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Abstract Astragali radix (AR, namded Huangqi in Chinese) is the dried root of Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bge. var. mongholicus (Bge.) Hsiao or Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bge. As a widely used ethnomedicine, the biological activities of AR include immunomodulatory, anti-hyperglycemic, anti-oxidant, anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, anti-tumor, cardioprotective, and anti-diabetic effects, with minimum side effects. Currently, it is known that polysaccharides, saponins, and flavonoids are the indispensable components of AR. In this review, we will elaborate the research advancements of AR on ethnobotany, ethnopharmacological practices, phytochemicals, pharmacological activities, clinical uses, quality control, production developments, and toxicology. The information is expected to assist clinicians and scientists in developing useful therapeutic medicines with minimal systemic side effects.

In this paper, the Multi-Temporal Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (MT-InSAR) technology is adopted to monitor the Line of Sight (LOS) displacement of Fushun West Opencast Coal Mine (FWOCM) and its surrounding areas in northeast China using Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images acquired from 2018 to 2022. The spatial-temporal evolution of urban subsidence and the south-slope landslide are both analyzed in detail. Comparison with ground measurements and cross-correlation analysis via cross wavelet transform with monthly precipitation data are also conducted, to analyze the influence factors of displacements in FWOCM. The monitoring results show that a subsidence basin appeared in the urban area near the eastern part of the north slope in 2018, with settlement center located at the intersection of E3000 and fault F1. The Qian Tai Shan (QTS) landslide on the south slope, which experienced rapid sliding during 2014 to 2016, presents seasonal deceleration and acceleration with precipitation, with the maximum displacement in vicinity of the Liushan paleochannel. The results of this paper have fully taken in account for the complications of large topographic relief, geological conditions, spatial distribution and temporal evolution characteristics of surface displacements in opencast mining area. The wide range and long time series dynamic monitoring of opencast mine are of great significance to ensure mine safety production and geological disaster prevention in the investigated mining area.

Abstract Background The ectopic superior parathyroid in the tracheoesophageal groove and paraesophageal region is rare. Hyperparathyroidism results when these glands become hyperfunctioning. That may necessitate surgical intervention in the form of parathyroidectomy, which requires a transsternal or transthoracic approach due to a deeply seated mediastinal parathyroid gland. Minimally invasive strategies have emerged recently as an alternative approach with less morbidity. Case presentation We present a case of the paraesophageal ectopic parathyroid gland in the superior posterior mediastinum, which was successfully treated with thoracoscopic resection. Conclusion The current imaging tools improve the thoracoscopic management of mediastinal parathyroid glands. Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) can provide access and exposure to ectopic parathyroid adenoma with low morbidity and financial burden.

Abstract The significance means of the seismic reinforcement effect of a pile-anchor system for slope reinforcement has been widely recognized. However, cases of deformation failure and instability sliding of the pile-anchor system itself and the reinforced slope under seismic action continue to be recorded. Therefore, it is crucial to evaluate the seismic performance of slopes reinforced by a pile-anchor system to prevent the system’s failure. Current evaluation models of a slope reinforced by a pile-anchor system mainly focus on slope stability; however, the safety of the pile-anchor system itself is not sufficiently considered in these models. Consequently, in this study, we propose a multi-objective optimization evaluation (MOE) model for evaluating the seismic performance of slopes reinforced by a pile-anchor system that considers slope stability, safety of the pile-anchor system, and dynamic response of the slope. This model considers slope displacement, acceleration amplification factor of a slope, pile displacement, and anchor displacement as negative indexes, and anti-slide pile bending moment, shear force, and anchor axial force as intermediate indexes. The comprehensive weight of relevant indexes is obtained by combining subjective and objective weights, and the seismic reinforcement effect of the pile-anchor system is evaluated subsequently. In conclusion, the MOE model proposed in this study provides a novel solution for the optimization evaluation of a slope reinforced by a pile-anchor system in forthcoming projects.

The modification of magnesium alloy through the addition of rare-earth elements improves specific properties of magnesium alloy. However, the evolution mechanisms of rare-earth precipitates during thermal cycles are still unclear, particularly during the welding thermal cycles. Therefore, deep research on the influence mechanisms of rare-earth precipitates on the welded joint is necessary. In this paper, Ce-containing Mg alloy was successfully welded by laser welding. The microstructure of the welded joint was deeply analyzed. As a result, the elemental composition and distribution rules of precipitates within the fusion zone were obtained. In addition, heat treatment was carried out for the welded joint, thus deducing the evolution mechanisms of precipitates within the joint. The corresponding results revealed that typical micron/sub-micron-sized particles, consisting of both conventional and rare-earth intermetallics, are formed and neatly distributed within the fusion zone, demonstrating that the rare-earth particles inside the fusion zone are much smaller in size than that of Mg17Al12. Tensile test results suggest that these tiny particles significantly improved the strength of the fusion zone, promoting the tensile-shear strength of the joint accounting for 76.6% of that of the base metal. The above approach provides a feasible solution for the welding of rare-earth Mg alloys.

Gut dysbiosis is closely associated with the burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD), and strategies such as prebiotic supplementation have been suggested to ameliorate CKD and related complications. We hypothesized that prebiotic-soluble dietary fiber (SDF) complexes could ameliorate biochemical parameters, gut microbiota and microbial metabolites of CKD. Here, forty non-dialyzed CKD patients in stage 3 to 5 were randomized to receive either SDF or placebo for 30 days. As expected, SDF intervention reduced serum total cholesterol levels (P＜0.05) and plasma interleukin (IL)-8 levels (P＜0.05). No profound changes in the diversity or community structure of the gut microbiota were observed in SDF group, but the composition of the gut microbiota was altered. Moreover, the concentration of propionate of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) increased significantly following SDF intervention (P＜0.05). SDF supplementation seems to be a promising strategy to improve inflammation, gut microbiology and derived metabolites.

Defect detection on magnetic tile surfaces is of great significance for the production monitoring of permanent magnet motors. However, it is challenging to detect the surface defects from the magnetic tile due to these issues: 1) Defects appear randomly on the surface of the magnetic tile; 2) the defects are tiny and often overwhelmed by the background. To address such problems, an Adaptive Rotation Attention Network (ARA-Net) is proposed for defect detection on the magnetic tile surface, where the Adaptive Rotation Convolution (ARC) module is devised to capture the random defects on the magnetic tile surface by learning multi-view feature maps, and then the Rotation Region Attention (RAA) module is designed to locate the small defects from the complicated background by focusing more attention on the defect features. Experiments conducted on the MTSD3C6K dataset demonstrate the proposed ARA-Net outperforms the state-of-the-art methods, further providing assistance for permanent magnet motor monitoring.

Abstract Water-induced strength deterioration of rock mass is a crucial factor for rock slope instability. To better show the degradation process of rock slope water–rock interaction, we used bentonite as a water-sensitive regulator to build a new rock-like material that matches the features of water-induced strength degradation based on the cement-gypsum bonded materials. Twenty-five schemes of the material mixture proportion were designed using the orthogonal design method considering four factors with five variable levels, and a variety of experiments were conducted to obtain physico-mechanical parameters. In addition, one group of rock-like material proportion was selected and applied to the large-scale physical model test. The experiment results reveal that: (1) The failure mode of this rock-like material is highly similar to that of natural rock masses, and the physico-mechanical parameters vary over a wide range; (2) The bentonite content has a significant influence on the density, elastic modulus, and tensile strength of rock-like materials; (3) It is feasible to obtain the regression equation based on the linear regression analysis to determine the proportion of rock-like material; (4) Through application, the new rock-like material can effectively simulate or reveal the startup mechanism and instability characteristics of rock slopes under water-induced degradation. These studies can serve as a guide for the fabrication of rock-like material in the other model tests.

Rock bridges control the stability of rock slopes with intermittent joints. To better understand the evolution of water-induced damage in rock bridges, we developed new, water-sensitive similar materials and investigated their physical, mechanical, and hydraulic properties. The reasonable proportions of the material components required to simulate a rock bridge were systematically determined based on deformation failure modes, shear creep characteristics, deterioration degree, and the brittleness characteristics after water-rock interaction. Sensitivity analysis and contribution rates were used to characterize the effects of different influencing factors on the mechanical properties of similar materials. We found that one similar material specimen, SM-24, exhibited the analogous characteristics of natural rock bridge in shear creep behavior, crack propagation, and ruptured surfaces. Such similar material for modeling rock bridges has the following mechanical characteristics: reproducing the volume-expansion point, showing high deterioration degree and specific brittle failure characteristics after water-rock interaction, and reproducing the identifiable precursor of accelerated creep and stepped fracture morphology subjected to shear creep loading. The bone-binder ratio dominated mechanical properties of similar materials, while physical and hydraulic properties depended mainly on the bentonite content. These findings provide guidelines for reliably producing similar materials that meet the requirements of different geomechanical model tests in solving geotechnical engineering problems considering the water-rock interactions.

Abstract Background Bone mineral density (BMD) alterations in response to multivitamin exposure were rarely studied. Our study assessed the association of coexposure to six types of vitamins (i.e., vitamins B12, B9, C, D, A and E) with BMD measurements in adults in the US. Methods Data were collected from participants aged ≥ 20 years (n = 2757) in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) from 2005 to 2006. Multiple linear regression, restricted cubic splines, principal component analysis (PCA) and weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression were performed for statistical analysis. Results The circulating levels of vitamins B12 and C were positively associated with BMDs, and an inverted L-shaped exposure relationship was observed between serum vitamin C and BMDs. PCA identified two principal components: one for ‘water-soluble vitamins’, including vitamins B12, B9 and C, and one for ‘fat-soluble vitamins’, including vitamins A, D and E. The former was positively associated with total femur (β = 0.009, 95%CI: 0.004, 0.015) and femoral neck (β = 0.007, 95%CI: 0.002, 0.013) BMDs, and the latter was negatively associated with BMDs with non-statistical significance. The WQS index constructed for the six vitamins was significantly related to total femur (β = 0.010, 95%CI: 0.001, 0.018) and femoral neck (β = 0.008, 95%CI: 0.001, 0.015) BMDs, and vitamins B12 and C weighted the most. The WQS index was inversely related to BMDs with non-statistical significance, and vitamins E and A weighted the most. Conclusion Our findings suggested a positive association between water-soluble vitamin coexposure and BMD, and the association was mainly driven by vitamins B12 and C. Negative association between fat-soluble vitamin coexposure and BMD was indicated, mainly driven by vitamins E and A. An inverted L-shaped exposure relationship was found between vitamin C and BMD.

Magnetic tile defect segmentation plays a vital role in magnet motor production. However, it is difficult to detect defect areas from the magnetic tile because of these issues: 1) There is low contrast between the defects regions and the normal ones on the magnetic tile surface; 2) The defects on the magnetic tile vary greatly, and the small defects are always masked by complex backgrounds. To tackle these problems, a Multi-View Residual Attention U-Net (MVRA-UNet) is proposed for defect segmentation from magnetic tile surface, where the Gaussian Residual Attention Convolution (GRAC) module is designed to distinguish similar feature defects in low contrast environments by modeling discriminative feature representation; then, the Multi-View Cycle Convolution (MVCC) module is designed to segment the tiny defects from background noise by learning multi-view (i.e., x, y, and z-axis) feature maps. Experiments conducted on the benchmark demonstrate the superiority of the MVRA-UNet, achieving an excellent performance of 87.7% on the Intersection over Union (IoU), which is better than the state-of-the-art approaches.

BackgroundLung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is a major subtype of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with a highly heterogeneous tumor microenvironment. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are more effective in tumors with a pre-activated immune status. However, the potential of the immune activation-associated gene (IAG) signature for prognosis prediction and immunotherapy response assessment in LUAD has not been established. Therefore, it is critical to explore such gene signatures.MethodsRNA sequencing profiles and corresponding clinical parameters of LUAD were extracted from the TCGA and GEO databases. Unsupervised consistency clustering analysis based on immune activation-related genes was performed on the enrolled samples. Subsequently, prognostic models based on genes associated with prognosis were built using the last absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) method and univariate Cox regression. The expression levels of four immune activation related gene index (IARGI) related genes were validated in 12 pairs of LUAD tumor and normal tissue samples using qPCR. Using the ESTIMATE, TIMER, and ssGSEA algorithms, immune cell infiltration analysis was carried out for different groups, and the tumor immune dysfunction and rejection (TIDE) score was used to evaluate the effectiveness of immunotherapy.ResultsBased on the expression patterns of IAGs, the TCGA LUAD cohort was classified into two clusters, with those in the IAG-high pattern demonstrating significantly better survival outcomes and immune cell infiltration compared to those in the IAG-low pattern. Then, we developed an IARGI model that effectively stratified patients into different risk groups, revealing differences in prognosis, mutation profiles, and immune cell infiltration within the tumor microenvironment between the high and low-risk groups. Notably, significant disparities in TIDE score between the two groups suggest that the low-risk group may exhibit better responses to ICIs therapy. The IARGI risk model was validated across multiple datasets and demonstrated exceptional performance in predicting overall survival in LUAD, and an IARGI-integrated nomogram was established as a quantitative tool for clinical practice.ConclusionThe IARGI can serve as valuable biomarkers for evaluating the tumor microenvironment and predicting the prognosis of LUAD patients. Furthermore, these genes probably provide valuable guidance for establishing effective immunotherapy regimens for LUAD patients.

Abstract Chronic cheilitis (CC) is a spectrum of inflammatory changes of unknown etiology that affect the vermilion of the lips. This study aimed to describe the epidemiology, clinical presentations and risk factors of CC. Patients with CC were recruited from the National Clinical Research Center for Oral Disease of China. A convenience sample of inhabitants who live in the same geographical region were recruited as the control group. The lip skin transepidermal water loss (TEWL) and capacitance of CC patients were compared with that of age- and gender-matched controls. Our results demonstrated that of the 109 patients with CC, 72 (66.1%; 95% CI: 57.0–75.1%) were female. The common clinical presentations of CC consisted of desquamation (n = 99; 90.8%), and/or chapping (n = 81; 74.3%), and/or pruritus (n = 64; 58.7%). Multivariable analysis showed that allergic dermatologic diseases (P

Highly pathogenic influenza A(H5N8) viruses have caused several worldwide outbreaks in birds and are able cross the species barrier to infect humans, posing a substantial threat to public health. After the first detection of H5N8 viruses in deceased swans in Inner Mongolia, we performed early warning and active monitoring along swan migration routes in central China. We isolated and sequenced 42 avian influenza viruses, including 40 H5N8 viruses, 1 H5N2 virus, and 1 H9N2 virus, in central China. Our H5N8 viruses isolated in swan stopover sites and wintering grounds showed high nucleotide homologies in the whole genome, revealing a common evolutionary source. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the H5 viruses of clade 2.3.4.4b prevalent in 2020 have further diverged into two sub-clades: b1 and b2. The phylogeographic analysis also showed that the viruses of sub-clade b2 most likely originated from poultry in Russia. Notably, whooper swans were found to be responsible for the introduction of sub-clade b2 viruses in central China; whooper and tundra swans play a role in viral spread in the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin, respectively. Our findings highlight swans as an indicator species for transborder spreading and monitoring of the H5N8 virus.

Abstract Background Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the most common subtype of non‐small cell lung cancer and has a poor prognosis. RBR E3 ubiquitin ligases are a special class of E3 ubiquitin ligases which contain three zinc‐bing domains that catalyze ubiquitin to substrate proteins. The RBR family of E3 ubiquitin ligases has been reported in various human malignancies, but the roles of RBR E3 ubiquitin ligases in LUAD remain unclear. Methods By using TCGA and Kaplan–Meier plotter databases, we examined the expression and prognostic value of RBR E3 ubiquitin ligases. cBioPortal was used to analyze genetic mutations. The STRING database was used to build a protein interactive network. GO, KEGG, and GSEA were performed to investigate the potential biological functions of RBR E3 ubiquitin ligases. Results The expression of ARIH2, RNF144B, RNF216, and RNF217 was significantly related to the clinicopathological parameters and prognosis in LUAD patients. GSEA enrichment result showed ARIH2, RNF144B, RNF216, and RNF217 were all associated with NADH dehydrogenase complex assembly. GO functional enrichment analysis revealed that four RBR E3 ubiquitin ligases and their interactors were most correlated with ubiquitin‐protein transferase activity. KEGG pathway analysis indicated they were associated with cytosolic DNA‐sensing pathway, RIG‐I‐like receptor signaling pathway and NF‐kappa B signaling pathway. Conclusions Our comprehensive bioinformatic analysis revealed that ARIH2, RNF144B, RNF216, and RNF217 may be new prognostic biomarkers and these findings will help to better understand the distinct roles of RBR E3 ubiquitin ligases in LUAD.

Abstract Background Large-scale detection has great potential to bring benefits for containing the COVID-19 epidemic and supporting the government in reopening economic activities. Evaluating the true regional mobile severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus nucleic acid testing capacity is essential to improve the overall fighting performance against this epidemic and maintain economic development. However, such a tool is not available in this issue. We aimed to establish an evaluation index system for assessing the regional mobile SARS-CoV-2 virus nucleic acid testing capacity and provide suggestions for improving the capacity level. Methods The initial version of the evaluation index system was identified based on massive literature and expert interviews. The Delphi method questionnaire was designed and 30 experts were consulted in two rounds of questionnaire to select and revise indexes at all three levels. The Analytic Hierarchy Process method was used to calculate the weight of indexes at all three levels. Results The evaluation index system for assessing the regional mobile SARS-CoV-2 virus nucleic acid testing capacity, including 5 first-level indexes, 17 second-level indexes, and 90 third-level indexes. The response rates of questionnaires delivered in the two rounds of consultation were 100 and 96.7%. Furthermore, the authority coefficient of 30 experts was 0.71. Kendall’s coordination coefficient differences were statistically significant (P

Most existing methods for RGB hand pose estimation use root-relative 3D coordinates for supervision. However, such supervision neglects the distance between the camera and the object (i.e., the hand). The camera distance is especially important under a perspective camera, which controls the depth-dependent scaling of the perspective projection. As a result, the same hand pose, with different camera distances can be projected into different 2D shapes by the same perspective camera. Neglecting such important information results in ambiguities in recovering 3D poses from 2D images. In this article, we propose a camera projection learning module (CPLM) that uses the scale factor contained in the camera distance to associate 3D hand pose with 2D UV coordinates, which facilities to further optimize the accuracy of the estimated hand joints. Specifically, following the previous work, we use a two-stage RGB-to-2D and 2D-to-3D method to estimate 3D hand pose and embed a graph convolutional network in the second stage to leverage the information contained in the complex non-Euclidean structure of 2D hand joints. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method surpasses state-of-the-art methods on the benchmark dataset RHD and obtains competitive results on the STB and D+O datasets.

Locked segment-dominated landslides initiate when locked segments are sufficiently damaged to be unlocked. The evolution of such slopes toward instability displays either an exponentially or stepwise accelerated displacement pattern, but the underlying mechanisms of these patterns are elusive. We show that the displacement pattern is governed by mechanical synergy (resistance homogenization) between the ruptured locked segment and the transfixion segment. Using a mechanical model, we demonstrate that rapid and slow resistance homogenizations, which depend mainly on the brittleness of locked segments, cause two unlocking-induced startup mechanisms that lead to loss of slope stability: one occurring at the peak-stress points and the other at the residual-strength points of the locked segments. Accordingly, the evolution toward instability exhibits one of the two abovementioned patterns. External factors, such as rainwater, can deteriorate the strength of geomaterials but hardly alter the inherent mechanical rules that a locked segment adheres to. These findings provide insights into the mechanism of locked segment-dominated landslides and pave the way for reliably predicting their occurrence.

Black carbon (BC) is an important component of atmospheric PM 2.5 and the second largest contributor to global warming. 1,4-naphthoquinone-coated BC (1,4 NQ-BC) is a secondary particle with great research value, so we chose 1,4 NQ-BC as the research object. In our study, mitochondria and lysosomes were selected as targets to confirm whether they were impaired by 1,4 NQ-BC, label free proteomics technology, fluorescent probes, qRT-PCR and western blots were used to investigate the mechanism of 1,4 NQ-BC toxicity. We found 494 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) in mitochondria and 86 DEPs in lysosomes using a proteomics analysis of THP1 cells after 1,4 NQ-BC exposure for 24 h. Through proteomics analysis and related experiments, we found that 1,4 NQ-BC can damage THP-1-M cells by obstructing autophagy, increasing lysosomal membrane permeability, disturbing the balance of ROS, and reducing the mitochondrial membrane potential. It is worth noting that 1,4 NQ-BC prevented the removal of FTL by inhibiting autophagy, and increased IL-33 level by POR/FTL/IL-33 axis. We first applied proteomics to study the damage mechanism of 1,4 NQ-BC on THP1 cells. Our research will enrich knowledge of the mechanism by which 1,4 NQ-BC damages human macrophages and identify important therapeutic targets and adverse outcome pathways for 1,4 NQ-BC-induced damage.

Pseudorabies virus (PRV) is one of the causative agents of common infectious diseases in swine herds. Enterococcus faecium is a probiotic belonging to the group of lactic acid bacteria and has excellent immunomodulatory effects. Vaccine immunization is an important approach to prevent animal diseases in the modern farming industry, and good immunization outcomes can substantially reduce the damage caused by pathogens to animals, improve the quality of animals’ lives, and reduce economic losses. In the present study, we showed that inactivated E. faecium and inactivated PRV when co-injected intravenously significantly reduced the mortality of mice after inoculation with PRV. The inactivated E. faecium + inactivated PRV intravenous injection group induced more production of Th cells and Tc cells. Additionally, the inactivated E. faecium + inactivated PRV intravenous injection group showed higher concentrations of cytokines (IFN-γ and IL-10) and induced higher antibody production. Thus, the co-injection of inactivated E. faecium and inactivated PRV could remarkably prevent and control the lethality of PRV infection in mice, which is a critical finding for vaccination and clinical development.

Abstract Steel–concrete (SC) composite widely used in military defensive project is due to its impressive mechanical properties, long-lived service, and low cost. However, the growing use of hypervelocity kinetic weapons in the present war puts forward higher requirements for the anti-explosion and penetration performance of military protection engineering. Here, inspired by the special ‘brick-and-mortar’ (BM) structural feature of natural nacre, we successfully construct a nacre-inspired steel–concrete (NISC) engineering composite with 2510 kg/m3, possessing nacre-like lamellar architecture via a bottom-up assembling technique. The NISC engineering composite exhibits nacreous BM structural similarity, high compressive strength of 68.5 MPa, compress modulus of 42.0 GPa, Mohs hardness of 5.5, Young’s modulus of 41.5 GPa, and shear modulus of 18.4 GPa, higher than pure concrete. More interestingly, the hypervelocity impact tests reveal the penetration capability of our NISC target material is obviously stronger than that of pure concrete, enhanced up to about 46.8% at the striking velocity of 1 km/s and approximately 30.9% at the striking velocity of 2 km/s, respectively, by examining the damages of targets, the trajectories, penetration depths, and residual projectiles. This mechanically integrated enhancement can be attributed to the nacre-like BM structural architecture derived from assembling the special steel-bar array frame-reinforced concrete platelets. This study highlights a key role of nacre-like structure design in promoting the enhanced hypervelocity impact resistance of steel–concrete composites.

AbstractLandslides have posed a huge threat to the ecological environment and human society all over the world. As the most conventional reinforcement method, anti-slide piles are widely used in the reinforcement of slopes. Currently, more and more attention has been paid to the low-cost and high-efficiency optimal design of anti-slide piles. However, limitations in the method of the optimization design for slopes reinforced with piles still exist. In this paper, a new multi-objective comprehensive optimization method was proposed for the optimization of the slope reinforced with anti-slide piles. The factor of safety, internal force, and deflection of piles were selected as the optimization indexes, and the optimization index weight was determined by integrating the subjective and objective weights. The influence of pile locations, pile lengths, and pile spacings on the reinforcement effect of a homogeneous slope was analyzed via the numerical simulation. Through the simulation case analysis, the proposed model had achieved good effects on the optimization design of anti-slide piles, which could effectively reduce the engineering costs. The optimization results showed that the best reinforcement effect for the homogeneous slope could be obtained when the anti-slide piles with the critical pile length and small pile spacing were located in the middle of the slope. This provides a new solution for the optimization design of other types of complex slopes and has broad application prospects.

The dynamics of composition and properties of dissolved organic matter in soil depend on plant carbon inputs and microbial degradation. However, uncertainties remain regarding the relative contributions of different plant carbon inputs sources, i.e., from litter decomposition versus rhizodeposits, to soil dissolved organic matter, which may limit the understanding of soil carbon dynamics. In this study, effects of plant carbon inputs from either rhizodeposition or litter (leaf, stem, rhizome, and root litter) decomposition on composition and optical properties of soil dissolved organic matter were estimated. Rhizodeposition and litter decomposition of P. australis had significant effects on soil dissolved organic matter, and its variation was mainly associated with the third fluorescent component (C3). Effects of rhizodeposition on soil dissolved organic matter were significantly altered by soil salinity, exhibiting increased chromophoric dissolved organic matter and fulvic acid C3 under saline conditions. Effects of litter decomposition on soil chemistry and dissolved organic matter varied greatly among plant tissues. Compared with rhizome and root, leaf and stem decomposed more thoroughly and significantly increased the contents of fulvic acid C3. This was supported by increased aromaticity associated with leaf inputs and increased plant-derived dissolved organic matter associated with stem and leaf inputs. These findings highlight the significant influence of rhizodeposition and litter decomposition on soil dissolved organic matter, and suggest that the roles of salinization and plant tissue type merit consideration in further studies on plant–soil carbon cycling.

Background: Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the most common type of lung cancer with a complex tumor microenvironment. Neddylation, as a type of post-translational modification, plays a vital role in the development of LUAD. To date, no study has explored the potential of neddylation-associated genes for LUAD classification, prognosis prediction, and treatment response evaluation.Methods: Seventy-six neddylation-associated prognostic genes were identified by Univariate Cox analysis. Patients with LUAD were classified into two patterns based on unsupervised consensus clustering analysis. In addition, a 10-gene prognostic signature was constructed using LASSO-Cox and a multivariate stepwise regression approach.Results: Substantial differences were observed between the two patterns of LUAD in terms of prognosis. Compared with neddylation cluster2, neddylation cluster1 exhibited low levels of immune infiltration that promote tumor progression. Additionally, the neddylation-related risk score correlated with clinical parameters and it can be a good predictor of patient outcomes, gene mutation levels, and chemotherapeutic responses.Conclusion: Neddylation patterns can distinguish tumor microenvironment and prognosis in patients with LUAD. Prognostic signatures based on neddylation-associated genes can predict patient outcomes and guide personalized treatment.

Background: Although a majority of early-stage lung adenocarcinoma (es-LUAD) patients have a favorable prognosis, there are still some cases with a risk of recurrence and metastasis. Cuproptosis is a new form of death that differs from other programmed cell death. However, no study has been reported for setting a prognostic model of es-LUAD using cuproptosis pattern-related genes.Methods: Using multiple R packages, the data from the GEO database was processed, and es-LUAD patients was classified into two patterns based on cuproptosis-related genes. Key differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the two patterns were screened to construct a prognostic signature to assess differences in biological processes and immunotherapy responses in es-LUAD. Tumor microenvironment (TME) in es-LUAD was analyzed using algorithms such as TIMER and ssGSEA. Then, a more accurate nomogram was constructed by combining risk scores with clinical factors.Results: Functional enrichment analysis revealed that DEGs in two patterns were correlated with organelle fission, nuclear division, chromosome segregation, and cycle-related pathways. Univariate Cox regression and Lasso-Cox regression analyses identified six prognostic genes: ASPM, CCNB2, CDC45, CHEK1, NCAPG, and SPAG5. Based on the constructed model, we found that the high-risk group patients had higher expression of immune checkpoints (CTLA4, LAG3, PD-L1, TIGIT and TIM3), and a lower abundance of immune cells. Lastly, the nomogram was highly accurate in predicting the 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival status of patients with es-LUAD based on risk scores and clinical factors.Conclusion: The cuproptosis pattern-related signature can serve as a potential marker for clinical decision-making. It has huge potential in the future to guide the frequency of follow-up and adjuvant therapy for es-LUAD patients.

Riparian plants are exposed to harmful stress induced by flooding, which is often accompanied by eutrophication in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region. The phenomenon is mainly caused by domestic sewage discharges, slow water flow, and agricultural fertilizer pollution. Simulating abiotic stress, such as flooding at the initial period, can act as a signal and induce positive responses of plants to subsequent severe stress. In addition, eutrophication supplies nutrients, provides a favorable environment in the early stages of plant, and facilitates good performance in later development. However, whether early flooding (with or without eutrophication) acts as positive cue or as stress on plants at different developmental stages remains unclear. To address this question, seeds of Polygonum hydropiper were collected from low and high elevations in the hydro-fluctuation belt of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region. Plants germinated from these seeds were subjected to shallower and shorter early flooding treatments with or without eutrophication. Subsequently, plants were subjected to deeper and longer flooding treatments with or without eutrophication. Early flooding and eutrophic flooding significantly induced generation of adventitious roots, suggesting morphological adaptation to flooding. Although early flooding and eutrophic flooding treatments did not increase plant biomass in subsequent treatments compared with control, stem length, length and width of the 1st fully expanded leaf, and biomass of plants in the early eutrophic treatment were higher than these of the early flooding treatment plants. These results suggest a negative lag-effect of early flooding, and also indicate that nutrient inputs can alleviate such effects. Similarly, subsequent eutrophic flooding also enhanced plant growth compared with subsequent flooding, showing significantly higher values of leaf traits and adventitious root number. Plants originated from low elevation had significantly higher functional leaf length and stem biomass compared with those from high elevation. These results suggest that nutrient inputs can alleviate negative effects of early and subsequent flooding on growth of P. hydropiper with the generation of adventitious roots.

Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is one of the most common malignancies with the highest mortality globally, and it has a poor prognosis. Cell cycle checkpoints play a central role in the entire system of monitoring cell cycle processes, by regulating the signalling pathway of the cell cycle. Cell cycle checkpoints related genes (CCCRGs) have potential utility in predicting survival, and response to immunotherapies and chemotherapies. To examine this, based on CCCRGs, we identified two lung adenocarcinoma subtypes, called cluster1 and cluster2, by consensus clustering. Enrichment analysis revealed significant discrepancies between the two subtypes in gene sets associated with cell cycle activation and tumor progression. In addition, based on Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) Cox regression, we have developed and validated a cell cycle checkpoints-related risk signature to predict prognosis, tumour immune microenvironment: (TIME), immunotherapy and chemotherapy responses for lung adenocarcinoma patients. Results from calibration plot, decision curve analysis (DCA), and time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) revealed that combining age, gender, pathological stages, and risk score in lung adenocarcinoma patients allowed for a more accurate and predictive nomogram. The area under curve for lung adenocarcinoma patients with 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year overall survival was: 0.74, 0.73, 0.75, and 0.81, respectively. Taken together, our proposed 4-CCCRG signature can serve as a clinically useful indicator to help predict patients outcomes, and could provide important guidance for immunotherapies and chemotherapies decision for lung adenocarcinoma patients.

To investigate the potential role of apple polyphenol extract (APE) in the prevention and alleviation of circadian rhythm disturbances, eighty male C57BL/6 mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD) were randomized into four groups: 24 h ad libitum feeding (AL), 12 h restricted nighttime feeding (NF) or daytime feeding (DF), and daytime feeding with APE intragastric administration (DF-APE). Five weeks later, the mice were sacrificed at 6 h intervals over 24 h. Disrupted fluctuations in serum lipid profiles and hormones, along with desynchronization of circadian clock genes and metabolic genes were observed after daytime HFD feeding. However, APE treatment improved hepatic steatosis and recovered circadian rhythms of Cry1/2, and genes Acc and Hsl related to lipid synthesis and hydrolysis of cholesteryl esters, and Cyp7a1 in bile acid synthesis. In conclusion, the present study provides new evidence revealing that the circadian clock might be a novel target for APE to regulate metabolic homeostasis.

Background and Objectives: Inorganic arsenic (iAs) can cause a wide range of health problems, including coronary heart disease (CHD) and lung, bladder, and skin cancer. Although dietary iAs intake is the primary source of iAs, the burden of CHD and cancers from dietary iAs exposure in Chinese adults has not been well known. Methods: To estimate the iAs exposure level in Chinese adults’ diet, we systematically collected food-specific iAs concentrations in China from Chinese and English literature databases during 2000-2020. Food consumption was extracted from two nationwide food and nutrition surveys in China. The population attributable fraction was calculated based on the dose-response relationship between iAs and CHD risk. Combining the 2016 Chinese tumor registry data, we calculated the annual incidence of cancer from dietary iAs exposure to measure the disability-adjusted life year (DALY) in 2016. Findings: The total amount of daily foodborne iAs intake was 0.55 μg/kg bw/day among Chinese adults. The DALY of foodborne iAs-associated CHD was 3,017,510, which accounted for 10.18% of total CHD DALY in Chinese adults in 2016. Moreover, the carcinogenic DALY for lung cancer, bladder cancer, and skin cancer of Chinese residents in 2016 related to dietary iAs was 314.24, 9.89, and 167.32 thousand, accounting for 2.05%, 1.70%, and 35.5% of the total cancer burden, respectively. Conclusions: Our findings suggested that dietary iAs exposure causes a substantial disease burden in Chinese adults. More efforts for foodborne iAs control are critical to reducing the disease burden of CHD and cancer in China and other countries with similar dietary patterns.

BackgroundFew studies have explored the association between water intake and mortality risk, and the findings were inconsistent.ObjectiveThis study aimed to explore the water intake–mortality association, utilizing the data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and the 2015 public-linked mortality files released by the National Center for Health Statistics.MethodsWe used the diet- and mortality-linked data of a total of 35,463 adults (17,234 men) aged ≥20 years in the NHANESs 1999–2014 to perform a prospective study. The multivariate-adjusted Cox proportional hazards model was used to explore the associations of the amount of water intake (expressed by total water, plain water, beverage, and food water) and water intake proportion (expressed by the percentage of each kind of water) with mortality risks due to all causes, malignant neoplasms/cancer, and heart disease. The restricted cubic spline plots were adopted to clarify the dose–response relationships among them.ResultsWith a median of 88 months (interquartile range: 49–136 months) follow-up, a total of 4,915 all-cause deaths occurred, including 1,073 and 861 deaths from malignant neoplasms/cancer and heart disease, respectively. The amount of water intake in either type was negatively associated with all-cause mortality risk. Additionally, the negative linear dose–response relationships of water intake and all-cause mortality risk were found for all types of water except for food water, which followed a non-linear pattern. Similarly, compared to the lowest quartile (beverage water intake:

Understanding the brittle fracture behavior of rock is crucial for engineering and Earth science. In this paper, based on acoustic emission (AE) and laser Doppler vibration (LDV) monitoring technology, the staged damage behaviors of rock-like materials with different brittleness degrees under uniaxial compression are studied via multiple parameters. The results show that the brittleness degree determines the fracture mode. As the specimen’s brittleness degree increases, the tensile failure increases and shear failure decreases. AE activity is enhanced at the crack damage point. With an increasing specimen brittleness degree, different instability precursor information is shown during the unstable crack growth stage: the AE b value changes from the fluctuating to continuously decreasing state, and the natural frequency changes from the stable fluctuation to upward fluctuation state. The AE b value near the stress drop is the smallest, and it decreases with an increasing brittleness degree. The natural frequency reduction indicates the rock-like fracture. The natural frequency is a symbolic index that reflects staged damage characteristics and predicts the amount of energy released by brittle failure. These findings provide guidelines for rock stability monitoring and provide support for better responses to stability evaluations of rock slopes, rock collapses, and tunnel surrounding rock in engineering.

In view of the fact that on flat panel display industrial production line, the power consumption is very important and determined by their different driving modes and light‐emitting principles. Based on the industrial control systems, this paper analyses the power consumption of flat panel display, studies the main factors affecting its power consumption and analyses the main methods to improve light efficiency and reduce power consumption. This paper also discusses the focus issues in the current standard of flat panel display power measurement at home and abroad. According to the characteristics of different flat panel displays, this paper discusses the dual indexes of power consumption and efficiency in power measurement, and how to consider the influence of screen brightness and angle of view in the measurement.

Abstract Background Enterocytozoon bieneusi is a parasite that infects humans and a wide range of other animals. The large migratory waterfowl, the whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus), travels through many cities during its migration and can spread parasites. Despite receiving increasing attention worldwide, there have been no reports of E. bieneusi infection occurring in C. cygnus. Therefore, this study aims to assess the prevalence and genetic characteristics of E. bieneusi in C. cygnus in Sanmenxia, China. Methods Altogether, 467 fresh fecal samples were collected in the Swan Wetland Park in Sanmenxia, China. Genomic DNA was extracted from fresh fecal samples (n = 467) and E. bieneusi was identified by nested PCR amplification of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. ITS-positive sequences were aligned and phylogenetically analyzed to determine the genotypes of E. bieneusi. Results The overall prevalence of E. bieneusi in C. cygnus was 7.49% (35/467). Sequencing of the 35 positive samples revealed eight known genotypes (EbpA, EbpC, Henan-III, Henan-IV, BEB6, CD9, Peru6 and PtEb IX) and three novel genotypes (CSW1, CSW2 and CSW3). The phylogenetic tree constructed from the ITS sequences showed that seven genotypes (Peru6, EbpA, EbpC, Henan-III, CSW3, Henan-IV and CSW1) clustered within the zoonotic Group 1 while the remaining novel genotype CSW2 clustered within Group 5. Conclusions To our knowledge, this is the first report of E. bieneusi in C. cygnus. Of public health significance, our results suggest that migratory C. cygnus might play an important role in the water-borne transmission of E. bieneusi. Effective strategies will be necessary to control E. bieneusi infection in C. cygnus, other animals and humans.

There is a very important index in the influence of human visual perception, that is, the degree of the motion blur about the moving image on display device. In this paper, a new kind of improved method is proposed to calculate the response time of liquid crystal under the new backlight driving and modulation, which is more accurate than the traditional moving window integration method. This paper also discusses the eye tracking movement of the human visual system, including studying the influence of image content, size, motion speed and motion direction, based on the human vision property study and the analyzes of the simulation model of image motion artifacts perceived by human eyes. Experiments are performed, using the human eye vision perception measurement system. The experiment data shows that the edge blur time can be reduced to 10.5 ms, compared with the 16.5 ms in traditional drive, reduced by 36.4%, and the human perception of motion blur can be markedly reduced. Also, the results show that the simulation results are in good agreement with the actual measurement data by modifying the proportion coefficient of the eye tracking object model to 0.9. At the same time, through the improved human eye tracking model of smooth moving objects, the actual motion blur phenomenon perceived by the human eye can be calculated more accurately, and the results can be used in image processing algorithms to improve the quality of the moving image on the display.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the relationships between the common variants of R-spondin/Wnt signaling genes, gut microbiota composition, and osteoporosis (OP) risk in elderly Chinese Han population.Design: Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was used to obtain the OP-associated measurements at multiple skeleton sites among all 1,168 participants. Genotyping data was obtained by using the next-generation sequencing in the discovery stage (n = 400, 228 OP patients) and SNPscan technology in the replication stage (n = 768, 356 OP patients). Bioinformatic analysis was performed to provide more evidence for the genotype-OP associations. The 16S ribosomal RNA gene high-throughput sequencing technology was adopted to explore OP-associated gut microbiota variations.Results: The genetic variants of rs10920362 in the LGR6 gene (P-FDR = 1.19 × 10–6) and rs11178860 in the LGR5 gene (P-FDR = 1.51 × 10–4) were found to associate with OP risk significantly. Several microbial taxa were associated with the BMDs and T-scores at multiple skeleton sites. The associations between rs10920362 and BMD-associated microbiota maintained significance after adjusting confounders. The rs10920362 CT/TT genotype associated with a decreased relative abundance of Actinobacteria (β = −1.32, P < 0.001), Bifidobacteriaceae (β = −1.70, P < 0.001), and Bifidobacterium (β = −1.70, P < 0.001) compared to the CC genotype.Conclusion: Our findings suggested that the variants loci of LGR6 may be associate with OP pathogenesis via gut microbiota modifications. The relationship between host genetics and gut microbiome provides new perspectives about OP prevention and treatment.

Edible fungi have high edible, medicinal and economic value. Rapid development of the edible fungi industry can meet people’s consumption demands. However, due to lack of suitable preservation technology after harvest, edible fungi are susceptible to mechanical damage, microbial infection, and discoloration, which could affect the quality and shelf life of fresh edible fungi. Many techniques have been developed to extend the postharvest storage time of fresh edible fungi and irradiation technology has been proven to be one of the potential technologies. This review summarizes the internal and external factors affecting the postharvest quality deterioration of edible fungi, introduces the types of irradiation preservation technology and describes comprehensive advances in the effects of irradiation on shelf life, microbiology, organoleptic qualities, nutritional qualities (proteins, fats, sugars and vitamins) and enzymatic activities of edible fungi from different regions and of different species worldwide. This review uncovers that the postharvest quality decay of edible fungi is a complex process. The irradiation preservation of edible fungi is affected not only by the edible fungus itself and the storage environment but also by the radiation type, radiation dose and radiation source conditions. Future studies need to consider the combined application of irradiation and other novel technologies to further improve the preservation effect of edible fungi, in particular in the area of irradiation’s influence on the flavor of edible fungus.

ObjectiveAccumulative evidence suggests that gut microbiota play an important role in bone remodeling and hence bone health maintenance. This study aimed to explore the association of gut microbiota with the risk of osteoporosis and to identify potential disease-related taxa, which may be promising targets in osteoporosis prevention and treatment in the future.MethodsAbsolute quantification 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing was used to detect absolute and relative abundances of gut microbiota in 44 patients with osteoporosis and 64 controls. In combination with one of our previous studies, a total of 175 samples were involved in the relative abundance analysis.ResultsCompared with the controls, the patients with osteoporosis had higher absolute and relative abundances of Bacteroidetes phylum, and Bacteroides and Eisenbergiella genera. The absolute abundances of Clostridium_XlVa, Coprococcus, Lactobacillus, and Eggerthella genera increased, and that of the Veillonella genus decreased in the osteoporosis group. As for relative abundance, that of the Parabacteroides and Flavonifractor genera increased, whereas that of the Raoultella genus decreased in the osteoporosis group. Controlling for potential confounders, the associations of Clostridium_XlVa, Coprococcus, and Veillonella genera with the risk of osteoporosis did not maintain significance. Ridge regression analysis suggested that Bacteroides is associated with reduced bone mineral density (BMD) and T-score at lumbar spines, and Anaerovorax is associated with increased BMD at the femoral neck. Functional predictions revealed that 10 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways were enriched in the osteoporosis group.ConclusionsGut microbiota compositions may contribute to the risk of osteoporosis. Several specific taxa and functional pathways are identified to associate with reduced bone density, thus providing epidemiologic evidence for the potential role of aberrant gut microbiota in osteoporosis pathogenesis.

Mold infections in almonds are a safety issue during post-harvest, storage and consumption, leading to health problems for consumers and causing economic losses. The aim of this study was to isolate mold from infected almond kernels and identify it by whole genome sequence (WGS). Then, the more heat resistant mold was selected and the thermal inactivation kinetics of this mold influenced by temperature and water activity (aw) was developed. Hot air-assisted radio frequency (RF) heating was used to validate pasteurization efficacy based on the thermal inactivation kinetics of this target mold. The results showed that the two types of molds were Penicillium and Aspergillus identified by WGS. The selected Aspergillus had higher heat resistance than the Penicillium in the almond kernels. Inactivation data for the target Aspergillus fitted the Weibull model better than the first-order kinetic model. The population changes of the target Aspergillus under the given conditions could be predicted from Mafart’s modified Bigelow model. The RF treatment was effectively used for inactivating Aspergillus in almond kernels based on Mafart’s modified Bigelow model and the cumulative lethal time model.

Management intensity was considered an important factor in evaluating and regulating the anthropogenic restoration measures for a degraded ecosystem. By comparing selected conventional soil physicochemical, microbial and incorporating aggregate-associated indices between wetland plot with high-intensity freshwater replenishment (HI wetlands) and wetland plot with low-intensity freshwater replenishment (LI wetlands), edaphic responses of degraded estuarine wetlands to freshwater replenishment at different intensity were assessed in the present study. The results showed that high-intensity freshwater replenishment exerted better soil salinization and alkalization alleviation effects on degraded estuarine wetlands, which caused lower EC and pH values in HI wetlands than those in LI wetlands. And soil microbial biomass was promoted, with freshwater replenishment intensity increased, as indicated by MBC and total PLFAs. Minor alternation of soil microbial community composition was observed with an elevated abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in HI wetlands. On the other hand, freshwater replenishment at low intensity was found to contribute to organic matter accumulation, as indicated by both higher SOC concentrations and carbon stocks in LI wetlands than those in HI wetlands. And soil aggregate-associated indicators provided more scientific clues that freshwater replenishment at low intensity favored the formation of large macroaggregates, and thus supported higher soil aggregate stability. Moreover, a transfer of allocations of aggregate-associated carbon and nitrogen stocks from microaggregates to large macroaggregates was induced as the freshwater replenishment intensity decreased, and the principle governing factors were the proportion of large macroaggregates in soils, soil salinity and microbial decomposition rates based on multivariate statistical analysis. The findings of this study could provide basic data regarding soil physicochemical properties, microbial characteristics and soil structure stability in restored wetlands of the Yellow River Delta with freshwater replenishment at different intensity and guiding adaptive management strategies of freshwater replenishment to enhance the ecological functions of estuarine wetlands.

The main aim of this study was to investigate the potent anti-apoptosis and anti-pyroptosis effects of apple polyphenols extract (APE) on dextran sulfate sodium model group (DSS)-induced acute ulcerative colitis (UC) and the protective effect of APE against acute UC-related neuroinflammation and synapse damage. Forty-three C57BL/6 male mice were randomly divided into a control group (CON), a 3% DSS model group (DSS), a 500 mg/(kg·bw·d) APE group (HAP), and a 125 (LD) or 500 (HD) mg/(kg·bw·d) APE treatment concomitantly with DSS treatment group. The results showed that APE significantly ameliorated DSS-induced acute UC through inhibiting intestinal epithelial cell (IEC) apoptosis and the Caspase-1/Caspase-11-dependent pyroptosis pathway, with increased BCL-2 protein expression and decreased protein levels of NLRP3, ASC, Caspase-1/11, and GSDND. Furthermore, APE significantly reduced acute UC-related neuroinflammation and synapse damage, supported by decreased mRNA levels of hypothalamus Cox-2 and hippocampus Gfap and also increased the mRNA levels of hypothalamus Psd-95. The increased protein expression of ZO-1 and Occludin improved the intestinal barrier integrity and improved the function of goblet cells by upregulating the protein level of MUC-2 and TTF3 accounted for the beneficial effects of APE on UC-associated neuroinflammation. Therefore, APE might be a safe and effective agent for the management of acute UC.

Plant–plant interactions change in response to environmental conditions, and riparian species are commonly influenced by flooding. This study tested whether flooding affects the intraspecific and interspecific competition of two riparian species and whether such effects depend on the topographic positions where plants have established. Seeds of the riparian species Polygonum hydropiper were collected from both low and high positions within the shoreline of the Three Gorges Reservoir. Groups of P. hydropiper seedlings from each position were either grown alone (i.e., without competition), with another group of P. hydropiper seedlings (i.e., intraspecific competition), or with a group of seedlings of the companion species Xanthium sibiricum (i.e., interspecific competition). Each group comprised six replicates. In total, 288 plants of P. hydropiper and 84 plants of X. sibiricum were selected for the experiment. Seedlings were subjected to control and flooding treatments for 60 days. Irrespective of competition type (i.e., intra- or interspecific), both flooding and competition negatively affected the growth and/or photosynthetic capacities of P. hydropiper. Flooding only interacted with competition to explain total biomass. Flooding reduced total biomass in a larger proportion in the absence of competition, and, to a lesser extent, with intraspecific competition, compared to interspecific competition. However, such interaction effects were independent of the positions where the seeds that originated from the plants were collected from. Interspecific competition significantly decreased the chlorophyll content and photosynthetic efficiency of plants, while intraspecific competition did not. In general, plants from lower positions had higher total chlorophyll content than plants from higher positions. These results suggest that flooding may regulate the population dynamics of P. hydropiper by altering its competitive interactions.

Sensor-level functional connectivity topography (sFCT) contributes significantly to our understanding of brain networks. sFCT can be constructed using either electroencephalography (EEG) or magnetoencephalography (MEG). Here, we compared sFCT within the EEG modality and between EEG and MEG modalities. We first used simulations to look at how different EEG references—including the Reference Electrode Standardization Technique (REST), average reference (AR), linked mastoids (LM), and left mastoid references (LR)—affect EEG-based sFCT. The results showed that REST decreased the reference effects on scalp EEG recordings, making REST-based sFCT closer to the ground truth (sFCT based on ideal recordings). For the inter-modality simulation comparisons, we compared each type of EEG-sFCT with MEG-sFCT using three metrics to quantize the differences: Relative Error (RE), Overlap Rate (OR), and Hamming Distance (HD). When two sFCTs are similar, RE and HD are low, while OR is high. Results showed that among all reference schemes, EEG-and MEG-sFCT were most similar when the EEG was REST-based and the EEG and MEG were recorded simultaneously. Next, we analyzed simultaneously recorded MEG and EEG data from publicly available face-recognition experiments using a similar procedure as in the simulations. The results showed (1) if MEG-sFCT is the standard, REST—and LM-based sFCT provided results closer to this standard in the terms of HD; (2) REST-based sFCT and MEG-sFCT had the highest similarity in terms of RE; (3) REST-based sFCT had the most overlapping edges with MEG-sFCT in terms of OR. This study thus provides new insights into the effect of different reference schemes on sFCT and the similarity between MEG and EEG in terms of sFCT.

Highlights:Hamming Distance is applied to distinguish the difference of functional connectivity networkThe orientations of sources are testified to influence the scalp Functional Connectivity Graph (FCG) from different references significantlyREST, the reference electrode standardization technique, is proved to have an overall stable and excellent performance in variable situations.The choice of an electroencephalograph (EEG) reference is a practical issue for the study of brain functional connectivity. To study how EEG reference influence functional connectivity estimation (FCE), this study compares the differences of FCE resulting from the different references such as REST (the reference electrode standardization technique), average reference (AR), linked mastoids (LM), and left mastoid references (LR). Simulations involve two parts. One is based on 300 dipolar pairs, which are located on the superficial cortex with a radial source direction. The other part is based on 20 dipolar pairs. In each pair, the dipoles have various orientation combinations. The relative error (RE) and Hamming distance (HD) between functional connectivity matrices of ideal recordings and that of recordings obtained with different references, are metrics to compare the differences of the scalp functional connectivity graph (FCG) derived from those two kinds of recordings. Lower RE and HD values imply more similarity between the two FCGs. Using the ideal recording (IR) as a standard, the results show that AR, LM and LR perform well only in specific conditions, i.e., AR performs stable when there is no upward component in sources' orientation. LR achieves desirable results when the sources' locations are away from left ear. LM achieves an indistinct difference with IR, i.e., when the distribution of source locations is symmetric along the line linking the two ears. However, REST not only achieves excellent performance for superficial and radial dipolar sources, but also achieves a stable and robust performance with variable source locations and orientations. Benefitting from the stable and robust performance of REST vs. other reference methods, REST might best recover the real FCG of EEG. Thus, REST based FCG may be a good candidate to compare the FCG of EEG based on different references from different labs.

This paper proposed a prewhitening invariance of noise space (PW-INN) as a new magnetoencephalography (MEG) source analysis method, which is particularly suitable for localizing closely spaced and highly correlated cortical sources under real MEG noise. Conventional source localization methods, such as sLORETA and beamformer, cannot distinguish closely spaced cortical sources, especially under strong intersource correlation. Our previous work proposed an invariance of noise space (INN) method to resolve closely spaced sources, but its performance is seriously degraded under correlated noise between MEG sensors. The proposed PW-INN method largely mitigates the adverse influence of correlated MEG noise by projecting MEG data to a new space defined by the orthogonal complement of dominant eigenvectors of correlated MEG noise. Simulation results showed that PW-INN is superior to INN, sLORETA, and beamformer in terms of localization accuracy for closely spaced and highly correlated sources. Lastly, source connectivity between closely spaced sources can be satisfactorily constructed from source time courses estimated by PW-INN but not from results of other conventional methods. Therefore, the proposed PW-INN method is a promising MEG source analysis to provide a high spatial-temporal characterization of cortical activity and connectivity, which is crucial for basic and clinical research of neural plasticity.