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Background: The Rhus gall aphid Schlechtendalia chinensis specially uses the only species Rhus chinensis and certain moss species (Mniaceae) as its primary host plant and secondary host plants, respectively. Rhus galls are formed on the primary host by the sucking of aphids, and used in traditional medicine as well as other various areas due to their high tannin contents. Chemoreception is critical for insect behaviors such as host searching, location and identification of mates and reproductive behavior. The process of chemoreception is mediated by a series of protein gene families, including odorant-binding proteins (OBPs), chemosensory proteins (CSPs), olfactory receptors (ORs), gustatory receptors (GRs), ionotropic receptors (IRs), and sensory neuron membrane proteins (SNMPs). However, there have been no reports on the analysis of molecular components related to the chemoreception system of S. chinensis at the genome level. Results: We examined the genes of eight OBPs, nine CSPs, 24 ORs, 16 GRs, 22 IRs, and five SNMPs in the S. chinensis genome using homological searches, and these chemosensory genes appeared mostly on chromosome 1. Phylogenetic and gene number analysis revealed that the gene families, e.g., ORs, GRs, CSPs and SNMPs in S. chinensis, have experienced major contractions by comparing to Myzus persicae, while the two gene families OBPs and IRs had slight expansion. The current results might be related to the broader host range of M. persicae versus the specialization of S. chinensis on only a host plant. There were 28 gene pairs between genomes of S. chinensis and Acyrthosiphon pisum in the chemoreceptor gene families by collinear comparison. Ka/Ks ratios (< 1) indicated that the genes of S. chinensis were mainly affected by purification selection during evolution. We also found the lower number and expression level of chemoreception genes in S. chinensis than in other 11 aphid species, such as ORs, GRs and IRs, which play an important role in host search. Conclusion: Our study firstly identified the genes of the different chemosensory protein gene families in the S. chinensis genome, and analyzed their general features and expression profile, demonstrating the importance of chemoreception in the aphid and providing new information for further functional research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Rhus gall aphid Schlechtendalia chinensis uses the species Rhus chinensis as its primary host plant, on which galls are produced. The galls have medicinal properties and can be used in various situations due to their high tannin content. Detoxification enzymes play significant roles in the insect lifecycle. In this study, we focused on five detoxification gene families, i.e., glutathione-S-transferase (GST), ABC transporter (ABC), Carboxylesterase (CCE), cyto-chrome P450 (CYP), and UDP-glycosyltransferase (UDP), and manually annotated 144 detoxification genes of S. chinensis using genome-wide techniques. The detoxification genes appeared mostly on chromosome 1, where a total of two pair genes were identified to show tandem duplications. There were 38 gene pairs between genomes of S. chinensis and Acyrthosiphon pisum in the detoxification gene families by collinear comparison. Ka/Ks ratios showed that detoxification genes of S. chinensis were mainly affected by purification selection during evolution. The gene expression numbers of P450s and ABCs by transcriptome sequencing data were greater, while gene expression of CCEs was the highest, suggesting they might be important in the detoxification process. Our study has firstly identified the genes of the different detoxification gene families in the S. chinensis genome, and then analyzed their general features and expression, demonstrating the importance of the detoxification genes in the aphid and providing new information for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residences in poor regions always depend on rain-fed agriculture, so they urgently need suitable tools to make accurate meteorological predictions. Unfortunately, meteorological observations in these regions are usually sparse and irregularly distributed. Conventional LSTM networks only handle temporal sequences and cannot utilize the links of meteorological variables among stations. GCN-LSTM networks only capture local spatial structures through the simple structures of fixed adjacency matrices, and the CNN-LSTM can only mine gridded meteorological observations for further predictions. In this study, we propose an optimization hybrid of multiple-lag LSTM networks for meteorological predictions. Our model can make full use of observed data at partner stations under different time-lag windows and strong links among the local observations of meteorological variables to produce future predictions. Numerical experiments on the meteorological predictions of Bangladesh demonstrate that our networks are superior to the classic LSTM and its variants GCN-LSTM and CNN-LSTM, as well as the SVM and DT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his keynote lecture at the Reimagining Further Education conference in Birmingham in June 2016, Sir Frank McLoughlin was clear that the sector ‘needed a mission’ to unite around, and to let people know where it is going. This was endorsed by the attendees, who felt that it would enable the sector to regain ownership of what it stands for nationally, regionally and locally. Such a vision is needed to create a Technical and Vocational Education and Training sector that is targeted to develop an effective shared culture in the further education sector, close skills shortages and skills gaps in education, enhance community cohesion and improve productivity. This vision needs to have a robust measure of impact that aligns with the vision. One possibility is to explore a non-financial and intangible value metric where social value is aligned to the sector mission. A robust measure will enable key stakeholders to agree on areas of focus in a specific geographical location or a specific time. Such a measure might challenge the need for the existence of regulatory bodies such as Ofsted in the way they operate now. With such a robust measure of social value/impact, Government will not need to issue a white paper every time a response to a localised issue is required. We suggest that the Social Earnings Ratio (S/E or SE Ratio) is such a robust measure. For example, if the need in a certain locality is to address skills gaps/shortages or to focus on community cohesion, all that is needed is a change in the weighting of the various components of such a measure. This will allow development of a further education mission that can be utilised nationally, regionally and locally. In this article, we develop this idea and provide an illustration of how the SE Ratio could be applied to a further education college. The example we use is that of a small further education college with an annual budget of £12 m. We demonstrate, using SE Ratio, that this college produces an intangible value of approximately £40 m per annum. Such an approach will enable further education to become the strong owner of its mission and vision in the future, and allow it to develop its own culture and expertise to the maximum of its potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under global warming scenarios, extreme climate events in South Asia will occur more frequently which will seriously threaten the safety of local residents. South Asia faces dual pressures of the obligation of carbon emissions reduction globally and the demand for a better life for huge populations. Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI) climate engineering provides a potential solution to this dilemma. We compared the evolution of 12 climate extreme indices under historical scenarios, two future scenarios (SSP245, SSP585) and an implementation scenario of SAI climate engineering (G6sulfur). We showed that the intensity and frequency of extreme climates under a G6sulfur scenario would be significantly higher than those under historical scenarios, and that the difference in extreme climates under three scenarios (SSP245, SSP585, and G6sulfur) would be widely varying, with some indices being considerably mitigated while others would reflect a worse set of circumstances than would be the case without SAI climate engineering. Therefore, SAI climate engineering is not an effective tool to mitigate future climate extremes in South Asia under global warming scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) can extract multi-scaling behavior and measure long-range correlations in climatic time series. In this study, with the help of multifractal DFA, we investigated the scaling behavior of daily minimum/maximum temperatures during the years 1989–2019 from 34 meteorological stations in Bangladesh. We revealed spatial patterns, topographic impacts and global warming impacts of long-range correlations embedded in small and large fluctuations in temperature time series. Meanwhile, we developed a multifractal DFA-based algorithm to dynamically determine thresholds to discriminate extreme and non-extreme events in climate systems and applied it to analyze the frequency and trends of temperature extremes in Bangladesh. Compared with widely-used percentile thresholds, the extreme climate events captured in our algorithm are more reliable since they are determined dynamically by the climate system itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metallothioneins (MTs) are a class of cysteine-rich metal-binding proteins. Cadmium (Cd) is one of the toxic heavy metal pollutants. In our previous research, the full-length cDNA of MT (Cd specificity) from freshwater crab (Sinopotamon henanense) (Sh MT) was cloned and genetically modified to Sh MT3 by site-directed mutagenesis to enhance the tolerance for Cd2+, however, it was limited in actual Cd2+ adsorption due to instability. Here, Sh MT3-CBM, a novel recombinant fusion protein, was prepared. CBM is a carbohydrate binding module that can specifically bind cellulose while Sh MT3 can effectively chelate Cd2+. The biosorbent Cellulose1- Sh MT3-CBM was obtained by screening suitable cellulose materials. The selective adsorption experiments showed that Cellulose1- Sh MT3-CBM had a preference for Cd2+. In low-concentration Cd2+ solutions, the removal efficiency was >99 %, and the adsorption equilibrium was reached within 15 min. The saturated adsorption capacity of Cellulose1- Sh MT3-CBM for Cd2+ is 180.35 ± 4.67 mg/g (Dry Weight). Regeneration experiments showed that adsorption efficiency was maintained after six cycles. The MTT experiment showed that Cellulose1- Sh MT3-CBM had low cytotoxicity. Meanwhile, Cellulose1- Sh MT3-CBM can preferentially remove Cd2+ in actual water samples and boiler sewage. In this study, an environmentally friendly biosorbent which can adsorb Cd2+ efficiently and quickly was prepared for actual water treatment. [Display omitted] • Sh MT3-CBM was obtained by genetic engineering technology. • Cellulose1- Sh MT3-CBM was obtained by immobilization technology. • In low concentration solution, the removal efficiency reaches >99 %. • Cellulose1- Sh MT3-CBM showed excellent reusability. • Cellulose1- Sh MT3-CBM is non-toxic to cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The downscaling technique produces high spatial resolution precipitation distribution in order to analyze impacts of climate change in data-scarce regions or local scales. In this study, based on three statistical learning algorithms, such as support vector machine (SVM), random forest regression (RF), and gradient boosting regressor (GBR), we proposed an efficient downscaling approach to produce high spatial resolution precipitation. In order to demonstrate efficiency and accuracy of our models over traditional multilinear regression (MLR) downscaling models, we did a downscaling analysis for daily observed precipitation data from 34 monitoring sites in Bangladesh. Validation revealed that R 2 of GBR could reach 0.98, compared with RF (0.94), SVM (0.88), and multilinear regression (MLR) (0.69) models, so the GBR-based downscaling model had the best performance among all four downscaling models. We suggest that the GBR-based downscaling models should be used to replace traditional MLR downscaling models to produce a more accurate map of high-resolution precipitation for flood disaster management, drought forecasting, and long-term planning of land and water resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a developing country with an agricultural economy as a pillar, Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to adverse effects of climate change, so the generation of high-resolution temperature maps is of great value for Bangladesh to achieve agricultural sustainable development. However, Bangladesh's weak economy and sparse meteorological stations make it difficult to obtain such maps. In this study, by mining internal features and links inside observed data, we developed an efficient data-driven downscaling technique to generate high spatial-resolution temperature distribution maps of Bangladesh directly from observed temperature data at 34 meteorological stations with irregular distribution. Based on these high-resolution historical temperature maps, we further explored a data-driven forecast technique to generate high-resolution temperature maps of Bangladesh for the period 2025–2035. Since the proposed techniques are very low-cost and fully mine internal links inside irregular-distributed observations, they can support relevant departments of Bangladesh to formulate policies to mitigate and adapt to climate change in a timely manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation Virus mutation is one of the most important research issues which plays a critical role in disease progression and has prompted substantial scientific publications. Mutation extraction from published literature has become an increasingly important task, benefiting many downstream applications such as vaccine design and drug usage. However, most existing approaches have low performances in extracting virus mutation due to both lack of precise virus mutation information and their development based on human gene mutations. Results We developed ViMRT, a text-mining tool and search engine for automated virus mutation recognition using natural language processing. ViMRT mainly developed 8 optimized rules and 12 regular expressions based on a development dataset comprising 830 papers of 5 human severe disease-related viruses. It achieved higher performance than other tools in a test dataset (1662 papers, 99.17% in F1-score) and has been applied well to two other viruses, influenza virus and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (212 papers, 96.99% in F1-score). These results indicate that ViMRT is a high-performance method for the extraction of virus mutation from the biomedical literature. Besides, we present a search engine for researchers to quickly find and accurately search virus mutation-related information including virus genes and related diseases. Availability and implementation ViMRT software is freely available at http://bmtongji.cn:1225/mutation/index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Fragaria nilgerrensis, which is a diploid wild strawberry with excellent drought-resistance, would provide useful candidate genes for improving drought resistance of cultivated strawberry. So far, its molecular regulatory networks involved in drought stress are unclear. We therefore investigated the drought response regulatory networks of F. nilgerrensis based on the integrated analysis of DNA methylation, transcriptome and physiological traits during four time points under drought stress. Results: The most differentially expressed genes and the physiological changes were found at 8 days (T8) compared with 0 day (T0, control). Methylome analysis revealed slight dynamic changes in genome-wide mC levels under drought conditions, while the most hypomethylated and hypermethylated regions were identified at T4 and T8. Association analysis of the methylome and transcriptome revealed that unexpressed genes exhibited expected hypermethylation levels in mCHG and mCHH contexts, and highly expressed genes exhibited corresponding hypomethylation levels in the gene body, but mCG contexts showed the opposite trend. Then, 835 differentially methylated and expressed genes were identified and grouped into four clustering patterns to characterize their functions. The genes with either negative or positive correlation between methylation and gene expression were mainly associated with kinases, Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) synthesis, scavenging, and the abscisic acid (ABA) signal pathway. Consistently, weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) revealed Hub genes including NCED, CYP707A2, PP2Cs and others that play important roles in the ABA signaling pathway. Conclusion: F. nilgerrensis drought is dominated by ABA-dependent pathways, possibly accompanied by ABA-independent crosstalk. DNA methylation may affect gene expression, but their correlation was more subtle and multiple types of association exist. Maintaining the balance between ROS regeneration and scavenging is an important factor in drought resistance in F. nilgerrensis. These results deepen our understanding of drought resistance and its application in breeding in strawberry plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultivated hawthorn (Crataegus pinnatifida var. major) is an important medicinal and edible plant with a long history of use for health protection in China. Herein, we provide a de novo chromosome‐level genome sequence of the hawthorn cultivar "Qiu Jinxing." We assembled an 823.41 Mb genome encoding 40 571 genes and further anchored the 779.24 Mb sequence into 17 pseudo‐chromosomes, which account for 94.64% of the assembled genome. Phylogenomic analyses revealed that cultivated hawthorn diverged from other species within the Maleae (apple tribe) at approximately 35.4 Mya. Notably, genes involved in the flavonoid and triterpenoid biosynthetic pathways have been significantly amplified in the hawthorn genome. In addition, our results indicated that the Maleae share a unique ancient tetraploidization event; however, no recent independent whole‐genome duplication event was specifically detected in hawthorn. The amplification of non‐specific long terminal repeat retrotransposons contributed the most to the expansion of the hawthorn genome. Furthermore, we identified two paleo‐sub‐genomes in extant species of Maleae and found that these two sub‐genomes showed different rearrangement mechanisms. We also reconstructed the ancestral chromosomes of Rosaceae and discussed two possible paleo‐polyploid origin patterns (autopolyploidization or allopolyploidization) of Maleae. Overall, our study provides an improved context for understanding the evolution of Maleae species, and this new high‐quality reference genome provides a useful resource for the horticultural improvement of hawthorn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Dietary phytoestrogens have been suggested to influence puberty timing, a critical stage for well-being in adulthood. We hypothesized that childhood soy intake might prospectively influence puberty timing and that dietary fibre and the key isoflavone metabolite equol might play roles.Methods: Cox proportional hazard regression models were performed in 4781 children (2152 girls and 2629 boys) aged 6-8 years old from the Chinese Adolescent Cohort Study for whom a food frequency questionnaire at baseline and information about potential confounders were available. Anthropometry and pubertal status including age at Tanner stage 2 for breast development (B2) or age at the initiation of gonadal growth (G2), and age at menarche (M) or voice break (VB) were assessed annually. Equol excretion was determined by urine samples from 1311 participants.Results: Among girls and boys, higher soy intake was associated with later puberty timing (hazard ratio (HR)-B2: 0.88 (95% CI, 0.80-0.96), p=0.02; HR-M, 0.87 (0.77-0.94), p=0.01; HR-G2, 0.91 (0.82-0.98), p=0.013; HR-VB, 0.90 (0.82-0.9), p=0.02), independent of prepubertal body fatness and fibre intake. These associations were more pronounced among children with a high urinary equol level (pfor-interaction ≤ 0.04) or with a high cereal fibre intake (pfor-interaction ≤ 0.06). Intake of dietary fibre or its subtype was not prospectively associated with puberty onset after adjusting for dietary soy intake (p≥0.06).Conclusion: Higher childhood soy intake is prospectively associated with later puberty timing in both Chinese girls and boys, independent of prepubertal body fatness, and the association is particularly pronounced among individuals with a higher urinary equol level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Economic development may drive academic construction safety research. • There has been an increase in construction safety research conducted by developing countries in recent years, probably due to an improvement in their economic performance. • Authors' keywords evidenced the popularity of research on safety management and climate. • There is a new interdisciplinary research trend where construction safety combines with digitalization technologies, with the largest number involving deep learning. The construction industry contributes significantly to economic development worldwide, yet it is one of the most hazardous industries where numerous accidents and fatalities happen every year. Little research to date has shed light on the impact of economic development on construction safety research. In this paper, we conduct an analysis of construction safety articles published in the 21st century via a bibliometrics approach. We have analysed: (1) construction safety in developed and developing countries; (2) the major organisations that have conducted construction safety research; (3) authors and territories of the research and (4) topics in construction safety and future research directions. The largest number of published construction safety documents were published by scholars from the US and China; the total number of published articles by these two countries was 1,125, at 56% of the 2000 articles that were published. Both countries showed high levels of research collaboration. While our results suggest that economic development may drive academic construction safety research, there has been an increase in construction safety research conducted by developing countries in recent years, probably due to an improvement in their economic development. While authors' keywords evidenced the popularity of research on safety management and climate, the network analysis on all keywords, i.e. keywords given by Web of Science and authors, suggest that construction safety research focused on three areas: construction safety management, the relationship between people and construction safety, and the protection and health of workers' impact on construction safety. We found that there is a new interdisciplinary research trend where construction safety combines with digital technologies, with the largest number involving deep learning. Other trends focus on machine learning, Building Information Modelling, and visualisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metallothionein (MTs) can be used in the prevention and treatment of tumors and diabetes due to its antioxidant properties. However, it is necessary to solve its non-transmembrane properties and further improve its antioxidant activity, increase its fluorescence visualization and enhance its stability to meet practical applications in the biomedical field. Here, we report the preparation of a novel metallothionein-AuNP composite material with high transmembrane ability, fluorescence visualization, antioxidant activity, and stability by genetic modification (introducing transduction peptide TAT, fluorescence tag GFP and increasing sulfydryl groups) and immobilization technology (covalently bonding with AuNPs). The transmembrane activity of modified proteins was verified by immunofluorescence. Increasing the sulfhydryl content within a certain range can enhance the antioxidant activity of the protein. In addition, GFP were used to further simplify the imaging of the metallothionein-AuNP composite in cells. XPS results indicated that AuNPs can immobilize metallothionein through Au S covalent bonds. TGA characterization and degradation experiments showed that thermal and degradation stability of the immobilized material was significantly improved. This work provides new ideas to construct metallothionein composites with high transmembrane ability, antioxidant activity, fluorescence visualization and stability to meet novel applications in the biomedical field. [Display omitted] • TAT- Sh MT3 was obtained by long primer PCR. • TAT- Sh MT3 has about 30 % increase in antioxidant capacity compared to TAT- Sh MT. • TAT- Sh MT3-GFP was obtained by SOE-PCR. • TAT- Sh MT3-GFP + AuNPs was obtained Au S covalent bond. • TAT-ShMT3-GFP + AuNPs has higher stability compared to TAT- Sh MT3-GFP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nurudea zhengii Ren was identified by aphid morphological characteristics as well as the gall shape and host plant species, and placed in the tribe Fordini (Hemiptera, Aphididae, Eriosomatinae). Here, its whole genome was firstly sequenced by a genome-skimming method and its mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) was assembled to examine its genetic variation and phylogenetic position. The complete mitogenome of Nurudea zhengii is 15,392 bp in length, and consists of 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNAs, two rRNAs and one D-loop region. The gene order follows the mitogenomes of the other Rhus gall aphids, and similarly has an AT bias with the content of 83.9%. The majority strand is A-skewed and C-skewed, and shows opposite skewness for G-skewed in the minority strands. The ratios of nonsynonymous to synonymous substitution rates of protein-coding genes are lower than one except for ATP8, which indicated that ATP8 was undergoing positive selection. Phylogenetic analysis among the Rhus gall aphids based on 13 protein-coding genes and two rRNA genes showed that N. zhengii was sister to N. shiraii, and then clustered with N. yanoniella as a group with high support value. The two species, N. shiraii and N. yanoniella, share the same host plant Rhus chinensis, while the host of N. zhengii is R. hypoleuca. However, the phylogenetic relationship indicated that the taxa sharing the same host plant were not absolutely clustered as the closest taxa at least at species level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Understanding how organisms evolve and adapt to extreme habitats is of crucial importance in evolutionary ecology. Altitude gradients are an important determinant of the distribution pattern and range of organisms due to distinct climate conditions at different altitudes. High-altitude regions often provide extreme environments including low temperature and oxygen concentration, poor soil, and strong levels of ultraviolet radiation, leading to very few plant species being able to populate elevation ranges greater than 4000 m. Field pennycress (Thlaspi arvense) is a valuable oilseed crop and emerging model plant distributed across an elevation range of nearly 4500 m. Here, we generate an improved genome assembly to understand how this species adapts to such different environments. Results: We sequenced and assembled de novo the chromosome-level pennycress genome of 527.3 Mb encoding 31,596 genes. Phylogenomic analyses based on 2495 single-copy genes revealed that pennycress is closely related to Eutrema salsugineum (estimated divergence 14.32–18.58 Mya), and both species form a sister clade to Schrenkiella parvula and genus Brassica. Field pennycress contains the highest percentage (70.19%) of transposable elements in all reported genomes of Brassicaceae, with the retrotransposon proliferation in the Middle Pleistocene being likely responsible for the expansion of genome size. Moreover, our analysis of 40 field pennycress samples in two high- and two low-elevation populations detected 1,256,971 high-quality single nucleotide polymorphisms. Using three complementary selection tests, we detected 130 candidate naturally selected genes in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) populations, some of which are involved in DNA repair and the ubiquitin system and potential candidates involved in high-altitude adaptation. Notably, we detected a single base mutation causing loss-of-function of the FLOWERING LOCUS C protein, responsible for the transition to early flowering in high-elevation populations. Conclusions: Our results provide a genome-wide perspective of how plants adapt to distinct environmental conditions across extreme elevation differences and the potential for further follow-up research with extensive data from additional populations and species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epigenetic diversity could play an important role in adaptive evolution of organisms, especially for plant species occurring in new and stressful environments. Thlaspi arvense (field pennycress), a valuable oilseed crop, is widespread in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. In this study, we investigated the effect of salinity stress on the epigenetic variation of DNA methylation and epigenetic stress memory in pennycress using methylation‐sensitive amplification polymorphism (MSAP) markers. We examined how the status of DNA methylation changes across individuals in response to salinity stress and whether such an effect of maternal stress could be transferred to offspring for one or two generations in nonstressed environments. Our results based on 306 epiloci indicated no consistent change of DNA methylation status in specific epiloci across individuals within the same conditions. In contrast, we found that the epigenetic diversity at population level increased significantly in response to the stimulation of salinity stress; and this "stimulation effect" could be transferred partially in the form of stress memory to at least two generations of offspring in nonstressed environments. In addition, we observed a parallel change in functionally important traits, that is, phenotypic variation was significantly higher in plants grown under salinity stress compared with those of control groups. Taken together, our results provide novel clues for the increased spontaneous epimutation rate in response to stress in plants, of potential adaptive significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Under rapid Arctic warming, the vast amount of labile organic carbon stored in Arctic permafrost soils poses a potentially huge threat. Thawing permafrost will release hundreds of billion tons of soil carbon into the atmosphere in the form of CO 2 and CH 4 that would further intensify global warming and bring more challenges to human society. In this study, we use the PInc-PanTher model to estimate carbon emissions from thawing permafrost in the circum-Arctic during 2010–2100 followed by the PAGE09 integrated assessment model to evaluate the net economic losses caused by these permafrost carbon emissions. Our results show that in terms of net present value (NPV), the release of CO 2 and CH 4 from circum-Arctic permafrost will generate estimated net economic losses of US$2.5 trillion (5–95% range: 0.3–11.2 US$ trillion) under the RCP4.5-SPP1 scenario and US$12.7 trillion (5–95% range: 1.6–41.8 US$ trillion) under the RCP8.5-SPP3 scenario between 2010 and 2100, which contribute ~4.9% and ~6.4% respectively of net economic losses of global carbon emissions. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Circum-Arctic permafrost carbon stock will lose 21–92 Pg in 2010–2100. • Economic losses of permafrost emissions will reach US$2.5–12.7 trillion by 2100. • A multi-model integrated assessment model is used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacterial RNA polymerase (RNAP) is an effective target for antibacterial treatment. In order to search new potential targets in RNAP of Mycobacterium , we detected adaptive selections of RNAP related genes in 13 strains of Mycobacterium by phylogenetic analysis. We first collected sequences of 17 genes including rpoA, rpoB, rpoC, rpoZ, and sigma factor A-M. Then maximum likelihood trees were constructed, followed by positive selection detection. We found that sigG shows positive selection along the clade ( M. tuberculosis , M. bovis ), suggesting its important evolutionary role and its potential to be a new antibacterial target. Moreover, the regions near 933Cys and 935His on the rpoB subunit of M. tuberculosis showed significant positive selection, which could also be a new attractive target for anti-tuberculosis drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans are exposed to disinfection by-products through oral, inhalation, and dermal routes, during bathing and swimming, potentially causing skin lesions, asthma, and bladder cancer. Nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 (NRF2) is a master regulator of the adaptive antioxidant response via the antioxidant reaction elements (ARE) orchestrating the transcription of a large group of antioxidant and detoxification genes. Here we used an immortalized human keratinocyte model HaCaT cells to investigate NRF2-ARE as a responder and protector in the acute cytotoxicity of seven haloacetonitriles (HANs), including chloroacetonitrile (CAN), bromoacetonitrile (BAN), iodoacetonitrile (IAN), bromochloroacetonitrile (BCAN), dichloroacetonitrile (DCAN), dibromoacetonitrile (DBAN), and trichloroacetonitrile (TCAN) found in drinking water and swimming pools. The rank order of cytotoxicity among the HANs tested was IAN ≈ BAN ˃ DBAN ˃ BCAN ˃ CAN ˃ TCAN ˃ DCAN based on their LC 50. The HANs induced intracellular reactive oxygen species accumulation and activated cellular antioxidant responses in concentration- and time-dependent fashions, showing elevated NRF2 protein levels and ARE activity, induction of antioxidant genes, and increased glutathione levels. Additionally, knockdown of NRF2 by lentiviral shRNAs sensitized the HaCaT cells to HANs-induced cytotoxicity, emphasizing a protective role of NRF2 against the cytotoxicity of HANs. These results indicate that HANs cause oxidative stress and activate NRF2-ARE-mediated antioxidant response, which in turn protects the cells from HANs-induced cytotoxicity, highlighting that NRF2-ARE activity could be a sensitive indicator to identify and characterize the oxidative stress induced by HANs and other environmental pollutants. [Display omitted] • Haloacetonitriles cause acute cytotoxicity and oxidative stress in HaCaT cells. • Haloacetonitriles induce NRF2-ARE-mediated antioxidant response in HaCaT cells. • NRF2 protects human keratinocytes from HANs-induced acute cell damage. • NRF2-ARE activity is an indicator for the oxidative stress caused by haloacetonitriles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive enrichment of contaminants in drinking water is an essential step for accurately determining exposure levels of contaminants and testing their biological effects. Traditional methods using a single absorbent for enriching contaminants in water might not be adequate for complicated matrices with different physical-chemical profiles. To examine this hypothesis, we used an integrated enrichment system that had three sequential stages-XAD-2 resin, poly (styrene–divinylbenzene) and activated charcoal to capture organic pollutants and disinfection by-products (DBPs) from drinking water in Shanghai. Un-adsorbed Organic Compounds in Eluates (UOCEs) named UOCEs-A, -B, and-C following each adsorption stage were determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to evaluate adsorption efficiency of the enrichment system. Meanwhile, biological effects such as cytotoxicity, effects on reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and glutathione (GSH) depletion were determined in human LO2 cells to identify potential adverse effects on exposure to low dose contaminants. We found that poly-styrene–divinylbenzene (PS-DVB) and activated charcoal (AC) could still partly collect UOCEs-A and-B that the upper adsorption column incompletely captured, and that potential carcinogens like 2-naphthamine were present in all eluates. UOCEs-A at (1–4000), UOCEs-B at (1000–4000), and UOCEs-C at (2400–4000) folds of the actual concentrations had significant cytotoxicity to LO2 cells. Additionally, ROS and GSH change in cells treated with UOCEs indicated the potential for long-term effects of exposure to some mixtures of contaminants such as DBPs at low doses. These results suggested that an enriching system with a single adsorbent would underestimate the exposure level of pollutants and the biological effects of organic pollutants from drinking water. Effective methods for pollutants' enrichment and capture of drinking water should be given priority in future studies on accurate evaluation of biological effects exposed to mixed pollutants via drinking water. [Display omitted] • Capacity of enriched pollutants from water by a single adsorbent is limited. • 69.5% of target chemicals are efficiently enriched by series of adsorption. • Unabsorbed organic compounds in eluate are cytotoxic and impact cell viability. • Low concentrations unabsorbed chemicals in eluate alter the ROS and GSH of cells. • Single sorbent underestimated exposures and effects of drinking-water pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrosamine by-products in drinking water are designated as probable human carcinogens by the IARC, but the health effects of simultaneous exposure to multiple nitrosamines in drinking water remain unknown. Genotoxicity assays were used to assess the effects of both individual and mixed nitrosamines in finished drinking water produced by a large water treatment plant in Shanghai, China. Cytotoxicity and genotoxicity were measured at 1, 10-, 100- and 1000-fold actual concentrations by the Ames test, Comet assay, γ -H2AX assay, and the cytokinesis-block micronuclei assay; oxidative stress and the Nrf2 pathway were also assessed. Nitrosamines detected in drinking water included NDMA (36.45 ng/L), NDPA (44.68 ng/L), and NEMA (37.27 ng/L). Treatment with a mixture of the three nitrosamines at 1000-fold actual drinking-water concentration induced a doubling of revertants in Salmonella typhimurium strain TA100, DNA and chromosome damage in HepG2 cells, while 1–1000-fold concentrations of compounds applied singly lacked these effects. Treatment with 100- and 1000-fold concentrations increased ROS, GSH, and MDA and decreased SOD activity. Thus, nitrosamine mixtures showed greater genotoxic potential than that of the individual compounds. N -Acetylcysteine protected against the nitrosamine-induced chromosome damage, and Nrf2 pathway activation suggested that oxidative stress played pivotal roles in the genotoxic property of the nitrosamine mixtures. [Display omitted] • Nitrosamines (NAms) like NDMA, NDPA & NEMA, were found in finished drinking water. • Mixed vs single NAms increased genotoxic potential, even at low concentrations. • Oxidative stress and NRF2 pathway activation played key roles in genotoxic effects. • NDMA, the priority NAms compound, was the main risk component for carcinogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tumor mutational burden (TMB) is considered a potential biomarker for predicting the response and effect of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). However, there are still inconsistent standards of gene panels using next-generation sequencing and poor correlation between the TMB genes, immune cell infiltrating, and prognosis. We applied text-mining technology to construct specific TMB-associated gene panels cross various cancer types. As a case exploration, Pearson's correlation between TMB genes and immune cell infiltrating was further analyzed in colorectal cancer. We then performed LASSO Cox regression to construct a prognosis predictive model and calculated the risk score of each sample for receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The results showed that the assessment of TMB gene panels performed well with fewer than 500 genes, highly mutated genes, and the inclusion of synonymous mutations and immune regulatory and drug-target genes. Moreover, the analysis of TMB differentially expressed genes (DEGs) suggested that JAKMIP1 was strongly correlated with the gene expression level of CD8+ T cell markers in colorectal cancer. Additionally, the prognosis predictive model based on 19 TMB DEGs reached AUCs of 0.836, 0.818, and 0.787 in 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS models, respectively (C-index: 0.810). In summary, the gene panel performed well and TMB DEGs showed great potential value in immune cell infiltration and in predicting survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Applies both social network analysis and sentiment analysis in construction safety research. • Provides insights to opinion leaders and Twitter users when they share construction safety knowledge via Twitter. • Investigates social structure of "construction safety"- related twitter networks and the opinion leaders. • Sentiment valence exhibits a positive correlation between favorites and retweets. Many studies show that unsafe behavior is the main cause of construction accidents. Safety education and training are effective means to minimise people's unsafe behaviors. Apart from traditional face-to-face construction knowledge sharing, social media is a good tool because it is convenient, efficient, and widely used. We applied both social network analysis and sentiment analysis to investigate knowledge sharing on Twitter. Our study is a novel attempt to understand social structure of "construction safety"- related twitter networks and the opinion leaders. We selected and analyzed 6561 tweets of three users' networks on Twitter – "construction safety", "construction health" and "construction accident". We found that three networks had low density and many isolated vertices, which showed that users did not actively interact with each other. The opinion leaders in this study were mostly organizations or government agencies. The top one is "cif_ireland", the Irish construction industry's representative body, the Construction Industry Federation. 3200 Tweets of the top opinion leader were analyzed through graph metrics calculation, cluster analysis, sentiment analysis, and correlation analysis. The opinion leader used Twitter as a medium to disseminate the latest safety news. Thus, we may use Twitter to stimulate people's interest on construction safety topics, share construction safety knowledge, opinions and ideas. Besides, our results showed that sentiment valence had no correlation with number of favorites or retweets. Nevertheless, there was a positive correlation between favorites and retweets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Fragaria nilgerrensis , a diploid wild strawberry, has white fruits with unique aroma. • We developed 16 EST-SSR markers of F. nilgerrensis. • We evaluated the level of genetic variation within and between 16 populations. • All the 16 populations can be divided into two groups. Fragaria nilgerrensis is a diploid wild strawberry widely distributed in Southwest China. Its white color and "peach-like" fragrance of fruits are valuable characters for the genetic improvement of cultivated strawberry plants. Its strong biotic and abiotic resistance and tolerance also enable it to survive in different habitats in the field. In this study, we evaluated the level of genetic variation within and between 16 populations with 169 individuals of F. nilgerrensis using 16 newly developed EST-SSR (expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeats) markers. The results show that the genetic diversity of this species was high, based on Nei's genetic diversity (0.26) and polymorphic loci (0.41), although it is self-compatible and has clonal propagation. Significant genetic differentiation among populations was also detected by AMOVA analysis (Fst = 0.34), which could be indicative of little gene flow (Nm = 0.43) in F. nilgerrensis. The phylogenetic tree indicates that most of individuals from the same population have clustered together. These populations were not grouped based on the geographical distance, consistent with the Mantel test result (R2 = 0.0063, P > 0.05). All the populations were assigned into two ancestral groups, with some individuals admixed, suggesting ancestral gene flow had occurred between these two groups. Our developed EST-SSR markers as well as the genetic diversity and population structure analysis of F. nilgerrensis are important for genetic improvement in the breeding process. Moreover, the populations that contain high genetic diversity would be a priority for collection and conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study developed models to solve problems of optimisation, production, and consumption in waste management based on methods of system analysis. Mathematical models of the problems of optimisation and sustainable waste management in deterministic conditions and in a fuzzy environment were formulated. The income from production was maximised considering environmental standards that apply to the field of macroeconomics and microeconomics. The proposed approach used MANAGER software to formalise and solve the problem of revenue optimisation with production waste management to optimise the production of oil products with waste management at a specific technological facility of the Atyrau oil refinery in Kazakhstan. Based on the combined application of the principles of maximin and Pareto optimality, a formulation of the problem of production optimisation with waste management was obtained and a heuristic algorithm for solving the formulated fuzzy optimisation problem with waste management was developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]