Search

BackgroundPaBing-II Formula (PB-II) is a traditional Chinese medicine for treating Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, owing to the complexity of PB-II and the difficulty in obtaining human dopaminergic neurons (DAn), the mechanism of action of PB-II in PD treatment remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanisms underlying the therapeutic benefits of PB-II in patients with PD.MethodshiPSCs derived DAn were treated with H2O2 to construct the DAn oxidative damage model. SwissTargetPrediction was employed to predict the potential targets of the main compounds in serum after PB-II treatment. Metascape was used to analyze the pathways. Sprague-Dawley rats were used to construct the 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-induced PD model, and the duration of administration was four weeks. RNA sequencing was used for Transcriptome analysis to find the signal pathways related to neuronal damage. The associated inflammatory factors were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We identified PB-II as an Nrf2 activator using antioxidant-responsive element luciferase assay in MDA-MB-231 cells.ResultsIn vitro experiments showed that the treatment of PB-II-treated serum increased the percentage of TH+ cells, decreased inflammation and the apoptosis, reduced cellular reactive oxygen species, and upregulated the expression of Nrf2 and its downstream genes. Pathway analysis of the RNA-seq data of samples before and after the treatment with PB-II-treated serum identified neuron-associated pathways. In vivo experiments demonstrated that PB-II treatment of PD rat model could activate the Nrf2 signaling pathway, protect the midbrain DAn, and improve the symptoms in PD rats.ConclusionPB-II significantly protects DAn from inflammation and oxidative stress via Nrf2 pathway activation. These findings elucidate the roles of PB-II in PD treatment and demonstrate the application of hiPSC-derived DAn in research of Chinese medicine.

Farmers’ cooperatives, as one of the new types of agricultural businesses, are an effective carrier for the digital transformation of agriculture, yet existing studies have paid less attention to how farmers’ cooperatives realize digital transformation. As agricultural economic organizations embedded in social networks, the digital transformation of farmers’ cooperatives requires the joint efforts of governments and companies. Based on the evolutionary game theory, this paper constructs a tripartite evolutionary game model of the government, digital technology companies and farmers’ cooperatives, and simulates and analyzes the behavioral decisions of different participants in the digital transformation of farmers’ cooperatives from the perspective of government policy. The results show: Medium government subsidies can effectively promote the digital transformation of farmers’ cooperatives, and strong subsidy policies increase the government’s financial burden, which is not conducive to policy sustainability. Strong government regulation facilitates digital technology companies to actively provide high-quality services for the digital transformation of farmers’ cooperatives, but government regulation does not have a significant impact on the strategic choices of the government and farmers’ cooperatives. When farmer cooperatives and digital technology companies are in a medium or high level of cooperative trust or when the number of labors saved by digital transformation reaches a certain level, farmers’ cooperatives opt for digital transformation even if the government withdraws from policy intervention.

Remote sensing monitoring of oil spills is essential for ecological and environmental management. Polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) data have been extensively utilized for oil spill detection owing to the advantages of multi-polarization channels and all-time, all-weather observation capability. However, suspected oil spill phenomenon (algal blooms or wave shadows) and wind-caused oil spill drifting can lead to variable textures and irregular boundaries of oil spill coverage. These increase the complexity of oil spill scenes and pose challenges for PolSAR oil spill detection. Convolutional neural network (CNN) provides the potential to cope with such problems. However, it’s challenging for the existing CNN methods to extract high-order semantic features and attach to accurate boundaries. In this paper, a scene-adaptive oil spill detection network is proposed with a dynamic convolution and boundary constraint. First, aiming to improve the recognition ability of semantic features, a dynamic convolution module is introduced to replace the traditional convolutions and maximum pooling operations. Such module combines the conditionally parameterized convolutions (CondConv) layer with two-dimensional discrete wavelet transform (2D-DWT) layer. Second, a boundary constraint module is proposed by using the multitasking strategy to extract boundaries of oil spill for guiding the network training with the principle of the minimum deviation between the extracted and real boundaries. To sum up, we propose an oil spill detecting network, which fuses semantic features and boundary information under the attention mechanism. Radarsat-2 PolSAR data from the Gulf of Mexico and the European North Sea region are used for demonstrating the above improvements. In contrast to the current oil spill detection methods, our method improves the overall accuracy by up to 3.4% and 2.3% in two study regions, while the Macro-F1-scores are improved by 5.62% and 4.62% respectively. Besides, this article further discusses the influence of feature selection on the oil spill detection.

Abstract The high‐order nonlinear complex characteristics of traditional static wake model (SWM) restrict the fast optimization of wake effect. Therefore, this paper introduces a dynamic wake model (DWM) to describe the time‐varying wake characteristics of wind turbines (WTs) with low computational cost. The traditional SWM is linearized to derive the wake wind speed sensitivity coefficients, which represents the sensitivity of wake wind speed deficit with respect to the active power reference. Considering the natural propagation characteristics of wake effect, a wake delay function is added to realize the future wind speed prediction of different locations of the wind farm. And a joint control strategy of wake and active power based on model predictive control (MPC) is proposed to optimize the power contribution of each WT to minimize wake effects, and maximize total available power. Thus, the increased available power is able to satisfy the power demand from Transmission System Operator (TSO) for ancillary services and enhance power support capability. The control performance of the proposed control strategy is evaluated by simulations under constant and varying incoming wind speed.

Phosphatidylethanolamine-binding proteins (PEBPs) play a crucial role in the growth and development of various organisms. Due to the low sequence similarity compared to plants, humans, and animals, the study of pebp genes in fungi has not received significant attention. The redifferentiation of fruiting bodies is exceedingly rare in fungal development. Hitherto, only a few studies have identified the Capebp2 gene as being associated with this phenomenon in Cyclocybe aegerita. Thus, exploring the role of pebp genes in fruiting body development is imperative. In the present study, four Capebp genes (Capebp1, Capebp3, Capebp4, and Capebp5) were cloned from the AC0007 strain of C. aegerita based on genome sequencing and gene prediction. The findings indicate that the pebp family, in C. aegerita, comprises a total of five genes. Moreover, the sequence similarity was low across the five CAPEBP protein sequences in C. aegerita, and only a few conserved sequences, such as HRY and RHF, were identical. Expression analyses revealed that, similarly to Capebp2, the four Capebp genes exhibit significantly higher expression levels in the fruiting bodies than in the mycelium. Furthermore, overexpressed and RNA interference Capebp1 or Capebp5 transformants were analyzed. The results demonstrate that overexpression of Capebp1 or Capebp5 could induce the regeneration of the lamella or fruiting body, whereas the knockdown of Capebp1 or Capebp5 could lead to the accelerated aging of fruiting bodies. These findings highlight a significant role of Capebp genes in the generation of C. aegerita fruiting bodies and provide a foundation for further exploration into their involvement in basidiomycete growth and development.

Abstract Background Allelopathy is closely associated with rhizosphere biological processes, and rhizosphere microbial communities are essential for plant development. However, our understanding of rhizobacterial communities under influence of allelochemicals in licorice remains limited. In the present study, the responses and effects of rhizobacterial communities on licorice allelopathy were investigated using a combination of multi-omics sequencing and pot experiments, under allelochemical addition and rhizobacterial inoculation treatments. Results Here, we demonstrated that exogenous glycyrrhizin inhibits licorice development, and reshapes and enriches specific rhizobacteria and corresponding functions related to glycyrrhizin degradation. Moreover, the Novosphingobium genus accounted for a relatively high proportion of the enriched taxa and appeared in metagenomic assembly genomes. We further characterized the different capacities of single and synthetic inoculants to degrade glycyrrhizin and elucidated their distinct potency for alleviating licorice allelopathy. Notably, the single replenished N (Novosphingobium resinovorum) inoculant had the greatest allelopathy alleviation effects in licorice seedlings. Conclusions Altogether, the findings highlight that exogenous glycyrrhizin simulates the allelopathic autotoxicity effects of licorice, and indigenous single rhizobacteria had greater effects than synthetic inoculants in protecting licorice growth from allelopathy. The results of the present study enhance our understanding of rhizobacterial community dynamics during licorice allelopathy, with potential implications for resolving continuous cropping obstacle in medicinal plant agriculture using rhizobacterial biofertilizers. Video Abstract

Background and Objective: Bone tumors present significant challenges in orthopedic medicine due to variations in clinical treatment approaches for different tumor types, which includes benign, malignant, and intermediate cases. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have emerged as prominent models for tumor classification. However, their limited perception ability hinders the acquisition of global structural information, potentially affecting classification accuracy. To address this limitation, we propose an optimized deep learning algorithm for precise classification of diverse bone tumors. Materials and Methods: Our dataset comprises 786 computed tomography (CT) images of bone tumors, featuring sections from two distinct bone species, namely the tibia and femur. Sourced from The Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, the dataset was meticulously preprocessed with noise reduction techniques. We introduce a novel fusion model, VGG16-ViT, leveraging the advantages of the VGG-16 network and the Vision Transformer (ViT) model. Specifically, we select 27 features from the third layer of VGG-16 and input them into the Vision Transformer encoder for comprehensive training. Furthermore, we evaluate the impact of secondary migration using CT images from Xiangya Hospital for validation. Results: The proposed fusion model demonstrates notable improvements in classification performance. It effectively reduces the training time while achieving an impressive classification accuracy rate of 97.6%, marking a significant enhancement of 8% in sensitivity and specificity optimization. Furthermore, the investigation into secondary migration's effects on experimental outcomes across the three models reveals its potential to enhance system performance. Conclusion: Our novel VGG-16 and Vision Transformer joint network exhibits robust classification performance on bone tumor datasets. The integration of these models enables precise and efficient classification, accommodating the diverse characteristics of different bone tumor types. This advancement holds great significance for the early detection and prognosis of bone tumor patients in the future.

BackgroundHypoxia and metabolism are closely correlated with the progression of cancer. We aimed to construct a combined hypoxia- and metabolism-related genes (HMRGs) prognostic signature to predict survival and immunotherapy responses in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC).MethodsThe RNA-seq profiles and clinical data of ccRCC were acquired from the TCGA and the ArrayExpress (E-MTAB-1980) databases. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were applied to establish a prognostic signature. The E-MTAB-1980 cohort was selected for validation. The effectiveness and reliability of the signature were further evaluated by Kaplan–Meier (K-M) survival and time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Further analyses, including functional enrichment, ssGSEA algorithm, CIBERSORT algorithm, and expression of immune checkpoints, were explored to investigate immune status and immunotherapy responses.ResultsWe constructed a prognostic eight-gene signature with IRF6, TEK, PLCB2, ABCB1, TGFA, COL4A5, PLOD2, and TUBB6. Patients were divided into high-risk and low-risk groups based on the medium-risk score. The K-M analysis revealed that patients in the high-risk group had an apparently poor prognosis compared to those in the low-risk group in the TCGA (p < 0.001) and E-MTAB-1980 (p < 0.005). The area under ROC curve (AUC) of the prognostic signature was 0.8 at 1 year, 0.77 at 3 years, and 0.78 at 5 years in the TCGA, respectively, and was 0.82 at 1 year, 0.74 at 3 years, and 0.75 at 5 years in the E-MTAB-1980, respectively. Independent prognostic analysis confirmed the risk score as a separate prognostic factor in ccRCC patients (p < 0.001). The results of ssGSEA showed not only a high degree of immune cell infiltration but also high scores of immune-related functions in the high-risk group. The CIBERSORT analysis further confirmed that the abundance of immune cells was apparently different between the two risk groups. The risk score was significantly correlated with the expression of cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 (CTLA4), lymphocyte-activation gene 3 (LAG3), and programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1).ConclusionThe HMRGs signature could be used to predict clinical prognosis, evaluate the efficacy of immunotherapy, and guide personalized immunotherapy in ccRCC patients.

BackgroundOxidative stress plays a significant role in the tumorigenesis and progression of tumors. We aimed to develop a prognostic signature using oxidative stress-related genes (ORGs) to predict clinical outcome and provide light on the immunotherapy responses of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC).MethodsThe information of ccRCC patients were collected from the TCGA and the E-MTAB-1980 datasets. Univariate Cox regression analysis and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) were conducted to screen out overall survival (OS)-related genes. Then, an ORGs risk signature was built by multivariate Cox regression analyses. The performance of the risk signature was evaluated with Kaplan-Meier (K-M) survival. The ssGSEA and CIBERSORT algorithms were performed to evaluate immune infiltration status. Finally, immunotherapy responses was analyzed based on expression of several immune checkpoints.ResultsA prognostic 9-gene signature with ABCB1, AGER, E2F1, FOXM1, HADH, ISG15, KCNMA1, PLG, and TEK. The patients in the high risk group had apparently poor survival (TCGA: p < 0.001; E-MTAB-1980: p < 0.001). The AUC of the signature was 0.81 at 1 year, 0.76 at 3 years, and 0.78 at 5 years in the TCGA, respectively, and was 0.8 at 1 year, 0.82 at 3 years, and 0.83 at 5 years in the E-MTAB-1980, respectively. Independent prognostic analysis proved the stable clinical prognostic value of the signature (TCGA cohort: HR = 1.188, 95% CI =1.142-1.236, p < 0.001; E-MTAB-1980 cohort: HR =1.877, 95% CI= 1.377-2.588, p < 0.001). Clinical features correlation analysis proved that patients in the high risk group were more likely to have a larger range of clinical tumor progression. The ssGSEA and CIBERSORT analysis indicated that immune infiltration status were significantly different between two risk groups. Finally, we found that patients in the high risk group tended to respond more actively to immunotherapy.ConclusionWe developed a robust prognostic signature based on ORGs, which may contribute to predict survival and guide personalize immunotherapy of individuals with ccRCC.

Background: Genome-scale CRISPR-Cas9 knockout screening may provide new insights into the mechanism underlying clinical radioresistance in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), which is remain largely unknown. Our objective was to screen the functional genes associated with radiosensitivity and radioresistance in NPC, laying a foundation for further research on its functional mechanismand. Methods: CRISPR-Cas9 library lentivirus screening in radiation-treated NPC cells was combined with second-generation sequence technology to identify functional genes, which were further validated in radioresistant NPC cells and patient tissues. Results: Eleven radiosensitive and radioresistant genes were screened. Among these genes, the expression of FBLN5, FAM3C, MUS81, and DNAJC17 were significantly lower and TOMM20, CDKN2AIP, SNX22, and SP1 were higher in the radioresistant NPC cells (C666-1R, 5-8FR) (p

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are widely used in various fields such as military, industrial, and transportation for real-time monitoring, sensing, and data collection of different environments or objects. However, the development of WSNs is hindered by several limitations, including energy, storage space, computing power, and data transmission rate. Among these, the availability of power energy plays a crucial role as it directly determines the lifespan of WSN. To extend the life cycle of WSN, two key approaches are power supply improvement and energy conservation. Therefore, we propose an energy harvesting system and a low-energy-consumption mechanism for WSNs. Firstly, we delved into the energy harvesting technology of WSNs, explored the utilization of solar energy and mechanical vibration energy to ensure a continuous and dependable power supply to the sensor nodes, and analyzed the voltage output characteristics of bistable piezoelectric cantilever. Secondly, we proposed a neighbor discovery mechanism that utilizes a separation beacon, is based on reply to ACK, and can facilitate the identification of neighboring nodes. This mechanism operates at a certain duty cycle ratio, significantly reduces idle listening time and results in substantial energy savings. In comparison to the Disco and U-connect protocols, our proposed mechanism achieved a remarkable reduction of 66.67% and 75% in the worst discovery delay, respectively. Furthermore, we introduced a data fusion mechanism based on integer wavelet transform. This mechanism effectively eliminates data redundancy caused by spatiotemporal correlation, resulting in a data compression rate of 5.42. Additionally, it significantly reduces energy consumption associated with data transmission by the nodes.

As the exploration and exploitation of deep-sea oil and gas, along with promising polymetallic nodule&sulfides mining, have been developing toward ultra-deep waters, some innovative concepts of marine cable configuration suitable for ultra-deepwater are proposed, such as stepped cable, hybrid cable and double-stepped cable. For deep-water cables with complex configurations, the structural responses become more complicated due to their non-uniform structural properties. Because the distributed buoyancy modules along cable length might introduce more significant local bending segments. Moreover, the impacts of moving boundary, caused by the motions of top vessel and bottom mining vehicle, should be considered. Through combing the finite element simulations with the hydrodynamic models, the dynamic response analysis approach of ultra-deepwater cables is established in this study. Then the double-stepped cable responses, including axial tension, displacement along with the change of overall configurations caused by moving top vessel and bottom mining vehicle, are calculated. Moreover, wave propagation behaviors during cable response are comprehensively examined, and the influences of non-uniform structural properties on cable response and wave propagation are analyzed using the wave propagation theory of structure with axially varying properties based on the Bessel function. The results show that the presented double-stepped cable can provide suitable configurations during the dynamic response, which has good compliance performance and can effectively buffer its response caused by moving boundary excitation. Finally, we found that the response spatial-temporal evolutions present some interesting phenomena, such as the axially non-uniform characteristics lead to non-monotonic changes in response amplitude and wavelength, with local peaks occurring in the low-tension region, owing to the distributed buoyancy modules, along with axially-varying and discontinuous structural properties. And, there exists significant mixed effect coming from both standing waves and traveling waves.

BackgroundTransforming growth factor (TGF)-β signaling is strongly related to the development and progression of tumor. We aimed to construct a prognostic gene signature based on TGF-β signaling-related genes for predicting clinical prognosis and immunotherapy responses of patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC).MethodsThe gene expression profiles and corresponding clinical information of ccRCC were collected from the TCGA and the ArrayExpress (E-MTAB-1980) databases. LASSO, univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were conducted to construct a prognostic signature in the TCGA cohort. The E-MTAB-1980 cohort were used for validation. Kaplan-Meier (K-M) survival and time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) were conducted to assess effectiveness and reliability of the signature. The differences in gene enrichments, immune cell infiltration, and expression of immune checkpoints in ccRCC patients showing different risks were investigated.ResultsWe constructed a seven gene (PML, CDKN2B, COL1A2, CHRDL1, HPGD, CGN and TGFBR3) signature, which divided the ccRCC patients into high risk group and low risk group. The K-M analysis indicated that patients in the high risk group had a significantly shorter overall survival (OS) time than that in the low risk group in the TCGA (p < 0.001) and E-MTAB-1980 (p = 0.012). The AUC of the signature reached 0.77 at 1 year, 0.7 at 3 years, and 0.71 at 5 years in the TCGA, respectively, and reached 0.69 at 1 year, 0.72 at 3 years, and 0.75 at 5 years in the E-MTAB-1980, respectively. Further analyses confirmed the risk score as an independent prognostic factor for ccRCC (p < 0.001). The results of ssGSEA that immune cell infiltration degree and the scores of immune-related functions were significantly increased in the high risk group. The CIBERSORT analysis indicated that the abundance of immune cell were significantly different between two risk groups. Furthermore, The risk score was positively related to the expression of PD-1, CTLA4 and LAG3.These results indicated that patients in the high risk group benefit more from immunotherapy.ConclusionWe constructed a novel TGF-β signaling-related genes signature that could serve as an promising independent factor for predicting clinical prognosis and immunotherapy responses in ccRCC patients.

PurposeAccurate preoperative assessment for traumatic brachial plexus injury (BPI) is critical for clinicians to establish a treatment plan. The objective of this study was to investigate the diagnostic performance of preoperative ultrasound (US) through comparison with an electrophysiology study (EPS) in the assessment of traumatic brachial plexus (BP) root injury.Materials and methodsWe performed a retrospective study in patients with traumatic BPI who had preoperative US and EPS, excluding obstetric palsy and other nontraumatic neuropathies. US examination was performed on an EPIQ 5 color Doppler equipment. EPS was performed on a Keypoint 9033A07 Electromyograph/Evoked Potentials Equipment, testing electromyography (EMG), nerve conduction studies (NCS), and somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP). Each BP root of all patients was assessed by US and EPS as completely injured or incompletely injured, respectively. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and accuracy were calculated based on the correlation with intraoperative findings. The accuracy of US and EPS were compared using the McNemar test. The added benefit of US was evaluated by comparing the sensitivity and specificity between the combined tests with EPS using the McNemar test.ResultsThis study included 49 patients with traumatic BPI who underwent BP surgeries from October 2018 to September 2022. Surgical exploration confirmed 89 completely injured BP roots in 28 patients. US correctly detected 80 completely injured BP roots (sensitivity, 0.899; specificity, 0.981; PPV, 0.964; NPV, 0.944; accuracy, 0.951). EPS correctly detected 75 completely injured BP roots (sensitivity, 0.843; specificity, 0.929; PPV, 0.872; NPV, 0.912; accuracy, 0.898). US showed significantly higher accuracy than EPS (p = 0.03). When combining US and EPS for completely injured BP root detection, the sensitivity of the inclusive combination (0.966) was significantly higher than EPS alone (p = 0.000977), and the specificity of the exclusive combination (1.000) was significantly higher than EPS alone (p = 0.000977).ConclusionPreoperative US is an effective diagnostic tool in the assessment of traumatic BP root injury. US had higher accuracy than EPS in this study. Sensitivity and specificity were significantly higher than EPS when US was combined with EPS.

Abstract To bypass the conventional high temperature carbonization, MXene with an ultra‐high electrical conductivity and good electrochemical activity is coated on natural wood to make it a free‐standing electrode (TW). TW achieves a high electrical conductivity of 106.4 S m−1 and large capacitance of ~700 mF cm−2 at 0.5 mA cm−2. Furthermore, to overcome the low space utilization of the oversized vessels in wood which leads to a low energy density, a reconstructing strategy is used on TW to fully use the natural porous structure of wood by filling MXene aerogels in vessels. Compared with TW, the MXene aerogel‐loaded TW shows higher electrical conductivity of 323.6 S m−1 and capacitance of 930 mF cm−2 with remarkably high rate capability of 88.2% (0.5–10 mA cm−2). Additionally, an all‐wood eco‐supercapacitor is fabricated, and achieves a high energy density of 23 μW h cm−2 at 577 μW cm−2.

BackgroundOxidative stress is related to the pathogenesis of mood disorders, and the level of oxidative stress may differ between bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD). This study aimed to detect the differences in non-enzymatic antioxidant levels between BD and MDD and assess the predictive values of non-enzymatic antioxidants in mood disorders by applying a machine learning model.MethodsPeripheral uric acid (UA), albumin (ALB), and total bilirubin (TBIL) were measured in 1,188 participants (discover cohort: 157 with BD and 544 with MDD; validation cohort: 119 with BD and 95 with MDD; 273 healthy controls). An extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) model and a logistic regression model were used to assess the predictive effect.ResultsAll three indices differed between patients with mood disorders and healthy controls; in addition, the levels of UA in patients with BD were higher than those of patients with MDD. After treatment, UA levels increased in the MDD group, while they decreased in the BD group. Finally, we entered age, sex, UA, ALB, and TBIL into the XGBoost model. The area under the curve (AUC) of the XGBoost model for distinguishing between BD and MDD reached 0.849 (accuracy = 0.808, 95% CI = 0.719–0.878) and for distinguishing between BD with depression episode (BD-D) and MDD was 0.899 (accuracy = 0.891, 95% CI = 0.856–0.919). The models were validated in the validation cohort. The most important feature distinguishing between BD and MDD was UA.ConclusionPeripheral non-enzymatic antioxidants, especially the UA, might be a potential biomarker capable of distinguishing between BD and MDD.

Abstract To evaluate the clinical characteristics of optic neuritis (ON) with different phenotypes. This prospective study recruited patients with new-onset ON between January 2015 and March 2017 who were followed-up for 3 years. They were divided into the myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein-seropositive (MOG-ON), aquaporin-4-seropositive (AQP4-ON), and double-seronegative (seronegative-ON) groups, and their clinical characteristics and imaging findings were evaluated and compared. Two-hundred-eighty patients (405 eyes) were included (MOG-ON: n = 57, 20.4%; AQP4-ON: n = 98, 35.0%; seronegative-ON: n = 125, 44.6%). The proportion of eyes with best-corrected visual acuity > 20/25 at the 3-year follow-up was similar between the MOG-ON and seronegative-ON groups; the proportion in both groups was higher than that in the AQP4-ON group (p

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is one of the most common malignant cancers, and patients with HNSCC possess early metastases and poor prognosis. Systematic therapies (including chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy) are generally applied in the advanced/late stages of HNSCC, but primary and acquired resistance eventually occurs. At present, reliable biomarkers to predict the prognosis of HNSCC have not been completely identified. Recent studies have shown that neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) are implicated in cancer progression, metastasis and cancer immune response, and NET-related gene signatures are associated with the prognosis of patients with several human cancers. To explore whether NET-related genes play crucial roles in HNSCC, we have performed systematic analysis and reported several findings in the current study. Firstly, we identified seven novel NET-related genes and developed a NET-score signature, which was highly associated with the clinicopathological and immune traits of the HNSCC patients. Then, we, for the first time, found that NIFK was significantly upregulated in HNSCC patient samples, and its levels were significantly linked to tumor malignancy and immune status. Moreover, functional experiments confirmed that NIFK was required for HNSCC cell proliferation and metastasis. Altogether, this study has identified a novel NET-score signature based on seven novel NET-related genes to predict the prognosis of HNSCC and NIFK has also explored a new method for personalized chemo-/immuno-therapy of HNSCC.

Abstract Uncontrollable zinc dendrite growth and parasitic reactions have greatly hindered the development of high energy and long life rechargeable aqueous zinc‐ion batteries. Herein, the synergic effect of a bifunctional lignin‐containing cellulose nanofiber (LCNF)‐MXene (LM) layer to stabilize the interface of zinc anode is reported. On one hand, the LCNF provides enough strength (43.7 MPa) at relative low porosity (52.2%) to enable the diffusion limited dendrite suppression, while, on the other hand, the MXene serves as a zinc gating layer, facilitating the zinc ion mobility, restricting the active water/anions from degradation in the electrode/electrolyte interface, and epitaxially guiding zinc deposition along (002) plane. Benefiting from the synergic effect of diffusion limited dendrite suppression and zinc gate, the LM layer enabled a high coulombic efficiency (CE) of 98.9% with a low overpotential of 43.1 mV at 1 mA cm−2 in Zn//Cu asymmetric cells. More importantly, Zn//MnO2 full cells with the LM layer achieve a high‐capacity retention of 90.0% for over 1000 cycles at 1 A g−1, much higher than the full cell without the protective layer (73.9% over 500 cycles). The work provides a new insight in designing a dendrite‐free zinc anode for long‐cycle‐life batteries.

One suitable strategy to improve the utilisation and performance of Pd-based catalysts in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) is by combining or blending carbon supports. In this study, Pd nanoparticles (NPs) were decorated on bi-hybrid carbon supports consisting of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene nanoplates (GNPs) and carbon black (XC-72) with varying ratios of CNTs: GNPs, CNTs: XC-72 and XC-72: GNPsthrough microwave-assisted ethylene glycol (EG) reduction. All as-prepared catalysts were characterisedby Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and their electrocatalytic activities towards methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) in alkaline solution were investigated by electrochemical measurements. Results indicated that the use of hybrid supports for catalysts substantially increases the electrochemical surface area, reduces the overpotential to methanol oxidation and improves kinetic performance. These effects can be attributed to the unique structure formed after mixing that allows for complete surface utilisation.Among the bi-hybrid electrocatalysts, Pd/CNT-GNP (1:0.1), Pd/CNT-XC-72(1:0.2) and Pd/XC-72-GNP (1:0.2) catalysts have higher activity and better performance.Particularly, Pd/CNT-GNP (1:0.1) catalyst shows a superior activity and the highest oxidation peak current density towards MOR at 57.34 mA/cm2.TEM and XRD results show that the catalyst nanoparticles on the bi-hybrid carbon support have good dispersion, are not agglomerated and havea small particle size. Hence, the catalyst exhibits an optimised performance and long stability towards methanol electrooxidation in alkaline media.

Phosphatidylethanolamine-binding protein (PEBP) is widely involved in various physiological behaviors, such as the transition from vegetative growth to reproductive growth in plants, tumorigenesis in the human, etc. However, few functional studies have examined pebp genes affecting the development of fungi. In this study, Capebp2 was cloned from Cyclocybe aegerita AC0007 strains based on the genome sequence and gene prediction, and the sequence alignment of CaPEBP2 with other PEBP proteins from other biological sources including plant, animal, fungi, and bacteria indicated that PEBP had low sequence similarity in fungi, whereas all protein sequences had some conserved motifs such as DPDAP and HRY. Expression analysis showed the transcription level of Capebp2 increased approximately 20-fold in fruiting bodies compared with mycelia. To uncover the function of Capebp2 in C. aegetita development, Capebp2 was cloned into a pATH vector driven by the actin promoter for obtaining overexpression transformant lines. Fruiting experiments showed the transformed strains overexpressing Capebp2 exhibited redifferentiation of the cap on their surface, including intact fruiting bodies or partial lamella during fruiting development stage, and the longitudinal section indicated that all regenerated bodies or lamella sprouted from the flesh and shared the epidermis with the mother fruiting bodies. In summary, the sequence characterization of Capebp2, expression level during different development stages, and function on fruiting body development were documented in this study, and these findings provided a reference to study the role of pebp in the development process of basidiomycetes. Importantly, gene mining of pebp, function characterization, and the regulating pathways involved need to be uncovered in further studies.

Dodders (Cuscuta chinensis) are rootless and holoparasitic herbs that can infect a variety of host plants, including the vitally important economic and bioenergy crop soybean (Glycine max). Although dodder parasitism severely affects the physiology of host plants, little is known about its effects on fungal communities and root secondary metabolites in hosts. In this study, variations in root-associated fungal communities and root metabolites of soybean under different parasitism conditions were investigated using ITS rRNA gene sequencing and UPLC–MS/MS metabolome detection technologies. The results showed that dodder parasitism significantly altered the composition and diversity of the fungal communities in the rhizosphere and endosphere of soybean. The relative abundance of the potential pathogenic fungus Alternaria significantly increased in the root endosphere of dodder-parasitized soybean. Furthermore, correlation analysis indicated that the fungal community in the root endosphere was susceptible to soil factors under dodder parasitism. Meanwhile, the content of soil total nitrogen was significantly and positively correlated with the relative abundance of Alternaria in the rhizosphere and endosphere of soybean. Metabolomic analysis indicated that dodder parasitism altered the accumulation of flavonoids in soybean roots, with significant upregulation of the contents of kaempferol and its downstream derivatives under different parasitism conditions. Taken together, this study highlighted the important role of dodder parasitism in shaping the fungal communities and secondary metabolites associated with soybean roots, providing new insights into the mechanisms of multiple interactions among dodder, soybean, microbial communities and the soil environment.

Podded propulsion offers excellent maneuverability without the need for mechanically complex transmission systems. However, the hydrodynamic performance of podded propulsion under maneuvering conditions has not yet been adequately investigated. This study proposes a Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS)-based method to investigate the hydrodynamic performance of pod thrusters under maneuvering conditions. The accuracy of the numerical method is verified based on a comprehensive convergence analysis and experimental comparison. A comparative analysis of the difference in thrust, moment and their coefficients between maneuvering and steady-state conditions is performed. Additionally, the impact of the advance number on the propeller hydrodynamic performance under maneuvering conditions is examined. The results demonstrate that the thrust coefficient and the torque coefficient of the propeller at positive and negative oblique flow angles exhibit asymmetry owing to the influence of the incoming flow velocity. Furthermore, the thrust and torque under maneuvering conditions increase significantly compared with those under the steady-state condition.

ObjectivesThis paper investigates the main dimensions of ROPAX ship in the aspect of energy saving and resistance reduction.MethodsBy using ship model tests and numerical simulations, the effects of changes in the main dimension ratio of a ROPAX ship on its resistance performance are studied.ResultsThe results show that the maximum difference in effective power between different L/B schemes is only 150 W at lower speeds, increasing to 1 300 W at higher speeds, while the maximum difference in effective power between different B/T schemes is only 170 W at lower speeds, increasing to 300 W at higher speeds.ConclusionsThis paper shows that increasing the L/B value can significantly reduce the model resistance and effective power of the ship, and there is no significant difference in effective power with different B/T values.

PurposeTo evaluate demographic and clinical characteristics of a Chinese population with giant cell arteritis using multimodal imaging focusing on ophthalmic examinations.DesignRetrospective observational case series.Materials and MethodsIn the neuro-ophthalmology division of the Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat Hospital, Shanghai, we evaluated the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients diagnosed with giant cell arteritis between January 2016 and June 2021. Results of routine ophthalmic examinations including fundus examination, optical coherence tomography, color duplex ultrasonography of ocular and superficial temporal arteries, orbital magnetic resonance imaging, and superficial temporal artery biopsy were evaluated.ResultsA total of 15 patients (22 eyes; ten male and five female) were evaluated with a mean age of 77.0 ± 8.5 years. Among them, seven had bilateral involvement that occurred simultaneously or sequentially. Twelve patients presented with arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, two with arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy combined with cilioretinal artery occlusion, and one with cotton-wool spots. In acute stages of optic neuropathy and retinopathy, optical coherence tomography revealed optic disc edema, thickening of the inner retinal nerve fiber layer and ganglion cell layer, and loss of layer structure. In late stages, optical coherence tomography revealed diffuse atrophy of the inner retina. The “halo” sign was observed in 12 patients in the superficial temporal artery ultrasound, and seven out of eight patients who underwent biopsy demonstrated classic giant cell arteritis pathological changes. Most patients having poor visual acuity but ability to perceive light; 10/22 eyes had permanent vision loss.ConclusionAlthough rare in Asians, giant cell arteritis may be underdiagnosed among elderly Chinese patients presenting with anterior ischemic optic neuropathy. Non-invasive superficial temporal artery ultrasound detecting inflammatory thickening of the intima as the “halo” sign combined with routine elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein may be helpful in diagnosing patients with a high probability of having giant cell arteritis.

Guanosine triphosphate (GTP) cyclohydrolase I (GCH1) is the limiting enzyme of the tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) synthesis pathway. The disruption of gch1 gene may cause conditional lethality due to folic acid auxotrophy in microorganisms, although the function of gch1 in basidiomycetes has not been deciphered so far. In the present study, gch1 expression in Cyclocybe aegerita (cagch1) was downregulated using the RNAi method, which resulted in growth retardation in both solid and liquid medium, with the hyphal tips exhibiting increased branching compared to that in the wild strain. The development of fruiting bodies in the mutant strains was significantly blocked, and there were short and bottle-shaped stipes. The transcriptional profile revealed that the genes of the MAPK pathway may be involved in the regulation of these effects caused by cagch1 knockdown, which provided an opportunity to study the role of gch1 in the development process of basidiomycetes.

Introduction To examine the anti-cancer effects of berberine on multiple cancer cell lines, and to clarify the underlying molecular mechanisms. Material and methods The IC 50 values for the action of berberine on Tca8113 (oral squamous cell carcinoma), CNE2 (nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell), MCF-7 (breast cancer), Hela (cervical carcinoma), and HT29 (colon cancer) cells were determined by MTT cell viability assay. Early apoptosis and cell cycle arrest were examined by flow cytometry with annexin V and propidium iodide (PI) staining, respectively. For expression of BAX and BCL-2 genes and proteins were detected by real-time PCR and western blotting, respectively. Results Berberine displayed a cytotoxic effect on all the cell lines tested. The IC50 values were determined (Tca8113, 218.52 ±18.71; CNE2, 249.18 ±18.14; MCF-7, 272.15 ±11.06; Hela, 245.18 ±17.33; and HT29, 52.37 ±3.45). PI staining revealed that berberine treatment resulted in cell cycle arrest at G2/M. The treatment also induced early apoptosis as shown by annexin V staining. In addition, berberine significant elevated gene and protein expression of BAX, which was accompanied by substantial decreases in BCL-2 gene and protein levels. The effects of berberine on BAX and BCL-2 were time-dependent. Conclusions Berberine exhibited cytotoxic effects on multiple cancer cell lines by inducing apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. The BCL-2/BAX signaling pathway may be the common pathway underlying the anti-tumor effect of berberine. The findings support the notion that berberine is a dietary compound that can be further developed into a drug candidate for cancer treatment.

Flexible risers are usually used as conveying systems to bring ocean resources from sea bed up to onshore. Under ocean environments, risers need to bear complex loads and it is crucial to comprehensively examine riser's configurations and to analyze structural dynamic performances under excitation of bottom vehicle motions, to guarantee structural safe operation and required service lives.In this study, considering a saddle-shaped riser, the influences of some important design parameters, including installation position of buoyancy modules, buoyancy ratio and motion of mining vehicle, on riser's configuration and response are carefully examined. Through our FEM simulations, the spatial distributions of structural tensions and curvatures along of riser length, under different configurations, are compared. Then, the impacts of mining vehicle motion on riser dynamic response are discussed, and structural tolerance performance is assessed. The results show that modules installation position and buoyancy ratio have significant impacts on riser configurations. And, an appropriate riser configuration is obtained through comprehensive analysis on the modules positions and buoyancy ratios. Under this proposed configuration, the structural tension and curvature could moderately change with buoyancy modules and bottom-end conditions, in other words, the proposed saddle-shaped riser has a good tolerance performance to various load excitations.

With the shaping of universal computing concept and the development of microelectronics technology, the mobile terminal devices have the strong functions of computing, storage and communication. The opportunistic social networks composed of a large number of terminal devices can be widely used in various scenarios by deploying them anytime and anywhere. One of its most important tasks is to collect data in order to communicate between people and things. The existing researches mainly focus on routing strategies that aim to improve the performance of data collection by optimizing the routing algorithm. However, the inherent characteristics of the opportunistic social networks such as the intermittent communication opportunities make it difficult to improve routing performance because nodes can not get global network topology information. In order to solve this problem, we should establish an efficient data collection mechanism based on wavelet multi-resolution to improve the efficiency of data collection from the source, which mainly studies the multi-resolution compression storage method of node data, the spatial multi-resolution data hierarchical storage framework, and the multi-resolution data management mechanism of mobile node. The experimental results show that the multi-resolution communication mode based on integer wavelet transform can greatly reduce the amount of data in the network and the energy consumption of nodes, and it is beneficial to the data collection of opportunistic social networks.

Abstract Revealing the roles of biotic factors in driving community assembly, which is crucial for the understanding of biodiversity and ecosystem functions, is a fundamental but infrequently investigated subject in microbial ecology. Here, combining a cross‐biome observational study with an experimental microcosm study, we provided evidence to reveal the major roles of biotic factors (i.e., soil fungi and cross‐kingdom species associations) in determining soil bacterial biogeography and community assembly in complex terrestrial ecosystems of the arid regions of northwest China. The results showed that the soil fungal richness mediates the balance of assembly processes of bacterial communities, and stochastic assembly processes decreased with increasing fungal richness. Our results further suggest that the predicted increase in aridity conditions due to climate change will reduce bacterial α‐diversity, particularly in desert soils and subsurface layer, and induce more negative species associations. Together, our study represents a significant advance in linking soil fungi to the mechanisms underlying bacterial biogeographic patterns and community assembly in arid ecosystems under climate aridity and land‐use change scenarios.

Vegetative incompatibility (VI) is a widespread phenomenon developed in Morchella importuna, a species of ascomycete fungus that is cultivated on a rapidly expanding scale in China. Understanding the genetic bases of this nonself-recognition phenomenon is beneficial for resolving some problems that are associated with the production of this highly prized edible fungus, such as crossbreeding, strain classification, and pathogen transmission. VI is genetically controlled by het genes, organized in two different systems, namely allelic and nonallelic. These het genes have been well characterized in Podospora anserina and Neurospora crassa. In this work, putative het-homologs were identified in the genome of M. importuna, but their low allelic polymorphism in different vegetative compatibility groups (VCGs) suggested that VI in this fungus might not be regulated by these het genes. The progeny derived from vegetative compatible parents became a VCG, while the single-ascospore strains from vegetative incompatible parents were divided into four VCGs, and the interaction between the inter-group strains led to the formation of two types of barrages, viz., thin dark line and raised aggregate of hyphae. The Bulk Segregant Analysis confirmed that the genes mimpvic32 and mimpvic33 were linked to VI reactions in M. importuna; nevertheless, the formation of barrages also occurred between the pairs carrying the same allele of these two genes. In sum, the VI control system in M. importuna was complicated, and there were more other allelic or non-allelic VI-related genes.

ABSTRACT Aridity, which is increasing worldwide due to climate change, affects the biodiversity and functions of dryland ecosystems. Whether aridification leads to gradual (or abrupt) and systemic (or specific) changes in the biogeography of abundant and rare microbial species is largely unknown. Here, we investigated stress-adaptive changes (aridity-driven, ranging from 0.65 to 0.94) and biogeographic patterns of abundant and rare bacterial communities in different habitats, including agricultural field, forest, wetland, grassland, and desert, in desert oasis transition zones in northern China. We observed abrupt changes at the breakpoint of aridity values (0.92), characterized by diversity (α-diversity and β-diversity), species coexistence, community assembly processes, and phylogenetic niche conservatism. Specifically, when aridity was 0.92, the systemic responses of abundant and rare taxa changed dramatically in a consistent direction, such that both subcommunities rapidly tended to have a more deterministic assembly, species coexistence, and stronger phylogenetic niche conservatism with increasing aridity. In addition, the change rates of abundant taxa were higher than those of rare taxa, indicating the more sensitive responses of abundant taxa along aridity variation. This finding has important implications for understanding the impact of aridity on the structure and function of abundant and rare soil taxa and how diversity maintenance is associated with soil microbiota responding to global change. The abrupt threshold of soil bacteria found can be used for buffering and for building effective adaptation and mitigation measures aimed at maintaining the capacity of drylands for basic ecosystem functioning. IMPORTANCE Aridity, which is increasing worldwide due to climate change, affects the biodiversity and functions of dryland ecosystems. We provided the first statistical evidence for abrupt changes of species coexistence, ecological processes, and niche conservation of abundant and rare soil bacteria triggered by diversity to abrupt increases in aridity. The abrupt threshold of soil bacterial community response to aridity is spatially heterogeneous at the local scale and should be specified according to local conditions for buffering and for building effective adaptation and mitigation measures aimed at maintaining the capacity of drylands for basic ecosystem functioning.

Abstract Background Phaseolus vulgaris (common bean) microsymbionts belonging to the bacterial genera Rhizobium, Bradyrhizobium, and Ensifer (Sinorhizobium) have been isolated across the globe. Individual symbiosis genes (e.g., nodC) of these rhizobia can be different within each genus and among distinct genera. Little information is available about the symbiotic structure of indigenous Rhizobium strains nodulating introduced bean plants or the emergence of a symbiotic ability to associate with bean plants in Bradyrhizobium and Ensifer strains. Here, we sequenced the genomes of 29 representative bean microsymbionts (21 Rhizobium, four Ensifer, and four Bradyrhizobium) and compared them with closely related reference strains to estimate the origins of symbiosis genes among these Chinese bean microsymbionts. Results Comparative genomics demonstrated horizontal gene transfer exclusively at the plasmid level, leading to expanded diversity of bean-nodulating Rhizobium strains. Analysis of vertically transferred genes uncovered 191 (out of the 2654) single-copy core genes with phylogenies strictly consistent with the taxonomic status of bacterial species, but none were found on symbiosis plasmids. A common symbiotic region was wholly conserved within the Rhizobium genus yet different from those of the other two genera. A single strain of Ensifer and two Bradyrhizobium strains shared similar gene content with soybean microsymbionts in both chromosomes and symbiotic regions. Conclusions The 19 native bean Rhizobium microsymbionts were assigned to four defined species and six putative novel species. The symbiosis genes of R. phaseoli, R. sophoriradicis, and R. esperanzae strains that originated from Mexican bean-nodulating strains were possibly introduced alongside bean seeds. R. anhuiense strains displayed distinct host ranges, indicating transition into bean microsymbionts. Among the six putative novel species exclusive to China, horizontal transfer of symbiosis genes suggested symbiosis with other indigenous legumes and loss of originally symbiotic regions or non-symbionts before the introduction of common bean into China. Genome data for Ensifer and Bradyrhizobium strains indicated symbiotic compatibility between microsymbionts of common bean and other hosts such as soybean.

If the measurand changes during the spectrum acquisition process, it easily leads to the failure of the classic demodulation algorithms of low-finesse optical fiber Fabry-Perot (FP) sensors. To address this problem, a novel demodulation model is proposed based on the definition of the instantaneous frequency. The proposed model establishes the relationship between the optical path length (OPL) of the FP cavity and the instantaneous frequency distribution of the FP interference spectrum. The link between the classic FFT algorithm and this model is discussed, and it is found that this model can be viewed as a generalized form of the FFT algorithm. Based on this model, the Doppler-induced demodulation error is analyzed. The analysis uncovers that the average frequency of the FP interference spectrum should be used for the evaluation of the error, and the error is proportional to the variation of OPL during the spectrum acquisition period. Further, numerical simulation and an experiment were carried out to verify the proposed model, and results show that the proposed model is effective for the dynamic low-finesse FP cavity. It is the first time that the idea of instantaneous frequency is introduced for the FP demodulation, and this model provides us a new way to cope with the FP sensing signal.

Abstract In this work, a comprehensive understanding of the relationship of photon absorption, internal electrical field, transport path, and relative kinetics on Sb2S3 photovoltaic performance has been investigated. The n-i-p planar structure for TiO2/Sb2S3/P3HT heterojunction hybrid solar cells was conducted, and the photon-to-electron processes including illumination depth, internal electric field, drift velocity and kinetic energy of charges, photo-generated electrons and hole concentration-related surface potential in Sb2S3, charge transport time, and interfacial charge recombination lifetime were studied to reveal the key factors that governed the device photocurrent. Dark J–V curves, Kelvin probe force microscope, and intensity-modulated photocurrent/photovoltage dynamics indicate that internal electric field is the main factors that affect the photocurrent when the Sb2S3 thickness is less than the hole diffusion length. However, when the Sb2S3 thickness is larger than the hole diffusion length, the inferior area in Sb2S3 for holes that cannot be diffused to P3HT would become a dominant factor affecting the photocurrent. The inferior area in Sb2S3 layer for hole collection could also affect the V oc of the device. The reduced collection of holes in P3HT, when the Sb2S3 thickness is larger than the hole diffusion length, would increase the difference between the quasi-Fermi levels of electrons and holes for a lower V oc.

Abstract Background Trametes trogii is a member of the white-rot fungi family, which has a unique ability to break down recalcitrant lignin polymers to CO2 and water, and they have enormous potential to biodegrade a wide range of toxic environmental pollutants. Because of its industrial potential, the identification of lignin-degrading enzyme systems in Trametes is an important area of research. Development and utilization of industrial value genes are suffering due to deficiency knowledge of genome available for their manipulation. Results In the present study, Homokaryotic strains of T. trogii S0301 were screened and sequencing by PacBio Sequel II platform. The final draft genome is ~ 39.88 Mb, with a contig N50 size of 2.4 Mb, this was the first genome sequencing and assembly of T. trogii species. Further analyses predicted 14,508 protein-coding genes. Results showed that T. trogii S0301 contains 602 genes encoding CAZymes, include 211 glycoside hydrolase and 117 lignin-degrading family genes, nine laccases related genes. Small subunit ribosomal RNA gene (18S rRNA) sequencing confirms its phylogenetic position. Moreover, T. trogii S0301 has the largest number of cytochromes P450 (CYPs) superfamily genes compare to other fungi. All these results are consistent with enzymatic assays and transcriptome analysis results. We also analyzed other genome characteristics in the T. trogii S0301genome. Conclusion Here, we present a nearly complete genome for T. trogii S0301, which will help elucidate the biosynthetic pathways of the lignin-degrading enzyme, advancing the discovery, characterization, and modification of novel enzymes from this genus. This genome sequence will provide a valuable reference for the investigation of lignin degradation in the Trametes genus.

Root diameter and rooting depth lead to morphological and architectural heterogeneity of plant roots; however, little is known about their effects on root-associated microbial communities. Bacterial community assembly was explored across 156 samples from three rhizocompartments (the rhizosphere, rhizoplane, and endosphere) for different diameters (0.0–0.5 mm, 0.5–1.0 mm, 1.0–2.0 mm, and>2.0 mm) and depths (0–5 cm, 5–10 cm, 10–15 cm, and 15–20 cm) of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] root systems. The microbial communities of all samples were analyzed using amplicon sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes. The results showed that root diameter significantly affected the rhizosphere and endosphere bacterial communities, while rooting depth significantly influenced the rhizosphere and rhizoplane bacterial communities. The bacterial alpha diversity decreased with increasing root diameter in all three rhizocompartments, and the diversity increased with increasing rooting depth only in the rhizoplane. Clearly, the hierarchical enrichment process of the bacterial community showed a change from the rhizosphere to the rhizoplane to the endosphere, and the bacterial enrichment was higher in thinner or deeper roots (except for the roots at a depth of 15–20 cm). Network analysis indicated that thinner or deeper roots led to higher bacterial network complexity. The core and keystone taxa associated with the specific root diameter class and rooting depth class harbored specific adaptation or selection strategies. Root diameter and rooting depth together affected the root-associated bacterial assembly and network complexity in the root system. Linking root traits to microbiota may enhance our understanding of plant root-microbe interactions and their role in developing environmentally resilient root ecosystems.

The knowledge of cracking mechanisms is significant for evaluating the healthy condition of aircraft structures and can be retrieved by moment tensor inversion based on the acoustic emission (AE) phenomenon. For engineering applications, the inversion method cannot compute accurate results because the waveforms recorded by sensors are commonly contaminated by noise. Consequently, the correlation calculation of de-noising is introduced into the inversion and sufficient correlation functions are needed. In this paper, the correlation function of raw waveforms is proposed and based on the inherent similarity between the signals induced by one source and recorded by different sensors. According to the synthetic tests, the error of the inversion method based on the new correlation function is approximately 1/10 of that of the commonly used amplitude method. Although the inversion accuracy is influenced by the phase differences and the ratio of noise frequency to signal frequency, the influence is limited and the new correlation function is suitable for most practical cases. The inversion method based on the new correlation function does not require the knowledge of noise spectra or any complex calculation processes and provides a new way to improve the inversion accuracy of cracking mechanisms with little additional computation consumption.

WRKYs are one of the largest transcription factor (TF) families and play an important role in plant resistance to various stresses. TaWRKY133, a group I WRKY protein, responds to a variety of abiotic stresses, including PEG treatment. The TaWRKY133 protein is located in the nucleus of tobacco epidermal cells, and both its N-terminal and C-terminal domains exhibit transcriptional activation activity. Overexpression of TaWRKY133 reduced drought tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana, as reflected by a lower germination rate, shorter roots, higher stomatal aperture, poorer growth and lower antioxidant enzyme activities under drought treatment. Moreover, expression levels of stress-related genes (DREB2A, RD29A, RD29B, ABF1, ABA2, ABI1, SOD (Cu/Zn), POD1 and CAT1) were downregulated in transgenic Arabidopsis under drought stress. Gene silencing of TaWRKY133 enhanced the drought tolerance of wheat, as reflected in better growth, higher antioxidant enzyme activities, and higher expression levels of stress-related genes including DREB1, DREB3, ABF, ERF3, SOD (Fe), POD, CAT and P5CS. In conclusion, these results suggest that TaWRKY133 might reduce drought tolerance in plants by regulating the expression of stress-related genes.

True morels (Morchella spp.) are a group of delicious fungi in high demand worldwide, and some species of morels have been successfully cultivated in recent years. To better understand the sexual reproductive mechanisms of these fungi, we characterized the structure of the mating-type loci from ten morel species, and seven of them were obtained using long-range PCR amplification. Among the studied species, eight were heterothallic, two were homothallic, and four types of composition were observed in the MAT loci. In three of the five black morel species, the MAT1-1-1, MAT1-1-10, and MAT1-1-11 genes were in the MAT1-1 idiomorph, and only the MAT1-2-1 gene was in the MAT1-2 idiomorph, while an integration event occurred in the other two species and resulted in the importation of the MAT1-1-11 gene into the MAT1-2 idiomorph and survival as a truncated fragment in the MAT1-1 idiomorph. However, the MAT1-1-11 gene was not available in the four yellow morels and one blushing morel species. M. rufobrunnea, a representative species of the earliest diverging branch of true morels, along with another yellow morel Mes-15, were confirmed to be homothallic, and the MAT1-1-1, MAT1-1-10, and MAT1-2-1 genes were arranged in a tandem array. Therefore, we hypothesized that homothallism should be the ancestral reproductive state in Morchella. RT-PCR analyses revealed that four mating genes could be constitutively expressed, while the MAT1-1-10 gene underwent alternative splicing to produce different splice variants.

Abstract Purpose We propose a collaborative and secure transmission scheme in order to safely and efficiently transmit medical data and provide telemedicine services, lighten the load on wireless access networks, and improve the quality of medical treatment such as surgery. Methods First, the transmission technology based on opportunistic networks is used to upload patient physiological data and share medical information. Second, we propose a trusted transfer scheme based on the circle of friends, which is constructed with historical encounters and social features of nodes. This scheme takes the forwarding policy of each packet by close friends to effectively prevent the participation of strangers, and avoid privacy issues and deal with selfish behaviors. At the same time, the structure of friend circle is beneficial to the improvement of medical data transmission. Third, we present a lossless compression scheme with less computation and higher compression ratio to reduce the amount of medical data and improve the performance of the transmission. Results The experimental results show that the proposed scheme is effective and has good transmission performance while ensuring the safety and reliability of media data. Conclusion The mobile healthcare faces some challenges such as the vastness of medical data and sensitivity of patient information. Using opportunistic networks to transmit medical data in mobile healthcare is a good solution, which can effectively divert and offload the data traffic of mobile Internet. The structure of friend circles and the technology of data compression are beneficial to safely and efficiently transmit the patient’s physiological parameters and medical health information.

Computer vision-based structural deformation monitoring techniques were studied in a large number of applications in the field of structural health monitoring (SHM). Numerous laboratory tests and short-term field applications contributed to the formation of the basic framework of computer vision deformation monitoring systems towards developing long-term stable monitoring in field environments. The major contribution of this paper was to analyze the influence mechanism of the measuring accuracy of computer vision deformation monitoring systems from two perspectives, the physical impact, and target tracking algorithm impact, and provide the existing solutions. Physical impact included the hardware impact and the environmental impact, while the target tracking algorithm impact included image preprocessing, measurement efficiency and accuracy. The applicability and limitations of computer vision monitoring algorithms were summarized.

Abstract Background Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a systemic vasculitis of medium and large-size vessels and can led to permanent visual loss in elderly patients. GCA is very rare among Asians. We report a Chinese patient presenting with acute bilateral anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, and the temporal artery biopsy proved the diagnose of GCA. Case presentation A 77-year-old Chinese man presented with sudden bilateral blindness for 5 days with a severe headache. Funduscopic examination revealed bilateral optic disc swollen with “chalky white” pallid appearance. The blood tests showed the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) elevated dramatically. The color duplex ultrasonography (CDUS) of the superficial temporal artery revealed the inflammation of the vessel wall as a “halo sign”. The temporal artery biopsy was perfumed and the pathology revealed luminal occlusion with multinuclear giant cell infiltration. The patient was treated with intravenous methylprednisolone for 3 days and oral prednisone weaning for 12 months. The visual acuity remained no light perception at one year follow-up. Conclusions Although very rare in Asian, GCA can led to permanent blindness in elderly Chinese caused by anterior ischemic optic neuropathy. The noninvasive CDUS might be a promising technique for diagnose GCA in highly suspected patients.

Prostate cancer (PCa) cells are heterogeneous, containing a variety of cancer cells with phenotypical and functional discrepancies in the tumor microenvironment, where prostate cancer stem cells (PCSCs) play a vital role in PCa development. Our earlier studies have shown that ALDHhiCD44+ (DP) PCa cells and the corresponding ALDHloCD44– (DN) PCa cells manifest as PCSCs and non-PCSCs, respectively, but the underlying mechanisms regulating stemness of the PCSCs are not completely understood. To tackle this issue, we have performed RNA-Sequencing and bioinformatic analysis in DP (versus DN) cells in this study. We discovered that, PER3 (period circadian regulator 3), a circadian rhythm gene, is significantly downregulated in DP cells. Overexpression of PER3 in DP cells significantly suppressed their sphere- and colony-forming abilities as well as tumorigenicity in immunodeficient hosts. In contrast, knockdown of PER3 in DN cells dramatically promoted their colony-forming and tumor-initiating capacities. Clinically, PER3 is downregulated in human prostate cancer specimens and PER3 expression levels are highly correlated with the prognosis of the PCa patient. Mechanistically, we observed that low levels of PER3 stimulates the expression of BMAL1, leading to the phosphorylation of β-catenin and the activation of the WNT/β-catenin pathway. Together, our results indicate that PER3 negatively regulates stemness of PCSCs via WNT/β-catenin signaling in the tumor microenvironment, providing a novel strategy to treat PCa patients.

Preclinical studies of PD-L1 and CTLA-4 blockade have relied heavily on mouse syngeneic tumor models with intact immune systems, which facilitate dissection of immunosuppressive mechanisms in the tumor microenvironment. Commercially developed monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) targeting human PD-L1, PD-1, and CTLA-4 may not demonstrate cross-reactive binding to their mouse orthologs, and surrogate anti-mouse antibodies are often used in their place to inhibit these immune checkpoints. In each case, multiple choices exist for surrogate antibodies, which differ with respect to species of origin, affinity, and effector function. To develop relevant murine surrogate antibodies for the anti-human PD-L1 mAb durvalumab and the anti-human CTLA-4 mAb tremelimumab, rat/mouse chimeric or fully murine mAbs engineered for reduced effector function were developed and compared with durvalumab and tremelimumab. Characterization included determination of target affinity, in vivo effector function, pharmacokinetic profile, and anti-tumor efficacy in mouse syngeneic tumor models. Results showed that anti–PD-L1 and anti–CTLA-4 murine surrogates with pharmacologic properties similar to those of durvalumab and tremelimumab demonstrated anti-tumor activity in a subset of commonly used mouse syngeneic tumor models. This activity was not entirely dependent on antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity, antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis effector function, or regulatory T-cell depletion, as antibodies engineered to lack these features showed activity in models historically sensitive to checkpoint inhibition, albeit at a significantly lower level than antibodies with intact effector function.

T-cell-mediated immunotherapy has generated much excitement after the success of therapeutic biologics targeting immune checkpoint molecules. Bispecific antibodies (BsAbs) that recognize two antigen targets are a fast-growing class of biologics offering promising clinical benefits for cancer immunotherapy. Due to the complexity of the molecule structure and the potential mechanism of action (MOA) that involves more than one signaling pathway, it is critical to develop appropriate bioassays for measuring potency and characterizing the biological properties of BsAbs. Here, we present a dual target, cell-based reporter bioassay for a BsAb that binds human CTLA-4 and PD-1 and targets two subsequent signaling pathways that negatively regulate T-cell activation. This reporter bioassay is capable of measuring the potency of both antigen target arms in one assay, which would not be achievable using two single target bioassays. This dual target reporter bioassay demonstrates good performance characteristics suitable for lot release, stability testing, critical quality attribute assessment, and biological properties characterization of the CTLA-4/PD-1 BsAb. Furthermore, this assay can capture the synergistic effect of anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1 activity of the BsAb. Compared to single target assays, this dual target bioassay could better reflect the potential MOA of BsAbs and could be used for evaluation of other bispecific biologics, as well as antibody combination therapies.

In the field of reinforcement learning, we propose a Correct Proximal Policy Optimization (CPPO) algorithm based on the modified penalty factor β and relative entropy in order to solve the robustness and stationarity of traditional algorithms. Firstly, In the process of reinforcement learning, this paper establishes a strategy evaluation mechanism through the policy distribution function. Secondly, the state space function is quantified by introducing entropy, whereby the approximation policy is used to approximate the real policy distribution, and the kernel function estimation and calculation of relative entropy is used to fit the reward function based on complex problem. Finally, through the comparative analysis on the classic test cases, we demonstrated that our proposed algorithm is effective, has a faster convergence speed and better performance than the traditional PPO algorithm, and the measure of the relative entropy can show the differences. In addition, it can more efficiently use the information of complex environment to learn policies. At the same time, not only can our paper explain the rationality of the policy distribution theory, the proposed framework can also balance between iteration steps, computational complexity and convergence speed, and we also introduced an effective measure of performance using the relative entropy concept.

Abstract Background Soil microbiomes play an important role in the services and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. However, little is known of their vertical responses to restoration process and their contributions to soil nutrient cycling in the subsurface profiles. Here, we investigated the community assembly of soil bacteria, archaea, and fungi along vertical (i.e., soil depths of 0–300 cm) and horizontal (i.e., distance from trees of 30–90 cm) profiles in a chronosequence of reforestation sites that represent over 30 years of restoration. Results In the superficial layers (0–80 cm), bacterial and fungal diversity decreased, whereas archaeal diversity increased with increasing soil depth. As reforestation proceeded over time, the vertical spatial variation in bacterial communities decreased, while that in archaeal and fungal communities increased. Vertical distributions of the soil microbiomes were more related to the variation in soil properties, while their horizontal distributions may be driven by a gradient effect of roots extending from the tree. Bacterial and archaeal beta-diversity were strongly related to multi-nutrient cycling in the soil, respectively, playing major roles in deep and superficial layers. Conclusions Taken together, these results reveal a new perspective on the vertical and horizontal spatial variation in soil microbiomes at the fine scale of single trees. Distinct response patterns underpinned the contributions of soil bacteria, archaea, and fungi as a function of subsurface nutrient cycling during the reforestation of ex-arable land.

The mechanisms of drug resistance in multiple myeloma are poorly understood. Here we show that CD47, an integrin-associated receptor, is significantly upregulated in drug resistant myeloma cells in comparison with parental cells, and that high expression of CD47 detected by immunohistochemistry is associated with shorter progression free and overall survivals in multiple myeloma patients. We show that miR-155 is expressed at low levels in drug resistant myeloma cells and is a direct regulator of CD47 through its 3'UTR. Furthermore, low miR-155 levels are associated with advanced stages of disease. MiR-155 overexpression suppressed CD47 expression on myeloma cell surface, leading to induction of phagocytosis of myeloma cells by macrophages and inhibition of tumor growth. MiR-155 overexpression also re-sensitized drug-resistant myeloma cells to bortezomib leading to cell death through targeting TNFAIP8, a negative mediator of apoptosis in vitro and in vivo. Thus, miR-155 mimics may serve as a promising new therapeutic modality by promoting phagocytosis and inducing apoptosis in patients with refractory/relapsed multiple myeloma.

Oil spillage pollution results in damages to marine and coastal environments and ecosystems at all levels. Due to the distinct advantages of fully polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (Pol-SAR), it has been widely employed to improve oil spillage event observations. In this paper, with the aim of enhancing ocean oil spillage identification, an improved scheme was proposed, which was mainly based on an active contour model (ACM), with a special emphases on choosing an optimal initial box boundary for the ACM model, and a noise suppressing process. In this proposed scheme, the ACM initial box boundary was chosen to be the median level contour of the imagined mountain if regarding image grey values as elevations. Meanwhile, following Lee filter operator, a Gaussian smooth operator was hired to further weaken the speckle noise, thereby making the evolution of ACM more stable. Three sets of RADARSAT-2 fully Pol-SAR data were used to test of the proposed method. In addition, the current study achieved the first complete comparison of the identification abilities of the ten most common recently used fully Pol-SAR features for oil spills. The experimental results show: 1) The features of H; v; span; P; ${\text{M}}_{33}$ ; and $\rho $ possessed good distinguishable abilities for oil spillage detection in sea water. Specially, features span and v outperformed other Pol-SAR features with regard to the elaborate distinguishing identifications of small patches of oil spill objects from other small objects, such as oil platforms or ships; 2) An appropriate setting of the initial box boundary of the ACM was able to accelerate the global search, and eventually led to improvements in the accuracy of the oil spill identification, while simultaneously reducing the computational time; 3) The effective noise suppression was confirmed to be very necessary, guaranteeing stability of the ACM evolution. When compared with other traditional methods, the proposed improved scheme was found to be more effective in the overall identification accuracy (99.8%).