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BackgroundCervical squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the most common type of cervical carcinoma. Usually, the cancer metastasizes through lymphatic or hematogenous dissemination. However, it is uncommon for a superficial spreading of cervical cancer to reach the endometrium, fallopian tubes, and the ovaries.ObjectivesIn the present study, we report 15 cases of superficial spreading SCC and discuss the possible mechanism involved.MethodsWe collected 15 samples diagnosed by histopathology after surgery. Immunostaining, which included P16, P63, CD138, CD34, D2-40, and Ki-67, were performed for all samples.ResultsAll patients were postmenopausal or perimenopausal women. The commonest clinical presentation was vaginal bleeding in 66.67%. All patients were infected with HPV 16. The endometrium was replaced by high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL), which involved the endometrial gland, even squeezing into the myometrium and forming SCC. Bilateral fallopian tubes and ovaries involvement was in 1/15. A total of 10/15 (66.67%) of the women had disease of stage 1B or less. All SCCs were moderately or poorly differentiated. Immunohistochemistry revealed that the tumor cells were positive for P63 and P16, with a high Ki-67 labeling index. There was CD138 positive expression in varying degrees, which was strongly and diffusely expressed in 6/15 (40.00%).ConclusionSuperficial spread of cervical cancer towards the endometrium is a rare but cognizable phenomenon, and a guideline for the management of these cases has not been established. Our present findings suggest that multiple factors may interact with each other simultaneously, contributing to this rare disease.

Abstract Background Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) signals a recurring risk in Eurasia in recent years owing to its continued rise in case notifications and the extension of geographical distribution. This study was undertaken to investigate the spatiotemporal drivers and incidence heterogeneity of HFRS transmission in Shandong Province. Methods The epidemiological data for HFRS, meteorological data and socioeconomic data were obtained from China Information System for Disease Control and Prevention, China Meteorological Data Sharing Service System, and Shandong Statistical Yearbook, respectively. The spatial-temporal multicomponent model was employed to analyze the values of spatial-temporal components and the heterogeneity of HFRS transmission across distinct regions. Results The total effect values of the autoregressive, epidemic, and endemic components were 0.451, 0.187, and 0.033, respectively, exhibiting significant heterogeneity across various cities. This suggested a pivotal role of the autoregressive component in propelling HFRS transmission in Shandong Province. The epidemic component of Qingdao, Weifang, Yantai, Weihai, and Jining declined sharply at the onset of 2020. The random effect identified distinct incidence levels associated with Qingdao and Weifang, signifying regional variations in HFRS occurrence. Conclusions The autoregressive component emerged as a significant driver in the transmission of HFRS in Shandong Province. Targeted preventive measures should be strategically implemented across various regions, taking into account the predominant component influencing the epidemic.

Abstract Background In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and extensive vaccination, it is important to explore the immune response of elderly adults to homologous and heterologous booster vaccines of COVID-19. At this point, we detected serum IgG antibodies and PBMC sample transcriptome profiles in 46 participants under 70 years old and 25 participants over 70 years old who received the third dose of the BBIBP-CorV and ZF2001 vaccines. Results On day 7, the antibody levels of people over 70 years old after the third dose of booster vaccine were lower than those of young people, and the transcriptional responses of innate and adaptive immunity were also weak. The age of the participants showed a significant negative correlation with functions related to T-cell differentiation and costimulation. Nevertheless, 28 days after the third dose, the IgG antibodies of elderly adults reached equivalence to those of younger adults, and immune-related transcriptional regulation was significantly improved. The age showed a significant positive correlation with functions related to "chemokine receptor binding", "chemokine activity", and "chemokine-mediated signaling pathway". Conclusions Our results document that the response of elderly adults to the third dose of the vaccine was delayed, but still able to achieve comparable immune effects compared to younger adults, in regard to antibody responses as well as at the transcript level.

Defect detection on wafers holds immense significance in producing micro- and nano-semiconductors. As manufacturing processes grow in complexity, wafer maps may display a mixture of defect types, necessitating the utilization of more intricate deep learning models for effective feature learning. However, sophisticated models come with a demand for substantial computational resources. In this paper, we propose an efficient deep learning framework designed explicitly for mix-type wafer map defect pattern recognition. Our proposed model incorporates several crucial design elements, including lightweight convolutions, bottleneck residual connections, efficient channel attention mechanisms, and optimized activation functions, enabling it to learn spatial and channel features efficiently. We conduct evaluations on a real-world dataset containing 38 mixed-type defect patterns. The experimental results demonstrate that our framework maintains a high level of accuracy while possessing a compact parameter size and remarkably fast inference speed.

Abstract Background Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging infectious disease discovered in China in 2009. The purpose of this study was to describe the spatiotemporal distribution of SFTS and to identify its environmental influencing factors and potential high-risk areas in Shandong Province, China. Methods Data on the SFTS incidence from 2010 to 2021 were collected. Spatiotemporal scan statistics were used to identify the time and area of SFTS clustering. The maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model was used to analyse environmental influences and predict high-risk areas. Results From 2010 to 2021, a total of 5705 cases of SFTS were reported in Shandong. The number of SFTS cases increased yearly, with a peak incidence from April to October each year. Spatiotemporal scan statistics showed the existence of one most likely cluster and two secondary likely clusters in Shandong. The most likely cluster was in the eastern region, from May to October 2021. The first secondary cluster was in the central region, from May to October 2021. The second secondary cluster was in the southeastern region, from May to September 2020. The MaxEnt model showed that the mean annual wind speed, NDVI, cattle density and annual cumulative precipitation were the key factors influencing the occurrence of SFTS. The predicted risk map showed that the area of high prevalence was 28,120 km2, accounting for 18.05% of the total area of the province. Conclusions The spatiotemporal distribution of SFTS was heterogeneous and influenced by multidimensional environmental factors. This should be considered as a basis for delineating SFTS risk areas and developing SFTS prevention and control measures.

With the global development of China's brewing engineering industry, the demand for cultivating professional and compound talents with international competitiveness is increasing. Teaching English for brewing engineering can support the development of international compound talents with excellent comprehensive professional quality and systematic knowledge structure. However, professional English teaching still faces the dilemma of a lack of systematic environmental training, and knowledge points are plenty and complicated. Especially the Jiang-flavor Baijiu with unique Chinese characteristics involves a traditional complex brewing process. The conventional teaching model is challenging to meet the needs of comprehensive and systematic rofessional English training and application. While the virtual simulation technology of brewing engineering can provide a virtual system training platform for professional English teaching. Therefore, three virtual simulation experimental projects of sauce-flavored baijiu brewing technology, small beer production and fermentation technology, and wine production technology have been introduced during professional English teaching. Students conduct systematic training from the perspective of professional English in a virtual simulation environment and strengthen the comprehensive use of professional English in the offline production practice session. This teaching method helped students to effectively consolidate and apply the specialized English knowledge of brewing engineering for comprehensive large-scale training, which can be used for continuous exploration by similar majors or colleges and further promotion and improvement.

The African swine fever virus (ASFV) is one of the most important pathogens that causes huge damage to worldwide swine production. The pI215L protein is found within the virion and expressed at a high level in infected porcine alveolar macrophages (PAMs), indicating a possible role of pI215L protein in ASFV detection and surveillance. In the present study, female BALB/c mice (5–6-week-old) were immunized with rpI215L protein, and six hybridomas, 1C1, 2F6, 2F10, 3C8, 5E1 and 5B3, steadily secreted anti-pI215L monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). Among them, 1C4, 5E1, and 5B3 had the IgG1 isotype with a Lambda light chain, 2F10 and 3C8 had the IgG1 isotype with a Kappa light chain, and 2F6 had the IgG2a isotype with a Kappa light chain. Western blot showed a good reactivity of the six mAbs against ASFV. Eight truncated polypeptides were produced for epitope mapping. Two novel B cell epitopes, 67LTFTSEMWHPNIYS80 and 167IEYFKNAASN176, were identified by the mAbs. Further analysis revealed that 2F6 mAb could be widely used in ASFV surveillance and 5B3 mAb might serve as a tool in the distinguishment of different ASFV genotypes. This study provides tools of monoclonal antibodies for further study of I215L function and contributes to the development of serological diagnosis and vaccine research.

Abstract In the application of internet of vehicles system, it is particularly important to obtain real-time and effective vehicle information and provide personalized functional services for vehicle operation. This algorithm combines knowledge graph technology with convolutional network and presents a new algorithm model, that is, when calculating the representation of a given entity in the knowledge graph, the information of the neighboring entity is combined with the deviation. Through the integration of neighbor entity information, the local neighborhood structure can be better captured and stored in each entity, and the weight of different neighbor entities depends on the relationship between them and the specific user, which can better reflect the user's personalized interests, in order to fully demonstrate the characteristics of the entity. Compared with the traditional coordinated filtering technology SVD model, this model has improved accuracy and F1 value.

Inflammation is a defensive response of the body to various inflammatory factors and injuries, and it is also a key factor in the occurrence of many chronic diseases. The research shows that oligosaccharides have many physiological activities, such as anti-inflammation, anti-biosis, anti-oxidation and anti-cancer. As a new type of functional sugar source, oligosaccharides have the characteristics of low calories, high solubility and promotion of bifidobacterial proliferation. In this article, the types and preparation methods of oligosaccharides with anti-inflammatory activity in recent years are introduced, and the anti-inflammatory mechanisms are reviewed from two aspects of inflammatory mediators and inflammatory signaling pathways, in order to provide the reference for the development of new anti-inflammatory drugs.

Compressive light field cameras have attracted notable attention over the past few years because they can efficiently determine redundancy from light fields. However, much of the research has only concentrated on reconstructing the entire light field from compressed sampling, which ignores the possibility of directly extracting information such as depth from it. In this paper, we introduce a light field camera configuration with a random color-coded microlens array. Considering the color-coded light fields, we propose a novel attention-based encoder–decoder network. Specifically, the encoder part compresses the coded measurement into a low-dimensional representation that removes most redundancy, and the decoder part constructs the depth map directly from the latent representation. The attention mechanism enables the network to process spatial and angular features dynamically and effectively, thus significantly improving performance. Extensive experiments on synthetic and real-world datasets show that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art light field depth estimation method designed for non-coded light fields. To our knowledge, this is the first study that combines the color-coded light field with the attention-based deep learning approach, which provides a crucial insight into the design of enhanced light field photography systems.

BackgroundIn this study, we used real-time quantitative PCR (RQ-PCR) to rapidly detect Mucorales and Aspergillus in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples, targeting 18SrRNA gene and 28SrRNA gene. Identification of Mucorales and Aspergillus was analysed by combining Mucorales RQ-PCR (Mucorales18SrRNA and Mucorales28SrRNA) with Aspergillus RQ-PCR (Aspergillus18SrRNA and Aspergillus28SrRNA).ObjectivesThe aims of this study were to compare the diagnostic performances of four RQ-PCR assays as single and combined diagnostic and identification tools.MethodsWe collected 12 control group samples and 81 experimental group samples diagnosed by histopathology, including mucormycosis (19 patients, 21 FFPE samples), aspergillosis (54 patients, 57 FFPE samples) and mucormycosis with aspergillosis (3 patients, 3 FFPE samples). All samples were detected by four RQ-PCR tests to compare and analyze diagnostic performance.ResultsThe sensitivities of Mucorales18SrRNA and Mucorales28SrRNA were both 75%, with the tests having specificities of 97.10% and 94.20%. The sensitivities of Aspergillus18SrRNA and Aspergillus28SrRNA were 73.33% and 65%, with the tests having specificities of 87.88% and 81.82%. The values of the evaluation indexes of the combined detection of Mucorales28SrRNA and Aspergillus18SrRNA (M28A18) were the highest with a kappa coefficient value of 0.353, followed by M18A18. M28A18 had a sensitivity of 67.90% and a specificity of 100%.ConclusionsWe recommend using the combination of Mucorales RQ-PCR and Aspergillus RQ-PCR as a screening tool to detect samples suspected of mucormycosis and/or aspergillosis.

Abstract Deep learning‐based classification algorithms have been used for automatic modulation recognition (AMR). However, most methods only focus on end‐to‐end mapping and neglect the classic key features. In this paper, signals are enforced with key classification features to propose a novel deep learning AMR model by learning the shared latent space of the aligned signals and key features (LLAF); this increases the generalizability of the model and ensures the physical plausibility of the results. To obtain adequate signal representations, an encoder–decoder architecture is proposed to learn the shared latent space, and the architecture is trained to approximate prior label distributions for precise signal classification. Simulation results verify the high recognition accuracy of the proposed LLAF model under different signal‐to‐noise ratios (SNRs).

Under the background of the severe human health and world economic burden caused by COVID-19, the attenuation of vaccine protection efficacy, and the prevalence and immune escape of emerging variants of concern (VOCs), the third dose of booster immunization has been put on the agenda. Systems biology approaches can help us gain new perspectives on the characterization of immune responses and the identification of factors underlying vaccine-induced immune efficacy. We analyzed the antibody signature and transcriptional responses of participants vaccinated with COVID-19 inactivated vaccine and protein subunit vaccine as a third booster dose. The results from the antibody indicated that the third booster dose was effective, and that heterologous vaccination with the protein subunit vaccine as a booster dose induced stronger humoral immune responses than the homologous vaccination with inactivated vaccine, and might be more effective against VOCs. In transcriptomic analysis, protein subunit vaccine induced more differentially expressed genes that were significantly associated with many important innate immune pathways. Both the homologous and heterologous boosters could increase the effectiveness against COVID-19, and compared with the inactivated vaccine, the protein subunit vaccine, mediated a stronger humoral immune response and had a more significant correlation with the innate immune function module, which provided certain data support for the third booster immunization strategy.

Abstract Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is not only used to aid the diagnosis of lung cancer, but also help monitor recurrence and determine the prognosis of lung cancer as well as evaluate the therapeutic efficacy for lung cancer. However, studies have also shown that CEA is present at low levels in the serum of patients with benign lung diseases (BLD), which will interfere with the accurate judgment of the disease. Due to difference in sample size, detection methods, cutoff values and sources of BLD, the positive rate of CEA in BLD is different with different literature. Therefore, it is necessary to define CEA levels in patients of different BLD in a large sample study. 4796 patients with BLD were included in this study. The results showed that the CEA levels of 3.1% (149/4796) patients with BLD were elevated, with three cases exceeds 20 ng/mL (0.06%, 3/4796). The results from the literature showed that BLD had a mean positive rate of 5.99% (53/885) and only two cases had CEA above 20 ng/mL. The CEA elevations mainly distributed in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pneumonitis and interstitial lung disease and significantly correlated with age of patients (OR 2.69, 95% CI 1.94–3.73, p

This paper summarizes the Ms 6.0 earthquake disaster that occurred in Changning, Sichuan Province, China, on 17 June 2019. Additionally, a description of the disaster emergency response on both governmental and non-governmental levels is provided. As determined by on-site investigation and analysis, the direct causes of the earthquake casualties are summarized. Among them, 66% of the casualties can be attributed to the lack of anti-seismic measures, 25% to improperly avoiding danger during the earthquake, 6% to earthquake-induced geological disasters, and 3% to pre-existing diseases exacerbated by the earthquake. Responding to the causes of these four casualty types, we summarize 4 lessons: 1) build housing in accordance with earthquake-resistant requirements, 2) propagandize common sense about avoiding danger during earthquakes to public, 3) investigate and evaluate potential geological disasters in the stricken area and try to prevent and mitigate them, and 4) establish cooperation with health organizations, focusing on people who are older or have serious illnesses and give them help.

Abstract Au nanoparticles synthesized from colloidal techniques have the capability in many applications such as catalysis and sensing. Au nanoparticles function as both catalyst and highly sensitive SERS probe can be employed for sustainable and green catalytic process. However, capping ligands that are necessary to stabilize nanoparticles during synthesis are negative for catalytic activity. In this work, a simple effective mild thermal treatment to remove capping ligands meanwhile preserving the high SERS sensitivity of Au nanoparticles is reported. We show that under the optimal treatment conditions (250 °C for 2 h), 50 nm Au nanoparticles surfaces are free from any capping molecules. The catalytic activity of treated Au nanoparticles is studied through H2O2 decomposition, which proves that the treatment is favorable for catalytic performance improvement. A reaction intermediate during H2O2 decomposition is observed and identified.

This article establishes a circuit model with which to analyze the difficulty of auto-gain control driving for low-Q micromechanical gyroscopes at room temperature and normal pressure. It also proposes a driving circuit based on frequency modulation to eliminate the same-frequency coupling between the drive signal and displacement signal using a second harmonic demodulation circuit. The results of the simulation indicate that a closed-loop driving circuit system based on the frequency modulation principle can be established within 200 ms with a stable average frequency of 4504 Hz and a frequency deviation of 1 Hz. After the system was stabilized, the root mean square of the simulation data was taken, and the frequency jitter was 0.0221 Hz.

Summary: Background: As the immune-related response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (irRECIST) by imaging greatly underestimated the objective response to immunotherapy, we established the response evaluation criteria in solid tumors based on tumor markers (RecistTM) to explore whether RecistTM can compensate for the deficiencies of the irRECIST criteria. Methods: This was an observational study, which consisted of two parts. The first part (Group A) was a retrospective study including the patients with malignant solid tumors. The second part (Group B) was a prospective study, which were EGFR-negative and ALK-negative patients with stage IIIB-IV non-small cell lung cancer receiving first-line treatment. From January 2017 to September 2020, one hundred and ten patients with a three-time increase in tumor markers receiving immunotherapy were recruited. The treatment response to immunotherapy was evaluated by irRECIST and RecistTM. Efficacy, overall survival (OS), first evaluation time and earliest response time under the different evaluation criteria were compared by statistics. Findings: The treatment response evaluated by the RecistTM criteria was not consistent with that evaluated by the irRECIST criteria (Kappa = 0.386, p

ABSTRACTHaemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) following Hantaan virus (HTNV) infection displays variable clinical signs. Humoral responses elicited during HTNV infections are considered important, however, this process remains poorly understood. Herein, we have investigated the phenotype, temporal dynamics, and characteristics of B-cell receptor (BCR) repertoire in an HFRS cohort. The serological profiles were characterized by a lowered expression level of nucleoprotein (NP)-specific antibody in severe cases. Importantly, B-cell subsets were activated and proliferated within the first two weeks of symptom onset and moderate cases reacted more rapidly. BCR analysis in the recovery phase revealed a dramatic increase in the immunoglobulin gene diversity which was more significantly progressed in moderate infections. In severe cases, B-cell-related transcription was lower with inflammatory sets overactivated. Taken together, these data suggest the clinical signs and disease recovery in HFRS patients were positively impacted by rapid and efficacious humoral responses.

Abstract Bio-inspired hierarchical self-assembly provides elegant and powerful bottom-up strategies for the creation of complex materials. However, the current self-assembly approaches for natural bio-compounds often result in materials with limited diversity and complexity in architecture as well as microstructure. Here, we develop a novel coordination polymerization-driven hierarchical assembly of micelle strategy, using phytic acid-based natural compounds as an example, for the spatially controlled fabrication of metal coordination bio-derived polymers. The resultant ferric phytate polymer nanospheres feature hollow architecture, ordered meso-channels of ~ 12 nm, high surface area of 401 m2 g−1, and large pore volume of 0.53 cm3 g−1. As an advanced anode material, this bio-derivative polymer delivers a remarkable reversible capacity of 540 mAh g−1 at 50 mA g−1, good rate capability, and cycling stability for sodium-ion batteries. This study holds great potential of the design of new complex bio-materials with supramolecular chemistry.

The urgent approval of the use of the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine is essential to reduce the threat and burden of the epidemic on global public health, however, our current understanding of the host immune response to inactivated vaccine remains limited. Herein, we performed serum IgG antibody detection and transcriptomics analysis on 20 SARS-CoV-2 naïve individuals who received multiple doses of inactivated vaccine and 5 SARS-CoV-2 recovered individuals who received single dose of inactivated vaccine. Our research revealed the important role of many innate immune pathways after vaccination, identified a significant correlation with the third dose of booster vaccine and proteasome-related genes, and found that SARS-CoV-2 recovered individuals can produces a strong immune response to a single dose of inactivated vaccine. These results help us understand the reaction mechanism of the host’s molecular immune system to the inactivated vaccine, and provide a basis for the choice of vaccination strategy.

ObjectiveTo explore the influence of climatic, environmental and socioeconomic factors on SFTS occurrence in Shandong Province, China.MethodsWe used generalized additive model to estimate the association between SFTS cases and climatic factors, environmental factors and socioeconomic factors, including annual average temperature, precipitation, land cover, normalized difference vegetation index, altitude, population density, meat production, milk production, and gross domestic product (GDP).ResultsThere were a total of 4,830 cases reported in 100 (70.9%) counties and districts in Shandong Province from 2010 to 2020. The results showed that the annual average temperature, precipitation, forest and grassland coverage rate, altitude and meat production (square root transform) had a reversed “V” relationship with SFTS occurrence, with the inflection points around 12.5–13.0°C in temperature, around 650 mm in precipitation, around 0.3 in forest and grassland coverage rate, around 300 m in altitude, and around 200–300 tons in meat production (square root transform), respectively. SFTS occurrence had a “V” relationship with milk production (square root transform) and GDP (square root transform), with the inflection points around 100–200 tons in milk production (square root transform), and around 150,000–200,000 yuan in GDP (square root transform), respectively.ConclusionsClimatic, environmental, and socioeconomic factors contributed to the heterogeneous distribution of SFTS in Shandong Province, and the influence of these factors on SFTS occurrence was nonlinear.

African swine fever virus (ASFV) causes one of the most devastating diseases affecting pigs and wild suids, a worldwide epizootic situation exacerbated in recent years due to the lack of vaccine or effective treatment. ASFV has a restricted cell tropism, and is prone to replicate in porcine monocytes and alveolar macrophages with high efficiency. Here, the replication capabilities of ASFV were examined in swine pulmonary alveolar macrophages (PAMs) and compared with 3D4/21, PK-15, MA-104 and Marc-145 cell lines using PCR, qPCR and Western blot with monoclonal antibodies against the viral p30 and p72 proteins. The results showed that ASFV has a variety of infection characteristics in PAMs and showed four cell lines with distinct defects during virus early transcription-translation, genome replication and late protein synthesis. Furthermore, an antiviral role of the stress granule pathway was revealed against ASFV, and ASFV infection inhibited stress granule formation in PAMs but not 3D4/21. These results will help to deepen our knowledge on ASFV infection and to develop ASFV susceptible cell lines.

Abstract Background Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is a newly identified severe infectious disease caused by SFTS phlebovirus (SFTSV). SFTS monitoring has been carried out since 2010 in mainland China. We analysed the detection results of SFTSV RNA and antibody in SFTS surveillance cases to provide basic data for SFTS diagnosis. Methods This study was conducted in Shandong Province. Sera of SFTS surveillance cases were collected to detect SFTSV RNA and antibody by real-time RT-PCR and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively. Detection rates were calculated. SPSS 18.0 (Chicago, IL, USA) was used for statistical analysis to compare the detection rates of SFTSV RNA and antibodies among different sera groups. Results A total of 374 SFTS surveillance cases were enrolled. Overall, 93.3% (349/374) of the sera samples were collected within 2 weeks after onset, and 6.7% (25/374) were collected between 15 days and 45 days. Of these, 183 (48.9%) were positive for SFTSV RNA. The SFTSV RNA-positive rate peaked (52.2%) in samples collected ≤7 days after onset and then showed a decreasing trend. The detection rate of SFTSV-specific IgM antibody was 30.5% (46/151) and was highest in samples collected between 8 and 14 days (43.3%, 26/60). The positive rate of SFTSV-specific IgG antibody (17.9%, 27/151) showed an increasing trend with the specimen collection time. In total, 74.8% (113/151) of sera samples had the same SFTSV RNA and IgM antibody detection results. However, 23.2% (29/125) of SFTSV RNA-negative cases were IgM antibody-positive, and 8.6% (9/105) of IgM antibody-negative cases were SFTSV RNA-positive. Conclusions SFTSV RNA detection was preferred for SFTSV infection during disease surveillance. For highly suspected SFTS cases, IgM antibody is suggested to make a comprehensive judgement.

Citrus canker caused by Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri (Xcc) is one of the most devastating diseases in citrus industry worldwide. Most citrus cultivars such as sweet orange are susceptible to canker disease. Here, we utilized wild citrus to identify canker-resistant germplasms, and found that Atalantia buxifolia, a primitive (distant-wild) citrus, exhibited remarkable resistance to canker disease. Although the susceptibility gene LATERAL ORGAN BOUNDARIES 1 (LOB1) could also be induced in Atalantia after canker infection, the induction extent was far lower than that in sweet orange. In addition, three of amino acids encoded by transcription factor TFIIAγ in Atalantia (AbTFIIAγ) exhibited difference from those in sweet orange (CsTFIIAγ) which could stabilize the interaction between effector PthA4 and effector binding element (EBE) of LOB1 promoter. The mutation of AbTFIIAγ did not change its interaction with transcription factor binding motifs (TFBs). However, the AbTFIIAγ could hardly support the LOB1 expression induced by the PthA4. In addition, the activity of AbLOB1 promoter was significantly lower than that of CsLOB1 under the induction by PthA4. Our results demonstrate that natural variations of AbTFIIAγ and effector binding element (EBE) in the AbLOB1 promoter are crucial for the canker disease resistance of Atalantia. The natural mutations of AbTFIIAγ gene and AbLOB1 promoter in Atalantia provide candidate targets for improving the resistance to citrus canker disease.

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is an important and ancient oilseed crop. Sesame seed coat color is related to biochemical functions involved in protein and oil metabolism, and antioxidant content. Because of its complication, the genetic basis of sesame seed coat color remains poorly understood. To elucidate the factors affecting the genetic architecture of seed coat color, 366 sesame germplasm lines were evaluated for seed coat color in 12 environments. The genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for three seed coat color space values, best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) values from a multi-environment trial analysis and principal component scores (PCs) of three seed coat color space values were conducted. GWAS for three seed coat color space values identified a total of 224 significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs, P < 2.34×10-7), with phenotypic variation explained (PVE) ranging from 1.01% to 22.10%, and 35 significant SNPs were detected in more than 6 environments. Based on BLUP values, 119 significant SNPs were identified, with PVE ranging from 8.83 to 31.98%. Comparing the results of the GWAS using phenotypic data from different environments and the BLUP values, all significant SNPs detected in more than 6 environments were also detected using the BLUP values. GWAS for PCs identified 197 significant SNPs, and 30 were detected in more than 6 environments. GWAS results for PCs were consistent with those for three color space values. Out of 224 significant SNPs, 22 were located in the confidence intervals of previous reported quantitative trait loci (QTLs). Finally, 92 candidate genes were identified in the vicinity of the 4 SNPs that were most significantly associated with sesame seed coat color. The results in this paper will provide new insights into the genetic basis of sesame seed coat color, and should be useful for molecular breeding in sesame.

Summary: Ortho-selective aromatic C-H functionalization is frequently used in organic synthesis and chemical/pharmaceutical industries. However, this reaction relies heavily on the use of directing groups suffering from limited substrate scope and extra steps to put on and remove the directing/protecting groups. Herein we present the previously neglected concept that enables good to nearly complete selective ortho position. Proton transfer was utilized to tune the electron density on the aryl ring and determine the positional selectivity of electrophilic substitution. Consistently with deuteration experiments and DFT studies, this work demonstrates that acid-promoted proton transfer directs accelerated ortho-selective halogenation of NH/OH contained aromatic amines/phenols with excellent selectivity (>40 examples; up to 98:2 ortho/para selectivity). The application potential of this Fe-catalyzed method is demonstrated by the convenient synthesis of three alkaloids and tizanidine. This report raises the possibility that proton transfer could serve as the basis of developing new selective C-H functionalization reactions.

There are many initiatives and technologies working towards implementing factories of the future. One consensus is that the classical hierarchical automation system design needs to be flattened while supporting the functionality of both Operation Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT) within the same network infrastructure. To achieve the goal of IT/OT convergence in process automation, an evolutionary transition is preferred. Challenges are foreseen during the transition, mainly caused by the traditional automation architecture, and the main challenge is to identify the gap between the current and future network architectures. To address the challenges, in this paper, we describe one desired future scenario for process automation and carry out traffic measurements from a pulp and paper mill. The measured traffic is further analyzed, which reveals representative traffic characteristics in the process automation. Finally, the key challenges and future directions towards a system architecture for factories of the future are presented.

Background: Pulmonary mucormycosis, a relatively rare but severe pulmonary fungal disease with a high mortality rate, is difficult to diagnose in immunocompromised patients. Conventional cytopathology (CCP) examination of respiratory samples can help detect Mucorales, but its diagnostic sensitivity is poor. The aim of this study was to assess the first application of liquid-based cytopathology test (LCT) to detect Mucorales.Methods: A total of 33 pairs of bronchial brushing samples from 27 patients diagnosed as pulmonary mucormycosis by fiberoptic bronchoscopy biopsy were prepared as slides using both CCP and LCT. LCT and CCP used the same cytology brush to obtain samples at the same site during the same time as the fiberoptic bronchoscopy biopsy. All samples were stained with Papanicolaou, GMS and PAS. CCP and LCT slides were evaluated from the rate of positive detection, 8 cytomorphological features and 7 background features.Results: LCT-prepared slides showed a higher positive rate of Mucorales detection than CCP-prepared slides for Papanicolaou’s staining [28/33 (84.85%) vs. 15/33 (45.45%), p = 0.001] and for “special staining” with GMS and PAS [29/33 (87.88%) vs. 18/33 (54.55%), p = 0.003]. Clearer smear background and more distinct stereoscopic cytopathological features were observed in LCT. Messy yarn-like necrosis observed in conventionally prepared 75.76% (25/33) samples was cytomorphological suggestive for the diagnosis of mucormycosis.Conclusion: This retrospective study suggests that LCT may be better than CCP to detect Mucorales in bronchial brushing samples from patients with pulmonary mucormycosis.

A good genetic map can provide the framework for quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis, map-based gene cloning, and genome sequence assembling. The main objectives of this study were to develop a high-density genetic linkage map using specific length amplified fragment sequencing (SLAF-seq) in sesame. In the result, a high-resolution genetic map with 9,378 SLAF markers and 13 linkage groups (LGs) was constructed. The map spanned a total genetic distance of 1,974.23 cM, and the mean LG length was 151.86 cM, with an average genetic distance of 0.22 cM between adjacent markers. Based on the newly constructed genetic map, genes for basal branching habit (SiBH) and flowers per leaf axil (SiFA) were mapped to LG5 and LG11, respectively.

To investigate the infections of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) in domesticated animals, we sampled a total of 3,039 animals in 2 counties in Shandong Province, People’s Republic of China, from April to November 2011. SFTSV-specific antibodies were detected in 328 (69.5%) of 472 sheep, 509 (60.5%) of 842 cattle, 136 (37.9%) of 359 dogs, 26 (3.1%) of 839 pigs, and 250 (47.4%) of 527 chickens. SFTSV RNA was detected in all sampled animal species, but the prevalence was low, ranging from 1.7% to 5.3%. A cohort study in 38 sheep was conducted to determine when seroconversion to SFTSV occured. SFTSVs were isolated from sheep, cattle, and dogs and shared >95% sequence homology with human isolates from the same disease-endemic regions. These findings demonstrate that natural infections of SFTSV occur in several domesticated animal hosts in disease-endemic areas and that the virus has a wide host range.

Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging infectious disease in East Asia. SFTS is a tick borne hemorrhagic fever caused by SFTSV, a new bunyavirus named after the syndrome. We investigated the epidemiology of SFTS in Laizhou County, Shandong Province, China.We collected serum specimens of all patients who were clinically diagnosed as suspected SFTS cases in 2010 and 2011 in Laizhou County. The patients' serum specimens were tested for SFTSV by real time fluorescence quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). We collected 1,060 serum specimens from healthy human volunteers by random sampling in Laizhou County in 2011. Healthy persons' serum specimens were tested for specific SFTSV IgG antibody by ELISA.71 SFTS cases were diagnosed in Laizhou County in 2010 and 2011, which resulted in the incidence rate of 4.1/100,000 annually. The patients ranged from 15 years old to 87 years old and the median age of the patients were 59 years old. The incidence rate of SFTS was significantly higher in patients over 40 years old and fatal cases only occurred in patients over 50 years old. 3.3% (35/1,060) of healthy people were positive to SFTSV IgG antibody. The SFTSV antibody positive rate was not significantly different among people at different age groups.Our results revealed that seroprevalence of SFTSV in healthy people in Laizhou County was not significantly different among age groups, but SFTS patients were mainly elderly people, suggesting that age is the critical risk factor or determinant for SFTS morbidity and mortality.