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Introduction: The primary objective of our investigation was to assess the repercussions of prolonged exposure to heavy metals and smoking on the microbiome of the oral buccal mucosa. Concurrently, we aimed to elucidate the intricate interplay between external environmental exposures and the composition of the oral microbial ecosystem, thereby discerning its potential implications for human health., Methods: Our study cohort was stratified into four distinct groups: MS (characterized by concurrent exposure to heavy metals and smoking), M (exposed solely to heavy metals), S (exposed solely to smoking), and C (comprising individuals serving as a control group). Specimens of buccal mucosa and blood were systematically acquired from the participants, facilitating subsequent microbial diversity analysis across the four oral buccal mucosa sample cohorts through 16S rRNA gene sequencing techniques. Simultaneously, blood samples were tested for heavy metal concentrations. In addition, we performed topological analyses by constructing microbial networks., Results: Our findings notably indicate that co-exposure to heavy metals and smoking yielded a more pronounced alteration in the diversity of oral microflora when compared to singular exposures to either heavy metals or smoking. By comparing the oral bacterial communities and functional pathways between the four groups, we found significant differences in bacterial communities and functional pathways between the groups. Notably, the impact of heavy metal exposure overshadowed that of smoking, with concurrent exposure to heavy metals and smoking eliciting marginally greater effects than exposure to heavy metals alone. In addition, our analysis of the correlation between microbiota and blood heavy metal concentrations showed that the heavy metal cadmium (Cd) had a significantly greater effect on oral microbiota than other heavy metals., Discussion: Chronic exposure to heavy metals and smoking disrupts the normal bacterial communities in the oral mucosa of residents of contaminated areas. This exposure reduces the complexity and stability of microbial networks and increases the risk of various diseases reduces the complexity and stability., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Zheng, Zhang, Li, Pei, Liu, Feng, Zhang, Liu, Luo, Ruan, Hu, Niu and Tian.)

Aim: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) includes two distinct subtypes, namely progressive MCI (pMCI) and stable MCI (sMCI). The objective of this study was to identify the topological reorganization of brain functional networks in patients with pMCI and sMCI., Methods: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) was applied to patients with pMCI, sMCI and healthy controls. Graph theory was applied to study the topological characteristics of the brain's functional networks, examining global and nodal metrics, modularity, and rich-club organization. Analysis of covariance and two sample t-tests were applied to assess differences in topological attributes between patient groups, alongside correlation analysis, which examined the value of changing topological attributes in predicting various clinical outcomes., Results: Significant differences between each group with regard to network metrics were observed. These included clustering coefficients and small-worldness. At the nodal level, several nodes with an abnormal degree centrality and nodal efficiency were detected. In rich club, pMCI and sMCI patients showed declined connectivity compared with HC. Significant differences were observed in the intra- and inter-module connections among the three groups. Particularly noteworthy was the irreplaceable role of the cerebellar module in network interactions., Conclusion: Our study revealed significant differences in network topological properties among sMCI, pMCI and HC patients, which were significantly correlated with cognitive function. Most notably, the cerebellar module played a crucial role in the overall network interactions. In conclusion, these findings could aid in the development of imaging markers used to expedite diagnosis and intervention prior to Alzheimer's disease onset., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Xue, Zheng, Ruan, Cao, Zhang, Qi, Yuan, Liang and Huang.)

Background: Previous studies have investigated the association between the haptoglobin rs72294371 polymorphism and coronary artery disease (CAD) risk, but the results are controversial and uncertain. Therefore, this study aimed to systematically review the literature on haptoglobin polymorphism and susceptibility to CAD., Methods: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Wanfang databases were used to identify relevant studies from their inception to April 2024. The pooled odds ratio (OR) with corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to assess the strength of the association. An OR value greater than one suggested an increased risk; otherwise, it suggested a protective risk., Results: A total of 15 studies comprising 8,632 individuals (2,988 cases and 5,644 controls) were included. In the current meta-analysis, a significant association between haptoglobin polymorphism and CAD was found under recessive model (OR:0.74, 95% CI:0.60-0.92), dominant model (OR: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.71-0.95), homozygote model (OR: 0.70, 95% CI: 0.53-0.92), and allelic genetic model (OR: 0.80, 95% CI: 0.69-0.94). In the analysis stratified by ethnicity, a statistically significant association was observed in Asians rather than Caucasian population., Conclusion: This meta-analysis indicates that haptoglobin polymorphism is associated with CAD susceptibility, especially in Asians., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Wang, Zhou, Su, Chai, Ruan and Wang.)

Background: Stable mild cognitive impairment (sMCI) and progressive mild cognitive impairment (pMCI) represent two distinct subtypes of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Early and effective diagnosis and accurate differentiation between sMCI and pMCI are crucial for administering targeted early intervention and preventing cognitive decline. This study investigated the intrinsic dysconnectivity patterns in sMCI and pMCI based on degree centrality (DC) and effective connectivity (EC) analyses, with the goal of uncovering shared and distinct neuroimaging mechanisms between subtypes., Methods: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging combined with DC analysis was used to explore the functional connectivity density in 42 patients with sMCI, 31 patients with pMCI, and 82 healthy control (HC) participants. Granger causality analysis was used to assess changes in EC based on the significant clusters found in DC. Furthermore, correlation analysis was conducted to examine the associations between altered DC/EC values and cognitive function. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed to determine the accuracy of abnormal DC and EC values in distinguishing sMCI from pMCI., Results: Compared with the HC group, both pMCI and sMCI groups exhibited increased DC in the left inferior temporal gyrus (ITG), left posterior cerebellum lobe (CPL), and right cerebellum anterior lobe (CAL), along with decreased DC in the left medial frontal gyrus. Moreover, the sMCI group displayed reduced EC from the right CAL to bilateral CPL, left superior temporal gyrus, and bilateral caudate compared with HC. pMCI demonstrated elevated EC from the right CAL to left ITG, which was linked to episodic memory and executive function. Notably, the EC from the right CAL to the right ITG effectively distinguished sMCI from pMCI, with sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 0.5806, 0.9512, and 0.828, respectively., Conclusion: This study uncovered shared and distinct alterations in DC and EC between sMCI and pMCI, highlighting their involvement in cognitive function. Of particular significance are the unidirectional EC disruptions from the cerebellum to the temporal lobe, which serve as a discriminating factor between sMCI and pMCI and provide a new perspective for understanding the temporal-cerebellum. These findings offer novel insights into the neural circuit mechanisms involving the temporal-cerebellum connection in MCI., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Xue, Zheng, Ruan, Guo and Hu.)

Background: Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a genetic progressive neuromuscular disease. Nusinersen is the first disease modifying drug approved to treat patients with SMA. Our study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of nusinersen treatment on motor function in children with SMA., Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on the data of 52 genetically confirmed SMA patients from November 2020 to September 2023. Motor function was assessed based on standardized scales from baseline to 14 months of follow-up., Results: Of patients in this study, the majority had SMA type 2 (40/52, 76.9%), 5 (9.6%) and 7 (13.5%) patients had SMA types 1 and 3, respectively. The median disease duration was 11 months (range 0-52), and the median age at initiation of treatment was 44.5 months (range 5-192). Motor function of all the patients with SMA improved from baseline to 14 months of follow-up. Mean increases of 4.6-point ( p  = 0.173), 4.7-point ( p  = 0.021) and 2.7-point ( p  = 0.013) were observed from baseline to 14 months of follow-up for the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Infant Test of Neuromuscular Disorders scores, the Hammersmith Functional Motor Scale Expanded (HFMSE) and the Revised Upper Limb Module (RULM), respectively. Increased disease duration and age of treatment initiation were negatively correlated with the changes in HFMSE scores ( r  = -0.567, p  = 0.043; r  = -0.771 and p  = 0.002, respectively). Similar results were observed for the RULM scores ( r  = -0.714, p  = 0.014; r  = -0.638 and p  = 0.035, respectively)., Conclusion: Our study suggested that 14 months of treatment with nusinersen was effective and improved the motor function of children with SMA types 1, 2, or 3. In addition, disease duration and age at treatment initiation were negatively correlated with treatment outcome in the patients., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Chen, Yang, Huang, Feng, Zhao, Huang, Liang, Zhang and Ruan.)

Light/dark (L/D) cycle plays a crucial role in controlling the production and quality of vegetables. However, the mechanism of L/D cycle on vegetable growth and quality is scarce studied. To investigate the impact of L/D cycle on lettuce growth and quality, we designed three diel scenarios, including 16 hours of light and 8 hours of darkness (L16/D8), 12 hours of light and 6 hours of darkness (L12/D6), and 8 hours of light and 4 hours of darkness (L8/D4). By phenotypic analysis, we found that lettuce grew taller under the L8/D4 scenario than under L16/D8 light cycle scenarios. The physiological indexes showed that the lettuce leaves grown in the L8/D4 scenario exhibited greater enhancements in the levels of soluble protein, soluble sugar, and carotenoid content compared to the other scenarios. By comparing the expression levels under different diel scenarios (L16/D8 vs L12/D6, L16/D8 vs L8/D4, and L12/D6 vs L8/D4), we identified 7,209 differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Additionally, 3 gene modules that were closely related to L/D cycle of lettuce were selected by WGCNA analysis. The eigengenes of three gene modules were enriched in plant hormone signal transduction, sphingolipid metabolism, and nucleocytoplasmic transport pathways. Through network analysis, we identified six hub genes (CIP1, SCL34, ROPGEF1, ACD6, CcmB, and Rps4) in the three gene modules, which were dominant in plant circadian rhythms and greatly affected lettuce growth. qRT-PCR analysis confirmed the diurnal response patterns of the 6 hub genes in different treatments were significant. This study intensively enhanced our comprehension of the L/D cycle in the growth morphology, nutritional quality, and metabolic pathways of lettuce., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Dai, Tan, Ye, Chen, Zhang, Ruan, Ma and Kong.)

Background: Drawing on the principles of wrist-ankle acupuncture (WAA), our research team has developed a portable device for WAA point compression, termed the acupressure wrist-ankle strap (AWA). The current study aims to evaluate the efficacy of the AWA in alleviating pain associated with primary dysmenorrhea., Methods: A single-blind, randomized clinical trial was conducted from April 1, 2019, to December 31, 2019. 78 participants with primary dysmenorrhea were recruited from Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. All participants were treated on the first day of menstruation for 30 min. Participants in the AWA group used the AWA, the internal side of which is equipped with a tip compression component, while participants in the non-acupressure wrist-ankle acupuncture(NAWA)group used the NAWA, with the inside tip pressing parts removed. The main outcome was the difference in visual analogue scale (VAS) score between baseline and 30 minutes after randomization., Results: A total of 78 participants aged 18 to 30 years were included in the intention-to-treat analyses. The VAS scores (mean [standard deviation]) in the AWA group were significantly lower than those in the NAWA group at each time point of intervention (5 minutes: 95% CI, [-1.27 to -0.68], p < 0.001; 10 minutes: 95% CI, [-2.34 to -1.51], p < 0.001; 30 minutes: 95% CI, [-3.74 to -2.72], p < 0.001). In the AWA group, 16 participants reported "obvious relief" of dysmenorrhea pain while 23 did not; the average onset time of analgesia they reported were (21.50 ± 3.65) min, while no subjects in NAWA group reported obvious pain relief. The pain threshold (mean [standard deviation]) at SP9 of both sides in AWA group decreased significantly after intervention that in NAWA group (Left: 95% CI, [-5.02 to -1.81], p < 0.001; Right: 95% CI, [-7.67 to -4.24], p < 0.001). There was no significant change in the temperature at CV4 in either group (95% CI, [-0.63 to -0.66], p = 0.970)., Conclusion: This trial substantiates our hypothesis that the AWA provides immediate analgesic effects. The AWA represents an effective and safe non-invasive physical therapy option, which patients can self-administer to alleviate abdominal pain., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Zhai, Wang, Ruan, Liu, Ma, Fang and Zhou.)

Introduction: Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a respiratory immune system disorder characterized by dysregulation of immune responses. Within the context of AR, gut microbiota and its metabolites have been identified as contributors to immune modulation. These microorganisms intricately connect the respiratory and gut immune systems, forming what is commonly referred to as the gut-lung axis. Xiaoqinglong Decoction (XQLD), a traditional Chinese herbal remedy, is widely utilized in traditional Chinese medicine for the clinical treatment of AR. In this study, it is hypothesized that the restoration of symbiotic microbiota balance within the gut-lung axis plays a pivotal role in supporting the superior long-term efficacy of XQLD in AR therapy. Therefore, the primary objective of this research is to investigate the impact of XQLD on the composition and functionality of the gut microbiota in a murine model of AR., Methods: An ovalbumin-sensitized mouse model to simulate AR was utilized, the improvement of AR symptoms after medication was investigated, and high-throughput sequencing was employed to analyze the gut microbiota composition., Results: XQLD exhibited substantial therapeutic effects in AR mice, notably characterized by a significant reduction in allergic inflammatory responses, considerable alleviation of nasal symptoms, and the restoration of normal nasal function. Additionally, following XQLD treatment, the disrupted gut microbiota in AR mice displayed a tendency toward restoration, showing significant differences compared to the Western medicine (loratadine) group., Discussion: This results revealed that XQLD may enhance AR allergic inflammatory responses through the regulation of intestinal microbiota dysbiosis in mice, thus influencing the dynamics of the gut-lung axis. The proposal of this mechanism provides a foundation for future research in this area., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Liu, Chen, Yun-Dang, Yan, He, Li, Ruan and Wu.)

Introduction: Acetyl-Coenzyme A Acyltransferase-1 ( ACAA1 ) is a peroxisomal acyltransferase involved in fatty acid metabolism. Current evidence does not precisely reveal the effect of the ACAA1 gene on pig growth performance., Methods: The present study assessed the mRNA expression levels of the ACAA1 gene in the heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney of 6-month-old Xiangsu pigs and in the longissimus dorsi muscle at different growth stages (newborn, 6 months and 12 months of age) using RT-qPCR. The relationship between single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of ACAA1 gene and growth traits in 6-month-old and 12-month-old Xiangsu pigs was investigated on 184 healthy Xiangsu pigs using Sanger sequencing., Results: The ACAA1 gene was expressed in heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney, and longissimus dorsi muscle of 6-month-old pigs, with the highest level of expression in the liver. ACAA1 gene expression in the longissimus dorsi muscle decreased with age ( p < 0.01). In addition, four SNPs were identified in the ACAA1 gene, including exon g.48810 A>G (rs343060194), intron g.51546 T>C (rs319197012), exon g.55035 T>C (rs333279910), and exon g.55088 C>T (rs322138947). Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium ( p > 0.05) was found for the four SNPs, and linkage disequilibrium (LD) analysis revealed a strong LD between g.55035 T>C (rs333279910) and g.55088 C>T (rs322138947) ( r 2 = 1.000). Association analysis showed that g.48810 A>G (rs343060194), g.51546 T>C (rs319197012), g.55035 T>C (rs333279910), and g.55088 C>T (rs322138947) varied in body weight, body length, body height, abdominal circumference, leg and hip circumference and living backfat thickness between 6-month-old and 12-month-old Xiangsu pigs., Conclusion: These findings strongly demonstrate that the ACAA1 gene can be exploited for marker-assisted selection to improve growth-related phenotypes in Xiangsu pigs and present new candidate genes for molecular pig breeding., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Xiao, Ruan, Huang, Dai, Xu and Xu.)

Soil microorganisms play an important role in soil ecosystems as the main decomposers of carbon and nitrogen. They have an indispensable impact on soil health, and any alterations in the levels of organic carbon and inorganic nitrogen can significantly affect soil chemical properties and microbial community composition. Previous studies have focused on the effects of carbon and nitrogen addition on a single type of soil, but the response of soil microorganisms to varying carbon and nitrogen inputs under different land soil use types have been relatively understudied, leaving a gap in our understanding of the key influencing factors. To address this gap, we conducted a study in the tropical regions of Hainan province, focusing on four distinct land use types: natural forest soil (NS), healthy banana soil (HS), diseased banana garden soil (DS), and paddy soil (PS). Within each of these environments, we implemented five treatments: CK, RS (rice straw), RSN (rice straw and NH 4 NO 3 ), RR (rice root), and RRN (rice root and NH 4 NO 3 ). Our aim was to investigate how soil bacteria response to changes in carbon and nitrogen inputs, and to assess their potential for biological nitrogen fixation. The results showed that the addition of rice straw increased the absorption and utilization of nitrate nitrogen by microorganisms. The addition of rice roots (RR) did not increase the absorption capacity of inorganic nitrogen by microorganisms, but increased the content of poorly soluble organic carbon. Most importantly, the addition of rice straw increased microbial respiration and the utilization efficiency of N 2 by microorganisms, and the further addition of ammonium nitrate increased microbial respiration intensity. With the change of soil type, the rice straw increases microbial nitrogen fixation, bacterial and nifH genes abundance. Meanwhile, microbial respiration intensity is an important factor influencing the differences in the structure of bacterial communities. The addition of inorganic nitrogen resulted in ammonium nitrogen accumulation, reduced microbial richness and diversity, consequently diminishing the soil microorganisms to resist the environment. Therefore, we believe that with the change of soil types, corresponding soil nutrient retention strategies should be devised and incorporated while reducing the application of ammonium nitrogen, thus ensuring healthy soil development., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 He, Li, Li, Fan, Ruan and Jia.)

Objectives: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) are considered as the spectrum of preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD), with abnormal brain network connectivity as the main neuroimaging feature. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been proven to be an effective non-invasive technique for addressing neuropsychiatric disorders. This study aims to explore the potential of targeted rTMS to regulate effective connectivity within the default mode network (DMN) and the executive control network (CEN), thereby improving cognitive function., Methods: This study included 86 healthy controls (HCs), 72 SCDs, and 86 aMCIs. Among them, 10 SCDs and 11 aMCIs received a 2-week rTMS course of 5-day, once-daily. Cross-sectional analysis with the spectral dynamic causal model (spDCM) was used to analyze the DMN and CEN effective connectivity patterns of the three groups. Afterwards, longitudinal analysis was conducted on the changes in effective connectivity patterns and cognitive function before and after rTMS for SCD and aMCI, and the correlation between them was analyzed., Results: Cross-sectional analysis showed different effective connectivity patterns in the DMN and CEN among the three groups. Longitudinal analysis showed that the effective connectivity pattern of the SCD had changed, accompanied by improvements in episodic memory. Correlation analysis indicated a negative relationship between effective connectivity from the left angular gyrus (ANG) to the anterior cingulate gyrus and the ANG.R to the right middle frontal gyrus, with visuospatial and executive function, respectively. In patients with aMCI, episodic memory and executive function improved, while the effective connectivity pattern remained unchanged., Conclusion: This study demonstrates that PCUN-targeted rTMS in SCD regulates the abnormal effective connectivity patterns in DMN and CEN, thereby improving cognition function. Conversely, in aMCI, the mechanism of improvement may differ. Our findings further suggest that rTMS is more effective in preventing or delaying disease progression in the earlier stages of the AD spectrum., Clinical Trial Registration: http://www.chictr.org.cn, ChiCTR2000034533., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Liang, Xue, Zheng, Yuan, Qi, Ruan, Chen, Song, Wu, Lu, Xiao and Chen.)

Wheat lodging is a serious problem affecting grain yield, plant health, and grain quality. Addressing the lodging issue in wheat is a desirable task in breeding programs. Precise detection of lodging levels during wheat screening can aid in selecting lines with resistance to lodging. Traditional approaches to phenotype lodging rely on manual data collection from field plots, which are slow and laborious, and can introduce errors and bias. This paper presents a framework called 'LodgeNet,' that facilitates wheat lodging detection. Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Deep Learning (DL), LodgeNet improves traditional methods of detecting lodging with more precision and efficiency. Using a dataset of 2000 multi-spectral images of wheat plots, we have developed a novel image registration technique that aligns the different bands of multi-spectral images. This approach allows the creation of comprehensive RGB images, enhancing the detection and classification of wheat lodging. We have employed advanced image enhancement techniques to improve image quality, highlighting the important features of wheat lodging detection. We combined three color enhancement transformations into two presets for image refinement. The first preset, 'Haze & Gamma Adjustment,' minimize atmospheric haze and adjusts the gamma, while the second, 'Stretching Contrast Limits,' extends the contrast of the RGB image by calculating and applying the upper and lower limits of each band. LodgeNet, which relies on the state-of-the-art YOLOv8 deep learning algorithm, could detect and classify wheat lodging severity levels ranging from no lodging (Class 1) to severe lodging (Class 9). The results show the mean Average Precision (mAP) of 0.952% @0.5 and 0.641% @0.50-0.95 in classifying wheat lodging severity levels. LodgeNet promises an efficient and automated high-throughput solution for real-time crop monitoring of wheat lodging severity levels in the field., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Nisar Ali, Ahmed Mohammed, Abdul Bais, and His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada for the contribution of Jatinder S. Sangha, Yuefeng Ruan, and Richard D. Cuthbert.)

Objectives: The aim of our study was to investigate the impact of long-term exposure to heavy metals on the microbiome of the buccal mucosa, to unveil the link between environmental contamination and the oral microbial ecosystem, and to comprehend its potential health implications., Methods: Subjects were divided into two groups: the exposure group and the control group. We collected samples of buccal mucosa, soil, and blood, and conducted microbial diversity analysis on both groups of oral samples using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The concentrations of heavy metals in blood and soil samples were also determined. Additionally, microbial networks were constructed for the purpose of topological analysis., Results: Due to long-term exposure to heavy metals, the relative abundance of Rhodococcus , Delftia , Fusobacterium , and Peptostreptococcus increased, while the abundance of Streptococcus , Gemella , Prevotella , Granulicatella , and Porphyromonas decreased. The concentrations of heavy metals in the blood (Pb, Cd, Hg, and Mo) were associated with the growth of Rhodococcus , Delftia , Porphyromonas , and Gemella . In addition, the relative abundances of some pathogenic bacteria, such as Streptococcus anginosus , S. gordonii , and S. mutans , were found to be enriched in the exposure group. Compared to the exposure group network, the control group network had a greater number of nodes, modules, interactive species, and keystone taxa. Module hubs and connectors in the control group converted into peripherals in the exposure group, indicating that keystone taxa changed. Metals in the blood (Pb, Cd, Hg, and Mo) were drivers of the microbial network of the buccal mucosa, which can have adverse effects on the network, thus providing conditions for the occurrence of certain diseases., Conclusion: Long-term exposure to multiple metals perturbs normal bacterial communities in the buccal mucosa of residents in contaminated areas. This exposure reduces the complexity and stability of the microbial network and increases the risk of developing various diseases., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Pei, Feng, Zhang, Liu, Li, Zheng, Liu, Luo, Ruan, Li, Hu, Niu and Tian.)

Durum wheat is more susceptible to Fusarium head blight (FHB) than other types or classes of wheat. The disease is one of the most devastating in wheat; it reduces yield and end-use quality and contaminates the grain with fungal mycotoxins such as deoxynivalenol (DON). A panel of 265 Canadian and European durum wheat cultivars, as well as breeding and experimental lines, were tested in artificially inoculated field environments (2019-2022, inclusive) and two greenhouse trials (2019 and 2020). The trials were assessed for FHB severity and incidence, visual rating index, Fusarium -damaged kernels, DON accumulation, anthesis or heading date, maturity date, and plant height. In addition, yellow pigment and protein content were analyzed for the 2020 field season. To capture loci underlying FHB resistance and related traits, GWAS was performed using single-locus and several multi-locus models, employing 13,504 SNPs. Thirty-one QTL significantly associated with one or more FHB-related traits were identified, of which nine were consistent across environments and associated with multiple FHB-related traits. Although many of the QTL were identified in regions previously reported to affect FHB, the QTL QFhb-3B.2 , associated with FHB severity, incidence, and DON accumulation, appears to be novel. We developed KASP markers for six FHB-associated QTL that were consistently detected across multiple environments and validated them on the Global Durum Panel (GDP). Analysis of allelic diversity and the frequencies of these revealed that the lines in the GDP harbor between zero and six resistance alleles. This study provides a comprehensive assessment of the genetic basis of FHB resistance and DON accumulation in durum wheat. Accessions with multiple favorable alleles were identified and will be useful genetic resources to improve FHB resistance in durum breeding programs through marker-assisted recurrent selection and gene stacking., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Haile, Sertse, N’Diaye, Klymiuk, Wiebe, Ruan, Chawla, Henriquez, Wang, Kutcher, Steiner, Buerstmayr and Pozniak.)

A two-year field trial was conducted to investigate the effects of partial substitution of chemical fertilizer (CF) by Trichoderma biofertilizer (TF) on nitrogen (N) use efficiency and associated mechanisms in wolfberry ( Lycium chinense ) in coastal saline land. As with plant biomass and fruit yield, apparent N use efficiency and plant N accumulation were also higher with TF plus 75% CF than 100% CF, indicating that TF substitution promoted plant growth and N uptake. As a reason, TF substitution stabilized soil N supply by mitigating steep deceases in soil NH 4 + -N and NO 3 - N concentrations in the second half of growing seasons. TF substitution also increased carbon (C) fixation according to higher photosynthetic rate (Pn) and stable 13 C abundance with TF plus 75% CF than 100% CF. Importantly, leaf N accumulation significantly and positively related with Pn, biomass, and fruit yield, and structural equation modeling also confirmed the importance of the causal relation of N accumulation coupled with C fixation for biomass and yield formation. Consequently, physiological and agronomical N use efficiencies were significantly higher with TF plus 75% CF than 100% CF. Overall, partial substitution of CF by TF improved N use efficiency in wolfberry in coastal saline land by stabilizing soil N supply and coupling N accumulation with C fixation., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Yan, Mei, Ruan, Yu, Su, Zhi, Li and Sun.)

Bacterial wilt disease caused by Ralstonia solanacearum is a widespread, severe plant disease. Tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ), one of the most important vegetable crops worldwide, is particularly susceptible to this disease. Biological control offers numerous advantages, making it a highly favorable approach for managing bacterial wilt. In this study, the results demonstrate that treatment with the biological control strain Bacillus subtilis R31 significantly reduced the incidence of tomato bacterial wilt. In addition, R31 directly inhibits the growth of R. solanacearum , and lipopeptides play an important role in this effect. The results also show that R31 can stably colonize the rhizosphere soil and root tissues of tomato plants for a long time, reduce the R. solanacearum population in the rhizosphere soil, and alter the microbial community that interacts with R. solanacearum . This study provides an important theoretical basis for elucidating the mechanism of B. subtilis as a biological control agent against bacterial wilt and lays the foundation for the optimization and promotion of other agents such as R31., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Sun, Su, Meng, Zhang, Zheng, Miao, Qin, Ruan, Wu, Xiong, Yan, Dong, Cheng, Shao and Yu.)

Introduction: The husk tightness (HTI) in maize plays a crucial role in regulating the water content of ears during the maturity stage, thereby influencing the quality of mechanical grain harvesting in China. Genomic selection (GS), which employs molecular markers, offers a promising approach for identifying and selecting inbred lines with the desired HTI trait in maize breeding. However, the effectiveness of GS is contingent upon various factors, including the genetic architecture of breeding populations, sequencing platforms, and statistical models., Methods: An association panel of maize inbred lines was grown across three sites over two years, divided into four subgroups. GS analysis for HTI prediction was performed using marker data from three sequencing platforms and six marker densities with six statistical methods., Results: The findings indicate that a loosely attached husk can aid in the dissipation of water from kernels in temperate maize germplasms across most environments but not nessarily for tropical-origin maize. Considering the balance between GS prediction accuracy and breeding cost, the optimal prediction strategy is the rrBLUP model, the 50K sequencing platform, a 30% proportion of the test population, and a marker density of r2=0.1. Additionally, selecting a specific SS subgroup for sampling the testing set significantly enhances the predictive capacity for husk tightness., Discussion: The determination of the optimal GS prediction strategy for HTI provides an economically feasible reference for the practice of molecular breeding. It also serves as a reference method for GS breeding of other agronomic traits., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Liu, Ao, Lu, Zheng, Zhu, Ruan, Guan, Zhang and Cui.)

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a highly destructive fungal disease of wheat to which host resistance is quantitatively inherited and largely influenced by the environment. Resistance to FHB has been associated with taller height and later maturity; however, a further understanding of these relationships is needed. An association mapping panel (AMP) of 192 predominantly Canadian spring wheat was genotyped with the wheat 90K single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array. The AMP was assessed for FHB incidence (INC), severity (SEV) and index (IND), days to anthesis (DTA), and plant height (PLHT) between 2015 and 2017 at three Canadian FHB-inoculated nurseries. Seven multi-environment trial (MET) datasets were deployed in a genome-wide association study (GWAS) using a single-locus mixed linear model (MLM) and a multi-locus random SNP-effect mixed linear model (mrMLM). MLM detected four quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) for INC on chromosomes 2D and 3D and for SEV and IND on chromosome 3B. Further, mrMLM identified 291 QTNs: 50 (INC), 72 (SEV), 90 (IND), 41 (DTA), and 38 (PLHT). At two or more environments, 17 QTNs for FHB, DTA, and PLHT were detected. Of these 17, 12 QTNs were pleiotropic for FHB traits, DTA, and PLHT on chromosomes 1A, 1D, 2D, 3B, 5A, 6B, 7A, and 7B; two QTNs for DTA were detected on chromosomes 1B and 7A; and three PLHT QTNs were located on chromosomes 4B and 6B. The 1B DTA QTN and the three pleiotropic QTNs on chromosomes 1A, 3B, and 6B are potentially identical to corresponding quantitative trait loci (QTLs) in durum wheat. Further, the 3B pleiotropic QTN for FHB INC, SEV, and IND co-locates with TraesCS3B02G024900 within the Fhb1 region on chromosome 3B and is ~3 Mb from a cloned Fhb1 candidate gene TaHRC . While the PLHT QTN on chromosome 6B is putatively novel, the 1B DTA QTN co-locates with a disease resistance protein located ~10 Mb from a Flowering Locus T1-like gene TaFT3-B1 , and the 7A DTA QTN is ~5 Mb away from a maturity QTL QMat.dms-7A.3 of another study. GWAS and QTN candidate genes enabled the characterization of FHB resistance in relation to DTA and PLHT. This approach should eventually generate additional and reliable trait-specific markers for breeding selection, in addition to providing useful information for FHB trait discovery., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Wentao Zhang, Kerry Boyle, Pierre Fobert and His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada for the contribution of Adrian L. Cabral, Yuefeng Ruan, Richard D. Cuthbert, Lin Li, Samia Berraies, Maria A. Henriquez, Andrew Burt, Santosh Kumar, Isabelle Piche, Firdissa E. Bokore, Brad Meyer, Jatinder Sangha, Ron E. Knox.)

Establishing the relationship between a limited number of samples and segmented objects in diverse scenarios is the primary challenge in few-shot segmentation. However, many previous works overlooked the crucial support-query set interaction and the deeper information that needs to be explored. This oversight can lead to model failure when confronted with complex scenarios, such as ambiguous boundaries. To solve this problem, a duplex network that utilizes the suppression and focus concept is proposed to effectively suppress the background and focus on the foreground. Our network includes dynamic convolution to enhance the support-query interaction and a prototype match structure to fully extract information from support and query. The proposed model is called dynamic prototype mixture convolutional networks (DPMC). To minimize the impact of redundant information, we have incorporated a hybrid attentional module called double-layer attention augmented convolutional module (DAAConv) into DPMC. This module enables the network to concentrate more on foreground information. Our experiments on PASCAL-5i and COCO-20i datasets suggested that DPMC and DAAConv outperform traditional prototype-based methods by up to 5-8% on average., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Zeng, Yang, Luo and Ruan.)

In recent years, rice seedling raising factories have gradually been promoted in China. The seedlings bred in the factory need to be selected manually and then transplanted to the field. Growth-related traits such as height and biomass are important indicators for quantifying the growth of rice seedlings. Nowadays, the development of image-based plant phenotyping has received increasing attention, however, there is still room for improvement in plant phenotyping methods to meet the demand for rapid, robust and low-cost extraction of phenotypic measurements from images in environmentally-controlled plant factories. In this study, a method based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and digital images was applied to estimate the growth of rice seedlings in a controlled environment. Specifically, an end-to-end framework consisting of hybrid CNNs took color images, scaling factor and image acquisition distance as input and directly predicted the shoot height (SH) and shoot fresh weight (SFW) after image segmentation. The results on the rice seedlings dataset collected by different optical sensors demonstrated that the proposed model outperformed compared random forest (RF) and regression CNN models (RCNN). The model achieved R 2 values of 0.980 and 0.717, and normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) values of 2.64% and 17.23%, respectively. The hybrid CNNs method can learn the relationship between digital images and seedling growth traits, promising to provide a convenient and flexible estimation tool for the non-destructive monitoring of seedling growth in controlled environments., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Ye, Tan, Dai, Lin, Chen, Nie, Ruan and Kong.)

Objective: This study examined the moderating effect of overall social support and the different types of social support on cognitive functioning in depressed older adults. We also investigated whether the moderating effect varied according to age., Methods: A total of 2,500 older adults (≥60 years old) from Shanghai, China were enrolled using a multistage cluster sampling method. Weighted linear regression and multiple linear regression was utilized to analyze the moderating effect of social support on the relationship between depressive symptoms and cognitive function and to explore its differences in those aged 60-69, 70-79, and 80 years and above., Results: After adjusting for covariates, the results indicated that overall social support (β = 0.091, p  = 0.043) and support utilization (β = 0.213, p  < 0.001) moderated the relationship between depressive symptoms and cognitive function. Support utilization reduced the possibility of the cognitive decline in depressed older adults aged 60-69 years (β = 0.310, p   < 0.001) and 80 years and above (β = 0.199, p   < 0.001), while objective support increased the possibility of cognitive decline in depressed older people aged 70-79 years (β = -0.189, p   < 0.001)., Conclusion: Our findings highlight the buffering effects of support utilization on cognitive decline in depressed older adults. We suggest that age-specific measures should be taken when providing social support to depressed older adults in order to reduce the deterioration of cognitive function., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Jing, Wang, Peng, Wang, Chen, Liu, Wang, Yan, Yang, Wang, Sun, Ruan and Wang.)

Fusarium head blight (FHB) has rapidly become a major challenge to successful wheat production and competitive end-use quality in western Canada. Continuous effort is required to develop germplasm with improved FHB resistance and understand how to incorporate the material into crossing schemes for marker-assisted selection and genomic selection. The aim of this study was to map quantitative trait loci (QTL) responsible for the expression of FHB resistance in two adapted cultivars and to evaluate their co-localization with plant height, days to maturity, days to heading, and awnedness. A large doubled haploid population of 775 lines developed from cultivars Carberry and AC Cadillac was assessed for FHB incidence and severity in nurseries near Portage la Prairie, Brandon, and Morden in different years, and for plant height, awnedness, days to heading, and days to maturity near Swift Current. An initial linkage map using a subset of 261 lines was constructed using 634 polymorphic DArT and SSR markers. QTL analysis revealed five resistance QTL on chromosomes 2A, 3B (two loci), 4B, and 5A. A second genetic map with increased marker density was constructed using the Infinium iSelect 90k SNP wheat array in addition to the previous DArT and SSR markers, which revealed two additional QTL on 6A and 6D. The complete population was genotyped, and a total of 6,806 Infinium iSelect 90k SNP polymorphic markers were used to identify 17 putative resistance QTL on 14 different chromosomes. As with the smaller population size and fewer markers, large-effect QTL were detected on 3B, 4B, and 5A that were consistently expressed across environments. FHB resistance QTL were co-localized with plant height QTL on chromosomes 4B, 6D, and 7D; days to heading on 2B, 3A, 4A, 4B, and 5A; and maturity on 3A, 4B, and 7D. A major QTL for awnedness was identified as being associated with FHB resistance on chromosome 5A. Nine small-effect QTL were not associated with any of the agronomic traits, whereas 13 QTL that were associated with agronomic traits did not co-localize with any of the FHB traits. There is an opportunity to select for improved FHB resistance within adapted cultivars by using markers associated with complementary QTL., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (© 2023 Arti Singh, Ron DePauw, Curtis J. Pozniak, Amidou N’Diaye and His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada for the contribution of Samia Berraies, Richard D. Cuthbert, Ron E. Knox, Yuefeng Ruan, Firdissa E. Bokore, Maria Antonia Henriquez, Santosh Kumar, Andrew James Burt, Brad Meyer.)

Introduction: Drought stress is one of the most serious abiotic stresses leading to crop yield reduction. Due to the wide range of planting areas, the production of maize is particularly affected by global drought stress. The cultivation of drought-resistant maize varieties can achieve relatively high, stable yield in arid and semi-arid zones and in the erratic rainfall or occasional drought areas. Therefore, to a great degree, the adverse impact of drought on maize yield can be mitigated by developing drought-resistant or -tolerant varieties. However, the efficacy of traditional breeding solely relying on phenotypic selection is not adequate for the need of maize drought-resistant varieties. Revealing the genetic basis enables to guide the genetic improvement of maize drought tolerance., Methods: We utilized a maize association panel of 379 inbred lines with tropical, subtropical and temperate backgrounds to analyze the genetic structure of maize drought tolerance at seedling stage. We obtained the high quality 7837 SNPs from DArT's and 91,003 SNPs from GBS, and a resultant combination of 97,862 SNPs of GBS with DArT's. The maize population presented the lower her-itabilities of the seedling emergence rate (ER), seedling plant height (SPH) and grain yield (GY) under field drought conditions., Results: GWAS analysis by MLM and BLINK models with the phenotypic data and 97862 SNPs revealed 15 variants that were significantly independent related to drought-resistant traits at the seedling stage above the threshold of P < 1.02 × 10-5. We found 15 candidate genes for drought resistance at the seedling stage that may involve in (1) metabolism ( Zm00001d012176 , Zm00001d012101 , Zm00001d009488 ); (2) programmed cell death ( Zm00001d053952 ); (3) transcriptional regulation ( Zm00001d037771 , Zm00001d053859 , Zm00001d031861 , Zm00001d038930 , Zm00001d049400 , Zm00001d045128 and Zm00001d043036 ); (4) autophagy ( Zm00001d028417 ); and (5) cell growth and development ( Zm00001d017495 ). The most of them in B73 maize line were shown to change the expression pattern in response to drought stress. These results provide useful information for understanding the genetic basis of drought stress tolerance of maize at seedling stage., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Chen, Dang, Liu, Ji, Zheng, Zhao, Dong, Li, Guan, Zhang and Ruan.)

The Canada Western Red Spring wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars AAC Concord, AAC Prevail, CDC Hughes, Lillian, Glenlea, and elite line BW961 express a spectrum of resistance to leaf rust caused by Puccinia triticina Eriks. This study aimed to identify and map the leaf rust resistance of the cultivars using three doubled haploid populations, AAC Prevail/BW961 (PB), CDC Hughes/AAC Concord (HC), and Lillian/Glenlea (LG). The populations were evaluated for seedling resistance in the greenhouse and adult plant disease response in the field at Morden, MB for 3 years and genotyped with the 90K wheat Infinium iSelect SNP array. Genetic maps were constructed to perform QTL analysis on the seedling and field leaf rust data. A total of three field leaf rust resistance QTL segregated in the PB population, five in the HC, and six in the LG population. In the PB population, BW961 contributed two QTL on chromosomes 2DS and 7DS, and AAC Prevail contributed a QTL on 4AL consistent across trials. Of the five QTL in HC, AAC Concord contributed two QTL on 4AL and 7AL consistent across trials and a QTL on 3DL.1 that provided seedling resistance only. CDC Hughes contributed two QTL on 1DS and 3DL.2. Lillian contributed four QTL significant in at least two of the three trials on 2BS, 4AL, 5AL, and 7AL, and Glenlea two QTL on 4BL and 7BL. The 1DS QTL from CDC Hughes, the 2DS from BW961, the 4AL from the AAC Prevail, AAC Concord, and Lillian, and the 7AL from AAC Concord and Lillian conferred seedling leaf rust resistance. The QTL on 4AL corresponded with Lr30 and was the same across cultivars AAC Prevail, AAC Concord, and Lillian, whereas the 7AL corresponding with LrCen was coincident between AAC Concord and Lillian. The 7DS and 2DS QTL in BW961 corresponded with Lr34 and Lr2a , respectively, and the 1DS QTL in CDC Hughes with Lr21 . The QTL identified on 5AL could represent a novel gene. The results of this study will widen our knowledge of leaf rust resistance genes in Canadian wheat and their utilization in resistance breeding., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Curtis J. Pozniak, Pierre Hucl and His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada for the contribution of Firdissa E. Bokore, Richard D. Cuthbert, Ron E. Knox, Colin W. Hiebert, Samia Berraies, Yuefeng Ruan, Brad Meyer, Brent D. McCallum.)

Introduction: Beijing is the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. Mega sporting events such as the Olympic Games, which attract mass audiences, benefit greatly from social media. This article examines how the news coverage and public opinion about the Beijing 2022 were articulated on social media in the lead up to the Beijing 2022., Method: We employed computational content analysis to examine 9,439 individual posts and 450 official media posts that appeared before the Beijing 2022 Olympics. We also used ROSTCM6 to investigate the sentiment of official media and public opinion toward Beijing 2022., Results: The results of this study reveal that members of public are more inclined to highlight certain aspects of Beijing 2022 based on their individual perspectives. Official media, whose work generally aligns with the government's interests. Through a sentiment analysis of these posts, we found strongly positive attitudes concerning Beijing 2022 among the Chinese public and the media., Discussion: Our results provide ample evidence of an overall relative convergence of positions between public opinion and news coverage about the Beijing 2022, despite their divergences. This study indicates that social media presents itself as a space for broader public statements, and empowers ordinary people to discuss China's social issues of concern. Meanwhile, official media represents the government's position, strategically framing Beijing 2022 as a landmark event in the new era of China., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Yang, Ruan and Zhang.)

Plant uptake of nitrogen is often associated with increased incidence of banana Fusarium wilt, a disease caused by the soil-borne fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense tropical race 4 ( Foc TR4). However, the nitrogen metabolic preferences of Foc TR4 pathogens remain unknown. In this study, we investigated the ecophysiological patterns of Foc TR4 grown on different combinations of organic and inorganic nitrogen. Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) and Rose Bengal Medium (RBM) were used as an organic nitrogen source, which was sequentially replaced with inorganic N (0, 50% or 90%) in the form 15 NH 4 NO 3 or NH 4 15 NO 3 to reveal preferential assimilation of ammonium or nitrate. The results showed that mycelium biomass and nitrogen content decreased significantly, while the carbon content and C:N ratio increased in Foc TR4 grown on media containing inorganic nitrogen sources. Mycelium biomass was negatively correlated with C:N ratio. Mycelium 15 N abundance increased significantly between the PDA50 + A50/RBM50 + A50 treatments (50% organic nitrogen+50% 15 NH 4 NO 3 ) and the PDA10 + A90/RBM10 + A90 treatments (10% organic nitrogen+90% 15 NH 4 NO 3 ). These results indicate that the higher C:N ratio reduced mycelium growth by reducing its biomass and diameter and showed that Foc TR4 preferred to use ammonium nitrogen to promote the growth. These findings suggest that treating banana crops with a combination of organic and inorganic (i.e., nitrate) nitrogen could be a better way to defend against Fusarium wilt of banana., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 He, Jia, Fan, Ruan, Liang, Ma and Li.)

Background and Objective: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by amyloid β (Aβ) aggregation and neuroinflammation. This study aimed to investigate the therapeutic effect of isoniazid (INH) against AD., Methods: The APP/PS1 transgenic mouse model of AD was adopted. The APP/PS1 mice received oral INH (45 mg/kg/d) for 14 days. The cognitive capability was assessed by the Morris Water Maze test. Amyloid plaques and Aβ levels were determined by immunohistochemistry and ELISA assay. The dendritic spines were analyzed by DiOlistic labeling. Immunofluorescence staining was used to observe the microglia and astrocytes., Results: The Morris Water Maze test suggested that INH administration can effectively attenuate the reference memory deficit and improve the working memory of the APP/PS1 mice compared to the untreated mice (all p  < 0.001). INH significantly decreased the Aβ plaques in the hippocampus and cortex and reduced the levels of Aβ 1-40 and Aβ 1-42 in the brain homogenates, cerebrospinal fluid, and serum (all p  < 0.001). INH also inhibited enzyme activities of β-site amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1, p  < 0.05) and monoamine oxidase B (Mao-b, p  < 0.01). INH significantly increased the protrusion density in the hippocampus ( p  < 0.01). Immunofluorescence staining revealed that INH significantly reduced the number of activated microglia and astrocytes around the Aβ plaques (both p  < 0.01)., Conclusion: Isoniazid administration effectively improved cognitive performance, cleared Aβ plaques, protected dendritic synapses, and reduced innate immune cells around the Aβ plaques, suggesting that INH could be a potential drug for AD treatment., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Chen, Guo, Ruan, Mai, Liao and Feng.)

Background and Objective: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia, with its pathology like beta-amyloid and phosphorylated tau beginning several years before the clinical onset. The aim is to identify genetic risk factors associated with the onset of AD., Methods: We collected three microarray data of post-mortem brains of AD patients and the healthy from the GEO database and screened differentially expressed genes between AD and healthy control. GO/KEGG analysis was applied to identify AD-related pathways. Then we distinguished differential expressed genes between symptomatic and asymptomatic AD. Feature importance with logistic regression analysis is adopted to identify the most critical genes with symptomatic AD., Results: Data was collected from three datasets, including 184 AD patients and 132 healthy controls. We found 66 genes to be differently expressed between AD and the control. The pathway enriched in the process of exocytosis, synapse, and metabolism and identified 19 candidate genes, four of which (VSNL1, RTN1, FGF12, and ENC1) are vital., Conclusion: VSNL1, RTN1, FGF12, and ENC1 may be the essential genes that progress asymptomatic AD to symptomatic AD. Moreover, they may serve as genetic risk factors to identify high-risk individuals showing an earlier onset of AD., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Liao, Luo, Ruan, Mai, Liu, Chen, Yang, Xuan and Liu.)

In recent years, researchers have begun to introduce photoplethysmography (PPG) signal into the field of gesture recognition to achieve human-computer interaction on wearable device. Unlike the signals used for traditional neural interface such as electromyography (EMG) and electroencephalograph (EEG), PPG signals are readily available in current commercial wearable devices, which makes it possible to realize practical gesture-based human-computer interaction applications. In the process of gesture execution, the signal collected by PPG sensor usually contains a lot of noise irrelevant to gesture pattern and not conducive to gesture recognition. Toward improving gesture recognition performance based on PPG signals, the main contribution of this study is that it explores the feasibility of using principal component analysis (PCA) decomposition algorithm to separate gesture pattern-related signals from noise, and then proposes a PPG signal processing scheme based on normalization and reconstruction of principal components. For 14 wrist and finger-related gestures, PPG data of three wavelengths of light (green, red, and infrared) are collected from 14 subjects in four motion states (sitting, walking, jogging, and running). The gesture recognition is carried out with Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier and K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) classifier. The experimental results verify that PCA decomposition can effectively separate gesture-pattern-related signals from irrelevant noise, and the proposed PCA-based PPG processing scheme can improve the average accuracies of gesture recognition by 2.35∼9.19%. In particular, the improvement is found to be more evident for finger-related (improved by 6.25∼12.13%) than wrist-related gestures (improved by 1.93∼5.25%). This study provides a novel idea for implementing high-precision PPG gesture recognition technology., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Ruan, Chen, Zhang and Chen.)

Cell wall proteins perform diverse cellular functions in response to abiotic and biotic stresses. To elucidate the possible mechanisms of salt-stress tolerance in tomato. The 30 d seedlings of two tomato genotypes with contrasting salt tolerances were transplanted to salt stress (200 mM NaCl) for three days, and then, the cell wall proteins of seedling roots were analyzed by isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ). There were 82 and 81 cell wall proteins that changed significantly in the salt-tolerant tomato IL8-3 and the salt-sensitive tomato M82, respectively. The proteins associated with signal transduction and alterations to cell wall polysaccharides were increased in both IL8-3 and M82 cells wall in response to salt stress. In addition, many different or even opposite metabolic changes occurred between IL8-3 and M82 in response to salt stress. The salt-tolerant tomato IL8-3 experienced not only significantly decreased in Na + accumulation but also an obviously enhanced in regulating redox balance and cell wall lignification in response to salt stress. Taken together, these results provide novel insight for further understanding the molecular mechanism of salt tolerance in tomato., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Chen, Shi, Li, Sun and Ruan.)

Introduction: Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a common complication after radical prostatectomy (RP), and it seriously affects the quality of life in patients and their partners. The primary trigger of postoperative ED is surgical injury to the cavernous nerves that control penile erection and run along the anterolateral aspect of the prostate. Despite the introduction and ongoing innovation of nerve-sparing techniques, a significant number of patients still suffer from moderate cavernous nerve injury (CNI), which is thought to be transient and reversible. Therefore, early postoperative penile rehabilitation therapy may salvage patients' erectile function by promoting cavernous nerve regeneration and preventing penile structural alterations. Aims: To present a comprehensive overview of the current molecular pathogenesis of CNI-induced ED, as well as novel therapeutic strategies and their potential mechanisms. Methods: A literature search was performed using PubMed. Search terms included erectile dysfunction , cavernous nerve injury , pathogenesis , pathway , and treatment . Results: The NOS/NO pathway, oxidative stress-related pathway, RhoA/ROCK pathway, transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), sonic hedgehog (Shh), and hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S) are involved in the molecular pathogenesis of CNI-induced ED. Multiple neurotrophins, including brain-derived nerve growth factor (BDNF), glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), and neurturin (NTN), were found to promote cavernous nerve regeneration. Emerging therapeutic approaches can be roughly summarized into four categories, namely small molecule and drug, stem cell-based therapy (SCT), micro-energy therapy and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy. Conclusion: These pathways collectively lead to the irreversible damage to the penile structure after CNI. The combined early rehabilitation strategies of promoting upstream nerve regeneration and recovering abnormal molecular signals of downstream penis are presumed to save patients' erectile function after RP. In future studies, the cross-talk between these molecular pathways needs to be further clarified, and the questions of how denervation injury induces the molecular alterations in the penis also need to be addressed., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Song, Hu, Song, Liu and Ruan.)

Brace roots are the main organ to support the above-ground part of maize plant. It involves in plant growth and development by water absorption and lodging resistance. The bracing root angle (BRA) and diameter (BRD) are important components of brace root traits. Illuminating the genetic basis of BRA and BRD will contribute the improvement for mechanized harvest and increasing production. A GWAS of BRA and BRD was conducted using an associated panel composed of 508 inbred lines of maize. The broad-sense heritability of BRA and BRD was estimated to be respectively 71% ± 0.19 and 52% ± 0.14. The phenotypic variation of BRA and BRD in the non-stiff stalk subgroup (NSS) and the stiff stalk subgroup (SS) subgroups are significantly higher than that in the tropical/subtropical subgroup (TST) subgroups. In addition, BRA and BRD are significantly positive with plant height (PH), ear length (EL), and kernel number per row (KNPR). GWAS revealed 27 candidate genes within the threshold of p < 1.84 × 10 -6 by both MLM and BLINK models. Among them, three genes, GRMZM2G174736 , GRMZM2G445169 and GRMZM2G479243 were involved in cell wall function, and GRMZM2G038073 encoded the NAC transcription factor family proteins. These results provide theoretical support for clarifying the genetic basis of brace roots traits., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Sun, Chen, Cui, Lin, Liu, Jin, Zhang, Gao, Cao and Ruan.)

Objective: Basic combat training (BCT) is a kind of necessary high-intensity training to help each military recruit convert into a qualified soldier. In China, both the physical fatigue and passive psychological state have been observed in new recruits during BCT. However, after same-intensity training, the degree of fatigue and passive mood vary among recruits. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the effect of BCT on mood state of recruits with different physical fitness levels from a perspective of fatigue., Materials and Methods: Before and after BCT, the degree of fatigue and mood state of participants were evaluated via the Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion Scale and Profile of Mood States Questionnaire immediately after 20 push-ups as RPE and POMS scores [total mood disturbance (TMD), passive mood (T tension , T anger , T fatigue , T depression , and T confusion ) and positive mood (T vigour and T esteem )]. The participants were divided into two groups according to the RPE score measured after BCT: (1) group 1: RPE score after BCT < 13 and (2) group 2: RPE score after BCT ≥ 13., Result: A total of 564 recruits were included (group 1: 456/564, 80.85%; group 2: 108/564, 19.15%). After BCT, in group 1, TMD (from 95.65 ± 17.89 to 87.52 ± 17.63) and passive mood T tension (from 4.46 ± 3.18 to 3.79 ± 3.14), T fatigue (from 4.94 ± 3.58 to 3.12 ± 3.04), T depression (from 2.86 ± 3.41 to 2.01 ± 2.75), T confusion (3.12 ± 2.72 to 2.42 ± 2.57) declined significantly (all within-group p < 0.001), but positive mood both increased significantly (T vigour : from 13.21 ± 4.59 to 15.44 ± 5.42, T esteem: from 9.18 ± 3.36 to 11.04 ± 3.67; both within-group p < 0.001); while in group 2, only T anger (from 4.27 ± 4.16 to 6.22 ± 5.94, within-group p = 0.001) and T esteem (from 8.36 ± 3.15 to 9.07 ± 3.67, within-group p = 0.031) increased significantly., Conclusion: BCT could alleviate passive mood and add to positive mood for recruits with better physical fitness, while had no ameliorative effects on or even deteriorate most of the passive mood for recruits with worse physical fitness., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Ruan, Song, Yin, Wang, Zou, Wang, Gu and Ling.)

Introduction: Dementia has become a public health priority and is irreversible. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), an intermediate state between normal cognition and dementia, is the prime time for early diagnosis and intervention. The activities of daily living of dementia patients are usually insufficient. Therefore, continuing to explore the risk factors of MCI, especially the influence of physical activity on MCI and its mechanism can enrich the relevant research fields in China., Materials and Methods: For this cross-sectional study, 2,518 adults aged 60 years or older in Xinzhuang, Minhang District, Shanghai were recruited between July 2019 and April 2019, using a multistage, cluster-sampling method. A binary unconditional logistic regression model was used with MCI status as the dependent variable. Different types of physical activity were separately included in the multifactor model to test their correlations. Sensitivity analysis was performed using BADL as a stratification factor. The mediating effect of depression between physical activity and MCI was examined using the Bootstrap method., Results: This research includes 271 (10.8%) MCI. Old age (odds ratio 2.967 [95%CI 2.063∼4.269]), having diabetes (1.816 [1.302∼2.534]), and depression (3.012 [2.209∼4.108]) were possible risk factors for MCI. High education level (0.722 [0.523∼0.999]), medium level of physical activity (0.459 [0.326∼0.645]), and high level of physical activity (0.396 [0.270∼0.580]) were possible protective factors. Medium (0.548 [0.396∼0.757]) and high levels (0.557 [0.366∼0.846]) of physical exercise and medium (0.433 [0.318∼0.590]) and high levels (0.487 [0.296∼0.801]) of household chores are possible protective factors of MCI and their significance remained in the mutually adjusted model. Sensitivity analysis showed that physical activity and household chores were possible protective factors in all strata ( P < 0.05). Physical exercise and work-related activities showed a protective effect in fully independent older adults, but the effect disappeared in those who cannot be fully independent. Depression played a partially mediating role with an indirect effect of 6.67%., Discussion: Overall, our results highlight that physical activity is a possible protective factor for MCI. Physical exercise and household chores have strong protective effects and future interventions could be targeted from this perspective. Depression plays a partially mediating role and more attention should be paid to the mental health of older adults., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Liu, Jiang, Peng, Wang, Chen, Li, Ruan, Sun, Yang, Yang, Yan, Wang and Wang.)

Background: Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) have a significantly higher risk of seizures than other individuals in an age-matched population, suggesting a close association between epilepsy and AD. We aimed to examine the effects of levetiracetam (LEV)-a drug for treating seizures-on learning and memory and the neuropathological features of AD., Methods: We crossbred APP23 mice with microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT) transgenic mice to generate APP23/MAPT mice. These mice were treated with different concentrations of LEV in the presence of kainic acid (KA) for 3 months., Results: Low doses of LEV alleviated the effects of KA on memory defects in APP23/MAPT mice. Mechanistic investigations showed that low concentrations of LEV decreased tau phosphorylation by reducing the activities of cyclin-dependent kinase 5 and glycogen synthase kinase 3α/β, thus rescuing neurons from synaptic dystrophy and apoptosis. Low doses of LEV inhibited the effects of KA (i.e., inducing neuroinflammation and impairing the autophagy of amyloid β-peptide), thus improving cognitive decline. High concentrations of LEV decreased the production and deposition of amyloid β-peptide (Aβ) by reducing the expression of β-site APP-cleaving enzyme 1 and presenilin 1. However, high concentrations of LEV also induced neuronal apoptosis, decreased movement ability in mice, and did not alleviate cognitive decline in AD mice., Conclusion: Our results support the hypothesis that aberrant network activity contributes to the synaptic and cognitive deficits in APP23/MAPT mice. A low concentration of LEV may help ameliorate abnormalities of AD; however, a high LEV concentration did not induce similar results., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Zheng, Zhang, Lv, Jin, Wu, Zhu and Ruan.)

Background: This study is used to analyze the genetic network of HIV sexual transmission in rural areas of Southwest China after expanding antiretroviral therapy (ART) and to investigate the factors associated with HIV sexual transmission through the genetic network., Materials and Methods: This was a longitudinal genetic network study in Guangxi, China. The baseline survey and follow-up study were conducted among patients with HIV in 2015, and among those newly diagnosed from 2016 to 2018, respectively. A generalized estimating equation model was employed to explore the factors associated with HIV transmission through the genetic linkage between newly diagnosed patients with HIV (2016-2018) and those at baseline (2015-2017), respectively., Results: Of 3,259 identified HIV patient sequences, 2,714 patients were at baseline, and 545 were newly diagnosed patients with HIV at follow-up. A total of 8,691 baseline objectives were observed by repeated measurement analysis. The prevention efficacy in HIV transmission for treated HIV patients was 33% [adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 0.67, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.48-0.93]. Stratified analyses indicated the prevention efficacy in HIV transmission for treated HIV patients with a viral load (VL) of <50 copies/ml and those treated for 4 years with a VL of <50 copies/ml to be 41 [AOR: 0.59, 95% CI: 0.43-0.82] and 65% [AOR: 0.35, 95% CI: 0.24-0.50], respectively. No significant reduction in HIV transmission occurred among treated HIV patients with VL missing or treated HIV patients on dropout. Some factors were associated with HIV transmission, including over 50 years old, men, Zhuang and other nationalities, with less than secondary schooling, working as a farmer, and heterosexual transmission., Conclusion: This study reveals the role of ART in reducing HIV transmission, and those older male farmers with less than secondary schooling are at high risk of HIV infection at a population level. Improvements to ART efficacy for patients with HIV and precision intervention on high-risk individuals during the expansion of ART are urgently required., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Chen, Chen, Li, Luo, Kang, Liang, Zhu, Lu, Zhu, Shen, Feng, Liao, Xing, Shao, Ruan and Lan.)

This study explored the effects of combined urea and 3,4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP) on several components critical to the soil system: net nitrification rates; communities of targeted ammonia oxidizers [ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB) and complete ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (comammox)]; non-targeted nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) and bacteria. We conducted the study in two contrasting soils (acidic and neutral) over the course of 28 days. Our results indicated that DMPP had higher inhibitory efficacy in the acidic soil (30.7%) compared to the neutral soil (12.1%). The abundance of AOB and Nitrospira -like NOB were positively associated with nitrate content in acidic soil. In neutral soil, these communities were joined by the abundance of AOA and Nitrobacter -like NOB in being positively associated with nitrate content. By blocking the growth of AOB in acidic soil-and the growth of both AOB and comammox in neutral soil-DMPP supported higher rates of AOA growth. Amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene revealed that urea and urea + DMPP treatments significantly increased the diversity indices of bacteria, including Chao 1, ACE, Shannon, and Simpson in the acidic soil but did not do so in the neutral soil. However, both urea and urea + DMPP treatments obviously altered the community structure of bacteria in both soils relative to the control treatment. This experiment comprehensively analyzed the effects of urea and nitrification inhibitor on functional guilds involved in the nitrification process and non-targeted bacteria, not just focus on targeted ammonia oxidizers., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Wang, Zhao, Yuan, Zhang, Chen, Ruan and Huang.)

For efficient mechanical harvesting, low grain moisture content at harvest time is essential. Dry-down rate (DR), which refers to the reduction in grain moisture content after the plants enter physiological maturity, is one of the main factors affecting the amount of moisture in the kernels. Dry-down rate is estimated using kernel moisture content at physiological maturity and at harvest time; however, measuring kernel water content at physiological maturity, which is sometimes referred as kernel water content at black layer formation (BWC), is time-consuming and resource-demanding. Therefore, inferring BWC from other correlated and easier to measure traits could improve the efficiency of breeding efforts for dry-down-related traits. In this study, multi-trait genomic prediction models were used to estimate genetic correlations between BWC and water content at harvest time (HWC) and flowering time (FT). The results show there is moderate-to-high genetic correlation between the traits (0.24-0.66), which supports the use of multi-trait genomic prediction models. To investigate genomic prediction strategies, several cross-validation scenarios representing possible implementations of genomic prediction were evaluated. The results indicate that, in most scenarios, the use of multi-trait genomic prediction models substantially increases prediction accuracy. Furthermore, the inclusion of historical records for correlated traits can improve prediction accuracy, even when the target trait is not measured on all the plots in the training set., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Ni, Anche, Ruan, Dang, Morales, Li, Liu, Wang and Robbins.)

Background: White matter hyperintensities (WMHs) and regional brain lobe atrophy coexist in the brain of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), but the association between them in patients with AD still lacks comprehensive investigation and solid imaging data support., Objective: We explored whether WMHs can promote the pathological process of AD by aggravating atrophy in specific brain regions and tried to explain the regional specificity of these relationships., Methods: A sample of 240 adults including 180 normal controls (NCs) and 80 cases with AD were drawn from the ADNI database. T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and T2-weighted fluid-attenuated MRI of the participants were downloaded and were analyzed using AccuBrain ® to generate the quantitative ratio of WMHs (WMHr, WMH volumes corrected by intracranial volume) and regional brain atrophy. We also divided WMHr into periventricular WMHr (PVWMHr) and deep WMHr (DWMHr) for the purpose of this study. The Cholinergic Pathways Hyperintensities Scale (CHIPS) scores were conducted by two evaluators. Independent t -test, Mann-Whitney U test, or χ 2 test were used to compare the demographic characteristics, and Spearman correlation coefficient values were used to determine the association between WMHs and different regions of brain atrophy., Results: Positive association between WMHr and quantitative medial temporal lobe atrophy (QMTA) ( r s = 0.281, p = 0.011), temporal lobe atrophy ( r s = 0.285, p = 0.011), and insular atrophy ( r s = 0.406, p < 0.001) was found in the AD group before Bonferroni correction. PVWMHr contributed to these correlations. By separately analyzing the relationship between PVWMHr and brain atrophy, we found that there were still positive correlations after correction in QMTA ( r s = 0.325, p = 0.003), temporal lobe atrophy ( r s = 0.298, p = 0.007), and insular atrophy ( r s = 0.429, p < 0.001) in AD group., Conclusion: WMH severity tends to be associated with regional brain atrophy in patients with AD, especially with medial temporal lobe, temporal lobe, and insular lobe atrophy. PVWMHs were devoted to these correlations., Competing Interests: LS is the director of BrainNow Medical Technology Limited. YL and LZ are now employed by BrainNow Medical Technology Limited. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Cao, Mai, Fang, Lei, Luo, Zhao, Liao, Yu, Xu, Ruan, Xiao, Mok, Shi, Liu and the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative.)

Seed germination is an important agronomic trait that affects crop yield and quality. Rapid and uniform seed germination traits are required in agricultural production. Although several genes are involved in seed germination and have been identified in Arabidopsis and rice, the genetic basis governing seed germination in maize remains unknown. Herein, we conducted a genome-wide association study to determine the genetic architecture of two germination traits, germination speed, and consistency, in a diverse panel. We genotyped 321 maize inbred populations with tropical, subtropical, or temperate origins using 1219401 single-nucleotide polymorphism markers. We identified 58 variants that were associated with the two traits, and 12 of these were shared between the two traits, indicating partial genetic similarity. Moreover, 36 candidate genes were involved in seed germination with functions including energy metabolism, signal transduction, and transcriptional regulation. We found that favorable variants had a greater effect on the tropical subpopulation than on the temperate. Accumulation of favorable variants shortened germination time and improved uniformity in maize inbred lines. These findings contribute significantly to understanding the genetic basis of maize seed germination and will contribute to the molecular breeding of maize seed germination., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Li, Liang, Liu, Zhang, Wang, Fan, Ruan, Zhang, Dong, Yue and Li.)

Background: Subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) surgery for Parkinson's disease (PD) is routinely performed at medical centers worldwide. However, it is debated whether general anesthesia (GA) or traditional local anesthetic (LA) is superior., Purpose: This study aims to compare the effects of LA and GA operation methods on clinical improvement in patients with PD, such as motor and non-motor symptoms, after STN-DBS surgery at our center., Method: A total of 157 patients with PD were retrospectively identified as having undergone surgery under LA ( n = 81) or GA ( n = 76) states. In this study, the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale Motor Score (UPDRS-III) in three states, levodopa-equivalent-daily-dose (LEDD), surgical duration, intraoperative microelectrode recording (iMER) signal length, postoperative intracranial volume, electrode implantation error, neuropsychological function, quality of life scores, and complication rates were collected and compared. All patients with PD were routinely followed up at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months postoperatively., Result: Overall improvement in UPDRS-III was demonstrated at postoperative follow-up, and there was no significant difference between the two groups in medication-off, stimulation-off state and medication-off, stimulation-on state. However, UPDRS-III scores in medication-on, stimulation-on state under GA was significantly lower than that in the LA group. During postoperative follow-up, LEDD in the LA group (6, 12, 18, and 24 months, postoperatively) was significantly lower than in the GA group. However, there were no significant differences at baseline or 1-month between the two groups. The GA group had a shorter surgical duration, lower intracranial volume, and longer iMER signal length than the LA group. However, there was no significant group difference in electrode implantation accuracy and complication rates. Additionally, the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA) was significantly lower in the GA group than the LA group at 1-month follow-up, but this difference disappeared at longer follow-up. Besides, there was no significant group difference in the 39-item Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39) scale scores., Conclusion: Although both groups showed overall motor function improvement without a significant postoperative difference, the GA group seemed superior in surgical duration, intracranial volume, and iMER signal length. As the accuracy of electrode implantation can be ensured by iMER monitoring, DBS with GA will become more widely accepted., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Lu, Chang, Li, Luo, Dong, Qiu, Zhang and Ruan.)

Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals are not easily camouflaged, portable, and noninvasive. It is widely used in emotion recognition. However, due to the existence of individual differences, there will be certain differences in the data distribution of EEG signals in the same emotional state of different subjects. To obtain a model that performs well in classifying new subjects, traditional emotion recognition approaches need to collect a large number of labeled data of new subjects, which is often unrealistic. In this study, a transfer discriminative dictionary pair learning (TDDPL) approach is proposed for across-subject EEG emotion classification. The TDDPL approach projects data from different subjects into the domain-invariant subspace, and builds a transfer dictionary pair learning based on the maximum mean discrepancy (MMD) strategy. In the subspace, TDDPL learns shared synthesis and analysis dictionaries to build a bridge of discriminative knowledge from source domain (SD) to target domain (TD). By minimizing the reconstruction error and the inter-class separation term for each sub-dictionary, the learned synthesis dictionary is discriminative and the learned low-rank coding is sparse. Finally, a discriminative classifier in the TD is constructed on the classifier parameter, analysis dictionary and projection matrix, without the calculation of coding coefficients. The effectiveness of the TDDPL approach is verified on SEED and SEED IV datasets., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Ruan, Du and Ni.)

With the development of information technology, more and more companies have taken the initiative to build virtual brand communities to strengthen the connection between brands and customers and create brand loyalty, but existing research lacks a clear explanation of how the customer community experience of virtual brand communities affects brand loyalty. In response to this question, this paper investigates the role and mechanism of different types of community experiences, namely information experience, entertainment experience and interactive experience, generated by customers' participation in community activities on brand loyalty based on the customer experience perspective. The findings show that different types of community experiences have a significant impact on brand loyalty, and which community identity is partially mediated in all of them. Further analysis for segmented populations in virtual communities revealed significant differences in the above mechanisms for members of different genders. The findings of this paper are important guidance for companies to manage virtual brand communities and create brand loyalty., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Huangfu, Ruan, Zhao, Wang and Zhou.)

Culture is the bloodline of the nation and the spiritual home of the people. Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) belongs to the field of culture, and the transmission of ICH is a kind of human-based cultural transmission, which is the shaping of people's morality, character, sentiment, will, ideals and beliefs, value orientation, humanistic cultivation, artistic taste, way of thinking, wisdom, and ability in the practice of production and life of various ethnic groups. Based on the status acquisition model, this study analyzed the human capital (HC), social capital (SC), and psychological capital (PC) of ICH bearers from three perspectives. In addition to the conventional socio-demographic factors such as gender, age, place of residence, and education level as control variables, status attainment was introduced as a dependent variable, and occupational identity, job satisfaction, and entrepreneurial ability were introduced as mediating variables to construct a conceptual model in the hope of exploring the multiple influencing factors of status attainment among ICH bearers. Interviews were used to gain, the feelings and knowledge of experts, scholars, and ICH bearers, to lay a solid qualitative research foundation for this study. A questionnaire survey was also conducted to obtain basic information and professional experiences of ICH bearers to provide real support for the research analysis and discussion. As per the results of this research, all the hypotheses were supported except, HC did not have any significant impact on JS. Furthermore, SC was not in a significant association with career identity. Moreover, career identity and status attainment did not have a significant relationship., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Zhao, Wang, Wang, Han, Ruan, Huangfu, Zhou and Zhou.)

Metaxylem vessels in maize brace roots are key tissue, and their number (MVN) affects plant water and inorganic salt transportation and lodging resistance. Dissecting the genetic basis of MVN in maize brace roots can help guide the genetic improvement of maize drought resistance and lodging resistance during late developmental stages. In this study, we used 508 inbred lines with tropical, subtropical, and temperate backgrounds to analyze the genetic architecture of MVN in maize brace roots. The phenotypic variation in MVN in brace roots was evaluated in three environments, which revealed broad natural variation and relative low levels of heritability ( h 2 = 0.42). Stiff-stalk lines with a temperate background tended to have higher MVNs than plants in other genetic backgrounds. MVN was significantly positively correlated with plant height, tassel maximum axis length, ear length, and kernel number per row, which indicates that MVN may affect plant morphological development and yield. In addition, MVN was extremely significantly negatively correlated with brace root radius, but significantly positively correlated with brace root angle (BRA), diameter, and number, thus suggesting that the morphological function of some brace root traits may be essentially determined by MVN. Association analysis of MVN in brace roots combined 1,253,814 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) using FarmCPU revealed a total of nine SNPs significantly associated with MVN at P < 7.96 × 10 -7 . Five candidate genes for MVN that may participate in secondary wall formation ( GRMZM2G168365 , GRMZM2G470499 , and GRMZM2G028982 ) and regulate flowering time ( GRMZM2G381691 and GRMZM2G449165 ). These results provide useful information for understanding the genetic basis of MVN in brace root development. Further functional studies of identified candidate genes should help elucidate the molecular pathways that regulate MVN in maize brace roots., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Liu, Zhang, Yu, Li, Zhang, Cui, Dong, Fan, Zhang, Li and Ruan.)

Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT) is a severe yet rare inherited arrhythmia disorder. The cornerstone of CPVT medical therapy is the use of β-blockers; 30% of patients with CPVT do not respond well to optimal β-blocker treatment. Studies have shown that flecainide effectively prevents life-threatening arrhythmias in CPVT. Flecainide is a class IC antiarrhythmic drug blocking cardiac sodium channels. RyR2 inhibition is proposed as the principal mechanism of antiarrhythmic action of flecainide in CPVT, while it is highly debated. In this article, we review the current progress of this issue., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Li, Peng, Lin, Wang, Liu, Bai, Ma, Tang, Ruan and Liu.)

Purpose: Kidney stones is a common medical issue that mediates kidney injury and even kidney function loss. However, the exact pathogenesis still remains unclear. This study aimed to explore the potential competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA)-related pathogenesis of kidney stones and identify the corresponding immune infiltration signature. Methods: One mRNA and one long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) microarray dataset was obtained from the GEO database. Subsequently, we compared differentially expressed mRNAs (DE-mRNAs) and lncRNAs between Randall's plaques in patients with calcium oxalate (CaOx) stones and controls with normal papillary tissues. lncRNA-targeted miRNAs and miRNA-mRNA pairs were predicted using the online databases. lncRNA-related DE-mRNAs were identified using the Venn method, and GO and KEGG enrichment analyses were subsequently performed. The immune-related lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA ceRNA network was developed. The CIBERSORT algorithm was used to estimate the rate of immune cell infiltration in Randall's plaques. The ceRNA network and immune infiltration were validated in the glyoxylate-induced hyperoxaluric mouse model and oxalate-treated HK-2 cells. Results: We identified 2,340 DE-mRNAs and 929 DE-lncRNAs between Randall's plaques in patients with CaOx stones and controls with normal papillary tissues. lncRNA-related DE-mRNAs were significantly enriched in extracellular matrix organization and collagen-containing extracellular matrix, which were associated with kidney interstitial fibrosis. The immune-related ceRNA network included 10 lncRNAs, 23 miRNAs, and 20 mRNAs. Moreover, we found that M2 macrophages and resting mast cells were differentially expressed between Randall's plaques and normal tissues. Throughout kidney stone development, kidney tubular injury, crystal deposition, collagen fiber deposition, TGF-β expression, infiltration of M1 macrophages, and activation of mast cells were more frequent in glyoxylate-induced hyperoxaluric mice compared with control mice. Nevertheless, M2 macrophage infiltration increased in early stages (day 6) and decreased as kidney stones progressed (day 12). Furthermore, treatment with 0.25 and 0.5 mM of oxalate for 48 h significantly upregulated NEAT1, PVT1, CCL7, and ROBO2 expression levels and downregulated hsa-miR-23b-3p, hsa-miR-429, and hsa-miR-139-5p expression levels in the HK-2 cell line in a dose-dependent manner. Conclusion: We found that significant expressions of ceRNAs (NEAT1, PVT1, hsa-miR-23b-3p, hsa-miR-429, hsa-miR-139-5p, CCL7, and ROBO2) and infiltrating immune cells (macrophages and mast cells) may be involved in kidney stone pathogenesis. These findings provide novel potential therapeutic targets for kidney stones., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Xia, Zhou, Ye, Yu, Ning, Ruan, Yuan, Lin, Ye, Zheng, Rao and Cheng.)

Secondary epileptogenesis is a common phenomenon in epilepsy, characterized by epileptiform discharges from the regions outside the primary focus. It is one of the major reasons for pharmacoresistance and surgical failure. Compared with primary epileptogenesis, the mechanism of secondary epileptogenesis is usually more complex and diverse. In this review, we aim to summarize the characteristics of secondary epileptogenesis from both clinical and laboratory studies in a historical view. Mechanisms of secondary epileptogenesis in molecular, cellular, and circuity levels are further presented. Potential treatments targeting the process are discussed as well. At last, we highlight the importance of circuitry studies, which would further illustrate precise treatments of secondary epileptogenesis in the future., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The reviewer SW declared a shared affiliation with the authors to the handling editor at the time of review., (Copyright © 2021 Shen, Gong, Ruan, Chen and Xu.)

With the rapid development of technology and increasingly fierce competition in the global market, innovation has become the most important competitive advantage for enterprises. Employee creativity is widely considered the source of organizational innovation. This study explores the antecedents of employee creativity from the perspective of career development in the context of high-technology industry. Specifically, we examine the effects of calling on employee creativity through the mediation of career commitment and the moderation of responsible leadership. With data collected from a sample of 218 respondents from internet companies, a series of regression analyses was conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. In addition, a moderated mediation model was further examined. Discussion, implications, and limitations are presented., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Lv, Chen and Ruan.)