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Trisomy 21, characterized by the presence of an additional chromosome 21, leads to a set of clinical features commonly referred to as Down syndrome (DS). The pathological phenotypes observed in DS are caused by a combination of factors, such as mitochondrial dysfunction, neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, disrupted metabolic patterns, and changes in protein homeostasis and signal transduction, and these factors collectively induce neurological alterations. In DS, the triplication of chromosome 21 and the micronuclei arising from the missegregation of chromosomes are closely associated with inflammation and the development of redox imbalance. Autophagy, an essential biological process that affects cellular homeostasis, is a powerful tool to facilitate the degradation of redundant or dysfunctional cytoplasmic components, thereby enabling the recycling of their constituents. Targeting the autophagy process has been suggested as a promising method to balance intracellular inflammation and oxidative stress and improve mitochondrial dysfunction. In this review, we summarize the role of autophagy in regulating inflammation and redox homeostasis in DS and discuss their crosslinks. A comprehensive elucidation of the roles of autophagy in DS offers novel insights for the development of therapeutic strategies aimed at aneuploidy-associated diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spermatogenesis in mammalian testes is essential for male fertility, ensuring a continuous supply of mature sperm. The testicular microenvironment finely tunes this process, with retinoic acid, an active metabolite of vitamin A, serving a pivotal role. Retinoic acid is critical for various stages, including the differentiation of spermatogonia, meiosis in spermatogenic cells, and the production of mature spermatozoa. Vitamin A deficiency halts spermatogenesis, leading to the degeneration of numerous germ cells, a condition reversible with retinoic acid supplementation. Although retinoic acid can restore fertility in some males with reproductive disorders, it does not work universally. Furthermore, high doses may adversely affect reproduction. The inconsistent outcomes of retinoid treatments in addressing infertility are linked to the incomplete understanding of the molecular mechanisms through which retinoid signaling governs spermatogenesis. In addition to the treatment of male reproductive disorders, the role of retinoic acid in spermatogenesis also provides new ideas for the development of male non-hormone contraceptives. This paper will explore three facets: the synthesis and breakdown of retinoic acid in the testes, its role in spermatogenesis, and its application in male reproduction. Our discussion aims to provide a comprehensive reference for studying the regulatory effects of retinoic acid signaling on spermatogenesis and offer insights into its use in treating male reproductive issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reserves of nitrate (NO3-) mineral resources in the Turpan-Hami Basin in Xinjiang rank second after those in the Atacama Desert in Chile, South America. Considerable attention has been devoted to nitrogen (N) sources of NO3- deposits in recent years due to the increase in demand for NO3- fertilizers in agriculture and chemical industries. However, although the potassium nitrate (KNO3) deposits in the Uyunbulak salt lake in the Kumish basin, Xinjiang, China, have received increasing attention from numerous researchers in recent years, they all focused on the study of nitrate sources and agreed that the nitrate source in the Kumish basin is mainly atmospheric sedimentation. Studies on their water sources are scarce; for salt lake nitrate deposits, water supply also plays a crucial role in the genesis of the deposit. As a sensitive indicator, a boron isotope is often used to indicate water bodies from different sources. However, the presence of NO3- ions in water will interfere with the determination of boron isotopes, so the research on boron isotopes in nitrate salt lakes has been hindered. In this study, the three-step ion exchange method published by Ma et al. (2020) was used to eliminate the influence of NO3- ions in water on boron isotope determination, so as to reveal the water supply of Uyunbulak Salt Lake in Kumish basin by using boron isotopes which are more sensitive to water types. In this study, ice and snow meltwater, fissure water, groundwater, and surface water samples were collected from the Kumish basin and analyzed for the determination of boron (B) isotopic and hydrochemical compositions during the migration process of water bodies to reveal the recharge relationship between the water bodies from the northwestern margin of the basin and the study area. The obtained hydrochemical composition results showed a gradual increase in the salinity of the water body from 556 to 7372 mg/L from the northwestern to the southeastern parts of the basin, resulting in a gradual change in the hydrochemical facies type of Uyunbulak salt lake to NaCl. This finding suggested that the water body migrates from the northwestern to southeastern parts of the basin. The results of B isotope composition indicated two types of water bodies from different sources, namely, the ice and snow meltwater of the Southern part of the Tianshan Mountains and groundwater of the basin, exhibiting B isotope composition ranges of 26.66–27.26‰ and 12.75–15.19‰, respectively. These two types of water bodies are mixed at the Uzong spring (Q1). The ice and snow meltwater in the mixed water accounted for 46%, while the groundwater accounted for 54%. The mixed water continues to recharge the Uyunbulak Salt Lake in the southeastern part of the basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) inspection has gradually replaced manual inspection of transmission tower, which produces many images. While it is laborious and time-consuming to manually analyze these images, there are also challenges in automatically detecting small-size defective components such as bolts in transmission tower images, due to problems including complex background, small size, and many similar objects of bolts. In this paper, by virtue of multi-scale features and context information, we propose a deep neural network named Camp-Net (Context Information and Multi-Scale Pyramid Network) to identify bolts defect in transmission tower images. First, multi-scale feature fusion combines deep features and shallow features in convolutional networks to detect small-size bolts. Second, context information fusion puts the information around bolts into the detection network to remove the disturbance of complex background and similar objects. An image dataset containing defective bolts and normal bolts is constructed for model training and testing. Experimental results show that bolts with loose pins and bolts without pins among fittings in transmission tower can be accurately identified with the proposed model. The Average Precision (AP) of defective bolts detection of this model can be 11.4% higher than that of the commonly used high performance model, Faster R-CNN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ubiquitin-specific protease (USP) 6 is a hominoid deubiquitinating enzyme previously implicated in intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder. Although these findings link USP6 to higher brain function, potential roles for USP6 in cognition have not been investigated. Here, we report that USP6 is highly expressed in induced human neurons and that neuron-specific expression of USP6 enhances learning and memory in a transgenic mouse model. Similarly, USP6 expression regulates N-methyl-D-aspartate-type glutamate receptor (NMDAR)-dependent long-term potentiation and long-term depression in USP6 transgenic mouse hippocampi. Proteomic characterization of transgenic USP6 mouse cortex reveals attenuated NMDAR ubiquitination, with concomitant elevation in NMDAR expression, stability, and cell surface distribution with USP6 overexpression. USP6 positively modulates GluN1 expression in transfected cells, and USP6 down-regulation impedes focal GluN1 distribution at postsynaptic densities and impairs synaptic function in neurons derived from human embryonic stem cells. Together, these results indicate that USP6 enhances NMDAR stability to promote synaptic function and cognition. This study identifies the hominoid-specific USP6 as a novel deubiquitinase of NMDA receptors, and shows that neuronal expression of human USP6 transgene enhances cognitive and synaptic function in mice, suggesting a potential role of USP6 in the evolution of human intelligence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An average of concentrations of Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+, K+, and Cl– in fluid inclusions, from the Khorat Plateau evaporite primary halite, was employed. The evaporation–crystallization sequence and paths were obtained under various temperature conditions for the quinary system, Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+//Cl–-H2O. The results showed (1) a halite, sylvite, and carnallite stage at 25°C; (2) a halite, sylvite, carnallite, and bischofite stage at 35°C; and (3) a halite, sylvite, carnallite, bischofite, and tachyhydrite stage at 50°C. These results indicated that (1) a hot state is favorable for tachyhydrite formation, (2) tachyhydrite occurs in the late evaporation stage, and (3) the stability field of tachyhydrite increases with increasing temperature. The crystallization paths were plotted by the application of Jänecke phase diagram at 25°C, 35°C, and 50°C involving the system Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+//Cl–-H2O. The crystallization sequence predicted on the Jänecke phase diagram showed a good agreement with the experimental crystallization sequences and paths. Tachyhydrite precipitate more easily from a high Ca concentration solution during the late evaporation stage with increasing temperature under the same relative humidity condition. The evaporite mineral succession in the Khorat Plateau, Sergipe, and Congo basins agrees well with the mineral precipitation sequences predicted from their own fluid inclusions in halite. This is confirmed by the simulation of the Jänecke phase diagram at 50°C involving the system Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+//Cl–-H2O. The precipitation of tachyhydrite was sensitive to the temperature, and that the thermal resource may originate from a temperature profile in the solar pond. This study presented a simulated approach that can help in understanding similar cases that studies the sensitivity of temperature to salt formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]