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Photodynamic therapy (PDT) for hypoxic tumors has attracted wide attention owing to its noninvasiveness, easy maneuverability, and instantaneity. However, hypoxia in tumors and penetration depth of conventional ultraviolet light has greatly weakened its performance. To solve these problems, under NIR-II light irradiation, squaric acid nanoparticles (SQ NPs) with superior reactive oxygen, especially, hydroxyl radicals (•OH) production performance were first utilized for hypoxic tumor therapy. SQ NPs with intense light capture capability, intense NIR emission, and excellent photobleaching resistance show continuous •OH generation capabilities under NIR-II laser excitation. Through the superior PDT performance, the growth of hypoxic tumors was effectively inhibited, and the survival rate of mice was improved. This work highlights the application of NIR-II photoexcitation in deep tissue type I photodynamic therapy of hypoxic tumors, which will facilitate the development of hypoxic tumor PDT in deep depth.

In this study, wild barley (Hordeum brevisubulatum) infected (E+) and uninfected (E-) by Epichloë bromicola were used for hydroponic experiments during the seedling stage. Various attributes, such as the effect of fungal endophyte on the growth and development of wild barley, the absorption of cadmium (Cd) and mineral elements (Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn), subcellular distribution, and chemical forms were investigated under CdCl2 stress. The results showed that the fungal endophy significantly reduced the Ca content and percentage of plant roots under Cd stress. The Fe and Mn content of roots, the mineral element content of soluble fractions, and the stems in the pectin acid or protein-chelated state increased significantly in response to fungal endophy. Epichloë endophyte helped Cd2+ to enter into plants; and reduced the positive correlation of Ca-Fe and Ca-Mn in roots. In addition, it also decreased the correlation of soluble components Cd-Cu, Cd-Ca, Cd-Mg in roots, and the negative correlation between pectin acid or protein-chelated Cd in stems and mineral elements, to increase the absorbance of host for mineral elements. In conclusion, fungal endophy regulated the concentration and distribution of mineral elements, while storing more Cd2+ to resist the damage caused by Cd stress. The study could provide a ground for revealing the Cd tolerance mechanism of endophytic fungal symbionts. The present study is the first to study the effect of fungal endophy on essential mineral elements of plants under heavy metal stress, filling a gap in the existing research. The study could be helpful to reveal the mechanism of endophytic fungi to improve the host's tolerance to heavy metals and provide a foundation for the grass-endophyte symbionts to improve heavy metal-contaminated soils as ecological grasses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming to investigate whether a fresh produce e‐tailer should implement the strategy of advance selling considering the behavior of consumers' risk aversion, we build a two‐stage newsvendor decision‐making model and further explore how the advance selling value is affected by factors, such as the freshness‐keeping cost and the effect of demand information updating on reducing demand uncertainty. The results indicate that adopting advance selling strategy benefits the e‐tailer or not depends on consumer risk aversion and the effect of demand information updating on reducing demand uncertainty. The increasing effect of demand information updating on reducing demand uncertainty is conducive to improving the value of advance selling, and the freshness‐keeping cost may increase or decrease the value of advance selling. Besides, adopting the strategy of advance selling may benefit both the e‐tailer and the consumers under certain conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detection of vector magnetic fields at nanoscale dimensions is critical in applications ranging from basic material science and fundamental physics to information storage and medical diagnostics. So far, nanoscale vector magnetic field sensing is achieved solely by exploiting a single nitrogen‐vacancy (NV) center in a diamond, by evaluating the Zeeman splitting of NV spin qubits by using the technique of an optically‐detected magnetic resonance. This protocol requires a complex optical setup and expensive detection systems to detect the photoluminescence light, which may limit miniaturization and scalability. Here, a simple approach with all‐electric operation to sensing a vector magnetic field at 200 × 200 nm2 dimensions is experimentally demonstrated, by monitoring a stochastic nanomagnet's transition probability from a metastable state, excited by a driving current due to spin‐orbit torque, to a settled state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knorringia sibirica is a typical species of Polygonaceae with high medicinal and ecological value. However, there are few available phylogenetic and genetic studies about the chloroplast genome of K. sibirica. In the current study, a comprehensive examination of the chloroplast genome of K. sibirica was performed. The K. sibirica chloroplast genome is 161,384 bp, circular with a typical quadripartite structure, and comprised of guanine + cytosine content of 37.63%. The genome consists of 131 genes, including 86 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and 8 rRNA genes. Seventy simple sequence repeats were identified in the genome. When compared with three closely related species, the result revealed that the chloroplast genome of K. sibirica was conserved in genome composition and structure. The specific sites in the genome suitable for DNA barcodes were identified by calculation of the nucleotide diversity. Finally, a phylogenetic tree of 49 species in Polygonaceae was constructed using the whole chloroplast genome. The phylogenetic analysis suggested that Knorringia is an independent genus in the Polygonea tribe. This research could provide support for the utilization of genetic sources and the evolutionary study of K. sibirica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers a fresh produce supply chain in which a retailer sources alternative produce from two competing suppliers. The suppliers make efforts to preserve product freshness, while the retailer, with demand forecast information, can share it with none, one or both of the suppliers strategically. By constructing a multistage game model, the optimal demand information sharing strategy in the supply chain is explored. The results show that the retailer has the willingness to disclose demand information only when the freshness elasticity is high. Significantly, with the improvement of the freshness elasticity, the retailer will transform from sharing information with both suppliers to one supplier. The suppliers are always willing to accept the information disclosed by the retailer. However, complete transparency of demand information may hurt the supply chain under certain conditions. To improve the supply chain performance, the retailer can charge both suppliers for information fees and adjust from sharing information with no suppliers to both suppliers with a relatively low freshness elasticity. Conversely, the retailer can change from sharing information with both suppliers to sharing information with one supplier through a charging contract with a relatively high freshness elasticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study provides a detailed analysis of the chloroplast genome of Microula sikkimensis. The genome consisted of a total of 149,428 bp and four distinct regions, including a large single-copy region (81,329 bp), a small single-copy region (17,261 bp), and an inverted repeat region (25,419 bp). The genome contained 112 genes, including 78 protein-coding genes, 30 tRNA genes, and 4 rRNA genes, and some exhibited duplication in the inverted repeat region. The chloroplast genome displayed different GC content across regions, with the inverted repeat region exhibiting the highest. Codon usage analysis and the identification of simple sequence repeats (SSRs) offer valuable genetic markers. Comparative analysis with other Boraginaceae species highlighted conservation and diversity in coding and noncoding regions. Phylogenetic analysis placed M. sikkimensis within the Boraginaceae family, revealing its distinct relationship with specific species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new method to realize full-pipelined SHA256 based on data storage is proposed. For the full-pipelined SHA256, only A and E need to be calculated each time when the status registers of the data compressor are updated, while B-D and F-H can be obtained directly from A-C and E-G of the previous round. Since A and E will no longer be used after they have been transmitted forward for four stages, the life cycles of each stage′s A and E are both 4 clock cycles. For the traditional pipeline structure, all status registers which are used to store A-H will be updated at the same time, which hence introduce a large dynamic power. Therefore, in order to reduce the numbers of registers, and then reduce the dynamic power of registers, this paper proposes a storage scheme, which uses latches to store each stage′s A and E. When the latter stage needs to use A and E of previous stage, it selects A and E stored in the latches of previous stages using MUXs. Therefore, only the values of two sets of latches(A and E) will update per stage, which can reduce the dynamic power consumption of the circuit. In the proposed scheme, latch is used instead of flip-flop as a storage unit, and data is selected by using MUXs which are composed of transfer gates. The proposed scheme is realized and verified using a 28 nm process, the simulation results show that when compared with traditional structure, the power consumption of the pipelined SHA256 using data storage scheme is reduced by about 27.5%, and the area is reduced by about 49.2%.

Analog arithmetic operations are the most fundamental mathematical operations used in image and signal processing as well as artificial intelligence (AI). In‐memory computing (IMC) offers a high performance and energy‐efficient computing paradigm. To date, in‐memory analog arithmetic operations with emerging nonvolatile devices are usually implemented using discrete components, which limits the scalability and blocks large scale integration. Here, a prototypical implementation of in‐memory analog arithmetic operations (summation, subtraction and multiplication) is experimentally demonstrated, based on in‐memory electrical current sensing units using spin‐orbit torque (SOT) devices. The proposed structures for analog arithmetic operations are smaller than the state‐of‐the‐art complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) counterparts by several orders of magnitude. Moreover, data to be processed and computing results can be locally stored, or the analog computing can be done in the nonvolatile SOT devices, which are exploited to experimentally implement the image edge detection and signal amplitude modulation with a simple structure. Furthermore, an artificial neural network (ANN) with SOT devices based synapses is constructed to realize pattern recognition with high accuracy of ≈95%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effects of endophytes infection on bacterial and fungal communities in soil have been extensively studied. However, how the presence of Epichloë endophytes and environmental factors influence the nitrifying genes abundance of ammonia‐oxidizing archaea (amoA‐AOA) and bacteria (amoA‐AOB), and denitrifying genes abundances of N reduction (nirS and nirK) and nitrous oxide reduction (nosZ) in soil is unclear. In the study, the copy number of 16S rRNA, 18S rRNA, amoA‐AOB, amoA‐AOA, nirS, nirK, and nosZ genes in rhizosphere soils of drunken horse grass [Achnatherum inebrians (Hance) Keng] with the infected (E+) and uninfected (E–)endophyte five ecotypes after 3 yr field cultivation were investigated using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The effects of A. inebrians in geographic source on plant growth, soil fertility, and microbial community was greater than in different endophyte status. The copy number of the 16S rRNA, amoA‐AOA, nirK, and nosZ genes from different ecotypes (Qinghai, QH; and Tianzhu, TZ) were significantly affected by Epichloë endophyte. The copy number of the 16S rRNA, 18S rRNA, amoA‐AOB. amoA‐AOA, nirS, nirK, and nosZ genes positively related to soil pH, moisture, C/N ratio, and soil ammonium nitrogen (NH4+), and soil organic carbon (SOC) contents. Endophyte infection significantly increased plant biomass of A. inebrians from QH ecotype. Plant total chlorophyll and soil nitrate nitrogen (NO3–) were the main factor for the Epichloë endophyte and ecotype to affect plant dry weight. Further studies are required to confirm the regulation of soil NO3– as an important factor in Epichloë endophyte affecting plant growth and the soil microbial community structure in relation to N cycling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Litter decomposition plays a key role in nutrient cycling across ecosystems. The presence of Epichloë endophytes in grass plants affects litter decomposition. The overall effects of leaf litter containing Epichloë endophytes on the chemical and biological properties in non‐rhizosphere soils have not previously been examined. The current study is aimed to understand the effect of direct incorporation of leaf litter from Epichloë endophyte‐infected perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) on soil chemical characteristics, and fungal and bacterial biodiversity. Firstly, fresh leaf litter of the endophyte Epichloë festucae var. lolii‐infected (E+) and endophyte‐free (E−) L. perenne were incorporated into the soil, and then samples were collected from E+ and E− litter incorporated soil at T0, T1, T2 and T3 (0, 120, 240 and 360 days) for chemical and sequencing analyses. The Epichloë‐containing leaf litter incorporation changed the soil microbial environment by enhancing the soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus, NH4+–N and NO3−–N contents, and acidifying soil pH. The endophyte had stronger effects on soil bacteria than soil fungi when the litter was determined with and without the endophyte. Litter containing the Epichloë endophyte significantly increased the absolute abundance of the 16S rRNA gene and relative abundances of the Actinobacteria, Nitrospirae and Gemmatimonadetes, while significantly decreasing the relative abundances of the Planctomycetes and Rokubacteria and the diversity in soil bacteria community. There was no significant effect of endophyte‐containing leaf litter incorporation on the absolute abundance and diversity of the soil fungal community except the increment in the relative abundance of Rozellomycota. Soil pH and the SOC‐to‐TN ratio (C:N) were the main factors influencing the soil bacterial community, and the presence of E. festucae var. lolii was directly and positively related to the soil bacterial diversity. The current study established that Epichloë endophyte‐infection altered the abundance and diversity of the soil bacterial community by affecting leaf litter quality and increasing soil chemical properties after litter incorporation. Highlights: Soil microbial habitat was changed by leaf litter with Epichloë endophyte incorporation.Litter containing endophytes increased the absolute abundance of the 16S rRNA gene.Epichloë endophytes altered the diversity of bacteria during litter incorporation.The response of soil bacteria to a litter containing endophytes was greater than that of soil fungi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydroponic Hordeum brevisubulatum (wild barley) was used as material in the greenhouse to study the effects of endophyte infection on plant growth, Cd absorption and transport, subcellular distribution, and Cd chemical forms under CdCl2 stress. Endophytic fungi respond positively to chlorophyll content and photosynthetic efficiency under Cd stress. The order of Cd absorption in different parts of the plant was: roots > stems > leaves. Endophyte infection increased the plant's absorption and transport of Cd while causing a significant difference in the stem, which was associated with the distribution density of endophyte hyphae. The proportion of organelle Cd in endophyte-infected wild barley was significantly higher, which facilitated more Cd transport to aboveground. Cd stress showed a slight effect on the chemical forms of Cd in leaves. The proportion of phosphate, oxalate, and residual Cd increased in the stem. Cd existed in the form of inorganic salt, organic acid, pectin, and protein in roots. Endophyte infection reduced the Cd content of the more toxic chemical forms to protect the normal progress of plant physiological functions. Therefore, the isolation of cell walls and vacuoles is a key mechanism for plant Cd tolerance and detoxification. As endophyte infections have more ability to absorb Cd in plants, H. brevisubulatum–Epichloë bromicola symbionts can improve heavy metal contaminated soil and water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the complete chloroplast genome of Achnatherum inebrians, a poisonous herb that is widely distributed in the rangelands of Northern China. The genome is 137 714 bp in total and consists of a large single‐copy (81 758 bp) region and small single‐copy (12 682 bp) region separated by a pair of inverted repeats (21 637 bp). The genome contains 130 genes, including 84 protein‐coding genes, 38 tRNA genes and 8 ribosomal RNA genes, and the guanine + cytosine content is 36.17%. We subsequently performed comparative analysis of complete genomes from A. inebrians and other Poaceae‐related species from GenBank. Thirty‐eight simple sequence repeats were identified, further demonstrating rapid evolution in Poaceae. Finally, the phylogenetic trees of 37 species of Poaceae and 2 species of Amaranthaceae were constructed by using maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference methods, based on the genes of the complete chloroplast genome. We identified hotspots that can be used as molecular markers and barcodes for phylogenetic analysis, as well as for species identification. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that A. inebrians is a member of the genus Stipa rather than Achnatherum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hardware implementations of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) using conventional binary arithmetic units are computationally expensive and energy-intensive together with large area footprints. Stochastic computing (SC) is an unconventional computing paradigm that operates on stochastic bit streams. It can offer low-power and area-efficient hardware implementations and has shown promising results when applied to ANN hardware circuits. SC relies on stochastic number generators (SNGs) to map input binary numbers to stochastic bit streams. The SNGs are conventionally implemented using random number generators (RNGs) and comparators. Linear feedback shifted registers (LFSRs) are typically used as the RNGs, which need far more area and power than the SC core, counteracting the latter's main advantages. To mitigate this problem, in this Letter, RNGs employing Spin–Orbit Torque (SOT)-induced stochastic switching of perpendicularly magnetized Ta/CoFeB/MgO nanodevices have been proposed. Furthermore, the SOT true random number generator (TRNG) is integrated with the simple CMOS stochastic computing circuits to perform a stochastic artificial neural network. To further optimize power and area efficiency, a fully parallel architecture and TRNG-sharing scheme are presented. The proposed stochastic ANN using the SOT-based TRNG obtains a negligible inference accuracy loss, compared with the binary version, and achieves 9× and 25× improvement in terms of area and power, respectively, compared with the ANN using LFSRs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hordeum jubatum is a salt tolerant forage, which plays an important role in improving saline-alkali land and animal husbandry alkali-saline grassland. Hordeum jubatum has been gradually domesticated as an ornamental grass due to its special flower color. However, no domesticated varieties of H. jubatum plant have been reported worldwide. This study reported the complete chloroplast genome of wild H. jubatum, which was 136,871 bp in length, containing a pair of inverted repeats (IRA/IRB) of 21,608 bp separated by a small single-copy (SSC) area region of 12,799 bp and the large single-copy (LSC) region of 80,856 bp. A total of 133 genes, including 85 protein-coding genes (79 PCG species), 40 transfer RNA genes (32 tRNA species), and eight ribosomal RNA genes (four rRNA species) were predicted from the chloroplast genomes. The overall GC content was 38.25%, and the corresponding values of the LSC, SSC, and IR were 36.22%, 32.15%, and 43.85%, respectively. The phylogenetic analysis showed that wild H. jubatum was clustered closely with Hordeum bogdanii. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By using the methods of literature review, video observation, three--stage index analysis and mathematical statistics, this paper makes quantitative and qualitative analysis on the tactics of three players of the Japanese women's table tennis team, so as to put forward corresponding strategies to prepare the national women's table tennis team of China for the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020. The results show that Ito Meicheng's service has strong rotation, fast speed, and many changes in landing point. The connection of the third hoard is fast, which has a certain threat, but there are many mistakes. Receiving and serving skills are comprehensive and can be used flexibly in matches, but the stability is not good. Forehand and backhand are the main scoring techniques in stalemate. Katsumi Ishikawa has comprehensive technology, delicate feel and rich experience in competition, but due to her weak strength, the hitting scoring power is not effective. There are many changes in service, which can make it difficult for opponents to receive the service wheels. After service, the connection is relatively smooth, the batting is more reasonable, and there are fewer errors. Receiving serves is dominated by controlling techniques, with relatively single landing point and less threat. Defensive techniques are used more in the fourth board. The middle point consciousness in the stalemate is excellent and the connection is fast. Hirano Meiyu's tactics and techniques are characterized by fast hitting speed, decisive start and varied landing points. Backhand technology is very strong, but forehand has obvious weaknesses. In the service wheel, the threat of backspin hail is greater, the third board offensive consciousness is stronger, but the stability is not good. Receiving service technology is more comprehensive, but because the consciousness of initiative attack is not strong, so it seems more passive in receiving and grabbing rounds. The consciousness of active line-changing in the stalemate section is strong, but the hit rate is not high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colonization by foliar fungal endophytes can assist host plants in the acquisition of soil nutrients, however understanding of the effects of Epichloë endophytes on soil nutrient dynamics and their consequences for nitrogen cycling remains fragmentary. Here, we studied the microbial functional genes involved in the soil nitrogen cycle and soil nutrient dynamics along a nitrogen gradient in rhizosphere soil of ryegrass infected by the endophyte Epichloë festucae var. lolii. High-throughput sequencing was used to determine the community of microbial functional genes. Plant nutrients and soil N 2 O flux were measured. The endophyte presence reduced the plant nutrient traits (shoot organic carbon, total nitrogen and total phosphorus, and root total phosphorus) under low nitrogen, while it increased the soil nutrient accumulation and altered the microbial environment. Plants with fungal endophyte showed higher community diversity in the AOB -amoA gene (ammonia-oxidation bacteria), had lower absolute and relative abundances in the nirK gene (nitrite reduction bacteria), and improved relative abundances and community diversity of the nosZ (nitrous oxide reduction bacteria). The nifH gene (N 2 fixing bacteria) showed higher absolute and relative abundances, and diversity in rhizosphere soil of endophyte-infected plants. Changes in plant and soil traits mediated by endophyte infection were closely related to N 2 O fluxes and nifH gene abundance. The changes in CO 2 flux by changing in soil microbial biomass nitrogen mediated by shoot biomass (induced by endophyte infection), which further altered the soil pH and NO 3 − content and lead to an increased in NH 4 + accumulation. The current study demonstrated that the possible mechanism for endophyte-mediated nutrient uptake might promote the NH 4 + accumulation through nitrogen mineralization and NO 3 − isomerization rather than enhancing in the nitrogen fixation process and inhibiting the denitrification process in N limited samples. By underlining the importance of endophyte infection for nutrient accumulation in plant and soil and biomass, these findings suggested that nutrient availability could initiate endophyte infection effects to mitigate the damage of low N stress for the host. • Nutrient availability mitigates low N stress by initiating endophyte effects. • Increased in soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen by endophyte infection. • Endophyte-infected plant reduced nitrous oxide (N 2 O) flux and increased CO 2 flux. • Endophyte-mediated nutrient uptake associated with soil NO 3 − dissimilation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hordeum vulgare is an important source of feed and forage for livestock, and of food and drink for humans, but its utilization rate is lower than that of other cereal crops, thus it is crucial to improve barley agronomic traits and production. Epichloë bromicola is an endophyte that was isolated from wild barley (Hordeum brevisubulatum). Previous studies have found that Epichloë can indirectly influence the growth of host plants by affecting soil chemical characteristics, the microbial community, and by producing a range of secondary metabolites. However, underlying effects of Epichloë on the abundance and diversity of soil and root microbes have not been well-studied. In addition, there is a question regarding the relationship between endophyte-produced alkaloids and effects on the root and rhizosphere microbial communities. The objective of this study was to investigate changes in agronomic traits, nutritional properties, peramine, soil chemical and microbial community in the fourth generation of new barley symbionts EI (E. bromicola-infection) and EF (E. bromicola-free) in LQ+4 and LZ+4. We understand the plant height and biomass of EI in LZ+4 were significantly higher than those of EF. The HPLC analysis showed that the peramine content of EI in LQ+4 and LZ+4 was 0.085 and 0.1 mg/g, respectively. We compared the bacterial and fungal communities by analyzing the 16s rRNA (for bacteria) and ITS rDNA regions (for fungi). Our data revealed that the composition of fungal communities in rhizosphere soil of LZ+4 EI are higher than EF. In addition, the diversity and richness of fungal communities in root and rhizosphere soil of LQ+4 EI and LZ+4 EI are significantly higher than EF. Rhizosphere soil microbial community composition was higher than that in roots in LQ+4 and LZ+4. Peramine was significantly and positively correlated with the richness of the soil fungal community. Moreover, the principal component analysis (PCoA) results indicated that E. bromicola significantly influenced the community composition of root and rhizosphere soil microbes in both LQ+4 and LZ+4. Our results illustrate that E. bromicola can influence barley growth, peramine production and microbial communities associated with barley. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Epichloë endophytes are present only in aboveground tissues of grasses they indirectly influence soil biological characteristics through increased litter incorporation and root exudation. Epichloë endophytes have been reported to affect the decomposition rates of litter by altering litter quality and microbial decomposers to affect soil characteristics. However, it is not well-studied that underlying effects on functional genes involved in nitrification and denitrification after incorporation of litter containing Epichloë endophytes into soil. We collected soil samples at S 0 (first litter incorporation), S 1 (second litter incorporation), S 2 (third litter incorporation) and S 3 (120 days after the third litter incorporation) times after incorporation of litter that was either infected with the fungal endophyte Epichloë festucae var. Lolii or free of Epichloë endophyte, respectively.. We sampled the soil fororganic carbon (OC), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), ammonium nitrogen (NH 4 +-N: AN), nitrate nitrogen (NO 3 −-N: NN), soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC), nitrogen (MBN), ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB- amoA) and ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA- amoA) functional genes for nitrification, nitrite reduction (nirS and nirK) and nitrous oxide reduction (nosZ) functional genes for denitrification. We found that Epichloë -infected plant increased the soil properties (OC, TN, AN, NN) and microbial biomass C in S 1 to S 3 times, and microbial biomass N in S 2 and S 3 times, but reduced soil pH in S 1 times and the C_N ratio in S 2 and S 3 times by litter incorporation. The absolute abundance of the AOB- amoA functional gene at S 1 and S 3 times and relative abundances of Planctomycetes, Methylobacterium, Nitosomonas, Gemmata, Geodermatophilus and Sinorhizobium in the nirK functional gene community were significantly higher in soil with Epichloë -infected litter compared to soil with Epichloë -free litter at S 1 and S 3 times. While the absolute abundance at S 1 and S 3 times and diversity at S 3 times of the nirK functional gene, and the absolute abundance at S 1 to S 3 times and diversity at S 1 times of the nosZ functional gene, and relative abundance of Proteobacteria in the AOB- amoA functional gene were significantly lower in soil with litter containing Epichloë endophyte than that of soil with litter without the endophyte. The soil moisture, and the contents of TP, OC, AN and MBN were the best explanatory variables for the altered microbial community. Our results provide a new understanding of the responses of soil nitrification and denitrification genes through incorporation of litter containing Epichloë endophytes into soil. • Soil microbial habitat environment was changed by litter incorporation. • We observed an increase in the absolute abundance of AOB- amoA in EI compared to EF soil. • The composition of nirK functional gene communities differed in EI and EF soil. • Endophyte reduced the diversity of nosZ functional gene following litter incorporation. • Soil properties were explained best the difference in functional genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The clavicipitaceous fungus Epichloë gansuensis forms symbiotic associations with drunken horse grass ( Achnatherum inebrians ), providing biotic and abiotic stress protection to its host. However, it is unclear how E. gansuensis affects the assembly of host plant-associated bacterial communities after ammonium nitrogen (NH 4 + -N) treatment. We examined the shoot- and root-associated bacterial microbiota and root metabolites of A. inebrians when infected (I) or uninfected (F) with E. gansuensis endophyte. The results showed more pronounced NH 4 + -N-induced microbial and metabolic changes in the endophyte-infected plants compared to the endophyte-free plants. E. gansuensis significantly altered bacterial community composition and β-diversity in shoots and roots and increased bacterial α-diversity under NH 4 + -N treatment. The relative abundance of 117 and 157 root metabolites significantly changed with E. gansuensis infection under water and NH 4 + -N treatment compared to endophyte-free plants. Root bacterial community composition was significantly related to the abundance of the top 30 metabolites [variable importance in the projection (VIP) > 2 and VIP > 3] contributing to differences between I and F plants, especially alkaloids. The correlation network between root microbiome and metabolites was complex. Microorganisms in the Proteobacteria and Firmicutes phyla were significantly associated with the R00693 metabolic reaction of cysteine and methionine metabolism. Co-metabolism network analysis revealed common metabolites between host plants and microorganisms.IMPORTANCEOur results suggest that the effect of endophyte infection is sensitive to nitrogen availability. Endophyte symbiosis altered the composition of shoot and root bacterial communities, increasing bacterial diversity. There was also a change in the class and relative abundance of metabolites. We found a complex co-occurrence network between root microorganisms and metabolites, with some metabolites shared between the host plant and its microbiome. The precise ecological function of the metabolites produced in response to endophyte infection remains unknown. However, some of these compounds may facilitate plant-microbe symbiosis by increasing the uptake of beneficial soil bacteria into plant tissues. Overall, these findings advance our understanding of the interactions between the microbiome, metabolome, and endophyte symbiosis in grasses. The results provide critical insight into the mechanisms by which the plant microbiome responds to nutrient stress in the presence of fungal endophytes., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Background: To determine whether early neutrophil, lymphocyte, and platelet ratio (NLPR), neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), calculated based on easily available parameters in complete blood count, are associated with the development of acute kidney injury (AKI) and mortality during neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) stay, and to evaluate whether these ratios could act as a predictor of AKI and mortality in neonates., Methods: The pooled data of 442 critically ill neonates from our previously published prospective observational studies of urinary biomarkers were analyzed. Complete blood count (CBC) was measured on NICU admission. The clinical outcomes included AKI developed during the first 7 days after admission and NICU mortality., Results: Of the neonates, 49 developed AKI and 35 died. The association of the PLR, but not NLPR and NLR, with AKI and mortality remained significant after adjustment for potential confounders including birth weight and illness severity as assessed by the score for neonatal acute physiology (SNAP). The area under the curve (AUC) of the PLR for predicting AKI and mortality was 0.62 (P=0.008) and 0.63 (P=0.010), respectively, with additional predictive value when combined with other perinatal risk factors. The combination of PLR with birth weight, SNAP, and serum creatinine (SCr) had an AUC of 0.78 (P<0.001) in predicting AKI, and its combination with birth weight and SNAP had an AUC of 0.79 (P<0.001) in predicting mortality., Conclusions: Low PLR on admission is associated with increased risk for AKI and NICU mortality. Although the PLR alone is not predictive of AKI and mortally, it adds predictive value to other risk factors for AKI prediction in critically ill neonates.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been widely used in preclinical trials for treating various tumors. However, the hypoxic environment of tumors and the limited penetration depth of ultraviolet light severely weaken the PDT effect. To solve the above problems, a near-infrared (NIR) light-triggered oxygen (O 2 ) self-supplied phototherapeutic platform (UCNPs/CeO 2 /Ce6/BSA) for amplified PDT performance against solid tumors by alleviating tumor hypoxia has been rationally developed. The platform has excellent stability and can continuously decompose H 2 O 2 for sustained O 2 supply to synergize 1 O 2 generation, thus inducing an enhanced mortality rate (59%) of ID8 cells in vitro under hypoxic + H 2 O 2 conditions. The growth of solid tumors was effectively inhibited and the mouse survival rate was dramatically enhanced via a superior PDT therapeutic performance. This reported study facilitated the positive development of multifunctional diagnosis and treatment platforms under long-wavelength excitation for O 2 self-supplied tumor treatments.

In biological research, rapid wide-field fluorescence lifetime imaging has become an important imaging tool. However, the biological samples with weak fluorescence signals and lower sensitivity often suffer from very low precision in lifetime determinations which restricts its widespread utilization in many bioimaging applications. To address this issue, a method is presented in this paper to substantially enhance the precision of rapid lifetime determination (RLD). It expedites the discrimination of fluorescence lifetimes, even for the weak signals coming from the cells, stained with long-lived biocompatible AIS/ZnS QDs. The proposed method works in two phases. The first phase deals with the systematic noise analysis based on the signal and contrast of the images in a time-gated imaging system, wherein acquiring the high-quality imaging data through optimization of hardware parameters improves the overall system performance. In the second phase, the chosen images are treated using total variation denoising method combined with the Max/Min filtering method for extracting the region of interest to reconstruct the intensity images for RLD. We performed several experiments on live cells to demonstrate the improvements in imaging performance by the systematic optimizations and data treatment. Obtained results demonstrated a great enhancement in signal-to-noise and contrast-to-noise ratios beside witnessing an obvious improvement in RLD for weak signals. This approach can be used not only to improve the quality of time-gated imaging data but also for efficient fluorescence lifetime imaging of live biological samples without compromising imaging speed and light exposure.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a powerful analytical method that is especially suitable for the detection of protein molecules. Detection sensitivity of SERS is directly related to the enhancement factor of the substrate, which is dependent on the strength of a local surface electric field generated by surface plasmonic resonance from substrate. In this study, an electromagnetic induced transparency like (EIT-like) metamaterial was used as the SERS substrate. The corresponding plasmonic resonance structure not only produces stronger optical near field but also reduces the spectral line broadening due to radiation damping. This is very beneficial for SERS process, which is strongly dependent on electric field intensity, to improve the sensitivity of SERS detection. Compared with the single resonance mode substrate, the enhancement factor for SERS with the double-mode substrate was increased by an order of magnitude. The obtained EIT-like substrate was used as a SERS-active substrate to detect Lens culinaris agglutinin (LCA)-reactive fraction of AFP (AFP-L3), a hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)-specific maker. Experimental results are in good agreement with the clinical diagnosis, which demonstrates the potential application of metamaterials in the SERS-based diagnosis and biosensing.

Epichloë endophytes are biotrophic fungi that establish mutualistic symbiotic relationship with grasses and affect performance of the host under different environments. Wild barley ( Hordeum brevisubulatum ) is an important forage grass and often infected by Epichloë &nbsp; bromicola , thus showing tolerances to stresses. Since the plant growth correlates with both microbial infection and nutrient stoichiometry, this study was performed to investigate whether the function of Epichloë &nbsp; bromicola endophyte to improve host growth depend upon the nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) fertilization. Epichloë -infected (E+) and Epichloë -free (E-) wild barley plants were subjected to nine types of mixed N (0.2 mM, 3 mM, 15 mM) and P (0.01 mM, 0.1 mM, 1.5 mM) levels treatments for 90 d to collect plant samples and determine multiple related indexes. We found that E. bromicola and N, P additions positively affected seed germination. Further, E. bromicola significantly enhanced chlorophyll content and root metabolic activity under N-deficiency, and meanwhile, might alter allocation of photosynthate under different conditions. The contents of N, P and stoichiometry of C:N:P of E+ plants were significantly higher than that of E- under nutrient deficiency, but contrary results were observed under adequate nutrients. Therefore, we propose that the growth-promoting ability of E. bromicola is closely correlated with N and P additional levels. Under low N, P additions, positive roles of endophyte are significant as opposed to negative roles under high N, P additions.

The complete circular chloroplast (cp) genome of wild Hordeum roshevitzii Bowden was sequenced and reported in this study. The complete chloroplast genome of wild H. roshevitzii was 12,753 bp in length, including a pair of inverted repeat regions (IRA/IRB) of 21,587 bp separated by one small single-copy (SSC) region of 12,753 bp and one large single-copy (LSC) region of 81,138 bp. A total of 133 genes, including 85 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 40 transfer RNA genes, and 8 ribosomal RNA genes were predicted from the cp genomes. The overall GC content of the cp genome was 38.25% and the corresponding values of the IR, SSC, and LSC were 43.89%, 32.19%, and 36.21%. The phylogenetic analysis of H. roshevitzii determined that H. roshevitzii was clustered closely with Hordeum bogdanii., Competing Interests: No potential conflict of interest was by reported the author(s)., (© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.)

Objective: Obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are both strongly associated with obesity. Whether OSAHS is an independent risk factor for liver injury or not is uncertain. To assess the hypothesis that OSAHS is associated with liver injury independent of obesity., Method: One hundred and thirty children with OSAHS and 77 children with primary snoring(PS) were enrolled. Polysomnography was performed. Body mass index (BMI), liver function tests, serum lipids, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), and insulin (INS) were measured., Result: Seventeen children of OSAHS had elevated serum aminotransferase levels,while only 2 children of non-OSAHS had elevated serum aminotransferase in healthy control group (chi2 = 5.18, P < 0.05; OR = 5.64 CI 1.27-24.97). Fifteen children of obese had elevated serum aminotransferase levels, while only 4 children had elevated serum aminotransferase in non-obese group (chi2 = 4.58, P < 0.05; (OR = 1.97 CI 1.06-3.67). Seventy cases of obese children, 15 cases of elevated aminotransferase levels (21.4%), namely fatty liver patients, of these children, 14 had OSAHS (93.3%). In contrast, OSAHS was present in only 67.3% of obese children without elevated aminotransferase., Conclusion: OSAHS may be a risk factor for liver injury independent of obesity; Increased liver enzyme levels are frequently found in obese snoring children, particularly among those with OSAHS.