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The objective of this retrospective study was to establish the effect of the preoperative body mass index (BMI) on early outcomes of recipients after a kidney transplant, including liver and kidney function and fasting blood glucose recovery.Our analytical cohort were patients who had undergone a kidney transplant at The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC [2016-2019]. The BMI classifications were underweight (18.5 kg/mWe enrolled 831 recipients in the study. The percentage of patients with normal serum creatinine and normal urea nitrogen in the BMI ≥24 group was lower at different periods after surgery (P0.05). The percentage of patients with normal uric acid in the normal weight group was higher on day 1 and the first week after surgery (P0.001). In the first and second weeks postsurgery, the percentage of patients with aspartate transaminase/alanine aminotransaminase in the BMI ≥24 group was lower (P.005). In the first week postsurgery, the percentage of patients with normal albumin/globulin in the normal weight group was higher (P.05). No statistically significant difference among the 3 groups was found in the incidence of hyperglycemia (P.05).The patients who were overweight or obese preoperatively had poorer renal and liver functions postoperatively. Targeted interventions to control or mitigate rates of overweight or obesity preoperatively should be identified.

Retrovirus immature particle morphology consists of a membrane enclosed, pleomorphic, spherical and incomplete lattice of Gag hexamers. Previously, we demonstrated that human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) immature particles possess a distinct and extensive Gag lattice morphology. To better understand the nature of the continuously curved hexagonal Gag lattice, we have used single particle cryo-electron microscopy with a retrovirus to determine the HIV-2 Gag lattice structure for immature virions. The reconstruction map at 5.5 Å resolution revealed a stable, wineglass-shaped Gag hexamer structure with structural features consistent with other lentiviral immature Gag structures. Cryo-electron tomography provided evidence for nearly complete ordered Gag lattice structures in HIV-2 immature particles. We also solved a 1.98 Å resolution crystal structure of the carboxyl-terminal domain (CTD) of the HIV-2 capsid (CA) protein that identified a structured helix 12 supported via an interaction of helix 10 in the absence of the SP1 region of Gag. Residues at the helix 10-12 interface proved critical in maintaining HIV-2 particle release and infectivity. Taken together, our findings provide the first 3D organization of HIV-2 immature Gag lattice and important insights into both HIV Gag lattice stabilization and virus maturation.

In order to effectively control petroleum hydrocarbon pollution by immobilisation technology, it is necessary to understanding the degradation pathways of petroleum hydrocarbon in immobilised petroleum-degradation bacteria system. However, the adsorption in degradation process is rarely studied. In this study, adsorption process of petroleum hydrocarbon was synergistically studied by means of the surface properties, adsorption thermodynamics and molecular simulation. The results indicate that the immobilised petroleum-degradation bacteria have many holes for the bacteria to adsorb. The diesel adsorption by immobilised petroleum-degradation bacteria is a spontaneous, entropy-increasing and endothermic process. Diesel is first adsorbed to the surface of immobilised petroleum-degradation bacteria through hydrogen bonding, and then is biodegraded. This study provided substantial knowledge of immobilised technology in controlling petroleum hydrocarbon pollution.

Phase change materials are functional materials that have the potential to cool asphalt pavement. This study focuses on the design of a stearic acid/palmitic acid binary eutectic phase change material (SA/PA-PCM) and its utilization in asphalt binder by conducting a series of tests. The results show that the dislocation density, micro-strain, and crystallinity of SA/PA-PCM increase by approximately 432%, 140%, 6%, respectively, which means that it can have a more stable crystal structure. Therefore, the SA/PA-PCM has a higher phase transition enthalpy (226.9 J/g) and a better phase transition temperature (54.8 °C) than traditional materials. Moreover, no chemical reaction is detected in the eutectic and modified asphalt binder processes. Crystalline SA/PA-PCM has the potential to increase the anti-deforming capability of the binder, whereas liquid SA/PA-PCM suppresses the rheological behaviors. The decomposition temperature of SA/PA-PCM (approximately 200 °C) is higher than that of two kinds of individual fatty acids. Meanwhile, it is still above the traditional hot-mix asphalt pavement construction temperatures. Thus, we concluded that SA/PA-PCM has exceptional phase change characteristics and is applicable for use in cooling asphalt binder. Nevertheless, encapsulating technologies must be adopted to prevent the deleterious impact of the liquefiable phase change materials on the binder.

With the rapid increase of data availability, time series classification (TSC) has arisen in a wide range of fields and drawn great attention of researchers. Recently, hundreds of TSC approaches have been developed, which can be classified into two categories: traditional and deep learning based TSC methods. However, it remains challenging to improve accuracy and model generalization ability. Therefore, we investigate a novel end-to-end model based on deep learning named as Multi-scale Attention Convolutional Neural Network (MACNN) to solve the TSC problem. We first apply the multi-scale convolution to capture different scales of information along the time axis by generating different scales of feature maps. Then an attention mechanism is proposed to enhance useful feature maps and suppress less useful ones by learning the importance of each feature map automatically. MACNN addresses the limitation of single-scale convolution and equal weight feature maps. We conduct a comprehensive evaluation of 85 UCR standard datasets and the experimental results show that our proposed approach achieves the best performance and outperforms the other traditional and deep learning based methods by a large margin.

Distributed driver electric vehicle (DDEV) works under various road excitations in practice, which may cause the changes in steering performance significantly. However, the various road excitations are not a priority for stable steering problem of DDEV, and this possibly leads to unstable steering performance, particularly oversteer or tail flick. To solve this problem, an interacting multiple model-based adaptive control system (IMM-ACS) is presented in this work. The proposed IMM-ACS integrates an interacting multiple model controller (IMMC) and a stable steering controller (SSC). The IMMC is designed to establish an adaptive vehicle model based on four typical road models, and to improve the adaptability of control system to various road excitations by the model interaction method. The SSC is designed to guarantee the yaw and longitudinal stability based on the adaptive vehicle model, by the active steering and torque distribution, and the SSC is realized by the model predictive controller (MPC). Besides, this work establishes a Carsim-Matlab co-simulation platform, where the simulation is designed and the results show that the proposed IMM-ACS can achieve excellent steering performance for DDEV with the adaptive capacity.

Poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) particles were melt-pressed into films using a hot press and then subjected to degradation by lipase from Candida antarctica and cutinase from Fusarium solani, respectively. The differences in weight loss, degradation modes, thermal stability, and crystallization were investigated after degradation by two kinds of enzymes. The result showed that mass loss of PCL films degraded by lipase was higher than that degraded by cutinase at the same enzyme concentrations. The degradation mode of PCL films is layered for cutinase degradation and penetrated for lipase degradation. Crystallinity of PCL had no obvious decrease after degradation by cutinase, but it markedly decreased after lipase-degradation. PCL films occurred one-step decomposition during heating and the cutinase-degraded products had similar thermal stability. Whereas the thermal stability of lipase-degraded PCL decreased significantly and the weight loss of the PCL occurred in several steps with increasing lipase hydrolysis time.

Mechanism of microbiome assembly and function driven by cathode potential in electro-stimulated microbial reductive dechlorination system remain poorly understood. Here, core microbiome structure, interaction, function and assembly regulating by cathode potential were investigated in a 2,4,6-trichlorophenol bio-dechlorination system. The highest dechlorination rate (24.30 μM/d) was observed under - 0.36 V with phenol as a major end metabolite, while, lower (-0.56 V) or higher (0.04 V or -0.16 V) potentials resulted in 1.3-3.8 times decreased of dechlorination kinetic constant. The lower the cathode potential, the higher the generated CHsub4/sub, revealing cathode participated in hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis. Taxonomic and functional structure of core microbiome significantly shifted within groups of - 0.36 V and - 0.56 V, with dechlorinators (Desulfitobacterium, Dehalobacter), fermenters (norank_f_Propionibacteriaceae, Dysgonomonas) and methanogen (Methanosarcina) highly enriched, and the more positive interactions between functional genera were found. The lowest number of nodes and links and the highest positive correlations were observed among constructed sub-networks classified by function, revealing simplified and strengthened cooperation of functional genera driven by group of - 0.36 V. Cathode potential plays one important driver controlling core microbiome assembly, and the low potentials drove the assembly of major dechlorinating, methanogenic and electro-active genera to be more deterministic, while, the major fermenting genera were mostly governed by stochastic processes.

The high concentrations of salt and refractory toxic organics in industrial wastewater seriously restrict biological treatment efficiency and functional stability. However, how to construct a salt-tolerant biocatalytic community and realize the decarbonization coupled with detoxification toward green bio-enhanced treatment, has yet to be well elucidated. Here, acetoacetanilide (AAA), an important intermediate for many dyes and medicine synthesis, was used as the model amide pollutant to elucidate the directional enrichment of halotolerant degradative communities and the corresponding bacterial interaction mechanism. Combining microbial community composition and molecular ecological network analyses as well as the biodegradation efficiencies of AAA and its hydrolysis product aniline (AN) of pure strains, the core degradative bacteria were identified during the hypersaline AAA degradation process. A synthetic bacterial consortium composed of Paenarthrobacter, Rhizobium, Rhodococcus, Delftia and Nitratireductor was constructed based on the top-down strategy to treat AAA wastewater with different water quality characteristics. The synthetic halotolerant consortium showed promising treatment ability toward the simulated AAA wastewater (AAA 100-500 mg/L, 1-5% salinity) and actual AAA mother liquor. Additionally, the comprehensive toxicity of AAA mother liquor significantly reduced after biological treatment. This study provides a green biological approach for the treatment of hypersaline and high concentration of organics wastewater.

Anaerobic degradation is the major pathway for microbial degradation of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) under electron acceptor lacking conditions. However, how exogenous electron acceptors modulate BTEX degradation through shaping the microbial community structure remains poorly understood. Here, we investigated the effect of various exogenous electron acceptors on BTEX degradation as well as methane production in anaerobic microbiota, which were enriched from the same contaminated soil. It was found that the BTEX degradation capacities of the anaerobic microbiota gradually increased along with the increasing redox potentials of the exogenous electron acceptors supplemented (WE: Without exogenous electron acceptors SS: Sulfate supplement FS: Ferric iron supplement NS: Nitrate supplement), while the complexity of the co-occurring networks (e.g., avgK and links) of the microbiota gradually decreased, showing that microbiota supplemented with higher redox potential electron acceptors were less dependent on the formation of complex microbial interactions to perform BTEX degradation. Microbiota NS showed the highest degrading capacity and the broadest substrate-spectrum for BTEX, and it could metabolize BTEX through multiple modules which not only contained fewer species but also different key microbial taxa (eg. Petrimonas, Achromobacter and Comamonas). Microbiota WE and FS, with the highest methanogenic capacities, shared common core species such as Sedimentibacter, Acetobacterium, Methanobacterium and Smithella/Syntrophus, which cooperated with Geobacter (microbiota WE) or Desulfoprunum (microbiota FS) to perform BTEX degradation and methane production. This study demonstrates that electron acceptors may alter microbial function by reshaping microbial community structure and regulating microbial interactions and provides guidelines for electron acceptor selection for bioremediation of aromatic pollutant-contaminated anaerobic sites.

As many as five members of the APOBEC3 family of DNA cytosine deaminases are capable of inhibiting HIV-1 replication by deaminating viral cDNA cytosines and interfering with reverse transcription. HIV-1 counteracts restriction with the virally encoded Vif protein, which forms a hybrid ubiquitin ligase complex that directly binds APOBEC3 enzymes and targets them for proteasomal degradation. APOBEC3H (A3H) is unique among family members by dimerization through cellular and viral duplex RNA species. RNA binding is required for localization of A3H to the cytoplasmic compartment, for efficient packaging into nascent HIV-1 particles and ultimately for effective virus restriction activity. Here we compared wild-type human A3H and RNA binding–defective mutants to ask whether RNA may be a factor in the functional interaction with HIV-1 Vif. We used structural modeling, immunoblotting, live cell imaging, and split green fluorescence protein (GFP) reconstitution approaches to assess the capability of HIV-1 Vif to promote the degradation of wild-type A3H in comparison to RNA binding–defective mutants. The results combined to show that RNA is not strictly required for Vif-mediated degradation of A3H, and that RNA and Vif are likely to bind this single-domain DNA cytosine deaminase on physically distinct surfaces. However, a subset of the results also indicated that the A3H degradation process may be affected by A3H protein structure, subcellular localization, and differences in the constellation of A3H interaction partners, suggesting additional factors may also influence the fate and functionality of this host-pathogen interaction.

Time series classification (TSC) which has attracted great attention in time series data mining task, has already applied to various fields. With the rapid development of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), the CNN based methods on TSC have begun to emerge until recently. However, the performance of CNN based methods is slightly worse than state-of-the-art traditional methods. Therefore, we propose a novel deep learning framework using Relative Position Matrix and Convolutional Neural Network (RPMCNN) for the TSC task. We investigate a time series data representation method called Relative Position Matrix (RPM) to convert the raw time series data to 2D images which enable the use of techniques from image recognition. We also construct an improved CNN architecture to automatically learn a high-level abstract representation of low-level raw time series data. Therefore, the combination of RPM and CNN in a unified framework is expected to boost the accuracy and generalization ability of TSC. We conduct a comprehensive evaluation with various existing methods on a large number of standard datasets and demonstrate that our approach achieves remarkable results and outperforms the current best TSC approaches by a large margin.

The microstructure of the materials always has a great impact on their mechanical and thermal properties, and hence on the thermal shock resistance. It is, therefore, of great concern to investigate the correlation between the microstructure, mechanical/thermal properties, and thermal shock resistance of K-doped tungsten (W K) alloys that have recently generated considerable research interest in nuclear fusion materials community. Thus, in this study, a series of highly dense K-doped tungsten alloys with close grain size values (within a narrow range around 3.5 μm) but different K bubble characteristics, i.e., average bubble sizes (33.7 nm → 82.1 nm), were fabricated through controlling the K content (46/82/108/122/144 ppm). The thermal conductivity decreased, and the fracture toughness increased, with the increased K content, while the W K samples with K of 82 ppm presented the highest tensile strength and thermal shock resistance. The correlation between the microstructure, mechanical/thermal properties, and thermal shock resistance of K-doped tungsten alloys are then discussed. These investigations can help to design highly thermal shock resistant materials with high strength and toughness.

Anaplasma phagocytophilum, the bacterial pathogen responsible for tick-borne fever and human granulocytic anaplasmosis, can seriously affect the health of humans and a wide range of other mammals. In this study, we developed a recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) assay to detect A. phagocytophilum in clinical samples. Following alignment of the relevant DNA sequences, a pair of specific primers based on the 16S rRNA gene was designed to specifically detect A. phagocytophilum. The assay was performed at a constant temperature of 38 °C for 30 min, with a final primer concentration of 0.4 μM. The specificity of the primers was confirmed when DNA from A. phagocytophilum was used as the positive control, and DNA from other related pathogens were used as the negative controls, with ddH2O acting as the blank control. The results showed that the primers did not cross-react with DNA from the other related pathogens. The assay's detection limit was 1.77 × 10−5 ng/μl, a 10 × higher sensitivity level than that determined for nested PCR. The RPA assay's performance was evaluated using 44 clinical samples, and the prevalence results for A. phagocytophilum were found to not differ significantly between the RPA assay and the nested PCR. Thus, we have developed a specific, sensitive, rapid and cost-effective RPA method, requiring only a water bath, for the detection of A. phagocytophilum. The assay should be especially useful in resource-limited areas where access to laboratory equipment is limited.

Poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) was hydrolyzed by two different enzymes: cutinase from Fusarium sp. and lipase from Candida antarctica (Lipozyme CALB). The differences between the PBS residues degraded over time were investigated with respect to their morphology, crystallinity and chemical structures. The degradation mechanism of PBS films using the two enzymes was further investigated by establishing a model. The results show that the PBS weight loss when degraded by cutinase was higher than when degraded by Lipozyme CALB under the same conditions. The PBS degradation mechanisms by cutinase and Lipozyme CALB occur by surface erosion and bulk erosion, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy shows that the diameter of pits formed after degradation by cutinase was approximately 3 times larger than those formed by Lipozyme CALB. The change in crystallinity is related to the type of enzyme used during the degradation process. Following Lipozyme CALB degradation, the degree of PBS crystallinity decreased with increasing time, leading to increased weight loss of the PBS films. Conversely, the PBS crystallinity was nearly unchanged following cutinase degradation. Powder X-ray diffraction indicates that the crystalline structure does not change during enzymatic hydrolysis. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy confirms that the resulting structure of the degraded PBS is similar when treated with cutinase and Lipozyme CALB. Mass-spectrometric analysis suggested an endo-type action mode for both the enzymes.

The X-ray crystallographic structure of the mature form of subtilisin E-S7 (SES7) at 1.90 A resolution is reported here. Structural comparisons between the previously reported propeptide-subtilisin E complex (1SCJ) and our mature form subtilisin E-S7 (6O44) provide insight into active site adjustments involved in catalysis and specificity. To further investigate the protease substrate selectivity mechanism, we used SES7 to hydrolyze skim milk and analyzed the hydrolysates by LC-MS for peptide identification. The cleavage pattern suggests a high preference for proline at substrate P2 position. The results based on the peptide analysis are consistent with our structural observations, which is instrumental in future protein engineering by rational design. Furthermore, the ACE-inhibitor and NLN-inhibitor activity of the hydrolysates were determined to assess the utility of SES7 for further industrial applications; IC50-ACE = 67 ± 0.92 μg/mL and IC50-NLN = 263 ± 13 μg/mL.