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Secondary growth in woody plants generates new cells and tissues via the activity of the vascular cambium and drives the radial expansion of stems and roots. It is regulated by a series of endogenous factors, especially transcription factors. Here, we cloned the basic helix–loop–helix (bHLH) transcription factor gene UNFERTILIZED EMBRYO SAC12 (UNE12) from poplar (Populus alba × Populus glandulosa Uyeki) and used biochemical, molecular, and cytological assays to investigate the biological functions and regulatory mechanism of PagUNE12. PagUNE12 mainly localized in the nucleus and possessed transcriptional activation activity. It was widely expressed in vascular tissues, including primary phloem and xylem and secondary phloem and xylem. Poplar plants overexpressing PagUNE12 showed significantly reduced plant height, shorter internodes, and curled leaves compared with wild-type plants. Optical microscopy and transmission electron microscopy revealed that overexpressing PagUNE12 promoted secondary xylem development, with thicker secondary cell walls than wild-type poplar. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, confocal Raman microscopy, and 2D Heteronuclear Single Quantum Correlation analysis indicated that these plants also had increased lignin contents, with a lower relative abundance of syringyl lignin units and a higher relative abundance of guaiacyl lignin units. Therefore, overexpressing PagUNE12 promoted secondary xylem development and increased the lignin contents of secondary xylem in poplar, suggesting that this gene could be used to improve wood quality in the future.

Emergence of new Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici races that overcome resistance of wheat cultivars is a challenging issue for wheat production. Although sexual reproduction of the fungus on barberry plants under field conditions in the spring in China has been reported, the diversity of the pathogen on barberry plants and the relationship to the population in wheat fields have not been determined. In the present study, two P. striiformis f. sp. tritici populations collected in western Shaanxi Province in May 2016, one from barberry plants (103 isolates) and the other from nearby wheat crops (107 isolates), were phenotyped for virulence and genotyped with simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. The phenotypic and genotypic data of the two populations were compared to determine their relationships. A total of 120 races, including 29 previously known races (seven were shared by the two populations) and 91 new races (35 from barberry and 56 from wheat), were identified. Similarly, a total of 132 multilocus genotypes, including 51 only from barberry, 77 only from wheat, and four from both, were detected using the SSR markers. Analyses of molecular variance identified high (93%) genetic variance within populations and low but still significant variance (7%) between the populations. Nonparametric multivariate discriminant analysis of principal components and STRUCTURE analysis showed that the two populations had a close relationship with little genetic differentiation (FST = 0.038) and strong gene flow (Nm = 6.34, P = 0.001) between them. Although the analysis of linkage disequilibrium indicated clonal populations, the isolation of P. striiformis f. sp. tritici from barberry plants and the high genetic diversities in the barberry and wheat populations suggest that barberry plants provide aeciospores to infect wheat crops in the area. The information is useful for understanding stripe rust epidemiology and management of the disease.

Hemicellulose was pre-extracted from poplar by the KOH extraction method. A series of activated carbons with high VOCs adsorption capacity were prepared using hemicellulose pre-extraction residue (HPR) as carbon precursor and KOH as the activator. The results showed that the pre-extraction using organic solvent (benzene-ethanol mixture) had no significant effect on the hemicellulose removal efficiency and the microporous structure of activated carbons. After the selective pre-extraction of 38.2 to 65.7 wt% hemicellulose from poplar, the final yield of activated carbons only decreased by 1.1 to 2.0%, but the pore structure of activated carbons was greatly improved. A total of 40.7 wt% hemicellulose in poplar was removed under 4 wt% alkali concentration and 3 h KOH treatment. The activated carbons prepared from HPR of poplar gave the highest BET surface area (3066 m2·g-1) and pore volume (1.32 cm3·g-1). The pore structures of activated carbons can be controlled to some extent by changing the removal degree of hemicellulose. The activated carbon obtained under the optimized conditions showed excellent adsorption capacity for toluene (733 mg·g-1) and dichloromethane (184 mg·g-1). The correlation between adsorption properties and pore structure shows that the adsorption capacities of toluene and dichloromethane were closely related to micropores (＜ 2 nm) and ultramicropores (＜ 0.6 nm) of activated carbon, respectively. The pre-extraction of hemicellulose greatly improved the volatile organic compound (VOC) adsorption capacity of activated carbons by increasing the percentage of micropores.

Background. Renal ischemia-reperfusion injury (RIRI) plays an important role in the poor prognosis of patients with renal transplants. However, the potential targets and mechanism of IRI are still unclear. Method. Differential gene expression (DEG) analysis and weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) were performed on the GSE27274 dataset. Pathway enrichment analysis on the DEGs was performed. To identify the hub DEGs, we constructed a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. Finally, the hub genes were verified, and candidate drugs were screened from the DsigDB database. Results. A hundred DEGs and four hub genes (Atf3, Psmb6, Psmb8, and Psmb10) were screened out. Pathway enrichment analysis revealed that 100 DEGs were mainly enriched in apoptosis and the TNF signaling pathway. The four hub genes were verified in animal models and another dataset (GSE148420). Thereafter, a PPI network was used to identify the four hub genes (Atf3, Psmb6, Psmb8, and Psmb10). Finally, eight candidate drugs were identified as potential drugs. Conclusion. Three hub genes (Psmb6, Psmb8, and Psmb10) were associated with RIRI and could be potential novel biomarkers for RIRI.

This paper discusses the existence and uniqueness of local strong solution for a class of 1D non-Newtonian fluids with non-Newtonian potential and damping term. Here we allow the initial vacuum and viscosity term to be fully nonlinear.

Modifying ligands in four studied Ru(II) complexes have slight influence on their static first hyperpolarizabilities (βtot) values. However, the βtot values of complexes 1+/−–4+/− are all enhanced and the largest βtot value is observed for complex 4−.

A number of genetic polymorphisms have been associated with susceptibility to or protection against non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), but the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. Here, we focused on the rs738409 CG single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), which produces the I148M variant of patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing protein 3 (PNPLA3) and is strongly associated with NAFLD.To enable mechanistic dissection, we developed a human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived multicellular liver culture by incorporating hPSC-derived hepatocytes, hepatic stellate cells, and macrophages. We first applied this liver culture to model NAFLD by utilising a lipotoxic milieu reflecting the circulating levels of disease risk factors in affected individuals. We then created an isogenic pair of liver cultures differing only at rs738049 and compared NAFLD phenotype development.Our hPSC-derived liver culture recapitulated many key characteristics of NAFLD development and progression including lipid accumulation and oxidative stress, inflammatory response, and stellate cell activation. Under the lipotoxic conditions, the I148M variant caused the enhanced development of NAFLD phenotypes. These differences were associated with elevated IL-6/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) activity in liver cultures, consistent with transcriptomic data of liver biopsies from individuals carrying the rs738409 SNP. Dampening IL-6/STAT3 activity alleviated the I148M-mediated susceptibility to NAFLD, whereas boosting it in wild-type liver cultures enhanced NAFLD development. Finally, we attributed this elevated IL-6/STAT3 activity in liver cultures carrying the rs738409 SNP to increased NF-κB activity.Our study thus reveals a potential causal link between elevated IL-6/STAT3 activity and 148M-mediated susceptibility to NAFLD.An increasing number of genetic variants manifest in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) development and progression; however, the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. To study these variants in human-relevant systems, we developed an induced pluripotent stem cell-derived multicellular liver culture and focused on a common genetic variant (i.e. rs738409 in PNPLA3). Our findings not only provide mechanistic insight, but also a potential therapeutic strategy for NAFLD driven by this genetic variant in PNPLA3. Our liver culture is therefore a useful platform for exploring genetic variants in NAFLD development.

The trifunctional PEO buffer layer improved the photovoltaic performances of all-inorganic CsPbBr3 perovskite solar cells.

Highly emetogenic chemotherapy induces emesis in cancer patients without prophylaxis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a fosaprepitant-based triple antiemetic regimen for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) in patients with solid malignant tumors, determine risk factors and externally validate different personalized risk models for CINV.This phase III trial was designed to test the non-inferiority of fosaprepitant toward aprepitant in cancer patients who were to receive the first cycle of single-day cisplatin chemotherapy. The primary endpoint was complete response (CR) during the overall phase (OP) with a non-inferiority margin of 10.0%. Logistic regression models were used to assess the risk factors of CR and no nausea. To validate the personalized risk models, the accuracy of the risk scoring systems was determined by measuring the specificity, sensitivity and area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC), while the predictive accuracy of the nomogram was measured using concordance index (C-index).A total of 720 patients were randomly assigned. CR during the OP in the fosaprepitant group was not inferior to that in the aprepitant group (78.1% vs. 77.7%, P = 0.765) with a between-group difference of 0.4% (95% CI, -5.7% to 6.6%). Female sex, higher cisplatin dose (≥ 70 mg/mFosaprepitant-based triple prophylaxis demonstrated non-inferior control for preventing CINV in patients treated with cisplatin-base chemotherapy. Female cancer patients without a history of alcohol consumption, with larger BSA and received high-dose cisplatin might be more vulnerable to CINV. Three personalized prediction models were well-validated and could be used to optimize antiemetic therapy for individual patients.

In this study, four different biochar application rates and a control were set up using indoor potted tobacco, to study the effects of biochar on the microbial diversity and metabolism of tobacco-growing soil. The five treatments were as follows: control—0% biochar (w/w) + 26 g fertilizer/pot; biochar treatments—1% biochar (w/w) + 26 g fertilizer/pot, 2% biochar (w/w) + 26 g fertilizer/pot, 3% biochar (w/w) + 26 g fertilizer/pot, and 4% biochar (w/w) + 26 g fertilizer/pot. We found that biochar increases the microbial diversity of soils and simultaneously changes the microbial community structure. Under the influence of biochar, soil urease activity increased by 18%, invertase activity increased by 23.40%, polyphenol oxidase activity increased by 59.50%, and catalase activity increased by 30.92%. Biochar also significantly increased the microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen content of the soil. Soil microbial biomass nitrogen had a positive correlation on bacterial diversity, with the highest coefficient, while soil microbial biomass carbon had a positive correlation on fungal diversity, with the highest coefficient. The microbial diversity and metabolic capacity of soil are improved under the influence of biochar, and soil enzyme activity and microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen have positive impacts on soil microbial diversity.

Accelerating the implementation of the strategy of revitalizing the rural economy with characteristics is an inevitable choice for China to embark on the new historical journey of comprehensively completing the modernization of a socialist country with characteristics. Due to a variety of factors, China's urban and rural development is very uneven, mainly reflected in the large income gap between urban and rural residents, and the development of rural undertakings is relatively backward. This is the most prominent contradiction in China's economic and social development at this stage, and it is also the biggest problem we are facing. In fact, we cannot completely escape these historical problems. The work report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly proposed to accelerate the implementation of the strategy of revitalizing the rural economy with characteristics, which means that we must always adhere to and constantly take effective policies and measures to grasp and solve the problem of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers"

The cavitation damage of the pollutant wall caused by shock wave and microjet in the process of bubble collapse has attracted widespread attention from scholars. However, many researches focus on bubble collapse from the macroscopic experimental point of view, the dynamics of which is still not clear. In this paper, it constructs bubbles with different radii, runs different models under different compressive strain rates, takes the pressure on the upper and lower walls of pollutants as the research target, and summarizes the influence of compressive strain rates, initial radius of bubbles and temperatures on the release pressure of bubble collapse on the pollutant wall. The results show that: as the initial radius of bubbles increase, the maximum pressure on the upper and lower walls of benzamide increases first and then decreases. The pressure release rate of bubble increases with the increase of the compressive strain rate. Based on the pressure on the upper and lower wall surfaces of the benzamide, the temperature and initial radius of the bubble have a large influence, and the influence of the compressive strain rate is small. Under the simulation conditions of the paper, when bubble collapse is used to release energy to treat pollutants, the recommended bubble radius is 10-15 Å. The paper not only reveals the influence of the initial radius of the bubble, the compressive strain rate and the temperature on the pressure released by the bubble collapse on the pollutant wall, but also provides theoretical guidance for the application of cavitation.

Recently, the use of brackish diatoms has been proposed to remove various inorganic constituents, such as dissolved silica, nutrients, calcium, and bicarbonate, to enhance the freshwater recovery in reverse osmosis (RO). In this study, nine strains of brackish diatoms isolated from water and sediment samples from several evaporation ponds in California and Arizona were examined for their ability to assimilate silica and remove other constituents from RO concentrate. In addition to two previously reported strains, namely Gedaniella flavovirens PEWL001 and Nitzschia communis PEWL002, several new isolates including Halamphora sydowii PEWL004, Nitzschia sp. PEWL008, and Halamphora sp. PEWL011 were found to remove more than 95% of silica, 95% of ammonia and orthophosphate, and more than 50% of calcium and carbonate within 6 days. Two additional G. flavovirens strains (Psetr3 and Psetr7) collected from a brackish lake in Aomori, Japan, also showed rapid dissolved silica uptake (32 mg L−1 day−1) comparable to the one isolated from an agricultural drainage water evaporation pond in the Central Valley, California. This study demonstrated that the brackish diatoms isolated from the evaporation ponds could be useful for the treatment of RO concentrate, which would possibly enable more sustainable desalination processes.

To assess safety and long-term outcome of stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG)-guided radiofrequency thermocoagulation (RFTC) of epileptic foci in eloquent motor areas.We retrospectively reviewed medical charts and surgical features of 15 patients with drug-resistant focal epilepsy in eloquent motor areas treated between 2017 and 2021. All patients underwent SEEG-guided RFTC as the first option. General characteristics, SEEG findings, morbidity, and seizure outcome after RFTC were analyzed to extract the potential value of SEEG-guided RFTC for epileptic foci in eloquent motor areas.There were 12 male and 3 female patients. Mean age at RFTC was 25 ± 8.5 years (range, 14-48 years), and mean duration of epilepsy before SEEG was 9.5 ± 7.0 years (range, 2-26 years). Mean follow-up period was 22.1 months (range, 8-41 months). Magnetic resonance imaging findings were negative in 2 cases, suspected focal cortical dysplasia in 10 cases, central region band heterotopias in 2 cases, and malformations of cortical development in 1 case. RFTC sites included primary precentral area (M1) (7, 46.7%), paracentral lobule (4, 26.7%), supplemental motor area (2, 13.3%), and premotor area (2, 13.3%). Of 15 patients, 12 (80%) experienced a ≥75% decrease in seizure frequency, of whom 9 (60%) experienced a long-term seizure-free period (10-29 months, mean 21.3 months). Three (20%) patients did not benefit from RFTC. Nine patients had neurological deficits immediately after RFTC (transient in 8 patients [3 days to 3 weeks] and prolonged in 1 patient).SEEG-guided RFTC for epileptic foci in eloquent motor areas seems to be a safe and effective procedure. It could be the first option for drug-resistant epilepsy that is not amenable to surgical resection, especially for extremally focused epileptic foci in the cortex close to or inside the central region. Larger series and prospective studies are necessary to validate our conclusions.

Mn(II) oxidation by free chlorine can be applied to remove Mn(II) at water treatment plants. This reaction also results in particulate MnO

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is one of the most aggressive types of lung cancer and reliable indicators are needed for improved patient management. The evaluation of skeletal muscle index of the third lumbar vertebra (L3MI) based on computed tomography (CT) is used to estimate patient prognosis in multiple cancers. However, its function in extensive-stage SCLC remains controversial. Considering that the maintenance of muscle mass may affect the survival of cancer patients. Herein, a retrospective study was conducted to investigate whether sarcopenia defined by skeletal muscle mass index at the third lumbar vertebra is a prognostic factor in extensive-stage SCLC cancer patients.This retrospective analysis included extensive-stage SCLC patients diagnosed at the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center from January 2009 to March 2017 with platinum-based chemotherapy. Clinical data were collated for further examination, and CT or positron emission tomography (PET)/CT datasets were analyzed for body mass index (BMI) and L3MI. Follow-up data were collected by contacting patients or their families. Overall survival (OS) was defined as the interval between the date of treatment started and the date of death or censoring. The Kaplan-Meier product limit method and log-rank tests were used to assess differences in OS between the high L3MI and low L3MI groups. Cox regression analysis was used to identify independent factors of OS.For the 139 extensive-stage SCLC patients, the median follow-up time was 26.1 months (range, 0.4 to 79.4 months). The median OS was 9.5 months. There were no differences in age, inflammatory factors, nor progression after first-line treatment between the high L3MI and low L3MI groups. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the OS of the high L3MI group was significantly longer than that of the low L3MI group (14.045Sarcopenia defined by L3MI is a prognostic factor for extensive-stage SCLC patients and early intervention of muscle mass maintaining may achieve better cancer management.

Allergic asthma which is induced by ovalbumin (OVA) is a chronic airway inflammation disease. Isoorientin (Iso) is a natural C-glucosyl flavone with many biological properties. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Iso on OVA-induced allergic asthma. A total of 30 C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into five groups: control group, OVA group, Dex (dexamethasone, 10 mg/kg) group, low-dose Iso group (Iso-L, 25 mg/kg), and high-dose Iso group (Iso-H, 50 mg/kg). The serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were collected for biochemical parameters, the lung tissue was collected for hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) staining, immunohistochemistry (IHC), and western blot. The levels of IL-4, IL-5, IL-13, malondialdehyde (MDA), NO, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) in Iso-L and Iso-H groups were significantly lower than that in model group ( p

As the main parent and guardian, mothers are often concerned with the study performance of their children. More specifically, most mothers are eager to know the concrete examination scores of their children. However, with the continuous progress of modern education systems, most schools or teachers have now been forbidden to release sensitive student examination scores to the public due to privacy concerns, which has made it infeasible for mothers to know the real study level or examination performance of their children. Therefore, a conflict has come to exist between teachers and mothers, which harms the general growing up of students in their study. In view of this challenge, we propose a Privacy-aware Examination Results Ranking (PERR) method to attempt at balancing teachers' privacy disclosure concerns and the mothers' concerns over their children's examination performance. By drawing on a relevant case study, we prove the effectiveness of the proposed PERR method in evaluating and ranking students according to their examination scores while at the same time securing sensitive student information.

Background and objective The visceral adiposity index (VAI), as a composite indictor to evaluate visceral adipose function, has been demonstrated to be correlated with atherosclerosis. The study objective was to explore the association between asymptomatic intracranial arterial stenosis (aICAS) and VAI in Chinese rural dwellers. Methods The cross-sectional study consisted of 1942 participants ≥ 40 years old who were living in Pingyin County, Shandong Province and free from history of clinical stroke and transient ischemic attack. The aICAS in the study was diagnosed by transcranial doppler ultrasound combined with magnetic resonance angiography. The multivariate logistic regression models were deployed to explore the correlation of VAI with aICAS, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were plotted to compare the performance of models. Results The participants with aICAS comparing to those without had a significantly higher VAI. After adjusting for confounding factors including age, hypertension, DM, sex, drinking habit, LDL-C, hsCRP, and smoking habit, the VAI-Tertile 3 (vs. VAI-Tertile 1) was positively associated with aICAS (OR, 2.15; 95% CI, 1.25–3.65; P = 0.005). The VAI-Tertile 3 was still markedly associated with aICAS among the underweight and normal weight (BMI ≤ 23.9 kg/m2) participants (OR, 3.17; 95% CI, 1.15–8.71; P = 0.026) with an AUC = 0.684. A similar relationship between VAI and aICAS was obtained among the participants with no abdominal obesity (WHR P = 0.017). Conclusions The possible correlation between VAI and aICAS was found to be positive for the first time among Chinese rural residents over 40 years old. A higher VAI was found to be significantly associated with aICAS among the participants who were underweight or normal weight, and these results may provide additional risk stratification information for aICAS.

Here, we present a proactive fouling prevention mechanism that endows superhydrophilic membranes with antifouling capability against migratory viscous crude oil fouling. By simulating the hierarchical architecture/chemical composition of a dahlia leaf, a membrane surface is decorated with wrinkled-pattern microparticles, exhibiting a unique proactive fouling prevention mechanism based on a synergistic hydration layer/steric hindrance. The density functional theory and physicochemical characterizations demonstrate that the main chains of the microparticles are bent towards Fe3+ through coordination interactions to create nanoscale wrinkled patterns on smooth microparticle surfaces. Nanoscale wrinkled patterns reduce the surface roughness and increase the contact area between the membrane surface and water molecules, expanding the steric hindrance between the oil molecules and membrane surface. Molecular dynamic simulations reveal that the water-molecule densities and strengths of the hydrogen bonds are higher near the resultant membrane surface. With this concept, we can successfully inhibit the initial adhesion, migration, and deposition of oil, regardless of the viscosity, on the membrane surface and achieve migratory viscous crude oil antifouling. This research on the PFP mechanism opens pathways to realize superwettable materials for diverse applications in fields related to the environment, energy, health, and beyond.

Background QL1706 (PSB205) is a single bifunctional MabPair (a novel technical platform) product consisting of two engineered monoclonal antibodies (anti-PD-1 IgG4 and anti-CTLA-4 IgG1), with a shorter elimination half-life (t1/2) for CTLA-4. We report results from a phase I/Ib study of QL1706 in patients with advanced solid tumors who failed standard therapies. Methods In the phase I study, QL1706 was administered intravenously once every 3 weeks at one of five doses ranging from 0.3 to 10 mg/kg, and the maximum tolerated dose, recommended phase 2 dose (RP2D), safety, pharmacokinetics (PK), and pharmacodynamics (PD) of QL1706 were investigated. In the phase Ib study, QL1706 was administered at the RP2D intravenously every 3 weeks, and the preliminary efficacies in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), cervical cancer (CC), and other solid tumors were evaluated. Results Between March 2020 and July 2021, 518 patients with advanced solid tumors were enrolled (phase I, n = 99; phase Ib, n = 419). For all patients, the three most common treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) were rash (19.7%), hypothyroidism (13.5%), and pruritus (13.3%). The TRAEs and immune-related adverse events (irAEs) of grade ≥ 3 occurred in 16.0% and 8.1% of patients, respectively. In phase I, 2 of 6 patients in the 10mg/kg group experienced dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs) (grade 3 thrombocytopenia and grade 4 immune-mediated nephritis), so the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) was reached at 10 mg/kg. The RP2D was determined to be 5 mg/kg based on comprehensive analysis of tolerability, PK/PD, and efficacy. For all patients who received QL1706 at the RP2D, the objective response rate (ORR) and median duration of response were 16.9% (79/468) and 11.7 months (8.3—not reached [NR]), respectively; and the ORRs were 14.0% (17/121) in NSCLC, 24.5% (27/110) in NPC, 27.3% (15/55) in CC, 7.4% (2/27) in colorectal cancer, 23.1% (6/26) in small cell lung cancer. For immunotherapy-naive patients, QL1706 exhibited promising antitumor activities, especially in NSCLC, NPC, and CC, with ORRs of 24.2%, 38.7%, and 28.3%, respectively. Conclusions QL1706 was well tolerated and demonstrated promising antitumor activity in solid tumors, especially in NSCLC, NPC, and CC patients. It is currently being evaluated in randomized phase II (NCT05576272, NCT05179317) and phase III (NCT05446883, NCT05487391) trials. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04296994 and NCT05171790.

Precisely discerning disease types and vulnerable areas is crucial in implementing effective monitoring of crop production. This forms the basis for generating targeted plant protection recommendations and automatic, precise applications. In this study, we constructed a dataset comprising six types of field maize leaf images and developed a framework for classifying and localizing maize leaf diseases. Our approach involved integrating lightweight convolutional neural networks with interpretable AI algorithms, which resulted in high classification accuracy and fast detection speeds. To evaluate the performance of our framework, we tested the mean Intersection over Union (mIoU) of localized disease spot coverage and actual disease spot coverage when relying solely on image-level annotations. The results showed that our framework achieved a mIoU of up to 55.302%, indicating the feasibility of using weakly supervised semantic segmentation based on class activation mapping techniques for identifying disease spots in crop disease detection. This approach, which combines deep learning models with visualization techniques, improves the interpretability of the deep learning models and achieves successful localization of infected areas of maize leaves through weakly supervised learning. The framework allows for smart monitoring of crop diseases and plant protection operations using mobile phones, smart farm machines, and other devices. Furthermore, it offers a reference for deep learning research on crop diseases.

Since 1990, between 40 and 68 countries, home to 46–79% of the population in the world were involved in armed conflict per year [1–3], which have caused huge socio-economic costs and severe casualties. Geotargeting is a central challenge for comprehensive assessments of wars and humanitarian assistance: it remains a difficult task to rapidly identify severe destructive zones with traditional or satellite-based methods. To overcome the challenge, we propose the first tempo- ral knowledge-guided detection scheme (TKDS) for satellite urban destruction monitoring. By integrating the proposed pixel-based Transformer model (PtNet) into the efficient TKDS scheme (TKDS-PtNet), we achieve the best destruction detection performance in the Syrian civil war and Russia-Ukraine war with high or medium resolution satellite imagery. Even using medium-resolution satellite images, the performance of the TKDS-PtNet model outperforms the state-of-the-art methods by 44.4 (more than twice as high as the latter, 72.4 vs 28.0) in terms of F1 score in six Syrian cities, and 36.1 (84.6 vs 48.5) in four Ukrainian cities. Our findings located 1,652 severely damaged buildings in Mariupol, Ukraine, including various urban infrastructures such as 81.5% (1,346) houses/apartments, 4.0% (66) industrial, as well as 11 garages, 2 schools, 2 kindergartens, and 1 sports center. Our scheme provides a low-cost, reliable, highly flexible, and generalizable solution for urban destruction monitoring in data-sparse environments. It can be applied to any urban context to near real-time monitor damage caused by wars, earthquakes, or extreme weather events, and approximate the spatio-temporal distribution of the damages to aid relief efforts, in addition to the estimation of potential rehabilitation costs.

Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is a rare but fatal cancer with BRAF mutation ranging from 30%-50%. Histone lysine lactylation represents a novel epigenetic mark that translates cellular metabolic signals into transcriptional regulation. It is not clear whether the Warburg effect can promote the proliferation of ATC with BRAFV600E mutation via metabolite-mediated histone lactylation. Our study aimed at illustrating how BRAFV600E restructures cellular protein lactylation landscape to boost ATC proliferation, and determining whether blockade of protein lactylation can sensitize mutant ATC to BRAFV600E inhibitors. Western blotting was used to evaluate lactylation status. Aerobic glycolysis was intervened by adding cell-permeable ethyl lactate or using metabolic inhibitors. Chromatin immunoprecipitation and RT-QPCR were applied to analyze the expression of growth-related genes. Different chemical inhibitors were used to inhibit BRAFV600E and other enzymes. ATC cell line derived xenograft model was employed to examine the efficacy of mono and combinatorial therapies. The results showed that aerobic glycolysis in ATC increased global protein lactylation via improving cellular lactate availability. In particular, lactylation on Histone 4 Lysine 12 residue (H4K12La) activated the expression of multiple genes essential for ATC proliferation. Furthermore, oncogenic BRAFV600E boosted glycolytic flux to restructure the cellular lactylation landscape, leading to H4K12La-driven gene transcription and cell cycle deregulation. Accordingly, blockade of cellular lactylation machinery synergized with BRAFV600E inhibitor to impair ATC progression both in vitro and in vivo. Our results demonstrated an extra beneficial effect of aerobic glycolysis on ATC, revealing a novel metabolism-epigenetics axis suitable for combinatorial therapy with BRAFV600E inhibition.

This article has been retracted. Please see the Retraction Notice for more detail: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-018-4559-3.

Rational design efficient transition metal-based electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is critical for water splitting. However, industrial water-alkali electrolysis requires large current densities at low overpotentials, always limited by intrinsic activity. Herein, we report hierarchical bimetal nitride/hydroxide (NiMoN/NiFe LDH) array as model catalyst, regulating the electronic states and tracking the relationship of structure-activity. As-activated NiMoN/NiFe LDH exhibits the industrially required current density of 1000 mA cm−2 at overpotential of 266 mV with 250 h stability for OER. Especially, in-situ electrochemical spectroscopic reveals that heterointerface facilitates dynamic structure evolution to optimize electronic structure. Operando electrochemical impedance spectroscopy implies accelerated OER kinetics and intermediate evolution due to fast charge transport. The OER mechanism is revealed by the combination of theoretical and experimental studies, indicating as-activated NiMoN/NiFe LDH follows lattice oxygen oxidation mechanism with accelerated kinetics. This work paves an avenue to develop efficient catalysts for industrial water electrolysis via tuning electronic states.

H&E and immunohistochemistry staining for ATX and Bcl-2 in mouse breast tumor tissue. The border between tumor (red T) and stromal tissue (red S) is showed as red dash line. Scale bar = 100 mm.