Search

Background: The human gut microbiota has been identified as a potentially important factor influencing the development of COVID-19. It is believed that the disease primarily affects the organism through inflammatory pathways. With the aim of improving early diagnosis and targeted therapy, it is crucial to identify the specific gut microbiota associated with COVID-19 and to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying processes. The present study sought to investigate the potential causal relationship between the gut microbiota and COVID-19, and to determine the extent to which inflammatory proteins act as mediators in this relationship. Methods: Bidirectional mendelian randomization (MR) and Two-step mediated MR analyses were applied to examine causative associations among 196 gut microbiota, 91 inflammatory proteins and COVID-19. The main analytical method used in the MR was the random effects inverse variance weighted (IVW) method. This was complemented by the Bayesian weighted Mendelian randomization (BWMR) method, which was utilized to test the hypothesis of MR. In order for the results to be deemed reliable, statistical significance was required for both methods. Validation was then carried out using an external dataset, and further meta-analyses were conducted to authenticate that the association was reliable. Results: Results of our research indicated that seven gut microbiota were actively associated to the COVID-19 risk. Five inflammatory proteins were associated with COVID-19 risk, of which three were positively and two were negatively identified with COVID-19. Further validation was carried out using sensitivity analyses. Mediated MR results revealed that CCL2 was a possible mediator of causality of family Bifidobacteriaceae and order Bifidobacteriales with COVID-19, mediating at a ratio of 12.73%. Conclusion: Suggesting a genetic causation between specific gut microbiota and COVID-19, our present research emphasizes the underlying mediating role of CCL2, an inflammatory factor, and contributes to a deeper understanding of the mechanism of action underlying COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The human gut microbiota has been identified as a potentially important factor influencing the development of COVID-19. It is believed that the disease primarily affects the organism through inflammatory pathways. With the aim of improving early diagnosis and targeted therapy, it is crucial to identify the specific gut microbiota associated with COVID-19 and to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying processes. The present study sought to investigate the potential causal relationship between the gut microbiota and COVID-19, and to determine the extent to which inflammatory proteins act as mediators in this relationship. Methods: Bidirectional mendelian randomization (MR) and Two-step mediated MR analyses were applied to examine causative associations among 196 gut microbiota, 91 inflammatory proteins and COVID-19. The main analytical method used in the MR was the random effects inverse variance weighted (IVW) method. This was complemented by the Bayesian weighted Mendelian randomization (BWMR) method, which was utilized to test the hypothesis of MR. In order for the results to be deemed reliable, statistical significance was required for both methods. Validation was then carried out using an external dataset, and further meta-analyses were conducted to authenticate that the association was reliable. Results: Results of our research indicated that seven gut microbiota were actively associated to the COVID-19 risk. Five inflammatory proteins were associated with COVID-19 risk, of which three were positively and two were negatively identified with COVID-19. Further validation was carried out using sensitivity analyses. Mediated MR results revealed that CCL2 was a possible mediator of causality of family Bifidobacteriaceae and order Bifidobacteriales with COVID-19, mediating at a ratio of 12.73%. Conclusion: Suggesting a genetic causation between specific gut microbiota and COVID-19, our present research emphasizes the underlying mediating role of CCL2, an inflammatory factor, and contributes to a deeper understanding of the mechanism of action underlying COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abiotic stresses can increase the total fatty acid (TFA) and astaxanthin accumulation in microalgae. However, it remains unknown whether a unified signal transduction mechanism exists under different stresses. This study explored the link between nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase-derived reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the accumulation of fatty acids and astaxanthin in Chromochloris zofingiensis under three abiotic stresses. Results showed significant increases in fatty acid, astaxanthin, and ROS levels under nitrogen deficiency, phosphorus deficiency, and high-salinity stress. The introduction of the NADPH oxidase inhibitor diphenyleneiodonium (DPI) decreased the content of these components. This underscores the pivotal role of NADPH oxidase-derived ROS in the accumulation of fatty acid and astaxanthin under abiotic stress. Analysis of transcriptomes across three conditions following DPI addition revealed 1,445 shared differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Enrichment analysis revealed that biotin, betalain, thiamine, and glucosinolate may be important in stress responses. The heatmap demonstrated that DPI notably suppressed gene expression in the fatty acid and carotenoid biosynthesis pathways. Our findings underscore the pivotal role of NADPH oxidase-derived ROS in the accumulation of fatty acid and astaxanthin under abiotic stresses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of technologies such as big data and blockchain has brought convenience to life, but at the same time, privacy and security issues are becoming more and more prominent. The K-anonymity algorithm is an effective and low computational complexity privacy-preserving algorithm that can safeguard users' privacy by anonymizing big data. However, the algorithm currently suffers from the problem of focusing only on improving user privacy while ignoring data availability. In addition, ignoring the impact of quasi-identified attributes on sensitive attributes causes the usability of the processed data on statistical analysis to be reduced. Based on this, we propose a new K-anonymity algorithm to solve the privacy security problem in the context of big data, while guaranteeing improved data usability. Specifically, we construct a new information loss function based on the information quantity theory. Considering that different quasi-identification attributes have different impacts on sensitive attributes, we set weights for each quasi-identification attribute when designing the information loss function. In addition, to reduce information loss, we improve K-anonymity in two ways. First, we make the loss of information smaller than in the original table while guaranteeing privacy based on common artificial intelligence algorithms, i.e., greedy algorithm and 2-means clustering algorithm. In addition, we improve the 2-means clustering algorithm by designing a mean-center method to select the initial center of mass. Meanwhile, we design the K-anonymity algorithm of this scheme based on the constructed information loss function, the improved 2-means clustering algorithm, and the greedy algorithm, which reduces the information loss. Finally, we experimentally demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm in improving the effect of 2-means clustering and reducing information loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The role of the intestinal microbiota in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease combined with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) is gaining widespread interest. Aims: This study was conducted to investigate the clinical and fecal microbiota characteristics of patients with both ulcerative colitis (UC) and axSpA. Methods: Clinical data were collected from patients with UC. Patients were divided into the axSpA and non-axSpA groups according to human leukocyte antigen-B27 serology and sacroiliac joint imaging results. We obtained fecal specimens from 14 axSpA and 26 non-axSpA patients. All samples underwent 16S ribosomal DNA sequencing. Results: Seventy-three patients with UC were included in this study, and the axSpA incidence was 19.2%. This incidence was significantly higher in patients with C-reactive protein > 10 mg/L. Firmicutes and Faecalibacterium abundances were decreased, and Proteobacteria and Escherichia_Shigella abundances were increased in the axSpA group compared with those of the non-axSpA group. Indicator analysis showed that Escherichia_Shigella was more likely to be an indicator species of axSpA. Additionally, many biosynthetic and metabolic pathways, including glutathione metabolism, fatty acid degradation, geraniol degradation, and biosynthesis of siderophore group nonribosomal peptides, were upregulated in the axSpA group. Conclusion: Patients with UC have a high axSpA incidence, which may be related to the relative abundances of Escherichia_Shigella in these patients. The abundances of various biosynthetic and metabolic pathways of the fecal flora were upregulated in patients with axSpA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a common nasal inflammatory disorder that severely affects an individual's quality of life (QoL) and poses a heavy financial burden. In addition to routine treatments, probiotic intervention has emerged as a promising strategy for preventing and alleviating allergic diseases. The main objective of this study was to determine the effect of a novel multi-strain probiotic mixture on AR symptoms and investigate potential targets underlying the probiotic intervention. Methods: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study was conducted on AR patients who were allergic to autumnal pollens (n = 31). Placebo or a novel probiotic mixture, composed of Lactobacillus rhamnosus (L. rhamnosus) HN001, L. acidophilus NCFM, Bifidobacterium lactis (B. lactis) Bi-07, L. paracasei LPC-37, and L. reuteri LE16, was administered after 2 months. The therapeutic efficacy was evaluated by a symptom assessment scale. Before and during the pollen season, blood samples were collected, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated for further tandem mass tags (TMTs)-based quantitative proteomic analyses. Potential targets and underlying pathological pathways were explored using bioinformatics methods. Results: During the pollen season, the rhinoconjunctivitis symptom score of participants who were administered probiotics (probiotic group, n = 15) was significantly lower than those administered placebo (placebo group, n = 15) (P = 0.037). The proteomic analyses identified 60 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) in the placebo group, and subsequent enrichment analyses enriched a series of pathways and biological processes, including signaling pathways of inflammation, coagulation cascade, lipid, carbohydrate and amino acid metabolic pathways, and transcription and translation processes. Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regression extracted five main elements, namely, GSTO1, ATP2A2, MCM7, PROS1, and TRIM58, as signature proteins. A total of 17 DEPs were identified in the probiotic group, and there was no pathway enriched. Comparison of DEPs in the two groups revealed that the expression levels of the high-mobility group nucleosome-binding domain-containing protein 2 (HMGN2) and Histone H1.2 presented an opposite trend with different interventions. Conclusion: Our data showed that AR symptoms alleviated after treatment with the novel multi-strain probiotic mixture, and the proteomic analyses suggested that HMGN2 and Histone H1.2 might be targets of probiotic intervention for seasonal AR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A spatially explicit, high-resolution forest age map is critical for quantifying forest carbon stock and carbon sequestration potential. Previous endeavours to estimate forest age in China at national scale mainly concentrated on a sparse resolution or incomplete forest ecosystems because of complex species composition, vast forest areas, insufficient field measurements, and the lack of effective methods. To overcome these limitations, we construct a framework for estimating China's forest age by combining remote-sensing time series analysis with machine learning algorithms based on massive field measurements and remote-sensing dataset. Specifically, the LandTrendr time series analysis is first applied to detect forest disturbances from 1985 to 2020, with the time since the last disturbance serving as a proxy for forest age. Next, for pixels where no disturbance, machine learning algorithms are used to estimate forest age from independent variables, including forest height, climate, terrain, soil, and forest-age field measurements. Finally, MLA models are established for each vegetation division and used to estimate forest ages. Combining these two methods produces a spatially explicit 30 m resolution forestage map for China in the year of 2020. Validation against independent field plots produces a R -2 from 0.51 to 0.63. Nationally, the average forest age is 56.1 years (standard deviation = 32.7 years), where the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau alpine vegetation zone has the oldest forest with an average of 138.0 years, whereas the forest in the warm temperate deciduous-broadleaf forest vegetation zone averages only 28.5 years. This 30-m-resolution forest-age map provides vital information for accurately understanding the ecological benefits of China's forests and to sustainably manage China's forest resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The data inMobile EdgeComputing (MEC) contains tremendousmarket value, and data sharing can maximize the usefulness of the data. However, certain data is quite sensitive, and sharing it directly may violate privacy. Vertical Federated Learning (VFL) is a secure distributed machine learning framework that completes joint model training by passing encryptedmodel parameters rather than raw data, so there is no data privacy leakage during the training process. Therefore, the VFL can build a bridge between data demander and owner to realize data sharing while protecting data privacy. Typically, the VFL requires a third party for key distribution and decryption of training results. In this article, we employ the consortium blockchain instead of the traditional third party and design a VFL architecture based on the consortium blockchain for data sharing in MEC. More specifically, we propose a V-Raft consensus algorithm based on Verifiable Random Functions (VRFs), which is a variant of the Raft. The VRaft is able to elect leader quickly and stably to assist data demander and owner to complete data sharing by VFL. Moreover, we apply secret sharing todistribute theprivate key toavoid the situationwhere the training result cannot be decrypted if the leader crashes. Finally, we analyzed the performance of the V-Raft and carried out simulation experiments, and the results show that compared with Raft, the V-Raft has higher efficiency and better scalability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of cloud computing technology, more and more data owners upload their local data to the public cloud server for storage and calculation. While this can save customers’ operating costs, it also poses privacy and security challenges. Such challenges can be solved using secure multi-party computation (SMPC), but this still exposes more security issues. In cloud computing using SMPC, clients need to process their data and submit the processed data to the cloud server, which then performs the calculation and returns the results to each client. Each client and server must be honest. If there is cooperation or dishonest behavior between clients, some clients may profit from it or even disclose the private data of other clients. This paper proposes the SMPC based on a Partially-Homomorphic Encryption (PHE) scheme in which an addition homomorphic encryption algorithm with a lower computational cost is used to ensure data comparability and ZeroKnowledge Proof (ZKP) is used to limit the client’s malicious behavior. In addition, the introduction of Oblivious Transfer (OT) technology also ensures that the semi-honest cloud server knows nothing about private data, so that the cloud server of this scheme can calculate the correct data in the case of malicious participant models and safely return the calculation results to each client. Finally, the security analysis shows that the scheme not only ensures the privacy of participants, but also ensures the fairness of the comparison protocol data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to its decentralized, tamper-proof, and trust-free characteristics, blockchain is used in the Internet of Things (IoT) to guarantee the reliability of data. However, some technical flaws in blockchain itself prevent the development of these applications, such as the issue with linearly growing storage capacity of blockchain systems. On the other hand, there is a lack of storage resources for sensor devices in IoT, and numerous sensor devices will generate massive data at ultra-high speed, which makes the storage problem of the IoT enabled by blockchain more prominent. There are various solutions to reduce the storage burden by modifying the blockchain’s storage policy, but most of them do not consider the willingness of peers. In attempt to make the blockchain more compatible with the IoT, this paper proposes a storage optimization scheme that revisits the system data storage problem from a more practically oriented standpoint. Peers will only store transactional data that they are directly involved in. In addition, a transaction verification model is developed to enable peers to undertake transaction verification with the aid of cloud computing, and an incentive mechanism is premised on the storage optimization scheme to assure data integrity. The results of the simulation experiments demonstrate the proposed scheme’s advantage in terms of storage and throughput. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapeseed (Brassica napus) is an oil crop grown worldwide, making it a key plant species in molecular breeding research. However, the complexity of its polyploid genome increases sequencing costs and reduces sequencing accuracy. Target capture coupled with high-throughput sequencing is an efficient approach for detecting genetic variation at genomic regions or loci of interest. In this study, 588 resequenced accessions of rapeseed were used to develop a target capture sequencing SNP genotyping platform named BnaPan50T. The platform comprised 54,765, with 54,058 resequenced markers from the pan-genome, and 855 variant trait-associated markers for 12 agronomic traits. The capture quality of BnaPan50T was demonstrated well in 12 typical accessions. Compared with a conventional genotyping array, BnaPan50T has a high SNP density and a high proportion of SNPs in unique physical positions and in annotated functional genes, promising wide application. Target capture sequencing and wholegenome resequencing in 90 doubled-haploid lines yielded 60% specificity, 78% uniformity within tenfold coverage range, and 93% genotyping accuracy for the platform. BnaPan50T was used to construct a genetic map for quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping, identify 21 unique QTL, and predict several candidate genes for yield-related traits in multiple environments. A set of 132 core SNP loci was selected from BnaPan50T to construct DNA fingerprints and germplasm identification resources. This study provides genomicsresources to support target capture sequencing, genetic analysis and genomic breeding of rapeseed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate safety and efficacy of dietary polyphenols in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods: CNKI, Pubmed, Cochrane library, Embase were searched to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of dietary polyphenols in the treatment of RA. The databases were searched from the time of their establishment to November 8nd, 2022. After 2 reviewers independently screened the literature, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias of the included studies, Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan5.4 software. Results: A total of 49 records (47 RCTs) were finally included, involving 3852 participants and 15 types of dietary polyphenols (Cinnamon extract, Cranberry extract, Crocus sativus L. extract, Curcumin, Garlic extract, Ginger extract, Hesperidin, Olive oil, Pomegranate extract, Puerarin, Quercetin, Resveratrol, Sesamin, Tea polyphenols, Total glucosides of paeony). Pomegranate extract, Resveratrol, Garlic extract, Puerarin, Hesperidin, Ginger extract, Cinnamon extract, Sesamin only involve in 1 RCT. Cranberry extract, Crocus sativus L. extract, Olive oil, Quercetin, Tea polyphenols involve in 2 RCTs. Total glucosides of paeony and Curcumin involve in more than 3 RCTs. These RCTs showed that these dietary polyphenols could improve disease activity score for 28 joints (DAS28), inflammation levels or oxidative stress levels in RA. The addition of dietary polyphenols did not increase adverse events. Conclusion: Dietary polyphenols may improve DAS28, reduce C-reactive protein (CRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and improve oxidative stress, etc. However, more RCTs are needed to verify or modify the efficacy and safety of dietary polyphenols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate information concerning crown profile is critical in analyzing biological processes and providing a more accurate estimate of carbon balance, which is conducive to sustainable forest management and planning. The similarities between the types of data addressed with LSTM algorithms and crown profile data make a compelling argument for the integration of deep learning into the crown profile modeling. Thus, the aim was to study the application of deep learning method LSTM and its variant algorithms in the crown profile modeling, using the crown profile database from Pinus yunnanensis secondary forests in Yunnan province, in southwest China. Furthermore, the SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) was used to interpret the predictions of ensemble or deep learning models. The results showed that LSTM's variant algorithms was competitive with traditional Vanila LSTM, but substantially outperformed ensemble learning model LightGBM. Specifically, the proposed Hybrid LSTM-LightGBM and Integrated LSTM-LightGBM have achieved a best forecasting performance on training set and testing set respectively. Furthermore, the feature importance analysis of LightGBM and Vanila LSTM presented that there were more factors that contribute significantly to Vanila LSTM model compared to LightGBM model. This phenomenon can explain why deep learning outperforms ensemble learning when there are more interrelated features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cellular metabolism modulates effector functions in human CD4+ T (Th) cells by providing energy and building blocks. Conversely, cellular metabolic responses are modulated by various influences, e.g., age. Thus, we hypothesized that metabolic reprogramming in human Th cells during aging modulates effector functions and contributes to "inflammaging", an aging-related, chronic, sterile, low-grade inflammatory state characterized by specific proinflammatory cytokines. Analyzing the metabolic response of human naive and memory Th cells from young and aged individuals, we observed that memory Th cells exhibit higher glycolytic and mitochondrial fluxes than naive Th cells. In contrast, the metabolism of the latter was not affected by donor age. Memory Th cells from aged donors showed a higher respiratory capacity, mitochondrial content, and intracellular ROS production than those from young donors without altering glucose uptake and cellular ATP levels, which finally resulted in higher secreted amounts of proinflammatory cytokines, e.g., IFN-γ, IP-10 from memory Th cells taken from aged donors after TCR-stimulation which were sensitive to ROS inhibition. These findings suggest that metabolic reprogramming in human memory Th cells during aging results in an increased expression of proinflammatory cytokines through enhanced ROS production, which may contribute to the pathogenesis of inflammaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, commercialized plum cultivars are mostly diploid Chinese plums (Prunus salicina Lindl.), also known as Japanese plums, and are one of the most abundant and variable fruit tree species. To advance Prunus genomic research, we present a chromosome-scale P. salicina genome assembly, constructed using an integrated strategy that combines Illumina, Oxford Nanopore, and high-throughput chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C) sequencing. The high-quality genome assembly consists of a 318.6-Mb sequence (contig N50 length of 2.3 Mb) with eight pseudo-chromosomes. The expansion of the P. salicina genome is led by recent segmental duplications and a long terminal repeat burst of approximately 0.2 Mya. This resulted in a significant expansion of gene families associated with flavonoid metabolism and plant resistance, which impacted fruit flavor and increased species adaptability. Population structure and domestication history suggest that Chinese plum may have originated from South China and provides a domestication route with accompanying genomic variations. Selection sweep and genetic diversity analysis enabled the identification of several critical genes associated with flowering time, stress tolerance, and flavonoid metabolism, demonstrating the essential roles of related pathways during domestication. Furthermore, we reconstructed and exploited flavonoid-anthocyanin metabolism using multi-omics analysis in Chinese plum and proposed a complete metabolic pathway. Collectively, our results will facilitate further candidate gene discovery for important agronomic traits in Chinese plum and provide insights into future functional genomic studies and DNA-informed breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local binary pattern (LBP) is one of the most advanced image classification recognition operators and is commonly used in texture detection area. Research indicates that LBP also has a good application prospect in steganalysis. However, the existing LBP-based steganalysis algorithms are only capable to detect the least significant bit (LSB) and the least significant bit matching (LSBM) algorithms. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a steganalysis model called msdeLTP, which is based on multi-scale local ternary patterns (LTP) and derivative filters. The main characteristics of the msdeLTP are as follows: First, to reduce the interference of image content on features, the msdeLTP uses derivative filters to acquire residual images on which subsequent operations are based. Second, instead of LBP features, LTP features are extracted considering that the LTP feature can exhibit multiple variations in the relationship of adjacent pixels. Third, LTP features with multiple scales and modes are combined to show the relationship of neighbor pixels within different radius and along different directions. Analysis and simulation show that the msdeLTP uses only 2592-dimensional features and has similar detection accuracy as the spatial rich model (SRM) at the same time, showing the high steganalysis efficiency of the method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local binary pattern (LBP) is one of the most advanced image classification recognition operators and is commonly used in texture detection area. Research indicates that LBP also has a good application prospect in steganalysis. However, the existing LBP-based steganalysis algorithms are only capable to detect the least significant bit (LSB) and the least significant bit matching (LSBM) algorithms. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a steganalysis model called msdeLTP, which is based on multi-scale local ternary patterns (LTP) and derivative filters. The main characteristics of the msdeLTP are as follows: First, to reduce the interference of image content on features, the msdeLTP uses derivative filters to acquire residual images on which subsequent operations are based. Second, instead of LBP features, LTP features are extracted considering that the LTP feature can exhibit multiple variations in the relationship of adjacent pixels. Third, LTP features with multiple scales and modes are combined to show the relationship of neighbor pixels within different radius and along different directions. Analysis and simulation show that the msdeLTP uses only 2592-dimensional features and has similar detection accuracy as the spatial rich model (SRM) at the same time, showing the high steganalysis efficiency of the method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing convenience of location-based services (LBSs), there have been growing concerns about the risk of privacy leakage. We show that existing techniques fail to defend against a statistical attack meant to infer the user's location privacy and query privacy, which is due to continuous queries that the same user sends in the same location in a short time, causing the user's real location to appear consecutively more than once and the query content to be the same or similar in the neighboring query. They also fail to consider the hierarchical structure of the address, so locations in an anonymous group may be located in the same organization, resulting in leaking of the user's organization information and reducing the privacy protection effect. This paper presents a dummy generation scheme, considering the hierarchical structure of the address (DGS-HSA). In our scheme, we introduce a novel meshing method, which divides the historical location dataset according to the administrative region division. We also choose dummies from the historical location dataset with the two-level grid structure to realize the protection of the user's location, organization information, and query privacy. Moreover, we prove the feasibility of the presented scheme by solving the multi-objective optimization problem and give the user's privacy protection parameters recommendation settings, which balance the privacy protection level and system overhead. Finally, we evaluate the effectiveness and the correctness of the DGS-HSA through theoretical analysis and extensive simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crown profile models are key components of growth and yield models and are crucial for estimating the crown volume and constructing 3D visualization of trees. We used a total of 431 trees collected from 98 pure even-aged temporary sample plots established in Fujian Province to develop crown profile models of Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata).To describe the shape of tree crowns more accurately, significance tests of the effects of different stand conditions (stand age, site index, and stand density) on crown shape were conducted with one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Multiple comparisons based on the ANOVA results were used to classify the crown data into three groups according to stand age: Group I (young forest), Group II (medium forest), and Group III (nearly mature and mature forest). We analysed the relationships between the crown variables and stand variables and used the reparameterization approach to develop three optimal crown profile models for different age groups. Stand variables (such as stand density) further improved the prediction efficacy of the models. Considering the correlation between repeated measurement data for the same tree crown, the non-linear mixed-effects modelling (NLME) method was used to account for autocorrelation. The determination coefficients (R2 ) of the above three optimal models fitted by the non-linear mixed-effects approach were 0.9214, 0.9398 and 0.9129, and their Root Mean Squared Errors (RMSEs) were 0.1246, 0.1409 and 0.1786, respectively. The determinant coefficients (R2 ) of the three models fitted by the non-linear least squares (NLS) approach were 0.9015, 0.8794 and 0.8930, and their RMSEs were 0.1395, 0.2102 and 0.1878, respectively. The results indicated that the predicted accuracy was significantly increased by using non-linear mixed effects modelling compared with the NLS method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockchain technology has become a research hotspot in recent years with the prominent characteristics as public, distributed and decentration. And blockchain-enabled internet of things (BIoT) has a tendency to make a revolutionary change for the internet of things (IoT) which requires distributed trustless consensus. However, the scalability and security issues become particularly important with the dramatically increasing number of IoT devices. Especially, with the development of quantum computing, many extant cryptographic algorithms applied in blockchain or BIoT systems are vulnerable to the quantum attacks. In this paper, an anti-quantum proxy blind signature scheme based on the lattice cryptography has been proposed, which can provide user anonymity and untraceability in the distributed applications of BIoT. Then, the security proof of the proposed scheme can derive that it is secure in random oracle model, and the efficiency analysis can indicate it is efficient than other similar literatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Diagnosis of non-chromosomal type disorders of sex development (DSD) has long been challenging. There is still no research on overview of a large Chinese DSD cohort. Objective: To determine the etiologic diagnosis through unbiased large-scale panel sequencing and whole-exome sequencing (WES) within a large Chinese DSD cohort. Design: Patients were recruited according to the inclusion criteria of DSD. The applied panel contains 2742 known disease-causing genes, including all known diagnostic genes for DSD. Methods: Targeted panel sequencing (TPS) was performed, and identified c andidate variants were verified. Variant pathogenicities were evaluated according to established guidelines. WES was performed for randomly selected negative samples. Results: This study included 125 patients. Seventy-five variants were id entified by TPS and 31 variants were reported for the first time. Pathogenic and likely pathogenic variants ac counted for 38.7 and 30.7%, respectively. On the basis of clinical certainty, etiologic diagnostic rates of 46.9 and 1 0.3% were obtained for 46,XY and 46,XX DSD patients, respectively. We reported novel candidate genes (BMPR1B, GNAS, GHR) and regions of copy number variants outside the expected DSD genotype-phenotype correlation and determined a founder mutation (SRD5A2 p.R227Q) in patients with 5α-reductase deficiency. Further WES in randomly selected negative samples identified only one among 14 negative samples as a variant of uncertain significance, indicat ing that WES did not improve the diagnostic rate. Conclusions: This is the first report of the applying unbiased TPS in a larg e Chinese cohort of patients with 46,XY and 46,XX DSD. Our findings expand the gene, mutation and phenotype spectra of the rare types of DSD in the Chinese population and provide new insight into the current understanding of the etiologies of DSD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To ensure the security during the communication, we often adopt different ways to encrypt the messages to resist various attacks. However, with the computing power improving, the existing encryption and authentication schemes are being faced with big challenges. We take the message authentication as an example into a careful consideration. Then, we proposed a new message authentication scheme with the Advanced Encryption Standard as the encryption function and the new quantum Hash function as the authentication function. Firstly, the Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm is used to encrypt the result of the initial message cascading the corresponding Hash values, which ensures that the initial message can resist eavesdropping attack. Secondly, utilizing the new quantum Hash function with quantum walks can be much more secure than traditional classical Hash functions with keeping the common properties, such as one-wayness, resisting different collisions and easy implementation. Based on these two points, the message authentication scheme can be much more secure than previous ones. Finally, it is a new way to design the message authentication scheme, which provides a new thought for other researchers in the future. Our works will contribute to the study on the new encryption and authentication functions and the combination of quantum computing with traditional cryptology in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aim: Cetuximab in combination with chemotherapy is recommended as first-line therapy for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) with wild-type RAS. However, drug resistance to cetuximab exists widely in mCRC and reduces the prognosis of patients. Although some genomic alterations have been demonstrated to drive acquired resistance to cetuximab, the overall compendium of inherent molecular mechanisms is still incomplete. Materials and Methods: Four liver metastasis biopsies were collected from two mCRC patients who were treated with cetuximab in combination with 5-fluororacil plus leucovorin and oxaliplatin (FOLFOX) regimen. Results: Transcriptomic analysis revealed global gene expression alterations between paired samples prior to treatment and after acquired resistance. Further bioinformatics analysis discovered differentially expressed protein-coding genes/lncRNAs/miRNAs, potential miRNAmRNA regulatory networks and lncRNA-mRNA competing endogenous RNA network, which may be potential biomarkers or play roles during the process of acquired resistance to cetuximab. Conclusion: Our study contributes to deciphering the molecular mechanisms of acquired resistance to cetuximab. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose an asymmetric controlled bidirectional transmission protocol. In the protocol, by using the thirteen-qubit entangled state as the quantum channel, Alice can realize the transmission of a two-qubit equatorial state for Bob and Bob can transmit a four-qubit equatorial state for Alice under the control of Charlie. Firstly, we give the construction of the quantum channel, which can be done by performing several H and CNOT operations. Secondly, through implementing the appropriate measurements and the corresponding recovery operations, the desired states can be transmitted simultaneously, securely and deterministically. Finally, we analyze the performance of the protocol, including the efficiency, the necessary operations and the classical communication costs. And then, we describe some comparisons with other protocols. Since our protocol does not require auxiliary particles and additional operations, the classic communication costs less while achieving the multi-particle bidirectional transmission, so the overall performance of the protocol is better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The state-of-the-art universal steganalysis method, spatial rich model (SRM), and the steganalysis method using image quality metrics (IQM) are both based on image residuals, while they use 34671 and 10 features respectively. This paper proposes a novel steganalysis scheme that combines their advantages in two ways. First, filters used in the IQM are designed according to the models of the SRM owning to their strong abilities for detecting the content adaptive steganographic methods. In addition, a total variant (TV) filter is also used due to its good performance of preserving image edge properties during filtering. Second, due to each type of these filters having own advantages, the multiple filters are used simultaneously and the features extracted from their outputs are combined together. The whole steganalysis procedure is removing steganographic noise using those filters, then measuring the distances between images and their filtered version with the image quality metrics, and last feeding these metrics as features to build a steganalyzer using either an ensemble classifier or a support vector machine. The scheme can work in two modes, the single filter mode using 9 features, and the multi-filter mode using 639 features. We compared the performance of the proposed method, the SRM and the maxSRMd2. The maxSRMd2 is the improved version of the SRM. The simulated results show that the proposed method that worked in the multi-filter mode was about 10% more accurate than the SRM and maxSRMd2 when the data were globally normalized, and had similar performance with the SRM and maxSRMd2 when the data were locally normalized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud computing paradigm is becoming very popular these days. However, it does not include wireless sensors and mobile phones which are needed to enable new emerging applications such as remote home medical monitoring. Therefore, a combined Cloud-Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm provides scalable on-demand data storage and resilient computation power at the cloud side as well as anytime, anywhere health data monitoring at the IoT side. As both the privacy of personal medical data and flexible data access should be provided,attackers exploit diverse social engineering and technology attacks ways, access to personal privacy information stored in the home medical monitoring cloud, with more and more social engineering attacks. Therefore, the data in the Cloud are always encrypted and access control must be operated upon encrypted data together with being fine-grained to support diverse accessibility. Since a plain combination of encryption before access control is not robust and flexible, we propose a scheme referred to as RoFa, with tailored design. The scheme is introduced in a step-by-step manner. The basic scheme (BaS) makes use of cipher-policy attributes based encryption to empower robustness and flexibility. We further propose an advanced scheme (AdS) to improve the computation efficiency by taking the advantages of proxy-reencryption. AdS can greatly decrease the computation overhead on hospital servers due to operation migration. We finally propose an enhanced scheme (EnS) to protect integrity by using aggregate signature. RoFa describes a general framework to solve the secure requirements, and leaves the flexibility of concrete constructions intentionally. We finally compare the robustness and the flexibility of the proposed schemes by performance analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cisplatin is one of the first-line drugs for urothelial bladder cancer (UBC) treatment. However, its considerable side effects and the emergence of drug resistance are becoming major limitations for its application. This study aimed to investigate whether matrine and cisplatin could present a synergistic anti-tumor effect on UBC cells. Methods: Cell viability assay was used to assess the suppressive effect of matrine and cisplatin on the proliferation of the UBC cells. Wound healing assay and transwell assay were applied respectively to determine the migration and invasion ability of the cells. The distribution of cell cycles, the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the apoptosis rate were detected by flow cytometry (FCM). The expressions of the relative proteins in apoptotic signal pathways and the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) related genes were surveyed by western blotting. The binding modes of the drugs within the proteins were detected by CDOCKER module in DS 2.5. Results: Both matrine and cisplatin could inhibit the growth of the UBC cells in a time- and dose-dependent manner. When matrine combined with cisplatin at the ratio of 2000:1, they presented a synergistic inhibitory effect on the UBC cells. The combinative treatment could impair cell migration and invasion ability, arrest cell cycle in the G1 and S phases, increase the level of ROS, and induce apoptosis in EJ and T24 cells in a synergistic way. In all the treated groups, the expressions of E-cadherin, β-catenin, Bax, and Cleaved Caspase-3 were up-regulated, while the expressions of Fibronectin, Vimentin, Bcl-2, Caspase-3, p-Akt, p-PI3K, VEGFR2, and VEGF proteins were down-regulated, and among them, the combination of matrine and cisplatin showed the most significant difference. Molecular docking algorithms predicted that matrine and cisplatin could be docked into the same active sites and interact with different residues within the tested proteins. Conclusions: Our results suggested that the combination of matrine and cisplatin could synergistically inhibit the UBC cells' proliferation through down-regulating VEGF/PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, indicating that matrine may serve as a new option in the combinative therapy in the treatment of UBC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maternal nutrition during gestation is involved in the offspring's intestinal development and immunity. The aim of this study was to (1) determine the effects of maternal energy on intestinal digestion and absorption function in offspring, using pigs as a model; and (2) to evaluate the potential effect and mechanisms of maternal energy in modulating immune responses of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-challenged piglets. After mating, thirty-six nine-parity sows (Landrace x Yorkshire), body weight (BW) (initial body weight 233.56 ± 2.77 kg) were allocated to two dietary treatment groups; a control diet (CON) group and a low-energy diet (LED) group. The nutrient levels of the CON were based on the nutrient recommendations by the National Research Council (NRC, 2012), and contained 3.40 MCal digestible energy (DE)/kg diet and 7.3% crude protein; while the LED contained 3.00 MCal DE/kg diet. The dietary treatments were introduced from day 1 of gestation to farrowing. Intestine samples were collected from the pigs' offspring at birth, and at weaning (day 28 post-birth). At weaning, male pigs from control and LED groups were intraperitoneally injected with LPS (50 Mg/kg body weight) or saline (n = 6), and sacrificed at 4 h post-injection to collect blood, intestine and digesta samples for biochemical analysis. The results indicated that the maternal LED markedly decreased the BW, small intestinal weight, and the ratio of jejunum and ileum villus height to crypt depth in the offspring. Moreover, the activities of lactase and sucrase in newborn piglets' intestine, and sucrase and maltase in weaning piglet intestine were markedly decreased by the maternal LED. In addition, maternal LED significantly increased the mRNA relative expression of ileal IL-6 and TNF-a in newborn piglets. Plasma IL-1β concentration and colonic Escherichia coli amount were affected by maternal diet (p < 0.05) and LPS challenge (p < 0.001). Maternal LED significant increased the mRNA relative expression of ileal TLR-4, IL-1β and NF-κB as well as decreased ZO-1 in weaning pigs after LPS challenge (p < 0.05). In conclusion, decreasing energy intake could suppress the offspring's intestinal digestion and absorption function, and increase the susceptibility of weaning piglets to LPS challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The study was designed to develop a platform to verify whether the extract of herbs combined with chemotherapy drugs play a synergistic role in anti-tumor effects, and to provide experimental evidence and theoretical reference for finding new effective sensitizers. Methods: Inhibition of tanshinone IIA and adriamycin on the proliferation of A549, PC9 and HLF cells were assessed by CCK8 assays. The combination index (CI) was calculated with the Chou-Talalay method, based on the median-effect principle. Migration and invasion ability of A549 cells were determined by wound healing assay and transwell assay. Flow cytometry was used to detect the cell apoptosis and the distribution of cell cycles. TUNEL staining was used to detect the apoptotic cells. Immunofluorescence staining was used to detect the expression of Cleaved Caspase-3. Western blotting was used to detect the proteins expression of relative apoptotic signal pathways. CDOCKER module in DS 2.5 was used to detect the binding modes of the drugs and the proteins. Results: Both tanshinone IIA and adriamycin could inhibit the growth of A549, PC9, and HLF cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner, while the proliferative inhibition effect of tanshinone IIA on cells was much weaker than that of adriamycin. Different from the cancer cells, HLF cells displayed a stronger sensitivity to adriamycin, and a weaker sensitivity to tanshinone IIA. When tanshinone IIA combined with adriamycin at a ratio of 20:1, they exhibited a synergistic anti-proliferation effect on A549 and PC9 cells, but not in HLF cells. Tanshinone IIA combined with adriamycin could synergistically inhibit migration, induce apoptosis and arrest cell cycle at the S and G2 phases in A549 cells. Both groups of the single drug treatment and the drug combination up-regulated the expressions of Cleaved Caspase-3 and Bax, but down-regulated the expressions of VEGF, VEGFR2, p-PI3K, p-Akt, Bcl-2, and Caspase-3 protein. Compared with the single drug treatment groups, the drug combination groups were more statistically significant. The molecular docking algorithms indicated that tanshinone IIA could be docked into the active sites of all the tested proteins with H-bond and aromatic interactions, compared with that of adriamycin. Conclusions: Tanshinone IIA can be developed as a novel agent in the postoperative adjuvant therapy combined with other anti-tumor agents, and improve the sensibility of chemotherapeutics for non-small cell lung cancer with fewer side effects. In addition, this experiment can not only provide a reference for the development of more effective anti-tumor medicine ingredients, but also build a platform for evaluating the anti-tumor effects of Chinese herbal medicines in combination with chemotherapy drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Extracellular vesicles (EVs), including exosomes, microvesicles, and apoptotic bodies, can be secreted by most cell types and released in perhaps all biological fluids. EVs contain multiple proteins, specific lipids and several kinds of nucleic acids such as RNAs and DNAs. Studies have found that EVs contain double-stranded DNA and that genetic information has a certain degree of consistency with tumor DNA. Therefore, if genes that exist in exosomes are stable, we may be able to use EVs genetic testing as a new means to monitor gene mutation. Methods: In this study, EVs were extracted from serum under various storage conditions (4 °C, room temperature and repeated freeze-thaw). We used western blotting to examine the stability of serum EVs. Then, we extracted DNA from EVs and tested the concentration changing under different conditions. We further assessed the stability of EVs DNA s using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Sanger sequencing. Results: EVs is stable under the conditions of 4 °C (for 24 h, 72 h, 168 h), room temperature (for 6 h, 12 h, 24 h, 48 h) and repeated freeze-thaw (after one time, three times, five times). Also, serum DNA is mainly present in EVs, especially in exosomes, and that the content and function of DNA in EVs is stable whether in a changing environment or not. We showed that EVs DNA stayed stable for 1 week at 4 °C, 1 day at room temperature and after repeated freeze-thaw cycles (less than three times). However, DNA from serum EVs after 2 days at room temperature or after five repeated freeze-thaw cycles could be used for PCR and sequencing. Conclusions: Serum EVs and EVs DNA can remain stable under different environments, which is the premise that EVs could serve as a novel means for genetic tumor detection and potential biomarkers for cancer diagnostics and prognostics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recombinant mutant human tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (rmhTRAIL) has become a potential therapeutic drug for multiple myeloma (MM). However, the exact targets and resistance mechanisms of rmhTRAIL on MM cells remain to be elucidated. The present study aimed to investigate the target and resistance-related proteins of rmhTRAIL on myeloma cell lines. A TRAIL-sensitive myeloma cell line, RPMI 8226, and a TRAIL-resistance one, U266, were chosen and the differentially expressed proteins between the two cell lines were analyzed prior and subsequent to rmhTRAIL administration by a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method. The results showed that following TRAIL treatment, 6 apoptosis-related proteins, calpain small subunit 1 (CPNS1), peflin (PEF1), B-cell receptor-associated protein 31 (BAP31), apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing CARD (ASC), BAG family molecular chaperone regulator 2 (BAG2) and chromobox protein homolog 3 (CBX3), were upregulated in RPMI 8226 cells while no change was identified in the U266 cells. Furthermore, small ubiquitin-related modifier 1 and several other ubiquitin proteasome pathway (UPP)-related proteins expressed higher levels in TRAIL-resistant cells U266 compared to the RPMI-8226 cells prior and subsequent to rmhTRAIL treatment. These results suggested that CPNS1, PEF1, BAP31, ASC, BAG2 and CBX3 were possibly target proteins of rmhTRAIL on RPMI 8226 cells, while UPP may have a vital role in mediating TRAIL-resistance in U266 cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-stage pressurized anaerobic digestion is a promising technology. This technology integrates in one process biogas production with upgrading and pressure boosting for grid injection. To investigate whether the efficiency of this novel system could be further increased, a water scrubbing system was integrated into the methanogensis step. Therefore, six leach-bed reactors were used for hydrolysis/acidification and a 30-L pressurized anaerobic filter operated at 9 bar was adopted for acetogenesis/methanogenesis. The fermentation liquid of the pressurized anaerobic filter was circulated periodically via a flash tank, operating at atmospheric pressure. Due to the pressure drop, part of dissolved carbon dioxide was released from the liquid phase into the flash tank. The depressurized fermentation liquid was then recycled to the pressurized reactor. Three different flow rates (0 L.day-1, 20 L.day-1 and 40 L.day-1) were tested with three repetitions. As the daily recycled flashed liquid flow was increased from 0 to 40 L, six times as much as the daily feeding, the methane content in the biogas increased from 75 molar percent (mol%) to 87 mol%. The pH value of the substrate in the methane reactor rose simultaneously from 6.5 to 6.7. The experimental data were verified by calculation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of organic loading rate (OLR) on a pressurized anaerobic filter was studied in a laboratory two-phase anaerobic digestion system. The anaerobic filter was operated successively at two working pressures (9 bar and 1.5 bar). The OLR(COD) for each pressure was increased from 5 to 17.5 kg.m-3.day-1. The best performance of the reactor at 9 bar was observed at OLR(COD) of 12.5 kg.m-3.day-1 and hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 1.8 day, with specific biogas productivity (SBP) of 5.3 L.L-1.day-1 and COD degradation grade of 90.6%. At higher OLRs and shorter HRTs, the process became unstable. In contrast, there was no indication of digester failure during the experiments at 1.5 bar. The SBP peaked at OLR(COD) of 17.5 kg.m-3.day-1 with 8.2 L.L-1.day-1, where COD degradation grade was 90.4%. The biogas collected from the reactor at 9 bar and 1.5 bar contained approximately 74.5% CH4 and 66.2% CH4, respectively, regardless of OLR variation. At OLR(COD) of 5-12.5 kg.m-3.day-1, the reactor at 9 bar had the same specific methane yield as at 1.5 bar, which was in the range of 0.31-0.32 LN.g-1COD. Raising the working pressure in the reactor resulted in an increase of methane content of the produced biogas. However, the low pH value (approximately 6.5) inside the reactor, induced by high CO2 partial pressure seemed to limit the reactor performance at high OLRs and short HRT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ovarian cancer is a major cause for death of gynecological cancer patients. The efficacy of traditional surgery and chemotherapy is rather compromised and platinum-resistant cancer recurs. Finding new therapeutic targets is urgently needed to increase the survival rate and to improve life quality of patients with ovarian cancer. In the present work, phosphoproteomic analysis was carried out on untreated and gossypol-treated ovarian cancer cell line, HOC1a. We identified approximately 9750 phosphopeptides from 3030 phosphoproteins, which are involved in diverse cellular processes including cytoskeletal organization, RNA and nucleotide binding, and cell cycle regulation. Upon gossypol treatment, changes in phosphorylation of twenty-nine proteins including YAP1 and AKAP12 were characterized. Western blotting and qPCR analysis were used to determine expression levels of proteins in YAP1- related Hippo pathway showing that gossypol induced upregulation of LATS1, which phosphorylates YAP1 at Ser 61. Furthermore, our data showed that gossypol targets the actin cytoskeletal organization through mediating phosphorylation states of actin-binding proteins. Taken together, our data provide valuable information to understand effects of gossypol on protein phosphorylation and apoptosis of ovarian cancer cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protein methyltransferase (PMT)-mediated posttranslational modification of histone and nonhistone substrates modulates stability, localization, and interacting partners of target proteins in diverse cellular contexts. These events play critical roles in normal biological processes and are frequently deregulated in human diseases. In the course of identifying substrates of individual PMTs, bioorthogonal profiling of protein methylation (BPPM) has demonstrated its merits. In this approach, specific PMTs are engineered to process S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) analogs as cofactor surrogates and label their substrates with distinct chemical modifications for target elucidation. Despite the proof-of-concept advancement of BPPM, few efforts have been made to explore its generality. With two cancer-relevant PMTs, EuHMT1 (GLP1/KMT1D) and EuHMT2 (G9a/ KMT1C), as models, we defined the key structural features of engineered PMTs and matched SAM analogs that can render the orthogonal enzyme-cofactor pairs for efficient catalysis. Here we have demonstrated that the presence of sulfonium-β-sp² carbon and flexible, medium-sized sulfonium-d-substituents are crucial for SAM analogs as BPPM reagents. The bulky cofactors can be accommodated by tailoring the conserved Y1211/Y1154 residues and nearby hydrophobic cavities of EuHMT1/2. Profiling proteomewide substrates with BPPM allowed identification of >500 targets of EuHMT1/2 with representative targets validated using native EuHMT1/2 and SAM. This finding indicates that EuHMT1/2 may regulate many cellular events previously unrecognized to be modulated by methylation. The present work, therefore, paves the way to a broader application of the BPPM technology to profile methylomes of diverse PMTs and elucidate their downstream functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glutaredoxins (Grxs) have been identified across taxa as important mediators in various physiological functions. A chloroplastic monothiol glutaredoxin, AtGRXS16 from Arabidopsis thaliana, comprises two distinct functional domains, an N-terminal domain (NTD) with GlyIleTyr-TyrIleGly (GIY-YIG) endonuclease motif and a C-terminal Grx module, to coordinate redox regulation and DNA cleavage in chloroplasts. Structural determination of AtGRXS16-NTD showed that it possesses a GIY-YIG endonuclease fold, but the critical residues for the nuclease activity are different from typical GIY-YIG endonucleases. AtGRXS16-NTD was able to cleave ?DNA and chloroplast genomic DNA, and the nuclease activity was significantly reduced in AtGRXS16. Functional analysis indicated that AtGRXS16-NTD could inhibit the ability of AtGRXS16 to suppress the sensitivity of yeast grx5 cells to oxidative stress; however, the C-terminal Grx domain itself and AtGRXS16 with a Cys123Ser mutation were active in these cells and able to functionally complement a Grx5 deficiency in yeast. Furthermore, the two functional domains were shown to be negatively regulated through the formation of an intramolecular disulfide bond. These findings unravel a manner of regulation for Grxs and provide insights into the mechanistic link between redox regulation and DNA metabolism in chloroplasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to learn more about the statistical properties of the surface fluctuations of the Wolf-Villain (WV) model and confirm the applicability of the Schramm-Loewner evolution theory ( SLEκ) to WV surfaces, the contour lines of the (2+1)-dimensional saturated surfaces of the WV model are investigated numerically. The results obtained show that the isoheight lines of the WV surfaces are conformally invariant and can also be described in the frame of the SLEκ theory with the diffusivity κ=4. The calculated fractal dimension of the contours is d=1.31±0.02. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Side population (SP) refers to a group of cells, which is capable to efflux Hoechst 33342, a DNA-binding dye. SP cells exist both in normal and tumor tissues. Although SP abundance has been used as an indicator for disease prognostic and drug screening in many research projects, few studies have systematically examined the factors influencing SP analysis. In this study we aim to develop a more thorough understanding of the multiple factors involved in SP analysis including Hoechst 33342 staining and cell culture. RPMI-8226, a high SP percentage (SP%) human myeloma cell line was employed here. The results showed that SP% was subject to staining conditions including: viable cell proportion, dye concentration, staining cell density, incubation duration, staining volume, and mix interval. In addition, SP% was highest in day one after passage, while dropped steadily over time. This study shows that both staining conditions and culture duration can significantly affect SP%. In this case, any conclusions based on SP% should be interpreted cautiously. The relation between culture duration and SP% suggests that the incidence of SP cells may be related to cell proliferation and cell cycle phase. Maintaining these technical variables consistently is essential in SP research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]