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Abstract Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) poses a global health challenge. While pyroptosis is implicated in various diseases, its specific involvement in NAFLD remains unclear. Thus, our study aims to elucidate the role and mechanisms of pyroptosis in NAFLD. Utilizing data from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, we analyzed the expression levels of pyroptosis-related genes (PRGs) in NAFLD and normal tissues using the R data package. We investigated protein interactions, correlations, and functional enrichment of these genes. Key genes were identified employing multiple machine learning techniques. Immunoinfiltration analyses were conducted to discern differences in immune cell populations between NAFLD patients and controls. Key gene expression was validated using a cell model. Analysis of GEO datasets, comprising 206 NAFLD samples and 10 controls, revealed two key PRGs (TIRAP, and GSDMD). Combining these genes yielded an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.996 for diagnosing NAFLD. In an external dataset, the AUC for the two key genes was 0.825. Nomogram, decision curve, and calibration curve analyses further validated their diagnostic efficacy. These genes were implicated in multiple pathways associated with NAFLD progression. Immunoinfiltration analysis showed significantly lower numbers of various immune cell types in NAFLD patient samples compared to controls. Single sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) was employed to assess the immune microenvironment. Finally, the expression of the two key genes was validated in cell NAFLD model using qRT-PCR. We developed a prognostic model for NAFLD based on two PRGs, demonstrating robust predictive efficacy. Our findings enhance the understanding of pyroptosis in NAFLD and suggest potential avenues for therapeutic exploration.

Abstract In the manufacturing process of printed circuit boards (PCBs), surface defects have a significant negative impact on product quality. Considering that traditional object detection algorithms have low accuracy in handling PCB images with complex backgrounds, various types, and small-sized defects, this paper proposes a PCB defect detection algorithm based on a novel YOLOv5 multi-scale attention mechanism(EMA) spatial pyramid dilated Convolution (SPD-Conv) (YOLOv5_ES) network improved YOLOv5s framework. Firstly, the detection head is optimized by removing medium and large detection layers, fully leveraging the capability of the small detection head to identify minor target defects. This approach not only improves model accuracy but also achieves lightweighting. Secondly, in order to further reduce the number of parameters and computational costs, the SPD-Conv is introduced to improve the feature extraction capability by reducing information loss. Thirdly, a EMA module is introduced to fuse context information of different scales, enhancing the model’s generalization ability. Compared to the YOLOv5s model, there is a 3.1% improvement in mean average precision (mAP0.5), a 55.8% reduction in model parameters, and a 4.8% reduction in giga floating-point operations per second (GFLOPs). These results demonstrate a significant improvement in both accuracy and model parameter efficiency.

Abstract Mining activities have increased the accumulation of heavy metals in farmland soil and in food crops. To identify the key soil properties influencing heavy metal bioavailability and accumulation in food crops, 81 crop samples and 81 corresponding agricultural soil samples were collected from rape, wheat, and paddy fields. Heavy metal (copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), iron (Fe), and manganese (Mn)) concentrations in soils and rape, wheat, rice grains were determined using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy, and soil physicochemical properties (pH, organic matter, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, available phosphorus, and available potassium (AK)) were analyzed. Soil extractable metals were extracted using various single extractants (DTPA, EDTA, NH4OAc, NH4NO3, and HCl). The average concentrations of Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, and Mn in the soil samples all exceeded the local geochemical background value (background values of Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, and Mn are 43.0, 81.0, 28.5, 0.196, and 616 mg/kg, respectively), and Cd over-standard rate was the highest, at 98%. Furthermore, soil total Cd concentrations (0.1–24.8 mg/kg) of more than 86% of the samples exceeded the soil pollution risk screening value (GB 15618-2018). The sources of Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, and Mn in soils were mainly associated with mining activities. The key factors influencing heavy metal bioavailability were associated with the types of extractants (complexing agents or neutral salt extractants) and the metals. Cd and Pb concentrations in most wheat and rice grain samples exceeded the maximum allowable Cd and Pb levels in food, respectively, and Cd concentrations in approximately 10% of the rice grain samples exceeded 1.0 mg/kg. Furthermore, rice and wheat grains exhibited higher Cd accumulation capacity than rape grains, and despite the high soil Cd concentrations in the rape fields, the rape grains were safe for consumption. High soil pH and AK restricted Cd and Cu accumulation in wheat grains, respectively. Soil properties seemed to influence heavy metal accumulation in rice grains the most.

Abstract Previous research on early deafness has primarily focused on the behavioral and neural changes in the intact visual and tactile modalities. However, how early deafness changes the interplay of these two modalities is not well understood. In the current study, we investigated the effect of auditory deprivation on visuo-tactile interaction by measuring the cross-modal motion aftereffect. Consistent with previous findings, motion aftereffect transferred between vision and touch in a bidirectional manner in hearing participants. However, for deaf participants, the cross-modal transfer occurred only in the tactile-to-visual direction but not in the visual-to-tactile direction. This unidirectional cross-modal motion aftereffect found in the deaf participants could not be explained by unisensory motion aftereffect or discrimination threshold. The results suggest a reduced visual influence on tactile motion perception in early deaf individuals.

Abstract Mercury (Hg) exposure poses serious health risks to humans, resulting in extensive investigations examining Hg accumulation, biotransformation and uptake in crops. In this investigation, Hg accumulation in potato tubers due to bioaccumulation processes was determined and bioconcentration factors affecting bioaccumulation were identified using a greenhouse experiment. Our results showed that the percentage of available Hg concentrations from total Hg in soil samples were less than 1.2%, indicating that soils used in our experiment exhibited a high binding strength for Hg, with alkaline soil recording the lowest available Hg/total Hg ratio. Results indicated that soil type and Hg treatment, as well as their interactions, significantly affected Hg accumulation in potato tubers (P

Abstract CD31hiEmcnhi vessels were a subtype of vessels in the murine skeletal system, with high levels of platelet and endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 (PECAM-1/CD31) and endomucin (Emcn). They were reported coupling angiogenesis and osteogenesis during bone development. We investigated the distribution of these vessels in rat tibiae and their temporal and spatial distribution during the bone defect repair process to improve our understanding of the importance of these vessels. We confirmed that CD31hiEmcnhi vessels were specially distributed around the trabecular bones near metaphysis and endosteum in rat tibiae. At 3 days post bone injury, CD31hiEmcnhi vessels proliferated and were extensively distributed across the entire repair area. At 7 and 14 days post-injury, these vessels decreased but were specially distributed around the growing trabecular bones near the frontier growth area, suggesting that these vessels support new bone formation. The distribution of CD31hiEmcnhi vessels and the transcriptions of Hif-1α and VEGFA, as well as BMP2 and Osterix decreased at 7 and 14 days post-injury under osteoporotic conditions, in combination with insufficient osteogenesis. Our research is of great significance to help understand the important role of CD31hiEmcnhi vessels in supporting new trabecular bones formation during bone defect repair process.

Abstract Exoskeleton construction is an important issue in shrimp. To better understand the molecular mechanism of exoskeleton formation, development and reconstruction, the transcriptome of the entire developmental process in Litopenaeus vannamei, including nine early developmental stages and eight adult-moulting stages, was sequenced and analysed using Illumina RNA-seq technology. A total of 117,539 unigenes were obtained, with 41.2% unigenes predicting the full-length coding sequence. Gene Ontology, Clusters of Orthologous Group (COG), the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis and functional annotation of all unigenes gave a better understanding of the exoskeleton developmental process in L. vannamei. As a result, more than six hundred unigenes related to exoskeleton development were identified both in the early developmental stages and adult-moulting. A cascade of sequential expression events of exoskeleton-related genes were summarized, including exoskeleton formation, regulation, synthesis, degradation, mineral absorption/reabsorption, calcification and hardening. This new insight on major transcriptional events provide a deep understanding for exoskeleton formation and reconstruction in L. vannamei. In conclusion, this is the first study that characterized the integrated transcriptomic profiles cover the entire exoskeleton development from zygote to adult-moulting in a crustacean, and these findings will serve as significant references for exoskeleton developmental biology and aquaculture research.

Crystallographic orientations determine the optical, electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties of crystals. Control of crystallographic orientations has been studied by changing the growth parameters, including temperature, pressure, proportion of precursors, and surface conditions. However, molecular dynamic mechanisms underlying these controls remain largely unknown. Here we achieved control of crystallographic orientations in diamond growth through a joint experimental and theoretical study of laser resonant vibrational excitation of precursor molecules (ethylene). Resonant vibrational excitation of the ethylene molecules using a wavelength-tunable CO2 laser steers the chemical reactions and promotes proportion of intermediate oxide species, which results in preferential growth of {100}-oriented diamond films and diamond single crystals in open air. Quantum molecular dynamic simulations and calculations of chemisorption energies of radicals detected from our mass-spectroscopy experiment provide an in-depth understanding of molecular reaction mechanisms in the steering of chemical reactions and control of crystallographic orientations. This finding opens up a new avenue for controlled chemical vapor deposition of crystals through resonant vibrational excitations to steer surface chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]