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Key Message: PbMYB1L enhances the cold tolerance and anthocyanin accumulation of transgenic Arabidopsis by regulating the expression of genes related to the cold-responsive genes pathway and anthocyanin synthesis pathway. MYB transcription factors (TFs) have been demonstrated to play diverse roles in plant growth and development. In the present study, we identified a novel R2R3-MYB transcription factor, PbMYB1L, from the peel of 'Red Zaosu' pear (Pyrus bretschneideri), which was induced by cold stress and acted as a positive regulator in anthocyanin biosynthesis. Notably, the transgenic Arabidopsis lines exhibited enhanced tolerance to cold stress. Compared to the Arabidopsis wild-type plants, the transgenic lines displayed longer primary roots and reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels including O2−, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and malondialdehyde (MDA). Furthermore, significant upregulation of key cold-responsive genes AtCBF1, AtCBF2, AtCBF3, AtCBF4, and AtKIN1 was observed in the transgenic plants under cold stress conditions compared to wild type. Arabidopsis plants overexpressing PbMYB1L had significant anthocyanin accumulation in leaves after cold treatment with quantitative results indicating higher expression of anthocyanin structural genes compared to wild type. These findings suggest that PbMYB1L not only plays a vital role in conferring cold tolerance but also acts as a crucial regulator of anthocyanin biosynthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TiO2/kaolin was first synthesized by using ultrasound-sol–gel method and then deposited onto the surface of cotton fabrics through two dipping and two rolling process. To investigate the properties of this TiO2/kaolin-finished cotton fabric, TiO2/kaolin/cotton composites were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectrum and energy dispersive spectrometer, while the surface morphologies of the cotton fabrics were analyzed by field emission scanning electron microscopy. The whiteness, air permeability, breaking strength and elongation of TiO2/kaolin/cotton composites were, respectively, measured and the results showed that all these parameters decreased slightly with the appearance of TiO2/kaolin. The UPF value of TiO2/kaolin/cotton composites was significantly enhanced to 100+ , even if after soaping for 30 times, which might be due to the synergistic effect of kaolin and TiO2. In addition, the performance such as hand feel attributes, softness, smoothness and stiffness were measured by PhabrOmeter, respectively. The stiffness of all finished fabrics was obviously better than that of the unfinished cotton. However, the softness and smoothness of finished fabrics were slightly decreased compared to unfinished cotton. Rhodamine B was used as a test contaminant to qualitatively assess the self-cleaning properties of the TiO2/kaolin-finished cotton fabric. The removal of Rhodamine B indicated that the TiO2/kaolin-finished fabric exhibited excellent photocatalytic properties. This study illustrates the great potential of the low-cost kaolin powder as an efficient finishing agent for the fabric finishing process, and meanwhile provides a novel suggestion for fabric modification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circadian rhythms are crucial for regulating physiological and behavioral processes. Pineal hormone melatonin is often used to measure circadian amplitude but its collection is costly and time-consuming. Wearable activity data are promising alternative, but the most commonly used measure, relative amplitude, is subject to behavioral masking. In this study, we firstly derive a feature named circadian activity rhythm energy (CARE) to better characterize circadian amplitude and validate CARE by correlating it with melatonin amplitude (Pearson's r = 0.46, P = 0.007) among 33 healthy participants. Then we investigate its association with cognitive functions in an adolescent dataset (Chinese SCHEDULE-A, n = 1703) and an adult dataset (UK Biobank, n = 92,202), and find that CARE is significantly associated with Global Executive Composite (β = 30.86, P = 0.016) in adolescents, and reasoning ability, short-term memory, and prospective memory (OR = 0.01, 3.42, and 11.47 respectively, all P < 0.001) in adults. Finally, we identify one genetic locus with 126 CARE-associated SNPs using the genome-wide association study, of which 109 variants are used as instrumental variables in the Mendelian Randomization analysis, and the results show a significant causal effect of CARE on reasoning ability, short-term memory, and prospective memory (β = -59.91, 7.94, and 16.85 respectively, all P < 0.0001). The present study suggests that CARE is an effective wearable-based metric of circadian amplitude with a strong genetic basis and clinical significance, and its adoption can facilitate future circadian studies and potential intervention strategies to improve circadian rhythms and cognitive functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was carried out to assess the potential use and applicability of micrografting technique for developing in vitro grafted plantlets. Microshoots of kiwifruit 'Miliang-1' and 'Hongyang' were used as rootstock and scion. Accomplishment of in vitro grafting has been examined by varying numerous factors, the physiological state of the rootstock and scion, the pH value of the medium, the concentration of sucrose, the type of medium and the PGRs. The results showed that the best conditions for in vitro grafting of kiwifruit were that the rootstock is not rooted and that both rootstock and scion were free of leaves. The best medium formula suitable for kiwifruit micrografting was 1/2 MS solid medium supplemented with 0.5 mg L−1 GA3, 1.0 mg L−1 IBA, 40 g L−1 sucrose and 7 g L−1 agar, pH 6.0. The perlite: peat soil: vermiculite volume ratio at 1:2:1 was the most suitable stroma formula for transplanting micrografted seedlings. Key message: The results showed that the best conditions for in vitro grafting of kiwifruit were that the rootstock is not rooted and that both rootstock and scion were free of leaves. The best medium formula suitable for kiwifruit micrografting was 1/2 MS solid medium supplemented with 0.5 mg L−1 GA3, 1.0mg L−1 IBA, 40 g L−1 sucrose, and 7 g L−1 agar, pH 6.0. The perlite: peat soil: vermiculite volume ratio at 1:2:1 was the most suitable stroma formula for transplanting micrografted seedlings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practical application of aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) is limited by the growth of dendrite during cycling. How to rationally design and construct an efficient artificial interface layer by selecting suitable building units to control the dendrite growth is still a challenge. Herein, a porous boron nitride nanofibers (BNNFs) artificial interface layer was constructed, and its working mechanisms were revealed by both experiments (electrochemical characterization and in-situ optical microscope) and theoretical calculations (density functional theory (DFT) and finite element simulation). The insulated BNNFs layer leads to position-selected electroplating between BNNFs layer and Zn foil. The unique negatively charged surface and porosity of BNNFs contribute to the self-concentrating and pumping features of Zn ions, thus suppressing the concentration polarization on the Zn surface. Additionally, densely arranged porous BNNFs have a shunt effect on Zn ions diffusion, resulting in uniform distributions of Zn ions and electric field. The introduced BNNFs layer not only makes Zn deposition uniform but also restrains the dendrite growth, therefore the Zn+BNNFs symmetric cells perform ultralong stable cycling for 1,600 h at 1 mA·cm−2 and more than 500 h at 10 mA·cm−2. Moreover, Zn+BNNFs‖CNT/MnO2 battery presents a high initial capacity of 293.6mAh·g−1 and an excellent retention rate of 97.6% at 1 A·g−1 after 400 cycles, while Zn ‖ CNT/MnO2 battery only maintains 37.1% discharge capacity. This artificial interface layer with negatively charged BNNFs exhibits excellent dendrite-inhibit and may have enormous prospects in other metal batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dysfunction of airway smooth muscle cells (ASMCs) is one of the key factors in the pathogenesis of asthma. How miR-98-5p works in asthma has not been completely elucidated. This work focused on how miR-98-5p functions in the proliferation and migration of human ASMCs treated with interleukin-13 (IL-13). MiR-98-5p expression in plasma of asthmatic patients and IL-13-stimulated ASMCs was probed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). RAS-relevant C3 botulinum toxin substrate 1 (RAC1) protein expression in ASMCs was assessed by Western blot. The growth of ASMCs was measured by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay and 5-ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine (EdU) assay. The migration of ASMCs was examined by Transwell assay. Besides, the apoptosis of ASMCs was analyzed by flow cytometry. The targeting relationship between miR-98-5p and RAC1 3′-UTR was verified by a dual-luciferase reporter gene assay. MiR-98-5p expression was reduced in patients' plasma and IL-13-stimulated ASMCs, and RAC1 expression was upregulated in ASMCs treated with IL-13. MiR-98-5p overexpression inhibited IL-13-induced proliferation and migration of ASMCs while promoting the apoptosis. The opposite result was observed after inhibiting miR-98-5p expression. Besides, RAC1 was identified as a direct downstream target of miR-98-5p in ASMCs. The restoration of RAC1 expression counteracted the impacts of miR-98-5p overexpression on IL-13-stimulated proliferation, migration, and apoptosis of ASMCs. MiR-98-5p inhibits IL-13-induced proliferation and migration and accelerates the apoptosis of ASMCs by downregulating RAC1 expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Citrus rootstock can modify plant growth and enhance stress resistance. There are many genotypes and species used as citrus rootstocks. Although multiple citrus rootstocks whole genome sequence and transcriptome databases have previously been published, no suitable internal reference genes have been investigated for standardization of gene expression via quantitative real-time PCR. Here we reported the first systematic and comprehensive analysis of reference genes for quantitative real-time PCR standardization in various citrus rootstocks. The expression stability of ten candidate reference genes in diverse sample subsets of flooding, drought, alkaline and cold treatments was evaluated using four statistical algorithms, geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper and ΔCt method. The results demonstrated that the expression stability of reference genes varied under different experimental conditions. In addition, normalization of gene expression of 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase 3 (NCED 3), involved in abscisic acid biosynthesis, was conducted to further confirm the reliability of the reference genes. Overall, EF-1α, DIM 1, GAPC and UBC expressed much more stably. ACTIN and GAPDH were not recommended for normalization in given experimental conditions due to low stability. Our main contribution was to identify reference genes with suitable and stable expression in citrus rootstocks varied across selected experimental conditions. Furthermore, these results will provide valuable information for future research on citrus rootstocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adversary makes malicious samples capable of triggering erroneous judgments in deep learning models by introducing imperceptible perturbations to the original benign texts. These malicious samples are referred to as adversarial texts. The exploration of adversarial text generation methods not only facilitates our understanding of the robustness of mainstream deep neural networks against such adversarial attacks but also aids in developing appropriate defensive strategies. Nevertheless, the mainstream research on textual adversarial attacks has mainly focused on attack effectiveness, overlooking the associated attack cost. For real-world attacks, considerations such as the time cost, material cost, manpower cost, and various constraints are also crucial. In this paper, we propose a low-cost adversarial text generation method based on the universal strategy in the black-box attack scenario, Universal Chinese Text Tricker (UCTT), for tendency classification on Chinese texts. UCTT is both text-independent and model-independent, which markedly reduces its attack cost. Instead of crafting adversarial texts for a specific text, UCTT generates universal perturbations based on a universal word substitution list, which is applicable to any data in tendency classification datasets. Given a perturbation rate, we can use the word list to craft adversarial texts by simple substitutions without accessing the target model. In the framework of adversarial text generation based on word importance, UCTT utilizes count, arithmetic progression, linear normalization, and nonlinear normalization to calculate the scores of the important words in the dataset and then computes the candidate word frequencies, which in turn constructs the universal word substitution list. Compared with other black-box methods, the experimental results on real-world tendency classification datasets show that UCTT exhibits an effective attack capability while significantly reducing the attack cost. Compared to the powerful baseline we designed that exceeds the SOTA, UCTT improves the efficiency of adversarial text generation by up to a factor of 7 without accessing the target model. In addition to demonstrating excellent attack performance on mainstream models, UCTT is also capable of attacking the powerful ChatGPT in the physical world, which cannot be directly attacked by traditional adversarial text generation methods due to the hard labels produced by the target model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Main conclusion: FaMAPK5 and FaMAPK10 genes were involved in ABA-mediated strawberry fruit ripening and could enhance the antioxidant capacity by increasing non-enzymatic components and enzymatic antioxidants. Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) are the key proteins involved in plant stress response by activating an antioxidant defense system, which cooperates with plant hormones. However, the involvement of MAPKs in the regulation of strawberry fruit ripening and resistance is unclear. In this study, two genes, FaMAPK5 and FaMAPK10, were isolated, and their expression pattern and function analysis were conducted. The results showed FaMAPK5 and FaMAPK10 were expressed in all tested tissue/organ types and reached the highest expression level at the white stage during strawberry fruit development and ripening. Transient overexpression of FaMAPK5 and FaMAPK10 increased the fruit anthocyanin, abscisic acid (ABA), total sugar, and glucose contents. ABA and especially hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) treatment induced the production of large amounts of H2O2 and noticeably increased the expression levels of FaMAPK5 and FaMAPK10 in strawberry fruit, while the reduced glutathione (GSH) had the opposite effect. The level of total phenol and activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POD) significantly increased in FaMAPK5 overexpression fruit, and increased activities of SOD and CAT were observed in FaMAPK10 overexpression fruit. In addition, Botrytis cinerea treatment showed that overexpression of FaMAPK5 conferred retarded disease symptom development and enhanced fruit disease resistance. Our research revealed that FaMAPK5 and FaMAPK10 might participate in ABA-mediated H2O2 signaling in regulating strawberry fruit ripening and resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children now are facing an increasing risk of early life stress (ELS), which leads to detrimental psychosocial outcomes. Behavior studies suggested that positive parental interactions might moderate the negative impact of ELS, but the related biological alteration remains unclear. This study aims to investigate whether positive parent–child interactions moderate the association between maltreatment (as a severe form of ELS) and hair cortisol concentration (HCC), as well as between HCC and psychosocial outcomes in young children. Participants were 6-year-old Chinese children (N = 257, Mage = 6.2, 121 were male) selected by stratified cluster random sampling from a Shanghai population representative cohort. Proximal 3 cm hair strands were analyzed using liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry for HCC. Children’s psychosocial outcome was evaluated using the parental report Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Parents also reported the frequency of positive parent–child interactions using the Chinese Parent–Child Interaction Scale (CPCIS) as well as the history of maltreatment. Multi-level logistic regression models adjusting for individual, kindergarten, and district confounders were used to evaluate the associations between maltreatment, HCC, and psychosocial outcomes. Interactions terms tested whether more frequent positive parent–child interactions moderates the association between maltreatment and HCC, as well as between HCC and psychosocial outcomes. Maltreated children exhibited higher levels of HCC (B = 1.20, 95% CI: 0.38,2.02; p = 0.004), and children with higher HCC exhibited poorer psychosocial outcomes (B = 0.34, 95% CI: 0.18,0.51; p < 0.001). Positive parent–child interactions did not have a moderating effect on the association between maltreatment and HCC, but they demonstrated a moderating effect on the association between increased HCC and psychosocial outcomes (interaction term: B = −0.42, 95% CI: −0.75,−0.10; p = 0.01). These findings provide evidence that positive parental interaction may serve as a moderator between chronic cortisol exposure and psychosocial problems. It highlights the importance of frequent parent–child interactions, especially among children under a high risk of ELS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]