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Microbial distribution patterns are the result of a combination of biotic and abiotic factors, which are the core issues in microbial ecology research. To better understand the biogeographic pattern of bacteria in water environments from the Bohai Sea to the northern Yellow Sea, the effects of environmental factors, and spatial distance on the structure of bacterial communities in marine water were investigated using high-throughput sequencing technology based on 16S rRNA genes. The results showed that Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteri, Desulfobacterota, and Bdellovibrionota were the dominant phyla in the study area. A clear spatial pattern in the bacterial community was observed, and environmental factors, including salinity, nutrient concentration, carbon content, total phosphorus, dissolved oxygen, and seawater turbidity emerged as the central environmental factors regulating the variation in bacterial communities. In addition, the study provides direct evidence of the existence of dispersal limitation in this strongly connected marine ecological system. Therefore, these results revealed that the variation in bacterial community characteristics was attributed to environmental selection, accompanied by the regulation of stochastic diffusion. The network analysis demonstrated a nonrandom co-occurrence pattern in the microbial communities with distinct spatial distribution characteristics. It is implied that the biogeography patterns of bacterial community may also be associated with the characteristics of co-occurrence characterize among bacterial species. Furthermore, the PICRUSt analysis indicated a clear spatial distribution of functional characteristics in bacterial communities. This functional variation was significantly modulated by the environmental characteristics of seawater but uncoupled from the taxonomic characteristics of bacterial communities (e.g., diversity characteristics, community structure, and co-occurrence relationships). Together, this findings represent a significant advance in linking seawater to the mechanisms underlying bacterial biogeographic patterns and community assembly, co-occurrence patterns, and ecological functions, providing new insights for identifying the microbial ecology as well as the biogeochemical cycle in the marine environment.

The emergence of new variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has generated recurring worldwide infection outbreaks. These highly mutated variants reduce the effectiveness of current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines, which are designed to target only the spike (S) protein of the original virus. Except for the S of SARS-CoV-2, the immunoprotective potential of other structural proteins (nucleocapsid, N; envelope, E; membrane, M) as vaccine target antigens is still unclear and worthy of investigation. In this study, synthetic DNA vaccines encoding four SARS-CoV-2 structural proteins (pS, pN, pE, and pM) were developed, and mice were immunized with three doses via intramuscular injection and electroporation. Notably, co-immunization with two DNA vaccines that expressed the S and N proteins induced higher neutralizing antibodies and was more effective in reducing the SARS-CoV-2 viral load than the S protein alone in mice. In addition, pS co-immunization with either pN or pE + pM induced a higher S protein-specific cellular immunity after three immunizations and caused milder histopathological changes than pS alone post-challenge. The role of the conserved structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2, including the N/E/M proteins, should be investigated further for their applications in vaccine design, such as mRNA vaccines.

Aim Hypothyroxinemia might be easily ignored, due to attention is typically paid to individuals with elevated thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH). In this study, we aimed to evaluate the association of oxcarbazepine use as adjuvant for treatment of schizophrenia with hypothyroxinemia and central set point of thyroid homeostasis. Methods This retrospective cohort study was conducted in the "Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University". Inpatients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia admitted between January 2016 and October 2019 with normal thyroid function at admission were included. Oxcarbazepine use was the exposure measure. Newly developed hypothyroxinemia was the primary outcome measure and parameters of thyroid homeostasis central set point as measured by "TSH index" and "thyroid feedback quantile-based index (TFQI)" were the secondary outcome measures. Results A total of 1,207 eligible patients were included. The occurrence of hypothyroxinemia in patients who received oxcarbazepine was higher (35/107, 32.7%) than in those patients who did not (152/1099, 13.8%), with adjusted relative risk of 2.24 and 95% confidence interval of 1.57 and 3.17. Oxcarbazepine use was associated with greater reduction in TSH index (adjusted β -0.33 and 95% confidence interval -0.48, -0.19) and TFQI (adjusted β -0.24 and 95% confidence interval -0.31, -0.16). Conclusion Oxcarbazepine use was independently associated with increased risk of developing hypothyroxinemia, and greater reduction in TSH index and TFQI, suggesting that impaired central set point of thyroid homeostasis might be involved in the mechanism of oxcarbazepine induced hypothyroxinemia.

The study focused on the role of mitophagy in neonatal ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI). Immunoassays were used to study the TLR9 signaling pathway of neonatal VILI, expected to provide a feasible solution for neonatal VILI. The mice were randomly divided into four groups, group A: spontaneous breathing group; group B: normal tidal volume (VT) group (VT=9mL/kg); group C: high VT group (VT=39mL/kg); and group D: ODN2088 (400μg/ Only) intervention + high VT group. The four groups were compared for the expression of inflammatory factors. It was found that as the culture time increased, the expression of TLR9, MyD88, and NF-κBp65 in the lung tissue of the large VT group was significantly higher than those in the spontaneous breathing group and normal VT group, and the differences were statistically significant; and TLR9 inhibitors could activate the TLR9-MyD88 signaling pathway to up-regulate the expression of NF-κB, mediating the release of inflammatory factors to cause VILI.

Acute bronchopneumonia is a common hospitalization disease in children and serious acute bronchopneumonia will lead to death of children. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been thought to be related to inflammation in many diseases. The present study aimed to investigate the relation between miR218 and E2F2 and the effect of miR-218 overexpression and E2F2 inhibition on the improvement of inflammation in LPS-induced bronchial epithelial cell. BEAS-2B cells were induced by LPS for 0, 6, 12, 24 and 48 h which the cell viability was analyzed by CCK-8 assay. The expression of miR-218 in LPS-induced bronchial epithelial cell and cell transfection was detected by RT-qPCR analysis. The levels of TNF-α, IL-1α, and IL-6 in BEAS2B cells were detected using commercially-available ELISA kits. The levels of ROS, MDA, SOD and LDH were detected by ROS assay kit and oxidative stress assay kit. The cell apoptosis was analyzed by flow cytometry analysis and DAPI and hochest staining. As a result, miR-218 was decreased in LPS-induced bronchial epithelial cell. With the time of LPS treatment extends, the cell viability was decreased. Overexpression of miR-218 reduced the expression of inflammatory cytokines and oxidative stress injury in LPS-induced BEAS2B cells. Overexpression of miR-218 reduced apoptosis of LPS-induced BEAS2B cells. E2F2 was demonstrated be a target of miR-218 which miR-218 overexpression could inhibit the expression of E2F2. E2F2 inhibition could reverse the inflammatory and oxidative stress injury of LPS-induced BEAS2B cells caused by miR-218 inhibition. E2F2 inhibition could reverse the apoptosis of LPS-induced BEAS2B cells caused by miR-218 inhibition. In addition, E2F2 inhibition could reverse the expression of p-STAT1, cleaved-caspase3 and cleaved-caspase9 in LPS-induced BEAS2B cells caused by miR-218 inhibition. In conclusion, this study indicated that miR-218 overexpression and E2F2 inhibition can alleviate the inflammation in LPS-induced bronchial epithelial cell, thereby decreasing the oxidative stress and cell apoptosis.

Global climate change has resulted in large-scale coral reef decline worldwide, for which the ocean warming has paid more attention. Coral is a typical mutually beneficial symbiotic organism with diverse symbiotic microorganisms, which maintain the stability of physiological functions. This study compared the responses of symbiotic microorganisms and host metabolism in a common coral species, Pavona minuta, under indoor simulated thermal and cold temperatures. The results showed that abnormal temperature stresses had unfavorable impact on the phenotypes of corals, resulting in bleaching and color change. The compositions of symbiotic bacteria and dinoflagellate communities only presented tiny changes under temperature stresses. However, some rare symbiotic members have been showed to be significantly influenced by water temperatures. Finally, by using ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS) method, we found that different temperature stresses had very different impacts on the metabolism of coral holobiont. The thermal and cold stresses induced the decrease of anti-oxidation metabolites, several monogalactosyldiacylglycerols (MGDGs), and the increase of lipotoxic metabolite, 10-oxo-nonadecanoic acid, in the coral holobiont, respectively. Our study indicated the response patterns of symbiotic microorganisms and host metabolism in coral to the thermal and cold stresses, providing theoretical data for the adaptation and evolution of coral to a different climate in the future.

Ocean acidification is one of many stressors that coral reef ecosystems are currently contending with. Thus, understanding the response of key symbiotic microbes to ocean acidification is of great significance for understanding the adaptation mechanism and development trend of coral holobionts. Here, high-throughput sequencing technology was employed to investigate the coral-associated bacteria and Symbiodiniaceae of the ecologically important coral Acropora valida exposed to different pH gradients. After 30 days of acclimatization, we set four acidification gradients (pH 8.2, 7.8, 7.4, and 7.2, respectively), and each pH condition was applied for 10 days, with the whole experiment lasting for 70 days. Although the Symbiodiniaceae density decreased significantly, the coral did not appear to be bleached, and the real-time photosynthetic rate did not change significantly, indicating that A. valida has strong tolerance to acidification. Moreover, the Symbiodiniaceae community composition was hardly affected by ocean acidification, with the C1 subclade (Cladocopium goreaui) being dominant among the Symbiodiniaceae dominant types. The relative abundance of the Symbiodiniaceae background types was significantly higher at pH 7.2, indicating that ocean acidification might increase the stability of the community composition by regulating the Symbiodiniaceae rare biosphere. Furthermore, the stable symbiosis between the C1 subclade and coral host may contribute to the stability of the real-time photosynthetic efficiency. Finally, concerning the coral-associated bacteria, the stable symbiosis between Endozoicomonas and coral host is likely to help them adapt to ocean acidification. The significant increase in the relative abundance of Cyanobacteria at pH 7.2 may also compensate for the photosynthesis efficiency of a coral holobiont. In summary, this study suggests that the combined response of key symbiotic microbes helps the whole coral host resist the threats of ocean acidification.

Childhood obesity is strongly associated with inflammation which contributes to the development of several obesity-related disorders. Accumulating evidence has suggested that microRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in the pathogenesis of multiple human diseases, including childhood obesity. MiR-122-5p was reported to be related to obesity in childhood, however, the detailed function and mechanism of miR-122-5p are still obscure.Simpson-Golabi-Behmel syndrome (SGBS) adipocytes were cocultured with macrophage cell line THP-1 or macrophage-conditioned medium (MacCM) to promote cytokine expression. Oil Red O staining was used to detect the accumulation of lipid droplets in SGBS cells. The expression of interleukin 6 (IL-6), IL-8, and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) at mRNA and protein levels was assessed by RT-qPCR and ELISA, respectively. Western blotting was used for measuring protein levels of target genes of miR-122-5p. The luciferase reporter assay was applied for detecting the binding relation between miR-122-5p and cytoplasmic polyadenylation element binding protein 1 (CPEB1).Coculture of SGBS adipocytes and THP-1 macrophages/MacCM promoted IL-6, IL-8, and MCP-1 expression at mRNA and protein levels. Overexpression of miR-122-5p inhibited IL-6, IL-8, and MCP-1 expression in SGBS adipocytes, and this inhibitory effect was rescued by CPEB1 upregulation. CPEB1 3'-untranslated region was directly targeted by miR-122-5p.MiR-122-5p suppresses cytokine expression in SGBS adipocytes by targeting CPEB1.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a public health emergency of international concern, and an effective vaccine is urgently needed to control the pandemic. Envelope (E) and membrane (M) proteins are highly conserved structural proteins among SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV and have been proposed as potential targets for the development of cross-protective vaccines. Here, synthetic DNA vaccines encoding SARS-CoV-2 E/M proteins (called p-SARS-CoV-2-E/M) were developed, and mice were immunised with three doses via intramuscular injection and electroporation. Significant cellular immune responses were elicited, whereas no robust humoral immunity was detected. In addition, novel H-2d-restricted T-cell epitopes were identified. Notably, although no drop in lung tissue virus titre was detected in DNA-vaccinated mice post-challenge with SARS-CoV-2, immunisation with either p-SARS-CoV-2-E or p-SARS-CoV-2-M provided minor protection and co-immunisation with p-SARS-CoV-2-E+M increased protection. Therefore, E/M proteins should be considered as vaccine candidates as they may be valuable in the optimisation of vaccination strategies against COVID-19.

Global climate change has resulted in large-scale coral reef decline worldwide, for which the ocean warming has paid more attention. Coral is a typical mutually beneficial symbiotic organism with diverse symbiotic microorganisms, which maintain the stability of physiological functions. This study compared the responses of symbiotic microorganisms and host metabolism in a common coral species, Pavona minuta, under indoor simulated thermal and cold temperatures. The results showed that abnormal temperature stresses had unfavorable impact on the phenotypes of corals, resulting in bleaching and color change. The compositions of symbiotic bacteria and dinoflagellate communities only presented tiny changes under temperature stresses. However, some rare symbiotic members have been showed to be significantly influenced by water temperatures. Finally, by using ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS) method, we found that different temperature stresses had very different impacts on the metabolism of coral holobiont. The thermal and cold stresses induced the decrease of anti-oxidation metabolites, several monogalactosyldiacylglycerols (MGDGs), and the increase of lipotoxic metabolite, 10-oxo-nonadecanoic acid, in the coral holobiont, respectively. Our study indicated the response patterns of symbiotic microorganisms and host metabolism in coral to the thermal and cold stresses, providing theoretical data for the adaptation and evolution of coral to a different climate in the future.

AIMS We aimed to assess the association between early onset of affective disorders and hypothyroidism in a larger number of psychiatric drug-free patients with bipolar disorder (BD) or major depressive disorder (MDD). METHODS Early onset of affective disorders was defined as BD and MDD developed before the age of 22 years. The hypothyroidism hierarchy were diagnosed biochemically and included subclinical and overt hypothyroidism in this study. Demographic and clinical data including diagnosis, illness duration and thyroid function parameters (TSH, T4, FT4, T3 and FT3) at admission were collected from patients' records. Adjusted odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI), which were estimated by logistic regression model, were used to assess the association between early-onset affective disorder and hypothyroidism. RESULTS The prevalence of hypothyroidism in early-onset affective disorders was higher than that in late-onset patients (in BD, 9.4% vs. 6.2%, χ2 = 6.020, P = 0.014; and in MDD 12.7% vs. 6.6%, χ2 = 13.295, P

Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics, epidemiological characteristics, and transmissibility of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in a family cluster outbreak transmitted by a 3-month-old confirmed positive infant. Methods Field-based epidemiological methods were used to investigate cases and their close contacts. Real-time fluorescent reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) for all collected specimens. Serum SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG antibodies were detected by Chemiluminescence and Gold immnnochromatography (GICA). Results The outbreak was a family cluster with an attack rate of 80% (4/5). The first case in this family was a 3-month-old infant. The transmission chain was confirmed from infant to adults (her father, mother and grandmother). Fecal tests for SARS-CoV-2 RNA remained positive for 37 days after the infant was discharged. The infant’s grandmother was confirmed to be positive 2 days after the infant was discharged from hospital. Patients A (3-month-old female), B (patient A’s father), C (patient A’s grandmother), and D (patient A’s mother) had positive serum IgG and negative IgM, but patients A’s grandfather serum IgG and IgM were negative. Conclusion SARS-CoV-2 has strong transmissibility within family settings and presence of viral RNA in stool raises concern for possible fecal–oral transmission. Hospital follow-up and close contact tracing are necessary for those diagnosed with COVID-19.

We performed a retrospective analysis of the clinical manifestations, laboratory and imaging examinations, treatment, and prognosis of a male infant who was diagnosed with mediastinal and subglottic hemangioma in our hospital. The clinical features of this patient were coughing, wheezing, and dyspnea. Enhanced computed tomography of the neck and chest showed a diffuse abnormality in the right-upper mediastinum. He was diagnosed with a hemangioma after a physical examination combined with bronchoscopy. The clinical symptoms were relieved by oral propranolol. We also investigated the clinical characteristics, treatment, and prognosis of mediastinal and subglottic hemangioma in infants in the previous literature, and searched for case reports of this disease in China and in other countries. We only identified three previous cases of mediastinal and subglottic hemangioma in infants, indicating that this condition is rare. In the proliferative stage, surrounding organs and tissues are compressed, which can be life-threatening. Most of these children develop wheezing, shortness of breath, dyspnea, cyanosis, and other symptoms within 2 months. Enhanced computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging combined with soft bronchoscopy can confirm the diagnosis of this disease, and oral propranolol achieves a favorable effect.

Based on the Riemann sum method, we propose the idea of studying the pulse response width in a moving scene by using the non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless ultraviolet (UV) single-scatter communication model. We simulated the effect of the transmitter moving in eight directions from the origin on the pulse response width, when the receiver is fixed at point (100, 0, 0). Furthermore, the pulse response characteristics of the receiver were analyzed with varying elevation angle, beam angle, field-of-view (FOV) angle, and other geometric parameters. The results show that the pulse response width is widened under the condition of movement. In addition, the influence of the elevation angle of the transmitter on the pulse width is larger than that of the receiver. However, the effect of the FOV and beam angles on the pulse response width is not obvious when the FOV angle is large.

Image quality assessment (IQA) is an indispensable technique in computer vision and pattern recognition Existing deep IQA methods have achieved remarkable performance. As far as we know, these deep learning-based IQA algorithms lack an adaptive features extraction mechanism toward input images with varying sizes and the stability in avoiding disturbance from data noises and model deviation. To solve these problems, we propose a non-reference IQA method by designing a novel unsupervised deep clustering framework, where a 13-layer network structure is proposed that upgrades the fully-connected layers to produce high-level features with adaptive sizes. Moreover, we add a contracted regular term with a contracted autoencoder into the clustering loss function to form a quality model reflecting the clustering structure. Compared to the other IQA algorithms, our model with simple structure exhibits more stable and robust performance by the initial configuration of network parameters during end-to-end training. The experimental results on the LIVE and CSIP databases have shown that our method not only performs better than the state-of-the-art IQA algorithms, but also has a simpler structure and better adaptability.

On off key (OOK) is the main optical wireless communication modulation mode, but the scintillation noise caused by atmosphere turbulence had a strong impact on OOK optical communication system and it is hard to remove. Setting subcarrier modulating mode at transmitter, and Optical heterodyne detection communication system at receiver, this paper analyzes the relationship between error rate and Signal-to-Noise while using ASK subcarrier modulating method at transmitter.

This paper introduced the work principle of dual-amplitude pulse position modulation, analyzed the transmission efficiency, channel capacity, power spectral density, and compared with the other modulation schemes as OOK, PPM, DPIM, DAPIM analyzed the bandwidth, information rate of unit and transmission capacity. Simulation show that DAPPM has better bandwidth efficiency than DPIM and PPM, DAPPM is more suitable transmission in the communication environment and the channel of encoded.