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ABSTRACT: Duck plague virus (DPV), which is the causative agent of duck viral enteritis, is highly infectious and can cause severe disease and death in ducks, geese and other waterfowl. Several tegument proteins of DPV have been shown to affect the cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS)-STING signaling pathway to modulate host innate immune responses. DPV UL24, an important DPV tegument protein, can inhibit the activity of the IFN-β promoter. However, the mechanism by which the DPV UL24 protein regulates the host innate immune response remains unclear. In this study, we found that the UL24 protein can significantly inhibit the activity of the interferon-β promoter induced by poly(I:C) and reduce the production of IFN-β, interferon-stimulated genes (OASL, Mx), and the cellular inflammatory factor IL-6. 2) The UL24 protein can widely inhibit the mRNA level of immune signaling molecules. The UL24 protein can also downregulate the protein expression of RIG-I, MDA5, MAVS, cGAS, STING, TBK1 and IRF7 in DEFs. RT-qPCR results revealed that UL24 significantly inhibited the mRNA accumulation for the immune signaling molecules cGAS, STING, TBK1 and IRF7. 3) The UL24 protein induced the degradation of IRF7 via ubiquitination. After the DEFs were treated with the ubiquitin proteasome inhibitor MG132, the degradation of IRF7 by the UL24 protein was alleviated. Coimmunoprecipitation results revealed that DPV UL24 induced the K48/K63-linked ubiquitination of IRF7, which promoted its degradation and thus antagonized the host innate immune response.

Abstract Nonsense‐mediated decay (NMD) and autophagy play pivotal roles in restricting virus infection in plants. However, the interconnection between these two pathways in viral infections has not been explored. Here, it is shown that overexpression of NbSMG7 and NbUPF3 attenuates cucumber green mottle mosaic virus (CGMMV) infection by recognizing the viral internal termination codon and vice versa. NbSMG7 is subjected to autophagic degradation, which is executed by its interaction with one of the autophagy‐related proteins, NbATG8i. Mutation of the ATG8 interacting motif (AIM) in NbSMG7 (SMG7mAIM1) abolishes the interaction and comprises its autophagic degradation. Silencing of NbSMG7 and NbATG8i, or NbUPF3 and NbATG8i, compared to silencing each gene individually, leads to more virus accumulations, but overexpression of NbSMG7 and NbATG8i fails to achieve more potent virus inhibition. When CGMMV is co‐inoculated with NbSMG7mAIM1 or with NbUPF3, compared to co‐inoculating with NbSMG7 in NbATG8i transgene plants, the inoculated plants exhibit milder viral phenotypes. These findings reveal that NMD‐mediated virus inhibition is impaired by the autophagic degradation of SMG7 in a negative feedback loop, and a novel regulatory interplay between NMD and autophagy is uncovered, providing insights that are valuable in optimizing strategies to harness NMD and autophagy for combating viral infections.

The optimization of industrial structure and layout is essential for promoting the high-quality development of the regional economy. As a typical example of a green comprehensive industry, the agglomerations of the sports industry have the potential to release additional green benefits. Consequently, this paper uses the balanced panel data of 30 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China from 1998 to 2021 as samples and, based on the strategic background of China's dual-carbon target and the re-interpretation of the green economy, uses the Super-SBM model to re-measure the green economic efficiency of each region and applies the dynamic spatial Durbin model and the dynamic panel system GMM model to evaluate the direct effect, mediating mechanism, spatial spillover effect, and heterogeneity effect of sports industry agglomeration on the regional green economic efficiency. Empirical findings indicate that: (1) The improvement of green economic efficiency under China's dual-carbon target has the characteristics of dynamic accumulation, and there is a siphon effect between neighboring regions. (2) The effects of sports industry agglomeration on local green economy efficiency show an ''inverted U-shape'' with a positive spatial spillover effect on the green economy efficiency of neighboring regions; this conclusion is robust. (3) The green economy effect of sports industry agglomeration is more significant in the central and western regions, regions with strict environmental regulations, and regions with a higher willingness for resident participation in sports due to industrial density, compliance costs, and characteristics of sports industry development. (4) Sports industry agglomeration can promote regional green economy efficiency by escaping natural resource dependence and increasing healthy human capital; technological innovation, rationalization of industrial structure, and labor transfer serve as ''inverted U-shaped'' mediators between sports industry agglomeration and regional green economy efficiency. This study expands the meso- and spatial-level perspectives of the impact of the agglomeration of green industries and comprehensive industries on green development. It is of great theoretical and practical importance for promoting the construction of a regional green industrial system and the high-quality development of the green economy.

Abstract. Background:. At present, a large number of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients are undiagnosed in China. Thus, this study aimed to develop a simple prediction model as a screening tool to identify patients at risk for COPD. Methods:. The study was based on the data of 22,943 subjects aged 30 to 79 years and enrolled in the second resurvey of China Kadoorie Biobank during 2012 and 2013 in China. We stepwisely selected the predictors using logistic regression model. Then we tested the model validity through P–P graph, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC), ten-fold cross validation and an external validation in a sample of 3492 individuals from the Enjoying Breathing Program in China. Results:. The final prediction model involved 14 independent variables, including age, sex, location (urban/rural), region, educational background, smoking status, smoking amount (pack-years), years of exposure to air pollution by cooking fuel, family history of COPD, history of tuberculosis, body mass index, shortness of breath, sputum and wheeze. The model showed an area under curve (AUC) of 0.72 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.72–0.73) for detecting undiagnosed COPD patients, with the cutoff of predicted probability of COPD=0.22, presenting a sensitivity of 70.13% and a specificity of 62.25%. The AUROC value for screening undiagnosed patients with clinically significant COPD was 0.68 (95% CI: 0.66–0.69). Moreover, the ten-fold cross validation reported an AUC of 0.72 (95% CI: 0.71–0.73), and the external validation presented an AUC of 0.69 (95% CI: 0.68–0.71). Conclusion:. This prediction model can serve as a first-stage screening tool for undiagnosed COPD patients in primary care settings.

Chikungunya virus, a mosquito-borne virus that causes epidemics, is often misdiagnosed due to symptom similarities with other arboviruses. Here, a portable and integrated nucleic acid-based diagnostic device, which combines reverse transcription-loop-mediated isothermal amplification and lateral-flow detection, was developed. The device is simple to use, precise, equipment-free, and highly sensitive, enabling rapid chikungunya virus identification. The result can be obtained by the naked eye within 40 min. The assay can effectively distinguish chikungunya virus from dengue virus, Japanese encephalitis virus, Zika virus, and yellow fever virus with high specificity and sensitivity as low as 598.46 copies mL−1. It has many benefits for the community screening and monitoring of chikungunya virus in resource-limited areas because of its effectiveness and simplicity. The platform has great potential for the rapid nucleic acid detection of other viruses.

To investigate the porosity, permeability and rock mechanics of deep shale under temperature-pressure coupling, we selected the core samples of deep shale from the Lower Silurian Longmaxi Formation in the Weirong and Yongchuan areas of the Sichuan Basin for porosity and permeability experiments and a triaxial compression and sound wave integration experiment at the maximum temperature and pressure of 120 °C and 70 MPa. The results show that the microscopic porosity and permeability change and the macroscopic rock deformation are mutually constrained, both showing the trend of steep and then gentle variation. At the maximum temperature and pressure, the porosity reduces by 34%–71%, and the permeability decreases by 85%–97%. With the rising temperature and pressure, deep shale undergoes plastic deformation in which organic pores and clay mineral pores are compressed and microfractures are closed, and elastic deformation in which brittle mineral pores and rock skeleton particles are compacted. Compared with previous experiments under high confining pressure and normal temperature, the experiment under high temperature and high pressure coupling reveals the effect of high temperature on stress sensitivity of porosity and permeability. High temperature can increase the plasticity of the rock, intensify the compression of pores due to high confining pressure, and induce thermal stress between the rock skeleton particles, allowing the reopening of shale bedding or the creation of new fractures along weak planes such as bedding, which inhibits the decrease of permeability with the increase of temperature and confining pressure. Compared with the triaxial mechanical experiment at normal temperature, the triaxial compression experiment at high temperature and high pressure demonstrates that the compressive strength and peak strain of deep shale increase significantly due to the coupling of temperature and pressure. The compressive strength is up to 435 MPa and the peak strain exceeds 2%, indicating that high temperature is not conducive to fracture initiation and expansion by increasing rock plasticity. Lithofacies and mineral composition have great impacts on the porosity, permeability and rock mechanics of deep shale. Shales with different lithologies are different in the difficulty and extent of brittle failure. The stress-strain characteristics of rocks under actual geological conditions are key support to the optimization of reservoir stimulation program.

The global food crisis is becoming increasingly severe, and frequent grain bins fires can also lead to significant food losses at the same time. Accordingly, this paper proposes a model-compressed technique for promptly detecting small and thin smoke at the early stages of fire in grain bins. The proposed technique involves three key stages: (1) conducting smoke experiments in a back-up bin to acquire a dataset; (2) proposing a real-time detection model based on YOLO v5s with sparse training, channel pruning and model fine-tuning, and (3) the proposed model is subsequently deployed on different current edge devices. The experimental results indicate the proposed model can detect the smoke in grain bins effectively, with mAP and detection speed are 94.90% and 109.89 FPS respectively, and model size reduced by 5.11 MB. Furthermore, the proposed model is deployed on the edge device and achieved the detection speed of 49.26 FPS, thus allowing for real-time detection.

Abstract Allergic asthma is an allergic inflammatory disease of the airways, in which numerous cell types and cytokines have been shown to contribute to pathogenesis of the disease. Although increased expression of IL-9 has been shown to influence the activity of structural as well as eosinophils and mast cells in asthma, the influence of IL-9 on function of ILC2 and Th2 cells remains unclear. This study therefore aimed to elucidate the role of IL-9 on ILC2 and Th2 cells using a murine model of asthma. A murine model of asthma was established using wild type (WT) and IL-9-deficient (Il9 −/− ) transgenic mice sensitized to house dust mite (HDM). Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and lung tissues were collected, and analysed for inflammatory cells (eosinophils, mast cells, Th2 cells and ILC2 cells), histopathological changes, and several cytokines. HDM challenge significantly increased accumulation of ILC2 cells, Th2 cells and mast cells, as well as goblet cell hyperplasia, and the expression of cytokines IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13, but not IFN-γ, in WT mice compared to saline-challenged control group. In contrast, all pathological changes, including infiltration of ILC2 cells, Th2 cells and mast cells, were significantly attenuated in HDM-challenged Il9 −/− mice. Furthermore, the number of Ki67+ILC2 cells, Ki67+Th2 cells and Ki67+mast cells were significantly reduced in the absence of IL-9 signalling. These data suggest that IL-9 promotes the proliferation and type 2 cytokine production of type 2 cells in the murine models of asthma, and therefore might be a potential therapeutic target for asthma treatment.

Liquid biopsy with minimally invasive emerges as a powerful tool for early screening of breast cancer (BrCa). BrCa derived exosomes which enrich with biological information from their parent cells play essential roles in the evolution and metastasis of BrCa, providing a real-time snapshot of the tumor. This review summaries the recent advances of exosomes studies in liquid biopsy, particularly for BrCa. A number of isolation methods for exosomes are compared in detail. Different exosome biomarkers for detection of BrCa are discussed. Novel approaches for the detection of exosomes towards clinical diagnosis of BrCa are highlighted at the end. We believe the innovations in exosome research will lead to new breakthroughs in the early screening and diagnosis of BrCa.

We conducted two conceptual replications of Experiment 1 in Mathieu, Gourjon, Couderc, Thevenot, and Prado (2016, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2015.10.002). They tested a sample of 34 French adults on mixed-operation blocks of single-digit addition (4 + 3) and subtraction (4 – 3) with the three problem elements (O1, +/-, O2) presented sequentially. Addition was 34 ms faster if O2 appeared 300 ms after the operation sign and displaced 5° to the right of central fixation, whereas subtraction was 19 ms faster when O2 was displaced to the left. Replication Experiment 1 (n = 74 recruited at the University of Saskatchewan) used the same non-zero addition and subtraction problems and trial event sequence as Mathieu et al., but participants completed blocks of pure addition and pure subtraction followed by the mixed-operation condition used by Mathieu et al. Addition RT showed a 32 ms advantage with O2 shifted rightward relative to leftward but only in mixed-operation blocks. There was no effect of O2 position on subtraction RT. Experiment 2 (n = 74) was the same except mixed-operation blocks occurred before the pure-operation blocks. There was an overall 13 ms advantage with O2 shifted right relative to leftward but no interaction with operation or with mixture (i.e., pure vs mixed operations). Nonetheless, the rightward RT advantage was statistically significant for both addition and subtraction only in mixed-operation blocks. Taken together with the robust effects of mixture in Experiment 1, the results suggest that O2 position effects in this paradigm might reflect task specific demands associated with mixed operations.

In this work, we present an analytical model of dynamic power losses for enhancement-mode AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistor power devices (eGaN HEMTs). To build this new model, the dynamic on-resistance (Rdson) is first accurately extracted via our extraction circuit based on a double-diode isolation (DDI) method using a high operating frequency of up to 1 MHz and a large drain voltage of up to 600 V; thus, the unique problem of an increase in the dynamic Rdson is presented. Then, the impact of the current operation mode on the on/off transition time is evaluated via a dual-pulse-current-mode test (DPCT), including a discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) and a continuous conduction mode (CCM); thus, the transition time is revised for different current modes. Afterward, the discrepancy between the drain current and the real channel current is qualitative investigated using an external shunt capacitance (ESC) method; thus, the losses due to device parasitic capacitance are also taken into account. After these improvements, the dynamic model will be more compatible for eGaN HEMTs. Finally, the dynamic power losses calculated via this model are found to be in good agreement with the experimental results. Based on this model, we propose a superior solution with a quasi-resonant mode (QRM) to achieve lossless switching and accelerated switching speeds.

The accurate and reliable relative humidity (RH) prediction holds immense significance in effectively controlling the breeding cycle health and optimizing egg production performance in intensive poultry farming environments. However, current RH prediction research mainly focuses on short-term point predictions, which cannot meet the demand for accurate RH control in poultry houses in intensive farming. To compensate for this deficiency, a hybrid medium and long-term RH prediction model capable of precise point and interval prediction is proposed in this study. Firstly, the complexity of RH is reduced using a data denoising method that combines complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition with adaptive noise (CEEMDAN) and permutation entropy. Secondly, important environmental factors are selected from feature correlation and change trends. Thirdly, based on the results of data denoising and feature selection, a BiGRU-Attention model incorporating an attention mechanism is established for medium and long-term RH point prediction. Finally, the Gaussian kernel density estimation (KDE-Gaussian) method is used to fit the point prediction error, and the RH prediction interval at different confidence levels is estimated. This method was applied to analyze the actual collection of waterfowl (Magang geese) environmental datasets from October 2022 to March 2023. The results indicate that the CEEMDAN-FS-BiGRU-Attention model proposed in this study has excellent medium and long-term point prediction performance. In comparison to LSTM, the mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE), and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) are reduced by 57.7%, 48.2%, and 56.6%, respectively. Furthermore, at different confidence levels, the prediction interval formed by the KDE-Gaussian method is reliable and stable, which meets the need for accurate RH control in intensive farming environments.

The egg production rate is a crucial metric in animal breeding, subject to biological and environmental influences and exhibits characteristics of small sample sizes and non-linearity. Currently, egg production rate prediction research predominantly focuses on single-step point prediction, lacking multistep and interval prediction exploration. To bridge these gaps, this study proposes a recursive, multistep interval prediction method for egg production rates, integrating environmental variables and attention mechanisms. Initially, this study employed three gradient boosting tree models (XGBoost, LightGBM, CatBoost) and the recursive feature elimination (RFE) method to select critical environmental variables and reduce data dimensionality. Subsequently, by scaling the time scale of important environmental variables and utilizing the variational modal decomposition improved by the grey wolf optimization (GWO-VMD) method for time-series decomposition, the volume of important environmental variable data is augmented and its complexity is reduced. Applying the long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network to obtain direct multistep predictions on IMFs, the predicted outcomes are averaged daily to yield the environmental variables for the upcoming two days. Finally, a multistep interval prediction model based on Seq2seq-Attention and Gaussian distribution is proposed in this study, and parameter optimization is carried out using the multi-objective grey wolf optimization algorithm (MOGWO). By inputting the historical egg production rate data and environmental variables into the proposed model, it is possible to achieve multistep point and interval prediction of egg production rates. This method was applied to analyze a dataset of egg production rates of waterfowl. The study demonstrated the feasibility of the recursive multistep prediction approach combined with environmental variables and guides egg production estimation and environmental regulation in animal husbandry.

Abstract Background Although the ACOSOG Z0011 study showed that axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) could be avoided in a specific population of sentinel lymph node-positive patients, it is not widely accepted by Chinese surgeons. We conducted a prospective single-arm study to confirm whether or not the results of Z0011 are applicable to Chinese patients. Methods Patients conforming to the Z0011 criteria were prospectively enrolled at the Peking University People’s Hospital Breast Center from November 2014 to June 2019. The clinicopathological features of the study group were compared with those of the Z0011 study group. Lymphedema after surgery, the incidence of local-regional recurrence, and survival were analyzed. Results One hundred forty-two patients who met the Z0011 eligibility criteria were enrolled in this study; 115 underwent sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) alone. Compared with the Z0011 trial, younger patients were included (median age, 52 [26–82] years vs 54 [25–90] years; P = 0.03). For clinical T stage, tumor histology, hormone status, lymphovascular invasion, and the number of positive sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs), no statistically significant differences were observed. More patients received adjuvant chemotherapy and endocrine therapy in this study (90.85% vs 58.0% and 80.99% vs 46.6% respectively, P

Obesity is a foremost health issue that affects about 1.6 million people out of which 400 million worldwide. Epidemiological evidences prove obesity is the primary cause for various metabolic ailments e.g. diabetes. Poria cocos possess extensive biological actions, for instance, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, immunomodulatory actions. The primary limitation of all phytomedicine was their poor bioavailability hence in this investigation, we bio-fabricated the gold nanoparticles from Poria cocos aqueous extract and inspected their potency to treat obesity. Obese rat model were produced via fed the young female rats with high fat food for 8 weeks regimen. Further to confirm the potency of Poria cocos gold nanoparticles against obesity induced metabolic disorders we treated obese rats with low dose streptozotocin in the conclusion of the investigational time. The synthesis of Poria cocos gold-nanoparticles was evidenced via the UV-Spectroscopic study and characterized with SEM, TEM and EDAX studies. The anti-obesity actions of Poria cocos gold-nanoparticles were investigated by estimating the glucose profile, kidney markers, lipid profile, inflammatory cytokines, adipocyte markers, antioxidants in the Poria cocos gold nanoparticles treated obese rats. To confirm the Poria cocos gold nanoparticles role on inhibiting the obesity induced metabolic disorders we analyzed the histopathological changes in cardiac tissues. Our physical characterization confirms the synthesized Poria cocos gold nanoparticles assure the distinctions of influential nanoparticles to be utilized for the treatment. The results from biochemical and histopathological analysis confirms Poria cocos gold nanoparticles is a persuasive antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-obesity drug. Overall our results authentically confirm Poria cocos gold nanoparticles is a potent anti-obesity drug and it also protects from obesity induced metabolic disorders.

Background: Depressive symptoms often accompany people with Internet addiction syndrome (IAD). Acupuncture has been found to have significant advantages in improving the severity and depressive symptoms of IAD. Contingent negative variation (CNV) is a common method to explore the mechanism of neurophysiology.Objective: The purpose of this study was to observe the efficacy of electroacupuncture (EA), psychological intervention (PI), and comprehensive intervention (CI) in the treatment of depression in Internet addiction disorder (IAD), and to observe the changes of contingent negative variation (CNV) in each group.Methods: One hundred and twenty subjects diagnosed with IAD were randomly assigned to the EA group, the PI group, or the CI group. They received EA, PI, or a combination of EA and PI for 40 days. The Internet Addiction Test (IAT), the Zung Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), and the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) were evaluated for all subjects at baseline, 20th, and 40th days of treatment, while CNV data were collected at baseline and 40th days of treatment.Results: Three treatments effectively reduced IAT, SDS, and HAMD scores, and the intergroup comparison showed that CI was superior to EA, while EA was superior to PI. CNV results indicated that the CNV amplitude increased in all three groups of IAD patients after treatment. The CNV latency of point A and A-S2' wave area of the EA group and the CI group did not change significantly after treatment. Only the A-S2' wave area of the PI group increased significantly compared with the baseline period. In addition, IAD's IAT score was positively correlated with SDS and HAMD score at baseline but negatively correlated with CNV latency. After treatment, only the change of HAMD score in the CI group was negatively correlated with amplitude.Conclusion: Our results demonstrate the efficacy of acupuncture and psychological intervention in the treatment of IAD from an electrophysiological perspective. Simultaneously, the increase in CNV amplitude might be the underlying neurophysiological mechanism by which CI improves depression and cognitive function in IAD patients.Clinical Trial Registration:ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier NCT02362698.

The barriers caused by continuous tillage have had a negative impact on the crop and soil environment. Black soils are economically important as a valuable natural resource in Northeast China, but limited soil resources have led to continuous planting of major food crops and medicinal plants. At present, the extent to which two different types of plants—grains and medicinal plants that are successively grown on the same soil—have an impact on soil quality and microbiology is not known. In this study, we investigated the effects of different types of long-term continuous cropping on soil and soil microbial communities by determining the physicochemical properties, the soil community composition and function of grain crops and medicinal-plant soils with more than five years of continuous cropping, as well as fallow soils. The results showed that long-term continuous cropping reduced the pH of different types of soils, but there was no significant difference in the content of AK. The relative abundance of beneficial dominant phyla, such as Actinomycetes, Acidobacteria, and Green Campylobacter decreased and the relative abundance of pathogenic genera such as Alternaria and Didymellaceae, increased after the long-term continuous cropping of DM (grain crops) and DG (medicinal plants). Specifically, continuous cropping increased the relative abundance of fungi with pathogenic potential, such as Sordariomycetes, Dothideomycetes, Saccharomycetes, and Mucoromycetes in grain soils and Agaricostilbomycetes in herb soils. Among the soil physicochemical properties, NH4+-N and pH were the most important factors contributing to changes in the composition of bacterial and fungal communities, respectively. Continuous cropping of different types of plants altered the diversity of the microbial communities, with the most significant effect from the continuous cropping of food crops. Our findings provide a scientific and theoretical basis for future agricultural research to improve soil microbial activity, mitigate continuous-cropping barriers, and increase productivity.

Shale oil and gas fields usually contain many horizontal wells. The key of 3D structural modeling for shale reservoirs is to effectively utilize all structure-associated data (e.g., formation tops) in these horizontal wells. The inclination angle of horizontal wells is usually large, especially in the lateral section. As a result, formation tops in a horizontal well are located at the distinct lateral positions, while formation tops in a vertical well are usually stacked in the same or similar lateral position. It becomes very challenging to estimate shale layer thickness and structural map of multiple formation surfaces using formation tops in horizontal wells. Meanwhile, the large inclination angle of horizontal wells indicates a complicated spatial relation with shale formation surfaces. The 3D structural modeling using horizontal well data is much more difficult than that using vertical well data. To overcome these new challenges in 3D structural modeling using horizontal well data, we developed a method for 3D structural modeling using horizontal well data. The main process included 1) adding pseudo vertical wells at formation tops to convert the uncoupled formation tops to coupled formation tops as in vertical wells, 2) estimating shale thickness by balancing the shale thickness and dip angle change of a key surface, and 3) detecting horizontal well segments landing in the wrong formations and adding pseudo vertical wells to fix them. We used our improved method to successfully construct two structural models of Longmaxi–Wufeng shale reservoirs at a well pad scale and a shale oil/gas field scale. Our research demonstrated that 3D structural modeling could be improved by maximizing the utilization of horizontal well data, thus optimizing the quality of the structural model of shale reservoirs.

Objective: Uncontrolled internet use may lead to the emergence of pathological internet use (PIU). PIU has become a global public health concern that can cause a range of psychotic symptoms, including anxiety, depression, and impulse control disorder. To date, we know very little about the principal biological factors related to PIU. Monoamine oxidase type A (MAOA) and serotonin (5-HT) 5-HT2A receptor (5-HT2AR) play critical roles in the development of behavioural and drug addictions. Thus, the aim of this study was to measure the relative expression of mRNA of MAOA and 5-HT2AR in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with PIU and to determine the correlations between these biological indicators and the comorbid symptoms of patients with PIU.Methods: In this study, the mRNA of MAOA and 5-HT2AR was detected using real-time PCR in PBMCs of the patients with PIU (n = 24) and healthy controls (HCs, n = 25). The relationship between the mRNA levels of MAOA and 5-HT2AR and clinical symptoms in patients with PIU was further investigated.Results: MAOA mRNA in PBMCs was significantly upregulated in patients with PIU compared with that in HCs. mRNA levels of 5-HT2AR were not found to differ significantly between HCs and patients with PIU. Correlation analyses further revealed a significant positive correlation between the relative expression of MAOA mRNA in PBMCs of patients with PIU and the Young's Internet Addiction Test and Self-Rating Depression Scale scores.Conclusion: The present study revealed upregulated expression of MAOA mRNA in patients with PIU and an association between the expression of MAOA mRNA and clinical symptoms of PIU, suggesting that the neurobiological changes may be similar between PIU and substance addiction. Additionally, this study demonstrated a potential association between comorbid symptoms and mRNA levels of MAOA.

Wild rice is an important improved resource for cultivated rice and its unique ability to resist biotic and abiotic stress has attracted the attention of many scholars. The microbial community structure in the rhizosphere and leaf area of different rice varieties is also different, which may be one of the reasons for the difference in stress resistance between wild rice and cultivated rice. Forty-six bacteria were screened from the rhizosphere and phyllospheric of four different wild rice varieties. The results of functions of the screened strains showed that 18 strains had a good inhibitory effect on rice blast, and 33 strains had the ability to dissolve phosphorus, potassium, or fix nitrogen. Through potted experiment, the three bacterial strains, 499G2 (Peribacillus simplex), 499G3 (Bacillus velezensis), and 499G4 (B. megaterium) have a positive effect on the growth of cultivated rice in addition to the resistance to rice blast. The contents of total nitrogen, total phosphorus, total potassium, indole acetic acid (IAA), and chlorophyll in plant leaves were increased. In addition, in the verification test of rice blast infection, the application of inoculants can significantly reduce the content of malondialdehyde (MDA), increase the content of soluble sugar, and increase the activity of plant antioxidant enzymes, which may thereby improve rice in resisting to rice blast.

In order to ensure the transmission security of electric power dispatching service data,a quantum key supply and dynamic adjustment algorithm was provided.Firstly,the key application mode was determined according to the priority of different services,and the calculation method of the key pool capacity was also provided.Secondly,the quantum key dynamic adjustment algorithm was designed based on the key update frequency and application mode.Finally,the traffic model for the dispatching system was established,and the algorithm’s application performance for different scenarios was simulated within point-to-point/multipoint architectures.The test results show that the algorithm can realize the dynamic key adjustment in the selected adjustment period,and thus improves the security of the scheduling data transmissions.

The conditions under which multiplication verification (3 × 6 = 12, true or false?) involves product retrieval and comparison or familiarity-based recognition judgements has not been clearly established. In two experiments examining verification of single-digit multiplication problems, we used Retrieval-Induced Forgetting (RIF), a signature of retrieval use, as an index of product retrieval in multiplication verification. In Experiment 1, 72 adults practiced multiplication either in a production format or in a verification format and then were tested on corresponding addition and control problems. The results showed RIF (i.e., slower answer production for addition problems whose multiplication counterparts had been practiced) in both the production-practice and the verification-practice groups, but RIF was stronger following true than false verification. Experiment 2 tested verification with related-false and unrelated-false products. Related-false equations produced longer RTs than unrelated false equations. Practice of true, related-false and unrelated-false multiplication equations all produced RIF of the addition counterparts but, overall, related-false multiplication equations produced relatively weak RIF. The results indicated that product retrieval mediates multiplication verification even when false answers are weak associative lures and suggest that a retrieve-and-compare process is the default strategy when false answers are at least plausible. We conclude that the presented answer in verification equations act as retrieval-priming stimuli with true equations priming correct answer retrieval and related-false answers interfering with correct answer retrieval.

Shale is a typical fine-grained sedimentary rock with small grain sizes of matrix components, significant lithofacies variation of rock texture and structure, and strong heterogeneity of organic matter and mineral compositions. Characterization of mineral compositions and their heterogeneity in micro- to nanoscale are the key parameters to gas shale pore structure and rock physical properties. In order to study the microscale mineralogy heterogeneity of the lacustrine shales in the Triassic Yanchang Formation in the Ordos Basin, the micro-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (micro-FTIR) technique was conducted. Based on the specific micro-FTIR spectra peaks, the abundance of mineral compositions can be quantitatively determined in the selected microscale areas. The results show that within the range of 80 μm micro-FTIR test interval, both massive argillaceous shale and silty interlayered shale show obvious heterogeneity; in particular, the relatively homogeneous shale observed by the naked eyes also has strong mineral heterogeneity. The results of micro-FTIR spectra are basically consistent with the bulk X-ray diffraction (XRD) data. The advantage of this micro-FTIR technique includes higher resolution (less than 100 μm) and in situ mineral characterization of shale samples at micro- and nanoscale.

Asian cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.), domesticated from Asian wild rice, is a staple food crop for populations around the world. Asian cultivated rice has undergone physiological changes in the process of its evolution from Asian wild rice, and the closely related rhizosphere microorganisms may have changed in the process of plant domestication. However, the rhizosphere microorganisms of different Asian wild rice species and their related indica and japonica cultivated rice have not yet been illustrated clearly. This study aimed to illustrate the microbial community structures in the rhizosphere of Asian wild rice (common wild rice, nivara wild rice, medicinal wild rice, and spotted wild rice) and Asian cultivated rice (indica and japonica accessions) through the high-throughput sequencing of 16S rDNA, ITS amplifiers and metagenomic data. The results showed that there were significant differences between wild and cultivated rice in their rhizosphere microbial community structures. In view of the indica and japonica rice, the bacterial and fungal community structures of indica rice with the nivara wild rice and medicinal wild rice were more similar than the japonica rice species. The indica and japonica rice had the lowest proportion of Actinobacteria than the wild rice species, and indica rice has the highest relative abundance of Nitrospira. As for the microbial functions, methane metabolism and pyruvate metabolism were found to be the common pathway enriched in the rhizosphere of common and nivara wild rice in comparison with the indica and japonica rice; in addition, though it was found that the relative abundances of the pathogenic fungi in the rhizosphere soil of indica and japonica rice were significantly lower than that of the wild rice, the relative abundances of Magnaporthales and Ustilaginales were significantly higher in indica and japonica rice than that of the wild rice. This study is expected to provide a theoretical basis for the development and utilization of rhizosphere microbial resources for wild and cultivated rice.

We examined the real-world effectiveness of ART as an HIV prevention tool among HIV serodiscordant couples in a programmatic setting in a low-income country.We enrolled individuals from HIV serodiscordant couples aged ≥18 years of age in Jinja, Uganda from June 2009 - June 2011. In one group of couples the HIV positive partner was receiving ART as they met clinical eligibility criteria (a CD4 cell count ≤250 cells/ μL or WHO Stage III/IV disease). In the second group the infected partner was not yet ART-eligible. We measured HIV incidence by testing the uninfected partner every three months. We conducted genetic linkage studies to determine the source of new infections in seroconverting participants.A total of 586 couples were enrolled of which 249 (42%) of the HIV positive participants were receiving ART at enrollment, and an additional 99 (17%) initiated ART during the study. The median duration of follow-up was 1.5 years. We found 9 new infections among partners of participants who had been receiving ART for at least three months and 8 new infections in partners of participants who had not received ART or received it for less than three months, for incidence rates of 2.09 per 100 person-years (PYRs) and 2.30 per 100 PYRs, respectively. The incidence rate ratio for ART-use was 0.91 (95% confidence interval 0.31-2.70; p=0.999). The hazard ratio for HIV seroconversion associated with ART-use by the positive partner was 1.07 (95% CI 0.41-2.80). A total of 5/7 (71%) of the transmissions on ART and 6/7 (86%) of those not on ART were genetically linked.Overall HIV incidence was low in comparison to previous studies of serodiscordant couples. However, ART-use was not associated with a reduced risk of HIV transmission in this study.

Little is known about the potential impact of food insecurity on mortality among people living with HIV/AIDS. We examined the potential relationship between food insecurity and all-cause mortality among HIV-positive injection drug users (IDU) initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART) across British Columbia (BC).Cross-sectional measurement of food security status was taken at participant ART initiation. Participants were prospectively followed from June 1998 to September 2011 within the fully subsidized ART program. Cox proportional hazard models were used to ascertain the association between food insecurity and mortality, controlling for potential confounders.Among 254 IDU, 181 (71.3%) were food insecure and 108 (42.5%) were hungry. After 13.3 years of median follow-up, 105 (41.3%) participants died. In multivariate analyses, food insecurity remained significantly associated with mortality (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR] = 1.95, 95% CI: 1.07-3.53), after adjusting for potential confounders.HIV-positive IDU reporting food insecurity were almost twice as likely to die, compared to food secure IDU. Further research is required to understand how and why food insecurity is associated with excess mortality in this population. Public health organizations should evaluate the possible role of food supplementation and socio-structural supports for IDU within harm reduction and HIV treatment programs.

Multilevel acceptance sampling for attributes is used to decide whether a lot from an incoming shipment or outgoing production is accepted or rejected when the product has multiple levels of product quality or multiple types of (mutually exclusive) possible defects. This paper describes a package which provides the tools to create, evaluate, plot, and display the acceptance sampling plans for such lots for both fixed and sequential sampling. The functions for calculating cumulative probabilities for several common multivariate distributions (which are needed in the package) are provided as well.

ABSTRACT Background A screening tool was devised to aid the diagnosis and treatment of ground‐glass nodules (GGNs). Methods The current ambispective cohort study included retrospective collation of 20 variables synthesizing a patient's clinical characteristics, serum tumor markers, and CT results, which allowed division into noninvasive (benign, atypical adenomatous hyperplasia, and adenocarcinoma in situ) and invasive (minimally invasive and invasive adenocarcinomas) tumors to build a prediction nomogram and GGN screening scale. The model was verified internally. A prospective cohort of patients was randomly divided by envelope method into those assessed by the GGN screening scale and those assessed via CT values. The diagnostic efficiencies were compared to allow external verification of the model. Result A total of 223 patients with 225 GGNs were recruited into the retrospective cohort between January 2021 and December 2022. Multivariable analysis showed sex, diameter, air bronchogram, and vessel convergence sign to be independent factors for prediction of noninvasive and invasive GGNs. Internal verification showed the model had a sensitivity of 70.7% and specificity of 75.0% with the Youden index at 0.457 and area under the curve (AUC) of 0.793 (95% CI: 0.734–0.852). Calibration curves indicated good internal stability (p = 0.357). Between January 2023 and March 2023, 147 patients with 148 GGNs were recruited into the prospective cohort. External verification showed the model had a sensitivity of 92.4% and specificity of 40.0% with the Youden index at 0.324 and AUC of 0.678 (95% CI: 0.509–0.847). Calibration curves indicated good external stability (p = 0.088). The scale was shown to have a sensitivity of 75.00%, specificity of 37.50%, positive predictive value of 91.53%, negative predictive value of 14.29%, and accuracy of 71.25%. Conclusion The GGN screening scale has high sensitivity and accuracy, making it suitable for diagnosis of GGNs.