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Simple Summary: The overgrowth of Cladophora poses a threat to aquatic environments and cultured animals. This study investigated the effects of nitrogen and phosphorus levels in sediment on the growth of Cladophora in aquaculture ponds, which is a significant issue affecting water quality and aquatic life. We conducted microecosystem experiments to simulate varying nutrient conditions, discovering that a nitrogen-to-phosphorus ratio of 40:1 negatively impacts Cladophora growth. Our findings also indicated that benthic cyanobacteria, which formed dense mats on the sediment surface, can inhibit the growth of Cladophora, showing a strong negative correlation between their coverage and the wet weight of Cladophora. Furthermore, we found that total nitrogen levels in the water have a positive relationship with phytoplankton biomass, while benthic cyanobacteria coverage is linked to phytoplankton biomass through its role in phosphorus absorption and nitrogen release. Metabolite analysis identified several key compounds in benthic cyanobacteria, although none were recognized as allelochemicals or toxins. This research offers new insights into managing Cladophora by considering sediment nutrients and their interactions with benthic cyanobacteria, which could be valuable for improving aquaculture practices and preserving aquatic ecosystems. To explore the impact of sedimentary nitrogen and phosphorus on Cladophora occurrence, we conducted a microecosystem experiment simulating different nitrogen and phosphorus content as well as nitrogen-to-phosphorus ratios in the sediment. Subsequently, to further explore the specific mechanism of influence that epiphytic algae have on Cladophora, we designed various microsystem culture experiments. These results revealed that an N/P ratio of 40:1 was relatively unfavorable for Cladophora growth. Additionally, there was an extremely significant negative correlation between the benthic cyanobacteria coverage on the sediment surface and the wet weight of Cladophora (p < 0.01), indicating that benthic cyanobacteria could inhibit the growth of Cladophora. Total nitrogen levels in the water column showed a significant positive correlation with phytoplankton biomass (p < 0.05), while benthic cyanobacteria coverage exhibited an extremely significant positive correlation with phytoplankton biomass through phosphorus absorption and nitrogen release (p < 0.01). Metabolite analysis of benthic cyanobacteria identified annotations for 313 metabolites; among them cis,cis-muconic acid (32.48‰), erucamide (9.52‰), phosphoric acid (6.97‰), fenpropidin (6.53‰), and propionic acid (5.16‰) accounted for proportions exceeding 5‰. However, none of these metabolites have been recognized as allelochemicals or toxins at present. This study provides novel insights into controlling Cladophora occurrence by considering sediment nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorus, along with allelochemicals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Revealing the mechanisms underlying soil microbial community assembly is a fundamental objective in molecular ecology. However, despite increasing body of research on overall microbial community assembly mechanisms, our understanding of subcommunity assembly mechanisms for different prokaryotic and fungal taxa remains limited. Here, soils were collected from more than 100 sites across southwestern China. Based on amplicon high‐throughput sequencing and iCAMP analysis, we determined the subcommunity assembly mechanisms for various microbial taxa. The results showed that dispersal limitation and homogenous selection were the primary drivers of soil microbial community assembly in this region. However, the subcommunity assembly mechanisms of different soil microbial taxa were highly variable. For instance, the contribution of homogenous selection to Crenarchaeota subcommunity assembly was 70%, but it was only around 10% for the subcommunity assembly of Actinomycetes, Gemmatimonadetes and Planctomycetes. The assembly of subcommunities including microbial taxa with higher occurrence frequencies, average relative abundance and network degrees, as well as wider niches tended to be more influenced by homogenizing dispersal and drift, but less affected by heterogeneous selection and dispersal limitation. The subcommunity assembly mechanisms also varied substantially among different functional guilds. Notably, the subcommunity assembly of diazotrophs, nitrifiers, saprotrophs and some pathogens were predominantly controlled by homogenous selection, while that of denitrifiers and fungal pathogens were mainly affected by stochastic processes such as drift. These findings provide novel insights into understanding soil microbial diversity maintenance mechanisms, and the analysis pipeline holds significant value for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose an over-penalized weak Galerkin (OPWG) finite element method for stationary convection-diffusion-reaction equations with full variable coefficients. This method employs piecewise polynomial approximations of degree $ k $ ($ k\geq 1 $) for both the scalar function and its trace. Especially, the trace on inter-element boundaries is approximated by double-valued functions instead of single-valued ones. The $ (\mathbb{P}_{k}, \mathbb{P}_{k},[\mathbb{P}_{k-1}]^{d}) $ elements, with dimensions of space $ d = 2,\; 3 $ are employed. Our method deals with the convective term discretized in a trilinear form, and the uniqueness of numerical solutions is discussed. Optimal error estimates in the discrete $ H^1 $-norm and $ L^2 $-norm are established, from which the optimal penalty exponent can be fixed. Numerical examples confirm the theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An error analysis of a mixed discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method with lifting operators as numerical fluxes for the time-harmonic Maxwell equations with minimal smoothness requirements is presented. The key difficulty in the error analysis for the DG method is that due to the low regularity the tangential trace of the exact solution is not well defined on the faces of the computational mesh. This difficulty is addressed by adopting the face-to-cell lifting introduced by Ern & Guermond (2021, Quasi-optimal nonconforming approximation of elliptic PDEs with contrasted coefficients and |$H^{1+r}$|⁠ , |$r>0$|⁠ , regularity. Found. Comput. Math. , 1–36). To obtain optimal local interpolation estimates, we introduce Scott–Zhang-type interpolations that are well defined for |$H(\textrm {curl})$| and |$H(\textrm {div})$| functions with minimal regularity requirements. As a by-product of penalizing the lifting of the tangential jumps, an explicit and easily computable stabilization parameter is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To determine the clinical significance of Ro52 protein/tripartite motif-containing 21 antibody and specific antinuclear antibody patterns using indirect immunofluorescence technique., Methods: The retrospective study was conducted at the clinical laboratory of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, China, and comprised data from January 2017 to December 2021 of patients who underwent antinuclear antibody and anti-extractable nuclear antigen antibody detection. Inpatients with Ro52 antibody-positive status were taken as the cases, while anti-Ro52 negative patients with clear clinical diagnosis were taken as the controls. Data was analysed using SPSS 19., Results: There were 1802 cases and 1211 controls. Positive Ro52 showed significantly greater frequency in patients with primary Sjogren's syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus, inflammatory myositis, dry eyes and interstitial lung disease (p<0.05). Ro52 antibody showed high positive predictive value for primary Sjogren's syndrome 25(96.15%), systemic lupus erythematosus 259(91.20%), connective tissue disease-associated interstitial lung disease 45(86.67%) and inflammatory myositis 60(86.67%). Antinuclear antibody indirect immunofluorescence patterns most frequently detected were nuclear speckled 128(40.89%) and cytoplasmic speckled 126(40.26%) (p<0.05). Interstitial lung disease was associated with the presence of cytoplasmic speckled antinuclear antibody indirect immunofluorescence pattern 24(19.2%), while tumours 47(36.5%) and hepatitis B 26(20.3%) seemed to be more frequent with nuclear speckled pattern (p<0.05). The simultaneous reactivity extractable nuclear antigen antibodies most frequently detected were antinuclear antibody+Ro52+anti-Sjogren's syndrome A+ 558(33.96%)., Conclusions: Ro52 antibody positivity was found to be associated with Sjogren's syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus, inflammatory myositis, dry eye and interstitial lung disease. The antinuclear antibody immunofluorescence pattern of Ro52 positive was single and primarily granular cytoplasm type. Antinuclear antibody negative and Ro52 positive in the serum of patients also had certain significance in auxiliary disease diagnosis.

Biological soil crusts (BSCs), a vital component of ecosystems, are pivotal in carbon sequestration, nutrient enrichment, and microbial diversity conservation. However, their impact on soil microbiomes in alpine regions remains largely unexplored. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the influence of BSCs on alpine grassland soil microbiomes, by collecting 24 pairs of soils covered by biological and physical crusts along a transect on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. We found that BSCs significantly increased the contents of soil moisture, organic carbon, total nitrogen, and many available nutrients. They also substantially altered the soil microbiomes. Specifically, BSCs significantly increased the relative abundance of Cyanobacteria, Verrucomicrobiota, and Ascomycota, while decreasing the proportions of Gemmatimonadota, Firmicutes, Nitrospirae, Mortierellomycota, and Glomeromycota. By contrast, microbial abundance and α-diversity demonstrated low sensitivity to BSCs across most study sites. Under the BSCs, the assembly of prokaryotic communities was more affected by homogeneous selection and drift, but less affected by dispersal limitation. Conversely, soil fungal community assembly mechanisms showed an inverse trend. Overall, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of the effects of BSCs on soil properties and microbial communities, offering vital insights into the ecological roles of BSCs., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of FEMS.)

Background: The accurate assessment of lymph node metastasis (LNM) is crucial for the staging, treatment, and prognosis of lung cancer. In this study, we explored the potential value of dual-layer spectral detector computed tomography (SDCT) quantitative parameters in the prediction of LNM in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)., Methods: In total, 91 patients presenting with solid solitary pulmonary nodules (8 mm < diameter ≤30 mm) with pathologically confirmed NSCLC (57 without LNM, and 34 with LNM) were enrolled in the study. The patients' basic clinical data and the SDCT morphological features were analyzed using the chi-square test or Fisher's exact test. The Mann-Whitney U -test and independent sample t -test were used to analyze the differences in multiple SDCT quantitative parameters between the non-LNM and LNM groups. The diagnostic efficacy of the corresponding parameters in predicting LNM in NSCLC was evaluated by plotting the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the independent predictive factors of LNM in NSCLC. Interobserver agreement was assessed using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and Bland-Altman plots., Results: There were no significant differences between the non-LNM and LNM groups in terms of age, sex, and smoking history. Lesion size and vascular convergence sign differed significantly between the two groups (P<0.05), but there were no significant differences in the six tumor markers. The SDCT quantitative parameters [SAR 40keV , SAR 70keV , Δ 40keV , Δ 70keV , CER 40keV , CER 70keV , NEF 40keV , NEF 70keV , λ, normalized iodine concentration (NIC) and NZ eff ] were significantly higher in the non-LNM group than the LNM group (P<0.05). The ROC analysis showed that CER 40keV , NIC, and CER 70keV had higher diagnostic efficacy than other quantitative parameters in predicting LNM [areas under the curve (AUCs) =0.794, 0.791, and 0.783, respectively]. The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that size, λ, and NIC were independent predictive factors of LNM. The combination of size, λ, and NIC had the highest diagnostic efficacy (AUC =0.892). The interobserver repeatability of the SDCT quantitative and derived quantitative parameters in the study was good (ICC: 0.801-0.935)., Conclusions: The SDCT quantitative parameters combined with the clinical data have potential value in predicting LNM in NSCLC. The size + λ + NIC combined parameter model could further improve the prediction efficacy of LNM., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://qims.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/qims-23-447/coif). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (2024 Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery. All rights reserved.)

In this study, we designed a wearable patch-type ECG sensor (WPES), which is mainly composed of the electrodes, an ECG acquisition unit, a Bluetooth unit, and a power supplies module. By using BMD101 chip as the core of ECG acquisition, the WPES can communicate with smart phones through Bluetooth low energy (BLE). The WEPS can be well used in monitoring epileptic seizure prediction, based on the advantages of simplification of circuits, miniaturization, low-power consumption, light-weight, convenience of wearing, high-comfort etc.