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[Display omitted] • The CPNs(Ⅳ) was stable and the preparation of the CPNs(Ⅳ) was simple. • The newly proposed method exhibited high sensitivity and wide detection range. • The analysis results had good reliability for detecting OTA in actual samples. • The mutual verification between fluorescence and color mode guaranteed the accuracy of this new method. Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a widely distributed mycotoxin that seriously endangers food safety and human health. Therefore, establishing a sensitive and simple method for detecting OTA is crucial to ensure food safety. A fluorescence and colorimetric dual-mode immunoassay was established using cerium-based nanoparticles CPNs(Ⅳ) for detection of OTA. CPNs(IV) with good oxidase activity can catalyze the oxidation of colorless 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) to produce visible blue color signal. Under the catalysis of ALP, the ascorbic acid 2-phosphate (AA2P) was hydrolyzed to form ascorbic acid (AA), which reduced CPNs(Ⅳ) to CPNs(III). The produced CPNs(III) can emit significant fluorescence signal. Because the concentration of OTA was inversely proportional to the concentration of IgG-ALP in the microplate, the fluorescence signal was gradually decreased and the blue color signal gradually increased with the addition of OTA. The limits of detection (LODs) of this dual-mode immunoassay were 0.404 ng/mL (for fluorescent mode) and 0.962 ng/mL (for colorimetric mode). The recoveries of OTA were 97.60 %–103.55 % for the fluorescence mode and 99.12 %–102.60 % for the colorimetric mode in corn samples. These results indicated the dual-mode immunoassay was sensitive and reliable for detection of OTA in actual samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Plant plasma membrane transporters play essential roles during the translocation of vectorized agrochemicals. Therefore, transporters associated with phloem loading of vectorized agrochemicals have drawn increasing attention. As a model system, castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) has been widely used to detect the phloem mobility of agrochemicals. However, there is still a lack of an efficient protocol for the Ricinus seedling model system that can be directly used to investigate the recognition and phloem loading functions of plasmalemma transporters toward vectorized agrochemicals. Results: Here, using vacuum infiltration strategy, we overexpressed the coding gene for enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) in R. communis seedlings by Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation system. Strong fluorescence signals were observed in leaves, demonstrating that exogenous genes can be successfully overexpressed in seedlings. Subsequently, gene expression time and vacuum infiltration parameters were optimized. Observation of fluorescence and qRT-PCR analysis showed that eGFP strength and expression level reached a peak at 72 h after overexpression in seedlings. Parameter optimization showed Agrobacterium concentration at OD600 = 1.2, and infiltration for 20 min (0.09 MPa), return to atmospheric pressure, and then infiltration for another 20 min, were the suitable transformation conditions. To test the application of vacuum agroinfiltration in directly examining the loading functions of plasma membrane transporters to vectorized agrochemicals in seedlings, two LHT (lysine/histidine transporter) genes, RcLHT1 and RcLHT7, were overexpressed. Subcellular localization showed the strong fluorescent signals of the fusion proteins RcLHT1-eGFP and RcLHT7-eGFP were observed on the cell membrane of mesophyll cells, and their relative expression levels determined by qRT-PCR were up-regulated 47- and 52-fold, respectively. Furthermore, the concentrations of l-Val-PCA (l-valine-phenazine-1-carboxylic acid conjugate) in phloem sap collected from seedling sieve tubes were significantly increased 1.9- and 2.3-fold after overexpression of RcLHT1 and RcLHT7, respectively, implying their roles in recognition and phloem loading of l-Val-PCA. Conclusions: We successfully constructed a transient expression system in Ricinus seedlings and laid the foundation for researchers to directly investigate the loading functions of plasma membrane transporters to vectorized agrochemicals in the Ricinus system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A dual-readout colorimetric immunoassay was established to detect AFB1. • An indophenol color reaction with a mild condition was employed as color signal. • AFB1 was detected semi-quantitatively by naked eye and quantitatively by smartphone. • The novel immunoassay was simple and economical which was easy to recreate. Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is one of the most toxic mycotoxins. In view of the great harm of AFB1, it has attracted much attention to explore a super-sensitive and low-cost rapid detection method for aflatoxin B1. Herein, a dual-readout colorimetric immunoassay was established for the detection of AFB1. Under the catalysis of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), phenyl phosphate (PP) can produce phenol by dephosphorylation. Then phenol can react with 2,6-dibromoquinone-4-chloroimide (DBQC) under alkaline conditions to produce blue halogenated indophenol (HIP). Through this reaction, the color of the solution became blue, which can be observed by the naked eye. In addition, this color signal can be converted into digital signal via smartphone, enabling quantitative detection of AFB1. Under the optimal condition, the detection limit of this colorimetric immunoassay was 0.70 ng/mL by naked eye and 0.013 ng/mL by smartphone. The application results showed that the proposed daul-readout colorimetric immunoassay was feasible and real-time for AFB1 detection in actual samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe the plasmon resonances of AlGaN/GaN HEMT-array with a shifted gate at THz frequencies. By altering gate voltage and gate length, we obtained absorption spectra at different gate positions using the Drude dispersion to model the conductive channel layer. We observed that the asymmetry of the device’s gate position has no effect on the first-order mode of absorption but significantly impacts the second-order or higher-order modes. Through the electric field distribution, it can be found that in the first-order mode, different gate positions do not affect the electric field distribution. But in higher-order modes, when the gate is close to the source or drain, the 2D plasmons in the gated region will couple with the ungated 2D plasmons in the source and drain regions. In our simulation, the asymmetric gate position will have a higher absorption peak in the high-order mode. At the same time, the asymmetric gate structure under high-order mode can also reach higher modulation depth. The studies of these characteristics may have promising applications including high-responsivity quantum-dot THz detection, THz modulator, and other electrically tunable THz devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposed a model-based framework to optimize the energy-water-emissions nexus (EWEN) for regional electric power system (EPS) planning. The framework integrated the superiority of bi-level programming (BLP), two-stage stochastic programming (TSP), mix-integer programming (MIP), interval parameter programming (IPP) models and carbon emission trading (CET) mechanism, which could effectively deal with the planning problems in the EWEN optimization process. BLP helped decision makers make leader-follower choices when they have conflicting preferences. TSP with IPP could validly address the uncertain information expressed as interval values with unknown distribution. MIP was introduced as an efficacious tool to evaluate the capacity expansion potential in EPS. CET mechanism was applied to reinforce the CO 2 mitigation effect during the EWEN optimization process. Then the proposed framework was applied into a case study in Shanxi Province, a main thermal power base in China to optimize the EWEN. Results indicated that the power supply structure was inclined to show a low-carbon transition trend in the planning periods. Meanwhile, coupled with the strict water conservation policy, every 5% reduction in carbon emission density would lead to an average decreasing rate of 8% for SO 2 , 3% for NOx and 12% for PM. This study may help provide an effective way to deal with planning problems with conflicting and sequential goals under uncertainty and make better tradeoff strategies in EWEN optimization in EPS. • Propose a stochastic leader-follower framework for energy-water-emission nexus. • Control uncertainty by the combination of TSP and with IPP. • Interactions of CO 2 emissions and air pollution emissions are revealed. • Introduce CET mechanism to help improve the CO 2 mitigation effect. • The empirical results demonstrate the excellent performance of the framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New breeding technologies accelerate germplasm improvement and reduce the cost of goods in seed production1–3. Many such technologies could use in vivo paternal haploid induction (HI), which occurs when double fertilization precedes maternal (egg cell) genome loss. Engineering of the essential CENTROMERIC HISTONE (CENH3) gene induces paternal HI in Arabidopsis4–6. Despite conservation of CENH3 function across crops, CENH3-based HI has not been successful outside of the Arabidopsis model system7. Here we report a commercially operable paternal HI line in wheat with a ~7% HI rate, identified by screening genome-edited TaCENH3α-heteroallelic combinations. Unlike in Arabidopsis, edited alleles exhibited reduced transmission in female gametophytes, and heterozygous genotypes triggered higher HI rates than homozygous combinations. These developments might pave the way for the deployment of CENH3 HI technology in diverse crops. Gene editing induces paternal haploid plants in hexaploid wheat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To decipher the genetic diversity within the cucurbit genus Citrullus, we generated telomere-to-telomere (T2T) assemblies of 27 distinct genotypes, encompassing all seven Citrullus species. This T2T super-pangenome has expanded the previously published reference genome, T2T-G42, by adding 399.2 Mb and 11,225 genes. Comparative analysis has unveiled gene variants and structural variations (SVs), shedding light on watermelon evolution and domestication processes that enhanced attributes such as bitterness and sugar content while compromising disease resistance. Multidisease-resistant loci from Citrullus amarus and Citrullus mucosospermus were successfully introduced into cultivated Citrullus lanatus. The SVs identified in C. lanatus have not only been inherited from cordophanus but also from C. mucosospermus, suggesting additional ancestors beyond cordophanus in the lineage of cultivated watermelon. Our investigation substantially improves the comprehension of watermelon genome diversity, furnishing comprehensive reference genomes for all Citrullus species. This advancement aids in the exploration and genetic enhancement of watermelon using its wild relatives., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The prevalence of isolated systolic hypertension (ISH) has doubled between 2002-2005 and 2014 among the oldest-old population in China. However, the prevalence and characteristics of ISH among the oldest-old population in southwestern China remain less known. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of ISH among the oldest-old population in Chengdu and identify associated factors to provide valuable information for disease etiology and prevention. We recruited 1,312 participants aged over 80 years by using a stratified cluster sampling method between September 2015 and June 2016, from three districts (Jinjiang, Qingyang, and Longquanyi) of Chengdu, the largest city of southwest China. A structured questionnaire, anthropometric data, and blood pressure were collected according to the standard method. Blood pressure was measured three times by using a standardized mercury sphygmomanometer after a 10-minute seated rest. Of 1312 participants, 53.0% (n = 695) had ISH. The prevalence of ISH in men and women was 54.7% and 51.3%, respectively, with no significant sex difference (P = .222). The prevalence of ISH increased with advanced age in men (P for trend = 0.029), 52.5% for the 80-84 years group, 55.2% for the 85-89 years group, and 70.4% for the 90-98 years group, respectively. Multivariable logistic regression analyses found that drinking (OR = 1.85, 95%CI = 1.26-2.71), being overweight (OR = 1.88, 95%CI = 1.19-2.96), and having a higher heart rate (OR = 0.66, 95%CI = 0.51-0.86) were associated with ISH. Stratified by sex, these three factors remained significant in men. Our work highlights that the burden of ISH is substantial among the oldest-old population in southwestern China., (© 2024 The Authors. The Journal of Clinical Hypertension published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Chili pepper (Capsicum) is known for its unique fruit pungency due to the presence of capsaicinoids. The evolutionary history of capsaicinoid biosynthesis and the mechanism of their tissue specificity remain obscure due to the lack of high-quality Capsicum genomes. Here, we report two telomere-to-telomere (T2T) gap-free genomes of C. annuum and its wild nonpungent relative C. rhomboideum to investigate the evolution of fruit pungency in chili peppers. We precisely delineate Capsicum centromeres, which lack high-copy tandem repeats but are extensively invaded by CRM retrotransposons. Through phylogenomic analyses, we estimate the evolutionary timing of capsaicinoid biosynthesis. We reveal disrupted coding and regulatory regions of key biosynthesis genes in nonpungent species. We also find conserved placenta-specific accessible chromatin regions, which likely allow for tissue-specific biosynthetic gene coregulation and capsaicinoid accumulation. These T2T genomic resources will accelerate chili pepper genetic improvement and help to understand Capsicum genome evolution., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Selecting therapeutic strategies for cancer patients is typically based on key target-molecule biomarkers that play an important role in cancer onset, progression, and prognosis. Thus, there is a pressing need for novel biomarkers that can be utilized longitudinally to guide treatment selection., Methods: Using data from 508 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients across three institutions, we developed and validated a comprehensive predictive biomarker that distinguishes six genotypes and infiltrative immune phenotypes. These features were analyzed to establish the association between radiological phenotypes and tumor genotypes/immune phenotypes and to create a radiological interpretation of molecular features. In addition, we assessed the sensitivity of the models by evaluating their performance at five different voxel intervals, resulting in improved generalizability of the proposed approach., Findings: The radiomics model we developed, which integrates clinical factors and multi-regional features, outperformed the conventional model that only uses clinical and intratumoral features. Our combined model showed significant performance for EGFR, KRAS, ALK, TP53, PIK3CA, and ROS1 mutation status with AUCs of 0.866, 0.874, 0.902, 0.850, 0.860, and 0.900, respectively. Additionally, the predictive performance for PD-1/PD-L1 was 0.852. Although the performance of all models decreased to different degrees at five different voxel space resolutions, the performance advantage of the combined model did not change., Conclusions: We validated multiscale radiomic signatures across tumor genotypes and immunophenotypes in a multi-institutional cohort. This imaging-based biomarker offers a non-invasive approach to select patients with NSCLC who are sensitive to targeted therapies or immunotherapy, which is promising for developing personalized treatment strategies during therapy., 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 B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Accurate prediction of tumor molecular alterations is vital for optimizing cancer treatment. Traditional tissue-based approaches encounter limitations due to invasiveness, heterogeneity, and molecular dynamic changes. We aim to develop and validate a deep learning radiomics framework to obtain imaging features that reflect various molecular changes, aiding first-line treatment decisions for cancer patients., Methods: We conducted a retrospective study involving 508 NSCLC patients from three institutions, incorporating CT images and clinicopathologic data. Two radiomic scores and a deep network feature were constructed on three data sources in the 3D tumor region. Using these features, we developed and validated the 'Deep-RadScore,' a deep learning radiomics model to predict prognostic factors, gene mutations, and immune molecule expression levels., Findings: The Deep-RadScore exhibits strong discrimination for tumor molecular features. In the independent test cohort, it achieved impressive AUCs: 0.889 for lymphovascular invasion, 0.903 for pleural invasion, 0.894 for T staging; 0.884 for EGFR and ALK, 0.896 for KRAS and PIK3CA, 0.889 for TP53, 0.895 for ROS1; and 0.893 for PD-1/PD-L1. Fusing features yielded optimal predictive power, surpassing any single imaging feature. Correlation and interpretability analyses confirmed the effectiveness of customized deep network features in capturing additional imaging phenotypes beyond known radiomic features., Interpretation: This proof-of-concept framework demonstrates that new biomarkers across imaging features and molecular phenotypes can be provided by fusing radiomic features and deep network features from multiple data sources. This holds the potential to offer valuable insights for radiological phenotyping in characterizing diverse tumor molecular alterations, thereby advancing the pursuit of non-invasive personalized treatment for NSCLC patients., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Rationale: Adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD) is a rare multisystem disorder considered a complex autoinflammatory syndrome. The clinical and biological features of AOSD typically include a high fever with arthritic symptoms, evanescent skin rash, sore throat, striking neutrophilic leukocytosis, hyperferritinemia, and abnormal liver function. The typical rash and fever are important diagnostic clues for AOSD. Here, we report a case of atypical rash manifesting as persistent itchy urticaria., Patient Concerns: A 57-year-old female presented with a 6-day history of fever. During her hospital stay, she progressively developed rashes that were not associated with fever, primarily distributed on her back and the distal extremities, and associated with pronounced itching. The rash was initially suspected to be urticaria; however, the patient exhibited a poor response to antihistamines. After malignancies and other rheumatic diseases were excluded, the diagnosis leaned towards AOSD based on diagnostic criteria. The patient's fever was well controlled with the initiation of glucocorticoids, and no further rashes were observed., Diagnoses: Although the patient exhibited atypical rashes, after ruling out malignancies and other rheumatic diseases, she met 2 major and 3 minor criteria. Based on Yamaguchi's criteria, the patient was diagnosed with AOSD., Interventions: Initially, the patient was administered an intravenous infusion of methylprednisolone at 40 mg once daily. This was later transitioned to oral administration with gradual dose reduction., Outcomes: Follow-up at 1 year showed no recurrence of the rash, with a stable condition and no relapse., Lessons: This case provides valuable insights for the early diagnosis of AOSD, emphasizing the importance of considering this diagnosis even when presenting with atypical skin rash., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

Purpose: Lung cancer has significant genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity, leading to poor prognosis. Radiomic features have emerged as promising predictors of the tumor phenotype. However, the role of underlying information surrounding the cancer remains unclear., Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of 508 patients with NSCLC from three institutions. Radiomics models were built using features from six tumor regions and seven classifiers to predict three prognostically significant tumor phenotypes. The models were evaluated and interpreted by the mean area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) under nested cross-validation and Shapley values. The best-performing predictive models corresponding to six tumor regions and three tumor phenotypes were identified for further comparative analysis. In addition, we designed five experiments with different voxel spacing to assess the sensitivity of the experimental results to the spatial resolution of the voxels., Results: Our results demonstrated that models based on 2D, 3D, and peritumoral region features yielded mean AUCs and 95% confidence intervals of 0.759 and [0.747-0.771] for lymphovascular invasion, 0.889 and [0.882-0.896] for pleural invasion, and 0.839 and [0.829-0.849] for T-staging in the testing cohort, which was significantly higher than all other models. Similar results were obtained for the model combining the three regional features at five voxel spacings., Conclusion: Our study revealed the predictive role of the developed methods with multi-regional features for the preoperative assessment of prognostic factors in NSCLC. The analysis of different voxel spacing and model interpretability strengthens the experimental findings and contributes to understanding the biological significance of the radiological phenotype., (© 2023. Italian Society of Medical Radiology.)

The development of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) represents a paradigm shift in the treatment of lung cancer with EGFR mutations. Aumolertinib has been shown to be a safe agent in the registry study. However, successful rechallenge with aumolertinib following osimertinib-induced myocardial damage has not been reported. In this article, a case of neoadjuvant therapy for lung adenocarcinoma is retrospectively analyzed, and the relevant literature is reviewed. The patient was diagnosed with stage IIIA lung adenocarcinoma, and genetic testing revealed EGFR exon 19 deletion mutation combined with Tumor Protein p53 (TP53) mutation. The mutation abundance is 33.5 and 14%, respectively. One month after osimertinib treatment, the patient developed myocardial damage, and abnormal indicators such as myocardial enzyme spectrum showed abnormalities and cardiac insufficiency, followed by pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary edema. Aumolertinib was subsequently used for treatment, following which the myocardial enzyme spectrum returned to normal, and the symptoms of bilateral interstitial edema disappeared. In addition to the disappearance of adverse reactions, the therapeutic effect was excellent; the lung lesions and mediastinal lymph nodes were significantly reduced, and the operation was successfully conducted. This is the first report of successful neoadjuvant treatment of EGFR exon 19 deletion combined with TP53 mutation in NSCLC using aumolertinib after osimertinib-induced myocardial damage. The results suggested that aumolertinib had fewer adverse reactions in patients with EGFR exon 19 deletion combined with TP53 mutation, and aumolertinib may be a potential neoadjuvant therapy for stage IIIA lung cancer., (Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

It is well known that stressful situation is one of the important factors causing insomnia, however, the underlying mechanism is still elusive. Therefore, the establishment of a suitable animal model of stress insomnia will be of great help to solve this problem. In this study, by combining with chronic unpredictable stress (multitude of stressors) and sleep deprivation, we attempted to establish a rat model of stress insomnia. It was observed that rats with stress insomnia showed significant weight loss, and less sleep quality in pentobarbital sodium induced sleep test and electroencephalogram detection. Moreover, rats with stress insomnia showed greater depression and anxiety detected by forced swimming, sucrose preference test and open field. Since oxidative stress has been reported to be involved in insomnia, we further evaluated the production of oxidative stress and found that the levels of lipid peroxidation product malondialdehyde (MDA) in liver, serum total bilirubin and urine biopyrrin were all significantly increased in rats with stress insomnia. In addition, we also found that the memory of these rats with stress insomnia was also obviously reduced in water maze. Taken together, these results demonstrate that the emotional behaviors, memory, oxidative and metabolism of the rats were all significantly changed after modeling, indicating a rat model of stress insomnia was successful establishment, and this animal model will provide basis to further explore the underlying mechanism of chronic stress in insomnia., Competing Interests: 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., (© 2023 Xinjiang Medical University.)

Although crop domestication has greatly aided human civilization, the sequential domestication and regulation of most quality traits remain poorly understood. Here, we report the stepwise selection and regulation of major fruit quality traits that occurred during watermelon evolution. The levels of fruit cucurbitacins and flavonoids were negatively selected during speciation, whereas sugar and carotenoid contents were positively selected during domestication. Interestingly, fruit malic acid and citric acid showed the opposite selection trends during the improvement. We identified a novel gene cluster (CGC1, cucurbitacin gene cluster on chromosome 1) containing both regulatory and structural genes involved in cucurbitacin biosynthesis, which revealed a cascade of transcriptional regulation operating mechanisms. In the CGC1, an allele caused a single nucleotide change in ClERF1 binding sites (GCC-box) in the promoter of ClBh1, which resulted in reduced expression of ClBh1 and inhibition of cucurbitacin synthesis in cultivated watermelon. Functional analysis revealed that a rare insertion of 244 amino acids, which arose in C. amarus and became fixed in sweet watermelon, in ClOSC (oxidosqualene cyclase) was critical for the negative selection of cucurbitacins during watermelon evolution. This research provides an important resource for metabolomics-assisted breeding in watermelon and for exploring metabolic pathway regulation mechanisms., (© 2022. Science China Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

In this study, an alkaline phosphatase (ALP)-mediated fluorescence immunoassay for detecting zearalenone (ZEN) was established based on the oxVB 1 fluorescence signal modulated by MnO 2 nanosheets (MnO 2 NS). As the ALP-antibody content increased, more 2-phosphoascorbic acid (AAP) was hydrolyzed to ascorbic acid (AA) which destroyed the MnO 2 NS rapidly. In the lack of MnO 2 NS, VB 1 cannot be oxidized to oxVB 1 for emitting fluorescence. On the contrary, the fluorescence of oxVB 1 recovered slowly with the decrease of the ALP-antibody concentration. In the optimization condition, the detection limit of this method was 15.5 pg mL -1 . Moreover, the recovery of ZEN in real samples ranged from 94.24 % to 108.26 %, which indicated the remarkable accuracy and reliability of this approach. Meanwhile, the proposal of this fluorescence immunoassay provided a new possibility for detecting other targets by replacing antibodies and antigens., 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 B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this work, a fluorescence and colorimetric dual-mode immunoassay for detecting zearalenone (ZEN) was established. This platform relied on the dephosphorylation of p-nitrophenyl phosphate (PNPP) by alkaline phosphatase (ALP) to produce yellow p-nitrophenol (PNP). And the internal filtration effect between G-quadruplex/N-methylmesoporphyrin IX (G4/NMM) and PNP led to fluorescence quenching of G4/NMM. Therefore, the color change of PNP and the fluorescence change of G4/NMM can be used as double signals to report the results of ALP mediated immunoassay. In this dual-mode immunoassay, the detection limit of fluorescence mode was 0.0072 ng/mL with a linear range 7.5-17.5 ng/mL. And the detection limit of colorimetric mode was 0.036 ng/mL with a linear range 7.5-20 ng/mL. In addition, the dual-mode immunoassay showed good selectivity for ZEN and satisfactory recovery in corn samples (fluorescence mode: 94.40-106.80%, colorimetric mode: 96.51-108.27%)., 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 Ltd. All rights reserved.)

China states to build new power system dominated by new energy power to promote the targets for peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. Peaking regulation ancillary services provided by coal-fired power units is an essential solution to mitigate the volatility and instability of large-scale renewable energy for China's specific power mix. However, when the coal-fired power units operate at a low power output, the intensity of both coal consumption and carbon emissions gradually rises with the falling output rate. Moreover, cutting down the power output of coal-fired units frequently will damage the technical life. Given the impacts of power market reform and carbon mitigation targets, whether to participate in the energy market or the peaking regulation ancillary service market is an urgent issue for coal-fired power units. Considering the discrepancy in costs and benefits of various units at different output rate, this paper proposes a multi-objective optimization model to solve the issue from the perspective of the coal-fired power generators, in which both economic profit and carbon reduction goals are coordinated. Sequential quadratic programming is adopted to solve the nonlinear optimization problem. In order to study the difference in the decisions made by varied technical units, 7 different types of units are analyzed in the case study. The scenarios analysis indicates that large-capacity and new coal-fired power units are better to participate in energy market since it can give full play to the advantage of higher generation efficiency, while the small-capacity ones are suitable to provide flexible service in the peaking regulation ancillary service market. Besides, simple low-carbon objective will burden the cost of coal-fired power units and challenge the sustainable transition of power system. Hence, the power system should balance both economic profit of generators and national carbon mitigation targets during the low-carbon transition., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The first paradigm of plant breeding involves direct selection-based phenotypic observation, followed by predictive breeding using statistical models for quantitative traits constructed based on genetic experimental design and, more recently, by incorporation of molecular marker genotypes. However, plant performance or phenotype (P) is determined by the combined effects of genotype (G), envirotype (E), and genotype by environment interaction (GEI). Phenotypes can be predicted more precisely by training a model using data collected from multiple sources, including spatiotemporal omics (genomics, phenomics, and enviromics across time and space). Integration of 3D information profiles (G-P-E), each with multidimensionality, provides predictive breeding with both tremendous opportunities and great challenges. Here, we first review innovative technologies for predictive breeding. We then evaluate multidimensional information profiles that can be integrated with a predictive breeding strategy, particularly envirotypic data, which have largely been neglected in data collection and are nearly untouched in model construction. We propose a smart breeding scheme, integrated genomic-enviromic prediction (iGEP), as an extension of genomic prediction, using integrated multiomics information, big data technology, and artificial intelligence (mainly focused on machine and deep learning). We discuss how to implement iGEP, including spatiotemporal models, environmental indices, factorial and spatiotemporal structure of plant breeding data, and cross-species prediction. A strategy is then proposed for prediction-based crop redesign at both the macro (individual, population, and species) and micro (gene, metabolism, and network) scales. Finally, we provide perspectives on translating smart breeding into genetic gain through integrative breeding platforms and open-source breeding initiatives. We call for coordinated efforts in smart breeding through iGEP, institutional partnerships, and innovative technological support., (Copyright © 2022 The Author. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Radiomics and deep learning (DL) hold transformative promise and substantial and significant advances in oncology; however, most methods have been tested in retrospective or simulated settings. There is considerable interest in the biomarker validation, clinical utility, and methodological robustness of these studies and their deployment in real-world settings. This review summarizes the characteristics of studies, the level of prospective validation, and the overview of research on different clinical endpoints. The discussion of methodological robustness shows the potential for independent external replication of prospectively reported results. These in-depth analyses further describe the barriers limiting the translation of radiomics and DL into primary care options and provide specific recommendations regarding clinical deployment. Finally, we propose solutions for integrating novel approaches into the treatment environment to unravel the critical process of translating AI models into the clinical routine and explore strategies to improve personalized medicine., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is one of the most prevalent and toxic mycotoxins. Ultrasensitive and convenient detection of OTA is urgent demanded for public health. In this work, a dual-readout immunoassay was established for the detection of OTA based on Ce 4+ oxidizing 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) and Ce 3+ inducing aggregation induced emission (AIE) of Au nanoclusters (AuNCs). Under alkaline phosphatase (ALP), the ascorbic acid 2-phosphate (AA2P) can form ascorbic acid (AA) by dephosphorylation. The AA can reduce Ce 4+ to generate Ce 3+ , which induced the AIE of AuNCs to enhance the fluorescence intensity of AuNCs. Meanwhile, unreacted Ce 4+ oxidized TMB to form blue oxTMB. Thus, a dual-readout immunoassay was developed based on AIE of AuNCs and TMB as substrate. The limits of detection (LODs) were as low as 0.62 ng/mL for fluorescent assay and 0.81 ng/mL for colorimetric assay. The recoveries of OTA from corn were 94.4%-107.7% for the fluorescent mode and 93.7%-106.9% for the colorimetric mode. The results verified that the cerium ions triggered dual-readout immunoassay was reliable to sensitive detect OTA in corn samples., 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 B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this work, a simple dual-mode immunoassay for detecting Ochratoxin A (OTA) was developed by mixing G-quadruplex/N-methylmesoporphyrin IX (G4/NMM) and 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB). The fluorescence of G4/NMM can be quenched by oxidized TMB (oxTMB) because the absorbance of oxTMB overlapped with the fluorescence emission of G4/NMM. In the absence of OTA, large amounts of oxTMB were formed with blue color and the fluorescence of G4/NMM was quenched. In the presence of OTA, the concentration of oxTMB was decreased, therefore the fluorescence of G4/NMM increased. The linear range of fluorescence immunoassay was 0.195-25 ng/mL, and the linear range of the absorbance immunoassay was 0.049-1.563 ng/mL. Thus, the linear range of this dual-mode immunoassay can be expanded to 0.049-25 ng/mL. Meanwhile, the new method showed good selectivity for OTA. Besides, the satisfactory recovery rates implied the new method had a potential value for practical sample detection., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) mainly regulated the biosynthesis of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and played an important role in plant growth and stress resistance. To explore the potential function of GAD in cotton growth, the genome-wide identification, structure, and expression analysis of GAD genes were performed in this study. There were 10, 9, 5, and 5 GAD genes identified in G. hirsutum , G. barbadense , G. arboreum , and G. raimondii , respectively. GAD was divided into four clades according to the protein motif composition, gene structure, and phylogenetic relationship. The segmental duplication was the main way of the GAD gene family evolution. Most GhGADs respond to abiotic stress. Clade Ⅲ GAD was induced by Cd 2+ stress, especially GhGAD6 , and silencing GhGAD6 would lead to more serious Cd 2+ poisoning in cotton. The oxidative damage caused by Cd 2+ stress was relieved by increasing the GABA content. It was speculated that the decreased expression of GhGAD6 reduced the content of GABA in vivo and caused the accumulation of ROS. This study will further expand our understanding of the relationship between the evolution and function of the GhGAD gene family and provide new genetic resources for cotton breeding under environmental stress and phytoremediation., 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 Huang, He, Cui, Sun, Han, Wang, Rui, Lei, Liu, Xu, Zhang, Zhang, Fan, Feng, Ni, Jiang, Zhang, Chen, Wang, Chen, Lu, Wang, Wang, Yin, Qaraevna, Guo, Zhao and Ye.)

Objective: We examined the association between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and lumbar spine bone mineral density in individuals with and without type 2 diabetes., Methods: The lumbar BMD of 1088 subjects was measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Liver fat content was quantified via B-mode ultrasound. Multivariable linear regression was used to study the association between NAFLD and lumbar BMD in participants with and without T2DM., Results: The lumbar BMD in the T2DM group and the non-diabetes group was higher in the NAFLD group than in the non-NAFLD group (P < 0.001). Multivariate regression analysis in the T2DM group showed that after adjusting for confounders, the positive association between lumbar spine BMD and NAFLD remained (P = 0.027). In the non-diabetes group, after adjusting for confounders, the association between NAFLD and lumbar spine BMD disappeared., Conclusions: The relationship between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and lumbar bone mineral density may differ in individuals with and without diabetes. The effect of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease on bone mineral density needs to be evaluated in different clinical contexts., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

In this work, a novel fluorescence method for the detection of phosphate anions (PO 4 3- ) was developed based on porphyrin metalation. Through catalysis by G-quadruplex (G4), Cu 2+ could insert into the porphyrins to quench their fluorescence. G4 simultaneously improved the fluorescence of the porphyrins but not that of Cu 2+ -porphyrin. In the absence of PO 4 3- , the porphyrins were metallized by Cu 2+ , and no fluorescence was observed. In the presence of PO 4 3- , PO 4 3- could coordinate with Cu 2+ to prevent porphyrin metalation. Free porphyrin could bind with G4 to emit strong fluorescence. By comparing four common porphyrins, we found that G4 had the greatest effect on increasing the fluorescence intensity of N-methylmesoporphyrin IX (NMM). Thus, NMM/G4 was chosen for the design of a biosensor. Under optimal experimental conditions, this method showed high sensitivity and satisfactory selectivity for PO 4 3- with a detection limit of 44 nM in a linear range of 0.01-1.0 μM. The recovery experiments showed recovery rates of 93.75-106.00%, suggesting a great potential for measuring PO 4 3- in real samples., 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 B.V. All rights reserved.)

A rapid and convenient fluorescence glyphosate (GLYP) biosensor was developed based on DNA-templated copper nanoparticles (DNA-CuNPs). In the absence of GLYP, the DNA-CuNPs were formed through the reduction of Cu 2+ by vitamin C (Vc). The DNA-CuNPs emitted intense fluorescence at 615 nm when being excited at 340 nm. In the presence of GLYP, GLYP can strongly chelate with Cu 2+ by the phosphate and carboxyl groups to decrease the amount of free Cu 2+ . Due to the lack of free Cu 2+ , DNA-CuNPs cannot be formed, which caused the fluorescence to decrease. The whole detection process of this proposed GLYP biosensor can be completed within 14 min. Titration experiments showed that this biosensor had a linear relationship for GLYP in the range 1 to 18 µM with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.47 µM. This biosensor showed obvious selectivity among other pesticides, even between GLYP and organophosphorus pesticides. This biosensor performed well for GLYP detection in real samples with recoveries of 88.0-104.0%., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature.)

Replacing conventional fossil fuel power plants with large-scale renewable energy sources (RES) is a crucial aspect of the decarbonization of the power sector and represents a key part of the carbon-neutral strategy of China. The high penetration rate of renewable energy in the electricity system, however, implies the challenges of dealing with the intermittency and fluctuation of RES. Power to gas (P2G), which can convert surplus renewable power into a chemical form of energy (i.e., synthetic gas), can help handle this challenge and supply new energy carriers for various energy sectors. By modeling three potential 2060 energy mix scenarios in China, this paper aims to describe the possible contribution of the high penetration rate of renewable energy combined with P2G in the future sustainable energy system. Different schemes are listed and compared, and the results are used in a basic economic evaluation of the synthetic gas production cost for the P2G plants. Ideally, nearly 18 million tons of carbon dioxide would be recycled and transformed into methane (around 9.37 km 3 ) annually in China. Considering a zero price for the excess renewable power and future costs of the components, the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of the final production of methane is estimated at 0.86 $/m 3 SNG ., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Due to the significant changes of economic growth rate, energy structure, and energy efficiency in China, whether energy policies should be adjusted is worthy of attention. This paper employs ARDL-ECM and Toda-Yamamoto causality to investigate the relationship between renewable energy, non-renewable energy, carbon emissions, economic growth, gross fixed capital formation, and urban population spanning the period 1960-2019 in China. The examined results of ARDL-ECM indicate that renewable energy both have positive impact on GDP in the short term and long term but non-renewable energy only have positive impact on GDP in the short term. Additionally, based on Toda-Yamamoto causality, this paper finds a unidirectional Granger causality running from economic growth to energy consumption and from energy consumption to carbon emissions. And there is a unidirectional Granger causality running from GDP to non-renewable energy consumption. It is worth noting that renewable energy consumption and economic growth have positive bidirectional influence on each other. The study findings suggest that stricter energy conservation and pollution emission reduction policy should be implemented and renewable energy should be applied on a larger scale in order to achieve the goal of sustainable economic development., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

China is the largest carbon dioxide emitter in the world. Over the past decades, China has made great efforts to retard the carbon emission growth. This paper aims to quantify the driving forces of stagewise provincial carbon emission changes and expound the bottom-up provincial efforts aligned with China's carbon abatement targets. During 2007-2012, economic growth as the major contributing factor posed a great increase in provincial carbon emissions, especially in underdeveloped provinces such as Inner Mongolia, Anhui, Guangxi, Shaanxi, and Ningxia. During 2012-2017, the energy intensity effect replaced economic growth as the largest contributor to provincial carbon emission changes. In both two periods, industrial structure upgrading and renewable energy expansion are conducive to mitigate provincial carbon growth, and the power sector will continue to contribute to national decarbonization. Lastly, this paper provides insight into national and provincial carbon emission abatement.

The current method to induce haploids in rice is anther culture, which is time-consuming and labor intensive and only works for some varieties. Here we describe a seed-based haploid induction system created by CRISPR/Cas9 technology. By editing OsMATL, we generate rice haploid inducer lines with a 2-5% haploid induction rate in different germplasms.

Fruit characteristics of sweet watermelon are largely the result of human selection. Here we report an improved watermelon reference genome and whole-genome resequencing of 414 accessions representing all extant species in the Citrullus genus. Population genomic analyses reveal the evolutionary history of Citrullus, suggesting independent evolutions in Citrullus amarus and the lineage containing Citrullus lanatus and Citrullus mucosospermus. Our findings indicate that different loci affecting watermelon fruit size have been under selection during speciation, domestication and improvement. A non-bitter allele, arising in the progenitor of sweet watermelon, is largely fixed in C. lanatus. Selection for flesh sweetness started in the progenitor of C. lanatus and continues through modern breeding on loci controlling raffinose catabolism and sugar transport. Fruit flesh coloration and sugar accumulation might have co-evolved through shared genetic components including a sugar transporter gene. This study provides valuable genomic resources and sheds light on watermelon speciation and breeding history.

The developing countries and emerging economies are crucially contributing to global economic development, energy transition, and climate governance. This paper employs panel cointegration technique to investigate the long-run relationship between carbon emissions and five impacting factors (per capita GDP, primary energy consumption, international trade, fossil proportion, and quadratic per capita GDP) in 50 representative developing countries during 1995-2017. The empirical findings confirm the existence of long-run equilibrium, and the regressing coefficients of fully-modified OLS (FMOLS) indicate that (a) impacting features of the inverted U-shaped curve of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) theory appear in a few countries, such as Mexico, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Iran, Algeria, Indonesia, and Thailand; (b) the energy consumption has statistically positive and significant impacts on boosting the carbon emissions; (c) the negative effect of international trade emerges in the developing nations enjoying trade surpluses; and (d) fossil energy share poses a mixed impact. This paper reveals that the vast and inspiring contribution of developing countries to global carbon emission reduction should attract more international attention and assistance.

The scope of this study is to analyze the carbon emissions intensity of electricity generation in "Belt and Road Initiative" (BRI) countries. The total CO 2 emissions from electricity generation in BRI nations increases from 4232.34 Mt in 2013 to 4402.38 Mt in 2015, accounting for 34.45% of global CO 2 emissions from electricity generation. Logarithmic mean Divisia index methodology is applied to analyze the drivers of carbon emissions intensity in BRI nations. The decomposition results revealed that the regional carbon emissions intensity in BRI nations increases during 2013-2015 and the power generation efficiency is the essential factor to improve carbon emissions performance in BRI developing countries. For BRI developing countries, promoting clean and efficient thermal power is a pragmatic priority for green power development.

Tumor angiogenesis plays a critical role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development and progression, but its mechanism is unclear. Krüppel-like factor 8 (KLF8) is a transcription factor that plays an important role in HCC progression. Here, we investigated the role of KLF8 in angiogenesis in HCC and its possible mechanism. Immunohistochemistry, quantitative RT-PCR, western blotting, promoter reporter assays, chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), and chicken chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) and nude mouse tumor models were used to show that the mRNA and protein expression levels of KLF8 and VEGFA are highly correlated in HCC tissue samples. The up-regulation of KLF8 increased VEGFA protein levels and induced VEGFA promoter activity by binding to the CACCC region of the VEGFA promoter. In addition, KLF8 regulated HIF-1α and Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) expression. The PI3K/AKT inhibitor LY294002 inhibited KLF8-induced VEGFA expression, whereas PI3K/AKT signaling pathway proteins, such as P-PDK1(Ser241) and P-AKT(Thr308), were decreased significantly. KLF8-overexpressing HCC cells had a higher potential for inducing angiogenesis. Thus, our results indicate that KLF8 may induce angiogenesis in HCC by binding to the CACCC region of the VEGFA promoter to induce VEGFA promoter activity and through FAK to activate PI3K/AKT signaling to regulate HIF-1α expression levels.

In the present work, a simple design of "turn-on" fluorescence method for mercury ion was developed and explored based on specific T-Hg-T mismatches as a recognizer and N-methyl mesoporphyrin IX (NMM)/G-quadruplex DNA system as a reporter. The titration experiment showed that the mercury-ion concentration and the fluorescence intensity signal change exhibited a consistent linear correlation within the 50 to 500 nM range with a detection limit down to 12.9 nM. In a selectivity experiment, our method showed obvious selectivity against other metal ions, being consistent with other reported detection methods of mercury ion based on the specific reactivity of T-Hg-T mismatches. Our method was then successfully employed to detect mercury ion in pond water with excellent reliability.

Watermelon, Citrullus lanatus, is an important cucurbit crop grown throughout the world. Here we report a high-quality draft genome sequence of the east Asia watermelon cultivar 97103 (2n = 2× = 22) containing 23,440 predicted protein-coding genes. Comparative genomics analysis provided an evolutionary scenario for the origin of the 11 watermelon chromosomes derived from a 7-chromosome paleohexaploid eudicot ancestor. Resequencing of 20 watermelon accessions representing three different C. lanatus subspecies produced numerous haplotypes and identified the extent of genetic diversity and population structure of watermelon germplasm. Genomic regions that were preferentially selected during domestication were identified. Many disease-resistance genes were also found to be lost during domestication. In addition, integrative genomic and transcriptomic analyses yielded important insights into aspects of phloem-based vascular signaling in common between watermelon and cucumber and identified genes crucial to valuable fruit-quality traits, including sugar accumulation and citrulline metabolism.