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As a protein of the orphan nuclear receptor Nr4a family, Nr4a3 has no identified natural ligands. However, its biological activity can be mediated by inducing conformational changes through interactions with specific certain small molecules and receptors. Nr4a3 is activated as an early stress factor under various pathological conditions and plays a regulatory role in various tissues and cells, participating in processes such as cell differentiation, apoptosis, metabolism, and homeostasis. At present, research on the role of Nr4a3 in the pathophysiology of inflammation is considerably limited, especially with respect to its role in the central nervous system (CNS). In this review, we discuss the role of Nr4a3 in multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, retinopathy, Parkinson's disease, and other CNS diseases. This review shows that Nr4a3 has considerable potential as a therapeutic target in the treatment of CNS diseases. We provide a theoretical basis for the targeted therapy of CNS diseases and neuroinflammation, among other conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fast prediction model of flexural strength based on the online measured temperature of fusion deposition composites (FSBT model) was proposed to overcome the drawbacks of traditional destructive flexural experiments. The experimental results show that the FSBT model can effectively, quickly, and accurately predict the flexural strength of FDM parts, without being limited by composites, FDM conditions, and temperature measurement locations. The average relative error of prediction accuracy is 2.9%, and the maximum relative error is controlled within 8.3% for carbon fiber reinforced polyether ether ketone parts. It was found that the prediction accuracy of flexural strength with varying nozzle temperatures is the highest. The parts with a 100% filling rate have excellent prediction accuracy, while due to the high porosity of FDM parts under other filling rates, it is necessary to add correction a porosity factor to the model to improve the prediction accuracy for flexural strength. The proposed FSBT model can be extended to predict the flexural strength of FDM parts of other fiber reinforced composite materials. Moreover, the accommodation mechanism of strength based on the FSBT model is fully discussed. This work provides a new choice for quickly predicting the strength of FDM fiber composite parts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: Sucrose invertase activity is positively related to osmotic and salt stress resistance in peanut. Sucrose invertases (INVs) have important functions in plant growth and response to environmental stresses. However, their biological roles in peanut are still not fully revealed. In this research, we identified 42 AhINV genes in the peanut genome. They were highly conserved and clustered into three groups with 24 segmental duplication events occurred under purifying selection. Transcriptional expression analysis exhibited that they were all ubiquitously expressed, and most of them were up-regulated by osmotic and salt stresses, with AhINV09, AhINV23 and AhINV19 showed the most significant up-regulation. Further physiochemical analysis showed that the resistance of peanut to osmotic and salt stress was positively related to the high sugar content and sucrose invertase activity. Our results provided fundamental information on the structure and evolutionary relationship of INV gene family in peanut and gave theoretical guideline for further functional study of AhINV genes in response to abiotic stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correction to: IL-17A promotes fatty acid uptake through the IL-17A/IL-17RA/ p-STAT3/FABP4 axis to fuel ovarian cancer growth in an adipocyte-rich microenvironment 3rhIL-17A increased the uptake of PA in OvCa cells via the IL-17A/IL-17RA/p-STAT3/FABP4 axis. ** p < 0.01. g The sections were prepared from the tumor tissues of WT and IL-17A -/- mice, and IHC staining was performed to determine FABP4 expression was performed. [Extracted from the article]

Objective: The morphology of basilar artery (BA) may affect posterior circulation blood perfusion. We aimed to investigate whether different degrees of BA tortuosity could lead to the alterations of posterior circulation perfusion.We collected 138 subjects with different BA tortuosity scores, including 32 cases of score 0, 45 cases of score 1, 43 cases of score 2, and 18 cases of score 3. A higher score represented a higher degree of BA tortuosity. Ordered logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the risk factors for BA tortuosity. We quantitatively measured the cerebral blood flow (CBF) in eight posterior circulation brain regions using arterial spin labeling. SPSS 25.0 was used for statistical analysis. The correlation between the CBF and BA tortuosity was corrected by the Bonferroni method. The significance level was set at 0.006 (0.05/8).Hypertension (HR: 2.39; 95%CI: 1.23–4.71; P = 0.01) and vertebral artery dominance (HR: 2.38; 95%CI: 1.10–4.67; P = 0.03) were risk factors for BA tortuosity. CBF in occipital gray matter (R = -0.383, P < 0.001), occipital white matter (R = -0.377, P < 0.001), temporal gray matter (R = -0.292, P = 0.001), temporal white matter (R = -0.297, P < 0.001), and cerebellum (R = -0.328, P < 0.001) were negatively correlated with BA tortuosity degree. No significant correlation was found between the BA tortuosity degree and CBF in hippocampus (R = -0.208, P = 0.014), thalamus (R = -0.001, P = 0.988) and brainstem (R = -0.204, P = 0.016).BA tortuosity could affect posterior circulation blood perfusion. CBF was negatively correlated with BA tortuosity degree. The morphology of BA may serve as a biomarker for posterior circulation and the severity of posterior circulation ischemia.Methods: The morphology of basilar artery (BA) may affect posterior circulation blood perfusion. We aimed to investigate whether different degrees of BA tortuosity could lead to the alterations of posterior circulation perfusion.We collected 138 subjects with different BA tortuosity scores, including 32 cases of score 0, 45 cases of score 1, 43 cases of score 2, and 18 cases of score 3. A higher score represented a higher degree of BA tortuosity. Ordered logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the risk factors for BA tortuosity. We quantitatively measured the cerebral blood flow (CBF) in eight posterior circulation brain regions using arterial spin labeling. SPSS 25.0 was used for statistical analysis. The correlation between the CBF and BA tortuosity was corrected by the Bonferroni method. The significance level was set at 0.006 (0.05/8).Hypertension (HR: 2.39; 95%CI: 1.23–4.71; P = 0.01) and vertebral artery dominance (HR: 2.38; 95%CI: 1.10–4.67; P = 0.03) were risk factors for BA tortuosity. CBF in occipital gray matter (R = -0.383, P < 0.001), occipital white matter (R = -0.377, P < 0.001), temporal gray matter (R = -0.292, P = 0.001), temporal white matter (R = -0.297, P < 0.001), and cerebellum (R = -0.328, P < 0.001) were negatively correlated with BA tortuosity degree. No significant correlation was found between the BA tortuosity degree and CBF in hippocampus (R = -0.208, P = 0.014), thalamus (R = -0.001, P = 0.988) and brainstem (R = -0.204, P = 0.016).BA tortuosity could affect posterior circulation blood perfusion. CBF was negatively correlated with BA tortuosity degree. The morphology of BA may serve as a biomarker for posterior circulation and the severity of posterior circulation ischemia.Results: The morphology of basilar artery (BA) may affect posterior circulation blood perfusion. We aimed to investigate whether different degrees of BA tortuosity could lead to the alterations of posterior circulation perfusion.We collected 138 subjects with different BA tortuosity scores, including 32 cases of score 0, 45 cases of score 1, 43 cases of score 2, and 18 cases of score 3. A higher score represented a higher degree of BA tortuosity. Ordered logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the risk factors for BA tortuosity. We quantitatively measured the cerebral blood flow (CBF) in eight posterior circulation brain regions using arterial spin labeling. SPSS 25.0 was used for statistical analysis. The correlation between the CBF and BA tortuosity was corrected by the Bonferroni method. The significance level was set at 0.006 (0.05/8).Hypertension (HR: 2.39; 95%CI: 1.23–4.71; P = 0.01) and vertebral artery dominance (HR: 2.38; 95%CI: 1.10–4.67; P = 0.03) were risk factors for BA tortuosity. CBF in occipital gray matter (R = -0.383, P < 0.001), occipital white matter (R = -0.377, P < 0.001), temporal gray matter (R = -0.292, P = 0.001), temporal white matter (R = -0.297, P < 0.001), and cerebellum (R = -0.328, P < 0.001) were negatively correlated with BA tortuosity degree. No significant correlation was found between the BA tortuosity degree and CBF in hippocampus (R = -0.208, P = 0.014), thalamus (R = -0.001, P = 0.988) and brainstem (R = -0.204, P = 0.016).BA tortuosity could affect posterior circulation blood perfusion. CBF was negatively correlated with BA tortuosity degree. The morphology of BA may serve as a biomarker for posterior circulation and the severity of posterior circulation ischemia.Conclusions: The morphology of basilar artery (BA) may affect posterior circulation blood perfusion. We aimed to investigate whether different degrees of BA tortuosity could lead to the alterations of posterior circulation perfusion.We collected 138 subjects with different BA tortuosity scores, including 32 cases of score 0, 45 cases of score 1, 43 cases of score 2, and 18 cases of score 3. A higher score represented a higher degree of BA tortuosity. Ordered logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the risk factors for BA tortuosity. We quantitatively measured the cerebral blood flow (CBF) in eight posterior circulation brain regions using arterial spin labeling. SPSS 25.0 was used for statistical analysis. The correlation between the CBF and BA tortuosity was corrected by the Bonferroni method. The significance level was set at 0.006 (0.05/8).Hypertension (HR: 2.39; 95%CI: 1.23–4.71; P = 0.01) and vertebral artery dominance (HR: 2.38; 95%CI: 1.10–4.67; P = 0.03) were risk factors for BA tortuosity. CBF in occipital gray matter (R = -0.383, P < 0.001), occipital white matter (R = -0.377, P < 0.001), temporal gray matter (R = -0.292, P = 0.001), temporal white matter (R = -0.297, P < 0.001), and cerebellum (R = -0.328, P < 0.001) were negatively correlated with BA tortuosity degree. No significant correlation was found between the BA tortuosity degree and CBF in hippocampus (R = -0.208, P = 0.014), thalamus (R = -0.001, P = 0.988) and brainstem (R = -0.204, P = 0.016).BA tortuosity could affect posterior circulation blood perfusion. CBF was negatively correlated with BA tortuosity degree. The morphology of BA may serve as a biomarker for posterior circulation and the severity of posterior circulation ischemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The status and trend of mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), copper (Cu), chromium (Cr), zinc (Zn), and arsenic (As) in the sediment of Bohai Bay from 1978 to 2017 were evaluated. The results indicated that the sediment status in 2017 was good. The contents of Hg, Cd, Pb, Cu, Cr, Zn, and As in all the monitoring stations were lower than category I. But, it is worth noting that the contents of Cu, Cr, and As in some stations were between threshold effects levels (TEL) and probable effects levels (PEL) guidelines, which were occasionally correlated to negative ecological effects. Since the reform and opening up of China, only the average content of Cd in 1996 was between category II and category III, but that in other years did not exceed category I. The average contents of Hg, Pb, Cu, Cr, Zn, and As were lower than category I. The Chinese Government should continue to pay high attention to the total quantity control measures of major risk factors Cd, Cu, Cr, and As. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free radical accumulation in the body will cause oxidative stress damages including the renal damage. Schisandrae Sphenantherae Fructus (Schisandra), a traditional Chinese herbal medicine, has been used throughout the world. Anwulignan, a monomer extracted from Schisandra, has been shown in our previous studies to possess antioxidant and protective effects on the liver, brain and spleen damages in the aging mice. However, its effect on the renal damage caused by aging is not clear. This study showed that anwulignan could significantly increase the kidney index, the creatinine clearance, the activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase; reduce the urinary protein concentration, the serum urea nitrogen and creatinine content, the content of malondialdehyde and 8-hydroxylated deoxyguanosine in the renal tissue; and improve the renal tissue damage. Moreover, anwulignan increased the production of Nrf2, HO-1 and NQO1 proteins and decreased the production level of Keap1 protein in the renal tissue in the d-galactose induced aging mice. These results suggest that anwulignan significantly alleviates the renal damage by its antioxidant effect through regulating the production of Nrf2/ARE pathway-related proteins in the renal tissue in the d-galactose induced aging mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potassium (K+) transporter/high-affinity K+/K+uptake transporters (KT/HAK/KUP), which contribute to K+ uptake, transport and allocation, take an indispensible part in ion homeostasis, as well as in plant adaptation to disadvantageous environmental stresses. However, molecular mechanisms in terms of K+ nutrition in fruit crops are still largely unknown. In this work, we isolated 15 KT/HAK/KUP transporter genes in strawberry (designated as FveKUP1 to FveKUP15), and checked their expression under both normal and K+ deficient conditions. Quantitative real-time PCR analyses indicated that most FveKUPs were largely expressed in flowers, with a responsive expression to K+ deficiency. Among these FveKUPs, FveKUP8 was the most abundantly expressed gene in all tested tissues, and its expression was significantly reduced by K+ deficiency. Further functional complementation experiment in bacterial mutant indicated that FveKUP8 can utilize external K+ under neutral proton environment, and might be a dominant K+ transporter during the flowering of strawberry plants. Our findings suggest that FveKUP8 is involved in K+ homeostasis in strawberry, and could be used as a potential gene for the molecular breeding of high K+ efficiency plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pro-inflammatory cytokines are crucial mediators of cancer development, representing potential targets for cancer therapy. The molecular mechanism of a vital pro-inflammatory cytokine, IL-17A, in cancer progression and its potential use in therapy through influencing fatty acid (FA) metabolism, especially FA uptake of cancer cells, remains unknown. In the present study, we used IL-17A and ovarian cancer (OvCa), a representative of both obesity-related and inflammation-related cancers, to explore the interactions among IL-17A, cancer cells and adipocytes (which can provide FAs). We found that in the presence of palmitic acid (PA), IL-17A could directly increase the cellular uptake of PA, leading to the proliferation of OvCa cells via the IL-17A/IL-17RA/p-STAT3/FABP4 axis rather than via CD36. Moreover, in vivo experiments using an orthotopic implantation model in IL-17A-deficient mice demonstrated that endogenous IL-17A could fuel OvCa growth and metastasis with increased expression of FABP4 and p-STAT3. Furthermore, analysis of clinical specimens supported the above findings. Our data not only provide useful insights into the clinical intervention of the growth and metastasis of the tumors (such as OvCa) that are prone to growth and metastasis in an adipocyte-rich microenvironment (ARM) but also provides new insights into the roles of IL-17A in tumor progression and immunomodulatory therapy of OvCa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evolutionary K-Means (EKM), which combines K-Means and genetic algorithm, solves K-Means' initiation problem by selecting parameters automatically through the evolution of partitions. Currently, EKM algorithms usually choose silhouette index as cluster validity index, and they are effective in clustering well-separated clusters. However, their performance of clustering noisy data is often disappointing. On the other hand, clustering stability-based approaches are more robust to noise; yet, they should start intelligently to find some challenging clusters. It is necessary to join EKM with clustering stability-based analysis. In this paper, we present a novel EKM algorithm that uses clustering stability to evaluate partitions. We firstly introduce two weighted aggregated consensus matrices, positive aggregated consensus matrix (PA) and negative aggregated consensus matrix (NA), to store clustering tendency for each pair of instances. Specifically, PA stores the tendency of sharing the same label and NA stores that of having different labels. Based upon the matrices, clusters and partitions can be evaluated from the view of clustering stability. Then, we propose a clustering stability-based EKM algorithm CSEKM that evolves partitions and the aggregated matrices simultaneously. To evaluate the algorithm's performance, we compare it with an EKM algorithm, two consensus clustering algorithms, a clustering stability-based algorithm and a multi-index-based clustering approach. Experimental results on a series of artificial datasets, two simulated datasets and eight UCI datasets suggest CSEKM is more robust to noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tiger puffer ( Takifugu rubripes) is a promising species for aquaculture production because of its high value and limited supply. However, in the north of China, using sea cages to culture this species in winter is hampered by the fact that the seawater temperature is extremely low. Here, a large scale commercial production of tiger puffer has been successfully realized using a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) from 3 October 2012 to 31 May 2013. The RAS was comprised of nine culture tanks (total water volume 200 m) and stocked with approximately a total of 14400 fish (initial mean weight 160 g). The tiger puffer was hand-fed at a rate of 0.7% of total body weight per day, and the feed conversion rate was (1.21 ± 0.3) kg kg. The recycle water in RAS was treated by a sieve bend screen, a foam fractionator, a submerged biofilter, an UV sterilizer and a submersible aerator. During the whole culture period, an excellent water quality control was achieved in RAS. At the end of this experiment, the survival rate of tiger puffer was more than 98%. The final tank densities averaged 31.2 kg m, and the final individual mean weight was 440 g. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of CpMg/Ga ratio on the properties of p-GaN was explored by scanning Hall probe, photoluminescence (PL), and atomic force microscopy measurement. It was found that p-GaN has an optimal doping concentration under 2% CpMg/Ga ratio, and higher or lower doping concentration is not beneficial to the conductivity. Hole concentration under the optimum condition is 4.2 × 10 cm at room temperature. If the CpMg/Ga ratio exceeds the optimum value of 2%, surface morphology and electrical conduction properties become poor, and blue emission at 440 nm, considered deep donor-to-acceptor pair transitions in the PL spectra, are dominant. The decrease in electrical properties indicates the existence of compensating donors because the hole concentration decreases at such high CpMg/Ga ratio. The obtained results indicate that Mg is not incorporated in the exact acceptor site under a heavy doping condition, but acts as a deep donor, instead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Al-Ni alloys have better glass forming ability (GFA) than other Al-based alloys. However, the relationship among the atomic arrangement, glass transition, packing density and composition hasn't been systematically studied. In this paper the ab initio molecular dynamics simulation (AIMD) was performed on the atom packing and density of AlNi ( x=80, 83, 85, 86, 87 and 90) alloys. The pair correlation function and Voronoi tessellation indicated that there are obvious topological and chemical short-range orders in these alloys. The topological structure consists of Al-centered icosahedra like and Ni-centered tri-capped trigonal prism (TTP) like polyhedra. There is strong chemical short-range ordering between Al and Ni atoms indicated by the bond-length of Al-Ni pair shorter than the sum of the radii of Al and Ni atoms, which increases with the increasing of Ni content. It is shown that the densities of amorphous alloys don't agree with the linear law with a peak at x=85. Based on the features of the structure and density, it is concluded that Al-Ni alloys at x=84-86 have high GFA, which can be extended to multi-component Al-based alloys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CrAlN coatings were deposited on silicon and AISI H13 steel substrates using a modified ion beam enhanced magnetron sputtering system. At the modified ion beam bombardment, the effects of bias voltage and Al/(Cr + Al) ratio on microstructure and mechanical properties of the coatings were studied. The X-ray diffraction data showed that all CrAlN coatings were crystallized in the cubic NaCl B1 structure, showing the (111), (200), and (220) preferential orientation. It is noted that the (111) diffraction peak intensity decreased and the peaks broadened as the bias voltage increased at the same ratio of Al/Cr targets power, which is attributed to the variation in the grain size and microstrain. The microstructure observation of the coatings by field emission scanning electron microscopy cross-section morphology shows that the columnar grain became more compact and dense with increasing substrate bias voltage and Al concentration. At a substrate bias voltage of −120 V and a Al/(Cr + Al) ratio of 40%, the coating had the highest hardness (33.8 GPa) and excellent adhesion to the substrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four fractions (A, B, C, and D) of humic acids (HAs) were separated based on the polarity from weak to strong. UV-vis absorption and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis show that the fractions C and Dpossessedmore aromatic C=C content. The influences of HAs and their fractions on the photolysis were investigated by the photodegradation of 2,4-D solutions under simulated solar light irradiation. The degradation rate of 2,4-D was found to decrease in the presence of bulk HAs or their fractions especially at high HAs concentration. The fractions of strong polarity C and D retarded the degradation rate more than the fractions of weak polarity A and B. This could be attributed to the different absorption intensity of the four HAs fractions in the order of D ⩾ C > A > B, and the stronger π-π electron donor-acceptor interactions between the strong polar fractions and 2,4-D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low seedling rate of rice caused by submergence in the process of rice direct seeding has always been an important factor limiting the popularization of rice direct seeding technology. Improving the tolerance of rice to submergence stress will benefit the production of rice and the promotion of direct seeding technology. In this study, we determined the submergence coleoptile length (SCL), submergence shoot length (SSL), and submergence tolerance index (STI) of 166 different cultivated rice seedlings as the phenotypes. Through the genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) of SCL, SSL, and STI, we found multiple quantitative trait locus (QTL) locations, including nine reported QTL locations. To narrow down the candidate gene numbers, we combined data from GWAS, transcriptomic analysis, gene function annotation, and reported QTL locations, and 50 candidate genes for submergence stress were obtained. Some reported genes had been firstly found to play certain roles in submergence-mediated growth response. Combining with reported RNA-seq data and expression profile data, we focused on four adjacent genes (LOC_Os11g47550, LOC_Os11g47570, LOC_Os11g47590, and LOC_Os11g47610) located in qAG11. RNA-seq and expression profile suggested the expression of these genes in sensitive and tolerant types differs hundreds of times (146~510 fold). Based on the diverse germplasms, we determined the natural haplotype of these genes. The haplotype analysis of these four genes showed a large genetic difference between indica and japonica. These results help us to better understand the molecular mechanism of natural variations in submergence tolerance among diverse germplasms and provide materials and new genes for further selection of new submergence tolerance varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]