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The subfamily Sarcophaginae is extremely diverse in morphology, habit and geographical distribution, and usually considered to be of significant ecological, medical, and forensic significance. In the present study, 18 mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) of sarcophagid flies were first obtained. The rearrangement and orientation of genes were identical with that of ancestral insects. The degrees of compositional heterogeneity in the datasets were extremely low. Furthermore, 13 protein-coding genes were evolving under purifying selection. The phylogenic relationship of the genus-group taxa Boettcheria + (Sarcophaga + (Peckia + (Ravinia + Oxysarcodexia))) was strongly supported. Four subgenera were recovered as monophyletic (Liopygia , Liosarcophaga , Pierretia , Heteronychia) in addition to Parasarcophaga as polyphyletic. The sister-relationships between S. dux and S. aegyptiaca , S. pingi and S. kawayuensis were recovered, respectively. Moreover, the molecular phylogenetic relationships among the subgenera Helicophagella , Kozlovea , Kramerea , Pandelleisca , Phallocheira , Pseudothyrsocnema , Sinonipponia and Seniorwhitea were rarely put forward prior to this study. This study provides insight into the population genetics, molecular biology, and phylogeny for the subfamily Sarcophaginae, especially for the subgeneric classification of Sarcophaga. However, compared with the enormous species diversity of flesh flies, the available mitogenomes are still limited for recovering the phylogeny of Sarcophaginae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Novel LiSrPO4:Dy3+ phosphors for white light-emitting diodes (w-LEDs) were synthesized by the conventional solid-state reaction. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed the phase formation of LiSrPO4:Dy3+ materials. Luminescence properties results showed that the phosphor could be efficiently excited by the UV–vis light region from 250 to 460nm, and it exhibited blue (483nm) and yellow (574nm) emission corresponding to 4F9/2 → 6H15/2 transitions and 4F9/2 → 6H13/2 transitions, respectively. The luminescence intensity of LiSrPO4:xDy3+ phosphor firstly increased and then decreased with increasing Dy3+ concentration, and reached the maximum at x =0.03. It was found that concentration quenching occurred as a result of dipole-dipole interaction according to the Dexter''s theory. The decay time was also determined for various concentrations of Dy3+ in LiSrPO4. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Sarcophaga dux (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) is a necrophagous flesh fly species with potential forensic value for estimating minimum postmortem interval (PMI min). The basic developmental data and precise age estimates of the pupae are significant for PMI min estimation in forensic investigations. In the present study, we investigated the development data of that species at seven constant temperatures varying from 16 °C to 34 °C, including body length changes of the larve, developmental duration and accumulated degree hours of the preadults. Several reference genes for relative quantification of the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were firstly selected and evaluated in the pupae of different ages under different temperatures. The DEGs of the insects during the pupal period at different constant temperatures (34, 25 and 16 °C) were further analyzed for more precise age estimation. The results showed that the developmental durations of the preadults at 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31 and 34 °C were 1478.6 ± 18.3 h, 726.1 ± 15.8 h, 538.5 ± 0.9 h, 394.1 ± 9.5 h, 375.6 ± 10.8 h, 284.1 ± 7.3 h, and 252.5 ± 6.1 h, respectively. The developmental threshold temperature the flies was 12.27 ± 0.35 °C, and the thermal summation constant was 5341.71 ± 249.29° hours. The most reliable reference genes during the pupal period at different temperatures were found: GST1 and 18S rRNA for the 34 °C group, GST1 and RPL49 for 25 °C, and 18S rRNA and 28S rRNA for 16 °C. The four differential expression genes (Hsp60 , A-alpha , ARP , and RPL8) have the potential to be used for more precise age estimation of pupal S. dux. This work provides important basic developmental data and a more precise age estimation method for pupal S. dux , and improves the value of this species for PMI min estimation in forensic investigations. Image 1 • The basic developmental data of S. dux during different temperatures were collected. • Four appropriate reference genes at intrapuparial stage of S. dux were selected. • The expression patterns of the same DEGs at the three temperature regimes (34°C, 25°C and 16°C) were similar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Presentation of a case illustrating the benefits of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for treatment of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in critically ill patients.Clinical Features and Outcome: A 58-year-old woman presented with cough, fever, dizziness, chest tightness, polypnea and poor appetite. She was admitted to Guizhou Provincial People's hospital, and diagnosed with critically ill type of COVID-19 in February 2020. According to the patient's symptoms and signs, the TCM syndrome differentiation was qi deficiency, dampness-stasis and toxin accumulation. Then she received the combined therapy of a modified Chinese herbal formula and Western medicine. During a twelve-day period of treatment, her respiratory distress and appetite quickly improved. Abnormal laboratory indicators were resumed in time and lung lesions in CT scan largely absorbed. No side effects associated with this Chinese herbal formula were found. Before discharge, two consecutive nasopharyngeal swabs were shown to be negative for severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).Conclusions: Our case report suggests that collaborative treatments with traditional Chinese medicine prove beneficial in the management of COVID-19 in critically ill patients. In order to give optimal care for this COVID-19 crisis for the whole world, Chinese medicine practitioners and Western medical doctors should work together in frontline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large eddy model with detailed chemical reaction mechanism is developed to investigate the interior ballistic process of the combustion light gas gun (CLGG). Flame acceleration and deflagration to detonation transition process with high initial pressure and low initial temperature hydrogen–oxygen mixture in CLGG is numerically studied. Simulation results indicate that the hydrogen–oxygen flame propagation experiences an exponential acceleration stage, a nearly uniform propagation stage and a fast reacceleration stage. Detonation can be triggered through two different mechanisms, which are the amplification between the overlapped shock wave at flame surface, and the elevated flame velocity and shock strength caused by local explosions. Reflected shock waves play an important role in the suppression of the flame propagation when the flame front is close to the chamber throat, leading to a deceleration of the deflagration flame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Take the lead in combining transformer and VAE for anomaly detection in telemetry data. • Use the improved positional encoding to help transformer capture long-range dependencies. • Apply the proposed multi-scale feature fusion to obtain a more robust feature expression. • A residual structure is proposed, which can alleviate the KL divergence vanishing problem. Due to the strategic importance of satellites, the safety and reliability of satellites have become more important. Sensors that monitor satellites generate lots of multivariate time series, and the abnormal patterns in the multivariate time series may imply malfunctions. The existing anomaly detection methods for multivariate time series have poor effects when processing the data with few dimensions or sparse relationships between sequences. This paper proposes an unsupervised anomaly detection model based on the variational Transformer to solve the above problems. The model uses the Transformer's self-attention mechanism to capture the potential correlations between sequences and capture the multi-scale temporal information through the improved positional encoding and up-sampling algorithm. Then, the model comprehensively considers the extracted features through the residual variational autoencoder to perform effective anomaly detection. Experimental results on a real dataset and two public datasets show that the proposed method is superior to the mainstream and state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Streptococcus pneumoniae (SP) is a major cause of community-acquired pneumonia. Ferroptosis pitches in pneumonia. Long noncoding RNA nuclear paraspeckle assembly transcript 1 (lncRNA NEAT1) regulates ferroptosis in various cells. Therefore, this study probed the mechanism of lncRNA NEAT1 on SP-induced ferroptosis in AECs. Serum lncRNA NEAT1 level in 36 streptococcus pneumonia patients were retrospectively detected, with its correlations with inflammatory factor (TNF-α/IL-1β/IL-6) levels analyzed. Human pulmonary alveolar epithelial cells (HPAEpiC) were transfected with sh-NEAT1 and induced by SP. Cell viability was evaluated by CCK-8. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity was assessed. Iron content, and levels of TNF-α/IL-1β/IL-6/IL-10/lncRNA NEAT1/lipid peroxidation products [malondialdehyde (MDA)/glutathione (GSH)/reactive oxygen species/(ROS)]/ferroptosis-related proteins [Cyclooxgenase 2 (COX2)/recombinant solute carrier family 7 member 11 (SLC7A11)/total nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)/cytoplasmic Nrf2 (C-Nrf2)/nuclear Nrf2 (N-Nrf2)/GPX4)] were determined by kit/ELISA/RT-qPCR/kits/Western blot. Nrf2 nuclear translocation was detected by immunofluorescence assay. On top of lncRNA NEAT1 knockdown, SP-induced HPAEpiC were treated with ML385. Serum lncRNA NEAT1 level was elevated in streptococcus pneumonia patients, and were positively interrelated with TNF-α/IL-1β/IL-6 levels. SP promoted cell HPAEpiC injury and inflammatory response, and up-regulated lncRNA NEAT1 level. LncRNA NEAT1 knockdown suppressed HPAEpiC injury/inflammatory response (reduced LDH activity and TNF-α/IL-1β/IL-6 levels, elevated IL-10) and suppressed ferroptosis (decreased iron/MDA/ROS contents and COX2 level, increased GSH/SLC7A11), facilitated Nrf2 nuclear translocation, and up-regulated GPX4. Nrf2-GPX4 pathway inhibition annulled NEAT1 knockdown-mediated improvement on SP-induced HPAEpiC ferroptosis/injury/inflammatory response. LncRNA NEAT1 knockdown suppressed SP-induced HPAEpiC ferroptosis by activating Nrf2-GPX4 pathway, thereby alleviating cell injury and inflammatory response. [Display omitted] • LncRNA NEAT1 level in Streptococcus pneumoniae pneumonia patients is positively linked with TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 levels. • LncRNA NEAT1 knockout reduces streptococcus pneumoniae-led human pulmonary alveolar epithelial cell injury and inflammation. • LncRNA NEAT1 knockdown represses streptococcus pneumoniae-induced ferroptosis in human pulmonary alveolar epithelial cells. • Silencing lncRNA NEAT1 promotes Nrf2 nuclear translocation and up-regulates GPX4. • Nrf2-GPX4 ferroptosis inhibition annuls the effects of NEAT1 knockout in human pulmonary alveolar epithelial cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Novel blue/green NaSrPO4 phosphors co-doped with Eu2+ and Tb3+ were synthesized by a conventional solid-state reaction. Their luminescent properties were characterized by using powder X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence excitation and emission spectra, lifetime, and temperature dependent emission spectra, respectively. The NaSrPO4:Eu2+,Tb3+,Na+ phosphor showed an intense broad excitation band between 250 and 430nm, which was in agreement with the near-UV chip (350–420nm), and it exhibited two dominating emission bands at 445 and 545nm, corresponding to the allowed 4f65d1→4f7(8S7/2) transition of Eu2+ ion and the 5D4→7F5 transition of Tb3+ ion, respectively. The emission intensity and lifetime of Eu2+ ion decreased with the increasing concentration of Tb3+ ion, which strongly indicated that an effective energy transfer occurred from Eu2+ to Tb3+ in NaSrPO4 host. The principle of the energy transfer should be the combined effect of the non-radiative resonant energy transfer and the phonon-assisted non-radiative process. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Well-crystallized and regular-shaped BaYF5:Yb3+/Er3+ upconversion (UC) fluorescent nanocrystals (NCs) were synthesized in a modified water–ethanol–oleic acid system. The size and shape of the NCs were controlled by adjusting the amount of NaOH, reaction temperature and time. Well oil-dispersible NCs exhibited bright UC fluorescence under the 980nm excitation. Furthermore, a systematic study on the photoluminescence of Yb3+/Er3+-doped BaYF5 samples with different size and shapes indicated that the optical properties of products were strongly dependent on their size, and the configuration of nanocrystals were found to sensibly affect the optical properties of the products. Great enhancement of the green emission intensity was observed with increasing crystalline size. It was found that the crystalline and surface effects could be responsible for the observation and this behavior was attributed to a change of conditions and the quenching effect of the organic ligands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Take the lead in using GNN to complete the task of anomaly detection. • Use the proposed dynamic threshold method to evaluate telemetry data. • Apply the proposed method to convert linear structure data into graph data. • Our model is end-to end, and needs no domain knowledge from experts. To ensure the stable long-time operation of satellites, evaluate the satellite status, and improve satellite maintenance efficiency, we propose an anomaly detection method based on graph neural network and dynamic threshold (GNN-DTAN). Firstly, we build the graph neural network model for telemetry data. The graph construction module in the model extracts the relationship between features, and the spatial dependency extraction module and the temporal dependency extraction module extract the spatial and temporal dependencies of the data, respectively. The trained model is then used to predict the data, and the anomaly score between the predicted and actual values is calculated. Finally, the wavelet variance is used to analyze the data period. A dynamic threshold method based on the period time window is used to detect anomalies in the data set. Experimental results of satellite power system telemetry data show that the proposed algorithm's accuracy reaches more than 98%, with good effectiveness and robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular Ribonucleic Acid (CircRNA) plays regulatory roles in many biological processes, such as tumors and metabolic diseases. Due to the fact that circRNA is more stable and conservative than linear RNA, circRNA has become a potential biomarker in early clinical diagnosis and biomedical research. Therefore, the quantification of circRNA expression level is of importance for understanding their functions and their applications for disease diagnosis and treatment. Nevertheless, due to the low abundance of circRNA, it is still a challenge for the analysis of circRNA in cells. Herein, we proposed a sensitive detection method for circRNA based on the T7 exonuclease-assisted cycling enzymatic amplification. The fluorescent sensor was constructed by a hairpin molecular beacon and T7 exonuclease. With the cycling enzymatic amplification process, this sensor achieved the limit of detection of 1 pM with a good linear correlation in the range of 0–100 pM (R2 = 0.9891) using circBART2.2 as a model. Furthermore, we applied the proposed method in the determination of circBART2.2 in cell lysates. The results demonstrated that this method has promising applications in early diagnosis of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection-related diseases using circRNA as the biomarker. [Display omitted] • The circRNA encoded by EBV was specifically detected by fluorescence sensor for the first time. • The enzyme cycle signal amplification strategy greatly improves the sensitivity of detection. • The applicability of this method in real samples was verified by a variety of cell lines. • The developed sensor can be expanded for other circRNA analysis in different diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Long-term exposure to PM 2.5 are associated with large- and small- airway function. • Organic matter and nitrate show stronger associations with lung function than PM 2.5. • Exposure to PM 2.5 constituents might be more important in impairing lung function. The associations of long-term exposure to various constituents of fine particulate matter (≤2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter, PM 2.5) air pollution with lung function were not clearly elucidated in developing countries. The aim was to evaluate the associations of long-term exposure to main constituents of PM 2.5 with lung function in China. This is a nationwide, cross-sectional analysis among 50,991 study participants from the China Pulmonary Health study. Multivariable linear regression models were used to obtain differences of forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV 1), forced vital capacity (FVC), FEV 1 /FVC, peak expiratory flow (PEF), and forced expiratory flow at 25–75% of exhaled FVC (FEF 25-75%) associated with an interquartile range (IQR) change of PM 2.5 or its constituents. Residential annual PM 2.5 levels varied from 26 μg/m3 to 92 μg/m3 (average: 53 μg/m3). An IQR increase of PM 2.5 concentrations was associated with lower FEV 1 (19.82 mL, 95% CI: 11.30–28.33), FVC (17.45 mL, 95% CI: 7.16–27.74), PEF (86.64 mL/s, 95% CI: 59.77–113.52), and FEF 25-75% (31.93 mL/s, 95% CI: 16.64–47.22). Black carbon, organic matter, ammonium, sulfate, and nitrate were negatively associated with most lung function indicators, with organic matter and nitrate showing consistently larger magnitude of associations than PM 2.5 mass. This large-scale study provides first-hand epidemiological evidence that long-term exposure to ambient PM 2.5 and some constituents, especially organic matter and nitrate, were associated with lower large- and small- airway function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outer membrane protein A (OmpA) of Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) is associated with autophagy, which plays an important role in its pathogenicity. However, its exact pathophysiological role in the process of lung tissue cell autophagy remains unclear. In this study, animal and cell infection models were established by wild A. baumannii strain and An OmpA knockout mutant (OmpA-/- A. baumannii) strain. The expression levels of markers autophagy, histological change, cell viability and protein expression levels of inflammatory cytokines were examined. OmpA -/- A. baumannii was successfully constructed. The capacities of bacterial adhesion and invasion to host cells increased more obviously in the AB group and the AB + Rapa group than in the OmpA-/- AB group and AB + CQ group. The AB group and AB + Rapa group could produce double membrane vacuoles, endoplasmic reticulum dilation, mitochondrial ridge rupture, and mitochondrial vacuoles. OmpA could lead to increased LC3, AMPK, and PAMPK protein release, and decreased levels of P62, mTOR and pmTOR proteins in vivo and in vitro. OmpA caused lung pathology and the release of inflammatory cytokines. A. baumannii OmpA promotes autophagy in lung cells through the mTOR signalling pathway, which increases the bacterial colonization ability in the double-layer membrane autophagosome formed by the autophagy reaction to escape the clearance of bacteria by the host, promote the release of inflammatory mediators and aggravate the damage to the host. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Etoposide-induced protein 2.4 (EI24) is an autophagy-associated protein and acts as a tumor suppressor. However, its role in tissue fibrosis remains unknown. Herein, a downregulation of EI24 levels in the lungs from mouse pulmonary fibrosis (PF) model and lung epithelial cells was observed in response to bleomycin (BLM) or transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1). Then, the role of EI24 in PF was investigated through the upregulation of EI24 in vitro and in vivo. EI24 inhibited epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process and extracellular matrix (ECM) production in EI24-overexpressing cells after stimulation with BLM or TGF-β1. The overexpression of EI24 at 14 days after the establishment of the PF model through tail vein injection delayed the progression of PF. Moreover, the administration of EI24-overexpressing plasmid promoted the autophagy level in the lungs of the PF mouse model. In addition, the inhibition of autophagy by 3-methyladenine limited the role of EI24 in these processes. Thus, the current data indicated that EI24 attenuates PF through inhibition of EMT process and ECM production by promoting autophagy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Many severe COVID-19 patients require intensive care or even mechanical ventilation for those with respiratory failure. • Clinical course of a COVID-19 patient with persistent diarrhoea, acute respiratory failure and shock 1 day after admission. • The patient was undoubtedly classified into the severe type of COVID-19. • Patient recovered promptly after plasma exchange (PE) followed by IVIg, without mechanical ventilation or intensive care. • Timely initiation of PE followed by IVIg in severe COVID-19 patients may improve poor clinical outcomes of these patients. Here we report a case of a laboratory-confirmed 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)-infected patient with COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) who developed respiratory failure and shock accompanied by persistent diarrhoea despite conventional therapeutic interventions. The patient avoided mechanical ventilation and showed an immediate clinical and radiological improvement following treatment with intensive plasma exchange (PE) followed by intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG). Successful therapeutic strategies in this case suggest that timely initiation of PE treatment followed by IVIG in critically ill patients with COVID-19 may prevent the disease from worsening and help to reduce the requirement for mechanical ventilation and intensive supportive care. Moreover, it may improve poor clinical outcomes of these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• NLRP3 inflammasome was activation after sciatic nerve injury. • NLRP3 inflammasome controls the production of IL-1β. • Inflammatory response was alleviated after NLRP3 gene knockout. • NLRP3 knockout mice possess better motor recovery after nerve injury. The activation of the inflammasome plays an important role in the central nervous system. However, only a few studies have investigated the effects of inflammasome activation in the peripheral nerve, especially in the sciatic nerve, and the mechanism of this activation remains elusive. Moreover, how interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) is produced after sciatic nerve injury is also unknown. In our study, we aimed to investigate whether the nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like pyrin domain containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome is activated after sciatic nerve injury and to explore its role in sciatic nerve injury. The results of immunoblotting and immunofluorescence microscopy indicate that the NLRP3 inflammasome was activated after sciatic nerve injury in wild-type (WT) mice, as demonstrated by upregulated inflammasome-related components, e.g., NLRP3, procaspase-1 and ASC. Furthermore, upregulated inflammasome-related components cis-cleavage precursor IL-1β (proIL-1β) and precursor interleukin-18 (proIL-18) to IL-1β and IL-18, contributing to the inflammatory response. Consequently, the inflammatory response after sciatic nerve injury in NLRP3 knockout (NLRP3-KO) mice was less severe than that in WT mice. Moreover, NLRP3-KO mice exhibited an increased sciatic functional index (SFI), which was determined by footprint analysis, suggesting that NLRP3 deficiency is beneficial to sciatic nerve recovery after injury. Therefore, our results indicate that NLRP3 is involved in the recovery from sciatic nerve injury and mediates the production of inflammatory factors, such as IL-1β, after sciatic nerve injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]