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Abstract Evidence for seed transmission of phytoplasmas has grown in several pathosystems including coconut (Cocos nucifera). Bogia coconut syndrome (BCS) is a disease associated with the lethal yellowing syndrome associated with the presence of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma noviguineense’ that affects coconut, betel nut (Areca catechu) and bananas (Musa spp.) in Papua New Guinea. Coconut and betel nut drupes were sampled from BCS-infected areas in Papua New Guinea, dissected, the extracted nucleic acid was used in polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and loop mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) used to check for presence of phytoplasma DNA. In a second study, drupes of both plant species were collected from multiple field sites and grown in insect-proof cages. Leaf samples taken at 6 months were also tested with PCR and LAMP. The studies of dissected coconut drupes detected phytoplasma DNA in several tissues including the embryo. Drupes from betel nut tested negative. Among the seedlings, evidence of possible seed transmission was found in both plant species. The results demonstrate the presence of ‘Ca. P. noviguineense’ in coconut drupes and seedlings, and in seedlings of betel nut; factors that need to be considered in ongoing management and containment efforts.

To investigate the impact of different cutter structures on the crushing effect of forage stalks at various rotational speeds, this study designed five types of crushing cutters. The effects of cutter structure and rotational speed on the crushing effect of the forage crusher were examined using the discrete element method, a single-factor test. An orthogonal test was conducted, with the percentage of bond breakage as the evaluation index, and tool type and tool speed as influencing factors. The results of the orthogonal test were analyzed using range analysis. The findings revealed that the quality of alfalfa stalk crushing varied depending on the crushing structure and rotational speed. Within a certain rotational speed range, the crushing effect improved as the rotational speed increased. However, beyond a certain value, the improvement in the crushing effect became slower. Notably, the hob-type crushing structure exhibited the best crushing effect at 2400 r/min.

Abstract Background Thymosin family genes (TMSs), biologically important peptides with diverse intracellular and extracellular functions, have been shown to promote the progression of multiple cancers. However, multiomics characterization of TMSs and their role in human cancer prognosis has not been systematically performed. Methods We performed a comprehensive analysis of TMSs and thymosin β10 (TMSB10) using multiomics data from more than 10,000 tumor samples of 33 cancer types from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We used single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) and the gene set variation analysis (GSVA) algorithm to investigate the differences in tumor microenvironment (TME) cell infiltration and functional annotation for individual tumor samples, respectively. The role of TMSB10 in the malignant progression of glioma, the promotion of macrophage infiltration,and immunosuppressive polarization, and the combination drug efficacy were assessed via biological function assays. Results We comprehensively assessed genomic mutations, expression dysregulation, prognosis and immunotherapeutic response across 33 human cancer samples and showed that TMSB10 is specifically overexpressed in almost all types of cancer tissues. Further pan-cancer analysis showed that TMSB10 is closely related to the biological function, immune regulation and prognosis of glioma. Similar results were also found in several public glioma cohorts and our Qilu local cohort. Further integration with other biological experiments revealed the key roles of TMSB10 in the malignant progression of glioma, the promotion of macrophage infiltration and immunosuppressive polarization. We also identified multiple drugs targeting cells with high TMSB10 expression and validated that knockdown of TMSB10 improved the efficacy of selumetinib (a MEK1/2 inhibitor approved by the FDA for the treatment of neurofibromatosis-associated tumors) and anti-PD1 treatment in glioma. Conclusion These results indicate that TMSB10 holds promise as a novel prognostic marker and therapeutic target, providing a theoretical basis for the development of more effective and targeted clinical treatment strategies for glioma patients.

A newly identified form of cell death known as ferroptosis is characterized by the peroxidation of lipids in response to iron. Rapid progress in research on ferroptosis in glioma and neuroblastoma has promoted the exploitation of ferroptosis in related therapy. This manuscript provides a review of the findings on ferroptosis-related therapy in glioblastoma and neuroblastoma and outlines the mechanisms involved in ferroptosis in glioma and neuroblastoma. We summarize some recent data on traditional drugs, natural compounds and nanomedicines used as ferroptosis inducers in glioma and neuroblastoma, as well as some bioinformatic analyses of genes involved in ferroptosis. Moreover, we summarize some data on the associations of ferroptosis with the tumor immunotherapy and TMZ drug resistance. Finally, we discuss future directions for ferroptosis research in glioma and neuroblastoma and currently unresolved issues.

Carbon dots have garnered great interest due to their optical properties, however, engineering of the optical properties remains a challenge. Here, Zhang et al. produce carbon dots with a high color purity, providing a useful approach for engineering the optical properties of carbon dots.

Objective: To prioritize genes that were pleiotropically or potentially causally associated with periodontitis. Methods: We applied the summary data-based Mendelian randomization (SMR) method integrating genome-wide association study (GWAS) for periodontitis and expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) data to identify genes that were pleiotropically associated with periodontitis. We performed separate SMR analysis using CAGE eQTL data and GTEx eQTL data. SMR analysis were done for participants of European and East Asian ancestries, separately. Results: We identified multiple genes showing pleiotropic association with periodontitis in participants of European ancestry and participants of East Asian ancestry. PDCD2 (corresponding probe: ILMN_1758915) was the top hit showing pleotropic association with periodontitis in the participants of European ancestry using CAGE eQTL data, and BX093763 (corresponding probe: ILMN_1899903) and AC104135.3 (corresponding probe: ENSG00000204792.2) were the top hits in the participants of East Asian ancestry using CAGE eQTL data and GTEx eQTL data, respectively. Conclusion: We identified multiple genes that may be involved in the pathogenesis of periodontitis in participants of European ancestry and participants of East Asian ancestry. Our findings provided important leads to a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying periodontitis and revealed potential therapeutic targets for the effective treatment of periodontitis.

During the operational phase of a bridge, the crossbeam, acting as a supporting member, plays an important role in keeping the cross-sectional shape constant in addition to resisting against various lateral and longitudinal loads and distributing the dead and the live loads to the adjacent main girders. The complex functional requirements lead to a complex internal force composition of the crossbeam. When subjected to torque, the two main beams of the twin I-girder bridge will have deformation in opposite longitudinal directions (known as warping deformation) to counteract the torque. The existing research has not considered the impact of main beam warping deformation on the internal force of the crossbeam. Based on the existing research, this article further considers the impact of main beam warping deformation on the internal force of the crossbeam, making the calculation of the internal force of the crossbeam more accurate. The results show that the torsional characteristics of the continuous twin I-girder bridge can be calculated using Vlasov’s theory of thin-walled structures combined with the displacement method. As for the effect of the crossbeam on the torsional stiffness of the structure, it can be managed by making the crossbeam stiffness continuous; however, in general, the equivalent stiffness is small compared to the stiffness of the main beam and it can be ignored. The crossbeam can be simplified to a bar with two solid ends for the internal force calculation whose formula is proposed in this paper, based on the existing frame model, and it can further consider the influence of warping deformation of the main beam on the internal force of the beam, and the calculation accuracy is high.

Abstract Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified potential genetic variants associated with the risk of major depressive disorder (MDD), but the underlying biological interpretation remains largely unknown. We aimed to prioritize genes that were pleiotropically or potentially causally associated with MDD. We applied the summary data-based Mendelian randomization (SMR) method integrating GWAS and gene expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) data in 13 brain regions to identify genes that were pleiotropically associated with MDD. In addition, we repeated the analysis by using the meta-analyzed version of the eQTL summary data in the brain (brain-eMeta). We identified multiple significant genes across different brain regions that may be involved in the pathogenesis of MDD. The prime-specific gene BTN3A2 (corresponding probe: ENSG00000186470.9) was the top hit showing pleiotropic association with MDD in 9 of the 13 brain regions and in brain-eMeta, after correction for multiple testing. Many of the identified genes are located in the human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) region on chromosome 6 and are mainly involved in the immune response. Our SMR analysis indicated that multiple genes showed pleiotropic association with MDD across the brain regions. These findings provided important leads to a better understanding of the mechanism of MDD and revealed potential therapeutic targets for the prevention and effective treatment of MDD.

With the development of construction industry in China, the demand for construction concrete materials has increased in recent years, and the urbanization process strongly recommends the phenomenon that the natural recovery rate is less than the utilization rate while the river sand is overexploited. Marine resources are relatively abundant. The existing sea sand has naturally become a substitute for river sand. In this paper,to compared with the cement mortar formed by desalination sea sand and ordinary river sand mortar, we studied its physical properties, working performance tests and durability performance.Meanwhile, the basic performance and durability properties of mortar prepared by modified sea sand mixed with fly ash were studied.The results showed that for desalinated sea sand cement mortar increased chemical ions corrosion resistance.The setting time shortened,the mechanical properties of specimens decreased.After adding fly ash as modification experiments,the working properties and durability significantly improved.The mechanical properties of modified sea sand cement mortar enhanced.Then the micro-structure of the modified sea sand cement mortar was observed through SEM so as to further explain the reasons for the influence of performance changes and provided reference for future research on sea sand concrete.

Curved composite twin-girder bridges are suitable for mountainous areas, due to their advantages of light self-weight, excellent mechanical performance, and fewer construction requirements. It has been found that many composite twin-girder bridges collapsed due to fatigue failure. However, the literature review showed no relevant studies on the fatigue performance of curved composite twin-girder bridges. Because of this, the specimen of 1:2 scale curved composite twin-girder bridge in accordance with the design scheme of Xizhen Bridge in China was designed and tested. Three possible fatigue details were selected: cruciform connections, transverse attachments, and transverse splices named Class I, Class II, and Class III. For the test data of nominal stress (NS), equations were proposed to convert the strain value into the internal force of the fatigue detail position. The stress caused by torsion accounts for 2.8% of the total stress, which is almost negligible. The fatigue evaluation process based on the hot spot stress (HSS) S-N curve method is presented. The HSS method is more conservative than the NS S-N curve method in predicting the fatigue life of complex structures with high-stress concentrations.

ABSTRACT Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics of preterm infants with different severities of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) and disclose the high-risk factors of exacerbating BPD. Methods Collection of clinical data of 91 preterm infants admitted to the NICU and diagnosed with BPD, categorized in groups according to the disease severity: 41 mild cases,, 24 moderate cases, and 26 severe cases. Comparison and analysis of perinatal risk factors, treatment, complications and prognosis of the infants with different severity degrees. Results The severe group had a higher proportion of infants with congenital heart disease (CHD) higher than the moderate group (P < 0.05), and a higher ratio of pneumonia and mechanical ventilation (MV) ≥ seven days than the mild group (P < 0.05). The severe group also presented higher reintubation incidence than both the mild and moderate groups (P < 0.05). The groups presented different (P < 0.05) incidence rates of hemodynamically significant patent ductus arteriosus (hsPDA) . Ridit analysis suggested that the premature infants (PIs) with hsPDA, multiple microbial pulmonary infections, or Klebsiella pneumoniae pneumonia had more severe illness. Conclusion CHD, hsPDA, MV ≥ seven days, reintubation, pneumonia, especially multiple microbial pulmonary infections, and Klebsiella pneumoniae pneumonia are correlated with the severity of BPD and can be used as BPD progression predictor.

The existing studies have shown that parapets have great influence on the girder distribution factor (GDF) of bridges. However, there is no method in the design guide to estimate the GDF considering the effect of parapets. This research aims to develop a simplified method for estimating the GDF by considering the effect of parapets. First, a simply supported steel-concrete composite girder bridge was tested to investigate the effect of parapets on the GDF. Then, finite-element (FE) model was established and verified by the field test data of strain and deflection. In addition, error study showed that the bending stiffness of the bridge was increased by about 92% and 19.1%, respectively, due to the effects of parapet and continuous layer. As the effect of the continuous layer on each girder was relatively uniform, the simplified method was optimized only considering the effect of the parapet. Finally, the effect of the parapet on the GDF was compared and discussed. Considering the effect of the parapet, the GDF of the exterior girder calculated by the simplified method and FE analysis decreased by about 26.92% and 23.53%, respectively, and the adjacent interior girder decreased by about 15.22% and 12.77%, respectively. Comparing the GDF calculated by the AASHTO LRFD specifications, the GDF calculated by the simplified method decreased by about 30.77% in the exterior girder and 41.30% in the interior girder, respectively. The results indicate that the method of calculating the GDF without considering the effect of the parapet in AASHTO LRFD specifications is conservative. The GDF calculated by the simplified method was basically close to the field test results, meaning that the proposed simplified method considering the effect of the parapet was relatively accurate.

Construction and demolition waste contain large amount of concrete and bricks. To identify its feasibility of applying in asphalt stabilized gravel mixtures as pavement base, this paper carried out researches on properties of recycled asphalt mixture (RAM) by laboratory testing, under different contents of recycled aggregates (RA) and proportions of bricks to concrete. First, the basic physical properties of each component of the RAM were determined. According to the actual screening passing rate, the Bailey method was used to design and verify the grading of RAM, and then initial asphalt content was estimated. The stability, flow value, voidage, and bulk density were obtained by Marshall Test, and the optimal asphalt-aggregate ratios were determined under different RA contents and proportion of bricks to concrete. Subsequently, the uniaxial compression test, splitting tensile test, immersion Marshall test, freeze-thaw splitting test, and Hamburg rutting test were performed to investigate mechanical properties, water stability, and high-temperature stability of RAM. The results shows that as the content of RA increases from 0% to 100%, the corresponding compressive strength, resilient modulus, and splitting tensile strength all decrease; the same change trend is presented in the residual stability and freeze-thaw splitting test strength ratio and rutting depth. According to the requirement of pavement base of high-grade roads in China’s standards, the recommended RA content and proportion of bricks to concrete were proposed for the design RAM.

Abstract In this paper, a polar-coded space-time transmit diversity (STTD) scheme is proposed in order to improve the performance of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. In Rician fading MIMO channels, the corresponding polar-coded STTD system can be equivalent to a single transmission channel for each polar code bit. Density evolutions for the polar-coded STTD systems are proposed based on the analyses of the single transmission channel. The proposed density evolutions provide preferable guidance to construct polar codes for the polar-coded STTD systems. Simulation results show that the BER performance of polar-coded STTD system is significantly improved as the number of antennas increases and the influence of the variable Rician K-factor of MIMO channels gradually vanishes. The proposed 2 × 2 polar-coded STTD system can provide better frame error rate (FER) performance than low-density parity-check (LDPC)-based system under low and mid code rates, and the average advantage is 0.3 dB approximately when the code rate is 0.25 and 0.2 dB when the code rate is 0.5.

In this paper, a new rateless scheme based on the extendibility of systematic polar codes is proposed, which is applicable for the scenario without channel state information (CSI). With detailed analyses on the existing rateless schemes, we obtain the drawbacks and difficulties which can make the schemes dysfunctional. We expound the extendibility of systematic polar codes elaborately, which forms the basis of the new rateless scheme. In addition, with the incremental redundancy hybrid automatic repeat request transmission, the new rateless scheme is established. The construction of polar codes specialized for the new scheme is also proposed, which can provide reliable performance. Comparing with the existing rateless schemes, the new scheme can be applied for arbitrary channels efficiently and reliably.

We present a method for improving the spatial resolution and the amplitude by an optimized deskew filter in long-range optical frequency-domain reflectometry (OFDR). In a previous deskew-filter method, as the nonlinear phase estimated from an auxiliary interferometer is used to compensate for the nonlinearity effect in the beating signals generated from a main OFDR interferometer, the spatial resolution and amplitude of the reflection peak in a long range (i.e, 80 km) are deteriorated by a residual nonlinearity effect due to the estimation inaccuracy of the nonlinear phase. In the proposed optimized deskew-filter method, the estimation accuracy of the nonlinear phase is improved by the higher orders of Taylor expansion and the high accuracy of the estimation of the time delay in the auxiliary interferometer using a cepstrum. We experimentally demonstrate that the amplitude of a reflection peak at 80 km increases by 20.5 dB and that the spatial resolution is up to 80 cm, which is about 187 times enhancement when compared with that of the same OFDR trace without nonlinearity compensation.

In this paper, we propose a rate-compatible (RC) parallel concatenated punctured polar (PCPP) codes for incremental redundancy hybrid automatic repeat request (IR-HARQ) transmission schemes, which can transmit multiple data blocks over a time-varying channel. The PCPP coding scheme can provide RC polar coding blocks in order to adapt to channel variations. First, we investigate an improved random puncturing (IRP) pattern for the PCPP coding scheme due to the code-rate and block length limitations of conventional polar codes. The proposed IRP algorithm only select puncturing bits from the frozen bits set and keep the information bits unchanged during puncturing, which can improve 0.2–1 dB decoding performance more than the existing random puncturing (RP) algorithm. Then, we develop a RC IR-HARQ transmission scheme based on PCPP codes. By analyzing the overhead of the previous successful decoded PCPP coding block in our IR-HARQ scheme, the optimal initial code-rate can be determined for each new PCPP coding block over time-varying channels. Simulation results show that the average number of transmissions is about 1.8 times for each PCPP coding block in our RC IR-HARQ scheme with a 2-level PCPP encoding construction, which can reduce half of the average number of transmissions than the existing RC polar coding schemes.

In this paper, we propose a novel distributed unequal error protection (UEP) rateless coding scheme (DURC) for space information networks (SIN). We consider the multimedia data transmissions in a dual-hop SIN communication scenario, where multiple disjoint source nodes need to transmit their UEP rateless coded data to a destination via a dynamic relay. We formulate the optimization problems to provide optimal degree distributions on the direct links and the dynamic relay links to satisfy the required error protection levels. The optimization methods are based on the And–Or tree analysis and can be solved by multi-objective programming. In addition, we evaluate the performance of the optimal DURC scheme, and simulation results show that the proposed DURC scheme can effectively provide UEP property under a variety of error requirements.

In this paper, the performance of steel slag (SS) and flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum modified metakaolin-based geopolymer (MGP) was studied for the purpose of industrial solid waste reuse, and a new geopolymer grouting material was obtained. The setting time, fluidity, bulk density, and compressive strength of MGP containing different mass contents of solid waste materials were studied through a series of tests. In addition, the microstructure mechanism of MGP was analyzed using scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transformation infrared spectroscope. The results show that the setting time of MGP increases with the increase of SS content, whereas the setting time decreases with the increase of FGD content. The addition of SS or FGD slightly reduces the fluidity of MGP. Adding an appropriate amount of SS to MGP can significantly improve the later compressive strength of the specimen, whereas adding an appropriate amount of FGD can improve the compressive strength of the specimen, especially the early compressive strength. When the SS content was 4 %, the hardened MGP exhibited the best properties in compressive strength and bulk density. The formation of amorphous geopolymer gel products in MGP matrix was promoted by the addition of SS and FGD. These results will be beneficial to the production of new environmentally friendly and low-cost MGP grouting materials, which can improve the comprehensive utilization level of SS and FGD and achieve the purpose of protecting the ecological environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]