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Photovoltaic (PV) is one of the very promising renewable energy sources, but its output power is fluctuating. To maintain PV-energy storage system-load power balance in low-voltage distribution networks, we propose a new optimized sag control strategy, which is no longer indexed by the battery voltage but by the battery state of charge (SOC) because the battery SOC can better reflect the remaining battery capacity for better performance. In addition, to further optimize its performance, we try to use the ratio of intercell SOC for optimization. We analysed the deficiencies of sag control in detail, derived a control strategy with cell SOC as an indicator and finally analysed its performance in detail. To verify the performance of the proposed strategy, based on MATLAB, we designed the power variation of 2 lithium-ion battery packs to maintain the bus power stability under two cases of sudden rise as well as sudden fall of PV power and 3 lithium-ion battery packs to maintain during the bus power stabilization with one set of performance after failure, and the simulation results prove the feasibility of the proposed strategy.

The development of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a multi-step process, and its survival depends on a complex tumor ecosystem, which not only promotes tumor growth but also helps to protect tumor cells from immune surveillance. With the advances of existing technologies and emerging models for ecosystem research, the evidence for cell-cell interplay is increasing. Herein, we discuss the recent advances in understanding the interaction between tumor cells, the major components of the HNSCC tumor ecosystem, and summarize the mechanisms of how biological and abiotic factors affect the tumor ecosystem. In addition, we review the emerging ecological treatment strategy for HNSCC based on existing studies.

Pistia stratiotes (Araceae), commonly referred to as water lettuce, is one of the most notorious weeds that cause severe damage to the economy and natural ecosystems of infested areas. In order to explore the mechanism of its rapid invasion, here, we assembled a high-quality chromosome-level genome for P. stratiotes based on the Illumina sequencing, PacBio sequencing, and Hi-C scaffolding technology. The assembled genome is 311.87 Mb in size with a contig N50 of 1.08 Mb. The contigs were further anchored on 14 pseudochromosomes with a scaffold N50 of 21.21 Mb. A total of 20,356 protein-coding genes were predicted, of which 79.35% were functionally annotated here. Evolutionary analysis showed that P. stratiotes and Colocasia esculenta were clustered together as sister lineages that diverged approximately 61 Ma. The synteny analyses indicated that two whole-genome duplication (WGD) events occurred within a short period in P. stratiotes. Moreover, comparative genome analysis indicated that the expansion of gene families corresponding to disease resistance might contribute to rapid invasion in P. stratiotes. Also, we analysed the disease-resistance gene family (NBS-LRR) involved in plant defence. A genome-wide search in P. stratiotes genome identified 85 NBS-LRR genes in this study. In conclusion, this study provides some new insights into the evolution of the invasive aquatic plant P. stratiotes. Our reference genome will also provide valuable resources for future invasion genomic research programmes.

Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), including miRNAs, lncRNAs, and circRNAs, emerge as crucial components for gene regulation.

BackgroundCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are both caused by a disordered immune response and have direct and profound impacts on health care services. In this study, we implemented transcriptomic and single-cell analysis to detect common molecular and cellular intersections between COVID-19 and IBD that help understand the linkage of COVID-19 to the IBD patients.MethodsFour RNA-sequencing datasets (GSE147507, GSE126124, GSE9686 and GSE36807) from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database are extracted to detect mutual differentially expressed genes (DEGs) for IBD patients with the infection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to find shared pathways, candidate drugs, hub genes and regulatory networks. Two single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-eq) datasets (GSE150728, PRJCA003980) are used to analyze the immune characteristics of hub genes and the proportion of immune cell types, so as to find common immune responses between COVID-19 and IBD.ResultsA total of 121 common DEGs were identified among four RNA-seq datasets, and were all involved in the functional enrichment analysis related to inflammation and immune response. Transcription factors-DEGs interactions, miRNAs-DEGs coregulatory networks, and protein-drug interactions were identified based on these datasets. Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) was built and 59 hub genes were identified. Moreover, scRNA-seq of peripheral blood monocyte cells (PBMCs) from COVID-19 patients revealed a significant increase in the proportion of CD14+ monocytes, in which 38 of 59 hub genes were highly enriched. These genes, encoding inflammatory cytokines, were also highly expressed in inflammatory macrophages (IMacrophage) of intestinal tissues of IBD patients.ConclusionsWe conclude that COVID-19 may promote the progression of IBD through cytokine storms. The candidate drugs and DEGs-regulated networks may suggest effective therapeutic methods for both COVID-19 and IBD.

We demonstrate fabrication of a 30-cm-long thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) optical delay line (ODL) incorporated with segmented microelectrodes of 24-cm total length using femtosecond laser lithography technique. The transmission spectra of the unbalanced Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) reveal an ultra-low propagation loss of 0.025 dB/cm. The device exhibits a low half-wave voltage of 0.45 V, corresponding to a voltage-length product of 5.4 V·cm in the push-pull configuration. We also demonstrate a high electro-optic (EO) tuning efficiency of 3.18 fs/V in the fabricated ODL.

Both cis- and trans-regulatory mutations drive changes in gene expression that underpin plant phenotypic evolution. However, how and why these two major types of regulatory mutations arise in different genes and how gene expression is inherited and associated with these regulatory changes are unclear. Here, by studying allele-specific expression in F1 hybrids of pink-flowered sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) and yellow-flowered American lotus (N. lutea), we reveal the relative contributions of cis- and trans-regulatory changes to interspecific expression rewiring underlying petal color change and how the expression is inherited in hybrids. Although cis-only variants influenced slightly more genes, trans-only variants had a stronger impact on expression differences between species. In F1 hybrids, genes under cis-only and trans-only regulatory effects showed a propensity toward additive and dominant inheritance, respectively, whereas transgressive inheritance was observed in genes carrying both cis- and trans-variants acting in opposite directions. By investigating anthocyanin and carotenoid coexpression networks in petals, we found that the same category of regulatory mutations, particularly trans-variants, tend to rewire hub genes in coexpression modules underpinning flower color differentiation between species; we identified 45 known genes with cis- and trans-regulatory variants significantly correlated with flower coloration, such as ANTHOCYANIN 5-AROMATIC ACYLTRANSFERASE (ACT), GLUTATHIONE S-TRANSFERASE F11 (GSTF11), and LYCOPENE Ε-CYCLASE (LCYE). Notably, the relative abundance of genes in different categories of regulatory divergence was associated with the inferred magnitude of constraints like expression level and breadth. Overall, our study suggests distinct selective constraints and modes of gene expression inheritance among different regulatory mutations underlying lotus petal color divergence.

Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is an extremely malignant type of endocrine cancer frequently accompanied by extrathyroidal extension or metastasis through mechanisms that remain elusive. We screened for the CREB3 transcription-factor family in a large cohort, consisting of four microarray datasets. This revealed that CREB3L1 was specifically up regulated in ATC tissues and negatively associated with overall survival of patients with thyroid cancer. Consistently, high expression of CREB3L1 was negatively correlated with progression-free survival in an independent cohort. CREB3L1 knockdown dramatically attenuated invasion of ATC cells, whereas overexpression of CREB3L1 facilitated the invasion of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) cells. Loss of CREB3L1 inhibited metastasis and tumor growth of ATC xenografts in zebrafish and nude mouse model. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis revealed that CREB3L1 expression gradually increased during the neoplastic progression of a thyroid follicular epithelial cell to an ATC cell, accompanied by the activation of the extracellular matrix (ECM) signaling. CREB3L1 knockdown significantly decreased the expression of collagen subtypes in ATC cells and the fibrillar collagen in xenografts. Due to the loss of CREB3L1, ATC cells were unable to activate alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA)-positive cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). After CREB3L1 knockdown, the presence of CAFs inhibited the growth of ATC spheroids and the metastasis of ATC cells. Further cytokine array screening showed that ATC cells activated α-SMA-positive CAFs through CREB3L1-mediated IL-1α production. Moreover, KPNA2 mediated the nuclear translocation of CREB3L1, thus allowing it to activate downstream ECM signaling. These results demonstrate that CREB3L1 maintains the CAF-like property of ATC cells by activating the ECM signaling, which remodels the tumor stromal microenvironment and drives the malignancy of ATC. Graphical Abstract

N6-methyladenine (6mA) DNA methylation has emerged as an important epigenetic modification in eukaryotes. Nevertheless, the evolution of the 6mA methylation of homologous genes after species and after gene duplications remains unclear in plants. To understand the evolution of 6mA methylation, we detected the genome-wide 6mA methylation patterns of four lotus plants (Nelumbo nucifera) from different geographic origins by nanopore sequencing and compared them to patterns in Arabidopsis and rice. Within lotus, the genomic distributions of 6mA sites are different from the widely studied 5mC methylation sites. Consistently, in lotus, Arabidopsis and rice, 6mA sites are enriched around transcriptional start sites, positively correlated with gene expression levels, and preferentially retained in highly and broadly expressed orthologs with longer gene lengths and more exons. Among different duplicate genes, 6mA methylation is significantly more enriched and conserved in whole-genome duplicates than in local duplicates. Overall, our study reveals the convergent patterns of 6mA methylation evolution based on both lineage and duplicate gene divergence, which underpin their potential role in gene regulatory evolution in plants.

We demonstrate fabrication of a 30-cm-long thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) optical delay line (ODL) incorporated with segmented microelectrodes of 24-cm total length using the femtosecond laser lithography technique. The transmission spectra of the unbalanced Mach–Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) reveal an ultra-low propagation loss of 0.025 dB/cm. The device exhibits a low half-wave voltage of 0.45 V, corresponding to a voltage-length product of 10.8 V·cm, which is equivalent to 5.4 V·cm in the push-pull configuration. We also demonstrate a high electro-optic (EO) tuning efficiency of 3.146 fs/V and a continuous tuning range of 220 fs in the fabricated ODL.

It is very important to extract discriminative electrical signal features in the lean management of the power grid. In this article, we develop a new current signal waveform feature. First, the electronic signal waveform is segmented into different segments with different properties, and then, the synthetic features, including shape feature, harmonic feature, and statistic features, are extracted. To illustrate the effectiveness of the synthetic features, we use them in noninvasive load monitoring (NILM). The similarity measurement is defined and calculated between each pair of segments based on the synthetic features, and the maximum clique searching algorithm is proposed to identify the consistent segments as state categories. The experimental results show that our method can significantly enhance precision and recall while identifying states in a more fine-grain style compared with state-of-the-art NILM methods.

Embedding heterocycles into the skeleton of g-C3N4 has been proved to be a simple and efficient strategy for improving light response and the separation of photo-excited charges. Herein, 2-thiobarbituric acid incorporated g-C3N4 (TBA/CN) with good photocatalytic efficiency for Rh B degradation and H2 production was successfully achieved via a facile thermal copolymerization approach. The incorporation of aromatics and S atoms into the skeleton of g-C3N4 was identified via systematic characterizations. This unique structure contributed to the narrowed band-gap, extended delocalization of lone pair electrons and changed electron transition pathway, which led to the enhanced visible light utilization, accelerated charge migration and prolonged electron lifetime, subsequently resulting in the significant boost of photocatalytic activity. The optimal TBA/CN-3 sample yielded the largest Rh B degradation rate constant k value of 0.0273 min−1 and simultaneously highest rate of H2 evolution of 0.438 mmol g−1 h−1, which were almost 3.5 and 3.8 folds as fast as that of the pristine CN, respectively. Finally, the photocatalytic mechanism was proposed for the detailed elucidation of the process of Rh B degradation coupled with H2 production.

The calculation and analysis of a power distribution network (PDN) require accurate device parameters. However, a PDN has many points, and the distribution area is very wide. The PDN parameters are influenced by manual entry, and most are relatively random. Additionally, these parameters are affected by the operating status. Thus, this paper proposes an algorithm that accurately identifies PDN parameters based on the Markov chain and Monte Carlo (MCMC) method. The algorithm assumes that the PDN parameters conform to a nonlinear probability space. The parameters are the line resistance $R_{L} $ , line reactance $X_{L} $ , short-circuit loss $P_{k} $ , short-circuit voltage percentage $U_{k}$ %, no-load loss $P_{0} $ , no-load current percentage $I_{0} $ %, etc. The algorithm in this paper uses the Monte Carlo method to provide parameter values that conform to the initial probability distribution and then combines the data collected from the actual feeder to perform power flow calculations to obtain the loss function. The data include the head and end voltages and active and reactive power on the low voltage side. The Markov chain and loss function update the initial parameter probability distribution. The low voltage side voltage of the power flow calculation is iteratively calculated under the new given parameters to obtain the new loss function, and finally, the PDN line and transformer parameter values are identified. Actual feeder data verification results show that this MCMC PDN parameter identification method can obtain high-precision parameter values without phase angle information; additionally, this method is insensitive to the initial values and exhibits fast convergence.

High-performance polymer donors are highly demanded to fulfil the potential of layer-by-layer (LBL) processed organic solar cells (OSCs). In this study, we present an effective method to develop high-performance polymer donors for LBL-OSCs by manipulating their solubility properties. The solubility of naphthalenothiophene imide (NTI)-based polymers could be easily manipulated by employing linear or branched alkyl chains in NTI. The polymer PNTB6-Cl with linear alkyl chains insoluble in chloroform could tolerate the chloroform processing by washing away the polymers only in the amorphous region, resulting in an LBL film with a much smoother surface and more efficient photoluminescence quenching, while chloroform-soluble polymer PNTB-Cl did not. PNTB6-Cl:N3 based LBL devices exhibited an efficiency of 17.59%, much higher than 15.24% for PNTB-Cl:N3 based devices and 16.20% for control devices based on PM6:N3. Importantly, the excellent batch-to-batch reproducibility of PNTB6-Cl overcomes the notorious batch-dependent issue in polymer donors, indicating that PNTB6-Cl is a promising polymer donor for LBL-OSCs. Our studies demonstrate that the solubility property of a polymer could significantly impact electron acceptor penetration, phase separation and photovoltaic performance of LBL-OSCs, which provide the guidelines for high-performance polymer donor design.

Understanding the genetic variants responsible for floral trait diversity is important for the molecular breeding of ornamental flowers. Widely used in water gardening for thousands of years, the sacred lotus exhibits a wide range of diversity in floral organs. Nevertheless, the genetic variations underlying various morphological characteristics in lotus remain largely unclear. Here, we performed a genome-wide association study of sacred lotus for 12 well-recorded ornamental traits. Given a moderate linkage disequilibrium level of 32.9 kb, we successfully identified 149 candidate genes responsible for seven flower traits and plant size variations, including many pleiotropic genes affecting multiple floral-organ-related traits, such as NnKUP2. Notably, we found a 2.75-kb presence-and-absence genomic fragment significantly associated with stamen petaloid and petal number variations, which was further confirmed by re-examining another independent population dataset with petal number records. Intriguingly, this fragment carries MITE transposons bound by siRNAs and is related to the expression differentiation of a nearby candidate gene between few-petalled and double-petalled lotuses. Overall, these genetic variations and candidate genes responsible for diverse lotus traits revealed by our GWAS highlight the role of transposon variations, particularly MITEs, in shaping floral trait diversity.

Extensive infiltration of tumor-associated macrophages was correlated poor prognosis in anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC). However, the heterogeneity and characteristics of the ATC-associated macrophages (ATAMs) in ATC remain far from clear. We combined single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis and gene expression microarray datasets to assess the molecular signature of ATAMs. Compared with normal thyroid-associated macrophages (NTAMs), 778 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) significantly changed in ATAMs compared with NTAMs. These DEGs were correlated with oxidative phosphorylation (M2 phenotype) and phagocytosis (M1 phenotype). Moreover, ATAMs highly expressed pro-tumor genes associated with angiogenesis, fibrosis, metalloprotease activity, and metastasis. Notably, we identified one ATC-specific subset, IL2RA

With the extensive use of antibiotics, antibiotics and their induced resistance genes (ARGs) have become new types of pollutants widely distributed in a variety of environmental media. The contamination of antibiotics and ARGs occurring in important living and agricultural regions has aroused wide concern worldwide, especially in lake basins. The Dongting Lake basin is one of the important aquaculture and livestock areas in China, which is accompanied by a large amount of antibiotic use and discharge. However, the occurrence characteristics of antibiotics and ARGs in a multi-environment medium are still unclear. In this study, surface water and sediment samples in East Dongting Lake were collected by season, antibiotics and ARGs were quantitatively analyzed, and the risk quotient method was used to evaluate the ecological risk of antibiotics in surface water. 1) The concentration of antibiotics in the surface water of East Dongting Lake ranged from ND to 943.49 ng/L, with the maximum average concentration of 20.92 ng/L in spring. The concentration of antibiotics in sediments ranged from ND to 177.43 ng/g, with the maximum average concentration of 16.38 ng/g in fall. Ofloxacin (OFL) and sulfamethoxazole (SMX) were the main antibiotic pollutants in East Dongting Lake Basin. 2) sul1 and sul2 were the dominant ARGs in East Dongting Lake Basin. For spatial change, the total abundance of ARGs upstream was higher than that downstream. For seasonal change, the surface water and sediment were characterized by spring > summer > fall. 3) OFL and sulfamethoxazole might pose a significant high risk to aquatic organisms both in three seasons, and the ecological risk of antibiotics in East Dongting Lake is more significant at low temperatures than high. This study could provide important data information of the occurrence and concentration of antibiotics and ARGs in East Dongting Lake Basin.

MicroRNA (miRNA) is strongly interrelated with the pathogenesis of glioma. However, its potential biological effect and underlying mechanism of miR-3200-3p in human glioma remain elusive. In the current study, we checked the level of miR-3200-3p in different glioma cells. Then, its biological functions on glioma cell proliferation metastasis was investigated using the miR-3200-3p mimic and inhibitor. The direct target of miR-3200-3p was tested in these cells. Results demonstrated that miR-3200-3p is remarkably downregulated in human glioma cells. The relative level of miR-3200-3p is strongly associated with biological features, including proliferation, colony formation, and metastasis. Additionally, Ca

Organic charge-transfer (CT) complexes with a unique electrical performance are attractive materials for organic electronics. However, achieving breakthroughs in the practical application of CT complexes through rational design have always been a challenge. For the first time, a chemiresistive sensor for nerve agent that mimics (diethyl chlorophosphate) vapor detection is rationally designed based on organic CT complexes. Such CT complex chemiresistive sensor realizes a subppb detection of diethyl chlorophosphate (DCP) within 5 s under atmospheric conditions at room temperature with a high selectivity. Meanwhile, based on the highly tunable characteristics of CT complexes, the influence of morphology and intermolecular interaction on the sensing response are investigated. It is worth noting that a stronger intermolecular interaction results in lower sensing responses for CT complexes with a different D/A combination but with the same ratio. The organic charge-transfer materials not only provide a highly tunable platform for the chemiresistive sensor but also have the special properties such as solution processability, flexibility, and molecular recognition, which provides more possibilities for the application of flexible and wearable biosensors.

The recent World Cup in Qatar has just come to an end and the performance of a player is key to winning the tournament, so predicting a player's score during the season based on various metrics and performance largely determines whether or not he or she will play. Our main work is to establish how far the linear regression model is based on the discovery of the linear relationship between the data set. First, we filtered the variables with correlations greater than 0.9 by Pearson's correlation coefficient to eliminate the co-linearity problem and identified the 11 variables we used. Then a random sample was extracted, the data set was cut and the null was removed. We then screened the variables again by Forward selection to build the first regression model with an R2 of 0.67. Since some of the data had some nonlinearity, we compared the transformation of the global data (Box-Cox method) with the transformation of the local data ( transformation of ) and found that adding the latter was better. After rejecting significant variables, we conducted regression again and obtained our final model with an R2 of 0.97+. Then we carried out a model diagnosis and proved that our model was indeed consistent with the linear regression model through five hypothesis tests and collinearity tests. Finally, we ran our results using the test set and found that the results were better on the test set.

We report on the fabrication of integrated active lithium niobate (LN) photonic devices such as waveguide amplifiers and tunable lasers using the photolithography-assisted chemo-mechanical etching (PLACE) technique. Specifically, a maximum internal net gain exceeding 20 dB is achieved in the LN waveguide amplifier, and an electro-optically tunable single-frequency laser with an ultra-narrow linewidth of 454.7 Hz is demonstrated in a high-Q LN microdisk. An electrically driven microring laser is demonstrated by the monolithic integration of a diode laser with an LN microring resonator. We also realize a hybrid integration of passive and active LN microdevices using a continuous lithographic processing approach. The integrated active LN photonic devices have a broad range of applications in light-wave communication, precision sensing and quantum information science.

Background Sagittaria trifolia Linn. is a widespread macrophyte in Asia and southeast Europe and cultivated in parts of Asia. Although a few genomic studies have been conducted for S. trifolia var. sinensis, a crop breed, there is limited genomic information on the wild species of S. trifolia. Effective microsatellite markers are also lacking. Objective To assemble transcriptome sequence and develop effective EST-SSR markers for S. trifolia. Methods Here we developed microsatellite markers based on tri-, tetra-, penta-, and hexa-nucleotide repeat sequences by comparatively screening multiple transcriptome sequences of eleven individuals from ten natural populations of S. trifolia. Results A total of 107,022 unigenes were de novo assembled, with a mean length of 730 bp and an N50 length of 1,378 bp. The main repeat types were mononucleotide, trinucleotide, and dinucleotide, accounting for 55.83%, 23.51%, and 17.56% of the total repeats, respectively. A total of 86 microsatellite loci were identified with repeats of tri-, tetra-, penta-, and hexa-nucleotide. For SSR verification, 28 polymorphic loci from 41 randomly picked markers were found to produce stable and polymorphic bands, with the number of alleles per locus ranging from 2 to 11 and a mean of 5.2. The range of polymorphic information content (PIC) of each SSR locus varied from 0.25 to 0.80, with an average of 0.58. The expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.29 to 0.82, whereas the observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.25 to 0.90. Conclusion The assembled transcriptome and annotated unigenes of S. trifolia provide a basis for future studies on gene functions, pathways, and molecular mechanisms associated with this species and other related. The newly developed EST-SSR markers could be effective in examining population genetic structure, differentiation, and parentage analyses in ecological and evolutionary studies of S. trifolia.

Leaf of Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. (N. nucifera) has been widely used as the main ingredient in lipid-lowering herbal teas and some prescriptions in China due to their excellent hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects. However, the active components responsible for these beneficial properties and their mechanisms remain unexplored. In this work, the N. nucifera leaf extracts significantly promoted the glucose consumption of HepG2 cells, and also exhibited remarkable inhibitory activities against α-glucosidase, pancreatic lipase, and COX-2. Furthermore, the top four potential active compounds (N-nornuciferine, Nuciferine, 2-Hydroxy-1-methoxyaporphine, and Isorhamnetin 3-O-glucoside) targeting the above three enzymes were screened out by bioaffinity ultrafiltration with multiple targets coupled with HPLC-MS/MS. The enzyme inhibitory activities of candidate compounds were verified by enzyme inhibition assay and molecular docking. In addition, molecular docking revealed the binding information between the candidate molecules and enzymes. The current study provided valuable information in discovering functional active ingredients from complex medicinal plant extracts.