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Cognitive frailty (CF) is an important geriatric syndrome and is reversible. It is crucial to develop preventive interventions for CF. We aimed to explore the associations between CF and its associated factors in Chinese aged 45 years and above. Based on the available data of 3 waves in China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study from 2011 to 2015, 16,071 individuals aged 45 years and above from 3 waves were included. Based on the health ecology model, the associated factors were classified as downstream, midstream and upstream factors. Generalized hierarchical linear model including time level, individual level, and province level was applied to analyze the associations between factors and CF. Multilevel factors have different effects on physical and cognitive function. In the downstream, old age, female, underweight, chronic diseases, and depression were risk factors of reversible CF and potentially reversible CF, and overweight was their protective factor. In the midstream, short or long night sleep duration was their risk factor, and > 30 and ≤ 60 min afternoon naps, alcohol drinking, and participation in social activities were their protective factors. In the upstream, living in rural areas was their risk factor, and high educational level, household consumption and GDP per capita were their protective factors. Physical function and cognitive function are affected differently by multiple factors. The occurrence and development of physical frailty and cognitive impairment may have some common mechanisms. CF can be influenced by multilevel factors, and multilevel and comprehensive management of CF should be achieved. Cognitive frailty was correlated with multilevel factors, including downstream, midstream, and upstream factors. It is crucial to focus on individual interventions such as physiological factors, psychological factors and health behaviors, especially the elderly, women and those with depression. Socioeconomic status was associated with the lower prevalence of cognitive frailty. • Physical function and cognitive function were affected differently by multiple factors. • Cognitive frailty was associated with multilevel factors, including downstream, midstream, and upstream factors. • It is crucial to focus on individual interventions such as physiological, psychological, and health behavior factors. • Socioeconomic status was associated with the lower risk of cognitive frailty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• CEP can significantly inhibits PDCoV binding, entry, and replication in LLC-PK1 cells. • In silico data and SPR results indicate that CEP targets pAPN and PDCoV binding sites in cells to inhibits PDCoV infection. • CEP reduces inflammatory signaling caused by PDCoV infection. • CEP inhibits PDCoV replication by inducing autophagy. • CEP confers broad-spectrum resistance to other coronaviruses (TGEV and MHV). Porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) is an emerging swine enteropathogenic coronavirus (CoV) that mainly causes acute diarrhea/vomiting, dehydration, and mortality in piglets, possessing economic losses and public health concerns. However, there are currently no proven effective antiviral agents against PDCoV. Cepharanthine (CEP) is a naturally occurring alkaloid used as a traditional remedy for radiation-induced symptoms, but its underlying mechanism of CEP against PDCoV has remained elusive. The aim of this study was to investigate the anti-PDCoV effects and mechanisms of CEP in LLC-PK1 cells. The results showed that the antiviral activity of CEP was based on direct action on cells, preventing the virus from attaching to host cells and virus replication. Importantly, Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) results showed that CEP has a moderate affinity to PDCoV receptor, porcine aminopeptidase N (pAPN) protein. AutoDock predicted that CEP can form hydrogen bonds with amino acid residues (R740, N783, and R790) in the binding regions of PDCoV and pAPN. In addition, RT-PCR results showed that CEP treatment could significantly reduce the transcription of ZBP1, cytokine (IL-1β and IFN-α) and chemokine genes (CCL-2, CCL-4, CCL-5, CXCL-2, CXCL-8, and CXCL-10) induced by PDCoV. Western blot analysis revealed that CEP could inhibit viral replication by inducing autophagy. In conclusion, our results suggest that the anti-PDCoV activity of CEP is not only relies on competing the virus binding with pAPN, but also affects the proliferation of the virus in vitro by downregulating the excessive immune response caused by the virus and inducing autophagy. CEP emerges as a promising candidate for potential anti-PDCoV therapeutic development. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Similarity-based approaches have made significant progress in visual object tracking (VOT). Although these methods work well in simple scenes, they ignore the continuous spatio-temporal connection of the object in the video sequence. For this reason, tracking by spatial matching solely can lead to tracking failures because of distractors and occlusion. In this paper, we propose a spatio-temporal joint-modeling tracker named STTrack which implicitly builds continuous connections between the temporal and spatial aspects of the sequence. Specifically, we first design a time-sequence iteration strategy (TSIS) to concentrate on the temporal connection of the object in the video sequence. Then, we propose a novel spatial temporal interaction Transformer network (STIN) to capture the spatio-temporal correlation of the object between frames. The proposed STIN module is robust in object occlusion because it explores the dynamic state change dependencies of the object. Finally, we introduce a spatio-temporal query to suppress distractors by iteratively propagating the target prior. Extensive experiments on six tracking benchmark datasets demonstrate that the proposed STTrack achieves excellent performance while operating in real-time. The code is publicly available at https://github.com/nubsym/STTrack. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel adaptive control approach for a class of stochastic switched nonlinear system with pure feedback structure. An important lemma is developed to overcome the design difficulty from the non-affine pure feedback structure. Combining backstepping technique with neural network approximation, a state feedback adaptive controller is given. And this controller can ensure that all of the signals in the closed-loop system are bounded, and the tracking error converges to a small enough neighborhood of the zero. A simulation example is used to verify the effectiveness of our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crosswinds affect the aerodynamic characteristics of vehicles involved in overtaking. To investigate such effects, we performed simulations on two identical vans during the overtaking process under different crosswind conditions. The yaw angle between the resultant velocity and the centerline of the overtaken model was varied from 0° to 30°. The results show that the crosswind affects the aerodynamic forces on the two vans significantly, especially on the overtaken van. As the yaw angle increases, the aerodynamic coefficients of the overtaking van increase, but the coefficients of the overtaken van present special patterns at different stages. The pressure fields and flow streamlines for yaw angles β = 0° and 20° were presented to illustrate the potential influence of crosswinds on the two vans. It is obvious that the flow field becomes more complicated under crosswinds, and the varying band of pressure field is expanded. When the front end of the overtaking van exceeds the rear of the overtaken van by a quarter of its body length, the aerodynamic force coefficients of the two vans are considerably large, and the handling stabilities of them decrease greatly. The drivers should pay more attention to safety when driving in crosswinds during the overtaking process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses adaptive neural control for a class of non-strict-feedback stochastic nonlinear systems with time delays. An important structural property of radial basis function (RBF) neural networks (NNs) is introduced to overcome the design difficulty from the non-strict-feedback structure. The Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional is used for control design and stability analysis. Further, a backstepping-based adaptive neural control strategy is proposed. The suggested adaptive neural controller guarantees that all the closed-loop signals are semi-globally uniformly ultimately bounded (SGUUB) and the tracking error converges to a small neighborhood of the origin. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We generated a pig genome-wide gRNA library for loss function of pig genes. • We achieved some genes related to PRRSV replication using genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 screening. • We found loss of KXD1 inhibited replication PRRSV through prevented the fusion of lysosome and autophagosome. Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), a viral infection caused by PRRS virus (PRRSV) can result in severe reproductive failure, and respiratory disease in the pigs thus causing enormous economic losses to the global swine industry. Although the cellular receptors for PRRSV have been identified, but mechanisms underlying PPRSV replication remain obscure. Here, we have performed a genome-scale CRISPR/Cas9 knockout screen in the pig kidney cells with PRRSV. Several genes were found to be highly enriched post-PRRSV selection, just like KxDL Motif Containing 1(KXD1), Proteasome 26S Subunit, Non-ATPase 3 (PSMD3) and Galectin 2 (LGALS2) and soon on. Importantly, we have identified that loss of KXD1 resulted in the restricted autophagy and inhibited replication of PRRSV. Therefore, our study demonstrates that CRISPR/Cas9 system can be effectively used for the screening of pig factors responsible for PRRSV replication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Quercetin inhibits multiple PRV strains infection of Vero cells. • Quercetin mainly interacts with PRV and inhibit the viral adsorption on the cell. • In silico data indicated that quercetin may interaction with PRV gD protein. • Quercetin protects against PRV infection in mouse models Pseudorabies virus (PRV) accounts for a critical swine disease incurring economic losses worldwide. Several PRV vaccines are commercially available but these vaccines are effective against only certain prevalent PRV strains in China. To prevent PRV-induced latent infection and decrease the pathogenicity, novel anti-PRV drugs are required to prevent PRV infection. Natural products show exceptional structural diversity representing an important source for developing novel therapeutic agents. Quercetin is a flavonoid with anti-oxidant, anti-cancer, anti-bacterial and anti-viral activities. This study involved quercetin for studying the anti-PRV function in vitro and in vivo. Quercetin was found to significantly decrease the PRV virulent strain HNX at a half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC 50) of 2.618 μM and selectivity index 229. This anti-PRV activity of quercetin was found to be dose-dependent. Furthermore, quercetin also inhibited a wide the infections by a spectrum of PRV strains like HNX, Ea, Bartha and Fa strain. These virucidal effects of quercetin suggest the interaction between these molecules and viral particles, and quercetin is responsible for inhibiting the adsorption of PRV infections. The silico assays suggesting that quercetin might interact with the gD-protein on the surface of the PRV important for viral infection. Additional, the quercetin plantar injection protected the mice from the lethal challenge, decreasing the PRV-infected mice's brain viral loads and mortality. These results provides a anti-PRV strategy and contribute to drug discovery and development. [Display omitted] Schematic diagram of quercetin interaction with Pseudorabies viruses in Vero cells [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Toluene vapour was degraded in a biofilter packed with various initial moisture contents of packing materials at 650–1000 mg (toluene)/m3 (gas) and 24.0–36.8 g/m3/h load. The results demonstrated that a higher degradation capacity (DC) could be reached within a shorter operation time at a higher initial moisture content. During 144 h operation, the maximal degradation rate (DR) and degradation capacity (DC) were, respectively, 60%, 20 g/m3/h for 30 and 40% initial moisture content. For 60 and 70% initial moisture content, the DR and DC could be higher at the beginning of operation, which were above 70% and 20 g/m3/h, and reached the maximum of 100% and above 25–30 g/m3/h at about 75 h operation. The microbial determination results of packing materials (30, 50 and 70% initial moisture content) in biofilter operating for 144 h showed that the initial moisture content of packing materials would affect the numbers and types of microbial community of packing materials. With the increase in the initial moisture content, the quantity of moulds and actinomyces would decrease and the number of bacteria would increase. The packing material with 50% initial moisture content was beneficial to the yeast growth. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Schematic diagram of the miR-21-regulated pathway in PCV2-infected PK-15 cells. Red arrows and green lines represent upregulated and downregulated function, respectively. [Display omitted] • Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) infection promoted levels of ssc-miR-21. • PCV2 induced miR-21 activates the NF-κB pathway and inflammation by targeting PDCD4 and circPDCD4. • PDCD4 and circPDCD4 was directly targeted by miR-21. • This study provide a novel diagnostic and preventive candidate for PCVAD. Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) causes postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) as well as other PCV-associated diseases (PCVADs), which seriously affect the development of the swine industry. The association between aberrant expression of microRNA-21 (miR-21) and the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases is already known. Also, our previous study showed elevated ssc-miR-21-5p (miR-21) levels in PCV2-infected porcine kidney 15 (PK-15) cells. However, the functional expression of miR-21 in PCV2 infection is unknown. Here, we found that the miR-21 levels were substantially upregulated in PCV2-infected cells, while the expression of PDCD4 and a PDCD4-derived circRNA (circPDCD4) were downregulated compared with the noninfected cells. The results of RNA immunoprecipitation and dual-luciferase reporter (DLR) assay revealed that circPDCD4 acted as a miR-21 sponge and PDCD4 was a miR-21 target. Functionally, we found that miR-21 overexpression induced the NF-κB pathway along with inflammation in cells exposed to PCV2. Further, the overexpression of PDCD4 or circPDCD4 downregulated miR-21 levels and subsequently, attenuated the miR-21-induced activation of inflammation and the NF-κB pathway. Thus, PCV2 activated the NF-κB pathway and cellular inflammatory responses through regulating circPDCD4, miR-21, and PDCD4 in PK-15 cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This manuscript studies a finite-time tracking problem of switched stochastic nonlinear uncertain systems. By utilizing a comparison theorem and a mean value theorem of integrals, a significant finite-time stability criterion for stochastic nonlinear systems is first set up. Then, combining a common Lyapunov function method and an adaptive fuzzy control approach, a novel common control scheme is formed. Under the proposed adaptive mechanism, the system performance is achieved in finite-time. By using the universal approximation ability, the nonlinear functions and their bounding functions may be completely unknown to the designer, which is more in line with reality than the existing finite-time researches for stochastic nonlinear systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We performed time-course RNA sequencing of the PK-15 cells infected with a recombinant strain PRV-Becker-GFP to study the dynamic competition between the host and the virus. • At early stage of infection (3 hpi), our results suggested that the activation of cytosolic DNA-sensing pathway and NOD-like receptor signaling pathway might play a role in recognition of PRV, and the activation of NF-kappa B signaling pathway and TNF signaling pathway might be involved in immune response against the virus. • Our data indicated the fatty acid degradation pathway was significantly downregulated during late stage of infection (9 hpi), which was likely to accumulate fatty acids for viral envelope synthesis. Pseudorabies is a highly contagious viral disease caused by the pseudorabies virus (PRV), and it is one of the most devastating diseases for the swine industry worldwide. However, the host-virus interaction and virus-related host factors at the mRNA level in virus natural host (pig) cells, are not fully understood. Here, we performed time-course RNA sequencing of the PK-15 cells infected with a recombinant strain PRV-Becker-GFP to study the dynamic competition between the host and the virus. At early stage of infection (3 hpi), our results suggested that the activation of cytosolic DNA-sensing pathway and NOD-like receptor signaling pathway might play a role in recognition of PRV, and the activation of NF-kappa B signaling pathway and TNF signaling pathway might be involved in immune response against the virus. However, all these pathways were subsequently inhibited by PRV. Additionally, our data indicated the fatty acid degradation pathway was significantly downregulated during late stage of infection (9 hpi), which was likely to accumulate fatty acids for viral envelope synthesis. Moreover, we verified the expression of 5 representative genes (ALDH1B1, ACAA2, ACSL3, ADH5 , and EHHADH) related to fatty acid degradation pathway by RT-qPCR. Overall, our findings provide valuable information to better understand host-virus interactions and the immune escape mechanism of PRV-Becker as a virulent strain, offering novel targets for porcine anti-PRV breeding research and potential clinical treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Streptococcus suis (S. suis) is a significant zoonotic microorganism that causes a severe illness in both pigs and humans and is characterized by severe meningitis and septicemia. Suilysin (SLY), which is secreted by S. suis , plays a crucial role as a virulence factor in the disease. To date, the interaction between SLY and host cells is not fully understood. In this study, we identified the interacting proteins between SLY and human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMECs) using the TurboID-mediated proximity labeling method. 251 unique proteins were identified in TurboID-SLY treated group, of which six plasma membrane proteins including ARF6, GRK6, EPB41L5, DSC1, TJP2, and PNN were identified. We found that the proteins capable of interacting with SLY are ARF6 and PNN. Subsequent investigations revealed that ARF6 substantially increased the invasive ability of S. suis in HBMECs. Furthermore, ARF6 promoted SLY-induced the activation of p38 MAPK signaling pathway in HBMECs. Moreover, ARF6 promoted the apoptosis in HBMECs through the activation of p38 MAPK signaling pathway induced by SLY. Finally, we confirmed that ARF6 could increase the virulence of SLY in C57BL/6 mice. These findings offer valuable insights that contribute to a deeper understanding of the pathogenic mechanism of SLY. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Curdlan is widely applied in the food and pharmaceutical industries. This review focuses on the biosynthetic pathways, regulatory mechanisms and metabolic engineering strategies for curdlan production. Firstly, curdlan biosynthesis is discussed. Furthermore, various strategies to increase curdlan production are summarized from four aspects, including the overexpression of genes for curdlan biosynthesis, weakening/knockdown of genes from competing pathways, increasing the supply of curdlan precursors, and optimization of fermentation conditions. Moreover, the emerging and advanced applications of curdlan are introduced. Finally, the challenges that are frequently encountered during curdlan biosynthesis are noted with a discussion of directions for curdlan production. • Mechanisms that regulate curdlan biosynthesis are described. • Strategies for increasing the supply of precursors for curdlan synthesis are analyzed. • Applications of curdlan in the food and pharmaceutical industries are summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biofitration was successfully applied to treat air streams containing a mixture of ethyl acetate and toluene. The experiment was performed by two identical bench-scale biofilters, which were acclimated by ethyl acetate and toluene, respectively. During a 3 month steady-state performance, the two biofilters showed equivalent elimination capacity (EC) for toluene (50 g/m3 bed/h of pure toluene). However, the biofilter acclimated with ethyl acetate showed a much higher EC for ethyl acetate (400 g/m3 bed/h of pure ethyl acetate) than that acclimated with toluene (250 g/m3 bed/h). The concurrent biofiltration of toluene was inhibited by the presence of ethyl acetate. The results also showed that more nitrogen and phosphorus were consumed in the process of the biofiltration of toluene compared with the treatment of ethyl acetate. After the 3 month experiment, the pH of the media treating ethyl acetate dropped from 6.71 to 5.50, whereas the pH of the media treating toluene increased from 6.71 to 7.08. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

An adaptive decentralized output-feedback control problem is investigated for a class of pure-feedback large-scale nonlinear systems with mismatched uncertainties, unknown dead-zones and unknown virtual control coefficients. At the same time, the nonlinear interconnections involve time-varying delays. Because only output information can be obtained, a state observer is constructed first. By using the infinite approximation ability of the radial basis function neural networks, the difficulty caused by the unknown nonlinearities is successfully overcome. Based on the appropriate Lyapunov–Krasovskii functions, the time-delay terms are compensated. The unknown virtual control coefficients are disposed by the convex combination method. By combining the backstepping technique with decentralized control principle, the adaptive neural decentralized output-feedback controllers are constructed to guarantee all the signals of the resulting closed-loop systems are bounded. And meanwhile, the error signals can converge to a small neighborhood of the origin. The simulation examples are provided to test our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An adaptive output-feedback control method is developed for a class of multi-input and multi-output (MIMO) delayed nonlinear systems which are subject to input saturated nonlinearities, modeling uncertainties and time delays. Because state variables are unobtainable, state observers are constructed first. And radial basis function (RBF) neural networks (NNs) are used as approximators to identify the unknown nonlinearities. Adaptive technique is applied to estimate the optimal weight vectors of the approximators. Backstepping method is used to construct the desired controllers. Based on Lyapunov stability theory, the proposed tracking control strategy ensure that all signals in the closed-loop systems are bounded and the target trajectories can be tracked within a enough small error as well. At last, numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented control method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with a tracking control issue for a class of switched stochastic systems with quantized input. To overcome the difficulty caused by the switching and quantization, a nonlinear decomposition strategy for quantizer is firstly proposed, then by using the common Lyapunov function method, a systematic adaptive control scheme is presented. It is proved that, under the proposed control scheme, the good control performance is obtained although influenced by the effect of switching and quantization. Furthermore, the validity of the proposed control scheme is verified by the simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the issue of adaptive neural output-feedback control for a class of nonlinear pure-feedback systems. A state observer is first constructed to estimate the unmeasurable state variables. Radial basis function (RBF) neural networks (NNs) are used to approximate the unknown nonlinear functions and backstepping adaptive technique is utilized to construct controller. The proposed control scheme guarantees semi-globally uniformly ultimate boundedness (SGUUB) of all the signals in the closed-loop system. At last, a simulation example is used to show the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]