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Adenomyosis (AM) is a common gynecological disorder characterized by the presence of endometrial glands and stroma within the uterinemyometrium. It is associated with abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB), dysmenorrhea, and infertility. Although several mechanisms have been proposed to elucidate AM, the exact cause and development of the condition remain unclear. Recent studies have highlighted the significance of macrophage polarization in the microenvironment,which plays a crucial role in AMinitiation and progression. However, a comprehensive review regarding the role and regulatory mechanism of macrophage polarization in AM is currently lacking. Therefore, this review aims to summarize the phenotype and function of macrophage polarization and the phenomenon of the polarization of adenomyosis-associated macrophages (AAMs). It also elaborates on the role and regulatory mechanism ofAAMpolarization in invasion/migration, fibrosis, angiogenesis, dysmenorrhea, and infertility. Furthermore, this review explores the underlying molecular mechanisms of AAM polarization and suggests future research directions. In conclusion, this review provides a new perspective on understanding the pathogenesis of AM and provides a theoretical foundation for developing targeted drugs through the regulation of AAM polarization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective weed control in the field is essential for maintaining favorable growing conditions and rapeseed yields. Sulfonylurea herbicides are one kind of most widely used herbicides worldwide, which control weeds by inhibiting acetolactate synthase (ALS). Molecular markers have been designed from polymorphic sites within the sequences of ALS genes, aiding marker-assisted selection in breeding herbicide-resistant rapeseed cultivars. However, most of them are not breeder friendly and have relatively limited application due to higher costs and lower throughput in the breeding projects. The aims of this study were to develop high throughput kompetitive allele-specific PCR (KASP) assays for herbicide resistance. We first cloned and sequenced BnALS1 and BnALS3 genes from susceptible cultivars and resistant 5N (als1als1/als3als3 double mutant). Sequence alignments of BnALS1 and BnALS3 genes for cultivars and 5N showed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at positions 1676 and 1667 respectively. These two SNPs for BnALS1 and BnALS3 resulted in amino acid substitutions and were used to develop a KASP assay. These functional markers were validated in three distinct BC1F2 populations. The KASP assay developed in this study will be valuable for the high-throughput selection of elite materials with high herbicide resistance in rapeseed breeding programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The impairment of blood-brain barrier (BBB) is one of the key contributors to maternal inflammation induced brain damage in offspring. Our previous studies showed Fibrinogen-like protein 2 (FGL2) deficiency alleviated maternal inflammation induced perinatal brain damage. However, its role in BBB remains undefined. Methods: Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was intraperitoneally injected to dams at Embryonic day 17 to establish maternal inflammation model. FGL2 knockout mice and primary brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs) were used for the in-vivo and in-vitro experiments. BBB integrity was assessed by sodium fluorescein extravasation and tight junction (TJ) protein expression. Oxidative stress and the activation of PI3K/NF-κB pathway were evaluated to explore the mechanisms underlying. Results: Upon maternal inflammation, BBB integrity was remarkedly reduced in neonatal mice. Meanwhile, FGL2 expression was consistently increased in BBB-impaired brain as well as in LPS-treated BMECs. Moreover, FGL2 deficiency attenuated the hyperpermeability of BBB, prevented the decline of TJ proteins, and reduced the cytokine expressions in LPS-exposed pups. Mechanistically, the indicators of oxidative stress, as well as the activation of PI3K/NF-κB pathway, were upregulated after LPS exposure in vivo and in vitro. FGL2 deletion decreased the generation of ROS and NO, reduced the endothelial iNOS and NOX2 expressions, and suppressed the PI3K/NF-κB pathway activation. Besides, inhibition of PI3K by LY294002 decreased the oxidative stress in LPS-treated wild-type BMECs. While, overexpression of PI3K by lentivirus reemerged the induction of NOX2 and iNOS as well as NF-κB activation in FGL2-deleted BMECs. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that FGL2 deficiency alleviates the maternal inflammation-induced BBB disruption by inhibiting PI3K/NF-κB mediated oxidative stress in BMECs. Targeting FGL2 may provide a new therapy for prenatal brain damage of offspring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The morbidity and mortality of cardiovascular diseases are exceedingly high worldwide. Pathological heart remodeling, which is developed as a result of mitochondrial dysfunction, could ultimately drive heart failure. More recent research target exercise modulation of mitochondrial dysfunction to improve heart failure. Therefore, finding practical treatment goals and exercise programs to improve cardiovascular disease is instrumental. Better treatment options are available with the recent development of exercise and drug therapy. This paper summarizes pathological states of abnormal mitochondrial function and intervention strategies for exercise therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study clarified the effect of homocysteine on adventitial fibroblasts (AFs) and its relationship with angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1R). Hyperhomocysteinemia aggravated the plaque area and increased the expression of IL-6, MCP-1, and macrophage infiltration in the plaque and adventitia of the aorta, whereas telmisartan improved this effect. Hyperhomocysteinemia induced the occurrence of the AFs marker protein ER-TR7 in the plaque and entire layer of the aorta, whereas telmisartan improved these effects, indicating that homocysteine induced AFs migration and that AT1R mediated this process. The migration experiments of AFs also reached the same conclusion. Homocysteine increased the phosphorylation levels of PKC and ERK1/2 in the AFs and HEK293A cells transfected with the AT1R plasmid, whereas telmisartan inhibited this effect, indicating that homocysteine activated AT1R intracellular signaling pathway. Homocysteine also increased the AFs At1R expression. Conclusion, homocysteine promoted adventitial inflammation, induced AFs migration, and aggravated atherosclerosis by activating AT1R. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study is based on a longitudinal evaluation of the public, during the initial COVID-19 outbreak in China and 8 months after. It aimed to explore the changes in the mental health of the public at the beginning of the pandemic and during the regular epidemic prevention and control. An online survey questionnaire was used to collect data during the initial COVID-19 outbreak (February 10, 2020-February 18, 2020; T1) and 8 months after the outbreak (October 21, 2020-December 29, 2020; T2). Psychological distress was assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL-5). A chi-square test was used to compare the changes in the depression and anxiety scores at T1 and T2, and the correlation between symptoms was analyzed through Spearman's rank correlation. In T1, 1,200 people were recruited, while 168 people responded in T2. Depression (48.2-31.0%; p=0.001) and anxiety (17.9-9.5%; p = 0.026) symptoms decreased over time; two participants developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in T2. The scores of the PHQ-9 scale and the SAS scale were both positively correlated with the score of the PCL-5 scale and negatively correlated with sleep time. During the COVID-19 pandemic, part of the general population's anxiety and depression significantly reduced with time, and they rarely developed PTSD. PTSD occurrence was related to severe depression and anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION: A new telemedicine video tamper detection system based on wireless sensor network is proposed and designed in this paper. OBJECTIVES: This work is proposed to improve the performance of telemedicine video communication and accurately detect the tamper area in telemedicine video. METHODS: The sensor nodes in the sensing layer are responsible for collecting telemedicine video information and transmitting the information to the data layer. The data layer completes the storage of information and transmits it to the processing layer. The detection module of the processing layer detects the tampered area of the telemedicine video through two parts: suspicious moving point calculation and tamper detection, and transmits the detection results to the application display layer for display. RESULTS: The experimental results show that the designed detection system can accurately detect the tampered area in the telemedicine video, and the packet loss rate is significantly reduced, and the maximum packet loss rate is no more than 1%. CONCLUSION: The proposed detection system for remote medical video based on wireless sensor network can better meet the requirements of region tamper detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The emerging expressed sequence tag-derived simple sequence repeats (EST-SSRs) offer an important approach to investigate plant genetic diversity. Methods: A total of seventy common bean polymorphic EST-SSRs were utilized for assessing genetic diversity among 19 hyacinth, 20 pea and 21 soybean accessions, respectively. The genetic statistics and principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) were conducted by GenAlEx 6.5. Result: The transferability rates of common bean EST-SSRs in hyacinth, pea and soybean were 27.1%, 20.0% and 21.4%. And the ratios of polymorphic SSR markers in these legumes were 42.1%, 85.71% and 100.0%, respectively. The hyacinth, pea and soybean accessions could be assigned to three distinct clusters for the germplasm types greatly depending on the geographic distributions. The present results revealed that the common bean EST-SSRs are highly transferable to hyacinth bean, pea and soybean. Moreover, these transferable markers would provide a set of inexpensive and effective tools for future research on molecular breeding, taxonomy and comparative mapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forecast of traffic flow state (TFS) is the key to the effective control of roads, especially during large competition events. To enhance the accuracy of TFS forecast, this paper puts forward a way to predict the TFS on the peripheral roads of large competition events, which is based on support vector regression (SVR) and parameter optimization. Firstly, the tensor recovery algorithm was adopted to fill up the missing data. Then, the simulated annealing (SA) algorithm was applied to optimize the SVR parameters like the penalty factor, and the insensitive loss. Next, a TFS forecast model for the road section near large venues was established based on the SVR and the optimized parameters. The example analysis shows that the parameter optimization improved the accuracy of the SVR forecast model, making the predicted results closer to the actual data. The proposed model greatly facilitates the management and control of road traffic during large competition events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to design an effective scheduling method for bike sharing system that minimizes the supply-demand gap in different areas. Based on the actual data on bike sharing in a city, the spatiotemporal features of bike sharing demand were analyzed through the prediction by a backpropagation neural network (BPNN), whose structure was determined through linear regression and other techniques. According to the predicted demands, multiple assumptions and constraints were proposed for optimization of bike sharing scheduling. On this basis, a decision model for bike sharing in peak hours was established with fixed time window, with the aim to minimize the scheduling cost. Then, the genetic algorithm (GA) was improved to solve the model. Our model and the GA were proved feasible through a case analysis. This research provides a reference for optimizing the operation and management of bike sharing, and promotes the public transport in large cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzed the stress-strain curve of stirrup restraint ferrous tailing concrete by test and theoretical analysis. Twenty short column in strength grade 5 are used in the test with WC30, WC35, WC40, WC45 and WC50. The stress-strain data is achieved after the axial compression behavior test. It is found from the stress-strain curve that the stress-strain relationship is similar with natural sand concrete. Moreover, the whole stress-strain curve equation of stirrup restraint ferrous tailing concrete is put forward. The calculation results show that the data calculating by the equation are in good agreement with the experimental data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obesity is a global public health concern and may lead to a variety of complications. Previous studies have indicated that adipokines and energy-source materials contribute to obesity and obesity-associated insulin resistance. MicroRNAs (miRs) are endogenous 20- to 25-nucleotide non-coding RNAs associated with fat metabolism. It has been indicated that miR-21 is associated with adipogenesis and metabolic syndrome. In the present study, the expression of miR-21 in human mature adipocytes was analyzed using reverse transcription quantitative-polymerase chain reaction following treatment with adipokines, including tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-6, leptin, resistin and energy source materials, including free fatty acids (FFAs) and glucose. The current study demonstrated that the expression of miR-21 in human mature adipocytes was upregulated following treatment with TNF-α, IL-6, leptin, resistin and FFAs. However, low- and high-glucose did not have an effect on miR-21 expression. These results confirmed that TNF-α, IL-6, leptin, resistin and FFAs may contribute to obesity and obesity-associated insulin resistance via upregulating miR-21 in human mature adipocytes. Therefore, miR-21 may be a key regulatory factor of obesity and obesity-associated insulin resistance, and represents a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of these disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lossy trapdoor functions (LTFs) were first introduced by Peikert and Waters (STOC'08). Since their introduction, lossy trapdoor functions have found numerous applications. They can be used as tools to construct important cryptographic primitives such as injective one-way trapdoor functions, chosen-ciphertext-secure public key encryptions, deterministic encryptions, et al. In this paper, we focus on the lossy trapdoor functions in the presence of continuous leakage. We introduce the new notion of updatable lossy trapdoor functions (ULTFs) and give their formal definition and security properties. Based on these, we extend the security model to the LTFs against continuous leakage when the evaluation algorithm is leakage resilient. Under the standard DDH assumption and DCR assumption, respectively, we show two explicit lossy trapdoor functions against continuous leakage in the standard model. In these schemes, using the technology of matrix kernel, the trapdoor can be refreshed at regular intervals and the adversaries can learn unbounded leakage information on the trapdoor along the whole system life. At the same time, we also show the performance of the proposed schemes compared with the known existing continuous leakage resilient lossy trapdoor functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ)-based comparative proteomics techniques were applied in this study to detect global changes in the protein profiles of testis in male Kunming mice exposed to 0, 25, and 100 mg/L sodium fluoride (NaF) for 60 days. The results showed that 88 proteins were differentially expressed in both the 25 and 100 mg/L NaF groups. Enrichment analysis of GO and KEGG revealed that these altered proteins were involved in seven GO molecular functions, in 34 GO biological processes, and in five KEGG pathways. The down-regulated proteins related to reproductive functions discussed in detail included ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2 R1, ubiquitin-40S ribosomal protein S27a, aldehyde dehydrogenase, histone H1.4, serine/threonine-protein phosphatase, and sperm acrosome membrane-associated protein 4. In conclusion, the data suggest that fluoride ion exposure may adversely affect ubiquitination, phosphorylation, retinoic acid synthesis, histone-protamine replacement, and the sperm acrosome membrane. Consequently, fluoride ion exposure may interfere with spermatogenesis, sperm motility, and the acrosome reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The land ecosystem service function value contains the gas regulating function value, air purification function value, water conservation value, land conservation value, soil nutrient conservation value and maintain biodiversity value. Based on the method of market value and the data of Hubei Statistical yearbook, cultivated land resources of ecosystem service function value is 730 038.69Million in 20072009, and 714 774.99 Million in 2010-2012 in Wuhan Metropolitan Area. After three years of development, Wuhan Metropolitan Area of ecological value of cultivated land has increased by about 3.97%. From the point of each composition, the importance of gas regulating function of cultivated land resources and water conservation function is the forefront. From the point of spatial distribution, the highest of annual average value of the cultivated land ecological was Huanggang (1.725 billion yuan), the lowest was Ezhou (217.868 6 million yuan) in 2010-2012. From the point of space changes, the land ecological value increased only in Qianjiang city, while farmland ecological value in other cities was falling The conclusion is of directive significance to the regional land protection policy and the farmland reasonable distribution, for Wuhan Metropolitan Area and other areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uniform NiS2 nanocubes are successfully synthesized with a microwave-assisted method. Interestingly, NiS2 nanocubes, nanospheres and nanoparticles are obtained by controlling microwave reaction time. NiS2 nanomaterials are primarily applied to supercapacitors and cocatalytic enhancing photocatalytic H2 production. Different morphologies of NiS2 nanostructures show different electrochemical and cocatalytic enhancing H2 production activities. Benefited novel nanostructures, NiS2 nanocube electrodes show a large specific capacitance (695 F g-1 at 1.25 A g-1) and excellent cycling performance (the retention 93.4% of initial specific capacitance after 3000 cycles). More importantly, NiS2 nanospheres show highly cocatalytic enhancing photocatalytic for H2 evolution, in which the photocatalytic H2 production is up to 3400 mmol during 12 hours under irradiation of visible light (ϰ>420 nm) with an average H2 production rate of 283 μmol h-1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is one of the major pathogens of liver diseases. Some studies have previously reported that miR-122 can stimulate replication or translation of HCV. However, the effects of HCV infection on miR-122 expression are not clear. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of HCV core protein on the expression of miR-122 in a cell culture model. Results: The miR-122 levels in Huh7.5.1 cells infected with HCV for different days or different HCV abundance were measured by real-time PCR. Significant decrease of miR-122 expression was found at late stage of infection and in the high-abundance group. Huh7.5.1 cells transfected with plasmid pEGFP-core or pEGFP were used to detect the effects of HCV core protein on miR-122 expression, the results showed that core protein could down-regulate the miR-122 expression level in a time- and dose- dependent manner, and reduced the susceptibility of Huh7.5.1 cell to HCV. Conclusions: Down-regulating miR-122 expression by HCV core protein may give a new insight into the interaction between HCV and miR-122 and chronic HCV infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

•The bacterial protein YqeH is a circularly permuted GTPase with homologs encoded by plant nuclear genomes. The rice homolog OsNOA1/RIF1 is encoded by the single-copy gene Os02g01440. OsNOA1/RIF1 is expressed in different tissues and is light-inducible. The OsNOA1/RIF1-EYFP fusion protein was targeted to chloroplasts in transgenic Arabidopsis plants. In addition, the rice homolog was able to rescue most of the growth phenotypes in an Arabidopsis rif1 mutant. •Rice ( Oryza sativa) OsNOA1/RIF1 RNAi mutant seedlings were chlorotic with reduced pigment contents and lower photosystem II (PSII) efficiency. However, the expressions of the chloroplast-encoded genes rbcL, atpB, psaA and psbA were not affected. By contrast, reduced abundance of the chloroplast 16S rRNA was observed in the mutant. •Quantitative iTRAQ-LC-MS/MS proteomics investigations revealed proteome changes in the rice mutant consistent with the expected functional role of OsNOA1/RIF1 in chloroplast translation. The RNAi mutant showed significantly decreased expression levels of chloroplast-encoded proteins as well as nuclear-encoded components of chloroplast enzyme complexes. Conversely, upregulation of some classes of nonchloroplastic proteins, such as glycolytic and phenylpropanoid pathway enzymes, was detected. •Our work provides independent indications that a highly conserved nuclear-encoded cGTPase of likely prokaryotic origin is essential for proper chloroplast ribosome assembly and/or translation in plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition from a sterile gut environment to the development of microbiota in the newborns is not fully understood. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of exposure to bacterial communities on the development of gut microbiota in the newly hatched chicken. A total of 90 as-hatched chicks were divided into three groups. Groups A and B were treated with inocula of the cecal origin, whereas group C was fed with sterile water. The major bacteria in Inoculum-I to treat group A included Bacteroides (20.7%), Lachnospiraceae (17.2%) and unclassified Ruminococcaceae (16.1%), whereas group B was introduced with Inoculum-II composed of Prevotella (37.9%), Acidaminococcus (16.1%) and Dorea (12.6%). Analyses of the ileal and cecal contents over a period of 15 days showed that Inoculum-I resulted in a higher rate of colonization than Inoculum-II, but the colonization was predominantly in the cecum. The influence of Inoculum-II on group B was similar to that of water on group C, showing only a marginal effect on colonization. Microarray analysis showed that each group presented a distinct pattern of gene expression in the ileum. In group A, the most obvious changes were noted in genes controlling the function of ion transport, cell cycle and chromosome maintenance, suggesting that the inocula influenced gene expression. Our findings indicate that initial exposure to different bacterial communities could lead to the development of distinct microbiota and gene expression in the gut. It is possible to manipulate the gut microbiota by feeding to a proper bacterial composition at an early age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The role of heterotrimeric G proteins in pollen germination and tube growth was investigated using Arabidopsis thaliana plants in which the gene ( GPA) encoding the G-protein a subunit (Ga) was null or overexpressed. • Pollen germination, free cytosolic calcium concentration ([Ca2+]cyt) and Ca2+ channel activity in the plasma membrane (PM) of pollen cells were investigated. • Results showed that, compared with pollen grains of the wild type (ecotype Wassilewskija, ws), in vitro germinated pollen of Ga null mutants ( gpa1-1 and gpa1-2) had lower germination percentages and shorter pollen tubes, while pollen from Ga overexpression lines (wGa and cGa) had higher germination percentages and longer pollen tubes. Compared with ws pollen cells, [Ca2+]cyt was lower in gpa1-1 and gpa1-2 and higher in wGa and cGa. In whole-cell patch clamp recordings, a hyperpolarization-activated Ca2+-permeable conductance was identified in the PM of pollen protoplasts. The conductance was suppressed by trivalent cations but insensitive to organic blockers; its permeability to divalent cations was Ba2+ > Ca2+ > Mg2+ > Sr2+ > Mn2+. The activity of the Ca2+-permeable channel conductance was down-regulated in pollen protoplasts of gpa1-1 and gpa1-2, and up-regulated in wGa and cGa. • The results suggest that Ga may participate in pollen germination through modulation of the hyperpolarization-activated Ca2+ channel in the PM of pollen cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamical properties of fractional-order Duffing–van der Pol oscillator are studied, and the amplitude–frequency response equation of primary resonance is obtained by the harmonic balance method. The stability condition for steady-state solution is obtained based on Lyapunov theory. The comparison of the approximate analytical results with the numerical results is fulfilled, and the approximations obtained are in good agreement with the numerical solutions. The bifurcations of primary resonance for system parameters are analyzed. The results show that the harmonic balance method is effective and convenient for solving this problem, and it provides a reference for the dynamical analysis of similar nonlinear systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]