Search

The cardiotoxicity caused by Dox chemotherapy represents a significant limitation to its clinical application and is a major cause of late death in patients undergoing chemotherapy. Currently, there are no effective treatments available. Our analysis of 295 clinical samples from 132 chemotherapy patients and 163 individuals undergoing physical examination revealed a strong positive correlation between intestinal barrier injury and the development of cardiotoxicity in chemotherapy patients. We developed a novel orally available and intestinal targeting protein nanodrug by assembling membrane protein Amuc_1100 (obtained from intestinal bacteria Akkermansia muciniphila), fluorinated polyetherimide, and hyaluronic acid. The protein nanodrug demonstrated favorable stability against hydrolysis compared with free Amuc_1100. The in vivo results demonstrated that the protein nanodrug can alleviate Dox-induced cardiac toxicity by improving gut microbiota, increasing the proportion of short-chain fatty acid-producing bacteria from the Lachnospiraceae family, and further enhancing the levels of butyrate and pentanoic acids, ultimately regulating the homeostasis repair of lymphocytes in the spleen and heart. Therefore, we believe that the integrity of the intestinal barrier plays an important role in the development of chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity. Protective interventions targeting the intestinal barrier may hold promise as a general clinical treatment regimen for reducing Dox-induced cardiotoxicity.

Abstract Background MicroRNA396 (miR396) plays an important role in the regulation of plant growth and development by repressing the expression level of its target growth-regulating factor (GRF) family genes. In our previous study, we found that overexpression of miR396 negatively regulated both tillering and biomass yield in switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.). We, therefore, speculated that blocking the expression of miR396 could enhance switchgrass tillering and biomass yield. Here, we produced transgenic switchgrass plants overexpressing a target mimicry form of miR396 (MIM396) in wild type (WT) and Os-MIR319b overexpressing switchgrass plant (with higher enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency, but reduced tillering), in which the expression of miR396 was blocked. The phenotype and biological yields of these plants were analyzed. Results Blocking miR396 to improve its target PvGRFs expression in switchgrass improved the tiller number and dry weight of transgenic plants. Further morphological analysis revealed that MIM396 plants increased the number of aerial branches and basal tillers compared to those of wild-type plants. The enzymatic efficiency of MIM396 plants was reduced; however, the total sugar production per plant was still significantly higher than that of wild-type plants due to the increase in biomass. In addition, blocking miR396 in a transgenic switchgrass plant overexpressing Os-MIR319b (TG21-Ms) significantly increased the PvGRF1/3/5 expression level and tiller number and biomass yield. The miR156-target gene PvSPL4, playing a negative role in aerial and basal buds outgrowth, showed significant downregulated in MIM396 and TG21-Ms. Those results indicate that miR396-PvGRFs, through disrupting the PvSPL4 expression, are involved in miR319-PvPCFs in regulating tiller number, at least partly. Conclusions MIM396 could be used as a molecular tool to improving tiller number and biomass yield in switchgrass wild type and miR319b transgenic plants. This finding may be applied to other graminaceous plants to regulate plant biological yield.

ABSTRACT: This study aimed to investigate the effects of dietary Bacillus velezensis KNF-209 (BV-KNF-209) on the growth performance, immunity, and gut health of broilers. A total of 540 one-day-old male Cobb-500 broilers were randomly divided into 5 groups of 6 replicates with 18 broilers per replicate. Dietary treatments were corn-soybean meal basal diets supplemented with 0, 50, 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg BV-KNF-209 (CON, BV 50, BV 100, BV 200, and BV 400 groups, respectively) for 42 d. Compared with the CON group, the average daily gains (ADG) at 0 to 42 d in the BV 100 and BV 200 groups were significantly increased (P < 0.01), and the feed-to-gain (F:G) ratios were significantly decreased at 0 to 21 d (P < 0.01) and 0 to 42 d (P < 0.05). The BV 200 and BV 400 groups had higher serum immunoglobulin M (IgM) levels at d 21 and 42 (P < 0.05). The serum levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were significantly decreased in the BV 50, BV 100, and BV 200 groups at d 21 (P < 0.05), and serum IL-1β and IL-6 levels were also reduced in the BV 100 and BV 200 groups at d 42 (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, increased interleukin-10 (IL-10) levels in the jejunal and ileal mucosa at d 42 were observed in the BV 100, BV 200, and BV 400 groups (P < 0.05), while the IL-1β and IL-6 levels (P < 0.01) were decreased. The BV 200 and BV 400 groups showed significantly higher activities of lipase and trypsin (P < 0.05) in jejunal digesta as well as higher activities of amylase and trypsin (P < 0.01) in ileal digesta at d 42. The cecal acetic acid and propionic acid levels in the BV groups and lactic acid levels in the BV 50, BV 100, and BV 200 groups (P < 0.05) were significantly higher compared to those in the CON group. Overall, dietary BV-KNF-209 supplementation significantly improved broiler growth performance, an effect that may have been achieved by heightening immunity, increasing digestive enzyme activity, and raising intestinal short-chain fatty acids and lactic acid levels.

Inhaling polyhexamethylene guanidine (PHMG) aerosol, a broad-spectrum disinfectant, can lead to severe pulmonary fibrosis. Ferroptosis, a form of programmed cell death triggered by iron-dependent lipid peroxidation, is believed to play a role in the chemical-induced pulmonary injury. This study aimed to investigate the mechanism of ferroptosis in the progression of PHMG-induced pulmonary fibrosis. C57BL/6 J mice and the alveolar type II cell line MLE-12 were used to evaluate the toxicity of PHMG in vivo and in vitro, respectively. The findings indicated that iron deposition was observed in PHMG induced pulmonary fibrosis mouse model and ferroptosis related genes have changed after 8 weeks PHMG exposure. Additionally, there were disturbances in the antioxidant system and mitochondrial damage in MLE-12 cells following a 12-hour treatment with PHMG. Furthermore, the study observed an increase in lipid peroxidation and a decrease in GPX4 activity in MLE-12 cells after exposure to PHMG. Moreover, pretreatment with the ferroptosis inhibitors Ferrostatin-1 (Fer-1) and Liproxstatin-1 (Lip-1) not only restored the antioxidant system and GPX4 activity but also mitigated lipid peroxidation. Current data exhibit the role of ferroptosis pathway in PHMG-induced pulmonary fibrosis and provide a potential target for future treatment.

Since the spindle thermal error of CNC machine tools has a significant impact on machining precision, this paper introduces a unique approach for modeling spindle thermal error. Several key steps are involved in the proposed approach. First, the Fluke thermal imaging camera is employed for acquiring thermal image information of the spindle system. Second, the Gaussian filter is employed to denoise the thermal image sequence. Next, the temperature values at the measurement points are extracted from the thermal image sequence according to the mapping relationship between the grayscale value and the temperature value. Subsequently, critical temperature points are identified from thermal images using the density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) algorithm and the correlation coefficient method. Finally, the multi-verse optimized NARX neural network is employed to investigate the nonlinear prediction of thermal deformation. The research is conducted on the VMC-850E vertical machining center as the subject of study. The performance of the model is validated under conditions of idle spindle and 5000 r/min, comparing prediction results against traditional algorithms. The findings demonstrate that the non-contact measurement method based on thermal imaging successfully establishes the thermal error model, achieving a prediction accuracy of 0.1517 μm for the MVO-NARX model.

Indole and skatole (3-methylindole, C9H9N) are common nitrogen-containing heterocyclic pollutants found in waste, wastewater treatment plants, and public restrooms and are the most notorious compounds in animal feces. Biodegradation was considered a feasible method for the removal of indole and skatole, but a comprehensive understanding of the metabolic pathways under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions was lacking, and the functional genes responsible for skatole biodegradation remained a mystery. Through metagenomic and gene cluster functional analysis, Acinetobacter piscicola p38 (NCBI: CP167896), genes 1650 (styrene monooxygenase: ACDW34_08180), and 1687 (styrene monooxygenase: ACDW34_08350) were identified as having the potential to degrade indole and skatole. The heterologous expression results demonstrate that the genes 1650 and 1651 (flavin reductase: ACDW34_08185), when combined, are capable of degrading indole, while the genes 1687 and 1688 (flavin reductase: ACDW34_08355), in combination, can degrade indole as well as skatole. These reactions necessitate the involvement of flavin reductase and NAD(P)H to catalyze the oxygenation process. This work aimed to provide new experimental evidence for the biodegradation of indole and skatole. This study offered new insights into our understanding of skatole degradation. The Acinetobacter_piscicola p38 strain provided an effective bacterial resource for the bioremediation of fecal indole and skatole.

Abstract Artificial chiral materials and nanostructures with strong and tuneable chiroptical activities, including sign, magnitude, and wavelength distribution, are useful owing to their potential applications in chiral sensing, enantioselective catalysis, and chiroptical devices. Thus, the inverse design and customized manufacturing of these materials is highly desirable. Here, we use an artificial intelligence (AI) guided robotic chemist to accurately predict chiroptical activities from the experimental absorption spectra and structure/process parameters, and generate chiral films with targeted chiroptical activities across the full visible spectrum. The robotic AI-chemist carries out the entire process, including chiral film construction, characterization, and testing. A machine learned reverse design model using spectrum embedded descriptors is developed to predict optimal structure/process parameters for any targeted chiroptical property. A series of chiral films with a dissymmetry factor as high as 1.9 (g abs ~ 1.9) are identified out of more than 100 million possible structures, and their feasible application in circular polarization-selective color filters for multiplex laser display and switchable circularly polarized (CP) luminescence is demonstrated. Our findings not only provide chiral films with the highest reported chiroptical activity, but also have great fundamental value for the inverse design of chiroptical materials.

Plants especially need to adapt to all different light environments (shade, high light, etc.) due to the essential role of light in plant life. Either shade or high-light microenvironmental conditions are common for cool-season turfgrasses, such as perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.). In order to study how a plant highly conserves microRNA, miR164-affected perennial ryegrass were studied under different light intensities. OsmiR164a-overexpression (OE164), target mimicry OsmiR164a (MIM164), and CRES-T (chimeric repressor gene-silencing technology) OsNAC60 (NAC60) transgenic plants and wild-type (WT) plants were evaluated in both field (shade and full sun) and growth chamber conditions (low, medium, and high PAR at 100, 400, and 1200 µmol s−1 m−2). Morphological and physiological analysis showed miR164 could fine-tune perennial ryegrass adaptation to changing light intensity, possibly via the regulation of target genes, such as NAC60. Overall, OE164 and NAC60 plants were similar to each other and more sensitive to high light, particularly under the field condition, demonstrated by smaller size and much poorer grass quality; MIM164 performed more like WT plants than either the OE164 or NAC60 plants. This study indicates the potential of genetic manipulation of miR164 and/or its targeted genes for turfgrass adaptation to changing light environments, and future research to further investigate the molecular mechanism beneath would be warranted.

Abstract Background Medicago sativa is the most important forage world widely, and is characterized by high quality and large biomass. While abiotic factors such as salt stress can negatively impact the growth and productivity of alfalfa. Maintaining Na+/K+ homeostasis in the cytoplasm helps reduce cell damage and nutritional deprivation, which increases a salt-tolerance of plant. Teosinte Branched1/ Cycloidea/ Proliferating cell factors (TCP) family genes, a group of plant-specific transcription factors (TFs), involved in regulating plant growth and development and abiotic stresses. Recent studies have shown TCPs control the Na+/K+ concentration of plants during salt stress. In order to improve alfalfa salt tolerance, it is important to identify alfalfa TCP genes and investigate if and how they regulate alfalfa Na+/K+ homeostasis. Results Seventy-one MsTCP s including 23 non-redundant TCP genes were identified in the database of alfalfa genome (C.V XinJiangDaYe), they were classified into class I PCF (37 members) and class II: CIN (28 members) and CYC/TB1 (9 members). Their distribution on chromosome were unequally. MsTCP s belonging to PCF were expressed specifically in different organs without regularity, which belonging to CIN class were mainly expressed in mature leaves. MsTCP s belongs to CYC/TB1 clade had the highest expression level at meristem. Cis-elements in the promoter of MsTCP s were also predicted, the results indicated that most of the MsTCP s will be induced by phytohormone and stress treatments, especially by ABA-related stimulus including salinity stress. We found 20 out of 23 MsTCP s were up-regulated in 200 mM NaCl treatment, and MsTCP3/14/15/18 were significantly induced by 10 μM KCl, a K+ deficiency treatment. Fourteen non-redundant MsTCPs contained miR319 target site, 11 of them were upregulated in MIM319 transgenic alfalfa, and among them four (MsTCP3/4/10A/B) genes were directly degraded by miR319. MIM319 transgene alfalfa plants showed a salt sensitive phenotype, which caused by a lower content of potassium in alfalfa at least partly. The expression of potassium transported related genes showed significantly higher expression in MIM319 plants. Conclusions We systematically analyzes the MsTCP gene family at a genome-wide level and reported that miR319-TCPs model played a function in K+ up-taking and/ or transportation especially in salt stress. The study provide valuable information for future study of TCP genes in alfalfa and supplies candidate genes for salt-tolerance alfalfa molecular-assisted breeding.

The machining accuracy of CNC machine tools is significantly affected by the thermal deformation of the feed system. The ball screw feed system is extensively used as a transmission component in precise CNC machine tools, responsible for converting rotational motion into linear motion or converting torque into repetitive axial force. This study presents a multi-physical coupling analysis model for the ball screw feed system, considering internal thermal generation, intending to reduce the influence of screw-induced thermal deformation on machining accuracy. This model utilizes the Fourier thermal conduction law and the principle of energy conservation. By performing calculations, the thermal source and thermal transfer coefficient of the ball screw feed system are determined. Moreover, the thermal characteristics of the ball screw feed system are effectively analyzed through the utilization of finite element analysis. To validate the proposed analysis model for the ball screw feed system, a dedicated test platform is designed and constructed specifically to investigate the thermal characteristics of the ball screw feed system in CNC machine tools. By selecting specific CNC machine tools as the subjects of investigation, a comprehensive study is conducted on the thermal characteristics of the ball screw feed system. The analysis entails evaluating parameters like temperature field distribution, thermal deformation, thermal stress, and thermal equilibrium state of the ball screw feed system. By comparing the simulation results from the analysis model with the experimental test results, the study yields the following findings: The maximum absolute error between the simulated and experimental temperatures at each measuring point of the feed system components is 2.4◦C, with a maximum relative error of 8.7%. The maximum absolute error between the simulated and experimental temperatures at the measuring point on the lead screw is 2.0◦C, with a maximum relative error of 6.8%. The thermal characteristics obtained from the steady-state thermal analysis model of the feed system exhibit a prominent level of agreement with the experimental results. The research outcomes presented in this paper provide valuable insights for the development of ball screw feed systems and offer guidance for the thermal design of machine tools.

Ocean thermal energy is acknowledged as one of the most promising ocean renewable energy sources in low latitude sea areas. In the ocean thermal energy conversion system, the turbine plays a significant role, and it is responsible for converting the working medium enthalpy into the shaft output power. The present study is focused on the performance analysis of a novel radial inflow turbine with an adjustable nozzle in the OTEC system in order to adapt to the changing operating conditions of the turbine, which vary with the change in seawater temperature. At the design point, the predicted overall isentropic efficiency is 86.5%, and the shaft output power is 15.3 kW, slightly higher than the expected 15 kW. Furthermore, a parametric study is performed, respectively, for the nozzle vane stagger angle and the nozzle-impeller radial clearance to explore the favorable geometric parameters for different conditions. The turbine’s overall efficiency increases slightly with deceasing nozzle-impeller radial clearance, and the variation of the nozzle vane stagger angle is much more influential on the turbine shaft power and overall efficiency. The optimum stagger angle point moves from 32° to 36° gradually with the increase in nozzle-impeller clearance. Finally, the feasibility of an adjustable nozzle for the turbine under off-design conditions was verified by combining the radial clearance and nozzle stagger angle.

Increasing the ultraviolet radiation (UV) level, particularly UV-B due to damage to the stratospheric ozone layer by human activities, has huge negative effects on plant and animal metabolism. As a widely grown cool-season forage grass and turfgrass in the world, perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) is UV-B-sensitive. To study the effects of miR164, a highly conserved microRNA in plants, on perennial ryegrass under UV stress, both OsmiR164a overexpression (OE164) and target mimicry (MIM164) transgenic perennial ryegrass plants were generated using agrobacterium-mediated transformation, and UV-B treatment (~600 μw cm−2) of 7 days was imposed. Morphological and physiological analysis showed that the miR164 gene affected perennial ryegrass UV tolerance negatively, demonstrated by the more scorching leaves, higher leaf electrolyte leakage, and lower relative water content in OE164 than the WT and MIM164 plants after UV stress. The increased UV sensitivity could be partially due to the reduction in antioxidative capacity and the accumulation of anthocyanins. This study indicated the potential of targeting miR164 and/or its targeted genes for the genetic manipulation of UV responses in forage grasses/turfgrasses; further research to reveal the molecular mechanism underlying how miR164 affects plant UV responses is needed.

Drought stress severely affects alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) growth and production. It is particularly important to analyze the key networks of drought in alfalfa through physiological and molecular levels. However, how to quickly screen drought-tolerant alfalfa germplasm and how to elucidate the molecular pathways of alfalfa responding to drought are less studied. In this study, based on our previous research, we further verified the association between the heritability of ABA sensitivity during seed germination and drought tolerance of plants and identified the key pathways of drought tolerance differences between ABA-sensitivity (S1-0) and -insensitivity (S1-50) plants via RNA-seq and analysis. The results showed that the sensitivity to ABA in alfalfa seeds can be inherited and that plants that are insensitive to ABA during germination show stronger drought tolerance. An analysis of the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) revealed that ABA biosynthesis and signaling, amino acid metabolism, LEA, and wax synthesis-related pathways may be the key pathways that can be used for drought tolerance improvement in alfalfa. DEGs such as NCED, PYR/PYL, and PP2C may contribute to drought tolerance in the S1-50 plant. The study further confirms that screening with ABA at the seed germination stage can select alfalfa lines with good drought tolerance, which provides a new theoretical basis for alfalfa drought tolerance breeding. The expression of the key genes of alfalfa in response to drought stress was also tested.

Improving the forage quality of alfalfa in terms of digestibility and crude content is essential for any alfalfa quality breeding programs. Arabidopsis thaliana orphan gene QQS (Qua-Quine Starch) has been shown to improve protein content and alter carbohydrate composition in different food crops. However, there are significant differences in agronomic traits and nutritional conditions between alfalfa and other food crops. To explore the biological function and molecular mechanisms of QQS in alfalfa, we generated QQS transgenic plants and their segregated population (T1 generation), and evaluated their performance under normal- and nitrogen-deficient conditions. Our findings indicate that QQS can significantly enhance the total nitrogen and crude protein content of alfalfa and increase nodule weight under low-nitrogen conditions. Furthermore, QQS transgenic lines also showed reduced levels of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and lignin, improving forage digestibility. By RNA sequencing and RT-qPCR analysis, we found that QQS affected the expression of genes involved in carbon and nitrogen metabolism, lignin biosynthesis and amino acid biosynthesis and degradation pathways in alfalfa. In addition, QQS also improved alfalfa biomass yield by increasing branch number and plant height in both greenhouse and field conditions. Our results demonstrate that QQS as a useful molecular tool can improve alfalfa biomass yield and overall forage quality and could have significant implications for the alfalfa breeding industry in satisfying the constant demands for high-quality and high-yielding forage.

Guanidine disinfectants are important chemical agents with a broad spectrum of activity that are effective against most microorganisms. Chlorhexidine, one of the most used guanidine disinfectants, is added to shampoo and mouthwash and applied in medical device sterilization. During the use of chlorhexidine, aerosols with micron particle size may be formed, which may cause inhalation toxicity. To assess the toxicity of inhaled chlorhexidine aerosol, mice underwent the intratracheal instillation of different concentrations of chlorhexidine (0, 0.125%, 0.25%, 0.5%, and 1%) using a MicroSprayer Aerosolizer. The mice were exposed for eight weeks and then sacrificed to obtain lung tissue for subsequent experiments. Histopathology staining revealed damaged lung tissues and increased collagen exudation. At the same time, pulmonary function tests showed that chlorhexidine exposure could cause restrictive ventilatory dysfunction, consistent with pulmonary fibrosis. The results of transcriptome analyses suggest that chlorhexidine may trigger an inflammatory response and promote the activation of pathways related to extracellular matrix deposition. Further, we identified that chlorhexidine exposure might enhance mucus secretion by up-regulating Muc5b and Muc5ac genes, thereby inducing fibrosis-like injury. These findings underscore the need for standardized use of disinfectants and the assessment of their inhalation toxicity.

With the substantial increase in karst groundwater pollution, the pollution caused by heavy metal migration has become one of the hottest topics. The migration characteristics of heavy metals in karst groundwater are closely related to the geological environment in which they are found. Therefore, this review focuses on the migration characteristics of heavy metals in karst groundwater in southern and northern China and highlights the effect of different environmental contexts such as atmosphere (precipitation), vegetation, soil, rock, and aquifers on the behavior of heavy metals. It also summarizes existing research methods on heavy metal migration in karst groundwater. Meanwhile, current advances and the future perspectives on karst groundwater heavy metal migration will be presented. It is hoped that this review may shed light on the study of heavy metal migration in karst areas.

Temporal action detection is a very important and challenging task in the field of video understanding, especially for datasets with significant differences in action duration. The temporal relationships between the action instances contained in these datasets are very complex. For such videos, it is necessary to capture information with a richer temporal distribution as much as possible. In this paper, we propose a dual-stream model that can model contextual information at multiple temporal scales. First, the input video is divided into two resolution streams, followed by a Multi-Resolution Context Aggregation module to capture multi-scale temporal information. Additionally, an Information Enhancement module is added after the high-resolution input stream to model both long-range and short-range contexts. Finally, the outputs of the two modules are merged to obtain features with rich temporal information for action localization and classification. We conducted experiments on three datasets to evaluate the proposed approach. On ActivityNet-v1.3, an average mAP (mean Average Precision) of 32.83% was obtained. On Charades, the best performance was obtained, with an average mAP of 27.3%. On TSU (Toyota Smarthome Untrimmed), an average mAP of 33.1% was achieved.

The 3M PetriFilmTM rapid aerobic count plate method (3M test plate method) and filter membrane method were used to quantitatively determine the total number of bacterial colonies in the beverage, and the consistency of the two methods was analyzed. Seven kinds of bacteria including Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Paenibacillus ehimensis, Bacillus subtilis, Asia Siamensis, Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger were used to artificially inoculate and test the beverage samples. The experimental results showed that for different strains and different pollution levels, the linear fitting degree of 3M test plate method and filter membrane method was better (determination coefficient R2>0.95). And the recovery rate of 3M test plate method was more than 70%, and the RSD values (2.9%~34.3%) were within the prescribed range of Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China 2020, indicating that 3M test plate method had better accuracy and precision. For the specificity test of bacterial and fungal contamination and the repeatability test of different batches of 3M test plates, the recovery rate of 3M test plate method was more than 70%, and the RSD values (3.6%~34.3%) were within the acceptable range, showing good specificity and repeatability. The results of 3M test plate method and filter membrane method were analyzed by using relatively trueness and accuracy profileanalysis method. The results showed that the two methods had good consistency and equivalence. Based on the above analysis results, 3M test plate method is equivalent to filter membrane method to determine the total number of colonies in beverages.

Throughfall (TF) is an important water input of rainfall redistribution into floor, and its spatial–temporal variability under some species' canopies has been documented to evaluate effect on splash erosion. However, the understanding of TF variability under large broad-leaved canopy remains insufficient. In this study, the spatial heterogeneity, temporal stability and drop size of TF were quantified using variogram fitting, normalised ranking and filter paper staining, respectively, under banana (Musa nana Lour.) canopy comprising long and wide leaves. Results indicated TF pattern showed strong spatial correlation at a range of 3–5 m. High spatial variability of TF was found, which was affected by rainfall event size and was accompanied by great canopy disturbance. TF plots revealed high time variability, which was mainly controlled by unstable banana canopy structure. TF drop size from leaf dripping points varied in 3–10 mm and showed significant differences (p < 0.05) among five kinds of leaf shapes, implying that concave and broken banana leaves were involved in the variability of TF drop size. Overall, results demonstrate the spatial–temporal variability of TF is dramatically induced by banana canopy with broad leaves, which may result in non-uniform soil water content and splash erosion under the canopy. HIGHLIGHTS The specific banana canopy notably modifies spatial-temporal variability of throughfall.; The spatial variability of throughfall was high and correlated with the rainfall event size.; The spatial pattern of throughfall showed low time stability based on multi-temporal levels.; Drop size of throughfall at different leaf shapes showed variable distribution in 3–10 mm.;

(1) Pine wilt disease (PWD) is a devastating disease of pine forests caused by the pine wood nematode (PWN), Bursaphelenchus xylophilus. Control of the disease is a worldwide problem due to the impossibility of using chemical nematicides on a large scale and for long periods. (2) Based on preliminary tests of microemulsion quality and stability, the optimum formulation was selected from 14 formulated microemulsions. The median lethal concentration (LC50) of the selected formulation at 48 h after treatment of B. xylophilus was 31.45 μg/mL of emamectin benzoate. The active ingredient reached the apical branches of Pinus thunbergii within 90 days of injection. (3) P. thunbergii was inoculated with B. xylophilus at 100 days post-injection, and the trees treated with the formulation remained uninfected for 450 days. Trunk injection exerted substantial control over PWD. (4) These results indicate that this formulation has the advantages of good transportability and long persistence in pine trees after injection and that it effectively prevents PWD. Therefore, this emamectin benzoate formulation can effectively reduce PWD occurrence in pine forests.

Graph convolutional networks are widely used in skeleton-based action recognition because of their good fitting ability to non-Euclidean data. While conventional multi-scale temporal convolution uses several fixed-size convolution kernels or dilation rates at each layer of the network, we argue that different layers and datasets require different receptive fields. We use multi-scale adaptive convolution kernels and dilation rates to optimize traditional multi-scale temporal convolution with a simple and effective self attention mechanism, allowing different network layers to adaptively select convolution kernels of different sizes and dilation rates instead of being fixed and unchanged. Besides, the effective receptive field of the simple residual connection is not large, and there is a great deal of redundancy in the deep residual network, which will lead to the loss of context when aggregating spatio-temporal information. This article introduces a feature fusion mechanism that replaces the residual connection between initial features and temporal module outputs, effectively solving the problems of context aggregation and initial feature fusion. We propose a multi-modality adaptive feature fusion framework (MMAFF) to simultaneously increase the receptive field in both spatial and temporal dimensions. Concretely, we input the features extracted by the spatial module into the adaptive temporal fusion module to simultaneously extract multi-scale skeleton features in both spatial and temporal parts. In addition, based on the current multi-stream approach, we use the limb stream to uniformly process correlated data from multiple modalities. Extensive experiments show that our model obtains competitive results with state-of-the-art methods on the NTU-RGB+D 60 and NTU-RGB+D 120 datasets.

With the initial establishment of global earth observation system in various countries, more and more high-resolution remote sensing data of multisource, multitemporal, multiscale, and different types of satellites are obtained. It is urgent to explore the advanced basic theory of remote sensing information science, design high-performance generic key technologies of remote sensing information system and global positioning system, and study complex engineering system of remote sensing applications and geographic information system. In this article, the basic theory exploration, inversion technology research, and engineering application design and development of generic optical remote sensing product (ORSP) are systematically reviewed. We classify the ORSP scientifically, review the main algorithms and application scope of 16 kinds of generic ORSP, and expound the validation and quality evaluation methods of ORSP in engineering application. Furthermore, we analyze the current core problems and solutions, and prospects for the state-of-the-art research and the future development trend of generic ORSP. This will provide valuable reference for scientific research and construction of high-resolution earth observation system.

In this study, a finite element (FE) analysis code installing an inelastic constitutive model and crack growth algorithm for thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) developed by Arai et al. was applied to TBCs and porous TBCs (P-TBCs) to evaluate stress, damage and crack initiation and propagation behavior under cycling loading at high temperatures of 673 K and 973 K. The results showed that (i) number of cycles until the crack tip reaching the interface between top coat and bond coat in P-TBC was longer than that in TBC. In other words, the fatigue crack growth rate of P-TBC was slower than that of TBC. (ii) Comparison of the cross-sectional observation results with the finite element analysis showed that the crack initiation location and the crack propagation path in FE analysis results were in good agreement with the observation results. The reason for slow fatigue crack growth rate observed in the P-TBC was as follow: the crack becomes stationary by reaching the wall of open pore. After that, the fresh crack initiates at the edge of open pore by subjecting to more cyclic loading. Consequently, the crack propagates as sewing between pores with cyclic loading which leads to the slow crack growth rate. (iii) Comparison of the surface crack initiation life between test results and the FE analytical results shows that the prediction results by finite element analysis agreed well with the observed results.

Abstract Background Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), a C4 perennial grass, has been recognized as one of the most potentially important lignocellulose biofuel crops. MicroRNA319 (miR319) plays a key role in plant development, abiotic resistance, and cell wall biosynthesis by repressing expression of its target TCP genes. We hypothesized miR319–TCP pathway could play important roles in switchgrass feedstock characteristics for biofuel production, and produced switchgrass transgenic plants overexpressing miR319 (by ectopic expressing Osa-MIR319b gene), blocking miR319 (by overexpressing a target mimicry of miR319/MIM319) and repression of miR319 target gene PvPCF5. Plant phenotype, biomass yield, and feedstock quality of transgenic plants were analyzed. Results Overexpression of miR319 in switchgrass promoted leaf elongation and expansion of transgenic plants, increased plant height, stem diameter, and resulted in a significant increase in plant biomass yield. Transgenic plants overexpressing of miR319 reduced lignin content, showed significantly higher enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency compared to the wild type plant. However, opposite results were observed in the MIM319 plants. Furthermore, suppression of miR319 target gene PvPCF5 activity also reduced lignin content, increased lignin monomer S/G ratio and the proportion of β-O-4 linkages, while significantly improving the sugar production per plant. Quantitative real-time (qRT-PCR) analysis indicated that expression of PvMYB58/63B and PvHCT with predicted TCP binding sites in their promoter regions was negatively regulated by miR319–PvPCF5 module. Conclusions MiR319–PvPCF5 module plays positive roles in regulating biomass yield and quality of switchgrass. It can be utilized as a candidate molecular tool in regulating biomass yield and feedstock quality. The finding could also be transferred to other grasses for forage quality improvement through genetic manipulation.

Background. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) has become the main treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and has been studied in many systematic reviews (SRs), but strong conclusions have not been drawn yet. Objective. This study aimed to summarize and critically evaluate the methodological and evidence quality of SRs and meta-analysis on this topic. Methods. PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, and Web of Science were searched for SRs/meta-analyses regarding HSCT for AML. Two reviewers assessed the quality of SRs/meta-analyses in line with AMSTAR-2 and evaluated the strength of evidence quality with the grading of the evaluation system (GRADE) for concerned outcomes independently. Results. 12 SR/Meta articles were included, and the AMSTAR-2 scale showed that the quality grade of all articles was low or very low. GRADE results showed 29 outcomes, 2 of which were high, 12 were moderate, and 15 were low. Limitations and inconsistency were the most important factors leading to degradation, followed by imprecision and publication bias. Allo-SCT had better OS and DFS benefits than auto-SCT and significantly reduced the relapse in intermediate-risk AML/CR1 patients. Auto-SCT was associated with lower TRM than allo-SCT but generally had higher relapse. The results should be confirmed further for the low or moderate evidence quality. Conclusion. Current SRs show that allo-SCT in the treatment of AML might improve the OS, RFS, and DFS. Auto-SCT has significantly lower TRM but higher RR. Whether bone marrow transplantation is superior to nonmyeloablative chemotherapy remains to be evaluated. Meanwhile, the quality of methodology needs to be further improved. The intensity of evidence was uneven, and the high-quality evidence of outcomes was lacking. Considering the limitations of our overview, more rigorous and scientific studies are needed to fully explore the efficacy of different interventions of HSCT in AML, and clinicians should be more cautious in the treatment.

Increased dependence on aerobic glycolysis is characteristic of most cancer cells, whereas the mechanism underlying the promotion of aerobic glycolysis in metastatic breast cancer cells under ambient oxygen has not been well understood. Here, we demonstrated that aberrant expression of signal-induced proliferation-associated 1 (SIPA1) enhanced aerobic glycolysis and altered the main source of ATP production from oxidative phosphorylation to glycolysis in breast cancer cells. We revealed that SIPA1 promoted the transcription of EPAS1, which is known as the gene encoding hypoxia-inducible factor-2α (HIF-2α) and up-regulated the expression of multiple glycolysis-related genes to increase aerobic glycolysis. We also found that blocking aerobic glycolysis by either knocking down SIPA1 expression or oxamate treatment led to the suppression of tumor metastasis of breast cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo. Taken together, aberrant expression of SIPA1 resulted in the alteration of glucose metabolism from oxidative phosphorylation to aerobic glycolysis even at ambient oxygen levels, which might aggravate the malignancy of breast cancer cells. The present findings indicate a potential target for the development of therapeutics against breast cancers with dysregulated SIPA1 expression.

Abstract Background The incidence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) increases each year, and obesity is an important risk factor for CKD. The main anthropometric indicators currently reflecting obesity are body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), but the rationality and merits of various indicators vary. This article aims to find whether the WHtR is a more suitable physical measurement that can predict CKD. Methods Pubmed, embase, the cochrane library, and web of science were systematically searched for articles published between 1998 and 2019 screening CKD through physical indicators. Two reviewers independently screened the literature according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted the data, and evaluated the quality of the methodology included in the study. Meta-analysis used the Stata 12.0 software. Results Nine studies were included, with a total of 202,283 subjects. Meta-analysis showed that according to the analysis of different genders in 6 studies, regardless of sex, WHtR was the area with the largest area under the curve (AUC). Except WHtR and visceral fat index (VFI) in women which showed no statistical difference, WHtR and other indicators were statistically different. In three studies without gender-based stratification, the area under the curve AUC for WHtR remained the largest, but only the difference between WHtR and BMI was statistically significant. When the Chinese population was considered as a subgroup, the area under the curve AUC for WHtR was the largest. Except for WHtR and VFI which showed no statistical difference in women, there was a statistically significant difference between WHtR and other indicators in men and women. Conclusion WHtR could be better prediction for CKD relative to other physical measurements. It also requires higher-quality prospective studies to verify the clinical application of WHtR.

In this study, 24 surface water samples were collected from the main trunk/tributary of the Lijiang River during the wet season (April) and the dry season (December) in 2021. The total concentration of 11 heavy metal(loid)s (Al, Cu, Pb, Zn, Cr, Ni, Co, Cd, Mn, As, and Hg) was determined to investigate their physicochemical properties and spatial-temporal distribution characteristics. The heavy metal evaluation index (HEI) and the positive matrix factorization (PMF) model were employed to evaluate water quality and to reveal quantitatively identified pollution sources for further investigation to obtain a health risk assessment using the hazard index (HI) and carcinogenic risk (CR) of various pollution sources. The mean concentrations of heavy metal(loid)s in surface water in the wet and dry seasons were ranked as: Al > Mn > Zn > Ni > Cd > Cr > Cu > As >Hg = Pb > Co, with the mean concentration of Hg being higher than the national Class II surface water environmental quality standard (GB3838-2002). In terms of time scale, the concentration of most heavy metal(loid)s was higher in the wet season; most heavy metal(loid)s were distributed mainly in the midstream area. HEI index indicated that the main water quality status was “slightly affected” in the study area. Five potential sources of pollution were obtained from the PMF model, including industrial activities, traffic sources, agricultural activities, domestic waste emissions, and natural resources. The source-oriented risk assessment indicated that the largest contributions of HI and CR were agricultural sources in the Lijiang River. This study provides a “target” for the precise control of pollution sources, which has a broad impact on improving the fine management of the water environment in the basin.

Thermal barrier coating (TBC) is widely applied to gas turbine blade surface to protect the metallic substrate from high-temperature combustion gas flow. Porous TBC system has been developed by our research group in order to further increase the turbine inlet temperature. In this study, in order to appropriately evaluate the stress distribution and the crack growth behavior in porous TBC subjected to a monotonical tensile loading at high-temperature, a finite element analysis model with pores in top coat (TC) based on an actual cross-sectional image of TBC specimen was established. The inelastic constitutive equation of TC and the crack growth algorithm proposed by our research group were also introduced into the analysis model. It was confirmed that the stress distribution and the crack growth behavior obtained by the analysis under a monotonical tensile loading condition were consistent with the experimental results under 293K and 1273K temperature conditions. In addition, the analysis results from three models with different porosity showed that the crack initiation strain is increased with increasing the porosity. The increase of porosity could improve the apparent ductility of TC. It was considered that the improved ductility suppressed the cracks initiation.

The segmentation of the left ventricle (LV) wall in four-chamber view cardiac sequential image is significant for cardiac disease diagnosis and cardiac mechanisms study; however, there is no successful reported work on sequential four-chambered view LV wall segmentation due to the complex four-chamber structure and diversity of wall motion. In this article, we propose a dense recurrent neural network (RNN) algorithm to achieve accurately LV wall segmentation in a four-chamber view MRI time sequence. In the cardiac sequential LV wall process, not only the sequential accuracy but also the accuracy of each image matters. Thus, we propose a dense RNN to provide compensation for the first long short-term memory (LSTM) cells. Two RNNs are combined in this work, the first one aims at providing information for the first image, and the second RNN generates segmentation result. In this way, the proposed dense RNN improves the accuracy of the first frame image. What is more is that, it improves the effectiveness of information flow between LSTM cells. Obtaining more competent information from the former cell, frame-wise segmentation accuracy is greatly improved. Based on the segmentation result, an algorithm is proposed to estimate cardiac state. This is the first time that deals with both cardiac time-sequential LV segmentation problems and, robustly, estimates cardiac state. Rather than segmenting each frame separately, utilizing cardiac sequence information is more stable. The proposed method ensures an Intersection over Union (IoU) of 92.13%, which outperforms other classical deep learning algorithms.

This paper addressed the vessel segmentation and disease diagnostic in coronary angiography image and proposed an Encoder-Decoder architecture of deep learning with End-to-End model, where Encoder is based on ResNet, and the deep features are exacted automatically, and the Decoder produces the segmentation result by balanced cross-entropy cost function. Furthermore, batch normalization is employed to decrease the gradient vanishing in the training process, so as to reduce the difficulty of training the deep neural network. The experiment results show that the algorithm effectively exacts the feature and edge information, therefore the complex background disturbance is suppressed convincingly, and the vessel segmentation precision is improved effectively, the segmentation precision for three typical vessels are 0.8365, 0.8924 and 0.6297 respectively; and the F-measure are 0.8514, 0.8786 and 0.7298, respectively. In addition, the experiment results show that our proposed can be generalized to the angiography image within limits.

In this study, we investigated the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of Isodon amethystoides (Benth.) CY Wu et Hsuan leaf extracts. Leaves were subjected to extraction with acetone, chloroform, ethanol and ethyl acetate. The extraction efficiency of these four solvents ranked as follows: acetone > chloroform > ethanol > ethyl acetate; highest extraction yield of 18.27% was obtained using acetone as the solvent. Total phenolic content and flavonoid content were determined using Folin–Ciocalteau and aluminium chloride (AlCl3) methods, respectively. The acetone extract had the highest total phenolic content (146.77 mg GAE/g dry extract) and flavonoid content (81.57 mg RE/g dry extract) among the four types of extracts. Further, the antioxidant activity was determined by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method and the antimicrobial activity was evaluated using disc-diffusion and broth microdilution assay. The strongest antioxidant activity was observed in the acetone extract with a half minimal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 0.4024 mg/mL in the DPPH scavenging assay. The acetone and ethyl acetate extracts exhibited strong antimicrobial activity. The strongest antibacterial activity of the acetone extract was observed against Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 0.10 mg/mL and 0.05 mg/mL, respectively. The acetone extract had high antifungal activity against three of the six agriculturally important pathogenic fungi with MIC ranging from 0.5 mg/mL to 0.8 mg/mL. The antioxidant and antimicrobial activities may be attributed to the high total phenolic and flavonoid contents in the acetone extract. Our findings suggest I. amethystoides leaves as an important source of natural compounds with potential use in agriculture.

Abstract Background Isodon amethystoides (Ben-th) Cy Wu et Hsuan is an important traditional medicinal plant endowed with pharmacological properties effective in the treatment of various diseases, including pulmonary tuberculosis. The tetracyclic diterpenoids, Wangzaozins (Wangzaozin A, glaucocalyxin A, glaucocalyxin B), are the major bioactive compounds of I. amethystoides. However, the molecular information about the biosynthesis of these compounds still remains unclear. Results An examination of the accumulated levels of Wangzaozins in I. amethystoides revealed considerable variations in the root, stem, and leaf tissues of this plant, indicating possible differences in metabolite biosynthesis and accumulation among various tissues. To better elucidate the tetracyclic diterpenoid biosynthesis pathway, we generated transcriptome sequences from the root, stem, and leaf tissues, and performed de novo sequence assembly, yielding 230,974 transcripts and 114,488 unigenes, with average N50 lengths of 1914 and 1241 bp, respectively. Putative functions could be assigned to 73,693 transcripts (31.9%) based on BLAST searches against annotation databases, including GO, KEGG, Swiss-Prot, NR, and Pfam. Moreover, the candidate genes involving in the diterpenoid biosynthesis, such as CPS, KSL, were also analyzed. The expression profiles of eight transcripts, involving the tetracyclic diterpenoid biosynthesis, were validated in different I. amethystoides tissues by qRT-PCR, unraveling the gene expression profile of the pathway. The differential expressions of ISPD, ISPF and ISPH (MEP pathway), and IaCPS and IaKSL (diterpenoid pathway) candidate genes in leaves and roots, may contribute to the high accumulation of Wangzaozins in I. amethystoides leaves. Conclusion The genomic dataset and analyses reported here lay the foundations for further research on this important medicinal plant.

Background: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are promising candidates for immunomodulatory therapy that are currently being tested in corneal allograft rejection. In this study, we tested the effects of Mesenchymal stem cells derived exosomes in the corneal allograft rejection model. Methods: Mesenchymal stem cells derived exosomes (MSC-exo) were collected and characterized. Wistar-Lewis rat corneal allograft rejection models were established. PKH26 labeled exosomes were used for track experiment. Models were randomly separated into four groups and treated with graded doses of exosomes or same volumn of PBS. Corneal grafts were assessed for rejection degree using slit-lamp biomicroscopy. Grafts were examined histologically using hematoxylin-eosin (H-E) staining and immunohistochemically using antibodies against CD4, CD8 and CD25. A comprehensive graft mRNA gene expression array analysis was conducted and checked by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results: The nanovesicles obtained were expressing exosome specific protein markers CD9, CD63, CD81. The labeled exosomes could be detected in both cornea and anterior chamber two hours after injection.The 10 μg exosomes subconjunctival injection can effectively prolong graft survival time (MST 16.3 ± 2.5 days). 10 μg exosomes-treated group can inhibit the infiltration of CD4+ and CD25+ T cells. IFN-γ and CXCL11 levels were significantly decreased in grafts obtained from postoperative exosomes-treated rats when compared with controls. Conclusions: MSC-exo can cross biological barrier and play better role directly towards target tissue. MSC-exo can effectively prolong grafts survival time. Th1 signaling pathway was significantly inhibited in the exosomes treated group.

Background Radioimmunotherapy has a promising antitumor effect in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), depending on the regulatory effect of radiotherapy on tumor immune microenvironment. Ionizing radiation (IR)-induced DNA damage repair (DDR) pathway activation leads to the inhibition of immune microenvironment, thus impairing the antitumor effect of radioimmunotherapy. However, it is unclear whether inhibition of the DDR pathway can enhance the effect of radioimmunotherapy. In this study, we aim to explore the role of DDR inhibitor AZD6738 on the combination of radiotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in HCC.Methods C57BL/6 mouse subcutaneous tumor model was used to evaluate the ability of different treatment regimens in tumor growth control and tumor recurrence inhibition. Effects of each treatment regimen on the alterations of immunophenotypes including the quantification, activation, proliferating ability, exhaustion marker expression, and memory status were assessed by flow cytometry.Results AZD6738 further increased radiotherapy-stimulated CD8+ T cell infiltration and activation and reverted the immunosuppressive effect of radiation on the number of Tregs in mice xenografts. Moreover, compared with radioimmunotherapy (radiotherapy plus anti-PD-L1 (Programmed death ligand 1)), the addition of AZD6738 boosted the infiltration, increased cell proliferation, enhanced interferon (IFN)-γ production ability of TIL (tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte) CD8+ T cells, and caused a decreasing trend in the number of TIL Tregs and exhausted T cells in mice xenografts. Thus, the tumor immune microenvironment was significantly improved. Meanwhile, triple therapy (AZD6738 plus radiotherapy plus anti-PD-L1) also induced a better immunophenotype than radioimmunotherapy in mice spleens. As a consequence, triple therapy displayed greater benefit in antitumor efficacy and mice survival than radioimmunotherapy. Mechanism study revealed that the synergistic antitumor effect of AZD6738 with radioimmunotherapy relied on the activation of cyclic GMP–AMP synthase /stimulator of interferon genes (cGAS/STING) signaling pathway. Furthermore, triple therapy led to stronger immunologic memory and lasting antitumor immunity than radioimmunotherapy, thus preventing tumor recurrence in mouse models.Conclusions Our findings indicate that AZD6738 might be a potential synergistic treatment for radioimmunotherapy to control the proliferation of HCC cells, prolong survival, and prevent tumor recurrence in patients with HCC by improving the immune microenvironment.

Kruppel-like factor 2 (KLF2) is associated with acute and chronic inflammation. However, the role of KLF2 in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) remains unknown. Here, we investigated the expression of KLF2 in mice with collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) to determine whether KLF2 levels correlate with inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) production in vitro. Hematoxylin and eosin staining was used to assess the synovitis and bone destruction in mice. The concentration of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-6, and nitric oxide (NO) in synovial fluid was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, while western blot (WB) analysis was employed to detect the expression of KLF2 and iNOS in the synovium, heart, and kidneys. The expression of iNOS in MH7A cells was analyzed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and WB. The expression of KLF2 and iNOS was significantly elevated in the synovium, heart, and kidneys of CIA mice. This was correlated to an increase in the severity of arthritis and the concentration of inflammatory mediators including TNF-α, IL-6, and NO in joint fluid. KLF2 and iNOS expression in vitro was induced by TNF-α and KLF2 knockdown significantly reduced the TNF-α-induced iNOS expression. These findings indicate that KLF2 influences synovial inflammation in CIA mice by regulating iNOS production in synoviocytes.

Rhizobium rhizogenes-mediated plant hairy root induction is a convenient method for functional study of root-specific genes. To develop an optimized tobacco hairy root induction system and study gene function in nicotine biosynthesis, we investigated hairy root induction by three R. rhizogenes strains, R1601, K599, and LBA9402, on different media with leaf discs from plants of different ages, and we observed that the strain LBA9402 used for explant infection exhibited the highest hairy root induction rate with 4 and 8 week old leaf discs of the tobacco ‘Coker176’ on 2/3MS medium, and it could also be used as a cargo delivering foreign genes to hairy roots. Overexpression of MsSPL12 gene, an alfalfa (Medicago sativa) SQUAMOSA promoter binding protein-like (SPL) transcription factor, significantly improved nicotine production in transgenic hairy roots, reaching 1.38–1.85 mg/g compared to 0.5 mg/g of the controls. Expression analysis of the nicotine biosynthesis and transport-related genes responding to methyl-jasmonate (MeJA) treatment revealed a significant upregulation of NtMPO2 responsible for increased nicotine biosynthesis in MsSPL12 transgenic hairy roots. Our results establish a high-throughput approach for gene functional characterization in the hairy roots of a tobacco elite cultivar, ‘Coker176’, as well as suggest a system for efficiently manipulating tobacco nicotine biosynthesis.

The synergistic antibacterial effects of lotus seedpod oligomeric procyanidins (LSPC) and water-soluble Poria cocos polysaccharides (WPCP) against two Escherichia coli (E. coli) strains were evaluated. The mixture showed an obviously synergistic inhibitory effect against E. coli, improving the adverse effects by which LSPC at low concentration (≤0.8 mg/mL) proliferated E. coli. The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the mixture was significantly lower compared with LSPC alone against E. coli strains. The main mechanism of LSPC and the mixture against E. coli strains caused damage of cell membranes and increased the intracellular oxidative stress. The changes in the FT-IR and UV–vis spectra showed that there was interaction between LSPC and WPCP, and the changes of zeta potential of different samples might offer possible reasons for its improved antibacterial activity. Moreover, the results demonstrated that the mixture had more potential than LSPC for natural bacteriostatic agents and probiotics.

Carbendazim (CAR) and enrofloxacin (ENF) are frequently detected in fruits and meat products, respectively. Since most people consume fruits, vegetables, and meat products, combined exposure is possible, necessitating further evaluation of toxic interactions. In this study, the developmental toxicity of separate and combined exposure was examined in zebrafish embryos. Carbendazim exposure at 0.79 mg/L and above significantly affected developmental parameters, while enrofloxacin alone had no substantial effects on these developmental parameters within the selected concentration range (0.10–0.40 mg/L). Surprisingly, ENF antagonized the CAR-evoked reduction in the 48 hpf (hours post-fertilization) hatching rate and the increases in the 96 hpf malformation and lethality rates. The results revealed that the antagonism might be associated with reciprocal effects of these compounds on metabolism-related genes, such as cyp7a1 and apoa1a. These results reveal a complex interaction between ENF and CAR on metabolic regulation during development and highlight the importance of combined assessment for agents with the potential for simultaneous exposure.

Difenoconazole (DIF) and dimethomorph (DIM) are widely used pesticides frequently detected together in environmental samples, so the deleterious effects of combined exposure warrant detailed examination. In this study, the individual and combined effects of DIM and DIF on conventional developmental parameters (hatching rate, deformity rate, lethality) and gene expression were measured in embryonic zebrafish. Both DIF and DIM interfered with normal zebrafish embryo development, and the most sensitive toxicity index for both was 96 h post-fertilization (hpf) deformity rate (BMDL10 values of 0.30 and 1.10 mg/L, respectively). The combination of DIF and DIM had mainly synergistic deleterious effects on 96 hpf deformity and mortality rates. Transcriptome analysis showed that these compounds markedly downregulated expression of mcm family genes, cdk1, and cdc20, thereby potentially disrupting DNA replication and cell cycle progression. Enhanced surveillance for this pesticide combination is recommended as simultaneous environmental exposure may be substantially more harmful than exposure to either compound alone.

With global warming, high temperature stress has become a main threat to the growth of cool-season turfgrasses, including perennial ryegrass. As one of the conserved plant microRNA families, miR408s are known to play roles in various abiotic stresses, including cold, drought, salinity, and oxidative stress, but no report, thus far, was found for heat. Here, perennial ryegrass plants overexpressing rice Os-miR408 were used to investigate the role of miR408 in plant heat tolerance. Both wild type (WT) and miR408 transgenic perennial ryegrass plants (TG) were subjected to short-term heat stress at 38 °C for 72 h (experiment 1) or at 42 °C for 48 h (experiment 2), and then let recover for 7 days at optimum temperature. Morphological changes and physiological parameters, including antioxidative responses of TG and WT plants, were compared. The results showed that miR408 downregulated the expression of two putative target genes, PLASTOCYANIN and LAC3. Additionally, overexpression of Os-miR408 improved thermo-tolerance of perennial ryegrass, demonstrated by lower leaf lipid peroxidation and electrolyte leakage, and higher relative water content after both 38 and 42 °C heat stresses. In addition, the enhanced thermotolerance of TG plants could be associated with its morphological changes (e.g., narrower leaves, smaller tiller angles) and elevated antioxidative capacity. This study is the first that experimentally reported a positive role of miR408 in plant tolerance to heat stress, which provided useful information for further understanding the mechanism by which miR408 improved plant high-temperature tolerance, and offered a potential genetic resource for breeding heat-resistant cool-season turfgrass in the future.

A duplex surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-based lateral flow immunosensor was established for the simultaneous detection of two common antibiotic residues including tetracycline and penicillin in milk. The newly synthesized Au@Ag nanoparticles were labeled with different Raman molecules including 5,5-dithiobis-2-nitrobenzoic acid (DTNB) or 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (MBA), followed by the conjugation of anti-tetracycline monoclonal antibody or anti-penicillin receptor, forming two kinds of SERS nanoprobes. The two nanoprobes can recognize tetracycline-BSA and ampicillin-BSA, respectively, which facilitates the simultaneous detection of the two types of antibiotics on a single test line. After optimization, detection limits of tetracycline and penicillin as low as 0.015 ng/mL and 0.010 ng/mL, respectively, were achieved. These values were far below those of most of other documented bio-analytical approaches. Moreover, the spiking test demonstrates an excellent assay accuracy with recoveries of 88.8% to 111.3%, and satisfactory assay precision with relative standard deviation below 16%. Consequently, the results demonstrate that the SERS-based lateral flow immunosensor developed in this study has the advantages of excellent assay sensitivity and remarkable multiplexing capability, thus it will have great application potential in food safety monitoring.

Ulcerative colitis (UC), with a long course and repeated attack, severely affects patient's life quality and increases economic burden all over the world. However, the concrete causes and mechanisms of UC are still unclear, but it is generally considered that many factors participate in this process. Qingchang Suppository (QCS) has been used in treating rectitis and colitis for about 30 years in Shanghai, China. Its satisfactory clinical effects have been proved. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect and mechanisms of QCS on colonic vascular endothelial barrier in dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis. The results indicated that increased vascular permeability (VP) appeared earlier than increased intestinal epithelial permeability (EP) in the process of DSS-induced colitis. QCS attenuated colonic tissue edema, vascular congestion and inflammatory cell infiltration. QCS inhibited the elevation of MPO, TNF-α, and IL-6 levels in colon tissues and alleviated the microvascular damage induced by DSS. QCS also improved colonic hypoxia and decreased the expression of VEGF, HIF-1α, and iNOS. These results revealed that QCS can reduce colonic VP and can improve vascular endothelial barrier function maybe by regulating the VEGF/HIF-1α signaling pathway.

Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) is one of the most widely used forage and turf grasses in the world due to its desirable agronomic qualities. However, as a cool-season perennial grass species, high temperature is a major factor limiting its performance in warmer and transition regions. In this study, a de novo transcriptome was generated using a cDNA library constructed from perennial ryegrass leaves subjected to short-term heat stress treatment. Then the expression profiling and identification of perennial ryegrass heat response genes by digital gene expression analyses was performed. The goal of this work was to produce expression profiles of high temperature stress responsive genes in perennial ryegrass leaves and further identify the potentially important candidate genes with altered levels of transcript, such as those genes involved in transcriptional regulation, antioxidant responses, plant hormones and signal transduction, and cellular metabolism. The de novo assembly of perennial ryegrass transcriptome in this study obtained more total and annotated unigenes compared to previously published ones. Many DEGs identified were genes that are known to respond to heat stress in plants, including HSFs, HSPs, and antioxidant related genes. In the meanwhile, we also identified four gene candidates mainly involved in C4 carbon fixation, and one TOR gene. Their exact roles in plant heat stress response need to dissect further. This study would be important by providing the gene resources for improving heat stress tolerance in both perennial ryegrass and other cool-season perennial grass plants.

Myo-insositol (MI) is a crucial substance in the growth and developmental processes in plants. It is commonly added to the culture medium to promote adventitious shoot development. In our previous work, MI was found in influencing Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. In this report, a high-throughput RNA sequencing technique (RNA-Seq) was used to investigate differently expressed genes in one-month-old Arabidopsis seedling grown on MI free or MI supplemented culture medium. The results showed that 21,288 and 21,299 genes were detected with and without MI treatment, respectively. The detected genes included 184 new genes that were not annotated in the Arabidopsis thaliana reference genome. Additionally, 183 differentially expressed genes were identified (DEGs, FDR ≤0.05, log2 FC≥1), including 93 up-regulated genes and 90 down-regulated genes. The DEGs were involved in multiple pathways, such as cell wall biosynthesis, biotic and abiotic stress response, chromosome modification, and substrate transportation. Some significantly differently expressed genes provided us with valuable information for exploring the functions of exogenous MI. RNA-Seq results showed that exogenous MI could alter gene expression and signaling transduction in plant cells. These results provided a systematic understanding of the functions of exogenous MI in detail and provided a foundation for future studies.

Winter soil respiration is a very important component of the annual soil carbon flux in some ecosystems. We hypothesized that, with all other factors being equal, shorter winter SR result in reduced contribution to annual soil C flux. In this study, the contribution of winter soil respiration to annual soil respiration was measured for three sites (grassland: dominated by Artemisia sacrorum, Bothriochloa ischaemum and Themeda japonica; shrubland: dominated by Vitex negundo var. heterophylla; plantation: dominated by Populus tomatosa) in a mountainous area of north China. Diurnal and intra-annual soil CO2 flux patterns were consistent among different sites, with the maximum soil respiration rates at 12∶00 or 14∶00, and in July or August. The lowest respiration rates were seen in February. Mean soil respiration rates ranged from 0.26 to 0.45 µmol m(-2) s(-1) in the winter (December to February), and between 2.38 to 3.16 µmol m(-2) s(-1) during the growing season (May-September). The winter soil carbon flux was 24.6 to 42.8 g C m(-2), which contributed 4.8 to 7.1% of the annual soil carbon flux. Based on exponential functions, soil temperature explained 73.8 to 91.8% of the within year variability in soil respiration rates. The Q10 values of SR against ST at 10 cm ranged from 3.60 to 4.90 among different sites. In addition, the equation between soil respiration and soil temperature for the growing season was used to calculate the "modeled" annual soil carbon flux based on the actual measured soil temperature. The "measured" annual value was significantly higher than the "modeled" annual value. Our results suggest that winter soil respiration plays a significant role in annual soil carbon balance, and should not be neglected when soil ecosystems are assessed as either sinks or sources of atmospheric CO2.

Afforestation is a mitigation option to reduce the increased atmospheric carbon dioxide levels as well as the predicted high possibility of climate change. In this paper, vegetation survey data, statistical database, National Forest Resource Inventory database, and allometric equations were used to estimate carbon density (carbon mass per hectare) and carbon storage, and identify the size and spatial distribution of forest carbon sinks in plantation ecosystems in sand source areas of north Beijing, China. From 2001 to the end of 2010, the forest areas increased more than 2.3 million ha, and total carbon storage in forest ecosystems was 173.02 Tg C, of which 82.80 percent was contained in soil in the top 0-100 cm layer. Younger forests have a large potential for enhancing carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems than older ones. Regarding future afforestation efforts, it will be more effective to increase forest area and vegetation carbon density through selection of appropriate tree species and stand structure according to local climate and soil conditions, and application of proper forest management including land-shaping, artificial tending and fencing plantations. It would be also important to protect the organic carbon in surface soils during forest management.

Understanding the effects of stand age and forest type on soil respiration is crucial for predicting the potential of soil carbon sequestration. Thus far, however, there is no consensus regarding the variations in soil respiration caused by stand age and forest type. This study investigated soil respiration and its temperature sensitivity at three stand ages (5, 10, and 20 or 30 years) in two plantations of coniferous (Pinus tabulaeformis Carrière) and deciduous (Populus davidiana Dode) species using an automated chamber system in 2013 in the Beijing-Tianjin sandstorm source area. Results showed that mean soil respiration in the 5-, 10-, and 20/30-year-old plantations was 3.37, 3.17, and 2.99 μmol·m−2·s−1 for P. tabulaeformis and 2.92, 2.85, and 2.57 μmol·m−2·s−1 for P. davidiana, respectively. Soil respiration decreased with stand age for both species. There was no significant difference in soil respiration between the two plantation species at ages 5 and 10 years (p > 0.05). Temperature sensitivity of soil respiration, which ranged from 1.85–1.99 in P. tabulaeformis and 2.20–2.46 in P. davidiana plantations, was found to increase with stand age. Temperature sensitivity was also significantly higher in P. davidiana plantations and when the soil water content was below 12.8%. Temperature sensitivity incorporated a combined response of soil respiration to soil temperature, soil water content, soil organic carbon, and fine root biomass and, thus, provided an ecological metric for comparing forest carbon dynamics of these species.