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Anthocyanins play crucial roles in pollen protection and pollinator attraction in flowering plants. However, the mechanisms underlying flower color determination and whether floral anthocyanin regulators participate in other processes remain largely unresolved in soybeans (Glycine max). In this study, we investigated the genetic components and mechanisms governing anthocyanin biosynthesis in soybean flowers. Molecular and genetic studies have characterized two antagonistic regulators, the positive activator GmMYBA3 and the negative repressor GmMYBR1, that modulate the gene expression of anthocyanin biosynthesis in soybean flowers. Further findings revealed a regulatory interplay between GmMYBA3 and GmMYBR1 bridged by GmTT8a, highlighting the complexity of anthocyanin regulation in different soybean organs. Exploration of additional soybean cultivars demonstrated the universality of GmMYBA3 and GmMYBR1 in regulating floral anthocyanin biosynthesis- related genes, with GmF3′5′H identified as a crucial determinant of white flower color. This study provides a molecular mechanism underlying soybean flower color determination, paving the way for the molecular modification of soybean flowers to probably enhance their resistance to abiotic stresses and attractiveness to pollinators.

Chicken is an important food animal worldwide and plays an important role in human life by providing meat and eggs. Despite recent significant advances in gut microbiome studies, a comprehensive study of chicken gut bacterial, archaeal, and viral genomes remains unavailable. In this study, we constructed a chicken multi-kingdom microbiome catalog (CMKMC), including 18,201 bacterial, 225 archaeal, and 33,411 viral genomes, and annotated over 6,076,006 protein-coding genes by integrating 135 chicken gut metagenomes and publicly available metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from ten countries. We found that 812 and 240 MAGs in our dataset were putative novel species and genera, respectively, far beyond what was previously reported. The newly unclassified MAGs were predominant in Phyla Firmicutes_A (n = 263), followed by Firmicutes (n = 126), Bacteroidota (n = 121), and Proteobacteria (n = 87). Most of the classified species-level viral operational taxonomic units belong to Caudovirales. Approximately, 63.24 % of chicken gut viromes are predicted to infect two or more hosts, including complete circular viruses. Moreover, we found that diverse auxiliary metabolic genes and antibiotic resistance genes were carried by viruses. Together, our CMKMC provides the largest integrated MAGs and viral genomes from the chicken gut to date, functional insights into the chicken gastrointestinal tract microbiota, and paves the way for microbial interventions for better chicken health and productivity.

Abstract Background The aged people who live in nursing home are predicted to keep growing in the following decades. There are both quantitative imbalance and structural imbalance in the utilization of nursing homes in China. This study aimed to analyze old people’s preference for nursing homes and help the government optimize resource allocation. Methods A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted and six attributes of nursing homes including monthly fee, distance from home, geographical location, medical facilities, environment of nursing homes and nursing staff were determined. Respondents were recruited from Nantong and Yangzhou city, China. In each city, two communities or villages were randomly selected. In each community/village, about 65 old people were randomly selected. Analysis was conducted using mixed logit regression models to determine preferences for potential attributes. Results A total of 233 old people were included in the analysis. The findings indicated that all six attributes were statistically significant factors for participants. “Professional nursing staff” was the most important characteristic to participants, followed by “Medical facilities”. Compared with female, the males preferred professional nursing staff (β = 2.939 vs. β = 2.643, P

Abstract REBCO has been used extensively as coated conductors applied to superconducting magnets due to its exceptional superconducting properties. As a REBCO superconductor, YbBa2Cu3O7−y (Yb123) has a low melting temperature, making it suitable for use as an intermediate medium connector while preparing the superconducting joint. However, there is still uncertainty about the formation mechanism of Yb123 and the synthesis of this superconductor has not been fully understood. Therefore, this study systematically investigated the phase transformation process of Yb123 during heat treatment in flowing oxygen. The results indicated that Yb123 sample with the highest phase purity could be obtained by annealing at 927 °C or 937 °C but not in between, respectively. Furthermore, a quantitative phase analysis revealed that the sample annealed at 937 °C had a phase purity greater than 80 wt%. Additionally, a strong c-axis texture was observed in the bulk Yb123 superconductor prepared at 937 °C. Meanwhile, the superconducting results revealed that the bulk sample’s Tc was 89.9 K, and its self-field critical current densities at 4.2 K and 77 K were 1.3 × 105 A/cm2 and 5.0 × 103 A/cm2, respectively. Based on the results mentioned above, the phase transformation process and formation mechanism of Yb123 in flowing oxygen were elaborated.

Abstract Background Oral leukoplakia (OLK) is a prevalent precancerous lesion with limited non-pharmacological treatment options. Surgery and various lasers are the mainstay of treatment; however, their relative efficacy and optimal choice remain unclear. This first network meta-analysis compared the effects of different lasers and surgical excision on post-treatment recurrence and comfort in OLK patients. Methods We searched four databases for relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) up to April 2023. The primary outcome was post-treatment recurrence, and secondary outcomes included intraoperative hemorrhage and postoperative pain scores. The Cochrane Risk of Bias tool was used to assess the study quality. Meta-analysis and network meta-analysis were employed to determine efficacy and identify the optimal intervention. Results A total of 11 RCTs including 917 patients and 1138 lesions were included. Er,Cr:YSGG laser treatment showed significantly lower recurrence rates compared to CO2 laser (OR: 0.04; 95% CI: 0.01–0.18), CO2 laser with margin extension (OR: 0.06; 95% CI: 0.01–0.60), Er:YAG laser (OR: 0.10; 95% CI: 0.03–0.37), electrocautery (OR: 0.03; 95% CI: 0.00–0.18), and standard care (OR: 0.08; 95% CI: 0.02–0.33). Er,Cr:YSGG laser also ranked the best for reducing recurrence, followed by standard care and CO2 laser combined with photodynamic therapy (PDT). Er:YAG and Er:Cr:YSGG lasers minimized bleeding and pain, respectively. None of the interventions caused severe adverse effects. Conclusion For non-homogeneous OLK, Er:YAG, Er:Cr:YSGG, and CO2 laser combined with PDT offer promising alternatives to surgical excision, potentially reducing recurrence and improving patient comfort. Further high-quality RCTs are necessary to confirm these findings and determine the optimal laser–PDT combination for OLK treatment.

Abstract Background The gut microbiota is recognized as a regulator of brain development and behavioral outcomes during childhood. Nonetheless, associations between the gut microbiota and behavior are often inconsistent among studies in humans, perhaps because many host-microbe relationships vary widely between individuals. This study aims to stratify children based on their gut microbiota composition (i.e., clusters) and to identify novel gut microbiome cluster-specific associations between the stool metabolomic pathways and child behavioral outcomes. Methods Stool samples were collected from a community sample of 248 typically developing children (3–5 years). The gut microbiota was analyzed using 16S sequencing while LC-MS/MS was used for untargeted metabolomics. Parent-reported behavioral outcomes (i.e., Adaptive Skills, Internalizing, Externalizing, Behavioral Symptoms, Developmental Social Disorders) were assessed using the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC-2). Children were grouped based on their gut microbiota composition using the Dirichlet multinomial method, after which differences in the metabolome and behavioral outcomes were investigated. Results Four different gut microbiota clusters were identified, where the cluster enriched in both Bacteroides and Bifidobacterium (Ba2) had the most distinct stool metabolome. The cluster characterized by high Bifidobacterium abundance (Bif), as well as cluster Ba2, were associated with lower Adaptive Skill scores and its subcomponent Social Skills. Cluster Ba2 also had significantly lower stool histidine to urocanate turnover, which in turn was associated with lower Social Skill scores in a cluster-dependent manner. Finally, cluster Ba2 had increased levels of compounds involved in Galactose metabolism (i.e., stachyose, raffinose, alpha-D-glucose), where alpha-D-glucose was associated with the Adaptive Skill subcomponent Daily Living scores (i.e., ability to perform basic everyday tasks) in a cluster-dependent manner. Conclusions These data show novel associations between the gut microbiota, its metabolites, and behavioral outcomes in typically developing preschool-aged children. Our results support the concept that cluster-based groupings could be used to develop more personalized interventions to support child behavioral outcomes. Video Abstract

Abstract Background The optimal timing of thoracic radiotherapy (TRT) in driver‐gene‐negative metastatic non‐small cell lung cancer (mNSCLC) patients was retrospectively investigated based on survival and safety profile. Methods The efficacy and safety data of driver‐gene‐negative mNSCLC patients treated with TRT during maintenance after first‐line therapy was collected. Patients whose primary tumor and metastatic lesions remained no progression during maintenance and then received TRT were categorized as the NP (no progression) group, while patients who experienced slow progression during maintenance without reaching progressive disease and then received TRT were categorized as the SP (slow progression) group. The efficacy and adverse events of TRT were analyzed. Results In total, 149 driver‐gene‐negative mNSCLC patients treated with TRT during maintenance were enrolled into the study, with 119 in the NP group and 30 in the SP group. After a median follow‐up of 30.83 (range: 26.62–35.04) months, the median progression‐free survival (PFS) in the NP group was 11.13 versus 9.53 months in the SP group (HR 0.599, p = 0.017). The median overall survival (OS) in the NP group was 32.27 versus 25.57 months in the SP group (HR 0.637, p = 0.088). The median PFS after radiotherapy (rPFS) was 6.33 versus 3.90 months (HR 0.288, p 0.05). Conclusion The addition of TRT during the pre‐emptive no progression phase was associated with a significantly longer PFS than during the delayed slow progression phase and had an acceptable safety profile. Our results might support the earlier initiation of TRT after induction therapy for some patients with driver‐gene‐negative mNSCLC.

Abstract Background Although hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major risk factor for hepatic cancer, the majority of HBV carriers do not develop this lethal disease. Additional molecular alterations are thus implicated in the process of liver tumorigenesis. Since phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) is decreased in approximately half of liver cancers, we investigated the significance of PTEN deficiency in HBV-related hepatocarcinogenesis. Methods HBV-positive human liver cancer tissues were checked for PTEN expression. Transgenic HBV, Alb-Cre and Pten fl/fl mice were inter-crossed to generate WT, HBV, Pten −/− and HBV; Pten −/− mice. Immunoblotting, histological analysis and qRT-PCR were used to study these livers. Gp73 −/− mice were then mated with HBV; Pten −/− mice to illustrate the role of hepatic tumor biomarker golgi membrane protein 73 (GP73)/ golgi membrane protein 1 (GOLM1) in hepatic oncogenesis. Results Pten deletion and HBV transgene synergistically aggravated liver injury, inflammation, fibrosis and development of mixed hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC). GP73 was augmented in HBV; Pten −/− livers. Knockout of GP73 blunted the synergistic effect of deficient Pten and transgenic HBV on liver injury, inflammation, fibrosis and cancer development. Conclusions This mixed HCC-ICC mouse model mimics liver cancer patients harboring HBV infection and PTEN/AKT signaling pathway alteration. Targeting GP73 is a promising therapeutic strategy for cancer patients with HBV infection and PTEN alteration.

In this work, the Mg97Y2Zn (at%) alloys have been processed by the rotary-die (RD) ECAP technique under different temperature or pass conditions to tailor the microstructure and mechanical properties. The results reveal that the DRX ratio (VDRX) increases with the increase of ECAP pass or temperature, weakening the texture intensity. The refinement of DRXed grains saturates after 9 passes of ECAP at 350 °C, while the size of DRXed grains (dDRX) monotonically decreases with the reduction of temperature from 400 °C to 300 °C in the case of the same pass number (9P). The combination of fine dDRX, large VDRX, and directionally arranged LPSO phases along the extrusion direction endows the 350 °C–9P alloy with the optimum strength and ductility synergy, exhibiting the tensile yield strength (TYS) of 267 MPa, ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 318 MPa, and elongation of 10.3%. However, the larger VDRX, weaker texture, less low-angle grain boundaries combine to improve the elongation (14.7%) of the 400 °C–9P alloy at the expense of the TYS (231 MPa) and UTS (303 MPa). This paper provides useful information to optimize the RD-ECAP parameters for the fabrication of high-performance Mg97Y2Zn alloys.

The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) system is an acquired immune system of many bacteria and archaea, comprising CRISPR loci, Cas genes, and its associated proteins. This system can recognize exogenous DNA and utilize the Cas9 protein's nuclease activity to break DNA double-strand and to achieve base insertion or deletion by subsequent DNA repair. In recent years, multiple laboratory and clinical studies have revealed the therapeutic role of the CRISPR/Cas9 system in neurological diseases. This article reviews the CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing technology and its potential for clinical application against neurological diseases.

Background and objective Lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common pathological subtype, with adenocarcinoma being the predominant type. FAT atypical cadherin 1 (FAT1) is a receptor-like protein with a high frequency of mutations in lung adenocarcinoma. The protein encoded by FAT1 plays a crucial role in processes such as cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation. This study aims to investigate the expression of FAT1 in lung adenocarcinoma and its relationship with immune infiltration. Methods Gene expression levels and relevant clinical information of 513 lung adenocarcinoma samples and 397 adjacent lung samples were obtained through The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) data. The mRNA expression levels of the FAT1 gene in lung adenocarcinoma tissues were analyzed, along with its association with the prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma patients. Pathway enrichment analysis was conducted to explore the signaling pathways regulated by the FAT1 gene. Immunoblotting was used to detect the differential expression of FAT1 in lung epithelial cells and various lung cancer cell lines, while immunohistochemistry was employed to assess FAT1 expression in lung cancer and adjacent tissues. Results FAT1 gene mutations were identified in 14% of lung adenocarcinoma patients. TCGA database data revealed significantly higher FAT1 mRNA expression in lung adenocarcinoma tissues compared to adjacent lung tissues. Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated lower survival rates in lung adenocarcinoma patients with higher FAT gene expression. Pathway enrichment analysis suggested the involvement of FAT1 in tumor development pathways, and its expression was closely associated with immune cell infiltration. Immunohistochemical validation demonstrated significantly higher expression of FAT1 in cancer tissues compared to adjacent lung tissues. Conclusion FAT1 mRNA is highly expressed in lung adenocarcinoma tissues, and elevated FAT1 mRNA expression is associated with poor prognosis in lung adenocarcinoma patients. FAT1 may serve as a potential biomarker for lung cancer.

Abstract Background Oculocutaneous albinism (OCA) is a group of rare genetic disorders characterized by a reduced or complete lack of melanin in the skin, hair, and eyes. Patients present with colorless retina, pale pink iris, and pupil, and fear of light. The skin, eyebrows, hair, and other body hair are white or yellowish-white. These conditions are caused by mutations in specific genes necessary for the production of melanin. OCA is divided into eight clinical types (OCA1-8), each with different clinical phenotypes and potential genetic factors. This study aimed to identify the genetic causes of non-syndromic OCA in a Chinese Han family. Methods We performed a comprehensive clinical examination of family members, screened for mutation loci using whole exome sequencing (WES) technology, and predicted mutations using In silico tools. Results The patient’s clinical manifestations were white skin, yellow hair, a few freckles on the cheeks and bridge of the nose, decreased vision, blue iris, poorly defined optic disk borders, pigmentation of the fundus being insufficient, and significant vascular exposure. The WES test results indicate that the patient has compound heterozygous mutations in the OCA2 gene (c.1258G > A (p.G420R), c.1441G > A (p.A481T), and c.2267-2 A > C), respectively, originating from her parents. Among them, c.1258G > A (p.G420R) is a de novo mutation with pathogenic. Our analysis suggests that compound heterozygous mutations in the OCA2 gene are the primary cause of the disease in this patient. Conclusions The widespread application of next-generation sequencing technologies such as WES in clinical practice can effectively replace conventional detection methods and assist in the diagnosis of clinical diseases more quickly and accurately. The newly discovered c.1258G > A (p.G420R) mutation can update and expand the gene mutation spectrum of OCA2-type albinism.

Abstract With the advancement of adversarial techniques for malicious code, malevolent attackers have propagated numerous malicious code variants through shell coding and code obfuscation. Addressing the current issues of insufficient accuracy and efficiency in malicious code classification methods based on deep learning, this paper introduces a detection strategy for malicious code, uniting Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Transformers. This approach utilizes deep neural architecture, incorporating a novel fusion module to reparametrize the structure, which mitigates memory access costs by eliminating residual connections within the network. Simultaneously, overparametrization during linear training time and significant kernel convolution techniques are employed to enhance network precision. In the data preprocessing stage, a pixel-based image size normalization algorithm and data augmentation techniques are utilized to remedy the loss of texture information in the malicious code image scaling process and class imbalance in the dataset, thereby enhancing essential feature expression and alleviating model overfitting. Empirical evidence substantiates this method has improved accuracy and the most recent malicious code detection technologies.

Abstract As an emerging business model, merchants are selling surplus food in blind boxes, which provides new opportunities for reducing waste and promoting sustainable development. Surplus food blind boxes, however, have not been extensively researched in terms of design and marketing strategies. Therefore, we are examining how to increase consumers’ purchase intention regarding surplus food blind boxes as well as the relationship between purchase intention, continuous intention, and recommendation intention. In this paper, two studies are conducted. As part of study 1, We used factor analysis to explore the reasons that influence consumers to purchase. In study 2, we utilized structural equation modeling to examine the impact of purchase intention on continuous intention and recommendation intention. Results indicate that food quality, perceived sustainability, and conspicuous consumption are the most important positive factors. The most important negative factors are perceived food risk, resistance to sales techniques, taste anxiety, and inadequate marketing strategies. Based on our findings, we constructed a path relationship between purchase intention, continuous intention, and recommendation intention. The purchase intention of the surplus food blind box users directly influences the recommendation intention and the continuous intention, while the recommendation intention indirectly influences the continuous intention. This study did not demonstrate that gender had a moderating effect. Meanwhile, it provides a reference for the actual marketing management of surplus food blind box merchants.

Abstract Solid‐state high voltage high repetitive pulse generators have a broad prospect in various applications. The high power and high‐frequency operation of the pulse generator suffer from the massive heat dissipation problem, which limits the improvement of the output parameters and even affects the lifetime. This article focuses on heat management technology for high voltage high repetitive pulse generators. Firstly, the typical circuit topology of the high repetitive pulse generators was summarised. From the perspective of different application requirements, the demands of the heat management design were concluded. Moreover, the heat generation characteristics and difficulties of solid‐state high voltage high repetitive pulse generators were analysed. Then, the different state‐of‐art cooling techniques were reviewed, and their applicability and limitations for the high voltage high repetitive generators were discussed. Finally, a flow chart for heat management design was given.

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic is a persistent global threat to public health. As for the emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2, it is necessary to develop vaccines that can induce broader immune responses, particularly vaccines with weak cellular immunity. Methods In this study, we generated a double-layered N-S1 protein nanoparticle (N-S1 PNp) that was formed by desolvating N protein into a protein nanoparticle as the core and crosslinking S1 protein onto the core surface against SARS-CoV-2. Results Vaccination with N-S1 PNp elicited robust humoral and vigorous cellular immune responses specific to SARS-CoV-2 in mice. Compared to soluble protein groups, the N-S1 PNp induced a higher level of humoral response, as evidenced by the ability of S1-specific antibodies to block hACE2 receptor binding and neutralize pseudovirus. Critically, N-S1 PNp induced Th1-biased, long-lasting, and cross-neutralizing antibodies, which neutralized the variants of SARS-CoV-2 with minimal loss of activity. N-S1 PNp induced strong responses of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, mDCs, Tfh cells, and GCs B cells in spleens. Conclusions These results demonstrate that N-S1 PNp vaccination is a practical approach for promoting protection, which has the potential to counteract the waning immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 variants and confer broad efficacy against future new variants. This study provides a new idea for the design of next-generation SARS-CoV-2 vaccines based on the B and T cells response coordination. Graphical Abstract Steps involved in the preparation of double-layered N-S1 protein nanoparticle vaccines and experimental design performed in combating virus infection. After intramuscular immunization of mice, the double-layered N-S1 protein nanovaccine could effectively promote the maturation of antigen-presenting and mature dendritic cells, robust broad-spectrum neutralizing antibody production, cytokines secretion, robust mDC, Tfh cell, and GCs B cell responses induction, T-cell memory formation and durable antibody responses, and unique global transcriptome characteristics, thus achieving a robust cellular immunity and broad antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2 based on the B and T cells response coordination

Abstract Cichoric acid (CA), a natural phenolic compound found in many plants, has been reported to have antioxidant, anti‐inflammatory, hypoglycemic, and other effects. The aim of this study was to determine the potential role and underlying mechanisms of CA in isoproterenol (ISO)‐induced myocardial fibrosis (MF). The MF model was induced by subcutaneous ISO injection in mice. Blood and heart tissue were collected for examination. Hematoxylin and eosin staining and Masson's trichrome staining were used to evaluate the histopathological changes and collagen deposition. The production of reactive oxygen species markers was observed by fluorescence microscopy, the degree of cardiomyocyte microstructure injury was observed by transmission electron microscope, and oxidative stress factors were detected by kit method, and the effect of CA on inflammatory factors was detected by ELISA. The expression levels of collagen proteins and signaling pathways were further investigated by western blotting. The results showed that CA inhibited the expression of ISO‐induced proinflammatory factors (TNF‐α, IL‐1β, and IL‐18) and proteins (HK1, NLRP3, caspase‐1, cleaved‐caspase‐1, and ASC), and regulated the expression of apoptotic factors (caspase‐3, cleaved‐caspase‐3, Bax, and Bcl‐2). The results indicated that CA may regulate the HK1/NLRP3 inflammasome pathway by inhibiting HK1 expression and play a protective role in MF.

In this study, a novel two-stage vacuum distillation method was proposed to refine crude indium to prepare refined indium. Low-temperature distillation (1223K, holding time of 3h) and high-temperature distillation (1473K, holding time of 5h) were conducted under a system pressure of 7 × 10−3Pa to successfully purify crude indium (99 wt%) to refined indium (99.995 wt%). This strategy can replace the traditional electrolytic process for the clean production of refined indium and achieve the goals of environmental protection. The vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) values of indium-based binary alloys were calculated using the molecular interaction volume model (MIVM), and a VLE phase diagram was drawn. Optimal temperatures of 1173K for low-temperature and 1373K for high-temperature distillation were determined based on the VLE phase diagram, and good purification was achieved. Moreover, this study reveals the migration distribution pattern of typical impurity elements (e.g., Tl and Sn) in crude indium in the low and high-temperature distillation sections, further improving the refining effect. Notably, the combination of MIVM simulations and experiments can obtain optimal experimental parameters for segmental vacuum distillation and further help to avoid the waste of raw materials and energy caused by pre-experiments, realizing the clean and efficient production of refined indium.

Abstract Olfr78, which is a novel receptor for short‐chain fatty acid (SCFA) acetate and propionate, plays essential roles in some cellular processes. The present study aimed to investigate the role of olfr78 in regulating energy metabolism and delineate the underlying mechanisms using olfr78−/− mice. Deletion of olfr78 did not influence the adiposity of mice fed either normal chow or a high‐fat diet (HFD). However, olfr78−/− mice exhibited glucometabolic dysfunction, as evidenced by increased fasting blood glucose levels, decreased serum insulin levels, and impaired oral glucose tolerance under HFD feeding. When compared to wild‐type (WT) mice, olfr78 deficiency enhanced HFD‐induced gluconeogenesis and increased the mRNA expression of key gluconeogenic genes in the liver and kidney. Quantitative real‐time PCR results revealed that olfr78 expression was higher in the colon compared with other tissues in WT mice. Analysis of the gut microbiota in the feces of olfr78−/− mice using 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed altered relative abundances of some representative SCFAs producers along with decreased levels of SCFAs, including propionic, isobutyric, 2‐methylbutyric, valeric, isovaleric, and 4‐methylvaleric acids. Importantly, mice lacking olfr78 had low circulating levels of glucagon‐like peptide 1 (GLP‐1). In the STC‐1 enteroendocrine cell line, propionate and acetate induced the secretion of the gut hormone GLP‐1, and this effect was partially abolished by olfr78 siRNA‐mediated knockdown. Together, these results suggest a previously undescribed, specific regulatory role for gut olfr78 in glucose homeostasis and highlight olfr78 as a potential target for diabetes treatment.

Abstract Background The association between breast cancer (BC) and thyroid cancer (TC) has been studied in several epidemiological studies. However, the underlying causal relationship between them is not yet clear. Methods The data from the latest large-sample genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of BC and TC were searched in the public GWAS database. The BC GWAS data included estrogen receptor (ER)-positive and negative subgroups. Two-way two-sample Mendelian Randomization (MR) was used to explore the potential causal relationship between BC and TC. Inverse variance weighting (IVW) and the MR-Egger method were used to combine the estimation of each single nucleotide variation (previous single nucleotide polymorphism). BC was taken as the result, and the effect of TC exposure was analyzed. Then, the effect of BC exposure on the result of TC was analyzed. Results Both IVW and MR-Egger results indicated that gene-driven thyroid cancer does not cause estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer and is a protective factor (β = -1.203, SE = 4.663*10–4, P = 0.010). However, gene-driven estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer can lead to the development of thyroid cancer (β = 0.516, SE = 0.220, P = 0.019). Conclusion From the perspective of gene drive, people with TC are less likely to have ER-positive BC. In contrast, people with ER-positive BC are more likely to have TC. Therefore, it is recommended that patients with BC be screened regularly for TC.

Abstract Background Though our previous study has demonstrated that the single-incision plus one-port laparoscopic surgery (SILS + 1) is safe and feasible for sigmoid colon and upper rectal cancer and has better short-term outcomes compared with conventional laparoscopic surgery (CLS), the long-term outcomes of SILS + 1 remains uncertain and are needed to evaluated by an RCT. Methods Patients with clinical stage T1-4aN0-2M0 rectosigmoid cancer were enrolled. The participants were randomly assigned to either SILS + 1 (n = 99) or CLS (n = 99). The 3-year DFS, 5-year OS, and recurrence patterns were analyzed. Results Between April 2014 and July 2016, 198 patients were randomly assigned to either the SILS + 1 group (n = 99) or CLS group (n = 99). The median follow-up in the SILS + 1 group was 64.0 months and in CLS group was 65.0 months. The 3-year DFS was 87.8% (95% CI, 81.6–94.8%) in SILS + 1 group and 86.9% (95% CI, 81.3–94.5%) in CLS group (hazard ratio: 1.09 (95% CI, 0.48–2.47; P = 0.84)). The 5-year OS was 86.7% (95% CI,79.6–93.8%) in the SILS + 1 group and 80.5% (95% CI,72.5–88.5%) in the CLS group (hazard ratio: 1.53 (95% CI, 0.74–3.18; P = 0.25)). There were no significant differences in the recurrence patterns between the two groups. Conclusions We found no significant difference in 3-year DFS and 5-year OS of patients with sigmoid colon and upper rectal cancer treated with SILS + 1 vs. CLS. SILS + 1 is noninferior to CLS when performed by expert surgeons. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02117557 (registered on 21/04/2014).

Advanced prostate cancer (PCa) is usually treated initially with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). Although they experience a period of disease regression, most patients progress to metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Patients with mCRPC now have an unprecedented number of approved treatment options, including chemotherapies, hormone therapies, targeted therapies, etc. However, the improvement of overall survival (OS) in patients with mCRPC and its special subtype neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC) is limited. In recent years, with the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), such as PD1/PDL1 and CTLA4 inhibitors, immunotherapy has once again become a promising treatment choice to stimulate antitumor immunity. However, the efficacy of NEPC receiving ICI has not been reported. Here, we describe a patient with mCRPC who developed primary resistance to current endocrine and chemotherapy regimens and progressed to mCRPC with NEPC as the main component, showing a significant and lasting response to PD1 monoclonal antibody combined with radiotherapy.

Apple replant disease (ARD), caused by Fusarium pathogens, is a formidable threat to the renewal of apple varieties in China, necessitating the development of effective and sustainable control strategies. In this study, the bacterial strain BA-4 was isolated from the rhizosphere soil of healthy apple trees in a replanted orchard, demonstrating a broad-spectrum antifungal activity against five crucial apple fungal pathogens. Based on its morphology, physiological and biochemical traits, utilization of carbon sources, and Gram stain, strain BA-4 was tentatively identified as Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. Phylogenetic analysis using 16S rDNA and gyrB genes conclusively identified BA-4 as B. amyloliquefaciens. In-depth investigations into B. amyloliquefaciens BA-4 revealed that the strain possesses the capacity to could secrete cell wall degrading enzymes (protease and cellulase), produce molecules analogous to indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and siderophores, and solubilize phosphorus and potassium. The diverse attributes observed in B. amyloliquefaciens BA-4 underscore its potential as a versatile microorganism with multifaceted benefits for both plant well-being and soil fertility. The extracellular metabolites produced by BA-4 displayed a robust inhibitory effect on Fusarium hyphal growth and spore germination, inducing irregular swelling, atrophy, and abnormal branching of fungal hyphae. In greenhouse experiments, BA-4 markedly reduced the disease index of Fusarium-related ARD, exhibiting protective and therapeutic efficiencies exceeding 80% and 50%, respectively. Moreover, BA-4 demonstrated plant-promoting abilities on both bean and Malus robusta Rehd. (MR) seedlings, leading to increased plant height and primary root length. Field experiments further validated the biocontrol effectiveness of BA-4, demonstrating its ability to mitigate ARD symptoms in MR seedlings with a notable 33.34% reduction in mortality rate and improved biomass. Additionally, BA-4 demonstrates robust and stable colonization capabilities in apple rhizosphere soil, particularly within the 10-20 cm soil layer, which indicates that it has long-term effectiveness potential in field conditions. Overall, B. amyloliquefaciens BA-4 emerges as a promising biocontrol agent with broad-spectrum antagonistic capabilities, positive effects on plant growth, and strong colonization abilities for the sustainable management of ARD in apple cultivation.

BackgroundIntegrin subunit alpha L (ITGAL) encodes an integrin component of LFA-1 and is a membrane receptor molecule widely expressed on leukocytes. It plays a key role in the interaction between white blood cells and other cells. There was a significant correlation between the expression of ITGAL and the tumor microenvironment in a number of cancers. However, experimental studies targeting ITGAL and immune cell infiltration in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and the response to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy are lacking.MethodsData were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), and Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) databases to explore the relationship between ITGAL expression and prognosis, as well as the immune cell infiltration in patients with NSCLC. In addition, immunohistochemical staining for ITGAL and multiplex immunofluorescence (mIF) staining for ITGAL, CD20, CD68, CD4, and CD8 from tissue microarrays containing 118 tumor tissues and paired paracancerous tissues from patients with NSCLC were performed. The correlation between ITGAL expression and clinical factors, as well as the immunophenotypes of tumor-infiltrating immune cells, were also analyzed.ResultsIn NSCLC tumor tissues, ITGAL was downregulated compared with matched paracancerous tissues, and low ITGAL expression was associated with a poor prognosis of NSCLC patients. Subsequently, immunohistochemistry results for tissue microarray showed that ITGAL expression was mainly elevated in tumor stroma and areas with highly infiltrated immune cells. ITGAL expression was higher in paracancerous tissues than tumor tissues. Furthermore, mIF results indicated that the patients with ITGAL-high expression tend had significantly higher CD8+ T cells, CD68+ macrophages, CD4+ T cells, and CD20+ B cells infiltration in their tumor tissues. Immunophenotypes were classified into three categories, that is deserted, excluded, and inflamed types, according to each kind of immune cell distribution in or around the cancer cell nest. MIF results showed that ITGAL expression level was correlated with the immunophenotypes. Furthermore, ITGAL expression was associated with the prognosis of NSCLC in patients with immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy and the patients with high ITGAL expression tends have better outcomes.ConclusionsITGAL may be used as a biomarker for assessing the immune microenvironment in patients with NSCLC.

Most tick-borne viruses (TBVs) are highly pathogenic and require high biosecurity, which severely limits their study. We found that Sindbis virus (SINV), predominantly transmitted by mosquitoes, can replicate in ticks and be subsequently transmitted, with the potential to serve as a model for studying tick-virus interactions. We found that both larval and nymphal stages of Rhipicephalus haemaphysaloides can be infected with SINV-wild-type (WT) when feeding on infected mice. SINV replicated in two species of ticks (R. haemaphysaloides and Hyalomma asiaticum) after infecting them by microinjection. Injection of ticks with SINV expressing enhanced Green Fluorescent Protein (eGFP) revealed that SINV-eGFP specifically aggregated in the tick midguts for replication. During blood-feeding, SINV-eGFP migrated from the midguts to the salivary glands and was transmitted to a new host. SINV infection caused changes in expression levels of tick genes related to immune responses, substance transport and metabolism, cell growth and death. SINV mainly induced autophagy during the early stage of infection; with increasing time of infection, the level of autophagy decreased, while the level of apoptosis increased. During the early stages of infection, the transcript levels of immune-related genes were significantly upregulated, and then decreased. In addition, SINV induced changes in the transcription levels of some functional genes that play important roles in the interactions between ticks and tick-borne pathogens. These results confirm that the SINV-based transmission model between ticks, viruses, and mammals can be widely used to unravel the interactions between ticks and viruses.

Graves' disease (GD) is an autoimmune disorder characterized by hyperthyroidism resulting from autoantibody-induced stimulation of the thyroid gland. Despite recent advancements in understanding GD's pathogenesis, the molecular processes driving disease progression and treatment response remain poorly understood. In this study, we aimed to identify crucial immunogenic factors associated with GD prognosis and immunotherapeutic response. To achieve this, we implemented a comprehensive screening strategy that combined computational immunogenicity-potential scoring with multi-parametric cluster analysis to assess the immunomodulatory genes in GD-related subtypes involving stromal and immune cells. Utilizing weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), we identified co-expressed gene modules linked to cellular senescence and immune infiltration in CD4+ and CD8+ GD samples. Additionally, gene set enrichment analysis enabled the identification of hallmark pathways distinguishing high- and low-immune subtypes. Our WGCNA analysis revealed 21 gene co-expression modules comprising 1,541 genes associated with immune infiltration components in various stages of GD, including T cells, M1 and M2 macrophages, NK cells, and Tregs. These genes primarily participated in T cell proliferation through purinergic signaling pathways, particularly neuroactive ligand-receptor interactions, and DNA binding transcription factor activity. Three genes, namely PRSS1, HCRTR1, and P2RY4, exhibited robustness in GD patients across multiple stages and were involved in immune cell infiltration during the late stage of GD (p

Impact force identification has always been of significance for structure health monitoring especially on the applications involving composite materials. As a typical inverse problem, impact force reconstruction and localization is undoubtedly a challenging task. The well-known ℓ 1 sparse regularization has a tendency to underestimate the amplitude of impact forces. To alleviate this limitation, we propose an accelerated generalized minimax-concave (AGMC) for sparse regularization that employs a non-convex generalized minimax-concave (GMC) penalty as the regularizer and incorporates an acceleration technique to expedite the attainment of the global minimum. Compared with the classic ℓ 1 -norm penalty, the GMC penalty can not only induce sparsity in the estimation, but also maintain the convexity of the cost function, so that the global optimal solution can be obtained through convex optimization algorithms. This method is applied to solve the impact force identification problem with unknown force locations to simultaneously reconstruct and localize impact forces in the under-determined case utilizing a limited number of sensors. Meanwhile, K-sparsity criterion is used to adaptively select regularization parameters by taking advantage of the sparse prior knowledge on impact forces. Simulations and experiments are conducted on a composite plate to verify the computational efficiency and robustness of the AGMC method in terms of impact force reconstruction and localization, particularly in the presence of noise. Results demonstrate that the proposed AGMC method achieves faster convergence and provides more accurate and sparse reconstruction and localization of impact forces compared to other state-of-the-art sparse regularization methods.

Summary: Aging is considered a critical factor of poor prognosis in allogenic hemopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). To elucidate the underlying mechanisms, we comprehensively reintegrated our clinical data from patients after allo-HSCT and public single-cell transcriptomic profile from post-allo-HSCT and healthy individuals, demonstrating that old donors were more prone to acute GVHD (aGVHD) with pronounced inflammation accumulation and worse overall survival (OS). We also found the presence of inflammation-related CXCL2+ HSC subpopulation during aging with significantly enriched pro-inflammatory pathways. Shifting attention to the HSC microenvironment, we deciphered that IL-1/IL-6 and TRAIL (i.e., TNFSF10) ligand‒receptor pair serves as the crucial bridge between CD14/CD16 monocytes and hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs). The profound upregulation of these signaling pathways during aging finally causes HSC dysfunction and lineage-biased differentiation. Our findings provide the theoretical basis for achieving tailored GVHD management and enhancing allo-HSCT regimens efficacy for aged donors.

Abstract Purpose This paper presents a report on two uncommon instances of cat eye syndrome in a Chinese family. Case presentation The proband, a 23-year-old female, exhibited a diminutive cornea and complete blindness in her right eye, and the uncorrected distance visual acuity of her left eye was 0.7 LogMAR. Peripheral blood chromosome karyotyping reveal a karyotype of 47, XX, + mar. Subsequent analysis of chromosome copy number variation unveiled a 1.5 Mb duplication in the 22q11.1q11.21 region of the proband. The proband's mother,aged 49, displayed small eyes, wide-set eyes, downward slanting eyelids, and congenital heart disease. Chromosome copy number variation analysis also showed a 1.55 Mb duplication in the 22q11.1q11.21 region of chromosome 22 in the proband's mother. Ultimately, both members of this family were diagnosed with cat eye syndrome. Conclusion Cat eye syndrome is a rare genetic disorder that greatly affects patients' lives and requires personalized treatment. This study provides new evidence for a better understanding of the diagnosis of cat eye syndrome and emphasizes the importance of genetic counseling and supervision.

Abstract Crowd counting is an important research topic in computer vision. Its goal is to estimate the people's number in an image. Researchers have dramatically improved counting accuracy in recent years by regressing density maps. However, because of the inherent domain shift, the model trained on an expensive manually labelled dataset (source domain) does not perform well on a dataset with scarce labels (target domain). For this issue, a novel dynamic scale aggregation network (DSANet) is proposed to reduce the gaps in style and cross‐domain head scale variations. Specifically, a practical style transfer layer is introduced to reduce the appearance discrepancy between the source and target domains. Then, the translated source and target domain samples are encoded by a generator consisting of the VGG16 network and the dynamic scale aggregation modules (DSA Modules) and produce corresponding density maps. The DSA module can adaptively adjust parameters according to the input features and effectively fuse multi‐scale information to overcome the cross‐domain head scale variations. Next, a discriminator judges the input density map from the source or target domain. Last, domain distributions are aligned through adversarial between the generator and the discriminator. The experiments show that our network outperforms the current state‐of‐the‐art methods and can improve the target domain's performance while maintaining the source domain's performance without significant degradation.

Abstract Accurate evaluation of Li-ion battery (LiB) safety conditions can reduce unexpected cell failures, facilitate battery deployment, and promote low-carbon economies. Despite the recent progress in artificial intelligence, anomaly detection methods are not customized for or validated in realistic battery settings due to the complex failure mechanisms and the lack of real-world testing frameworks with large-scale datasets. Here, we develop a realistic deep-learning framework for electric vehicle (EV) LiB anomaly detection. It features a dynamical autoencoder tailored for dynamical systems and configured by social and financial factors. We test our detection algorithm on released datasets comprising over 690,000 LiB charging snippets from 347 EVs. Our model overcomes the limitations of state-of-the-art fault detection models, including deep learning ones. Moreover, it reduces the expected direct EV battery fault and inspection costs. Our work highlights the potential of deep learning in improving LiB safety and the significance of social and financial information in designing deep learning models.

Background: The high disability rate of osteoarthritis (OA), a joint disease with an insidious onset and widespread effects, places a heavy financial burden on patients, families, and society. Traditional diagnostic approaches, including radiology and physical examination, cannot achieve early-stage screening of OA and thus, miss early intervention for patients. Therefore, the need of biomarkers for the early diagnosis of OA is crucial. Results: A total of 390 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified from the training set, and 1077 key module genes were found by constructing a weighted gene co-expression network, and 161 key genes were obtained as a result. Four diagnostic marker genes highly associated with OA were screened for key genes using machine learning algorithms, and the resulting nomogram model showed excellent predictive power and clinical value. After further background studies, immune infiltration and functional enrichment analysis, we found that FKBP5 may play an important role in the prognosis and immune infiltration of multiple cancers, and this hypothesis was verified by pan-cancer analysis. Conclusions: We screened four diagnostic marker genes (FKBP5, EPYC, KLF9 and PDZRN4) that are highly associated with OA. And this led to a diagnostic model, which was assessed to have good predictive power and clinical value. FKBP5 may be a potential intervention target for human diseases such as osteoarthritis and tumors. How to cite: Xiao Y, Wang Y, Xu X, et al. Integrated analysis reveals potential significance of FKBP5 in the prognosis and immunity of osteoarthritis and pan-cancer. Electron J Biotechnol 2023;65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejbt.2023.05.002.

High-voltage semiconductor devices such as thyristors, due to the high voltage applied, when encountering atmospheric neutrons in the operating state, may appear single event burnout due to charge multiplication in high-altitude areas. The atmospheric neutron radiation in high-altitude areas can cause damage and interference to semiconductor devices, which seriously threatens their safe operation. However, there is little research on the influence of atmospheric neutron irradiation on the operating life of high-voltage DC transmission system thyristors in high-altitude areas. Therefore, in this paper, the neutron beam of the Atmospheric Neutron Irradiation Spectrometer (ANIS) of China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) was used to irradiate the high-power thyristors. The failure rates of different applied voltages under 6.74 × 106 n/cm2/s neutron flux irradiation and the leakage current changes during irradiation were obtained. The failure rate applied voltage relationship curve obtained from the artificial neutron irradiation experiment was converted to the corresponding value in Yangbajing area, China. Through the results of the artificial neutron accelerated irradiation experiment, the thyristor failure rate-voltage formula in different areas can be more accurately estimated. In this way, the reasonable working voltage can be determined according to the operating life demand of the thyristor, and determine the thyristor configuration scheme of the design of the converter station. In addition, it is found that the leakage current of thyristor increases with the increase of neutron irradiation time, which may eventually lead to the degradation of thyristor performance and affect its reliability in the DC transmission system.

Many SF6 gas-insulated current transformers (CT) are used in the power grid. The global warming potential (GWP) of SF6 is 23,900 times that of CO2, and the leakage of SF6 will aggravate the global warming trend. It is a hot issue to carry out the study of environment-friendly gas substitution in the power grid. This paper systematically studied the voltage withstand, partial discharge, and temperature rise characteristics of dry air, N2, and CO2 gas-insulated CTs. Through the study, the permissible critical pressures in environment-friendly gas-insulated CTs were determined to be 0.9 MPa for dry air, 0.7 MPa for N2, and 0.8 MPa for CO2, respectively. The partial discharge intensity was less than 5 pC for environment-friendly gas-insulated CTs at 0.3 MPa∼0.8 MPa pressure. The experimental results of temperature rise characteristics showed that under the condition of a 600A rated operating current, the maximum temperature rise of the CTs was about 80 °C, and the maximum temperature rise happened at the conductive rod. The experimental results verified that environment-friendly gases could meet the requirements of insulation and temperature rise. Due to the increase of pressure in CTs, the action pressure of the explosion-proof membrane should be changed to meet the mechanical strength requirements. It is recommended that when using 0.9 MPa dry air, the action pressure should be designed as 1.8 MPa; when using 0.7 MPa N2, the pressure should be designed as 1.4 MPa; when using 0.8 MPa CO2, the pressure should be designed as 1.6 MPa. The results of this paper can provide a reference for development of environment-friendly gas-insulated CTs.

The development of fossil energy requires eco-friendly and high-efficient approaches, especially in contemporarily low-carbon scenarios. Using the high-power pulsed discharge to induce fractures has drawn increasingly academic and industrial attention in reservoir stimulation. Therein, the electrical wire explosion is commonly adopted as the pulsed discharge load to transfer electrical energy to mechanical one (shock wave and plasma bubble) efficiently. To strengthen mechanical loadings, a discharge capsule with a metallic wire inside Al-powder suspension has been designed and tested. Experiments were performed with a μs-timescale pulsed power source with stored energy from 150 to 750 J, and the electrical explosion were diagnosed via high-speed photography, electrophysical, and mechanical measurements. The experiment shows that there is an optimal concentration of Al-powder suspension in order to obtain the maximum peak pressure of shock wave for a given discharge condition. Too high or low concentrations of the aluminum powder will cause a lower peak pressure. This paper shows that at the stored energy of 500 J, when the concentration of Al-powder suspension is 20 g/L, the peak pressure can reach 4.81 ± 0.27 MPa, which is 2.01 times as large as the shock wave generated by the electrical explosion under the same conditions in pure water. Through the electrophysical measurement, it is found that the aluminum powder almost does not affect the phase transition of the wire. However, in the subsequent plasma formation, the gaseous reaction products make the discharge channel more complex and in a higher pressure density state, which is shown by the increase of channel resistance. Through the backlit images taken by the high-speed camera, it is obvious that two discrete strong shock waves can be seen in the Al-powder-suspension environment.

Background Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are the standard of care for metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC); however, most patients develop de novo or acquired resistance to ICIs. Oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) has been rarely explored as a potential target for correcting ICI resistance.Methods We systematically analyzed RNA sequencing and clinical data from CheckMate, JAVELIN Renal 101, and NCT01358721 clinical trials, and clinicopathological data of 25 patients from Tongji Hospital to investigate the relationship between OXPHOS and ICI resistance. The Ndufb8-knockdown Renca cell line was derived to determine the effect of OXPHOS on RCC immunotherapy in vivo.Results An analysis of the CheckMate series data revealed that high OXPHOS levels are risk factors for ICI in patients with RCC, but are affected by thevon Hippel-Lindau protein (VHL) and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α status. This result is consistent with correlation between clinicopathological characteristics and prognostic observations at our institute. Knockdown of the mitochondrial complex I subunit Ndufb8 of the Renca cell line had no effect on cell growth and migration in vitro, but slowed down cell growth in vivo. Among anti-programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1)-treated BALB/c mice, shNdufb8 Renca tumors grew slower than shControl Renca tumors and the corresponding mice survived longer. Flow cytometry revealed that CD8+ T cells in shNdufb8 Renca tumors, which were exposed to a lower degree of hypoxia and expressed less programmed death-1 (PD-1) and T-cell immunoglobulin domain and mucin domain 3 (TIM-3), secreted more interferon-γ after stimulation. Immunofluorescence demonstrated that the shNdufb8 Renca tumors had a higher proportion of CD8+ T cells and the proportion of these cells was lower in the hypoxic area.Conclusions OXPHOS is a reliable predictor of immunotherapy response in RCC and is more pronounced in metastatic lesions. RCC cells generate a hypoxic tumor microenvironment and inhibit T-cell function through oxidative metabolism, thereby leading to immunotherapy resistance.

BackgroundThe gut-brain axis and gut microbiota have emerged as key players in emotional disorders. Recent studies suggest that alterations in gut microbiota may impact psychiatric symptoms through brain miRNA along the gut-brain axis. However, direct evidence linking gut microbiota to the pathophysiology of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) via brain miRNA is limited. In this study, we explored the effects of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) from GAD donors on gut microbiota and prefrontal cortex miRNA in recipient mice, aiming to understand the relationship between these two factors.MethodsAnxiety scores and gut microbiota composition were assessed in GAD patients, and their fecal samples were utilized for FMT in C57BL/6J mice. Anxiety-like behavior in mice was evaluated using open field and elevated plus maze tests. High-throughput sequencing of gut microbiota 16S rRNA and prefrontal cortex miRNA was performed.ResultsThe fecal microbiota of GAD patients exhibited a distinct microbial structure compared to the healthy group, characterized by a significant decrease in Verrucomicrobia and Akkermansia, and a significant increase in Actinobacteria and Bacteroides. Subsequent FMT from GAD patients to mice induced anxiety-like behavior in recipients. Detailed analysis of gut microbiota composition revealed lower abundances of Verrucomicrobia, Akkermansia, Bifidobacterium, and Butyricimonas, and higher abundances of Deferribacteres, Allobaculum, Bacteroides, and Clostridium in mice that received FMT from GAD patients. MiRNA analysis identified five key miRNAs affecting GAD pathogenesis, including mmu-miR-10a-5p, mmu-miR-1224-5p, mmu-miR-218-5p, mmu-miR-10b-5p, and mmu-miR-488-3p. Notably, mmu-miR-488-3p showed a strong negative correlation with Verrucomicrobia and Akkermansia.ConclusionThis study demonstrates that anxiety-like behavior induced by human FMT can be transmitted through gut microbiota and is associated with miRNA expression in the prefrontal cortex. It is inferred that the reduction of Akkermansia caused by FMT from GAD patients leads to the upregulation of mmu-miR-488-3p expression, resulting in the downregulation of its downstream target gene Creb1 and interference with its related signaling pathway. These findings highlight the gut microbiota’s crucial role in the GAD pathophysiology.

The diagnosis of tuberculosis depends on detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). Unfortunately, recognizing patients with extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) remains challenging due to the insidious clinical presentation and poor performance of diagnostic tests. To identify biomarkers for EPTB, the GSE83456 dataset was screened for differentially expressed genes (DEGs), followed by a gene enrichment analysis. One hundred and ten DEGs were obtained, mainly enriched in inflammation and immune -related pathways. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was used to identify 10 co-expression modules. The turquoise module, correlating the most highly with EPTB, contained 96 DEGs. Further screening with the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and support vector machine recursive feature elimination (SVM-RFE) narrowed down the 96 DEGs to five central genes. All five key genes were validated in the GSE144127 dataset. CARD17 and GBP5 had high diagnostic capacity, with AUC values were 0.763 (95% CI: 0.717–0.805) and 0.833 (95% CI: 0.793–0.869) respectively. Using single sample gene enrichment analysis (ssGSEA), we evaluated the infiltration of 28 immune cells in EPTB and explored their relationships with key genes. The results showed 17 immune cell subtypes with significant infiltrations in EPTB. CARD17, GBP5, HOOK1, LOC730167, and HIST1H4C were significantly associated with 16, 14, 12, 6, and 4 immune cell subtypes, respectively. The RT-qPCR results confirmed that the expression levels of GBP5 and CARD17 were higher in EPTB compared to control. In conclusion, CARD17 and GBP5 have high diagnostic efficiency for EPTB and are closely related to immune cell infiltration.

Five degraded products of limonoid, including two previously undescribed compounds (1, 3) and one pair of new natural products (4i, 4ii), were isolated from the root bark of Dictamnus dasycarpus Turcz. Their structures were elucidated by extensively spectroscopic methods (NMR, MS, ECD, etc), as well as quantum chemical calculations. The broadening NMR lines, along with the relaxation time and DOSY experiment revealed the self-aggregation of 1 in chloroform through H-bond between –COOH and –OH, which provided additional evidence to distinguish acid and ester/lactone in structure elucidation. Compounds 1–3 attenuated oleic acid-induced lipid accumulation in HepG2 cells significantly, with inhibition rates of 19.8%, 23.6%, and 13.5% at 10 μM, much stronger than fenofibrate, affording a novel scaffold for drug discovery against fatty liver disease.

BackgroundLiver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC) is a prevalent form of primary liver cancer. Research has demonstrated the contribution of tumor stem cells in facilitating tumor recurrence, metastasis, and treatment resistance. Despite this, there remains a lack of established cancer stem cells (CSCs)-associated genes signatures for effectively predicting the prognosis and guiding the treatment strategies for patients diagnosed with LIHC.MethodsThe single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and bulk RNA transcriptome data were obtained based on public datasets and computerized firstly using CytoTRACE package and One Class Linear Regression (OCLR) algorithm to evaluate stemness level, respectively. Then, we explored the association of stemness indicators (CytoTRACE score and stemness index, mRNAsi) with survival outcomes and clinical characteristics by combining clinical information and survival analyses. Subsequently, weighted co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) and Cox were applied to assess mRNAsi-related genes in bulk LIHC data and construct a prognostic model for LIHC patients. Single-sample gene-set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA), Cell-type Identification By Estimating Relative Subsets Of RNA Transcripts (CIBERSORT) and Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) analysis were employed for immune infiltration assessment. Finally, the potential immunotherapeutic response was predicted by the Tumor Immune Dysfunction and Exclusion (TIDE), and the tumor mutation burden (TMB). Additionally, pRRophetic package was applied to evaluate the sensitivity of high and low-risk groups to common chemotherapeutic drugs.ResultsA total of four genes (including STIP1, H2AFZ, BRIX1, and TUBB) associated with stemness score (CytoTRACE score and mRNAsi) were identified and constructed a risk model that could predict prognosis in LIHC patients. It was observed that high stemness cells occurred predominantly in the late stages of LIHC and that poor overall survival in LIHC patients was also associated with high mRNAsi scores. In addition, pathway analysis confirmed the biological uniqueness of the two risk groups. Personalized treatment predictions suggest that patients with a low risk benefited more from immunotherapy, while those with a high risk group may be conducive to chemotherapeutic drugs.ConclusionThe current study developed a novel prognostic risk signature with genes related to CSCs, which provides novel ideas for the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of LIHC.

Background: There is a great obstacle in prenatal diagnosis of fetal anomalies due to their considerable genetic and clinical heterogeneity. Whole-exome sequencing (WES) has been confirmed as a successful option for genetic diagnosis in pediatrics, but its clinical utility for prenatal diagnosis remains to be limited.Methods: A total of 60 fetuses with abnormal ultrasound findings underwent karyotyping or chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA), and those with negative results were further subjected to WES. The identified variants were classified as pathogenic or likely pathogenic (P/LP) and the variant of uncertain significance (VUS). Pregnancy outcomes were obtained through a telephone follow-up.Results: Twelve (20%, 12/60) fetuses were diagnosed to have chromosomal abnormalities using karyotyping or CMA. Of the remaining 48 cases that underwent WES, P/LP variants were identified in 14 cases (29.2%), giving an additional diagnostic yield of 23.3% (14/60). The most frequently affected organ referred for prenatal WES was the head or neck system (40%), followed by the skeletal system (39.1%). In terms of pathogenic genes, FGFR3 was the most common diagnostic gene in this cohort. For the first time, we discovered five P/LP variants involved in SEC24D, FIG4, CTNNA3, EPG5, and PKD2. In addition, we identified three VUSes that had been reported previously. Outcomes of pregnancy were available for 54 cases, of which 24 cases were terminated.Conclusion: The results confirmed that WES is a powerful tool in prenatal diagnosis, especially for fetuses with ultrasonographic anomalies that cannot be diagnosed using conventional prenatal methods. Additionally, newly identified variants will expand the phenotypic spectrum of monogenic disorders and greatly enrich the prenatal diagnostic database.

BackgroundInsulin resistance(IR) and inflammation have been regarded as common potential mechanisms in coronary heart disease (CHD) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index is a novel biomarker of insulin resistance, System immune-inflammation index(SII) and Systemic inflammation response index(SIRI) are novel biomarkers of inflammation, these biomarkers have not been studied in CHD with NAFLD patients. This study investigated the correlation between the TyG index, SII index, and SIRI index and CHD risk among NAFLD patients.MethodsThis cross-sectional study included 407 patients with NAFLD in the Department of Cardiology, The Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University. Of these, 250 patients with CHD were enrolled in the NAFLD+CHD group and 157 patients without CHD were enrolled as NAFLD control. To balance covariates between groups, 144 patients were selected from each group in a 1:1 ratio based on propensity score matching (PSM). Potential influences were screened using Lasso regression analysis. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses and the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regression were used to assess independent risk and protective factors for CHD. Construction of nomogram using independent risk factors screened by machine learning. The receiver operating characteristic(ROC) curve was used to assess the ability of these independent risk factors to predict coronary heart disease. The relationship between the Gensini score and independent risk factors was reflected using the Sankey diagram.ResultsThe LASSO logistic regression analysis and Logistic regression analyses suggest that TyG index (OR, 2.193; 95% CI, 1.242-3.873; P = 0.007), SII index (OR, 1.002; 95% CI, 1.001-29 1.003; P

ABSTRACT: The growing period is a critical period for the growth and development of hens and affects their production performance during the laying period. During the early stage of growing, bone and muscle growth is rapid, making it necessary to provide sufficient amino acids (AA) to support the growth and development of laying hens. In this experiment, RNA-Sequencing (RNA-Seq) was applied to compare the liver tissues from 6- to 12-wk-old growing laying hens to identify candidate genes related to growth and AA transport and metabolism. In the liver tissues, 596 differentially expressed genes (DEG) were identified, of which 424 genes were up-regulated and 172 were down-regulated. Through enrichment analysis and DEGs analysis, some DEGs and pathways related to AA transport and metabolism were identified. Additionally, there were significantly increased activities in the liver of glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH), glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT), and glutamate pyruvate transaminase (GPT). Meanwhile, the level of serum insulin-like growth factor binding protein-5 (IGFBP-5) significantly elevated, and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) levels significantly reduced at 12 wk compared to 6 wk. The AA contents in the breast muscle were not significantly altered, while the levels of the free AA in the serum underwent significant changes. This study discovered that the transport and metabolism of AAs in growing laying hens at different ages changed, which influenced the growth and development of growing laying hens. This contributes to future research on the mechanisms of growth and AA metabolism during the growing period of laying hens.

ABSTRACT Foodborne Salmonella infection remains a major public health concern worldwide. With rising antimicrobial resistance, genomic surveillance is key to tracking outbreaks and monitoring transmission, but there is no comprehensive national surveillance scheme for Salmonella involving humans, food, animals, and the environment in China. Moreover, the association between antimicrobial resistance and climate, social, and economic factors has rarely been investigated. Here, we use 1,962 Salmonella isolates collected from 22 Chinese provinces and add 6,035 publicly available genomes to build a Chinese local Salmonella genome database version 2 (CLSGDB v2) representing 30 Chinese provinces, covering 1905–2022. Using the CLSGDB v2, we mapped the landscape and spatiotemporal dynamics of antimicrobial resistance markers, virulome, and mobilome in Salmonella. We identified 317 mcr positive and 745 azithromycin resistance genes positive Salmonella isolates out of 7,997 isolates. We further uncovered the geographic distribution veil of mcr-1, fosA7, fosA3, mph(A), and bla CTX-M-55 genes in China, all of them resistant to the critically important antimicrobials including colistin, fosfomycin, azithromycin, and the third-generation cephalosporins. Interestingly, economic, climatic, and social factors can drive the rise of antimicrobial resistance was observed. Finally, we release the CLSGDB v2 as an open-access database and thus can assist surveillance studies tracking 164 Salmonella enterica serovars and 295 sequence types across the globe. The CLSGDB v2 is freely available at https://nmdc.cn/clsgdbv2. IMPORTANCE We established the largest Salmonella genome database from China and presented the landscape and spatiotemporal dynamics of antimicrobial resistance genes. We also found that economic, climatic, and social factors can drive the rise of antimicrobial resistance. The Chinese local Salmonella genome database version 2 was released as an open-access database (https://nmdc.cn/clsgdbv2) and thus can assist surveillance studies across the globe. This database will help inform interventions for AMR, food safety, and public health.

Solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) provides an exciting opportunity for quantifying terrestrial gross primary production (GPP); however, little attention has been paid to subtropical evergreen forests. Previous research has predominantly concentrated on the linear relationship between SIF and GPP, while more recent studies have gradually reported non-linear relationships and aimed to uncover the underlying mechanism. A year-long synergistic observation of tower-based fluorescence and carbon flux was conducted in the subtropical forest of Southwest China. The SIF and GPP generally exhibited comparable dynamic patterns in subtropical evergreen forests at different scales. However, SIF peaked earlier than GPP in 30-min, daily, and monthly scales. Strongly non-linear relationships existed between SIF and GPP on both 30-min (R2 = 0.42) and daily (R2 = 0.51) scales, which could also extend to different seasons and weather conditions. In particular, the SIF-GPP relationship was stronger on cloudy days than on sunny days, whereas the relationship gradually decoupled as the vapor pressure deficit (VPD) rose. These findings can help to better understand the relationship between canopy-level SIF and GPP in subtropical evergreen forests and emphasize how environmental controls affect the SIF-GPP relationship.

ABSTRACTDiabetic foot infections are a common complication of diabetes. Staphylococcus aureus is frequently isolated from diabetic foot infections and commonly colonizes human nares. According to the study, the nasal microbiome analysis revealed that diabetic patients had a significantly altered nasal microbial composition and diversity. Typically, the fasting blood glucose (FBG) level had an impact on the abundance and sequence type (ST) of S. aureus in diabetic patients. We observed that highly virulent S. aureus ST7 strains were more frequently colonized in diabetic patients, especially those with poorly controlled FBG, while ST59 was dominant in healthy individuals. S. aureus ST7 strains were more resistant to human antimicrobial peptides and formed stronger biofilms than ST59 strains. Critically, S. aureus ST7 strains displayed higher virulence compared to ST59 strains in vivo. The dominance of S. aureus ST7 strains in hyperglycemic environment is due to the higher activity of the SaeRS two-component system (TCS). S. aureus ST7 strains outcompeted ST59 both in vitro, and in nasal colonization model in diabetic mice, which was abolished by the deletion of the SaeRS TCS. Our data indicated that highly virulent S. aureus strains preferentially colonize diabetic patients with poorly controlled FBG through SaeRS TCS. Detection of S. aureus colonization and elimination of colonizing S. aureus are critical in the care of diabetic patients with high FBG.

AbstractObjective By analyzing the clinical history, laboratory test indexes, and intraoperative ultrasound imaging data of patients receiving ultrasound-guided percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (UG-PTA) for the first time, the application value of UG-PTA in the treatment of peripheral stenosis of autogenous arteriovenous fistula (AVF) and the related factors affecting postoperative patency were investigated.Methods A total of 381 patients with dysfunction of radio-cephalic AVF were treated with UG-PTA from June 2017 to September 2019. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 199 patients were included in this study. Baseline characteristics of patients, including demographic, clinical, and laboratory data, were collected. Kaplan–Meier’s survival curve was used to demonstrate the cumulative primary patency rate of UG-PTA. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis was performed on clinical, anatomic, biochemical, and medication variables to identify the predictors of postintervention primary patency.Results The early technical success rate of UG-PTA was 98.4% (375/381). One hundred and ninety-nine patients, with an average age of 52.9 years, were analyzed, 97 of whom were males (48.7%). The median follow-up duration was 21 months. No major complication was observed. Postintervention primary patency rates were 87.7%, 75.8%, and 60.0% at 6, 12, and 24 months, respectively. A previously failed AVF (HR, 1.935, 95% CI 1.071–3.494; p = .029) and an increased level of parathyroid hormone (HR per 100 pg/mL increase, 1.105; 95% CI 1.014–1.203; p = .004) were identified as independent negative predictors of primary patency of UG-PTA.Conclusions UG-PTA is a safe and effective method for the treatment of peripheral stenosis of AVF. Previously failed AVF and elevated parathyroid hormone levels are associated with lower primary patency rate.