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The traditional method of screening plants for disease resistance phenotype is both time-consuming and costly. Genomic selection offers a potential solution to improve efficiency, but accurately predicting plant disease resistance remains a challenge. In this study, we evaluated eight different machine learning (ML) methods, including random forest classification (RFC), support vector classifier (SVC), light gradient boosting machine (lightGBM), random forest classification plus kinship (RFC_K), support vector classification plus kinship (SVC_K), light gradient boosting machine plus kinship (lightGBM_K), deep neural network genomic prediction (DNNGP), and densely connected convolutional networks (DenseNet), for predicting plant disease resistance. Our results demonstrate that the three plus kinship (K) methods developed in this study achieved high prediction accuracy. Specifically, these methods achieved accuracies of up to 95% for rice blast (RB), 85% for rice black-streaked dwarf virus (RBSDV), and 85% for rice sheath blight (RSB) when trained and applied to the rice diversity panel I (RDPI). Furthermore, the plus K models performed well in predicting wheat blast (WB) and wheat stripe rust (WSR) diseases, with mean accuracies of up to 90% and 93%, respectively. To assess the generalizability of our models, we applied the trained plus K methods to predict RB disease resistance in an independent population, rice diversity panel II (RDPII). Concurrently, we evaluated the RB resistance of RDPII cultivars using spray inoculation. Comparing the predictions with the spray inoculation results, we found that the accuracy of the plus K methods reached 91%. These findings highlight the effectiveness of the plus K methods (RFC_K, SVC_K, and lightGBM_K) in accurately predicting plant disease resistance for RB, RBSDV, RSB, WB, and WSR. The methods developed in this study not only provide valuable strategies for predicting disease resistance, but also pave the way for using machine learning to streamline genome-based crop breeding.

Abstract An increased risk of target organ damage (TOD) has been reported in patients with primary aldosteronism (PA). However, there is relatively little related research on the correlation between the degree of TOD and those with and without PA in newly diagnosed hypertensive patients. The aim of this study was to assess the association between PA and TOD among patients with newly diagnosed hypertension. Newly diagnosed hypertensive patients were consecutively recruited from January 2015 to June 2020 at the University of Hong Kong‐Shenzhen Hospital. Patients were stratified into those with and without PA. Data for left ventricular mass index (LVMI), carotid intima‐media thickness (CIMT) and plaque, and microalbuminuria were systematically collected. A total of 1044 patients with newly diagnosed hypertension were recruited, 57 (5.5%) of whom were diagnosed with PA. Patients with PA had lower blood pressure, serum lipids, body mass index, and plasma renin activity and a higher incidence of hypokalemia than those without PA. In contrast, the prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy, increased CIMT, and microalbuminuria was higher in patients with PA than in those without PA. Multivariable regression analysis demonstrated that PA was independently associated with increased LVMI, CIMT and microalbuminuria. Among patients with newly diagnosed hypertension, those with PA had more severe TOD, including a higher LVMI, CIMT and microalbuminuria, than those without PA. These findings emphasize the need for screening TOD in newly diagnosed hypertension due to underlying PA.

Abstract Background Gastric cancer (GC) ranks fifth in global cancer incidence and third in mortality rate among all cancer types. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been extensively demonstrated to regulate multiple malignant biological behaviors in GC. Emerging evidence suggests that several circRNAs derived from FNDC3B play pivotal roles in cancer. However, the role of circFNDC3B in GC remains elusive. Methods We initially screened circFNDC3B with translation potential via bioinformatics algorithm prediction. Subsequently, Sanger sequencing, qRT-PCR, RNase R, RNA-FISH and nuclear-cytoplasmic fractionation assays were explored to assess the identification and localization of circ0003692, a circRNA derived from FNDC3B. qRT-PCR and ISH were performed to quantify expression of circ0003692 in human GC tissues and adjacent normal tissues. The protein-encoding ability of circ0003692 was investigated through dual-luciferase reporter assay and LC/MS. The biological behavior of circ0003692 in GC was confirmed via in vivo and in vitro experiments. Additionally, Co-IP and rescue experiments were performed to elucidate the interaction between the encoded protein and c-Myc. Results We found that circ0003692 was significantly downregulated in GC tissues. Circ0003692 had the potential to encode a novel protein FNDC3B-267aa, which was downregulated in GC cells. We verified that FNDC3B-267aa, rather than circ0003692, inhibited GC migration in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, FNDC3B-267aa directly interacted with c-Myc and promoted proteasomal degradation of c-Myc, resulting in the downregulation of c-Myc-Snail/Slug axis. Conclusions Our study revealed that the novel protein FNDC3B-267aa encoded by circ0003692 suppressed GC metastasis through binding to c-Myc and enhancing proteasome-mediated degradation of c-Myc. The study offers the potential applications of circ0003692 or FNDC3B-267aa as therapeutic targets for GC. Graphical abstract The mechanism of circ0003692 in suppressing metastasis of GC. FNDC3B-267aa encoded by circ0003692 interacted with c-Myc and promoted the proteasomal degradation of c-Myc, thereby down-regulated c-Myc-Snail/Slug axis and EMT pathway.

Abstract Background Human patients often experience an episode of serious seizure activity, such as status epilepticus (SE), prior to the onset of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), suggesting that SE can trigger the development of epilepsy. Yet, the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. The low-density lipoprotein receptor related protein (Lrp4), a receptor for proteoglycan-agrin, has been indicated to modulate seizure susceptibility. However, whether agrin-Lrp4 pathway also plays a role in the development of SE-induced TLE is not clear. Methods Lrp4 f/f mice were crossed with hGFAP-Cre and Nex-Cre mice to generate brain conditional Lrp4 knockout mice (hGFAP-Lrp4 −/− ) and pyramidal neuron specific knockout mice (Nex-Lrp4 −/− ). Lrp4 was specifically knocked down in hippocampal astrocytes by injecting AAV virus carrying hGFAP-Cre into the hippocampus. The effects of agrin-Lrp4 pathway on the development of SE-induced TLE were evaluated on the chronic seizure model generated by injecting kainic acid (KA) into the amygdala. The spontaneous recurrent seizures (SRS) in mice were video monitored. Results We found that Lrp4 deletion from the brain but not from the pyramidal neurons elevated the seizure threshold and reduced SRS numbers, with no change in the stage or duration of SRS. More importantly, knockdown of Lrp4 in the hippocampal astrocytes after SE induction decreased SRS numbers. In accord, direct injection of agrin into the lateral ventricle of control mice but not mice with Lrp4 deletion in hippocampal astrocytes also increased the SRS numbers. These results indicate a promoting effect of agrin-Lrp4 signaling in hippocampal astrocytes on the development of SE-induced TLE. Last, we observed that knockdown of Lrp4 in hippocampal astrocytes increased the extracellular adenosine levels in the hippocampus 2 weeks after SE induction. Blockade of adenosine A1 receptor in the hippocampus by DPCPX after SE induction diminished the effects of Lrp4 on the development of SE-induced TLE. Conclusion These results demonstrate a promoting role of agrin-Lrp4 signaling in hippocampal astrocytes in the development of SE-induced development of epilepsy through elevating adenosine levels. Targeting agrin-Lrp4 signaling may serve as a potential therapeutic intervention strategy to treat TLE.

BackgroundCOVID-19 began in December 2019, rapidly spreading worldwide. China implemented a dynamic zero-COVID strategy and strict control measures after the outbreak. However, Guangzhou city ended closed-off management by the end of November 2022, leading to exposure to SARS-CoV-2. Despite most hospitalized patients being infected or co-infected with SARS-CoV-2, some remained uninfected. We report two cases of bacterial pneumonia with elevated globulin levels not infected with SARS-CoV-2, aiming to identify protection factors of SARS-CoV-2 infection and provide a scientific basis for SARS-CoV-2 prevention.Case presentationCase 1, a 92-year-old male, admitted on October 21, 2022, developed worsening cough and sputum after aspiration, diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli (CRE) and carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) infections. He was treated with imipenem anti-infective therapy and mechanical ventilation, then switched to a combination of meropenem, voriconazole and amikacin anti-infective therapy due to recurrent infections and septic shock, and died of sepsis on 8 January 2023. Case 2 is an 82-year-old male admitted on 30 September 2022, with recurrent cough, sputum, and shortness of breath, diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia with carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP) and Mycobacterium pneumoniae infections. He was treated with ventilator-assisted ventilation, meropenem, amikacin, tigecycline and mucomycin nebulization and discharged with improvement on 26 October. He was readmitted on 21 November 2022 and diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia. He was treated with cefoperazone sulbactam, amikacin, meropenem and fluconazole and discharged on 31 December. Neither patient was infected with SARS-CoV-2 during hospitalization. Notably, their globulin levels were elevated before SARS-CoV-2 exposure, gradually decreasing afterward.ConclusionsPatients with bacterial pneumonia with high globulin levels likely have large amounts of immunoglobulin, and that immunoglobulin cross-reactivity causes this protein to be involved in clearing SARS-CoV-2 and preventing infection. Therefore, bacterial pneumonia patients with high globulin levels included in this study were not infected with SARS-CoV-2. After exposure to SARS-CoV-2, the amount of globulin in the patient’s body was reduced because it was used to clear SARS-CoV-2. The results of this study are expected to provide a theoretical basis for the study of the mechanism of prevention and treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Objective Dual‐plate fixation was thought to be the gold standard for treating complicated bicondylar tibial plateau fractures, yet it was found to be hard to accommodate the posterior column in three‐column fractures. Currently, column‐specific fixation is becoming more and more recognized, but no comprehensive investigation has been performed to back it up. Therefore, the objective of this study was to validate the importance of posterior column fixation in the three‐column tibial fractures by a finite element (FE) analysis and clinical study. Methods In FE analysis, three models were developed: the longitudinal triple‐plate group (LTPG), the oblique triple‐plate group (OTPG), and the dual‐plate group (DPG). Three loading scenarios were simulated. The distribution of the displacement and the equivalent von Mises stress (VMS) in each structure was calculated. The comparative measurements including the maximum posterior column collapse (MPCC), the maximum total displacement of the model (MTD), the maximum VMS of cortical posterior column (MPC‐VMS), and the maximum VMS located on each group of plates and screws (MPS‐VMS). The clinical study evaluated the indicators between the groups with or without the posterior plate, including operation time, blood loss volume, full‐weight bearing period, Hospital for Special Surgery Knee Scoring system (HSS), Rasmussen score, and common postoperative complications. Results In the FE analysis, the MPCC, the MPC‐VMS, and the MTD were detected in much lower amounts in LTPG and OTPG than in DPG. In comparison with DPG, the LTPG and OTPG had larger MPS‐VMS. In the clinical study, 35 cases were included. In the triple‐plate (14) and dual‐plate (21) groups, the operation took 115.6 min and 100.5 min (p

Abstract Ketogenic diet (KD) alleviates refractory epilepsy and reduces seizures in children. However, the metabolic/cell biologic mechanisms by which the KD exerts its antiepileptic efficacy remain elusive. Herein, we report that KD-produced β-hydroxybutyric acid (BHB) augments brain gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and the GABA/glutamate ratio to inhibit epilepsy. The KD ameliorated pentetrazol-induced epilepsy in mice. Mechanistically, KD-produced BHB, but not other ketone bodies, inhibited HDAC1/HDAC2, increased H3K27 acetylation, and transcriptionally upregulated SIRT4 and glutamate decarboxylase 1 (GAD1). BHB-induced SIRT4 de-carbamylated and inactivated glutamate dehydrogenase to preserve glutamate for GABA synthesis, and GAD1 upregulation increased mouse brain GABA/glutamate ratio to inhibit neuron excitation. BHB administration in mice inhibited epilepsy induced by pentetrazol. BHB-mediated relief of epilepsy required high GABA level and GABA/glutamate ratio. These results identified BHB as the major antiepileptic metabolite of the KD and suggested that BHB may serve as an alternative and less toxic antiepileptic agent than KD.

In this study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) were used to simulate the effect of a partition and air curtain on the concentration of a pollution source in an indoor space with different ventilation configurations. First, in the partition simulation, the performances of six different ventilation configurations were compared. Based on the results obtained, air curtain simulations were then carried out. In this study, carbon dioxide was chosen as the tracer gas in all simulations, and the realizable k − ε turbulence model was selected. In the partition simulation, a front-and-back ventilation configuration with ventilation inlets/outlets near the side walls (in diagonal) showed the best performance. This configuration was adopted for the air curtain simulation so as to investigate the effect of different air inlet velocities and air curtain velocities. It was found that as the height of the partition increases, although it has a higher chance of blocking the Covid-19 virus, it lowers the ventilation efficiency, resulting in the increase of carbon dioxide concentration in the indoor space. When the partition was replaced with an air curtain, it was found that the higher the height of the air curtain, the lower the carbon dioxide concentration in the indoor space. Compared with the partition, the air curtain can reduce the carbon dioxide concentration by up to 74.6%, indicating that the introduction of the air curtain can have an improving effect on the ventilation in the indoor space.

Case summary A 9-year-old, spayed, female domestic shorthair cat presented with an open wound approximately 1 cm in size with exposure of the left subcutaneous ureteral bypass (SUB) shunting port that was placed approximately 11 months before presentation. Primary closures were attempted twice before local wound management with omentalisation and repositioning of the port. The exposed port was lavaged topically with a polyhexanide and propylbetaine wound irrigation solution before omentalisation and repositioning, resulting in successful retention of the implant. Five months after revision and omentalisation, there was complete coverage and healing of the wound. Relevance and novel information Adequate topical treatment, repositioning and omentalisation could be a successful treatment option for the uncommon complication of SUB shunting port extrusion secondary to resistant local infection originating from the urinary tract.

Abstract Selenium (Se), the world's oldest optoelectronic material, has been widely applied in various optoelectronic devices such as commercial X‐ray flat‐panel detectors and photovoltaics. However, despite the rare and widely‐dispersed nature of Se element, a sustainable recycling of Se and other valuable materials from spent Se‐based devices has not been developed so far. Here a sustainable strategy is reported that makes use of the significantly higher vapor pressure of volatile Se compared to other functional layers to recycle all of them from end‐of‐life Se‐based devices through a closed‐space evaporation process, utilizing Se photovoltaic devices as a case study. This strategy results in high recycling yields of ≈ 98% for Se and 100% for other functional materials including valuable gold electrodes and glass/FTO/TiO2 substrates. The refabricated photovoltaic devices based on these recycled materials achieve an efficiency of 12.33% under 1000‐lux indoor illumination, comparable to devices fabricated using commercially sourced materials and surpassing the current indoor photovoltaic industry standard of amorphous silicon cells.

This study focuses on Chinese consumers’ cognition and attitude towards artificial meat, including cultured meat and plant-based meat. The attitude is measured by three aspects: willingness to accept (WTA), willingness to taste (WTT), and willingness to buy (WTB). The results indicate that consumers’ attitude towards plant-based meat is more favorable than that towards cultured meat. Consumers’ attitude towards artificial meat is positively correlated with their cognition of artificial meat, dietary knowledge, and information intervention. Compared to those who have not heard about artificial meat, consumers who are aware of it have 8%-36% higher probabilities of accepting, tasting, and buying cultured meat and plant-based meat, respectively. A one-point increase in dietary knowledge leads to a 2%-4% increase in consumers’ WTA, WTT, and WTB. Consumers who receive positive information about artificial meat have significantly higher probabilities of WTA, WTT, and WTB, ranging from 13% to 28%. Consumers’ WTA, WTT, and WTB also relate to their education level, marriage status, and family age structure. This study contributes to the existing literature on consumers’ attitudes towards artificial meat and provides a better understanding of the potential and challenges of marketizing artificial meat in China.

Abstract The human gut hosts numerous ecological niches for microbe–microbe and host–microbe interactions. Gut lactate homeostasis in humans is crucial and relies on various bacteria. Veillonella spp., gut lactate‐utilizing bacteria, and lactate‐producing bacteria were frequently co‐isolated. A recent clinical trial has revealed that lactate‐producing bacteria in humans cross‐feed lactate to Veillonella spp.; however, their interspecies interaction mechanisms remain unclear. Veillonella dispar, an obligate anaerobe commonly found in the human gut and oral cavity, ferments lactate into acetate and propionate. In our study, we investigated the interaction between V. dispar ATCC 17748T and three representative phylogenetically distant strains of lactic acid bacteria, Lactobacillus acidophilus ATCC 4356T, Lacticaseibacillus paracasei subsp. paracasei ATCC 27216T, and Lactiplantibacillus plantarum ATCC 10241. Bacterial growth, viability, metabolism and gene level adaptations during bacterial interaction were examined. V. dispar exhibited the highest degree of mutualism with L. acidophilus. During co‐culture of V. dispar with L. acidophilus, both bacteria exhibited enhanced growth and increased viability. V. dispar demonstrated an upregulation of amino acid biosynthesis pathways and the aspartate catabolic pathway. L. acidophilus also showed a considerable number of upregulated genes related to growth and lactate fermentation. Our results support that V. dispar is able to enhance the fermentative capability of L. acidophilus by presumably consuming the produced lactate, and that L. acidophilus cross‐feed not only lactate, but also glutamate, to V. dispar during co‐culture. The cross‐fed glutamate enters the central carbon metabolism in V. dispar. These findings highlight an intricate metabolic relationship characterized by cross‐feeding of lactate and glutamate in parallel with considerable gene regulation within both L. acidophilus (lactate‐producing) and V. dispar (lactate‐utilizing). The mechanisms of mutualistic interactions between a traditional probiotic bacterium and a potential next‐generation probiotic bacterium were elucidated in the production of short‐chain fatty acids.