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Soil microbes are crucial in shaping the root-associated microbial communities. In this study, we analyzed the effect of the soil–root niche gradient on the diversity, composition, and assembly of the bacterial community and co-occurrence network of two cotton varieties. The results revealed that the bacterial communities in cotton soil–root compartment niches exhibited a skewed species abundance distribution, dominated by abundant taxa showing a strong spatial specificity. The assembly processes of the rhizosphere bacterial communities were mainly driven by stochastic processes, dominated by the enrichment pattern and supplemented by the depletion pattern to recruit bacteria from the bulk soil, resulting in a more stable bacterial community. The assembly processes of the endosphere bacterial communities were determined by processes dominated by the depletion pattern and supplemented by the enrichment pattern to recruit species from the rhizosphere, resulting in a decrease in the stability and complexity of the community co-occurrence network. The compartment niche shaped the diversity of the bacterial communities, and the cotton variety genotype was an important source of diversity in bacterial communities within the compartment niche. We suggest that the moderate taxa contribute to significantly more changes in the diversity of the bacterial community than the rare and abundant taxa during the succession of bacterial communities in the cotton root–soil continuum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early life substance use, including cannabis and nicotine, may result in deleterious effects on the maturation of brain tissue and gray matter cortical development. The current study employed linear regression models to investigate the main and interactive effects of past-year nicotine and cannabis use on gray matter cortical thickness estimates in 11 bilateral independent frontal cortical regions in 223 16–22-year-olds. As the frontal cortex develops throughout late adolescence and young adulthood, this period becomes crucial for studying the impact of substance use on brain structure. The distinct effects of nicotine and cannabis use status on cortical thickness were found bilaterally, as cannabis and nicotine users both had thinner cortices than non-users. Interactions between nicotine and cannabis were also observed, in which cannabis use was associated with thicker cortices for those with a history of nicotine and tobacco product (NTP) use in three left frontal regions. This study sheds light on the intricate relationship between substance use and brain structure, suggesting a potential modulation of cannabis' impact on cortical thickness by nicotine exposure, and emphasizing the need for further longitudinal research to characterize these interactions and their implications for brain health and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquatic vegetation is an important component of aquatic ecosystems; therefore, the classification and mapping of aquatic vegetation is an important aspect of lake management. Currently, the decision tree (DT) classification method based on spectral indices has been widely used in the extraction of aquatic vegetation data, but the disadvantage of this method is that it is difficult to fix the threshold value, which, in turn, affects the automatic classification effect. In this study, Sentinel-2 MSI data were used to produce a sample set (about 930 samples) of aquatic vegetation in four inland lakes (Lake Taihu, Lake Caohai, Lake Honghu, and Lake Dongtinghu) using the visual interpretation method, including emergent, floating-leaved, and submerged vegetation. Based on this sample set, a DL model (Res-U-Net) was used to train an automatic aquatic vegetation extraction model. The DL model achieved a higher overall accuracy, relevant error, and kappa coefficient (90%, 8.18%, and 0.86, respectively) compared to the DT method (79%, 23.07%, and 0.77) and random forest (78%,10.62% and 0.77) when utilizing visual interpretation results as the ground truth. When utilizing measured point data as the ground truth, the DL model exhibited accuracies of 59%, 78%, and 91% for submerged, floating-leaved, and emergent vegetation, respectively. In addition, the model still maintains good recognition in the presence of clouds with the influence of water bloom. When applying the model to Lake Honghu from January 2017 to October 2023, the obtained temporal variation patterns in the aquatic vegetation were consistent with other studies. The study in this paper shows that the proposed DL model has good application potential for extracting aquatic vegetation data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cladophora qinghaiensis, an endemic species of Cladophora in saltwater lakes, was scientifically named in 2021 (hereafter referred to as Cladophora). Cladophora exists in different morphologies, including attached submerged Cladophora (AC), grown floating Cladophora (GFC), and death floating Cladophora (DFC). Previous satellite remote sensing has mainly focused on identifying floating algae. In this study, Qinghai Lake served as a case study, and a classification decision tree model (CDTM) was proposed. The model employed the chlorophyll spectral index (CSI) and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) to differentiate AC, Floating Cladophora (FC), and water. Additionally, the floating Cladophora index (FCI) was introduced to further distinguish GFC and DFC within FC. The method was applicable to Sentinel-2 images from 2016–2023. Visual interpretation methods were used for Landsat series images from the summer months (July to September) to obtain the AC and FC. The results demonstrate that over the past 30 years, the areas inhabited by AC and FC have increased gradually. The three morphologies of Cladophora also exhibited seasonal variations, with growth observed annually in May–June, reaching peaks in August–September, and gradually declining in October. In addition, by combining factors such as water surface area and climatic factors, we analyzed the driving forces influencing the changes in Cladophora. In this research, AC and FC showed significant correlations with the water surface area, with correlation coefficients (r) of approximately 0.9 and 0.7, respectively. These new findings provide valuable insights regarding the spatiotemporal changes and underlying causes for different morphologies of Cladophora in global saline lakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and the Commission on Food Additives recognize lycopene as a Class A nutrient, but relatively few systematic studies have been conducted on lycopene regulation of antioxidant and meat quality improvement and intestine microbiota in poultry. This study investigated the dietary lycopene from the effects on growth performance, antioxidant capacity, meat quality, intestine histomorphology, and cecal microbiota in broiler chickens. Compared with the control group, the dietary lycopene increased the average daily gain and decreased the feed conversion ratio in the experimental groups; the drip loss24h were decreased in breast muscles in the group treated with 20 mg/kg dietary lycopene; the jejunum villous height was increased in the groups treated with 20 mg/kg dietary lycopene; 13,223 OTUs were identified, each representing a microbial species, and the control group; the Unclassified-f-Ruminococcaceae relative abundance was increased in the groups treated with 20 mg/kg dietary lycopene. In this study, the 20 mg/kg dietary lycopene improved the growth performance, antioxidant capacity, meat quality, intestine histomorphology, and cecal microbiota in broiler chickens. This study provided a theoretical basis for the application of lycopene in poultry production. The experiment aimed to investigate the effects of dietary lycopene on the growth performance, antioxidant capacity, meat quality, intestine histomorphology, and cecal microbiota in broiler chickens. We randomly divided five hundred and seventy-six one-day-old male broilers into four groups each with six replicates and 24 chickens in each replicate. The control group (CG) was fed the basal diet, and the other groups were given powder lycopene of 10, 20, and 30 mg/kg lycopene (LP10, LP20, and LP30, respectively). Compared with the control group, (1) the dietary lycopene increased (p = 0.001) the average daily gain and decreased (p = 0.033) the feed conversion ratio in the experimental groups; (2) the glutathione peroxidase enzyme contents in LP20 were higher (p =< 0.001) in myocardium; (3) the crude protein contents were higher (p = 0.007) in the group treated with 30 mg/kg dietary lycopene; (4) the jejunum villous height was higher (p = 0.040) in LP20; (5) the Unclassified-f-Ruminococcaceae relative abundance was significantly higher (p = 0.043) in LP20. In this study, adding 20 mg/kg dietary lycopene to the broiler chickens' diets improved the growth performance, antioxidant capacity, meat quality, intestine histomorphology, and cecal microbiota in broiler chickens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a commercially available ingredient, the mono- and diglycerides (MDG) were widely used in a plant protein-based emulsion to provide effective, functional, emulsifying properties. The simultaneous addition of the MDG and pea protein isolate (PPI) was investigated by the methods of interfacial rheology and quantitative protein proteomics. The physicochemical quantitative analysis of the oil–water interface revealed an interfacial stability mechanism for the protein adsorption layer. For a low MDG concentration, the interfacial quantities of vicilin and albumin were increased, which could be attributed to the adsorption rate. For a high MDG concentration, both vicilin and albumin were displaced by MDG and desorbed from the interface, while legumin was more difficult to displace due to its slow adsorption and the complex structure of protein molecules. The protein molecules with the structural rearrangement interacted with MDG, exhibiting potential effects on the interfacial film structure. Combined with some nanotechnologies, the new comprehension of protein-emulsifier interactions may promote food delivery systems. The research aims to develop an in-depth analysis of interfacial proteins, and provide more innovative and tailored functionalities for the application of the plant protein emulsion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Space Agency (ESA) developed the Sentinel-2 Multispectral Imager (MSI), which offers a higher spatial resolution and shorter repeat coverage, making it an important source for the remote-sensing monitoring of water bodies. Atmospheric correction is crucial for the monitoring of water quality. To compare the applicability of seven publicly available atmospheric correction processors (ACOLITE, C2RCC, C2XC, iCOR, POLYMER, SeaDAS, and Sen2Cor), we chose complex and diverse lakes in Qinghai Province, China, as the research area. The lakes were divided into three types based on the waveform characteristics of Rrs: turbid water bodies (class I lakes) represented by the Dabusun Lake (DBX), clean water bodies (class II lakes) represented by the Qinghai Lake (QHH), and relatively clean water bodies (class III lakes) represented by the Longyangxia Reservoir (LYX). Compared with the in situ Rrs, it was found that for the DBX, the Sen2Cor processor performed best. The POLYMER processor exhibited a good performance in the QHH. The C2XC processor performed well with the LYX. Using the Sen2Cor, POLYMER, and C2XC processors for classes I, II, and III, respectively, compared with the Sentinel-3 OLCI Level-2 Water Full Resolution (L2-WFR) products, it was found that the estimated Rrs from the POLYMER had the highest consistency. Slight deviations were observed in the estimation results for both the Sen2Cor and C2XC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-dimensional (2D) transitional metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have garnered remarkable attention in electronics, optoelectronics, and hydrogen precipitation catalysis due to their exceptional physicochemical properties. Their utilisation in optoelectronic devices is especially notable for overcoming graphene's zero-band gap limitation. Moreover, TMDs offer advantages such as direct band gap transitions, high carrier mobility, and efficient switching ratios. Achieving precise adjustments to the electronic properties and band gap of 2D semiconductor materials is crucial for enhancing their capabilities. Researchers have explored the creation of 2D alloy phases through heteroatom doping, a strategy employed to fine-tune the band structure of these materials. Current research on 2D alloy materials encompasses diverse aspects like synthesis methods, catalytic reactions, energy band modulation, high-voltage phase transitions, and potential applications in electronics and optoelectronics. This paper comprehensively analyses 2D TMD alloy materials, covering their growth, preparation, optoelectronic properties, and various applications including hydrogen evolution reaction catalysis, field-effect transistors, lithium-sulphur battery catalysts, and lasers. The growth process and characterisation techniques are introduced, followed by a summary of the optoelectronic properties of these materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unidirectional electromagnetic modes have significant potential for routing electromagnetic radiation and are highly desirable for various applications, such as isolators, splitters, and switches. In this study, we theoretically investigate surface magnetoplasmons (SMPs) in a four-layer structure consisting of a perfect magnetic conductor (PMC)–semiconductor–dielectric–metal, which exhibits complete unidirectional propagation. We extend this structure to a 3D model by decreasing the width of the PMC-semiconductor part to an appropriate value and demonstrate that the SMPs in the proposed 3D waveguide retain complete unidirectional propagation. Our findings indicate that the unidirectional SMPs are robust to backscattering caused by surface roughness and defects. Moreover, the proposed 3D waveguide can be efficiently coupled to conventional microstrip line waveguides. Our results (based on the numerical method) demonstrate that SMPs based on semiconductors offer a promising approach to creating devices with new functionalities in the terahertz regime below the diffraction limit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to generate a polygenic risk score (PRS) for type 2 diabetes (T2D) and test whether it could be used in identifying high-risk individuals for lifestyle intervention in a Chinese cohort. We genotyped 80 genetic variants among 5024 participants without non-communicable diseases at baseline in the Wuxi Non-Communicable Diseases cohort (Wuxi NCDs cohort). During the follow-up period of 14 years, 440 cases of T2D were newly diagnosed. Using Cox regression, we found that the PRS of 46 SNPs identified by the East Asians was relevant to the future T2D. Participants with a high PRS (top quintile) had a two-fold higher risk of T2D than the bottom quintile (hazard ratio: 2.06, 95% confidence interval: 1.42–2.97). Lifestyle factors were considered, including cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, physical exercise, diet, body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference (WC). Among high-PRS individuals, the 10-year incidence of T2D slumped from 6.77% to 3.28% for participants having ideal lifestyles (4–6 healthy lifestyle factors) compared with poor lifestyles (0-2 healthy lifestyle factors). When integrating the high PRS, the 10-year T2D risk of low-clinical-risk individuals exceeded that of high-clinical-risk individuals with a low PRS (3.34% vs. 2.91%). These findings suggest that the PRS of 46 SNPs could be used in identifying high-risk individuals and improve the risk stratification defined by traditional clinical risk factors for T2D. Healthy lifestyles can reduce the risk of a high PRS, which indicates the potential utility in early screening and precise prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characterization and dynamics of protein structures upon adsorption at the air/water interface are important for understanding the mechanism of the foamability of proteins. Hydrogen–deuterium exchange, coupled with mass spectrometry (HDX-MS), is an advantageous technique for providing conformational information for proteins. In this work, an air/water interface, HDX-MS, for the adsorbed proteins at the interface was developed. The model protein bovine serum albumin (BSA) was deuterium-labeled at the air/water interface in situ for different predetermined times (10 min and 4 h), and then the resulting mass shifts were analyzed by MS. The results indicated that peptides 54–63, 227–236, and 355–366 of BSA might be involved in the adsorption to the air/water interface. Moreover, the residues L55, H63, R232, A233, L234, K235, A236, R359, and V366 of these peptides might interact with the air/water interface through hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions. Meanwhile, the results showed that conformational changes of peptides 54–63, 227–236, and 355–366 could lead to structural changes in their surrounding peptides, 204–208 and 349–354, which could cause the reduction of the content of helical structures in the rearrangement process of interfacial proteins. Therefore, our air/water interface HDX-MS method could provide new and meaningful insights into the spatial conformational changes of proteins at the air/water interface, which could help us to further understand the mechanism of protein foaming properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote sensing reflectance (Rrs), which is currently measured mainly using the above-water approach, is the most crucial parameter in the remote sensing inversion of plateau inland water colors. It is very difficult to measure the Rrs of plateau inland unmanned areas; thus, we provide a measurement solution using a micro-spectrometer. Currently, commercial micro-spectrometers are not factory calibrated for radiation, and thus, a radiometric calibration of the micro-spectrometer is an essential step. This article uses an Ocean Optics micro-spectrometer (STS-VIS) and a traditional water spectrometer (Trios) to simultaneously measure the irradiance and radiance of diffuse reflectance plates with different reflectance values for field calibration. The results show the following: (1) different fiber types have different calibration coefficients, and the integration time is determined according to the diameter of the fiber and the type of fiber, and (2) by comparing the simultaneous measurement results of STS-VIS with Trios, the mean absolute percentage difference (MAPD) of both reached 18.64% and 5.11% for Qinghai Lake and Golmud River, respectively, which are accurate Rrs measurements of water bodies. The Rrs of the Hoh Xil and Qarhan Salt Lake water bodies in unmanned areas of China was measured, and this was the first collection of in situ spectral information with a micro-spectrometer. This article shows that the micro-spectrometer can perform the in situ measurement of water Rrs in unmanned inland areas. With this breakthrough in the radiometric performance of the micro-spectrometer, we are able to obtain more accurate remote sensing reflectance results of unmanned water bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To protect and restore this downstream ecosystem, the Tarim River Basin Administration Bureau (TBAB) initiated the Ecological Water Compensation (EWC) project from 2000 to 2018. Revealing the mechanism of vegetation-hydroecological response processes in the lower reaches of the Tarim River before and after EWC work is conducive to water resource planning, utilization and protection. In this paper, the spatiotemporal responses of vegetation and groundwater to EWC were examined at the points, lines, and area (PLA) scale by coupling remote sensing techniques and field station observation data collected between 2000 and 2017. The findings indicated that (1) In general, the regional fractional vegetation coverage (FVC) increased significantly, and the average FVC growth rate was 3.5%/year from 2000 to 2017 (R2 > 0.84, p < 0.01, 2-tailed). (2) The regional vegetation restoration process showed obvious fluctuations and stage characteristics, but the spatial scope of the significantly increased vegetation area was limited. Plants grew rapidly within 10 km of the river, while 10 km away from the water channel, no obvious change was observed. (3) Strong coupling relationships were identified among the FVC growth, EWC volume and groundwater depth variations (p < 0.05, 2-tailed). The response times of the regional vegetation and groundwater depth to EWC indicated one-year lags. The above results imply that the regional ecological environment was significantly improved over the study period, thus confirming that the EWC project made remarkable accomplishments. However, the effect of ecological restoration is not sufficiently stable at present. Vegetation restoration has mainly been centralized around the river channel and is greatly dependent on the annual EWC volume. In addition, the local conditions begin to degrade soon after an EWC project is terminated, and vice versa; when EWC commences, the FVC immediately begins to improve. Therefore, the current EWC achievements need to be further consolidated and strengthened in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Slightly off-axis digital holographic microscopy (DHM) is the extension of digital holography imaging technology toward high-throughput modern optical imaging technology. However, it is difficult for the method based on the conventional linear Fourier domain filtering to solve the imaging artifacts caused by the spectral aliasing problem. In this article, we propose a novel high-accuracy, artifacts-free, single-frame, digital holographic phase demodulation scheme for low-carrier-frequency holograms, which incorporates the physical model into a conventional deep neural network (DNN) without training beforehand based on a massive dataset. Although the conventional end-to-end deep learning (DL) method can achieve high-accuracy phase recovery directly from a single-frame hologram, the massive datasets and ground truth collection can be prohibitively laborious and time-consuming. Our method recognizes such a low-carrier frequency fringe demodulation process as a nonlinear optimization problem, which can reconstruct the artifact-free phase details gradually from a single-frame hologram. The phase resolution target and simulation experiment results quantitatively demonstrate that the proposed method possesses better artifact suppression and high-resolution imaging capabilities than the physical methods. In addition, the live-cell experiment also indicates the practicality of the technique in biological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compressed ultrafast photography (CUP) is a type of two-dimensional (2D) imaging technique to observe ultrafast processes. Intelligence reconstruction methods that influence the imaging quality are an essential part of a CUP system. However, existing reconstruction algorithms mostly rely on image priors and complex parameter spaces. Therefore, it usually takes a lot of time to obtain acceptable reconstruction results, which limits the practical application of the CUP. In this paper, we proposed a novel reconstruction algorithm named PnP-FFDNet, which can provide a high quality and high efficiency compared to previous methods. First, we built a forward model of the CUP and three sub-optimization problems were obtained using the alternating direction multiplier method (ADMM), and the closed-form solution of the first sub-optimization problem was derived. Secondly, inspired by the PnP-ADMM framework, we used an advanced denoising algorithm based on a neural network named FFDNet to solve the second sub-optimization problem. On the real CUP data, PSNR and SSIM are improved by an average of 3 dB and 0.06, respectively, compared with traditional algorithms. Both on the benchmark dataset and on the real CUP data, the proposed method reduces the running time by an average of about 96% over state-of-the-art algorithms, and show comparable visual results, but in a much shorter running time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chondroitin sulfate (CS) is a well-known bioactive substance with multiple biological functions, which can be extracted from animal cartilage or bone. Sturgeon, the largest soft bone animal with ~20% cartilage content, is a great candidate for CS production. Our recent study confirmed the role of sturgeon chondroitin sulfate (SCS) in reducing colorectal cancer cell proliferation and tumor formation. Here, we further studied the effect of SCS on modulating gut microbiome structure in colorectal cancer bearing mice. In this study, the transplanted tumor mice model was constructed to demonstrate that SCS can effectively halt the growth of transplanted colorectal tumor cells. Next, we showed that SCS significantly altered the gut microbiome, such as the abundance of Lactobacillales, Gastranaerophilales, Ruminiclostridiun_5 and Ruminiclostridiun_6. According to linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and abundance map analysis of the microbial metabolic pathways, the changes in microbial abundance led to an increase of certain metabolites (e.g., Phe, Tyr, and Gly). Fecal metabolome results demonstrated that SCS can significantly reduce the amount of certain amino acids such as Phe, Pro, Ala, Tyr and Leu presented in the feces, suggesting that SCS might inhibit colorectal cancer growth by modulating the gut microbiome and altering the production of certain amino acids. Our results revealed the therapeutic potential of SCS to facilitate treatment of colorectal cancer. This study provides insights into the development of novel food-derived therapies for colorectal cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chlorophyll-a concentrations in water bodies are one of the most important environmental evaluation indicators in monitoring the water environment. Small water bodies include headwater streams, springs, ditches, flushes, small lakes, and ponds, which represent important freshwater resources. However, the relatively narrow and fragmented nature of small water bodies makes it difficult to monitor chlorophyll-a via medium-resolution remote sensing. In the present study, we first fused Gaofen-6 (a new Chinese satellite) images to obtain 2 m resolution images with 8 bands, which was approved as a good data source for Chlorophyll-a monitoring in small water bodies as Sentinel-2. Further, we compared five semi-empirical and four machine learning models to estimate chlorophyll-a concentrations via simulated reflectance using fused Gaofen-6 and Sentinel-2 spectral response function. The results showed that the extreme gradient boosting tree model (one of the machine learning models) is the most accurate. The mean relative error (MRE) was 9.03%, and the root-mean-square error (RMSE) was 4.5 mg/m3 for the Sentinel-2 sensor, while for the fused Gaofen-6 image, MRE was 6.73%, and RMSE was 3.26 mg/m3. Thus, both fused Gaofen-6 and Sentinel-2 could estimate the chlorophyll-a concentrations in small water bodies. Since the fused Gaofen-6 exhibited a higher spatial resolution and Sentinel-2 exhibited a higher temporal resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green human resource management (GHRM) determines the green behavior practice of employees and affects the social environment and the realization of "Beautiful China" and "Green Development". In this study, to explore the impact mechanism of GHRM on employees' green behavior, employees at all levels in an enterprise were selected to be research subjects and a regulated intermediary model was established, based on social exchange theory and the individual-environment matching theory. This paper investigated the enterprise's GHRM, personal green behavior, relational psychological contract, environmental knowledge and green values. The results show that GHRM has a significant positive predictive effect on employees' green behavior, the relational psychological contract plays an intermediary role between GHRM and employees' green behavior and the intermediary role of the relational psychological contract is regulated by environmental knowledge and green values. These research results explain the relationship between GHRM and employees' green behavior and provide an important basis for enterprises to implement GHRM practice and promote employees' green behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concentration of total suspended matter (TSM) is an important parameter for evaluating lake water quality. We determined in situ hyperspectral data and TSM concentration data for Changdang Lake, China, to establish a TSM concentration inversion model. The model was applied using 60 Sentinel-2 images acquired from 2016 to 2021 to determine the temporal and spatial distribution of TSM concentration. Remote sensing images were also utilized to monitor the effect of ecological dredging in Changdang Lake. The following results were obtained: (1) Compared with four existing models, the TSM concentration inversion model established in this study exhibited higher accuracy and was suitable for Changdang Lake. (2) TSM concentrations obtained for the period 2016–2021 were higher in spring and summer, and lower in autumn and winter. (3) The dredging process influenced a small area of the surrounding water body, resulting in higher TSM concentrations. However, a subsequent reduction in TSM concentrations indicated that the ecological dredging project might improve the water quality of Changdang Lake to a considerable extent. Therefore, it was inferred that the use of Sentinel-2 images was effective for the long-term monitoring of water quality changes in small and medium-sized lakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The antibiotic and toxic properties for four synthetic analogs of eumenine mastoparan peptides (EMP) have been tested. These properties were compared to two natural peptides found in the venom of solitary wasps Anterhynchium flavomarginatum micado (natural peptide EMP-AF) and Eumenes rubrofemoratus (natural peptide EMP-ER), respectively. Only EMP-AF-OR showed concentration-dependent growth inhibition against all bacterial species tested. Gram positive species had MIC values of 10 μg/mL for B. subtilis and 25 μg/mL for S. aureus. Gram negative species had MIC values of 25 μg/mL for E. coli and 200 μg/mL for P. aeruginosa. Of the other tested peptides, EMP-ER-D2K2 also showed activity and inhibited growth of Bacillus subtilis in a concentration-dependent manner at 200 μg/mL. Peptide EMP-ER-OR reduced the final density of Escherichia coli and B. subtilis cultures but did not impact their growth kinetics. Peptides EMP-AF-OR, EMP-ER-OR, and EMP-ER-D2K2 showed limited antifungal activity against Candida albicans or Histoplasma capsulatum. The hemolytic activity of the analogs were moderated though reports of the natural peptides, especially EMP-AF-OR, already showed low toxicity against erythrocytes. These results are discussed in the context of the potential influence of oxidized methionine on EMP activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chondroitin sulfate (CS) is a food-derived bioactive substance with multiple biological functions, which exists in animal cartilage and/or bone. Sturgeon, a type of cartilaginous fish, is rich in CS. Our recent study demonstrated the effect of sturgeon chondroitin sulfate (SCS) on reducing colorectal cancer cell proliferation and tumor formation. However, the molecular mechanisms of its anticancer activity remain unknown. In this study, the cell proliferation assay and flow cytometric analysis were used to examine the cell viability and apoptosis of colon cancer cell HT-29 cells and normal colonic epithelial cell NCM460 cells. Transcriptomic and proteomic studies were used to identify the main targets of SCS. SCS showed little effect on the genes/proteins expression profile of NCM460 cells but more sensitive to HT-29, in which 188 genes and 10 proteins were differentially expressed after SCS treatment. Enrichment analysis of those genes/proteins showed that the majority of them are involved in DNA replication, cell cycle progression and apoptosis. Quantitative RT-PCR and Western blot were used to determine essential genes/proteins and networks targeted by SCS to exert inhibiting the development of colorectal cancer function. This study provided great insights into developing food-derived novel therapeutics for colorectal cancer treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Yangtze River is the third longest river in the world. Monitoring and protecting its water quality are important for economic and social development. Water clarity (Secchi disk depth, SDD) is an important reference index for evaluating water quality. In this study, Sentinel-2 multispectral instrument (MSI) remote sensing images were utilized together with the Forel-Ule index (FUI) and hue angle α to construct an SDD retrieval model, which was applied to the Yangtze River from 2017 to 2020, which was used to describe color in the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) color space to construct an SDD retrieval model that was applied to the Yangtze River for the period 2017–2020. Further, the spatial distribution, seasonal variation, inter-annual variation, and driving factors of the observed SDD variations were analyzed. The spatial distribution pattern of the Yangtze River was high in the west and low in the east. The main driving factors affecting the Yangtze River SDD was sediment runoff, water level, and precipitation. The upstream and downstream Yangtze River SDD were negatively correlated with the change in water level and sediment runoff, whereas the midstream Yangtze River SDD was positively correlated with the change in water level and sediment runoff. The upper and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and overall SDD showed a weak downward trend, and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River remained almost unchanged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Forel-Ule Index (FUI) is an important parameter that can be calculated from optical remote sensing data to assess water quality based on water colour. Using Sentinel-2 images from April to November within the 2016–2020 period coupled with the Google Earth Engine Platform, we calculated FUI to analyse the spatial distribution, seasonal variations, and inter-annual variations of water colour in Baiyangdian Lake in the Xiong'an New Area established on 1 April 2017. The lake was divided into seven sub-regions, A–G; subsequently, high and low FUI values were observed in the south and north, respectively. Additionally, the mean FUI values of G and F zones in the south were 11.9 and 12.7, respectively, whereas those for the A, B, C, D, and E zones in the north were 10.5, 9.8, 10.4, 11.1, 11.2, respectively. The seasonal variations in the Baiyangdian Lake and seven sub-regions were consistent, with turbid water in spring and autumn, and clear water in summer. Inter-annual variations analyses for 2016–2020 indicated that the zone of A became progressively turbid, whereas the B, C, D, E, F, and G zones exhibited slow and gradually decreasing trends. Our findings suggest that the overall water quality of Baiyangdian Lake may be better, which may be related to the governance policies of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil salinity due to irrigation diversion affects regional agriculture, and the development of soil composition estimation models for the dynamic monitoring of regional salinity is important for salinity control. In this study, we evaluated the performance of hyperspectral data measured using an analytical spectral device (ASD) field spec standard-res hand-held spectrometer and satellite sensor visible shortwave infrared advanced hyperspectral imager (AHSI) in estimating the soil salt content (SSC). First derivative analysis (FDA) and principal component analysis (PCA) were applied to the data using the raw spectra (RS) to select the best model input data. We tested the ability of these three groups of data as input data for partial least squares regression (PLSR), principal component regression (PCR), and multiple linear regression (MLR). Finally, an estimation model of the SSC, Na+, Cl−, and SO42− contents was established using the best input data and modeling method, and a spatial distribution map of the soil composition content was drawn. The results show that the soil spectra obtained from the satellite hyperspectral data (AHSI) and laboratory spectral data (ASD) were consistent when the SSC was low, and as the SSC increased, the spectral curves of the ASD data showed little change in the curve characteristics, while the AHSI data showed more pronounced features, and this change was manifested in the AHSI images as darker pixels with a lower SSC and brighter pixels with a higher SSC. The AHSI data demonstrated a strong response to the change in SSC; therefore, the AHSI data had a greater advantage compared with the ASD data in estimating the soil salt content. In the modeling process, RS performed the best in estimating the SSC and Na+ content, with the R2 reaching 0.79 and 0.58, respectively, and obtaining low root mean squared error (RMSE) values. FDA and PCA performed the best in estimating Cl− and SO42−, while MLR outperformed PLSR and PCR in estimating the content of the soil components in the region. In addition, the hyperspectral camera data used in this study were very cost-effective and can potentially be used for the evaluation of soil salinization with a wide range and high accuracy, thus reducing the errors associated with the collection of individual samples using hand-held hyperspectral instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming and economic development have intensified the evaporation and exploitation of river waters, resulting in reduced global river runoff. In minimum ecological flux management, objective determination of the minimum ecological flux and evaluation of whether a river complies with standards are urgently required. Satellite remote sensing allows for rapid, large-scale, and dynamic monitoring. Herein, the Tangmazhai cross-section of the Taizi River was analyzed using the Chinese Gaofen (GF) series satellite that comprises panchromatic multi-spectral sensors and the Sentinel-2 multi-spectral images to automatically extract the water surface width. We applied the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI)-Iterative Self-Organizing Data Analysis Technique Algorithm (ISODATA) to 225 cloudless scenes from January 2015 to November 2019. We proposed a method to evaluate the minimum ecological flux using water surface width. The river surface width at this location increased from January 2015 to November 2019, and all widths exceeded the minimum river surface water width for the month. The degree of the minimum ecological flux guarantee was determined to be satisfactory. Because there are less clouds and rain in the North China than South China, our results may be used for evaluating the degree of minimum ecological flux guarantee of many river sections in the north China through monthly monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gossypium hirsutum L., is a widely cultivated cotton species around the world, but its production is seriously threatened by its susceptibility to chilling stress. Low temperature affects its germination, and the underlying molecular mechanisms are rarely known, particularly from a transcriptional perspective. In this study, transcriptomic profiles were analyzed and compared between two cotton varieties, the cold-tolerant variety KN27-3 and susceptible variety XLZ38. A total of 7535 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Among them, the transcripts involved in energy metabolism were significantly enriched during germination based on analysis of Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways, such as glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA cycle), and glyoxylate cycle (GAC). Results from further GO enrichment analysis show the earlier appearance of DNA integration, meristem growth, cotyledon morphogenesis, and other biological processes in KN27-3 compared with XLZ38 under chilling conditions. The synthesis of asparagine, GDP-mannose, and trehalose and the catabolic process of raffinose were activated. DEGs encoding antioxidants (spermidine) and antioxidase (CAT1, GPX4, DHAR2, and APX1) were much more up-regulated in embryos of KN27-3. The content of auxin (IAA), cis-zeatin riboside (cZR), and trans-zeatin riboside (tZR) in KN27-3 are higher than that in XLZ38 at five stages (from 12 h to 54 h). GA3 was expressed at a higher level in KN27-3 from 18 h to 54 h post imbibition compared to that in XLZ38. And abscisic acid (ABA) content of KN27-3 is lower than that in XLZ38 at five stages. Results from hormone content measurements and the related gene expression analysis indicated that IAA, CTK, and GA3 may promote germination of the cold-tolerant variety, while ABA inhibits it. These results expand the understanding of cottonseed germination and physiological regulations under chilling conditions by multiple pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As polluted water bodies are often small in area and widely distributed, performing artificial field screening is difficult; however, remote-sensing-based screening has the advantages of being rapid, large-scale, and dynamic. Polluted water bodies often show anomalous water colours, such as black, grey, and red. Therefore, the large-scale recognition of suspected polluted water bodies through high-resolution remote-sensing images and water colour can improve the screening efficiency and narrow the screening scope. However, few studies have been conducted on such kinds of water bodies. The hue angle of a water body is a parameter used to describe colour in the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) colour space. Based on the measured data, the water body with a hue angle greater than 230.958° is defined as a water colour anomaly, which is recognised based on the Sentinel-2 image through the threshold set in this study. The results showed that the hue angle of the water body was extracted from the Sentinel-2 image, and the accuracy of the hue angle calculated by the in situ remote-sensing reflectance Rrs (λ) was evaluated, where the root mean square error (RMSE) and mean relative error (MRE) were 4.397° and 1.744%, respectively, proving that this method is feasible. The hue angle was calculated for a water colour anomaly and a general water body in Qiqihar. The water body was regarded as a water colour anomaly when the hue angle was >230.958° and as a general water body when the hue angle was ≤230.958°. High-quality Sentinel-2 images of Qiqihar taken from May 2016 to August 2019 were chosen, and the position of the water body remained unchanged; there was no error or omission, and the hue angle of the water colour anomaly changed obviously, indicating that this method had good stability. Additionally, the method proposed is only suitable for optical deep water, not for optical shallow water. When this method was applied to Xiong'an New Area, the results showed good recognition accuracy, demonstrating good universality of this method. In this study, taking Qiqihar as an example, a surface survey experiment was conducted from October 14 to 15, 2018, and the measured data of six general and four anomalous water sample points were obtained, including water quality terms such as Rrs (λ), transparency, water colour, water temperature, and turbidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is the most important natural fiber worldwide, and it is extensively planted and plentifully used in the textile industry. Major cotton planting regions are frequently affected by abiotic stress, especially drought stress. Drought resistance is a complex, quantitative trait. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) constitutes an efficient method for dissecting the genetic architecture of complex traits. In this study, the drought resistance of a population of 316 upland cotton accessions was studied via GWAS. (2) Methods: GWAS methodology was employed to identify relationships between molecular markers or candidate genes and phenotypes of interest. (3) Results: A total of 8, 3, and 6 SNPs were associated with the euphylla wilting score (EWS), cotyledon wilting score (CWS), and leaf temperature (LT), respectively, based on a general linear model and a factored spectrally transformed linear mixed model. For these traits, 7 QTLs were found, of which 2 each were located on chromosomes A05, A11, and D03, and of which 1 was located on chromosome A01. Importantly, in the candidate regions WRKY70, GhCIPK6, SnRK2.6, and NET1A, which are involved in the response to abscisic acid (ABA), the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway and the calcium transduction pathway were identified in upland cotton at the seedling stage under drought stress according to annotation information and linkage disequilibrium (LD) block analysis. Moreover, RNA sequencing analysis showed that WRKY70, GhCIPK6, SnRK2.6, and NET1A were induced by drought stress, and the expression of these genes was significantly different between normal and drought stress conditions. (4) Conclusions: The present study should provide some genomic resources for drought resistance in upland cotton. Moreover, the germplasm of the different phenotypes, the detected SNPs and, the potential candidate genes will be helpful for molecular marker-assisted breeding studies about increased drought resistance in upland cotton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless visual sensor networks (WVSN) have been widely used to capture images in the fields of monitoring, intelligent transportation, and reconnaissance in recent years. Because of the wireless transmission mode and the huge amount of image data, major challenges in this application are frequent information stealing, big data problems, and harsh communication circumstances. Some encryption schemes based on compressive sensing (CS) and chaotic systems have been proposed to cope with these threats, but most of them are vulnerable against the chosen-plaintext attack (CPA). To remedy these defects, this paper designs a novel method based on non-uniform quantization (NQ). Then, in order to evaluate the true compression ratio (CR), our work takes into account limited data precision in cipher images, while most papers ignored this fact and calculated CR with the assumption of infinite data precision. Besides, to eliminate the periodic windows in the bifurcation diagram of the logistic map (LM), an optimized logistic map (OLM) is designed. Furthermore, simulation results prove that the performance of anti-jamming in the proposed cryptosystem is better than that in existing schemes under the condition of strong noise interference or severe data loss. In conclusion, the proposed method could improve the performance of security and anti-jamming for WVSN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water color remote sensing requires accurate atmospheric correction but this remains a significant challenge in highly turbid waters. In this respect, the shortwave infrared (SWIR) band-based atmospheric correction approach has proven advantageous when applied to the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the Aqua satellite. However, even so, uncertainties affect its accuracy. We performed a regional vicarious calibration of the MODIS-Aqua SWIR (1240, 2130)-based atmospheric correction using in situ water surface reflectance data measured during different seasons in Lake Taihu, a highly turbid lake. We then verified the accuracy of the (1240, 2130)-based atmospheric correction approach using these results; good results were obtained for the remote sensing reflectance retrievals at the 555, 645, and 859 nm, with average relative errors of 15%, 14%, and 22%, respectively, and no significant bias. Comparisons with the (1240, 2130)-based iterative approach and (1640, 2130)-based approach showed that the vicarious calibrated (1240, 2130)-based approach has the best accuracy and robustness. Thus, it is applicable to the highly turbid Lake Taihu. It may also be applicable to other highly turbid inland waters with similar optical and aerosol optical properties above water, but such applications will require further validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an altered adaptive algorithm on block-compressive sensing (BCS) is developed by using saliency and error analysis. A phenomenon has been observed that the performance of BCS can be improved by means of rational block and uneven sampling ratio as well as adopting error analysis in the process of reconstruction. The weighted mean information entropy is adopted as the basis for partitioning of BCS which results in a flexible block group. Furthermore, the synthetic feature (SF) based on local saliency and variance is introduced to step-less adaptive sampling that works well in distinguishing and sampling between smooth blocks and detail blocks. The error analysis method is used to estimate the optimal number of iterations in sparse reconstruction. Based on the above points, an altered adaptive block-compressive sensing algorithm with flexible partitioning and error analysis is proposed in the article. On the one hand, it provides a feasible solution for the partitioning and sampling of an image, on the other hand, it also changes the iteration stop condition of reconstruction, and then improves the quality of the reconstructed image. The experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and illustrate a good improvement in the indexes of the Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), Structural Similarity (SSIM), Gradient Magnitude Similarity Deviation (GMSD), and Block Effect Index (BEI). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the use of the Fully Convolutional Networks (FCN) model in the extraction of water bodies from Very High spatial Resolution (VHR) optical images in the case of limited training samples. Two different seasonal GaoFen-2 images with a spatial resolution of 0.8 m in the south of the Beijing metropolitan area were used to extensively validate the FCN model. Four key factors including input features, training data, transfer learning, and data augmentation related to the performance of the FCN model were empirically analyzed by using 36 combinations of various parameter settings. Our findings indicate that the FCN-based method can work as a robust and cost-effective tool in the extraction of water bodies from VHR images. The FCN-based method trained on a small amount of labeled L1A data can also significantly outperform the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) based method, the Support Vector Machine (SVM) based method, and the Sparsity Model (SM) based method, even when radiometric normalization and spatial contexts are introduced to preprocess the input data for the latter three methods. The advantages of the FCN-based method are mainly due to its capability to exploit spatial contexts in the image, especially in urban areas with mixed water and shadows. Though the settings of four key factors significantly affect the performance of the FCN based method, choosing a qualified setting for the FCN model is not difficult. Our lessons learned from the successful use of the FCN model for the extraction of water from VHR images can be extended to extract other land covers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Tea consumption may have favorable effects on risk of fracture. However, little is known about such association in Chinese adults. The aim of this study was to examine the association between tea consumption and risk of hospitalized fracture in Chinese adults. Methods: The present study included 453,625 participants from the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB). Tea consumption was self-reported at baseline. Hospitalized fractures were ascertained through linkage with local health insurance claim databases. The results: During a median of 10.1 years of follow-up, we documented 12,130 cases of first-time any fracture hospitalizations, including 1376 cases of hip fracture. Compared with never tea consumers, daily tea consumption was associated with lower risk of any fracture (hazard ratio (HR): 0.88; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.83, 0.93). Statistically significant reduced risk of hip fracture was shown among daily consumers who most commonly drank green tea (HR: 0.80; 95% CI: 0.65, 0.97) and those who had drunk tea for more than 30 years (HR: 0.68; 95% CI: 0.52, 0.87). Our conclusions: Habitual tea consumption was associated with moderately decreased risk of any fracture hospitalizations. Participants with decades of tea consumption and those who preferred green tea were also associated with lower risk of hip fracture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Tibetan Plateau (TP), the changes of lake ice phenology not only reflect regional climate change, but also impose substantial ecohydrological impacts on the local environment. Due to the limitation of ground observation, remote sensing has been used as an alternative tool to investigate recent changes of lake ice phenology. However, uncertainties exist in the remotely sensed lake ice phenology owing to both the data and methods used. In this paper, three different remotely sensed datasets are used to investigate the lake ice phenology variation in the past decade across the Tibetan Plateau, with the consideration of the underlying uncertainties. The remotely sensed data used include reflectance data, snow product, and land surface temperature (LST) data of moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS). The uncertainties of the three methods based on the corresponding data are assessed using the triple collocation approach. Comparatively, it is found that the method based on reflectance data outperforms the other two methods. The three methods are more consistent in determining the thawing dates rather than the freezing dates of lake ice. It is consistently shown by the three methods that the ice-covering duration in the northern part of the TP lasts longer than that in the south. Though there is no general trend of lake ice phenology across the TP for the period of 2000–2015, the warmer climate and stronger wind have led to the earlier break-up of lake ice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new dicoumarinyl ether, 3-hydroxy-6-methoxy-7,7'-dicoumarinyl ether (1), was isolated from the roots of Stellera chamaejasme L, together with the known compound umbelliferone (2). Their structures were determined on the basis of spectroscopic techniques, including IR, NMR, and HR-ESI-MS.