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Abstract Background Human anterior lens capsules (ALCs) have great potential in the treatment of multiple eye diseases, including corneal ulcers, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration and macular holes. ALCs are also regarded as promising scaffolds for various ocular cells. Here, we investigated different decellularization methods for removing lens epithelial cells (LECs) that adhered to ALCs. Methods Human ALCs were treated with various solutions, including 2% lidocaine, 10% sodium chloride, 50% glucose and sterile water. Trypan blue and alizarin red (TB-AR) staining, H&E staining and hydroxyproline assays were used to assess the degree of decellularization. The impacts of acellular ALCs on cell viability and cell-tissue interaction were investigated in vitro. Results These findings revealed that 2% lidocaine, 10% sodium chloride, 50% glucose, and sterile water had the capacity to decellularize ALCs at 37 °C. The structure of ALCs in all decellularization groups was similar to that of intact ALCs. The effects of 10% sodium chloride and sterile water on decellularization were significantly better than those of 2% lidocaine and 50% glucose. The H&E staining revealed that the different decellularization methods maintained the integrity of the lens capsular structure. Compared with sterile water, 10% sodium chloride preserved a better level of hydroxyproline. The ALCs in the 10% sodium chloride-treated group and the sterile water-treated group were shown to be suitable for cell adhesion in vitro. Conclusion This study identified two optimal decellularization methods for acellular ALCs: using 10% sodium chloride and using sterile water. The obtained acellular ALCs could be promising scaffolds for ocular cells. In addition, acellular ALCs do not need resterilization and may be directly used for autologous lens capsule transplantation in clinical applications.

AbstractCholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a malignant tumor originating in the bile duct and its branching epithelium. Due to its high heterogeneity, there are no specific clinical indications at the early stage, the diagnosis is often in advanced CCA. With surgical resection, the 5-year postoperative survival rate (long-term survival rate) is very poor. The regimen of gemcitabine combined with platinum has been used as the first-line chemotherapy for advanced patients. In recent years, targeted therapy for a variety of malignant tumors has made great progress, showing good efficacy and safety in advanced CCA. However, the current targeted therapy of CCA still has many challenges, such as adverse reactions, drug resistance, and individual differences. Therefore, the researches need to further explore the targeted therapy mechanism of CCA malignancies in depth, develop more effective and safe drugs, and accurately formulate plans based on patient characteristics to further improve patient prognosis in the future. This article reviews the recent progress of targeted therapy for CCA, aiming to provide a strategy for the research and clinical work of targeted therapy for CCA.

Objective Vanin-1 (VNN1) is a pantetheinase that catalyses the hydrolysis of pantetheine to produce pantothenic acid and cysteamine. Our previous studies have shown that the VNN1 is specifically expressed in chicken liver which negatively regulated by microRNA-122. However, the functions of the VNN1 in lipid metabolism in chicken liver haven’t been elucidated. Methods First, we detected the VNN1 mRNA expression in 4-week chickens which were fasted 24 hours. Next, knocked out VNN1 via CRISPR/Cas9 system in the chicken Leghorn Male Hepatoma cell line. Detected the lipid deposition via oil red staining and analysis the content of triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein-C (LDL-C), and high-density lipoprotein-C (HDL-C) after VNN1 knockout in Leghorn Male Hepatoma cell line. Then we captured various differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between VNN1-modified LMH cells and original LMH cells by RNA-seq. Results Firstly, fasting-induced expression of VNN1. Meanwhile, we successfully used the CRISPR/Cas9 system to achieve targeted mutations of the VNN1 in the chicken LMH cell line. Moreover, the expression level of VNN1 mRNA in LMH-KO-VNN1 cells decreased compared with that in the wild-type LMH cells (p

Abstract Polygonatum cyrtonema Hua is a traditional Chinese medicinal plant acclaimed for its therapeutic potential in diabetes and various chronic diseases. Its rhizomes are the main functional parts rich in secondary metabolites, such as flavonoids and saponins. But their quality varies by region, posing challenges for industrial and medicinal application of P. cyrtonema. In this study, 482 metabolites were identified in P. cyrtonema rhizome from Qingyuan and Xiushui counties. Cluster analysis showed that samples between these two regions had distinct secondary metabolite profiles. Machine learning methods, specifically support vector machine-recursive feature elimination and random forest, were utilized to further identify metabolite markers including flavonoids, phenolic acids, and lignans. Comparative transcriptomics and weighted gene co-expression analysis were performed to uncover potential candidate genes including CHI, UGT1, and PcOMT10/11/12/13 associated with these compounds. Functional assays using tobacco transient expression system revealed that PcOMT10/11/12/13 indeed impacted metabolic fluxes of the phenylpropanoid pathway and phenylpropanoid-related metabolites such as chrysoeriol-6,8-di-C-glucoside, syringaresinol-4'-O-glucopyranosid, and 1-O-Sinapoyl-D-glucose. These findings identified metabolite markers between these two regions and provided valuable genetic insights for engineering the biosynthesis of these compounds.

Atrial fibrosis is the hallmark of structural remodeling in the pathogenesis of atrial fibrillation (AF). Meanwhile, AF causes a hypercoagulable state, and then provokes pro-fibrotic response. To discover a potential effective AF treatment targeting both coagulation and atrial fibrosis, this study investigated the structure–activity relationship of propylene glycol alginate sodium sulfate (PSS) derivatives with heparin-like activity on TGF-β1-induced atrial fibrosis. We found that PSS derivatives had significantly inhibitory effects on proliferation, migration, phenotypic transformation, and secretion/deposition of extracellular matrix of atrial fibroblasts. Among them, PGGS showed the optimal anti-atrial fibrotic activity by suppressing TGF-β1-induced activation of Smad2/3 signaling pathway. Furthermore, the study in vivo indicated that PGGS treatment displayed a reduced atrial fibrosis and AF inducibility, and attenuated the hypercoagulable state by decreasing D-dimer level and thrombin (FIIa) activity in MHC-TGF-β1 cys33ser transgenic mice, which had increased fibrosis in atrium but not in the ventricles. Our results demonstrated that PSS derivatives, especially PGGS, were potential anti-atrial fibrosis and anti-coagulant agents for AF prevention. Our study is beneficial in extending the current understandings of the function of PSS on atrial fibrosis and vulnerability to AF.

Abstract Deep learning models have been widely used in electroencephalogram (EEG) analysis and obtained excellent performance. But the adversarial attack and defense for them should be thoroughly studied before putting them into safety-sensitive use. This work exposes an important safety issue in deep-learning-based brain disease diagnostic systems by examining the vulnerability of deep learning models for diagnosing epilepsy with brain electrical activity mappings (BEAMs) to white-box attacks. It proposes two methods, Gradient Perturbations of BEAMs (GPBEAM), and Gradient Perturbations of BEAMs with Differential Evolution (GPBEAM-DE), which generate EEG adversarial samples, for the first time by perturbing BEAMs densely and sparsely respectively, and find that these BEAMs-based adversarial samples can easily mislead deep learning models. The experiments use the EEG data from CHB-MIT dataset and two types of victim models each of which has four different deep neural network (DNN) architectures. It is shown that: (1) these BEAM-based adversarial samples produced by the proposed methods in this paper are aggressive to BEAM-related victim models which use BEAMs as the input to internal DNN architectures, but unaggressive to EEG-related victim models which have raw EEG as the input to internal DNN architectures, with the top success rate of attacking BEAM-related models up to 0.8 while the top success rate of attacking EEG-related models only 0.01; (2) GPBEAM-DE outperforms GPBEAM when they are attacking the same victim model under a same distortion constraint, with the top attack success rate 0.8 for the former and 0.59 for the latter; (3) a simple modification to the GPBEAM/GPBEAM-DE will make it have aggressiveness to both BEAMs-related and EEG-related models (with top attack success rate 0.8 and 0.64), and this capacity enhancement is done without any cost of distortion increment. The goal of this study is not to attack any of EEG medical diagnostic systems, but to raise concerns about the safety of deep learning models and hope to lead to a safer design.

Summary: A large variety of cellular signals are triggered and transmitted by protein-protein interactions (PPIs). Long noncoding RNAs regulate PPIs by enhancing or destabilizing these interactions. Here, we use the proximity ligation assay technique to determine PPIs between p53 and SET regulated by long intergenic noncoding RNA 324 (LINC00324). We detail procedures for establishing LINC00324 knockdown and overexpression U2OS and HepG2 cells followed by in situ PLA protocol. This approach has many potential applications for the study of cellular factors that regulate PPIs.For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Zhang et al. (2023).1 : Publisher’s note: Undertaking any experimental protocol requires adherence to local institutional guidelines for laboratory safety and ethics.

Abstract The large application of renewable energy generation (REG) has increased the risk of cascading failures in the power system. At the same time REG also provides the possibility of new approaches for the suppression of such failures. However, the capacity and position of the synchronous generator (SG) involved in regulation limit the power regulation speed (PRS) of REG to the overload line which is the main cause of cascading failures, while the PRS of SG is related to the position and shedding power. REG and SGs have difficulty in achieving effective cooperation under constraints of system power balance. Particularly, the dynamic variation of line flow during power regulation causes new problems for the accurate evaluation of line thermal safety under overload. Therefore, a new strategy for quantitatively coordinating shedding power and power regulation to block cascading failures in the dynamic security domain is proposed in this paper. The control capability and dynamic security domain of the overload line are modeled, and the coordination control method based on power regulation is then proposed to minimize shedding power. The algorithm for the optimal control scheme considers the constraints of load capacity, power source capacity and bus PRS. The correctness of the proposed method is verified using case studies.

NAC (NAM, ATAF and CUC)-like transcription factors, a class of plant-specific transcription factors, play a pivotal role in plant growth, development, metabolism, and stress response. Notably, a specific subclass of NAC family, known as SNAC (stress-responsive NAC), is particularly involved in the plant’s response to abiotic stress. As a very useful tree, Casuarina equisetifolia L. also has excellent stress resistance properties. To explore gene resources of C. equisetifolia which are associated with stress resistance and the molecular mechanisms that it employed is very helpful to its molecular-assisted breeding. In this study, 10 CeSNAC transcription factors were identified by constructing the phylogenetic tree of 94 CeNACs from the genome of C. equisetifolia L. together with 79 SNAC in different plant species. Phylogenetic tree analysis revealed that these 10 CeSNAC genes are classified into the ATAF (Arabidopsis transcription activation factor), NAP (NAC-like, activated by AP3/P1), and AtNAC3 subfamilies of the NAC family, all featuring the typical NAM (no apical meristem) domain, with the exception of CeSNAC7. In addition, all NAC transcription factors, except CeSNAC9, were localized in the nucleus. Examination of the CeSNAC promoter unveiled the presence of stress response elements such as a STRE (stress responsive element), an MBS (MYB binding site), an ABRE (abscisic acid responsive element) and a LTR (low temperature responsive element). Under various stress treatments, the majority of CeSNAC expressions exhibited induction in response to low temperature, drought, and high salt treatments, as well as ABA (abscisic acid) treatment. However, CeSNAC6, CeSNAC7, and CeSNAC9 were found to be inhibited specifically by drought treatment. Additionally, only CeSNAC3 and CeNAC9 expression was hindered while the rest of the CeSNAC expression were induced by MeJA (methyl jasmonate) treatment. These findings shed light on the relationship between different CeSNAC genes and their responses to abiotic stress conditions, providing valuable insights for further research into CeSNAC functions and aiding the development of stress-resistant varieties in C. equisetifolia.

Summary: The p53 tumor suppressor exerts antitumor functions through its ability to regulate the transcription of its downstream targets. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) act as oncogenes or tumor suppressors implicated in tumorigenesis and tumor progression. Here, we identify the lncRNA LINC00324 (long intergenic noncoding RNA 00324) as a direct p53 transcriptional target. Knockdown of LINC00324 expression promotes tumor growth by reducing p53 transcriptional activity, whereas ectopic LINC00324 expression demonstrates a reverse effect. Notably, LINC00324 is present in the endogenous p53 complex in tumor cells and directly binds to the C-terminal domain of p53 in vitro. Mechanistically, LINC00324 enables p53 transactivation by competitively disrupting the p53-SET interaction, resulting in an increase of p300/CBP-mediated H3K18 and H3K27 acetylation on the p53 target promoters. Lower LINC00324 expression is associated with more aggressive disease status and predicts worse overall survival of patients with cancer. Our study identifies a p53/LINC00324 positive feedback loop that suppresses tumor growth by counteracting SET-mediated transcriptional repression.

Abstract The power‐gas integrated system (PGIS) is a new trend of energy development. The system provides powerful measures to safely recover the overload line by adjusting the power of synchronous generators (SG), gas turbines (GT), and power‐to‐gas (P2G). However, the power adjustment capability of SGs, GTs, and P2Gs to recover the overload line cannot be accurately described, the impact of line power variation on safety also cannot be quantified, leading to the difficulty of control of overload line. Considering the influence of the locations of SGs, GTs, and P2Gs and power balance constraints, proposing a modeling method of power adjustment capacity of overload line. Considering the dynamic changes of line safety boundary and margin in the process of power adjustment, proposing a new idea of dynamic safety domain for evaluating line safety, a modeling method of dynamic safety domain is further proposed. Moreover, establishing the preventive control optimization model of overload line, the overload preventive control method which considers power adjustment capability of overload line and dynamic security domain is proposed. Finally, the case studies realize the accurate quantification of the dynamic safety of overloaded line, avoiding equipment damage, power supply interruption and even large‐scale cascading failure caused by line overload.

Increasing demand for animal-sourced protein is a major driver of the food system’s transgression of the safe environmental operating limits known as planetary boundaries. Microbial proteins are being explored as an alternative to provide sustainable protein security within the planetary boundaries. Here, a design and optimization framework was developed for a closed-loop process in which bioenergy and nutrients are recovered from microbial protein production wastewater. The environmental benefits of a global transition from animal-sourced beef protein toward closed-loop microbial protein with integrated resource recovery was analysed. Microbial protein has a shorter production life cycle than animal-sourced beef protein, thus offering a scalable technology solution to protein security with substantially mitigated environmental impacts. Our results demonstrate the value of environmentally favourable closed-loop food systems to meet projected 2050 protein demand while maintaining food system operations within the safe environmental limits.

FtsH proteases are membrane-embedded proteolytic complexes important for protein quality control and regulation of various physiological processes in bacteria, mitochondria, and chloroplasts. Like most cyanobacteria, the model species Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 contains four FtsH homologs, FtsH1–FtsH4. FtsH1–FtsH3 form two hetero-oligomeric complexes, FtsH1/3 and FtsH2/3, which play a pivotal role in acclimation to nutrient deficiency and photosystem II quality control, respectively. FtsH4 differs from the other three homologs by the formation of a homo-oligomeric complex, and together with Arabidopsis thaliana AtFtsH7/9 orthologs, it has been assigned to another phylogenetic group of unknown function. Our results exclude the possibility that Synechocystis FtsH4 structurally or functionally substitutes for the missing or non-functional FtsH2 subunit in the FtsH2/3 complex. Instead, we demonstrate that FtsH4 is involved in the biogenesis of photosystem II by dual regulation of high light-inducible proteins (Hlips). FtsH4 positively regulates expression of Hlips shortly after high light exposure but is also responsible for Hlip removal under conditions when their elevated levels are no longer needed. We provide experimental support for Hlips as proteolytic substrates of FtsH4. Fluorescent labeling of FtsH4 enabled us to assess its localization using advanced microscopic techniques. Results show that FtsH4 complexes are concentrated in well-defined membrane regions at the inner and outer periphery of the thylakoid system. Based on the identification of proteins that co-purified with the tagged FtsH4, we speculate that FtsH4 concentrates in special compartments in which the biogenesis of photosynthetic complexes takes place.

The research aimed to find a physical strengthening method for thin-sheet metal parts using an ultrasonic shot peening (USP) method at room temperature. Herein, the influence of the USP treatments on the surface roughness, microstructure, micro-hardness, and tensile strength of the TC2 thin-sheet with a thickness of 0.5 mm was investigated systematically. The results showed that the Ra of the TC2 thin-sheets increased to 0.374, 0.418 and 0.479 μm after the USP treatments with the intensities of 0.189, 0.277 and 0.360 mmA, respectively. Compared with pneumatic shot peening (PSP) of similar Almen intensity, the surface quality of the alloy after USP treatment was significantly improved. The cross-sectional micro-hardness curves of the USP-treated TC2 thin-sheet showed ‘V’ shapes, and the micro-hardness of the surface layer increased as the shot peening intensity increased. When the Almen intensity was 0.360 mmA, the corresponding maximum micro-hardness of the surface layer was 362.9 HV0.025, which was 67.9 HV0.025 larger than that of the initial alloy. The USP treatment also improved the tensile strength of the TC2 thin-sheet, and the tensile strength increased as the shot peening intensity increased. When the Almen intensity was 0.360 mmA, the tensile strength was increased by about 6.23%, reaching 799.3 MPa. Therefore, the USP treatment method is a potential physical strengthening method for thin-walled parts at room temperature.

Peanuts are prone to insect damage, breakage, germination, mildew, and other defects, which makes the quality of peanuts uneven. The difference in peanut pod quality makes the price and economic benefit also have a big difference. The classification of peanut pods according to quality is an important part of improving the product grade and market competitiveness. Real-time, accurate, and non-destructive quality detection of peanut pods can effectively improve the utilization and commercial value of peanuts. The strong subjectivity of manual detection and the low efficiency and low accuracy of mechanical detection have caused considerable wastage. Therefore, the present study proposed a new convolutional neural network for the peanut pod quality detection algorithm (PQDA) based on an improved ResNet. Compared to previous models, this model is more practical with high accuracy, lightweight, and easy nesting. Firstly, the detection and classification effects of ResNet18, AlexNet, and VGG16 are compared, and ResNet18 was determined to be the best backbone feature extraction network for model training. Secondly, three models were designed to optimize and improve the algorithm. The KRSNet module was added to the algorithm to make the model lightweight. The CSPNet module was added to the algorithm to improve the learning efficiency of each feature layer. The Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM) was added to the algorithm to improve its ability to capture more feature information about peanut pods. The experimental ablation results show that the precision of the improved model PQDA reaches 98.1%, and the size of parameters is only 32.63 M. Finally, the optimized model was applied to other peanut pod varieties for generalization experiments, and the accuracy reached 89.6% and 90.0%, indicating the effectiveness of the proposed peanut pod quality detection model. Furthermore, the model is suitable for deployment on embedded resource-limited devices, such as mobile terminals, to achieve the real-time and accurate detection of peanut pod quality.

Objective Vanin1 (VNN1) is a pantetheinase that can catalyze the hydrolysis of pantetheine to produce pantothenic acid and cysteamine. Our previous studies showed that VNN1 is specifically expressed in chicken liver. In this study, we aimed to investigate the roles of peroxisome proliferators activated receptor α (PPARα) and miRNA-181a-5p in regulating VNN1 gene expression in chicken liver. Methods 5′-RACE was performed to identify the transcription start site of chicken VNN1. JASPAR and TFSEARCH were used to analyze the potential transcription factor binding sites in the promoter region of chicken VNN1 and miRanda was used to search miRNA binding sites in 3′ untranslated region (3′UTR) of chicken VNN1. We used a knock-down strategy to manipulate PPARα (or miRNA-181a-5p) expression levels in vitro to further investigate its effect on VNN1 gene transcription. Luciferase reporter assays were used to explore the specific regions of VNN1 targeted by PPARα and miRNA-181a-5p. Results Sequence analysis of the VNN1 promoter region revealed several transcription factor-binding sites, including hepatocyte nuclear factor 1α (HNF1α), PPARα, and CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α. GW7647 (a specific agonist of PPARα) increased the expression level of VNN1 mRNA in chicken primary hepatocytes, whereas knockdown of PPARα with siRNA increased VNN1 mRNA expression. Moreover, the predicted PPARα-binding site was confirmed to be necessary for PPARα regulation of VNN1 gene expression. In addition, the VNN1 3′UTR contains a sequence that is completely complementary to nucleotides 1 to 7 of miRNA-181a-5p. Overexpression of miR-181a-5p significantly decreased the expression level of VNN1 mRNA. Conclusion This study demonstrates that PPARα is an important transcriptional activator of VNN1 gene expression and that miRNA-181a-5p acts as a negative regulator of VNN1 expression in chicken hepatocytes.

Abstract Background Chromochloris zofingiensis, an oleaginous microalga, is a promising feedstock for the co-production of triacylglycerol (TAG)-based biodiesel and the high-value product astaxanthin. To reveal the molecular mechanism of TAG and astaxanthin biosynthesis during transitions of sulfur nutritional status, namely sulfur-starvation (SS) and sulfur-replenishment (SR), the physiological responses and the transcriptomic dynamics of C. zofingiensis were examined. Results The results revealed a reversible TAG and astaxanthin accumulation under SS, which is correlated with the reduction of cell growth and protein content, indicating the reallocation of carbon. By correlating the data on the physiological and transcriptional responses to different sulfur nutritional status, a model for the underlying mechanism of TAG and astaxanthin accumulation in C. zofingiensis was postulated, which involved up-regulation of key genes including diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGTT5) and beta-carotene ketolase (BKT1), increased energy and NADPH supply by elevating the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle and the oxidative pentose phosphate (OPP) pathway, and the increased carbon precursors (pyruvate and acetyl-CoA) through central carbon metabolism. In addition, the net enhancement of the de novo biosynthesis of fatty acids and the re-direction of the terpenoid precursors toward the branch catalyzed by lycopene beta cyclase (LCYb) and BKT1 escalated the substrate availability for the biosynthesis of TAG and astaxanthin, respectively. Conclusions In this study, the time-resolved transcriptional analysis of C. zofingiensis under SS and SR conditions was reported for the first time to elucidate the regulatory roles of key enzymes, including DGTT5, BKT1 and LCYb, in the underlying mechanisms of TAG and astaxanthin accumulation.

The FtsH family of proteases are membrane-anchored, ATP-dependent, zinc metalloproteases. They are universally present in prokaryotes and the mitochondria and chloroplasts of eukaryotic cells. Most bacteria bear a single ftsH gene that produces hexameric homocomplexes with diverse house-keeping roles. However, in mitochondria, chloroplasts and cyanobacteria, multiple FtsH homologs form homo- and heterocomplexes with specialized functions in maintaining photosynthesis and respiration. The diversification of FtsH homologs combined with selective pairing of FtsH isomers is a versatile strategy to enable functional adaptation. In this article we summarize recent progress in understanding the evolution, structure and function of FtsH proteases with a focus on the role of FtsH in photosynthesis and respiration.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common liver metabolic disease in the world. In this study we investigated the effect of tetrahydrocurcumin (THC), a potent antioxidant, on NAFLD. We found that THC significantly reduced the body weight, serum and liver lipids, serum malondialdehyde (MDA) and fasting blood glucose (FBG) of male NAFLD mice induced by feeding a high-fat diet (HFD) for 8 weeks. A RNA-seq analysis revealed that THC also affected the expression of many genes involved in lipid metabolism in the liver of NAFLD mice, including increasing the mRNA expression of CYP51 and FOXQ1. Moreover, THC significantly reduced sodium oleate-induced lipid accumulation, activated the NRF2 pathway, and up-regulated the mRNA expression of FGF21 in HepG2 cells. Overall, our study showed that THC can improve the antioxidant capacity of liver, which suggests that dietary THC may be used to treat NAFLD.

Background. Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nuclei (STN-DBS) is a standard treatment option for advanced Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients. Delirium following DBS electrode implantation is common, by several studies, and cognitive impairment is a risk factor for developing postoperative delirium (POD). This prospective observational study was conducted to identify whether preoperative baseline cognitive status has an association with POD in PD patients undergoing DBS surgery. Methods. Preoperatively, neuropsychiatric and neuropsychological assessments of the patients were performed including clinical dementia rating (CDR) score, instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) score, mini-mental state exam (MMSE) score, Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA) score, Hamilton anxiety (HAMA) and Hamilton depression (HAMD) scores, and numerical cancellation test. POD was identified by the confusion assessment method (CAM) twice per day on postoperative day 1 until discharge. Results. Twenty-seven (21.6%) of 125 patients developed POD. Among the variables screened, age, CDR score, MMSE score, and HAMA score were indicated to be independent influence factors of POD. The cutoff score, AUC, sensitivity, and specificity of age, CDR score, MMSE score, and HAMA score associated with POD was 58.5, 0.751, 92.6%, 52.0%; 0.5, 0.848, 77.8%, 91.8%; 27.5, 0.827, 88.9%, 62.2%; and 12.5, 0.706, 85.2%, 54.1%, respectively. Conclusions. We observed age, CDR score, MMSE score, and HAMA score were independent influence factors of POD in PD patients who received DBS. It is necessary to assess the cognitive status of PD patients before surgery to identify high-risk patients.

End-to-end task-oriented dialog systems have attracted vast amounts of attention in recent years, mainly because of their ease of training. However, such an end-to-end model requires a large number of labeled dialogs to train. Labeled dialogs are always difficult to obtain in real-world settings. We propose a domain adaptive end-to-end task-oriented dialog model that transfers knowledge in source domains to a target domain with limited training samples. Specifically, we design a domain adaptive filter in the encoder-decoder model to reduce useless features in source domains and preserve common features. A domain adaptive amplifier is designed to enhance the target domain impact. We evaluate our method on both synthetic dialog and human-human dialog datasets and achieve state-of-the-art results.

microRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that regulate various biological processes by targeting mRNAs and affecting their stability or translation. miR-122 is a major miRNA in mammalian liver but its function in poultry liver has not been studied. Therefore, the objective of the current study was to determine the function of miR-122 in the chicken liver. Through bioinformatics, we found P4HA1 was a candidate target of miR-122. P4HA1 mRNA and protein expression were increased in hepatocytes when miR-122 was knocked down by locked nucleic acid (LNA)-antisense-miR-122 (LNA-122). Reporter gene analyses confirmed that P4HA1 was a target of miR-122. Because P4HA1 is known to play an important role in liver metabolism, these findings suggest that miR-122 may be involved in liver metabolism in the chicken by regulating the P4HA1 expression.Highlights The predicted target site of miR-122 in chicken P4HA1 is conserved among species. P4HA1 mRNA and protein are upregulated in miR-122 knockdown chicken hepatocytes. miR-122 targets P4HA1 in chicken.

Background: The selection of the maintenance of general anesthesia may affect the development of postoperative delirium (POD), notably for Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, due to their lower cognitive reserve. The present study was designed to compare the potential impact of propofol vs. sevoflurane based general anesthesia maintenance methods on the development of POD in PD patients following deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery. Methods: A total of 125 PD patients who were scheduled to undergo DBS surgery were randomly divided into the propofol (n = 63) and the sevoflurane groups (n = 62). The patients in the two groups randomly received propofol- or sevoflurane-based general anesthesia. The Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) was employed by an investigator who was blinded to the anesthesia regimen and was administered twice per day from postoperative day 1 until discharge. Results: The incidence of POD was 22.22% (14/63) with propofol anesthesia and 20.97% (13/62) with sevoflurane anesthesia (p = 0.865). In addition, no difference was noted in the duration and severity of delirium between the propofol and sevoflurane groups. Conclusions: In the present study, propofol- and sevoflurane-based general anesthesia exhibited comparable results with regard to the POD incidence in PD patients undergoing deep brain stimulation surgery.

Abstract Background Despite the great contributions of utilizing heterosis to crop productivity worldwide, the molecular mechanism of heterosis remains largely unexplored. Thus, the present research is focused on the grain number heterosis of a widely used late-cropping indica super hybrid rice combination in China using a high-throughput next-generation RNA-seq strategy. Results Here, we obtained 872 million clean reads, and at least one read could maps 27,917 transcripts out of 35,679 annotations. Transcript differential expression analysis revealed a total of 5910 differentially expressed genes (DGHP) between super-hybrid rice Wufengyou T025 (WFYT025) and its parents were identified in the young panicles. Out of the 5910 DGHP, 63.1% had a genetic action mode of over-dominance, 17.3% had a complete-dominance action, 15.6% had a partial-dominance action and 4.0% had an additive action. DGHP were significantly enriched in carotenoid biosynthesis, diterpenoid biosynthesis and plant hormone signal transduction pathways, with the key genes involved in the three pathways being up-regulated in the hybrid. By comparing the DGHP enriched in the KEGG pathway with QTLs associated with grain number, several DGHP were located on the same chromosomal segment with some of these grain number QTLs. Conclusion Through young panicle development transcriptome analysis, we conclude that the over-dominant effect is probably the major contributor to the grain number heterosis of WFYT025. The DGHP sharing the same location with grain number QTLs could be considered a candidate gene and provide valuable targets for the cloning and functional analysis of these grain number QTLs.

Purpose. To analyse the correlation of myopia with physical exercise and sleep habits to explore the possible risk or protective factors of juvenile myopia. Methods. This study was a retrospective cross-sectional study. A total of 1831 students aged 11–18 years from five schools in Qingpu completed questionnaires from 2018 to 2019; the students were divided into the nonmyopia group and the myopia group, with students in the myopia group having myopia in at least one eye. Based on the chi-square test, the variables with statistical significance were selected for the logistic regression analysis. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were determined. Results. Myopia was positively associated with older age (OR = 2.216, 95% CI: 1.720–2.855), having a parent with myopia (father: OR = 2.463, 95% CI: 1.900–3.193; mother: OR = 2.853, 95% CI: 2.232–3.646), and a late bedtime during holidays (before 10 pm: p = 0.002; 10 pm-11 pm: OR = 1.516, 95% CI: 1.095–2.100; 11 pm-12 am: OR = 1.966, 95% CI: 1.383–2.795), but negatively correlated with male gender (OR = 0.693, 95% CI: 0.549–0.876), a late daily wake time (OR = 0.782, 95% CI: 0.621–0.985), and having more days per week of outdoor activities during the semester (OR = 0.764, 95% CI: 0.597–0.978). After adjustment for demographic characteristics, myopia was positively associated with a late bedtime during holidays (before 10 pm: p = 0.003; 10 pm-11 pm: OR = 1.570, 95% CI: 1.076–2.289; 11 pm-12 am: OR = 2.173, 95% CI: 1.451–3.253; after 12 am: OR = 1.786, 95% CI: 1.093–2.919), but negatively correlated with a late daily wake time during the semester (OR = 0.761, 95% CI: 0.581–0.997). Conclusion. The association of outdoor exercise with myopia among Chinese suburban adolescents does not seem to be as strong as that of sleep habits. Future research could seek to provide consistent evidence for a potential association between myopia and sleep habits.

Diatoms have important ecological roles and are natural sources of bioactive compounds. Nitzschia laevis is a member of marine diatoms that accumulates high-value products including fucoxanthin and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). In this study, physiological data showed that comparing to autotrophic growth, mixotrophic cultivation with glucose supplementation led to a decrease of chlorophyll and fucoxanthin content in N. laevis, and an increase of biomass density and EPA yield. To further examine the metabolic barriers for fucoxanthin and EPA biosynthesis, comparative transcriptomic and metabolome analyses were conducted, with a focus on the genes related to carotenoids biosynthesis and fatty acid metabolism. The results indicated that phytoene desaturase (PDS) and zeta-carotene isomerase (ZISO) could be the rate-limiting enzymes in carotenoid biosynthesis. The transcription regulation of 3-ketoacyl-CoA synthase (KCS) and elongation of very long chain fatty acids protein (EVOVL) are important contributors associated with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) accumulation. Furthermore, we also investigated the glucose-associated regulatory genes using weighted gene co-expression network analysis, and identified potential hub genes linked with cell cycle, carbohydrate metabolism, purine biosynthesis, and lipid metabolism. This study offers a high-quality transcriptome resource for N. laevis and provides a molecular framework for further metabolic engineering studies on fucoxanthin and EPA production.

Background: The energy efficiency of electric storage water heaters is a concern for enterprises and customers because it is beneficial for energy saving. To decrease the workload of testing personnel and improve the testing efficiency, an automatic testing system for evaluating the energy efficiency performance of electric storage water heaters has been designed. Methods: The complete testing system includes a water supply subsystem, hot water outlet subsystem, hardware subsystem, and software subsystem. An application program was developed using Visual Basic to acquire the sensor data and transmit it in real time to a database server. The energy efficiency evaluating process was controlled by the application software,by combining the data acquisition technology, communication technology, and program logical control technology. Results: The designed system can run automatically and achieve reliable tests, two important parameters including the standing loss per 24 h and the hot water withdrawal rate were obtained. Conclusion: This system can be applied to evaluate the energy efficiency grades of electric storage water heaters.

A coupled numerical model for nanorod-based suspension flow is constructed, and the convective heat transfer and resistance characteristics of the nanofluid duct flow are investigated. The numerical results are verified by experimental results and theoretical models. Most of nanorods are located randomly in the bulk fluid, while particles near the wall aligned with the flow direction. Friction factor of nanofluids with nanorods increases with higher particle volume concentration or aspect ratio, but the increment reduces when the Reynolds number gets larger. The relative Nusselt number is obtained to characterize the intensity of convective heat transfer. The results show that the Nusselt number of nanofluids increases when the particle volume concentration or aspect ratio becomes larger. Compared to increasing the aspect ratio of nanorods, increasing the particle volume concentration would be more effective on enhancing the convective heat transfer intensity in industrial applications although it will cause a slight increase of resistance.

This paper proposes an accurate and efficient testing system for the safety lock that is used in the suspended access platforms. The measurement methods conform to the standard EN 1808:2015. First, the whole architecture of the system is designed, including the mechanical structure unit, lower control unit, sensors and data acquisition. Second, the upper control software based on LabVIEW is presented. In addition, manual and automatic testing modes are proposed. The field experimental results demonstrated that the proposed testing system has the advantage of high accuracy, high automation and high efficiency.

Microwave-assisted and ultrasound-assisted extraction assays were used to isolate total flavonoids (TF) from Osmanthus fragrans flowers. The effects of the solid-liquid ratio, ethanol concentration, microwave power, microwave extraction time, ultrasonic power and ultrasonic extraction time on the yield of TF were studied. A sequential combination of microwave- and ultrasound-assisted extraction (SC-MUAE) methods was developed, which was subsequently optimized by Box-Behnken design-response surface methodology (BBD-RSM). The interaction effects of the ethanol concentration (40–60%), microwave extraction time (5–7 min), ultrasonic extraction time (8–12 min) and ultrasonic power (210–430 W) on the yield of TF were investigated. The optimum operating parameters for the extraction of TF were determined to be as follows: ethanol concentration (48.15%), microwave extraction time (6.43 min), ultrasonic extraction time (10.09 min) and ultrasonic power (370.9 W). Under these conditions, the extraction yield of TF was 7.86 mg/g.

Cell disruption is an important step during the extraction of C-phycocyanin from Spirulina platensis. An ultrafine shearing method is introduced and combined with soaking and ultrasonication to disrupt the cell walls of S. platensis efficiently and economically. Five kinds of cell disruption method, including soaking, ultrasonication, freezing-thawing, soaking-ultrafine shearing and soaking-ultrafine shearing-ultrasonication were applied to break the cell walls of S. platensis. The effectiveness of cell breaking was evaluated based on the yield of the C-phycocyanin. The results show that the maximum C-phycocyanin yield was 9.02%, achieved by the soaking-ultrafine shearing-ultrasonication method, followed by soaking (8.43%), soaking-ultrafine shearing (8.89%), freezing and thawing (8.34%), and soaking-ultrasonication (8.62%). The soaking-ultrafine shearing-ultrasonication method is a novel technique for breaking the cell walls of S. platensis for the extraction of C-phycocyanin.

Growth hormone (GH) is a key regulatory factor in animal growth, development and metabolism. Based on the expression level of the GH receptor, the chicken liver is a major target organ of GH, but the biological effects of GH on the chicken liver are not fully understood. In this work we identified mRNAs and miRNAs that are regulated by GH in primary hepatocytes from female chickens through RNA-seq, and analyzed the functional relevance of these mRNAs and miRNAs through GO enrichment analysis and miRNA target prediction. A total of 164 mRNAs were found to be differentially expressed between GH-treated and control chicken hepatocytes, of which 112 were up-regulated and 52 were down-regulated by GH. A total of 225 chicken miRNAs were identified by the RNA-Seq analysis. Among these miRNAs 16 were up-regulated and 1 miRNA was down-regulated by GH. The GH-regulated mRNAs were mainly involved in growth and metabolism. Most of the GH-upregulated or GH-downregulated miRNAs were predicted to target the GH-downregulated or GH-upregulated mRNAs, respectively, involved in lipid metabolism. This study reveals that GH regulates the expression of many mRNAs involved in metabolism in female chicken hepatocytes, which suggests that GH plays an important role in regulating liver metabolism in female chickens. The results of this study also support the hypothesis that GH regulates lipid metabolism in chicken liver in part by regulating the expression of miRNAs that target the mRNAs involved in lipid metabolism.

The sterol regulatory element binding transcription factor 2 (SREBF2) gene encodes a transcription factor that activates the expression of many genes involved in the synthesis and uptake of cholesterol, fatty acids, triglycerides, and phospholipids. Through bioinformatics, we found that intron 16 of the chicken SREBF2 gene might encode the chicken miR-33. Using quantitative RT-PCR, we detected the expression of miR-33 in a variety of chicken tissues including skeletal muscle, adipose tissue, and liver. Three hundred and seventy eight genes were predicted to be potential targets of miR-33 in chickens via miRNA target prediction programs "miRanda" and "TargetScan". Among these targets, the gene FTO (fat mass and obesity associated) encodes a Fe(II)- and 2-oxoglutarate-dependent nucleic acid demethylase that regulates lipid metabolism, and the possibility that its expression is negatively regulated by miR-33 in the chicken liver was therefore further studied. Co-transfection and dual-luciferase reporter assays showed that the expression of luciferase reporter gene linked to the 3'-untranslated region (3'UTR) of the chicken FTO mRNA was down-regulated by overexpression of the chicken miR-33 in the C2C12 cells (P

The title compound, C17H18N4O2S·CH3OH, was synthesized by the condensation reaction of o-methoxybenzaldehyde with thiocarbohydrazide in methanol. The two benzene rings are inclined each to other at 31.7 (1)°. Intermolecular N—H...O and bifurcated O—H...N(S) hydrogen bonds link two thiocarbonohydrazide and two solvent molecules into a centrosymmetric unit. These units, related by translation along the b axis, are further aggregated into columns through N—H...S hydrogen bonds.

The title compound, C32H28Cl2N2O2, was synthesized by a multicomponent reaction of 4-chlorobenzaldehyde, aniline and ethyl acetoacetate. The central 1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridine ring exhibits a distorted boat conformation and the two chlorophenyl rings attached to the central ring at positions 2 and 6 are oriented in opposite directions. The two O atoms of the ethoxycarbonyl group are involved in intramolecular N—H...O and C—H...O hydrogen bonds. In the crystal, weak C—H...O hydrogen bonds link molecules related by translation along the b axis into chains.