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Introduction Some beneficial effects of cheese intake on disease have been reported in several observational studies, However, there is still a gap in the study of infectious diseases. We aimed to apply the two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) approach to assess the causal relationship between cheese intake and infectious diseases. Methods We used a two-sample Mendelian randomization approach to analyze relevant data from publicly available genome-wide association studies to infer causality. The random-effects inverse-variance-weighted method was used to calculate effect estimates. Results Genetically predicted cheese intake was associated with a lower risk of sepsis (OR = 0.63; 95% CI, 0.48–0.83; p = 0.003), pneumonia (OR = 0.67; 95% CI,0.55–0.82; p = 6.76 x10− 5), UTI(OR = 0.73; 95% CI, 0.61–0.89; p = 0.002), cellulitis ( OR = 0.70; 95%CI,0.51–0.91;p = 0.008) and erysipelas (OR = 0.62; 95% CI,0.46–0.83;p = 0.001). However, our results have no evidence to support the causal effects between cheese intake and URTI (OR = 0.81; 95% CI,0.47–1.39; p = 0.439). Multiple testing and sensitivity analyses demonstrate the reliability of our results. Conclusion In our MR study, we confirmed a causal relationship between cheese intake and infectious diseases. Although no evidence supports the causality of cheese intake in URTI, we also could show that an increased intake of cheese may be good for us to prevent infectious diseases.

The ability to remember what happened where and when constitutes the basic fabric of our memories and who we are. Forming and recalling memories depends on detecting novelty, building associations to prior knowledge, and dynamically retrieving context-relevant information. Previous studies have scrutinized the neural machinery for individual components of recognition or associative memory under laboratory conditions, such as recalling elements from arbitrary lists of words or pictures. In this study, we implemented a well-known card-matching game that integrates multiple components of memory formation together in a naturalistic setting to investigate the dynamic neural processes underlying complex natural human memory. We recorded intracranial field potentials from 1,750 depth or subdural electrodes implanted in 20 patients with pharmacologically-intractable epilepsy while they were performing the task. We leveraged generalized linear models to simultaneously assess the relative contribution of neural responses to distinct task components. Neural activity in the gamma frequency band signaled novelty and graded degrees of familiarity, represented the strength and outcome of associative recall, and finally reflected visual feedback on a trial-by-trial basis. The large-scale data and models enable dissociating and at the same time dynamically tracing the different cognitive components during fast, complex, and natural human memory behaviors.SignificanceDifferent aspects of memory like recognition, association, and recall have often been studied in isolation under laboratory conditions. Here we implemented a task that naturally integrates recognition, association, and retrieval, mimicking real-world memory experiences. Recording invasive intracranial field potentials from the human brain, this study shows that neural activity in the gamma frequency band in neocortical areas in temporal and frontal cortex reflects temporally overlapping yet computationally dissociable mental processes during dynamic memory formation.

Catalytic combustion gas sensors have been widely used for the leakage detection of combustible gases. However, the catalytic sensor with low preparation cost and high repeatability in a mass production have great importance. In this view, a new structure of high-performance catalytic sensor was proposed. Catalytic-type gas sensors based on screen-printing Platinum (Pt) heating electrode onto a porous alumina substrate was fabricated. This design enables porous alumina ceramics to act as the support of catalyst and substrate of heating electrode, simultaneously. The screen-printing technique obviously enhance the uniformity of the sensor devices in batch. To demonstrate the feasibility of this design, a prototype hydrogen sensor was prepared with a relatively high sensitivity around 30 mV/Vol% at 245°C and excellent a long-term stability. Additionally, the sensing performances of hydrogen devices were also verified by finite element method (FEM) modeling. The simulation results suggested that the response time and response value were related to the thickness of substrate and the operating temperature of sensors. The facile and large-scale fabrication method of the sensor device in this work is expected to have potential utility for detection in industry and for personalized applications.

Objective To evaluate the epidemiological trends and patterns of cervical cancer, uterine cancer and ovarian cancer in China in 1990 and 2019. Design Systematical and updated worldwide epidemiological study. Setting Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2019. Population or Sample. Chinese population was obtained from World Health Organization (WHO) World Standard Population Distribution (2000-2025) and the United Nations World Population Prospects 2019 Revision. Methods Data were extracted from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2019. GBD methodology was used to estimate the burden of gynecological malignancies in China, including cervical cancer, uterine cancer and ovarian cancer. Main Outcome Measures The incidence, mortality, disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and estimated annual percentage change (EAPC) were systematically analyzed. We additionally predicted the incidence and mortality of gynecological malignancies from 2020 to 2030. Results From 1990 to 2019, the numbers of incidence cases, deaths and DALYs of cervical cancer, uterine cancer and ovarian cancer all significantly increased. The EAPCs in age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR) of three cancers were 1.61 (95% CI: 1.35, 1.88), 1.26 (95% CI: 0.58, 1.94) and 1.88 (95% CI: 1.79, 1.98). From 2020 to 2030, the predicted numbers of incident cases and deaths of gynecological malignancies should continue to increase, and the incidences of uterine cancer would expect to exceed cervical cancer in 2030. Conclusions In China, the numbers of new cases and deaths of gynecological malignancies will continue to increase in the next ten years. Reducing the prevalence of gynecological malignancies should be prioritized in future work.

Microbial lipid biomarkers preserved in geological archives can be used to explore past climate changes. Branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs) are unique bacterial biomarkers that have been used as molecular tools for the quantitative determination of terrestrial temperatures and the pH of depositional environments over a range of geological timescales. However, the exact biological source organisms – especially of the entire suite of brGDGTs found in the environment – remains unclear; by extension, so do the mechanisms that govern these proxies. Here, we identified a brGDGT-producing strainCandidatus Solibacter usitatusEllin6076, by identifying archaeal tetraether synthase homologs in bacterial genomes. This strain synthesizes diverse brGDGTs, including regular C5-methylated and cyclic brGDGTs, and brGDGTs comprise up to 66% of the major lipids, far exceeding the proportions found in previous studies. The degree of C5-methylation in cultured strain Ellin6076 is primarily determined by temperature, whereas cyclization appears to be influenced by multiple factors. Consequently, culture-derived paleoclimate indices are in agreement with the global soil-derived MBT’5ME(methylation index of C5-methyl brGDGTs) proxy for temperature but not the CBT5ME(cyclization index of C5-methyl brGDGTs) proxy for pH. Our findings provide important insights from a physiological perspective into the underlying mechanism of brGDGT-based proxies.Significance StatementBranched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs) are biomarkers widely used for the quantitative estimation of past climatic changes due to their ubiquitous occurrence in the environment and the relationships between their distributions and temperature and pH. However, the ecophysiology of brGDGT-producing bacteria and the mechanistic basis for brGDGT-based climate proxies remain unknown. Here, we identify a brGDGT-producing Acidobacterium and present a physiological study of brGDGTs in response to cultivation variables, which provides pivotal insights into how brGDGT producers modulate methylation and cyclization under different culturing conditions. Our study represents a significant advancement in understanding the physiological role of lipid structures in microbial adaptation and helps us interpret the relationships between brGDGT-based proxies and environmental conditions of the geological environment.

Rotated object detection in aerial images is a meaningful yet challenging task as objects are densely arranged and have arbitrary orientations. The eight-parameter (coordinates of box vectors) methods in rotated object detection usually use ln-norm losses (L1 loss, L2 loss, and smooth L1 loss) as loss functions. As ln-norm losses are mainly based on non-scale-invariant Minkowski distance, using ln-norm losses will lead to inconsistency with the detection metric rotational Intersection-over-Union (IoU) and training instability. To address the problems, we use Mahalanobis distance to calculate loss between the predicted and the target box vertices' vectors, proposing a new loss function called Mahalanobis Distance Loss (MDL) for eight-parameter rotated object detection. As Mahalanobis distance is scale-invariant, MDL is more consistent with detection metric and more stable during training than ln-norm losses. To alleviate the problem of boundary discontinuity like all other eight-parameter methods, we further take the minimum loss value to make MDL continuous at boundary cases. We achieve state-of-art performance on DOTA-v1.0 with the proposed method MDL. Furthermore, compared to the experiment that uses smooth L1 loss, we find that MDL performs better in rotated object detection., 5 pages, 7 figures

WO3 nanosheets were synthesized by an acidification method and Cr was loaded on the surface of nanosheets via an impregnation procedure. The morphologies of pristine and Cr-loaded WO3 nanosheets we...

Biomass pretreatment is an essential strategy to overcome biomass recalcitrance and promote lignocellulosic bioconversion. Here, a reusable organic solvent system (formic acid-methanesulfonic acid) was explored to pretreat poplar under a mild temperature (below 100 °C). The results showed that the co-solvent system could extract basically complete hemicelluloses and part of lignin with original cellulose retained in the pretreated substrates. Meanwhile, sulfonic acid groups were introduced into lignin structure remained in the substrates. The glucose conversion yield of the substrates with a higher concentration of sulfonic acid groups (13.2 mmol/kg) reached 45.9 % by reducing the hydrophobic interaction between lignin and cellulase, showing 89.3 % improvement compared with that of the substrates treated with single formic acid. This progressive study aimed to develop a new strategy to realize sulfonation and promote enzymatic hydrolysis of substrates by using mild organic solvent pretreatment.

An electronic nose based on metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) sensors has been used to identify liquors with excessive methanol. The technique for a square wave temperature modulated MOS sensor was applied to generate the response patterns and a back-propagation neural network was used for pattern recognition. The parameters of temperature modulation were optimized according to the difference in response features of target gases (methanol and ethanol). Liquors with excessive methanol were qualitatively and quantitatively identified by the neural network. The results showed that our electronic nose system could well identify the liquors with excessive methanol with more than 92% accuracy. This electronic nose based on temperature modulation is a promising portable adjunct to other available techniques for quality assurance of liquors and other alcoholic beverages.

An integration of different pretreatments is important to overcome recalcitrance and realize efficient bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass. This study aims at the effects of combination of hydrothermal pretreatment and different chemi-mechanical pretreatments on enzymatic hydrolysis, and understanding the enzymes adsorption mechanism. The combination of hydrothermal and chemi-mechanical pretreatments effectively improved the enzymatic hydrolysis of poplar substrates, in which the enzymatic hydrolysis of substrates pretreated by hydrothermal pretreatment + Fenton pretreatment + mechanical refining (HFM) was the highest (92.39% of glucose conversion yield, and 20.88 g/L of glucose concentration). The substrates’ main characteristics were obviously changed after combined pretreatments, such as swelling ability and specific surface area of substrates were increased. The Langmuir adsorption model (R2 > 0.98) and pseudo second-order adsorption kinetic model (R2≈1) were well suitable to describe the adsorption of enzymes on substrates, meanwhile the adsorption mechanism was summarized.

Pepper (Capsicum annuum) responds differently to high temperature stress (HTS) and Ralstonia solanacearum infection (RSI) but employs some shared transcription factors (TFs), such as CabZIP63 and CaWRKY40, in both cases. How the plant activates and balances these distinct responses, however, was unclear. Here, we show that the protein CaSWC4 interacts with CaRUVBL2 and CaTAF14b and they all act positively in pepper response to RSI and thermotolerance. CaSWC4 activates chromatin of immunity or thermotolerance related target genes of CaWRKY40 or CabZIP63 by promoting deposition of H2A.Z, H3K9ac and H4K5ac, simultaneously recruits CabZIP63 and CaWRKY40 through physical interaction and brings them to their targets (immunity- or thermotolerance-related genes) via binding AT-rich DNA element. The above process relies on the recruitment of CaRUVBL2 and TAF14 by CaSWC4 via physical interaction, which occurs at loci of immunity related target genes only when the plants are challenged with RSI, and at loci of thermotolerance related target genes only upon HTS. Collectively, our data suggest that CaSWC4 regulates rapid, accurate responses to both RSI and HTS by modulating chromatin of specific target genes opening and recruiting the TFs, CaRUVBL2 and CaTAF14b to the specific target genes, thereby helping achieve the balance between immunity and thermotolerance.

The enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass into fermentable sugars remains a critical challenge for producing bio-based products due to complexity and recalcitrance of the biomass. The effects of mechanical pretreatments (i.e., wet grinding for corncob residues and PFI refining for wood fibers) on the enzymatic hydrolysis of mixed substrates of corncob residues (CRs) and wood fibers (WFs) were investigated. The results showed that the applied combined mechanical pretreatments noticeably enhanced the enzymatic digestibility of the mixed substrates. A 99.8% conversion yield of cellulose to glucose and 19.2 g/L glucose concentration were obtained when the mixed substrates (composed of the refined WFs and the ground CRs) were enzymatically hydrolyzed for 46 h. The improvements, including swelling ability, specific surface area, and morphology, were mainly attributed to the combined mechanical pretreatments.

Aim: The aim of the research is to determine characteristic of the correlation between climate and stroke through the analysis of relevant documents. Methods: We found 115 researches of temperature and season on stroke mortality/incidence and these were categorized according to location, meteorology, date span, data source and research sites’ latitudes. We divided the globe into 5 temperature zones based on latitude ranges: 0 - 10, 10 - 23.5, 23.5 - 40, 40 - 50, and >50 degrees, and allotted a zone to each country. Stroke mortality by five temperature zones was calculated per 100,000 people. Results: 70% of the researches came from latitudes greater than 40 degrees with 92% of researches located in Europe, USA, and Asia. The mortality range was 42 - 63 per 105 individuals within latitudes 0 - 40 degrees. In latitudes 40 - 66.5 degrees, a linear upward trend (y = 69.82x − 22.823, R2 = 0.99) was noticed. More than 75% of the research reports indicated a negative correlation between climate and stroke, and the proportion was almost 6 and 7 times greater than that of the fluctuation and non-correlation, respectively. The most frequently used research methods were regression analysis and time series analysis. Conclusion: All of the research results confirmed that lower temperature is associated with higher mortality and incidence of stroke, while higher latitude is correlated with higher stroke mortality, consistent with the temperature zones.

The current study investigated the correlation between stroke mortality and temperature. Monthly and seasonal variations in stroke mortality were plotted and daily stroke-related deaths were calculated. The lag times were calculated using the time series analysis. The correlation between stroke incidence and the diurnal temperature range (DTR) was analyzed using case-crossover analysis. Global stroke mortality was described in five latitudes. In the eastern region of Inner Mongolia, the stroke mortality was 174.18/105, about twice of that of the midwestern regions (87.07/105), and temperature was negatively correlated with stroke mortality. Mortality peaked in the winter and troughed in the summer (χ2 = 13.634, P 40°; the highest mortality was 188.05/105 at the highest latitude. Only in relatively cold regions as the temperature decreases does stroke mortality increase for various populations. Differences in the time lag as well as in the DTR lag and DTR critical point vary for both the temperature and region.

Although plant diseases generally cause more severe symptoms under conditions of high temperature and high humidity(HTHH), how plant respond to pathogen attack under this condition remains elusive.As an example, we herein comparatively studied pepper(Capsicum annuum) immunity against Ralstonia solanacearum under HTHH and ambient temperature by approaches of reverse genetics. We found that pepper respond to R.solanacearum infection by activating salicylic-acid- and jasmonic-acid-mediated immunity at ambient temperature. Under HTHH, However, it no longer activates JA-mediated immunity and activates only transient SA signaling at the early stage of R.solanacearum infection, but instead induces cytokinin mediated immunity.These two immune systems are positively regulated by CaWRKY40 via binding the WT-box and a novel W-box like (WL) box, respectively, in an environment-dependent manner: CaWRKY40 is activated upon R. solanacearum infection under HTHH, thereby upregulating ISOPENTENYLTRANSFERASE5(IPT5). The resulting cytokinin then works synergistically with CaWRKY40 in activating a subset of glutathione S-transferase genes via chromatin activation and WL-box binding, but prevent CaWRKY40 from activating ISOCHORISMATE SYNTHASE1 (ICS1) or SA-/JA-dependent pathogenesis-related genes by chromatin inactivation or by blocking WT-box binding.These results highlight the specific pepper immune response to R. solanacearum infection under HTHH and its synergistic activation by CaWRKY40 and cytokinins.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) provide a powerful method to develop novel materials for photocatalysis and photovoltaics. To realize efficient visible light absorption for these applications, the metal nodes play the crucial role in determining the bandgap, conduction band position, and thus the light absorption. Tungsten (W) can be an outstanding choice for MOFs owing to their semi-occupied d orbitals, which will reduce the bandgap and shift the light absorption toward the visible-light region. However, there is a lack of pure W-based MOFs (W-MOFs). Here, three W-MOFs, named BOW, BCOW, and BSOW, are constructed by using benzene-based ligands, 1,4-benzene-diol, 1,4-benzenedicarboxylic acid, and 1,4-benzenedisulfonic. Ab initio calculations reveal the energetic stability and the effect of ligands on the modification of the electronic and light absorption properties of these W-MOFs. The benzene-linked BOW has a LUMO–HOMO gap of 1.85 eV and strong absorption in the range of green light owing to the weakened hybridization caused by the nonpolar-benzene-structure, whereas the stronger polarity of –COO– and –SO3– in BCOW and BSOW recovers the high W–O hybridization, enlarges the bandgap, and blueshifts the light absorption.

Plant responses to pathogen attacks and high-temperature stress (HTS) are distinct in nature but generally share several signaling components. How plants produce specific responses through these common signaling intermediates remains elusive. With the help of reverse-genetics approaches, we describe here the mechanism underlying trade-offs in pepper (Capsicum annuum) between growth, immunity, and thermotolerance. The NAC-type transcription factor CaNAC2c was induced by HTS and Ralstonia solanacearum infection (RSI). CaNAC2c-inhibited pepper growth, promoted immunity against RSI by activating jasmonate-mediated immunity and H2O2 accumulation, and promoted HTS responses by activating Heat shock factor A5 (CaHSFA5) transcription and blocking H2O2 accumulation. We show that CaNAC2c physically interacts with CaHSP70 and CaNAC029 in a context-specific manner. Upon HTS, CaNAC2c–CaHSP70 interaction in the nucleus protected CaNAC2c from degradation and resulted in the activation of thermotolerance by increasing CaNAC2c binding and transcriptional activation of its target promoters. CaNAC2c did not induce immunity-related genes under HTS, likely due to the degradation of CaNAC029 by the 26S proteasome. Upon RSI, CaNAC2c interacted with CaNAC029 in the nucleus and activated jasmonate-mediated immunity but was prevented from activating thermotolerance-related genes. In non-stressed plants, CaNAC2c was tethered outside the nucleus by interaction with CaHSP70, and thus was unable to activate either immunity or thermotolerance. Our results indicate that pepper growth, immunity, and thermotolerance are coordinately and tightly regulated by CaNAC2c via its inducible expression and differential interaction with CaHSP70 and CaNAC029.

Due to their significant absorption and reduction abilities, nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI)/granular activated carbon (GAC) composites are very effective for the degradation of organic contaminants and heavy metals. However, to date, there is no systematic study on the applicability of nZVI/GAC for the removal of multiple highly toxic nitrosamines from water supplies. For this study, nZVI/GAC was synthesized and applied to the degradation of multiple nitrosamines. The effects of initial nitrosamine concentration, composite dosage, contact duration, competition with coexistent elements, and reaction mechanisms during the nitrosamine removal process from aqueous solutions were investigated. Compared with bare nZVI and GAC, the removal rates of six nitrosamines via nZVI/GAC were initially very rapid. The highest removal ratios of the six nitrosamines were 76.1% (N-nitrosodimethylamine, NDMA), 84.7% (N-nitrosomethylethylamine, NMEA), 89.8% (N-nitrosodiethylamine, NDEA), 93.5% (N-nitrosodi-n-propylamine, NDPA), 95.7% (N-nitrosodi-n-butylamine, NDBA), and 80.4% (N-nitrosomorpholine, NMor). The nitrosamine degradation kinetics data agreed well with the pseudo-second-order model (R22 > 0.99), the rate constant k2 for nitrosamine (200 ng/L) removal by nZVI/GAC increased in the order of NDBA (0.3675) > NDPA (0.0254) > NMEA (0.0109) > NDEA (0.0105) > NDMA (0.0101) > NMor (0.0077). In the presence of cations, anions, and humic acid (HA) the removal of the six nitrosamines was inhibited at each concentration. Furthermore, the removal ratios and K2 of the five linear nitrosamines by nZVI/GAC partially scaled with structure, LogKow, and Henry's constant, particularly between K2 and these properties (R2 > 0.80). The reaction mechanism revealed that nitrosamines were adsorbed by GAC and then reduced by Fe0, where the reductive products were primarily secondary amines, nitrate, and nitrite. This study serves to improve our understanding, and further characterizes the removal of multiple nitrosamines by nZVI/GAC.

A previous functional magnetic resonance imaging study reported evidence for parallel memory traces in the hippocampus: a controlled match signal detecting matches to internally-generated goal states and an automatic mismatch signal identifying unpredicted perceptual novelty. However, the timing information in this process is unknown. In the current study, facilitated by the high spatial and temporal resolution of intracranial recording from human patients, we confirmed that the left posterior hippocampus played an important role in the goal match enhancement effect, in which combinations of object identity and location were involved. We also found that this effect happened within 520 ms to 735 ms after the probe onset, ~150 ms later than the perceptual mismatch enhancement found bilaterally in both the anterior and posterior hippocampus. More specifically, the latency of the perceptual mismatch enhancement effect of the right hippocampus was positively correlated with the performance accuracy. These results suggested that the hippocampus is crucial in working memory if features binding with location are involved in the task and the goal match enhancement effect happens after perceptual mismatch enhancement, implying the dissociation of different components of working memory at the hippocampus. Moreover, single trial decoding results suggested that the intracranial field potential response in the right hippocampus can classify the match or switch task. This is consistent with the findings that the right hippocampal activity observed during the simulation of the future events may reflect the encoding of the simulation into memory.

MTO is the most appropriate approach used for highly customized products, It requires the order tracking system for controlling the delivery date, manufacturing process and products quality. The author has made researches on the order, the manufacturing process and organization model, then presents a order tracking system architecture for MTO (Make-to-Order) based on the study of order tracking functions and contents, and finally proves the model and system architecture valid by the case.