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Pretreatment processes are essential for the preparation of biofuels from lignocellulosic feedstocks. Based on alkaline H2O2 pretreatment, photocatalytic alkaline H2O2 pretreatment (U-AHP) was investigated to examine the effects of reaction time, alkali concentration, and H2O2 concentration on the enzymatic digestion of corn stover. The optimum process conditions were determined by orthogonal tests: 1% NaOH, 2% H2O2, and reaction time of 8 h. Under these conditions, the lignin removal efficiency of UH-AHP was 90.2% and the saccharification yield was 94.7%. Furthermore, FT-IR, XRD, and SEM analyses showed that U-AHP pretreatment caused structural damage to the maize straw and increased the crystallinity of the cellulose, and it was speculated that the U-AHP pretreatment reaction was a complex mechanism, which might be a multiple synergistic reaction. This study shows that U-AHP pretreatment is a simple, green and effective method to promote lignin removal.

Network intrusion detection is one of the critical techniques to enhance cybersecurity. Several few-shot learning-based methods have recently been proposed to alleviate the dependence on large training samples in many supervised learning methods. However, it is still a challenge to achieve real-time higher-accuracy intrusion detection which is an essential requirement for high-speed network security. In this study, we propose a novel few-shot learning-based network intrusion detection method to address this challenge. Specifically, we improve the detection accuracy and real-time processing speed simultaneously in the metric procedure via two mechanisms: (i) we utilize a hard sample selection scheme as a refining stage of our triplet network model training to increase the detection accuracy; and (ii) we design a lightweight embedding network and parallelize the metric feature extraction process to achieve real-time analysis speed. To evaluate the proposed method, we construct few-shot learning-based datasets by using two real and heterogeneous network traffic intrusion detection data sources. Extensive results demonstrate that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in terms of real-time performance and high detection accuracy of malicious samples.

To explore the differences in the growth characteristics and population dynamics of Schizothorax wangchiachii populations in the Jinsha River (JSR) and the Yalong River (YLR), samples were collected in the upper reaches of the JSR (n = 230) from 2019 to 2020 and the middle reaches of the YLR (n = 187) from 2017 to 2018. In the JSR and YLR populations, the age range was 11 and 12 years old, respectively, and the best growth equation was the Von Bertalanffy equation. The comparative analysis of the two populations showed that the growth coefficient, initial sexual maturity age and age at first capture of the YLR population were greater than those of the JSR population. Comparing the mortality rates of the two groups, we found that the YLR population had the higher female mortality rate (0.658 years−1) and the lower male mortality rate (0.453 years−1). Our assessment of the three natural mortality rates showed that the Fcur of both male and female populations was greater than F25%, indicating that both populations were in an overexploited state. Therefore, we suggest considering the two groups as separate protection units and implementing management measures such as ecological regulation, restoration of tributary habitat and strengthening of fishing ban monitoring to protect their resources.

Nanopores in two-dimensional (2D) materials have emerged to offer in principle necessary spatial resolution for high-throughput DNA sequencing. However, their fidelity is severely limited by the fast DNA translocation. A recent experiment indicates that introducing ionic liquids could slow down DNA translocation in a MoS

of supporting mucosal immune barrier integrity and prevention of some pathogenic infections in aquatic species, are key areas of active study, often focusing on feed additives. The objectives of this study were to explore the effects of feeding cMOS (concentrated mannan oligosaccharide) on the gill and skin mucosal barriers of goldfish (Carassius auratus Linnaeus) and evaluate health status during Ichthyophthirius multifiliis infection. After feeding the cMOS-containing diet for 60 days, Hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining showed greater length of gill lamella and thicker dermal dense layer, while Alcian Blue and Periodic acid-Schiff (AB-PAS) staining showed higher numbers of mucin cells in cMOS fed fish. Chemical analysis showed that fish fed cMOS had greater enzyme activity of lysozyme (LZM) and alkaline phosphatase (AKP) in gill and skin tissues, while qRT-PCR revealed higher expression of Muc-2 and IL-1β, as well as lower expression of IL-10. After Ichthyophthirius multifiliis challenge, goldfish fed the cMOS diet had lower mortality and infection rates, as well as fewer visible white spots on the body surfaces. Histologically, the gill and skin of these fish presented less tissue damage and fewer parasites, and had a greater number of mucus cells. In addition, the expression of Muc-2 and IL-10 were notably higher while the expression of IL-1β was significantly lower in cMOS fed goldfish than control fed fish. In this study, cMOS fed goldfish had stronger immune barrier function of skin and gill mucous, and better survival following Ichthyophthirius multifiliis infection.

CuCr contact material, whose mass fraction of Cr is generally in the range of 25% to 50%, is one of the most desirable contact materials for medium- and high-voltage vacuum switches. The homogeneity and denseness of CuCr alloy are the keys to its application. The infiltration and powder sintering have defects, such as uneven distribution of Cr phase, and great difficulties in preparing high-performance CuCr alloys with low gas content; the equipment investment in the vacuum consumable arc melting method is large and the production cost is high, while mechanical alloying, vacuum induction melting, and laser-selective melting as new technologies are still in the laboratory stage. From the perspective of surface modification treatment and multicomponent alloying, refinement of Cr phase grains can improve the properties of CuCr alloy. The new process of aluminothermic reduction-electromagnetic coupling refining-water and gas composite rapid cooling takes oxides as raw material and obtains a fully miscible CuCr alloy melt by aluminothermic reduction theoretically at 2848K, followed by secondary refining under electromagnetic field coupling and water-gas composite cooling and casting, which can obtain alloy ingots of 50 mm in diameter and 10 mm in height. The density and hardness of CuCr alloy prepared by this process as vacuum contact material are better than the requirements of GB/T 26867-2011, so this process has the potential to become a new-generation preparation method for large-size homogeneous high-performance CuCr alloy.

Yinchenhao Decoction (YD), a Chinese herbal medicine, has been traditionally used for treatment of metabolic liver diseases. A 10-week feeding trail was carried out to examine the effects of YD supplementation in a high carbohydrate diet (HCD) on liver histopathology, immune response, disease resistance, and expression of genes associated with endoplasmic reticulum stress, autophagy, apoptosis, necroptosis and inflammation in juvenile largemouth. A diet containing 9% carbohydrate was used as a low carbohydrate diet (LCD), and a HCD was formulated to contain 18% carbohydrate and supplemented with 0, 0.5, 1, 2 or 4% YD (HCD, HCD+0.5YD, HCD+1YD, HCD+2YD and HCD+4YD). Triplicate groups of fish (5.6 ± 0.2 g) were feed the test diets to visual satiety for 10 weeks. The highest survival rate after Nocardia seriolae challenge was recorded for the HCD+4YD group. YD application led to reduced ACP, AKP, AST and ALT activities. HCD-induced cells swelling, ruptured cell membrane, migrated nuclei and increasing inflammatory cells in hepatocytes were mitigated by YD addition. Moreover, YD decreased the expressions of pro-inflammation genes (TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-8, hepcidin1, NF-κB, COX2, CD80 and CD83) and increased the mRNA levels of anti-inflammation genes (IL-10 and IKBα). The mode of liver cell death was preferably changed to programed apoptosis rather than uncontrolled necroptosis by application of YD in HCD. Furthermore, the expression of UPR genes (IRE1, Eif2α, ATF6, XBP1 and GRP78/Bip) and autophagy genes (LC3-2, BNIP3 and P62) was increased by YD supplementation. In summary, our results demonstrated that YD addition in HCD enhances UPR, autophagy and programed apoptosis maintaining the homeostasis, and decreases uncontrolled necroptosis and inflammation, ultimately leading to improved immune response in largemouth bass.

Understanding the genetic structure and differentiation in endangered species is of significance in detecting their phylogenetic relationships and prioritizing conservation. Here we sampled five endangered Cycas species endemic to southwest China and genotyped genetic structure and differentiation among them using the genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) method. C. hongheensis showed high genetic diversity, but the other four species showed low genetic diversity. The genetic diversity between wild and cultivated populations was similar for C. debaoensis and C. guizhouensis, respectively. Low genetic differentiation and high gene flow were found among C. debaoensis, C. guizhouensis, and C. fairylakea, and C. hongheensis differentiated from them at ~1.74 Mya. TreeMix results showed historic migration events from C. guizhouensis to C. hongheensis, showing southward migration pathways. C. hongheensis showed increased effective population size with time, while the other four species underwent bottleneck events at ~1–5 Mya when continuous cooling events occurred. Our results indicate that the migration, differentiation, and speciation of Cycas species are associated with historical cooling events.

Subcutaneous injection of insulin is the current standard medication for many diabetic patients. Convenient and painless noninvasive transdermal insulin delivery has long been pursued but yet succeeded due to no such technologies for large biomacromolecules. We find a tertiary amine oxide-based polyzwitterion, OPDMA, that can efficiently penetrate both the stratum corneum (SC) and viable epidermis into circulation. So its conjugate with insulin, OPDMA-I, applied on the skin can exhibit hypoglycemic effects as efficiently as subcutaneously injected insulin in type-1 diabetic mice and minipigs. The unique pH-dependent cationic-to-zwitterionic transition of OPDMA in the characteristic acidic-to-neutral pH gradient from the skin surface to deep SC enables fast transdermal delivery of OPDMA and its conjugate. On the skin, OPDMA binds to carboxylic acids in the acidic sebum layer, enriching OPDMA-I on the SC. As pH increases in deeper SC layers, binding between OPDMA-I and the skin weakens gradually, allowing for diffusion through inter-corneocyte gaps and penetration into viable epidermis and finally entering the systemic circulation via dermal lymphatic vessels. This process does not alter SC microstructures or cause any physiological changes in the skin. This study represents a groundbreaking example of noninvasive transdermal protein delivery.

Psoroptes ovis, a common surface-living mite of domestic and wild animals worldwide, results in huge economic losses and serious welfare issues in the animal industry. P. ovis infestation rapidly causes massive eosinophil infiltration in skin lesions, and increasing research revealed that eosinophils might play an important role in the pathogenesis of P. ovis infestation. Intradermal injection of P. ovis antigen invoked massive eosinophil infiltration, suggesting that this mite should contain some relative molecules involved in eosinophil accumulation in the skin. However, these active molecules have not yet been identified. Herein, we identified macrophage migration inhibitor factor (MIF) in P. ovis (PsoMIF) using bioinformatics and molecular biology methods. Sequence analyses revealed that PsoMIF appeared with high similarity to the topology of monomer and trimer formation with host MIF (RMSD = 0.28 angstroms and 2.826 angstroms, respectively) but with differences in tautomerase and thiol-protein oxidoreductase active sites. Reverse transcription PCR analysis (qRT-PCR) results showed that PsoMIF was expressed throughout all the developmental stages of P. ovis, particularly with the highest expression in female mites. Immunolocalization revealed that MIF protein located in the ovary and oviduct of female mites and also localized throughout the stratum spinosum, stratum granulosum, and even basal layers of the epidermis in skin lesions caused by P. ovis. rPsoMIF significantly upregulated eosinophil-related gene expression both in vitro (PBMC: CCL5, CCL11; HaCaT: IL-3, IL-4, IL-5, CCL5, CCL11) and in vivo (rabbit: IL-5, CCL5, CCL11, P-selectin, ICAM-1). Moreover, rPsoMIF could induce cutaneous eosinophil accumulation in a rabbit model and increased the vascular permeability in a mouse model. Our findings indicated that PsoMIF served as one of the key molecules contributing to skin eosinophil accumulation in P. ovis infection of rabbits.

Two new Fusicolla species are described and illustrated based on strains isolated from soil and rotten twig. Morphological features and DNA sequence analyses of combined ITS and LSU regions support their placements in Fusicolla and recognition of new species. Fusicolla gigas sp. nov. is characterized by C-shaped, 0−4(−5)-septate microconidia, falcate, (1–)4–9-septate macroconidia up to 80 µm long, and pinkish orange colonies on PDA. Fusicolla guangxiensis sp. nov. is distinguished by long-fusiform, falcate, (0–)1(–3)-septate macroconidia with acute ends, and orange colonies on PDA. Their macroconidia produced on OA are obvious larger than those on PDA. Distinctions between the new species and their close relatives are compared in detail.

BACKGROUND The role of occlusal factors on the occurrence of temporomandibular joint disorders (TMDs) is still unclear and it is tricky for orthodontists to treat malocclusions in patients with TMDs. We report the case of the second orthodontic treatment of an adult female with Class II division 2 malocclusion associated with TMD. With the removal of anterior occlusal interference, TMD symptoms were alleviated and cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images showed the bilateral condyles shifted forward. CASE SUMMARY This case report presented an orthodontic retreatment of an adult female with TMD and mandibular backward positioning based on CBCT examination and Joint Space Index (JSI) analysis. The left and right JSI values of -38.5 and -52.6 indicated that the position of bilateral condyles had posterior displacement. Ten years prior to this evaluation, she underwent orthodontic treatment resulting in the extraction of two upper premolars and one lower central incisor. The joint symptoms, including pain and sounds, were alleviated along with verified mandibular forward repositioning by extraction of another lower central incisor. CONCLUSION Mandibular backward positioning could be associated with TMD. JSI analysis based on CBCT is a convenient way to examine condylar positions quantitatively.

The Al2O3-based slags are playing important roles in the preparation of Cu–Cr alloy through self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) – Metallurgy method. However, the current research on Al2O3-based slag is mainly concentrated on steel metallurgical slag and electroslag remelting slag, and the research on aluminum thermal reduction slag with high content of Al2O3 is still insufficient. Therefore, systematic studies of the physical properties of slag with high aluminum content were carried out in the present work, and the influence of CaF2, CaO, MgO, SiO2, and Na3AlF6 on viscosities, liquidus temperatures, densities, and surface tensions of high Al2O3 content slags was measured and analyzed. The results indicated that CaO and CaF2 have positive effects on the physical properties of Al2O3-based slags, MgO has positive effects when its content is not over 3%, and SiO2 and Na3AlF6 have negative impacts. CaO, CaF2, and MgO (not over 3%) could be used as additives to improve the metallurgical performance of Al2O3-based slags in aluminothermic reduction–slag refining method.

Bone is a complex tissue that undergoes constant remodeling to maintain homeostasis, which requires coordinated multilineage differentiation and proper proliferation of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs). Mounting evidence indicates that a disturbance of bone homeostasis can trigger degenerative bone diseases, including osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. In addition to conventional genetic modifications, epigenetic modifications (i.e., DNA methylation, histone modifications, and the expression of noncoding RNAs) are considered to be contributing factors that affect bone homeostasis. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) were previously regarded as ‘transcriptional noise’ with no biological functions. However, substantial evidence suggests that lncRNAs have roles in the epigenetic regulation of biological processes in MSCs and related diseases. In this review, we summarized the interactions between lncRNAs and epigenetic modifiers associated with osteo-/adipogenic differentiation of MSCs and the pathogenesis of degenerative bone diseases and highlighted promising lncRNA-based diagnostic and therapeutic targets for bone diseases.

Hyperspectral image processing is faced with difficulties considering its redundant features and complex information. Studies on hyperspectral feature extraction in the deep learning domain have become increasingly popular. The mainstream techniques fully consider the spatial information in local neighborhoods when extracting spectral features by constructing deep neural networks. Deep generative models simulate the intrinsic structure of samples by adequately training, showing their potential values for signal processing. In this article, a convolutional two-stream network (cs²GAN-FE) based on the improved Wasserstein generative adversarial network (WGAN) is proposed for unsupervised hyperspectral spatial-spectral feature extraction. The improved WGAN is composed of one generator and one discriminator; the former perceives real data distributions, and the latter determines the attribution of generated data. The designed two-stream strategy is not a simple extension of a one-stream strategy and considers both the static spectral-spatial information and the dynamic spectral reflectance variation in multiple bands. Intrinsic spatial-spectral features are extracted by the trained discriminator considering sample distributions and feature relationships. The loss function is also improved for the unique structure of cs²GAN-FE. Various state-of-the-art techniques are chosen for comparison. Experimental results show the feasibility and potential of this network. Besides, experiments with the random split and the disjointed split both show that the proposed method can outperform other comparison techniques.

Video satellite can generate video image sequences with rich dynamic information, thus providing a new way for monitoring moving objects. However, to maintain high temporal resolution, video satellite images usually sacrifice their spatial resolution. Therefore, super-resolution (SR) plays a vital role in improving the quality of video satellite images. In this article, we propose a multiframe video SR neural network (MVSRnet) for video satellite image SR reconstruction. The proposed MVSRnet consists of three main subnetworks: an optical flow estimation subnetwork (OFEnet), an upscaling subnetwork (Upnet) and an attention-based residual learning subnetwork (ARLnet). The OFEnet aims to estimate low-resolution (LR) optical flow of multiple image frames. Upnet is then constructed to enhance the resolution of both input frames and the estimated LR optical flows. Motion compensation is subsequently performed according to the high-resolution (HR) optical flows. Finally, the compensated HR cube is fed to the ARLnet to generate SR results. Different from existing video satellite image SR methods, the proposed MVSRnet is a multiframe-based method with an attention mechanism, which can merge the motion information among adjacent frames and highlight the importance of extracted features. Experiments conducted on Jilin-1 and OVS-1 video satellite images demonstrate that the proposed MVSRnet significantly outperforms some state-of-the-art SR methods.

Recent studies have shown that deep-learning (DL)-based methods lead to improved performance in video satellite super-resolution (SR). However, the vast majority of prior work is supervised, which is restricted to artificially generated training data (e.g., predetermined bicubic downsampling). Unfortunately, in the real world, the low-resolution (LR) satellite video frames rarely obey these restrictions. To solve this problem, we resort to unsupervised learning and propose a video satellite SR method by using only a single video. The single video SR (SingleVSR) method takes advantage of the power of DL without relying on prior high-resolution (HR) and LR pairs. In the training phase, the LR frames are alternately processed by both downsampling network (i.e., NetLR) and upsampling network (i.e., NetHR). The losses obtained by LR frames and network outputs are used to optimize both NetLR and NetHR. In the testing phase, the trained NetHR is applied to generate the SR results of LR frames. In contrast to the existing video satellite SR methods, our SingleVSR does not require any assumption on degradation or any additional training data except for the single video to be tested. Experiments performed on Jilin-1 and OVS-1 satellite videos demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method.

As Drosophila is an extensively used genetic model system, understanding of its regulatory networks has great significance in revealing the genetic mechanisms of ageing and human diseases. Competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA)-mediated regulation is an important mechanism by which circular RNAs (circRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) regulate ageing and age-related diseases. However, extensive analyses of the multiomics (circRNA/miRNA/mRNA and lncRNA/miRNA/mRNA) characteristics of adult Drosophila during ageing have not been reported. Here, differentially expressed circRNAs and microRNAs (miRNAs) between 7 and 42-day-old flies were screened and identified. Then, the differentially expressed mRNAs, circRNAs, miRNAs, and lncRNAs between the 7- and 42-day old flies were analysed to identify age-related circRNA/miRNA/mRNA and lncRNA/miRNA/mRNA networks in ageing Drosophila. Several key ceRNA networks were identified, such as the dme_circ_0009500/dme_miR-289-5p/CG31064, dme_circ_0009500/dme_miR-289-5p/frizzled, dme_circ_0009500/dme_miR-985-3p/Abl, and XLOC_027736/dme_miR-985-3p/Abl XLOC_189909/dme_miR-985-3p/Abl networks. Furthermore, real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) was used to verify the expression level of those genes. Those results suggest that the discovery of these ceRNA networks in ageing adult Drosophila provide new information for research on human ageing and age-related diseases.

In order to reduce the mechanical damage during the kiwifruit picking process, the fruit rate of the picked fruit should be improved. The mechanical properties of the epidermis and interior of the fruit during the harvesting process were studied, so as to analyze the damage principle of the fruit. Firstly, a three-dimensional model of kiwifruit was constructed by point cloud scanning, and the flesh and placenta were filled in order to become a complete kiwifruit model. The elastic modulus, failure stress, and density of the kiwifruit skin, flesh, and placenta were obtained experimentally, and the material properties of the kiwifruit model were endowed with properties. Secondly, the finite element method was used to analyze the epidermis and internal stress of the kiwifruit by simulating the two processes of grabbing kiwifruit and picking to fruit boxes. The results show that the relative error of the simulation and test of the simulated grasping of kiwifruit was 6.42%, and the simulation and test of picking to fruit box confirmed the existence of damage, and the reflectivity of the damaged point in the detection was 6.18% on average, and the hardness value decreased to 8.30 kg/cm2 on average. The results from this study can provide a reference for control strategies and damage avoidance during grasping.

BackgroundEpigenetic variants carried by circulating tumor DNA can be used as biomarkers for early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by noninvasive liquid biopsy. However, traditional methylation analysis method, bisulfite sequencing, with disadvantages of severe DNA damage, is limited in application of low-amount cfDNA analysis.ResultsThrough mild enzyme-mediated conversion, enzymatic methyl sequencing (EM-seq) is ideal for precise determination of cell-free DNA methylation and provides an opportunity for HCC early detection. EM-seq of methylation control DNA showed that enzymatic conversion of unmethylated C to U was more efficient than bisulfite conversion. Moreover, a relatively large proportion of incomplete converted EM-seq reads contains more than 3 unconverted CH site (CH = CC, CT or CA), which can be removed by filtering to improve accuracy of methylation detection by EM-seq. A cohort of 241 HCC, 76 liver disease, and 279 normal plasma samples were analyzed for methylation value on 1595 CpGs using EM-seq and targeted capture. Model training identified 283 CpGs with significant differences in methylation levels between HCC and non-HCC samples. A HCC screening model based on these markers can efficiently distinguish HCC sample from non-HCC samples, with area under the curve of 0.957 (sensitivity = 90%, specificity = 97%) in the test set, performing well in different stages as well as in serum α-fetoprotein/protein induced by vitamin K absence-II negative samples.ConclusionFiltering of reads with ≥ 3 CHs derived from incomplete conversion can significantly reduce the noise of EM-seq detection. Based on targeted EM-seq analysis of plasma cell-free DNA, our HCC screening model can efficiently distinguish HCC patients from non-HCC individuals with high sensitivity and specificity.