Search

Objective To understand the epidemiological characteristics of genital Chlamydial infection in Haizhu district of Guangzhou from 2014 to 2023, and to provide a rationale for the development of intervention measures. Methods The epidemic data of genital Chlamydial infection in Haizhu district of Guangzhou from 2014 to 2023 were obtained from the infectious disease surveillance module of Chinese Disease Prevention and Control Information System. Descriptive epidemiological methods and spatial clustering analysis were used in this study. Results The reported incidence rate of genital Chlamydial infection in Haizhu district of Guangzhou decreased from 90.02/100,000 in 2014 to 51.55/100,000 in 2023, with an average annual decrease of 6.01% (Z=-11.44, P0, Z>1.960, P

Corn steep liquer, a byproduct of corn starch production, is highly productive and nutritious, containing a large quantity of amino acids, B vitamins and growth-promoting factors, which plays an important role in fermentation engineering, feed additives and pharmaceuticals. Due to sulfite residue, mycotoxin contamination and other issues, its application in various fields is seriously limited, resulting in resource waste, environmental pollution and economic loss. This paper reviews the techniques for removing antinutritional factors, phytic acid, and sulfites in corn syrup and the pollution, prevention of fungal toxins as well as the most recent application of it in single-cell protein, amino acid fermentation and biofertilizer, aiming to provide ideas for the comprehensive utilization of corn steep liquer and maximize its economic benefits.

This paper constructs a secure storage and sharing model of medical data based on the blockchain technology of computer network technology, and the model mainly designs the encryption process, storage process and sharing process of medical data. The model combines asymmetric encryption algorithm and ciphertext access strategy and designs a hybrid encryption method for secure storage and sharing of medical data through three stages: public parameters and key generation, encryption and decryption. The comprehensive performance of the constructed model is tested, and the security performance indexes are 0.998, 0.989, 0.996 and 0.993 and the execution time of the sharing mechanism is 1~16s, the data upload time is 1200ms, and the data download time is only 200ms.

As a non-viral transfection method, ultrasound and microbubble-induced sonoporation can achieve spatially targeted gene delivery with synergistic immunostimulatory effects. Here, we report for the first time the application of sonoporation for improving DNA vaccination performance. This study developed a new microbubble design with nanoscale DNA/PEI complexes loaded onto cationic microbubbles to attain significant increases in DNA-loading capacity (0.25 pg per microbubble) and in vitro transfection efficiency. Using live-cell imaging, we revealed the membrane perforation and cellular delivery characteristics of sonoporation. Using luciferase reporter gene for in vivo transfection, we showed that sonoporation increased the transfection efficiency by 40.9-fold when compared with intramuscular injection. Moreover, we comprehensively optimized the sonoporation protocol and further increased the transfection efficiency by 43.6-fold. Immunofluorescent staining results showed that sonoporation effectively activated the MHC-II+ immune cells. Using a hepatitis B DNA vaccine, sonoporation induced significantly higher serum antibody levels when compared with intramuscular injection, and the antibodies sustained for 56 weeks. In addition, we recorded the longest reported expression period (400 days) of the sonoporation-delivered gene. Whole genome resequencing confirmed that the gene with stable expression existed in an extrachromosomal state without integration. Our results demonstrated the potential of sonoporation for efficient and safe DNA vaccination.

In order to investigate the dynamic response characteristics and damage mechanism of the tunnel lining at the tunnel portal in the bridge–tunnel overlapping section in soft rock strata, a physical model with the scale ratio of 1:50 was made based on the similarity theory for shaking table tests. The acceleration and strain results of the tunnel lining under EL Centro seismic waves with different acceleration peak values were studied. Test results show that most of the acceleration values have significant amplification effects compared to input seismic waves, which increased significantly with greater peak values and elevations. Tensile deformations appear along the longitudinal and the circumferential directions of the tunnel lining. The tunnel spandrel and tunnel vault are the maximum deformation parts, respectively, at the standard section and the enlarged section of the tunnel lining. Therefore, it is suggested that the longitudinal anti-tensile design of the tunnel lining at the tunnel portal in such sensitive environments should be strengthened. And the anti-seismic design standard and durability requirement of the standard section of the tunnel lining adjacent to the enlarged section should be improved, so as to meet the requirements for stress deformation and overall stability when subjected to severe earthquakes.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) form a class of endogenous single-stranded RNA transcripts that are widely expressed in eukaryotic cells. These RNAs mediate post-transcriptional control of gene expression and have multiple functions in biological processes, such as transcriptional regulation and splicing. They serve predominantly as microRNA sponges, RNA-binding proteins, and templates for translation. More importantly, circRNAs are involved in cancer progression, and may serve as promising biomarkers for tumor diagnosis and therapy. Although traditional experimental methods are usually time-consuming and laborious, substantial progress has been made in exploring potential circRNA-disease associations by using computational models, summarized signaling pathway data, and other databases. Here, we review the biological characteristics and functions of circRNAs, including their roles in cancer. Specifically, we focus on the signaling pathways associated with carcinogenesis, and the status of circRNA-associated bioinformatics databases. Finally, we explore the potential roles of circRNAs as prognostic biomarkers in cancer.

Abstract Circular RNA (circRNA) is characterized by a specific covalently closed ring structure. The back-splicing of precursor mRNA is the main way of circRNA generation, and various cis/trans-acting elements are involved in regulating the process. circRNAs exhibit multiple biological functions, including serving as sponges of microRNAs, interacting with proteins to regulate their stabilities and abilities, and acting as templates for protein translation. Autophagy participates in many physiological and pathological processes, especially it plays a vital role in tumorigenesis and carcinoma progression. Increasing numbers of evidences have revealed that circRNAs are implicated in regulating autophagy during tumor development. Until now, the roles of autophagy-associated circRNAs in carcinoma progression and their molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Here, the emerging regulatory roles and mechanisms of circRNAs in autophagy were summarized. Furtherly, the effects of autophagy-associated circRNAs on cancer development were described. We also prospected the potential of autophagy-associated circRNAs as novel therapeutic targets of tumors and as biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and prognosis.

Abstract Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been reported to play essential roles in tumorigenesis and progression. This study aimed to identify dysregulated circRNAs in gastric cancer (GC) and investigate the functions and underlying mechanism of these circRNAs in GC development. Here, we identify circ_CEA, a circRNA derived from the back-splicing of CEA cell adhesion molecule 5 (CEA) gene, as a novel oncogenic driver of GC. Circ_CEA is significantly upregulated in GC tissues and cell lines. Circ_CEA knockdown suppresses GC progression, and enhances stress-induced apoptosis in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, circ_CEA interacts with p53 and cyclin-dependent kinases 1 (CDK1) proteins. It serves as a scaffold to enhance the association between p53 and CDK1. As a result, circ_CEA promotes CDK1-mediated p53 phosphorylation at Ser315, then decreases p53 nuclear retention and suppresses its activity, leading to the downregulation of p53 target genes associated with apoptosis. These findings suggest that circ_CEA protects GC cells from stress-induced apoptosis, via acting as a protein scaffold and interacting with p53 and CDK1 proteins. Combinational therapy of targeting circ_CEA and chemo-drug caused more cell apoptosis, decreased tumor volume and alleviated side effect induced by chemo-drug. Therefore, targeting circ_CEA might present a novel treatment strategy for GC.

C20H22Cd2N2O8, monoclinic, P21/c (no. 14), a = 13.131(3) Å, b = 8.2018(16) Å, c = 20.973(4) Å, β = 103.59(3)°, V = 2195.5(8) Å3, Z = 4, R gt(F) = 0.0260, wR ref(F 2) = 0.0609, T = 293(2) K.

Abstract Background Mitochondria have an essential role in regulating metabolism and integrate environmental and physiological signals to affect processes such as cellular bioenergetics and response to stress. In the metabolically active skeletal muscle, mitochondrial biogenesis is one important component contributing to a broad set of mitochondrial adaptations occurring in response to signals, which converge on the biogenesis transcriptional regulator peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor coactivator 1-alpha (PGC-1α), and is central to the beneficial effects of exercise in skeletal muscle. We investigated the role of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) taurine-upregulated gene 1 (TUG1), which interacts with PGC-1α in regulating transcriptional responses to exercise in skeletal muscle. Results In human skeletal muscle, TUG1 gene expression was upregulated post-exercise and was also positively correlated with the increase in PGC-1α gene expression (PPARGC1A). Tug1 knockdown (KD) in differentiating mouse myotubes led to decreased Ppargc1a gene expression, impaired mitochondrial respiration and morphology, and enhanced myosin heavy chain slow isoform protein expression. In response to a Ca2+-mediated stimulus, Tug1 KD prevented an increase in Ppargc1a expression. RNA sequencing revealed that Tug1 KD impacted mitochondrial Ca2+ transport genes and several downstream PGC-1α targets. Finally, Tug1 KD modulated the expression of ~300 genes that were upregulated in response to an in vitro model of exercise in myotubes, including genes involved in regulating myogenesis. Conclusions We found that TUG1 is upregulated in human skeletal muscle after a single session of exercise, and mechanistically, Tug1 regulates transcriptional networks associated with mitochondrial calcium handling, muscle differentiation and myogenesis. These data demonstrate that lncRNA Tug1 exerts regulation over fundamental aspects of skeletal muscle biology and response to exercise stimuli.

Abstract Background We report a rare case of Godtfredsen syndrome caused by clival chondrosarcoma and perform a review of literatures. This article also explains the clinico-anatomical correlation of this rare neurological syndrome. Case presentation A 22-year-old gentleman presented with binocular diplopia. Clinical examination revealed an isolated right abducent nerve and right hypoglossal nerve palsy, with other cranial nerves intact. Neuroimaging revealed a right clival mass. Supraorbital craniotomy and tumour debulking were done in the same year. Histopathological examination showed low-grade chondrosarcoma. After 5-years of default, he came back with the tumour enlarged. He underwent a right orbitozygomatic craniotomy and tumour excision with 33 cycles of radiotherapy. Despite two surgeries and radiotherapy, the abducent nerve and hypoglossal nerve did not improve throughout 6 years of follow-up. Cranial nerve VI palsy is not always a false localizing sign, in Godtfredsen syndrome it serves as a localizing sign. Conclusion To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of Godtfredsen Syndrome secondary to clival chondrosarcoma. Cranial nerve VI and XII palsy with no involvement of other cranial nerves, most likely the pathology is located at the clivus.

Abstract Background Circular RNA (circRNA), a subclass of non-coding RNA, plays a critical role in cancer tumorigenesis and metastasis. It has been suggested that circRNA acts as a microRNA sponge or a scaffold to interact with protein complexes; however, its full range of functions remains elusive. Recently, some circRNAs have been found to have coding potential. Methods To investigate the role of circRNAs in gastric cancer (GC), parallel sequencing was performed using five paired GC samples. Differentially expressed circAXIN1 was proposed to encode a novel protein. FLAG-tagged circRNA overexpression plasmid construction, immunoblotting, mass spectrometry, and luciferase reporter analyses were applied to confirm the coding potential of circAXIN1. Gain- and loss-of-function studies were conducted to study the oncogenic role of circAXIN1 and AXIN1-295aa on the proliferation, migration, invasion, and metastasis of GC cells in vitro and in vivo. The competitive interaction between AXIN1-295aa and adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) was investigated by immunoprecipitation analyses. Wnt signaling activity was observed using a Top/Fopflash assay, real-time quantitative RT-PCR, immunoblotting, immunofluorescence staining, and chromatin immunoprecipitation. Results CircAXIN1 is highly expressed in GC tissues compared with its expression in paired adjacent normal gastric tissues. CircAXIN1 encodes a 295 amino acid (aa) novel protein, which was named AXIN1-295aa. CircAXIN1 overexpression enhances the cell proliferation, migration, and invasion of GC cells, while the knockdown of circAXIN1 inhibits the malignant behaviors of GC cells in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, AXIN1-295aa competitively interacts with APC, leading to dysfunction of the “destruction complex” of the Wnt pathway. Released β-catenin translocates to the nucleus and binds to the TCF consensus site on the promoter, inducing downstream gene expression. Conclusion CircAXIN1 encodes a novel protein, AXIN1-295aa. AXIN1-295aa functions as an oncogenic protein, activating the Wnt signaling pathway to promote GC tumorigenesis and progression, suggesting a potential therapeutic target for GC.

Traditional wireless positioning technology has low accuracy, and UWB positioning technology can achieve centimeter-level high-precision positioning to meet the accuracy requirements of the fully mechanized working face positioning systems. However, the existing researches ignore the impact of position change of the base station installed on the hydraulic support on the positioning effect. In order to solve the above problems, laser ranging technology is applied to the mine environment and a positioning system of fully mechanized working face based on UWB and laser ranging is designed. The positioning base station is installed on the hydraulic support, and the position of the base station changes when the position of the hydraulic support changes. The mine intrinsically safe laser ranging sensor is used to measure the distance between the positioning base stations. The external antenna of the positioning base station transmits fixed-power UWB wireless signals. The positioning base station communicates with the positioning identification card worn on the personnel or installed on the equipment, and determines the positioning information of the moving target through the time-of-flight ranging method. The positioning base station uploads the positioning information data to the ground data center through the mine ring network. The system test is carried out on the E2308 working face of Gaohe Coal Mine, and the result show that the positioning accuracy of the system reaches 0.193 m and the positioning accuracy is high. Moreover, the system base station position calibration accuracy is about 0.011 m, which solves the problem of base station position calibration effectively.

Peptidylarginine deiminase 4 (PAD4), a Ca2+-dependent enzyme, catalyzes the conversion of arginine to citrulline and has been strongly associated with many malignant tumors. However, the molecular mechanisms of PAD4 in the development and progression of colorectal cancer (CRC) remain unclearly defined. In our study, PAD4 expression was increased in CRC tissues and cells, and was closely related to tumor size, lymph node metastasis. Moreover, the transcription factor KLF9 directly bound to PADI4 gene promoter, leading to overexpression of PAD4 in CRC cells, which augmented cell growth and migration. We revealed that PAD4 interacted with and citrullinated glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK3β) in CRC cells, and GSK3β Arg-344 was the dominating PAD4-citrullination site. Furthermore, IgL2 and catalytic domains of PAD4 directly bound to the kinase domain of GSK3β in CRC cells. Mechanistically, PAD4 promoted the transport of GSK3β from the cytoplasm to the nucleus, thereby increasing the ubiquitin-dependent proteasome degradation of nuclear cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1 (CDKN1A). Our study is the first to reveal the details of a critical PAD4/GSK3β/CDKN1A signaling axis for CRC progression, and provides evidence that PAD4 is a potential diagnosis biomarker and therapeutic target in CRC.

Graphdiyne has an inborn band gap energy, where the minimal band gap is about from 0.46 to 1.22 eV, which shows great potential in ultrafast laser generation. In this work, we fabricate a graphdiyne-decorated microfiber and demonstrate its saturable absorption characteristics experimentally. This device is used as a saturable absorber to generate the conventional soliton and noise-like pulse in an erbium-doped mode-locked fiber laser. The conventional soliton with a spectral bandwidth of 2.45 nm can switch into noise-like pulse with 37.14 nm bandwidth by adjusting the pump power and the polarization controller. For the noise-like pulse, the mode-locked state has excellent stability with 2.17 nJ maximum pulse energy and 283 fs coherent peak duration. This work indicates that graphdiyne could be a remarkable nonlinear photonic device to explore the dynamics of various mode-locked pulses.

The band gap of two-dimensional (2D) materials become a hot issue for photoelectric detection. Recently, public attention is thoroughly aroused as to the remarkable electrical transport characteristic and super photoresponse of 2D graphdiyne. The simulation results show that the photoresponse can be adjusted in various solutions based on the graphdiyne nanosheets with different sizes and thicknesses. Based on few-layered graphdiyne nanosheets prepared by a liquid-phase exfoliation method, a photoelectrochemical (PEC)-type few-layered graphdiyne photodetector is demonstrated in this paper. A group of PEC tests are carried out in neutral solution to verify the simulation results. The as-prepared graphdiyne photodetector possesses high photocurrent density, effective responsivity and excellent cycle stability in condition of KCl electrolyte and solar illuminance. The detectivity of the PEC-type graphdiyne photodetector can be easy to adjust by altering electrolyte concentration and other corresponding parameters, which indicates the proposed equipment can be a good candidate for photoelectric detection.

Abstract Background Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteraemia (PAB) is associated with high mortality. The benefits of infectious diseases consultation (IDC) has been demonstrated in Staphylococcal aureus bacteraemia and other complex infections. Impact of IDC in PAB is unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of IDC on the management and outcomes in patients with PAB. Methods This is a retrospective cohort single-centre study from 1 November 2006 to 29 May 2019, in all adult patients admitted with first episode of PAB. Data collected included demographics, clinical management and outcomes for PAB and whether IDC occurred. In addition, 29 Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) stored isolates were available for Illumina whole genome sequencing to investigate if pathogen factors contributed to the mortality. Results A total of 128 cases of PAB were identified, 71% received IDC. Patients who received IDC were less likely to receive inappropriate duration of antibiotic therapy (4.4%; vs 67.6%; p

Assessments of molecular weight distribution and activity/efficacy of Auricularia heimuer polysaccharides (AAP) are of substantial significance for its extraction process optimisation. In the present study, single-factor orthogonal test and response surface methodology were employed to optimise extraction conditions of AAP. Furthermore, a rat hyperlipidaemia model was established to compare the lipid-lowering activity of polysaccharides obtained by three extraction methods. Conditions for enzymatic hydrolysis were optimised as pH 5.0, 1% cellulase, 2.5% substrate concentration and enzymolysis time of 1.5 h, leading to an up to 31.8% polysaccharide yield and 89.13% of polysaccharides within the molecular weight range of 5 000 Da to 10 000 Da. The results of animal experiments showed that the lipid-lowering activity of enzymolysis-extracted polysaccharides was significantly higher than that of water- and ultrasonic-extracted ones (P < 0.01). So the present study revealed that enzymatic hydrolysis-extracted polysaccharides showed the strongest hypolipidaemia activity, providing a basis for the development of A. heimuer-based functional foods and drugs.

Whole genome sequencing (WGS) provides insights into the evolution of antimicrobial resistance, an urgent global health threat. Using WGS, we observe evolutionary adaptation of a Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain within an immunocompromised patient undergoing antibiotic therapy. Two blood isolates (EA-86 and EA-87) from the patient evolved separate adaptations for antibiotic resistance, while sharing common adaptive mutations for host immune evasion. In EA-86, a silencing mutation in the antibiotic efflux pump repressor, NfxB, increased antibiotic resistance, while in EA-87, a similar mutation was seen in the antibiotic efflux pump repressor mexR. The number of genomic variants between the two isolates give a divergence time estimate of the order of 1000 generations. This time is sufficient for a bacterial lineage to have evolved an SNP in every position in the genome and been fixed if advantageous. This demonstrates the evolutionary adaptive power accessible to bacteria and the timescale for a brute-force functional survey of the SNP fitness landscape.

C22H15BrN2O6, monoclinic, P21/c (No. 14), a = 5.1760 (5) Å, b = 17.5652(19) Å, c = 21.734(2) Å, β = 94.690(3) °, Z = 4, V = 1969.3(3) Å3, Rgt(F) = 0.0569, wRref(F2) = 0.1206, T = 170 K.

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common malignant tumors and ranks third in cancer mortality globally. Although, a lot of advancements have been made in diagnosis and treatment of gastric cancer, there is still lack of ideal biomarker for the diagnosis and treatment of gastric cancer. Due to the poor prognosis, the survival rate is not improved much. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are single-stranded RNAs with a covalently closed loop structure that don’t have the 5′-3′ polarity and a 3′ polyA tail. Because of their circular structure, circRNAs are more stable than linear RNAs. Previous studies have found that circRNAs are involved in several biological processes like cell cycle, proliferation, apoptosis, autophagy, migration and invasion in different cancers, and participate in some molecular mechanisms including sponging microRNAs (miRNAs), protein translation and binding to RNA-binding proteins. Several studies have reported that circRNAs play crucial role in the occurrence and development of different types of cancers. Although, some studies have reported several circRNAs in gastric cancer, more studies are needed in searching new biomarkers for gastric cancer diagnosis and treatment. Here, we investigated potential circRNA biomarkers for GC using next-generation sequencing (NGS) data collected from 5 paired GC samples. A total of 45,783 circRNAs were identified in all samples and among them 478 were differentially expressed (DE). The gene ontology (GO) analysis of the host genes of the DE circRNAs showed that some genes were enriched in several important biological processes, molecular functions and cellular components. The Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis revealed that some host genes were enriched in several GC related pathways. The circRNA-miRNA-gene interaction network analysis showed that two circRNAs circCEACAM5 and circCOL1A1 were interacted with gastric cancer related miRNAs, and their host genes were also the important therapeutic and prognostic biomarkers for GC. The experimental results also validated that these two circRNAs were DE in GC compared to adjacent normal tissues. Overall, our findings suggest that these two circRNAs circCEACAM5 and circCOL1A1 might be the potential biomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of GC.

The functional study on circRNAs has been increasing in the past decade due to its important roles in micro RNA sponge, protein coding, the initiation, and progression of diseases. The study of circRNA functions depends on the full-length sequences of circRNA, and current sequence assembly methods based on short reads face challenges due to the existence of linear transcript. Long reads produced by long-read sequencing techniques such as Nanopore technology can cover full-length sequences of circRNA and therefore can be used to evaluate the correctness and completeness of circRNA full sequences assembled from short reads of the same sample. Using long reads of the same samples, one from human and the other from mouse, we have comprehensively evaluated the performance of several well-known circRNA sequence assembly algorithms based on short reads, including circseq_cup, CIRI_full, and CircAST. Based on the F1 score, the performance of CIRI-full was better in human datasets, whereas in mouse datasets CircAST was better. In general, each algorithm was developed to handle special situations or circumstances. Our results indicated that no single assembly algorithm generated better performance in all cases. Therefore, these assembly algorithms should be used together for reliable full-length circRNA sequence reconstruction. After analyzing the results, we have introduced a screening protocol that selects out exonic circRNAs with full-length sequences consisting of all exons between back splice sites as the final result. After screening, CIRI-full showed better performance for both human and mouse datasets. The average F1 score of CIRI-full over four circRNA identification algorithms increased from 0.4788 to 0.5069 in human datasets, and it increased from 0.2995 to 0.4223 in mouse datasets.

In view of problem that theoretical modeling and simulation experiment are mostly used in research of underground path loss characteristics of high -precision ultra wide band (UWB) signal, actual measurement research of UWB signal is less. The path loss measurement and analysis of UWB signal are carried out in two typical scenarios of running roadway of overhead passenger device (monkey car) with relatively common environmental conditions such as roadway size, roadway wall material and pipe facilities，and heading face with bad environment, high coal dust concentration and serious water accumulation. The results show that: ① The path loss index of UWB signal in two kinds of roadway environments is less than 2, and wave guide effect of roadway leads to better propagation characteristics of UWB signal than that of free space. The base station deployment interval of the UWB positioning system in roadway is larger than that of the ground free space propagation scene.② In the same mine, the roadway environment is different, and the path loss characteristics are also different. The path loss index and shadow fading variance of heading face are significantly different from those of monkey car running roadway. ③ From comparison of single test point in roadway of heading face, the path loss in NLOS environment is larger than that in LOS environment. More intensive positioning base stations need to be deployed in roadway in NLOS environment.The results can be used to guide deployment scheme design of mine UWB precise positioning system.

We report on an Er:Y2O3 ceramic channel waveguide laser operating at continuous-wave and passively Q-switched regimes, for the first time to the best of our knowledge. The Er:Y2O3 ceramic channel waveguide has been fabricated by a femtosecond laser direct-writing technique. The maximum output power reached 123.5 mW in continuous-wave mode with a slope efficiency of about 21%, and the lasing behavior has been found simultaneously at 2710.28, 2716.76, and 2723.18 nm. We have further fabricated an MXene Ti3C2Tx saturable absorber mirror to operate the Er:Y2O3 waveguide in passively Q-switched regime. At the same time, property of the MXene Ti3C2Tx saturable absorber has been characterized, and nonlinear saturable absorption of the saturable absorber has also been measured. The average output power is about 67.6 mW, and the shortest pulse width is about 58.1 ns. This work indicates that femtosecond laser direct writing is a reliable technique for processing mid-infrared ceramic waveguides, and MXene Ti3C2Tx is promising for operating pulsed mid-infrared lasers.

Tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) is the most universal platform currently available for the analysis of enzymatic activities and biomarkers in dried blood spots (DBS) for applications in newborn screening (NBS). Among the MS/MS applications in NBS, the most common is flow-injection analysis (FIA-) MS/MS, where the sample is introduced as a bolus injection into the mass spectrometer without the prior fractionation of analytes. Liquid chromatography combined with MS/MS (LC-MS/MS) has been employed for second-tier tests to reduce the false-positive rate associated with several nonspecific screening markers, beginning two decades ago. More recently, LC-MS/MS has been applied to primary screening for new conditions for which FIA-MS/MS or other methods, including genomic screening, are not yet adequate. In addition to providing a list of the currently used LC-MS/MS-based assays for NBS, the authors share their experience regarding the maintenance requirements of LC-MS/MS vs. FIA-MS/MS systems. The consensus is that the maintenance of LC-MS/MS and FIA-MS/MS instrumentation is similar, and LC-MS/MS has the advantage of allowing for a larger number of diseases to be screened for in a multiplex, cost-effective fashion with a high throughput and an adequate turnaround time.

Cane toads (Rhinella marina) are notoriously successful invaders: from 101 individuals brought to Australia in 1935, poisonous toads now cover an area >1.2 million km2 with adverse effects on native fauna. Despite extensive research on the role of macroparasites in cane toad invasion, viral research is lagging. We compared viral prevalence and diversity between toads in their native range (French Guiana, n=25) and two introduced ranges: Australia (n=151) and Hawai’i (n=10) with a metatranscriptomic and metagenomic approach combined with PCR screening. Australian toads almost exclusively harbor one of seven viruses detected globally. Rhimavirus-A (Picornaviridae) exhibited low genetic diversity and likely actively infected 9% of sampled Australian toads extending across ~2,000km of Northern Australia and up to the current invasion front. In native range cane toads, we identified multiple phylogenetically distinct viruses (Iridoviridae, Picornaviridae, Papillomaviridae, and Nackedna-like virus). None of the same viruses was detected in both ranges, suggesting that Australian cane toads have largely escaped the viral infection experienced by their native range counterparts. The novel native range viruses described here are potential biocontrol agents, as Australian toads likely lack prior immunological exposure to these viruses. Overall, our evidence suggests that there may be differences between viruses infecting cane toads in their native vs. introduced ranges, which lays the groundwork for further studies on how these viruses have influenced the toads’ invasion history.

Graph contrastive learning (GCL) has been subject to more attention and been widely applied to numerous graph learning tasks such as node classification and link prediction. Although it has achieved great success and even performed better than supervised methods in some tasks, most of them depend on node-level comparison, while ignoring the rich semantic information contained in graph topology, especially for social networks. However, a higher-level comparison requires subgraph construction and encoding, which remain unsolved. To address this problem, we propose a subgraph adaptive structure-aware graph contrastive learning method (PASCAL) in this work, which is a subgraph-level GCL method. In PASCAL, we construct subgraphs by merging all motifs that contain the target node. Then we encode them on the basis of motif number distribution to capture the rich information hidden in subgraphs. By incorporating motif information, PASCAL can capture richer semantic information hidden in local structures compared with other GCL methods. Extensive experiments on six benchmark datasets show that PASCAL outperforms state-of-art graph contrastive learning and supervised methods in most cases.

Abstract The emergence of cost-effective and rapid sequencing approaches has resulted in an exponential rise in the number of mitogenomes on public databases in recent years, providing greater opportunity for undertaking large-scale comparative genomic and systematic research. Nonetheless, current datasets predominately come from small and disconnected studies on a limited number of related species, introducing sampling biases and impeding research of broad taxonomic relevance. This study contributes 21 crustacean mitogenomes from several under-represented decapod infraorders including Polychelida and Stenopodidea, which are used in combination with 225 mitogenomes available on NCBI to investigate decapod mitogenome diversity and phylogeny. An overview of mitochondrial gene orders (MGOs) reveals a high level of genomic variability within the Decapoda, with a large number of MGOs deviating from the ancestral arthropod ground pattern and unevenly distributed among infraorders. Despite the substantial morphological and ecological variation among decapods, there was limited evidence for correlations between gene rearrangement events and species ecology or lineage specific nucleotide substitution rates. Within a phylogenetic context, predicted scenarios of rearrangements show some MGOs to be informative synapomorphies for some taxonomic groups providing strong independent support for phylogenetic relationships. Additional comparisons for a range of mitogenomic features including nucleotide composition, strand asymmetry, unassigned regions and codon usage indicate several clade-specific trends that are of evolutionary and ecological interest.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are RNA molecules formed by joining a downstream 3 splice donor site and an upstream 5 splice acceptor site. Several recent studies have identified circRNAs as potential biomarker for different diseases. A number of methods are available for the identification of circRNAs. The circRNA identification methods cannot provide full-length sequences. Reconstruction of the full-length sequences is crucial for the downstream analyses of circRNA research including differential expression analysis, circRNA-miRNA interaction analysis and other functional studies of the circRNAs. However, a limited number of methods are available in the literature for the reconstruction of full-length circRNA sequences. We developed a new method, circRNA-full, for full-length circRNA sequence reconstruction utilizing chimeric alignment information from the STAR aligner. To evaluate our method, we used full-length circRNA sequences produced by isocirc and ciri-long using long-reads RNA-seq data. Our method achieved better reconstruction rate, precision, sensitivity and F1 score than the existing full-length circRNA sequence reconstruction tool ciri-full for both human and mouse data.

Previous research has found that miRNA-20b is highly expressed in gastric cancer (GC), however, its function and underlying mechanism are not clear. Wnt signaling pathway, implicated in tumorigeneisis, is activated in more than 30% of GC. We would like to characterize the biological behavior of miRNA-20b in terms of modulating Wnt/β-catenin signaling and EMT. We showed that miRNA-20b inhibitors suppressed Topflash/Fopflash dependent luciferase activity and the β-catenin nuclear translocation, resulting in inhibition of Wnt pathway activity and EMT. SUFU, negatively regulating Wnt and Hedgehog signaling pathway, was proved to be targeted by miRNA-20b. Moreover, additional knockdown of SUFU alleviated the inhibitory effect on Wnt pathway activity, EMT, cell proliferation/migration and colony formation caused by miRNA-20b inhibition.In summary, miRNA-20b is an oncogenic miRNA and promoted cell proliferation, migration and EMT in GC partially by activating Wnt pathway via targeting SUFU.