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Abstract Luster is one of the vital indexes in pearl grading. To find a fast, nondestructive, and low-cost grading method, optical coherence tomography (OCT) is introduced to predict the luster grade through the texture features. After background removal, flattening, and segmentation, the speckle pattern of the region of interest is described by seven kinds of feature textures, including center-symmetric auto-correlation (CSAC), fractal dimension (FD), Gabor, gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM), histogram of oriented gradients (HOG), laws texture energy (LAWS), and local binary patterns (LBP). To find the relations between speckle-derived texture features and luster grades, four Four groups of pearl samples were used in the experiment to detect texture differences based on support vector machines (SVMs) and random forest classifier (RFC)) for investigating the relations between speckle-derived texture features and luster grades. The precision, recall, F1-score, and accuracy are more significant than 0.9 in several simulations, even after dimension reduction. This demonstrates that the texture feature from OCT images can be applied to class the pearl luster based on speckle changes.

The limitations of current drug-eluting stent technologies in selectively inhibiting vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation, which often leads to inflammation, call for innovative approaches in coronary artery disease treatment. In the present work, we propose a revolutionary solution: a three-in-one platform for vascular stents, combining arsenic trioxide (ATO) and tacrolimus (TAC) to address anti-proliferation, pro-endothelialization, and anti-inflammation aspects. Our findings demonstrate that the synergistic action of ATO and TAC effectively suppresses aberrant vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation and mitigates endothelial cell inflammation. Remarkably, the combination treatment of TAC/ATO enhances endothelial cell migration and adhesion abilities. Moreover, our TAC/ATO-eluting stent exhibits superior re-endothelialization and anti-restenosis effects in a rabbit and porcine stent implantation model. Both in vitro and in vivo results solidify the notion that the TAC/ATO-eluting stent ensures rapid re-endothelialization and significantly reduces the incidence of in-stent restenosis. Overall, this study represents a promising and novel multifunctional platform with immense potential in the therapy of coronary artery disease.

The most prevalent type of joint illness is osteoarthritis, also known as OA. The inflammation of the joint is strongly linked to both the beginning and the progression of osteoarthritis. The use of hydrogels as an OA treatment has the potential to go beyond the administration of anti-inflammatory components to have an inherent immunomodulatory role. Platelet lysate (PL) contains a cocktail of growth factors that actively participates in cartilage repair. Moreover, cerium oxide-nanoparticles (CeO2-NPs) have been broadly studied owing to their powerful antioxidant properties and potential preventive and therapeutic effects against chronic diseases. The current study was designed to determine the effect and mechanism of injectable hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogel loaded with PL and CeO2-NPs on OA. The results showed that the obtained PL and synthesized CeO2-NPs were effectively incorporated into HA hydrogel and the resultant hydrogel was injectable and have a porous micro structure with interconnected pores. The biological evaluation by qPCR revealed that the fabricated hydrogel exhibited a significantly increased expression of Col2 and Aggrecan (TNF-α-suppressed anabolic molecules) and decreased expression of Col10, Mmp13, Adamts5, and Adamts9 (TNF-α-activated catabolic molecules). Also, ELISA results confirmed this potent antioxidant activity of hydrogel and also increased the growth of chondrocytes over the culturing period.

Saltmarsh is widely recognized as a blue carbon ecosystem with great carbon storage potential. Yet soil respiration with a major contributor of atmospheric CO2 can offset its carbon sink function. Up to date, mechanisms ruling CO2 emissions from saltmarsh soil remain unclear. In particular, the effect of precipitation on soil CO2 emissions is unclear in coastal wetlands, due the lack of outdoor data in real situations. We conducted a 7-year field manipulation experiment in a saltmarsh in the Yellow River Delta, China. Soil respiration in five treatments (−60%, −40%, +0%, +40%, and + 60% of precipitation) was measured in the field. Topsoils from the last 3 years (2019–2021) were analyzed for CO2 production potential by microcosm experiments. Furthermore, quality and quantity of soil organic carbon and microbial function were tested. Results show that only the moderate precipitation rise of +40% induced a 66.2% increase of CO2 production potential for the microcosm experiments, whereas other data showed a weak impact. Consistently, soil respiration was also found to be strongest at +40%. The CO2 production potential is positively correlated with soil organic carbon, including carbon quantity and quality. But microbial diversity did not show any positive response to precipitation sizes. r-/K-strategy seemed to be a plausible explanation for biological factors. Overall, our finding reveal that a moderate precipitation increase, not decrease or a robust increase, in a saltmarsh is likely to improve soil organic carbon quality and quantity, and bacterial oligotroph:copiotroph ratio, ultimately leading to an enhanced CO2 production.

Bursaphelenchus xylophilus is a dangerous quarantine pest that causes extensive damage to pine ecosystems worldwide. Cyclobutrifluram, a succinate dehydrogenase inhibitor (SDHI), is a novel nematicide introduced by Syngenta in 2013. However, the nematocidal effect of cyclobutrifluram against plant-parasitic nematodes remains underexplored. Therefore, here, we aim to address this knowledge gap by evaluating the toxicity, effects, and mode of action of cyclobutrifluram on B. xylophilus. The result shows that cyclobutrifluram is the most effective agent, with an LC50 value of 0.1078 mg·L−1. At an LC20 dose, it significantly reduced the population size to 10.40 × 103 ± 737.56—approximately 1/23 that of the control group. This notable impact may stem from the agent’s ability to diminish egg-laying and hatching rates, as well as to impede the nematodes’ development. In addition, it has also performed well in the prevention of pine wilt disease, significantly reducing the incidence in greenhouses and in the field. SDH consists of a transmembrane assembly composed of four protein subunits (SDHA to SDHD). Four sdh genes were characterized and proved by RNAi to regulate the spawning capacity, locomotion ability, and body size of B. xylophilus. The mortality of nematodes treated with sdhc-dsRNA significantly decreased upon cyclobutrifluram application. Molecular docking further confirmed that SDHC, a cytochrome-binding protein, is the target. In conclusion, cyclobutrifluram has a good potential for trunk injection against B. xylophilus. This study provides valuable information for the screening and application of effective agents in controlling and preventing PWD in forests.

The gene localization technique of Bursaphelenchus xylophilus (pinewood nematode, PWN) is used for study gene expression in PWNs. Two in situ hybridization methods, namely, whole-mount in situ hybridization and the cut-off method are used widely. To compare the effects of these two in situ hybridization methods, the present study investigated the patterns of two functional genes expression in PWNs. The Bx-vap-2 gene (GenBank accession number: OR228482), related to pathogenicity, and the fem-2 gene (GenBank accession number: OR228481), related to sex determination, were selected to map related genes in the whole-mount and amputated PWNs at different ages using these in situ hybridization methods. Based on the overall statistical comparison, we found that compared to the cut-off method, the whole-mount method exhibited higher staining rates and correct staining rates for the fem-2 gene and Bx-vap-2 gene. However, considering the correct staining aspect, the cut-off method yielded better staining effects on pinewood nematode sections than the whole-mount method, with clearer hybridization signal locations and less non-specific staining. In other words, the cut-off method demonstrated more precise gene localization. Both methods are applicable for gene localization, but considering the overall staining pattern, analysis of experimental results, and comprehensive experimental operations, we believe that the whole-mount method is more suitable for gene localization and expression analysis of development-related genes in pinewood nematodes. This is because intact pinewood nematodes are better suited for showcasing the continuous developmental process of development-related genes. On the other hand, considering the experimental time, accuracy of staining site, and the amount of non-specific staining, the cut-off method is more suitable for disease-related genes. Additionally, to achieve better performance, the cut-off method can be selectively applied to samples during the experimental process.

To improve the conductivity of nematocidal emamectin benzoate (EB) in pine trees (Pinus massoniana Lamb.), EB-inclusive nanocapsules (EB-NCs) were developed as trunk injections and spraying agents. Microscopy revealed that the EB-NCs were spherical in shape (100–200 nm in diameter) and micro-agglomerated with an obvious core-shell structure. The EB-NCs formulation maintained high toxicity in Bursaphelenchus xylophilus pine wood nematodes (LC50 = 0.44 mg L−1). Moreover, the formulation had better EB slow-release and photostability. In addition, the EB-NCs formulation was effectively absorbed and transported in the pine trees via either trunk injection or spraying. In terms of trunk injection, the average residues of EB in the lower, middle, and upper branches of P. massoniana 30 days after application in summer were 8.11, 16.42, and 6.98 mg L−1. In terms of spraying treatment, the EB-NC formulation was successfully conducted from the cortical tissue to the cambium and the EB fluorescence intensity inside of the branches was better than that of the 2% EB micro-emulsion. The EB-NC formulation has suitable conductivity in pine trees; hence, this study provides a potential agent for the control of pine wilt disease in the field under all weather conditions.

Nanoscale emitters are useful for measuring biomolecular interactions, but are limited by weak signals. Here, the authors use a photonic crystal surface for 3000-fold signal enhancement, achieving single emitter sensitivity with extended on-time, and demonstrate its application in miRNA biomarker sensing.

Abstract Bursaphelenchus xylophilus is a notorious invasive species, causing extensive losses to pine ecosystems globally. Previous studies had shown that the development of B. xylophilus was seriously suppressed by light. However, the mechanism involved in the inhibition is unknown. Here, it is the first report that Bxy-madd-4 is a light-regulated gene, plays a potential role in B. xylophilus in responding to the blue light. Transcriptome sequencing revealed that the expression level of Bxy-madd-4 declined by 86.39% under blue light. The reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR results were in accord with the transcriptome sequencing, confirming the expression level of Bxy-madd-4 was suppressed by blue light. Bxy-madd-4 promoter::mCherry reporter constructed in Caenorhabditis elegans were utilized to mimic the spatiotemporal expression patterns of Bxy-madd-4. Bxy-madd-4A promoter activity had a strong continuity throughout all development stages in C. elegans. Further RNA interference indicated that only 36.8% of the Bxy-madd-4 dsRNA treated embryos were hatched. Moreover, 71.6% of the hatched nematodes were abnormal, such as particles on the body surface and concave tissues. Our findings contribute towards a better understanding of the mechanism of light against the destructive invasive nematode, providing a promising hint for control of the destructive invasive nematode.

With the development of social economy, using lithium-ion batteries in energy storage in industries such as large-scale electrochemical energy storage systems will cause lithium resources to no longer meet demand. As such, sodium ion batteries have become one of the effective alternatives to LIBs. Many attempts have been carried out by researchers to achieve this, among which F-doping is widely used to enhance the electrochemical performance of SIBs. In this paper, we reviewed several types of transition metal oxide cathode materials, and found their electrochemical properties were significantly improved by F-doping. Moreover, the modification mechanism of F-doping has also been summed up. Therefore, the application and commercialization of SIBs in the future is summarized in the ending of the review.

Plant parasitic nematodes are important phytopathogens that greatly affect the growth of agricultural and forestry plants. Scientists have conducted several studies to prevent and treat the diseases they cause. With the advent of the genomics era, the genome sequencing of plant parasitic nematodes has been considerably accelerated, and a large amount of data has been generated. This study developed the Plant Parasitic Nematodes Database (PPND), a platform to combine these data. The PPND contains genomic, transcriptomic, protein, and functional annotation data, allowing users to conduct BLAST searches and genome browser analyses and download bioinformatics data for in-depth research. PPND will be continuously updated, and new data will be integrated. PPND is anticipated to become a comprehensive genomics data platform for plant parasitic nematode research.

Streptomyces are filamentous bacteria that are extensively present in soil, play an important role in carbon cycling, and produce a large number of highly valuable secondary metabolites. In this study, total number of 411 isolates of Streptomyces were collected from ecologically similar habitats from 13 provinces in Southern China. They were clustered into 96 operational taxonomic units including eight potentially new species based on their 16S rDNA sequences. Phylogenetic analysis disclosed that the isolates with similar geographical distributions clustered together. Beta diversity of Streptomyces showed it manifests in a latitudinal diversity gradient (R2 = 0.3828, p = 0.0113). The beta diversity did not change significantly with geographic distance, and this could be due to the large longitudinal and relatively smaller latitudinal sampling range, as the phylogenetic clustering of regions with higher annual average temperature was analyzed with the nearest taxon index (R = −0.23, p = 0.045). Result of the Streptomyces biogeography evaluation shows the diversity of the genus is controlled by many of the same processes. Bioassay results disclosed that there were 27 isolates strongly antagonistic to plant pathogenic fungi and 71 isolates with strong nematocidal activity against pine wood nematode. Our results provide significant insights into the diversity and biocontrol potential of cultivatable Streptomyces in Southern China.

Bursaphelenchus xylophilu is a worldwide quarantine nematode, causing huge economic losses and ecological disasters in many countries. The sex ratio of B. xylophilus plays an important role in the nematode infestation. The laf-1-related genes are highly conserved in animals, playing crucial roles in sex determination. Therefore, we investigated the expression pattern and biological function of its orthologue, Bxy-laf-1 in B. xylophilus. Bxy-laf-1 has two typical conserved DNA-binding domains, DEAD and Helicase C. The real-time quantitative PCR data revealed that Bxy-laf-1 expression was required throughout the entire life of B. xylophilus, with the maximum expression in the J2 stage and the lowest expression in the adult stage. mRNA in situ hybridization showed that Bxy-laf-1 is mainly located in the cephalopharynx and reproductive organs of B. xylophilus. RNA interference (RNAi) indicated that the head swing frequency was dramatically decreased. The RNA interference results displayed that a significant reduction in motility was observed in the hatched larvae. The female to male sex ratio was also decreased in the F0 and F1 generations, but recovered in the F2 generation. The tail of female adults with eggs in the belly appeared deformities. This phenomenon appeared in the F0 and F1 generations, but recovered in the F2 generation. Bxy-laf-1 is a typical sex-determination gene with distinct expression patterns in males and females. As demonstrated in other species, the sex ratio was altered after knocking down Bxy-laf-1 expression. The results of this study contribute to our understanding of the molecular processes of Bxy-laf-1 in B. xylophilus, which may provide clues about how to control pine wilt disease by inhibiting ontogenic growth and reducing nematode fertility.

Background: Osteopontin (OPN) can regulate Th2 inflammation in allergic rhinitis (AR). A recent study suggested that group II innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) were very important for airway inflammation. But the role of OPN in ILC2s regulation is not explored. Methods: Purified ILC2s were stimulated by human recombinant OPN. The expression of GATA3 and RORα was assayed using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. MiR-181a was transfected into eosinophils to test the OPN production. The protein concentrations of interleukin (IL)-5 and IL-13 were examined using ELISA. Purified eosinophils and ILC2s were cocultured and stimulated by OPN and the activation of eosinophils was detected by ELISA. Results: After OPN stimulation, the ILC2s proliferation, the mRNA levels of GATA3 and RORα, the protein of GATA3, RORα, IL-5 and IL-13 expression were up-regulated significantly in a dose dependent manner. Eosinophils cultured alone transfected with miR-181a mimics produced less OPN protein compared with eosinophils transfected with miR-control, whereas OPN production was significantly promoted when miR-181a inhibitor was transfected. In the eosinophils and ILC2s coculture system, eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) production induced by OPN or IL-33 were significantly higher than ECP production in eosinophils culture system. OPN presented similar potency with IL-33 in the activation of eosinophils. When anti-IL-5 antibody was added, the production of ECP was significantly inhibited. Conclusions: Our data for the first time provided new evidence that OPN played important roles in innate immunity of AR by regulation of ILC2s and the interaction between ILC2s and eosinophils.

Objective: Arsenic trioxide (ATO or As2O3) has beneficial effects on suppressing neointimal hyperplasia and restenosis, but the mechanism is still unclear. The goal of this study is to further understand the mechanism of ATO's inhibitory effect on vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). Methods and results: Through in vitro cell culture and in vivo stent implanting into the carotid arteries of rabbit, a synthetic-to-contractile phenotypic transition was induced and the proliferation of VSMCs was inhibited by ATO. F-actin filaments were clustered and the elasticity modulus was increased within the phenotypic modulation of VSMCs induced by ATO in vitro. Meanwhile, Yes-associated protein (YAP) nuclear translocation was inhibited by ATO both in vivo and in vitro. It was found that ROCK inhibitor or YAP inactivator could partially mask the phenotype modulation of ATO on VSMCs. Conclusions: The interaction of YAP with the ROCK pathway through ATO seems to mediate the contractile phenotype of VSMCs. This provides an indication of the clinical therapeutic mechanism for the beneficial bioactive effect of ATO-drug eluting stent (AES) on in-stent restenosis (ISR).

In healthcare wireless medical sensor networks (HWMSNs), the medical sensor nodes are employed to collect medical data which is transmitted to doctors for diagnosis and treatment. In HWMSNs, medical data is vulnerable to various attacks through public channels. In addition, leakage of patients' information happens frequently. Hence, secure communication and privacy preservation are major concerns in HWMSNs. To solve the above issues, Zhan et al. put forward a pairing-free certificateless aggregate signature (PF-CLAS) scheme. However, according to our cryptanalysis, the malicious medical sensor node (MSNi) can generate the forged signature by replacing the public key in the PF-CLAS scheme. Hence, to address this security flaw, we design the improved PF-CLAS scheme that can achieve unforgeability, anonymity, and traceability. Since we have changed the construction of the partial private key, the improved PF-CLAS scheme can resist Type I and Type II attacks under the Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm assumption. In terms of the performance evaluation, the proposed scheme outperforms related CLAS schemes, which is more suitable for HWMSNs environments.

Currently, microplastic pollution poses a great threat to diverse ecosystems. Microplastics can potentially change soil characteristics and impact soil microorganisms, and then affect the production of CO2, CH4 and other greenhouse gases. However, experimental study on different ecological soils is lacking. Herein, we experimentally analyzed the CO2 and CH4 production potential affected by four types of microplastics in freshwater (Poyang Lake in Jiangxi province, paddy soil in Hunan province) and saltwater (Salt marsh in Shandong province, mangrove soil in Fujian province) ecosystems. Microplastics promoted CO2 production, of which polyethylene terephthalate (PET) had the greatest impact. In our study, the microplastics that had the greatest impact on CH4 concentration emissions were high-density polyethylene (1276 umol·g−1·L−1), followed by polyvinyl chloride (384 umol·g−1·L−1), polyethylene terephthalate (198 umol·g−1·L−1), and polyamide (134 umol·g−1·L−1). In addition, the largest impact on CO2 concentration emissions was displayed by polyethylene terephthalate (2253 umol·g−1·L−1), followed by polyvinyl chloride (2194 umol·g−1·L−1), polyamide (2006 umol·g−1·L−1), and high-density polyethylene (1522 umol·g−1·L−1). However, the analysis results based on one-way ANOVA showed that CO2 emission was most significantly affected by soil properties rather than microplastics types. In comparison, the influencing factor on CH4 production changed from soil types to the interaction between soil types and microplastics, and finally to the microplastics with the increase in incubation time. Further, by comparing CO2 and CH4 production and Global Warming Equivalent (GWE) affected by microplastics, freshwater ecosystems were more sensitive than saltwater. For all the soil types used in this study, high-density polyethylene had the greatest impact on CH4 production potential. In conclusion, our study provided basic data for further understanding the effects of microplastics on soil greenhouse gas emissions from different sources.

Invasive plants may change their seed traits to adapt to the environment and facilitate their performance. Studies on variation in seed traits among populations of an invader along latitudes/longitudes may assist in revealing how invasive plants cope with variable climates. In this study, we collected seeds of 26 populations of the global invasive plant Ambrosia artemisiifolia along ranges spanning 23° latitudes and 20° longitudes that are highly correlated in its invasive range in China. We measured over 20 seed traits, including seed morphology, phytohormone, nutrients, and germination, and investigated how the climate along the latitudes affects those traits. We found that germination time was significantly delayed with increasing latitude and longitude, while the reversed patterns were true for the germination rate. From low to high latitude, seed size, abscisic acid, and fatty acid were increased, likely affecting seed germination. Our analysis further demonstrated that temperature is the dominant driver of the variability in seed traits and germination. Germination rates of larger seeds in cold ranges were lower, while smaller seeds from warm ranges germinated faster, likely indicating adaptive strategies of the invasive plant in seed trait functional ecology. Together, our findings provide new insights into understanding the seed adaptation strategies during the invasion process and the underlying physiological and biochemical mechanisms involved.

Abstract Background New Zealand’s Bowel Screening Pilot (BSP) used a mailed invitation to return a faecal immunochemical test. As a pilot it offered opportunities to test interventions for reducing ethnic inequities in colorectal cancer screening prior to nationwide programme introduction. Small media interventions (e.g. educational material and DVDs) have been used at both community and participant level to improve uptake. We tested whether a DVD originally produced to raise community awareness among the Māori population would have a positive impact on participation and reduce the proportion of incorrectly performed tests (spoiled kits) if mailed out with the usual reminder letter. Methods The study was a parallel groups pseudo-randomised controlled trial. Over 12 months, all Māori and Pacific ethnicity non-responders four weeks after being mailed the test kit were allocated on alternate weeks to be sent, or not, the DVD intervention with the usual reminder letter. The objective was to determine changes in participation and spoiled kit rates in each ethnic group, determined three months from the date the reminder letter was sent. Participants and those recording the outcomes (receipt of a spoiled or non-spoiled test kit) were blinded to group assignment. Results 2333 Māori and 2938 Pacific people participated (11 withdrew). Those who were sent the DVD (1029 Māori and 1359 Pacific) were less likely to participate in screening than those who were not (1304 Māori and 1579 Pacific). Screening participation was reduced by 12.3% (95% CI 9.1–15.5%) in Māori (13.6% versus 25.9%) and 8.3% (95% CI 5.8–10.8%) in Pacific (10.1% versus 18.4%). However, spoiled kit rates (first return) were significantly higher among those not sent the DVD (33.1% versus 12.4% in Māori and 42.1% versus 21.9% in Pacific). Conclusion The DVD sent with the reminder letter to BSP non-responders reduced screening participation to an extent that more than offset the lower rate of spoiled kits. Trial registration Australia and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12612001259831. Registered 30 November 2013.

Understanding how host plant chemistry affects invasive insects is crucial for determining the physiological mechanism of host use and predicting invasive insect outbreak and damage on hosts. Here, we examined the effects of plant nutrition and defensive chemicals on host preference and performance of adults and larvae of the invasive potato tuberworm, Phthorimaea operculella (Zeller; Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae), on four native (Solanum tuberosum, Nicotiana tabacum, Datura stramonium, and Solanum lycopersicum) and three new (Solanum melongena, Physalis alkekengi, and Lycium barbarum) host plants. We found that adults preferred to oviposit on S. tuberosum and N. tabacum leaves and the soil around these native host plants over other hosts. Larvae performed well on S. tuberosum and N. tabacum, reaching higher pupa weight and having better survival. Larvae performed poorly on S. melongena, S. lycopersicum, P. alkekengi, D. stramonium, and L. barbarum, with lower pupa weight and lower survival. Solanum tuberosum and N. tabacum had higher leaf soluble proteins than other plants and lower leaf total phenolics than S. lycopersicum, D. stramonium, and L. barbarum. Moreover, carbon content and soluble protein were positively associated with larval survival, while defensive traits (lignin and total phenolics) negatively affected larval survival. These findings provide insights into understanding of biochemical mechanisms of interactions between invasive insects and host plants, indicating the importance of considering plant chemistry when assessing invasive insect host use and damage.

Scaffolded DNA origami by folding single-stranded DNA into three-dimensional nanostructures holds promise for building functional nanomachines, yet their dynamic structures remain largely unknown. Here, Lei et al. address this issue using individual-particle electron tomography at 6–14 nm resolution.

Cloud computing enables customers with limited computational resources to outsource their huge computation workloads to the cloud with massive computational power. However, in order to utilize this computing paradigm, it presents various challenges that need to be addressed, especially security. As eigen-decomposition (ED) and singular value decomposition (SVD) of a matrix are widely applied in engineering tasks, we are motivated to design secure, correct, and efficient protocols for outsourcing the ED and SVD of a matrix to a malicious cloud in this paper. In order to achieve security, we employ efficient privacy-preserving transformations to protect both the input and output privacy. In order to check the correctness of the result returned from the cloud, an efficient verification algorithm is employed. A computational complexity analysis shows that our protocols are highly efficient. We also introduce an outsourcing principle component analysis as an application of our two proposed protocols.

Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), a sensitive technique for gene expression analysis, depends on the stability of the reference genes used for data normalization under different experimental conditions. Bursaphelenchus mucronatus, a pine-parasitic nematode varying in virulence, is widely distributed in natural pine forests throughout the northern hemisphere, but has not been investigated with respect to the identification of reference genes suitable for the normalization of RT-qPCR data. In the present study, eight candidate reference genes were analyzed in B. mucronatus under different habitat conditions and at different developmental stages. The expression stability of these genes was assessed by geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper, delta Cq, and RefFinder algorithms. In general, our results identified encoding beta-tubulin as the most stable gene. Moreover, pairwise analysis showed that three reference genes were sufficient to normalize the gene expression data under each set of conditions, with genes encoding beta-tubulin, 18S ribosomal RNA and ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme being the most suitable reference genes for different habitat conditions, whereas genes encoding beta-tubulin, histone, and 18S ribosomal RNA exhibited the most stable expression at different developmental stages. Validation of the selected reference genes was performed by profiling the expression of the fatty acid- and retinol-binding protein gene in different habitats, and by profiling the expression of the arginine kinase gene at different developmental stages. This first systematic analysis for the selection of suitable reference genes for RT-qPCR in B. mucronatus will facilitate future functional analyses and deep mining of genetic resources in this nematode.

Cloud computing provides service for resource-constrained customers to perform large-scale scientific computation. However, it also brings some new challenges, which have to be considered in designing outsourcing protocols. In recent years, a few outsourcing protocols have been proposed for different kinds of problems. Quadratic programming (QP) is a class of mathematical optimization problem, and solving a large-scale QP problem requires a large amount of computation. Thus, there is a great need for customer to outsource large-scale QP problem to cloud. In this paper, we design a secure, verifiable, and efficient outsourcing protocol for QP problem. For security consideration, we encrypt the matrices and vectors contained in the QP problem in an efficient way. After cloud computing, we decrypt the result to get the ultimate solution. To ensure correctness, we verify the result returned by the cloud through Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions that are the necessary and sufficient conditions for the optimal solution. We also present complexity analysis and numerical simulations to illustrate the efficiency of our outsourcing protocol.

To surface the Deep Web, one crucial task is to predict whether a given web page has a search interface (searchable HyperText Markup Language (HTML) form) or not. Previous studies have focused on supervised classification with labeled examples. However, labeled data are scarce, hard to get and requires tediousmanual work, while unlabeled HTML forms are abundant and easy to obtain. In this research, we consider the plausibility of using both labeled and unlabeled data to train better models to identify search interfaces more effectively. We present a semi-supervised co-training ensemble learning approach using both neural networks and decision trees to deal with the search interface identification problem. We show that the proposed model outperforms previous methods using only labeled data. We also show that adding unlabeled data improves the effectiveness of the proposed model.

BACKGROUND:Increased spatial QRS-T angle has been shown to predict appropriate implantable cardioverter defibrilIator (ICD) therapy in patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD). We performed a retrospective cohort study in patients with left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) 31-40% to assess the relationship between the spatial QRS-T angle and other advanced ECG (A-ECG) as well as echocardiographic metadata, with all-cause mortality or ICD implantation for secondary prevention. METHODS:534 patients ≤75 years of age with LVEF 31-40% were identified through an echocardiography reporting database. Digital 12-lead ECGs were retrospectively matched to 295 of these patients, for whom echocardiographic and A-ECG metadata were then generated. Data mining was applied to discover novel ECG and echocardiographic markers of risk. Machine learning was used to develop a model to predict possible outcomes. RESULTS:49 patients (17%) had events, defined as either mortality (n = 16) or ICD implantation for secondary prevention (n = 33). 72 parameters (58 A-ECG, 14 echocardiographic) were univariately different (p110° had an adjusted HR of 3.4 (95% CI 1.6 to 7.4) for secondary ICD implantation or all-cause death and adjusted HR of 4.1 (95% CI 1.2 to 13.9) for future heart failure admission. There was a loss of complexity between A-ECG and echocardiographic variables with an increasing degree of disease. CONCLUSION:Spatial QRS-T angle >110° was strongly associated with arrhythmic events and all-cause death. Deep analysis of global ECG and echocardiographic metadata revealed underlying relationships, which otherwise would not have been appreciated. Delivered at scale such techniques may prove useful in clinical decision making in the future.

Prediction of seminal quality with statistical learning tools is an emerging methodology in decision support systems in biomedical engineering and is very useful in early diagnosis of seminal patients and selection of semen donors candidates. However, as is common in medical diagnosis, seminal quality prediction faces the class imbalance problem. In this paper, we propose a novel supervised ensemble learning approach, namely Clustering-Based Decision Forests, to tackle unbalanced class learning problem in seminal quality prediction. Experiment results on real fertility diagnosis dataset have shown that Clustering-Based Decision Forests outperforms decision tree, Support Vector Machines, random forests, multilayer perceptron neural networks and logistic regression by a noticeable margin. Clustering-Based Decision Forests can also be used to evaluate variables’ importance and the top five important factors that may affect semen concentration obtained in this study are age, serious trauma, sitting time, the season when the semen sample is produced, and high fevers in the last year. The findings could be helpful in explaining seminal concentration problems in infertile males or pre-screening semen donor candidates.

Recently, survival ensembles have found more and more applications in biological and medical research when censored time-to-event data are often confronted. In this research, we investigate the plausibility of extending a rotation forest, originally proposed for classification purpose, to survival analysis. Supported by the proper statistical analysis, we show that rotation survival forests are able to outperform the state-of-art survival ensembles on right censored data. We also provide a C-index based variable importance measure for evaluating covariates in censored survival data.

Recently, various ensemble learning methods with different base classifiers have been proposed for credit scoring problems. However, for various reasons, there has been little research using logistic regression as the base classifier. In this paper, given large unbalanced data, we consider the plausibility of ensemble learning using regularized logistic regression as the base classifier to deal with credit scoring problems. In this research, the data is first balanced and diversified by clustering and bagging algorithms. Then we apply a Lasso-logistic regression learning ensemble to evaluate the credit risks. We show that the proposed algorithm outperforms popular credit scoring models such as decision tree, Lasso-logistic regression and random forests in terms of AUC and F-measure. We also provide two importance measures for the proposed model to identify important variables in the data.

Background. Interleukin-37 (IL-37), a newly described member of IL-1family, functioned as a fundamental inhibitor of innate inflammatory and immune responses, especially its isoform IL-37b. Objective. This study was undertaken to evaluate the expression and regulation of IL-37b in children with allergic rhinitis (AR). Methods. Forty children with AR and twenty-five normal controls were included. The relationship between IL-37b and Th1/2 cytokines production in serum and nasal lavage was examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were purified for in vitro regulation experiment of IL-37b. Intranasal mometasone furoate was given in AR children and IL-37b change after one-month treatment was detected using ELISA. Results. We observed significantly decreased IL-37b expression levels in both serum and nasal lavage compared to controls. IL-37b was negatively correlated with Th2 cytokines. Our results also showed that IL-37b downregulated Th2 cytokine expressed by PBMCs and this modulation was through mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway. We also found that intranasal mometasone furoate therapy can promote nasal IL-37b expression. Conclusion. IL-37b may be involved in Th2 cytokine regulation in AR and its expression was related to the efficacy of intranasal steroid therapy.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The morbidity of ulcerative colitis (UC) is increasing in China every year. In addition, there is a lack of accurate diagnostic indices with which to evaluate the activity of the disease. The aim of this study was to identify UC-associated proteins as biomarkers for the diagnosis, and objective assessment of disease activity. METHODS: Differential expression of serum proteins from UC patients compared to normal controls was analyzed by two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS). The expression of heat shock factor 2(HSF2)in colonic mucosa in Crohn's disease, Behcet's disease, ulcerative colitis, intestinal tuberculosis, infective enteritis, intestinal lymphoma, and normal controls was investigated by immunohistochemistry (IHC). The expression of the HSF2 in colonic mucosa of UC subjects with varying severity of disease was measured by real time-PCR and Western Blots. The expression of HSF2 was inhibited by HSF2 small interfering RNA (siRNA) transfection in Caco-2 cells. The concentrations of HSF2, IL-1β, and TNF-α in serum and IL-1β, and TNF-α in the supernatants of transfected Caco-2 cells were determined by ELISA. RESULTS: HSF2 was differentially expressed in UC patients compared to normal controls. HSF2 expression was significantly higher in the intestinal mucosa of UC patients compared to other six groups. The results of immunohistochemistry, real time-PCR, Western Blots, and ELISA showed that the expression of HSF2 increased in parallel with the severity of UC. The serum concentration of HSF2 also positively correlated with levels of IL-1β and TNF-α. After down-regulation expression of HSF2 in Caco-2 cells by RNA interference, the productions of IL-1β and TNF-α stimulated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) increased dramatically. CONCLUSIONS: HSF2 appears to be a potential novel molecular marker for UC activity, and may provide a basis for studies on the pathogenesis and novel therapeutic targets for UC.

Soil hydrothermal condition is one of the most important factors affecting crop growth in arid regions. This study aimed to investigate the effect of mulching and tillage on moisture and temperature variations in soil under drip irrigation in the arid Hetao Irrigation District, northwest China. Four treatments were included: (1) alternating ridges (40 cm wide and 20 cm high) and furrows (40 cm wide) with plots fully mulched with plastic film (RFM); (2) alternating ridges (40 cm wide and 20 cm high) and furrows (40 cm wide) with partial film mulch (only the plant rows mulched) (RPM); (3) flat tillage with plots fully mulched with plastic film (FFM); and (4) flat tillage with partial film mulch (only the plant rows mulched) (FPM). The ridge tillage and plastic film increased soil temperature and significantly conserved soil water, and thus increased the maize yield and water use efficiency (WUE). The RFM treatment had a greater effect than the RPM, FFM, and FPM treatments on the soil moisture and water storage over 0–70 cm in depth during the entire growing period in 2014 and 2015, indicating that full transparent plastic film mulch increased soil water status and promoted deep water percolation, and ridge tillage further enhanced water redistribution to deep soils. Furthermore, RFM proportionally increased soil temperature by 0.36 °C, 1.49 °C, and 1.27 °C above the temperatures under RPM, FPM, and FFM, respectively, in 2014 and by 1.19 °C, 1.62 °C, and 0.35 °C, respectively, in 2015. During the drought year of 2014, tillage influenced temperature more than mulching; however, mulching played a more important role in preserving thermal conditions than tillage during the humid year of 2015. Consequently, RFM increased the maize yield and WUE significantly. We conclude that a combined system of full plastic film mulch and ridge tillage creates beneficial soil hydrothermal conditions under drip irrigation and thus promotes the growth and performance of field crops.

Bursaphelenchus mucronatus (B. mucronatus) isolates that originate from different regions may vary in their virulence, but their virulence-associated genes and proteins are poorly understood. Thus, we conducted an integrated study coupling RNA-Seq and isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) to analyse transcriptomic and proteomic data of highly and weakly virulent B. mucronatus isolates during the pathogenic processes. Approximately 40,000 annotated unigenes and 5000 proteins were gained from the isolates. When we matched all of the proteins with their detected transcripts, a low correlation coefficient of r = 0.138 was found, indicating probable post-transcriptional gene regulation involved in the pathogenic processes. A functional analysis showed that five differentially expressed proteins which were all highly expressed in the highly virulent isolate were involved in the pathogenic processes of nematodes. Peroxiredoxin, fatty acid- and retinol-binding protein, and glutathione peroxidase relate to resistance against plant defence responses, while β-1,4-endoglucanase and expansin are associated with the breakdown of plant cell walls. Thus, the pathogenesis of B. mucronatus depends on its successful survival in host plants. Our work adds to the understanding of B. mucronatus’ pathogenesis, and will aid in controlling B. mucronatus and other pinewood nematode species complexes in the future.

Uncomplicated chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is generally treated with medical therapy initially and surgery is contemplated only after medical therapy has failed. However, there is considerable variation in the medical treatment regimens used and studies defining their efficacy are few. The aim of this study was to determine the proportion of patients treated medically who responded sufficiently well so that surgery was not required. Subgroup analysis to identify clinical features that predicted a favorable response to medical therapy was also performed. Eighty patients referred to the Otorhinolaryngology Clinic at North Shore Hospital were treated with a standardized medical therapy protocol (oral prednisone for 3 weeks, oral antibiotics and ongoing saline lavage and intranasal budesonide spray). Symptom scores were collected before and after medical therapy. Clinical features such as presence of polyps, asthma, and aspirin hypersensitivity were recorded. Failure of medical therapy was defined as the persistence of significant CRS symptoms, and those patients who failed medical therapy were offered surgery. Follow-up data were available for 72 (90%) patients. Of this group, 52.5%, (95% CI, 42.7%, 62.2%) failed to respond adequately to medical therapy and were offered surgery. The remaining patients (37.5%) were successfully treated with medical therapy and did not require surgery at the time of follow-up. The premedical therapy symptom scores were significantly higher than the postmedical therapy symptom scores (p < 0.01). The symptom scores of those patients postmedical therapy who proceeded to have surgery were significantly higher than the group who responded well to maximum medical therapy (MMT) and did not require surgery (p < 0.0001). There were no significant differences in the proportion of patients with asthma, aspirin sensitivity, or polyps between the groups failing or not failing MMT. In approximately one-third of patients with CRS, medical therapy improved symptoms sufficiently so that surgical therapy was avoided. Patients with more severe symptoms tended not to respond as well as those with less severe symptoms. Long-term follow-up is required for the group of responders to determine how many will eventually relapse.