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One of the features of pathological cardiac hypertrophy is enhanced translation and protein synthesis. Translational inhibition has been shown to be an effective means of treating cardiac hypertrophy, although system-wide side effects are common. Regulators of translation, such as cardiac-specific long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), could provide new, more targeted therapeutic approaches to inhibit cardiac hypertrophy. Therefore, we generated mice lacking a previously identified lncRNA named CARDINAL to examine its cardiac function. We demonstrate that CARDINAL is a cardiac-specific, ribosome-associated lncRNA and show that its expression was induced in the heart upon pathological cardiac hypertrophy and that its deletion in mice exacerbated stress-induced cardiac hypertrophy and augmented protein translation. In contrast, overexpression of CARDINAL attenuated cardiac hypertrophy in vivo and in vitro and suppressed hypertrophy-induced protein translation. Mechanistically, CARDINAL interacted with developmentally regulated GTP-binding protein 1 (DRG1) and blocked its interaction with DRG family regulatory protein 1 (DFRP1); as a result, DRG1 was downregulated, thereby modulating the rate of protein translation in the heart in response to stress. This study provides evidence for the therapeutic potential of targeting cardiac-specific lncRNAs to suppress disease-induced translational changes and to treat cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure., Introduction Heart failure is the common end stage for most cardiomyopathies and has both a high prevalence and mortality rate (1, 2). Although previous decades have witnessed great progress in [...]

In order to solve the problems of pesticides abuse, nonuniformity deposition and low operating efficiency, build up the smart mango orchard, sedimentary properties of liquids in mango canopy of two orchard pesticide machinery, i.e., orchard caterpillar mist sprayer and six-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) of were compared. Mango canopy was divided into upper, middle and lower canopy, tartrazine wsa selected as the tracer, high-definition printing paper and filter paper were used to collect pesticide droplets, the image processing methods such as deposition distribution uniformity were used to analyze the droplets. The experimental results showed that, for the surface droplets coverage rate of upper canopy leaf, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was significantly higher than the cartipillar mist sprayer, there was no significant difference for the middle and lower canopy leaf. The the average coverage rate of both the front and back of leaves in UAV treatment group were 1.5~2 times for cartipillar mist sprayer, and got more deposition in back of leaves compare with caterpillar mist sprayer. The density of droplets on the front of the leaves of the mist sprayer treatment was significantly higher than that of the UAV treatment, but there was no significant difference on the back of the leaves. Both the front and back of the leaves of the plant protection UAV did not meet the requirements of disease and pest control with a low spray amount of 20/cm2. The liquid deposition of mist sprayer concentrated in the middle and lower canopy (61.1%), and while for the UAVs, it concentrated in the upper canopy (43.0%). The proportion of the deposition in the canopy was higher than that of the UAVs (48.6%), but the deposition capacity of mist sprayer in the upper canopy was insufficient, accounting for only 17%. The research shows that, compared with UAV, caterpillar mist sprayer is more suitable for the pest control of lower and middlein canopy, at the same time, the high density of droplets cover also has obvious advantages when spraying fungicide. UAV is more suitable for the external tidbits pest control of upper mango canopy, such as thrips, anthrax. According to the experimental results, a stereoscopic plant protection system can be built up in which can use the advantages of both caterpillar mist sprayer and UAV to achieve uniform coverage of pesticide in the mango tree canopy.

BACKGROUND: The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the application of plant protection products (PPPs) in paddy fields is becoming increasingly prevalent worldwide. Despite its growing usage, UAV spraying for rice pest control faces practical challenges, including limited canopy penetration, uneven deposition, and significant spray drift. This study investigated the impact of two tank‐mix adjuvants, Wonderful Rosin (Adjuvant‐1) and Tiandun (Adjuvant‐2), at six volume concentrations, on the spray liquid's physicochemical properties, spray drift, plant deposition, and the biological efficacy of rice insecticides using a quadrotor UAV sprayer. RESULTS: The physicochemical characteristics of the spray liquid influenced spray performance and biological efficacy. Incorporating Adjuvant‐1 and Adjuvant‐2 led to a decrease in surface tension and contact angle while increasing the viscosity of the spray solution. These alterations in surface tension and viscosity contributed to an optimized droplet size distribution, reduced spray drift, enhanced deposition uniformity and penetration, and improved control efficacy against the rice planthopper in UAV applications. The highest control efficacy was observed at a concentration of 0.5%, showing an improvement of 35.12% (Adjuvant‐1) and 20.23% (Adjuvant‐2) over applications without tank‐mix adjuvant 7 days after treatment. CONCLUSION: The judicious selection of tank‐mix adjuvants for UAV PPP applications can significantly enhance spray performance and biological efficacy in controlling rice insects. This study's findings offer valuable insights for integrating tank‐mix adjuvants into UAV spraying applications. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The unmanned aerial spraying systems (UASS) have gained widespread use for plant protection in recent years. However, spray drift from UASS is a major concern when controlling weeds over large areas and warrants a thorough investigation. This study examined the atomization characteristics of the herbicide florpyrauxifen‐benzyl under downwash airflow using a UASS spray test platform. Potential spray drift was assessed using a test bench (TB) and airborne drift collectors (ADCs) in the field under low wind speeds (<1 m s−1). RESULTS: Atomization characteristics were significantly affected by the spray liquid, adjuvant, nozzle type and spray pressure. The addition of an adjuvant reduced the liquid sheet length, improved physicochemical properties and increased droplet size under the downwash airflow field. Drift evaluation in the field using the TB revealed that sediment spray drift predominantly occurred from the middle to the entire length of the device when fine‐to‐medium droplets were produced after the sprayer passed. ADC assessment found that higher flight altitudes and finer droplets resulted in higher drift values, whereas the addition of an adjuvant and the use of an air‐induction nozzle reduced drift <3 m aboveground. CONCLUSION: The combination of using TB in the target area and ADCs in the off‐target area as an alternative method to determine residual droplets in the current airflow provided valuable insights into airborne drift assessment for UASS. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CRISPR‐based genomic‐imaging systems have been utilized for spatiotemporal imaging of the repetitive genomic loci in living cells, but they are still challenged by limited signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) at a non‐repetitive genomic locus. Here, an efficient genomic‐imaging system is proposed, termed CRISPR/Pepper‐tDeg, by engineering the CRISPR sgRNA scaffolds with the degron‐binding Pepper aptamers for binding fluorogenic proteins fused with Tat peptide derived degron domain (tDeg). The target‐dependent stability switches of both sgRNA and fluorogenic protein allow this system to image repetitive telomeres sensitively with a 5‐fold higher SNR than conventional CRISPR/MS2‐MCP system using "always‐on" fluorescent protein tag. Subsequently, CRISPR/Pepper‐tDeg is applied to simultaneously label and track two different genomic loci, telomeres and centromeres, in living cells by combining two systems. Given a further improved SNR by the split fluorescent protein design, CRISPR/Pepper‐tDeg system is extended to non‐repetitive sequence imaging using only one sgRNA with two aptamer insertions. Neither complex sgRNA design nor difficult plasmid construction is required, greatly reducing the technical barriers to define spatiotemporal organization and dynamics of both repetitive and non‐repetitive genomic loci in living cells, and thus demonstrating the large application potential of this genomic‐imaging system in biological research, clinical diagnosis and therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coach car is a commonly used mode of transportation, due to its large passenger capacity, in case of accidents, it will cause enormous human casualties and economic losses. To improve the braking performance of coach car, an aerodynamic plate is installed on the top of coach car to assist braking. Based on RANS (Reynolds average Navier-Stokes) equations and SST (Shear-Stress Transport) k-ω turbulence model, the aerodynamic performance of coach car with different aerodynamic parameters is analyzed by computational fluid dynamics method. The numerical algorithm and setting are verified by wind tunnel tests. In this paper, the influence of four parameters, including car speed, plate configuration of maximum opening angle, installation position, and plate height, on the aerodynamic drag and lift coefficient of coach car is discussed by using control variable method and orthogonal test method. The conclusions of the two methods are consistent, that is, the optimal combination of plate configuration is that installation position, maximum opening angle, and height are 10 m, 80°, and 1 m, respectively. According to the results of range and variance analysis, the order of influence of aerodynamic parameters on the aerodynamic drag and lift coefficient is installation position, maximum opening angle, height, and car speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freeze–thaw cycling has a significant impact on the energy utilization and stability of roadbed fill. Given the good performance of basalt fiber (BF) and plant fiber (PF), a series of indoor tests are conducted on fiber-reinforced red clay (RC) specimens to analyze the shear strength, thermophysical, and microstructural changes and damage mechanisms of the RC under the freeze–thaw cycle–BF coupling, meanwhile, comparing the improvement effect of PF. The results indicate that the RC cohesion (c) first increases and then decreases with the increasing fiber content under BF improvement, reaching the maximum value at the content of 2%, and the change in the internal friction angle (φ) is relatively small. As the number of freeze–thaw cycles increases, cohesion (c) first decreases and then gradually stabilizes. The thermal conductivity increases with increasing moisture content, and the thermal effusivity increases and then decreases with increasing moisture content and fiber content. The heat storage capacity reaches the optimum level at a moisture content of 22.5% and a fiber content of 1%. Microanalysis reveals that at 2% fiber content, a fiber network structure is initially formed, and the gripping effect is optimal. The shear strength of PF-improved soil is higher than that of BF at a fiber content of 4–6%, and the thermal conductivity is better than that of BF. At the same fiber content, the heat storage and insulation capacity of BF-improved soil is significantly higher than that of PF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To demonstrate the feasibility and improve the implementation of laser weeding, a static movable lift-adjustable closed fiber laser weeding device and system have been developed, followed by experiments and performance evaluations. Physical experiments were conducted on the energy required for laser cutting of weed stems, targeting four common larger weeds (Chenopodium album, Amaranthus spinosus, Setaria viridis, and Eleusine indica) in farmland and orchards. At the same irradiation distances, the energy required to cut the same type of large weed generally increases with increasing distances and stem diameters but decreases with increasing irradiation time. The variance of stems' power density after irradiation was larger and the values were more dispersed for Chenopodium album and Setaria viridis weeds, and the values were relatively scattered, while the power density values of Amaranthus spinosus and Eleusine indica weeds were more concentrated. When the irradiation time was 10 s, the 3.892 W/mm2 laser was sufficient to eliminate weeds and plants with the irradiation distances of 2 m. The 2.47 W/mm2 laser was more effective, as it killed weeds within a distance of 1 m in less than 1 s. This work demonstrates the feasibility of the laser weeding device and system that can completely cut off the stems of large weeds, and this technology has the potential to promote sustainable agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractIn recent years, the role of microbial tryptophan (Trp) catabolism in host-microbiota crosstalk has become a major area of scientific interest. Microbiota-derived Trp catabolites positively contribute to intestinal and systemic homeostasis by acting as ligands of aryl hydrocarbon receptor and pregnane X receptor, and as signaling molecules in microbial communities. Accumulating evidence suggests that microbial Trp catabolism could be therapeutic targets in treating human diseases. A number of bacteria and metabolic pathways have been identified to be responsible for the conversion of Trp in the intestine. Interestingly, many Trp-degrading bacteria can benefit from the supplementation of specific dietary fibers and polyphenols, which in turn increase the microbial production of beneficial Trp catabolites. Thus, this review aims to highlight the emerging role of diets and food components, i.e., food matrix, fiber, and polyphenol, in modulating the microbial catabolism of Trp and discuss the opportunities for potential therapeutic interventions via specifically designed diets targeting the Trp-microbiome axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]