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Some cephalopods are important fishery resources, with some major economic species living in pelagic waters, possessing short life history cycles, and responding strongly to environmental changes. The analysis of cephalopod community species composition, catch distribution, and their relationship with environmental factors in important marine areas can provide a basic reference for cephalopod biogeography and resource development and utilization. In this study, based on the cephalopod survey data in the spring of 2015 and summer of 2016 in the Pacific Ocean, we analyzed the cephalopod species composition, diversity index (the Margalef richness index, Shannon–Wiener diversity index, and Pielou uniformity index), main contributing species, and catch distribution in the two seasons of spring and summer in the Pacific Ocean. We also analyzed the relationship between cephalopod catch, each diversity index, and environmental factors in each season using the GAM model. The results show that 18 species of cephalopods were captured in the spring and summer, the Margalef richness index, Shannon–Wiener diversity index, and Pielou uniformity index in summer was higher than that in spring; the average catch biomass in spring was significantly higher than that in summer. The main contributing species in spring was Todarodes pacificus, while the main contributing species in summer was Ommastrephes bartramii. The interaction of the "longitude" and "latitude" has a great impact on cephalopod catch biomass in spring, and "sea surface temperature" has a great impact on cephalopod catch biomass in summer. The results of the study can provide a basic reference for the study of cephalopod diversity and resource development and utilization in the Pacific Ocean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a novel concept of adaptively code-correlation robustness functions (CCRFs) and construct this primitive from public random permutation. The security of our construction can be proved by H-Coefficient technique. Furthermore, the public random permutation can be instantiated by some lightweight designs like ChaCha20 512-bit permutation which is faster than SHA-512 and BLAKE2. We also give a one-sided malicious private set intersection (PSI) protocol in Universal Composability (UC) framework without random oracle model (ROM) assumption based on the adaptively CCRFs. In the high bandwidth setting, our implementation is nearly as fast as state-of-the-art semi-honest KKRT protocol, and sometimes even faster than it, owing to the efficiency of our instantiation of adaptively CCRFs, which may be of independent interest used in other secure protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental DNA methods have emerged as a promising tool in fish diversity studies and fishery management in various aquatic ecosystems. However, eDNA metabarcoding of fish communities in small hydropower dam reservoirs has received limited attention. In this study, we tested whether eDNA metabarcoding was an appropriate approach for the characterization of fish communities and fishery stock assessment by comparing its results with combined capture-based fishing methods and hydroacoustic surveys, which involved species detection and abundance/biomass evaluation. Our results indicated that the species detection performance of eDNA metabarcoding was basically similar to that of traditional capture-based fishing gear. However, it was also noteworthy that the eDNA method failed to cover all species detected by capture-based method, although some additional species were found. Besides, although we observed a significant correlation between site occurrence and sequence abundance for fishes, an effort to quantitatively establish a correlation between eDNA sequence counts and fish abundance/biomass was unsuccessful. Therefore, our study suggested that eDNA metabarcoding was an important supplementary tool to traditional capture-based fishing methods for the investigation and biomonitoring of fish diversity in small hydropower dam reservoirs. Further studies on the mechanisms of eDNA production, persistence, transportation and degradation in reservoirs might facilitate the interpretation of fish abundance and biomass from eDNA data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The cynomolgus monkey (Macaca fascicularis) has been increasingly used as a non-human primate model in biomedical research. As establishing baseline thoracic radiography for the cynomolgus monkey is essential, we tested the hypothesis that age and sex may affect the thoracic radiography parameters of this species. Methods: Here, 697 healthy cynomolgus monkeys were segregated by sex and age (three age groups: 25–36 months, 37–48 months, 49–60 months). The lung length (LL), maximal interior thoracic depth (TD), maximal interior thoracic breadth (TBr), cardiac silhouette breadth (CBr), cardiothoracic ratio (CR), right and left costophrenic angles (RCA and LCA), and right hilar height ratio (R-HHR) were assessed by chest film. Statistical analysis was applied to examine the effect of age, sex, and age × sex interactions. Results: Significant effects by age were shown for LL, TD, TBr, CBr, and CR. Significant effects by sex were found for TD, TBr, CBr, CR, and R-HHR. Significant effects by age × sex were observed for TD, TBr, CBr, and CR. Both TD and TBr increased with age in both sexes, and both were significantly higher in males than in females in the group aged 49–60 months. CBr increased with age and was significantly higher in males than in females across all age groups. CR declined with age and was significantly higher in males than females across all age groups, and CR was similar or slightly higher relative to those previously found in other non-human primate species. As to the other parameters with no significant sex nor age-related differences, the R-HHR was greater than 1.00, and the angulation of bilateral costophrenic angles were sharp. Conclusions: The thoracic radiographic parameters for the healthy cynomolgus monkey presented here should prove useful in veterinary practice, research involving non-human primate models of respiratory or cardiovascular disorders, and morphological studies on cynomolgus monkeys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The cynomolgus monkey (Macaca fascicularis) has been increasingly used in biomedical research, making knowledge of its blood-based parameters essential to support the selection of healthy subjects and its use in preclinical research. As age and sex affect these blood-based parameters, it is important to establish baseline indices for these parameters on an age and sex basis and determine the effects of age and sex on these indices. Methods: A total of 917 cynomolgus monkeys (374 males and 543 females) were selected and segregated by age (five groups) and sex. A total of 30 hematological and 22 biochemical parameters were measured, and the effects of age and sex were analyzed. Results: Baseline indices for hematological and biochemical parameters were separately established by age and sex. Significant effects by age, sex, and age-sex interaction were observed in a number of blood parameters. In the 49–60 months and 61–72 months age groups, red blood cell count, hemoglobulin, and hematocrit showed significantly lower values (P<0.01) in females than males. Serum alkaline phosphatase varied with age in both sexes (P<0.01) and was significantly higher in females than males (P<0.05) in the groups aged 13–24 months and 25–36 months; however, in the three groups aged over 25–36 months, serum alkaline phosphatase was significantly lower in females than males (P<0.01). Creatinine concentration increased with age (P<0.01) in all age groups; specifically in the groups aged 49–60 months and 61–72 months, creatinine was significantly higher (P<0.01) in males than females. Total protein and globulin both increased with age (P<0.01). Conclusion: The baseline values of hematological and biochemical parameters reported herein establish reference indices of blood-based parameters in the cynomolgus monkey by age and sex, thereby aiding researchers in selecting healthy subjects and evaluating preclinical studies using this species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[S U M M A R Y] Many miRNA-disease association prediction models incorporate Gaussian interaction profile kernel similarity (GIPS). However, the GIPS fails to consider the specificity of the miRNA-disease association matrix, where matrix elements with a value of 0 represent miRNA and disease relationships that have not been discovered yet. To address this issue and better account for the impact of known and unknown miRNA-disease associations on similarity, we propose a method called vector projection similarity-based method for miRNA-disease association prediction (VPSMDA). In VPSMDA, we introduce three projection rules and combined with logistic functions for the miRNA-disease association matrix and propose a vector projection similarity measure for miRNAs and diseases. By integrating the vector projection similarity matrix with the original one, we obtain the improved miRNA and disease similarity matrix. Additionally, we construct a weight matrix using different numbers of neighbors to reduce the noise in the similarity matrix. In performance evaluation, both LOOCV and 5-fold CV experiments demonstrate that VPSMDA outperforms seven other state-of-the-art methods in AUC. Furthermore, in a case study, VPSMDA successfully predicted 10, 9, and 10 out of the top 10 associations for three important human diseases, respectively, and these predictions were confirmed by recent biomedical resources. [Display omitted] • Three projection rules are proposed to make full use of false negative data. • The vector projection similarity is constructed by combining three projection rules and logical functions. • The weight matrices for miRNA and disease similarity were constructed with varying neighborhood sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identification of stock composition is essential for fish stock assessment and management. Previous studies have suggested that a mixed stock composition of Pacific saury Cololabis saira exists in the northwest Pacific Ocean, but the origins of the stock's components are poorly understood. We analyze the otolith microstructure of Pacific saury collected in high-seas fishing grounds from June–November, 2016–2019, and estimate hatch date and reconstruct otolith growth trajectory before hyaline zone formation. Results confirm that Pacific saury recruiting to the high-seas fishing ground are mainly from a winter-spawned cohort, secondarily from an autumn-spawned cohort, but also with a small proportion from a spring-spawned cohort. Ages of medium (knob length 240–280 mm) and large (knob length > 280 mm) individuals are mainly 8–12 and 18–21 months, respectively. Two growth patterns are reported for individuals with different otolith growth axes in their early life stages. Each year, unsupervised random forest clustering analysis of otolith daily increment widths reveals two Pacific saury groups. One group, with younger age and a later hatching period, shows a consistently higher growth rate than the other, suggesting that the two groups have different hatch dates and locations. These findings permit more accurate prediction of Pacific saury recruitment, and improve the understanding of short-term stock fluctuations to enable more sustainable management of fisheries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A two-phase representation method is presented to improve classification accuracy. • The sparsity adaptive matching pursuit method is used to select the valid samples. • Experimental results demonstrate that our method outperforms the other methods. Sparse representation methods have exhibited promising performance for pattern recognition. However, these methods largely rely on the data sparsity available in advance and are usually sensitive to noise in the training samples. To solve these problems, this paper presents sparsity adaptive matching pursuit based sparse representation for face recognition (SAMPSR). This method adaptively explores the valid training samples that exactly represent the test via iterative updating. Next, the test samples are reconstructed via the valid training samples, and classification is performed subsequently. The two-phase strategy helps to improve the discriminating power of class probability distribution, and thus alleviates effect of the noise from the training samples to some extent and correctly performs classification. In addition, the method solves the sparse coefficient by comparing the residual between the test sample and the reconstructed sample instead of using the sparsity. A large number of experiments show that our method achieves promising performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the blind super-resolution of real low-quality and low-resolution (LR) images. Existing convolutional network (CNN) based approaches usually learn a single image super-resolution (SISR) model for a specific downsampler (e.g. , bicubic downsampling, blurring followed by downsampling). The learned model, however, is tailored to the specific downsampler and fails to super-resolve real LR images which are degraded in more sophisticated and diverse manners. Moreover, the ground-truth high-resolution (HR) of real LR images are generally unavailable. Instead of learning from unpaired real LR-HR images or a specific downsampler, this paper learns blind SR network from a realistic, parametric degradation model by considering blurring, noise, downsampling, and even JPEG compression. In contrast to direct blind reconstruction of HR image, the proposed model adopts a cascaded architecture for noise estimation, blurring estimation, and non-blind SR, which can be jointly end-to-end learned from training data and benefit generalization ability. By taking the bicubicly upscaled LR image as input to non-blind SR, the proposed method can present a single unified model for blind SR with any upscaling factors and varying degradation parameters. Experimental results show that the proposed method performs favorably on synthetic and real LR images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Ratiometric fluorescence-based color variation enables visual identification. • The introduction of smartphone makes the sensor with portable, simple and on-site. • MnO 2 NSs servers as the fluorescence quencher and catalyst of the substrate. • This sensor allows antioxidant capacity analysis in lemons with high accuracy. In this study, a ratiometric fluorescence-based colorimetric sensor was developed for the portable analysis of antioxidant capacity (AOC) using a smartphone. The sensor used carbon dots (CDs) and o-phenylenediamine (OPD) as fluorescence signal substrate and manganese dioxide nanosheets (MnO 2 NSs) as a fluorescence quencher, a catalyst of the substrate. Without a target, MnO 2 NSs effectively quench the fluorescence of the CDs via inner filter effect and could catalyze the oxidization of nonfluorescent OPD, forming a yellow fluorescent product (ox-OPD). With a target, MnO 2 NSs were destructed into Mn2+, resulting in the loss of the fluorescence quencher and catalytic function. The fluorescence of the CDs was recovered, and the fluorescence of the ox-OPD decreased. The fluorescence color change of the system from yellow to blue was further digitized using a smartphone via the red–green–blue (RGB) analysis. Choosing glutathione as the proof-of-concept target, the two readout modes of the fluorescence spectra and RGB analysis achieved the detection limits of 1.84 and 8.33 μM, respectively. Ratiometric fluorescence exhibited precise and reliable detection owing to the built-in self-calibration function, while the colorimetric readout via a smartphone realized the portable determination. This proposed strategy shows a great potential application in assessing the AOC of food samples and controlling food quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our knowledge regarding the taxonomy and diversity of demersal fish in Prydz Bay is insufficient; however, DNA barcoding can discriminate and identify species and has emerged as a promising tool for the molecular taxonomy and systematics of various fish groups. We analyzed cytochrome oxidase I (COI) barcodes for 102 fish specimens collected in Prydz Bay. Twenty-four species representing 19 genera and the 6 families Rajidae, Artedidraconidae, Bathydraconidae, Channichthyidae, Nototheniidae and Zoarcidae were characterized, which was consistent with the demersal ichthyofauna pattern at other high latitudes of Antarctica. No overlap between intraspecific variability and interspecific variability was observed and supported the existence of a barcoding gap. Phylogenetic signals of the tree topology inferred from the maximum-likelihood method and Bayesian inference analysis implied that Bathydraconidae and Nototheniidae were paraphyletic. DNA barcoding is a highly effective and reliable tool for the identification of Antarctic fish species and might provide significant phylogenetic signals for Antarctic fish fauna. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A conic glass monocapillary was developed and used at the Biological Macromolecules Station (BMS) in Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility (BSRF). The structure and transmission property of this optics is reported here in details. The experiments have shown that the value of full width at the half maximum (FWHM) of the X-ray beams transmitted through this optics was nearly unchanged within a short distance. This is very convenient for further measurement of samples. The power diffraction experiments of CeO2 revealed that the Debye rings are much clearer in the case of applying this optics. The ratio of error in the diffraction peak position is reduced significantly to the value as less as 0.042%. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus) in the northwest Pacific Ocean is generally divided into the Tsushima Warm Current (TWC) and Pacific stocks, based on habitat and migratory patterns. Since the 1970s, the abundance of the Pacific stock has undergone more extreme fluctuations than the TWC stock, which decreased sharply in the late 1970s and remained at low levels until it began to recover after the 2000s. In this study we focused on the Pacific stock, and analysed the variability in its abundance based on time series data for catch, biomass and recruitment. Sea surface temperature is considered as a major environmental factor that affects the wintering and spawning of chub mackerel. Consequently, we used wintering and spawning ground indices, including the average sea surface temperature (SST), the meridional positional deviance of the 15 °C (MPD15) and 18 °C (MPD18) isotherms and the SST-suitability weighted size of the potential spawning ground (WSSG) in Kuroshio Current waters to analyse the impacts of oceanic environmental conditions in the wintering and spawning grounds on variations in chub mackerel abundance. The wintering and spawning ground indices showed clear decadal variability, with abrupt changes in the late 1970s, the late 1980s and the 2010s. These were correlated with major fluctuations in the abundance of chub mackerel. A combination of correlation and gradient forest analyses showed that the thermal environment in the wintering ground were relatively important predictors of chub mackerel abundance; these predictors (with a 1- or 2-year time lag) may better explain the variations in abundance after the 1970s. Variations in the SST and MPD18 during the spawning period correlated well with the recovery of chub mackerel abundance after the 2000s. Both the Asian Monsoon Index and Southern Oscillation Index correlated with the wintering and spawning ground temperature conditions, indicating that large scale climatic factors have a major influence on variability in temperature in the wintering and spawning grounds of chub mackerel. We conclude that wintering and spawning ground indices for the Kuroshio Current region may be useful for explaining the variations in chub mackerel abundance. • Wintering and spawning ground indices were estimated to analyze the effects on chub mackerel. • Wintering and spawning ground indices showed synchronous regime shifts with chub mackerel. • SST, MPD15, MPD18 and WSSG well explained the dramatic decline and resource recovery in abundance of chub mackerel. • Climate-induced variations in wintering and spawning ground affect chub mackerel abundance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pollution of micro- and mesoplastic (MMP) in the Eastern Indian Ocean (EIO) remains poorly understood. The present study revealed that MMP abundance in nekton from EIO in 2022 (mean: 2.30 ± 0.39 items individual -1 and 1.81 ± 0.54 items g -1 ) was significantly higher than that in 2021 (mean: 1.60 ± 0.22 items individual -1 and 0.80 ± 0.13 items g -1 ). In contrast, MMP abundance in surface water varied insignificantly between 2021 (mean: 0.04 ± 0.01 items m -3 ) and 2022 (mean: 0.05 ± 0.02 items m -3 ). The rise in predominant polymers-polypropylene (PP), rayon (RA), and polyester (PES)-in nekton from 2021 to 2022 may suggest increased pollution from face masks and home textiles along coastal regions. Notable spatial variation in PP and RA between the northeastern and southeastern regions was observed only in nekton, suggesting they are better indicators of MMP spatiotemporal variation than surface water. Shadow driftfish ingested more MMPs than purpleback flying squid and mackerel scad, likely due to its deeper habitat. By simultaneously considering color, composition, and shape, integrated MMP analysis showed insignificant correlation between MMP pollution in surface water and nekton, suggesting that nekton may ingest MMPs through multiple pathways beyond surface water. Risk indices for surface water and nekton reached moderate to upper levels globally, emphasizing the need for continued monitoring in the EIO. Epoxy resin, rubber, and PP + acrylic were identified as the most hazardous polymers, providing a valuable basis for developing effective strategies to mitigate plastic pollution., 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 Inc. All rights reserved.)

As a promising anode material, silicon-carbon composites encounter great challenges related to internal stress release and contact between the composites during lithiation. These issues lead to material degradation and concomitantly rapid capacity decline. Here, we report a type of shell-shell silicon-carbon (SS-Si/C) composite, which consists of a carbon shell tightly coated with a silicon shell. The mechanical analysis unveils that the dominant inward expansion of the Si shell is achieved through the synergistic effect of the outer carbon shell and the inner hollow structure. Benefiting from the well-tailored shell-shell structure, the SS-Si/C anode exhibits exceptional performance, boasting a high specific capacity (1690.3 mA h g -1 after 550 cycles at 0.5 A g -1 ), a high areal capacity (2.05 mA h cm -2 after more than 400 cycles at 0.5 mA cm -2 ), and an extended cycling life (1055.6 mA h g -1 after 1000 cycles at 8 A g -1 ), far exceeding commercially available Si/C anodes. Using the well-designed SS-Si/C anode, full cells assembled with LiCoO 2 (LCO) or LiFePO 4 (LFP) cathodes achieve favorable rate capability and cyclic stability. Notably, at a high rate of 6 C (1 C = 170 and 270 mA g -1 for LFP and LCO, respectively), these full cells deliver high specific capacities of 79.5 mA h g -1 and 64.9 mA h g -1 when using LCO and LFP, respectively, demonstrating the potential of SS-Si/C anodes for practical applications. The straightforward and safe synthesis method in this work enables the rational design of hollow structures with distinct properties.

The silicon (Si) anode is prone to forming a high electric field gradient and concentration gradient on the electrode surface under high-rate conditions, which may destroy the surface structure and decrease cycling stability. In this study, a ferroelectric (BaTiO 3 ) interlayer and field polarization treatment are introduced to set up a built-in field, which optimizes the transport mechanisms of Li + in solid and liquid phases and thus enhances the rate performance and cycling stability of Si anodes. Also, a fast discharging and slow charging phenomenon is observed in a half-cell with a high reversible capacity of 1500.8 mAh g -1 when controlling the polarization direction of the interlayer, which means a fast charging and slow discharging property in a full battery and thus is valuable for potential applications in commercial batteries. Simulation results demonstrated that the built-in field plays a key role in regulating the Li + concentration distribution in the electrolyte and the Li + diffusion behavior inside particles, leading to more uniform Li + diffusion from local high-concentration sites to surrounding regions. The assembled lithium-ion battery with a BaTiO 3 interlayer exhibited superior electrochemical performance and long-term cycling life (915.6 mAh g -1 after 300 cycles at a high current density of 4.2 A g -1 ). The significance of this research lies in exploring a new approach to improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries and providing new ideas and pathways for addressing the challenges faced by Si-based anodes., (© 2024 The Authors. Advanced Science published by Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

High-capacity anodes, especially silicon, suffer from huge volume fluctuations and electrode material pulverization during lithiation/delithiation. An accessible solution to this issue is to construct nano-silicon anodes with optimized particle size and a conductive matrix. In this work, we introduce a novel strategy for the in situ , rapid synthesis of ultra-small silicon nanoparticles uniformly embedded within carbonized nanosheets (us-Si/C) through swift high-temperature thermal radiative heating of sizable silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs). The us-Si/C anode shows ample capability to accommodate volume fluctuations during the lithiation/delithiation processes. The as-prepared anode exhibits a specific capacity of 920 mA h g -1 after 1000 cycles at a current density of 2 A g -1 , indicating the advantages of the well-tailored structure. Additionally, the us-Si/C electrode can maintain an areal capacity of approximately 1.55 mA h cm -2 after 200 cycles at a high loading of 3.66 mg cm -2 . Moreover, it presents practical applicability when assembled into LFP (lithium iron phosphate)//us-Si/C full cells. This preparation method presents great promise for achieving roll-to-roll manufacturing for practical applications due to its simplicity and efficiency.

Objective: To summarize the use of Chinese Herbal Medicines (CHMs) for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) and provide high-level evidence for clinical decisions., Methods: We analyzed systematic reviews (SRs). Two English-language and three Chinese-language electronic databases were searched from inception to July 1, 2019. Published SRs and meta-analyses evaluating CHM use in IPF and reporting clinically-relevant outcomes such as lung function, PO2, and quality of life were eligible for inclusion in this overview. The methodological qualities of the included SRs were assessed by AMSTAR and ROBIS tools., Results: All reviews were published from 2008 to 2019. 15SRs were published in Chinese-language while 2 were in English. A total of 15550 participants were included. All intervention arms received CHM with or without conventional treatment and were compared with control arms with conventional treatment alone, or hormone therapy. Twelve SRs were assessed with low risk of bias while five were assessed high risk by ROBIS. The quality of evidence was assessed to be "moderate" or "low" or "very low" using GRADE., Conclusions: CHM has potential benefits for patients with IPF especially in improving lung function (forced vital capacity (FVC), total lung capacity (TLC), and diffusing capacity of the lungs for carbon monoxide (DLCO)), PO2 level, and the quality of life of patients. Due to the low methodological quality of reviews, our findings should be interpreted with caution.

The investigation of intestinal microbiota can provide evidence for revealing the growth and development regulation, feeding habits, environmental adaptability and pollutant indication of marine organisms. To data, the intestinal microbiota of marine organisms in the South China Sea is relatively lacking. To supplement these information, we sequenced intestinal microbiota from five fishery resources (including Auxis rochei, A. thazard, Symplectoteuthis oualaniensis, Thunnus albacores, and Coryphaena equiselis) in the South China Sea using high-throughput Illumina sequencing technology. After filtering, a total of 18,706,729 reads were finally produced and then clustered into OTUs. The mean number of OTUs detected in A. rochei, A. thazard, C. equiselis, S. oualaniensis, and T. albacores was 127, 137, 52, 136, and 142, respectively. Although the Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria, Deferribacteres, Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Spirochaetes, Tenericutes, [Thermi], and unclassified&#95;Bacteria were the most abundant in the five species, Photobacterium is the most abundant microbiota. Meanwhile, intestinal microbiota showed species- and sampling sites- specificity, thus only 84 microbiota species were common to all species. Additionally, the potential functions of OTUs in the five species is mainly involved in the synthesis and metabolism of carbohydrate, amino acid, fatty acid and vitamin. This study can provide basic data for clarifying the diversity and species- specificity of intestinal microbiota of five species in the South China Sea, and help to improve the intestinal microbiota database of marine organisms., 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. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Sexual growth dimorphism is a common phenomenon in teleost fish and has led to many reproductive strategies. Growth- and sex-related gene research in teleost fish would broaden our understanding of the process. In this study, transcriptome sequencing of shortfin scad Decapterus macrosoma was performed for the first time, and a high-quality reference transcriptome was constructed. After identification and assembly, a total of 58,475 nonredundant unigenes were obtained with an N50 length of 2,266 bp, and 28,174 unigenes were successfully annotated with multiple public databases. BUSCO analysis determined a level of 92.9% completeness for the assembled transcriptome. Gene expression analysis revealed 2,345 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the female and male D. macrosoma , 1,150 of which were female-biased DEGs, and 1,195 unigenes were male-biased DEGs. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses showed that the DEGs were mainly involved in biological processes including protein synthesis, growth, rhythmic processes, immune defense, and vitellogenesis. Then, we identified many growth- and sex-related genes, including Igf , Fabps , EF-hand family genes, Zp3 , Zp4 and Vg . In addition, a total of 19,573 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were screened and identified from the transcriptome sequences. The results of this study can provide valuable information on growth- and sex-related genes and facilitate further exploration of the molecular mechanism of sexual growth dimorphism., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (© 2022 Cai et al.)

The Pacific saury (Cololabis saira) is one of the most commercially important pelagic fishes in Asia-Pacific countries. The oceanographic environment, especially the Oyashio Current, significantly affects the distribution of Pacific saury, and may lead to variations in their migration route and the formation of fishing grounds in Japanese coastal region and the high seas. In this study, six oceanographic factors, sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface chlorophyll-a concentration (SSC), sea surface salinity (SSS), sea surface height (SSH), mixed layer depth (MLD), and eddy kinetic energy (EKE), were associated with the monthly catch per unit effort 1 (monthly CPUE 1 , ton/vessel) and the monthly CPUE 2 (ton/day) of Pacific saury from Chinese fishing vessels during the optimal fishing periods (September-November) in 2014-2017. The gradient forest analysis showed that the performance of monthly CPUE 1 was higher than monthly CPUE 2 and SST was the most important oceanographic factor influencing monthly CPUE 1 , followed by EKE. The generalized additive model indicated that SST, SSH, and EKE negatively affected monthly CPUE 1 , whereas SSC, SSS, and MLD induced dome-shaped increases in monthly CPUE 1 . The distributions of fishing locations are likely to form along Offshore Oyashio current and meanders, especially in October and November. Synchronous trends in the relationship between the intrusion area of the Oyashio and relative abundance variation index suggest that an increase in the intrusion area of the Oyashio causes more Pacific saury to migrate to the Japanese coastal region, and vice versa. These findings extend our understanding of the effects of the oceanographic environment on Pacific saury., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Background: We tried to investigate the effect of PM2.5 on daily counts of outpatient visits in the Guang'anmen Hospital to determine if short-term PM2.5 exposure with extremely high concentration affects cardiopulmonary function of Beijing residents., Methods: Outpatient visits and PM 2.5 data from 01/11/2011 to 03/31/2013 were extracted from the Guang'anmen Hospital and the American Embassy in Beijing, respectively. Followed by using a semi-parametric generalized additive model (GAM) with time dependent covariates, we analyzed the association between PM 2.5 concentrations and daily count of outpatient visits on Day 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of PM 2.5 exposure., Results: Overall, 284354 subjects were collected. There were significant associations of short-term PM 2.5 exposures with outpatient visits for cardiopulmonary diseases ( P <0.05). Specifically, a 10 μg/m 3 increase in PM 2.5 was positively associated with a 0.74% of increase in angina visit on the first day and 0.50% increased visit on the second day ( P <0.05). With an increase in PM 2.5 , the cough and respiratory visits significantly decreased by 0.17% and 0.30% on the first day, respectively ( P <0.05). However, there were significant positive associations of PM 2.5 with increased cough and respiratory visits (increased by 0.17% and 0.10%, respectively) on the fifth day ( P <0.05)., Conclusion: Our association studies showed an instant effect of PM 2.5 level on cardiovascular outpatient visit in the Guang'anmen Hospital in Beijing while a lag effect on respiratory outpatient visits., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Thoracic radiography has been applied extensively to cardiovascular or respiratory disorders in veterinary practice and in research using animal models. To establish baseline measures for various parameters of thoracic radiography, we used a cross-sectional method to collect the lung length (LL), maximum interior thoracic breadth (TBr), maximum breadth of the cardiac silhouette (CBr), cardiothoracic ratio (CR), and right hilar height ratio (RHHR) of random healthy captive Chinese rhesus monkeys (age, 1 to 5 y; 89 male, 64 female). Significant sex-associated differences occurred in TBr among 1-y-old subjects and RHHR in 2- and 3-y-old monkeys. In addition, LL, TBr, and CBr were significantly correlated with age in both sexes. Finally, stepwise multiple regression revealed that LL and CBr were predictors of age in female monkeys, whereas LL and TBr were age-predictive in male macaques. The current data may suggest caveats regarding the use of thoracic radiography for evaluating disease processes, including pulmonary tuberculosis, hydropericardium, and heart failure, and for assessing physical development in adolescent rhesus macaques.