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In this study, dynamic behaviors of proteins and water during fresh noodles processing associated with the quality of fresh noodles were systematically investigated by using wheat near-isogenic lines carrying high-molecular-weight glutenin subunits (HMW-GS) 2 + 12, 3 + 12 or 5 + 10 at the Glu-D1 locus. The results showed that subunits 5 + 10 tend to form a complex gluten network and had a poorly hydrated ability, that prevent the intrusion of external water during cooking; subunits 3 + 12 formed a moderate strength gluten network that generated a medium ability to resist the hydrated and mechanical treatment, which explained the highest water absorption and less cooking loss of cooked noodles; while subunits 2 + 12 formed fragile protein aggregates that had a poor ability to resist mechanical. The findings demonstrated that subunits 3 + 12 provided a suitable gluten network which was crucial for intrusion and hydration of external water thus formed a uniform gluten network and excellent fresh noodle quality., 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.)

Recently, the intestinal lymphatic transport based on Peyer's patches (PPs) is emerging as a promising absorption pathway for natural polysaccharides. Herein, the aim of this study is to investigate the PP-based oral absorption of a pectic polysaccharide from Smilax china L. (SCLP), as well as its uptake and transport mechanisms in related immune cells. Taking advantages of the traceability of fluorescently labeled SCLP, we confirmed that SCLP could be absorbed into PPs and captured by their mononuclear phagocytes (dendritic cells and macrophages) following oral administration. Subsequently, the systematic in vitro study suggested that the endocytic mechanisms of SCLP by model mononuclear phagocytes (BMDCs and RAW264.7 cells) mainly involved caveolae-mediated endocytosis, macropinocytosis and phagocytosis. More importantly, SCLP directly binds and interacts with toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) and galectin 3 (Gal-3) receptor, and was taken up by mononuclear phagocytes in receptor-mediated manner. After internalization, SCLP was intracellularly transported primarily through endolysosomal pathway and ultimately localized in lysosomes. In summary, this work reveals novel information and perspectives about the in vivo fate of SCLP, which will contribute to further research and utilization of SCLP and other pectic polysaccharides., 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.)

Duck enteritis virus (DEV) may lead to vascular injury, gastrointestinal mucosal erosion, lymphoid organ injury, and Polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (Poly I:C) has an antiviral effect by inducing low levels of interferon. The purpose of this study was to explore the pathogenesis of DEV-induced intestinal injury in ducks and to verify the therapeutic effects of different concentrations of Poly I:C. In this study, duck enteritis model was established by infecting healthy Pekin ducks with DEV. Duck intestinal tissues were extracted from normal control group, model group, and treatment group with different doses of Poly I:C. In vivo, HE and TUNEL staining were used to observe the morphological changes and apoptosis. In vitro, the proliferation and apoptosis of duck intestinal epithelial cells were evaluated by MTT assay, TUNEL staining, and flow cytometry. The results showed that Poly I:C protected ducks from DEV toxicity by improving intestinal morphology and inhibiting apoptosis. In addition, the antiviral effect of Poly I:C on DEV was found in a dose-dependent manner, with a more relatively obvious effect at a high dose of Poly I:C. All in all, these results demonstrated that Poly I:C played a vital role in the apoptosis induced by DEV in ducks and modest dose of Poly I:C treatment worked well and may provide important reference for the development of new antiviral drugs in the future., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

The aims of this study were to explore whether student suicide reporting is consistent with media recommendations for suicide reporting; analyze public opinion and sentiments toward student suicide reports. A keyword search was performed on the WeiboReach platform. This study included 113 student suicide report posts and 176,262 readers' comments on suicide news reports. Hierarchical generalized linear modeling was used to analyze the relationships between adherence to reporting recommendations and negative emotions in readers' comments. None of the media reporting of student suicide was consistent with all of the media recommendations for suicide reporting. Netizens were less likely to post negative comments when the reports describe the suicide method used (OR 1.169, 95% CI 1.022∼1.337), and not specifying the cause of suicide was a protective factor for public negative emotion (OR 0.799, 95% CI 0.707, 0.905). The findings suggest improving responsible media reporting on student suicide to reduce negative public emotion., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Marine aerosols (MA) can be influenced by sea ice concentration, potentially playing a pivotal role in the formation of cloud condensation nuclei and exerting an impact on regional climate. In this study, a high-resolution aerosol observation system was employed to measure the concentration and size of aerosols in the floating ice region and seawater region of the Arctic Ocean during the 8th and 9th Chinese Arctic Expedition Research Cruise. The identification of aerosol sources was conducted using a modified positive definite matrix factorization method and a backward air mass trajectory model. Two types of MA including the sea-salt aerosol (SSA) and the marine biogenic aerosol (BA) were identified and their concentrations were calculated. Then the physical-chemical characteristics of MA in the floating ice region and seawater region were compared under normalized conditions (-2.5 °C < T < -0.1 °C; 5.80 m/s < WS < 10.95 m/s) to discern the impact of sea ice. A unimodal distribution was observed for MA number concentration with a dominant peak ranging from 0.5 μm to 1.0 μm in size range. The findings revealed that the presence of sea ice cover led to a significant reduction of 52.2 % in the number concentration of SSA, while exerting minimal influence on its composition. BA number concentration in the floating ice region was 33.3 % higher than that in the seawater region. Strong winds (wind speed >6.5 m/s) transported organic matter and nutrients entrapped in sea ice into the atmosphere, leading to an increase in BA concentration. However, the presence of sea ice cover hampered the exchange of biogenic gases between the ocean and air, resulting in a reduction of secondary BA formation. Our study elucidates the correlation between MA release and sea ice coverage in the Arctic Ocean, thereby establishing a theoretical foundation for climate prediction models., 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.)

This work reports a new concept of cancer mask in situ to alter the specific biological functions of cancer cells. Metastatic cancer cells are highly invasive in part due to the presence of the glycan matrix in the cell membrane. Using a rational designed bio-orthogonal reaction, the cancer cell surface is reconstructed in situ by incorporating endogenous polysialic acids in the glycan matrix on the cell membrane to form a mesh-like network, called cancer mask. The network of the glycan matrix can not only immobilize cancer cells but also effectively block the stimulation of metastasis promoters to tumor cells and inhibit the formation of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), causing metastatic cancer cells incarceration. The results demonstrate a new strategy to control and even eliminate the cancer metastasis that is a major cause of treatment failure and poor patient outcome., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Objective: Prediction of lymph node metastasis (LNM) for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is critical for the treatment regimen and prognosis. We aim to develop and validate machine learning (ML)-based predictive models for LNM in patients with ICC., Methods: A total of 345 patients with clinicopathological characteristics confirmed ICC from Jan 2007 to Jan 2019 were enrolled. The predictors of LNM were identified by the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and logistic analysis. The selected variables were used for developing prediction models for LNM by six ML algorithms, including Logistic regression (LR), Gradient boosting machine (GBM), Extreme gradient boosting (XGB), Random Forest (RF), Decision tree (DT), Multilayer perceptron (MLP). We applied 10-fold cross validation as internal validation and calculated the average of the areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve to measure the performance of all models. A feature selection approach was applied to identify importance of predictors in each model. The heat map was used to investigate the correlation of features. Finally, we established a web calculator using the best-performing model., Results: In multivariate logistic regression analysis, factors including alcoholic liver disease (ALD), smoking, boundary, diameter, and white blood cell (WBC) were identified as independent predictors for LNM in patients with ICC. In internal validation, the average values of AUC of six models ranged from 0.820 to 0.908. The XGB model was identified as the best model, the average AUC was 0.908. Finally, we established a web calculator by XGB model, which was useful for clinicians to calculate the likelihood of LNM., Conclusion: The proposed ML-based predicted models had a good performance to predict LNM of patients with ICC. XGB performed best. A web calculator based on the ML algorithm showed promise in assisting clinicians to predict LNM and developed individualized medical plans., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The deposition of the extracellular matrix, especially collagen, and the elevated expression levels of reactive oxygen species, including H 2 O 2 , are the main features of fibrosis. Fibrosis can occur in many tissues, such as tumor and liver tissues. The deposition of collagen in the location of lesions not only leads to immunological rejection and supports liver fibrosis and tumor progression, but also provides unique physiological signals with the progression of fibrosis and tumor. However, at present, the detection of fibrosis, especially real time detection, is greatly difficult, making it important to develop noninvasive probes for the dynamic monitoring of fibrosis progression. Herein, we propose a H 2 O 2 responsive macromolecular probe for collagen imaging with high sensitivity and specificity. This probe consists of a collagen-targeting peptide and a H 2 O 2 -sensitive and near-infrared (NIR)-emitting macromolecular optical probe, which could effectively bind to collagen both in vitro and in vivo in the region of tumor or fibrotic liver tissues, allowing for high sensitivity and noninvasive visualization of fibrotic tissues and real time monitoring of collagen degradation after anti-fibrotic drug treatment.

Alpine grassland is among the world's most vulnerable ecosystems, characterized by a high sensitivity to climate change (CC) and human activities (HA). Quantifying the relative contributions of CC and HA to grassland change plays a crucial role in safeguarding grassland ecological security and devising sustainable grassland management strategies. Although there were adequate studies focusing on the separate impacts of CC and HA on alpine ecosystem, insufficient attention has been given to investigating the effects of extreme temperatures and soil moisture. In this study, the spatiotemporal variations of alpine grassland were analyzed based on MODIS NDVI during the growing season from 2000 to 2020 in Naqu, using partial least squares regression and residual analysis methods to analyze the importance of climate factors and the impacts of CC and HA on grassland change. The results show that the NDVI during the growing season in Naqu exhibited an increasing trend of 0.0046/10a. At the biome scale, the most significant and rapid increase was observed in alpine desert and alpine desert grassland. Extreme temperature and soil moisture (SM) exerted a more significant importance on alpine grassland at whole scale. SM always showed a significant importance at biome and grid scale. The contributions of CC and HA to the change during the growing season were calculated as 0.0032/10a and 0.0015/10a, respectively, accounting for 68.05 % and 31.05 %. CC dominated the increase in NDVI during the growing season; HA contributed positively to NDVI in most areas of Naqu. The results are expected to enhance our understanding of grassland variations under CC and HA and provide a scientific basis for future ecological conservation in alpine regions., 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.)

As a core transcriptional factor regulating pluripotency, Krüppel-like factor 4 (KLF4) has gained much attention in the field of stem cells during the past decades. However, few research have focused on the function of KLF4 during human primordial germ cell (PGC) specification. Here, we induced human PGC-like cells (hPGCLCs) from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and the derived hPGCLCs upregulated PGC-related genes, like SOX17, BLIMP1, TFAP2C, NANOS3, and the naïve pluripotency gene KLF4. The KLF4-knockout hESCs formed typical multicellular colonies with clear borders, expressed pluripotency genes, such as NANOG, OCT4, and SOX2, and exhibited no differences in proliferation capacity compared with wild type hESCs. Notably, KLF4 deletion in hESCs did not influence the induction of PGCLCs in vitro. In contrast, overexpression of KLF4 during PGC induction process inhibited the efficiency of PGCLC formation from hESCs in vitro. Overexpression of KLF4 may regenerate the naïve ground state in hESCs and results in repression for PGC specification. Thus, KLF4 could be a downstream target of human PGC program and the upregulation of KLF4 is prepared for late stage of germline development., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Society for Reproductive Investigation.)

The aim of this study was to clarify the effects of the high-molecular-weight glutenin subunits (HMW-GSs) 1Dx3+1Dy12 (3+12) and 1Dx4+1Dy12 (4+12) at the Glu-D1 locus on gluten and Chinese steamed bread (CSB) quality. The grain protein content and composition, gluten content and gluten index, farinograph properties, and CSB quality were investigated using four wheat near-isogenic lines (NILs) carrying HMW-GSs 1Dx2+1Dy12 (2+12), 3+12, 4+12 and 1Dx5+1Dy10 (5+10), respectively. The unextractable polymeric protein (UPP) and glutenin macropolymer (GMP) content, gluten index, dough development time, stability time, and farinograph quality number of four NILs all ranked as 5+10 > 3+12 > 2+12/4+12, such as the gluten index ranked as 5+10(44.88%) > 3+12(40.07%) > 2+12(37.46%)/4+12(35.85%); however, their contributions to the quality of CSB were ranked as 3+12 > 5+10 > 2+12/4+12, such as the specific volume ranked as 3+12(2.64 mL/g) > 5+10(2.49 mL/g) > 2+12(2.36 mL/g)/4+12(2.35 mL/g), which indicated that a suitable gluten strength (3+12) was crucial to making high-quality CSB. In addition, subunits 4+12 had a similar quality performance to low-quality subunits 2+12. All these findings suggested that, except for the acknowledged high-quality subunits 5+10, the introduction of 3+12 at the Glu-D1 locus is an efficient way for quality improvement of gluten as well as CSB., (© 2024 Institute of Food Technologists.)

Survival causal effect estimation based on right-censored data is of key interest in both survival analysis and causal inference. Propensity score weighting is one of the most popular methods in the literature. However, since it involves the inverse of propensity score estimates, its practical performance may be very unstable, especially when the covariate overlap is limited between treatment and control groups. To address this problem, a covariate balancing method is developed in this paper to estimate the counterfactual survival function. The proposed method is nonparametric and balances covariates in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) via weights that are counterparts of inverse propensity scores. The uniform rate of convergence for the proposed estimator is shown to be the same as that for the classical Kaplan-Meier estimator. The appealing practical performance of the proposed method is demonstrated by a simulation study as well as two real data applications to study the causal effect of smoking on survival time of stroke patients and that of endotoxin on survival time for female patients with lung cancer respectively., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Transition metal oxides have been extensively studied due to their large theoretical capacities, but their practical application has been hampered by low electrical conductivity and dramatic volume fluctuation during cycling. In this work, we synthesized Zn 3 V 2 O 8 material using Zn-V-MOF (metal-organic framework) as a sacrificial template to improve the electrochemical characteristics of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). Unique dodecahedral structure, larger specific surface area and higher ability to mitigate volume changes, improve the electrochemical reaction active site while accelerating ion transport. Zn 3 V 2 O 8 with 2-methylimidazole as a ligand demonstrated a discharge capacity of 1225.9 mAh/g in LIBs and 761.6 mAh/g in SIBs after 300 cycles at 0.2 C. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation illustrates the smaller diffusion barrier energy and higher specific capacity in LIBs that is ascribed to the fact that Li has a smaller size and hence its diffusion is easier. This study may lead to a path for the manufacturing of high-performance LIBs and SIBs., 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.)

Carex communities in most Yangtze-disconnected lakes have been degraded severely due to alterations in water level fluctuations. To explore the feasibility of restoring the lakeshore Carex communities through ecological regulation of water level, the present study selected the Yangtze-connected Qili Lake (the lakeshore was dominated by Carex) and the Yangtze-disconnected Wuchang Lake (the lakeshore was dominated by Zizania latifolia) as model systems, and analyzed the lakeshore seed bank characteristics and seed-related quantitative, morphological, and germination traits of three representative Carex species. According to the results, although Carex seed density in the Qili Lake seed bank was obviously higher than that in Wuchang Lake, their contribution to the total seed density in both lakes was extremely low, with no significant difference between the two lakes. The results indicate that restoration of the degraded Carex communities using existing seed bank in Yangtze-disconnected lakes exclusively through water level regulation is not feasible. In addition, the seed densities of aboveground parts of Carex cinerascens, Carex dimorpholepis, and Carex argyi in Qili Lake were 6.9 × 10 4 , 45.1 × 10 4 , and 3.6 × 10 4 seeds/m 2 , respectively, which can provide high numbers of seeds continuously for lakeshore Carex restoration. The results of seed germination experiments showed that light, burial depth, and their interaction had significant effects on seed germination of the three species, whereas water condition had a significant effect only on C. dimorpholepis seed germination. The average germination rates of the three Carex species were 16.63 %, 19.06 %, and 7.78 %, respectively. However, considering the high seed densities in the aboveground parts of the three species, there are considerable numbers of seeds that can be used for Carex restoration. Therefore, the restoration of Carex communities in lakeshore zones of Yangtze-disconnected lakes is still possible if water level regulation can be combined with natural or artificial seed supplementation., 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.)

Background: Carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) has been shown to be a valuable predictor of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). The aim of this study was to investigate the influencing factors of CIMT among adults in Central China., Methods: A total of 2,578 participants who underwent physical examination in Henan Provincial People's Hospital between January 2018 and July 2018 were enrolled. The respondents were divided into two subgroups according to their CIMT value (CIMT ≥1.0 mm group and CIMT <1.0 mm group). Variables considered were age, gender, total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) triglycerides, fasting blood glucose, and uric acid levels, as well as hypertension, diabetes, body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio, body fat percentage, and visceral fat area (VFA). Logistic regression analysis was performed to explore the potential factors influencing CIMT., Results: The proportion of CIMT ≥1.0 mm among the physical examination population was 27.42% (707/2 578). The analysis of the two groups revealed significant differences in age, sex, hypertension, diabetes, total cholesterol, and HDL cholesterol. In the logistic regression analysis, age ( OR =1.071, 95% CI =1.062-1.080), male sex ( OR =2.012, 95% CI =1.251-2.238), hypertension ( OR =1.337, 95% CI =1.031-1.735), diabetes ( OR =1.535, 95% CI =1.045-2.255), HDL cholesterol ( OR =0.540, 95% CI =0.366-0.796), and LDL cholesterol ( OR =1.336, 95% CI =1.154-1.544) were significantly associated with abnormal CIMT., Conclusion: Early screening should be carried out among men, the older adults, and those with hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Yang, Wang, Zhang, Xiang, Wen, Wang, Guan, Wang, Yang, Hao and Chen.)

Lycium barbarum polysaccharides (LBPs) have been shown to exert an antiglycemic effect. Emerging evidence suggests that patients with hyperglycemia have a hypercontractility of duodenum, and targeting duodenal contraction of duodenum can be beneficial to glucose metabolism. However, it is unknown whether LBPs can improve glucose metabolism by regulating the hypercontractility of the duodenum. Our aim was to explore the effect of LBPs on duodenal contraction in prediabetic mice and also preliminarily investigate the mechanism. The results showed that LBPs improved glucose homeostasis by decreasing the duodenal amplitude of contraction rather than frequency. Moreover, LBPs ameliorated the gut microbiota composition and the levels of short-chain fatty acids, especially acetic acid, which might bind to the receptor on neurons to regulate the contraction of the duodenum. Acetic acid was hypothesized to play a key role in the above process. Then, acetic acid was determined to exert an antiglycemic effect as expected. In conclusion, LBPs may rely on acetic acid to regulate duodenal contraction to ameliorate glucose metabolism in prediabetic mice, which provides a new therapeutic strategy to treat dysglycemia.

Low-molecular-weight glutenin subunits (LMW-GS) account for 40% of the total wheat grain gluten protein fraction, which plays a significant role in the formation of noodle processing quality. The goal of this study was to clarify the effects of the major LMW-GS encoded by Glu-A3 on gluten and Chinese fresh noodle (CFN) quality. Four near-isogenic lines (NILs) were used as materials in this study, respectively carrying alleles Glu-A3a , Glu-A3b , Glu-A3c , and Glu-A3e , against the background of wheat variety Xiaoyan 22. The grain protein and its component contents and the gluten content, gluten index, farinograph properties, cooking quality, and textural quality of CFN were investigated. The results show that the ratios of glutenin to gliadin (Glu/Gli) in the NILs ranked them as Glu-A3b > Glu-A3c / Glu-A3a > Glu-A3e , and the unextractable polymeric protein content (UPP%), gluten index (GI), and farinograph quality in the NILs ranked them as Glu-A3b > Glu-A3c > Glu-A3a / Glu-A3e . Compared to Glu-A3b and Glu-A3a , the NILs carrying alleles Glu-A3c and Glu-A3e had better cooking and texture properties in CFN. All these findings suggest that the introduction of alleles Glu-A3c or Glu-A3e is an efficient method for quality improvement in CFN, which provides an excellent subunit selection for improving CFN quality.

Tertiary lymphoid structures (TLSs) play a crucial role in determining prognosis and response to immunotherapy in several solid malignancies. Nevertheless, the effect of TLS-associated gene signature based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohort in patients with breast cancer (BRCA) remains controversial. Based on TCGA-BRCA dataset (n = 866), 9-gene was identified to construct an TLS signature and further analyzed its prognostic value. Then, we explored the relationship of this TLS signature with molecular subtype, immune microenvironment, tumor mutational burden (TMB). High-TLS signature patients had a better overall survival (OS) than low-TLS signature patients, consistent with the results in the METABRIC cohort. Multivariate analysis revealed that TLS signature remained an independent prognostic indicator for OS. In addition, we established a nomogram with the integration of TLS signature and other independent variables to predict individual risk of death. The comprehensive results showed that patients with high TLS signature benefit from immunotherapy; the signature was also correlated with inhibition of cell proliferation pathways, low TP53 mutation rate, high infiltration of B cells, CD8 + T cells, CD4 + T cells, and M1 macrophages. Therefore, TLS signature is a promising biomarker to distinguish the prognosis and immune microenvironment in BRCA., (© 2023. Springer Nature Limited.)

Bimetallic spinel transition metal oxides play a major part in actualizing eco-friendly electrochemical energy storage systems (ESSs). However, structural precariousness and low electrochemical capacitance restrict their actual implementation in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). To address these demerits, the sacrificial template approach has been considered as a prospective way to strengthen electrochemical stability and rate performance. Herein, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) derived XMn 2 O 4 -BDC (H 2 BDC = 1,4-dicarboxybenzene, X = Zn, Co, Cu, Ni) are prepared by a hydrothermal approach in order to discover the effects of various metal cations on the electrochemical performance. Among them, ZnMn 2 O 4 -BDC displays best electrochemical properties (1321.5 mAh g -1 at the current density of 0.1 A g -1 after 300 cycles) and high efficiency with accelerated Li + diffusivity. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations confirm the ZnMn 2 O 4 possesses the weakest adsorption energy on Li + with a minimized value of -0.92 eV. In comparison with other XMn 2 O 4 through traditional fabrication method, MOF-derived XMn 2 O 4 -BDC possesses a higher number of Li + transport channels and better electric conductivity. This tactic provides a feasible and effective method for preparing bimetallic transition metal oxides and enhances energy storage applications., 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.)

Exogenous carbon turnover within soil food web is important in determining the trade-offs between soil organic carbon (SOC) storage and carbon emission. However, it remains largely unknown how soil food web influences carbon sequestration through mediating the dual roles of microbes as decomposers and contributors, hindering our ability to develop policies for soil carbon management. Here, we conducted a 13 C-labeled straw experiment to demonstrate how soil food web regulated the residing microbes to influence the soil carbon transformation and stabilization process after 11 years of no-tillage. Our work demonstrated that soil fauna, as a "temporary storage container," indirectly influenced the SOC transformation processes and mediated the SOC sequestration through feeding on soil microbes. Soil biota communities acted as both drivers of and contributors to SOC cycling, with 32.0% of exogenous carbon being stabilizing in the form of microbial necromass as "new" carbon. Additionally, the proportion of mineral-associated organic carbon and particulate organic carbon showed that the "renewal effect" driven by the soil food web promoted the SOC to be more stable. Our study clearly illustrated that soil food web regulated the turnover of exogenous carbon inputs by and mediated soil carbon sequestration through microbial necromass accumulation., (© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The chemoselective annulation of aza- ortho -quinone methide generated by in situ o -chloromethyl sulfonamide has been achieved with bifunctional acyclic olefin. This efficient approach provides access to the diastereoselective synthesis of functionalized tetrahydroquinoline derivatives containing indole scaffolds through the inverse-electron-demand aza-Diels-Alder reaction under mild reaction conditions with excellent results (up to 93% yield, > 20:1 dr). Moreover, this article realized the cyclization of α-halogeno hydrazone with electron-deficient alkene affording the tetrahydropyridazine derivatives, which had never been reported., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

Background: The composition of glutenin protein significantly affects protein-starch interactions and starch digestion characteristics in wheat dough matrices. To elucidate the effects of high molecular weight glutenin subunits at the Glu-B1 locus on dough processing quality, the detailed structural changes of protein, starch, and their complexes were compared in Mixolab dough samples of two near isogenic lines 7 + 8 and 7 + 9., Results: The results showed that the degree of protein aggregation increased continuously during dough processing, as did the destruction and rearrangement of the gluten network. Compared to 7 + 8, the stronger and more stable protein network formed in 7 + 9 dough induced intensive interactions between protein and starch, primarily through hydrogen bonds and isomeric glycosidic bonds. In 7 + 9 dough, the more compact and extensive protein-starch network significantly inhibited starch gelatinization during dough pasting, while during the dough cooling stage [from C4 (82.8 °C) to C5 (52.8 °C)], more protein-starch complexes composed of monomeric proteins and short-chain starch were generated, which remarkably inhibited starch retrogradation. All protein-starch interactions in the 7 + 9 dough improved the starch digestion resistance, as reflected by the high content of resistant starch., Conclusion: The more extensive and intensive protein-starch interactions in the 7 + 9 dough inhibited the gelatinization and enzymatic hydrolysis of starch, thereby producing more slowly digestible starch and resistant starch. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of optimizing the texture and digestibility of wheat-based food products by regulating the behavior and interactions of proteins and starch during dough processing. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry., (© 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.)

The high incidence of cancer has placed an enormous health and economic burden on countries around the world. In addition to evidence of epidemiological studies, conclusive evidence from animal experiments and mechanistic studies have also shown that morbidity and mortality of some cancers can be attributed to ambient fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) exposure, especially in lung cancer. However, the underlying carcinogenetic mechanisms of PM 2.5 remain unclear. Furthermore, in terms of risks of other types of cancer, both epidemiological and mechanistic evidence are more limited and scattered, and the results are also inconsistent. In order to sort out the carcinogenic effect of PM 2.5 , this paper reviews the association of cancers with PM 2.5 based on epidemiological and biological evidence including genetic, epigenetic, and molecular mechanisms. The limitations of existing researches and the prospects for the future are also well clarified in this paper to provide insights for future studies.

Herein, a designed pyridine-based conjugated imprinted polymer (CIP) was constructed by introducing 4-vinylpyridine (4-VP) via an in situ copolymerization reaction. In addition to the good adsorption performance of Cr(VI), this polymer also showed high efficiency in reducing Cr(VI) in water by photocatalysis. The ingenious design of the polymer not only furnished insight into the enhanced photocatalytic reaction kinetics but also provided a new route for the modification of the molecular skeleton of the conjugated polymer photocatalyst.

Body composition is correlated to bone mineral density, muscle strength, and physical performance. This is important for diagnosing conditions like sarcopenia, which is defined as the age-associated decrease in muscle mass leading to decreased mobile function, increased frailty, and imbalance. Existing methods for body composition measurement either suffer from inaccurate results or require expensive equipment such as Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Although DXA measures lean mass and not muscle mass, previous studies have considered extremity lean mass as appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASMM) approximation. In this study, we develop a new shape descriptor to predict regional body composition (in particular, regional lean mass) from 3D body shapes. In addition, we propose a neural network for ASMM assessment which is calculated by lean mass. We evaluate the effectiveness by comparing adjusted R-Squared values and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). In our experiment, the regression models utilizing level circumference as the training feature outperforms all regional anthropometric measurements and lowers the average RMSE by about 21%. For ASMM, the proposed neural network, which combines shape features and demographic features, surpasses all other traditional regression models and reaches the lowest RMSE at 1.85 kg. Compared to the vanilla linear regression model, our approach improves the RMSE by 17%. The experimental results suggest that the 3D body shape has the potential to be used to predict body composition, and in particular lean mass, for the whole body as well as specific regions of the body.

The WRKY transcription factor family has been associated with a variety of plant biological processes, such as biotic and abiotic stress responses. In this study, 13 wheat TaWRKY DEGs in transcriptome data before and after drought stress, namely TaWRKY1 to TaWRKY8, including various copies, were identified and classified as Group I, II, or III. TaWRKY1-2D overexpression enhanced drought tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis. Moreover, the AtRD29A, AtP5CS1, AtPOD1, AtCAT1, and AtSOD (Cu/Zn) genes, which are related to the stress response and antioxidant system, were significantly upregulated in TaWRKY1-2D transgenic Arabidopsis under drought stress. TaWRKY1-2 silencing in wheat increases the MDA content, reduces the contents of proline and chlorophyll and the activities of antioxidant enzymes, and inhibits the expression levels of antioxidant (TaPOD, TaCAT, and TaSOD (Fe))- and stress-related genes (TaP5CS) under drought stress. Yeast two-hybrid screening revealed TaDHN3 as an interaction partner of TaWRKY1-2D; their interaction was further confirmed using yeast two-hybrid and bimolecular fluorescence complementation. Furthermore, TaWRKY1-2D may play essential roles in wheat drought tolerance through posttranslational regulation of TaDHN3. Overall, these findings contribute to our knowledge of the WRKY family in wheat and identify TaWRKY1-2D as a promising candidate gene for improving wheat breeding to generate drought-tolerant wheat., 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 B.V. All rights reserved.)

Semen traits play a key role in the pig industry because boar semen is widely used in purebred and crossbred pigs. The production of high-quality semen is crucial to ensuring a good result in artificial insemination. With the wide application of artificial insemination in the pig industry, more and more attention has been paid to the improvement of semen traits by genetic selection. The purpose of this study was to identify the genetic regions and candidate genes associated with semen traits of Duroc boars. We used weighted single-step GWAS to identify candidate genes associated with sperm motility, sperm progressive motility, sperm abnormality rate and total sperm count in Duroc pigs. In Duroc pigs, the three most important windows for sperm motility-sperm progressive motility, sperm abnormality rate, and total sperm count-explained 12.45%, 9.77%, 15.80%, and 12.15% of the genetic variance, respectively. Some genes that are reported to be associated with spermatogenesis, testicular function and male fertility in mammals have been detected previously. The candidate genes CATSPER1 , STRA8 , ZSWIM7 , TEKT3 , UBB , PTBP2 , EIF2B2 , MLH3 , and CCDC70 were associated with semen traits in Duroc pigs. We found a common candidate gene, STRA8 , in sperm motility and sperm progressive motility, and common candidate genes ZSWIM7 , TEKT3 and UBB in sperm motility and sperm abnormality rate, which confirms the hypothesis of gene pleiotropy. Gene network enrichment analysis showed that STRA8 , UBB and CATSPER1 were enriched in the common biological process and participated in male meiosis and spermatogenesis. The SNPs of candidate genes can be given more weight in genome selection to improve the ability of genome prediction. This study provides further insight into the understanding the genetic structure of semen traits in Duroc boars.

The corrosion resistance of stainless steel is attributed to the extraordinary protectiveness of the ultrathin native passive film (~3 nanometers) on alloy surface. This protectiveness, independent of alloying, can possibly be further increased by modifying the native film to resist corrosion in harsh conditions. However, the modification based on the film itself is extremely difficult due to its rapid, self-limiting growth. Here we present a strategy by using low-temperature plasma processing so as to follow the growth kinetics of the native film. The native oxide film is restarted and can uniformly grow up to ~15 nanometers in a self-limiting manner. High-resolution TEM found that the film exhibited a well-defined, chemical-ordering layered structure. The following corrosion tests revealed that the anodic current density of the alloy decreased by two orders of magnitude in 0.6 M NaCl solution with a remarkable increase of pitting potential. This enhancement is also observed in Fe-Cr alloys with Cr contents above ~10.5 wt.%. The superior protectiveness of the alloy is thus attributed to the continuous and thickened high-quality ultrathin Cr 2 O 3 layer in the restarted film.

Typical thioredoxin (TRX) plays an important role in maintaining redox balance in plants. However, the typical TRX genes in wheat still need to be comprehensively and deeply studied. In this research, a total of 48 typical TaTRX genes belonging to eight subtypes were identified via a genome-wide search in wheat, and the gene structures, protein conserved motifs, and protein 3D structures of the same subtype were very similar. Evolutionary analysis showed that there are two pairs of tandem duplication genes and 14 clusters of segmental duplication genes in typical TaTRX family members; TaTRX15 , TaTRX36 , and TaTRX42 had positive selection compared with the orthologs of their ancestral species; rice and maize have 11 and 13 orthologous typical TRXs with wheat, respectively. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis indicated that typical TaTRXs were involved in maintaining redox homeostasis in wheat cells. Estimation of ROS content, determination of antioxidant enzyme activity, and gene expression analysis in a line overexpressing one typical TaTRX confirmed that TRX plays an important role in maintaining redox balance in wheat. A predictive analysis of cis -acting elements in the promoter region showed that typical TaTRXs were extensively involved in various hormone metabolism and response processes to stress. The results predicted using public databases or verified using RT-qPCR show that typical TaTRXs were able to respond to biotic and abiotic stresses, and their expression in wheat was spatiotemporal. A total of 16 wheat proteins belonging to four different families interacting with typical TaTRXs were predicted. The above comprehensive analysis of typical TaTRX genes can enrich our understanding of this gene family in wheat and provide valuable insights for further gene function research., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Zhou, Song, Zhou, Zhang, Li, Xiang and Zhang.)

Axially chiral heterobiaryl frameworks are privileged structures in many natural products, pharmaceutically active molecules, and chiral ligands. Therefore, a variety of approaches for constructing these skeletons have been developed. Among them, de novo synthesis, due to its highly convergent and superior atom economy, serves as a promising strategy to access these challenging scaffolds including C-N, C-C, and N-N chiral axes. So far, several elegant reviews on the synthesis of axially chiral heterobiaryl skeletons have been disclosed, however, atroposelective construction of the heterobiaryl subunits by de novo synthesis was rarely covered. Herein, we summarized the recent advances in the catalytic asymmetric synthesis of the axially chiral heterobiaryl scaffold via de novo synthetic strategies. The related mechanism, scope, and applications were also included.

Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) is an important regulator of body growth, development, and metabolism. The poly(dA:dT) tract affects the accessibility of transcription factor binding sites to regulate transcription. Therefore, this study assessed the effects of two poly(dA:dT) tracts on the transcriptional activity of porcine IGF1. The luciferase assay results demonstrated that the poly(dA:dT) tract 2 (−264/−255) was a positive regulatory element for IGF1 gene expression, and the activities between the different lengths of the poly(dA:dT) tract 2 were significant (p<0.01). The transcription factor C/EBPα inhibited the transcription of IGF1 by binding to tract 2, and the expression levels between the lengths of tract 2 after C/EBPα binding were also statistically different (p<0.01). Only the alleles 10T and 11T were found in the tract 2 in commercial pig breeds, while the 9T, 10T, and 11T alleles were found in Chinese native pig breeds. The allele frequencies were in Hardy−Weinberg equilibrium in all pig breeds. The genotypes of tract 2 were significantly associated with the growth traits (days to 115 kg and average daily gain) (p<0.05) in commercial pig breeds. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that the tract 2 mutation could be applied as a candidate genetic marker for growth trait selection in pig breeding programs.

An efficient [4 + 1] annulation reaction between in situ generated azoalkene intermediates and α-bromocarbonyls has been established. A series of skeletally diverse aza-heterocycles with a functionalized quaternary center were obtained in up to 89% yield under mild conditions., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2022 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

Thioredoxins (TRXs) are small-molecule proteins with redox activity that play very important roles in the growth, development, and stress resistance of plants. Foxtail millet ( Setaria italica ) gradually became a model crop for stress resistance research because of its advantages such as its resistance to sterility and its small genome. To date, the thioredoxin (TRX) family has been identified in Arabidopsis thaliana , rice and wheat. However, studies of the TRX family in foxtail millet have not been reported, and the biological function of this family remains unclear. In this study, 35 SiTRX genes were identified in the whole genome of foxtail millet through bioinformatic analysis. According to phylogenetic analysis, 35 SiTRXs can be divided into 13 types. The chromosome distribution, gene structure, cis -elements and conserved protein motifs of 35 SiTRXs were characterized. Three nucleoredoxin (NRX) members were further identified by a structural analysis of TRX family members. The expression patterns of foxtail millet's SiNRX members under abiotic stresses showed that they have different stress-response patterns. In addition, subcellular localization revealed that SiNRXs were localized to the nucleus, cytoplasm and membrane. Further studies demonstrated that the overexpression of SiNRX1 enhanced Arabidopsis' tolerance to drought and salt stresses, resulting in a higher survival rate and better growth performance. Moreover, the expression levels of several known stress-related genes were generally higher in overexpressed lines than in the wild-type. Thus, this study provides a general picture of the TRX family in foxtail millet and lay a foundation for further research on the mechanism of the action of TRX proteins on abiotic stresses., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Zhang, Yu, Song, Zhang, Li, Yu, Zhou, Yang, Guo, Xu, Tu, Xiang and Zhang.)

Macrozoobenthos and submerged macrophytes interact closely. However, studies in China have focused on the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, where shallow lakes are concentrated, rather than on temperate lakes. To clarify the responses of taxonomic and functional groups of macrozoobenthos in temperate lakes to changes in submerged macrophyte biomass (B Mac ) on a large scale, 19 temperate lakes within Baiyangdian Lake were investigated in this study. The B Mac differed greatly across the 19 lakes, and Potamogeton crispus was the dominant species. According to the B Mac , the 19 lakes were divided into 4 groups. One-way analysis of variance and Pearson correlation analysis showed that the water environmental parameters were different among the 4 groups, and the B Mac was significant correlated with all the physical and chemical parameters of water bodies (except for water depth). Forty-one taxa of macrozoobenthos were identified in the 19 lakes, with oligochaetes, Hirudinea, gastropods, crustaceans, chironomid larvae, and aquatic insects (excluding chironomid larvae) represented by 9, 1, 4, 2, 19, and 6 species, respectively. Chironomid larvae and oligochaetes dominated by density, and gastropods and chironomid larvae dominated by biomass. Canonical correspondence analysis showed that the B Mac was the most important factor affecting the macrozoobenthos community structure in group 1 to group 4. Macrozoobenthos with low pollution tolerance values were mainly found in areas with high B Mac , while species with high pollution tolerance values were mainly distributed in areas with low B Mac and high nutrient contents. Different taxonomic and functional groups of macrozoobenthos responded differently to changes in B Mac . As B Mac increased, density and biomass of oligochaetes and chironomid larvae tended to decrease, while those of gastropods and aquatic insects tended to first decrease and then increase. Collectors had more species than any other functional group in group 1 to group 4. As B Mac increased, density and biomass of collectors gradually decreased, while density of predators, shredders, and scrapers tended to first decrease and then increase., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Drought and salt stress can strongly affect the growth and development of wheat. Wheat adapts to drought and salt stress through osmotic regulation. Betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase (BADH) is a key enzyme in the synthesis of betaine, an osmotic regulator. We cloned a region of the TaBADH-A1 promoter and genomic DNA that included the introns and exons, from four Chinese wheat cultivars. Following the analysis of TaBADH-A1 genomic DNA and promoter sequence polymorphisms of 4 cloned and 15 cultivars from the database, 7 haplotypes of TaBADH-A1 gene were identified. We divided the 7 haplotypes with a 254 bp insertion or deletion (indel) into two main alleles, BADH-A1a and BADH-A1b . Meanwhile, a molecular marker was developed based on the 254 bp indel of the third intron of TaBADH-A1 gene. Expression levels of BADH-A1b were found to be significantly higher than those of BADH-A1a under drought and salt stress conditions. Betaine accumulation was significantly higher in wheat containing BADH-A1b compared to BADH-A1a under drought and salt stress. We also identified that the average relative germination and survival rates of wheat with the BADH-A1b allele were significantly higher than wheat with the BADH-A1a allele. The results reveal that wheat containing BADH-A1b has stronger drought and salt tolerance than wheat with BADH-A1a . Meanwhile, the geographic distribution and frequency of the TaBADH-A1 locus alleles indicate that BADH-A1a has been preferred in Chinese wheat breeding programs, while BADH-A1b , associated with favorable stress tolerance, has been neglected. The results of this study provide evidence for an excellent candidate allele for marker-assisted selection of new wheat cultivars with increased salt tolerance and drought resistance., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Yu, Yu, Guo, Zhang, Li, Zhang, Zhou, Wei, Song, Cheng, Fan, Shi, Feng, Wang, Xiang and Zhang.)

As an important coarse inorganic fraction of soil, gravel may regulate the effects of the interaction between above- and belowground communities and affect the relationship between microorganisms and plants in alpine ecosystems. However, comparatively little is known about the effects of gravel on the acquisition pattern of nitrogen (N) by microorganisms and plants in alpine ecosystems. In this study, a 15 N-labelling experiment was conducted to investigate the acquisition pattern of organic ( 15 N-glycine) and inorganic N ( 15 N-NO 3 - and 15 N-NH 4 + ) by microorganisms and plants under three particle sizes of gravel mulch (fine: 2-10 mm, medium: 10-20 mm, coarse: 20-40 mm) on a semiarid Tibetan grassland. Gravel mulch significantly improved the 15 N recovery of Stipa purpurea, but had no significant impacts on A. nanschanica. Therefore, gravel mulch decreased the ratio of microbial biomass 15 N recovery to plant biomass 15 N recovery for S. purpurea, but caused little effect on the state of N competition between plants and soil microbes for A. nanschanica. The N absorption preference of plants from both species shifted from an individual preference for 15 N-NO 3 - in the natural (i.e., control) microplots to a common preference for 15 N-NO 3 - and 15 N-NH 4 + in the fine- and medium-sized gravel mulch microplots, while there were no significant differences in microbial N recovery between 15 N-NO 3 - and 15 N-NH 4 + across all treatments. The results helped to improve the understanding of the acquisition pattern of N by microorganisms and plants under the influence of gravel mulch in alpine ecosystems, and provide theoretical support for revegetation in alpine ecosystems in the future., 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 B.V. All rights reserved.)

A predominant objective in wheat breeding is improving yield-related traits. The homeodomain-leucine zipper (HD-Zip) transcription factor plays a significant role in plant growth and development. In this study, we cloned all homeologs of TaHDZ34 , which is a member of the HD-Zip class IV transcription factor family in wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.). Sequence polymorphism analysis showed that TaHDZ-A34 , TaHDZ-B34 , and TaHDZ-D34 formed five, six, and six haplotypes, respectively, and the genes were divided into two main haplotype groups. We also developed functional molecular markers. The TaHDZ34 genes were divided into eight main haplotype combinations. Association analysis and distinct population validation preliminarily indicated that TaHDZ34 genes modulate grain number per spike, effective spikelet number per spike, thousand kernel weight, and flag leaf area per plant in wheat. Hap-ABD was the most effective haplotype combination of TaHDZ34 . Subcellular localization showed that TaHDZ-A34 was localized to the nucleus. The interacting proteins of TaHDZ-A34 were involved in protein synthesis/degradation, energy production and transportation, and photosynthesis. Geographic distribution and frequencies of TaHDZ34 haplotype combinations suggested that Hap-Abd and Hap-AbD were preferentially selected in Chinese wheat breeding programs. The high-yield-related haplotype combination Hap-ABD provided beneficial genetic resources for the marker-assisted selection of new wheat cultivars., Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11032-022-01298-5., Competing Interests: Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing interests., (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2022.)

Human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 (HER2)-targeted therapy can significantly improve the outcome of patients with HER2 positive cancer. However, relapse after this treatment remains a great challenge in the clinic due to tumor resistance, in which the HER network induces constitutive signal transduction. In addition, integrin receptors in the tumor extracellular matrix can mitigate the therapeutic effect of inhibitors to the growth factors receptors and tyrosine kinases. Here, the development of a recombinant protein (RP-HI) and its drug conjugates (RPDC-HI) to target both HER2 and integrin is reported. When simultaneously blocking HER2 and integrin by RP-HI, functions of the HER family and their interactions with the integrin are disrupted by downregulated expressions of HER family members, leading to inhibition of several downstream signal pathways. In combination with targeted delivery of the anticancer agent, doxorubicin (DOX), RPDC-HI significantly improves the tumor inhibition efficacy to 97.5% in treating HER2-positive breast cancer, comparing to 34.3% for free DOX. RPDC-HI shows even better antitumor efficiency than a monoclonal antibody, trastuzumab, when treating larger tumors. The developed dual-targeted RPDC platform offers a new and promising strategy for treating HER2-positive patients with synergistic therapeutic effects against tumor resistance to the conventional HER2-targeted treatment., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

A small molecular probe (Ir-fliq) and a macromolecular optical probe (Ir-fliq-PVP) based on an iridium complex are designed for hypoxia imaging and antibacterial chemotherapy in this work. The existence of both isoquinoline and fluorene moieties in the probe structure extends the phosphorescence emission to the red-wavelength region. The rigid large conjugated structure of the ligand can also reduce the packing caused by intermolecular interactions and suppress the self-quenching, thus improving the phosphorescence efficiency. The hydrophilic Ir-fliq-PVP has a good ability to generate singlet oxygen and can be used for photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy (PACT). Moreover, the small molecular probe Ir-fliq is further cross-linked with carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS) and sodium alginate (SA) to form a CSGI hydrogel. The biocompatibility, mechanical properties, antibacterial properties and hypoxic imaging ability of the CSGI hydrogel have been evaluated in chronic wound models of diabetic mice. It shows that the CSGI hydrogel can effectively inhibit the growth of bacteria in wounds through PACT under light irradiation, promote the healing of chronic wounds in diabetic mice, and record the hypoxia process of mouse wounds.

To clarify the detailed behaviors of protein, starch and interactions during complex dough processing, structural changes in dough protein and starch during continuous Mixolab processing were investigated using wheat near-isogenic lines carrying high-molecular-weight glutenin subunits 1Dx5 + 1Dy10 (5 + 10) or 1Dx2 + 1Dy12 (2 + 12) at the Glu-D1 locus. A more stable gluten network including disulfide bonds and hydrophobic interactions, was formed in the 5 + 10 dough before dough weakening at 53.5 °C, than in the 2 + 12 dough. Thereafter, thermo-mechanical treatment induced the depolymerization of gluten until starch gelatinization peak at 74.6 °C; however, from the peak to trough viscosity at 82.8 °C, additional monomeric proteins were incorporated into the repolymerized proteins characterized by increased disulfide bonds, hydrogen bonds, and β-sheets. Generally, the protein aggregates of 5 + 10 showed a higher degree of polymerization and better stability than those of 2 + 12 during dough processing, which significantly slowed starch gelatinization and recyclization. Moreover, stronger interactions between monomeric proteins and amylose/short-branch starch via glycosidic and hydrogen bonds were found in 5 + 10 dough during starch pasting and retrogradation. The findings demonstrate the feasibility of optimizing the texture and digestibility of wheat-based food products by regulating the behaviors and interactions of proteins and starch during dough processing., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Aquatic vegetation in lakes along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River has been seriously degraded by human disturbances such as river-lake disconnection and water eutrophication. Chaohu Lake is a typical lake with reservoir-like water-level fluctuations (WLFs). Since a sluice was built in 1962, the coverage of aquatic vegetation in Chaohu Lake has been very low (0.77%). In this study, field investigations of the aquatic vegetation and seed bank of Chaohu Lake were conducted, and aboveground vegetation diversity was found to be low. Forty-eight species were recorded, of which submerged, floating-leaved, and emergent macrophytes were 1, 5, and 10, respectively. Currently, artificially planted Phragmites australis and Salix communities have become the main community types. A total of 18 aquatic macrophytes were identified in the seed bank, of which the number of submerged, floating-leaved, and emergent macrophytes and hygrophytes were 2, 2, 3, and 11, respectively; the seed density was 2.05, 2.05, 16.93, and 9.30 ind./m 2 , respectively. The seed density of aquatic macrophytes was much lower in Chaohu Lake than in the lakes with quasi-natural WLFs, and the seeds were mainly distributed in the estuary area. Only two emergent macrophyte species (Typha) germinated in the open water area. Spearman correlation analysis showed that the distance to bank was the main environmental factor that affected aquatic macrophyte diversity and seed density in the seed bank. It is not feasible to promote the natural reconstruction and restoration of aquatic macrophytes in Chaohu Lake by decreasing the water level or increasing water transparency, but the area near the estuary can be identified as a priority restoration area (PRA) for aquatic macrophytes. Artificial transformation of the micro-topography can be used to guide some hydrochorous seeds in the tributaries to the PRA and restore aquatic vegetation in the local area., 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 © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

AP2/ERF (APETALA2/ethylene responsive factor) is a family of plant-specific transcription factors whose members are widely involved in many biological processes, such as growth, development, and biotic and abiotic stress responses. Here, 20 AP2/ERF genes were identified based on wheat RNA-seq data before and after drought stress, and classified as AP2, ERF, DREB, and RAV. The analysis of gene structure revealed that about 85% of AP2/ERF family members had lost introns, which are presumed to have been lost during the formation and evolution of the wheat genome. The expression of 20 AP2/ERF family genes could be verified by qRT-PCR, which further supported the validity of the RNA-seq data. Subsequently, subcellular localization and transcriptional activity experiments showed that the ERF proteins were mainly located in the nucleus and were self-activating, which further supports their functions as transcription factors. Furthermore, we isolated a novel ERF gene induced by drought, salt, and cold stresses and named it TaERF-6-3A . TaERF-6-3A overexpression increased sensitivity to drought and salt stresses in Arabidopsis , which was supported by physiological and biochemical indices. Moreover, the expression of stress- and antioxidant-related genes was downregulated in TaERF-6-3A -overexpressing plants. Overall, these results contribute to the further understanding of the TaERF-6-3A gene function in wheat.

Voltage-dependent anion channels (VDACs) are major transport proteins localized in the outer membrane of mitochondria and play critical roles in regulating plant growth and responding to stress. In this study, a total of 26 VDAC genes in common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) were identified. TaVDACs that contained β-barrel structures were classified into three groups with phylogenetic and sequence alignment. Additionally, the gene structure and protein conserved motif composition varied among diverse subfamilies but were relatively conserved within the same subfamily. The basic elements that were stress- and hormone-related, including TATA-box, CAAT-box, MBS, LTR, TC-rich repeats, ABRE, P-box and TATC-box, were predicted within the promoter region of TaVDAC genes. TaVDAC expression patterns differed among tissues, organs and abiotic stress conditions. Overexpression (OE) of TaVDAC1-B conferred high tolerance to salinity and less resistance to drought stress in Arabidopsis thaliana. TaVDAC1-B interacted with Nucleoredoxin-D1 (TaNRX-D1) protein. Furthermore, compared with WT lines, salinity stress further upregulated the level of AtNRX1 (homologous gene of TaNRX-D1 in Arabidopsis) expression and the activity of superoxide dismutase in TaVDAC1-B OE lines, which led to a decrease in superoxide radical accumulation; drought stress further downregulated AtNRX1 expression and superoxide dismutase activity in TaVDAC1-B OE lines, resulting in the accumulation of superoxide radicals. Our study not only presents comprehensive information for understanding the VDAC gene family in wheat but also proposes a potential mechanism in response to drought and salinity stress., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Compared with the impressive achievements of catalytic carbonyl-olefin metathesis (CCOM) mediated by Lewis acid catalysts, exploration of the CCOM through Brønsted acid-catalyzed approaches remains quite challenging. Herein, we disclose a synthetic protocol for the construction of a valuable polycycle scaffold through the CCOM with the inexpensive, nontoxic phosphomolybdic acid as a catalyst. The current annulations could realize carbonyl-olefin, carbonyl-alcohol, and acetal-alcohol in situ CCOM reactions and feature mild reaction conditions, simple manipulation, and scalability, making this strategy a promising alternative to the Lewis acid-catalyzed COM reaction.

Fat accumulation in the liver cells can increase the risk of cardiac complications and cardiovascular disease mortality. Therefore, a way to quickly and accurately detect hepatic steatosis is critically important. However, current methods, e.g., liver biopsy, magnetic resonance imaging, and computerized tomography scan, are subject to high cost and/or medical complications. In this paper, we propose a deep neural network to estimate the degree of hepatic steatosis (low, mid, high) using only body shapes. The proposed network adopts dilated residual network blocks to extract refined features of input body shape maps by expanding the receptive field. Furthermore, to classify the degree of steatosis more accurately, we create a hybrid of the center loss and cross entropy loss to compact intra-class variations and separate inter-class differences. We performed extensive tests on the public medical dataset with various network parameters. Our experimental results show that the proposed network achieves a total accuracy of over 82% and offers an accurate and accessible assessment for hepatic steatosis., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Suicide events may have a negative impact on all of society. The media plays a significant role in suicide prevention. Therefore, the aims of this study are (a) to understand the association between characteristics of suicide events and characteristics of who committed suicide, and event impact indexes (EIIs) of suicide reported on the internet; (b) to analyze violation of recommendations for reporting suicide by Weibo, and (c) to investigate the effect of online reports of suicide on public opinion. We carried out a content analysis of online reports of suicide. This study analyzed 113 suicide events, 300 news reports of suicide, and 2,654 Weibo comments about suicide collected from the WeiboReach between 2015 and 2020. We used a t -test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) to explore the potential factors associated with the EIIs of suicide events. The results found that (a) The suicide events reported on the internet during COVID-19 and those related to celebrities and students tend to have higher EIIs; (b) suicide reports on Weibo frequently violated WHO recommendations for suicide reporting in the media; and (c) public opinion of suicide reporting in the online media was mostly emotional and irrational, which is not beneficial for public mental health and suicide prevention. In conclusion, first, the situation of many people working from home or studying from home and spreading more time online during COVID-19 may lead to suicide events obtain more public attention. Online media could further improve public responsible reporting and daily media-content surveillance, especially taking particular care in those suicide events during COVID-19, and related to celebrities and students, which may have a higher event impact on the internet. Second, health managers should regular assessment of observance of the WHO recommendations for suicide reporting by online social media to prevent suicide. Third, health communication managers should use big data to identify, assess, and manage harmful information about suicide; and track anyone affected by suicide-related reports on social media to reduce the negative impact of public opinion to intervene suicide in the early stage of suicide., Competing Interests: QM was employed by Zhiwei Research Institute. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Chu, Li, Lin, Cai, Li, Chen, Zhang, Man, Lee and Chiang.)

Two new 19-hydroxy bufadienolides, named bufohydrolide A ( 1 ) and bufohydrolide B ( 2 ), and four known analogs ( 3-6 ) were isolated from the aqueous extracts of the skins of Bufo melanosticus . Their structures were established by spectral data analyses, such as UV, IR, 1 D/2D NMR and mass spectra. Compounds 1-6 were evaluated for their cytotoxic activity against SMMC-7721, HT-29 and A549 cells. Noteworthily, all six isolates exhibited various levels of anti-proliferative activities with IC 50 values ranging from 0.02 ± 0.0002 to 25 ± 0.5 μM.

Flowering time is one of the most important agronomic traits in wheat production. A proper flowering time might contribute to the reduction or avoidance of biotic and abiotic stresses, adjust plant architecture, and affect the yield and quality of grain. In this study, TaTOE1-B1 in wheat produced three transcripts ( TaTOE1-B1-1 , TaTOE1-B1-2 , and TaTOE1-B1-3 ) by alternative splicing. Compared to the longest transcript, TaTOE1-B1-1 , TaTOE1-B1-3 has a deletion in the sixth exon (1219-1264 bp). Under long-day conditions, the heterologous overexpression of the TaTOE1-B1-3 gene delayed flowering, prolonged the vegetative growth time, and enlarged the vegetative body of Arabidopsis , but that of TaTOE1-B1-1 did not. As typical AP2 family members, TaTOE1-B1-1 and TaTOE1-B1-3 are mainly located in the nucleus and have transcriptional activation activities; the transcriptional activation region of TaTOE1-B1-3 is located in the C-terminal. In TaTOE1-B1-3 overexpression lines, the expression of flowering-related AtFT and AtSOC1 genes is significantly downregulated. In addition, this study confirms the protein-protein interaction between TaTOE1-B1-3 and TaPIFI, which may play an important role in flowering inhibition. These results provide a theoretical basis for the precise regulation of wheat flowering time.

Drought is the main abiotic stress factor limiting the growth and yield of wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.). Therefore, improving wheat tolerance to drought stress is essential for maintaining yield. Previous studies have reported on the important role of TaNRX1 in conferring drought stress tolerance. Therefore, to elucidate the regulation mechanism by which TaNRX1 confers drought resistance in wheat, we generated TaNRX1 overexpression (OE) and RNA interference (RNAi) wheat lines. The results showed that the tolerance of the OE lines to drought stress were significantly enhanced. The survival rate, leaf chlorophyll, proline, soluble sugar content, and activities of the antioxidant enzymes (catalase, superoxide dismutase, and peroxidase) of the OE lines were higher than those of the wild type (WT); however, the relative electrical conductivity and malondialdehyde, hydrogen peroxide, and superoxide anion levels of the OE lines were lower than those of the WT; the RNAi lines showed the opposite results. RNA-seq results showed that the common differentially expressed genes of TaNRX1 OE and RNAi lines, before and after drought stress, were mainly distributed in the plant-pathogen interaction, plant hormone signal transduction, phenylpropane biosynthesis, starch and sucrose metabolism, and carbon metabolism pathways and were related to the transcription factors, including WRKY, MYB, and bHLH families. This study suggests that TaNRX1 positively regulates drought stress tolerance in wheat., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Zhang, Zhou, Wei, Song, Yu, Yu, Fan, Yang, Xue and Zhang.)

Automated medical skill assessment facilitates medical education by merging varying clinical experiences across instructors for standardizing medical training. However, medical datasets for training such automated assessment rarely have satisfactory sizes due to the cost of data collection, safety concerns and privacy restrictions. Current medical training relies on evaluation rubrics that usually include multiple auxiliary labels to support the overall evaluation from varying aspects of the procedure. In this paper, we explore machine learning algorithms to design a generalizable auxiliary task-based framework for medical skill assessment to address training automated systems with limited data. Our framework exhaustively mines valid auxiliary information in the evaluation rubric to pre-train the feature extractor before training the skill assessment classifier. Notably, a new regression-based multitask weighting method is the key to pre-train a meaningful feature representation comprehensively, ensuring the evaluation rubric is well imitated in the final model. The overall evaluation task can be fine-tuned based on the pre-trained rubric-based feature representation. Our experimental results on two medical skill datasets show that our work can significantly improve performance, achieving 85.9% and 97.4% accuracy in the intubation dataset and surgical skill dataset, respectively.