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The article in the Journal of Plant Pathology reports the first case of Chilli veinal mottle virus (ChiVMV) infecting lettuce (Lactuca sativa) in China. The virus caused mosaic and narrowing of leaves in lettuce plants in Xingyi County, Guizhou Province. Through molecular analysis, researchers confirmed the presence of ChiVMV in the symptomatic lettuce plants, marking the first known occurrence of this virus in lettuce worldwide. The study was supported by the Science and Technology Program of Guizhou Qianxinan Prefectural Tobacco Company, and the data is publicly available for further research. [Extracted from the article]

Image sentiment analysis aims to employ a computational model to automatically discover the implied emotions from the underlying image, which are crucial in many practical applications. The psychological finding demonstrates that the emotional content is ordinarily involved in some informative regions. In fact, these informative regions of visual images also convey different emotional polarities and intensities. The emotion conveyed by the whole image can be regard as the combined effect of the positive-polarity emotional regions and the negative-polarity emotional regions. Motivated by this psychological prior knowledge, we propose a new polarity-aware attention network for image sentiment analysis in an end-to-end manner. Specifically, the proposed network is composed of a sentimental feature extraction backbone, a polarity-aware attention module and a fused classification module. The backbone is used to extract the global contextual features. The polarity-aware attention module not only attends to positive and negative emotion regions by predicting polarity-aware attention maps, but also estimates their polarity intensities. The fused classification module integrates the output of the first two modules for the final image sentiment prediction. A compound loss function is designed to guide network learning using the weakly-supervised manner and the distributed label smooth learning method. We validate our method on multiple benchmarks and the experimental results demonstrate that our method can obtain superior performance over several state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is an autoimmune disease. CD8 + T cell (CTLs) cytotoxicity played a crucial rule in of PBC with unclear detailed pathogenesis. Aims: The role of the programmed death-1 (PD-1) pathway in CD8 + T cell cytotoxicity in patients with PBC was determined. Methods: We recruited 69 patients with PBC and 57 healthy controls (HCs). PD-1 pathway in peripheral CD8 + T cells and related cytokines were detected, and gene expression levels were detected. Immunofluorescence staining of PD-1/PD-L1 was performed on liver tissue. PD-1 ± CTLs were cocultured with human intrahepatic biliary epithelial cells (HiBECs) to measure CTL cytotoxicity, proliferation and cytokine levels and HiBEC apoptosis. The upstream signaling pathway of PD-1 was detected. Results: PBC patients exhibited Tbet gene upregulation and PD-1 downregulation in CTLs, with PD-1 expression reduced in CTLs and PD-L1 reduced in the liver portal region relative to HCs. Higher plasma IL-10, interferon-γ and transforming growth factor-β concentrations were observed in the PBC group than the HC group. In CTL and HiBEC coculture experiment, compared with PD-1- CTLs, PD-1 + CTLs exhibited weaker cytotoxicity, less proliferation and lower cytokine production. When the system was blocked by anti-PD-1 antibodies, these effects were antagonized. Conclusions: PD-1 expression in CD8 + T cells decreased, and PD-1 pathway-related cytokines changed in patients with PBC. PD-1/PD-L1 pathway silencing increased CD8 + T cell proliferation, related cytokine production and CTL cytotoxic effects on HiBECs in coculture experiment. The PD-1/PD-L1 pathway might represent an important pathway in the immunological mechanism underlying PBC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characteristics of mercury (Hg) emissions from the fault zone can be used to understand the fault activity and evaluate the impact of emissions on the environment. Here, the distribution of soil Hg was investigated at the Daqingliangzi (DQL) site within the active Zemuhe fault zone in Sichuan, China. Total mercury in soil (THg) and total organic carbon (TOC) concentrations were analyzed at depths of 0–80 cm at 11 sampling sites. The THg concentrations showed large variations, ranging from 18 to 123 ng/g, with the higher values (94–113 ng/g) occurring within the fault plane profile. A positive correlation was observed between the THg and TOC concentrations. These correlations indicated that the enrichment of Hg most likely resulted from adsorption onto organic matter. The Hg migration and accumulation in the fault zone was related to the fault structure, and the Hg enrichment was mainly driven by natural emissions from the fault. This result could be useful in future studies of fault emission processes at the Earth's surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Autophagy in the immune and autoimmune diseases has been concerned more and more. We investigated the potential role of cell autophagy of B cells generating IgM in primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), and explored the relationship between the cell autophagy of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and hepatic fibrosis in PBC. Methods: We examined the aggregation degree of microtubule-associated protein light chain 3II (LC3II) in B cells of PBC (n = 21), health control (HC, n = 15) and disease control (DC, n = 8, active hepatitis B). The expression level of p62/SQSTM1 (p62) in B cells was detected by flow cytometry. ELISA was adopted to detect the level of IgM in the B cell culture supernatant under the basal condition, activated condition(stimulated by pokeweed mitogen, PWM) and inhibited condition(inhibited by autophagy inhibitor, 3-methyladenine, 3-MA) respectively. We detected the expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), the infiltration level of LC3II, transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), platelet-derived growth factor-bb (PDGF-bb), and collagen I in the hepatic tissues of five PBC patients and two HC individuals. Results: When B cells were stimulated and activated by PWM, the expression of p62 increased, and the mean fluorescence intensity (MFI, 2404.8 ± 689.0) of p62 in PBC was lower than that in HC (2966.8 ± 488.9,P = 0.0227). Under 3-MA treatment, the MFI expressed of p62 in B cells weakened. The reduction difference in PBC (466.4 ± 214.9) was smaller than that in HC (1166.6 ± 231.2, P = 0.0000) and DC (1184.8 ± 197.7, P = 0.0001). The level of generating IgM in the PBC group was obviously higher than that in the HC group (65.7 ± 15.4 vs. 49.5 ± 20.4 ng/ml, P = 0.0357). Before and after B cells were treated with 3-MA, the peak level of IgM did not significantly diminish in PBC and DC (65.7 ± 15.4 vs. 59.6 ± 18.7 ng/ml, P = 0.2965; 50.1 ± 17.4 vs. 48.4 ± 12.3 ng/ml, P = 0.8336). The immunohistochemical result revealed that the expression level of collagen I, α-SMA, TGF-β and PDGF-bb in PBC was higher than that in HC, but the expression of LC3II was lower. Similarly, immunofluorescence assay revealed that the fluorescence intensity of collagen I was higher but LC3II was lower in PBC than that in HC. Conclusion: The high level autophagy of B cells from PBC patients is one important factor to synthesize and secrete IgM. Hepatic fibrosis of PBC is probably associated with the weakened autophagy of HSCs. Key Points • High-level autophagy of B cells in PBC patients is an important factor to synthesize and secrete IgM. • Pro-fibrogenic cytokines in PBC influence the increase of collagen-I through HSC autophagy, and promote the occurrence and development of hepatic fibrosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of meteorological satellite technology has made it feasible to observe cloud cover over the Earth's surface, and the number of high-precision meteorological satellite images available has increased dramatically over the years. However, there exists a gap between meteorological satellite cloud images and the true information of the pictured clouds. Therefore, extracting the true atmospheric information from "forged" satellite images in real time is a challenging task. In this paper, we proposed a real-time typhoon eye detection method from meteorological satellite cloud images based on deep learning. This new approach is the first step in detecting hidden information in satellite cloud images and provides important data support to detect true typhoon information. We performed simulation experiments and the results showed that the proposed method performs well in identifying typhoons, where the positive sample accuracy rate, negative sample accuracy rate, and total average accuracy rate are 94.22%, 99.43%, and 96.83%, respectively. In the testing process, the average time needed to detect each sample is 6 ms, which fulfills the requirement for real-time typhoon eye detection. Our method outperforms the k-nearest neighbors (KNN) and support vector machine (SVM) algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A bipartite begomovirus was identified from a Boehmeria leiophylla plant sample exhibiting yellow mosaic symptoms collected in Nabanhe National Nature Reserve, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China. Five complete DNA-A and four DNA-B genome sequences were obtained by rolling-circle amplification (RCA), cloned, and sequenced. All DNA-A sequences were determined to be 2759 nucleotides in size, sharing 99.9%-100% nucleotide sequence identity with each other. The DNA-B sequences were comprised of 2673 nucleotides, sharing 98.6-100% nucleotide sequence identity with each other. Genomic organization of the begomovirus was typical of Old World bipartite begomoviruses. Sequence analysis revealed 81.84% nucleotide sequence identity to tomato leaf curl Hsinchu virus (ToLCHsV) from China for the DNA A component and 67.23% identity to the squash leaf curl China virus (SLCCNV) from India for the DNA B component. The sequence comparisons suggest that this bipartite begomovirus represents a novel species for which we propose the name “Ramie yellow mosaic virus”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emilia sonchifolia is a traditionally used medicinal plant that is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Yellow vein symptoms were observed in E. sonchifolia plants in fields in the county of Koh Samui, Surat Thani Province, Thailand, in August 2015. Two distinct begomoviruses, designated TH4872-6 and TH4872-9, and an associated alphasatellite were obtained from an E. sonchifolia leaf sample (TH4872). Sequence analysis showed that the full-length sequence of TH4872-6 was most closely related to that of ageratum yellow vein China virus (AYVCNV), with 85.7% identity, suggesting that it is a novel begomovirus, while the TH4872-9 sequence closely resembled cotton leaf curl Multan virus (CLCuMuV) with 99.1% identity. The alphasatellite sequence showed the highest nucleotide sequence identity (92.8%) to an isolate of tobacco curly shoot alphasatellite (TbCSA) originating from China. Recombination analysis revealed that the isolate TH4872-6 is a potential recombinant begomovirus, derived from ageratum yellow vein virus (AYVV) and tobacco leaf curl Thailand virus (TbLCTHV). This study represents the first report of begomoviruses identified in E. sonchifolia in Thailand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of Cu binding and the utilization of different force fields when modeling the structural characteristics of α-syn12 peptide were investigated. To this end, we performed extensive temperature replica exchange molecular dynamics (T-REMD) simulations on Cu-bound and unbound α-syn12 peptide using the GROMOS 43A1, OPLS-AA, and AMBER03 force fields. Each replica was run for 300 ns. The structural characteristics of α-syn12 peptide were studied based on backbone dihedral angle distributions, free-energy surfaces obtained with different reaction coordinates, favored conformations, the formation of different Turn structures, and the solvent exposure of the hydrophobic residues. The findings show that AMBER03 prefers to sample helical structures for the unbound α-syn12 peptide and does not sample any β-hairpin structure for the Cu-bound α-syn12 peptide. In contrast, the central structure of the major conformational clusters for the Cu-bound and unbound α-syn12 peptide according to simulations performed using the GROMOS 43A1 and OPLS-AA force fields is a β-hairpin with Turn. Cu can also promote the formation of the β-hairpin and increase the solvent exposure of hydrophobic residues, which promotes the aggregation of α-syn12 peptide. This study can help us to understand the mechanisms through which Cu participates in the fibrillation of α-syn12 peptide at the atomic level, which in turn represents a step towards elucidating the nosogenesis of Parkinson's disease. [Figure not available: see fulltext.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple symmetric lipomatosis (MSL) is a rare disease characterized by symmetric and abnormal distribution of subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT); however, the etiology is largely unknown. We report here that miR-125a-3p and miR-483-5p are upregulated in the SAT of MSL patients, promoting adipogenesis through suppressing the RhoA/ROCK1/ERK1/2 pathway. TaqMan microRNA (miR) array analysis revealed that 18 miRs were upregulated in the SAT of MSL patients. Transfection of human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hADSCs) with the individual agomirs of these 18 miRs showed that miR-125a-3p and miR-483-5p significantly promoted adipogenesis. A dual-luciferase assay showed that RhoA and ERK1 were the targets of miR-125a-3p and miR-483-5p, respectively. Moreover, transfection of hADSCs with mimics of miR-125a-3p and miR-483-5p resulted in a pronounced decrease of ERK1/2 phosphorylation in the nucleus; conversely, transfection of hADSCs with inhibitors of miR-125a-3p and miR-483-5p led to a significant increase of ERK1/2 phosphorylation in the nucleus. Most importantly, we found that miR-125a-3p and miR-483-5p promoted de novo adipose tissue formation in nude mice. These results demonstrated that miR-125a-3p and miR-483-5p coordinately promoted adipogenesis through suppressing the RhoA/ROCK1/ERK1/2 pathway. Our findings may provide novel strategies for the management and treatment of MSL or obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]