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This paper is concerned with the pullback measure attractors of the non-autonomous fractional reaction-diffusion equations defined on R n . We first prove the existence and uniqueness of pullback measure attractors for such equations. Then we establish the upper semi-continuity of these attractors as the noise intensity ε tends to zero. Specifically, we apply the uniform estimates on the tails of solutions to prove the asymptotic compactness of a family of probability distributions of solutions to overcome the non-compactness of usual Sobolev embeddings on unbounded domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haptophytes (Eukaryota, Hacrobia) play a crucial role in the energy budget and element cycling of diverse aquatic ecosystems due to their ability to engage in both phototrophic and mixotrophic nutritional modes. Nevertheless, there is a significant lack of knowledge regarding the short-term variations, such as diel dynamics, of their ecological features. During a short time frame in the summer of 2018, samples were collected from three distinct water layers in the South China Sea, including surface water, the deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM) layer, and 200 m depth. Fluorescence in situ hybridization coupled with tyramide signal amplification was used to quantify haptophyte cell abundance. Most haptophyte communities in all three water layers were composed of cells 2–5 µm in size, while the proportion of cells < 2 µm increased with water depth. High-throughput sequencing of the V4 hypervariable regions of the SSU rRNA revealed that Chrysochromulina and Phaeocystis predominated the community, and the former was more abundant in the surface water and 200 m depth and the latter was more abundant in the DCM layer. Higher abundance of small cells (< 2 µm and 2–5 µm) during the night was found compared to the day time, whereas large cells (5–10 µm and 10–20 µm) were more prevalent during the day time. The results of correlation analyses showed that haptophyte abundance was possibly impacted by both environmental biotic (heterotrophic nanoflagellates, heterotrophic bacteria, and viruses) and abiotic (temperature, salinity, and nutrients) factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: At approximately 4:00 PM on 18 July 2023, a heavy rainstorm lasting one hour triggered a significant mudstone landslide in Dongping, Weiyuan County, Gansu Province, Northwest China. The landslide resulted in the burial of houses, the fracturing and destruction of roads, and posed a serious threat to 16 households. The estimated economical loss from this disaster reached 3.2 million yuan. This study presents a detailed field investigation of the Dongping landslide, focusing on the deformation and failure characteristics through a multi-layered analysis of sliding strata, rock mass structure, slope configuration, and failure mechanism. Moreover, the study explores the key triggering factors of the Dongping landslide, with particular attention to the roles of seismic activity, rainfall, and preferential flow in the development of large-scale mudstone landslides. Results: The stratigraphic profile of the Dongping landslide reveals a two-layer structure, consisting of overlying loess and underlying mudstone, with the sliding surface primarily located within the underlying Neogene red mudstone. The initiation location of the Dongping landslide is situated at the rear of the slope, while the main slip-resistant section is located in the middle section of the landslide, exhibiting a predominantly thrust-sliding. After encountering resistance in the middle section, the front part of the sliding mass continued to move, leading to the formation of secondary landslides. The overall movement of the Dongping landslide is characterized by rotational sliding, with the sliding mass remaining relatively intact. Conclusions: The initiation of the large-scale mudstone landslide in Dongping was driven by multiple factors. The heavy rainfall served as the direct triggering factor for the landslide occurrence. However, some historical factors, including seismic activity and previous sliding surface, had already weakened the slope structure by degrading the mechanical properties of the landslide mass and creating preferential flow channels, thereby setting the stage for the Dongping landslide. Structural fractures in the landslide area, along with sinkholes formed by a combination of tectonic joints, soil properties, and human activities, constituted preferential seepage pathways for water within the slope. These pathways provided the hydraulic conditions necessary for rainfall-induced landslides, making them the primary controlling factors in the occurrence of the Dongping landslide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inference of body fluids and tissues is critical in reconstructing crime scenes and inferring criminal behaviors. Nevertheless, present methods are incompatible with conventional DNA genotyping, and additional testing might result in excessive consumption of forensic scene materials. This study aims to investigate the feasibility of distinguishing common body fluids/tissues through the difference in mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNAcn). Four types of body fluids/tissues were analyzed in this study - hair, saliva, semen, and skeletal muscle. MtDNAcn was estimated by dividing the read counts of mitochondrial DNA to that of nuclear DNA (RRmt/nu). Results indicated that there were significant differences in RRmt/nu between different body fluids/tissues. Specifically, hair samples exhibited the highest RRmt/nu (log10RRmt/nu: 4.3 ± 0.28), while semen samples showed the lowest RRmt/nu (log10RRmt/nu: -0.1 ± 0.28). RRmt/nu values for DNA samples without extraction were notably higher (approximately 2.9 times) than those obtained after extraction. However, no significant difference in RRmt/nu was observed between various age and gender groups. Hierarchical clustering and Kmeans clustering analyses showed that body fluids/tissues of the same type clustered closely to each other and could be inferred with high accuracy. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that the simultaneous detection of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA made it possible to perform conventional DNA analyses and body fluid/tissue inference at the same time, thus killing two birds with one stone. Furthermore, mtDNAcn has the potential to serve as a novel and promising biomarker for the identification of body fluids/tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the existence and upper semi-continuity of the pullback measure attractors of the non-autonomous stochastic 3D globally modified Navier–Stokes equations driven by nonlinear noise. Firstly, we introduce the abstract theory of pullback measure attractors and asymptotic compactness of such equations. Then, the existence of the pullback measure attractors is shown for such equations. Furthermore, the upper semi-continuity of these attractors is also obtained as the noise intensity tends to zero. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

l-lactate modifies proteins through lactylation1, but how this process occurs is unclear. Here we identify the alanyl-tRNA synthetases AARS1 and AARS2 (AARS1/2) as intracellular l-lactate sensors required for l-lactate to stimulate the lysine lactylome in cells. AARS1/2 and the evolutionarily conserved Escherichia coli orthologue AlaRS bind to l-lactate with micromolar affinity and they directly catalyse l-lactate for ATP-dependent lactylation on the lysine acceptor end. In response to l-lactate, AARS2 associates with cyclic GMP–AMP synthase (cGAS) and mediates its lactylation and inactivation in cells and in mice. By establishing a genetic code expansion orthogonal system for lactyl-lysine incorporation, we demonstrate that the presence of a lactyl moiety at a specific cGAS amino-terminal site abolishes cGAS liquid-like phase separation and DNA sensing in vitro and in vivo. A lactyl mimetic knock-in inhibits cGAS, whereas a lactyl-resistant knock-in protects mice against innate immune evasion induced through high levels of l-lactate. MCT1 blockade inhibits cGAS lactylation in stressed mice and restores innate immune surveillance, which in turn antagonizes viral replication. Thus, AARS1/2 are conserved intracellular l-lactate sensors and have an essential role as lactyltransferases. Moreover, a chemical reaction process of lactylation targets and inactivates cGAS.The tRNA synthases AARS1 and AARS2 are identified as evolutionarily conserved sensors of intracellular l-lactate to mediate the global lysine lactylome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Film color and editing are crucial elements in filmmaking, posing significant questions about their effective use in eliciting emotional responses from viewers. While prior research has explored the impacts of color and editing independently, their combined effect remains largely unexplored, leaving the open question of how these elements together affect emotional perception. This study investigates the combined impact of film color and editing on emotion perception, utilizing both subjective behavioral scales and objective functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques. It employs two experiments with a two-factor design to assess the interactions between film color (colored and black-and-white) and film editing (fearful, neutral, and happy levels) on emotional perceptions. Under the direction of a professional filmmaker, a series of film sequences was created for six experimental conditions. In Experiment 1, 117 participants watched the film sequences and subjectively rated the emotional valence of the neutral face in the sequence, uncovering a significant interaction effect between film color and editing on the valence rating of the neutral face. In Experiment 2, 67 participants watched similar film sequences in an MRI scanner to analyze their brain activation patterns. Distinct activations were identified in regions including the insula, anterior cingulate cortices (ACC), and middle frontal gyrus, where a region-of-interest (ROI) analysis of the left ACC revealed an interaction effect on neural responses. These results underscore the integral role of color and editing in influencing viewers' emotion perception using two types of measurements. This research provides novel insights into the behavioral and neural responses to filmmaking elements that underpin film reception and offers practical implications for filmmakers, encouraging a more holistic approach to considering color and editing to further enrich the audience's emotional experiences at the pre-production stage of filmmaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pathophysiology of immune checkpoint inhibitor-related pneumonitis remains incompletely understood. We conducted single-cell and T-cell receptor transcriptomic sequencing on the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from five patients with grade ≥2 immune checkpoint inhibitor-related pneumonitis. Our analyses revealed a prominent enrichment of T cells in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of patients with immune checkpoint inhibitor-related pneumonitis. Within the CD4 + T cell subset, Tfh-like T cells were highly enriched and exhibited signatures associated with inflammation and clonal expansion. Regulatory T cells were also enriched and displayed enhanced inhibitory functions. Within the CD8 + T-cell subset, effector memory/tissue-resident memory T cells with an elevated cytotoxic phenotype were highly infiltrated. Among myeloid cells, alveolar macrophages were depleted, while pro-inflammatory intermediate monocytes were elevated. Dendritic cells demonstrated enhanced antigen presentation capabilities. Cytokines CXCR4, CXCL13, TNF-α, IFN-α, IFN-γ, and TWEAK were elevated. Through a comprehensive single-cell analysis, we depicted the landscape of immune checkpoint inhibitor-related pneumonitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-altitude exposure has been linked to cardiac dysfunction. Silent information regulator factor 2-related enzyme 1 (sirtuin 1, SIRT1), a nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide-dependent deacetylase, plays a crucial role in regulating numerous cardiovascular diseases. However, the relationship between SIRT1 and cardiac dysfunction induced by hypobaric hypoxia (HH) remains unexplored. This study aims to assess the impact of SIRT1 on HH-induced cardiac dysfunction and delve into the underlying mechanisms, both in vivo and in vitro. In this study, we have demonstrated that exposure to HH results in cardiomyocyte injury, along with the downregulation of SIRT1 and mitochondrial dysfunction. Upregulating SIRT1 significantly inhibits mitochondrial fission, improves mitochondrial function, reduces cardiomyocyte injury, and consequently enhances cardiac function in HH-exposed rats. Additionally, HH exposure triggers aberrant expression of mitochondrial fission-regulated proteins, with a decrease in PPARγ coactivator 1 alpha (PGC-1α) and mitochondrial fission factor (MFF) and an increase in mitochondrial fission 1 (FIS1) and dynamin-related protein 1 (DRP1), all of which are mitigated by SIRT1 upregulation. Furthermore, inhibiting PGC-1α diminishes the positive effects of SIRT1 regulation on the expression of DRP1, MFF, and FIS1, as well as mitochondrial fission. These findings demonstrate that SIRT1 alleviates HHinduced cardiac dysfunction by preventing mitochondrial fission through the PGC-1α-DRP1/FIS1/MFF pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury (MI/RI) significantly impacts the patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), with the NLRP3-mediated necrosis exacerbates the pathological progression of myocardial infarction. Exercise, recognized as a crucial approach for both disease prevention and treatment, is widely utilized in clinical practice worldwide and has demonstrated broad effectiveness in cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention. Purpose: To explore the cardio protective effect of exercise preconditioning and the mechanism by which exercise modulation of NLRP3 improves myocardial ischemia and reperfusion injury. Methods and results: In this study, C57BL/6 N mice were employed to establish an exercise preconditioning model and a MI/RI model. The exercise intervention involved moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on a treadmill (50-70% VO2max) for small animals. Our research findings indicate that moderate-intensity aerobic exercise intervention improved cardiac function, reduced myocardial injury and inflammatory response, decreased myocardial infarction area and degree of cell apoptosis in mice compared to those raised under conventional conditions. Additionally, the expression of NLRP3 in the myocardial tissue of mice with MI/RI was reduced after exercise intervention. Moreover, exercise inhibited the activation of apoptosis related proteins such as Caspase-1 and GSDMD, while reducing the levels of inflammatory factors such as IL-1β and IL-18. Conclusions: This study found that moderate-intensity aerobic exercise can reduce the inflammatory response, reduce the degree of cell pyroptosis, reduce myocardial ischemia and reperfusion injury, and achieve endogenous protective effects on the myocardium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic contaminants have increasingly become a main threat to the water environment, necessitating novel methods for removing from polluted water. In this study, a kind of magnetic ethyl acetate microdrops (Fe3O4@KCC-1@EA) is fabricated for this purpose The KCC-1 shell of Fe3O4@KCC-1 nanospheres is a layer of silica with a dendritic fibrous structure. The ethyl acetate shell of the Fe3O4@KCC-1@EA microdrops provides them with the properties of an organic solvent. While the magnetic core makes them magnetically manipulable. Adding Fe3O4@KCC-1@EA microdrops to bisphenol A-polluted water allows the contaminants to be extracted into the ethyl acetate shell. These microdrops, saturated with bisphenol A, are then easily separated from the water phase with an external magnetic field, achieving a removal rate of over 98%. Besides bisphenol A, the Fe3O4@KCC-1@EA microdrops could also be employed to remove other organic contaminants. This method could provide a new pathway for water purification from organic contaminants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Ultrasound shear wave elastography has potential use in assessing tendon tissue; however, reducing measurement variability remains challenging. The primary purpose of this study was to identify the amount of variability accounted for by ultrasound parameter (frequency, harmonics and CrossXBeam) settings on shear wave speed at two testing sites. Methods: Shear wave elastography images of the Achilles tendon were obtained from individuals with healthy tendons (n = 28) at two testing sites with standardised image acquisition/postprocessing protocols. Images were acquired at a range of frequencies (7–15 MHz) with CrossXBeam (a filtering technique) and harmonics settings toggled on and off. Variance decomposition analysis was performed to identify the amount of variability in shear wave speed accounted for by scan acquisition settings and testing sites. Results: Shear wave speed variance was primarily attributed to participants (56.87% of variance; residual error: 35%). All scanning parameters, testing site and interaction terms each accounted for less than 2.5% of the variance. A statistically significant, negative relationship was observed between shear wave speed and image quality (p = 0.001) suggesting poor image quality yields higher shear wave speed estimates. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that natural variation in Achilles tendon mechanics between individuals without tendon pathology accounts for most of the shear wave speed variability. Optimising image quality, which may be observed in higher frequencies, should be considered to improve shear wave speed estimation. Clinically, this study highlights the need to take multiple images, maintain consistent ultrasound settings when tracking patient progress over time and use caution when comparing raw values from tendon scans performed in different clinics with shear wave elastography. Level of Evidence: Level III. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Limited data exist for global prevalence of claudin 18 isoform 2 (CLDN18.2) positivity and association of CLDN18.2 status with clinical and tumor characteristics in patients with locally advanced (LA) unresectable or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction (mG/GEJ) adenocarcinoma. We report prevalence of CLDN18.2 positivity (phase 3; SPOTLIGHT, NCT03504397; GLOW, NCT03653507) and concordance of CLDN18.2 status between a subset of pair-matched tumor samples (phase 2, ILUSTRO, NCT03505320; phase 1, NCT03528629) from clinical studies of zolbetuximab. Methods: Tumor samples from patients with LA unresectable or mG/GEJ adenocarcinoma were tested for CLDN18.2 status by immunohistochemistry. Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) expression was tested per central or local assessment. Results: Across SPOTLIGHT and GLOW, the prevalence of CLDN18.2 positivity (≥ 75% of tumor cells demonstrating moderate-to-strong membranous CLDN18 staining) was 38.4%. Prevalence was similar in gastric versus GEJ adenocarcinoma samples and regardless of collection method (biopsy versus resection) or collection site (primary versus metastatic). CLDN18.2 positivity was most prevalent in patients with diffuse-type tumors. In ILUSTRO and the phase 1 study, concordance of CLDN18.2 positivity was 61.1% between archival (i.e., any time before treatment) and baseline (i.e., ≤ 3 months before first treatment) samples, and concordance of any CLDN18 staining (≥ 1% of tumor cells demonstrating moderate-to-strong membranous CLDN18 staining) was 88.9%. Conclusions: CLDN18.2 was a highly prevalent biomarker in patients with HER2-negative, LA unresectable or mG/GEJ adenocarcinoma. CLDN18.2 positivity remained relatively stable over time in many patients. Biomarker testing for CLDN18.2 should be considered in standard clinical practice in these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Currently, most studies on the health benefits of traditional Chinese exercises on type 2 diabetes mellitus have explored the effects of a single type of traditional Chinese exercise on type 2 diabetes. Although a previous study evaluated the combined clinical effects of traditional Chinese exercises on type 2 diabetes, the studies included in that review were deficient in their study design. In addition, previous studies have not explored the ideal exercise dose that should be taken by patients with type 2 diabetes when performing traditional Chinese exercises. Objective: To understand whether the findings of previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses are still applicable and to try to address the deficiencies in the previous review, this review conducted a meta-analysis of existing randomized controlled trials to investigate the impact of traditional Chinese exercises on glycemic control with type 2 diabetes. Methods: The literature was searched in seven Chinese and English databases. Randomized controlled trials published in English and Chinese, from database inception to March 2023, were included in this review. Two reviewers independently reviewed the search results, extracted the data, and assessed the risk of bias. A meta-analysis of the included studies was conducted using Rev Man 5.4 and Stata 15.1 software. Heterogeneity was investigated using a sensitivity analysis, a subgroup analysis, and a meta-regression analysis. Pre-determined subgroups included the duration of the intervention, frequency of exercise, and duration of the single exercise session. Results: A total of 31 randomized controlled trials (2077 subjects) were selected in this review. The meta-analysis revealed that traditional Chinese exercises were more effective than control groups in lowering glycated hemoglobin (Z = 6.06; mean difference [MD] = − 0.64, 95% confidence interval [CI] − 0.85, − 0.44; P < 0.00001), fasting blood glucose (Z = 7.81; MD = − 0.82, 95% CI − 1.03, − 0.62; P < 0.00001), 2-h plasma glucose (Z = 5.61; MD = − 1.03, 95% CI − 1.39, − 0.67; P < 0.00001), total cholesterol (Z = 4.23; MD = − 0.37, 95% CI − 0.54, − 0.20; P < 0.0001), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (Z = 5.94; MD = 0.12, 95% CI 0.08, 0.16; P < 0.00001), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (Z = 6.20; MD = − 0.34, 95% CI − 0.44, − 0.23; P < 0.00001), and triglyceride levels (Z = 3.74; MD = − 0.44, 95% CI − 0.67, − 0.21; P = 0.0002) among patients with type 2 diabetes. Conclusions: Traditional Chinese exercises can significantly improve blood glucose and lipid levels in patients with type 2 diabetes. When performing traditional Chinese exercise interventions for type 2 diabetes, it is recommended that exercise programs are designed for 30–50 min/session, 4–5 sessions/week for at least 3 months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to illustrate epidemiology of comorbid CVD in the real-world clinical setting of patients with psoriasis in China. We used data of adult patients with psoriasis who were registered in the register of China National Clinical Center for Skin and Immune Diseases between August 2020 and September 2021. Psoriasis was clinically diagnosed following the national guidelines. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to examine the factors associated with comorbid CVD in patients with psoriasis. Of the 11,560 psoriasis patients (age ≥ 18 years, mean age 41.87 years, 64.88% males), 236 were ascertained with CVD, with the overall prevalence being 2.62%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis suggested that the odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of CVD in psoriasis patients was 2.27 (2.03–2.54) for older age (per 10-year increment), 0.65 (0.48–0.90) for female, 2.07 (1.39–3.06) for obesity (BMI ≥ 28 vs. < 24 kg/m2), 2.55 (1.85–2.52) for smoking, 7.63 (5.86–9.94) for hypertension, 4.27 (3.76–4.85) for diabetes, 1.14 (1.00–1.30) for having a history of drug allergy, 2.27 (1.61–3.20) for having family history of psoriasis, and 1.76 (1.16–2.67) for severe disease (severe vs. mild) with a dose–response relationship (Ptrend < 0.001). In patients with psoriasis, comorbid CVD was associated with smoking, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, history of drug allergy, family history of psoriasis, and the psoriasis severity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge about neighborhood characteristics that predict disease burden can be used to guide equity-based public health interventions or targeted social services. We used a case-control design to examine the association between area-level social vulnerability and severe COVID-19 using electronic health records (EHR) from a regional health information hub in the greater Philadelphia region. Severe COVID-19 cases (n = 15,464 unique patients) were defined as those with an inpatient admission and a diagnosis of COVID-19 in 2020. Controls (n = 78,600; 5:1 control-case ratio) were a random sample of individuals who did not have a COVID-19 diagnosis from the same geographic area. Retrospective data on comorbidities and demographic variables were extracted from EHR and linked to area-level social vulnerability index (SVI) data using ZIP codes. Models adjusted for different sets of covariates showed incidence rate ratios (IRR) ranging from 1.15 (95% CI, 1.13–1.17) in the model adjusted for individual-level age, sex, and marital status to 1.09 (95% CI, 1.08–1.11) in the fully adjusted model, which included individual-level comorbidities and race/ethnicity. The fully adjusted model indicates that a 10% higher area-level SVI was associated with a 9% higher risk of severe COVID-19. Individuals in neighborhoods with high social vulnerability were more likely to have severe COVID-19 after accounting for comorbidities and demographic characteristics. Our findings support initiatives incorporating neighborhood-level social determinants of health when planning interventions and allocating resources to mitigate epidemic respiratory diseases, including other coronavirus or influenza viruses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combination of aerated flows and a high-pressure environment in a stilling basin can result in the supersaturation of total dissolved gas (TDG) downstream of hydraulic projects, posing an ecological risk to aquatic populations by inducing gas bubble disease (GBD) or other negative effects. There is limited literature reporting TDG mass transfer experiments on a complete physical dam model; most existing research is based on measurements in prototype tailwaters. In this study, TDG mass transfer experiments were conducted on a physical model of an under-constructed dam, with TDG-supersaturated water as the inflow, and TDG concentrations were meticulously monitored within the stilling basin. The measurements indicate that the TDG saturation at the outlet of the stilling basin decreased by 13.7% and 10.6% compared to the inlet for the two cases, respectively. Subsequently, an improved TDG prediction model was developed by incorporating a sub-grid air entrainment model and a phase-constrained scalar model. The numerical simulation results were compared with experimental data, indicating a maximum error in TDG saturation at all measured points of less than ± 3%. Moreover, the TDG saturation showed an error of only ± 0.3% at the outlet of the stilling basin. This model has broad applicability to various flow types for obtaining TDG mass transfer results and evaluating mitigation measures of TDG supersaturation to reduce the harmful effects on aquatic ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pygmy grasshoppers, which belong to the superfamily Tetrigoidea, exhibit remarkable environmental adaptability. However, no study has yet reported a reference genome for this group. In this study, we assembled a high-quality chromosome-scale genome of Eucriotettix oculatus, which survive in the environment heavily polluted by heavy metals, achieved through Illumina and PacBio sequencing, alongside chromosome conformation capture techniques. The resulting genome spans 985.45 Mb across seven chromosomes (range: 71.55 to 266.65 Mb) and features an N50 length of 123.82 Mb. Chr5 is considered to be the single sex chromosome (X). This genome is composed of 46.42% repetitive elements and contains 14,906 predicted protein-coding genes, 91.63% of which are functionally annotated. Decoding the E. oculatus genome not only promotes future studies on environmental adaptation for the pygmy grasshopper, but also provides valuable resources for in-depth investigation on phylogeny, evolution, and behavior of Orthoptera. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Abnormal expression of protein tyrosine kinase 6 (PTK6) has been proven to be involved in the development of gynecological tumors. However, its immune-related carcinogenic mechanism in other tumors remains unclear. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify PTK6 as a novel prognostic biomarker in pan-cancer, especially in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), which is correlated with immune infiltration, and to clarify its clinicopathological and prognostic significance. Methods: The prognostic value and immune relevance of PTK6 were investigated by using bio-informatics in this study. PTK6 expression was validated in vitro experiments (lung cancer cell lines PC9, NCI-H1975, and HCC827; human normal lung epithelial cells BEAS-2B). Western blot (WB) revealed the PTK6 protein expression in lung cancer cell lines. PTK6 expression was inhibited by Tilfrinib. Colony formation and the Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay were used to detect cell proliferation. The wound healing and trans-well were performed to analyze the cell migration capacity. Then flow cytometry was conducted to evaluate the cell apoptosis. Eventually, the relationship between PTK6 and immune checkpoints was examined. WB was used to estimate the PD-L1 expression at different Tilfrinib doses. Results: PTK6 was an independent predictive factor for LUAD and was substantially expressed in LUAD. Pathological stage was significantly correlated with increased PTK6 expression. In accordance with survival analysis, poor survival rate in LUAD was associated with a high expression level of PTK6. Functional enrichment of the cell cycle and TGF-β signaling pathway was demonstrated by KEGG and GSEA analysis. Moreover, PTK6 expression considerably associated with immune infiltration in LUAD, as determined by immune analysis. Thus, the result of vitro experiments indicated that cell proliferation and migration were inhibited by the elimination of PTK6. Additionally, PTK6 suppression induced cell apoptosis. Obviously, PD-L1 protein expression level up-regulated while PTK6 was suppressed. Conclusion: PTK6 has predictive value for LUAD prognosis, and could up regulated PD-L1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electrocatalytic nitrate reduction reaction (NitRR) represents a promising approach toward achieving economically and environmentally sustainable ammonia. However, it remains a challenge to regulate the size effect of electrocatalysts to optimize the catalytic activity and ammonia selectivity. Herein, the Cu-based catalysts were tailored at the atomic level to exhibit a size gradient ranging from single-atom catalysts (SACs, 0.15–0.35 nm) to single-cluster catalysts (SCCs, 1.0–2.8 nm) and nanoparticles (NPs, 20–30 nm), with the aim of studying the size effect for the NO3−-to-NH3 reduction reaction. Especially, the Cu SCCs exhibit enhanced metal–substrate and metal–metal interactions by taking advantageous features of Cu SACs and Cu NPs. Thus, Cu SCCs achieve exceptional electrocatalytic performance for the NitRR with a maximum Faradaic efficiency of ca. 96% and the largest yield rate of 1.99 m g N H 3 · h - 1 · c m - 2 at −0.5 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). The theoretical calculation further reveals the size effect and coordination environment on the high catalytic activity and selectivity for the NitRR. This work provides a promising various size-controlled design strategy for aerogel-based catalysts effectively applied in various electrocatalytic reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Snap-off events are one of the most common and essential phenomena in two-phase flow in porous media. This paper uses the scanning results of a siltstone slice to construct a two-dimensional heterogeneous pore network structure to visualise microscopic snap-off phenomena and displacement processes accurately. The relationship between snap-off events and the non-wetting phase saturation was studied using two-phase flow displacement experiments. Results show that although the non-wetting phase snap-off events benefit freeing the trapped non-wetting phase in the microchannels, high-frequency snap-off events are the main reason for trapping the non-wetting phase during the displacement process, eventually leading to residuals. The frequency of non-wetting phase snap-off events in the pore network structure can be reduced to lower the non-wetting phase saturation and reduce the non-wetting phase residuals by increasing the displacement fluid viscosity, reducing the surface tension coefficient between the phases and increasing the flow rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims/hypothesis: Type 1 diabetes is a T cell-mediated autoimmune disease characterised by pancreatic beta cell destruction. In this study, we explored the pathogenic immune responses in initiation of type 1 diabetes and new immunological targets for type 1 diabetes prevention and treatment. Methods: We obtained peripheral blood samples from four individuals with newly diagnosed latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) and from four healthy control participants. Single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) was performed on peripheral blood mononuclear cells to uncover transcriptomic profiles of early LADA. Validation was performed through flow cytometry in a cohort comprising 54 LADA, 17 adult-onset type 2 diabetes, and 26 healthy adults, matched using propensity score matching (PSM) based on age and sex. A similar PSM method matched 15 paediatric type 1 diabetes patients with 15 healthy children. Further flow cytometry analysis was performed in both peripheral blood and pancreatic tissues of non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice. Additionally, cell adoptive transfer and clearance assays were performed in NOD mice to explore the role of this monocyte subset in islet inflammation and onset of type 1 diabetes. Results: The scRNA-seq data showed that upregulated genes in peripheral T cells and monocytes from early-onset LADA patients were primarily enriched in the IFN signalling pathway. A new cluster of classical monocytes (cluster 4) was identified, and the proportion of this cluster was significantly increased in individuals with LADA compared with healthy control individuals (11.93% vs 5.93%, p=0.017) and that exhibited a strong IFN signature marked by SIGLEC-1 (encoding sialoadhesin). These SIGLEC-1+ monocytes expressed high levels of genes encoding C-C chemokine receptors 1 or 2, as well as genes for chemoattractants for T cells and natural killer cells. They also showed relatively low levels of genes for co-stimulatory and HLA molecules. Flow cytometry analysis verified the elevated levels of SIGLEC-1+ monocytes in the peripheral blood of participants with LADA and paediatric type 1 diabetes compared with healthy control participants and those with type 2 diabetes. Interestingly, the proportion of SIGLEC-1+ monocytes positively correlated with disease activity and negatively with disease duration in the LADA patients. In NOD mice, the proportion of SIGLEC-1+ monocytes in the peripheral blood was highest at the age of 6 weeks (16.88%), while the peak occurred at 12 weeks in pancreatic tissues (23.65%). Adoptive transfer experiments revealed a significant acceleration in diabetes onset in the SIGLEC-1+ group compared with the SIGLEC-1− or saline control group. Conclusions/interpretation: Our study identified a novel group of SIGLEC-1+ monocytes that may serve as an important indicator for early diagnosis, activity assessment and monitoring of therapeutic efficacy in type 1 diabetes, and may also be a novel target for preventing and treating type 1 diabetes. Data availability: RNA-seq data have been deposited in the GSA human database (https://ngdc.cncb.ac.cn/gsa-human/) under accession number HRA003649. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is a response to a previous study that inaccurately predicted the diversity of archaeal viruses in the human gut. The authors of the response explain that the computational tools used in the previous study were limited in identifying novel archaeal viral sequences because they were developed based on reference viral genomes available in public databases. The authors conducted their own analysis using different computational tools and found a great discrepancy in the results. They categorized the sequences in the database into five levels of confidence based on the results of various bioinformatic tools. They also provided a modified figure to visually demonstrate the novel contributions of the database in enhancing archaeal virus detection and classification. The authors advise using only the sequences classified as "Complete Viruses" and "High Confidence Viruses" from the database for accuracy and reliability. [Extracted from the article]

Image Compressive Sensing (CS) provides a scheme of low-complex image coding, but coping with the recovery quality has been a challenge. Even the excessive investment of computations into recovery cannot prevent the quality degradation due to the lack of appropriate allocation for sampling resources. In light of this, this paper fuses a context-based allocation into image CS in order to improve the recovery quality with fewer computations. Independent of original pixels, the context features of blocks are extracted from random CS samples. According to the block-based distribution on context features, more CS samples are allocated to non-sparse regions and fewer to sparse regions. The proposed context-based allocation enables a linear recovery model to accurately recover images. The contributions of this paper include: (1) an adaptive allocation involving the context features extracted from CS samples, (2) a padding Differential Pulse Code Modulation (DPCM) to quantize the adaptive CS samples, and (3) a regrouping module to improve the quality of linear recovery. Experimental results show the proposed image CS system objectively and subjectively improves the recovery quality of an image while guaranteeing a low computational complexity, e.g., it achieves average 30.85 dB PSNR value on the five 512 × 512 test images, and costs about 10 seconds on a computer with 3.30 GHz CPU and 8 GB RAM. Besides, the proposed system presents a competitive performance to the recent deep-learned image CS systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High heterogeneity and complex interactions of malignant cells in breast cancer has been recognized as a driver of cancer progression and therapeutic failure. However, complete understanding of common cancer cell states and their underlying driver factors remain scarce and challenging. Here, we revealed seven consensus cancer cell states recurring cross patients by integrative analysis of single-cell RNA sequencing data of breast cancer. The distinct biological functions, the subtype-specific distribution, the potential cells of origin and the interrelation of consensus cancer cell states were systematically elucidated and validated in multiple independent datasets. We further uncovered the internal regulons and external cell components in tumor microenvironments, which contribute to the consensus cancer cell states. Using the state-specific signature, we also inferred the abundance of cells with each consensus cancer cell state by deconvolution of large breast cancer RNA-seq cohorts, revealing the association of immune-related state with better survival. Our study provides new insights for the cancer cell state composition and potential therapeutic strategies of breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study discussed the effects of different mineral incorporations and the curing time on the strength of modified magnesium phosphate cement (MPC) mortars through mechanical tests, mathematical model analysis and microstructure characterization. Fly ash (FA), silica fume (SF), and metakaolin (MK), which exhibit excellent durability and bonding properties, were used to modify the MPC. A quantitative relationship was established between the strength of modified MPC mortars and the mineral incorporation and curing time. First, the strength of each mineral-modified MPC mortar cured in air with different mineral incorporations and curing durations was evaluated. The strengths of MPC mortars containing 10% fly ash, 15% silica fume, and 10% metakaolin—which perform best in their incorporations—were compared to analyze the function of the three minerals. To establish the relationship between strength and mineral incorporation and curing time, three mathematical models, linear model, general nonlinear model, and data distribution shape nonlinear model (DDSNM), are commonly used for material property analysis based on statistics. DDSNM best describes the trend of strength change among the three models and the error is small for three minerals. Based on DDSNM, the influence of various minerals on the strength of MPC mortar was quantitatively evaluated by calculating the variable partial derivatives, and verified by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. MK performs the best in improving the flexural strength performance of MPC, while SF performs the best in the compressive strength. FA-MPC has low sensitivity to dosage fluctuations and is easy to prepare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proliferation of edge computing and the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) has significantly bolstered the popularity of deep learning-based driver assistance applications. This has paved the way for the integration of multimodal emotion detection systems, which effectively enhance driving safety and are increasingly prevalent in our daily lives. However, the utilization of in-vehicle cameras and microphones has raised concerns regarding the extensive collection of driver privacy data. Applying privacy-preserving techniques to a single modality alone proves insufficient in preventing privacy re-identification when correlated with other modalities. In this paper, we introduce PriMonitor, an adaptive tuning privacy-preserving approach for multimodal emotion detection. PriMonitor tackles these challenges by proposing a generalized random response-based differential privacy method that not only enhances the speed and data availability of text privacy protection but also ensures privacy preservation across multiple modalities. To determine suitable weight assignments within a given privacy budget, we introduce pre-aggregator and iterative mechanisms. Our PriMonitor effectively mitigates privacy re-identification due to modal correlation while maintaining a high level of accuracy in multimodal models. Experimental results validate the efficiency and competitiveness of our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the influence mechanism of geostress on rockburst characteristics, three groups of gneiss rockburst experiments were conducted under different initial geostress conditions. A high-speed photography system and acoustic emission (AE) monitoring system were used to monitor the entire rockburst process in real time. The experimental results show that when the initial burial depth increases from 928 m to 1320 m, the proportion of large fracture scale in rockburst increases by 154.54%, and the AE energy increases by 565.63%, reflecting that the degree and severity of rockburst increase with the increase of burial depth. And then, two mechanisms are proposed to explain this effect, including (i) the increase of initial geostress improves the energy storage capacity of gneiss, and then, the excess energy which can be converted into kinetic energy of debris ejection increases, consequently, a more pronounced violent ejection phenomenon is observed at rockburst; (ii) the increase of initial geostress causes more sufficient plate cracks of gneiss after unloading of σh, which provides a basis for more severe ejection of rockburst. What's more, a precursor with clear physical meaning for rockburst is proposed under the framework of dynamic response process of crack evolution. Finally, potential value in long term rockburst warning of the precursor obtained in this study is shown via the comparison of conventional precursor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, bearing failure was reported for a needle roller bearing used as intermediate support in a pinion shaft system. Severe deformation and wear were noticed on the working surface of the failed needle roller and around the window lintel of the bearing cage. The geometry, materials and hardness of the failed needle roller bearing were analyzed. Appearance detection, SEM and EDS analyses were carried out for clarifying the potential reasons of the needle roller bearing failure. The effect of radial displacement, Hertz contact stress and misalignment on the service life of the needle roller bearing were discussed. The excessive deformation and misalignment, resulting from the unbalanced loading and improper assembly, are the likely cause of the needle roller bearing failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying spinal cord ischemia–reperfusion (SCI/R) injury. Through RNA-Seq high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics analysis, we found that EGFR was downregulated in the spinal cord of SCI/R mice and may function via mediating the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway. In vitro cell experiments indicated that overexpression of EGFR activated the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway and reduced neuronal apoptosis levels. In vivo animal experiments further confirmed this conclusion, suggesting that EGFR inhibits SCI/R-induced neuronal apoptosis by activating the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway, thereby improving SCI/R-induced spinal cord injury in mice. This study revealed the molecular mechanisms of SCI/R injury and provided new therapeutic strategies for treating neuronal apoptosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a field experiment was conducted to examine the retention efficiencies of vegetative filter strips (VFS) on agricultural nonpoint source pollutants. Furthermore, the numerical model VFSMOD was used to predict the VFS performance and linked to a simplified nitrogen transport algorithm. The results indicated that the long filter, low grass spacing, low initial soil water content, and low inflow rate had high VFS retention efficiencies for surface runoff, sediment, and N. However, shallow water table depths (> 1.8 m) had little influence on VFS retention efficiencies, suggesting that shallow WTD (> 1.8 m) need not be considered when constructing VFS. The retention efficiencies varied greatly from 16.55%, 21.15%, 24.70%, 14.57%, 21.86%, and 27.70% to 81.51%, 87.58%, 88.47%, 87.56%, 82.97%, and 89.95% for surface runoff, sediment, TN, NH4+, NO3−, and PN, respectively. The VFSMOD can predict hydrology and sediment transport well for the experimental events with peak outflow rate from VFS greater than 0.0004 m3/s. The good VFSMOD predictions in surface runoff (Ceff = 0.985 for TRF, Ceff = 0.969 for RDR) and sediment (Ceff = 0.998 for MSF, Ceff = 0.960 for SDR) also resulted in good predictions of N (Ceff = 0.913 for MDN). Overall, our study demonstrated that VFSMOD is a useful tool in formulating management schemes for retaining nonpoint source pollutants using VFS, provided local meteorology, rainfall intensity, agricultural fertilization policies, and other influencing factors are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inhibiting MerTK on macrophages is a promising therapeutic strategy for augmenting anti-tumor immunity. However, blocking MerTK on retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPEs) results in retinal toxicity. Bispecific antibodies (bsAbs) containing an anti-MerTK therapeutic and anti-PD-L1 targeting arm were developed to reduce drug binding to MerTK on RPEs, since PD-L1 is overexpressed on macrophages but not RPEs. In this study, we present a modeling framework using in vitro receptor occupancy (RO) and pharmacokinetics (PK) data to predict efficacy, toxicity, and therapeutic index (TI) of anti-MerTK bsAbs. We first used simulations and in vitro RO data of anti-MerTK monospecific antibody (msAb) to estimate the required MerTK RO for in vivo efficacy and toxicity. Using these estimated RO thresholds, we employed our model to predict the efficacious and toxic doses for anti-MerTK bsAbs with varying affinities for MerTK. Our model predicted the highest TI for the anti-MerTK/PD-L1 bsAb with an attenuated MerTK binding arm, which was consistent with in vivo efficacy and toxicity observations. Subsequently, we used the model, in combination with sensitivity analysis and parameter scans, to suggest an optimal molecular design of anti-MerTK bsAb with the highest predicted TI in humans. Our prediction revealed that this optimized anti-MerTK bsAb should contain a MerTK therapeutic arm with relatively low affinity, along with a high affinity targeting arm that can bind to a low abundance target with slow turnover rate. Overall, these results demonstrated that our modeling framework can guide the rational design of bsAbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jasmonates (JAs) are a class of phytohormones that play a crucial role in plant growth, development, and environmental stress responses. Central to JA signaling are the MYC2-type transcription factors, as they activate the expression of JA-responsive genes. We previously used CRISPR-Cas9-based genome editing to engineer rice OsMYC2 and yielded a mutant (myc2-5) with a single amino acid (aa) deletion (75I) outside the known functional domains of the protein. This myc2-5 mutant also showed some JA-deficient phenotypes, promoting us to investigate how 75I deletion affects JA responses. The mutation is found in the α2 helix element at the N-terminal of OsMYC2. The deletion of 75I in OsMYC2 rendered plants deficient in most of the JA responses, including root growth, leaf senescence, spikelet development, and resistance to pathogens and herbivores. Biochemical assays revealed that the 75I deletion markedly reduced OsMYC2 protein accumulation, subsequently diminishing its transcriptional activity. However, the deletion did not influence the protein's subcellular localization, DNA-binding capability, or its interactions with JAZ transcriptional repressors and the Mediator complex subunit MED25. Additionally, the screening of seven other deletions in the α2 helix further reinforces the importance of this protein element. Our results highlight the significance of the α2 helix in the N-terminus for OsMYC2's functionality, primarily through modulating its protein levels. This insight expands our knowledge of JA signaling and opens new avenues for research into the yet-to-be-explored domains of the MYC2 protein, with the potential to tailor JA responses in rice and other plant species.Key message: MYC2 transcription factor is the master regulator of plant jasmonate signaling. The functional domains or elements of MYC2 protein determine its activity. Here, we identified a novel element in the N-terminus that is essential for the activity of rice MYC2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Named entity recognition and relation extraction are two important fundamental tasks in natural language processing. The joint entity-relationship extraction model based on parameter sharing can effectively reduce the impact of cascading errors on model performance by performing joint learning of entities and relationships in a single model, but it still cannot essentially get rid of the influence of pipeline models and suffers from entity information redundancy and inability to recognize overlapping entities. To this end, we propose a joint extraction model based on the decomposition strategy of pointer mechanism is proposed. The joint extraction task is divided into two parts. First, identify the head entity, utilizing the positive gain effect of the head entity on tail entity identification.Then, utilize a hierarchical model to improve the accuracy of the tail entity and relationship identification. Meanwhile, we introduce a pointer model to obtain the joint features of entity boundaries and relationship types to achieve boundary-aware classification. The experimental results show that the model achieves better results on both NYT and WebNLG datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Obstructive sleep apnea is closely related to oxidative stress. 4-hydroxy-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (Tempol) can scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS) and ameliorate oxidative damage in the body. The mechanism by which Tempol alleviates chronic intermittent hypoxia-induced lung injury has rarely been reported. This study aimed to confirm the molecular mechanism by which Tempol alleviates lung injury. Methods: The levels of miR-212-5p and Sirtuin 6 (SIRT6) in injured lungs were analyzed using bioinformatics. In vitro, intermittent hypoxia (IH) treatment induced hypoxia in BEAS-2B cells and we established a model of chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH) in mouse using a programmed hypoxia chamber. We used HE staining to observe the morphology of lung tissue, and the changes in lung fibers were observed by Masson staining. The levels of inflammatory factors in mouse serum were detected by ELISA, and the levels of the oxidative stress indicators GSH, MDA, SOD and ROS were detected using commercially available kits. Moreover, a real-time qPCR assay was used to detect miR-212-5p expression, and Western blotting was used to detect the levels of SIRT6, HIF-1α and apoptosis-related proteins. CCK-8 was used to detect cell proliferation. Subsequently, we used flow cytometry to detect cell apoptosis. Dual-luciferase gene reporters determine the on-target binding relationship of miR-212-5p and SIRT6. Results: SIRT6 was highly expressed in CIH-induced lung injury, as shown by bioinformatics analysis; however, miR-212-5p expression was decreased. Tempol promoted miR-212-5p expression, and the levels of SIRT6 and HIF-1α were inhibited. In BEAS-2B cells, Tempol also increased proliferation, inhibited apoptosis and inhibited oxidative stress in BEAS-2B cells under IH conditions. In BEAS-2B cells, these effects of Tempol were reversed after transfection with an miR-212-5p inhibitor. miR-212-5p targeted and negatively regulated the level of SIRT6 and overexpression of SIRT6 effectively reversed the enhanced influence of the miR-212-5p mimic on Tempol's antioxidant activity. Tempol effectively ameliorated lung injury in CIH mice and inhibited collagen deposition and inflammatory cell infiltration. Likewise, the therapeutic effect of Tempol could be effectively reversed by interference with the miR-212-5p inhibitor. Conclusion: Inhibition of the SIRT6-HIF-1α signaling pathway could promote the effect of Tempol by upregulating the level of miR-212-5p, thereby alleviating the occurrence of lung injury and providing a new underlying target for the treatment of lung injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oral leukoplakia (OLK) has received much attention due to its potential risk of malignant transformation. Studies have shown that when drug therapy is combined with photothermal therapy (PTT), not only can the cytotoxicity of the drug be enhanced, but also the heat energy can be used to kill the lesion cells, so we can combine drug therapy with PTT to enhance the therapeutic effect on OLK. However, with certain drawbacks due to its lack of targeting, fibroblast activating protein (FAP) has become an attractive target for OLK combination therapy. In this study, we used NGO-PEG loaded with FAP-targeting peptide (F-TP) and celecoxib (CXB) to construct a nano-drug delivery system CGPF for targeting OLK with high FAP expression and confirmed the biocompatibility and therapeutic efficacy of CGPF by in vitro and in vivo experiments. Overall, the novel nano-drug delivery system CGPF proposed in this study showed a very significant potential for the combination therapy of OLK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seminoma is the most common malignant solid tumor in 14 to 44 year-old men. However, its molecular features and tumor microenvironment (TME) is largely unexplored. Here, we perform a series of studies via genomics profiling (single cell multi-omics and spatial transcriptomics) and functional examination using seminoma samples and a seminoma cell line. We identify key gene expression programs share between seminoma and primordial germ cells, and further characterize the functions of TFAP2C in promoting tumor invasion and migration. We also identify 15 immune cell subtypes in TME, and find that subtypes with exhaustion features were located closer to the tumor region through combined spatial transcriptome analysis. Furthermore, we identify key pathways and genes that may facilitate seminoma disseminating beyond the seminiferous tubules. These findings advance our knowledge of seminoma tumorigenesis and produce a multi-omics atlas of in situ human seminoma microenvironment, which could help discover potential therapy targets for seminoma. The molecular features and tumour microenvironment (TME) in seminoma remain to be characterised. Here, the authors perform single cell multi-omics and spatial transcriptomics and identify key gene expression programmes, immune cell subtypes and potential therapeutic targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an essential factor for sustainable business development, creative performance has received increasing attention from both management and academia. Formal status has been confirmed to affect creative performance positively, but few studies have investigated the mechanisms by which informal status affects creative performance. Based on Status Characteristics Theory, this study introduces career calling and collectivism orientation to investigate the intrinsic mechanisms and boundary conditions of the relationship between informal status and employee creative performance. By collecting paired data from 216 employees across three stages, we test our hypotheses using the hierarchical regression and bootstrap methods. Our study verifies that informal status impacts creative performance positively, that career calling partially mediates the relationship between informal status and creative performance, and that collectivism orientation positively moderates the relationship between informal status and career calling and moderates the mediating effect of career calling in this context. By constructing an integrated model of the link between informal status and creative performance, we further enrich and extend related studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In forensic kinship testing and missing person identification, it is a fundamental question to choose the most informative reference relatives, select appropriate genotyping systems, and evaluate the weight of evidence comprehensively. Despite that several useful tools have been developed, they have not addressed these questions satisfactorily. In this paper, we develop a flexible and user-friendly online tool, Easykin, to address the aforementioned issues. It has some promising features: (i) Pedigrees can be constructed easily and presented intuitively with just a few mouse clicks. (ii) System power can be estimated before testing based on certain set of markers and reference relatives. (iii) The pruning function of EasyKin enables users to choose appropriate subsets of available references. (iv) Parameters at a specific LR for a single case may ease evidence interpretation. (v) The user interface (UI) is an HTML-based dashboard, which is friendly to both professional and non-professional users and can be used anytime and anywhere. Here, we presented three common cases as examples to demonstrate how kinship testing and missing person identification can be improved with EasyKin. In conclusion, this tool provides a one-stop solution for forensic use, that is, instructing users to choose appropriate kits and reference relatives before testing, calculating LR in the testing, and providing parameters for data interpretation after testing. EasyKin is freely available at https://forensicsysu.shinyapps.io/EasyKin/. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the generalized free energy of the dyonic AdS black hole in an ensemble with varying electric charge qE and fixed magnetic charge qM. When we adjust the temperature T and the electric potential ΦE of the ensemble, the Ricci scalar curvature R and electromagnetic potential Au usually diverge at the horizon. We regularize them and incorporate the off-shell corrections into the Einstein-Hilbert action. Alternatively, we find that the off-shell corrections can also be obtained by adding a boundary near the horizon to exclude the singularities. Ultimately, we derive the generalized free energy which is consistent with the definition of the thermodynamic relations. Based on the generalized free energy landscape, we can describe the dynamics of state transition as a stochastic process quantified by the Langevin equation. The path integral framework can be formulated to derive the time-dependent trajectory of the order parameter and the time evolution of the transition probability. By comparing the probability with the result of the classical master equation, we attribute the contribution to the probability of one pseudomolecule or antipseudomolecule (the instanton and anti-instanton pairs) to the rate of state transition. These results are consistent with the qualitative analysis of the free energy landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The methylation of lysine 4 of histone H3 (H3K4), catalyzed by the histone methyltransferase KMT2/SET1, has been functionally identified in many pathogenic fungi but remains unexplored in nematode-trapping fungi (NTFs). Here, we report a regulatory mechanism of an H3K4-specific SET1 orthologue, AoSET1, in the typical nematode-trapping fungus Arthrobotrys oligospora. When the fungus is induced by the nematode, the expression of AoSET1 is up-regulated. Disruption of AoSet1 led to the abolishment of H3K4me. Consequently, the yield of traps and conidia of ΔAoSet1 was significantly lower than that of the WT strain, and the growth rate and pathogenicity were also compromised. Moreover, H3K4 trimethylation was enriched mainly in the promoter of two bZip transcription factor genes (AobZip129 and AobZip350) and ultimately up-regulated the expression level of these two transcription factor genes. In the ΔAoSet1 and AoH3K4A strains, the H3K4me modification level was significantly decreased at the promoter of transcription factor genes AobZip129 and AobZip350. These results suggest that AoSET1-mediated H3KEme serves as an epigenetic marker of the promoter region of the targeted transcription factor genes. Furthermore, we found that AobZip129 negatively regulates the formation of adhesive networks and the pathogenicity of downstream AoPABP1 and AoCPR1. Our findings confirm that the epigenetic regulatory mechanism plays a pivotal role in regulating trap formation and pathogenesis in NTFs, and provide novel insights into the mechanisms of interaction between NTFs and nematodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, two CdII-based coordination polymers, namely [Cd4(HL)2(H2O)5]n (1), and {[Cd2(HL)(2,2′-bpy)2(H2O)]·6H2O}n (2) (2,2′-bpy = 2,2′-bipyridine) have been designed and synthesized using 2,3-bis(3,5-dicarboxylphenxoy)benzoic acid (H5L). Coordination polymer 1 displays a layer structure, which was connected through C–H‧‧‧π interactions into 3D supramolecular network, while coordination polymer 2 shows a three-dimensional framework structure. In addition, the excellent fluorescence performance make them potential luminescent sensors for antibiotics. The results show that coordination polymer 1 exhibits high sensitivity for detecting of sulfadiazine (SDZ), while coordination polymer 2 can selectively detect nitrofurantoin (NFT). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the incidence of malignancies in acromegaly and to identify risk factors for newly-diagnostic cancers, especially the excessive growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1). Methods: A retrospective cohort including 1738 consecutive hospitalized patients with acromegaly in a single referral center between 2012 and 2020 (mean follow-up 4.3 years). A gender- and age-matched case-control study (280 patients from the cohort) was performed for risk factor analysis. Results: One hundred thirteen malignancies (67 diagnosed after acromegaly) were observed. The overall newly-diagnostic cancer risk of acromegaly was higher than the general population (standardized incidence ratio (SIR) 2.81; 95% CI 2.18–3.57). The risk of thyroid cancer (n = 33, SIR 21.42; 95% CI 13.74–30.08) and colorectal cancer (n = 8, SIR 3.17; 95% CI 1.37–6.25) was elevated. In the overall cohort, IGF-1 (ULN: 1.27 vs. 0.94, p = 0.057), GH (1.30 vs. 1.00 ng/ml, p = 0.12), and disease-controlled rate (34.9% vs. 45.9%, p = 0.203) at the last visit did not reach significance between patients with and without post-diagnostic cancer. In the case-control study, GH (1.80 vs. 0.90 ng/ml, p = 0.018) and IGF-1 (ULN: 1.27 vs. 0.91, p = 0.003) at the last visit were higher in patients with post-diagnostic cancers, with a lower disease-controlled rate. Elder age was a risk factor for cancer. Other metabolic comorbidities and the size of pituitary tumors were similar. Conclusion: The risk of malignancies, especially thyroid cancer, was increased in patients with acromegaly in our center. More cancer screening should be considered when managing acromegaly, especially in patients with higher posttreatment GH and IGF-1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) is a rare syndrome that combines endocrine and non-endocrine tumors. Thymic neuroendocrine tumors are uncommon components that predict poor prognosis in patients with MEN1. We aimed to summarize the clinical characteristics of thymoma in MEN1 by reviewing the current reports from the literature. Methods: A patient with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (parathyroid hyperplasia, pituitary adenoma, and insulinoma) was found to have a 2 × 1.5 cm thymic mass during long-term follow-up. Thoracoscope surgery was performed, and a histopathology examination revealed WHO Type B3 thymoma. A pathogenic mutation of c.783 + 1G > A in the MEN1 gene was identified. We further searched PubMed and EMBASE for thymoma in association with MEN1. Results: A comprehensive overview of the literature concerning characteristics of MEN1-related thymoma was summarized. Clinical characteristics and differences between thymoma and thymic carcinoid are highlighted. Conclusions: Besides carcinoid, other tumors, including thymoma, need to be identified for thymic space-occupying lesions in MEN1 patients. The impact of thymoma on the long-term prognosis of MEN1 patients needs further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water saving management contract (WSMC) is an innovative water saving strategy based on market mechanism. As the minimum annual project water-saving revenue agreed with water saving service company (WSSC) and water user, water-saving revenue guarantee (WRG) is one of the key elements in WSMC projects. This paper attempted to establish a model to determine the optimal WRG based on simulation method. First, a nonlinear relationship between water-saving amount and initial investment was built by industry standards. Then, the quantitative influence of water-saving awareness on water-saving amount was built based on Markov chain. Next, a random process with decreasing variance over time was used to describe the fluctuation. Next, the failure maintenance cost in water-saving system was described by renewal function. After that, an unconstraint WRG optimization model of the WSMC was constructed with the WSSC total profit difference net present value (NPV) as the objective function and a solution algorithm was designed. Then, the sensitivity analysis was performed on fluctuation coefficient, estimated model parameters and project original variables. Next, the validities analysis on water-saving revenue and water-saving cost was provided. Finally, a WSMC project case in China was studied and the solutions were compared with traditional model. The results showed that the optimized WRG in this paper was 17% higher than the original one, and the WSSC total profit difference NPV was reduced by about 1200000 yuan. Reducing appropriate initial investment and increasing assistance to water user, like enhancing its water-saving awareness, are efficient methods to improve WRG for WSSC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the microRNA (miRNA) expression profile in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) patients and to explore the molecular mechanisms of MicroRNA-376b (miR-376b) in the pathogenesis of TAO. Methods: PBMCs from TAO patients and healthy controls were analyzed by miRNA microarray to screen for the significantly differentially expressed miRNAs. The miR-376b expression in PBMCs were confirmed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The downstream target of miR-376b was screened by online bioinformatics, and detected by qRT-PCR and Western blotting. Results: Compared with normal controls, 26 miRNAs were significantly different in PBMCs of TAO patients (14 miRNAs were down-regulated and 12 miRNAs were up-regulated). Among them, miR-376b expression was significantly decreased in PBMCs from TAO patients compared to healthy controls. Spearman correlation analysis revealed that miR-376b expression in PBMCs was significantly negatively correlated with free triiodothyronine (FT3), and positively correlated with thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). MiR-376b expression was obviously reduced in 6T-CEM cells after triiodothyronine (T3) stimulation compared to controls. MiR-376b mimics significantly decreased hyaluronan synthase 2 (HAS2) protein expression and the mRNA expression of intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM1) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in 6T-CEM cells, whereas miR-376b inhibitors markedly elevated HAS2 protein expression and gene expression of ICAM1 and TNF-α. Conclusions: MiR-376b expression in PBMCs was significantly decreased in PBMCs from TAO patients compared with the healthy controls. MiR-376b, regulated by T3, could modulate the expression of HAS2 and inflammatory factors. We speculate that miR-376b may be involved in the pathogenesis of TAO patients by regulating the expression of HAS2 and inflammatory factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]