Search

Canna glauca, an ornamental plant widely cultivated in aquatic habitats, is notable for its long florescence and showy flowers. The flower of this species is distinguished by its petaloid staminodes, which comprise the majority of the overall floral display. Flavonoids have been reported to be the predominant pigment groups that determine most flower colors. However, the influence of flavonoid metabolic pathways on the flower color of C. glauca remains to be investigated. In this study, comprehensive floral transcriptomes and metabolite profiles of the wild type (yellow flower) and 'Erebus' cultivar (pink flower) of C. glauca were analyzed. We identified 432 flavonoid metabolites, including 20 anthocyanins. 'Erebus' accumulated higher levels of 18 anthocyanins than the wild type, including 10 cyanidins, 4 pelargonidins, and 4 peonidins. The wild type accumulated higher levels of two malvidins. Through the joint analysis of transcriptomics and metabonomics, we observed a notable association between the expression of three DEGs and eleven anthocyanin levels. Furthermore, we analyzed the expression patterns of key genes that determine flavonoid biosynthesis, such as CHS, CHI, F3′H, and DFR. These findings provide enlightenment on the anthocyanin accumulation of Canna glauca, serving as a basis for exploring biochemical and molecular mechanisms underlying flower coloration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Alternative splicing (AS) is a principal mode of genetic regulation and one of the most widely used mechanisms to generate structurally and functionally distinct mRNA and protein variants. Dysregulation of AS may result in aberrant transcription and protein products, leading to the emergence of human diseases. Although considered important for regulating gene expression, genome-wide AS dysregulation, underlying mechanisms, and clinical relevance in knee osteoarthritis (OA) remain unelucidated. Therefore, in this study, we elucidated and validated AS events and their regulatory mechanisms during OA progression. Results: In this study, we identified differentially expressed genes between human OA and healthy meniscus samples. Among them, the OA-associated genes were primarily enriched in biological pathways such as extracellular matrix organization and ossification. The predominant OA-associated regulated AS (RAS) events were found to be involved in apoptosis during OA development. The expression of the apoptosis-related gene BCL2L13, XAF1, and NF2 were significantly different between OA and healthy meniscus samples. The construction of a covariation network of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) and RAS genes revealed that differentially expressed RBP genes LAMA2 and CUL4B may regulate the apoptotic genes XAF1 and BCL2L13 to undergo AS events during OA progression. Finally, RT-qPCR revealed that CUL4B expression was significantly higher in OA meniscus samples than in normal controls and that the AS ratio of XAF1 was significantly different between control and OA samples; these findings were consistent with their expected expression and regulatory relationships. Conclusions: Differentially expressed RBPs may regulate the AS of apoptotic genes during knee OA progression. XAF1 and its regulator, CUL4B, may serve as novel biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets for this disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrological and water quality datasets usually encompass a large number of characteristic variables, but not all of these significantly influence analytical outcomes. Therefore, by wisely selecting feature variables with rich information content and removing redundant features, it not only can the analysis efficiency be improved, but the model complexity can also be simplified. This paper considers introducing the granular-ball rough set algorithm for feature variable selection and combining it with the k-nearest neighbor method and back propagation network to analyze hydrological and water quality data, thus promoting overall and fused inspection. The results of hydrological water quality data analysis show that the proposed method produces better results compared to using a standalone k-nearest neighbor regressor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of the low fluidity caused by the high viscosity of viscous oil, a rational construction of emulsifiers with in situ heating function is highly desirable to power a high-viscosity oil emulsification process. Herein, we demonstrate a novel composite phase change material (PCM) with the dual functions of photothermal and magnetic-thermal conversion to realize the efficient Pickering emulsification of viscous oil. The superior photo/magnetic-thermal response characteristics together with its excellent energy storage and heat release properties endow the designed composite PCM with a good viscosity reduction capacity, thus greatly promoting the emulsification of viscous oil. Owing to the polydopamine (PDA) and Fe3O4 coating, the temperature of functionalized composite PCMs could rapidly reach 80.9 °C and 68.5 °C under simulated sunlight illumination and an alternating magnetic field, respectively. The viscosity of crude oil can be significantly reduced when it comes into contact with heated materials. Most importantly, due to the encapsulation of PEG, the slow release of the stored heat ensured a sustained reduction in the viscosity of the oil over a considerable period of time and greatly improved the energy utilization efficiency simultaneously. Overall, the rationally designed multifunctional composite PCM with both in situ heating characteristics and Pickering emulsification properties provides a new solution for the emulsification of high-viscosity oil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alpinia plants are widely cherished for their vibrant and captivating flowers. The unique feature of this genus lies in their labellum, a specialized floral structure resulting from the fusion of two non-fertile staminodes. However, the intricate process of pigment formation, leading to distinct color patterns in the various labellum segments of Alpinia, remains a subject of limited understanding. In this study, labellum tissues of two Alpinia species, A. zerumbet (yellow–orange flowers) and A. oxyphylla (white–purple flowers), were sampled and analyzed through morphological structure observation, metabolite analysis, and transcriptome analyses. We found that hemispherical/spherical epidermal cells and undulate cell population morphology usually display darker flower colors, while flat epidermal cells and cell populations usually exhibit lighter flower colors. Metabolomic analysis identified a high concentration of anthocyanins, particularly peonidin derivatives, in segments with orange and purple pigments. Additionally, segments with yellow pigments showed significant accumulations of flavones, flavanols, flavanones, and xanthophylls. Furthermore, our investigation into gene expression levels through qRT-PCR revealed notable differences in several genes that participated in anthocyanin and carotenoid biosynthesis among the four pigmented segments. Collectively, these findings offer a comprehensive understanding of pigmentation in Alpinia flowers and serve as a valuable resource for guiding future breeding efforts aimed at developing Alpinia varieties with novel flower colors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an adjuvant drug, alprostadil lipid microsphere injection (Lipo-PGE1) is one of the best-selling drugs in China in recent years. However, the off-label use of Lipo-PGE1 is very common. This study aimed to investigate the use of Lipo-PGE1 and evaluate the clinical effects and economic benefits after administrative intervention on inappropriate use of Lipo-PGE1 in neurosurgical patients in a Chinese tertiary hospital. Administrative interventions were implemented from January to December 2018 by reducing the procurement volume of Lipo-PGE1, judging the rationality of medical records, and establishing reward and punishment mechanisms. Administrative interventions significantly decreased prescription rate (49.98% vs 22.49%), utilization (22,311 DDDs vs 8334 DDDs), drug use density (43.52 DDDs/TID vs 15.84 DDDs/TID), total expenditure (3.58 million RMB vs 1.30 million RMB), and average expenditure (2025.04 RMB vs 1466.49 RMB) of Lipo-PGE1. To our delight, these intervention effects were maintained or even better in the 1-year post-intervention period. Moreover, in the intervention and post-intervention phases, the Lipo-PGE1 use for no indications as well as inappropriate drug dose, frequency, menstruum type, combination, and contraindication were markedly reduced. Besides, the mean costs (P < 0.001), and mean duration (P < 0.001) of Lipo-PGE1 were also obviously decreased. The administrative intervention obviously reduced the off-label use of Lipo-PGE1. However, there still remains a number of inappropriate uses of Lipo-PGE1. To further improve the rational use of Lipo-PGE1, combination of administrative intervention and real-time clinical pharmacists intervention should be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Removing spilled oil from the water surface is critically important given that oil spill accidents are a common occurrence. In this study, TiO2@Palygorskite composite prepared by a simple coprecipitation method was used for oil spill remediation via a dispersion-photodegradation synergy. Diesel could be efficiently dispersed into small oil droplets by TiO2@Palygorskite. These dispersed droplets had an average diameter of 20–30 µm and exhibited good time stability. The tight adsorption of TiO2@Palygorskite on the surface of the droplets was observed in fluorescence and SEM images. As a particulate dispersant, the direct contact of TiO2@Palygorskite with oil pollutants effectively enhanced the photodegradation efficiency of TiO2 for oil. During the photodegradation process, ·O2− and •OH were detected by ESR and radical trapping experiments. The photodegradation efficiency of diesel by TiO2@Palygorskite was enhanced by about 5 times compared with pure TiO2 under simulated sunlight irradiation. The establishment of this new dispersion-photodegradation synergistic remediation system provides a new direction for the development of marine oil spill remediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor sorption capacity and low biodegradability of carbamazepine (CBZ) lead to the difficulties in CBZ removal from water. Sulfate radical‐based advanced oxidation process shows great potential for organic pollutant removal. Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) demonstrate great potential in catalytic field due to their excellent properties. Hence, cobalt‐based metal organic framework (ZIF‐67) nanoparticles are loaded on Fe3O4‐MnO2 composite, and then this composite is applied as peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activator for CBZ degradation. The prepared catalyst exhibits excellent catalytic performance because of the central metal cobalt of ZIF‐67 and the synergistic effect between MnO2 and ZIF‐67. 81% of CBZ with a high initial concentration of 20 mg L−1 is rapidly removed from water within 2.5 min. The prepared catalyst can be convenient to recycle under magnetic field while maintaining its high catalytic stability. Degradation mechanism analysis indicates that both •OH and SO4•− contribute to CBZ degradation, but SO4•− is the main radical species. XPS spectra reveal that Co(II)/Co(III), Mn(II)/Mn(III)/Mn(IV), and Fe(II)/Fe(III) are involved in PMS activation. The degradation pathway is put forward based on the detection of intermediates. This study provides a new inspiration for the fabrication of magnetic metal oxide‐MOFs catalysts with outstanding recycling performance for PMS activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the shortcoming that the satellite navigation receiver is easy to be interfered, a joint space-time method is researched and an improved complex Hermitian positive definite matrix inversion method is proposed based on matrix inversion part. First, the joint space-time method is presented. Second, according to the analysis of the traditional Hermitian positive definite matrix inversion method, an improved method is proposed, and the detailed process is given. Finally, the computations of addition, multiplication, division are compared based on Digital Signal Processing (DSP) hardware platform. Simulation results show that the computation of the improved method is significantly reduced. The improved method is simple, reliable, and easy to implement and can be applied in engineering applications where real-time requirement is strict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The streamflow of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River exhibits different timing and periodicity characteristics in different quarters and months of the year, which makes it difficult to predict. Existing sliding window-based methods usually use a fixed-size window, for which the window size selection is random, resulting in large errors. This paper proposes a dynamic sliding window method that reflects the different timing and periodicity characteristics of the streamflow in different months of the year. Multiple datasets of different months are generated using a dynamic window at first, then the long-short term memory (LSTM) is used to select the optimal window, and finally, the dataset of the optimal window size is used for verification. The proposed method was tested using the hydrological data of Zhutuo Hydrological Station (China). A comparison between the flow prediction data and the measured data shows that the prediction method based on a dynamic sliding window LSTM is more accurate by 8.63% and 3.85% than the prediction method based on fixed window LSTM and the dynamic sliding window back-propagation neural network, respectively. This method can be generally used for the time series data prediction with different periodic characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Si doped diamond-like carbon (Si-DLC) films were deposited on nitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR), and the effects of deposition parameters on the mechanical and tribological properties of an Si-DLC top layer on NBR were investigated. Then, the sample with the best performance is selected to investigate its tribological behaviors and mechanism under different contact loads. The results show that the growth rate and the doped Si content are also decreased with increasing the CH4 flow rate. The Si atom exists in the form of Si-C bonds at low CH4 flow rate (≤40 sccm) and Si-C + Si-O-C bonds at high CH4 flow rate (≥60 sccm). Furthermore, the sp3 content increases monotonously, while the hardness and H3/E2 ratio firstly decreases and then increases. As a result, the friction and wear behaviors are in line with the change trend of the hardness. The lowest friction coefficient (~0.19) and a slight wear were achieved for the Si-DLC3 film under the relatively high load of 3 N. The tribological results indicate that the friction coefficient and wear increase monotonously with the increase of load, which is mainly attributed to the brittle fragmentation of films at a higher load, and thus a high strength and super toughness DLC films should be needed. Furthermore, the friction and wear behaviors of samples depend critically on its surface topography, and the wear is lower when the friction direction is parallel to the stripes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]