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Introduction: Carbohydrates, which make up 20 to 25% of tea beverages, are responsible for their flavor and bioactivity. Carbohydrates of pu-erh tea change during microbial fermentation and require further research. In this study, we examined the carbohydrate metabolism and expression of carbohydrateactive enzyme genes during the fermentation of tea leaves with Aspergillus luchuensis. Methods: Widely targeted metabolomics analysis, high-performance anionexchange chromatography measurements, and transcriptomics were used in this study. Results: After fermentation, the levels of soluble sugar, hemicellulose, lignin, eight monosaccharides, and seven sugar alcohols increased. Meanwhile, the relative contents of polysaccharides, D-sorbitol, D-glucose, and cellulose decreased. High expression of 40 genes encoding 16 carbohydrate enzymes was observed during fermentation (FPKM>10). These genes encode L-iditol 2-dehydrogenase, pectinesterase, polygalacturonase, α-amylase, glucoamylase, endoglucanase, β-glucosidase, β-galactosidase, α-galactosidase, α-glucosidase, and glucose-6-phosphate isomerase, among others. Discussion: These enzymes are known to break down polysaccharides and cell wall cellulose, increasing the content of monosaccharides and soluble sugars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The undesirable interactions between the charge carriers (Li+) and various objects in the special microenvironment of batteries would cause uneven lithium (Li) metal deposition behavior, which severely impedes the application of Li metal batteries (LMBs). In recent years, many works focus on optimizing these interactions by functional molecules/ions modification. Nevertheless, related reviews are still absent. Here, this review introduces the regulation methods of Li metal deposition from molecular/ionic designs, which is a new perspective including Li+ flux homogenization, the de‐solvation process regulation, optimizing the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) in conventional solvation structure and anion‐rich solvation structure. Also, the general design principles are studied in each mechanism and some suggestions are proposed in the prospective future directions, aiming to guide the development of molecular/ionic designs and the actual application of LMBs with high energy densities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tuberculosis is a major public health issue in Yemen, a country located at the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, while the situation of tuberculosis had been further exacerbated since the war started in 2015. The objective of this study is to investigate the incidence of tuberculosis in Yemen before the outbreak of COVID-19, from 2006 to 2018. During the 13-year period, 92 482 patients were enrolled in the TB programme records from the 22 governorates. Almost equal number of cases were diagnosed between males and females (a male to female ratio, 1.03:1). A notable rising incidence was observed in all age groups starting from 2011. The sharpest increase occurred in children under age 15, rising by 8.0-fold from 0.5 in the period 2006–2010 to 4.1 in the period 2011–2018. Paediatric TB accounted for 9.6% of all reported cases. In terms of the patient residence, incidence has more than doubled in Sana'a city, Sana'a Gov., Hajjah and Saadah. Concomitant diseases with tuberculosis included diabetes mellitus (14.0%), brucellosis (6.1%), hepatitis (6.0%), rheumatoid arthritis (4.3%), renal disorders (2.5%) and HIV infection (2.5%). Development of interventions to reduce tuberculosis incidence in children and concomitant communicable diseases is urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coordination polymers are promising cathode materials for rechargeable alkaline batteries. Therefore, the precise modulation of these cathodes by chemical structure and in‐depth structure transform study is necessary. Here, two model coordination polymer battery cathodes were designed to demonstrate the dynamic structure–performance relationship. We studied the electrochemical performance of two kinds of nickel‐based coordination polymer, comprising a planar 2D cyanide‐bridged network and a 3D cyanide‐bridged network pillared by pyrazine molecules. The 2D coordination polymer showed serious voltage degradation with poor rate capability, whereas the 3D coordination polymer exhibited stable voltage output coupled with high rate at various current densities. The investigation revealed the underlining relationship of plateau voltage degradation and hydrolysis process of electrodes. It was revealed that the pyrazine pillar molecules in the 3D coordination polymer could suppress the hydrolysis and lead to the in situ formation of partially hydrolyzed structure with excellent electrochemical kinetics; this exhibited obvious smaller peak separation (27 mV compared with 149 mV) and hence an almost twofold increase in capacity retention (31.9 to 50.0 %) and energy density retention (18.2 to 35.9 %) at 10 A g−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of information science, how to represent the uncertain information is still an open issue. The negation is an important way to represent the information. However, existing negation method has the limitations since it can only be applied to the probability distributions. To address this issue, this paper proposed a novel method to obtain the negation of the basic probability assignment (BPA). Moreover, several methods are used to measure the uncertainty of the BPA after each negation process, and the connection between uncertain information and entropy is discussed in this paper. Furthermore, based on the negation, this paper proposed a method to measure the uncertainty of the BPA. Finally, numerical examples are used to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dopamine inhibited prolactin secretion via dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) at the pituitary level, but its effects on reproduction in pigeons are unclear. In this study, Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in the exons of DRD2 gene were identified and analyzed by using DNA sequencing methods in 60 female domestic pigeons (Columba livia), and the association between DRD2 polymorphisms and reproduction traits was also analyzed. Sequencing results showed that 7 nucleotide mutations were detected in the exon 1, 4, and 6 regions of DRD2 gene. The analysis revealed three genotypes (AA, AB, and BB) in exon 4 and two genotypes (AA, AB) in exon 6, in which the AA genotype was consistently dominant, and the A allele showed a dominant advantage. The C4532T genotypes located in exon 6 of DRD2 gene were significantly (P<0.05) associated with reproductive traits of pigeon. Moreover, the individuals with AB genotype had significantly higher fertility rate and total hatching number within 500 days of age than those with AA genotype (P<0.05). These findings suggested that the DRD2 gene should be included in future genetic studies of pigeon reproduction and the SNP of C4532T might be a potential candidate genetic marker for Marker-aid breeding in pigeon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]