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CO 2 mineral sequestration using alkaline solid waste (ASW) is a promising strategy for synergistically reducing CO 2 emissions and reusing industrial waste. However, improvement the carbonation degree still remains challenges due to the sluggish leaching rate of Ca/Mg ion at low pH. To the issues, this study proposed an amine-mediated CO 2 absorption and mineralization process with six common ASWs, as well an ecological utilization route of CO 2 -ASW productions. Experimental results indicated that calcium carbide slag (CS) had greater CO 2 mineralization capacity (86.2 g-CO 2 /kg-CS) than other ASWs, while stirring rate and particle size played a more important role during CO 2 capture. Amine-mediated CO 2 capture was verified to be more excellent with steel slag (SS) as mineral medium. When the MEA concentration was increased to 2 mol/L, the extraction efficiency of Ca 2+ was increased by 35 %, leaded to the CO 2 removal efficiency significantly promoted from 49 % to 92 %. The characterization of structural morphology referred spherical aragonite or needle-bar calcite was dominant for the porous mineralization products (30.6 m 2 /g). High germination index of pea seed (112.1 % at a dose of 10 g/L) inferred the negligible toxicological effects of tiny MEA residue over SS mineralization products, after centrifugally washing treatment. Pea seeds cultivated with mineralized products after centrifugal washing can achieve a growth rate of about 4 mm/d. Overall, this work provides a feasible route to apply the porous CO 2 -ASWs production into water conservation in arid and sandy land., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The building's toilet drainage system has been identified as a potential route for the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 during outbreaks. This study employed agar-fluorescein sodium semi-solid as trace particles to investigate the possibility of vertical transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 in drainage system. In both scenarios, where floor drains were all properly sealed or dried out, simulated faeces containing fluorescein sodium were flushed into the toilet bowl. Air sampling was conducted in each restroom, and differential pressure measurements at the floor drain locations were taken. The experimental results showed that when all floor drains were properly sealed, the differential pressure at each floor drain was 0. The fluorescein sodium-traced aerosol did not transmit through the drainage system to various floors, which significantly reduced the risk of infection for users through this route. However, when all floor drains dried out, toilet users above the neutral pressure layer (NPL) were at a high risk of virus infection. Due to the increasing maximum negative pressure at the floor drain above the NPL with ascending floor levels, users on each floor above the NPL faced an elevated infection risk in restrooms. Specifically, users on the top floor were exposed to infectious aerosols roughly 1.6 times that of the first floor above the NPL. Conversely, owing to the increasing maximum positive pressure at the floor drain below the NPL with descending floor levels, users below the NPL experienced a comparatively lower infection risk. This finding has important implications for understanding the vertical transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 in residential or public building and can inform the development of effective control measures., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Developing DNA strand displacement reactions (SDRs) offers crucial technical support for regulating artificial nucleic acid circuits and networks. More recently, enzymatic SDR-based DNA circuits have gained significant attention because of their modular design, high orthogonality signaling, and extremely fast reaction rates. Typical enzymatic SDRs are regulated by relatively long primers (20-30 nucleotides) that hybridize to form stable double-stranded structures, facilitating enzyme-initiated events. Implementing more flexible primer-based enzymatic SDR regulations remains challenging due to the lack of convenient and simple primer control mechanism, which consequently limits the development of enzymatic DNA circuits. In this study, we propose an approach, termed primer switching regulation, that implements programmable and flexible regulations of enzymatic circuits by introducing switchable wires into the enzymatic circuits. We applied this method to generate diverse enzymatic DNA circuits, including cascading, fan-in/fan-out, dual-rail, feed-forward, and feedback functions. Through this method, complex circuit functions can be implemented by just introducing additional switching wires without reconstructing the basic circuit frameworks. The method is experimentally demonstrated to provide flexible and programmable regulations to control enzymatic DNA circuits and has future applications in DNA computing, biosensing, and DNA storage.

Background: Long-term exposure to cadmium-polluted environments may lead to shortened leukocyte telomere length and cognitive decline. This study aims to investigate (1) the associations among blood cadmium levels, leukocyte telomere length, and cognitive function, and (2) the mediating role of leukocyte telomere length between blood cadmium levels and cognitive function among older adults in the United States., Methods: Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2002. Cadmium exposure level was assessed by measuring cadmium levels in blood samples. Leukocyte telomere length was measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and cognitive function was measured by the digit symbol substitution test (DSST)., Results: A total of 2185 older adults aged over 60 were included in this study, comprising 1109 (49.65%) males. Elevated blood cadmium levels were significantly associated with the risk of a decline in cognitive function (β = - 2.842, p = 0.018). Shorter leukocyte telomere lengths were significantly associated with a higher risk of a decline in cognitive function (β = 4.144, p = 0.020). The total indirect effect on the blood cadmium level and cognitive function via leukocyte telomere length was - 0.218 (p = 0.012). The mediation effect was estimated to be 0.218/2.084 × 100% = 10.46%., Conclusion: The findings suggest that cadmium exposure may increase the risk of cognitive impairment by causing shortened leukocyte telomere length., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors that there is no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the clinical and genetic characteristics of eight members from a Chinese Han family who displayed autosomal recessive bestrophinopathy (ARB)-like retinal changes in autosomal dominant (AD) inheritance pattern., Methods: Clinical investigations included slit-lamp, tonometry, fundus photography, spectral-domain optical coherence tomography, fundus autofluorescence, electrooculography, and ultrasound biomicroscopy. Ocular axial length measurements were collected retrospectively. The targeted exome sequencing (TES) was applied for the genetic analysis of the proband. PCR-based Sanger sequencing was performed on the family for validation and co-segregation analysis., Results: Eight members in the three-generation pedigree complained about vision loss and seven of them had detailed clinical assessments, demonstrating ocular phenotypes including extramacular and vascular arcades subretinal deposits and Arden ratio decline on electrooculography that resembled ARB. Bilateral anterior chamber structure abnormalities were observed in seven cases and three patients were diagnosed with angle-closure glaucoma. Despite clinical phenotypes supporting ARB, there was only a single heterozygous mutation of c.227T > C (p.Ile76Thr) in the BEST1 gene detected in all eight patients, which showcased AD inheritance., Conclusions: An ARB-like phenotype could be caused by a heterozygous mutation of the BEST1 gene and inherited in an AD fashion., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Animal manure is known to harbor antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Aerobic composting is a prevalent cost-effective and sustainable method to treat animal waste. However, the effect of initially elevated temperature on antibiotic resistome during the composting process is unclear. In this study composting was subjected to initial external heating (EHC) for a period of 5 days compared to conventional composting (CC). After composting ARGs abundance was significantly reduced by 2.43 log in EHC and 1.95 log in CC. Mobile genetic elements (MGEs) also exhibited a reduction of 1.95 log in EHC and 1.49 log in CC. However, during the cooling phase, the genes resisting macrolide lincosamide and streptogramin B (MLSB) rebounded by 0.04 log in CC. The potential human pathogenic bacteria Pseudomonas (41.5-61.5%) and Actinobacteria (98.4-98.8%) were significantly reduced in both treatments and the bulk of targeted antibiotics were eliminated by 80.74% in EHC and 68.98% in CC. ARGs and N-functional genes (NFGs), mainly denitrification genes, were carried by the same microbial species, such as Corynebacterium sp. and Bacillus sp., of the dominant phylum. Redundancy analysis (RDA) revealed that CC microbial communities played a key role in the enrichment of ARGs while in EHC the variation of ARGs was attributed to the composting temperature. The number of high-risk ARGs was also lower in EHC (4) compared with CC (6) on day 30. These results provide insight into the effects of an initially enhanced temperature on ARGs removal and the relationship between ARGs and NFGs during the composting process., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In this paper, a 96 kJ compact synchronous discharge driver is designed. The issue of the current measurement of the six parallel gas spark switches is resolved by a multi-channel isolated current measuring system, and the driver's circuit simulation model is constructed. Then, the discharge current characteristics of each branch and load are investigated, and the results show that when the operating voltage is at least 50 kV, the parallel switches are conducted synchronously. The designed multi-channel isolated current measuring system meets the use requirements at a maximum operating voltage of 80 kV, the peak current measured by a single channel is 500 kA at this time, which corresponds to the load current of 3 MA, and the current rise time (0%-100% rise time) is about 1.15 µs. However, the asynchronous conduction of these switches will increase the branch circuit's peak current by a maximum of 25%, and the maximum value of the inverse peak current ratio of the branch will increase to 1.16, which will threaten the safe operation of the components. At this time, there is a redistribution of charge between the already conducting branches, so the impact of the load current is less than that of the basic branch current. When the conduction dispersion of the switchers is less than 452 ns, the peak current of the load reduction is less than 3%, and the current waveform meets the application requirements. The research is essential for understanding the operating status of the driver and assessing the through-current capability of the device's components, such as gas switches and capacitors., (© 2023 Author(s). Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing.)

Background: To evaluate the prevalence and associated health and lifestyle factors of myopic maculopathy (MM) in a northern Chinese industrial city., Methods: The cross-sectional Kailuan Eye Study included subjects who participated in the longitudinal Kailuan Study in 2016. Ophthalmologic and general examinations were performed on all the participants. MM was graded based on fundus photographs using the International Photographic Classification and Grading System. The prevalence of MM was evaluated. Univariate and multiple logistic regression were adopted to evaluated risk factors of MM., Results: The study included 8330 participants with gradable fundus photographs for MM and ocular biometry data. The prevalence of MM was 1.11% (93/8330; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.89-1.33%). Diffuse chorioretinal atrophy, patchy chorioretinal atrophy, macular atrophy, and plus lesions were observed in 72 (0.9%), 15 (0.2%), 6 (0.007%), and 32 eyes (0.4%), respectively. MM was more common in eyes with longer axial length (OR 4.517; 95%CI 3.273 to 6.235) and in participants with hypertension (OR 3.460; 95%CI 1.152 to 10.391), and older age (OR 1.084; 95%CI 1.036 to 1.134)., Conclusions: The MM was present in 1.11% of the northern Chinese individuals 21 years or older and the associate factors include longer axial length, older age, and hypertension., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Despite remarkable initial responses of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitors in ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, cancers eventually develop resistance within one to two years. This study aimed to compare the properties of iruplinalkib (WX‑0593) with other ALK inhibitors and report the comprehensive characterization of iruplinalkib against the crizotinib resistance. The inhibitory effect of iruplinalkib on kinase activity was detected. A kinase screen was performed to evaluate the selectivity of iruplinalkib. The effect of iruplinalkib on related signal transduction pathways of ALK and c-ros oncogene 1 (ROS1) kinases was examined. The cellular and in vivo activities of ALK inhibitors were compared in engineered cancer-derived cell lines and in mice xenograft models, respectively. Human hepatocytes derived from three donors were used for evaluating hepatic enzyme inducing activity. HEK293 cell lines expressing transportors were used to invesigated the drug interaction potential mediated by several transporters. The results showed iruplinalkib potently inhibited the tyrosine autophosphorylation of wild-type ALK, ALK L1196M , ALK C1156Y and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) L858R/T790M . The inhibitory effects of iruplinalkib in patient-derived xenograft and cell line-derived xenograft models were observed. Moreover, iruplinalkib showed robust antitumor effects in BALB/c nude mice xenograft models with ALK-/ROS1-positive tumors implanted subcutaneously, and the tumor suppressive effects in crizotinib-resistant model was significantly better than that of brigatinib. Iruplinalkib did not induce CYP1A2, CYP2B6 and CYP3A4 at therapeutic concentration, and was also a strong inhibitor of MATE1 and MATE2K transporters, as well as P-gp and BCRP. In conclusion, iruplinalkib, a highly active and selective ALK/ROS1 inhibitor, exhibited strong antitumor effects in vitro and in crizotinib-resistant models., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Objective: To explore the effects of joint irrigation combined with ozone injection on bone metabolism, inflammatory factors, and joint function in patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA)., Method: In this retrospective study, a total of 132 KOA patients admitted to No. 215 Hospital of Shaanxi Nuclear Industry from October 2019 to July 2021 were enrolled. Among them, 62 patients received arthroscopic irrigation alone were assigned into a control group, and the remaining 70 patients who received arthroscopic irrigation combined with ozone injection were assigned into an observation group. Therapeutic efficacy and adverse reactions during the treatment were compared in the two groups. Bone metabolism, inflammatory factor levels and joint function of patients before and after treatment were observed; patients were further divided into a good prognosis group and a poor prognosis group regarding their prognosis. Multivariate analysis was performed to explore the independent risk factors affecting prognosis., Results: After treatment, compared to the control group, the total effective rate of the observation group was higher (P<0.05), and there was no notable difference in the incidence of adverse reactions between the two groups (P>0.05). The bone metabolism indexes, osteocalcin (OC) and osteoprotegerin (OPG), in the observation group were also significantly higher (P<0.05), while the level of nuclear transcription factor κB receptor activator ligand (RANKL) in the observation group was markedly lower. The inflammation level in the observation group was lower (P<0.05). Lysholm score in the observation group was strikingly higher (P<0.05), while its Western Ontario McMaster (WOMAC) score and visual analogue scale (VAS) were lower (P<0.05). The observation group had a lower rate of poor prognosis (P<0.05). Age (OR: 1.786, 95% CI: 1.347-2.370), disease duration (OR: 1.132, 95% CI: 1.002-1.279), VAS after treatment (OR: 2.316, 95% CI: 1.089-4.925), and post-treatment IL-6 (OR: 1.186, 95% CI: 1.017-1.382) were all independent risk factors for poor prognosis., Conclusion: Joint irrigation combined with ozone injection shows good efficacy in the treatment of KOA, and could effectively relieve the clinical symptoms of patients, improve their bone metabolism indexes, and help the recovery of knee joint function., Competing Interests: None., (AJTR Copyright © 2023.)

The rapid aerobic composting process has been used to reduce organic wastes, but the associated risks of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) need to evaluate in an efficient way. The primary objective of this work was to explore the underlying mechanism of initial adjustment in composting temperature on the variation of ARGs, mobile genetic elements (MGEs), and microbial composition during co-composting. The co-composting was initially externally heated (T2) for 5 days. The results showed that ARGs abundance in conventional composting (T1) was reduced by 49.36%, while multidrug was enriched by 86.16% after a period of 30 days. While in T2 ARGs were removed by 79.46% particularly the fraction of sulfonamide, multidrug, and vancomycin resistance genes were >90% without rebounding of any ARGs. Whereas, MGEs were reduced by 68.12% and 93.62% in T1 and T2, while the half-lives of ARGs and MGEs were lower in T2 compared to T1 (86.3%,86.7%). T2 also affected the metabolism function by regulating carbohydrate metabolism (9.62-10.39%) and amino acid metabolism (9.92-10.93%). Apart from this, the potential human pathogenic bacteria Pseudomonas was reduced by 90.6% in T2 and only 32.9% in T1 respectively. Network analysis showed that Ureibacillus, Weissella, Corynebacterium, Escherichia-Shigella, Acinetobacter were the main host of multiple genes. Structural equation models exhibited that bacterial communities were mainly responsible for the enrichment of ARGs in T1, whereas, it was directly affected by MGEs in T2. Similarly, ARGs variation was directly related to composting temperature. With this simple strategy, ARGs associated risk can be significantly reduced in composting., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: To describe and analyze clinical characteristics of multifocal choroiditis with linear streaks (LSs)., Methods: Eight cases of multifocal choroiditis with LSs were retrospectively studied. Multimodal imaging was performed. Demographic data and spherical equivalent were collected. Axial length was measured., Results: All cases are young myopic women with a mean age of 17.13 ± 3.64 years (range, 13-23 years), presenting with vision loss and distortion. Nine eyes with LSs were high myopia of -8.97 ± 2.69 D (range, -6.00 to 12.5 D; growing by 1.88 ± 0.61 D annually since wearing glasses), with mean axial length of 26.36 ± 1.71 mm. Vitreous cells were noted in seven eyes. LSs were located in the equator (eight eyes), around the optic disk (three eyes), and at the edge of the posterior pole (one eye). Angio-optical coherence tomography showed choroidal neovascularization in eight eyes, especially 2 to 3 choroidal neovascularizations in three eyes. The location of choroidal neovascularization were in subfovea (three eyes), parafovea (six eyes), and perifovea (two eyes). Swept source optical coherence tomography showed punched-out disruption of retinal pigment epithelium‒Bruch's membrane‒choriocapillaris complex at the LSs' sites. LSs showed fluorescence staining on late FA but hypofluorescence throughout all phases on ICGA., Conclusion: Multifocal choroiditis with LSs mostly occurs in young women with high myopia, especially occurring in eyes with rapid progression of myopia. LSs are mainly located in the midperiphery near the equator, being prone to concur with choroidal neovascularization. Based on our findings, we propose a new term called "streaky multifocal choroiditis" as a subtype of multifocal choroiditis.

Objective: We investigated the clinical efficiency and complications of treatment of retinal sub-inner limiting membrane (sub-ILM) hemorrhage by 577-nm semiconductive laser membranotomy., Methods: The clinical features, ocular fundus photography, and SD-OCT image of patients who received 577-nm laser membranotomy for sub-ILM hemorrhage were assessed from January 2017 to April 2022 in this retrospective case-series study., Results: A total of 19 patients (19 eyes) were treated for sub-ILM hemorrhage of the macula, in which eight were women and 11 were men. The age was 15-83 years (with an average age of 49.05 ± 19.41 years old). The right eye was affected in 12 patients, the left eye in seven patients. The follow-up period after laser treatment was from 0.5 to 9 months (with an average follow-up time of 3.25 ± 2.45 months). Treatment was not successful in one patient, and 577-nm laser membranotomy was successful in 18 patients (equaling a success rate of 94.74%). The best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) before laser treatment was from figure count to 40/200, and the BCVA after laser treatment was from 20/2000 to 20/20. Complications after laser treatment comprised macular hole (one patient), macular epi-membrane (one patient), vitreous hemorrhage without absorption (two patients), and sub-ILM cavity (12 patients)., Conclusions: The 577-nm laser is effective in treating sub-ILM hemorrhage and has a high success rate. Posttreatment complications should be monitored, and vitrectomy was needed with long-lasting vitreous hemorrhage and macular hole., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Zhang, Li, Cao, Zhou, Jia, Gao, Li, Zhang, She, Ma and Peng.)

Purpose: To report the clinical characteristics of ocular adverse events that have occurred, in China, after vaccination with inactivated COVID-19 vaccines. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional observational study was conducted of ocular disorders that occurred within 15 days from any dose of an inactivated COVID-19 vaccine. Information on gender, age, the interval between the vaccination and ocular symptoms, laterality, duration of the ocular symptoms, primary visual acuity, and clinical diagnosis were retrospectively collected. Results: Twenty-four patients were involved in the study, including 15 females and 9 males, with a mean age of 41 ± 16 years (range of 8−71 years). The patients all denied a prior history of COVID-19 infection. Ocular adverse events occurred after the first dose of vaccine in 18 patients and, after the second or third doses, in six patients. The interval between vaccination with the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine and ocular symptoms was 6 ± 5 days; six patients were bilaterally involved and 18 patients were unilaterally involved. Regarding the diagnosis, 10 patients were diagnosed with white dot syndrome (WDS), 9 patients were diagnosed with uveitis, and 5 patients were diagnosed with retinal vascular disorders. The ages of patients with WDS were younger than those with uveitis or retinal vascular disorders (32 ± 10 vs. 48 ± 18, p < 0.05). For patients diagnosed with WDS, the best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 0.74 ± 0.73 LogMAR. For patients diagnosed with retinal vascular disorders or uveitis, the BCVA was 1.44 ± 1.26 LogMAR. There was no significant difference (p > 0.05). Conclusions: A relationship cannot be established between inactivated COVID-19 vaccines and ocular disorders; therefore, further investigation of the clinical spectrum of ocular adverse events after vaccination with an inactivated COVID-19 vaccine is necessary.

The aim study to study the significance of pet clinical examination image technology for early gastric mucosal adenocarcinoma, improve the accuracy and accuracy of image examination results of gastric cancer, and provide important reference significance and value for early treatment. Study methods, we used the experimental method of clinical medicine to obtain some reference data through the intervention of different image examinations on experimental patients of different groups and stages, These data show that the use of PET-CT imaging can improve the one-year survival rate of patients and reduce the one-year recurrence rate. Lymphatic metastasis rate and hematogenous metastasis rate, so as to highlight the advantages of PET-CT imaging., Competing Interests: There is no potential conflict of interest in our paper, and all authors have seen the manuscript and approved to submit to your journal. We confirm that the content of the manuscript has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere., (Copyright © 2022 Xin Zhou et al.)

Background: To report a case of herpetic uveitis caused by herpes simplex virus after cataract surgery in a patient without prior viral keratitis or uveitis., Case Presentation: A 70-year-old female was referred to our clinic with a 16-day history of acute blurry vision with painful redness in the right eye. She accepted cataract surgery for the right eye ten days before initial of ocular symptoms. There was significant inflammation in anterior chamber of the right eye. Retina exam showed moderate dense vitreous opacity but not necrotic or focal retinal lesion in the right eye. The aqueous humor collected from the right eye was positive for herpes simplex virus (HSV) DNA by PCR. The diagnosis of herpetic uveitis in the right eye was made due to clinical presentations and aqueous humor examination., Conclusion: Herpetic virus reactivation might occasionally occur after intraocular surgery in patients without prior ocular viral diseases, inducing atypical postoperative intraocular inflammation., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Effluents of conventional wastewater treatment systems contain antibiotic residues at concentrations below the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC), which nevertheless could still select for antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This work focuses on evaluating the changes of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and bacterial communities in a planted advanced biological wastewater treatment system (ABWWTS) under long-term exposure to sub-MIC tetracycline. In the ABWWTS, the removal rates of tetracycline ranged from 97.9% to 99.9%, and a 17.2% decrease in the average removal rates of NH 4 + -N was observed after the addition of tetracycline. Although the background of ABWWTS contributed to the ARGs in effluents, the concentration of 283 targeted ARGs (ΣARGs) was 83.5% lower in effluents than in influents after sub-MIC tetracycline exposure, and the concentrations of ΣARGs in the ABWWTS were, on average, 30.0% lower than those in an unplanted biological wastewater treatment system (UBWWTS) after a performance of 130 days. The relative abundance of tetracycline resistance genes increased within ABWWTS and UBWWTS under tetracycline exposure. After tetracycline exposure, bacterial diversity in ABWWTS and UBWWTS increased on average by 36.2% and 42.7%, respectively, and the abundances of Nitrosomonas and Nitrospira in the aerobic zone were more than 10-times higher in the ABWWTS than in the UBWWTS. Sub-MIC tetracycline concentrations were linearly correlated with the relative abundance of tetracycline resistance genes in Escherichia coli (E. coli). Long-term exposure to tetracycline at the same concentration increased abundances of the same ARGs (i.e., tetR-02 and tetM-01) in E. coli and the microflora of the ABWWTS, revealing that sub-MIC tetracycline could increase the abundance of ARGs in the ABWWTS by facilitating the vertical transfer of tetracycline resistance genes. These findings demonstrated that planted ABWWTS played a positive role in removing ARGs under low antibiotic selective pressure, which was in accompany with increasing levels of corresponding ARGs within the system., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), a genetic material, encodes all living information and living characteristics, e.g., in cell, DNA signaling circuits control the transcription activities of specific genes. In recent years, various DNA circuits have been developed to implement a wide range of signaling and for regulating gene network functions. In particular, a synthetic DNA circuit, with a programmable design and easy construction, has become a crucial method through which to simulate and regulate DNA signaling networks. Importantly, the construction of a hierarchical DNA circuit provides a useful tool for regulating gene networks and for processing molecular information. Moreover, via their robust and modular properties, DNA circuits can amplify weak signals and establish programmable cascade systems, which are particularly suitable for the applications of biosensing and detecting. Furthermore, a biological enzyme can also be used to provide diverse circuit regulation elements. Currently, studies regarding the mechanisms and applications of synthetic DNA circuit are important for the establishment of more advanced artificial gene regulation systems and intelligent molecular sensing tools. We therefore summarize recent relevant research progress, contributing to the development of nanotechnology-based synthetic DNA circuits. By summarizing the current highlights and the development of synthetic DNA circuits, this paper provides additional insights for future DNA circuit development and provides a foundation for the construction of more advanced DNA circuits.

This study aimed to decipher the patterns of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and linkages of key abiotic indicators with ARGs in an interconnected lake-river-reservoir system. The results showed that seasonal variations in the relative abundance of ARGs and mobile gene elements (MGEs) were significant (KW, p < 0.05). ARGs representative of fecal pollution and natural environment were primarily distributed in the river and reservoir, respectively. The lake, river, and reservoir shared 54.5% of ARGs subtypes, most of which are multidrug resistance genes encoding for efflux pumps. Network results showed that ARGs conferring resistance to aminoglycoside frequently co-occurred with class 1 integrons and Limnohabitans. The resistance risks were low and associated with non-corresponding ARGs, and the highest resistance risk was caused by enrofloxacin in the Dianshan Lake. Fluorescence indices derived from two methods exhibited consistent positive correlations with abundance of individual genes (i.e. aada1 and aadA2-03) as well as total aminoglycoside resistance genes (Pearson, p < 0.05). Moreover, ARGs indicators of human and animal fecal pollution showed linkages with humic-like and fulvic-like indices (Pearson, p < 0.05). The results provide novel insights into the roles of abiotic factors on indicating dynamics of ARGs in aquatic environment impacted by anthropogenic activities., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Summary: Exhaustive mapping of next-generation sequencing data to a set of relevant reference sequences becomes an important task in pathogen discovery and metagenomic classification. However, the runtime and memory usage increase as the number of reference sequences and the repeat content among these sequences increase. In many applications, read mapping time dominates the entire application. We developed CompMap, a reference-based compression program, to speed up this process. CompMap enables the generation of a non-redundant representative sequence for the input sequences. We have demonstrated that reads can be mapped to this representative sequence with a much reduced time and memory usage, and the mapping to the original reference sequences can be recovered with high accuracy., Availability and Implementation: CompMap is implemented in C and freely available at http://csse.szu.edu.cn/staff/zhuzx/CompMap/., Contact: xiaoyang@broadinstitute.org, Supplementary Information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online., (© The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

This paper presents a new optimal sliding mode controller using the scalar sign function method. A smooth, continuous-time scalar sign function is used to replace the discontinuous switching function in the design of a sliding mode controller. The proposed sliding mode controller is designed using an optimal Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) approach. The sliding surface of the system is designed using stable eigenvectors and the scalar sign function. Controller simulations are compared with another existing optimal sliding mode controller. To test the effectiveness of the proposed controller, the controller is implemented on an aluminum beam with piezoceramic sensor and actuator for vibration control. This paper includes the control design and stability analysis of the new optimal sliding mode controller, followed by simulation and experimental results. The simulation and experimental results show that the proposed approach is very effective., (© 2013 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Today's technological demands require challenging control solutions such as real-time applications of Networked Control System (NCS). However, due to communication protocol and shared data bus, NCS experiences uncertain and unpredictable time delays in both input and output channels. These delays cause asynchronization between the controller and the plant thereby degrading the performance of closed-loop control systems. To address this problem, this paper proposes to utilize digital redesign technique to provide real-time random delay compensation., (Published by Elsevier Ltd.)