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Background: Diverse studies have revealed discrepant evidence concerning the causal association between Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and COVID-19 vaccination in relation to migraines. Investigating the correlation between the former two factors and migraines can facilitate policymakers in the precise formulation of comprehensive post-pandemic interventions while urging the populace to adopt a judicious perspective on COVID-19 vaccination., Methods: We undertook a Mendelian randomization (MR) study. The primary assessment of the causal relationship between the three different COVID-19 exposures and migraine was conducted using the standard inverse variance weighted (IVW) approach. In the supplementary analysis, we also employed two methodologies: the weighted median estimator (WME) and the MR-Egger regression. Ultimately, the reliability and stability of the outcomes were assessed via Cochran's Q test, the leave-one-out method, the MR-Egger intercept test, and the MR pleiotropy residual sum and outlier (MR-PRESSO) test., Results: The results indicate an absence of correlation between genetically predicted COVID-19 (①Very severe respiratory confirmed COVID-19: odds ratio [OR], 1.0000881; 95%CI, 0.999748-1.000428; p = 0.6118; ②Hospitalized COVID-19: OR, 1.000024; 95%CI, 0.9994893-1.000559; p = 0.931;③SARS-CoV-2 infection: OR, 1.000358; 95%CI, 0.999023-1.001695; p = 0.5993) and the risk of migraine. Furthermore, the MR-Egger regression and WME also yielded no evidence of COVID-19 elevating the risk of migraine occurrence. Sensitivity analysis affirmed the robustness and consistency of all outcomes., Conclusions: The results of this study do not offer genetic evidence to substantiate a causal relationship between COVID-19 and migraines. Thus, the deduction drawn from COVID-19 genetic data is that COVID-19 vaccination is unlikely to exert an impact on the occurrence of migraines, though this conclusion warrants further investigation., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Jiang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Accurately predicting traffic flow is crucial for optimizing traffic conditions, reducing congestion, and improving travel efficiency. To explore spatiotemporal characteristics of traffic flow in depth, this study proposes the MFSTBiSGAT model. The MFSTBiSGAT model leverages graph attention networks to extract dynamic spatial features from complex road networks, and utilizes bidirectional long short-term memory networks to capture temporal correlations from both past and future time perspectives. Additionally, spatial and temporal information enhancement layers are employed to comprehensively capture traffic flow patterns. The model aims to directly extract original temporal features from traffic flow data, and utilizes the Spearman function to extract hidden spatial matrices of road networks for deeper insights into spatiotemporal characteristics. Historical traffic speed and lane occupancy data are integrated into the prediction model to reduce forecasting errors and enhance robustness. Experimental results on two real-world traffic datasets demonstrate that MFSTBiSGAT successfully extracts and captures spatiotemporal correlations in traffic networks, significantly improving prediction accuracy., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Huang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Waterborne epoxy resin (WER), a cleaning material with exceptional high-temperature resistance, has attracted much attention to modify emulsified asphalt in the pavement material field. Epoxy value is the critical characteristic index of WER. In this research, three WER with the epoxy values of 0.20 eq/100g, 0.44 eq/100g, and 0.51 eq/100g were utilized as asphalt modifiers. The influence of epoxy value on WER-EA was investigated by comparing the rheological properties of three kinds of WER emulsified asphalt (WER-EA). The modification mechanism of WER-EA has been analyzed using FTIR and SEM. The results demonstrate that different WER-EA resulted in significantly different rheological properties. WER-EA with the epoxy value of 0.20 eq/100g (E20) performed best at high temperatures, with a maximum increase of 17477% in G*/sinδ compared to the neat asphalt and a maximum increase of 66.3% in G*/sinδ compared to the other two WER-EA. WER-EA with 0.44 eq/100g epoxy value (E44) performed best at low temperatures, with a maximum increase in m value of 39.4% and a maximum decrease in S value of 33.3% compared to the other two WER-EA. In addition, the interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) in E20 was observed to be more solid and stable, and IPN in E44 was more uniform. To summarize, lower epoxy value led to a higher degree of WER reaction and higher content of rigid groups, which is more conducive to optimizing the high-temperature property of WER-EA. WER with moderate epoxy value resulted in a low content of polar bonds and thus high content of flexible segments, which helps emulsified asphalt to form a more uniform IPN., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Huang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

As one of the triterpene extracts of Taraxacum, a traditional Chinese plant, taraxerol (TRX) exhibits antitumor activity. In this study, we evaluated the effects of TRX on the migration and invasion of MDA-MB-231 cells, analyzed the molecular mechanism through network pharmacology and molecular docking, and finally verified it by in vitro experiments. The results showed that TRX could inhibit the migration and invasion of MDA-MB-231 cells in a time- and concentration-dependent manner, while MAPK3 was the most promising target and could stably combine with TRX. In addition, the relative protein expression levels were detected by Western blot, and we observed that TRX could inhibit the migration and invasion of MDA-MB-231 cells via the ERK/Slug axis. Moreover, an ERK activator (tert-butylhydroquinone, tBHQ) partially reversed the suppressive effect of TRX on MDA-MB-231 cells. In conclusion, TRX inhibited the migration and invasion of MDA-MB-231 cells via the ERK/Slug axis., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Xia et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Quercus mongolica is a common landscape, afforestation, and construction timber species in northern China with high ecological, economic, and ornamental value. Leaf senescence is a complex process that has important implications for plant growth and development. To explore changes of metabolites during the ageing of Quercus mongolica leaves, we investigated physiological responses and metabolite composition in ageing leaves harvested from 15-20-year-old Quercus mongolica. Leaf samples of Q. mongolica were collected when they were still green (at maturity) (stage 1), during early senescence (stage 2), and during late senescence (stage 3). These leaves were then subjected to physiological index and metabolome sequencing analyses. The physiological analysis showed that the leaves of Q. mongolica changed from green to yellow during senescence, which induced significant accumulation of soluble sugar and significant reductions in the concentration of soluble protein and chlorophyll. Peroxidase and catalase were the main antioxidant enzymes mitigating leaf senescence. Metabolomic analysis identified 797 metabolites during leaf senescence. Compared to stage 1, 70 differential metabolites were screened in stage 2 and 72 were screened in stage 3. Differential metabolites in the two senescent stages were principally enriched in amino acid metabolism, lipid metabolism and secondary metabolite biosynthesis. The contents of N-oleoylethanolamine and N, N-dimethylglycine were significantly increased only in stage 2, while the contents of trifolin, astragalin, valine, isoleucine, leucine, and citric acid were significantly increased only in stage 3. Histidine, homoserine, tryptophan, tyrosine, phenylalanine, proline, norleucine, N-glycyl-L-leucine, linoleic acid, linolenic acid, gallic acid, 3-indoleacrylic acid, 3-amino-2-naphthoic acid, 3-hydroxy-3-methylpentane-1,5-dioic acid, 2,3,4-trihydroxybenzoic acid, trifolin, astragalin, DL-2-aminoadipic acid, pinoresinol dimethyl ether, dimethylmatairesinol, and lysophosphatidylcholine increased during both stage 2 and stage 3. Increasing contents of these metabolites may constitute the main mechanism by which Q. mongolica leaves adapt to senescence., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Yuan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The risk transmission process between international construction projects largely contributes to the dilemma of risk management of international construction projects. Firstly, this paper adopts methods such as literature review and brainstorming to identify the risks in international construction projects from all aspects and all stages. Connections between risks is built by the Delphi method and further construct the international construction project risk network. Combined with "ucinet", a network visualization analysis tool, overall feature parameters and local feature parameters are presented for analysis as the focus. Starting from this, the risk transmission in complex construction projects is analyzed to identify key risks and transmission relationships and reveal inherent laws of risk transmission. Accordingly, when formulating risk prevention strategies for international engineering projects, it is proposed that measures to curb risk transmission should be effectively adopted from both key risks and their transmission relationships., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Huangfu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: The literature has proven that plyometric training (PT) improves various physical performance outcomes in sports. Even though PT is one of the most often employed strength training methods, a thorough analysis of PT and how it affects technical skill performance in sports needs to be improved., Methods: This study aimed to compile and synthesize the existing studies on the effects of PT on healthy athletes' technical skill performance. A comprehensive search of SCOPUS, PubMed, Web of Science Core Collection, and SPORTDiscus databases was performed on 3rd May 2023. PICOS was employed to establish the inclusion criteria: 1) healthy athletes; 2) a PT program; 3) compared a plyometric intervention to an active control group; 4) tested at least one measure of athletes' technical skill performance; and 5) randomized control designs. The methodological quality of each individual study was evaluated using the PEDro scale. The random-effects model was used to compute the meta-analyses. Subgroup analyses were performed (participant age, gender, PT length, session duration, frequency, and number of sessions). Certainty or confidence in the body of evidence was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE)., Results: Thirty-two moderate-high-quality studies involving 1078 athletes aged 10-40 years met the inclusion criteria. The PT intervention lasted for 4 to 16 weeks, with one to three exercise sessions per week. Small-to-moderate effect sizes were found for performance of throwing velocity (i.e., handball, baseball, water polo) (ES = 0.78; p < 0.001), kicking velocity and distance (i.e., soccer) (ES = 0.37-0.44; all p < 0.005), and speed dribbling (i.e., handball, basketball, soccer) (ES = 0.85; p = 0.014), while no significant effects on stride rate (i.e., running) were noted (ES = 0.32; p = 0.137). Sub-analyses of moderator factors included 16 data sets. Only training length significantly modulated PT effects on throwing velocity (> 7 weeks, ES = 1.05; ≤ 7 weeks, ES = 0.29; p = 0.011). The level of certainty of the evidence for the meta-analyzed outcomes ranged from low to moderate., Conclusion: Our findings have shown that PT can be effective in enhancing technical skills measures in youth and adult athletes. Sub-group analyses suggest that PT longer (> 7 weeks) lengths appear to be more effective for improving throwing velocity. However, to fully determine the effectiveness of PT in improving sport-specific technical skill outcomes and ultimately enhancing competition performance, further high-quality research covering a wider range of sports is required., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Deng et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Pennisetum alopecuroides (L.), one of the important exotic plants, gives great economic value to animal husbandry in China. In order to study the distribution of Pennisetum alopecuroides (L.) in China and its response to climate change, based on the distribution records of Pennisetum alopecuroides (L.), our study used the Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) model and geographic information system (GIS) methods, combined with environmental factors such as climate and terrain, to predict the potential distribution areas suitable for Pennisetum alopecuroides (L.) under current and future climate scenarios. The results showed that annual precipitation was the most important factor affecting the distribution of Pennisetum alopecuroides (L.). In current climate scenario, the total area of suitable for Pennisetum alopecuroides (L.) growth was about 576.5 km2, accounting for about 60.5% of the total land area of China. Among all the suitable areas, the area of low, middle and high fitness areas accounted for 5.69%, 20.55% and 33.81% of the total area respectively. In future climate scenarios (RCP4.5), the suitable area of Pennisetum alopecuroides (L.) would decrease with climate change, showing a clear trend of northward expansion in China. A concentrated and contiguous distribution region for Pennisetum alopecuroides (L.) would appear in northeast China. The model was tested by the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC), and the average area under the curve of ROC of the training set was 0.985, which was reliable. This work provided an important reference and theoretical basis for the efficient utilization and plant regionalization of Pennisetum alopecuroides (L.) in future., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.)

Intercropping green manure (GM) may be a good solution to the problems of acid soil in tropical plantations. Soil organic nitrogen (No) may change due to the application of GM. A three-year field experiment was conducted to determine the effect of different utilization patterns of Stylosanthes guianensis GM on soil No fractions in a coconut plantation. Three treatments were set: no GM intercropping (CK), intercropping and mulching utilization pattern (MUP), and intercropping and green manuring utilization pattern (GMUP). The content dynamics of soil total N (TN) and soil No fractions including of non-hydrolysable N (NHNo) and hydrolyzable N (HN) in the cultivated soil layer was examined. The results showed that after three years of intercropping, the TN content of the MUP and GMUP treatment was 29.4% and 58.1% respectively higher (P < 0.05) than those of the initial soil, and the No fractions content of GMUP and MUP treatment was 15.1%-60.0% and 32.7%-111.0% higher (P < 0.05) than those of the initial soil. The further results indicated that after three years of intercropping, compared with CK, GMUP and MUP could increase the content of TN by 32.6% and 61.7% respectively, and No fractions content was also increased by 15.2%-67.3% and 32.3%-120.3%% respectively (P < 0.05). The No fractions content of GMUP treatment was 10.3%-36.0% higher than those of MUP treatment (P < 0.05). These results indicated that intercropping Stylosanthes guianensis GM could significantly increase the soil N including of the TN an No fractions content, and the GMUP was more effective than MUP, therefore, GMUP is a better GM utilization pattern to improve the soil fertility and should be popularized in the tropical fruit plantation., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Huang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

From the perspective of generalized technological progress, this study investigates the energy rebound effects on China's domestic overall and the country's various industries using 2005-2017 data. The results showed that the rebound effect of the domestic overall is driven mainly by the secondary sector. The domestic overall and high-energy-consuming industries decrease the rebound effects, whereas low-energy-consuming industries increase the rebound effects. As China's industrial structure does not lean toward high-energy-consuming industries, this implies that the Industrial Restructuring Initiative that began in the Chinese government's "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" has effectively slowed down the rebound effects of high-energy-consuming industries, and the feedback effect of self-reinforcement within the economic system was offset. The results also implied that energy efficiency policies should shift to low-energy-consuming industries; the rebound effects of the energy industries could be lessened, the energy efficiency of low-energy-consuming industries could be increased, and the industrial structure could be further optimized by implementing an appropriate pricing in electricity., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Xu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The heavy-polluting industry is inexorably to responsible for the deterioration of the environment. Improving environmental performance is an unavoidable decision for heavy-polluting firms to ensure sustainable development under the policy framework of the carbon peak target. This study provides theoretical and empirical evidence for the effect of environmental protection subsidies on environmental performance. This study constructs basic and mediating effect models to measure how environmental protection subsidies affect environmental performance using panel data of China's heavy-polluting listed firms from 2008 to 2019. This is an important outcome of industrial green transformation in environmental governance and provides a scientific basis for government departments to formulate environmental policies. The results of the empirical analysis show that environmental protection subsidies can improve the environmental performance of heavy-polluting listed firms. After receiving environmental protection subsidies, firms engaged in clean and green production through green technology innovation, thereby reducing external environmental pollution and improving their environmental performance. The mediating role of green technology innovation in the relationship between environmental protection subsidies and environmental performance is significant only in state-owned firms and firms in Eastern China. The research results may further guide the direction of green development of heavy-polluting industries, and thus promote harmonious development between the environment and the economy., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Du et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Although many studies have examined the effects of perceived stress on some specific stress responses during the COVID-19, a comprehensive study is still lacking. And the co-mediating role of coping style and resilience as important mediators of stress processes is also unclear. This study aimed to explore the effects of perceived stress on emotional, physical, and behavioral stress responses and the mediating roles of coping style and resilience in Chinese population during the recurrent outbreak of COVID-19 from a comprehensive perspective. 1087 participants were recruited to complete the anonymous online survey including the Perceived Stress Scale, the Stress Response Questionnaire, the Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire and the Emotional Resilience Questionnaire. Pearson's correlation and Hayes PROCESS macro 3.5 model 6 were used in the mediating effect analysis. Results showed that positive coping style and resilience both buffered the negative effects of perceived stress on emotional, physical, and behavioral responses through direct or indirect pathways, and resilience had the strongest mediating effects. The findings urged relevant authorities and individuals to take measures to promote positive coping style and resilience to combat the ongoing pandemic stress and protect public physical and mental health., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2022 Gao et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: Differentiated service delivery (DSD) models are recommended for stable people living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy (ART) but there are few rigorous evaluations of patient outcomes., Methods: Adherence clubs (ACs) are a form of DSD run by community health workers at community venues with 2-4 monthly ART refills and annual nurse assessments). Clinic-based care involves 2-monthly ART refills and 4-monthly nurse/doctor assessments. We compared virologic outcomes in stable adults randomised to ACs at four months post-ART initiation to those randomised to primary health care (PHC) ART clinics through 12 months on ART in Cape Town, South Africa (NCT03199027). We hypothesised that adults randomised to ACs would be more likely to be virally suppressed at 12 months post-ART initiation, versus adults randomised to continued PHC care. We enrolled consecutive adults on ART for 3-5 months who met local DSD ['adherence clubs' (AC)] eligibility (clinically stable, VL<400 copies/mL). The primary outcome was VL<400 copies/mL at 12 months on ART., Results: Between January 2017 and April 2018, 220 adults were randomised (mean age 35 years; 67% female; median ART duration 18 weeks); 85% and 94% of participants randomised to ACs and PHCs attended their first service visit on schedule respectively. By 12 months on ART, 91% and 93% randomised to ACs and PHCs had a VL<400 copies/mL, respectively. In a binomial model adjusted for age, gender, previous ART use and nadir CD4 cell count, there was no evidence of superiority of ACs compared to clinic-based care (RD, -2.42%; 95% CI, -11.23 to 6.38). Findings were consistent when examining the outcome at a threshold of VL <1000 copies/mL., Conclusion: Stable adults referred to DSDs at 4 months post-ART initiation had comparable virologic outcomes at 12 months on ART versus PHC clinics, with no evidence of superiority. Further research on long-term outcomes is required., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2022 Odayar et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Aglaonema, commonly called Chinese evergreens, are widely used for ornamental purposes. However, attempts to identify Aglaonema species and cultivars based on leaf morphology have been challenging. In the present study, chloroplast sequences were used to elucidate the phylogenetic relationships of cultivated Aglaonema in South China. The chloroplast genomes of one green species and five variegated cultivars of Aglaonema, Aglaonema modestum, 'Red Valentine', 'Lady Valentine', 'Hong Yan', 'Hong Jian', and 'Red Vein', were sequenced for comparative and phylogenetic analyses. The six chloroplast genomes of Aglaonema had typical quadripartite structures, comprising a large single copy (LSC) region (91,092-91,769 bp), a small single copy (SSC) region (20,816-26,501 bp), and a pair of inverted repeat (IR) regions (21,703-26,732 bp). The genomes contained 112 different genes, including 79-80 protein coding genes, 28-29 tRNAs and 4 rRNAs. The molecular structure, gene order, content, codon usage, long repeats, and simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were generally conserved among the six sequenced genomes, but the IR-SSC boundary regions were significantly different, and 'Red Vein' had a distinct long repeat number and type frequency. For comparative and phylogenetic analyses, Aglaonema costatum was included; it was obtained from the GenBank database. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertions/deletions (indels) were determined among the seven Aglaonema genomes studied. Nine divergent hotspots were identified: trnH-GUG-CDS1&#95;psbA, trnS-GCU&#95;trnS-CGA-CDS1, rps4-trnT-UGU, trnF-GAA-ndhJ, petD-CDS2-rpoA, ycf1-ndhF, rps15-ycf1-D2, ccsA-ndhD, and trnY-GUA-trnE-UUC. Additionally, positive selection was found for rpl2, rps2, rps3, ycf1 and ycf2 based on the analyses of Ka/Ks ratios among 16 Araceae chloroplast genomes. The phylogenetic tree based on whole chloroplast genomes strongly supported monophyletic Aglaonema and clear relationships among Aroideae, Lasioideae, Lemnoideae, Monsteroideae, Orontioideae, Pothoideae and Zamioculcadoideae in the family Araceae. By contrast, protein coding gene phylogenies were poorly to strongly supported and incongruent with the whole chloroplast genome phylogenetic tree. This study provided valuable genome resources and helped identify Aglaonema species and cultivars., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Currently, the connectivity calculation of complex pipeline networks is mostly simplified or ignores the influence of nodes such as elbows and tees on the connectivity reliability of the entire network. Historical earthquake damage shows that the seismic performance of municipal buried pipelines depends on the ability of nodes and interfaces to resist deformation. The influence of node reliability on network connectivity under reciprocal loading is a key issue to be addressed. Therefore, based on the general connectivity probabilistic analysis algorithm, this paper embeds the reliability of nodes into the reliability of edges, and derives a more detailed and comprehensive on-intersecting minimum path recursive decomposition algorithm considering elbows, tees, and other nodes; then, based on the reliability calculation theory of various pipeline components, the reliability of various nodes in different soil is calculated using finite element numerical simulation; finally, the reliability of a small simple pipeline network and a large complex pipeline network are used as examples to reveal the importance of considering nodes in the connectivity calculation of pipeline network. The reliability of the network system decreases significantly after considering the nodes such as elbows and tees. The damage of one node usually causes the failure of the whole pipes of the path. The damage probability is greater in the area with dense elbow and tee nodes. In this study, all types of nodes that are more prone to damage are considered in detail in the calculation. As a result, the proposed algorithm has been improved in computational accuracy, which lays the foundation for further accurate calculation of pipeline network connectivity., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

The copyright problem of digital products is becoming more and more prominent. In this case, digital watermarking technology has attracted the attention of many experts and scholars in the field of information security. Among the proposed technologies, zero-watermarking technology has been favored greatly with its excellent imperceptibility. In this paper, a novel robust audio zero-watermarking scheme is designed by applying non-negative matrix decomposition algorithm to zero-watermarking technology. Firstly, the proposed scheme divides the input audio signal into fixed frames, then applies fast Fourier transform(FFT) and non-negative matrix factorization(NMF) algorithm to extract the feature vector of the original audio signal. Finally, XOR the feature vector and the digital watermark sequence to achieve the embedding of zero-watermarking. The experimental results show that the proposed scheme performs more effectively in resisting common and frame-desynchronization attacks than the existing zero-watermarking schemes., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Pulmonary ischemia and reperfusion (I/R) injury occurs in many clinical conditions and causes severe damage to the lungs. Diabetes mellitus (DM) predisposes to pulmonary I/R injury. We previously found that remote liver ischemia preconditioning protected lungs against pulmonary I/R injury. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether remote liver ischemic postconditioning (RLIPost) attenuates pulmonary damage induced by I/R injury in non-diabetic or diabetic rats. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were assigned into non-diabetic and diabetic groups. All rats except for the sham were exposed to 45 min of left hilum occlusion followed by 2 h of reperfusion. RLIPost was conducted at the onset of pulmonary reperfusion by four cycles of 5 min of liver ischemia and reperfusion. Lung injury was assessed by the wet/dry weight ratio, pulmonary oxygenation, histopathological changes, apoptosis and the expression of inflammatory cytokines. Reperfusion-associated protein phosphorylation states were determined. RLIPost offered strong pulmonary-protection in both non-diabetic and diabetic rats, as reflected in reduced water content and pulmonary structural damage, recovery of lung function, inhibition of apoptosis and inflammation after ischemia-reperfusion. RLIPost induced the activation of pulmonary STAT-3, a key component in the SAFE pathway, but not activation of the proteins in the RISK pathway, in non-diabetic rats. In contrast, RLIPost-induced pulmonary protection in diabetic lungs was independent of SAFE or RISK pathway activation. These results demonstrate that RLIPost exerts pulmonary protection against I/R-induced lung injury in non-diabetic and diabetic rats. The underlying mechanism for protection may be different in non-diabetic (STAT-3 dependent) versus diabetic (STAT-3 independent) rats., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Emerging evidence has indicated a possible link between obesity in early life with subsequent cancer risks, but its association with gastric cancer remains unknown. This study aimed to investigate the association of obesity at ages 18-20 and 35 with the later risk of gastric cancer among the Korean population. Included were 122,724 individuals who participated in the large-scale prospective cohort study, the Health Examinees-Gem (HEXA-G) study, during 2004-2017. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for gastric cancer risk associated with body mass index (BMI) at ages 18-20 and 35 years. During a mean follow-up period of 8.6±2.1 years, a total 927 gastric cancer cases (531 men and 396 women) were identified. When compared to normal BMI (18.5-23.0 kg/m2), obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2) at age 35 was significantly associated with increased risk of gastric cancer later in life among total participants (HR 1.94, 95% CI 1.26-2.97, p 0.01). When analyzed separately by sex, obesity at 35 years of age was significantly associated with increased risk of gastric cancer among both men (HR 1.79, 95% CI 1.02-3.13, p 0.05) and women (HR 2.35, 95% CI 1.21-4.60, p 0.02). No significant associations were found for obesity at late adolescence in both men and women. Our findings suggest that obesity in early adulthood may be associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer. The results may aid in understanding the etiology of GC in a population with a divergent trend of gastric cancer., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

As the main forms of carbohydrates, starch and sucrose play a vital role in the balance and coordination of various carbohydrates. Lanzhou lily is the most popular edible lily in China, mainly distributed in the central region of Gansu. To clarify the relationship between carbohydrate metabolism and bulb development of Lanzhou lily, so as to provide a basis for the promotion of the growth and development in Lanzhou lily and its important economic value, we studied lily bulbs in the squaring stage, flowering stage, half withering stage and withering stage. The plant height, fresh weight of mother and daughter bulbs continued to increase during the whole growth period and fresh weight of stem and leaf began to decrease in the half withering stage. The content of starch, sucrose and total soluble sugar in the lily mother bulb accumulated mostly in the flowering, withering and half withering stages, respectively. Starch, sucrose and total soluble sugar accumulated in the daughter bulb with the highest concentration during the withering stage. In the transcription level, sucrose synthase (SuSy1) and sucrose invertase (INV2) expressed the highest in squaring stage, and the expression was significantly higher in the mother bulb than in the daughter bulb. In flowering stage, the expression levels of soluble starch synthase (SSS1), starch-branching enzyme (SBE) and adenosine diphosphate-glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGP1) genes were higher in the mother bulb than in the daughter bulb. Altogether, our results indicate that starch and sucrose are important for the bulb growth and development of Lanzhou lily., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Objective: After a complete remission to treatment for hepatoblastoma, some children still have recurrence. We identified and explored the factors that influence recurrence after complete remission in a retrospective study., Methods: Of 197 children with hepatoblastoma, 140 (71.1%) achieved initial complete remission and were enrolled in factor analysis. Variables consisted of age, sex, PRE-Treatment EXTent of tumor (PRETEXT) stage, pathologic type, metastatic disease, serum alpha-fetoprotein level, vascular involvement, and surgical margin status. We employed univariate and multivariate analyses to assess the relationship between each factor and tumor recurrence., Results: Of 140 children who achieved initial complete remission, 42 (30%) had recurrent hepatoblastoma. The 5-year overall survival rates for the non-recurrence and recurrence group were 99.0% and 78.6%, respectively. The overall 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year recurrence-free survival (RFS) rates were 77.8%, 69.8%, and 69.8%, respectively. All recurrences occurred within 2 years from complete remission. The RFS rate was significantly higher in children younger than 3 years and in those with mixed pathological type, PRETEXT II and III, without metastatic disease, without vascular involvement, and microscopic negative margin than in that of children older than 3 years, with epithelial pathological type, PRETEXT IV, metastatic disease, vascular involvement, and macroscopic positive margin (P < 0.001, = 0.020, < 0.001, = 0.004, = 0.002, and < 0.001, respectively). The independent risk factors for recurrence after complete remission were age ≥3 years, PRETEXT IV, and metastatic disease (P < 0.05)., Conclusion: Age, PRETEXT stage, metastatic disease, vascular involvement, pathologic type, and surgical margin status might be associated with recurrent hepatoblastoma after complete remission; meanwhile, age ≥3 years, PRETEXT IV, and metastatic disease are independent risk factors of recurrence. Further research is needed on the causes of tumor recurrence, which may improve the long-term outcomes of children with hepatoblastoma., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Vitamin E is essential for human health and plays positive roles in anti-oxidation. Previously, we detected large variation in vitamin E content among 161 oil palm accessions. In this study, twenty oil palm accessions with distinct variation in vitamin E contents (171.30 to 1 258.50 ppm) were selected for genetic variation analysis and developing functional markers associated with vitamin E contents. Thirty-seven homologous genes in oil palm belonging to vitamin E biosynthesis pathway were identified via BLASTP analysis, the lengths of which ranged from 426 to 25 717 bp (average 7 089 bp). Multiplex PCR sequencing for the 37 genes found 1 703 SNPs and 85 indels among the 20 oil palm accessions, with 226 SNPs locating in the coding regions. Clustering analysis for these polymorphic loci showed that the 20 oil palm accessions could be divided into five groups. Among these groups, group I included eight oil palm accessions whose vitamin E content (mean value: 893.50 ppm) was far higher than other groups (mean value 256.29 to 532.94 ppm). Correlation analysis between the markers and vitamin E traits showed that 134 SNP and 7 indel markers were significantly (p < 0.05) related with total vitamin E content. Among these functional markers, the indel EgTMT-1-24 was highly correlated with variation in vitamin E content, especially tocotrienol content. Our study identified a number of candidate function associated markers and provided clues for further research into molecular breeding for high vitamin E content oil palm., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

The diversified management ability of the non-family members in the top management teams (TMTs) can significantly increase the research and development (R&D) investment of the family firms. However, existing studies focus on family characteristics. To bridge the gap, this study explored the R&D investment propensity for family firms from the perspective of non-family members' participation in TMTs. Based on the upper echelons and the socioemotional wealth theory, this paper incorporated the non-economic goals that influence strategic decisions on family firms into the analytical framework. According to the questionnaire data of Chinese private enterprises, the Tobit regression model was used to analyze the influence of family members on R&D investment decisions under non-economic goal orientations. The results indicated that the preference for control and influence among family members weakens the positive effect of non-family managers on R&D investment, while the preferences for status perception and social responsibility strengthen the positive effect., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Background: Epilepsy is one of the most common brain disorders worldwide. It is usually hard to be identified properly, and a third of patients are drug-resistant. Genes related to the progression and prognosis of epilepsy are particularly needed to be identified., Methods: In our study, we downloaded the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) microarray expression profiling dataset GSE143272. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) with a fold change (FC) >1.2 and a P-value <0.05 were identified by GEO2R and grouped in male, female and overlapping DEGs. Functional enrichment analysis and Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) network analysis were performed., Results: In total, 183 DEGs overlapped (77 ups and 106 downs), 302 DEGs (185 ups and 117 downs) in the male dataset, and 750 DEGs (464 ups and 286 downs) in the female dataset were obtained from the GSE143272 dataset. These DEGs were markedly enriched under various Gene Ontology (GO) terms and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) terms. 16 following hub genes were identified based on PPI network analysis: ADCY7, C3AR1, DEGS1, CXCL1 in male-specific DEGs, TOLLIP, ORM1, ELANE, QPCT in female-specific DEGs and FCAR, CD3G, CLEC12A, MOSPD2, CD3D, ALDH3B1, GPR97, PLAUR in overlapping DEGs., Conclusion: This discovery-driven study may be useful to provide a novel insight into the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy. However, more experiments are needed in the future to study the functional roles of these genes in epilepsy., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Background: Studies have explored the relationship between social class and health for decades. However, the underlying mechanism between the two remains not fully understood. This study aimed to explore whether health self-management had a mediating role between social class and health under the framework of Socio-cultural Self Model., Methods: 663 adults, randomly sampled from six communities in Southwest China, completed the survey for this study. Social class was assessed using individuals' income, education, occupation. Health self-management was assessed through evaluation of the health self-management behavior, health self-management cognition, health self-management environment. Physical health and mental health were measured by the Chinese version of Short-Form (36-item) Health Survey, which contains Physical Functioning, Role-Physical, Role-Emotional, Vitality, Mental Health, Social Function, Bodily Pain and General Health. Pearson's correlation was used to examine the associations between major variables. Mediation analyses were performed to explore the mediating role of health self-management., Results: Social class positively predicted self-rated health. The lower the social class, the lower the self-reported physical and mental health. Health self-management partially mediated the relationship between social class and self-rated health. That is, the health self-management ability of the lower class, such as access to healthy and nutritious food and evaluate their own health status, is worse than that of the higher class, which leads to physical and mental health inequality between the high and the low classes., Conclusion: Health self-management mediated the relationship between social class and health. Promoting health self-management abilities are conducive to improving both physical and mental health., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Rice cultivation usually involves high water and fertilizer application rates leading to the nonpoint pollution of surface waters with phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N). Here, a 10-year field experiment was conducted to investigate N and P losses and their impact factors under different irrigation and fertilization regimes. Results indicated that T2 (Chemical fertilizer of 240 kg N ha-1, 52 kg P ha-1, and 198 kg K ha-1 combined with shallow intermittent irrigation) decreased N loss by 48.9% compared with T1 (Chemical fertilizer of 273 kg N ha-1, 59 kg P ha-1, and 112 kg K ha-1 combined with traditional flooding irrigation). The loss ratio (total N loss loading/amount of applied N) of N was 9.24-15.90%, whereas that of P was 1.13-1.31% in all treatments. Nitrate N (NO3--N) loss was the major proportion accounting for 88.30-90.65% of dissolved inorganic N loss through surface runoff. Moreover, the N runoff loss was mainly due to high fertilizer input, soil NO3--N, and ammonium N (NH4+-N) contents. In addition, the N loss was accelerated by Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, Planotomycetes, Nitrospirae, Firmicutes bacteria and Ascomycota fungi, but decreased by Chytridiomycota fungi whose contribution to the N transformation process. Furthermore, T2 increased agronomic N use efficiency (AEN) and rice yield by 32.81% and 7.36%, respectively, in comparison with T1. These findings demonstrated that T2 might be an effective approach to ameliorate soil chemical properties, regulate microbial community structure, increase AEN and consequently reduce N losses as well as maintaining rice yields in the present study., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Cold bending is a characteristic of significance for the beautiful curved glass curtain walls, because it affects them in terms of energy-efficiency and cost-efficiency. The increasing engineering projects call for more special studies on the mechanical properties of cold-bent glass panels, especially when the walls are built by insulating glass that is currently widely used while its relevant research is very scarce. This paper is devoted to studying the mechanical properties of anticlastic cold-bent insulating glass while taking different factors into consideration, including glass thickness, cold-bent torsion rate and cavity thickness. 9 pieces of insulating glass were manufactured for anticlastic cold-bending test and their coupled effect with identical load is also studied, and numerical finite element analysis sessions were carried out to simulate the experimental results for each one of them. Further, we analyzed the stress distribution performance of the sample pieces under cold bending and a uniform load, followed by discussions about stress transfer controls in glass plates. The results showed that the cold-bent control stress is on the surface with direct loads from cold bending and close to the cold-bent corner on the short edge, and it is transferred from the parts around the corner to the center when the uniform load plays a leading role in generating stress. This transfer could occur under a relatively small load with a small cold-bent torsion rate. A higher cold-bent torsion rate in cold bending contributed mostly to greater center stress in the glass, and as the glass thickness grows, stress and deflection at the plate center would significantly drop. However, the effect of cavity thickness on the anticlastic mechanical response of insulating glass was found to be trivial., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

The present study used the previously constructed 32-plex InDels panel to investigated the genetic diversity of four ethnic minorities (Hui, Mongol, Uygur and Kazakh) from Xinjiang, and analyzed the genetic relationships between the four populations and 27 reference populations. No significant deviations were observed from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) at the 32 InDels for each population. The average observed heterozygosity (Hexp), average polymorphic information content (PIC), combined power of discrimination (CPD) and cumulative probability of exclusion (CPE) for the 32 InDels were all higher than the Qiagen Investigator DIPplex kit in the four populations from Xinjiang. The CPD ranged from 0.999999999999903 (Kazakh) to 0.999999999999952 (Hui) and CPE ranged from 0.9971 (Uygur) to 0.9985 (Hui), which indicated that the 32 InDels were capable for individual identification and could be a supplementary tool in paternity test for these populations. Population genetic analysis by the method of analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA), FST, phylogenetic tree, TreeMix-based topology, multi-dimensional scale analysis (MDS), principal components analysis (PCA) and STRUCTURE analysis showed that Xinjiang Hui population has a close relationship with East Asians (EAS), especially Chinese Han, and the populations of Xinjiang Mongol, Uygur and Kazakh showed mixed ancestral components related to EAS and Europeans (EUR)., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Transient ground displacement (TGD) that is caused by earthquakes can damage underground pipes. This damage is especially critical for the joints, elbows and tees of the pipes which play an important role in the operation of a pipe network. In this study, a scale pipe network with both elbows and tees, as well as some components of the pipe network with only tees or elbows, has been investigated. The response of the nodes of a pipe network, when installed in non-uniform geology, was analyzed using the shaking table test and ABAQUS finite element simulation. This paper has firstly introduced the preparation of the test and the developed finite element model. Then the system response in terms of strain, the friction, the bending deformation, the node deformation amplification coefficient and the pipe-soil relative displacement along the pipe axis of the pipe network and two pipe network components have been analyzed explaining the correlation between these responses. Finally, the influence of elbows and tees on the pipe network was analyzed, and the conclusions that have been reached about how tees and elbows can change the response of a pipe network during an earthquake can provide theoretical support for the seismic design and layout of an underground pipe network., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

The security and socioeconomic development of China's border areas are of great significance to the nation and the wider world. Using census, statistical, digital elevation model (DEM) and network data, this paper employs visual analysis to capture population distribution patterns in China's 131 border counties from 1982 to 2010. Multiple stepwise regression is carried out to identify the influencing factors of population dynamics in border regions. The main findings include: China's most heavily populated border areas are primarily in the northeast, northwest, and the Guangxi-Yunnan region, while rapid growth of population is found in western Inner Mongolia, southwest Xinjiang, northwest Tibet, and southern Yunnan. Given the increasingly market-oriented migration mechanism, the national reclamation policy has been no longer effective in population attraction in the new century. Education has significantly lowered and will continuously lower the fertility rate in remote border areas. The factors influencing population growth show a remarkable regional heterogeneity along China's long border., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Black soldier fly (BSF; Hermetia illucens L.) larvae can convert fresh pig manure into protein and fat-rich biomass, which can then be used as aquafeed for select species. Currently, BSF is the only approved insect for such purposes in Canada, USA, and the European Union. Pig manure could serve as a feed substrate for BSF; however, it is contaminated with zoonotic pathogens (e.g., Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella spp.). Fortunately, BSF larvae inhibit many of these zoonotic pathogens; however, the mechanisms employed are unclear. We employed RNAi, qRT-PCR, and Illumina MiSeq 16S rDNA high-throughput sequencing to examine the interaction between two immune genes (Duox in Duox-reactive oxygen species [ROS] immune system and TLR3 in the Toll signaling pathway) and select pathogens common in pig manure to decipher the mechanisms resulting in pathogen suppression. Results indicate Bsf Duox-TLR3 RNAi increased bacterial load but decreased relative abundance of Providencia and Dysgonomonas, which are thought to be commensals in the BSF larval gut. Bsf Duox-TLR3 RNAi also inactivated the NF-κB signaling pathway, downregulated the expression of antimicrobial peptides, and diminished inhibitory effects on zoonotic pathogen. The resulting dysbiosis stimulated an immune response by activating BsfDuox and promoting ROS, which regulated the composition and structure of the gut bacterial community. Thus, BsfDuox and BsfTLR3 are important factors in regulating these key gut microbes, while inhibiting target zoonotic pathogens., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Demand for spring onion seeds is variable and maintaining its supply is crucial to the success of seed companies. Spring onion seed demand forecasting, which can help reduce the high operational costs increased by long-period propagation and complex logistics, has not previously been investigated yet. This paper provides a novel perspective on spring onion seed demand forecasting and proposes a hybrid Holt-Winters and support vector machine (SVM) forecasting model. The model uses dynamic factors, including historical seed sales, seed inventory, spring onion crop market price and weather data, as inputs to forecast spring onion seed demand. Forecasting error, i.e. the difference between actual and forecasted demand, is assessed. Two advanced machine learning models are trained on the same dataset as benchmark models. Numerical experiments using actual commercial sales data for three spring onion seed varieties show the proposed hybrid model outperformed the statistical-based models for all three forecasting errors. Seed inventory, spring onion crop market price and historical seed sales are the most important dynamic factors, among which seed inventory has short-term influence while other two have mid-term influence on seed demand forecasting. The absolute minimum temperature is the only factor having long-term influence. This study provides a promising spring onion seed demand forecasting model that helps understand the relationships between seed demand and other dynamic factors and the model could potentially be applied to demand forecasting of other crop seeds to reduce total operational costs., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Ex-ante online risk assessment for building emergency evacuation is essential to protect human life and property. Current risk assessment methods are limited by the tradeoff between accuracy and efficiency. In this paper, we propose an online method that overcomes this tradeoff based on multimedia data (e.g. videos data from surveillance cameras) and deep learning. The method consists of two parts. The first estimates the evacuee position as input for training the assessment model to then perform risk assessment in real scenarios. The second considers a social force model based on the evacuation simulation for the output of training model. We verify the proposed method in simulation and real scenarios. Model sensitivity analyses and large-scale tests demonstrate the usability and superiority of the proposed method. By the method, the computation time of risk assessment could be decreased from 10 minutes (by traditional simulation method) to 2.18 s., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Hydrogen gas (H2) plays an important role in plant development and stress responses. Here, cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) explants were used to investigate the roles of H2 in adventitious root development under cadmium (Cd) stress and its physiological mechanism. The results showed that hydrogen-rich water (HRW) promoted adventitious rooting under Cd stress and 50% HRW obtained the maximal biological response. Compared with Cd treatment, HRW + Cd treatment significantly reduced the content of malondialdehyde (MDA), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), superoxide radical (O2-), thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), ascorbic acid (AsA) and reduced glutathione (GSH), as well as relative electrical conductivity (REC), lipoxygenase (LOX) activity, AsA/docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) ratio, and GSH/oxidized glutathione (GSSG) ratio, while increasing DHA and GSSG content. HRW + Cd treatment also significantly increased in the activity and related gene expression of ascorbate peroxidase (APX), dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR), monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR) and glutathione reductase (GR). Additionally, HRW + Cd treatment increased the contents of osmotic adjustment substances, as well as the activities of peroxidase (POD) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO), while significantly decreasing indoleacetic acid oxidase (IAAO) activity. In summary, H2 could induce adventitious rooting under Cd stress by decreasing the oxidative damage, increasing osmotic adjustment substance content and regulating rooting-related enzyme activity., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporters controlled by the regulatory region of OCT4 and NANOG-two master regulators for pluripotency are widely used in studies of pluripotent stem cell establishment and embryo development. Alongside the challenge in establishing bovine pluripotent stem cells, the application of bovine-specific gene reporters has rarely been explored. Using lentivirus-based GFP reporter, we investigated the upstream regulatory regions of bovine OCT4 and NANOG. These reporters show activity in both naïve- and primed-state pluripotency when infected into mouse and human embryonic stem cells (ESCs), respectively. Consistent with what is found in humans and mice, the bovine OCT4-distal enhancer (bOCT4-DE) but not the proximal enhancer (bOCT4-PE) region is preferentially activated in naïve-state pluripotency. Furthermore, the bOCT4-DE region is silenced upon conversion of naive-state ESCs into primed-state epiblast stem cells (EpiSCs). Co-infection of mouse fibroblasts with the reprograming factors for induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) induction leads to the generation of GFP positive colonies, demonstrating that these GFP reporters can serve as live indicators for induced pluripotent cell establishment. We further proved that the bovine OCT4 distal enhancer is active in bovine blastocysts. We established the lentiviral-based fluorescent reporters controlled by bovine OCT4 and NANOG enhancer sequences. These reporter constructs show activity in naïve- and primed-pluripotent states. These reporters may serve as versatile tools for bovine ESC/iPSC generation and identification, as well as for developmental studies of bovine embryos., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Nitrogen (N) supply, including NO3--N and organic N in the form of amino acids can influence the morphological attributes of plants. For example, amino acids contribute to plant nutrition; however, the effects of exogenous amino acids on NO3--N uptake and root morphology have received little attention. In this study, we evaluated the effects of exogenous glycine (Gly) on root growth and NO3--N uptake in pak choi (Brassica campestris ssp. Chinensis L.). Addition of Gly to NO3--N agar medium or hydroponic solution significantly decreased pak choi seedling root length; these effects of Gly on root morphology were not attributed to the proportion of N supply derived from Gly. When pak choi seedlings were exposed to mixtures of Gly and NO3--N in hydroponic culture, Gly significantly reduced 15NO3--N uptake but significantly increased the number of root tips per unit root length, root activity and 15NO3--N uptake rate per unit root length. In addition, 15N-Gly was taken up into the plants. In contrast to absorbed NO3--N, which was mostly transported to the shoots, a larger proportion of absorbed Gly was retained in the roots. Exogenous Gly enhanced root 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid synthase (ACS) and oxidase (ACO) activities and ethylene production. The ethylene antagonists aminoethoxyvinylglycine (0.5 μM AVG) and silver nitrate (10 μM AgNO3) partly reversed Gly-induced inhibition of primary root elongation on agar plates and increased the NO3--N uptake rate under hydroponic conditions, indicating exogenous Gly exerts these effects at least partly by enhancing ethylene production in roots. These findings suggest Gly substantially affects root morphology and N uptake and provide new information on the specific responses elicited by organic N sources., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

In this study, the first complete mitogenome of Andrenidae, namely Andrena camellia, is newly sequenced. It includes 13 protein-coding (PCG) genes, 22 transfer RNA (rRNA) genes, two ribosomal RNA (tRNA) genes, and a control region. Among PCGs, high conservation is observed in cytochrome oxidase genes with cox1 exhibits the highest conservation. Conversely, NADH dehydrogenase and ATPase subunit genes are more variable with atp8 presents the maximal variation. Comparison of the gene order indicates complex rearrangement in bees. Most of the rearranged events are located in the tRNA clusters of trnI-trnQ-trnM, trnW-trnC-trnY, and trnA-trnR-trnN-trnS1-trnE-trnF. Furthermore, we present the most comprehensive mitochondrial phylogeny of bee families. The monophyly of each family and the long-tongued bees is highly supported. However, short-tongued bees are inferred as paraphyletic relative to the sister relationship between Melittidae and other bee families. Furthermore, to improve the resolution of phylogeny, various datasets and analytical approaches are performed. It is indicated that datasets including third codons of PCGs facilitate to produce identical topology and higher nodal support. The tRNA genes that have typical cloverleaf secondary structures also exhibit similar positive effects. However, rRNAs present poor sequence alignment and distinct substitution saturation, which result in negative effects on both tree topology and nodal support. In addition, Gblocks treatment can increase the congruence of topologies, but has opposite effects on nodal support between the two inference methods of maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Polynucleotide phosphorylase (PNPase) is an essential mitochondria-localized exoribonuclease implicated in multiple biological processes and human disorders. To reveal role(s) for PNPase in mitochondria, we established PNPase knockout (PKO) systems by first shifting culture conditions to enable cell growth with defective respiration. Interestingly, PKO established in mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) resulted in the loss of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). The transcriptional profile of PKO cells was similar to rho0 mtDNA deleted cells, with perturbations in cholesterol (FDR = 6.35 x 10-13), lipid (FDR = 3.21 x 10-11), and secondary alcohol (FDR = 1.04x10-12) metabolic pathway gene expression compared to wild type parental (TM6) MEFs. Transcriptome analysis indicates processes related to axonogenesis (FDR = 4.49 x 10-3), axon development (FDR = 4.74 x 10-3), and axonal guidance (FDR = 4.74 x 10-3) were overrepresented in PKO cells, consistent with previous studies detailing causative PNPase mutations in delayed myelination, hearing loss, encephalomyopathy, and chorioretinal defects in humans. Overrepresentation analysis revealed alterations in metabolic pathways in both PKO and rho0 cells. Therefore, we assessed the correlation of genes implicated in cell cycle progression and total metabolism and observed a strong positive correlation between PKO cells and rho0 MEFs compared to TM6 MEFs. We quantified the normalized biomass accumulation rate of PKO clones at 1.7% (SD ± 2.0%) and 2.4% (SD ± 1.6%) per hour, which was lower than TM6 cells at 3.3% (SD ± 3.5%) per hour. Furthermore, PKO in mouse inner ear hair cells caused progressive hearing loss that parallels human familial hearing loss previously linked to mutations in PNPase. Combined, our study reports that knockout of a mitochondrial nuclease results in mtDNA loss and suggests that mtDNA maintenance could provide a unifying connection for the large number of biological activities reported for PNPase., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Like DIP-STR markers (deletion/insertion polymorphism-short tandem repeat combinations), SNP-STR markers (single nucleotide polymorphism-STR combinations) are also valuable in forensic DNA mixture analysis. In this study, eight SNP-STRs were selected, and a stable and sensitive multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay was developed for amplifying these SNP-STRs and the Amelogenin gender marker according to the principle of amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS). This novel multiplex set allows detection of the minor DNA contributor in a DNA mixture of any gender and cellular origin with high resolution (beyond a DNA ratio of 1:20). In addition, SNP-STR haplotype frequencies were estimated based on a survey of 350 unrelated individuals from Chinese Han population, and the combined power of discrimination (PD) and power of exclusion (PE) of the eight SNP-STRs were calculated as 0.99999999965 and 0.9996, which were obviously higher than that of the eight STR loci: 0.9999999954 and 0.9989 respectively. The results indicated that the SNP-STR compound markers have higher application value in forensic identification compared to standard autosomal STRs, especially in the analysis of imbalanced DNA mixtures., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

In smart parking environments, how to choose suitable parking facilities with various attributes to satisfy certain criteria is an important decision issue. Based on the multiple attributes decision making (MADM) theory, this study proposed a smart parking guidance algorithm by considering three representative decision factors (i.e., walk duration, parking fee, and the number of vacant parking spaces) and various preferences of drivers. In this paper, the expected number of vacant parking spaces is regarded as an important attribute to reflect the difficulty degree of finding available parking spaces, and a queueing theory-based theoretical method was proposed to estimate this expected number for candidate parking facilities with different capacities, arrival rates, and service rates. The effectiveness of the MADM-based parking guidance algorithm was investigated and compared with a blind search-based approach in comprehensive scenarios with various distributions of parking facilities, traffic intensities, and user preferences. Experimental results show that the proposed MADM-based algorithm is effective to choose suitable parking resources to satisfy users' preferences. Furthermore, it has also been observed that this newly proposed Markov Chain-based availability attribute is more effective to represent the availability of parking spaces than the arrival rate-based availability attribute proposed in existing research.

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of a standard high fat diet (D12451) with or without vitamin D3, phosphorus, and calcium (i.e., high-fat diet [HFD] or high-fat deficient diet [HFDD]) on the bone parameters of ovariectomized female rats. Six-month-old of female Sprauge Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into six study groups: sham operation with standard chow diet (SSCD), sham operation with a HFD (SHFD), sham operation with a HFDD (SHFDD), ovariectomized (OVX), OVX with a HFD (OVX-HFD), and OVX with a HFDD (OVX-HFDD). A bilateral ovariectomy was administered to the OVX, OVX-HFD, and OVX-HFDD rats, while the SSCD, SHFD, and SHFDD rats were only given a laparotomy. Multiple analyses concerning the glucose and insulin tolerance, structure, bone strength, bone matrix, and mineralization of the rats were conducted in order to produce a detailed characterization of the effects of a HFD and a HFDD on postmenopausal osteoporotic rats. Seven months of HFD and HFDD feeding resulted in obesity and insulin resistance in female SD rats. A standard HFD increased the bone calcium content and bone strength of OVX rats. Conversely, the serum N-mid osteocalcin (N-MID-OT) and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) levels in the OVX-HFDD group were increased, accompanied by a clear decrease in the bone mineral density (BMD), bone mineral content (BMC), bone calcium and bone strength, as well as reduced osteocalcin expression. A HFDD weakened the activity of the osteoblasts while aggravating bone loss and decreasing bone strength in ovariectomized rats, which may be due to the calcium, phosphorus and vitamin D3 deficiencies in the diet.

Chewing insects cause severe yield losses in crop production worldwide. Crop plants counteract chewing insects by transcriptionally promoting a repertoire of defense gene products that are either toxic to, or attractive to the natural enemies of, pest insects. However, the complexity of the transcriptional reprogramming in plant defense response against chewing insects is still not well understood. In this study, the genome-wide early responses in maize seedlings to Asian corn borer (ACB, Ostrinia furnacalis) and also to jasmonic acid(JA), the pivotal phytohormone controlling plant defense response against herbivory, were transcriptionally profiled by RNA-Seq. Clustering of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) along with functional enrichment analysis revealed important biological processes regulated in response to ACB infestation and/or jasmonic acid. Moreover, DEGs with distinct expression patterns were differentially enriched with diverse families of cis-elements on their promoters. Multiple inventories of differentially expressed transcription factors (DETFs) in each DEG group were also analyzed. A transient expression assay using transfected maize protoplastswas established to examine the potential roles of DETFs in maize defense response and JA signaling, and this was used to show that ZmNAC60, an ACB- and JA-inducible DETF, represented a novel positive regulator of JA and defense pathway genes. This study provided a comprehensive transcriptional picture for the early dynamics of maize defense responses and JA signaling, and the identification of DETFs offered potential targets for further functional genomics investigation of master regulators in maize defense responses against herbivory.

This work evaluated the impact of exogenous soil inoculation of beneficial fungal strain Piriformospora indica on phytochemical changes and the related genes expression of Chinese cabbage (Brassica campestris ssp. chinensis L.) by greenhouse pot experiments. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) affirmed that among the different combinations of fungal and organic fertilizer treatments, the phenolic acids and flavonoids were considerably enriched in organic fertilizer and fungi (OP) followed by organic fertilizer, biochar, fungi (OBP) treated plants. The antiradical activity was higher in OP (61.29%) followed by P (60%) and organic fertilizer (OF) (53.84%) inoculated plants which positively correlated with chlorophyll, carotenoids and flavonoids level (P<0.05). Furthermore, results showed that the exogenous application of P. indica significantly (P<0.05) enhanced plant growth, as well as stimulating the activation of chlorophyll, carotenoids and other antioxidant related pathways. The RT-qPCR analysis indicated that key FLS gene triggering the synthesis of kaemferol was up-regulated by the inoculation of P. indica. In conclusion, the results revealed that organic fertilizer and P. indica (OP) is the most appropriate combination for improving phytochemical and antiradical properties in Pakchoi.

Background: Treatment of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) with probiotics has achieved effectiveness to a certain extent. Whether prebiotics will work is still unclear. This study aimed to investigate the therapeutic effects of the prebiotic isomalto-oligosaccharides (IMO) on visceral hypersensitivity (VHS) in rats and to explore potential mechanism., Methods: Water avoidance stress (WAS) was used to induce VHS in rats. The score for the abdominal withdrawal reflex (AWR) was determined while colorectal distension and compared between VHS group and control group in order to validate VHS preparation. Rats with VHS were then divided into an IMO-treated group (intragastric 5% IMO, 2 mL/d, 14 days) and a water-control group (intragastric water). After treatment, AWR score and intestinal transit rate (ITR) were determined, stool culture was performed, the ultrastructure of the ileum epithelium was observed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and serum cytokines were measured., Results: WAS significantly increased AWR score responding to colorectal distension, and lowered the pain threshold. IMO treatment improved VHS with a reduction in AWR score on graded colorectal distension and an increase in pain threshold. SEM showed damages on the ileal epithelial ultrastructure in VHS rats, which was attenuated by IMO treatment. ITR, fecal microbiota and serum cytokine levels were comparable among control group, water-control group, and IMO-treated rats., Conclusion: In this randomized placebo-controlled study, the results showed that IMO ameliorated WAS-induced visceral hyperalgesia in rats, this effect may be attributed to the repair of damages on intestinal epithelial ultrastructure.

In the transformation of multiple genes, gene fusion is an attractive alternative to other methods, including sexual crossing, re-transformation, and co-transformation, among others. The 2A peptide from the foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) causes the co-translational "cleavage" of polyprotein and operates in a wide variety of eukaryotic cells. LP4, a linker peptide that originates from a natural polyprotein occurring in the seed of Impatiens balsamina, can be split between the first and second amino acids in post-translational processing. LP4/2A is a hybrid linker peptide that contains the first nine amino acids of LP4 and 20 amino acids of 2A. The three linkers have been used as a suitable technique to link the expression of genes in some transgenic plants, but to date the cleavage efficiency of three linkers have not been comprehensively demonstrated in the same transformation system, especially in the staple crop. To verify the functions of 2A, LP4, and LP4/2A linker peptides in transgenic maize, six fusion protein vectors that each encoded a single open reading frame (ORF) incorporating two report genes, Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) and β-glucuronidase (GUS), separated by 2A (or modified 2A), LP4 or LP4/2A were assembled to compare the cleavage efficiency of the three linkers in a maize transient expression system. The results demonstrated the more protein production and higher cleavage splicing efficiency with the polyprotein construct linked by the LP4/2A peptide than those of the polyprotein constructs linked by 2A or LP4 alone. Seven other fusion proteins that each encoded a single ORF incorporating two different genes GFP and Red Fluorecent Protein (RFP) with different signal peptides were assembled to study the subcellular localization of genes linked by LP4/2A. The subcellular localization experiments suggested that both types of signal peptide, co-translational and post-translational, could lead their proteins to the target localization in maize protoplast transformed by LP4/2A polyprotein construct and it implied the LP4/2A linker peptide could alleviate the inhibition of 2A processing by the carboxy-terminal region of upstream protein of 2A when translocated into the ER.

Accurately predicting the trend of outpatient visits by mathematical modeling can help policy makers manage hospitals effectively, reasonably organize schedules for human resources and finances, and appropriately distribute hospital material resources. In this study, a hybrid method based on empirical mode decomposition and back-propagation artificial neural networks optimized by particle swarm optimization is developed to forecast outpatient visits on the basis of monthly numbers. The data outpatient visits are retrieved from January 2005 to December 2013 and first obtained as the original time series. Second, the original time series is decomposed into a finite and often small number of intrinsic mode functions by the empirical mode decomposition technique. Third, a three-layer back-propagation artificial neural network is constructed to forecast each intrinsic mode functions. To improve network performance and avoid falling into a local minimum, particle swarm optimization is employed to optimize the weights and thresholds of back-propagation artificial neural networks. Finally, the superposition of forecasting results of the intrinsic mode functions is regarded as the ultimate forecasting value. Simulation indicates that the proposed method attains a better performance index than the other four methods.

The costimulatory protein B7-H3 has been shown to play a contributory role in the development and progression of experimental pneumococcal meningitis by augmentation of the innate immunity-associated inflammatory response via a TLR2-dependent manner. This study aimed to clarify the component(s) of TLR2-mediated signal transduction pathways responsible for B7-H3-augmented inflammatory response and subsequent brain damage during experimental pneumococcal meningitis. Administration of B7-H3 did not augment expression of TLR2 and other TLR2 upstream components, but led to an enhanced formation of MyD88-IRAK immunocomplex in the brain of S. pneumoniae-infected mice. Furthermore, B7-H3 substantially augmented S. pneumoniae-induced activation of TLR2 downstream NF-κB p65 and MAPK p38 pathways in the brain of S. pneumoniae-infected mice. Notably, blockage of NF-κB p65 and/or MAPK p38 with their specific inhibitors strongly attenuated B7-H3-amplified inflammatory response with significantly reduced proinflammatory cytokine and chemokine production, and markedly ameliorated B7-H3-exacerbated disruption of blood-brain barrier and severity of disease status in S. pneumoniae-infected mice. These results indicate that targeting NF-κB p65 and/or MAPK p38 may represent a promising therapeutic option for amelioration of overwhelming inflammatory response-associated brain injury frequently observed during pneumococcal meningitis., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Aim: Heart failure (HF) increases the risk of thromboembolic events (TE). Study in a Caucasian population has shown that the CHA2DS2-VASc score predicts TE among HF patients without atrial fibrillation. We sought to assess the usefulness of the CHA2DS2-VASc score in predicting TE in an Asian population and refine the scoring system to improve its predictability of TE among HF patients in sinus rhythm., Methods: A total of 1,202 consecutive patients who were admitted to our institution for new-onset HF from 2005 to 2012 and without atrial fibrillation or anticoagulation were retrospectively reviewed., Results: The mean age was 77.6 ± 12.2 years and 51.7% were female. After 36.2 ± 30.1 months, 113 (9.4%) developed TE. The annual incidence was 0.54%, 1.54%, 2.98% and 5.04% per year in those who had a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 1, 2-3, 4-5 and ≥6, respectively. In multivariate analysis, age ≥75 years [Hazard ratio (HR) 2.59, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.23-5.46, p = 0.012), chronic ischemic heart disease (HR 1.54, 95% CI 1.02-2.31, p = 0.040) and chronic kidney disease (HR 1.66, 95% CI 1.09-2.53, p = 0.018) independently predicted TE. Incorporation of chronic ischemic heart disease and chronic kidney disease into the CHA2DS2-VASc score significantly increased the area under the Receiver Operating Curve from 0.57 (95% CI 0.54-0.59) to 0.61 (95% CI 0.55-0.66; p = 0.022)., Conclusion: The CHA2DS2-VASc score is useful for stratification of the risk of TE among HF patients in sinus rhythm. Incorporation of chronic ischemic heart disease and chronic kidney disease into the score modestly improves its predictive value., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

This study aims to develop a novel device with nanofiber membrane capable of sustained release of temozolomide (TMZ) and neuron growth factor (NGF). An improved bio-availability of TMZ and NGF in surroundings proximal to the device was expected to be attained for a prolonged period of time. The device was developed by integrating TMZ-doped polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofiber (TP) membrane and NGF-coated PCL (NGFP) membrane using sodium alginate hydrogel. TP was prepared by direct electrospinning of TMZ/PCL. NGFP membrane was developed by layer-by-layer assembling technology. The incorporation of TMZ-doped nanofiber and NGFP nanofiber in the device was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. The number of NGF layer in NGF-coated PCL membrane could be readily measured with energy spectrum analysis. The in vitro release study showed that TP-NGFP-TP membrane could efficiently liberate TMZ to inhibit the growth of C6 glioma cells, and sufficient NGF to induce the differentiation of PC12 neuron cells over four weeks. Such TP-NGFP-TP membrane device can be employed as a tampon to fill up surgical residual cavity and afford residual glioma removal, structural support, hemostasis, and local neural tissue reconstruction in the surgical treatment of glioma. The study opens a horizon to develop multifunctional biomaterial device for maximized glioma treatment efficacy., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Purpose: Signet ring cell carcinoma (SRCC) is rare. The aim of this study is to understand the clinicopathological features and identify the possible prognostic factors in colorectal SRCC., Methods: Patients with SRCC who underwent primary lesion resection at Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center from September 2008 to July 2014 were retrospectively analyzed. Patient's gender, age, tumor location, depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, synchronous distant metastasis, perineural invasion, lymphovascular invasion, and E-cadherin expression were studied with prognosis, and the correlation between E-cadherin expression and clinicopathological features were analyzed. All clinicopathological and molecular factors were put into multivariate analysis using Cox proportional hazards model for detecting independent prognostic factors., Results: 59 patients accounting for 0.89% of total colorectal cancer patients met the criteria and were enrolled in the study. The median survival time is 28.9 months, and the 3-year survival rate is 62.7%. SRCC were seen more common in young male patients. Advanced stage was more common in SRCC, 58 (98.3%) patients had T3/T4 lesions, 52 (88.1%) patients had lymph node metastasis, and 14 (23.7%) patients had distant metastasis. Distant metastases were seen more common in peritoneal cavity. Distant metastasis (HR = 4.194, 95% CI: 1.297-13.567), lymphovascular invasion (HR = 2.888, 95% CI: 1.115-7.483), and E-cadherin expression (HR = 0.272, 95% CI: 0.096-0.768) were independent predictors for survival., Conclusions: SRCC is a rare subtype of colorectal cancer with poor prognosis. Distant metastasis, lymphovascular invasion, and E-cadherin expression can predict prognosis of colorectal SRCCs independently. More precise therapy and more close surveillance are needed for these patients.