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Abstract Limited data on the correlation between the perineal body (PB) and stress urinary incontinence (SUI) are available. The objectives of this study were to quantify the PB using shear wave elastography (SWE) technology with a high-frequency linear array probe to evaluate the relationship between the properties of PB and stress urinary incontinence (SUI). This study included 64 women with SUI and 70 female control participants. The length, height, perimeter, and area of PB in all participants were calculated using transperineal ultrasound, and the elasticity of PB was assessed by SWE at rest and during the maximal Valsalva maneuver, respectively. In addition, the comparison of PB parameters between the patients with SUI and the healthy participants was conducted. The transperineal ultrasound and SWE examination was performed in 134 participants, and the elastic modulus values were significantly increased from participants at rest to those during the maximal Valsalva maneuver in all participants (E max : 35.59 versus 53.13 kPa, P

Global warming has increased the risk of meteorological drought and associated hazards. Based on daily data from 35 meteorological stations in the Songhua River Basin (SRB) collected from 1960 to 2019, this study applied the standardised precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) and used the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) method and Pettitt's mutation test to perform a partitioned segmentation analysis of the multi-temporal and spatial variations in the meteorological droughts affecting the basin in terms of frequency and intensity, and discussed the relationship between the atmospheric circulation index and meteorological drought. The results showed that the overall meteorological drought trends shifted from a drought to a humid trend from 1960 to 2019. The drought in the basin had periods of 3, 6.7, 15, and 30 years, with mutation points in 1968, 1980, 1997, and 2012. The drought trend in Regions I and IV of the entire basin was enhanced, while that in Regions II, III, and V was weakened. Drought in the basin was strongly influenced by the Arctic Oscillation (AO) and Southern Oscillation Index (SOI). HIGHLIGHTS The SRB shifted from a drought trend to a wet trend from 1960 to 2019.; High-frequency and high-intensity drought areas are mainly distributed in Regions I and IV.; Drought in the basin is greatly influenced by AO and SOI.;

ObjectiveTo predict postoperative anastomotic leakage (AL) following radical resection of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) based on clinical data and preoperative enhanced Computed tomography(CT) radiomics of the esophagus.MethodWe retrospectively analyzed the clinicopathological and radiological data of 213 patients with ESCC who received radical resection at Xiangyang No.1 People’s Hospital from July 2011 to February 2024. 3D slicer software was used in combination with Lasso extraction and 10-fold cross-validation to extract texture parameters from contrast-enhanced CT images and generate Delta-Radscores. Several models were built using logistic regression to predict postoperative AL in ESCC.ResultsIn the training set, the univariate analysis confirmed that duration of surgery, surgical method, delta radscore 1, delta radscore 2, contrast enhancement patterns, peripheral lymph node metastasis, post thoracotomy pulmonary infection(PTPI), and hot pot were risk factors for ESCC-AL (P

Fungal diseases not only reduce the yield of edible mushrooms but also pose potential threats to the preservation and quality of harvested mushrooms. Cobweb disease, caused primarily by fungal pathogens from the Hypocreaceae family, is one of the most significant diseases affecting edible mushrooms. Deciphering the genomes of these pathogens will help unravel the molecular basis of their evolution and identify genes responsible for pathogenicity. Here, we present high-quality genome sequences of three cobweb disease fungi: Hypomyces aurantius Cb-Fv, Cladobotryum mycophilum CB-Ab, and Cladobotryum protrusum CB-Mi, isolated from Flammulina velutipes, Agaricus bisporus, and Morchella importuna, respectively. The assembled genomes of H. aurantius, C. mycophilum, and C. protrusum are 33.19 Mb, 39.83 Mb, and 38.10 Mb, respectively. This is the first report of the genome of H. aurantius. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that cobweb disease pathogens are closely related and diverged approximately 17.51 million years ago. CAZymes (mainly chitinases, glucan endo-1,3-beta-glucosidases, and secondary metabolite synthases), proteases, KP3 killer proteins, lipases, and hydrophobins were found to be conserved and strongly associated with pathogenicity, virulence, and adaptation in the three cobweb pathogens. This study provides insights into the genome structure, genome organization, and pathogenicity of these three cobweb disease fungi, which will be a valuable resource for comparative genomics studies of cobweb pathogens and will help control this disease, thereby enhancing mushroom quality.

Abstract Early acquired resistance (EAR) to epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) in lung adenocarcinomas before radiographic advance cannot be perceived by the naked eye. This study aimed to discover and validate a CT radiomic model to precisely identify the EAR. Training cohort (n = 67) and internal test cohort (n = 29) were from the First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, and external test cohort (n = 29) was from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen Medical College. Follow-up CT images at three different times of each patient were collected: (1) baseline images before EGFR-TKIs therapy; (2) first follow-up images after EGFR-TKIs therapy (FFT); (3) EAR images, which were the last follow-up images before radiographic advance. The features extracted from FFT and EAR were used to construct the classic radiomic model. The delta features which were calculated by subtracting the baseline from either FFT or EAR were used to construct the delta radiomic model. The classic radiomic model achieved AUC 0.682 and 0.641 in training and internal test cohorts, respectively. The delta radiomic model achieved AUC 0.730 and 0.704 in training and internal test cohorts, respectively. Over the external test cohort, the delta radiomic model achieved AUC 0.661. The decision curve analysis showed that when threshold of the probability of the EAR to the EGFR-TKIs was between 0.3 and 0.82, the proposed model was more benefit than treating all patients. Based on two central studies, the delta radiomic model derived from the follow-up non-enhanced CT images can help clinicians to identify the EAR to EGFR-TKIs in lung adenocarcinomas before radiographic advance and optimize clinical outcomes.

Abstract Background The purpose of this study was to develop a radiomic nomogram to predict T790M mutation of lung adenocarcinoma base on non-enhanced CT lung images. Methods This retrospective study reviewed demographic data and lung CT images of 215 lung adenocarcinoma patients with T790M gene test results. 215 patients (including 52 positive) were divided into a training set (n = 150, 36 positive) and an independent test set (n = 65, 16 positive). Multivariate logistic regression was used to select demographic data and CT semantic features to build clinical model. We extracted quantitative features from the volume of interest (VOI) of the lesion, and developed the radiomic model with different feature selection algorithms and classifiers. The models were trained by a 5-fold cross validation strategy on the training set and assessed on the test set. ROC was used to estimate the performance of the clinical model, radiomic model, and merged nomogram. Results Three demographic features (gender, smoking, emphysema) and ten radiomic features (Kruskal-Wallis as selection algorithm, LASSO Logistic Regression as classifier) were determined to build the models. The AUC of the clinical model, radiomic model, and nomogram in the test set were 0.742(95%CI, 0.619–0.843), 0.810(95%CI, 0.696–0.907), 0.841(95%CI, 0.743–0.938), respectively. The predictive efficacy of the nomogram was better than the clinical model (p = 0.042). The nomogram predicted T790M mutation with cutoff value was 0.69 and the score was above 130. Conclusion The nomogram developed in this study is a non-invasive, convenient, and economical method for predicting T790M mutation of lung adenocarcinoma, which has a good prospect for clinical application.

ABSTRACTHigh-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprinting is a reliable quality control method for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). As a research method combining fingerprint and pharmacodynamics of TCM, the TCM spectral effect relationship is widely used in the quality control of TCM and its preparations, which can better reflect the intrinsic quality of TCM and is of great significance for the research on the material basis of TCM efficacy. In this study, an HPLC fingerprint of the extracts from the aerial part of Paeonia lactiflora Pall (APPE) was first established. Then, the HPLC fingerprint of APPE was evaluated by stoichiometry analysis methods such as similarity analysis, hierarchical clustering analysis, and principal component analysis. At the same time, the spectral effect relationship between the HPLC pattern and the total antioxidant capacity of APPE was analyzed by Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR). The results showed that the similarity correlation coefficient of the 12 batches was ≥0.994, and the total antioxidant capacity was stable. In addition, PLSR analysis showed that 13 chemical components were closely related to the antioxidant activity of APPE.

ABSTRACTThe spectrum-effect relationship between chemical fingerprints and antioxidant activities was established to evaluate the quality of Eucommiae Folium (EF) extracts and discover potential efficacy-associated quality markers. Characteristic fingerprints of different batches of EF extracts were generated by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and a similarity analysis was performed by hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). Then the total antioxidant capacity assay kit with ferric reducing antioxidant assay (FRAP) method was used to determine antioxidant activity. The spectrum-effect relationship was established to identify the chemical constituents that impart antioxidant activities of Eucommiae Folium (EF) extracts using partial least squares regression (PLSR). HPLC fingerprints of EF extracts were established with the optimized chromatographic conditions: the mobile phase consisted 0.1% phosphoric acid -water (A) and acetonitrile (B), the detection wavelength was 326 nm, the column temperature was 30°C, and the flow rate was 0.8 mL/min. The correlation coefficient of similarity between 12 batches of extracts was ≥0.995. Compounds corresponding peaks P1, P2, P6 (chlorogenic acid), and P8 were closely related to the stable antioxidant activities of EF extracts, and could be selected as potential quality markers. An agile and efficient method that can ensure the intra-assay stability of biological activity of EF extracts and discover efficacy-associated quality markers was successfully built based on spectrum-effect relationship.

Abstract In the end-to-end image generation task, the spatial domain of pixel space cannot explicitly separate the low-frequency general information such as texture and color from the high-frequency detail information such as structure and identity. The loss function calculated in the spatial domain fails to effectively constrain the maintenance of detail information, and the generated image quality is insufficient. In this paper, a wavelet domain image generation (WDIG) framework is proposed to preserve the frequency information of images, in which the loss functions are constructed in the pixel space and wavelet space. In the pixel space, the low-frequency and high-frequency characteristic information of the signal are obtained by setting the appropriate Gaussian kernel and adopting the Gaussian fuzzy method. The loss function of $$\ell_{1}$$ ℓ 1 norm spatial domain is constructed for the low-frequency and high-frequency characteristic information. In the wavelet space, the corresponding channel sub-band coefficients are obtained by wavelet transform, and the image is explicitly separated into high-frequency information and low-frequency information. The $$\ell_{1}$$ ℓ 1 norm frequency domain loss function is constructed respectively for the sub-band coefficients. The WDIG can constrain model training more accurately and optimize model more precisely, so as to better maintain the details and quality of generated image. The WDIG framework is evaluated in the image generation applications including style transfer, image translation and Generative Adversarial Nets (GAN) Inversion. Experimental results show that the WDIG framework can effectively retain the details of images and generate more realistic images, and improve the image quality of the above applications in image generation.

Objective: To study the molecular mechanism of Phedimus aizoon (Linnaeus)'t Hart. on anti-inflammatory effect by network pharmacology, molecular docking, and experiment research. Methods: The potential anti-inflammatory effect ingredients and targets were acquired from TCMSP, HERB, and other databases under the screening condition of oral bioavailability ≥30%. The inflammation-related targets were collected from GeneCards, OMIM, and other databases, and the protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis to obtain the key anti-inflammatory effect targets. Meanwhile, GO annotation and KEGG signal pathway enrichment analysis of the key targets was analyzed using the David database. Moreover, this study verified the key targets predicted by AutoDock molecular docking. The key anti-inflammatory effect ingredients of Phedimus aizoon (Linnaeus)'t Hart. were analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The anti-inflammatory effect of the key ingredients was verified on the LPS-induced RAW264.7 cell model. Results: The results showed that there were five potent components corresponding to 130 related targets, and 421 inflammation-related targets, with 22 intersection anti-inflammatory targets, among which the key targets were PPARG, EGFR, TP53, etc. β-sitosterol and gallic acid (3,4,5-trihydroxy benzoic acid) were the main ingredients that can be anti-inflammatory. GO annotation and KEGG signal pathway enrichment analysis indicated that β-sitosterol and gallic acid played an anti-inflammatory role through multiple pathways such as transcription from RNA polymerase II promoter, positive regulation of neuron apoptotic process, and response to lipopolysaccharide, etc., as well as signal pathways including pathways in cancer, hepatitis B, TNF signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, and other signaling pathways. Furthermore, the molecular docking analysis revealed that the key targets had good binding affinities with the key active ingredients. β-sitosterol and gallic acid as active ingredients in Phedimus aizoon (Linnaeus)'t Hart. were analyzed by HPLC. The experimental results showed that β-sitosterol and gallic acid could significantly reduce NO content, increase the content of IL-10 (P

To establish a quality evaluation and identification method for Phyllanthi fructus (Yuganzi), the spectrum-effect relationship was explored. A high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprint was established using ultraviolet spectrophotometry, and the in vitro antioxidant activity was determined using a total antioxidant capacity assay kit. Similarity analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), and partial least squares regression (PLSR) were performed to establish the spectrum-effect relationships. Thirteen batches of Yuganzi were collected for testing. The results revealed that the optimal chromatographic conditions for the HPLC fingerprint were as follows: the mobile phase consisted of 0.1% phosphoric acid solution (A) and acetonitrile (B), the detection wavelength was 214 nm, the column temperature was 30 °C, and the flow rate was 0.8 mL/min. Among the batches of samples, the similarity values of 10 samples (S1–S10) from Yunnan were larger than 0.995; the similarity values of 3 samples (S11–S13) from India, Gaoligong Mountain, and Fujian were less than or equal to 0.986. Furthermore, nineteen characteristic peaks of Yuganzi were calibrated using fingerprint evaluation software. The study on the spectrum-effect relationship further revealed that compounds corresponding to peaks 5 and 8 were potentially key ingredients for the quality evaluation and identification of Yuganzi, closely related to the stable antioxidant activities of Yuganzi. The spectrum-effect relationship is an agile and efficient approach that can ensure the intra-assay stability of Yuganzi from same region and identify Yuganzi from different regions. Compounds with antioxidant activity can be identified as quality markers for Yuganzi.

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of the designed herbal formula (DHF) on growth performance, blood indices, organ traits, and cecum microbiology in broilers. A total of 96 male broilers of 1 d were selected and randomly assigned to two groups with six replicates of eight broilers each. The control (CON) and the basal diet containing 1.0% DHF (Astragali radix, Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz., Isatis tinctoria Linnaeus, and Citri reticulatae pericarpium, 2:1:1:2) were fed separately. The experiment was conducted for 35 days. The results showed that the DHF diet increased body weight and decreased the feed conversion ratio (FCR) (p < 0.05). At 21 days, the spleen, thymus, lymphocytes, and thrombocytes were increased (p < 0.05), and pancreas, duodenum, heterophils, and mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) were decreased (p < 0.05). At 35 days, the heart, pancreas, white blood cell, heterophils, hemoglobin, MCH and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) were decreased, while lymphocytes and middle cells were increased (p < 0.05). The results of microbial diversity analysis showed that the DHF diet decreased the microbial diversity of the cecum. Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were the dominant phyla, where the DHF diet increased the relative abundances of Bacteroides uniformis, Bacteroides vulgatus, and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, and then decreased the relative abundance of Shigella sonnei. In conclusion, DHF played a positive role in improving the growth performance, immune performance, and relative abundance of Bacteroides uniformis, Bacteroides vulgatus, and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii in cecum microbiology in broilers, and has the potential to be used as a novel feed additive.

Objective: To predict COVID-19 severity by building a prediction model based on the clinical manifestations and radiomic features of the thymus in COVID-19 patients. Method: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical and radiological data from 217 confirmed cases of COVID-19 admitted to Xiangyang NO.1 People's Hospital and Jiangsu Hospital of Chinese Medicine from December 2019 to April 2022 (including 118 mild cases and 99 severe cases). The data were split into the training and test sets at a 7:3 ratio. The cases in the training set were compared in terms of clinical data and radiomic parameters of the lasso regression model. Several models for severity prediction were established based on the clinical and radiomic features of the COVID-19 patients. The DeLong test and decision curve analysis (DCA) were used to compare the performances of several models. Finally, the prediction results were verified on the test set. Result: For the training set, the univariate analysis showed that BMI, diarrhea, thymic steatosis, anorexia, headache, findings on the chest CT scan, platelets, LDH, AST and radiomic features of the thymus were significantly different between the two groups of patients (P < 0.05). The combination model based on the clinical and radiomic features of COVID-19 patients had the highest predictive value for COVID-19 severity [AUC: 0.967 (OR 0.0115, 95%CI: 0.925-0.989)] vs. the clinical feature-based model [AUC: 0.772 (OR 0.0387, 95%CI: 0.697-0.836), P < 0.05], laboratory-based model [AUC: 0.687 (OR 0.0423, 95%CI: 0.608-0.760), P < 0.05] and model based on CT radiomics [AUC: 0.895 (OR 0.0261, 95%CI: 0.835-0.938), P < 0.05]. DCA also confirmed the high clinical net benefits of the combination model. The nomogram drawn based on the combination model could help differentiate between the mild and severe cases of COVID-19 at an early stage. The predictions from different models were verified on the test set. Conclusion: Severe cases of COVID-19 had a higher level of thymic involution. The thymic differentiation in radiomic features was related to disease progression. The combination model based on the radiomic features of the thymus could better promote early clinical intervention of COVID-19 and increase the cure rate.

Objective: To study the molecular mechanism of common phenolic acids on enhancing immunity by network pharmacology and molecular docking. Method: The potential targets of common phenolic acids were acquired from TCMSP database, STITCH database, and SwissTargetPrediction online target screening platform, and the component-target network map of common phenolic acids was constructed using Cytoscape 3.8.0 software. Then, candidate targets of each phenolic acids and known therapeutic targets of enhancing immunity were collected from the GeneCard database and OMIM database, and the overlapping genes were imported into STRING database for protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis to obtaining the key immune-enhancing targets. GO annotation and KEGG signal pathway enrichment of the key targets were analyzed using DAVID platform. Moreover, this study verified the key targets predicted by using AutoDock molecular docking. Results: The results indicated that there were 496 targets corresponding to 36 phenolic acid compounds and 16691 targets for enhancing immunity. At that time, 454 intersection targets were obtained, and these 454 targets were used as candidate targets for enhancing immunity of phenolic acid compounds, among which the key targets were SRC, MAPK1, HSP90AA1, AKT1, TP53, etc. Rosmarinic acid, methyl rosmarinate, ellagic acid, ethyl ferulate, and sinapic acid and so on were the main components that could enhance immunity. GO annotation and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that common phenolic acids played an immune-enhancing role through multiple pathways such as positive regulation of transcription from RNA polymerase II promoter, positive regulation of transcription, DNA-templated, negative regulation of apoptotic process, as well as signal pathways including pathways in cancer, proteoglycans in cancer, and MAPK signaling pathway. Moreover, the molecular docking analysis revealed that the core targets had good binding affinities with key components, which verified the accuracy of the prediction results of network pharmacology. Conclusion: This study revealed that common phenolic acid compounds played a role in enhancing immunity through regulating multiple targets and multiple pathways, laying a foundation for the development and further research of common phenolic acid compounds.

The high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprint technique is an effective method to evaluate the quality, identify species, ensure consistency and stability of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In this study, determination was performed on an Agilent ZORBAX SB-C18 (4.6 × 250 mm, 5 µm) column with methanol-water as mobile phase in gradient elution at the flow rate of 0.8 mL/min, the column temperature was 30°C, the detection wavelength was set to 260 nm. The HPLC fingerprints of 10 batches of extract of the aerial parts from Atractylodes lancea were evaluated by similarity analysis and chemometrics including hierarchical cluster analysis, principal component analysis. Meanwhile, the antibacterial activities of 10 batches of extract of the aerial parts from Atractylodes lancea were estimated on Escherichia coli (E. coli). The correlation coefficient of similarity between 10 batches of extract was ≥ 0.998, and the extract of the aerial parts from Atractylodes lancea have stable effects on inhibiting the proliferation of E. coli. Besides, bivariate correlation analysis (BCA) and partial least squares regression (PLSR) were applied to construct a spectrum-effect relationship, which proved the 5 main marker compounds were more relevant to anti-bacteria. Therefore, in this work, the results were successfully built an agile and efficient method that can ensure the intra-assay stability of biological activity of the extract of the aerial parts from Atractylodes lancea.

Similarity analysis of complicated chromatographic profiles is a potential protocol for the authentication and quality control of traditional Chinese medicine to guarantee prospective biological activity. In this work, a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was established to identify and control the inter-assay quality of extract from Artemisia frigida Willd. Meanwhile, a partial least squares regression (PLSR) was applied to construct a spectrum–effect relationship between the HPLC fingerprints and the total antioxidant capacity of the extract from Artemisia frigida Willd. The similarity correlation coefficient of 10 batches of extract was ≥0.948 could guarantee the 10 batches of showed the inter-assay stability of antioxidant capacity of extract from Artemisia frigida Willd. Moreover, PLSR analysis showed that four efficacy-related components were closely related to antioxidant effect. Therefore, this study provided a flexible and efficient method for the quality and the stable biological activity assessment of Artemisia frigida Willd.

α-galactosidase (α-gal, EC 3.2.1.22) is a kind of exoglycosidase that can specifically catalyze the hydrolysis ofα-galactoside bonds. It has the ability to hydrolyze theα-1, 6-galactoside bonds involved in galacto-oligosaccharides such as melibiose, raffinose, and stachyose, galactomannans, galactolipids and glycoproteins. It has widely been found in animals, plants and microorganisms (archaea, bacteria, fungi) and etc. As its catalytic specificity, α-Gal has been widely used in such fields as food, feed, agriculture, medicine and light industry, and it is considered as one of the most promising enzyme preparations.α-Gal from different species and families exhibit great differences in sequence homology, advanced catalytic structure, catalytic active site, enzyme-substrate binding mechanism, and thermal stability etc., which greatly limits the development and application ofα-Gal. Compared with studies onα-Gal in microorganisms, studies onα-Gal in plants are still relatively limited. In plants, α-Gal is widely involved in important physiological processes such as leaf development and senescence, seed development and germination, fruit softening and ripening and stress response. However, the physiological and molecular mechanisms ofα-Gal involved in these processes mentioned above have still been unclear. Therefore, based on the previous researches and reports onα-Gal, the origin, distribution, classification, catalytic property and applications, GH protein family evolution ofα-Gal and its biological functions on the biosynthesis, transport, unloading and catabolism of RFO, seed development, dehydration tolerance and germination, response to high and/or low temperature, salt and other abiotic stresses, and cell wall remodeling in plants are mainly reviewed in this paper.

Objective: To collect the clinical, pathological, and computed tomography (CT) data of 143 accepted surgical cases of pancreatic body tail cancer (PBTC) and to model and predict its prognosis. Methods: The clinical, pathological, and CT data of 143 PBTC patients who underwent surgical resection or endoscopic ultrasound biopsy and were pathologically diagnosed in Xiangyang No.1 People's Hospital Hospital from December 2012 to December 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. The Kaplan-Meier method was adopted to make survival curves based on the 1 to 5 years’ follow-up data, and then the log-rank was employed to analyze the survival. According to the median survival of 6 months, the PBTC patients were divided into a group with a good prognosis (survival time ≥ 6 months) and a group with a poor prognosis (survival time

Objective: To establish a predictive model distinguishing focal mass-forming pancreatitis (FMFP) from pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) based on computed tomography (CT) radiomics and clinical data. Methods: A total of 78 FMFP patients (FMFP group) and 120 PDAC patients (PDAC group) who were admitted to Xiangyang No.1 People's Hospital and Xiangyang Central Hospital from February 2012 to May 2021 and were pathologically diagnosed were included in this study, and were input to set up the training set and test set at a ratio of 7:3. The 3Dslicer software was used to extract the radiomic features and radiomic scores (Radscores) of the 2 groups, and the clinical data (age, gender, etc), CT imaging features (lesion location, size, enhancement degree, vascular wrapping, etc) and CT radiomic features of the 2 groups were compared. Logistic regression was used to screen the independent risk factors of the 2 groups, and multiple prediction models (clinical imaging model, radiomics model, and combined model) were established. Then the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis and decision curve analysis (DCA) were conducted to compare the prediction performance and net benefit of the models. Results: The multivariate logistic regression results indicated that dilation of the main pancreatic duct, vascular wrapping, Radscore1 and Radscore2 were independent influencing factors for distinguishing FMFP from PDAC. In the training set, the combined model showed the best predictive performance (area under the ROC curve [AUC] 0.857, 95% CI [0.787-0.910]), significantly higher than the clinical imaging model (AUC 0.650, 95% CI [0.565–0.729]) and the radiomics model (AUC 0.812, 95% CI [0.759–0.890]). DCA confirmed that the combined model had the highest net benefit. These results were further validated by the test set. Conclusion: The combined model based on clinical–CT radiomics data can effectively identify FMFP and PDAC, providing a reference for clinical decision-making.

With global warming and worsening climatic conditions, heat stress (HS) has become a significant challenge affecting the development of poultry production. In this study, we aimed to determine the effects of HS on breast muscle metabolomics and lipid metabolism-related genes in growing broilers. One hundred twenty 29-day-old Arbor Acres broilers were randomly divided into normal temperature (NT; 21 ± 1 °C) and heat stress (HS; 31 ± 1 °C) groups, with six replicates (ten birds in each replicate) in each group, raised for 14 days in two environment chambers at 60 ± 7% relative humidity. Compared with the broilers in the NT group, the average daily food intake, average daily gain and breast muscle yield in the HS group were significantly lower (p < 0.05). The feed conversion ratio was significantly higher in the HS group (p < 0.05). The concentrations of serum corticosterone, free fatty acids and cholesterol and the percentage of abdominal fat of broilers in the HS group were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than the values of the broilers in the NT group. Untargeted breast muscle metabolome analysis revealed 14 upregulated differential metabolites, including glycerophosphocholine, and 27 downregulated differential metabolites, including taurine, in the HS group compared to the NT group; the HS group also displayed significant effects on six metabolic pathways compared to the NT group (p < 0.05). The mRNA expression levels of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1-alpha, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα) and ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 in the liver and breast muscles were significantly decreased in the HS group compared with the NT group (p < 0.05). The collective findings reveal that HS can cause disorders in breast muscle lipid metabolism in broilers. The PPARα gene might be the key gene in the mechanism of the lipid metabolism that is induced by HS in breast muscle of broilers. These findings provide novel insights into the effects of HS on chicken growth.

There are many types of natural plants in nature that contain a variety of effective and complex chemical components. These constituents can be categorized as organic acids, volatile oils, coumarins, steroids, glycosides, alkaloids, carbohydrates, phytochromes, etc., all of which play important roles in the fields of pharmaceuticals, food, nutraceuticals, and cosmetics. The study of extraction and chemical composition analysis of natural products is important for the discovery of these active ingredients and their precursors. Therefore, the aim of this article is to review the status of research on the extraction, separation and purification, and structural identification of natural products, to provide a reference for the study of natural products.

Essential oils (EOs), also called liquid gold, are known for their wide range of applications and biological activities. The modern use of EOs has received increasing attention for more than 60 years. The precious EOs have been refined from plant raw materials using a variety of methods. Since the extraction, separation, and purification methods determine the type, quantity, and stereochemical structure of EO molecules as well as the final yield and quality of EOs, the selection of an appropriate method is crucial. The traditional and emerging extraction methods (hydrodistillation, steam distillation, organic solvent extraction, etc.), as well as separation and purification methods (chromatography, macroporous resin, chemical reaction, etc.), of plant EOs and their main volatile compounds were shown. Our review focused on the principles, processes, characteristics, and applications of these methods, so as to better understand the preparation of pure plant EOs and further guide their large-scale use.

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of increasing stocking density under suitable environmental conditions on the performance and ileal microbiota of broilers. A total of 108 Arbor Acres male broilers (28 days old) were allocated to a normal stocking density (NSD, normal stocking density; 31 kg/m2) and a maximum allowed stocking density group (MSD, maximum stocking density; 39 kg/m2). All birds were reared at a constant temperature of 21°C. At 42 days of age, bacterial DNA was extracted from ileal content, and the V3-4 hypervariable region of 16S rRNA was amplified. Increasing stocking density had no significant effect on average daily gain, average daily feed intake, and feed conversion ratio (P>0.05). The alpha and beta diversities of the ileal microbiomes did not differ significantly between the NSD and MSD groups; however, increasing stocking density altered the composition of ileal microbiota. The relative abundance of Lactobacillales, including Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, and Streptococcus, significantly decreased in MSD broilers, compared with NSD broilers. The present results suggest that even under suitable environmental conditions, an increase in stocking density to a level of 39 kg/m2 may disturb the composition of ileal microbiota in broilers. Further studies are needed to determine the reasons and the potential consequences for animal health and physiology.

Objective To build a combined model that integrates clinical data, contrast-enhanced ultrasound, and magnetic resonance perfusion-weighted imaging-based radiomics for predicting the possibility of biochemical recurrence of prostate carcinoma and develop a nomogram tool. Method We retrospectively analyzed the clinical, ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging data of 206 patients pathologically confirmed with prostate carcinoma and receiving radical prostatectomy at Xiangyang No. 1 People’s Hospital from February 2015 to August 2021. Based on one to 7 years of follow-up (prostate specific antigen [PSA] level≥0.2 ng/mL, indicative of prostate carcinoma–biochemical recurrence), the patients were divided into biochemical recurrence group (n = 77) and normal group (n = 129). The training and testing sets were formed by dividing the patients at a 7:3 ratio. In training set, The magnetic resonance perfusion-weighted imaging–based radiomics radscore was generated using lasso regression. Several predictive models were built based on the patients’ clinical imaging data. The predictive efficacy (area under the curve) of these models was compared using the MedCalc software. The decision curve analysis was conducted using the R to compare the net benefit. Finally, an external validation was carried out on the testing set, and the nomogram tool was developed for predicting prostate carcinoma–biochemical recurrence. Result The univariate analysis confirmed that Tumor diameter, tumor node metastasis classification stage of tumor, lymph node metastasis or distance metastasis, Gleason grade, preoperative PSA, ultrasound (peak intensity, arrival time, and elastography grade), and magnetic resonance imaging-radscore1/2 were predictors of prostate carcinoma–biochemical recurrence. On the training set, the combined model based on the above factors had the highest predictive efficacy for prostate carcinoma–biochemical recurrence (area under the curve: 0.91; odds ratio 0.02, 95% confidence interval: 0.85-0.95). The predictive performance of the combined model was significantly higher than that of the model based on general clinical data (area under the curve: 0.74; odds ratio 0.04, 95% confidence interval: 0.67-0.81, P < .05), contrast-enhanced ultrasound (area under the curve: 0.61; odds ratio 0.05 95% confidence interval: 0.53-0.69, P < .05), and the magnetic resonance imaging–based radiomics model (area under the curve: 0.85; odds ratio 0.03, 95% confidence interval: 0.78-0.91, P = .01). The decision curve analysis also indicated the maximum net benefit derived from the combined model, which agreed with the validation results on the testing set. The nomogram tool developed based on the combined model achieved a good performance in clinical applications. Conclusion The magnetic resonance imaging texture parameters extracted by magnetic resonance perfusion-weighted imaging Lasso regression could help increase the accuracy of the predictive model. The combined model and the nomogram tool provide support for the clinical screening of the populations at a risk for biochemical recurrence.

Abstract A viscous fourth-order parabolic equation with boundary degeneracy is studied. By using the variational method, the existence of a time-discrete fourth-order elliptic equation with homogeneous boundary conditions is solved. Moreover, the existence and uniqueness for the corresponding parabolic problem with nondegenerate coefficient is shown by several asymptotic limit processes. Finally, by applying the regularization method, the existence and uniqueness for the problem with degenerate boundary coefficient is obtained by applying the energy method and a small parameter limit process.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, commonly abbreviated to NAFLD, is a pervasive ailment within the digestive system, exhibiting a rising prevalence, and impacting individuals at increasingly younger ages. Those afflicted by NAFLD face a heightened vulnerability to the onset of profound liver fibrosis, cardiovascular complications, and malignancies. Currently, NAFLD poses a significant threat to human health, and there is no approved therapeutic treatment for it. Recent studies have shown that synbiotics, which regulate intestinal microecology, can positively impact glucolipid metabolism, and improve NAFLD-related indicators. Sonchus brachyotus DC., a Chinese herb, exhibits hepatoprotective and potent antioxidant properties, suggesting its potential therapeutic use in NAFLD. Our preclinical animal model investigation suggests that the synergy between Sonchus brachyotus DC. extracts and synbiotics is significantly more effective in preventing and treating NAFLD, compared to the isolated use of either component. As a result, this combination holds the potential to introduce a fresh and encouraging therapeutic approach to addressing NAFLD.

Due to the characteristics of low earth orbit (LEO) communication satellite system like low propagation loss, small propagation delay and high pointing accuracy, a hybrid architecture-“analog beamforming stage and digital beamforming (DBF) stage” was proposed, and the principle and advantages of hybrid beamforming were analyzed.Through three dimensional integrating of multi-channel RF frontend chips, mixers, dedicated DBF ASIC chips, and tiles phased array anntena arrays, the proposed hybrid beamforming could be expanded or spliced.This hybrid architecture achieved the optimization of performance, cost, complexity and power consumption, and provided a reference for China to build space based internet of things system and reconfi gurable phased array antenna system in the future.

In this paper, we mainly focus on a fractal model of Fangzhu’s nanoscale surface for water collection which is established through He’s fractal derivative. Based on the fractal two-scale transform method, the approximate analytical solutions are obtained by the energy balance method and He’s frequency–amplitude formulation method with average residuals. Some specific numerical experiments of the model show that these two methods are simple and effective and can be adopted to other nonlinear fractal oscillators. In addition, these properties of the obtained solution reveal how to enhance the collection rate of Fangzhu by adjusting the smoothness of its surfaces.

Abstract Background To explore the feasibility of adjuvant surgery following concurrent chemoradiation therapy (CCRT) in stage IIB–IIIB (according to FIGO staging of 2009) cervical cancer and analyze risk factors of recurrence after surgery. Methods Forty-nine patients diagnosed with stage IIB–IIIB cervical cancer were reviewed retrospectively. We investigated the risk factors of recurrence after surgery using Chi-squared Test and further analyzed multiple factors affecting postoperative recurrence using the multi-factor logistic regression. Furthermore, the correlation of surgery outcomes (including operation time, bleeding, and hospitalization date and surgery complications) with the time which carried out between CCRT and completion surgery was analyzed. Results Tumor histology and residual tumor in the cervix were significantly associated with postoperative recurrence (P = 0.014 and P = 0.040, respectively). Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that the independent risk factors of postoperative recurrence were age and residual tumor in the cervix (P = 0.017 and P = 0.030, respectively). Complications (operation time, bleeding, hospitalization date) were compared between patients with an interval with radiotherapy less than 6 weeks and patients with an interval longer than 6 weeks. There were statistical differences in the amount of bleeding and postoperative complications between the two groups (P = 0.019 and P = 0.044, respectively). Conclusion CCRT combined with surgery for stage IIB–IIIB cervical cancer was feasible, reduced the rate of postoperative recurrence and surgery complications were tolerated.

Abstract Background There is a paucity of existing literature centering on the magnetic resonance (MR) imaging features of pancreatic schwannomas, due to the neoplasm’s nonspecific presentation and its rarity. We aimed to identify the characteristic imaging features of pancreatic schwannoma. Methods This retrospective search was conducted for histologically confirmed pancreatic schwannoma in multi-institutional database of pathology. Abdominal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed before histologic examination and their MR imaging studies were independently reviewed. The search yielded six adults (mean age, 46 years) with a definitive histologic postoperative diagnosis of single pancreatic schwannoma each. Additionally, a comprehensive English and Chinese literature review for pancreatic schwannoma and reported MR-imaging findings since 1961 was also conducted. MR imaging features of those cases in the literature were analyzed, summarized and compared with our case series. Results This rare entity appeared to be a well-circumscribed, exophytic, oval or round pancreatic mass with a mean greatest diameter of 3.7 cm. Five schwannomas were located in the pancreatic head-neck and one in the pancreatic tail. On MRI, all cases appeared hypointense on T1-weighted images, inhomogeneous hyperintense on T2-weighted images, and hyperintense on diffusion-weighted images. The mean apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of pancreatic schwannoma were 1.11 ± 0.29 × 10− 3 mm2/s and significantly lower than the surrounding pancreas. The lesion-to-pancreas signal intensity ratio (SIR) at unenhanced T1-weighted images was 0.53 ± 0.07. On dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI, most of the lesions (67%, 4/6) showed homogeneously iso- or hypointense on arterial and portal venous phases, and hyperenhancement on delayed phase compared with the surrounding pancreas. In our analysis of the time intensity curves, all cases exhibited a gradual enhancement pattern. Conclusions A well-circumscribed mass displaying inhomogeneous hyperintensity on T2, marked hypointensity on T1, hyperintensity on DWI, and with early slight enhancement at arterial phase and progressive enhancement at portal venous and delayed phase, may suggest the diagnosis of pancreatic schwannoma.

Abstract Background Interpretation of the floral structure of Zingiberaceae has long concentrated on the relationships of the androecial members. It suggested that labellum is composed of two structures rather than three or five, and glands are interpreted either as gynoecial part or as androecial members. Methods Serial sections were used to observe the vasculature of normal and two-staminate flowers in Alpinia intermedia ‘shengzhen’. Floral diagrams were drawn to interpret the morphological category of the floral organs and the relationships of the androecial members. Androecial vascular bundles were associated with carpellary dorsal bundles (CDBs) and parietal bundles (PBs) in a Zingiberales phylogeny setting using ancestral state reconstruction. Results Anatomical observations demonstrate that the fertile stamen(s) incorporate parietal bundles both in normal and two-staminate flowers. The three appendages represent the three members of the outer whorl of the androecium, while the labellum represents the inner whorl of the androecium in the two-staminate flower. Reconstruction of the origin of the vascular system in the androecium suggests that the outer whorl of androecium receives its vascular supply from the CDBs, and the inner whorl of androecium receives from the PBs in both the basal banana group and the more derived ginger clade. Conclusions The present study adds to a growing body of literature suggesting that the anatomy of abnormal flowers may not provide enough evidence for elucidating the relationships of the androecial members, and help us to better understand how the vascular system is constructed during the androecial petaloidy evolution.

This paper presents a measurement-driven framework to deal with the compressed sensing (CS) system design problem. Under this novel framework, the sparse coefficient matrix is calculated according to the low-dimension measurements, rather than updated along with the dictionary as in the traditional cases. Moreover, a new cost function is proposed to simultaneously optimize the sensing matrix and dictionary. In order to minimize this cost function, an iterative algorithm is carried out. In every iteration, the solutions of the sensing matrix and dictionary are derived analytically. Experiments are executed with real images, especially medical images. The results demonstrate the superiority of the designed CS system composed of the optimized sensing matrix and dictionary with improved performance for image compression and reconstruction.

Scene text recognition (STR) is designed to automatically recognize the text content in natural scenes. Different from regular document text, text in natural scenes has the characteristics of irregular shapes, complex background, and distorted and blurred contents, which makes STR challenging. To solve the problems of STR for distorted, blurred, and low-resolution texts in natural scenes, this paper proposes a HRNet encoder and dual-branch decoder framework-based STR model. The model mainly consists of an encoder module and a dual-branch decoder module composed of a super-resolution branch and a recognition branch in parallel. In the encoder module, the HRNet is adopted to realize the cross-parallel aggregation representation with multiple resolutions during feature extraction and then outputs four kinds of feature maps with different resolutions. Moreover, the supervised attention module is used to strengthen the learning of the important feature information. In the decoder module, the dual-branch structure is adopted, in which the super-resolution branch takes the feature maps with the highest resolution obtained in the encoder module as input and restores images by upsampling through transposed convolution. The four kinds of feature maps with different resolutions are fused through independent transposed convolution layers for multiscale fusion in the recognition branch and then inputted into the attention-based decoder for text recognition. To improve the accuracy of text recognition, the feature extraction effect of the encoder module is together supervised by the super-resolution branch loss and the recognition branch loss. In addition, the super-resolution branch is only used for training and is abandoned during testing to reduce the complexity of the model. The proposed model is trained on Synth90K and SynthText datasets and tested on seven natural scene datasets. Compared with classical models such as ASTER, TextSR, and SCGAN, the recognition accuracy of the proposed model is improved and better recognition results can be achieved on irregular and blurred datasets such as IC15, SVTP, and CUTE80.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the potential connectivity mechanism between the cerebellum and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the cerebellar structure in primary dysmenorrhea (PDM).Methods: We applied the spatially unbiased infratentorial template (SUIT) of the cerebellum to obtain anatomical details of cerebellar lobules, upon which the functional connectivity (FC) between the cerebellar lobules and ACC subregions was analyzed and the gray matter (GM) volume of cerebellar lobules was measured by using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) in 35 PDM females and 38 age-matched healthy females. The potential relationship between the altered FC or GM volume and clinical information was also evaluated in PDM females.Results: PDM females showed higher connectivity between the left perigenual ACC (pACC) and lobule vermis_VI, between the left pACC and left lobule IX, and between right pACC and right cerebellar lobule VIIb than did the healthy controls. Compared with healthy controls, no altered GM volume was found in PDM females. No significant correlation was found between altered cerebellum–ACC FC and the clinical variables in the PDM females.Conclusion: PDM females have abnormal posterior cerebellar connectivity with pACC but no abnormal structural changes. ACC–cerebellar circuit disturbances might be involved in the PDM females.

Although promising results have been achieved in the area of traffic sign detection, little attention has been paid to text detection on traffic signs. In fact, in today's popular driver-less automobile industry, traffic sign text which brings abundant and valuable traffic information plays an important and indispensable role. In this work, we design an effective detector for traffic sign text, whose pipeline only consists of a preprocessing module to tackle with some complex situations, a Fully Convolutional Network (FCN) in which a Scale-transfer layer is proposed to speed up the network and a simple post-processing step. Extensive experiments on the Chinese traffic sign text dataset (CTST-1600), ICDAR 2013 and MSRA-TD500 show that the proposed method has achieved the state-of-the-art results, which proves the ability of our detector on both particularity and universality applications. We collect the Chinese text-based traffic sign dataset named CTST-1600, and it can be found at https://github.com/pummi823/test/blob/master/CTST-1600.

Research on bearings performance degradation trend is significant, and can greatly reduce the loss caused by potential faults in the whole life-cycle of rolling bearings. It is also a very important part of Prognostic and Health Management (PHM). This paper proposed a new performance degradation prediction method based on optimized kernel extreme learning machine (KELM), improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) and Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD). Firstly, the particle swarm optimization algorithm was improved by adjusting the inertia weight and linear learning factor and introducing a disturbance term, namely WCDPSO. Then, the penalty coefficient and kernel parameters of KELM were optimized by the WCDPSO, and the WCDPSO-KELM model was obtained. Subsequently, the EEMD method was used to extract original features from sample data, and a performance degradation index is selected from the EEMD feature space, which was input into the WCDPSO-KELM model in order to build a bearing performance degradation prediction trend model. Finally, the proposed method was verified by datasets of rolling bearings that were provided by the PRONOSTIA platform. Experimental results confirmed that the proposed method can efficiently predict the performance degradation trend of rolling bearings.

Cyclodextrins (CDs) are a family of α-1,4-linked cyclic oligosaccharides that possess a hydrophobic cavity and a hydrophilic outer surface with abundant hydroxyl groups. This unique structural characteristic allows CDs to form inclusion complexes with various guest molecules and to functionalize with different substituents for the construction of novel sophisticated systems, ranging from derivatives to polymers, metal-organic frameworks, hydrogels, and other supramolecular assemblies. The excellent biocompatibility, selective recognition ability, and unique bioactive properties also make these CD-based functional systems especially attractive for biomedical applications. In this review, we highlight the characteristics and advantages of CDs as a starting point to design different functional materials and summarize the recent advances in the use of these materials for bioseparation, enzymatic catalysis, biochemical sensing, biomedical diagnosis and therapy.

The current research was devoted to evaluating the effects on gut microbiota, gastrointestinal peptides, and glucose homeostasis of chromium picolinate applied to heat-stressed broilers. In a 14 d experiment, 220 28-day-old AA broilers were randomly assigned into one thermal-neutral and three high-temperature groups dietary-supplemented with 0, 0.4, or 0.8 mg/kg of chromium as chromium picolinate. The temperature for the thermal-neutral group was set at 21 °C, while that for the other three groups (high temperature) was set at 31 °C. The results showed that the average daily gain and average daily feed intake of the 0.4 mg/kg chromium-supplemented group significantly increased compared with the high-temperature groups (p < 0.05). The content of cholecystokinin in the 0.4 mg/kg group significantly decreased, and the gastric inhibitory polypeptide level was significantly elevated in jejunum (p < 0.05). The cecal microbiota of heat-stressed broilers was substantially different from that of the thermal-neutral group. After diet-supplemented chromium, compared to the high-temperature groups, the 0.4 mg/kg chromium supplemented group was characterized by a reduction of Actinobacteriota and Proteobacteria at the phylum level. The Bacilli were elevated, while proportions of Coriobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria were reduced significantly at the class level. The proportions of Lactobacillaceae, Christensenellaceae, and Erysipelotrichaceae were elevated significantly, while that of Clostridiaceae was reduced significantly at the family level. The proportion of Turicibacter was elevated significantly and the proportions of Olsenella and Ruminococcus were reduced significantly at the genus level (p < 0.05). Compared to the high-temperature groups, in the 0.4 mg/kg chromium-supplemented group, the insulin concentration and insulin resistance index were reduced (p < 0.05), and sodium-glucose transporter 1 expression was up-regulated in jejunum (p < 0.05). Performance, microbiota, gastrointestinal peptides, or serum parameters of the 0.8 mg/kg group were almost unaffected by chromium compared with the high-temperature groups. In conclusion, diet supplemented with 0.4 mg/kg Cr improved performance, insulin resistance and sodium-glucose transporter 1 expression and altered gut microflora structure and secretion of gastrointestinal peptides, thus showing that supplementation with chromium is beneficial to maintain glucose homeostasis and alleviate heat stress.

Background: Developmental dyslexia (DD) is a specific learning disorder concerning reading acquisition that may has a lifelong negative impact on individuals. A reliable estimate of the prevalence of DD serves as the basis for diagnosis, intervention, and evidence-based health resource allocation and policy-making. Hence, the present meta-analysis aims to generate a reliable prevalence estimate of DD worldwide in primary school children and explore the potential variables related to that prevalence. Methods: Studies from the 1950s to June 2021 were collated using a combination of search terms related to DD and prevalence. Study quality was assessed using the STROBE guidelines according to the study design, with study heterogeneity assessed using the I2 statistic, and random-effects meta-analyses were conducted. Variations in the prevalence of DD in different subgroups were assessed via subgroup meta-analysis and meta-regression. Results: The pooled prevalence of DD was 7.10% (95% CI: 6.27–7.97%). The prevalence in boys was significantly higher than that in girls (boys: 9.22%, 95%CI, 8.07–10.44%; girls: 4.66%, 95% CI, 3.84–5.54%; p < 0.001), but no significant difference was found in the prevalence across different writing systems (alphabetic scripts: 7.26%, 95%CI, 5.94–8.71%; logographic scripts: 6.97%, 95%CI, 5.86–8.16%; p > 0.05) or across different orthographic depths (shallow: 7.13%, 95% CI, 5.23–9.30%; deep: 7.55%, 95% CI, 4.66–11.04%; p > 0.05). It is worth noting that most articles had small sample sizes with diverse operational definitions, making comparisons challenging. Conclusions: This study provides an estimation of worldwide DD prevalence in primary school children. The prevalence was higher in boys than in girls but was not significantly different across different writing systems.

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) has numerous glaciers that provide water for more than one-third of the world’s population. Reconstructing past temperature change on the TP provides a valuable context for assessing the current and possible future status of glaciers. However, the quantitative paleotemperature records since the last deglaciation on the TP are sparse. Moreover, existing records have revealed a conflicting Holocene temperature variation patterns on the northeastern and western TP. Quantitative temperature records on the central TP would be essential for a better understanding of the spatiotemporal complexity of temperature variation. In this study, we report the temperature record from the sedimentary record of lake Linggo Co on the central TP since the last deglaciation using branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers based proxy. Our results indicate that the paleoclimate during the last deglaciation on the central TP was characterized by large fluctuations in temperature. The mean annual temperature of lake Linggo Co remained low during the early Holocene (11.7–10 ka BP) and gradually increased to 4°C at 8.3 ka, rapidly declining to −2°C on average toward the present day. Solar radiation, continental glacier feedback, as well as atmosphere circulation play a major role in the distribution of sensitive and latent heat, thus affecting the Holocene temperature variability of the TP. Discrepancies in published records on the TP can result from a seasonal bias of the proxies and spatial differences due to topography-boundary effect. Our results suggest that the seasonal bias of proxies, the spatiotemporal difference should be taken into consideration before regional or global synthesis of paleotemperature records.

Quantitative palaeotemperature reconstruction is crucial for understanding the evolution of Earth’s climate and reducing uncertainty in future climate predictions. Clarifying the temperature change over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) during the Common Era is critical because it plays a vital role in the prediction of cryosphere changes in such regions under a future warming climate. In this paper, we report a comprehensive synthesis of currently available quantitative temperature records to refine the temperature history of the TP during the Common Era. To date, Common Era quantitative temperature reconstructions are sparse and mainly concentrated in the northeastern TP. Considering seasonal bias of the available quantitative temperature reconstructions, three different composite temperature records for TP were derived, namely the “Standardization” composite, the “Mean annual air temperature anomaly” composite, and the “Mean summer temperature anomaly” composite individually. All the integrated temperature series reveal the Medieval Climate Anomaly and the Little Ice Age, but the start and end timings of these multi-centennial-scale periods and their temperature amplitudes differ. There is strong seasonality in temperature variations on this high plateau, and the 20th century warming was characterized by rapid winter temperature increases, while summer temperatures displayed weak variations. Spatial analysis suggests a relatively consistent signal marking a warm TP during 600–1400 CE and a cold plateau during 1400–1900 CE. Large-scale trends in temperature history for the TP resemble those for China and the Northern Hemisphere. Many factors, such as seasonality of temperature proxies, might lead to uncertainty in the reconstructed series. The results highlight that it is of crucial importance to develop more seasonal temperature reconstructions to improve the reliability of quantitative paleoclimatic reconstructions based on geological records across the TP.

Abstract Background Puberty is a pivotal stage in female animal development, and marks the onset of reproductive capability. However, little is known about the function of lncRNAs (long noncoding RNAs) in puberty. Therefore, RNA-seq analysis were performed between goats and rats to clarify the roles of lncRNAs and mRNAs in the onset of puberty. Results In the present study, the length of lncRNAs, the length of the open reading frame and the exon count were compared between the two species. Furthermore, functional annotation analysis based on Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO) analysis of lncRNAs target genes and differentially expressed mRNA demonstrated the significantly enriched terms, such as AMPK signaling pathway, oxytocin signaling pathway, insulin secretion as well as pheromone receptor activity, and some other signaling pathways which were involved in the regulation of female puberty. Moreover, our results of siRNA interference in vitro showed the candidate lncRNA XLOC_446331 may play a crucial role in regulating female puberty. Conclusion In conclusion, the RNA-seq analysis between goat and rat provide novel candidate regulators for genetic and molecular studies on female puberty.

Rumen protozoa prey on feed-degrading bacteria synthesizing microbial protein, lowering nitrogen utilization efficiency in ruminants. In this in vitro study, we evaluated six plants (Adansonia digitata, Flemingia macrophylla, Kalimeris indica,Brassica rapa subsp. chinensis, Portulaca oleracea, and Calotropis gigantea) for their potential to inhibit rumen protozoa and identified the phytochemicals potentially responsible for protozoa inhibition. Rumen protozoa were anaerobically cultured in vitro in the presence of each plant at four doses. All of the tested plants reduced total rumen protozoa (p ≤ 0.05), but C. gigantea and B. rapa were the most inhibitory, inhibiting rumen protozoa by 45.6 and 65.7%, respectively, at the dose of 1.1 mg/mL. Scanning electron microscopy revealed a disruption of the extracellular structure of protozoa cells. Only C. gigantea also decreased the wasteful ammoniagenesis (p ≤ 0.05). Moreover, the A. digitata extract inhibited α-glucosidase activity by about 70% at 100 µg/mL. Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography analysis detected quercetin, anthraquinone, 3-hydroxybenzoic acid, astragaloside, and myricetin in the tested plant leaves. These plants may hold potential as feed additives to reduce rumen protozoa and α- glucosidase activity. Future research is needed to identify the specific anti-protozoal compound(s), the effects on the rumen microbiome, and its fermentation characteristics.

By using differential equations with discontinuous right-hand sides, a dynamic model for vector-borne infectious disease under the discontinuous removal of infected trees was established after understanding the transmission mechanism of Huanglongbing (HLB) disease in citrus trees. Through calculation, the basic reproductive number of the model can be attained and the properties of the model are discussed. On this basis, the existence and global stability of the calculated equilibria are verified. Moreover, it was found that different I0 in the control strategy cannot change the dynamic properties of HLB disease. However, the lower the value of I0, the fewer HLB-infected citrus trees, which provides a theoretical basis for controlling HLB disease and reducing expenditure.

Heat stress has an adverse effect on the development of poultry farming, which has always aroused great concern. This study was carried out to investigate the protein breakdown mechanism responsible for the suppressive effect of constant heat stress on muscle growth in growing broilers. A total of 96, 29-day-old, Arbor Acres male broilers were randomly divided into two groups, a thermoneutral control (21 ± 1 °C, TC) and a heat stress (31 ± 1 °C, HS) group, with six replicates in each group and eight birds in each replicate. The trial period lasted for 14 d, and the trial was performed at 60 ± 7% relative humidity, a wind speed of p < 0.05), whereas the HS group showed a significantly increased feed conversion ratio, nitrogen excretion per weight gain and nitrogen excretion per feed intake compared to the TC group (p < 0.05). In addition, the HS group showed a significantly reduced breast muscle yield and nitrogen utilization in the broilers (p < 0.05). The HS group showed an increase in the serum corticosterone level (p < 0.05) and a decrease in the thyroxine levels in the broiler chickens (p < 0.05) compared to the TC group, whereas the HS group showed no significant changes in the serum 3,5,3′-triiodothyronine levels compared to the TC group (p > 0.05). Moreover, the HS group showed increased mRNA expression levels of myostatin, Smad3, forkhead box O 4, muscle atrophy F-box and muscle ring-finger 1, but reduced mRNA expression levels of the mammalian target of rapamycin, the protein kinase B and the myogenic determination factor 1 (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the poor growth performance of birds under constant heat stress may be due to an increased protein breakdown via an mRNA expression of myostatin and related factors.

In the past few decades, enormous efforts have been made to synthesize covalent polymer nano/microstructured materials with specific morphologies, due to the relationship between their structures and functions. Up to now, the formation of most of these structures often requires either templates or preorganization in order to construct a specific structure before, and then the subsequent removal of previous templates to form a desired structure, on account of the lack of “self-error-correcting” properties of reversible interactions in polymers. The above processes are time-consuming and tedious. A template-free, self-assembled strategy as a “bottom-up” route to fabricate well-defined nano/microstructures remains a challenge. Herein, we introduce the recent progress in template-free, self-assembled nano/microstructures formed by covalent two-dimensional (2D) polymers, such as polymer capsules, polymer films, polymer tubes and polymer rings.

Abstract The roles of CD4 + T cells and CD8 + T cells in hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection have been well documented. However, the role of innate immunity in HBV infection remains obscure. Here we examined the effect of activation of innate immunity by polyinosinic: polycytidylic acid (PolyI:C) on HBV infection. A chronic HBV replication mouse model was established by hydrodynamical injection of pAAV/HBV1.2 plasmid into C57BL/6 mice. We found that HBV did not seem to induce an active NK-cell response in the mouse model. Early PolyI:C treatment markedly decreased serum HBV levels and led to HBV clearance. Following PolyI:C injection, NK cells were activated and accumulated in the liver. Depletion of NK cells markedly attenuated the anti-HBV activity of PolyI:C. Moreover, we found that IFN-γ production from NK cells was essential for the antiviral effect of PolyI:C in the model. Importantly, activation of NK cells by PolyI:C could also lead to HBV suppression in HBV-tolerant mice and HBV-transgenic mice. These results suggest that activated NK cells might suppress HBV and contribute to HBV clearance during natural HBV infection. In addition, therapeutic activation of NK cells may represent a new strategy for the treatment of chronic HBV infection.

This paper investigated the effects of heat stress on gut-microbial metabolites, gastrointestinal peptides, glycolipid metabolism, and performance of broilers. Thus, 132 male Arbor Acres broilers, 28-days-old, were randomly distributed to undergo two treatments: thermoneutral control (TC, 21 °C) and high temperature (HT, 31 °C). The results showed that the average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), and gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) concentration in the jejunum significantly decreased the core temperature, feed conversion ratio (FCR), and ghrelin of the hypothalamus, and cholecystokinin (CCK) in jejunum, and serum significantly increased in the HT group (p < 0.05). Exploration of the structure of cecal microbes was accomplished by sequencing 16S rRNA genes. The sequencing results showed that the proportion of Christensenellaceae and Lachnospiraceae decreased significantly whereas the proportion of Peptococcaceae increased at the family level (p < 0.05). Ruminococcus and Clostridium abundances significantly increased at the genus level. Furthermore, the content of acetate in the HT group significantly increased. Biochemical parameters showed that the blood glucose concentration of the HT group significantly decreased, and the TG (serum triglycerides), TC (total cholesterol), insulin concentration, and the insulin resistance index significantly increased. Nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA) in the HT group decreased significantly. In conclusion, the results of this paper suggest that the poor production performance of broilers under heat stress may be related to short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) fermented by intestinal microbiota involved in regulating metabolic disorders.

Polymer nanocomposites, a class of innovative materials formed by polymer matrixes and nanoscaled fillers (e.g., carbon-based nanomaterials, inorganic/semiconductor nanoparticles, metal/metal-oxide nanoparticles, polymeric nanostructures, etc.), display enhanced mechanical, optoelectrical, magnetic, catalytic, and bio-related characteristics, thereby finding a wide range of applications in the biomedical field. In particular, the concept of supramolecular chemistry has been introduced into polymer nanocomposites, which creates myriad “smart” biomedical materials with unique physicochemical properties and dynamic tunable structures in response to diverse external stimuli. This review aims to provide an overview of the chemical composition, morphological structures, biological functionalities, and reinforced performances of supramolecular polymer nanocomposites. Additionally, recent advances in biomedical applications such as therapeutic delivery, bioimaging, and tissue engineering are also discussed, especially their excellent properties leveraged in the development of multifunctional intelligent biomedical materials.

Straw return plays an important role in reducing the use of chemical fertilizer, promoting soil carbon sequestration, thus maintaining soil fertility and alleviating environmental pollution. To examine the effects of straw return on soil bacterial communities, quantitative PCR and high-throughput sequencing approaches were used to analyze the bacterial abundance and community structures at the depths of 5-25 cm and 25-45 cm in the soils under six-year continuous straw return and removal treatments in Langfang, Hebei, the North China Plain. As a result, straw return had no effects on soil chemical properties, bacterial abundance, richness or diversity at both soil depths. In contrast, vertical distributions of available nitrogen and available potassium were affected. Similarly, straw return also changed the vertical distributions of Proteobacteria and Chloroflexi. Principal coordinate analysis based on weighted UniFrac distance matrix indicated a moderate separation of the bacterial community in the soil treated with straw return from that with straw removal at 5-25 cm depth, but they were not distinctly distinguished at 25-45 cm depth. T-test identified increased abundance of Candidatus Latescibacteria in the soil under straw return treatment at 5-25 cm depth but no differentially abundant phyla at 25-45 cm depth was found. These results suggested a selection effect from the six-year continuous straw return treatment and the soil bacterial communities were moderately changed.