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Aims: Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the most common focal epilepsy syndrome in adults and frequently develops drug resistance. Studies have investigated the value of peripheral DNA methylation signature as molecular biomarker for diagnosis or prognosis. We aimed to explore methylation biomarkers for TLE diagnosis and pharmacoresistance prediction. Methods: We initially conducted genome‐wide DNA methylation profiling in TLE patients, and then selected candidate CpGs in training cohort and validated in another independent cohort by employing machine learning algorithms. Furthermore, nomogram comprising DNA methylation and clinicopathological data was generated to predict the drug response in the entire patient cohort. Lastly, bioinformatics analysis for CpG‐associated genes was performed using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis. Results: After screening and validation, eight CpGs were identified for diagnostic biomarker with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.81 and six CpGs for drug‐resistant prediction biomarker with an AUC of 0.79. The nomogram for drug‐resistant prediction comprised methylation risk score, disease course, seizure frequency, and hippocampal sclerosis, with AUC as high as 0.96. Bioinformatics analysis indicated drug response–related CpGs corresponding genes closely related to DNA methylation. Conclusions: This study demonstrates the ability to use peripheral DNA methylation signature as molecular biomarker for epilepsy diagnosis and drug‐resistant prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epileptogenesis is a potential process. Mossy fibre sprouting (MFS) and synaptic plasticity promote epileptogenesis. Overexpression of repulsive guidance molecule a (RGMa) prevents epileptogenesis by inhibiting MFS. However, other aspects underlying the RGMa regulatory process of epileptogenesis have not been elucidated. We studied whether RGMa could be modulated by microRNAs and regulated RhoA in epileptogenesis. Using microRNA databases, we selected four miRNAs as potential candidates. We further experimentally confirmed miR‐20a‐5p as a RGMa upstream regulator. Then, in vitro, by manipulating miR‐20a‐5p and RGMa, we investigated the regulatory relationship between miR‐20a‐5p, RGMa and RhoA, and the effects of this pathway on neuronal morphology. Finally, in the epilepsy animal model, we determined whether the miR‐20a‐5p‐RGMa‐RhoA pathway influenced MFS and synaptic plasticity and then modified epileptogenesis. Our results showed that miR‐20a‐5p regulated RGMa and that RGMa regulated RhoA in vitro. Furthermore, in primary hippocampal neurons, the miR‐20a‐5p‐RGMa‐RhoA pathway regulated axonal growth and neuronal branching; in the PTZ‐induced epilepsy model, silencing miR‐20a‐5p prevented epileptogenesis through RGMa‐RhoA‐mediated synaptic plasticity but did not change MFS. Overall, we concluded that silencing miR‐20a‐5p inhibits axonal growth and neuronal branching and prevents epileptogenesis through RGMa‐RhoA‐mediated synaptic plasticity in the PTZ‐induced epilepsy model, thereby providing a possible strategy to prevent epileptogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agrilus mali Matsumara (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) is a wood‐boring beetle distributed to eastern China that occasionally injures apple species. However, this wood‐boring beetle is new to the wild apple forests (Malus sieversii) of the Tianshan Mountains (western China) and has caused extensive tree mortality. The development of a biological control program for these wild apple forests is a high priority that requires exploration of the life cycle, DNA barcoding and taxonomic status of A. mali. In this study, to determine the diversity of invasive beetles, a fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase gene was analyzed. Based on the results, beetles from Gongliu and Xinyuan counties of Xinjiang were identical but differed from those in the apple nursery of Gongliu by a single‐nucleotide substitution. We summarize the taxonomic status, relationships, and genetic distances of A. mali among other Agrilus species using the Tajima‐Nei model in maximum likelihood phylogeny. Analysis revealed that A. mali was closely related to Agrilus mendax and both belong to the Sinuatiagrulus subgenus. The life cycle of A. mali was investigated based on a monthly regular inspection in the wild apple forests of Tianshan. Similar to congeneric species, hosts are injured by larvae of A. mali feeding on phloem tissue, resulting in serpentine galleries constructed between bark and xylem that prevent nutrient transport and leading to tree mortality. Future studies will focus on plant physiological responses to the invasive beetles and include surveys of natural enemies for a potential classical biological control program. This study summarizes the taxonomic status and relationship of Agrilus mali among other Agrilus species using DNA barcodes. Insect and life history were described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The caching‐enabled mobile edge computing (MEC) system becomes increasingly crucial to the future long‐term evolution vehicle‐to‐infrastructure (LTE‐V2I) network, especially for fast delivery of popular content of delay‐sensitive applications in the backhaul capacity–limited vehicular networks. Most related studies mainly focus on computation offloading strategy design and coding caching, while the deployment strategy design of caching capacities for high‐speed vehicles has been overlooked. In this paper, we investigate the deployment problem in LTE‐V2I networks with particular consideration on high‐speed vehicles. First, in a one‐way scenario, a joint optimization framework is formulated to minimize the cache size of the MEC system, meanwhile maximizing the average downloading percentage, where the MEC system's backhaul capacities, vehicle speeds, content popularity distributions, and sides of the highway are taken into account. The impacts of LTE‐V2I system parameters, eg, vehicle speed, on the objective function are revealed through the one‐way optimization. Then, the two‐way optimization is formulated and solved by developing an iterative optimization approach based on the aforementioned one‐way scenario. Particularly, the optimal caching allocation between two ways is derived. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches even with low backhaul capacities and high vehicle speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]