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The activity of Hippo signaling is commonly dysregulated in various human malignancies, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). YAP, the key effector of Hippo pathway, is regulated through several posttranslational modifications. However, the mechanism by which YAP is regulated by arginine methylation remains unknown. In this study, immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry were used to identify the arginine methylation site of YAP in HCC cells. The transcriptional activity of YAP and TEAD were further characterized by real-time qPCR and immunofluorescence assay, and a subcutaneous and orthotopic tumor mouse model was used to assess the effect of PRMT1-knockdown on HCC tumor growth. The result of mass spectrometry analysis identified that YAP was methylated at arginine 124. Moreover, we found that arginine methyltransferase PRMT1 interacted with YAP to mediate its arginine methylation, thus inhibited YAP phosphorylation and promoted YAP activity in the nucleus. PRMT1 was up-regulated in HCC tissues and positively associated with the expressions of YAP target genes. Silencing PRMT1 in HCC cells inhibited cell proliferation and tumor growth, while PRMT1-overexpression promoted HCC growth through YAP methylation. Our study reveals that PRMT1-mediated arginine methylation at R124 is mutually exclusive with YAP S127 phosphorylation, thereby facilitating YAP activity in the nucleus and promoting tumorigenesis in HCC., (© 2024 The Author(s). FEBS Open Bio published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Federation of European Biochemical Societies.)

Efficient removal and recovery of phosphorus from aquaculture tailwater is challenging due to increasing strict water environment restrictions. This study presents a sustainable approach by using microalgae-waste-derived hydrogels/membranes for phosphorus adsorption and microalgae cultivation. Waste from Euglena gracilis (or Haematococcus pluvialis), modified with magnesium, was converted into biochars (abbreviated as MEBC or MHBC). This biochars were then combined with sodium alginate to fabricate hydrogels and with polyvinyl chloride to create membranes. Due to the almost 100 % phosphorus removal of MEBC (or MHBC) biochar, the as-obtained hydrogels/membranes demonstrated excellent phosphate adsorption, reducing total phosphorus in real aquaculture tailwater from 11 mg/L to 0. Additionally, the phosphorus-saturated hydrogel served as a phosphorus source for microalgae cultivation, while the membranes facilitated microalgae harvesting with a water flux over 40 L/m 2 /h. This study provides an eco-friendly solution for using microalgae-waste-derived materials to effectively address phosphorus removal and recovery challenges in aquaculture tailwater., 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. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Tn3 family transposons are a widespread group of replicative transposons, notorious for contributing to the dissemination of antibiotic resistance, particularly the global prevalence of carbapenem resistance. The transposase (TnpA) of these elements catalyzes DNA breakage and rejoining reactions required for transposition. However, the molecular mechanism for target site selection with these elements remains unclear. Here, we identify a QLxxLR motif in N-terminal of Tn3 TnpAs and demonstrate that this motif allows interaction between TnpA of Tn3 family transposon Tn1721 and the host β-sliding clamp (DnaN), the major processivity factor of the DNA replication machinery. The TnpA-DnaN interaction is essential for Tn1721 transposition. Our work unveils a mechanism whereby Tn3 family transposons can bias transposition into certain replisomes through an interaction with the host replication machinery. This study further expands the diversity of mobile elements that use interaction with the host replication machinery to bias integration., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.)

Automatic parsing of human anatomies at the instance-level from 3D computed tomography (CT) is a prerequisite step for many clinical applications. The presence of pathologies, broken structures or limited field-of-view (FOV) can all make anatomy parsing algorithms vulnerable. In this work, we explore how to leverage and implement the successful detection-then-segmentation paradigm for 3D medical data, and propose a steerable, robust, and efficient computing framework for detection, identification, and segmentation of anatomies in CT scans. Considering the complicated shapes, sizes, and orientations of anatomies, without loss of generality, we present a nine degrees of freedom (9-DoF) pose estimation solution in full 3D space using a novel single-stage, non-hierarchical representation. Our whole framework is executed in a steerable manner where any anatomy of interest can be directly retrieved to further boost inference efficiency. We have validated our method on three medical imaging parsing tasks: ribs, spine, and abdominal organs. For rib parsing, CT scans have been annotated at the rib instance-level for quantitative evaluation, similarly for spine vertebrae and abdominal organs. Extensive experiments on 9-DoF box detection and rib instance segmentation demonstrate the high efficiency and effectiveness of our framework (with the identification rate of 97.0% and the segmentation Dice score of 90.9%), compared favorably against several strong baselines (e.g., CenterNet, FCOS, and nnU-Net). For spine parsing and abdominal multi-organ segmentation, our method achieves competitive results on par with stateof-the-art methods on the public CTSpine1K dataset and FLARE22 competition, respectively. Our annotations, code, and models are available at: Med-Query.

To recycle aluminum (Al) from waterworks sludge resulting from polyaluminum chloride (PAC) used as coagulants, this study proposed an innovative strong acidic cation (SAC) exchange resin treatment strategy for Al separation from coexisting fulvic acid (FA) and heavy metals (HMs) in the H 2 SO 4 leachate of PAC sludge. Fluorescence titration confirmed the breakdown of the Al-FA complex at pH 2.0, which facilitated Al separation from FA in the acidic leachate. The species distribution of the dissociated Al (i.e. Al a , Al b , and Al c ) significantly influenced the adsorption of Al onto the cation exchange resin. The continuous release of H + during the cation exchange reaction greatly promoted the transformation of dissociated Al c and Al b into Al a , thereby improving the adsorption of total Al. Moreover, the SAC resin column successfully separated the codissolved HMs from the Al in the leachate even at an influent pH of 2.8, which was attributed to the greater selectivity of the sulfonate groups on the cation exchange resin for free Al 3+ . The Al eluted from the exhausted resin with 1.1 M H 2 SO 4 was collected as the recycled coagulant after proper pH adjustment. The Al adsorption capacity of the SAC resin decreased by approximately 5 % with each operation cycle and was regained by complete regeneration with 1.8 M H 2 SO 4 after 5 cycles. Overall, the integrated efficiency of Al recovery from PAC sludge by H 2 SO 4 acidification and SAC resin separation/purification reached 70.10 %. The recycled Al from sludge has a water treatment performance comparable to that of fresh PAC coagulant., 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.)

There is a growing interest in using extracellular vesicles (EVs) for therapeutic applications. EVs are composed of cytoplasmic proteins and nucleic acids and an external lipid bilayer containing transmembrane proteins on their surfaces. EVs can alter the state of the target cells by interacting with the receptor ligand of the target cell or by being internalised by the target cell. Blood cells are the primary source of EVs, and 1 μL of plasma contains approximately 1.5 × 10 7  EVs. Owing to their easy acquisition and the avoidance of cell amplification in vitro, using blood cells as a source of therapeutic EVs has promising clinical application prospects. This review summarises the characteristics and biological functions of EVs derived from different blood cell types (platelets, erythrocytes, and leukocytes) and analyses the prospects and challenges of using them for clinical therapeutic applications. In summary, blood cell-derived EVs can regulate different cell types such as immune cells (macrophages, T cells, and dendritic cells), stem cells, and somatic cells, and play a role in intercellular communication, immune regulation, and cell proliferation. Overall, blood cell-derived EVs have the potential for use in vascular diseases, inflammatory diseases, degenerative diseases, and injuries. To promote the clinical translation of blood cell-derived EVs, researchers need to perform further studies on EVs in terms of scalable and reproducible isolation technology, quality control, safety, stability and storage, regulatory issues, cost-effectiveness, and long-term efficacy., 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. The Graphical Abstract, Figures 6, 9 and 11 were created with biorender.com., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Introduction: symptom clusters (SCs) are highly prevalent among patients diagnosed with primary liver cancer. Malnutrition poses a heightened risk for a more pronounced total symptom cluster score. Objective: this study aimed to identify SCs and assess the nutritional status of patients undergoing transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE). Furthermore, it aimed to investigate the association between nutritional status and symptom clusters. Methods: primary liver cancer patients who were scheduled to receive TACE were recruited. Symptoms data were collected using the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory (MDASI-C) and the Symptom Module specific to Primary Cancer (TSM-PLC). Nutritional assessment relied on the Nutritional Risk Screening-2002 (NRS-2002) and blood biochemistry. The SCs were extracted using exploratory factor analysis, while the relationship between SCs and nutritional status was evaluated using Spearman correlation analysis. Results: the study included 226 patients, four distinct symptom clusters emerged: emotional-psychological symptom cluster, upper gastrointestinal symptom cluster, post-embolization-related symptom cluster, and liver function impairment symptom cluster. 68.14 % of patients were found to be at high risk of malnutrition. Our study revealed significant differences in Scs scores between patients at risk of malnutrition and those without such risk (p < 0.050). Notably, we observed a positive correlation between NRS-2002 scores and the scores of all symptom clusters (r = 0.205 to 0.419, p < 0.001), while a negative correlation was observed between prealbumin levels and the scores of all symptom clusters (r = -0.183 to -0.454, p < 0.001). Conclusion: the study highlights the high risk of malnutrition among liver cancer patients receiving TACE and the positive correlation between high malnutrition risk and Scs scores.

Mixed culture of microorganisms is an effective method to remove high concentration of phenol in wastewater. At present, it is still a challenge for microorganisms to remove high-concentration phenol from wastewater. In this study, a phenol-degrading consortium was isolated, which could rapidly degrade 1800 mg/L phenol within 30 h, and the highest phenol degradation concentration was 2000 mg/L. Further exploration of how microbial consortium cooperates to promote phenol biodegradation was studied: the core bacteria of the microbial consortium was relatively stable during phenol degradation; the bacteria could improve the adaptability to environment and metabolic ability of phenol, by producing more surfactants and betaine, thereby improving the degradation rate. The determination coefficient (R 2 ) in the machine learning model showed that the back propagation artificial neural network (BP-ANN) can predict the biodegradation of phenol under different conditions, saving time and economic costs. This study explains how microbial consortium cooperates to degrade phenol from the aspects of microbial consortium composition and metabolic analysis, which provides a theoretical basis for mixed culture microorganisms to degrade pollutants., 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.)

Metal halide perovskites have attracted significant attention for high-performance and cost-effective photodetector (PD) arrays in recent years. Traditional perovskite photodetector arrays typically rely on planar structure and photolithography, which limit resolution and involve complex, costly processes. To address these challenges, an innovative, lithography-free fabrication strategy is proposed utilizing direct laser writing ablation and a surface energy-assisted selective growth process. A 10 × 10 self-powered perovskite photodetector array is demonstrated with a vertical cross-bar structure fabricated on a laser-ablated textured Indium-Tin Oxide (ITO) substrate which improves the device performance. The device exhibits a fast photoresponse and effective imaging capability. Moreover, the intrinsic physical disorder and randomness of perovskite provide highly secure entropy sources, making the photodetector array suitable for physical unclonable function (PUF) devices. This method offers a promising opportunity for simplifying the fabrication process, enhancing manufacturability, and advancing the application of perovskite PD arrays in secure imaging systems., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Background: Investigating ear at molecule level is challenging task, since there is a lack of molecular detection by traditional diagnosis techniques such as otologic endoscopy, ear swab culture, and imaging diagnostic technique. Therefore, new development of noninvasive, highly sensitive, and convenient analytical method for investigating human ears is highly needed., Results: We developed a wearable sampling device for extracting trace analytes in ear by fixing solid-phase microextraction fibers into modified earmuffs (SPME-in-earmuffs). After sampling, SPME fiber was coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) for identification and quantification of extracted analytes. Enhanced detection of various analytes such as volatile metabolites, exposures, and therapeutic drugs of ears were demonstrated in this work. Particularly, sport-induced metabolic changes such as fatty acids, aldehyde compounds and oxidative produces were found from human ears using this method. Acceptable analytical performances were obtained by using this newly developed method for detecting ear medicines, e.g., low limit of detection (LOD, 0.005-0.021 ng/mL) and limit of quantification (LOQ, 0.018-0.071 ng/mL), excellent linear dynamic responses (R 2  > 0.99, ranging from 0.050-8.00 ng/mL), good relative standard deviations (RSDs, 13.19 % ∼ 21.40 %, n = 6) and accuracy (84.43-150.18 %, n = 6) at different concentrations., Significance: For the first time, this work provides a simple, convenient, and wearable microextraction method for enhanced detection of trace volatiles in human ears. The enclosed space between ear and earmuff allows headspace SPME sampling of volatile analytes, and thus provides a new wearable method for monitoring ear metabolites and human exposures, showing potential applications in human health, disease diagnosis, and sport science., 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.)

Despite the widespread utilizable value of 3-oxazolines, mild and efficient access to such a class of unique structures still remains, to date, a challenge. Herein, we present a [3 + 2] annulation strategy, guided by the retrosynthetic principle of [CO + CCN], that utilizes vinyl azides as the CCN module and aldehydes as the CO module. This approach enables the efficient construction of the 3-oxazoline framework with remarkable features, including operational simplicity, environmental friendliness, and high efficiency. Notably, it solely requires the addition of inexpensive and readily available N -hydroxyphthalimide (NHPI) and air oxygen to obtain the desired product. It also provides a new way to generate the hydroxyl radical, which is produced by the homolysis of peroxycarboxylic acid. In addition, control experiments, X-ray crystallographic analysis, high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), and density functional theory (DFT) calculations afford evidence for the key intermediates (hydroxyl radical, carboxyl radical, imine radical, hydroxyl substituted amide derivatives), further confirming the path for realization of 3-oxazolines.

Acting as a central hub in regulating brain functions, the thalamus plays a pivotal role in controlling high-order brain functions. Considering the impact of preterm birth on infant brain development, traditional studies focused on the overall development of thalamus other than its subregions. In this study, we compared the volumetric growth and shape development of the thalamic hemispheres between the infants born preterm and full-term (Left volume: P = 0.027, Left normalized volume: P < 0.0001; Right volume: P = 0.070, Right normalized volume: P < 0.0001). The ventral nucleus region, dorsomedial nucleus region, and posterior nucleus region of the thalamus exhibit higher vulnerability to alterations induced by preterm birth. The structural covariance (SC) between the thickness of thalamus and insula in preterm infants (Left: corrected P = 0.0091, Right: corrected P = 0.0119) showed significant increase as compared to full-term controls. Current findings suggest that preterm birth affects the development of the thalamus and has differential effects on its subregions. The ventral nucleus region, dorsomedial nucleus region, and posterior nucleus region of the thalamus are more susceptible to the impacts of preterm birth., 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 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: We review the prevalence of allergic diseases in children across prenatal exposures to heavy metals., Methods: This systematic review and meta-analysis is registered in the PROSPERO database (CRD42023478471). A comprehensive search of PubMed, Web of Science, Medline and Cochrane library was conducted from the database inception until 31 October 2023. The Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale (NOS) was used to assess the quality of included studies. We used a random-effects model to summarize the effects from the studies., Results: A total of 16 studies were included, 120,065 mother-child pairs enrolled. The NOS scores indicated that the quality of the literature included in the study was of a high standard., Conclusion: The final results indicate that prenatal exposure to Pb increased the incidence of wheeze and Eczema in infants, and exposure to Ni and CD increased the incidence of AD in infants.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) is responsible for causing fatal watery diarrhea in piglets, resulting in significant economic losses within the pig farming industry. Although vaccination is currently employed as a preventive measure, certain vaccines do not provide complete protection against PEDV field strains. Probiotics present a promising alternative due to their ability to regulate intestinal flora, enhance host immunity, and improve resistance against pathogenic microorganisms. We isolated six lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from the fecal microorganisms of Bama pigs, compared to Limosilactobacillus mucosae DSM13345 of the same genus in which Limosilactobacillus mucosae G01 ( L. mucosae G01) proved to have a potent anti-PEDV effect. In a comprehensive manner, L. mucosae G01 significantly augmented the phosphorylation of IRF3 in IPEC-J2 cells, resulting in the induction of interferons (IFN α, IFN β, IFN λ1, and IFN λ3) and subsequent upregulation of interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs) ( MX1 , MX2 , OAS1 , and ZAP ) in a dose-dependent fashion, consequently leading to the mitigation of PEDV replication. These findings underscore the promising prospects of L. mucosae G01 as a naturally derived substitute for combating PEDV and other enteric coronavirus infections., 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 © 2024 Zhang, Shen, Gou, Wuri, Zhang, Liu, He, Nie, Qu, Geri and Zhang.)

Cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury (CIRI) involves various pathogenic mechanisms, including cytotoxicity, apoptosis, inflammation, and pyroptosis. Stromal interactive molecule 2 (STIM2) is implicated in cerebral ischemia. Consequently, this study investigates the biological functions of STIM2 and its related mechanisms in CIRI progression. Middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion (MCAO/R) mouse models and oxygen-glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) cellular models were established. STIM2 level was upregulated in experimental CIRI models, as shown by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), western blotting and immunofluorescence staining. Brain infarction and edema were attenuated by STIM2 knockdown, as 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining and brain water content evaluation revealed. STIM2 knockdown relieved neuronal apoptosis, microglia activation, inflammation and pyroptosis in MCAO/R mice, as detected by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) staining, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and western blotting. Results of flow cytometry, ELISA, western blotting and cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assays also showed that STIM2 knockdown inhibited inflammation, apoptosis and pyroptosis in OGD/R-treated BV2 cells. Moreover, STIM2 knockdown inhibited apoptosis and pyroptosis in PC12 cells incubated with conditioned medium collected from OGD/R-exposed BV2 cells. Mechanistically, lncRNA Malat1 (metastasis associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1) positively regulated STIM2 expression by sponging miR-30d-5p. Their binding relationship was confirmed by luciferase reporter assays. Finally, lncRNA Malat1 elevation or miR-30d-5p knockdown abolished the sh-STIM2-induced inhibition in cell damage. In conclusion, STIM2 knockdown in microglia alleviates CIRI by inhibiting microglial activation, inflammation, apoptosis, and pyroptosis., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Introduction: Vitiligo is a common depigmenting skin disorder. This work is performed to systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of fire needles combined with 308 nm excimer laser therapy in treating vitiligo., Methods: We searched the PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CNKI, Wanfang, and VIP databases. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on fire needles combined with 308 nm excimer laser therapy with 308 nm excimer laser therapy alone for vitiligo were included. The Cochrane Collaborative Network Tool was used to assess the risk of bias. Statistical analysis was completed using RevMan5.3 software and Stata 15.0 software. The GRADE system was used to evaluate the quality of evidence for outcomes., Results: In this study, 10 RCTs and 1333 patients were included. The results showed that compared with 308 nm excimer laser therapy alone, fire needle combined with 308 nm excimer laser therapy is more effective in improving clinical effective rate (RR = 1.36, 95% CI [1.24, 1.50], p < 0.00001), serum CD4+ level (MD = 3.12, 95% CI [2.50, 3.74], p < 0.00001), CD4+/CD8+ ratio (MD = 0.24, 95% CI [0.09, 0.39], p = 0.001), and quality of life measured by the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) (MD = 3.76, 95% CI [3.33, 4.19], p < 0.00001), and reducing the Vitiligo Area Score Index (VASI) (MD = -5.47, 95% CI [-6.56, -4.37], p < 0.00001). The reported adverse events, including redness, swelling, pain, blisters, and itching, were controllable, and all these events were well tolerated., Conclusion: The current evidence indicates that fire needle combined with 308 nm excimer laser therapy is effective and safe for vitiligo. However, owing to the suboptimal quality of the included studies, more high-quality and large-scale RCTs are needed for comprehensive analysis and further validation., (© 2024 The Authors. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Root exudation and its mediated nutrient cycling process driven by nitrogen (N) fertilizer can stimulate the plant availability of various soil nutrients, which is essential for microbial nutrient acquisition. However, the response of soil microbial resource limitations to long-term N fertilizer application rates in greenhouse vegetable systems has rarely been investigated. Therefore, we selected a 15-year greenhouse vegetable system, and investigated how N fertilizer application amount impacts on root carbon and nitrogen exudation rates, microbial resource limitations and microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE ST ). Four N treatments were determined: high (N3), medium (N2), low (N1), and a control without N fertilization (N0). Compared to the control (N0), the results showed that the root C exudation rates decreased significantly by 42.9 %, 57.3 % and 33.6 %, and the root N exudation rates decreased significantly by 29.7 %, 42.6 %, and 24.1 % under N1, N2, and N3 treatments, respectively. Interactions between fertilizer and plant roots altered microbial C, N, P limitations and CUE ST ; Microbial C and N/P limitations were positively correlated with root C and N exudation rates, negatively correlated with microbial CUE ST . Random Forest analysis revealed that the root C and N exudation rates were key factors for soil microbial resource limitations and microbial CUE ST . Through the structural equation model (SEM) analysis, soil NH 4 + content had significant direct effects on the root exudation rates after long-term N fertilizer application. An increase in root exudation rates led to enhanced microbial resource limitations in the rhizosphere soils, potentially due to increased competition. This enhancement may reduce microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE), that is, microbial C turnover, thereby reducing soil C sequestration. Overall, this study highlights the critical role of root exudation rates in microbial resource limitations and CUE changes in plant-soil systems, and further improves our understanding of plant-microbial interactions., 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. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Renal fibrosis is a process in which excessive deposition of extracellular matrix leads to an increase in tissue hardness and gradual destruction of the renal parenchyma. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) commonly progresses to end-stage renal disease (ESRD), ultimately leading to renal failure. This disease has high incidence and mortality rates, but to date, effective treatment options are lacking. PEP-Z-2 is a collagen peptide isolated from redlip croaker scales and may have potential fibroprotective activity. In this study, PEP-Z-2 was found to alleviate unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO)- and folic acid (FA)-induced kidney injury in a mouse model, reduce collagen deposition in tissues, normalize renal function, reduce the expression of fibrosis markers, reduce reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and restore the balance of the oxidant/antioxidant system. In vitro experiments also demonstrated that PEP-Z-2 inhibits the TGF-β-induced differentiation of fibroblasts and renal tubular epithelial cells into myofibroblasts and reduces the production of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins such as fibronectin, Col I, and α-SMA, demonstrating notable therapeutic effects on renal fibrosis. This effect is achieved by regulating the TGF-β/Smad/AKT/MAPK pathway. Our research suggested that PEP-Z-2 is a potential therapeutic drug for renal fibrosis, and peptides from aquatic organisms may constitute a new class of candidate drugs for the treatment of renal fibrosis and even other types of organ fibrosis., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest All authors disclosed no relevant relationships., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The treatment efficiency of acidic phenol-containing wastewater is hindered by the absence of efficient acid-resistant phenol-degrading bacteria, and the acid-resistant mechanism of such bacteria remains poorly studied. In this study, the acid-resistant strain Hly3 was used as a research model to investigate its ability to degrade phenol and its underlying mechanism of acid resistance. Strain Hly3 exhibited robust acid resistance, capable of surviving in extremely acidic environments (pH 3) and degrading 1700 mg L -1 phenol in 72 h. Through the physiological response analysis of strain Hly3 to pH, the results indicated: firstly, the strain could reduce the relative permeability of the cell membrane and increase EPS secretion to prevent H + from entering the cell (shielding effect); secondly, the strain could accumulate more buffering substances to neutralize the intracellular H + (neutralization effect); thirdly, the strain could expel H + from the cell by enhancing H + -ATPase activity (pumping effect); finally, the strain produced more active scavengers to reduce the toxicity of acid stress on cells (antioxidant effect). Subsequently, combining liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) technology with exogenous addition experiments, it was verified that the acid resistance mechanism of microorganisms is achieved through the activation of acid-resistant response systems by glutamine, thereby enhancing functions such as shielding, neutralization, efflux, and antioxidation. This study elucidated the acid resistance mechanism of Acinetobacter pittii, providing a theoretical basis and guidance for the treatment of acidic phenol-containing wastewater., 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.)

Artificial regulation of plant rhizosphere microbial communities through the synthesis of microbial communities is one of the effective ways to improve plant stress resistance. However, the process of synthesizing stress resistant microbial communities with excellent performance is complex, time-consuming, and costly. To address this issue, we proposed a novel strategy for preparing functional microbial communities. We isolated a cultivable cold tolerant bacterial community (PRCBC) from the rhizosphere of peas, and studied its effectiveness in assisting rice to resist stress. The results indicate that PRCBC can not only improve the ability of rice to resist cold stress, but also promote the increase of rice yield after cold stress relieved. This is partly because PRCBC increases the nitrogen content in the rhizosphere soil, and promotes rice's absorption of nitrogen elements, thereby promoting rice growth and enhancing its ability to resist osmotic stress. More importantly, the application of PRCBC drives the succession of rice rhizosphere microbial communities, and promotes the succession of rice rhizosphere microbial communities towards stress resistance. Surprisingly, PRCBC drives the succession of rice rhizosphere microbial communities towards a composition similar to PRCBC. This provides a feasible novel method for artificially and directionally driving microbial succession. In summary, we not only proposed a novel and efficient strategy for preparing stress resistant microbial communities to promote plant stress resistance, but also unexpectedly discovered a possible directionally driving method for soil microbial community succession., 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.)

Drought is the primary factor limiting rice production in ecosystems. Wild rice rhizosphere bacteria possess the potential to assist in the stress resistance of cultivated rice. This study examines the impact of wild rice rhizosphere bacteria on cultivated rice under drought conditions. From the rhizosphere soil of wild rice, 20 potential drought-resistant strains were isolated. Subsequent to the screening, the most effective strain b3, was identified as Enterobacter ludwigii. Pot experiments were conducted on the cultivated Changbai 9 rice. It was found that inoculation with the E. ludwigii b3 strain improved the drought resistance of the rice, promotion of rice growth (shoot height increased by 13.47 %), increased chlorophyll content (chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and carotenoid increased by 168.74 %, 130.68 % and 87.89 %), improved antioxidant system (content of glutathione was increased by 60.35 %), and accumulation of osmotic regulation substances (soluble sugar and soluble protein increased by 70.36 % and 142.03 %). Furthermore, E. ludwigii b3 had a transformative effect on the rhizosphere bacterial community of cultivated rice, increasing its abundance and diversity while simultaneously recruiting beneficial rhizosphere bacteria, resulting in a more complex community. Additionally, E. ludwigii b3 acted directly and indirectly on cultivated rice through its metabolites (organic acids, amino acids, flavonoids and other substances), which helped alleviate drought stress. In conclusion, the E. ludwigii b3 shows promise as a drought-resistant strain and has the potential to improve the growth and productivity of cultivated rice in arid agricultural ecosystems. This study represents the first investigation of E. ludwigii in the rhizosphere of wild rice under drought conditions on cultivated rice., 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. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Perovskite quantum dots (PQDs) have attracted emerging attention as fluorescent and light-absorbing materials for next-generation optoelectronics due to their outstanding properties and cost-efficiency. However, PQD thin film suffers significant instability due to structure and material failures, which hinders their application in flexible and reliable PQD-based advanced wearable devices. Herein, we use commercial cellulose fiber-based filter paper as a substrate to synthesize PQDs in situ and fabricate PQD-paper free-standing flexible composite film. The abundant hydroxy capping ligands of cellulose fibers and the unique dense network structure of the filter paper can facilitate confined crystallization, forming strong interactions between the PQDs and substrate, the unpackaged PQD composite film showed extraordinary stability (>30 days) in the air with high humidity (90%). Meanwhile, the strong interaction between PQDs and paper enables an ultrasimple drop-cast synthesis process with excellent process tolerance, making it customizable and easy to scale up (10 cm in diameter). Due to the uniformly dispersed PQDs on cellulose fibers of the substrate, the composite demonstrates impressive photo-responsive properties. Photodetector (PD) arrays were designed on free-standing PQD paper and flexible graphitic electrodes, and circuits were fabricated by drawing. The PD arrays can work as optical and electrical dual-mode image sensors with incredible bending robustness, enduring up to 100,000 cycles at 180°.

The continued advancement of organic electronic technology will establish organic electrochemical transistors as pivotal instruments in the field of biological detection. Here, we present a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art technology and advancements in the use of organic electrochemical transistors as biosensors. This review provides an in-depth analysis of the diverse modification materials, methods, and mechanisms utilized in organic electrochemical transistor-structured biosensors (OETBs) for the selective detection of a wide range of target analyte encompassing electroactive species, electro-inactive species, and cancer cells. Recent advances in OETBs for use in sensing systems and wearable and implantable applications are also briefly introduced. Finally, challenges and opportunities in the field are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to assess the influence and the clinical effectiveness of the short stature homeobox 2 (SHOX2) and ras association domain family 1A (RASSF1A) genes by tissue sampling through ultrasound endoscopy-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) as auxiliary diagnostic tools for pancreatic cancer (PC). Methylation markers were detected in 96 patients using real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (qPCR), and the performance of this diagnostic assay was compared with CA19-9, CEA, and puncture fluid-based exfoliative cytology using receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis. The PC group exhibited higher methylation rates for SHOX2, RASSF1A, and the combined assay of both genes compared to the control group (95.7 % vs. 54.0 %, 78.3 % vs. 36.0 %, and 73.9 % vs. 16.0 %, P < 0.05). The areas under the ROC curve (AUC) for CA19-9, CEA, liquid-based exfoliative cytology, SHOX2, RASSF1A, the combination of SHOX2 and RASSF1A, the combination assay with CEA, CA19-9, and liquid-based exfoliative cytology were 0.827, 0.692, 0.767, 0.770, 0.732, 0.870, 0.870, 0.933, and 0.900, respectively. Therefore, the methylation assay based on the combined SHOX2 and RASSF1A genes in EUS-FNA puncture fluid is more effective than using a single gene, liquid-based exfoliative cytology, or intravenous tumor markers for diagnosing PC. Combining the conventional marker CA19-9 enhances the diagnostic value, making it a promising approach to complement histology and cytology., Competing Interests: The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:Weifeng Ding reports financial support, administrative support, and equipment, drugs, or supplies were provided by 10.13039/501100001809National Natural Science Foundation of China. Weifeng Ding reports financial support, administrative support, and equipment, drugs, or supplies were provided by 10.13039/501100002858China Postdoctoral Science Foundation. Jianfeng Zhang reports financial support, administrative support, and equipment, drugs, or supplies were provided by 10.13039/501100018557Science and Technology Project of Nantong City. Jianfeng Zhang reports administrative support and equipment, drugs, or supplies were provided by 10.13039/100007452Wu Jieping Medical Foundation. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a prevalent complication associated with levosimendan; however, it remains uncertain whether there are any disparities in the effects of levosimendan on non-postoperative and postoperative AF., Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the levosimendan effect on non-postoperative and postoperative AF by conducting a meta-analysis of randomized control trials (RCTs)., Methods: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and other databases were searched. Pairs of reviewers identified RCTs that compared levosimendan and placebo or other therapies, and the results reported AF events data. Random effects models were used (at a significance level of 5%)., Results: Twenty-nine eligible trials comprising 6550 participants were included, eleven of which evaluated the non-postoperative AF incidence, and 18 included postoperative AF. The analysis revealed that levosimendan elevated the AF risk significantly in the non-postoperative group (OR, 1.62; 95% CI: 1.19-2.20; p=0.002) and reduced the AF incidence in the postoperative group (OR, 0.65; 95% CI: 0.44-0.96; p=0.03). AF occurrence decreased more significantly in patients who used levosimendan after cardiac surgery (OR, 0.53; 95% CI: 0.32-0.88; p=0.02) than in patients who used levosimendan before cardiac surgery (OR, 0.67; 95% CI: 0.42-1.06; p=0.09). Moreover, The AF risk was significantly elevated by levosimendan large bolus dose (bolus dose≥12 μg/kg) (OR, 1.44; 95% CI: 1.10-1.88; p=0.004) and decreased by small bolus dose of levosimendan (bolus dose<12 μg/kg) (OR, 0.64; 95% CI: 0.34-1.20; p=0.16)., Conclusion: Levosimendan was linked to an increased non-postoperative AF incidence. The employment of levosimendan was effective in preventing postoperative AF.

The current discussion on the neural correlates of the contents of consciousness (NCCc) focuses mainly on the post-stimulus period of task-related activity. This neglects the substantial impact of the spontaneous or ongoing activity of the brain as manifest in pre-stimulus activity. Does the interaction of pre- and post-stimulus activity shape the contents of consciousness? Addressing this gap in our knowledge, we review and converge two recent lines of findings, that is, pre-stimulus alpha power and pre- and post-stimulus alpha trial-to-trial variability (TTV). The data show that pre-stimulus alpha power modulates post-stimulus activity including specifically the subjective features of conscious contents like confidence and vividness. At the same time, alpha pre-stimulus variability shapes post-stimulus TTV reduction including the associated contents of consciousness. We propose that non-additive rather than merely additive interaction of the internal pre-stimulus activity with the external stimulus in the alpha band is key for contents to become conscious. This is mediated by mechanisms on different levels including neurophysiological, neurocomputational, neurodynamic, neuropsychological and neurophenomenal levels. Overall, considering the interplay of pre-stimulus intrinsic and post-stimulus extrinsic activity across wider timescales, not just evoked responses in the post-stimulus period, is critical for identifying neural correlates of consciousness. This is well in line with both processing and especially the Temporo-spatial theory of consciousness (TTC)., 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.)

Objective: This study aimed to investigate whether virtual monoenergetic images (VMIs) can aid radiologists and surgeons in better identifying the arc of Riolan (AOR) and to determine the optimal kilo electron volt (keV) level., Methods: Thirty-three patients were included. Conventional images (CIs) and VMI (40-100 keV) were reconstructed using arterial phase spectral-based images. The computed tomography (CT) attenuation and noise of the AOR, the CT attenuation of the erector spinal muscle, and the background noise on VMI and CI were measured, respectively. The signal-to-noise ratio, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and signal intensity ratio were calculated. The image quality of the AOR was evaluated according to a 4-point Likert grade., Results: The CT attenuation, noise, CNR, and signal intensity ratio of the AOR were significantly higher in VMI at 40 and 50 keV compared with CI ( P < 0.001); VMI at 40 keV was significantly higher than 50 keV ( P < 0.05). No significant difference in signal-to-noise ratio, background noise, and CT attenuation of the spinal erector muscle was observed between VMI and CI ( P > 0.05). virtual monoenergetic image at 40 keV produced the best subjective scores., Conclusions: Virtual monoenergetic image at 40 keV makes it easier to observe the AOR with optimized subjective and objective image quality. This may prompt radiologists and surgeons to actively search for it and encourage surgeons to preserve it during splenic flexure takedown., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

In China, the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) has undergone several variations over the decades and contributed to the diversity of the clinical epidemic PRRSV strains. This has complicated the prevention and control of PRRS. In particular, the efficacy of the currently available commercial vaccines against the highly pathogenic NADC34-like strains is unclear. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the protection efficacy of three commercial PRRS modified-live virus (MLV) vaccines derived from classical PRRS VR2332 MLV and R98 MLV against challenge with a heterologous NADC34-like PRRSV strain, JS2021NADC34, which has high pathogenicity in pigs. PRRSV- and antibody-free piglets were immunized with the PRRS VR2332 MLV vaccine or either of two R98 MLV vaccines (from different manufacturers) and were challenged with the JS2021NADC34 strain 28 days after immunization. Rectal temperature, clinical symptoms, viremia and viral shedding from the nose, gross lesions in the thymus and lungs, microscopic lesions and viral distribution in the lungs, as well as the humoral immune response and mortality rates were recorded over a 14-day post-challenge period. The results showed that PRRS VR2332 MLV had better efficacy against the JS2021NADC34 challenge than PRRS R98 MLV, with vaccinated piglets in the former group showing transient and mild symptoms, mild pathological lesions in the lungs, mild thymic atrophy, and low viral levels in sera and nasal swabs, as well as better growth performance and a 100% survival rate. In contrast, two PRRS R98 MLVs exhibited limited efficacy against the JS2021NADC34 challenge, with the piglets in two R98 groups showing obvious clinical symptoms and pathological changes in the lungs and thymus; moreover, there were two deaths caused by PRRS in two R98 groups, respectively. Despite this, the mortality rate was lower than that of the unvaccinated piglets that were challenged with JS2021NADC34. The cumulative results demonstrate that PRRS VR2332 MLV was partly effective against the highly pathogenic PRRSV NADC34-like strain based on the observations over the 14-day post-challenge period. Thus, it might be a viable option among the commercially available vaccines for control of NADC34-like virus infections in swine herds., Competing Interests: CL, YH, SF, LH, JQ, and AF are employees of Boehringer-Ingelheim, which manufactures the Ingelvac PRRS® MLV vaccine. 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 © 2024 Liu, Li, Hu, Fang, Li, Zhang, Huang, Qian, Wang, Fan, Zhang and Geri.)

Decreasing perovskite nanocrystal size increases radiative recombination due to the quantum confinement effect, but also increases the Auger recombination rate which leads to carrier imbalance in the emitting layers of electroluminescent devices. Here, we overcome this trade-off by increasing the exciton effective mass without affecting the size, which is realized through the trace Cd 2+ doping of formamidinium lead bromide perovskite nanocrystals. We observe an ~2.7 times increase in the exciton binding energy benefiting from a slight distortion of the [BX 6 ] 4- octahedra caused by doping in the case of that the Auger recombination rate is almost unchanged. As a result, bright color-saturated green emitting perovskite nanocrystals with a photoluminescence quantum yield of 96 % are obtained. Cd 2+ doping also shifts up the energy levels of the nanocrystals, relative to the Fermi level so that heavily n-doped emitters convert into only slightly n-doped ones; this boosts the charge injection efficiency of the corresponding light-emitting diodes. The light-emitting devices based on those nanocrystals reached a high external quantum efficiency of 29.4 % corresponding to a current efficiency of 123 cd A -1 , and showed dramatically improved device lifetime, with a narrow bandwidth of 22 nm and Commission Internationale de I'Eclairage coordinates of (0.20, 0.76) for color-saturated green emission for the electroluminescence peak centered at 534 nm, thus being fully compliant with the latest standard for wide color gamut displays., (© 2024 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a life threatening disease in critically ill patients, and characterized by excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) and inflammatory factors levels in the lung. Multiple evidences suggest that nanozyme with diversified catalytic capabilities plays a vital role in this fatal lung injury. At present, we developed a novel class of polydopamine (PDA) coated cerium dioxide (CeO 2 ) nanozyme (Ce@P) that acts as the potent ROS scavenger for scavenging intracellular ROS and suppressing inflammatory responses against ALI. Herein, we aimed to identify that Ce@P combining with NIR irradiation could further strengthen its ROS scavenging capacity. Specifically, NIR triggered Ce@P exhibited the most potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory behaviors in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced macrophages through decreasing the intracellular ROS levels, down-regulating the levels of TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6, up-regulating the level of antioxidant cytokine (SOD-2), inducing M2 directional polarization (CD206 up-regulation), and increasing the expression level of HSP70. Besides, we performed intravenous (IV) injection of Ce@P in LPS induced ALI rat model, and found that it significantly accumulated in the lung tissue for 6 h after injection. It was also observed that Ce@P + NIR presented the superior behaviors of decreasing lung inflammation, alleviating diffuse alveolar damage, as well as promoting lung tissue repair. All in all, it has developed the strategy of using Ce@P combining with NIR irradiation for the synergistic enhanced treatment of ALI, which can serve as a promising therapeutic strategy for the clinical treatment of ROS derived diseases as well., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The component analysis of raw meal is critical to the quality of cement. In recent years, near-infrared (NIR) has been emerged as an innovative and efficient analytical method to determine the oxide content of cement raw meal. This study aims to utilize NIR spectroscopy combined with machine learning and chemometrics to improve the prediction of oxide content in cement raw meal. The Savitzky-Golay convolution smoothing method is applied to eliminate noise interference for the analysis of calcium carbonate ( C a C O 3 ), silicon dioxide ( S i O 2 ), aluminum oxide ( A l 2 O 3 ), and ferric oxide ( F e 2 O 3 ) in cement raw materials. Different wavelength selection techniques are used to perform a comprehensive analysis of the model, comparing the performance of several wavelength selection techniques. The back-propagation neural network regression model based on particle swarm optimization algorithm was also applied to optimize the extracted and screened feature wavelengths, and the model prediction performance was checked and evaluated using R p and RMSE. In conclusion, the results indicate that NIR spectroscopy in combination with ML and chemometrics has great potential to effectively improve the prediction performance of oxide content in raw materials and highlight the importance of modeling and wavelength selection techniques. By enabling more accurate and efficient determination of oxide content in raw materials, NIR spectroscopy coupled with meta-modeling has the potential to revolutionize quality assurance practices in cement manufacturing., 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 © 2024 Zhang, Yang, Wang, Ge, Zhang and Xiao.)

Ubiquitin-specific proteases (UBPs), the largest subfamily of deubiquitinating enzymes, regulate ubiquitin homeostasis and play diverse roles in eukaryotes. Ubp4 is essential for the growth, development, and pathogenicity of various fungal pathogens. However, its functions in the growth, stress responses, and virulence of entomopathogenic fungi remain unclear. In this study, we elucidated the role of the homolog of Ubp4, MrUbp4, in the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium robertsii. Deletion of MrUbp4 led to a notable increase in ubiquitination levels, demonstrating the involvement of MrUbp4 in protein deubiquitination. Furthermore, the ΔMrUbp4 mutant displayed a significant reduction in conidial yield, underscoring the pivotal role of MrUbp4 in conidiation. Additionally, the mutant exhibited heightened resistance to conidial heat treatment, emphasizing the role of MrUbp4 in thermotolerance. Notably, insect bioassays unveiled a substantial impairment in the virulence of the ΔMrUbp4 mutant. This was accompanied by a notable decrease in cuticle penetration ability and appressorium formation upon further analysis. In summary, our findings highlight the essential role of MrUbp4 in regulating the conidial yield, thermotolerance, and contributions to the virulence of M. robertsii., 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. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Rationale: Human exhaled breath usually contains unique proteins that may provide clues to characterize individual physiological activities and many diseases. However, the concentration of exhaled proteins in exhaled breath is extremely low and usually does not reach the detection limits of all online breath mass spectrometry instruments. Therefore, developing a new breath sampler for collecting and characterizing exhaled proteins is important., Methods: In this study, a new mask-based wearable sampler was developed by fixing metal materials into the inner surface of the KN95 mask. Human exhaled proteins could be directly adsorbed onto the metal material while wearing the mask. After sampling, the collected proteins were eluted, digested, and identified using nano-liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (nano-LC-MS/MS)., Results: The adsorption of exhaled proteins was evaluated, showing that modified gold foil is an effective material for collecting exhaled proteins. Various endogenous proteins were successfully identified from exhaled breath, many of which can be potential biomarkers for disease diagnosis., Conclusions: By coupling the newly developed mask sampler with nano-LC-MS/MS, human exhaled proteins were successfully collected and identified. Our results show that the mask sampler is wearable, simple, and convenient, and the method is noninvasive for investigating disease diagnosis and human health., (© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: Modifications of behavior can help reduce the risk of transmission by disrupting the parasite life cycle. Behavior intension is a necessary intermediate step in behavior change. This study aimed to explore protection motivation theory (PMT) in predicting likelihood of engagement in protective behavior against infection with Schistosoma., Methods: In China, a questionnaire for data collection was sent to users who followed the WeChat public account from June 2 to 6, 2023. Factors affecting intentional behavior of participants were analyzed using stepwise regression analysis and structural equation modeling., Results: A total of 2,243 valid questionnaires were collected, with a mean age of 30 ± 8.4 years. Approximately 1,395 (62.2%) participants reported that they had been exposed to wild waters in daily work and life. About 51.0 and 50.7% of respondents reported never having been exposed to wild water in the last 3 and 6 months, respectively. Results indicated that prior knowledge of schistosomiasis was associated with the 7 PMT subconstructs, which then influenced future preventative behaviors., Conclusion: Behavior intentionis a complicated and indispensable part of behavior change that is influenced by professional knowledge, socio-economic status, and personal characteristics. The effective dissemination of knowledge regards schistosomiasis should be strengthened to emphasize the effectiveness of protective measures against infection and severe disease., 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 © 2024 Wang, Li, Zhang, Mao and Li.)

The Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) presents a substantial risk to the domestic pig industry, resulting in extensive and fatal viral diarrhea among piglets. Recognizing the mucosal stimulation triggered by PEDV and harnessing the regulatory impact of lactobacilli on intestinal function, we have developed a lactobacillus-based vaccine that is carefully designed to elicit a strong mucosal immune response. Through bioinformatics analysis, we examined PEDV S proteins to identify B-cell linear epitopes that meet the criteria of being non-toxic, soluble, antigenic, and capable of neutralizing the virus. In this study, a genetically modified strain of Lactobacillus mucosae G01 (L.mucosae G01) was created by utilizing the S layer protein (SLP) as a scaffold for surface presentation. Chimeric immunodominant epitopes with neutralizing activity were incorporated at various sites on SLP. The successful expression of SLP chimeric immunodominant epitope 1 on the surface of L.mucosae G01 was confirmed through indirect immunofluorescence and transmission electron microscopy, revealing the formation of a transparent membrane. The findings demonstrate that the oral administration of L.mucosae G01, which expresses the SLP chimeric immunodominant gene epitope1, induces the production of secreted IgA in the intestine and feces of mice. Additionally, there is an elevation in IgG levels in the serum. Moreover, the levels of cytokines IL-2, IL-4, IFN-γ, and IL-17 are significantly increased compared to the negative control group. These results suggest that L. mucosae G01 has the ability to deliver exogenous antigens and elicit a specific mucosal immune response against PEDV. This investigation presents new possibilities for immunoprophylaxis against PEDV-induced diarrhea., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Purpose: The optimal resuscitative fluid for patients with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) remains controversial. Therefore, our objective was to assess the effect of balanced crystalloids in contrast to normal saline on clinical outcomes among patients with DKA., Methods: We searched electronic databases for randomized controlled trials comparing balanced crystalloids versus normal saline in patients with DKA, the search period was from inception through October 20 th , 2023. The outcomes were the time to resolution of DKA, major adverse kidney events, post-resuscitation chloride, and incidence of hypokalemia., Results: Our meta-analysis encompassed 11 trials, incorporating a total of 753 patients with DKA. There was no significant difference between balanced crystalloids and normal saline group for the time to resolution of DKA (MD -1.49, 95%CI -4.29 to 1.31, P=0.30, I 2 = 65%), major adverse kidney events (RR 0.88, 95%CI 0.58 to 1.34, P=0.56, I 2 = 0%), and incidence of hypokalemia (RR 0.80, 95%CI 0.43 to 1.46, P=0.46, I 2 = 56%). However, there was a significant reduction in the post-resuscitation chloride (MD -3.16, 95%CI -5.82 to -0.49, P=0.02, I 2 = 73%) among patients received balanced crystalloids., Conclusion: Among patients with DKA, the use of balanced crystalloids as compared to normal saline has no effect on the time to resolution of DKA, major adverse kidney events, and incidence of hypokalemia. However, the use of balanced crystalloids could reduce the post-resuscitation chloride., Systematic Review Registration: https://osf.io, identifier c8f3d., 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 © 2024 Liu, Zhang, Xu and Zou.)

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRVS) is a major swine viral pathogen that affects the pig industry worldwide. Control of early PRRSV infection is essential, and different types of PRRSV-positive samples can reflect the time point of PRRSV infection. This study aims to investigate the epidemiological characteristics of PRRSV in China from Q4 2021 to Q4 2022, which will be beneficial for porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV)control in the swine production industry in the future. A total of 7518 samples (of processing fluid, weaning serum, and oral fluid) were collected from 100 intensive pig farms in 21 provinces, which covered all five pig production regions in China, on a quarterly basis starting from the fourth quarter of 2021 and ending on the fourth quarter of 2022. Independent of sample type, 32.1% (2416/7518) of the total samples were PCR-positive for PRRSV, including 73.6% (1780/2416) samples that were positive for wild PRRSV, and the remaining were positive for PRRSV vaccine strains. On the basis of the time of infection, 58.9% suckling piglets (processing fluid) and 30.8% weaning piglets (weaning serum) showed PRRSV infection at an early stage (approximately 90% of the farms). The sequencing analysis results indicate a wide range of diverse PRRSV wild strains in China, with lineage 1 as the dominant strain. Our study clearly demonstrates the prevalence, infection stage, and diversity of PRRSV in China. This study provides useful data for the epidemiological understanding of PRRSV, which can contribute to the strategic and systematic prevention and control of PRRSV in China.

Oriental tobacco budworm (Helicoverpa assulta) and cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera) are two closely related species within the genus Helicoverpa. They have similar appearances and consistent damage patterns, often leading to confusion. However, the cotton bollworm is a typical polyphagous insect, while the oriental tobacco budworm belongs to the oligophagous insects. In this study, we used Nanopore, PacBio, and Illumina platforms to sequence the genome of H. assulta and used Hifiasm to create a haplotype-resolved draft genome. The Hi-C technique helped anchor 33 primary contigs to 32 chromosomes, including two sex chromosomes, Z and W. The final primary haploid genome assembly was approximately 415.19 Mb in length. BUSCO analysis revealed a high degree of completeness, with 99.0% gene coverage in this genome assembly. The repeat sequences constituted 38.39% of the genome assembly, and we annotated 17093 protein-coding genes. The high-quality genome assembly of the oriental tobacco budworm serves as a valuable genetic resource that enhances our comprehension of how they select hosts in a complex odour environment. It will also aid in developing an effective control policy., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Cr(VI) and phenol commonly coexist in wastewater, posing a great threat to the environment and human health. However, it is still a challenge for microorganisms to degrade phenol under high Cr(VI) stress. In this study, the phenol-degrading strain Bacillus cereus ZWB3 was co-cultured with the Cr(VI)-reducing strain Bacillus licheniformis MZ-1 to enhance phenol biodegradation under Cr(Ⅵ) stress. Compared with phenol-degrading strain ZWB3, which has weak tolerance to Cr(Ⅵ), and Cr(Ⅵ)-reducing strain MZ-1, which has no phenol-degrading ability, the co-culture of two strains could significantly increase the degraded rate and capacity of phenol. In addition, the co-cultured strains exhibited phenol degradation ability over a wide pH range (7-10). The reduced content of intracellular proteins and polysaccharides produced by the co-cultured strains contributed to the enhancement of phenol degradation and Cr(Ⅵ) tolerance. The determination coefficients R 2 , RMSE, and MAPE showed that the BP-ANN model could predict the degradation of phenol under various conditions, which saved time and economic cost. The metabolic pathway of microbial degradation of phenol was deduced by metabolic analysis. This study provides a valuable strategy for wastewater treatment containing Cr(Ⅵ) and phenol., Competing Interests: The authors declare there is no conflict., (© 2024 The Authors This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY 4.0), which permits copying, adaptation and redistribution, provided the original work is properly cited (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).)

Renal fibrosis is distinguished by the abnormal deposition of extracellular matrix and progressive loss of nephron function, with a lack of effective treatment options in clinical practice. In this study, we discovered that the Beclin-1-derived peptide MP1 significantly inhibits the abnormal expression of fibrosis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition-related markers, including α -smooth muscle actin, fibronectin, collagen I, matrix metallopeptidase 2, Snail1, and vimentin both in vitro and in vivo. H&E staining was employed to evaluate renal function, while serum creatinine (Scr) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) were used as main indices to assess pathologic changes in the obstructed kidney. The results demonstrated that daily treatment with MP1 during the 14-day experiment significantly alleviated renal dysfunction and changes in Scr and BUN in mice with unilateral ureteral obstruction. Mechanistic research revealed that MP1 was found to have a significant inhibitory effect on the expression of crucial components involved in both the Wnt/ β -catenin and transforming growth factor (TGF)- β /Smad pathways, including β -catenin, C-Myc, cyclin D1, TGF- β 1, and p-Smad/Smad. However, MP1 exhibited no significant impact on either the LC3II/LC3I ratio or P62 levels. These findings indicate that MP1 improves renal physiologic function and mitigates the fibrosis progression by inhibiting the Wnt/ β -catenin pathway. Our study suggests that MP1 represents a promising and novel candidate drug precursor for the treatment of renal fibrosis. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: This study indicated that the Beclin-1-derived peptide MP1 effectively mitigated renal fibrosis induced by unilateral ureteral obstruction through inhibiting the Wnt/β-catenin pathway and transforming growth factor-β/Smad pathway, thereby improving renal physiological function. Importantly, unlike other Beclin-1-derived peptides, MP1 exhibited no significant impact on autophagy in normal cells. MP1 represents a promising and novel candidate drug precursor for the treatment of renal fibrosis focusing on Beclin-1 derivatives and Wnt/β-catenin pathway., (Copyright © 2024 by The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.)

Biosolids are considered an alternative to chemical fertilizers due to their rich nutrients. However, long-term biosolids application can lead to heavy metals accumulation, which severely affects soil microbial community compositions. The factors influencing soil microbial community assembly were explored under a 16-year long-term experiment with biosolids applications. Our results indicated that biosolids application significantly increased fungal richness while not for bacterial and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal richness. Besides, biosolids application significantly affected soil bacterial, fungal compositions and AM fungal community. Soil microorganisms were clustered into different modules with bacterial and AM fungal communities were affected by both organic matter and heavy metals, while fungal communities were affected by heavy metals (Cr, Ni, and As). The soil bacterial community assembly was dominated by stochastic processes while the fungal and AM fungal community assemblies were mainly driven by deterministic processes. Random forest analysis showed that heavy metals were identified as major drivers (Hg, Cu, Cd, and Zn for bacteria, Pb and Cr for fungi, and As and Ni for AM fungi) of the community assembly process. Overall, our study highlights the significant role of heavy metals in shaping microbial community dynamics and gives a guide for controlling biosolids application., 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.)

The effects of global warming, population growth, and economic development are increasing the frequency of extreme weather events, such as drought. Among abiotic stresses, drought has the greatest impact on soil biological activity and crop yields. The rhizosphere microbiota, which represents a second gene pool for plants, may help alleviate the effects of drought on crops. In order to investigate the structure and diversity of the bacterial communities on drought stress, this study analyzed the differences in the bacterial communities by high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatical analyses in the rhizosphere of Arabidopsis thaliana under normal and drought conditions. Based on analysis of α and β diversity, the results showed that drought stress had no significant effect on species diversity between groups, but affected species composition. Difference analysis of the treatments showed that the bacteria with positive responses to drought stress were Burkholderia-Caballeronia-Paraburkholderia ( BCP ) and Streptomyces . Drought stress reduced the complexity of the rhizosphere bacterial co-occurrence network. Streptomyces was at the core of the network in both the control and drought treatments, whereas the enrichment of BCP under drought conditions was likely due to a decrease in competitors. Functional prediction showed that the core bacteria metabolized a wide range of carbohydrates, such as pentose, glycans, and aromatic compounds. Our results provide a scientific and theoretical basis for the use of rhizosphere microbial communities to alleviate plant drought stress and the further exploration of rhizosphere microbial interactions under drought stress., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) has attracted increasing attention thanks to its multi-bioactivities, and people are keen on improving the antioxidative and antibacterial performance of EGCG. Based on the favorable biofunctionality of Zn 2+ and chitosan (CS), an EGCG derivative with a novel formula, i.e. , EGCG-Zn-CS, is presented in this study. The structure of EGCG-Zn-CS was characterized by FT-IR, UV-vis, TGA, XPS, and SEM-EDS. The radical elimination results indicate that 0.1 mg mL -1 of EGCG-Zn-CS demonstrates DPPH radical and hydroxyl radical scavenging activities of 94.8% and 92.3%, while 0.1 mg mL -1 of EGCG exhibits only 78.5% and 75.6%, respectively, which means improved antioxidative activity of EGCG-Zn-CS was obtained. Inhibitory experiments against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli reveal that the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of EGCG-Zn-CS were 15.625 μg mL -1 and 187.5 μg mL -1 , whereas the minimal bactericide concentrations (MBCs) were 46.875 μg mL -1 and 750 μg mL -1 , respectively, which indicate that EGCG-Zn-CS exerts much higher antibacterial activity than EGCG. It can be concluded that the complexing of zinc cations and CS could amazingly improve both the antioxidative and antibacterial activity of EGCG, and it is expected that an exploration of EGCG-Zn-CS may inspire the development of simultaneous effective antioxidant and antibacterial agents., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

Genetically modified crops (GMOs) have led to significant, if not revolutionary, agricultural advances. The development of GMOs requires necessary regulations, which depend on the detection of GMOs. A sensitive and specific biosensor for the detection of transgenic crops is crucial to improve the detection efficiency of GMOs. Here, we developed a CRISPR/Cas12a-mediated entropy-driven electrochemiluminescence (ECL) biosensor for the sensitive and specific detection of MON810, the world's most widely used transgenic insect-resistant maize. We designed two crRNAs to activate CRISPR/Cas12a, allowing it to cut non-specific single strands, and we modified the DNA tetrahedron (DT) on the surface of the gold electrode to diminish non-specific adsorption. The entropy-driven chain displacement reaction with the target DNA takes place for amplification. After optimization, the biosensor has satisfactory accuracy and selectivity, with a linear range of ECL of 1-106 fM and a limit of detection (LOD) of 3.3 fM by the 3σ method. The biosensor does not require polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification or complex sample processing, which dramatically improves transgenic crop detection efficiency. This new biosensor achieves rapid, sensitive, and highly specific detection of transgenic crops, and has great potential for large-scale field detection of transgenic crops., 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. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Phosphorus (P) recovery from wastewater is an essential component of the global P cycle. A contact precipitation process using chicken eggshells as a calcium (Ca) precursor was used to recover P from synthetic wastewater and real digested sludge centrate. Up to 96.4 % of P could be recovered from the digested sludge centrate after three repeated cycles of the contact precipitation process. In addition, 36.1 % of total chemical oxygen demand and 37.6 % of total ammonia nitrogen were removed from the centrate. Finally, most of the precipitates could be collected by a simple washing step. Scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction results indicated that the eggshells played three roles in this process: Ca source, precipitation substrate, and filter medium. Precipitates were mainly brushite. This research provides a new perspective on P recovery from wastewater using waste eggshells, and if further optimized, has a potential for practical future 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 © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)