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Determining factors that influence the trapping success of semi-arboreal species will inform wildlife management, improve capture rates, and enhance data reliability. We compared the capture success of common brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula) across different rainfall levels using data collected over a 12-year period at a wildlife sanctuary in South Australia. We found that low rainfall in the 6 months prior to a cage trapping survey increased the average number of common brushtail possums trapped per night, likely due to the attraction of the high-calorie bait combined with increased movement of possums at ground level.

The analysis of high temperature physical and chemical properties of molten salt system of aluminum electrolysis has guiding significance for practical production In this paper, the molecular dynamics calculation method was used to simulate the physical and chemical properties of 78%Na3AlF6-9.5%AlF3-5.0%CaF2-7.5%Al2O3 molten salt electrolyte system with Zr and B as additives at 1200K and standard atmospheric pressure. The effects of Zr and B elements on the radial distribution function, coordination number, diffusion coefficient, viscosity, and conductivity of electrolyte system were discussed in detail. The simulation results showed that Zr4+ weakened the connection between Al3+, while the addition of B3+ enhanced the interaction between Al3+, Na+, and F-. In the electrolyte system without impurities, the order of self-diffusion coefficient is Na+ > O2- > F- > Ca2+ > Al3+. And the addition of Zr4+ is conducive to the diffusion of ions in the system, while the addition of B3+ is not conducive to the diffusion of ions in the system. What’s more, the addition of Zr improves the conductivity of the system, while the addition of B reduces the conductivity of the system.

A Cd(II)-based coordination polymer {[Cd

Developmental sevoflurane exposure leads to widespread neuronal cell death known as sevoflurane-induced neurotoxicity (SIN). Receptor-interacting protein kinase-3 (RIPK3) and mixed lineage kinase domain-like (MLKL)-driven necroptosis plays an important role in cell fate. Previous research has shown that inhibition of RIPK1 activity alone did not attenuate SIN. Since RIPK3/MLKL signaling could also be activated by Z-DNA/RNA binding protein 1 (ZBP1), the present study was designed to investigate whether ZBP1-mediated and RIPK3/MLKL-driven necroptosis is involved in SIN through in vitro and in vivo experiments. We found that sevoflurane priming triggers neuronal cell death and LDH release in a time-dependent manner. The expression levels of RIPK1, RIPK3, ZBP1 and membrane phosphorylated MLKL were also dramatically enhanced in SIN. Intriguingly, knockdown of RIPK3, but not RIPK1, abolished MLKL-mediated neuronal necroptosis in SIN. Additionally, inhibition of RIPK3-mediated necroptosis with GSK'872, rather than inhibition of apoptosis with zVAD, significantly ameliorated SIN. Further investigation showed that sevoflurane treatment causes mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) release into the cytosol. Accordingly, ZBP1 senses cytosolic mtDNA and consequently activates RIPK3/MLKL signaling. This conclusion was reinforced by the evidence that knockdown of ZBP1 or depleting mtDNA with ethidium bromide remarkably improved SIN. Finally, the administration of the RIPK3 inhibitor GSK'872 relieved sevoflurane-induced spatial and emotional disorders without influence on locomotor activity. Altogether, these results illustrate that ZBP1 senses cytosolic mtDNA to induce RIPK3/MLKL-driven necroptosis in SIN. Elucidating the role of necroptosis in SIN will provide new insights into understanding the mechanism of anesthetic exposure in the developing brain.

Observations of high-redshift galaxies with unprecedented detail have now been rendered possible with JWST. However, accurately quantifying their morphology remains uncertain due to potential biases and uncertainties. To address this issue, we used a sample of 1816 nearby DESI galaxies, with a mass range of $10^{9.75-11.25}M_{\odot}$, to compute artificial images of galaxies of the same mass located at $0.75\leq z\leq 3$ and observed at rest-frame optical wavelength in CEERS. We analyzed the effects of cosmological redshift on the measurements of Petrosian radius ($R_p$), half-light radius ($R_{50}$), asymmetry ($A$), concentration ($C$), axis ratio ($q$), and S\'ersic index ($n$). Our results show that $R_p$ and $R_{50}$, calculated using non-parametric methods, are slightly overestimated due to PSF smoothing, while $R_{50}$, $q$, and $n$ obtained through model fitting does not exhibit significant biases. We improve the computation of $A$ by incorporating a more accurate noise effect removal procedure. Due to PSF asymmetry, there is a minor overestimation of $A$ for intrinsically symmetric galaxies. However, for intrinsically asymmetric galaxies, PSF smoothing dominates and results in an underestimation of $A$, an effect that becomes more significant with higher intrinsic $A$ or at lower resolutions. Moreover, PSF smoothing also leads to an underestimation of $C$, which is notably more pronounced in galaxies with higher intrinsic $C$ or at lower resolutions. We developed functions based on resolution level, defined as $R_p/$FWHM, for correcting these biases and the associated statistical uncertainties. Applying these corrections, we measured the bias-corrected morphology for the simulated CEERS images and we find that the derived quantities are in good agreement with their intrinsic values -- except for $A$, which is robust only for angularly large galaxies where $R_p/{\rm FWHM}\geq 5$., Comment: 21 pages, 17 figures; A&A in press

An industry technology roadmap (hereafter ITRM) is a strategic planning tool to predict the technologies and innovations demanded by the future market, allowing the industry to leverage capital and other investments in a range of alternative technologies and achieve sustainable development. To date, ITRM has been adopted by various global organizations in different industries; however, the majority of research has focused on roadmapping techniques only. Although success factors have been mentioned in some of the literature, little work has been conducted to assess the success of any ITRM. This research, therefore, developed an assessment model, including a theoretical and knowledge framework, assessment methods, and quantitative indices, to systematically assess the contents of an ITRM. We then used it to assess four global textile ITRMs. The assessment results led us to recommend five success factors of an effective ITRM: (1) methodological industry technology roadmapping; (2) a multi-organizational background; (3) systematic presentation of ITRM contents; (4) balanced contents for market and technology forces; and (5) appropriate databases. Compared with the success factors proposed in the previous literature, these five success factors are more practical for roadmap content construction.

The frequent occurrence of algal blooms has seriously affected the marine environment and human production activities. Therefore, it is crucial to monitor the phytoplankton concentration in water bodies. In this study, a prediction method for brown tide algae using improved Gramian angular field (IGAF) and deep learning based on the laser-induced fluorescence spectrum was proposed. The method combined one-dimensional(1D) fluorescence spectrum with improved Gramian angular field (IGAF) for image coding. The internal normalizing approach of the original Gramian angle field algorithm was upgraded from local to global, which can increase the difference between samples with various concentrations. Then, we established a novel technique that fully takes into account the Gramian angular difference field (GADF) and Gramian angular summation field (GASF) features, allowing it to control the main and sub-diagonal features and successfully convert 1D sequences into images by adding various weight factors. Using depthwise separable convolutional neural network (DSC) to extract image features helps reduce model training parameters, paired with long short-term memory network (LSTM) to rapidly predict the concentration of brown tide. To confirm the actual performance of the given approach, ablation and contrast experiments were carried out, and the results showed that the method's regression accuracy, R2 was 97.8%, with the lowest MSE and MAE. This study investigated the transformation of 1D spectra into images using IGAF, which not only explored the application of the fluorescence spectrum image coding method for algal regression but also enabled the introduction of the potent benefits of deep learning image processing into the field of spectral analysis.

Purpose Sialic acid-bound immunoglobulin-like lectin 15 (Siglec15) has emerged as a novel therapeutic target in tumor immunotherapy. This study is designed to investigate the function and mechanism of Siglec15 in thyroid carcinoma (THCA). Materials and methods The information on patients with THCA from TGCA and GEO database were used to analyze the expression of Siglec15 in THCA. THCA cells were treated with Siglec15-mFc, a recombinant fusion protein consisting of the extracellular domain of human Siglec15 and murine IgG Fc. THP-1 cells expressing human Siglec15 and its mutant were co-cultured with THCA cells to mimic the contact between Siglec15-expressing tumor-associated macrophages and THCA cells. Wound-healing assay and transwell migration assay were used to examine the migration abilities of BCPAP and C643 cells. Pull-down assay was performed to examine the interaction between Siglec15 and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) on the cancer cells. Cycloheximide (CHX) assay was used to evaluate the stability of the protein. Results The expression of Siglec15 in thyroid carcinoma tissues is higher than in normal tissues. Siglec15 promotes the migration of THCA cells by binding to EGFR in a sialic acid-dependent manner and increases EGFR protein expression. Inhibition of the EGFR pathway blocks the effect of Siglec15 on the migration of THCA cells. Conclusions Our findings reveals that Siglec15 promotes the migration of thyroid carcinoma cells by enhancing the EGFR protein stability.

Neuroinflammation is one of the typical events in multiple neurodegenerative diseases, whereas microglia are the critical participants in the pathogenesis of neuroinflammation. Several studies suggest that neural stem cells (NSCs) present immunomodulatory benefits due to their paracrine products, which contain mounting trophic factors. In the current study, the anti-inflammatory effects of NSC secretome (NSC-S) on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced neuroinflammatory models were evaluated in vivo and the underlying mechanism was further investigated in vitro. It was revealed that NSC-S significantly attenuated the severity of LPS-induced behavior disorders and inflammatory response in mice. In vitro studies found that NSC-S significantly promoted the polarization of microglia from proinflammatory M1 to anti-inflammatory M2 phenotype, and reduced the production of proinflammatory cytokines, whereas elevated anti-inflammatory cytokines in BV2 cells. NSC-S promoted peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-γ) pathway activation. However, these effects of NSC-S were abrogated by PPAR-γ inhibitor GW9662. Notably, the fatty acid-binding protein 5 (FABP5) in NSC-S may mediate PPAR-γ activation and inflammation remission. In summary, NSC-S promotes the regression of LPS-induced microglia-mediated inflammation through the PPAR-γ pathway. This function might be achieved through FABP5.

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-related hepatocyte apoptosis is responsible for multiple hepatic diseases. Previous studies have revealed that endoplasmic reticulophagy (ER-phagy) promotes the selective clearance of damaged ER fragments during ER stress, playing a crucial role in maintaining ER homeostasis and inhibiting apoptosis. Family with sequence similarity 134 member B (FAM134B) is a receptor involved in ER-phagy that can form a complex with calnexin (CNX) and microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3). The complex can mediate the selective isolation of ER fragments to attenuate hepatocyte apoptosis. However, the precise regulatory mechanisms remain unclear.To elucidate the effect of FAM134B-mediated ER-phagy on ER stress-induced apoptosis in buffalo rat liver 3A (BRL-3A) rat hepatocytes and the potential regulatory mechanisms.ER stress-related hepatocyte apoptosis was induced using dithiothreitol (DTT). Proteins related to ER stress and autophagy were measured with western blotting. Protein complex interactions with FAM134B were isolated by co-immunoprecipitation. ER-phagy was evaluated in immunofluorescence experiments. Cell cycle distribution and apoptosis were measured by flow cytometry. Mitochondrial CaER stress-related and autophagy-related proteins in BRL-3A cells were elevated by both short and long-term DTT treatment. Furthermore, co-immunoprecipitation confirmed an interaction between FAM134B, CNX, FAM134B, and LC3 in BRL-3A cells. Immunofluorescence assays revealed that autolysosomes significantly decreased following short-term DTT treatment, but increased after long-term treatment. Mitochondrial CaFAM134B-mediated ER-phagy attenuates hepatocyte apoptosis by suppressing the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. Our findings provide new evidence highlighting the importance of FAM134B-mediated ER-phagy in attenuating hepatocyte apoptosis.

Phage-microbe interactions are appealing systems to study coevolution, and have also been increasingly emphasized due to their roles in human health, disease, and the development of novel therapeutics. Phage-microbe interactions leave diverse signals in bacterial and phage genomic sequences, defined as phage-host interaction signals (PHISs), which include clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) targeting, prophage, and protein-protein interaction signals. In the present study, we developed a novel tool phage-host interaction signal detector (PHISDetector) to predict phage-host interactions by detecting and integrating diverse in silico PHISs, and scoring the probability of phage-host interactions using machine learning models based on PHIS features. We evaluated the performance of PHISDetector on multiple benchmark datasets and application cases. When tested on a dataset of 758 annotated phage-host pairs, PHISDetector yields the prediction accuracies of 0.51 and 0.73 at the species and genus levels, respectively, outperforming other phage-host prediction tools. When applied to on 125,842 metagenomic viral contigs (mVCs) derived from 3042 geographically diverse samples, a detection rate of 54.54% could be achieved. Furthermore, PHISDetector could predict infecting phages for 85.6% of 368 multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria and 30% of 454 human gut bacteria obtained from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Human Microbiome Project (HMP). The PHISDetector can be run either as a web server (http://www.microbiome-bigdata.com/PHISDetector/) for general users to study individual inputs or as a stand-alone version (https://github.com/HIT-ImmunologyLab/PHISDetector) to process massive phage contigs from virome studies.

Exocyst complex component 3 Sec6 of mammals, one of the components of the exocyst complex, participates in numerous cellular functions, such as promoting cell migration and inhibiting apoptosis. In this study, the Sec6 was obtained from Epinephelus coioides, an economically important cultured fish. The full length of E. coioides Sec6 was 2655 bp including a 245 bp 5' UTR, a 154 bp 3' UTR, and a 2256 bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding 751 amino acids, with a molecular mass of 86.76 kDa and a theoretical pI of 5.57. Sec6 mRNA was detected in all the tissues examined, but the expression level is different in these tissues. Using fluorescence microscopy, Sec6 were distributed in both the nucleus and the cytoplasm. After SGIV infection, the expression of E. coioides Sec6 was significantly up-regulated in both trunk kidney and spleen response to Singapore grouper iridovirus (SGIV), an important pathogens of E. coioides. Sec6 could increase the SGIV-induced cytopathic effects (CPE), the expression of the SGIV genes VP19, LITAF, MCP, ICP18 and MCP, and the viral titers. Besides, E. coioides Sec6 significantly downregulated the promoter of NF-κB and AP-1, and inhibited the SGIV-induced apoptosis. The results demonstrated that E. coioides Sec6 might play important roles in SGIV infection.

ContextSevere acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (COVID-19) vaccines may incur changes in thyroid functions followed by mood changes, and patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT) were suggested to bear a higher risk.ObjectivesWe primarily aim to find whether COVID-19 vaccination could induce potential subsequent thyroid function and mood changes. The secondary aim was to find inflammatory biomarkers associated with risk.MethodsThe retrospective, multi-center study recruited patients with HT receiving COVID-19–inactivated vaccines. C-reactive proteins (CRPs), thyroid-stimulating hormones (TSHs), and mood changes were studied before and after vaccination during a follow-up of a 6-month period. Independent association was investigated between incidence of mood state, thyroid functions, and inflammatory markers. Propensity score–matched comparisons between the vaccine and control groups were carried out to investigate the difference.ResultsFinal analysis included 2,765 patients with HT in the vaccine group and 1,288 patients in the control group. In the matched analysis, TSH increase and mood change incidence were both significantly higher in the vaccine group (11.9% versus 6.1% for TSH increase and 12.7% versus 8.4% for mood change incidence). An increase in CRP was associated with mood change (p< 0.01 by the Kaplan–Meier method) and severity (r = 0.75) after vaccination. Baseline CRP, TSH, and antibodies of thyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO) were found to predict incidence of mood changes.ConclusionCOVID-19 vaccination seemed to induce increased levels and incidence of TSH surge followed by mood changes in patients with HT. Higher levels of pre-vaccine serum TSH, CRP, and anti-TPO values were associated with higher incidence in the early post-vaccine phase.

Salinity, drought and low temperature are major environmental factors that adversely affect crop productivity worldwide. In this study we adopted an activation tagging approach to identify salt tolerant mutants of Arabidopsis. Thousands of tagged Arabidopsis lines were screened to obtain several potential mutant lines resistant to 150 mM NaCl. Transcript analysis of a salt-stress tolerance 1 (sst1) mutant line indicated activation of AtMSRB5 and AtMSRB6 which encode methionine sulfoxide reductases. Overexpression of AtMSRB5 in Arabidopsis (B5OX) showed a similar salt tolerant phenotype. Furthermore, biochemical analysis indicated stability of the membrane protein, H+-ATPase 2 (AHA2) through regulation of Na+/K+ homeostasis which may be involved in a stress tolerance mechanism. Similarly, overexpression of AtMSRB5 in transgenic rice demonstrated a salt tolerant phenotype via the modulation of Na+/K+ homeostasis without a yield drag under salt and oxidative stress conditions.

The aetiology of scoliosis remains unclear. Some studies have focused on the theory of possible muscular imbalance. The role of the spinal cord, which directly innervates the paraspinal muscles, in muscular imbalance has not yet been studied. Spinal astrocytomas often grow on one side of the spinal cord, destroying it asymmetrically. Asymmetrical damage to the spinal cord can lead to asymmetrical changes in paraspinal muscles. The present study investigated the effect of muscular imbalance on scoliosis by observing scoliosis caused by spinal astrocytomas. Patients diagnosed with spinal astrocytomas in a single centre were analysed, and the type and side of the symptoms, sagittal tumour position, scoliosis, end vertebrae and apical vertebrae of scoliosis were recorded. The tumour side was assumed from symptom type and side, and the cross-sectional area of the paraspinal muscles on both sides of the end vertebra was outlined and compared. The incidence of astrocytoma-induced scoliosis was significantly higher in patients with unilateral symptoms. The inferred tumour side was highly consistent with the convex side of scoliosis. The distal vertebral segments of scoliosis were consistent with the spinal cord segments involved in the astrocytomas. The apical vertebrae were more caudal in astrocytoma-induced scoliosis. The cross-sectional area of the multifidus muscle on the convex side of apical-level scoliosis was significantly smaller than that on the concave side. However, no significant differences were observed in the erector spinae muscles. Overall, spinal astrocytomas can cause asymmetric destruction of the corresponding spinal cord segment, resulting in asymmetric atrophy and weakness of the multifidus muscle innervated by the spinal cord segment, thereby causing scoliosis that is convex to the weaker side. This mechanism involves asymmetric lower neuron paralysis of the multifidus muscle. This is a type of scoliosis with several differences from idiopathic scoliosis.

An unstable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) and chaotic lithium ion flux are key impediments to commercial high-energy-density lithium batteries because of the uncontrolled growth of rigid lithium dendrites, which would pierce through the conventional polypropylene (PP) separator, causing short circuit and safety issues. Herein, the homogenization of lithium ion flux and the generation of stable SEI layers on lithium anodes were achieved via coating a fluorine-functionalized Ti3C2 (F-Ti3C2) nanosheets on PP separator (F-Ti3C2@PP). F-Ti3C2 nanosheets provide abundant ions pathways to homogeneously manipulate lithium ion flux and increase the Young’s modulus and electrolyte wettability of the separators. In addition, F species derived from the F-Ti3C2 nanosheets would promote the formation of LiF-rich SEI film. The synergistic effect contribute to the uniform lithium deposition. Symmetric Li|Li, asymmetric Li|Cu and full Li|LiFePO4 cells incorporated with the modified separators exhibit improved electrochemical performance even under lean electrolyte conditions. This work provides a feasible strategy to improve the performance of lithium batteries through both fluoridized SEI formation and lithium ion flux manipulation.

Hydrogen embrittlement can easily occur in high strength martensitic steel, manifesting itself as a sudden failure or fracture without warning and greatly threatening the safety of automotive applications. Optimizing the composition of the alloy can be performed by matching heat treatment processing methods and controlling the precipitation amounts to form hydrogen traps. In doing so, the hydrogen embrittlement susceptibility of steel can be effectively delayed, reducing the risk of hydrogen-induced delayed cracking. In this study, four kinds of 1500 MPa strength grade martensitic steel were selected for testing and supplemented with different loadings of Nb and V, respectively. Their grains, phases, and precipitations were compared by optical microscopy (OM), electron backscattered diffraction (ESBD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses. After the addition of Nb and V, the microstructure was refined, the residual austenite content increased, and the hydrogen embrittlement resistance was significantly improved.

Gradient distribution of functional components endows PAN-based CPE with particular function. MoP/MoS2@C specialized in S adsorption and LiTFSI salt for Li+ supply boost Li2S conversion. The concentrated PMMA helps Li anode exhibit a uniform morphology.

Objective To evaluate the effect of flipped classrooms combined with case-based collaborative learning (CBCL) in teaching internal medicine in the experimental eight-year medical doctor program[new academic '4+4' pilot class(NAPC)]. Methods Medical students from the class 2019 and class 2020 of NAPC in Peking Union Medical College were selected as the objects. A teaching method of flipped classroom combined with CBCL was applied in the course of internal medicine (inflammatory bowel disease). Through the knowledge test before and after class discussion, the students' mastery of relevant knowledge was evaluated, and the Likert scale was used to give quantitative feedback on the teaching effect. Results A total of 45 medical students from NAPC were enrolled, including 20 students from class 2019 and 25 students from class 2020.A total of 42 students completed the knowledge test before class and 45 students completed the knowledge test after class.After the flipped classroom combined with CBCL, the students' correct answer rate had significantly increased on questions about the age of inflammatory bowel disease onset, severity of ulcerative colitis endoscopy, lesion range, differential diagnosis, treatment principles, clinical manifestations of Crohn's disease, and treatment principles(all P < 0.001); the median correct answer rate of all questions significantly increased [33.3(26.2, 85.7)% vs. 93.3(71.1, 95.6)%, P=0.001]. Thirty students(66.7%, 30/45)completed the post-class feedback; the overall satisfaction score of the teaching mode of flipped classroom was (4.00±0.74) points. Conclusions The teaching mode of flipped classroom combined with CBCL can significantly improve learning outcome in medical students of the experimental eight-year program. Students are generally satisfied with the teaching mode.

MnOx–NiOx/C composite bidirectionally catalyzes LiPS reduction and Li2S oxidation via constructing a thiosulfate-mediating reaction path beyond the common route. These intensified Li2Sx (x ≤ 4) redox reactions promote long-term cycling.

BackgroundThe maturity and spatial distribution of tertiary lymphoid structures (TLSs) vary dynamically within and between cancers, leading to a controversial role in cancer. We aimed to develop a simple morphology-based approach to identify the maturity of TLSs in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma and examine their clinically relevant functional role.MethodsTLSs were identified based on morphological features via hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining, and the accuracy was verified by multi-immunohistochemical analysis. The density, maturity, spatial distribution and prognostic value of TLSs were separately analyzed in two human laryngeal cancer cohorts. The TLS profile was linked to RNA-seq data from the TCGA database to perform bioinformatics analysis.ResultsTLSs can be classified as early TLSs (E-TLSs), primary follicle-like TLSs (PFL-TLSs) and secondary follicle-like TLSs (SFL-TLSs). The three types of TLSs showed higher infiltration in the extratumoral region. XCL2 is a vital chemokine in the maturation and infiltration of TLSs. FL-TLS was an independent positive prognostic indicator in laryngeal cancer. The FL-TLS group had more abundant immune cell infiltration and a better response to immunotherapies than the non-FL-TLS group. Functional analysis showed that the non-FL-TLS group was enriched in tumor invasion, metastasis and immunosuppression pathways.ConclusionThe maturity of TLSs can be accurately classified by H&E staining. FL-TLS is a potential mediator of antitumor immunity in human laryngeal cancer.

Decades of overconsumption of antimicrobials in the treatment and prevention of bacterial infections have resulted in the increasing emergence of drug-resistant bacteria, which poses a significant challenge to public health, driving the urgent need to find alternatives to conventional antibiotics. Bacteriophages are viruses infecting specific bacterial hosts, often destroying the infected bacterial hosts. Phages attach to and enter their potential hosts using their tail proteins, with the composition of the tail determining the range of potentially infected bacteria. To aid the exploitation of bacteriophages for therapeutic purposes, we developed the PhageTailFinder algorithm to predict tail-related proteins and identify the putative tail module in previously uncharacterized phages. The PhageTailFinder relies on a two-state hidden Markov model (HMM) to predict the probability of a given protein being tail-related. The process takes into account the natural modularity of phage tail-related proteins, rather than simply considering amino acid properties or secondary structures for each protein in isolation. The PhageTailFinder exhibited robust predictive power for phage tail proteins in novel phages due to this sequence-independent operation. The performance of the prediction model was evaluated in 13 extensively studied phages and a sample of 992 complete phages from the NCBI database. The algorithm achieved a high true-positive prediction rate (>80%) in over half (571) of the studied phages, and the ROC value was 0.877 using general models and 0.968 using corresponding morphologic models. It is notable that the median ROC value of 992 complete phages is more than 0.75 even for novel phages, indicating the high accuracy and specificity of the PhageTailFinder. When applied to a dataset containing 189,680 viral genomes derived from 11,810 bulk metagenomic human stool samples, the ROC value was 0.895. In addition, tail protein clusters could be identified for further studies by density-based spatial clustering of applications with the noise algorithm (DBSCAN). The developed PhageTailFinder tool can be accessed either as a web server (http://www.microbiome-bigdata.com/PHISDetector/index/tools/PhageTailFinder) or as a stand-alone program on a standard desktop computer (https://github.com/HIT-ImmunologyLab/PhageTailFinder).

The carcinogenic role of FASN by regulating lipid metabolism reprogramming has been well established in multiple tumors. However, whether mechanisms during intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) progression such as circRNAs regulate FASN expression remains unknown. Here we demonstrate a lipid metabolism related circRNA, circMBOAT2 (has_circ_0007334 in circBase), frequently upregulated in ICC tissues, and positively correlated with ICC malignant features. Knockdown circMBOAT2 inhibits growth and metastasis of ICC cells. Mechanistically, circMBOAT2 combines with PTBP1 and protect PTBP1 from ubiquitin/proteasome-dependent degradation, impairing the function of PTBP1 to transfer FASN mRNA from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. Moreover, circMBOAT2 and FASN have the same effect on fatty acid profile, unsaturated fatty acids instead of saturated fatty acids are primarily regulated and associated with malignant behaviors of ICC cells. The levels of lipid peroxidation and ROS were significantly higher when FASN was knocked down and recovered when circMBOAT2 was overexpressed. Our results identified that circMBOAT2 was upregulated in ICC and promoted progression by stabilizing PTBP1 to facilitate FASN mRNA cytoplasmic export, which altered lipid metabolic profile and regulated redox homeostasis in ICC, suggesting that circMBOAT2 may serve as an available therapeutic target for ICC with active lipid metabolism.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has led to more than 6.4 million deaths worldwide. The prevalent comorbidity between hypertension and severe COVID-19 suggests common genetic factors may affect the outcome of both diseases. As both hypertension and severe COVID-19 demonstrate sex-biased prevalence, common genetic factors between the two diseases may display sex-biased differential associations. By evaluating COVID-19 association signals of 172-candidate hypertension single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) derived from more than 1 million European individuals in two sex-stratified severe COVID-19 genome-wide association studies from UK BioBank with European ancestry, we revealed one functional cis expression quantitative trait locus of SPEG (rs12474050) showing sex-biased association with severe COVID-19 in women. The risk allele rs12474050*T associates with higher blood pressure. In our study, we found it is significantly correlated with lower SPEG expression in muscle-skeletal but with higher expression in both brain cerebellum and cerebellar hemisphere. Additionally, nominal significances were detected for the association between rs12474050*T and lower SPEG expression in both heart left ventricle and atrial appendage; among these tissues, the SPEG expression is nominally significantly higher in females than in males. Further analysis revealed SPEG is mainly expressed in cardiomyocytes in heart and is upregulated upon SARS-CoV-2 infection, with significantly higher upregulation of SPEG only observed in female but not in male COVID-19 patients compared to both normal female and male individuals, suggesting upregulation of SPEG is a female-specific protective mechanism against COVID-19 induced heart damage. Taken together, our analyses suggest the involvement of SPEG in both hypertension and severe COVID-19 in women, which provides new insights for sex-biased effect of severe COVID-19 in women.

Additional file 7: Supplementary Table 2. Clinical characteristics of patients with High grade glioma.

The cavity-based X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) has promise in producing fully coherent pulses with a bandwidth of a few meV and very stable intensity, whereas the currently existing self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) XFEL is capable of generating ultra-short pulses with chaotic spectra. In general, a cavity-based XFEL can provide a spectral brightness three orders of magnitude higher than that of the SASE mode, thereby opening a new door for cutting-edge scientific research. With the development of superconducting MHz repetition-rate XFEL facilities such as FLASH, European-XFEL, LCLS-II, and SHINE, practical cavity-based XFEL operations are becoming increasingly achievable. In this study, megahertz cavity enhanced X-ray generation (MING) is proposed based on China’s first hard XFEL facility - SHINE, which we refer to as MING@SHINE.

Additional file 8: Supplementary Table 3. Characteristics of patients with traumatic brain injury for control group.

Additional file 6: Supplementary Table 1. Clinical characteristics of patients with low grade glioma.

A panchromatic investigation of morphology for the early-type spiral galaxy M81 is presented in this paper. We perform bulge-disk decomposition in M81 images at a total of 20 wavebands from FUV to NIR obtained with GALEX, Swift, SDSS, WIYN, 2MASS, WISE, and Spitzer. Morphological parameters such as Sersic index, effective radius, position angle, and axis ratio for the bulge and the disk are thus derived at all of the wavebands, which enables quantifying the morphological K-correction for M81 and makes it possible to reproduce images for the bulge and the disk in the galaxy at any waveband. The morphology as a function of wavelength appears as a variable-slope trend of the Sersic index and the effective radius, in which the variations are steep at UV--optical and shallow at optical--NIR bands; the position angle and the axis ratio keep invariable at least at optical--NIR bands. It is worth noting that the Sersic index for the bulge reaches about 4--5 at optical and NIR bands, but drops to about 1 at UV bands. This difference brings forward a caveat that a classical bulge is likely misidentified for a pseudo-bulge or no bulge at high redshifts where galaxies are observed through rest-frame UV channels with optical telescopes. The next work of this series is planned to study spatially resolved SEDs for the bulge and the disk, respectively, and thereby explore stellar population properties and star formation/quenching history for the the galaxy composed of the subsystems., Comment: 47 Pages, 38 Figures, 5 Tables; Accepted for Publication in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series; With Minor Corrections in Language and Style

Feng Guo,1,&ast; Qingman Li,1,&ast; Xiaolin Zhang,2,&ast; Yiheng Liu,3 Jie Jiang,4 Shuanghuai Cheng,1 Si Yu,1 Xingfang Zhang,1,5 Fangfang Liu,6 Yiying Li,1 Gregory Rose,7 Haiying Zhang1 1Public Research Laboratory of Hainan Medical University, Haikou, 571199, People’s Republic of China; 2Key Laboratory of Child Cognition & Behavior Development of Hainan Province, Qiongtai Normal University, Haikou, 571127, People’s Republic of China; 3Haikou Hospital Affiliated to Central South University Xiangya School of Medicine, Haikou, 570208, People’s Republic of China; 4Scientific Experiment Center of Hainan Medical University, Haikou, 571199, People’s Republic of China; 5The First Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical College, Haikou, 570102, People’s Republic of China; 6Laboratory Department, Nanping First Hospital Affiliated to Fujian Medical University, Fujian, 353006, People’s Republic of China; 7Departments of Anatomy and Physiology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Carbondale, IL, 62901, USA&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Gregory Rose, Departments of Anatomy and Physiology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Carbondale, IL, 62901, USA, Tel +1 618-303-6503, Email grose@siumed.edu Haiying Zhang, Public Research Laboratory of Hainan Medical University, Haikou, 571199, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 13907533247, Email hyzhang_xjtu2013@aliyun.comAbstract: There are currently approximately 50 million victims of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) worldwide. The exact cause of the disease is unknown at this time, but amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain are hallmarks of the disease. Current drug treatments for AD may slow the progression of the disease and improve the quality of life of patients, but they are often only minimally effective and are not cures. A major obstacle to developing and delivering more effective drug therapies is the presence of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which prevents many compounds with therapeutic potential from reaching the central nervous system. Nanotechnology may provide a solution to this problem. Among the medical nanomaterials currently being studied, carbon dots (CDs) have attracted widespread attention because of their ability to cross the BBB, non-toxicity, and potential for drug/gene delivery.Graphical Abstract: Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, blood-brain barrier, nanoparticles, carbon dots, gene delivery

Multi-object semantic segmentation from remote sensing images has gained significant attention in land resource surveying, global change monitoring, and disaster detection. Compared to other application scenarios, the objects in the remote sensing field are larger and have a wider range of distribution. In addition, some similar targets, such as roads and concrete-roofed buildings, are easily misjudged. However, existing convolutional neural networks operate only in the local receptive field, and this limits their capacity to represent the potential association between different objects and surrounding features. This paper develops a Multi-task Quadruple Attention Network (MQANet) to address the above-mentioned issues and increase segmentation accuracy. The MQANet contains four attention modules: position attention module (PAM), channel attention module (CAM), label attention module (LAM), and edge attention module (EAM). The quadruple attention modules obtain global features by expanding the receptive fields of the network and introducing spatial context information in the label. Then, a multi-tasking mechanism which splits a multi-category segmentation task into several binary-classification segmentation tasks is introduced to improve the ability to identify similar objects. The proposed MQANet network was applied to the Potsdam dataset, the Vaihingen dataset and self-annotated images from Chongzhou and Wuzhen (CZ-WZ), representative cities in China. Our MQANet performs better over the baseline net by a large margin of +6.33 OA and +7.05 Mean F1-score on the Vaihingen dataset, +3.57 OA and +2.83 Mean F1-score on the Potsdam dataset, and +3.88 OA and +8.65 Mean F1-score on the self-annotated dataset (CZ-WZ dataset). In addition, each image execution time of the MQANet model is reduced 66.6 ms compared to UNet. Moreover, the effectiveness of MQANet was also proven by comparative experiments with other studies.

Ancestry impacts the likelihood of hospitalization due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2). To identify ancestry-linked genetic risk variants associated with COVID-19 hospitalization, we performed an integrative analysis of two genome-wide association studies (GWASs) evaluating genetic variation among ancestrally diverse cohorts. We resolved four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are more frequent in COVID-19 hospitalized patients with non-European ancestry than the general population. Among them, the COVID-19 risk SNP rs16831827 shows the largest difference in allele frequency between African and European populations. The minor allele frequency of rs16831827*T was significantly higher in hospitalized COVID-19 patients with African ancestry. SNP rs16831827 also associates with COVID-19 hospitalization in an independent GWAS from the UK Biobank wherein both the hospitalized and control patients are entirely of African ancestry. rs16831827 is an expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) of MAP3K19. Apart from rs16831827, two rare SNPs of MAP3K19, rs186150828 and rs192473276, were also significantly associated with COVID-19 hospitalization among African populations in the Regeneron COVID-19 hospitalization GWAS (p < 5x10-7). MAP3K19 expression is induced during ciliogenesis and most abundant in ciliated tissues including the lung and testis. Multiple COVID-19 related single-cell RNA sequencing data revealed that MAP3K19 is highly expressed in nasal multiciliated epithelial cells, nasopharyngeal ciliated cells, and airway ciliated cells. The COVID-19 hospitalization risk allele rs16831827*T is associated with reduced MAP3K19 expression. Hence, rs16831827 may increase the risk of severe COVID-19 by reducing baseline MAP3K19 expression.