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Continued daily exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is linked to increasing risks of ocular surface diseases. However, further study is needed to understand how real-ambient PM2.5 disrupts the barrier function of the corneal epithelial layers and its underlying mechanism. In our study, we utilized a real-ambient PM2.5 exposure system to investigate its effects on the corneal epithelial barrier in C57BL/6Jmice over 4 and 8 weeks. The mean concentration of PM2.5 in the exposure chambers over 8 weeks was 140.18 μg/m3. Following 4 and 8 weeks of continuous PM2.5 exposure, we observed disorganized cellular arrangements in the corneal epithelium of mice. Moreover, PM2.5 exposure led to a significant loss of microvilli on the surface of corneal epithelial cells and noticeable disconnections among epithelial cell layers. Subsequent in vitro analysis revealed that 100 μg/mL PM2.5 activated the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in corneal epithelium, resulting in decreased expression 1.81 fold and 2.25 fold of E-cadherin and ZO-1, respectively, ultimately impairing the corneal epithelial barrier function. Our findings provide the knowledge base for promoting eye health in the context of atmospheric pollution.

Abstract We aimed to investigate the effects of Bacillus cereus YB1 on the growth, intestinal digestive enzyme activity, liver antioxidant enzyme activity, and intestinal tissue structure of juvenile black rockfish (Sebastes schlegelii). A 50‐day feeding experiment was conducted. Feeding was conducted in four diet groups: control group with no YB1 supplement in diet and three treatment groups E‐L, E‐M, and E‐H containing 105, 106, and 107 CFU/g YB1, respectively. The results revealed that the weight gain and specific growth rate of juvenile fish significantly increased, while the feed coefficient was reduced in all three diet treatment groups. This indicated that the growth of black rockfish was significantly and positively affected by YB1 feeding. Enzyme activity in the intestinal tract was not significantly affected by YB1. However, the activity of protease, amylase, and lipase increased because of YB1 treatment, except for the proteases in the E‐M diet group. Meanwhile, no significant differences were recorded in the activities of the antioxidant enzymes in liver, but the level of catalase, superoxide dismutase, and malondialdehyde activities in treatments shows a better performance compared with the control in overall perspective. Furthermore, the structural features of the intestine (i.e., number of intestinal villi, length of gut villi, and thickness of muscularis) was significantly elevated with the inclusion of B. cereus YB1 in the diet. These results reveal that dietary supplementation of B. cereus YB1 is beneficial to the boosting of enzymatic activities and structure of intestinal tissue as well as the antioxidative ability of liver tissue. Such findings suggest that fish growth would be improved under YB1 feeding conditions.

In the present study, the effect of the alternative magnetic field (AMF) on the metal pool shape, primary carbides formation, and mechanical properties during vacuum arc remelting (VAR) process was investigated by experiments and numerical simulations. Without AMF, the original depth of the molten pool was 87.74 mm. The application of the AMF decreased the depth of the metal pool, to various degrees (86.46 mm at 40 Gs 0.5 Hz, 78.96 mm at 40 Gs 0.1 Hz, 69.82 mm at 40 Gs 0.05 Hz). As a consequence, the primary carbides became more refined average size reduced by 20.66%∼25.72%. After modification, uniformly distributed hardness and improved wear resistance was achieved. Meanwhile, compared with 0.5 and 0.1 Hz cases, the strengthening effect was more obvious at 0.05 Hz. The numerical simulation results showed that, the AMF and the melting current in the molten steel produced Lorentz force, which caused the horizontal circulation. Therefore, the temperature of metal pool became more homogenized under the horizontal circulation. When the frequency was 0.05 Hz, the horizontal circulation in liquid steel was more intense, which makes the temperature field more uniform. Horizontal circulation can also reduce the segregation of alloying elements, which restrains the precipitation condition and refines primary carbides. The hardness uniformity can also be attributed to the uniform distribution of alloying elements. The improvement in wear resistance is attributed to the refinement of the primary carbide, thereby reducing the occurrence of primary carbide spalling during friction.

Cement-based materials in underground structures, bridge foundation, and offshore platforms often face sulfate environments. It has been widely reported that the compressive strength (CS) of these materials post sulfate attack is crucial for structural stability and durability. However, existing experimental and analytical methods require extensive resources and lengthy period. For addressing this challenge, therefore, a novel stacking model is proposed to accurately predict the CS of cement base under sulfate attack in this study. The stacking model integrates Support Vector Regression (SVR), Random Forest (RF), and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGB) as base learners, with Linear Regression (LR) as the meta-learner. In this novel model training, the 330 data sets used are obtained from the relevant literatures. The water-cement ratio, cement content, water content, sand content, sulfate concentration, wetting temperature, wetting time, drying temperature, drying time, exposure time are selected as inputs while the output is CS of cement-based materials subjected to sulphate deterioration. To improve the forecast capability, particle swarm optimization (PSO) is adopted for optimizing hyperparameters of stacking model, which can be implemented by reducing the discrepancy between model prediction and measured CS. By comparing with the results of experiments and the solely machine learning (ML) models, it is found that the stacking model optimized by PSO presents the best prediction accuracy of R²=0.992, RMSE=2.248 MPa, and MAE=1.782 MPa. Moreover, the examination of the influence of individual input variables on the CS of cement-based material subjected to sulfate attack is conducted through the application of Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) and Partial Dependence Plot (PDP) analyses. The PSO optimized stacking model proposed in this study can effectively predict the CS of cement-based materials under sulfate attack. Our study provides a new reference for future research in this field.

The growing atmospheric mercury (Hg) emissions in China have raised ongoing concerns regarding contamination in marine fish. To better understand the pollution patterns and associated risks, we examined methylmercury (MeHg) content in demersal and pelagic fish from four commonly found families in three geographically distinct bays along the Chinese coast. We identified significant spatial variations in MeHg levels within the same fish family across regions. Specifically, fish collected from the Beibu Gulf in the South China Sea consistently exhibited significantly higher MeHg levels compared to those from the Laizhou Bay in the Northeast and/or Haizhou Bay in the East of China. In contrast, MeHg levels in fish collected from Haizhou Bay consistently remained the lowest. Within each region, we observed significantly higher MeHg concentrations in demersal species compared to pelagic species. This trend was particularly evident in fish species including bartail flathead (Platycephalus indicus), small-scale tongue sole (Cynoglossus microlepis) and greater lizardfish (Saurida tumbil) from the Beibu Gulf (0.50, 0.21, and 0.18 mg/kg dw, respectively), as well as bartail flathead and slender lizardfish (Saurida elongata) from Laizhou Bay (0.09 and 0.12 mg/kg dw, respectively). By comparison, MeHg content in silver pomfret (Pampus argenteus) from all three regions consistently remained relatively lower than in other species. Using target hazardous quotient (THQ) calculations, we estimated potential health risks in local populations associated with the consumption of the studied fish species. Our results showed a lack of apparent health risks to local residents, as all THQ values obtained from the three regions fell within the safe limits (0.02–0.94). However, it remains important to conduct additional assessments and spatiotemporal monitoring that encompass a broader range of species and regions.

Sebastes schlegelii is a cold temperate ovoviviparous fish found near the seabed layer and is widely distributed in the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea of China, as well as in the coasts of South Korea and Japan. It is characterized by its tender meat, delicious taste, rich nutrition, and high medicinal value, thus it is an economically important marine fish species in the northern coastal areas of China. In recent years, deep-water cage cultures have rapidly developed in China. Among the economically important fish species suitable for cage culture in northern China, S. schlegelii is the most important local breed with excellent quality and characteristics. However, with the expansion of the scale of the aquaculture industry, aquaculture diseases including those caused by Vibrio harveyi, Vibrio anguillarum, and Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae, occur frequently. The authors isolated and identified a dominant pathogenic bacterium, the P5W of V. harveyi, from the lesions of diseased S. schlegelii and studied the response of S. schlegelii to V. harveyi infection. Multitissue transcriptome analysis screened the immune differential gene protein kinase B. Protein kinase B, also known as Akt protein, is a serine or threonine protein kinase, which mainly conducts signal transduction by phosphorylating other proteins. It plays an important role in various biological processes such as cell metabolism, transcriptional regulation, cell cycle regulation, immune defense, and embryonic development. Many studies have shown that during viral infection of cells, the Akt pathway is activated, thereby inhibiting viral proliferation. To clarify the sequence information, evolutionary characteristics, and biological functions of the Akt gene in S. schlegelii and to understand the immune response mechanism of S. schlegelii to bacterial invasion, the full-length cDNA of the SsAkt gene was obtained using molecular biology, and the sequence characteristics, tissue expression rules of the gene, and the response rules to Micrococcus luteus and V. anguillarum were studied. The results showed that the length of the open reading frame was 1 440 bp. The predicted relative molecular mass of the SsAkt protein was 55.80 kDa and the isoelectric point was 5.64. Sequence analysis revealed that the SsAkt protein contains three conserved domains: the PH domain (residues 6–109), serine/threonine protein kinase catalytic (S_TKc) domain (residues 148–405), and serine/threonine protein kinase (S_TK_X) domain (residues 406–475). The conserved amino acid site appears in the center of the S_TKc domain and at the end of the S_TK_ X domain: Thr305 and Ser472. Homologous alignment showed that the amino acid sequence of this gene was highly conserved among different species. Phylogenetic tree analysis showed that SsAkt is closely related to Akt in vertebrates, such as Sebastes umbrosus, Lates calcarifer, Larimichthys crocea, and Cyprinus carpio. The relative expression of SsAkt in different tissues of S. schlegelii was detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR. The results showed that SsAkt was expressed in all tested healthy tissues of S. schlegelii, which indicated the relative expression of the SsAkt gene in S. schlegelii. This expression has distinct tissue specificity. The expression of SsAkt in the kidney is the highest, and in the blood and brain, it is also higher than that in other tissues. Therefore, it is speculated that higher expression of SsAkt in the kidney and brain is closely related to immune defense, neurodevelopment, and other processes. To study the role of SsAkt in the immune response of S. schlegelii, we designed a bacterial challenge experiment. The results showed that the transcription level of SsAkt changed significantly, and the relative expression of SsAkt in the three tissues increased after stimulation with M. luteus and V. anguillarum compared with the control group (PBS). After infection with M. luteus, its expression only increased sharply in the kidney, whereas its expression increased slowly in the blood and liver. In the experimental group infected with V. anguillarum, the expression increased significantly in the liver and kidney, and the two relative expression peaks in the kidney occurred at 12 h and 72 h after infection, respectively. The results revealed that the SsAkt gene may play an important role in the immune defense of S. schlegelii, which can further enrich the sequence information and evolutionary data of the Akt gene in marine fish and provide reference materials for an in-depth study of the biological function of this gene. In follow-up experiments, we will explore the specific mechanism of SsAkt in the innate immune defense of S. schlegelii to provide theoretical guidance for the study of the immune signaling pathway of S. schlegelii and to lay a theoretical foundation for revealing the role of SsAkt in other important biological functions in growth and development.

In the grinding process, the metamorphic layer difference from the workpiece material is created on the grinding top surface, and its properties can greatly affect the bearing surface yield strength. In this study, the phase content and grain size distribution of 8Cr4Mo4V with the metamorphic layer were detected using advanced surface observation tools, and the influence of grinding process parameters on the microstructure of the metamorphic layer was considered at the same time. In addition, based on the modeling of the observed metamorphic layer with gradient microstructure distribution, tensile simulations of the metamorphic layer were performed by the crystal plasticity finite element method to investigate the effects of different grain size, phase content, and surface texture strength on its mechanical property like yield strength. Furthermore, the yield strength of the metamorphic layer was characterized by the nanoindentation technique. Finally, it was found that the grinding process parameters affected the microstructure and distribution of the metamorphic layer and thus changed its yield strength, and this study which combines the experiment and simulation aimed to quantitatively analyze the influence of different microstructures on the metamorphic layer.

Rapeseed–rice rotation is a cropping system that improves the land-use rate. The present study conducted a field experiment with winter planting of rapeseed as treatment (WR) and winter fallow as control (CK) to investigate the effects of winter planting of rapeseed on growth, yield formation, and 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (2-AP) biosynthesis of fragrant rice in the two subsequent cropping seasons. The results show that WR treatment improved alkali-hydro nitrogen and rapidly available phosphorus contents in soil. Compared with CK, WR treatment significantly increased grain yield and effective panicle number per plant by 21.16–27.26% and 7.33–21.24%, respectively. Higher net photosynthetic rate, leaf area index, and dry matter accumulation of fragrant rice plants were recorded in WR treatment and CK. Furthermore, compared with CK, WR treatment significantly increased grain 2-AP content, which could be explained by increased content of pyrroline-5-carboxylic acid, methylglyoxal, 1-pyrroline, and enhanced activity of proline dehydrogenase. In addition, future studies should be conducted at a molecular level to reveal the regulation mechanism in 2-AP biosynthesis of fragrant rice under conditions of winter planting of rapeseed.

Random matrix series are a significant component of random matrix theory, offering rich theoretical content and broad application prospects. In this paper, we propose modified versions of tail bounds for random matrix series, including matrix Gaussian (or Rademacher) and sub-Gaussian and infinitely divisible (i.d.) series. Unlike present studies, our results depend on the intrinsic dimension instead of ambient dimension. In some cases, the intrinsic dimension is much smaller than ambient dimension, which makes the modified versions suitable for high-dimensional or infinite-dimensional setting possible. In addition, we obtain the expectation bounds for random matrix series based on the intrinsic dimension.

Marine fish are rich in minerals (calcium and iron), vitamins (riboflavin and niacin), nutrients that are beneficial for brain (fatty acids), docosahexaenoic acid that prevent cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and are an important source of protein for humans. In recent years, the nexus between the increased demand of high-quality protein and the decrease in marine fishery resources resulted in the intensification of marine farming. However, this high-density farming has led to various bacterial diseases frequently due to lack of disease control methods, which has caused economic losses in the farming industry and impeded the healthy development of the industry. Therefore, it is particularly important to reduce the rates of bacterial diseases and improve the survival rate of cultured fish. It is of particular concern on how to maintain intestinal health of cultured fish under this farming method. Probiotics, a kind of living microorganisms, are beneficial to the health of the host. In the 1980s, probiotics have been viewed as an environmentally friendly and effective product in aquaculture; they improve the host health by influencing intestinal microbiota and nonspecific immunity to increase disease resistance ability. Moreover, they can be used as an ideal substitute for antibiotics in aquaculture production. Probiotics from Bacillus, lactic acid bacteria, saccharomyces, and nitrobacteria are diverse, and the function of each varies widely. As the typical representative of probiotics, lactic acid bacteria, may inhibit the growth of pathogens by the production of its metabolites, such as lactic acid, acetic acid, peroxide hydrogen, and bacteriocin. Lactic acid bacteria are also able to balance intestinal microecological imbalance and maintain intestinal microbiota balance when the intestinal microbiota contains pathogenic bacteria or the host is treated with antibiotics. Bacillus is an aerobic or facultative anaerobic gram-positive bacteria, which is stable, possesses strong stress resistance and high resurrection rate, and can produce various macromolecules, such as proteases and amylases and thus can improve the digestive function of the host by promoting the absorption of nutrients. Furthermore, as a non-specific immune antigen, Bacillus can improve the immune resistance of the host by stimulation of the components of cells or cell walls. The application of lactic acid bacteria and Bacillus has demonstrated favorable results, but this has been limited in marine fish culture because the non-fish origin of some strains and the different specificity of strains for different fish species or the same growth stage make their application difficult. Thus, it is essential to develop marine fish-derived probiotics, analyze their characteristics, define growth conditions, verify safety effects, and determine dosage and methods for their administer in marine fish culture. In this study, probiotics from marine fish were screened for the development of microbial ecological agents; 80 strains of culturable bacteria were obtained by separating bacteria from the mucosa samples of the digestive tract of wild Sebastes schlegelii and Hexagrammos otakii. The enzyme-producing ability of the strains was determined using a selective culture medium. The common pathogenic bacteria infecting marine fish were selected as indicator bacteria to determine the antibacterial activity of the isolated strains. Two potential probiotics, strains TS2 and TH8, were screened, and their physiological and biochemical identification, 16S rDNA sequence, growth characteristics, and host safety were determined. The results showed that TS2 had the strongest ability to hydrolyze starch, protein, and fat, and its sterile culture products could significantly inhibit the growth of Vibrio anguillarum, V. parahaemolyticus, V. Harvey, and Pseudoalteromonas nigrifaciens. TH8 has the strongest ability to hydrolyze protein and fat, and its sterile culture products could significantly inhibit the growth of V. anguillarum, V. alginolyticus, V. parahaemolyticus, P. nigrifaciens, Aeromonas hydrophila, Staphyloccocus aureus, and Escherichia coli. According to the analysis of the physiological and biochemical characteristics of the bacteria and 16S rDNA sequence alignment analysis, strain TS2 was identified as Bacillus subtilis and strain TH8 as Vagococcus fluvialis. Strain TS2 showed significant growth at 15–40 ℃, sodium chloride concentration of 0–0.08 g/L, and pH of 5–9; it entered the logarithmic phase after 6 h and the stable phase after 26 h. TH8 grew rapidly at 20–40 ℃, sodium chloride concentration of 0–0.08 g/L, and pH of 5–12; it entered the logarithmic phase after 2 h and the stable phase after 14 h. The safety of strains TS2 and TH8 was analyzed on a homologous host, and it was found that the strains were relatively safe for the homologous host at the concentration of 108 CFU/mL. The screened B. subtilis TS2 and V. fluvialis TH8 strains have a strong enzyme production ability and inhibit the growth of various pathogens by their metabolites; they have the following advantages: Wide temperature and salt tolerance, acid and alkali resistance, and fast growth speed. Thus, they could be considered as potential probiotic candidates for the development of microbial pharmaceuticals and can be used in more applications in marine aquaculture.

Anthraquinone is a redox mediator that can effectively catalyze the degradation of azo dyes by promoting the electron transfer. In this study, a mediator membrane with poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) as the membrane support and 1,8-dichloroanthraquinone (1,8-AQ) and graphene oxide (GO) as the additives was prepared and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and water contact angle. The introduction of GO increases the pure water flux of the membrane to 258.56±12.93 L/(m2·h). Its catalytic performances for the biodegradation of azo dyes were evaluated. Under the optimized conditions, the 1,8-AQ/GO/PVDF composite membrane is able to improve the dye degradation efficiency 2.2 times for reactive red X-3B and 1.1 times for acid red B, as compared with PVDF membrane. In addition, the mediator membrane maintains stable and high catalytic efficiency in the cyclic test and over 90 % dye degradation efficiency is still obtained after 5 cycles of decolorization. These results suggest the great application potentials of the 1,8-AQ/GO/PVDF membrane in the dye wastewater treatment.

It is generally recognized in current research that asphalt binder is composed of four components, i.e., saturates, aromatics, resins and asphaltenes, and the physicochemical properties of asphalt binder are closely related to the properties of the components. In this paper, solvent precipitation and chromatographic column method were used to extract and separate a sufficient amount of four components, and different components were recombinant according to the original ratio to form components recombinant materials. Using Fourier Transform Infrared, dynamic shear rheometer and differential scanning calorimetry to characterize the chemical composition and low temperature rheological properties of single component and components recombinant materials, including amplitude sweeping, temperature sweeping, time sweeping temperature-frequency sweeping and relaxation test. The response of the material to the physical hardening effect at low-temperature isothermal storage was also explored. The test results show that, within the test temperature range, the aromatics does not produce physical hardening effect, while the saturates and resins produced a certain degree of physical hardening effect. The free volume, phase angle, and complex shear modulus have different response times to the physical hardening effect, so the free volume theory alone is not sufficient to explain the physical hardening effect. This paper proposes to use the method of area integral to evaluate the degree of response of materials to physical hardening, and to rank the materials.

Quercetin (QR) is a natural flavonol compound widely distributed in the plant kingdom with extensive pharmacological effects. To find the potential clinical indications of QR, 156 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) regulated by QR were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database, and new potential pharmacological effects and clinical indications of QR were repurposed by integrating compounds with similar gene perturbation signatures and associated-disease signatures to QR based on the Connectivity Map and Coexpedia platforms. The results suggested QR has mainly potential therapeutic effects on multiple sclerosis (MS), osteoarthritis, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and acute leukemia. Then, MS was selected for subsequent animal experiments as a representative potential indication, and it found that QR significantly delays the onset time of classical MS model animal mice and ameliorates the inflammatory infiltration and demyelination in the central nervous system. Combined with network pharmacology technology, the therapeutic mechanism of QR on MS was further demonstrated to be related to the inhibition of the expression of inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β, IFN-γ, IL-17A, and IL-2) related to TNF-α/TNFR1 signaling pathway. In conclusion, this study expanded the clinical indications of QR and preliminarily confirmed the therapeutic effect and potential mechanism of QR on MS.

Abstract The proposed fall detection approach is aimed at building a support system for the elders. In this work, a method based on human pose estimation and lightweight neural network is used to detect falls. First, the OpenPose is used to extract human keypoints and label them in the images. After that, the modified MobileNetV2 network is used to detect falls by integrating both human keypoint information and pose information in the original images. The above operation can use the original image information to correct the deviation in the keypoint labeling process. Through experiments, the accuracy of the proposed method is 98.6% and 99.75% on the UR and Le2i datasets, which is higher than the listed comparison methods.

A large number of tidal flats around Pulandian Bay have gradually been developed into cofferdam ponds of Sea Cucumber and shellfish, which have resulted in a series of problems such as shrinking natural coastlines and blocking water exchange channels in Pulandian Bay. One of the important means is to restore the hydrologic and hydrodynamic conditions by widening the water exchange channel in this Bay. In this paper, the MIKE21 model was used to simulate the distribution characteristics of tidal current in the Pulandian Bay. Based on the simulation and verification for tidal levels and tidal velocities, the hydrodynamics of Pulandian Bay were compared under the different conditions before and after the project. The results showed that the increase of tidal current velocity was about 0.3 ~ 0.4 m/s inside of the culture cofferdam removal area, and the removal of the cofferdam had some influence on these areas within 1.5 km. However, it had no effect on the flow field of other areas far away from Pulandian Bay in distant Jinzhou Bay and the open sea. The removal of the culture cofferdam broadened the water areas of Pulandian Bay and increased the ebb and flow velocities in this bay, the tidal prism was increased by 8.535% after the project. The flow field in the north side of removal area showed obvious tidal flat characteristics, which was beneficial to the nutrient exchange for habitat of salt marsh plants and marine life.

Abstract Background Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a metabolically perturbed pathological condition. However, the knowledge of metabolic signatures on outcomes of CAD and their potential causal effects and impacts on left ventricular remodeling remains limited. We aim to assess the contribution of plasma metabolites to the risk of death and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) as well as left ventricular remodeling. Results In a prospective study with 1606 Chinese patients with CAD, we have identified and validated several independent metabolic signatures through widely-targeted metabolomics. The predictive model respectively integrating four metabolic signatures (dulcitol, β-pseudouridine, 3,3ʹ,5-Triiodo-l-thyronine, and kynurenine) for death (AUC of 83.7% vs. 76.6%, positive IDI of 0.096) and metabolic signatures (kynurenine, lysoPC 20:2, 5-methyluridine, and l-tryptophan) for MACE (AUC of 67.4% vs. 59.8%, IDI of 0.068) yielded better predictive value than trimethylamine N-oxide plus clinical model, which were successfully applied to predict patients with high risks of death (P = 0.0014) and MACE (P = 0.0008) in the multicenter validation cohort. Mendelian randomisation analysis showed that 11 genetically inferred metabolic signatures were significantly associated with risks of death or MACE, such as 4-acetamidobutyric acid, phenylacetyl-l-glutamine, tryptophan metabolites (kynurenine, kynurenic acid), and modified nucleosides (β-pseudouridine, 2-(dimethylamino) guanosine). Mediation analyses show that the association of these metabolites with the outcomes could be partly explained by their roles in promoting left ventricular dysfunction. Conclusions This study provided new insights into the relationship between plasma metabolites and clinical outcomes and its intermediate pathological process left ventricular dysfunction in CAD. The predictive model integrating metabolites can help to improve the risk stratification for death and MACE in CAD. The metabolic signatures appear to increase death or MACE risks partly by promoting adverse left ventricular dysfunction, supporting potential therapeutic targets of CAD for further investigation. Graphical Abstract

Based on the radar equation and system noise characteristics, the maximum detection range model of a space debris laser ranging system at a 1064 nm wavelength is established, taking into account the factors of atmospheric transmission and sky background radiance. Through theoretical analysis and simulation experiments, the influencing factors of atmospheric transmission and sky background radiance are studied, and the influencing factors are normalized into the maximum detection range model by polynomial fitting. The results indicate that a high atmospheric transmission comes from a high altitude and low target zenith angle; a low sky background radiance comes from a small target zenith angle and low solar altitude angle, while the angular distance has no obvious influence on the sky background radiance. The experimental results indicate that the comprehensive accuracy of the maximum detection range model of the system is 86%, and the effectiveness of the model is verified by using a 1064 nm wavelength laser ranging for the debris target with a distance of 700–1100 km and a cross section area of 4–10 m2. The model can be used to evaluate the ability of the space debris laser ranging system at a 1064 nm wavelength.

Intestinal bacteria, synchronized with diet and feeding time, exhibit circadian rhythms and anticipate host gut function; however the effect of dietary probiotics on gut bacterial diurnal rhythms remains obscure. In this study, bacteria were sequenced at 6 Zeitgeber times (ZT) from a pig model of ileal T-shaped fistula to test ileal bacterial composition and circadian rhythms after Lactobacillus delbrueckii administration. The results showed that dietary L. delbrueckii enhanced ileal bacterial α-diversity at Zeitgeber time (ZT) 16, evidenced by an increased Simpson index compared with control pigs. At the phylum level, Firmicutes was identified as the largest phyla represented in pigs, but dietary L. delbrueckii only increased the abundance of Tenericutes at ZT16. At the genus level, 11/100 genera (i.e., Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, Leptotrichia, Pediococcus, Bifidobacte, Cellulosilyticum, Desulfomicrobium, Sharpea, Eubacterium, Propionivibrio, and Aerococcus) were markedly differentiated in L. delbrueckii-fed pigs and the effect was rhythmicity-dependent. Meanwhile, dietary L. delbrueckii affected six pathways of bacterial functions, such as membrane transport, metabolism of cofactors and vitamins, cell motility, the endocrine system, signaling molecules and interaction, and the nervous system. Cosinor analysis was conducted to test bacterial circadian rhythm in pigs, while no significant circadian rhythm in bacterial α-diversity and phyla composition was observed. Lactobacillus, Terrisporobacter, and Weissella exhibited significant rhythmic fluctuation in the control pigs, which was disturbed by probiotic exposure. In addition, dietary L. delbrueckii affected circadian rhythms in ileal Romboutsia, Erysipelatoclostridium, Cellulosilyticum, and Eubacterium abundances. Dietary L. delbrueckii affected both ileal bacterial composition and circadian rhythms, which might further regulate gut function and host metabolism in pigs.

Salt-marsh plants play important roles in the hydrodynamics and sediment transport and deposition processes in coastal regions. The Delft3D model was applied to quantify the influence of salt-marsh plants on the hydrodynamic characteristics and suspended sediment transport of a coastal wetland, and to reveal the contribution of plants in trapping sediment in the local area. Specifically, the spatial distributions of salt-marsh plants were acquired from remote sensing images and coupled with the Delft3D model. A comparison showed that the modeled results and observed data fit very well. The model results indicated that salt marsh plants had a negligible effect on tidal level, but they did significantly affect flow velocity and tidal flux, as indicated by the obvious slow-flow zones in vegetated belts. Phragmites australis attenuated the flow velocity more than Suaeda heteroptera. We also found that the suspended sediment concentration was lower in P. australis and S. heteroptera areas because the resistance created by vegetation prevented sediment from being resuspended and helped trap suspended sediment. Numerical experiments further confirmed that the suspended sediment flux was obviously different with and without vegetation. The interception of suspended sediment by salt marsh plants could reduce the suspended sediment by more than 60%.

Predicting net river fluxes is important to promote good water quality, maritime transport, and water exchange in estuaries. However, few studies have observed and evaluated net water fluxes to estuaries under complex conditions. This study used advanced survey techniques to obtain high-frequency monitoring data of cross-sectional current velocity, water level, and salinity in the Liao River Estuary (LRE) from 2017 to 2020. The net water flux into the sea was computed based on field data and the impacts of the rubber dam and sea ice cover on water flux and salinity processes were analyzed in the study region. In the Liao River Station (LRS), the fluctuations of water level and discharge were not obvious in winter due to the sea ice cover. There were significant seasonal and inter-annual changes in water fluxes due to variability in river discharge and tidal oscillations. The results also showed that the net water flux into the sea from the LRS was positive in wet season, and greater during ebb tides than flood tides. The net water fluxes in the normal and dry seasons were mostly negative due to the influence of tides, indicating that the annual runoff from the Liao River fluctuated greatly throughout the year. The water flux in the LRS was more suitable for representing water flux into the sea than the Liujianfang Hydrometric Station (LHS) in the LRE. The impacts of the rubber dam and Panshan Sluice on water fluxes to the sea were both significant. Lower salinity in the study area coincided mostly with height water fluxes to the sea and periods when the rubber dam was raised. This study results provide us new insights to measure the water flux into sea under the condition of ice cover in the tidal reach of estuary and the method can be used for water flux observation for other estuaries.

Abstract Background Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) is one of the most important enteric viruses causing diarrhea in pigs. The establishment of a rapid detection method applicable in field conditions will be conducive to early detection of pathogen and implementation of relevant treatment. A novel nucleic acid amplification method, recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA), has been widely used for infectious disease diagnosis. Results In the present study, a reverse transcription (RT)-RPA assay combined with lateral flow dipstrip (LFD) was established for the visual detection of PEDV by targeting the N gene. The RT-RPA-LFD assay detected as low as 102 copies/µL of PEDV genomic RNA standard. Moreover, the novel RT-RPA-LFD assay did not show cross-reactivity with common swine pathogens, demonstrating high specificity. The performance of the assay for detection of clinical samples was also evaluated. A total number of 86 clinical samples were tested by RT-RPA-LFD and RT-PCR. The detection results of RT-RPA-LFD were compared with those of RT-PCR, with a coincidence rate of 96.5%. Conclusion The newly established RT-RPA-LFD assay in our study had high sensitivity and specificity, with a potential to use in resource-limited areas and countries.

A large subset of elders is classified as having sarcopenic obesity, a prevalence of obesity in combination with sarcopenia which places an aging population at the risk of adverse health consequences from both conditions. However, its complex etiology has restrained the development of effective therapeutic strategies. Recent progress has highlighted that the mode by which adipose tissue (AT) remodels is a determinant of metabolic health in the context of obesity. Healthy AT remodeling confers metabolic protection including insulin-sensitizing and anti-inflammatory effects to non-adipose tissues including skeletal muscle. Here, we employed a doxycycline-inducible adipocyte Hif1a knockout system to evaluate the muscle-protective effects associated with HIF1α inactivation-induced healthy AT remodeling in a model of sarcopenic obesity. We found that adipocyte HIF1α inactivation leads to improved AT metabolic health, reduced serum levels of lipids and pro-inflammatory cytokines, and increase of circulating adipokine (APN) in ovariectomized obese mice fed with obesogenic high-fat diet (HFD). Concomitantly, muscle inflammation is evidently lower in obese OVX mice when adipocyte HIF1α is inactivated. Furthermore, these protective effects against muscle inflammation can be mimicked by the administration of adiponectin receptor agonist AdipoRon. Collectively, our findings underscore the importance of AT metabolic health in the context of concurrent sarcopenia and obesity, and promotion of healthy AT remodeling may represent a new therapeutic strategy to improve muscle health in sarcopenic obesity.

Abstract Background As a major component of plant cell walls, cellulose provides the most abundant biomass resource convertible for biofuels. Since cellulose crystallinity and polymerization have been characterized as two major features accounting for lignocellulose recalcitrance against biomass enzymatic saccharification, genetic engineering of cellulose biosynthesis is increasingly considered as a promising solution in bioenergy crops. Although several transcription factors have been identified to regulate cellulose biosynthesis and plant cell wall formation, much remains unknown about its potential roles for genetic improvement of lignocellulose recalcitrance. Results In this study, we identified a novel rice mutant (Osfc9/myb103) encoded a R2R3-MYB transcription factor, and meanwhile generated OsMYB103L-RNAi-silenced transgenic lines. We determined significantly reduced cellulose levels with other major wall polymers (hemicellulose, lignin) slightly altered in mature rice straws of the myb103 mutant and RNAi line, compared to their wild type (NPB). Notably, the rice mutant and RNAi line were of significantly reduced cellulose features (crystalline index/CrI, degree of polymerization/DP) and distinct cellulose nanofibers assembly. These alterations consequently improved lignocellulose recalcitrance for significantly enhanced biomass enzymatic saccharification by 10–28% at p

Coastal wetlands are important ecosystems that connect land to open sea, and their service functions are important in estuaries globally. Using long time series of remotely sensed information, transfer matrix and direction of landscape types from 1986 to 2020 in the coastal wetlands of the Liao River Estuary (LRE) were selected to investigate landscape pattern changes. And the dynamic response of Suaeda salsa (S. salsa) to hydro-climatic factors were explored using partial correlation and nonlinear analysis. The results suggested that landscape fragmentation and abundance have increased with frequent disturbance in the LRE over the last three decades, and more than 60 % of S. salsa, tidal flats, and water transitioned into buildings, farmland, and Phragmites australis (P. australis) in the study area. Further analyses of dynamic response of landscape metrics to influence factors indicated that the main drivers forcing landscape pattern changes in coastal wetlands in the LRE were socio-economic factors, followed by natural factors. The S. salsa spatial variations were positively correlated with river discharge and precipitation but without significant correlation with temperature in the early growing stages of vegetation (P

Schizochytrium is one of the few oleaginous microalgae that produce docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)-rich lipids. In this study, global changes in gene expression levels of Schizochytrium sp. FJU-512 cultured with malate in a 15 l-bioreactor was analyzed using comparative transcriptomics. The changes were found mainly in the genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation, β-oxidation, and pentose phosphate pathways. Consequently, the global changes in genes associated with the pathways could lead to an increase in the influx throughputs of pyruvate, branched-chain amino acids, fatty acids, and vitamin B6. Our transcriptome analysis indicated pyruvate dehydrogenase E2 component and acetolactate synthase I/II/III large subunit as major contributors to acetyl-CoA biosynthesis, whereas glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase was indicated as the major contributor to the biosynthesis of NADPH. An increase in DHA titer of up to 22% was achieved with the addition of malate to the fed-batch culture of Schizochytrium sp. FJU-512. This study provides an alternate method to enhance DHA production in Schizochytrium sp. FJU-512 through malate induced upregulation of genes responsible for acetyl-CoA and NADPH biosynthesis.

Macroalgae culture as a marine carbon sequestration strategy has been recently proposed. To understand the potential for carbon sequestration by macroalgae culture, we studied the interaction of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) released by Saccharina japonica, an important cultured kelp species in China, and the bacterial community. We found that S. japonica effectively released DOC containing both labile and refractory components, and the DOC released by S. japonica into the water decreased average molecular weight (Masswa) by 18 Da, meaning it was rich in low molecular weight matter. Degradation of labile DOC components occurred during the initial 2 months of the experiment. The Masswa and molecular diversity of the DOC was increased in turn by bacterial degradation, and the variation in the DOC composition resulted in the succession of the bacterial community. During labile DOC degradation, anaerobic Gammaproteobacteria, Bacteroidia and Campylobacteria were the dominant microbial classes in the water, and aerobic Iodidimonadaceae became the dominant family during the final stage of the experiment. Finally, 5% of the DOC was transformed into refractory DOC. Although the sinking biomass was not involved in the study, the produced refractory DOC through the interaction between releasing DOC and bacterial degradation indicates a potential of carbon sequestration by macroalgae culture.

A catalyst-free aza-Michael addition/C(sp3)-O bond formation tandem reaction of substituted amino ferrocenes with quinone esters was developed, which provided a green and efficient strategy for the construction of a C(sp3)-O bond from C(sp3)-H, and a series of N-ferrocene-substituted benzodihydrooxazoles were smoothly produced in moderate to excellent yields (up to >99% yield). The mechanism experiments showed that quinone esters performed as both substrate and oxidant. The salient features of this transformation include good functional group tolerance, broad substrate scope and mild conditions.

Aiming at the problem that is difficult to accurately identify rolling bearing faults， a fault diagnosis method based on sensitive components and Multi Convolution Pooling Group （MCPG） is proposed. Firstly， the Empirical Mode Decomposition （EMD） is used to decompose the original signal into multiple Intrinsic Mode Function（IMF）， and the discrete Fréchet distance is used as the measurement index， the fault sensitive components are selected as the fault data sources representing different fault types. Then， a MCPG deep neural network architecture is proposed， and sensitive data sources are used to train and test the model to achieve the data-driven bearing fault diagnosis. Through experimental verification， it is proved that the method has good recognition effect on different types of vibration data （different speeds， different damage types， different damage degrees）.

Abstract Background Wound healing is impaired in patients with diabetes due to the multifactorial etiology of the disease, which limits the therapeutic efficacy of various approaches. This study hypothesizes that the combination of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) might achieve optimally efficient diabetic wound healing. Methods ADSCs were isolated from the adipose tissues of Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. PRP was prepared by using a two-step centrifugation technique. A diabetic wound model was established on the backs of SD rats to evaluate the effect of ADSCs incorporated into PRP. Hematoxylin and eosin staining, immunofluorescence, and immunohistochemistry were performed to observe the changes in neovascularization. ELISA and Western blot were utilized to detect the angiogenesis-related protein expression levels. The proliferation of endothelial cells was assessed by the MTS assay. Results ADSCs incorporated into PRP induced a higher wound closure rate than ADSCs, PRP, and negative control. The expression levels of VEGF, p-STAT3, and SDF-1 in the ADSC+PRP group were higher than those in the other groups. Moreover, the proliferation of endothelial cells was strongly stimulated by treatment with the combination of ADSC-conditioned medium (ADSC-CM) and PRP. Conclusions PRP enhanced diabetic wound healing induced by ADSCs, and its promoting effect involved neovascularization.

The quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) present great promising advantages for emerging nano logic circuits. However, feedback design in QCA sequential circuit is often a big problem. Especially in line feedback shift registers (LFSR), each feedback loop consists of at least a modulo-2 adder and a trigger unit, which is hard to implement using the conventional methods. Given the importance of LFSR in communication systems, a design methodology with QCA is proposed in this work. At first, a new structure is presented to be used in every single feedback LFSR since it can make the feedback loop consume only one clock cycle of delay. Subsequently, quantitative criteria are presented to judge whether any multi-feedback LFSR can be directly designed using the proposed structure. LFSR that cannot satisfy the criteria are supposed to be transformed to their equivalent forms. We verify any LFSR can be transformed to the type of single feedback, according to the theorem of searching the monic and irreducible polynomials over Galois field GF (2). The step-by-step method of transforming multi-feedback into single feedback is given on the consideration of all kinds of cases. Further, two other simple transforming methods are presented to cope with the exponential growth of clock delay in the multi-to-single transforming method. The most remarkable advantage of this series of methods is to keep from introducing undesired bits into the payload data flowing in the sequential circuits.

Abstract Background The recent emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria has increased the need to develop effective alternatives to antibiotics. Antimicrobial peptides have been considered as a promising product with several advantages. Results In this present study, we identified a novel cecropin from the armyworm, Mythimna separata (armyworm cecropin 1, AC-1) by transcriptome sequencing and multi-sequence alignment analysis. The AC-1 precursor comprised 63 amino acid residues, containing a conserved cleavage site of the signal peptide, Ala23-Pro24, while the mature AC-1 included 39 amino acid residues. Chemically synthesized AC-1 exhibited low hemolytic activity against chicken red blood cells, low cytotoxicity against swine testis cells, and effective antimicrobial activity against Salmonella, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Its antimicrobial activity against Salmonella remained after incubation for 1 h at 100 °C or in 250 mM NaCl, KCl, or MgCl2 solution, implying good thermal- and salt-resistant stabilities. The bactericidal effect of AC-1 on E. coli gradually increased with increasing AC-1 concentration, resulting in deformation, severe edema, cytolysis, cell membrane damage, and reducing intracellular electron density. Additionally, recombinant AC-1 protein expressed in E. coli was digested by enterokinase protease to obtain AC-1, which showed similar antimicrobial activity against E. coli to chemically synthesized AC-1. Conclusions This study identified a novel antimicrobial peptide that may represent a potential alternative to antibiotics.

One of the challenges hindering the control of 2D transistor polarity is the incompatibility with conventional ion-implantation doping approaches. Here, the authors report a doping-free strategy to obtain polarity control of WSe2 transistors using same-metal contacts with different integration methods.

Abstract Background Tumor progression and distant metastasis are the main causes of deaths in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, and the molecular mechanisms in CRC metastasis have not been completely discovered. Methods We identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and lncRNAs (DELs) of CRC from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Then we conducted the weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) to investigate co-expression modules related with CRC metastasis. Gene ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis, DEG-DEL co-expression network and survival analyses of significant modules were also conducted. Finally, the expressions of selected biomarkers were validated in cell lines by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Results 2032 DEGs and 487 DELs were involved the construction of WGCNA network, and greenyellow, turquoise and brown module were identified to have more significant correlation with CRC metastasis. GO and KEGG pathway analysis of these three modules have proven that the functions of DEGs were closely involved in many important processes in cancer pathogenesis. Through the DEG-DEL co-expression network, 12 DEGs and 2 DELs were considered as hub nodes. Besides, survival analysis showed that 30 DEGs were associated with the overall survival of CRC. Then 10 candidate biomarkers were chosen for validation and the expression of CA2, CHP2, SULT1B1, MOGAT2 and C1orf115 were significantly decreased in CRC cell lines when compared to normal human colonic epithelial cells, which were consistent with the results of differential expression analysis. Especially, low expression of SULT1B1, MOGAT2 and C1orf115 were closely correlated with poorer survival of CRC. Conclusion This study identified 5 genes as new biomarkers affecting the metastasis of CRC. Besides, SULT1B1, MOGAT2 and C1orf115 might be implicated in the prognosis of CRC patients.

Monogenean infection can cause high mortality and significant financial losses in commercially farmed fish. Existing chemical drugs for the treatment of such infections often have serious drawbacks. In order to find alternative agents of chemical drugs, fourteen medicinal plants were tested for their in vivo anthelmintic activity against Gyrodactylus kobayashii in goldfish (Carassius auratus). Ethanol extracts of Evodia rutaecarpa, Cnidium monnieri and Sophora flavescens had 100% anthelmintic efficacy at low concentrations (100, 100 and 300 mg/L, respectively), after 48 h of exposure. The ethyl acetate extract of C. monnieri was the most effective, with an EC50 value of 11.0 mg/L, after 48 h of exposure, showing 100% anthelmintic efficacy against G. kobayashii at 50.0 mg/L. Higher anthelmintic activity was also observed for remaining extracts of C. monnieri and E. rutaecarpa except for the water extracts of the two plants. The ethyl acetate extract of C. monnieri had the highest therapeutic index (TI, LC50/ EC50) value of 31.8, and the lowest EC50, which indicates that this extract was the safest to goldfish among all extracts. For the remaining extracts of C. monnieri and E. rutaecarpa, the 48-h LC50 values were about 10-fold higher than the corresponding EC50 values. This result indicates these extracts have low toxicity in goldfish. The ethyl acetate extract of C. monnieri was the most effective and the safest among the tested extracts. Therefore, the two plants are expected to be alternative agents to control monogenean infection.

Spherical bearings are widely applied in high-speed railway bridges (HSRBs) in China. The experimental and computational analyses were carried out to help understand the damage mechanism of these bearings under earthquake loading. A shaking table test of scaled HSRB specimen (installed with spherical bearings) was performed under the simulated earthquake action, and the intensities were, respectively, 0.15 g, 0.20 g, 0.32 g, and 0.38 g (common intensities in China) of actual earthquakes in accordance with similarity relationships. After investigating and analyzing results of the shaking table test, it is shown that no damage occurred to movable bearings in all experimental earthquake scenarios, while slight damage could be found in fixed bearings at 0.32 g earthquake. Moreover, a finite element (FE) model of the prototype HSRB was established and validated. The damage degree of spherical bearings in stronger earthquakes (i.e., 0.40 g to 1.00 g) was studied through this validated FE model. The numerical results showed that the fixed bearing was completely damaged at 0.80 g earthquake, while only moderate damage occurred to the movable bearing at that intensity.

Large-scale flooding causes widespread disaster, and harmful pollutant concentration in water following flood affects public safety and the environment. In this study, a numerical model for solving the 2D shallow water equations and the solute transport equation is proposed to simulate overland flood and pollutant transport caused by floods. The present model is verified by comparing the predictions with the analytical solutions and simulation results; sufficiently high computational accuracy is achieved. The model is also used to simulate flood inundation and pollution spread in the area of Hun and Taizi Lane (HTL) in China due to river dike breaches; the results show that the coupling model has excellent performance for simulating the flooding process and the temporal and spatial distribution of pollutants in urban or rural areas. We use remote sensing techniques to acquire the land coverage in the area of HTL based on Landsat TM satellites. The impacts of changed land use on mitigation of flooding waves and pollutant spread are investigated; the results indicate that the land cover changes have an obvious influence on the evolution process of flood waves and pollutant transport in the study areas, where the transport of pollutants is very dynamic during flood inundation in HTL area. Furthermore, the motion of pollutants considering anisotropic diffusion is more reasonable than that due to isotropic dispersion in simulating pollutant transport associated with the flood in urban or farmland environments.

As major components of the random matrix theory, Gaussian random matrices have been playing an important role in many fields, because they are both unitary invariant and have independent entries and can be used as models for multivariate data or multivariate phenomena. Tail bounds for eigenvalues of Gaussian random matrices are one of the hot study problems. In this paper, we present tail and expectation bounds for the ℓ1 norm of Gaussian random matrices, respectively. Moreover, the tail and expectation bounds for the ℓ1 norm of the Gaussian Wigner matrix are calculated based on the resulting bounds. Compared with existing results, our results are more suitable for the high-dimensional matrix case. Finally, we study the tail bounds for the parameter vector of some existing regularization algorithms.

Caffeic acid phenylethyl ester (CAPE) is an antioxidative agent originally derived from propolis. Oxidative stress is a significant pathogenic factor in most retinal diseases. Our previous study revealed that CAPE suppresses mitochondrial ROS production in ARPE−19 cells by regulating UCP2. The present study explores the ability of CAPE to provide longer-term protection to RPE cells and the underlying signal pathways involved. ARPE−19 cells were given CAPE pretreatment followed by t-BHP stimulation. We used in situ live cell staining with CellROX and MitoSOX to measure ROS accumulation; Annexin V-FITC/PI assay to evaluate cell apoptosis; ZO−1 immunostaining to observe tight junction integrity in the cells; RNA-seq to analyze changes in gene expression; q-PCR to validate the RNA-seq data; and Western Blot to examine MAPK signal pathway activation. CAPE significantly reduced both cellular and mitochondria ROS overproduction, restored the loss of ZO−1 expression, and inhibited apoptosis induced by t-BHP stimulation. We also demonstrated that CAPE reverses the overexpression of immediate early genes (IEGs) and activation of the p38-MAPK/CREB signal pathway. Either genetic or chemical deletion of UCP2 largely abolished the protective effects of CAPE. CAPE restrained ROS generation and preserved the tight junction structure of ARPE−19 cells against oxidative stress-induced apoptosis. These effects were mediated via UCP2 regulation of p38/MAPK-CREB-IEGs pathway.

Over 70% of the earth’s surface is covered by oceans; globally, oceans provides a huge source of wealth to humans. In the literature, several sensors have been developed to investigate oceans. Electrical conductivity temperature depth (CTD) sensors were used frequently and extensively. Long-term accurate CTD data is important for the study and utilization of oceans, e.g., for weather forecasting, ecological evolution, fishery, and shipping. Several kinds of CTD sensors based on electrics, optical, acoustic wave and radio waves have been developed. CTD sensors are often utilized by measuring electrical signals. The latest progress of CTD sensors will be presented in order of performance. The principles, structure, materials and properties of many CTD sensors were discussed in detail. The commercially available CTD sensors were involved and their respective performances were compared. Some possible development directions of CTD sensors for ocean investigation are proposed.

Using micromagnetic simulations, we find that the high frequency spin wave modes of vortexes in circular magnetostrictive nanomagnets can be excited by in-plane strain pulses, which are quite distinct from the spin wave modes excited by magnetic field pulses. The spectrum and spatial distribution of spin wave modes are obtained as a function of the diameter (D) and thickness (L) of nanomagnets. Our results show that the increase in diameter leads to a redshift of the frequencies of spin wave modes. Furthermore, we investigate the impact of ring shape impurities on the high frequency spin wave modes, and it is found that both the type and position of impurities can be used to tailor the strain induced spin wave spectroscopy of magnetic vortexes. Our findings provide meaningful guidelines for the further study of strain-mediated sub-nanosecond magnetization dynamics, which may obviously improve the operating frequency of straintronic devices.

Carbaryl is the representative of carbamate insecticide. As an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, it poses potential threat to humans and other non-target organisms. Agrobacterium sp. XWY-2, which could grow with carbaryl as the sole carbon source, was isolated and characterized. The carH gene, encoding a carbaryl hydrolase, was cloned from strain XWY-2 and expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3). CarH was able to hydrolyze carbamate pesticides including carbaryl, carbofuran, isoprocarb, propoxur and fenobucarb efficiently, while it hydrolyzed oxamyl and aldicarb poorly. The optimal pH of CarH was 8.0 and the optimal temperature was 30 ℃. The apparent Km and kcat values of CarH for carbaryl were 38.01 ± 2.81 μM and 0.33 ± 0.01 s−1, respectively. The point mutation experiment demonstrated that His341, His343, His346, His416 and D437 are the key sites for CarH to hydrolyze carbaryl.

Tidal creeks play a critical role in delivering water, suspended sediments, and nutrients to coastal wetlands, so it is important to understand the characteristics of the tidal creek system to guide the development and sustainable utilization of coastal wetlands. Using the coastal wetlands of the Liao River Estuary (LRE) as a study area, this study accurately divided the tidal flat based on the principle of tidal correction, extracted the linear features of tidal creeks using high-resolution remote sensing (RS) data, and then classified the tidal creeks on a tidal flat using the tidal creek ordering algorithm. Our study aimed to quantify the morphological characteristics of tidal creeks and qualitatively evaluate the parameters of the tidal creek network in the study area. The study results show obvious spatial heterogeneity in the order and the average length of tidal creeks in the coastal wetlands of the LRE. With the increase in the order of tidal creeks, the average length of tidal creeks increased exponentially and the number of tidal creeks decreased exponentially in the study area. The total density of tidal creeks was related to the beach surface elevation gradient, and the density and frequency of tidal creeks reduced substantially with an increase in the order of tidal creeks. The sinuosity ratio of tidal creeks declined sharply with a fall in the beach surface elevation gradient. The average bifurcation ratio of tidal creeks in the upper intertidal zone was higher than that in other zones, indicating that the tidal creeks in the upper intertidal zone were erratic. In addition, the hydrological connectivity of the tidal creek network in the upper intertidal zone and the development of the tidal creek system in the supratidal zone were the highest in the LRE. The study results help understand the spatial variations in tidal creek morphology under the influence of tidal hydrodynamics.

Abstract Although obesity occurs in most of the patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D), a fraction of patients with T2D are underweight or have normal weight. Several studies have linked the gut microbiome to obesity and T2D, but the role of gut microbiota in lean individuals with T2D having unique clinical characteristics remains unclear. A metagenomic and targeted metabolomic analysis is conducted in 182 lean and abdominally obese individuals with and without newly diagnosed T2D. The abundance of Akkermansia muciniphila (A. muciniphila) significantly decreases in lean individuals with T2D than without T2D, but not in the comparison of obese individuals with and without T2D. Its abundance correlates inversely with serum 3β‐chenodeoxycholic acid (βCDCA) levels and positively with insulin secretion and fibroblast growth factor 15/19 (FGF15/19) concentrations. The supplementation with A. muciniphila is sufficient to protect mice against high sucrose‐induced impairment of glucose intolerance by decreasing βCDCA and increasing insulin secretion and FGF15/19. Furthermore, βCDCA inhibits insulin secretion and FGF15/19 expression. These findings suggest that decreased abundance of A. muciniphila is linked to the impairment of insulin secretion and glucose homeostasis in lean T2D, paving the way for new therapeutic options for the prevention or treatment of diabetes.

Background: NOS1AP is an adaptor protein and its SNP rs12742393 was associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, it remains uncertain whether NOS1AP plays a role in regulation of insulin sensitivity. Hepatic insulin resistance contributed to the development of T2D. Here, our investigation was focused on whether NOS1AP is involved in the regulation of hepatic insulin sensitivity and its underlying mechanisms. Methods: Liver specific NOS1AP condition knockout (CKO) and NOS1AP overexpression mice were generated and given a high fat diet. SNPs of NOS1AP gene were genotyped in 86 human subjects. Findings: NOS1AP protein is expressed in human and mouse liver. CKO mice exhibited impaired pyruvate, glucose and insulin tolerance, and increased lipid deposits in the liver. Conversely, NOS1AP overexpression in livers of obese mice improved pyruvate and/or glucose, and insulin tolerance, and attenuated liver lipid accumulation. Moreover, hepatocytes from CKO mice exhibited an elevated glucose production and mRNA expressions of Pc and Pck1. Overexpression of NOS1AP potentiated insulin-stimulated activation of IR/Akt in livers from obese mice. The insulin sensitizing effect of NOS1AP could be mimicked by overexpression of C-terminal domain of NOS1AP in ob/ob mice. Furthermore, NOS1AP overexpression in liver significantly inhibited p38 MAPK phosphorylation, and maintained ER homeostasis through p-eIF2a-ATF4-CHOP pathway. Subjects with rsl2742393 of NOS1AP have higher risk to develop hepatic steatosis. Interpretation: Our data demonstrate a novel role of NOS1AP in regulating hepatic insulin sensitivity and p38 MAPK inactivation in obese mice, which makes NOS1AP a potential therapeutic target for the prevention and treatment of T2D. Fund: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81670707, 31340072) (to C. Wang), and National Basic Research Program of China (Nation 973 Program) (2011CB504001) (to W. Jia). Keywords: Nitric oxide synthase 1 adaptor protein (NOS1AP), Insulin sensitivity, p38 MAPK, ER stress

Abstract Background Chronic exposure of pancreatic β-cells to excess free fatty acids is thought to contribute to type 2 diabetes pathogenesis in obesity by impairing β-cell function and even leading to apoptosis. In β-cells, lipid droplet-associated protein perilipin 5 (PLIN5) has been shown to enhance insulin secretion by regulating intracellular lipid metabolism; the roles of PLIN5 in response to lipotoxicity remain poorly understood. Methods INS-1 β-cells were transfected with PLIN5-overexpression adenovirus (Ad-PLIN5) and treated with palmitate. C57BL/6 J male mice were fed with high fat diet and tail intravenous injected with adeno-associated virus overexpressing PLIN5 (AAV-PLIN5) in β-cells. Results Our data showed that palmitate and PPAR agonists including WY14643 (PPARα), GW501516 (PPARβ/δ), rosiglitazone (PPARγ) in vitro all induced PLIN5 expression in INS-1 cells. Under palmitate overload, although upregulating PLIN5 promoted lipid droplet storage, it alleviated lipotoxicity in INS-1 β-cells with improved cell viability, cell apoptosis and β-cell function. The protection role of PLIN5 in β-cell function observed in cell experiments were further verified in in vivo study indicated by mitigated glucose intolerance in high fat diet fed mice with β-cell-specific overexpression of PLIN5. Mechanistic experiments revealed that enhanced FAO induced by elevation of PLIN5, followed by decreased ER stress may be a major mechanism responsible for alleviation of lipotoxicity observed in the present study. Conclusions Our finding substantiated the important role of PLIN5 in protection against lipotoxicity in β-cells.

Abstract Background Farnesol is an acyclic sesquiterpene alcohol present in the essential oils of various plants in nature. It has been reported to be valuable in medical applications, such as alleviation of allergic asthma, gliosis, and edema as well as anti-cancerous and anti-inflammatory effects. Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), an essential cofactor in the aerobic respiratory electron transport chain, has attracted growing interest owing to its clinical benefits and important applications in the pharmaceutical, food, and health industries. In this work, co-production of (E,E)-farnesol (FOH) and CoQ10 was achieved by combining 3 different exogenous terpenes or sesquiterpene synthase with the RNA interference of psy (responsible for phytoene synthesis in Rhodobacter sphaeroides GY-2). Results FOH production was significantly increased by overexpressing exogenous terpene synthase (TPS), phosphatidylglycerophosphatase B (PgpB), and sesquiterpene synthase (ATPS), as well as RNAi-mediated silencing of psy coding phytoene synthase (PSY) in R. sphaeroides strains. Rs-TPS, Rs-ATPS, and Rs-PgpB respectively produced 68.2%, 43.4%, and 21.9% higher FOH titers than that of the control strain. Interestingly, the CoQ10 production of these 3 recombinant R. sphaeroides strains was exactly opposite to that of FOH. However, CoQ10 production was almost unaffected in R. sphaeroides strains modified by psy RNA interference. The highest FOH production of 40.45 mg/L, which was twice as high as that of the control, was obtained from the TPS-PSYi strain, where the exogenous TPS was combined with the weakening of the phytoene synthesis pathway via psy RNA interference. CoQ10 production in TPS-PSYi, ATPS-PSYi, and PgpB-PSYi was decreased and lower than that of the control strain. Conclusions The original flux that contributed to phytoene synthesis was effectively redirected to provide precursors toward FOH or CoQ10 synthesis via psy RNA interference, which led to weakened carotenoid synthesis. The improved flux that was originally involved in CoQ10 production and phytoene synthesis was redirected toward FOH synthesis via metabolic modification. This is the first reported instance of FOH and CoQ10 co-production in R. sphaeroides using a metabolic engineering strategy.

Background: Leptin has been shown to stimulate the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis in vivo and vitro. Its role in thyroid axis regulation after weight loss induced by bariatric surgery is still unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of leptin on weight loss and thyroid function variation induced by Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery in euthyroid individuals with obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods: 65 Chinese individuals with obesity and T2DM who underwent RYGB, and 27 healthy volunteers were enrolled in this retrospective study. Participants were evaluated for changes in anthropometric parameters, metabolic indexes, thyroid function, and leptin levels before and 12 months after surgery. Results: After RYGB, all of these patients experienced significant weight reduction and improved glucose control. Metabolic parameters were significantly ameliorated after surgery compared with baseline. Thyroid hormones including free triiodothyronine (FT3), free thyroxine (FT4), and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) declined in parallel. Median (IQR) plasma leptin levels decreased from 33.7 ng/mL (17.9–63.1) to 10.3 ng/mL (4.0–18.5). Pearson correlation analysis showed that TSH was significantly positively correlated with body mass index, C-reactive protein (CRP), and leptin. Multiple stepwise linear regression indicated that leptin and CRP were independent factors affecting TSH. The β coefficients were 0.38 (p = 0.001) and 0.32 (p = 0.004), respectively. There was a significant positive correlation between ΔTSH and Δleptin (r = 0.33, p = 0.01). Conclusion: Decreased or normalized TSH levels after weight loss induced by RYGB might be mediated by the decline in leptin. There could be cross talk between adipose tissue and the HPT axis.

Integrin αυβ8 may play an important role in the initial stage of FMDV infection and influence the host specificity and tissue tropism. To study the role of integrin αυβ8 in FMDV infection, a cell line, which stably expressed the suckling mouse αvβ8 heterodimer, was established and designated as CHO-677-mαυβ8. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and indirect immunofluorescent assay (IFA) were used to determine the presence of integrin subunits αv and β8 in the cell line at the 20th passage, respectively. The results showed that these genes were successfully transduced and expressed in the cell line. Biological characteristics of FMDV were determined in the cell line. After the cell line was infected with FMDV type O/BY/CHA/2010, there was an obvious increase for viral RNA and proteins, compared with those in the parental cells. Our data showed that a stable cell line was successfully established. Additionally, the results of antibody blockade assay show that the cells treated with anti-β8 serum had a lower virus titre, compared to the mock-treated cells, implying that the β8 was important for maintaining αυβ8 in receptor function required for productive infection by FMDV. The cell line may be used to isolate the FMDV, study the function of integrin αυβ8 in infection and entry of FMDV.

Given the fusion problem of uncertain information on the time domain, this paper proposes a time-domain evidence fusion method involving the time sequence of the decision-maker based on evidence theory to give full expression to the influence of dynamic features and the time factor of time-domain information fusion on the integration. Time sequence preference of the decision maker is integrated into the time domain evidence fusion. The time sequence preference of the decision-maker is measured by analyzing the features of time domain evidence sequence based on the definition of time sequence memory factor. An optimization model is constructed to solve the time sequence weight. In addition, the concept of the evidence belief degree is combined to amend the evidence source. Finally, the amended evidence is integrated using the Dempster combination rule. Compared with the fusion method without the time factor, numerical results indicate that the evidence fusion method considering the time preference of decision maker can effectively handle the conflict information in the time-domain information sequence, and reasonable fusion results can be obtained. The results of comparative analysis indicate that the proposed method, in which the belief degree of time domain evidence sequence and the subjective preference of decision maker are fully considered, can demonstrate the influence of subjective factors of the decision maker on the time domain evidence fusion and better manifest the dynamic feature of time domain evidence fusion.