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This is an article in the field of mineral processing engineering. Compared with foam flotation, the hydrophobic-hydrophilic two-liquid separation has a greater advantage in the recovery of ultra-fine particles (coal 30～50 μm, non-coal 10～20 μm). Based on oil agglomeration, Otiska process, displacement dehydration, dual-liquid flotation and low boiling point non-polar liquid recovery, a new kind of hydrophobic-hydrophilic dual-liquid separation technology (HHS) can promote the full fragmentation and redistribution of ultra-fine aggregates in the dual-phase system, so as to achieve the purpose of flooding water and ash reduction. In this article, the development of hydrophobic-hydrophilic separation in recent years was summarized and compared from the aspects of HHS coal preparation process, aggregate crushing theory, feasibility of hydrophobic liquid recovery, technological advantages compared with foam flotation and oil agglomeration, and dehydration of fine coal, in order to provide references for the further development.

Abstract Plants possess the ability to induce programmed cell death (PCD) in response to abiotic and biotic stresses; nevertheless, the evidence on PCD initiation during pear scald development and the involvement of the scald trigger 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one (MHO) in this process is rudimentary. Pyrus bretschneideri Rehd. cv. ‘Dangshansuli’ pear was used to validate such hypothesis. The results showed that superficial scald occurred after 120-d chilling exposure, which accompanied by typical PCD-associated morphological alterations, such as plasmolysis, cell shrinkage, cytosolic and nuclear condensation, vacuolar collapse, tonoplast disruption, subcellular organelle swelling, and DNA fragmentation. These symptoms were aggravated after MHO fumigation but alleviated by diphenylamine (DPA) dipping. Through transcriptome assay, 24 out of 146 PCD-related genes, which were transcribed during cold storage, were identified as the key candidate members responsible for these cellular biological alternations upon scald development. Among these, PbrCNGC1, PbrGnai1, PbrACD6, and PbrSOBIR1 were implicated in the MHO signaling pathway. Additionally, PbrWRKY2, 34 and 39 could bind to the W-box element in the promoter of PbrGnai1 or PbrSOBIR1 and activate their transcription, as confirmed by dual-luciferase, yeast one-hybrid, and transient overexpression assays. Hence, our study confirms the PCD initiation during scald development and explores the critical role of MHO in this process.

Abstract Co-thermal chemical conversion of coal and biomass is one of the important ways to realize efficient and clean utilization of coal. In this study, a typical Ningdong coal-Yangchangwan bituminous coal and cow manure were used to study the synergistic effect of intrinsic alkali, alkaline earth metals (AAEM) and organic matter on the co-gasification of coal and biomass by thermogravimetry analyzer (TG). The results showed that AAEM had obvious synergistic promotion effect on the gasification of a bituminous coal-cow manure mixture in the isothermal gasification (1000 ℃), whereas the organic matter will show the opposite effect on the process. To further investigate the effect of organic matter on the gasification process, the influence of organic matter on non-isothermal (25-1000 ℃) gasification reaction was investigated with heating rate of 10 ℃ /min, the kinetic parameters of the gasification reaction were obtained by Coats-Redfern method. The increase of biomass mass fraction in the sample facilitates the migration of alkali metals from the material to the solid phase. The possible mechanism of the synergistic effect of intrinsic AAEM/organic matter on the co-gasification process was proposed.

Abstract Background Numerous gene signatures predicting the prognosis of bladder cancer have been identified. However, a tumor-specific T cell signature related to immunotherapy response in bladder cancer remains under investigation. Methods Single-cell RNA and TCR sequencing from the Gene expression omnibus (GEO) database were used to identify tumor-specific T cell-related genes in bladder cancer. Subsequently, we constructed a tumor-specific T cell signature (TstcSig) and validated its clinical relevance for predicting immunotherapy response in multiple immunotherapy cohorts. Further analyses explored the immune characteristics of TstcSig in bladder cancer patients from other cohorts in the TCGA and GEO databases. Western blot (WB), multicolor immunofluorescence (MIF), qRT-PCR and flow cytometry assays were performed to validate the results of bioinformatics analysis. Results The established TstcSig, based on five tumor-specific T cell-related genes, could predict outcomes in a bladder cancer immunotherapy cohort. This was verified using two additional immunotherapy cohorts and showed better predictive performance compared to 109 published T cell signatures. TstcSig was strongly correlated with immune characteristics such as immune checkpoint gene expression, tumor mutation burden, and T cell infiltration, as validated by single-cell and spatial transcriptomics datasets. Notably, the positive correlation between TstcSig and T cell infiltration was confirmed in the TCGA cohort. Furthermore, pan-cancer analysis demonstrated the heterogeneity of the prognostic value of TstcSig. Tumor-specific T cells highly expressed CD27, IFNG, GZMB and CXCL13 and secreted more effector cytokines for tumor cell killing, as validated experimentally. Conclusion We developed a five-gene signature (including VAMP5, TIGIT, LCK, CD27 and CACYBP) based on tumor-specific T cell-related genes to predict the immunotherapy response in bladder cancer patients.

Glioma is the most prevalent primary malignant tumor of the central nervous system. While traditional treatment modalities such as surgical resection, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy have made significant advancements in glioma treatment, the prognosis for glioma patients remains often unsatisfactory. Ferroptosis, a novel form of programmed cell death, plays a crucial role in glioma and is considered to be the most functionally rich programmed cell death process. Histone deacetylases have emerged as a key focus in regulating ferroptosis in glioma. By inhibiting the activity of histone deacetylases, histone deacetylase inhibitors elevate acetylation levels of both histones and non-histone proteins, thereby influencing various cellular processes. Numerous studies have demonstrated that histone deacetylases are implicated in the development of glioma and hold promise for its treatment. This article provides an overview of research progress on the mechanism by which histone deacetylases contribute to ferroptosis in glioma.

The improvement of fault diagnosis for complex equipment is an important step towards intelligent systems. Unlike component-level fault detection, system-level fault diagnosis presents new challenges, such as the integration of multiple sensors, the handling of massive datasets, and the necessity for robust system-level decision-making. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a novel Physics-embedded Recurrent Graph Neural Network (Pe-RGNN). By embedding physical knowledge about the interdependencies among sensors, the graph constructed of sensors are built through physical knowledge obtaining from high-fidelity model. With the sensory graph, the parameters are modeled through recurrent graph neural network to extract the temporal information. The proposed model has the advantage of simultaneously considering both spatial and temporal information. Experimental results from both simulated and real-world tests demonstrate the superior performance of the Pe-RGNN in early fault detection and fault identification accuracy when compared to traditional graph neural networks. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating both physical knowledge and time-series information in fault diagnosis models.

IntroductionAlthough the effectiveness of pentoxifylline (PF) as a selective inhibitor of phosphodiesterase to enhance sperm motility through increasing cyclic nucleotide in cases of absolute asthenozoospermia has been demonstrated for ICSI, data related to babies born from the PF-ICSI are still severely lacking. Concerns have been raised regarding the potential embryotoxicity of PF due to the controversial results obtained from the analysis of this compound on animal embryo development. This study aimed to determine whether the application of PF to trigger frozen-thawed TESA (testicular sperm aspiration) spermatozoa increases the risk of adverse obstetric and neonatal outcomes compared with non-PF frozen-thawed TESA ICSI and conventional ICSI using fresh ejaculation.Materials and methodsA total of 5438 patients were analyzed in this study, including 240 patients underwent PF-TESA ICSI (ICSI using PF triggered frozen-thawed testicular spermatozoa), 101 patients underwent non-PF TESA ICSI (ICSI using frozen-thawed testicular spermatozoa) and 5097 patients underwent conventional ICSI using fresh ejaculation. Propensity score matching was executed to control the various characteristics of patients.ResultsNo significant differences in pregnancy outcomes were observed among the three groups (PF-TESA ICSI, non-PF TESA ICSI and conventional ICSI), including biochemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy, implantation, miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, multiple pregnancy, and live birth, following propensity score matching. Additionally, neonatal outcomes were found to be similar among the three groups, with no statistical differences observed in the birth defect, birth weight, gestational age, preterm birth, and early-neonatal death.Discussion and conclusionPF-ICSI may be an alternative treatment in patients using frozen-thawed testicular spermatozoa, resulting in comparable pregnancy and neonatal outcomes.

The perinuclear theca (PT) is a dense cytoplasmic web encapsulating the sperm nucleus. The physiological roles of PT in sperm biology and the clinical relevance of variants of PT proteins to male infertility are still largely unknown. We reveal that cylicin-1, a major constituent of the PT, is vital for male fertility in both mice and humans. Loss of cylicin-1 in mice leads to a high incidence of malformed sperm heads with acrosome detachment from the nucleus. Cylicin-1 interacts with itself, several other PT proteins, the inner acrosomal membrane (IAM) protein SPACA1, and the nuclear envelope (NE) protein FAM209 to form an ‘IAM–cylicins–NE’ sandwich structure, anchoring the acrosome to the nucleus. WES (whole exome sequencing) of more than 500 Chinese infertile men with sperm head deformities was performed and a CYLC1 variant was identified in 19 patients. Cylc1-mutant mice carrying this variant also exhibited sperm acrosome/head deformities and reduced fertility, indicating that this CYLC1 variant most likely affects human male reproduction. Furthermore, the outcomes of assisted reproduction were reported for patients harbouring the CYLC1 variant. Our findings demonstrate a critical role of cylicin-1 in the sperm acrosome–nucleus connection and suggest CYLC1 variants as potential risk factors for human male fertility.

Summary: While RNAs are soluble in vitro, their solubility may be altered when incorporated into some protein complexes inside the cell. The solubility phase transition of RNAs is thus indicative of changes in the function and activity of RNAs. Here, we present a protocol for the assessment of RNA solubility phase transition during Xenopus oocyte maturation. We describe steps for sample preparation, cell fractionation, RNA extraction, real-time PCR, and analysis of the obtained results.For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Hwang et al. (2023).1 : Publisher’s note: Undertaking any experimental protocol requires adherence to local institutional guidelines for laboratory safety and ethics.

Seawater intrusion significantly affects the microbial communities within coastal aquifers. Investigating the spatial distribution of groundwater microbial communities in coastal regions is crucial for understanding seawater intrusion. The primary objective of this study is to develop a novel microbial index-based method for detecting seawater intrusion. Groundwater microbial samples were collected and sent to the laboratory in the west coastal area of Longkou City, Shandong Province. By characterizing the microbial community within the whole interval of seawater intrusion into fresh groundwater and discussing the effects of salt-freshwater displacement intensities on groundwater microbial communities, including diversity, structure, and function, using indoor domestication experiments, we reveal the response of microorganisms to the seawater intrusion process under in situ environmental conditions. The results show that the microbial community diversity is highest in environments with a seawater mixing proportion (P(sm)) of 2.5% and lowest in those with a P(sm) of 75%. When considering species abundance and evolutionary processes, the microbial community structure is similar at higher P(sm) levels, while it is similar at lower P(sm) levels based on the presence or absence of species. Tenericutes, Flavobacteriia, Rhodobacterales, Flavobacteriales, Rhodobacteraceae, Flavobacteriaceae, Cohaesibacteraceae, and Cohaesibacter are significantly positively correlated with the P(sm). Strong salt-freshwater displacement enhanced the richness and evenness of the microbial community, whereas weak displacement showed the opposite trend. Strong displacement affects the functional profiles of the microbial community. This study effectively addressed the challenge of obtaining samples in coastal areas and also incorporated salt-freshwater displacement intensities, which can more comprehensively describe the microbial community characteristics within the groundwater of coastal aquifers.

In order to analyze the ground vibration responses induced by the dynamic loads in a tunnel, this paper proposes a new simplified tunnel–soil model. Specifically, based on the basic theory of the thin-layer method (TLM), the basic solution of three-dimensional layered foundation soil displacement was derived in the cylindrical coordinate system. The perfectly matched layer (PML) boundary condition was applied to the TLM. Subsequently, a tunnel–soil dynamic interaction analysis model was established using the volume method (VM) in conjunction with the TLM-PML method. The displacement frequency response function of the foundation soil around the tunnel foundation was derived. Finally, a ground vibration test under an impact load in a tunnel was carried out. The test and calculated results were compared. The comparison results show that the ground vibration acceleration response values within 25 m from the load are similar. Compared with the test results, the theoretical calculation results exhibit a decreasing trend in the range of 40–80 Hz between 25 and 60 m, with the maximum reduction being approximately one order of magnitude. In addition, the experimental comparison demonstrates that the model can be used to analyze the ground vibrations caused by underground loads.

Purple-fleshed sweetpotato (PFSP) (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam), whose flesh is purple to dark purple, is a special variety type of sweetpotato, which has the characteristics of food crop, industrial crop and medicinal crop. The storage root (SR) of PFSP is rich in anthocyanins, starch, protein, soluble sugar, mineral elements, polyphenol, dietary fiber and so on, which has balanced and comprehensive nutritional value. And in recent years, its unique nutritional elements are increasingly known for their health functions. At present, there is no article on the characteristics and quality analysis of industrial xz8 variety. To explore the influence of different environments on the processing quality of xz8, we selected nine regions (Xuzhou, Jiawang, Pizhou, Xinyi, Peixian, Sihong, Yanchen, Xiangyang and Tianshui) to measure its yield and quality changes. The data demonstrated that xz8 has a very consistent high yield performance. In Tianshui, the anthocyanins, protein and minerals contents were significantly higher and yield also above average. Moreover, the variety with the lowest starch content exhibited the best taste. On the basis of the above results, it suggested that quite practicable to promote xz8 cultivation and suitable for processing in these areas. Thus, our present findings improve our understanding of xz8 variety and provide the basis for the industrial production of PFSP with strong prospects for success.

Previous studies have revealed the miR164 family and the miR164-targeted NAC transcription factor genes in rice (Oryza sativa) and Arabidopsis that play versatile roles in developmental processes and stress responses. In wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), we found nine genetic loci of tae-miR164 (tae-MIR164 a to i) producing two mature sequences that down-regulate the expression of three newly identified target genes of TaNACs (TaNAC1, TaNAC11, and TaNAC14) by the cleavage of the respective mRNAs. Overexpression of tae-miR164 or one of its target genes (TaNAC14) demonstrated that the miR164-TaNAC14 module greatly affects root growth and development and stress (drought and salinity) tolerance in wheat seedlings, and TaNAC14 promotes root growth and development in wheat seedlings and enhances drought tolerance, while tae-miR164 inhibits root development and reduces drought and salinity tolerance by down-regulating the expression of TaNAC14. These findings identify the miR164-TaNAC14 module as well as other tae-miR164-regulated genes which can serve as new genetic resources for stress-resistance wheat breeding.

α-Dicarbonyl compounds (α-DCs) are commonly present in various foods. We conducted the investigation into concentration changes of α-DCs including 3-deoxyglucosone (3-DG), glyoxal (GO), and methylglyoxal (MGO) in fresh fruits and decapped commercial juices during storage at room temperature and 4 °C, as well as in homemade juices during storage at 4 °C. The studies indicate the presence of α-DCs in all samples. The initial contents of 3-DG in the commercial juices (6.74 to 65.61 μg/mL) are higher than those in the homemade ones (1.97 to 4.65 μg/mL) as well as fruits (1.58 to 3.33 μg/g). The initial concentrations of GO and MGO are normally less than 1 μg/mL in all samples. During storage, the α-DC levels in the fruits exhibit an initial increase followed by a subsequent decrease, whereas, in all juices, they tend to accumulate continuously over time. As expected, 4 °C storage reduces the increase rates of the α-DC concentrations in most samples. From the viewpoint of the α-DC contents, fruits and homemade juices should always be the first choice for daily intake of nutrients and commercial juices ought to be mostly avoided.

It is necessary to develop a health monitoring system (HMS) for complex systems to improve safety and reliability and prevent potential failures. Time-series signals are collected from multiple sensors installed on the equipment that can reflect the health condition of them. In this study, a novel interpretable recurrent variational state-space model (IRVSSM) is proposed for time-series modeling and anomaly detection. To be specific, the deterministic hidden state of a recursive neural network is used to capture the latent structure of sensor data, while the stochastic latent variables of a nonlinear deep state-space model capture the diversity of sensor data. Temporal dependencies are modeled through a nonlinear transition matrix; an automatic relevance determination network is introduced to selectively emphasize important sensor data. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm effectively captures vital information within the sensor data and provides accurate and reliable fault diagnosis during the steady-state phase of liquid rocket engine operation.

Detecting anomalies in large, complex systems is a critical and challenging task, and this is especially true for high-dimensional anomaly detection due to the underlying dependency structures among sensors. To incorporate the interrelationships among various sensors, a novel sparsity-constrained vector autoregressive moving average (scVARMA) model is proposed for anomaly detection in complex systems with multisensory signals. This model aims to leverage the inherent relationships and dynamics among various sensor readings, providing a more comprehensive and accurate analysis suitable for complex systems’ complex behavior. This research uses convex optimization to search for a parameterization that is sparse based on the principal of parsimony. This sparse model will not only contribute to meeting the real-time requirements of online monitoring strategies but also keeps the correlations among different sensory signals. The performance of the proposed scVARMA model is validated using real-world data from complex systems. The results affirm the superiority of the proposed scheme, demonstrating its enhanced performance and potential in practical applications.

Accurate prediction of remaining useful life (RUL) plays a significant role in ensuring the safe flight of aircraft. With the recent rapid development of deep learning, there has been a growing trend towards more precise RUL prediction. However, while many current deep learning methods are capable of extracting spatial features—those along the sensor dimension—through convolutional kernels or fully connected layers, their extraction capacity is often limited due to the small scale of kernels and the high uncertainty associated with linear weights. Graph neural networks (GNNs), emerging as effective approaches for processing graph-structured data, explicitly consider the relationships between sensors. This is akin to imposing a constraint on the training process, thereby allowing the learned results to better approximate real-world situations. In order to address the challenge of GNNs in extracting temporal features, we augment our proposed framework for RUL prediction with a Transformer encoder, resulting in the adaptive graph convolutional transformer encoder (AGCTE). A case study using the C-MAPSS dataset is conducted to validate the effectiveness of our proposed model.

Microalgae have great potential for remediating salt-affected soil. In this study, the microalgae species Coelastrella sp. SDEC-28, Dunaliella salina SDEC-36, and Spirulina subsalsa FACHB-351 were investigated for their potential to rehabilitate salt-affected soils. Nylon screens with optimal aperture sizes and layer numbers were identified to efficiently intercept and harvest biomass, suggesting a correlation between underflow capability and the tough cell walls, strong motility, and intertwining characteristics of the algae. Our investigations proved the feasibility of incorporating monosodium glutamate residue (MSGR) into soil extracts at dilution ratios of 1/200, 1/2000, and 1/500 to serve as the optimal medium for the three microalgae species, respectively. After one growth period of these three species, the electrical conductivities of the media decreased by 0.21, 1.18, and 1.78 mS/cm, respectively, and the pH remained stable at 7.7, 8.6, and 8.4. The hypotheses that microalgae can remediate soil and return profits have been verified through theoretical calculations, demonstrating the potential of employing specific microalgal strains to enhance soil conditions in eco-farms, thereby broadening the range of crops that can be cultivated, including those that are intolerant to saline–alkali environments.

There are hundreds of various sensors used for online Prognosis and Health Management (PHM) of LREs. Inspired by the fact that a limited number of key sensors are selected for inflight control purposes in LRE, it is practical to optimal placement of redundant sensors for improving the diagnosability and economics of PHM systems. To strike a balance between sensor cost, real-time performance and diagnosability of the fault diagnosis algorithm in LRE, this paper proposes a novel Optimal Sensor Placement (OSP) method. Firstly, a Kernel Extreme Learning Machine-based (KELM) two-stage diagnosis algorithm is developed based on a system-level failure simulation model of LRE. Secondly, hierarchical diagnosability metrics are constructed to formulate the OSP problem in this paper. Thirdly, a Hierarchy Ranking Evolutionary Algorithm-based (HREA) two-stage OSP method is developed, achieving further optimization of Pareto solutions by the improved hypervolume indicator. Finally, the proposed method is validated using failure simulation datasets and hot-fire test-run experiment datasets. Additionally, four classical binary multi-objective optimization algorithms are introduced for comparison. The testing results demonstrate that the HREA-based OSP method outperforms other classical methods in effectively balancing the sensor cost, real-time performance and diagnosability of the diagnosis algorithm. The proposed method in this paper implements system-level OSP for LRE fault diagnosis and exhibits the potential for application in the development of reusable LREs.

ObjectiveOur previous studies have demonstrated that Plasmodium immunotherapy (infection) has antitumor effects in mice. However, as a new form of immunotherapy, this therapy has a weakness: its specific killing effect on tumor cells is relatively weak. Therefore, we tested whether Plasmodium immunotherapy combined with gemcitabine (Gem), a representative chemotherapy drug, has synergistic antitumor effects.MethodsWe designed subcutaneously and intravenously implanted murine Lewis lung cancer (LLC) models to test the antitumor effect of Plasmodium chabaudi ASS (Pc) infection in combination with Gem treatment and explored its underlying mechanisms.ResultsWe found that both Pc infection alone and Gem treatment alone significantly inhibited tumor growth in the subcutaneous model, and combination therapy was more effective than either monotherapy. Monotherapy only tended to prolong the survival of tumor-bearing mice, while the combination therapy significantly extended the survival of mice, indicating a significant synergistic effect of the combination. In the mechanistic experiments, we found that the combination therapy significantly upregulated E-cadherin and downregulated Snail protein expression levels, thus inhibiting epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of tumor cells, which may be due to the blockade of CXCR2/TGF-β-mediated PI3K/Akt/GSK-3β signaling pathway.ConclusionThe combination of Pc and Gem plays a synergistic role in inhibiting tumor growth and metastasis, and prolonging mice survival in murine lung cancer models. These effects are partially attributed to the inhibition of EMT of tumor cells, which is potentially due to the blockade of CXCR2/TGF-β-mediated PI3K/Akt/GSK-3β/Snail signaling pathway. The clinical transformation of Plasmodium immunotherapy combined with Gem for lung cancer is worthy of expectation.

Mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) contribute to a variety of serious multi-organ human diseases, which are strictly inherited from the maternal germline. However, there is currently no curative treatment. Attention has been focused on preventing the transmission of mitochondrial diseases through mitochondrial replacement (MR) therapy, but levels of mutant mtDNA can often unexpectedly undergo significant changes known as mitochondrial genetic drift. Here, we proposed a novel strategy to perform spindle-chromosomal complex transfer (SCCT) with maximal residue removal (MRR) in metaphase II (MII) oocytes, thus hopefully eliminated the transmission of mtDNA diseases. With the MRR procedure, we initially investigated the proportions of mtDNA copy numbers in isolated karyoplasts to those of individual oocytes. Spindle-chromosomal morphology and copy number variation (CNV) analysis also confirmed the safety of this method. Then, we reconstructed oocytes by MRR-SCCT, which well developed to blastocysts with minimal mtDNA residue and normal chromosomal copy numbers. Meanwhile, we optimized the manipulation order between intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and SCC transfer and concluded that ICSI-then-transfer was conducive to avoid premature activation of reconstructed oocytes in favor of normal fertilization. Offspring of mice generated by embryos transplantation in vivo and embryonic stem cells derivation further presented evidences for competitive development competence and stable mtDNA carryover without genetic drift. Importantly, we also successfully accomplished SCCT in human MII oocytes resulting in tiny mtDNA residue and excellent embryo development through MRR manipulation. Taken together, our preclinical mouse and human models of the MRR-SCCT strategy not only demonstrated efficient residue removal but also high compatibility with normal embryo development, thus could potentially be served as a feasible clinical treatment to prevent the transmission of inherited mtDNA diseases.

Abstract Background Endometrial carcinoma (EC) is one of the most common female reproductive system tumors, which seriously threatens women's health. This preliminary study aimed to investigate the effects of quercetin on the EC cells and explore the potential mechanism. Methods In this study, the effects of quercetin on endometrial cancer HEC-1-A cells were studied by a series of cell biological methods, including CCK-8 detection of cell activity, Western blotting of ferroptosis-related proteins, apoptosis detection, reactive oxygen species (ROS) detection and other detections. Results Our results showed that quercetin inhibited the proliferation and migration of EC cells, induced cell apoptosis, and affected the cell cycle. Furthermore, the anti-tumor effect of quercetin was related to the induction of ferroptosis in the EC cells. Conclusions Our study shows quercetin may exert anti-tumor effects, which may be related to the regulation of ferroptosis. Our study provides evidence for the future treatment of EC with small molecule drugs.

As a critical food crop, sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) is widely planted all over the world, but it is deeply affected by Sweetpotato Virus Disease (SPVD). The present study utilized short tandem target mimic (STTM) technology to effectively up-regulate the expression of laccase (IbLACs) by successfully inhibiting the expression of miR397. The upstream genes in the lignin synthesis pathway were widely up-regulated by feedback regulation, including phenylalanine ammonialyase (PAL), 4-coumarate-CoAligase (4CL), hydroxycinnamoyl CoA:shikimatetransferase (HTC), caffeicacid O-methyltransferase (COMT), and cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD). Meanwhile, the activities of PAL and LAC increased significantly, finally leading to increased lignin content. Lignin deposition in the cell wall increased the physical defence ability of transgenic sweetpotato plants, reduced the accumulation of SPVD transmitted by Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius), and promoted healthy sweetpotato growth. The results provide new insights for disease resistance breeding and green production of sweetpotato.

BackgroundGround-glass opacities (GGOs) appearing in computed tomography (CT) scans may indicate potential lung malignancy. Proper management of GGOs based on their features can prevent the development of lung cancer. Electronic health records are rich sources of information on GGO nodules and their granular features, but most of the valuable information is embedded in unstructured clinical notes. ObjectiveWe aimed to develop, test, and validate a deep learning–based natural language processing (NLP) tool that automatically extracts GGO features to inform the longitudinal trajectory of GGO status from large-scale radiology notes. MethodsWe developed a bidirectional long short-term memory with a conditional random field–based deep-learning NLP pipeline to extract GGO and granular features of GGO retrospectively from radiology notes of 13,216 lung cancer patients. We evaluated the pipeline with quality assessments and analyzed cohort characterization of the distribution of nodule features longitudinally to assess changes in size and solidity over time. ResultsOur NLP pipeline built on the GGO ontology we developed achieved between 95% and 100% precision, 89% and 100% recall, and 92% and 100% F1-scores on different GGO features. We deployed this GGO NLP model to extract and structure comprehensive characteristics of GGOs from 29,496 radiology notes of 4521 lung cancer patients. Longitudinal analysis revealed that size increased in 16.8% (240/1424) of patients, decreased in 14.6% (208/1424), and remained unchanged in 68.5% (976/1424) in their last note compared to the first note. Among 1127 patients who had longitudinal radiology notes of GGO status, 815 (72.3%) were reported to have stable status, and 259 (23%) had increased/progressed status in the subsequent notes. ConclusionsOur deep learning–based NLP pipeline can automatically extract granular GGO features at scale from electronic health records when this information is documented in radiology notes and help inform the natural history of GGO. This will open the way for a new paradigm in lung cancer prevention and early detection.

Abstract The second polar body (PB2) transfer in assisted reproductive technology is regarded as the most promising mitochondrial replacement scheme for preventing the mitochondrial disease inheritance owing to its less mitochondrial carryover and stronger operability. However, the mitochondrial carryover was still detectable in the reconstructed oocyte in conventional second polar body transfer scheme. Moreover, the delayed operating time would increase the second polar body DNA damage. In this study, we established a spindle‐protrusion‐retained second polar body separation technique, which allowed us to perform earlier second polar body transfer to avoid DNA damage accumulation. We could also locate the fusion site after the transfer through the spindle protrusion. Then, we further eliminated the mitochondrial carryover in the reconstructed oocytes through a physically based residue removal method. The results showed that our scheme could produce a nearly normal proportion of normal‐karyotype blastocysts with further reduced mitochondrial carryover, both in mice and humans. Additionally, we also obtained mouse embryonic stem cells and healthy live‐born mice with almost undetectable mitochondrial carryover. These findings indicate that our improvement in the second polar body transfer is conducive to the development and further mitochondria carryover elimination of reconstructed embryos, which provides a valuable choice for future clinical applications of mitochondrial replacement.

Floating slab tracks (FSTs) are used to reduce the impact of vibration on precision instruments and historical relics along metro lines; however, ground vibration is universally amplified at the natural frequency of the tracks. In this study, a full-frequency control method that considers frequency matching for environmental vibrations, in combination with metro vibration sources and propagation paths, was developed based on the bandgap theory of the periodic structure. The effectiveness of this method was analysed by establishing a three-dimensional metro train–FST coupled model and a finite element analysis model of track bed–tunnel–soil–row piles. The results show that ground vibration can be reduced by approximately 3–5 dB at the natural frequency of the FST by adjusting the bandgap range of the periodic piles to 7–9 Hz, eliminating the adverse effect of vibration amplification at the natural frequency of the FSTs. The proposed control method shows good vibration control effects and can effectively minimise ground vibration in the full-frequency range.

Summary: Histone modification H3K27me3 is an important chromatin mark that plays vital roles in repressing expression of developmental genes. Here, we construct high-resolution 3D genome maps using long-read chromatin interaction analysis by paired-end tag sequencing (ChIA-PET) and characterize H3K27me3-associated chromatin interactions in an elite rice hybrid, Shanyou 63. We find that many H3K27me3-marked regions may function as silencer-like regulatory elements. The silencer-like elements can come into proximity with distal target genes via forming chromatin loops in 3D space of the nuclei, regulating gene silencing and plant traits. Natural and induced deletion of silencers upregulate expression of distal connected genes. Furthermore, we identify extensive allele-specific chromatin loops. We find that genetic variations alter allelic chromatin topology, thus modulating allelic gene imprinting in rice hybrids. In conclusion, the characterization of silencer-like regulatory elements and haplotype-resolved chromatin interaction maps provide insights into the understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying allelic gene silencing and plant trait controlling.

High efficiency microwave absorption (MA) materials with tunable electromagnetic (EM) features have been highly sought. However, it is still a challenge to achieve multi-bands absorption performance by simple optimizing the chemical composition of MA materials. Herein, a simple solvothermal method was used to embed magnetic Fe3O4 nanoclusters on MoS2 nanosheets, in which magnetic nanoclusters were quantitatively customized. More importantly, the MA frequency and MA properties of the material are highly tailored, and multi-bands absorption is achieved. The minimum reflection loss (RL) of Fe3O4/MoS2 composite reaches −87.24 dB and is about 4 times more than pure MoS2 nanosheets. The effective absorption bandwidth reaches 5.52 GHz (≤-10 dB). These desirable properties result from the introduction of appropriate magnetic Fe3O4 nanoclusters, which provide optimal synergistic effect of dielectric and magnetic losses. This result provides a feasible idea for designing high efficiency MA materials with tunable EM features in the future.

Background: Cortical reorganization and plasticity may compensate for structural damage in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). It is important to establish sensitive methods to measure these compensatory mechanisms, as they may be of prognostic value. Objective: To investigate the association between the degree of cortical plasticity and cognitive performance and to compare plasticity between MS patients and healthy controls (HCs). Methods: The amplitudes of the motor evoked potential (MEP) pre and post quadripulse stimulation (QPS) applied over the contralateral motor cortex served as measure of the degree of cortical plasticity in 63 patients with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) and 55 matched HCs. The main outcomes were the correlation coefficients between the difference of MEP amplitudes post and pre QPS and the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) and Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMT-R), and the QPSxgroup interaction in a mixed model predicting the MEP amplitude. Results: SDMT and BVMT-R correlated significantly with QPS-induced cortical plasticity in RRMS patients. Plasticity was significantly reduced in patients with cognitive impairment compared to patients with preserved cognitive function and the degree of plasticity differentiated between both patient groups. Interestingly, the overall RRMS patient cohort did not show reduced plasticity compared to HCs. Conclusions: We provide first evidence that QPS-induced plasticity may inform about the global synaptic plasticity in RRMS which correlates with cognitive performance as well as clinical disability. Larger longitudinal studies on patients with MS are needed to investigate the relevance and prognostic value of this measure for disease progression and recovery.

Abstract Background The daily cycling of plant physiological processes is speculated to arise from the coordinated rhythms of gene expression. However, the dynamics of diurnal 3D genome architecture and their potential functions underlying the rhythmic gene expression remain unclear. Results Here, we reveal the genome-wide rhythmic occupancy of RNA polymerase II (RNAPII), which precedes mRNA accumulation by approximately 2 h. Rhythmic RNAPII binding dynamically correlates with RNAPII-mediated chromatin architecture remodeling at the genomic level of chromatin interactions, spatial clusters, and chromatin connectivity maps, which are associated with the circadian rhythm of gene expression. Rhythmically expressed genes within the same peak phases of expression are preferentially tethered by RNAPII for coordinated transcription. RNAPII-associated chromatin spatial clusters (CSCs) show high plasticity during the circadian cycle, and rhythmically expressed genes in the morning phase and non-rhythmically expressed genes in the evening phase tend to be enriched in RNAPII-associated CSCs to orchestrate expression. Core circadian clock genes are associated with RNAPII-mediated highly connected chromatin connectivity networks in the morning in contrast to the scattered, sporadic spatial chromatin connectivity in the evening; this indicates that they are transcribed within physical proximity to each other during the AM circadian window and are located in discrete “transcriptional factory” foci in the evening, linking chromatin architecture to coordinated transcription outputs. Conclusion Our findings uncover fundamental diurnal genome folding principles in plants and reveal a distinct higher-order chromosome organization that is crucial for coordinating diurnal dynamics of transcriptional regulation.

For wireless communication systems with a long distance or severe interference, the insufficient transmit power limits the system performance. In this case, the maximum transmit power depends on the nonlinearity and the saturation region of the power amplifier (PA), which is referred to as a nonlinearity-constrained problem in this paper. To increase the transmit power as high as possible in a nonlinearity-constrained system, this paper proposes an autoencoder-based system to jointly optimize the modulation scheme and transmit power. The optimal solution can achieve a tradeoff between increasing the transmit power and reducing the nonlinear distortion. Meanwhile, the optimized signal constellation and the neural network-based receiver can effectively improve the capacity against nonlinear distortion. The simulation results indicate that the proposed method outperforms conventional methods in terms of symbol error rate (SER) and transmit power, and the SER of the proposed method is close to the SER lower bound of the nonlinear PA.

Although utilization of heterosis has largely improved the yield of many crops worldwide, the underlying molecular mechanism of heterosis, particularly for allopolyploids, remains unclear. Here, we compared epigenome and transcriptome data of an elite hybrid and its parental lines in three assessed tissues (seedling, flower bud, and silique) to explore their contribution to heterosis in allopolyploid B. napus. Transcriptome analysis illustrated that a small proportion of non-additive genes in the hybrid compared with its parents, as well as parental expression level dominance, might have a significant effect on heterosis. We identified histone modification (H3K4me3 and H3K27me3) variation between the parents and hybrid, most of which resulted from the differences between parents. H3K4me3 variations were positively correlated with gene expression differences among the hybrid and its parents. Furthermore, H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 were rather stable in hybridization and were mainly inherited additively in the B. napus hybrid. Together, our data revealed that transcriptome reprogramming and histone modification remodeling in the hybrid could serve as valuable resources for better understanding heterosis in allopolyploid crops.

IntroductionCrops are affected by various abiotic stresses, among which heat (HT) and drought (DR) stresses are the most common in summer. Many studies have been conducted on HT and DR, but relatively little is known about how drought and heat combination (DH) affects plants at molecular level.MethodsHere, we investigated the responses of sweetpotato to HT, DR, and DH stresses by RNA-seq and data-independent acquisition (DIA) technologies, using controlled experiments and the quantification of both gene and protein levels in paired samples.ResultsTwelve cDNA libraries were created under HT, DR, and DH conditions and controls. We identified 536, 389, and 907 DEGs in response to HT, DR, and DH stresses, respectively. Of these, 147 genes were common and 447 were specifically associated with DH stress. Proteomic analysis identified 1609, 1168, and 1535 DEPs under HT, DR, and DH treatments, respectively, compared with the control, of which 656 were common and 358 were exclusive to DH stress. Further analysis revealed the DEGs/DEPs were associated with heat shock proteins, carbon metabolism, phenylalanine metabolism, starch and cellulose metabolism, and plant defense, amongst others. Correlation analysis identified 6465, 6607, and 6435 co-expressed genes and proteins under HT, DR, and DH stresses respectively. In addition, a combined analysis of the transcriptomic and proteomic data identified 59, 35, and 86 significantly co-expressed DEGs and DEPs under HT, DR, and DH stresses, respectively. Especially, top 5 up-regulated co-expressed DEGs and DEPs (At5g58770, C24B11.05, Os04g0679100, BACOVA_02659 and HSP70-5) and down-regulated co-expressed DEGs and DEPs (AN3, PMT2, TUBB5, FL and CYP98A3) were identified under DH stress.DiscussionThis is the first study of differential genes and proteins in sweetpotato under DH stress, and it is hoped that the findings will assist in clarifying the molecular mechanisms involved in sweetpotato resistance to heat and drought stress.

In wheat production, appropriate flowering time and ideal plant architecture are the prerequisites for high grain yield. Alternative splicing (AS) is a vital process that regulates gene expression at the post-transcriptional level, and AS events in wheat have been found to be closely related to grain-related traits and abiotic stress tolerance. However, AS events and their biological roles in regulating flowering time and plant architecture in wheat remain unclear. In this study, we report that TaNAK1 undergoes AS, producing three splicing variants. Molecular characterization of TaNAK1 and its splicing variants demonstrated that all three protein isoforms have a conserved NB-ARC domain and a protein kinase domain, but the positions of these two domains and the length of the protein kinase domains are different among them, implying that they may have different three-dimensional structures and therefore have different functions. Further investigations showed that the two splicing variants of TaNAK1, TaNAK1.1 and TaNAK1.2, exhibited different expression patterns during wheat growth and development, while the other one, TaNAK1.3, was not detected. Subcellular localization demonstrated that TaNAK1.1 was mainly localized in the cytoplasm, while TaNAK1.2 was localized in the nucleus and cytoplasm. Both TaNAK1.1 and TaNAK1.2 exhibit protein kinase activity in vitro. Ectopic expression of TaNAK1.1 and TaNAK1.2 in Arabidopsis demonstrated that these two splicing variants play opposite roles in regulating flowering time and plant architecture, resulting in different seed yields. TaNAK1.2 positive regulates the transition from vegetative to reproductive growth, plant height, branching number, seed size, and seed yield of Arabidopsis, while TaNAK1.1 negatively regulates these traits. Our findings provide new gene resource for regulating flowering time and plant architecture in crop breeding for high grain yield.

We studied the effect of freeze–thaw on isoflavone composition in germinated soybeans, particularly the conversion of aglycones, the isoflavone monomers with high biological activity. Germinated soybeans were frozen at −20 °C, −80 °C, and −196 °C respectively, and then the frozen samples (-20 °C) were thawed at 4 °C, 10 °C, and 25 °C respectively. Results showed total isoflavone increased after germination. Aglycones content increased most at −20 °C, which increased about 24 times. The effect of thaw temperature and time indicated there were approximately 89 % glucosides forms converted to aglycones during freeze–thaw. Isoflavone conjugate-hydrolyzing β-glucosidase (ICHG) activity increased by 65.78 % (25 °C) and 59.14 % (48 h) with freeze–thaw. The cells of germinated soybeans were broken, promoting ICHG contact with glucosides and malonyl-glucosides. These results indicated that freeze–thaw greatly changed the content and profile of isoflavones, resulting in a sharp increase in the content of aglycones.

To understand the formation process of dough with different hydration levels upon mixing and the response of dough rheology, the dynamic evolution of gluten protein was tracked and quantified at morphological, structural, and molecular levels. Both macroscopical and microscopic distribution images showed that partial and full hydration induced quick formation of a more compact gluten network compared with limited hydration. Gluten network in highly hydrated samples was more susceptible to the formation and collapse induced by mechanical force. SE-HPLC results indicated significant depolymerization of glutenin macropolymer (GMP) in fully and partially hydrated samples. Sufficient mixing was accompanied by the increase of ionic and hydrogen bonds, while excessive mixing increased exposure of free -SH. Higher hydration level induced more ordered secondary structure. Correlation and principal component analysis revealed the patterns and dynamics of gluten evolution during dough formation with different hydration levels, and their contribution to the changes in dough modulus.

This work is developed to improve the current quality of e-commerce logistics services. From the perspective of multiple consumer psychology, based on e-commerce, consumer psychology, and other related theories, vegetable e-commerce B is selected as the research object. The commodity quality, accuracy, and timeliness of commodity distribution and other factors of e-commerce B are discussed through questionnaire survey. Then, according to customers’ opinions about “e-commerce B’s distribution and professional aspects that need to be improved,” the research is conducted. Finally, the direction of follow-up optimization is proposed from four different perspectives of multiple consumption psychology. The research results show that more than 89% of the surveyed customers believe that e-commerce B does a good job in terms of commodity quality, accuracy, and timeliness of commodity distribution, and has a high level of logistics service. However, 26.34% of customers hope that e-commerce B can strengthen the protection of personal privacy, 24.97% hope that the platform can add “delay insurance” for goods, and 39.54% hope that the logistics information of purchased goods can be updated in real time. Therefore, e-commerce B needs to be optimized and improved continuously in the future development. Therefore, research on the optimization of logistics service quality of e-commerce is performed under multiple consumption psychology, which provides certain help for the rapid development of subsequent e-commerce.

The safety of workers in modular construction remains a concern due to the dynamic hazardous work environments and unawareness of the potential proximity of equipment. To avoid potential contact collisions and to provide a safe workplace, workers’ trajectory prediction is required. With recent technology advancements, the study in the area of trajectory prediction has benefited from various data-driven approaches. However, existing data-driven approaches are mostly limited to considering only the movement information of workers in the workplace, resulting in poor estimation accuracy. In this study, we propose an environment-aware worker trajectory prediction framework based on long short-term memory (LSTM) network to not only take the individual movement into account but also the surrounding information to fully exploit the context in the modular construction facilities. By incorporating worker-to-worker interactions as well as environment-to-worker interactions into our prediction model, a sequence of the worker’s future positions can be predicted. Extensive numerical tests on synthetic as well as modular construction datasets show the improved prediction performance of the proposed approach in comparison to several state-of-the-art alternatives. This study offers a systematic and flexible framework to incorporate rich contextual information into the prediction model in modular construction. The observation of how to integrate construction data analytics into a single framework could be inspiring for further future research to support robust construction safety practices.

Fault diagnosis is essential for high energy systems such as liquid rocket engines (LREs) due to harsh thermal and mechanical working environment. In this study, a novel method based on one-dimension Convolutional Neural Network (1D-CNN) and interpretable bidirectional Long Short-term Memory (LSTM) is proposed for intelligent fault diagnosis of LREs. 1D-CNN is responsible for extracting sequential signals collected from multi sensors. Then the interpretable LSTM is developed to model the extracted features, which contributes to modeling the temporal information. The proposed method was executed for fault diagnosis using the simulated measurement data of the LRE mathematical model. The results demonstrate the proposed algorithm outperforms other methods in terms of accuracy of fault diagnosis. Through experimental verification, the method proposed in this paper was compared with CNN, 1DCNN-SVM and CNN-LSTM in terms of LRE startup transient fault recognition performance. The model proposed in this paper had the highest fault recognition accuracy (97.39%).

In this study, the functions of Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) on the synthesis of isoflavones in germinated soybean under UV-B radiation were investigated. Results showed that the activity, gene, and protein expression of NADPH oxidase were up-regulated by 1.46, 6.92, and 1.34 times with UV-B radiation, while endogenous H2O2 content was also significantly increased. UV-B radiation and exogenous H2O2 treatment significantly increased the activities, gene and protein expression of phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL), chalcone synthase (CHS), and isoflavone synthase (IFS) involved in isoflavones synthesis, and there was a synergistic effect with combining treatment. However, these up-regulation effects were suppressed by the supplementary diphenylene iodonium (DPI), which is the inhibitor of NADPH oxidase. Interestingly, the inhibition effect was largely reversed by exogenous H2O2, indicating that H2O2 was indispensable in regulating the isoflavones synthesis in germinated soybeans under UV-B radiation. Overall, H2O2 is an essential signaling molecule, mediating UV-B-induced isoflavone accumulation.

Abstract Background Microarray profiles of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) identified that long intergenic noncoding RNA 00221 (LINC00221) was upregulated. Herein, we aimed to identify the functional significance and underlying mechanisms of LINC00221 in HCC. Methods and results Human HCC samples had increased expression of LINC00221. Effects of LINC00221 on HCC cellular functions were analyzed using gain- and loss-function approaches. LINC00221 knockdown repressed HCC cell growth, migration, and invasion and enhanced their apoptosis. This anti-tumor effect was validated in vivo. Online prediction showed the potential binding relationship between LINC00221 and let-7a-5p, as well as that between let-7a-5p and matrix metalloproteinase 11 (MMP11). The results of luciferase, RNA immunoprecipitation, and RNA pull-down assays identified that LINC00221 interacted with let-7a-5p to increase expression of MMP11. Furthermore, we demonstrated that LINC00221 silencing increased let-7a-5p and inhibited MMP11 expression, thereby delaying the progression of HCC in vitro. Conclusions Silencing of LINC00221 could prevent HCC progression via upregulating let-7a-5p and downregulating MMP11. As such, LINC00221 inhibition presents a promising antitumor strategy for the treatment of HCC.

Abstract Background Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have been incorporated into various clinical oncology guidelines for systemic treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancers (aNSCLC). However, less than 50% (and 20%) of the patients responded to the therapy as a first (or second) line of therapy. PD-L1 immunohistochemistry (IHC) is an extensively studied biomarker of response to ICI, but results from this test have equivocal predictive power. In order to identify other biomarkers that support clinical decision-making around whether to treat with ICIs or not, we performed a retrospective study of patients with aNSCLC who underwent ICI-based therapy in the Mount Sinai Health System between 2014 and 2019. Methods We analyzed data from standard laboratory tests performed in patients as a part of the routine clinical workup during treatment, including complete blood counts (CBC) and a comprehensive metabolic panel (CMP), to correlate test results with clinical response and survival. Results Of 11,138 NSCLC patients identified, 249 had been treated with ICIs. We found associations between high neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR ≥ 5) and poor survival in ICI-treated NSCLC. We further observed that sustained high NLR after initiation of treatment had a more profound impact on survival than baseline NLR, regardless of PD-L1 status. Hazard ratios when comparing patients with NLR ≥ 5 vs. NLR

Kelvin’s model is widely used to simulate the dynamic characteristic of a resilient mat under a slab track. To develop an effective calculation model for a resilient mat using a solid element, a three-parameter viscoelasticity model (3PVM) was employed. With the help of the user-defined material mechanical behavior, the proposed model was implemented in software ABAQUS. To validate the model, a laboratory test was performed on a slab track with a resilient mat. Then, a finite element model of the track-tunnel-soil system was built. The calculation results using the 3PVM was compared with those using Kelvin’s model and the test results. The results indicate that the 3PVM can better reflect the dynamic characteristics of resilient mat than Kelvin’s model, especially over 10 Hz. Compared with the test results, the 3PVM has an average error of 2.7 dB and a max error of 7.9 dB at 5 Hz.

Dual-connectivity technology enables a base station to assign multiple carriers from various bands to a mobile station (MS), thus increasing its bandwidth and data rate. However, when the downlink frequency assigned to the MS is approximately twice its uplink frequency, the MS’s receiver will be seriously interfered by the nonlinear self-interference from its own transmitter. This paper addresses the problem of nonlinear self-interference cancelation for MSs operating in the dual-connectivity mode. Compared with conventional systems, this scenario faces some new challenges because of the wide variety of nonlinear interference components, including not only harmonics but also intermodulation products, and the more complicated interference channels, including both nonlinear and linear devices. In addition, the frequency, bandwidth and frequency-selective channel parameters of the interference are influenced by the uplink resource block allocation. To solve these problems, a two-part nonlinear self-interference canceler is proposed, where one part is designed as a neural network to capture the nonlinear characteristics, and the other part is designed as a linear filter to capture the linear characteristics. Furthermore, a low-complexity two-step training scheme is proposed to approximate the interference channel in the entire system bandwidth. Finally, a hardware prototype is implemented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. The experimental results show that the proposed scheme achieves more than 20 dB interference cancelation, and significantly outperforms the conventional polynomial-based and pure neural-network cancelation schemes.

Abstract In this study, sediments were collected from two different sites in the deep-sea hydrothermal region of the South Atlantic Ocean. Two microbial enrichment cultures (H7S and H11S), which were enriched from the sediments collected at two sample sites, could effectively degrade petroleum hydrocarbons. The bacterial diversity was analyzed by high-throughput sequencing method. The petroleum degradation ability were evaluated by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and gravimetric analysis. We found that the dominant oil-degrading bacteria of enrichment cultures from the deep-sea hydrothermal area belonged to the genera Pseudomonas, Nitratireductor, Acinetobacter, and Brevundimonas. After a 14-day degradation experiment, the enrichment culture H11S, which was obtained near a hydrothermal vent, exhibited a higher degradation efficiency for alkanes (95%) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (88%) than the enrichment culture H7S. Interestingly, pristane and phytane as biomarkers were degraded up to 90% and 91% respectively by the enrichment culture H11S, and six culturable oil-degrading bacterial strains were isolated. Acinetobacter junii strain H11S-25, Nitratireductor sp. strain H11S-31 and Pseudomonas sp. strain H11S-28 were used at a density ratio of 95:4:1 to construct high-efficiency oil-degrading consortium H. After a three-day biodegradation experiment, consortium H showed high degradation efficiencies of 74.2% and 65.7% for total alkanes and PAHs, respectively. The degradation efficiency of biomarkers such as pristane and high-molecular-weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (such as CHR) reached 84.5% and 80.48%, respectively. The findings of this study indicate that the microorganisms in the deep-sea hydrothermal area are potential resources for degrading petroleum hydrocarbons. Consortium H, which was artificially constructed, showed a highly efficient oil-degrading capacity and has significant application prospects in oil pollution bioremediation.

The effects of ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation on the physiological properties, phenolic acid accumulation, and dough-making quality of wheat during germination were investigated. UV-B radiation inhibited the wheat sprout length and reduced the dry matter loss. As phenolic acids were principally present in the kernels' bran, UV-B radiation could promote their accumulation in the interior of germinated wheat (GW). The total phenolic compounds, ascorbic acid, and antioxidant activity were also enhanced significantly during germination with UV-B. UV-B improved the development time, stability time, rheological properties, and viscosity of GW, and inhibited the α-amylase activity, the destruction of the amorphous region of starch particles, and the proteins degradation process during germination, and thus the deterioration of dough-making quality caused by germination was inhibited. Therefore, UV-B radiation could be a potential approach to enhance the nutritional and dough-making quality of germinated whole wheat flour.

The present study was undertaken to determine the scope of sweetpotato cultivation in arid regions of China. For this purpose, we investigated yield, anthocyanin compositions and physicochemical properties of starch in purple-fleshed sweetpotato (PFSP) “Xuzishu8” under humid (zi8-X) and arid (zi8-D) environments of China. The experiment was conducted in three replications in both environments during 2019 and 2020. The yield and anthocyanidins contents of PFSP were significantly higher in the arid conditions as compared to humid. Zi8-X and zi8-D both revealed the presence of three anthocyanidins, namely, cyanidin (Cy), peonidin (Pn), and pelargonidin (Pg). Cy and Pn accounted for 36.40 and 63.54% of the total anthocyanidins in zi8-X, while in zi8-D, they were found as 26.13 and 73.80%, respectively. The quantitative analysis of these anthocyanins was performed using HPLC-ESI-MS/MS which revealed eighteen anthocyanins such as nine Cy, eight Pn and one Pg. Out of which, eleven anthocyanins showed a significant difference under both conditions. Starch and amylopectin contents were found to be increased by 15.39 and 4.71%, respectively, while the amylose concentration was reduced by 15.54% under the arid environment. The diameter of the starch granule and the peak viscosity were significantly higher under arid as compared to humid conditions. On the basis of results of this study, it seems quite practicable to develop PFSP cultivation in desert regions.

Abstract Ferroelectric field effect transistor (FeFET) emerges as an intriguing non-volatile memory technology due to its promising operating speed and endurance. However, flipping the polarization requires a high voltage compared with that of reading, impinging the power consumption of writing a cell. Here, we report a CMOS compatible FeFET cell with low operating voltage. We engineer the ferroelectric Hf1-xZrxO2 (HZO) thin film to form negative capacitance (NC) gate dielectrics, which generates a counterclock hysteresis loop of polarization domain in the few-layered molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) FeFET. The unstabilized negative capacitor inherently supports subthermionic swing rate and thus enables switching the ferroelectric polarization with the hysteresis window much less than half of the operating voltage. The FeFET shows a high on/off current ratio of more than 107 and a counterclockwise memory window (MW) of 0.1 V at a miminum program (P)/erase (E) voltage of 3 V. Robust endurance (103 cycles) and retention (104 s) properties are also demonstrated. Our results demonstrate that the HZO/MoS2 ferroelectric memory transistor can achieve new opportunities in size- and voltage-scalable non-volatile memory applications.