultaneous modification of multiple modifiers with good modification effect. After the stabilizer and the compatibilizer were added, the interface adsorption layer between the modifier particle and the asphalt phase was stable under the action of the active free radicals. The surface morphology of the matrix asphalt changed greatly after aging. The modifier did not further aggravate the folds on the surface of the asphalt after aging, but the aging process was accompanied by the decomposition of modifier macromolecules and the aggregation of small molecules. In the aging process of the composite modifiers, the degradation of macromolecules was the main molecular reaction, while the polymerization reaction was the main reaction of asphalt phase. The conclusions could provide theoretical and technical support for the development and application of high-performance modified asphalt.

Sensitivity enhancement was demonstrated in a nonreciprocal fiber cavity operating near the exceptional point (EP). A fiber Bragg grating (FBG) was used to couple a pair of modes propagating in the opposite direction in a fiber ring cavity and give rise to mode splitting in the spectrum. The different roundtrip losses between the two counter-propagating modes showing nonreciprocity is introduced by coupling an extra fiber ring with an isolator. It could enter the EP in the nonreciprocity cavity due to the pair of modes coalesced in both the real and imaginary parts. In order to resolve the weak mode splitting near the EP, the mode linewidth was narrowed by compensating the roundtrip loss by a section of the pumped active fiber. The experimental results showed that a larger change in the mode splitting strength was observed in the nonreciprocity cavity when the temperature in the cavity was controlled by the incident power, indicating an obvious improvement of sensitivity in the EP-based fiber sensor.

In this study, the impacts of transglutaminase (TGase)-induced glycosylation and limited enzymatic hydrolysis on the foaming property of soy protein isolates (SPI) and the possible underlying mechanisms were investigated. SPI were first glycosylated with oligochitosan by TGase to produce glycosylated samples (GSPI). GSPI were further hydrolyzed using Protamex with controlled degree of hydrolysis (DH of 1%, 2% and 4%). As compared to native SPI, the foaming stability of GSPI sample was increased from 24.3% ± 3.1% to 40.4% ± 7.6%, and the hydrolyzed GSPI showed enhanced foaming property. GSPI-1% DH showed the best foaming capacity and foam stability, increasing about 2.12 folds and 2.33 folds, respectively. Hydrodynamic-size of dominant distribution peak in GSPI and its hydrolysates (1% DH) were about 3090 and 531 nm, respectively, which were bigger than that of SPI (about 220 nm). The presence of oligochitosan in GSPI decreased surface hydrophobicity, and the subsequent hydrolysis generated an opposite effect. GSPI and its hydrolysates had more flexible tertiary conformations as revealed by intrinsic fluorescence study. Overall, high values of negative zeta potential and apparent viscosity of samples might be responsible for the improved foaming property. This study suggested that TGase-induced glycosylation and limited enzymatic hydrolysis are promising techniques for enhancing the foaming property of SPI, which would broaden the applications of SPI in food industry.

Thin films are basic components of many types of optoelectronic devices such as thin-film solar cells, planar light-emitting diodes, and photodetectors. The preparation of nanostructured films can optimize the photoelectric properties of the films, improving the performance of optoelectronic devices, and has, therefore, received intense research attention. Nanostructuring can change the interaction of the film with incident light to optimize the optical properties of thin films. Many physical and chemical methods have been developed to prepare nanostructured films and can now be successfully used for the realization of specific functions. Nanostructured films have been widely used for controlling the optical reflection, transmission and absorption of transparent films, semiconductor films and metal films. In this paper, the preparation methods of nanostructured films and the optimization of their optical properties are reviewed.