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Background: Motor neuron disease (MND) is a chronic and progressive neurodegenerative disorder with an unknown cause. The development of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is believed to be linked to an immune response. Monocytes/macrophages and T cells are key players in the disease's advancement. Monitoring levels of cytokines in the blood can help forecast patient outcomes, while immunotherapy shows promise in alleviating symptoms for certain individuals., Case Presentation: A 56-year-old male patient was admitted to the hospital due to progressive limb weakness persisting for eight months. The neurological examination revealed impairments in both upper and lower motor neurons, as well as sensory anomalies, without corresponding signs. Electrophysiological examination results indicated extensive neuronal damage and multiple peripheral nerve impairments, thereby the diagnosis was ALS. One month ago, the patient began experiencing symptoms of dry mouth and a bitter taste. Following tests for rheumatic immune-related antibodies and a lip gland biopsy, a diagnosis of Sjögren's syndrome (SS) was proposed. Despite treatment with medications such as hormones (methylprednisolone), immunosuppressants (hydroxychloroquine sulfate), and riluzole, the symptoms did not significantly improve, but also did not worsen., Conclusion: It is recommended to include screening for SS in the standard assessment of ALS. Furthermore, research should focus on understanding the immune mechanisms involved in ALS, providing new insights for the diagnosis and treatment of ALS in conjunction with SS., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) causes recurrent apnea and intermittent hypoxia at night, leading to several complications such as cognitive dysfunction. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying cognitive dysfunction in OSAS are unclear, and oxidative stress mediated by intermittent hypoxia is an important mechanism. In addition, the improvement of cognitive dysfunction in patients with OSAS varies by different treatment regimens; among them, continuous positive airway pressure therapy (CPAP) is mostly recognized for improving cognitive dysfunction. In this review, we discuss the potential mechanisms of oxidative stress in OSAS, the common factors of affecting oxidative stress and the Links between oxidative stress and inflammation in OSAS, focusing on the potential links between oxidative stress and cognitive dysfunction in OSAS and the potential therapies for neurocognitive dysfunction in patients with OSAS mediated by oxidative stress. Therefore, further analysis on the relationship between oxidative stress and cognitive dysfunction in patients with OSAS will help to clarify the etiology and discover new treatment options, which will be of great significance for early clinical intervention., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) is a key rate-limiting enzyme in glycolysis. It is well known that PKM2 plays a vital role in the proliferation of tumor cells. However, PKM2 can also exert its biological functions by mediating multiple signaling pathways in neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), cognitive dysfunction, ischemic stroke, post-stroke depression, cerebral small-vessel disease, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, Parkinson's disease (PD), epilepsy, neuropathic pain, and autoimmune diseases. In these diseases, PKM2 can exert various biological functions, including regulation of glycolysis, inflammatory responses, apoptosis, proliferation of cells, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, or pathological autoimmune responses. Moreover, the complexity of PKM2's biological characteristics determines the diversity of its biological functions. However, the role of PKM2 is not entirely the same in different diseases or cells, which is related to its oligomerization, subcellular localization, and post-translational modifications. This article will focus on the biological characteristics of PKM2, the regulation of PKM2 expression, and the biological role of PKM2 in neurological diseases. With this review, we hope to have a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of PKM2, which may help researchers develop therapeutic strategies in clinic., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Phycobilisome (PBS) is a large pigment-protein complex in cyanobacteria and red algae responsible for capturing sunlight and transferring its energy to photosystems (PS). Spectroscopic and structural properties of various PBSs have been widely studied, however, the nature of so-called complex-complex interactions between PBS and PSs remains much less explored. In this work, we have investigated the function of a newly identified PBS linker protein, ApcG, some domain of which, together with a loop region (PB-loop in ApcE), is possibly located near the PBS-PS interface. Using Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, we generated an ApcG deletion mutant and probed its deletion effect on the energetic coupling between PBS and photosystems. Steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopic characterization of the purified ΔApcG-PBS demonstrated that ApcG removal weakly affects the photophysical properties of PBS for which the spectroscopic properties of terminal energy emitters are comparable to those of PBS from wild-type strain. However, analysis of fluorescence decay imaging datasets reveals that ApcG deletion induces disruptions within the allophycocyanin (APC) core, resulting in the emergence (splitting) of two spectrally diverse subgroups with some short-lived APC. Profound spectroscopic changes of the whole ΔApcG mutant cell, however, emerge during state transition, a dynamic process of light scheme adaptation. The mutant cells in State I show a substantial increase in PBS-related fluorescence. On the other hand, global analysis of time-resolved fluorescence demonstrates that in general ApcG deletion does not alter or inhibit state transitions interpreted in terms of the changes of the PSII and PSI fluorescence emission intensity. The results revealed yet-to-be discovered mechanism of ApcG-docking induced excitation energy transfer regulation within PBS or to Photosystems., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

To understand the ecology of species and promote biotechnology through beneficial strain selection for improving starch yield in maize wet-milling steeping, bacterial diversity and community structure during the counter-current steeping process in a commercial steeping system were characterized and investigated. The microbial diversity in the steeping liquor, which consisted of 16 phyla, 131 families, and 290 genera, was more abundant compared to those present on the surface of unsteeped maize. As the counter-current steeping progressed, exposing newer maize to the older steepwater, Lactobacillus dominated, replacing Rahnella, Pseudomonas, Pantoea, and Serratia. The thermophilic and acidophilic microbial consortia were enriched through adaptive evolution engineering and employed to improve starch yield. Several steeping strategies were evaluated, including water alone, SO 2 alone, mono-culture of B. coagulans, microbial consortia, and a combination of consortium and SO 2 . Combining the microbial consortium with SO 2 significantly increased the starch yield to, about 66.4 ± 0.5%, a 22% and 46% increase over SO 2 alone and the consortium alone, respectively. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) of steeped maize structure indicated that the combination of consortium and SO 2 disrupted the protein matrix and widened gaps between starch granules in maize endosperm. This released proteins into the steepwater and left starch granules in the aleurone layer. The steeping strategy of using thermophilic and acidophilic microbial consortium as additives shows potential application as an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional maize steeping procedures., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Nitrite, as an electron acceptor, plays a good role in denitrifying phosphorus removal (DPR); however, high nitrite concentration has adverse affects on sludge performance. We investigated the precise mechanisms of responses of sludge to high nitrite stress, including surface characteristics, intracellular and extracellular components, microbial and metabolic responses. When the nitrite stress reached 90 mg/L, the sludge settling performance was improved, but the activated sludge was aging. FTIR and XPS analysis revealed a significant increase in the hydrophobicity of the sludge, resulting in improve settling performance. However, the intracellular carbon sources synthesis was inhibited. In addition, the components in the tightly bound extracellular polymeric substances (TB-EPS) of sludge were significantly reduced and indicated the disturb of metabolism. Notably, Exiguobacterium emerged as a new genus when face high nitrite stress that could maintaining survival in hostile environments. Moreover, metabolomic analysis demonstrated strong biological response to nitrite stress further supported above results that include the inhibited of carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism. More importantly, some lipids (PS, PA, LysoPA, LysoPC and LysoPE) were significantly upregulated that related enhanced membrane lipid remodeling. The comprehensive analyses provide novel insights into the high nitrite stress responses mechanisms in activated sludge systems., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Perfluorinated and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), encompassing a vast array of isomeric chemicals, are recognized as typical emerging contaminants with direct or potential impacts on human health and the ecological environment. With the complex and elusive toxicological profiles of PFASs, machine learning (ML) has been increasingly employed in their toxicity studies due to its proficiency in prediction and data analytics. This integration is poised to become a predominant trend in environmental toxicology, propelled by the swift advancements in computational technology. This review diligently examines the literature to encapsulate the varied objectives of employing ML in the toxicity studies of PFASs: (1) Utilizing ML to establish Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) models for PFASs with diverse toxicity endpoints, facilitating the targeted toxicity prediction of unidentified PFASs; (2) Investigating and substantiating the Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) through the synergy of ML and traditional toxicological methods, with this refining the toxicity assessment framework for PFASs; (3) Dissecting and elucidating the features of established ML models to advance Open Research into the toxicity of PFASs, with a primary focus on determinants and mechanisms. The discourse extends to an in-depth examination of ML studies, segregating findings based on their distinct application trajectories. Given that ML represents a nascent paradigm within PFASs research, this review delineates the collective challenges encountered in the ML-mediated study of PFAS toxicity and proffers strategic guidance for ensuing investigations., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Nitrogen (N) is an essential macronutrient for crop growth; therefore, N deficit can greatly limit crop growth and production. In the North China Plain (NCP), winter wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the main food crops, and its yield has increased from approximately 4000 kg ha -1 to 6000 kg ha -1 in the last two decades. Determining the proper N application rates at different growth stages and in all seasons is very important for the sustainable and high production of wheat in the NCP. A field experiment with five N application rates (250, 200, 150, 100, and 40 kgN·ha -1 , designated as N250, N200, N150, N100, and N40, respectively) was conducted during the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 winter wheat seasons to investigate the effects of the N application rate on water- and fertilizer-utilization efficiency and on the crop growth and yield of winter wheat under sprinkler fertigation conditions. The results showed that in the N application range of 40-200 kg ha -1 , crop yield and water- and fertilizer-use efficiencies increased as the N application rate increased; however, further increases in the N application rate (from N200 to N250) did not have additional benefits. The N uptake after regreening of winter wheat linearly increased with crop growth. Considering the wheat yield and N-use efficiency, the recommended optimal N application rate was 200 kg ha -1 , and the best topdressing strategy was equal amounts of N applied at the regreening, jointing, and grain-filling stages. The results of this study will be useful for optimizing field N management to achieve high wheat yield production in the NCP and in regions with similar climatic and soil environment conditions.

Considering the high demand for air quality, the development of biomass-based air filtration membranes with high air filtration efficiency and good stability is an urgent task. In this work, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), gelatin (GA), and cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) were mixed and prepared into a membrane through an electrospinning method for air filtration. After a hydrophobic modification, the modified PVA/GA/CNC composite membrane showed excellent filtration efficiency for PM2.5 (97.65%) through the internal three-dimensional structure barrier and the electrostatic capture effect of the CNC with a negative charge, as well as a low-pressure drop (only 50 Pa). In addition, the modified PVA/GA/CNC composite membrane had good mechanical properties (maximum tensile fracture rate of 78.3%) and high stability (air filtration efficiency of above 90% after five wash-filter cycles and a high-temperature treatment at 200 °C). It is worth noting that the whole preparation process is completed without organic solvents, putting forward a new strategy for the construction of green air filtration membranes.

Purpose: Patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) frequently experience cognitive dysfunction, which may be connected to chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH). Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) is thought to be closely associated with cognitive function, but its role in cognitive impairment caused by OSAS is unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential protective effect of IGF-1 on cognitive impairment in OSAS rats., Methods: Healthy male SD rats (n = 40) were randomly assigned into four groups: control group, CIH group, NS + CIH group, and IGF-1 + CIH group. All experimental rats except for those in the control group were exposed to intermittent hypoxic (IH) environments for 8 h per day over 28 days. Prior to daily exposure to IH, rats in the IGF-1 + CIH group received subcutaneous injections of IGF-1. The Morris water maze test was conducted on all experimental rats. Brain tissue testing methods included Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, Hematoxylin and eosin staining, Immunohistochemistry, and Western blotting., Results: The rat model of OSAS was successfully established following exposure to CIH and exhibited significant cognitive impairment. However, daily subcutaneous injections of IGF-1 partially restored the impaired cognitive function in OSAS rats. Compared with the control group, there was a significant decrease in the expression levels of IGF-1, p-IGF-IR, and SYP in the CIH group; however, these expression levels increased significantly in the IGF-I + CIH group., Conclusion: In OSAS rats, IGF-1 enhances learning memory; this effect may be linked to increased p-IGF-1R and SYP protein production in the hippocampus., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Channel Pruning is one of the most widespread techniques used to compress deep neural networks while maintaining their performances. Currently, a typical pruning algorithm leverages neural architecture search to directly find networks with a configurable width, the key step of which is to identify representative subnet for various pruning ratios by training a supernet. However, current methods mainly follow a serial training strategy to optimize supernet, which is very time-consuming. In this work, we introduce PSE-Net, a novel parallel-subnets estimator for efficient channel pruning. Specifically, we propose a parallel-subnets training algorithm that simulate the forward-backward pass of multiple subnets by droping extraneous features on batch dimension, thus various subnets could be trained in one round. Our proposed algorithm facilitates the efficiency of supernet training and equips the network with the ability to interpolate the accuracy of unsampled subnets, enabling PSE-Net to effectively evaluate and rank the subnets. Over the trained supernet, we develop a prior-distributed-based sampling algorithm to boost the performance of classical evolutionary search. Such algorithm utilizes the prior information of supernet training phase to assist in the search of optimal subnets while tackling the challenge of discovering samples that satisfy resource constraints due to the long-tail distribution of network configuration. Extensive experiments demonstrate PSE-Net outperforms previous state-of-the-art channel pruning methods on the ImageNet dataset while retaining superior supernet training efficiency. For example, under 300M FLOPs constraint, our pruned MobileNetV2 achieves 75.2% Top-1 accuracy on ImageNet dataset, exceeding the original MobileNetV2 by 2.6 units while only cost 30%/16% times than BCNet/AutoAlim., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Deoxynivalenol (DON) is a mycotoxin that significantly threatens the food and feed industry. Corn steep liquor (CSL) is an acidic byproduct of the corn starch industry, and DON is concentrated in CSL once the material is contaminated. In this work, a Pichia kudriavzevii strain that could remove DON from CSL was isolated and characterized. The strain P. kudriavzevii E4-205 showed detoxifying activity in a pH range of 4.0~7.0 and temperature of 25~42 °C, and 39.4% DON was reduced by incubating this strain in CSL supernatant diluted by 2-fold (5 μg/mL DON) for 48 h at pH 5.0 and 30 °C. Further mechanism studies showed that P. kudriavzevii E4-205 could adsorb DON by the cell wall and degrade DON by intracellular enzymes with NADH as a cofactor. The degradation product was identified as 3,7,8,15-tetrahydroxyscirpene by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. DON adsorption by inactivated cells was characterized, and the adsorption followed pseudo first-order kinetics. This study revealed a novel mechanism by which microbes degrade DON and might serve as a guide for the development of DON biological detoxification methods., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

The growth of two-dimensional (2D) materials through chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has sparked a growing interest among both the industrial and academic communities. The interest stems from several key advantages associated with CVD, including high yield, high quality, and high tunability. In order to harness the application potentials of 2D materials, it is often necessary to transfer them from their growth substrates to their desired target substrates. However, conventional transfer methods introduce contamination that can adversely affect the quality and properties of the transferred 2D materials, thus limiting their overall application performance. This review presents a comprehensive summary of the current clean transfer methods for 2D materials with a specific focus on the understanding of interaction between supporting layers and 2D materials. The review encompasses various aspects, including clean transfer methods, post-transfer cleaning techniques, and cleanliness assessment. Furthermore, it analyzes and compares the advances and limitations of these clean transfer techniques. Finally, the review highlights the primary challenges associated with current clean transfer methods and provides an outlook on future prospects.

The tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor-associated factor (TRAF) family has been reported to be involved in many immune pathways. In a previous study, we identified 5 TRAF genes, including TRAF2, 3, 4, 6, and 7, in the bay scallop (Argopecten irradians, Air) and the Peruvian scallop (Argopecten purpuratus, Apu). Since TRAF6 is a key molecular link in the TNF superfamily, we conducted a series of studies targeting the TRAF6 gene in the Air and Apu scallops as well as their hybrid progeny, Aip (Air ♀ × Apu ♂) and Api (Apu ♀ × Air ♂). Subcellular localization assay showed that the Air-, Aip-, and Api-TRAF6 were widely distributed in the cytoplasm of the human embryonic kidney cell line (HEK293T). Additionally, dual-luciferase reporter assay revealed that among TRAF3, TRAF4, and TRAF6, only the overexpression of TRAF6 significantly activated NF-κB activity in the HEK293T cells in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggest a crucial role of TRAF6 in the immune response in Argopecten scallops. To investigate the specific immune mechanism of TRAF6 in Argopecten scallops, we conducted TRAF6 knockdown using RNA interference. Transcriptomic analyses of the TRAF6 RNAi and control groups identified 1194, 2403, and 1099 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the Air, Aip, and Api scallops, respectively. KEGG enrichment analyses revealed that these DEGs were primarily enriched in transport and catabolism, amino acid metabolism, peroxisome, lysosome, and phagosome pathways. Expression profiles of 28 key DEGs were confirmed by qRT-PCR assays. The results of this study may provide insights into the immune mechanisms of TRAF in Argopecten scallops and ultimately benefit scallop breeding., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Skeleton-based human interaction recognition is a challenging task in the field of vision and image processing. Graph Convolutional Networks (GCNs) achieved remarkable performance by modeling the human skeleton as a topology. However, existing GCN-based methods have two problems: (1) Existing frameworks cannot effectively take advantage of the complementary features of different skeletal modalities. There is no information transfer channel between various specific modalities. (2) Limited by the structure of the skeleton topology, it is hard to capture and learn the information about two-person interactions. To solve these problems, inspired by the human visual neural network, we propose a multi-modal enhancement transformer (ME-Former) network for skeleton-based human interaction recognition. ME-Former includes a multi-modal enhancement module (ME) and a context progressive fusion block (CPF). More specifically, each ME module consists of a multi-head cross-modal attention block (MH-CA) and a two-person hypergraph self-attention block (TH-SA), which are responsible for enhancing the skeleton features of a specific modality from other skeletal modalities and modeling spatial dependencies between joints using the specific modality, respectively. In addition, we propose a two-person skeleton topology and a two-person hypergraph representation. The TH-SA block can embed their structural information into the self-attention to better learn two-person interaction. The CPF block is capable of progressively transforming the features of different skeletal modalities from low-level features to higher-order global contexts, making the enhancement process more efficient. Extensive experiments on benchmark NTU-RGB+D 60 and NTU-RGB+D 120 datasets consistently verify the effectiveness of our proposed ME-Former by outperforming state-of-the-art methods.

The increasing seawater temperature during summer months frequently results in severe mortalities in the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas around the world, becoming one of the most significant problems challenging the oyster farming industry. In northern China, significant recurrent summer losses of C. gigas have occurred, and its impact on oyster aquaculture has increased in recent years. Selective breeding for improved oyster resistance to high temperature could help to reduce this massive mortality, but the extent of genetic variation underlying this trait is currently unknown. In this study, we constructed 38 full-sib families using the wild C. gigas and estimated the genetic parameters by performing two month-long high-temperature challenge experiments (30 ℃). Experiment 1 was performed in March 2022 followed by experiment 2 in June 2022 (spawning season). In both challenge experiments, there were significant differences in survival among families, suggesting that C. gigas has a different ability to survive under heat stress. Notably, significantly greater mortality was observed for experiment 2, which related to reproductive status and may contribute to additional stress. Thermal tolerance was defined using both binary test survival and time of death traits. Heritability estimates for thermal tolerance were low to moderate (0.16-0.36 for experiment 1 and 0.16-0.33 for experiment 2) using both a Bayesian (MCMCglmm) and a likelihood-based (ASReml-R) approach and estimated heritability of the threshold animal model using ASReml-R (0.16) appeared to be lower compared to MCMCglmm (0.31-0.32). Notably, the genetic and phenotypic correlations for thermal tolerance between two experiments were 0.463 (BS) to 0.491 (TD) and 0.510 (family survival), respectively, which suggested a significant re-ranking of the family breeding values in different time periods. Finally, the genetic and phenotypic correlations were low between growth traits (shell height, shell length, and shell width) and thermal tolerance, suggesting that selection for these traits should be conducted separately. This study reports the first estimation of genetic parameters for chronic thermal tolerance in C. gigas and indicates that this trait is heritable and selective breeding for thermal tolerance is a feasible and promising approach to reduce summer mortality., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Institute of Plant Genetics Polish Academy of Sciences.)

Pulmonary accelerated rheumatoid nodules (ARN) represent a rare occurrence within the context of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), with conventional treatment typically involving corticosteroids. In this report, we present a unique case of pulmonary ARN managed with baricitinib, a Janus kinase inhibitor. The patient, a 46-year-old woman diagnosed with RA, initially displayed no evident pulmonary nodules upon pulmonary imaging. Her treatment regimen encompassed corticosteroids, methotrexate, and leflunomide. Nevertheless, a chest computed tomography (CT) scan conducted after a year unveiled the presence of multiple bilateral pulmonary nodules. A thoracoscopic biopsy of these nodules confirmed the presence of rheumatoid nodules. Treatment with baricitinib, a Janus kinase inhibitor or synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD), effectively reduced the size of the nodules. Our review of 45 articles on ARN published since 1986 found that nine of them reported 13 cases of pulmonary ARN. These nodules may be caused by certain synthetic and biological DMARDs and often present with respiratory symptoms. CT scans typically reveal multiple solid nodules or ground-glass opacities, some of which may have cavities. Treatment customarily involves discontinuing the suspected drugs and administering corticosteroids. This case suggests that Janus kinase inhibitors may be an effective treatment option for ARN., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to International League of Associations for Rheumatology (ILAR).)

There are limited investigations on the role of feed additives in easing transition of pullets to egg production phase. We investigated the effects of supplementation of bacitracin methylene disalicylate ( BMD ) and select feed additives (myristic acid [ MA ], benzoic acid [ BA ], and Aspergillus niger probiotic [ PRO ]) in feeding program for pullets from the onset of lay through to 31 weeks of age ( woa ). Parameters measured included hen-day egg production ( HDEP ), feed intake ( FI ), feed conversion ratio ( FCR ), egg quality characteristics, ceca microbial activity, apparent retention of components, and plasma metabolites. A total of 1,200 Lohmann LSL Lite pullets were procured at 18 woa and placed in enriched cages (30 birds/cage) based on body weight ( BW ) and allocated to five diets. The diets were a basal diet formulated to meet specifications or basal mixed with either BMD, MA, BA, or PRO. Birds had free access to feed and water throughout the experiment. Between 18 and 20 woa, birds fed BMD ate a similar ( P  > 0.05) amount of feed to BA birds, but more ( P  = 0.0003) than birds fed basal, MA, or PRO diets. Basal birds had lower HDEP ( P  = 0.001) and lighter eggs ( P  < 0.0001) than birds fed any of the feed additives between 21 and 31 woa. The basal hens had a higher ( P  = 0.009) abundance of Escherichia coli than birds fed BMD, BA, and PRO diets. Consequently, BMD, BA, and PRO birds had a higher ( P  = 0.011) Lactobacilli : E. coli ratio ( LER ) than hens fed the basal diet. Specifically, relative to basal-fed hens, the LER of the BMD, MA, BA, and PRO hens was higher by 37%, 21%, 26%, and 45%, respectively. Moreover, birds fed PRO tended to have a higher concentration of ceca digesta acetic acid ( P  = 0.072) and a lower concentration of isobutyric acid ( P  = 0.096). In conclusion, supplementing pullet diets with broad-spectrum antibiotics or feed additives (MA, BA, and PRO) had a positive impact on FI, and egg production linked to modulation of indices of gut health. The results suggested supplementing feed additives in feeding programs for pullets at the onset of lay can bolster productivity outcomes., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society of Animal Science.)

The mutant strain Halomonas bluephagenesis (TDH4A1B5P) was found to produce PHA under low-salt, non-sterile conditions, but the yield was low. To improve the yield, different nitrogen sources were tested. It was discovered that urea was the most effective nitrogen source for promoting growth during the stable stage, while ammonium sulfate was used during the logarithmic stage. The growth time of H. bluephagenesis (TDH4A1B5P) and its PHA content were significantly prolonged by the presence of sulfate ions. After 64 hr in a 5-L bioreactor supplemented with sulfate ions, the dry cell weight (DCW) of H. bluephagenesis weighed 132 g/L and had a PHA content of 82%. To promote the growth and PHA accumulation of H. bluephagenesis (TDH4A1B5P), a feeding regimen supplemented with nitrogen sources and sulfate ions with ammonium sodium sulfate was established in this study. The DCW was 124 g/L, and the PHA content accounted for 82.3% (w/w) of the DCW, resulting in a PHA yield of 101 g/L in a 30-L bioreactor using the optimized culture strategy. In conclusion, stimulating H. bluephagenesis (TDH4A1B5P) to produce PHA is a feasible and suitable strategy for all H. bluephagenesis., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Society of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology.)

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) represent a category of persistent and hazardous organic pollutants extensively prevalent across aquatic environments. The combination of adsorption and photocatalytic degradation has been identified as an effective approach for removing trace amounts of PFASs from water. Among the various materials explored for this purpose, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have structural solid tunability, and suitable modification methods could endow them with rich adsorption capabilities and excellent photocatalytic performance, which has potential for applications involving the treatment of trace, multi-chain-length PFASs in water. The research within this realm is currently in its nascent phase, and a holistic knowledge of modification methods can provide a comprehensive framework for future studies. Therefore, this review intends to (1) summarize the mechanism underlying the adsorption and photocatalytic removal of PFASs by MOFs; (2) present various modification methods aimed at enhancing the adsorption and photocatalytic performance of MOFs in alignment with the goal mentioned above; (3) provide an outlook on the prospects of utilizing MOFs for PFASs removal based on current trends and data. Ultimately, the findings from these studies will contribute to advancing knowledge in this area and facilitate the development of effective strategies for addressing PFASs contamination in water systems., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Across the globe, metabolic syndrome, hyperuric acid, and their related diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and insulin resistance, are increasing in incidence due to metabolic imbalances. Due to the pathogenesis, women are more prone to these diseases than men. As estrogen levels decrease after menopause, obesity and metabolic disorders are more likely to occur. Men are also affected by hyperuric acid. To provide ideas for the prevention and treatment of metabolic syndrome and hyperuricemia, this article reviews and analyzes the relationship between estrogen receptors, metabolic syndrome, and hyperuricemia.

Alloy engineering has been utilized as a potent strategy to modulate the oxygen reduction reaction （ORR） activity. However, the regulatory mechanism underpinning the ORR kinetics by means of alloy engineering is still shrouded in ambiguity. This work places emphasis on the kinetics of the ORR concerning Pt 3 M (M = Cr, Co, Cu, Pd, Sn, and Ir) catalysts, and integrates theoretical prognostication and experimental validation to illuminate the fundamental principles of alloy engineering. The ORR kinetic activity, as prognosticated by theory, shows significant agreement with experimental results, provided that the rate-determining step (RDS) accounts for a dominant role in the potential-independent kinetic mechanism. In essence, alloy engineering manipulates electronic properties through electron transfer to modulate intermediate adsorption and adjusts the interface electric field (E field ) to regulate hydrogen atom transport, ultimately influencing kinetics. The E field holds greater significance in ORR kinetics compared to the intermediate adsorption (E ads O ), the corresponding degrees of correlation with free energy barriers (E a ) of RDS are -0.89, and 0.75, respectively. This work highlights the nature of alloy engineering for ORR kinetics modulation and assists in the design of efficient catalysts., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The current selection of biomass feedstock for magnetic biochar (MBC) catalysts is highly blind. Consequently, this study delves into understanding how the types of biomass influence the iron species present in MBC catalysts. The process involved the creation of MBC through simulated impregnation-pyrolysis, utilizing six types of stalks and Fe 2 O 3 . The type of iron species significantly impacted magnetic properties and likely influenced catalytic properties of MBC. MBC's iron species type was shaped by the reduction effects of the diverse stalks on Fe 2 O 3 . During the pyrolysis, discrepancies were observed in the release of reducing gases and direct reduction for the different stalks. These differences in reduction behavior directly accounted for the distinct reduction effects. To delve deeper, the reduction behavior and effect of the main components of the stalk (hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin) on Fe 2 O 3 were analyzed, highlighting lignin as the most effective. Nonetheless, the absolute values of Pearson's r between lignin content in the stalk and reduction behavior/effect ranged only from 0.078 to 0.421. In contrast, the values for K, Ca, and Si content in the stalks and their influence on reduction behavior and MBC's reduction/metallization degree ranged from 0.410 to 0.910. The catalytic impacts of K and Ca were confirmed through their incorporation into cotton and reed stalks. The disparities in K, Ca, and Si content among the six stalks appeared to be the primary driver behind the diverse iron species in MBC. This work provides a scientific basis for the rational selection of biomass feedstock for MBC catalysts., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Characterizing changes in the higher order structure (HOS) of monoclonal antibodies upon stressed conditions is critical to gaining a better understanding of the product and process. One single biophysical approach may not be best suited to assess HOS comprehensively; thus, the synergy from multiple, complementary approaches improves characterization accuracy and resolution. In this study, we employed two mass spectrometry (MS )-based footprinting techniques, namely, fast photochemical oxidation of proteins (FPOP)-MS and hydrogen-deuterium exchange (HDX)-MS, supported by dynamic light scattering (DLS), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), circular dichroism (CD), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to study changes to the HOS of a mAb upon thermal stress. The biophysical techniques report a nuanced characterization of the HOS in which CD detects no changes to the secondary or tertiary structure, yet DLS measurements show an increase in the hydrodynamic radius. DSC indicates that the stability decreases, and chemical or conformational changes accumulate with incubation time according to NMR. Furthermore, whereas HDX-MS does not indicate HOS changes, FPOP-MS footprinting reveals conformational changes at residue resolution for some amino acids. The local phenomena observed with FPOP-MS indicate that several residues show various patterns of degradation during thermal stress: no change, an increase in solvent exposure, and a biphasic response to solvent exposure. All evidences show that FPOP-MS efficiently resolves subtle structural changes and novel degradation pathways upon thermal stress treatment at residue-level resolution.

Osteosarcoma (OS) commonly metastasizes to the lung, yet the underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. Exosomes play a crucial role in tumor migration, including OS lung migration. However, the underlying mechanism by which exosome-derived long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) contribute to lung migration in osteosarcoma (OS) remains unclear. This study presents a newly discovered lncRNA, linc00881, derived from OS exosomes. Our study shows that linc00881 promotes the migration of OS cells to the lung and induces the conversion of normal lung fibroblasts into cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). Subsequently, we found that exosomal linc00881 secreted by OS cells can regulate the expression of matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2) in HFL-1 cells by sponging miR-29c-3p, thereby activating the NF-κB signaling in lung fibroblasts. Finally, we discovered that pro-inflammatory cytokines, namely IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-8, were secreted through the linc00881/miR-29c-3p/MMP2 axis. These results suggest that OS-derived exosomes can mediate the intercellular crosstalk between OS cells and lung fibroblasts, ultimately impacting OS lung migration. Our study provides a potential target for the treatment of OS lung migration., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Messenger RNA (mRNA)-based therapeutics are transforming the landscapes of medicine, yet targeted delivery of mRNA to specific cell types while minimizing off-target accumulation remains challenging for mRNA-mediated therapy. In this study, we report an innovative design of a cationic lipid- and hyaluronic acid-based, dual-targeted mRNA nanoformulation that can display the desirable stability and efficiently transfect the targeted proteins into lung tissues. More importantly, the optimized dual-targeted mRNA nanoparticles (NPs) can not only accumulate primarily in lung tumor cells and inflammatory macrophages after inhalation delivery but also efficiently express any desirable proteins (e.g., p53 tumor suppressor for therapy, as well as luciferase and green fluorescence protein for imaging as examples in this study) and achieve efficacious lung tissue transfection in vivo. Overall, our findings provide proof-of-principle evidence for the design and use of dual-targeted mRNA NPs in homing to specific cell types to up-regulate target proteins in lung tissues, which may hold great potential for the future development of mRNA-based inhaled medicines or vaccines in treating various lung-related diseases.

Homologous recombination (HR) repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) is critical for maintaining genomic integrity and stability. Defects in HR increase the risk of tumorigenesis. However, many human tumors exhibit enhanced HR repair capabilities, consequently endowing tumor cells with resistance to DNA-damaging chemotherapy and radiotherapy. This review summarizes the role of RNA methylation in HR repair and therapeutic resistance in human tumors. We also analyzed the interactions between RNA methylation and other HR-modulating modifications including histone acetylation, histone deacetylation, ubiquitination, deubiquitination, protein arginine methylation, and gene transcription. This review proposes that targeting RNA methylation is a promising approach to overcoming HR-mediated therapeutic resistance., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.. All rights reserved.)

Transformers have been widely used in many computer vision challenges and have shown the capability of producing better results than convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Taking advantage of capturing long-range contextual information and learning more complex relations in the image data, Transformers have been used and applied to histopathological image processing tasks. In this survey, we make an effort to present a thorough analysis of the uses of Transformers in histopathological image analysis, covering several topics, from the newly built Transformer models to unresolved challenges. To be more precise, we first begin by outlining the fundamental principles of the attention mechanism included in Transformer models and other key frameworks. Second, we analyze Transformer-based applications in the histopathological imaging domain and provide a thorough evaluation of more than 100 research publications across different downstream tasks to cover the most recent innovations, including survival analysis and prediction, segmentation, classification, detection, and representation. Within this survey work, we also compare the performance of CNN-based techniques to Transformers based on recently published papers, highlight major challenges, and provide interesting future research directions. Despite the outstanding performance of the Transformer-based architectures in a number of papers reviewed in this survey, we anticipate that further improvements and exploration of Transformers in the histopathological imaging domain are still required in the future. We hope that this survey paper will give readers in this field of study a thorough understanding of Transformer-based techniques in histopathological image analysis, and an up-to-date paper list summary will be provided at https://github.com/S-domain/Survey-Paper ., (© 2023. BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature.)

Heavy metals are pervasive pollutants found in water, soil, and solid wastes. Bio-solidification offers an environmentally friendly approach to immobilize heavy metal ions using two types of bacteria: urease-producing bacteria (UPB) and phosphatase-producing bacteria (PPB). UPB, exemplified by Sporosarcina pasteurii, secretes urease to hydrolyze urea and generate CO 3 2- ions, while PPB, like Bacillus subtilis, produces alkaline phosphatase to hydrolyze organophosphate monoester (ROP) and produce PO 4 3- ions. These ions react with heavy metal ions, effectively reducing their concentration by forming insoluble carbonate or phosphate precipitates. The success of bio-solidification is influenced by various factors, including substrate concentration, temperature, pH, and bacterial density. Optimal operational conditions can significantly enhance the remediation performance of heavy metals. UPB and PPB hold great potential for remediating heavy metal pollution in diverse contaminated areas such as tailings ponds, electroplating sewage, and garbage incineration plants. In conclusion, harnessing the power of these microbial methods can provide effective solutions for remediating heavy metal-induced pollution across a range of environmental conditions., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

101BHG-D01 is a novel, long-acting and selective muscarinic receptor antagonist for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and rhinorrhea in rhinitis. To support its clinical study, several liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) methods for the quantification of 101BHG-D01 and its main metabolite M6 in human plasma, urine and feces were developed. The plasma samples were prepared by protein precipitation, and the urine and fecal homogenate samples were pretreated by direct dilution, respectively. The chromatographic separation was performed on an Agilent InfinityLab Poroshell 120 C18 column with 0.1% formic acid and 10.0 mM ammonium acetate buffer solution in water and methanol as the mobile phase. The MS/MS analysis was performed by using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) under a positive ion electrospray ionization mode. The methods were validated with regards to selectivity, linearity, lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ), accuracy and precision, matrix effect, extraction recovery, dilution integrity, batch size, carryover and stability. The calibration ranges were as follows: 1.00-800 pg/mL for 101BHG-D01 and 1.00-20.0 pg/mL for M6 in plasma; 0.0500-20.0 ng/mL for 101BHG-D01 and M6 in urine; 0.400-400 ng/mL for 101BHG-D01 and 0.100-100 ng/mL for M6 in feces. There was no endogenous or cross interference observed at the retention time of the analytes and internal standard in various biological matrices. Across these matrices, for the lower limit of quantitation quality control (LLOQ QC) samples, the intra- and inter-batch coefficients of variation were within 15.7%. For other QC samples, the intra- and inter-batch coefficients of variation were within 8.9%. The intra- and inter-batch accuracy deviations for all QC samples were within the range of - 6.2-12.0%. No significant matrix effect was observed from the matrices. The extraction recoveries of these methods at different concentrations were consistent and reproducible. The analytes were stable in different matrices under various storage conditions. The other bioanalytical parameters were also fully validated and met the criteria given in the FDA guidance. These methods were successfully applied to a clinical study in healthy Chinese subjects after a single dose administration of 101BHG-D01 inhalation aerosol. After inhalation, 101BHG-D01 was absorbed into plasma rapidly with the time to reach the maximum drug concentration (T max ) of 5 min and eliminated slowly with a half-life time about 30 h. The cumulative urinary and fecal excretion rates revealed 101BHG-D01 was mainly excreted in feces, rather than urine. The pharmacokinetic results of the study drug laid a foundation for its further clinical development., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

During an epidemic, accurate human temperature screening based on neural networks for disease surveillance is important and challenging. Existing distant human forehead temperature measuring device usually adopts a dual-camera system using paired RGB and thermal infrared images to conduct face detection and temperature measurement. Since the facial RGB image may undermine people's privacy, we designed a monocular thermal system and proposed an effective framework called the InfraNet to measure and calibrate forehead temperature of people in the wild. To address the challenge of temperature floating, the InfraNet calibrates the subject's temperature with one's physical depth and horizontal offset predicted by a single infrared image. Our InfraNet framework mainly consists of three parts: face detection subnet, depth and horizontal offset estimation subnet and temperature calibration subnet. The temperature calibration performance can be improved with the help of spatial regularization term concentrating on predicting precise depth and horizontal offset of people. Besides, we collected a large-scale infrared image dataset in the both lab and wild scenarios, including 8,215 thermal infrared images. Experiments on our wild dataset demonstrated that the InfraNet achieved 91.6% high accuracy of distant multi-subject temperature measurement on average under the standard temperature threshold of strict 0.3°C., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Primary cylindroma of the breast is extremely rare. To the best of our knowledge, there have been only 18 tumors reported. All of them were benign and had no mitosis. However, the rarity of this entity made the correct diagnosis preoperatively very difficult. Here we present a unique cylindroma with focal brisk mitosis and largest diameter of 5cm in an 80-year woman, she was misdiagnosed as adenoid cystic carcinoma in biopsy and then underwent a radical breast resection. We reviewed the related literature and emphasized differential diagnosis.

Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of a given genotype to produce multiple phenotypes in response to changing environmental conditions. Understanding the genetic basis of phenotypic plasticity and establishing a predictive model is highly relevant to future agriculture under a changing climate. Here we report findings on the genetic basis of phenotypic plasticity for 23 complex traits using a diverse maize population planted at five sites with distinct environmental conditions. We found that latitude-related environmental factors were the main drivers of across-site variation in flowering time traits but not in plant architecture or yield traits. For the 23 traits, we detected 109 quantitative trait loci (QTLs), 29 for mean values, 66 for plasticity, and 14 for both parameters, and 80% of the QTLs interacted with latitude. The effects of several QTLs changed in magnitude or sign, driving variation in phenotypic plasticity. We experimentally validated one plastic gene, ZmTPS14.1, whose effect was likely mediated by the compensation effect of ZmSPL6 from a downstream pathway. By integrating genetic diversity, environmental variation, and their interaction into a joint model, we could provide site-specific predictions with increased accuracy by as much as 9.9%, 2.2%, and 2.6% for days to tassel, plant height, and ear weight, respectively. This study revealed a complex genetic architecture involving multiple alleles, pleiotropy, and genotype-by-environment interaction that underlies variation in the mean and plasticity of maize complex traits. It provides novel insights into the dynamic genetic architecture of agronomic traits in response to changing environments, paving a practical way toward precision agriculture., (Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Phycobilisomes (PBSs) are the major photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes in cyanobacteria and red algae. PBS, a multisubunit protein complex, has two major interfaces that comprise intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs): rod-core and core-membrane. IDRs do not form regular, three-dimensional structures on their own. Their presence in the photosynthetic pigment-protein complexes portends their structural and functional importance. A recent model suggests that PB-loop, an IDR located on the PBS subunit ApcE and C-terminal extension (CTE) of the PBS subunit ApcG, forms a structural protrusion on the PBS core-membrane side, facing the thylakoid membrane. Here, the structural synergy between the rod-core region and the core-membrane region was investigated using quantitative mass spectrometry (MS). The AlphaFold-predicted CpcG-CTE structure was first modeled onto the PBS rod-core region, guided and justified by the isotopically encoded structural MS data. Quantitative cross-linking MS analysis revealed that the structural proximity of the PB-loop in ApcE and ApcG-CTE is significantly disturbed in the absence of six PBS rods, which are attached to PBS via CpcG-CTE, indicative of drastic conformational changes and decreased structural integrity. These results suggest that CpcG-rod attachment on the PBS rod-core side is essentially required for the PBS core-membrane structural assembly. The hypothesized long-range synergy between the rod-core interface (where the orange carotenoid protein also functions) and the terminal energy emitter of PBS must have important regulatory roles in PBS core assembly, light-harvesting, and excitation energy transmission. These data also lend strategies that genetic truncation of the light-harvesting antennas aimed for improved photosynthetic productivity must rely on an in-depth understanding of their global structural integrity.

The tumor necrosis factor receptor-related factor (TRAF) family has been reported to be involved in many immune pathways, such as TNFR, TLR, NLR, and RLR in animals. However, little is known about the roles of TRAF genes in the innate immune of Argopecten scallops. In this study, we first identified five TRAF genes, including TRAF 2 , TRAF 3 , TRAF 4 , TRAF 6 and TRAF 7 , but not TRAF 1 and TRAF 5 , from both the bay scallop A. irradians (Air) and the Peruvian scallop A. purpuratus (Apu). The phylogenetic analysis showed that the TRAF genes in Argopecten scallops (AiTRAF) belong to the branch of molluscan TRAF family, which lacks TRAF 1 and TRAF 5 . Since TRAF 6 is a key bridge factor in the tumor necrosis factor superfamily and plays an important role in innate and adaptive immunity, we cloned the ORFs of the TRAF 6 gene in both A. irradians and A. purpuratus, as well as in two reciprocal hybrids (Aip for the hybrid Air × Apu and Api for the hybrid Apu × Air). Differences in conformational and post-translational modification resulted from the variation in amino acid sequences may cause differences in activity among them. Analysis of conserved motifs and protein structural domains revealed that AiTRAF contains typical structural domains similar to those of other mollusks and has the same conserved motifs. Tissue expression of TRAF in Argopecten scallops challenged by Vibrio anguillarum was examined by qRT-PCR. The results showed that AiTRAF were higher in gill and hepatopancreas. When challenged by Vibrio anguillarum, the expression of AiTRAF was significantly increased compared with the control group, indicating that AiTRAF may play an important role in the immunity of scallops. In addition, the expression of TRAF was higher in Api and Aip than in Air when challenged by Vibrio anguillarum, suggesting that TRAF may have contributed to the high resistance of Api and Aip to Vibrio anguillarum. The results of this study may provide new insights into the evolution and function of TRAF genes in bivalves and ultimately benefit scallop breeding., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Vibrio bacteria are often fatal to aquatic organisms and selection of Vibrio-resistant strains is warranted for aquaculture animals. In this study, we found that hybrids between bay scallops and Peruvian scallops exhibited significantly higher resistance to Vibrio challenge, but little is available on its mechanism. Interferon induced protein 44 (IFI44), a member of the type I interferon (IFN) family, plays an important role in the IFN immune response in invertebrates, which may also participate in the resistance to Vibrio in scallops. To explore the roles of IFI44 genes in the resistance to Vibrio, they were identified and characterized in the bay scallop (designated as AiIFI44), the Peruvian scallop (designated as ApIFI44), and their reciprocal hybrids (designated as AipIFI44 and ApiIFI44, respectively). Their open reading frame (ORF) sequences were all 1434 bp, encoding 477 amino acids, but with large variations among the four genes. The AipIFI44 and ApiIFI44 exhibited higher similarity with ApIFI44 than with AiIFI44. All four genes have a TLDc structural domain with significant variations in sequences among them. Predicted differences in conformation and posttranslational modifications may lead to altered protein activity. We further demonstrated that the AiIFI44, AipIFI44 and ApiIFI44 expressed in all the tested tissues, with the highest expression in the gills and hepatopancreas. In response to Vibrio anguillarum challenge, the profile of mRNA expression of IFI44 gene differed among the bay scallops and the two hybrids. In the bay scallops, it increased at 6 h but dramatically decreased after 12-48 h. However, the mRNA expression of both AipIFI44 and ApiIFI44 decreased at 6 h but continuously increased thereafter and reached the highest value at 48 h. The results in the present study suggest the immune responds of IFI44 in scallops and it may be related to the higher resistance to Vibrio bacterial in hybrids., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The scalable 2D device fabrication and integration demand either the large-area synthesis or the post-synthesis transfer of 2D layers. While the direct synthesis of 2D materials on most targeted surfaces remains challenging, the transfer approach from the growth substrate onto the targeted surfaces offers an alternative pathway for applications and integrations. However, the current transfer techniques for 2D materials predominantly involve polymers and organic solvents, which are liable to contaminate or deform the ultrasensitive atomic layers. Here, novel ice-aided transfer and ice-stamp transfer methods are developed, in which water (ice) is the only medium in the entire process. In practice, the adhesion between various 2D materials and ice can be well controlled by temperature. Through such controlled adhesion of ice, it is shown that the new transfer methods can yield ultrahigh quality and exceptional cleanliness in transferred 2D flakes and continuous 2D films, and are applicable for a wide range of substrates. Furthermore, beyond transfer, ice can also be used for cleaning the surfaces of 2D materials at higher temperatures. These novel techniques can enable unprecedented ultraclean 2D materials surfaces and performances, and will contribute to the upcoming technological revolutions associated with 2D materials., (© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Cyanobacteria inhabiting desert biological soil crusts face the harsh conditions of the desert. They evolved a suite of strategies toward desiccation-hydration cycles mixed with high light irradiations, etc. In this study we purified and characterized the structure and function of Photosystem I (PSI) from Leptolyngbya ohadii, a desiccation-tolerant desert cyanobacterium. We discovered that PSI forms tetrameric (PSI-Tet) aggregate. We investigated it by using sucrose density gradient centrifugation, clear native PAGE, high performance liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry (MS), time-resolved fluorescence (TRF) and time-resolved transient absorption (TA) spectroscopy. MS analysis identified the presence of two PsaB and two PsaL proteins in PSI-Tet and uniquely revealed that PsaLs are N-terminally acetylated in contrast to non-modified PsaL in the trimeric PSI from Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Chlorophyll (Chl) a fluorescence decay profiles of the PSI-Tet performed at 77 K revealed two emission bands at ∼690 nm and 725 nm with the former appearing only at early delay time. The main fluorescence emission peak, associated with emission from the low energy Chls a, decays within a few nanoseconds. TA studies demonstrated that the 725 nm emission band is associated with low energy Chls a with absorption band clearly resolved at ∼710 nm at 77 K. In summary, our work suggests that the heterogenous composition of PsaBs and PsaL in PSI-Tet is related with the adaptation mechanisms needed to cope with stressful conditions under which this bacterium naturally grows., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Existing neuroregulatory techniques can achieve precise stimulation of the whole brain or cortex, but high-focus deep brain stimulation has been a technical bottleneck in this field. In this paper, based on the theory of negative permeability emerged in recent years, a simulation model of magnetic replicator is established to study the distribution of the induced electric field in the deep brain and explore the possibility of deep focusing, which is compared with the traditional magnetic stimulation method. Simulation results show that a single magnetic replicator realized remote magnetic source. Under the condition of the same position and compared with the traditional method of stimulating, the former generated smaller induced electric field which sharply reduced with distance. By superposition of the magnetic field replicator, the induced electric field intensity could be increased and the focus could be improved, reducing the number of peripheral wires while guaranteeing good focus. The magnetic replicator model established in this paper provides a new idea for precise deep brain stimulation, which can be combined with neuroregulatory techniques in the future to lay a foundation for clinical application.

Low temperature and high humidity conditions significantly degrade the performance of solid-state lubricants consisting of van der Waals (vdW) atomic layers, owing to the liquid water layer attached/intercalated to the vdW layers, which greatly enhances the interlayer friction. However, using low temperature in situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) and friction force microscopy (FFM), we unveil the unexpected ultralow friction between two-dimensional (2D) ice, a solid phase of water confined to the 2D space, and the 2D molybdenum disulfides (MoS 2 ). The friction of MoS 2 and 2D ice is reduced by more than 30% as compared to bare MoS 2 and the rigid surface. The phase transition of liquid water into 2D ice under mechanical compression has also been observed. These new findings can be applied as novel frictionless water/ice transport technology in nanofluidic systems and promising high performance lubricants for operating in low temperature and high humidity environments.

As an indispensable strategy for tumor treatment, surgery may cause two major challenges: tumor recurrence and wound infection. Here, a thermoelectric therapeutic strategy is provided as either an independent cancer therapy or surgical adjuvant treatment. Bi 0.5 Sb 1.5 Te 3 (BST) and Bi 2 Te 2.8 Se 0.2 (BTS) nanoplates composed of Z-scheme thermoelectric heterojunction (BST/BTS) are fabricated via a two-step hydrothermal processes. The contact between BST and BTS constructs an interfacial electric field due to Fermi energy level rearrangement, guiding electrons in the conductive band (CB) of BTS combine with the holes in the valance band (VB) of BST, leaving stronger reduction/oxidation potentials of electrons and holes in the CB of BST and the VB of BTS. Moreover, under a mild temperature gradient, another self-built-in electric field is formed facilitating the migration of electrons and holes to their surfaces. Based on the PEGylated BST/BTS heterojunction, a novel thermoelectric therapy platform is developed through intravenous injection of BST/BTS and external cooling of the tumors. This thermoelectric strategy is also proved effective for combination cancer therapy with β-elemene. Moreover, the combination of heterojunction and hydrogel is administrated on the wound after surgery, achieving efficient residual tumor treatment and antibacterial effects., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Background: Social cognitive and negative symptoms impairment may increase the risk of mental disability in individuals with schizophrenia. However, randomized controlled studies on the effectiveness of accelerated intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) for social cognition and negative symptoms in individuals with schizophrenia are very limited., Methods: A total of 125 individuals with schizophrenia were recruited, 66 of whom were randomly divided into an active iTBS group (n=34) and sham iTBS group (n=32) by stratified sampling. Participants received either active iTBS or sham iTBS targeting the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) 20 sessions for 4 weeks under navigation. The Facial Emotion Recognition Test (FERT), Hinting Task (HT), and Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) were measured at baseline, 2 weeks, and 4 weeks. The trial protocol was registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR2100051984)., Results: Sixty patients (90.90%) completed the intervention and the 4-week follow-up, including 29 women (43.94%) and 37 men (56.06%) with a mean (SD) age of 47.53 (10.17) years. The primary outcomes showed FERT scores (week 2; 0.27 [95% CI, 0.09 to 0.45]; P< .01; ES 0.14) (week 4; 0.63 [95% CI, 0.45 to 0.80]; P< .001; ES 0.47) and HT scores (week 2; 1.00 [95% CI, -0.02 to 1.98]; P< .05; ES 0.67) (week 4; 2.13 [95% CI, 1.21 to 3.06]; P< .001; ES 0.27) in the active iTBS group were significantly different from those in the sham iTBS group at 2 and 4 weeks of follow-up. The secondary outcome showed that the negative symptom score (-3.43 [95% CI, -4.85 to -2.01]; P< .001; ES 0.29) of the active iTBS group was significantly different from that of the sham iTBS group at the 4th week of follow-up., Conclusions: Accelerated iTBS can effectively ameliorate the social cognition and negative symptoms of individuals with schizophrenia. These results suggest that accelerated iTBS may be a safe and effective neuromodulation technique to improve the overall functional recovery of individuals with schizophrenia, and has a good clinical application prospect., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Although lakes dominated by macrophytes are conducive to ecological balance, this balance is easily disrupted by excessive nutrients flowing into the lake. However, knowledge of whether excessive nutrients lead to different microbial environmental vulnerabilities in the lake sediment between macrophyte-dominated areas and macrophyte-free areas is a prerequisite for the implementation of targeted protection measures. In this study, we investigated bacterial communities in sediments using high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA genes. Our results showed that the sources of total nitrogen (TN) and organic matter (OM) were related to the macrophytes. The structure, drivers, and interspecific associations of bacterial community, which were more susceptible to increased changes in TN and OM, differed significantly between macrophyte-dominated areas and macrophyte-free areas. More precisely, the lake edge, where was occupied by macrophytes, had a higher proportion of deterministic phylogenetic turnover (88.89%) than other sites, as well as a wider ecological niche and a tighter network structure. Further, as the difference in TN increased, the main assembly processes in surface sediments changed from stochastic to deterministic. However, the majority of phyla from the lake edge showed a greater correlation with excessive nutrients, and the selection of the community by excessive nutrients was more obvious at the edge of the lake. In addition, our results demonstrated that the stability of the bacterial community in macrophyte-free areas is greater than in macrophyte-dominated areas, while an excessively high deterministic process ratio and nutrient (TN and OM) concentration significantly reduced bacterial community stability at macrophyte-dominated areas. Taken together, these results provide a better understanding of the effects of excessive nutrients derived from macrophytes on bacterial community patterns, and highlight the importance of avoiding the accumulation of TN and OM in macrophyte-dominated areas to enhance the sustainability of the ecosystem after restoration of lakes with macrophytes., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Protein cross-linking is the process of chemically joining two amino acids in a protein or protein complex by a covalent bond. When combined with mass spectrometry, it becomes one of the structural mass spectrometry techniques gaining in importance for deriving valuable three-dimensional structural information on proteins and protein complexes. This platform complements existing structural methods, such as NMR spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, and cryo-EM. Photosynthetic pigment protein complexes serve as light-energy harvesting systems and perform photochemical conversion as part of the "early events" of photosynthesis. This chapter outlines how to prepare cross-linking pigment protein complex samples for LC-MS/MS analysis, including identification of the cross-linked species, network analysis in a protein complex, and structural modeling and justification., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: miR-125b-5p plays an important role in the development of cancer and drug resistance. However, in cisplatin resistance of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the function and potential mechanism of miR-125b-5p is still unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the role and molecular mechanism of miR-125b-5p in cisplatin resistance of NSCLC., Methods: A GEO dataset (GSE168707) was analyzed to find high miR-125b-5p levels were associated with DDP resistance. miR-125b-5p expression levels were detected in A549 and A549/DDP cells via real-time quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR). Luciferase reporter assays, western blots and mouse model xenografted were performed to identify CREB1 as a direct target gene of miR-125b-5p. Cell proliferation and apoptosis were also performed to identify whether miR-125b-5p upregulation by TRIM28 induces DDP resistance in NSCLC through CREB1 inhibition., Results: In A549/DDP cells, miR-125b-5p expression was upregulated compared to A549 cells. Then miR-125b-5p was found to increase DDP resistance in NSCLC in vivo and in vitro by increasing cell proliferation and suppressing cell apoptosis. Bioinformatic analyses were used to search for gene which miR-125b-5p can target. We identified miR-125b-5p can regulate CREB1 via luciferase reporter assays, qRT-PCR and western blots. Cell proliferation and apoptosis were also performed to confirm miR-125b-5p could impact on CREB1 and induce the DDP resistance in NSCLC. Additionally, we used bioinformatic analyses to find tripartite motif-containing 28 (TRIM28) as a transcriptional enhance factor of miR-125b-5p. The expression of TRIM28 was upregulated in A549/DDP cells compared with that in A549 cells by qRT-PCR. Finally, we found TRIM28 could mediate DDP resistance through miR-125b-5p/CREB1 axis via cell proliferation, western blot and apoptosis assay., Conclusions: Overall, our findings demonstrated novel functions and mechanisms underlying DDP resistance in NSCLC through the TRIM28/miR-125b-5p/CREB1 axis. These may serve as novel therapeutic targets to improve the treatment efficacy using DDP for NSCLC in the future., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Background: SCNT (somatic cell nuclear transfer) is of great significance to biological research and also to the livestock breeding. However, the survival rate of the SCNT cloned animals is relatively low compared to other transgenic methods. This indicates the potential epigenetic variations between them. DNA methylation is a key marker of mammalian epigenetics and its alterations will lead to phenotypic differences. In this study, ASMT (acetylserotonin-O-methyltransferase) ovarian overexpression transgenic goat was produced by using SCNT. To investigate whether there are epigenetic differences between cloned and WT (wild type) goats, WGBS (whole-genome bisulfite sequencing) was used to measure the whole-genome methylation of these animals., Results: It is observed that the different mCpG sites are mainly present in the intergenic and intronic regions between cloned and WT animals, and their CG-type methylation sites are strongly correlated. DMR (differentially methylated region) lengths are located around 1000 bp, mainly distributed in the exonic, intergenic and intronic functional domains. A total of 56 and 36 DMGs (differentially methylated genes) were identified by GO and KEGG databases, respectively. Functional annotation showed that DMGs were enriched in biological-process, cellular-component, molecular-function and other signaling pathways. A total of 10 identical genes related to growth and development were identified in GO and KEGG databases., Conclusion: The differences in methylation genes among the tested animals have been identified. A total of 10 DMGs associated with growth and development were identified between cloned and WT animals. The results indicate that the differential patterns of DNA methylation between the cloned and WT goats are probably caused by the SCNT. These novel observations will help us to further identify the unveiled mechanisms of somatic cell cloning technology, particularly in goats., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Intrinsically disordered proteins/regions (IDPRs) are a very large and functionally important class of proteins that participate in weak multivalent interactions in protein complexes. They are recalcitrant for interrogations using X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM. The IDPRs observed at the interface of the photosynthetic pigment protein complexes (PPCs) remain much less clear, e.g., the major cyanobacterial light-harvesting complex (PBS) contains an unstructured PB-loop insertion in the phycocyanobilin domain (PB domain) of ApcE (the largest polypeptide in PBS). Here, a joint platform is built to probe such structural domains. This platform is characterized by two-round progressive justifications of in silico models by using the structural mass spectrometry data. First, the AlphaFold-generated 3D structure of the PB domain (containing PB-loop) was justified in the context of PBS. Second, docking the AlphaFold-generated ApcG (a ligand) into the first-step justified structure (a receptor). The final ligand-receptor complex was then subjected to a second-round justification, again, by using unequivocal isotopically-encoded cross-links identified in LC-MS/MS. This work reveals a full-length PB-loop structure modelled in the PBS basal cylinder, free from any spatial conflicts against the other subunits in PBS. The structure of PB domain highlights the close associations of the intrinsically disordered PB-loop with its binding partners in PBS, including ApcG, another IDPR. The PB-loop region involved in the binding of photosystem II (PSII) is also discussed in the context of excitation energy transfer regulation. This work calls attention to the highly disordered, yet interrogatable interface between the light-harvesting antenna complexes and the reaction centers., Competing Interests: Competing interests No., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Light-harvesting antennas in photosynthesis capture light energy and transfer it to the reaction centers (RCs) where photochemistry takes place. The sustainable growth of the reef-building corals relies on a constant supply of the photosynthates produced by the endosymbiotic dinoflagellate, belonging to the family of Symbiodiniaceae. The antenna system in this group consists of the water-soluble peridinin-chlorophyll a-protein (PCP) and the intrinsic membrane chlorophyll a-chlorophyll c 2 -peridinin protein complex (acpPC). In this report, a nonameric acpPC is reported in a dinoflagellate, Fugasium kawagutii (formerly Symbiodinium kawagutii sp. CS-156). We found that extensive biochemical purification altered the oligomerization states of the initially isolated nonameric acpPC. The excitation energy transfer pathways in the acpPC nonamer and its variants were studied using time-resolved fluorescence and time-resolved absorption spectroscopic techniques at 77 K. Compared to the well-characterized trimeric acpPC, the nonameric acpPC contains an 11 nm red-shifted terminal energy emitter and substantially altered excited state lifetimes of Chl a. The observed energetic overlap of the fluorescence terminal energy emitters with the absorption of RCs is hypothesized to enable efficient downhill excitation energy transfer. Additionally, the shortened Chl a fluorescence decay lifetime in the oligomeric acpPC indicate a protective self-relaxation strategy. We propose that the highly-oligomerized acpPC nonamer represents an intact functional unit in the Symbiodiniaceae thylakoid membrane. They perform efficient excitation energy transfer (to RCs), and are under manageable regulations in favor of photoprotection., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.)