Search

The treatment outcome of breast cancer is closely related to estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) expression. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) lacking ER, PR, and HER2 expression has limited treatment options and a poor prognosis. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) play a role in promoting or resisting tumors by affecting the tumor microenvironment and are known as key regulators in breast cancer progression. However, treatments for TNBC (e.g., surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy) have non-satisfaction’s curative effect so far. This article reviews the role of different types of TILs in TNBC and the research progress of adoptive cell therapy, aiming to provide new therapeutic approaches for TNBC.

In the context of global climate change, temperate forests in climate-sensitive areas are inevitably affected. To deepen the understanding of the impact on precipitation changes into the relationship between key ecosystem services (ESs), this study selected net primary productivity (NPP), soil conservation (SC) and water yield (WY) of temperate forest in northern China as objects, and the Spearman correlation test and redundancy analysis were applied to analyze the response of ESs relationship to precipitation gradient. The results show that precipitation is the meteorological factor with the greatest impact (contribution 21.2%, p

Down syndrome (DS) is caused by the trisomy of human chromosome 21 (HSA21). A major challenge in DS research is to identify the HSA21 genes that cause specific symptoms. Down syndrome cell adhesion molecule (DSCAM) is encoded by a HSA21 gene. Previous studies have shown that the protein level of the Drosophila homolog of DSCAM determines the size of presynaptic terminals. However, whether the triplication of DSCAM contributes to presynaptic development in DS remains unknown. Here, we show that DSCAM levels regulate GABAergic synapses formed on neocortical pyramidal neurons (PyNs). In the Ts65Dn mouse model for DS, where DSCAM is overexpressed due to DSCAM triplication, GABAergic innervation of PyNs by basket and chandelier interneurons is increased. Genetic normalization of DSCAM expression rescues the excessive GABAergic innervations and the increased inhibition of PyNs. Conversely, loss of DSCAM impairs GABAergic synapse development and function. These findings demonstrate excessive GABAergic innervation and synaptic transmission in the neocortex of DS mouse models and identify DSCAM overexpression as the cause. They also implicate dysregulated DSCAM levels as a potential pathogenic driver in related neurological disorders. Developmental brain disorders are a hallmark of Down syndrome, but what cellular and molecular mechanisms underlie these disorders? This study shows that the excessive number of inhibitory synapses in the neocortex of Down syndrome mouse models is caused by increased levels of Down Syndrome Cell Adhesion Molecule (DSCAM).

Abstract Stem cell therapy is a promising strategy to rescue visual impairment caused by retinal degeneration. Previous studies have proposed controversial theories about whether in situ retinal stem cells (RSCs) are present in adult human eye tissue. Single‐cell RNA sequencing (scRNA‐seq) has emerged as one of the most powerful tools to reveal the heterogeneity of tissue cells. By using scRNA‐seq, we explored the cell heterogeneity of different subregions of adult human eyes, including pars plicata, pars plana, retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), iris, and neural retina (NR). We identified one subpopulation expressing SRY‐box transcription factor 2 (SOX2) as RSCs, which were present in the pars plicata of the adult human eye. Further analysis showed the identified subpopulation of RSCs expressed specific markers aquaporin 1 (AQP1) and tetraspanin 12 (TSPAN12). We, therefore, isolated this subpopulation using these two markers by flow sorting and found that the isolated RSCs could proliferate and differentiate into some retinal cell types, including photoreceptors, neurons, RPE cells, microglia, astrocytes, horizontal cells, bipolar cells, and ganglion cells; whereas, AQP1− TSPAN12− cells did not have this differentiation potential. In conclusion, our results showed that SOX2‐positive RSCs are present in the pars plicata and may be valuable for treating human retinal diseases due to their proliferation and differentiation potential.

Vectorized isosurface mapping is critical for conducting scientific research in computational fluid dynamics (CFD). We provide a Python-based tool for the vectorized isosurface mapping of scalar field information in CFD simulation results, with the goal of reducing file size while ensuring file editability and graphical presentation independent of resolution. The ideal interpolation angle is first determined by spatially rotating the target region, which reduces the invalid interpolation range. Second, because it uses the spatial clipping approach, it offers a graphics processing method for particular geometric structures such as “islands” or “masks”. Finally, the data size is decreased using Geobuf’s space-compressed storage format. The application case, which visualizes the spatiotemporal evolution of the EFDC (Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code) concentration field, demonstrates that the spatial rotation and clipping strategies improve both the spatial interpolation and isosurface tracking effectiveness, and make the analysis results conform better to the actual situation. The spatial compression strategy substantially promotes network propagation and the retrieval of contour maps, supporting multi-scenario analysis web applications based on the isosurface spatiotemporal evolution animation method.

Landscape structures affect pests, depending on compositional heterogeneity (the number and proportions of different habitats), configurational heterogeneity (spatial arrangement of habitats), and spatial scales. However, there is limited information on the relative effects of compositional and configurational heterogeneity on invasive pests and their associates (species that can benefit from invasive pests), and how they vary across spatial scales. In this study, we assayed the invasive pest Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) and its associated fly Drosophila melanogaster in 15 landscapes centered on mango orchards. We calculated landscape composition (forest percentage, mango percentage, and Shannon's diversity) and configuration (edge density) using two methods: spatial distance scales and combined scales. Spatial distance scales included buffer rings with radii of 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 km, and combined scales referred to cutting or not cutting a smaller ring from larger ones. Our results shown that compositional heterogeneity positively affected B. dorsalis and D. melanogaster due to forest cover percentage, whereas configurational heterogeneity with high edge density negative effect on B. dorsalis. Forest cover had less of an effect on B. dorsalis than configurational heterogeneity, but the opposite effect was observed for D. melanogaster. Importantly, the direction and strength of forest cover and configurational heterogeneity to species did not vary with spatial distance scales or spatial combined scales. Thus, compositional and configurational heterogeneity exhibit differential effects on this invasive pest and its associator, and revealed that the relative effects of landscape structures are consistent across multiple scales. These results provide new insights into landscape effects on interconnected species using a diverse spatial-scale approach.

The protection of migratory birds and their habitats is important to the ecological stability of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP). Currently protected areas (PAs) were designed in accordance with species distribution patterns under current climatic conditions, thus ignoring climate change will lead to a decrease in the protection efficiency of PAs. In this study, using the flagship species Grus nigricollis, as an example, we used the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model to simulate the distributions and conservation status of G. nigricollis and optimized the existing PA boundaries . The results showed that (1) suitable habitat- for G. nigricollis accounts for 12.48% of the QTP area, and the PAs established under current climatic conditions cover 17.84% of this suitable habitat area; (2) future climate changes will influence the distribution and quality of G. nigricollis habitats, and the average protection efficiency of the current PAs in four climatic scenarios will decrease from 17.84% to 15.31%; and (3) through optimization, the efficiency of existing PAs can be increased by 0.75 times and reach 28.37%, indicating PA planning must consider not only current climate conditions but also the effects of climate changes. Our results aim to address shortcomings in the conservation efficiency of PAs and provide an example for resolving mismatched PA boundaries and habitat changes for species.

Oilseed crops are rich in plant lipids that not only provide essential fatty acids for the human diet but also play important roles as major sources of biofuels and indispensable raw materials for the chemical industry. The regulation of lipid metabolism genes is a major factor affecting oil production. In this review, we systematically summarize the metabolic pathways related to lipid production and storage in plants and highlight key research advances in characterizing the genes and regulatory factors influencing lipid anabolic metabolism. In addition, we integrate the latest results from multi-omics studies on lipid metabolism to provide a reference to better understand the molecular mechanisms underlying oil anabolism in oilseed crops.

Seedlessness in grapes is much appreciated by consumers and especially in cultivars consumed either as table grapes or as raisins. In many parts of the world, low temperature is the main environmental stress limiting grape production. In this study, stenospermocarpic (seed abortion) cultivars were selected as the female parents while seeded cold-resistant cultivars were selected as the male parents to develop new cold-resistant seedless grapes using embryo rescue technology, which has previously been shown to be a highly efficient way of breeding seedless grapes. Here, we report optima in genotype, sampling time, and culture medium for the embryo rescue of 14 hybrid combinations. Our results indicate that the embryo development rate (39.9%) and the seedlings rate (21.5%) were highest among the 14 crosses when ‘Ruby Seedless’ was used as the female parent and ‘Beibinghong’ was used as the male parent. The best sampling times for ‘Yuehong Wuhe’, ‘Ruby Seedless’, and ‘Melissa seedless’ were 37, 55, and 52 days after flowering, respectively. Embryo rescue efficiency was highest when the sucrose concentration for seedlings was maintained at about 1.0%. Using molecular markers, we detected 91 hybrids with seedless traits and 18 hybrids with cold resistance traits.

Applications of water environment models are greatly limited by complex internal structure of the model and timeconsuming calculations, significant computation burdens arise during the process of parameter calibration, multi-scenario analysis, and decision-making optimization.How to integrate water environment model and big data technology, deeply explore the potential of model application and give full play to its application value is a research hotspot.The bottlenecks faced by the water environment model in the process of practical application were summarized, and the potential of big data technology in solving these problems was analyzed.Based on the existing big data technology, a framework for the integration of water environment model and big data technology was proposed to solve the problem of large-scale calculation, large-scale storage and application analysis of water environment model.The problems faced in the integration of model and big data technologies were described, and specific technical ways of implementation were proposed.A case study for calibration of SWAT model was used to demonstrate feasibility of the proposed framework.Finally, the future research direction of water environment modeling in the context of big data was discussed, and the conclusion was pointed out that the research on surrogate modeling of complex water environment model and on water environment simulation and optimization framework is the future development trend.

This study aimed to investigate relationships among parental psychological control, adolescent emotion regulation, and social problems in China. In total, 1,145 adolescents aged 12–15 years participated in the study, which used the Parental Psychological Control Scale, Adolescent Problem Behavior Scale, and Emotion Regulation Scale. The results indicated the following: (1) Compared with only-child teens, adolescents in multi-child families had significant social problems; (2) parental psychological control significantly predicted adolescents’ social problems; (3) there was a partially mediating effect of adolescents’ emotion regulation between parental psychological control and adolescents’ social problems.

Objective Weaning is an important stage in the life of young mammals, which is associated with intestinal inflammation, gut microbiota disorders, and even death. β-Carotene displays anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities, which can prevent the development of inflammatory diseases. However, whether β-carotene can affect intestinal microbiota remains unclear. Methods Twenty-four piglets were distributed into four groups: the normal suckling group (Con), the weaning group (WG), the weaning+β-carotene (40 mg/kg) group (LCBC), and the weaning+β-carotene (80 mg/kg) group (HCBC). The serum, jejunum, colon, and faeces were collected separately from each group. The effects of β-carotene on the phenotype, overall structure, and composition of gut microbiota were assessed in weaning piglets. Results The results showed that β-carotene improved the growth performance, intestinal morphology and relieved inflammation. Furthermore, β-carotene significantly decreased the species from phyla Bacteroidetes and the genus Prevotella, and Blautia, and increased the species from the phyla Firmicutes and the genera p-75-a5, and Parabacteroides compared to the WG group. Spearman’s correlation analysis showed that Prevotella and Blautia were positively correlated, and Parabacteroides and Synergistes were negatively correlated with the levels of interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-6, and tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), while p-75-a5 showed negative correlation with IL-6 in serum samples from piglets. Conclusion These findings indicate that β-carotene could alleviate weaning-induced intestinal inflammation by modulating gut microbiota in piglets. Prevotella may be a potential target of β-carotene in alleviating the weaning-induced intestinal inflammation in piglets.

Abstract This paper considers the problem of practical stability for time‐varying positive systems with time delay. For both non‐linear time‐varying positive systems and linear time‐varying positive (LTVP) systems with time delay, sufficient conditions on practical stability are derived by the max‐separable Lyapunov‐Krasovskii (L–K) functional method. Then based on the obtained results, an effective method for designing a desired controller in terms of state feedback and state feedback with input delay is established for LTVP systems with time delay. At the end, numerical examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of our results.

Although biodiversity has been shown to profoundly affect ecosystem function in forests, the processes which it impacts are limited understood. Various plant species with diverse sizes interact to form complex networks to complete resource use processes, but little is known about the role of species-size networks in influencing ecosystem function and biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships. Using a dataset encompassing 423 species and 32,067 individuals, we constructed species–tree diameter and species–tree height networks for two sampling areas (0.04 and 0.09 ha), and then calculated the network modularity for species and size interlinked specialization and nestedness, species or sizes with relatively few links are a subset of those with more network links. We analyzed the relationships between modularity, nestedness, and the aboveground biomass. The direct and indirect effects of species abundance and richness on the aboveground biomass through network structures were explored using structural equation modelling. Regardless of the species–tree diameter or height network, modularity was positively associated with the aboveground biomass, independent of the sampling area, while nestedness was negatively associated. Species abundance negatively affected the modularity, but positively affected nestedness, whereas species richness had the opposite effect. Species abundance and richness affected the aboveground biomass indirectly through modularity and nestedness, but the effect of modularity was greater than that of nestedness. Our study confirms that the importance of species–size networks in the context of the aboveground biomass has similar effects on species–diameter and height networks across sampling areas. It clarifies that modularity from interactions between species and individuals is a useful indicator to reveal the mechanism by which plant diversity acquires resources for biomass production. These results provide new insights into biodiversity–ecosystem function relationships from a network perspective.

BackgroundThe high incidence of post-stroke depression (PSD) during rehabilitation exerts a negative effect on the treatment and functional recovery of patients with stroke and increases the risk of mortality. It is necessary to screen PSD in the rehabilitation stage and thus provide effective intervention strategies. However, existing measurements used to assess PSD in the rehabilitation stage in patients with stroke lack specificity. This study aimed to develop a clinical measure to assess symptoms of PSD in the rehabilitation stage.MethodsThe research team created the initial items through a literature review and semi-structured interviews of patients with stroke. Then, the symptom-related items were estimated by three panels: healthcare professionals (N = 41), Delphi experts (N = 15), and patients with stroke in the rehabilitation stage (N = 30).ResultsThe literature review and semi-structured interview produced 51 symptom-related items including six domains, and the items were reduced to 47 by the healthcare professionals. The symptom-related items were further reduced to 33 items by a two-round Delphi consultation. The initiative coefficients of the two Delphi rounds were 71.4 and 100%, the expert authority coefficients were both 0.85, Kendall’s W were 0.152 and 0.408 (p < 0.01), and the coefficient of variation (CV) were 0.05–0.32 and 0.00–0.18, respectively. The item-level content validity index (I-CVI) was 0.53–1.00, the scale-level CVI/universal agreement (S-CVI/UA) was 0.26, and the S-CVI/average (S -CVI/Ave) was 0.85 for the first found Delphi consultation; the I-CVI was 0.67–1.00, the S-CVI/UA was 0.61, and the S-CVI/Ave was 0.97 for the second round Delphi consultation. All content validity indicators have been significantly improved compared with the first round. Using mean ≥ 4 and full score ≥ 0.5, combined with CV ≤ 0.16 as the item criteria, a clinical measure of PSD with 33 items and 6 dimensions (cognition, sleep, behavior, emotion, body, and guilt) was finally formed after two rounds. The patients with stroke made no further revisions after evaluation.ConclusionThe research team developed a specific tool with good content validity to assess the symptoms of PSD in the rehabilitation stage.

Uveitis causes blindness and critical visual impairment in people of all ages, and retinal microglia participate in uveitis progression. Unfortunately, effective treatment is deficient. Icariin (ICA) is a bioactive monomer derived from Epimedium. However, the role of ICA in uveitis remains elusive. Our study indicated that ICA alleviated intraocular inflammation in vivo. Further results showed the proinflammatory M1 microglia could be transferred to anti-inflammatory M2 microglia by ICA in the retina and HMC3 cells. However, the direct pharmacological target of ICA is unknown, to this end, proteome microarrays and molecular simulations were used to identify the molecular targets of ICA. Data showed that ICA binds to peroxiredoxin-3 (PRDX3), increasing PRDX3 protein expression in both a time- and a concentration-dependent manner and promoting the subsequent elimination of H2O2. In addition, GPX4/SLC7A11/ACSL4 pathways were activated accompanied by PRDX3 activation. Functional tests demonstrated that ICA-derived protection is afforded through targeting PRDX3. First, ICA-shifted microglial M1/M2 phenotypic polarization was no longer detected by blocking PRDX3 both in vivo and in vitro. Next, ICA-activated GPX4/SLC7A11/ACSL4 pathways and downregulated H2O2 production were also reversed via inhibiting PRDX3 both in vivo and in vitro. Finally, ICA-elicited positive effects on intraocular inflammation were eliminated in PRDX3-deficient retina from experimental autoimmune uveitis (EAU) mice. Taking together, ICA-derived PRDX3 activation has therapeutic potential for uveitis, which might be associated with modulating microglial M1/M2 phenotypic polarization.

Abstract Background Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are an emerging prophylaxis option for graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in haplo-identical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (haplo-HSCT) recipients with severe aplastic anemia (SAA), but studies have reported inconsistent results. This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluates the efficacy of MSCs as prophylaxis for GVHD in SAA patients with haplo-HSCT. Methods Studies were retrieved from PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane, Web of Science, and http://clinicaltrials.gov from establishment to February 2020. Twenty-nine single-arm studies (n = 1456) were included, in which eight (n = 241) studies combined with MSCs and eleven (n = 1215) reports without MSCs in haplo-HSCT for SAA patients. The primary outcomes were the incidences of GVHD. Other outcomes included 2-year overall survival (OS) and the incidence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated to compare the results pooled through random or fixed effects models. Results Between MSCs and no MSCs groups, no significant differences were found in the pooled incidences of acute GVHD (56.0%, 95% CI 48.6–63.5% vs. 47.2%, 95% CI 29.0–65.4%; OR 1.43, 95% CI 0.91–2.25; p = 0.123), grade II–IV acute GVHD (29.8%, 95% CI 24.1–35.5% vs. 30.6%, 95% CI 26.6–34.6%; OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.70–1.32; p = 0.889), and chronic GVHD (25.4%, 95% CI 19.8–31.0% vs. 30.0%, 95% CI 23.3–36.6%; OR 0.79, 95% CI 0.56–1.11; p = 0.187). Furtherly, there was no obvious difference in 2-year OS (OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.60–1.61; p = 1.000) and incidence of CMV infection (OR 0.61, 95% CI 0.40–1.92; p = 0.018). Conclusions Our meta-analysis indicates that the prophylactic use of MSC co-transplantation is not an effective option for SAA patients undergoing haplo-HSCT. Hence, the general co-transplantation of MSCs for SAA haplo-HSCT recipients may lack evidence-based practice.

Clustering data with both numeric and categorical attributes is of great importance as such data are ubiquitous in real-world problems. Multi-view learning approaches have proven to be more effective and having better generalisation ability compared to single-view learning in many problems. However, most of the existing clustering algorithms developed for mixed numeric and categorical data are single-view. In this research, we propose a novel multi-view clustering algorithm based on the k-prototypes (which we term Multi-view K-Prototypes) for clustering mixed data. To the best of our knowledge, our proposed Multi-view K-Prototypes is the first multi-view version of the well-known k-prototypes algorithm. To cluster the mixed data over multiple views, we present a novel representation prototype of cluster centres in the scenario of multiple views, and we also devise formulas for updating the cluster centres over each view. Then we propose the concept of consensus cluster centres to output the final clustering result. Finally, we carried out a series of experiments on four benchmark datasets to assess the performance of the proposed Multi-view K-Prototypes clustering. Experimental results show that the Multi-view K-Prototypes algorithm outperforms the seven state-of-the-art algorithms in most cases.

Abstract This article describes a new method of urban pluvial flood modeling by coupling the 1D storm water management model (SWMM) and the 2D flood inundation model (ECNU Flood-Urban). The SWMM modeling results (the overflow of the manholes) are used as the input boundary condition of the ECNU Flood-Urban model to simulate the rainfall–runoff processes in an urban environment. The analysis is applied to the central business district of East Nanjing Road in downtown Shanghai, considering 5-, 10-, 20-, 50-, and 100-year return period rainfall scenarios. The results show that node overflow, water depth, and inundation area increase proportionately with the growing return periods. Water depths are mostly predicted to be shallow and surface flows generally occur in the urban road network due to its low-lying nature. The simulation result of the coupled model proves to be reliable and suggests that urban surface water flooding could be accurately simulated by using this methodology. Adaptation measures (upgrading of the urban drainage system) can then be targeted at specific locations with significant overflow and flooding.

Pollution of the marine environment by ship garbage is an urgent problem to be solved at home and abroad. The ship kitchen garbage vacuum collection system is a new environmental protection scheme for garbage disposal. It has many advantages, such as using a pipeline instead of manual operation, creating high-level sanitary conditions, realising completely closed garbage collection and transportation, eliminating cross-pollution, saving space and so on. In this paper, the system is modelled, and the calculation of pipeline pressure loss, the vacuum degree of the vacuum tank and the energy consumption of the system are briefly introduced. In order to reduce the energy consumption, an algorithm for the emptying and discharging port is presented. In order to solve the problem of optimising relevant parameters, the vacuum transport mechanism of garbage is studied based on an optimisation model of the pipe network, and the experimental platform of a simulation device is set up. In engineering, this is of great significance to the design of cruise ship garbage collection and treatment systems and the development of supporting technology.

There is interest in the role of peripheral interleukin-6 (IL-6) in depression and the effect of treatment (e. g., pharmacologic, psychosocial, neurostimulation). However, the relationship between cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), IL-6 and depression has not yet been established. We conducted a meta-analysis to explore the association between CBT and change of peripheral IL-6 levels in depressive symptoms or major depressive disorder (MDD). A systematic search of online databases (i.e., PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, PsycINFO, and Cochrane Library) was completed from inception to May 2021. In total, 10 eligible papers with 940 participants reporting peripheral IL-6 levels before and after CBT were included in the analysis. The main result indicates that peripheral levels of IL-6 were significantly lower after CBT intervention in individuals with depression, with a small effect (SMD = 0.38, 95% CI: 0.07, 0.69, p = 0.02). The results of subgroup analyses demonstrate that (1) there was a significant decrease in IL-6 for studies that were equal to or

ObjectiveStress is a major public health challenge and is associated with undesirable eating behavior. This cross-sectional study aimed to explore whether there is an association between perceived level of stress and food preference among Chinese adults.Study DesignPerceived level of stress was measured using the Chinese version of the 14-item Perceived Stress Scale, whereas self-reported food preferences were investigated by means of five food classification questions, including questions regarding the consumption of fast food, salty snacks, fruit, vegetables, and soft/sugary drinks.MethodsThe data were collected from the 2015 China Health and Nutrition Survey. Information of 8,216 adults (≥18 years) on perceived level of stress, self-reported food preferences, and other important covariates was available and analyzed.ResultsPerceived level of stress was negatively associated with a preference for fruit (β = −0.58, 95% CI: −0.81 to −0.34, p < 0.0001) and vegetables (β = −1.13, 95% CI: −1.41 to −0.85, p < 0.0001), while it was positively associated with a preference for fast food (β = 0.36, 95% CI: 0.08–0.64, p = 0.011) and soft/sugary drinks (β = 0.48, 95% CI: 0.30–0.66, p < 0.0001) after adjusting for potential confounders. No association between a preference for salty snacks and perceived level of stress was found in either men or women.ConclusionsThe present population-based study reported strong associations between perceived level of stress and self-reported food preferences among Chinese adults. Sex differences related to this association were also worthy of attention.

Accurate forecasting of the future transfer passenger flow from historical data is essential for helping travelers to adjust their trips, optimal resource allocation and alleviating traffic congestion. However, current studies have mainly emphasized predicting traffic parameters for a single type of transport, while lacking research into transfer passenger flow influenced by multiple factors across different transport modes. Additionally, efficient traffic prediction relies on high-quality traffic data, yet data loss issues are inevitable but often ignored. To fill these gaps, we present for the first time a reliable joint long short-term memory with matrix factorization deep learning model (i.e., Joint-IF) for accurate imputation and forecasting of transfer passenger flow between metro and bus. This hybrid Joint-IF model uses a repair-before-prediction strategy to deliver the final high-quality outputs. In particular, we simulate a variety of missing combinations under the natural conditions and apply a low-rank matrix factorization to infer those lost values. In addition, we investigate the effects of crucial parameters and spatiotemporal features on transfer flow prediction. To validate the effectiveness of Joint-IF, a large series of experiments are carried out for models’ comparison and validation on the real-world transfer passenger flow dataset of the Shenzhen public transport system, and the results show that the proposed Joint-IF performs better for both imputation and forecasting of transfer passenger flow relative to the baseline models in terms of accuracy and stability.

Natural selection and domestication have shaped modern sheep populations into a vast range of phenotypically diverse breeds. Among these breeds, dairy sheep have a smaller population than meat sheep and wool sheep, and less research is performed on them, but the lactation mechanism in dairy sheep is critically important for improving animal-production methods. In this study, whole-genome sequences were generated from 10 sheep breeds, including 57 high-milk-yield sheep and 44 low-milk-yield sheep, to investigate the genetic signatures of milk production in dairy sheep, and 59,864,820 valid SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) were kept after quality control to perform population-genetic-structure analyses, gene-detection analyses, and gene-function-validation analyses. For the population-genetic-structure analyses, we carried out PCA (Principal Component Analysis), as well as neighbor-joining tree and structure analyses to classify different sheep populations. The sheep used in our study were well distributed in ten groups, with the high-milk-yield-group populations close to each other and the low-milk-yield-group populations showing similar classifications. To perform an exact signal-selection analysis, we used three different methods to find SNPs to perform gene-annotation analyses within the 995 common regions derived from the fixation index (FST), nucleotide diversity (Ɵπ), and heterozygosity rate (ZHp) results. In total, we found 553 genes that were located in these regions. These genes mainly participate in the protein-binding pathway and the nucleoplasm-interaction pathway, as revealed by the GO- and KEGG-function-enrichment analyses. After the gene selection and function analyses, we found that FCGR3A, CTSK, CTSS, ARNT, GHR, SLC29A4, ROR1, and TNRC18 were potentially related to sheep-milk-production traits. We chose the strongly selected genes, FCGR3A, CTSK, CTSS, and ARNT during the signal-selection analysis to perform a RT-qPCR (Reale time Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction) experiment to validate their expression-level relationship with milk production, and the results showed that FCGR3A has a significant negative relationship with sheep-milk production, while other three genes did not show any positive or negative relations. In this study, it was discovered and proven that the candidate gene FCGR3A potentially contributes to the milk production of dairy sheep and a basis was laid for the further study of the genetic mechanism underlying the strong milk-production traits of sheep.

Carbon isotope composition (indicated by leaf δ13C) reflects plants' strategies to balance carbon acquisition and water loss, which is directly linked to water use efficiency. At a large scale, leaf δ13C has been demonstrated to be closely related to climate and plant functional types; however, at a regional scale, its variation across an aridity gradient and species categories and its covariation with traits in leaf economic spectrum (LES) traits are still unclear. Here, a multivariate statistical analysis was carried out with 271 observations of leaf δ13C from 22 sampling sites on the Loess Plateau. Our results showed that (1) mean leaf δ13C did not differ significantly among life forms in C3 plants, with the maximum mean values occurring in geophytes (−26.31‰) and the minimum values occurring in lianas (−28.29‰); (2) the leaf δ13C responses of different life forms, families and species categories to climates were consistent for C3 plants, namely, they presented similar response rates to changes along the aridity gradient (represented by the moisture index); (3) climate, soil, species category, and leaf economic spectrum traits jointly explained 78.4% of the variation in leaf δ13C for C3 plants. Species category was the largest determinant of leaf δ13C variations for both C3 and C4 plants. Revealing the variation in leaf δ13C of the Loess Plateau plants not only helps us to understand plant adaptation strategies under arid conditions but also provides scientific support for ecological management in vegetation restoration regions.

Introduction Cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) is becoming the most commonly implemented and standard treatment for depression. Up to date, only a few numbers of studies have investigated the potential relationship between CBT and the change of inflammatory biomarkers in individuals of depression. And the results are inconsistent among studies. The current study aims to provide a comprehensive, systematic review of the association between CBT and changes of peripheral inflammation of individuals with depression, and clarify the alterations of inflammatory cytokines pre-CBT and post-CBT treatment by meta-analysis, anti-inflammatory.Methods and analysis This study will be conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. A systematic search of predetermined terms will be conducted with electronic databases of CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE and PsycINFO from inception to July 2021. Database searches will be supplemented by expert contact, reference and citation checking, and grey literature. Primary outcomes of interest will be validated measures for levels of inflammatory cytokines pre-CBT and post- CBT treatment in individuals with depression. Hedges’ g will be used to represent the effect size.Systematic review registration The protocol of current meta-analysis has been registered at the Open Science Framework (https://doi.org/10.17605/osf.io/tr9yh).Ethics and dissemination Formal ethical approval is not required by the National Ethical Review Board in China as primary data will not be collected. The results alterations of peripheral inflammatory cytokines pre-CBT and post-CBT treatment in individuals with depression will be disseminated through a peer-reviewed publication and inform the most up-to-date evidence of the roles of CBT treatment for depression.

The authors wish to make the following corrections to this paper [...]

This study aimed to examine first-born children's sibling jealousy and explore the relationships among first-born children's sibling jealousy, temperament, and emotion regulation in China during COVID-19 pandemic. The research hypotheses of this study are empirically examined through online and offline surveys. A sample of 304 two-child families from China participated in the study; the first-born children were aged between 1.17 and 7 years. The results indicated the following: (1) the older the first-born children and the greater the age difference between siblings, the lower the sibling jealousy. (2) Difficult temperament of first-born children could predict sibling jealousy significantly and positively, and emotion regulation could predict sibling jealousy negatively. (3) There was a partially mediating effect of emotion regulation between temperament and sibling jealousy. Compared with intermediate temperament, first-born children with difficult temperament had weaker emotion regulation and higher sibling jealousy. Overall, findings have important implications for psychological interventions for families of first-born children with difficult temperament.

Stent thrombosis remains an infrequent but significant complication following percutaneous coronary intervention. Preclinical models to rapidly screen and validate therapeutic compounds for efficacy are lacking. Herein, we describe a reproducible, high throughput and cost-effective method to evaluate candidate therapeutics and devices for either treatment or propensity to develop stent thrombosis in an in vitro bench-top model. Increasing degree of stent malapposition (0.00 mm, 0.10 mm, 0.25 mm and 0.50 mm) was associated with increasing thrombosis and luminal area occlusion (4.1 ± 0.5%, 6.3 ± 0.5%, 19.7 ± 4.5%, and 92.6 ± 7.4%, p < 0.0001, respectively). Differences in stent design in the form of bare-metal, drug-eluting, and bioresorbable vascular scaffolds demonstrated differences in stent thrombus burden (14.7 ± 3.8% vs. 20.5 ± 3.1% vs. 86.8 ± 5.3%, p < 0.01, respectively). Finally, thrombus burden was significantly reduced when healthy blood samples were incubated with Heparin, ASA/Ticagrelor (DAPT), and Heparin+DAPT compared to control (DMSO) at 4.1 ± 0.6%, 6.9 ± 1.7%, 4.5 ± 1.2%, and 12.1 ± 1.8%, respectively (p < 0.01). The reported model produces high throughput reproducible thrombosis results across a spectrum of antithrombotic agents, stent design, and degrees of apposition. Importantly, performance recapitulates clinical observations of antiplatelet/antithrombotic regimens as well as device and deployment characteristics. Accordingly, this model may serve as a screening tool for candidate therapies in preclinical evaluation.

This paper develops a model in which the two parties to an international joint venture (IJV) determine the optimal cost ratio and profit share and exercise the jointly held option to enter into an IJV in uncertain situations. In our setting, the two partners make their decisions sequentially under a two-stage Stackelberg game framework, where the risk-neutral multinational company as the leader first designs the cost and equity allocation, and then the risk-averse local firm follows by choosing the optimal timing at which to exercise the joint venture option. The Stackelberg equilibrium solutions to the model are obtained by using a mix of game theory and real options. The results of the numerical analysis show that despite the multinational company's dominant position in the IJV, its equity share is not always higher than that of the local company and is closely related to the expected growth rate, risk aversion level and market volatility. The cost ratio of the foreign partner will increase correspondingly with its equity ratio unless it faces much more uncertainty in the environment. In addition, an increase in risk aversion leads to the local company sharing a higher proportion of the equity and costs of the joint venture partnership. The findings of the study can provide scientific guidance and suggestions on the transnational joint venture for overseas investment, especially in the “One Belt and One Road” initiative.

Abstract The topographic projection of afferent terminals into two-dimensional maps is essential for sensory systems to encode the locations of sensory stimuli. In vertebrates, guidance cues are critical for establishing a coarse topographic map, while neuronal activity directs fine-scale topography between adjacent afferent terminals. However, the molecular mechanism underlying activity-dependent fine-scale topography is not well known. Studies in the Drosophila visual system have demonstrated that cell-adhesion molecules direct fine-scale topography, but whether or not these molecules are involved in activity-dependent fine-scale topography remains to be determined. We previously reported that the nociceptors in Drosophila larvae form an activity-dependent fine-scale topographic system. The establishment of this system is instructed by the level of neuronal activity in individual nociceptors. Here, we show that the atypical cadherin Flamingo (Fmi) is required for establishing the nociceptor topographic map. We found that the topographic defect caused by loss of fmi was epistatic to the inhibition of neuronal activity and the overexpression of the activity-regulated gene Trim9. These results suggest that Fmi and neuronal activity interact to regulate fine-scale topography. This study provides a link between neuronal activity and the cell-adhesion molecule in the establishment of fine-scale topography.

The incidence of chronic alcoholism leading to central and peripheral nervous system damage has been increasing year-to-year. The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of aminooxyacetic acid on hippocampus mitochondria in rats with chronic alcoholism and analyze learning and memory-related genes. Sixty male Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups. Except for the control group, each group was fed with the water containing (v/v) 6% alcohol for 28 days. After 14 days, rats in the treatment group were intraperitoneally injected daily for 14 days with aminooxyacetic acid. High throughput sequencing was combined and tested for learning and memory abilities, Hydrogen sulfide content, catalase activity in mitochondria, and the expression of F-actin in the hippocampus of the rats in each group. Compared with the control group, the learning and memory abilities of rats with chronic alcoholism were significantly impaired, mitochondria contained vacuoles, hydrogen sulfide increased, but catalase activity and F-actin content were significantly decreased, After treatment with aminooxyacetic acid, mitochondrial morphology improved, hydrogen sulfide content was decreased, while catalase activity and F-actin expression of in hippocampus were increased. This indicates that aminooxyacetic acid may improve learning and memory in rats with chronic alcoholism, and the mechanism is related to decreased hydrogen sulfide content and an increase of both catalase activity and F-actin level in the hippocampus, thereby reducing the damage of alcohol to mitochondria and neurons.

Abstract Background Surgery is the gold standard treatment for local advanced disease, while definitive concurrent chemoradiotherapy (DCRT) is recommended for those who are medically unable to tolerate major surgery or medically fit patients who decline surgery. The primary aim of this trial is to compare the outcomes in Chinese patients with oesophageal squamous cell cancer with locally advanced resectable disease who have received either surgery or DCRT. Methods/design One hundred ninety-six patients with T1bN + M0 or T2-4aN0-2 M0 oesophageal squamous cell cancer will be randomised to the DCRT group or the surgery group. In the DCRT group, patients will be given intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) with 50 Gy/25 fractions and basic chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil regimens. In the surgery group, patients will receive neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NCRT) and standard oesophagectomy. Five years of follow-up will be scheduled for patients. The primary endpoints are 2-year/5-year overall survival; the secondary endpoints are 2-year/5-year progression-free survival, treatment-related adverse events and the patients’ quality of life. The main evaluation methods include oesophagoscopy, endoscopic ultrasonography and biopsy, oesophageal barium meal, computed tomography, positron emission tomography-computed tomography, blood tests and questionnaires. Discussion The preponderant oesophageal cancer pathology type is dramatically different in western Caucasian and Asian oesophageal cancer patients: Caucasian patients present with 80% adenocarcinomas, and Asians patients present with 95% squamous cell carcinomas. This phenomenon needs more in-depth studies to elucidate the differences in these populations. Based on the results of this study, we will show whether DCRT will benefit patients more than oesophagectomy. This study will contribute more evidence to the management of oesophageal squamous cell cancer. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02972372. Registered on 26 November 2016.

Trivalent praseodymium (Pr3+) is the most established rare-earth ion for the direct generation of visible light. In our work, based on Pr-doped Lu3Al5O12 (LuAG) single crystal, cladding waveguides are fabricated by applying femtosecond laser inscription with different parameters. The main characteristics of the waveguides such as mode distributions, propagation losses are investigated. The investigations on confocal micro-photoluminescence enable us to illustrate femtosecond laser induced modifications in Pr:LuAG matrix. The waveguides are further pumped at a wavelength of 450 nm with an InGaN laser diode. Guided fluorescence emissions in visible range covering green, yellow-green, orange and red are obtained with a maximum slope efficiency of 4 × 10−4.

Dynamic monitoring of forest ecosystem quality is necessary for restoration program evaluation but remains challenging for very large-scale programs. Current evaluation methods employ regional forest quality indicators that compare the quality status of targeted forests with benchmarks from remnant old-growth forest communities, however data availability usually limits the application of available methods to small scales. We constructed an improved framework, integrating forest site classification selection and local remnant old-growth forest community delimitation, to quantify and map forest quality using environmental data and remote sensing (RS) based approaches. A classification strength model was introduced to improve the accuracy of forest site classification. The remote-sensing-based method integrates species composition and forest biological productivity characteristics recognition to develop a practical tool for large-scale remnant old-growth forest community delimitation. The new assessment framework was tested across the entire spatially heterogeneous Yangtze River Basin, the largest watershed in China and showed high accuracy in forest quality assessment based on observed field data validation. The forest site classification was selected by considering spatial heterogeneities in climate, topography and soil type, with 37 forest sites classified. The native forest community groups with less human disturbance in each forest site used for forest quality baseline estimation were also selected as forests with top 10% of biomass in protected areas. The case study demonstrated that forest areas of low and poor quality accounted for 34.46% of the total forest area in 2015. Between 2000 and 2015, 55.72% of forest areas experienced increases in quality level, and 7.07% experienced decreases. The improved forest quality assessment framework enhances the scope and accuracy of forest restoration information and can be applied as an evaluation tool for forest restoration management.

Despite the extensive efforts, accurate traffic time series forecasting remains challenging. By taking into account the non-linear nature of traffic in-depth, we propose a novel ST-CRMF model consisting of the Compensated Residual Matrix Factorization with Spatial-Temporal regularization for graph-based traffic time series forecasting. Our model inherits the benefits of MF and regularizer optimization and further carries out the compensatory modeling of the spatial-temporal correlations through a well-designed bi-directional residual structure. Of particular concern is that MF modeling and later residual learning share and synchronize iterative updates as equal training parameters, which considerably alleviates the error propagation problem that associates with rolling forecasting. Besides, most of the existing prediction models have neglected the difficult-to-avoid issue of missing traffic data; the ST-CRMF model can repair the possible missing value while fulfilling the forecasting tasks. After testing the effects of key parameters on model performance, the numerous experimental results confirm that our ST-CRMF model can efficiently capture the comprehensive spatial-temporal dependencies and significantly outperform those state-of-the-art models in the short-to-long terms (5-/15-/30-/60-min) traffic forecasting tasks on the open Seattle-Loop and METR-LA traffic datasets.

Extensive stolon development and growth are superior traits for rapid establishment as well as post-stress regeneration in stoloniferous grass species. Despite the importance of those stoloniferous traits, the regulation mechanisms of stolon growth and development are largely unknown. The objectives of this research were to elucidate the effects of the reallocation of soluble sugars for energy reserves and endogenous hormone levels for cell differentiation and regeneration in regulating stolon growth of a perennial turfgrass species, creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.). Plants were grown in growth chambers with two CO2 concentrations: ambient CO2 concentration (400 ± 10 µmol mol−1) and elevated CO2 concentration (800 ± 10 µmol mol−1). Elevated CO2 enhanced stolon growth through increasing stolon internode number and internode length in creeping bentgrass, as manifested by the longer total stolon length and greater shoot biomass. The content of glucose, sucrose, and fructose as well as endogenous IAA were accumulated in stolon nodes and internodes but not in leaves or roots under elevated CO2 concentration. These results illustrated that the production and reallocation of soluble sugars to stolons as well as the increased level of IAA in stolon nodes and internodes could contribute to the enhancement of stolon growth under elevated CO2 in creeping bentgrass.

Oxidative stress is an important pathogenic manifestation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) that contributes to synaptic dysfunction, which precedes Aβ accumulation and neurofibrillary tangle formation. However, the molecular machineries that govern the decline of antioxidative defence in AD remains to be elucidated, and effective candidate for AD treatment is limited. Here, we showed that the decreases in the inhibitor of apoptosis-stimulating protein of p53 (iASPP) was associated with the vulnerability to oxidative stress in the amyloid precursor protein (APP)/presenilin 1 (PS1) mouse brain. Treatment with an antioxidant, syringin, could ameliorate AD-related pathologic and behavioural impairments. Interestingly, syringin treatment resulted in an upregulation of iASPP and the increase in the interaction of iASPP with Kelchlike ECH-associating protein 1 (Keap1). Syringin reduced neuronal apoptosis independently of p53. We confirmed that syringin-induced enhancement of antioxidant defenses involved the stabilization of Nrf2 in overexpressing human Swedish mutant APP (APPswe) cells in vitro. Syringin-mediated Nrf2 nuclear translocation facilitated the activation of the Nrf2 downstream genes via iASPP/Nrf2 axis. Our results demonstrate that syringin-mediated increases of iASPP-Keap1 interaction restore cellular redox balance. Further study on the syringin-iASPP interactions may help in understanding the regulatory mechanism and designing novel potent modulators for AD treatment.

Ecological benefits provided by ecosystem assets play an important role in improving human wellbeing. However, there are few feasible methods to combine data on the quantity and quality of ecosystem assets to describe their state and trend. Here, we developed a new remote-sensing-based indicator by synthesizing ecosystem asset quantity and quality data for effective assessment at a regional or national scale. The new indicator includes a typological ecosystem asset index (TEAI) (e.g., forest ecosystem asset index) and an integrated ecosystem asset index (IEAI). The TEAI and IEAI can be used to assess the state and trend of a specific ecosystem or set of regional ecosystems, respectively. We applied the new indicator in the context of ecological protection policy in the Three-Rivers Source Region (TRSR), a region known as the ‘Chinese water tower’. From 2000 to 2015, the IEAI increased by 4.02% due to an increase in the ecosystem asset area (0.2%) and the ecosystem asset quality (0.66% and 0.02% increases in excellent and good level ecosystem assets, respectively). The implementation of ecological protection and ecological restoration programs was the main direct driver of regional ecological asset improvement. Our results suggest the new indicator is feasible for quickly and accurately evaluating the state and trend of ecosystem assets and can be used to guide ecosystem management at a large regional scale.

Silicon (Si) is the second most abundant element after oxygen in the earth’s crust and soil. It is available for plant growth and development, and it is considered as quasi-essential for plant growth. The uptake and transport of Si is mediated by Si transporters. With the study of the molecular mechanism of Si uptake and transport in higher plants, different proteins and coding genes with different characteristics have been identified in numerous plants. Therefore, the accumulation, uptake and transport mechanisms of Si in various plants appear to be quite different. Many studies have reported that Si is beneficial for plant survival when challenged by disease, and it can also enhance plant resistance to pathogens, even at low Si accumulation levels. In this review, we discuss the distribution of Si in plants, as well as Si uptake, transport and accumulation, with a focus on recent advances in the study of Si transporters in different plants and the beneficial roles of Si in disease resistance. Finally, the application prospects are reviewed, leading to an exploration of the benefits of Si uptake for plant resistance against pathogens.

Objective Recent studies have challenged the traditional paradigm that growth hormone receptor (GHR) displays physiological functions only in the cell membrane. It has been demonstrated that GHR localizes to the cell nucleus and still exhibits important physiological roles. The phenomenon of nuclear localization of growth hormone (GH)-induced GHR has previously been described in vitro. However, until recently, whether GH could induce nuclear localization of GHR in vivo was unclear. Methods In the present study, we used pig as an animal model, and porcine growth hormone (pGH) or saline was injected into the inferior vena cava. We subsequently observed the localization of porcine growth hormone receptor (pGHR) using multiple techniques, including, immunoprecipitation and Western-blotting, indirect immunofluorescence assay and electronmicroscopy. Results The results showed that pGH could induce nuclear localization of pGHR. Taken together, the results of the present study provided the first demonstration that pGHR was translocated to cell nuclei under pGH stimulation in vivo. Conclusion Nuclear localization of pGHR induced by the in vivo pGH treatment suggests new functions and/or novel roles of nuclear pGHR, which deserve further study.

Maintaining or increasing water retention in ecosystems (WRE) can reduce floods and increase water resource provision. However, few studies have taken the effect of the spatial information of vegetation structure into consideration when assessing the effects of land use/land cover (LULC) change on WRE. In this study, we integrated the remotely sensed leaf area index (LAI) into the ecosystem process-based Biome-BGC model to analyse the impact of LULC change on the WRE of Beijing between 2000 and 2015. Our results show that the volume of WRE increased by approximately 8.58 million m3 in 2015 as compared with 2000. The volume of WRE in forests increased by approximately 26.74 million m3, while urbanization, cropland expansion and deforestation caused the volume of WRE to decline by 11.96 million m3, 5.86 million m3 and 3.20 million m3, respectively. The increased WRE contributed by unchanged forests (14.46 million m3) was much greater than that of new-planted forests (12.28 million m3), but the increase in WRE capacity per unit area in new-planted forests (124.69 ± 14.30 m3/ha) was almost tenfold greater than that of unchanged forests (15.60 ± 7.85 m3/ha). The greater increase in WRE capacity in increased forests than that of unchanged forests was mostly due to the fact that the higher LAI in unchanged forests induced more evapotranspiration to exhaust more water. Meanwhile, the inverted U-shape relationship that existed between the forest LAI and WRE implied that continued increased LAI in forests probably caused the WRE decline. This study demonstrates that integrating remotely sensed LAI with the Biome-BGC model is feasible for capturing the impact of LULC change with the spatial information of vegetation structure on WRE and reduces uncertainty.

Large-scale human land-use management is an effective method for ecosystem restoration and wind erosion prevention service (WEPS) improvement. However, the spatial differences of driving factors and the feedback in subsequent management have received less attention. This study analysed the temporal and spatial changes in the WEPS in northern China from 2000 to 2015, classified the driving modes between the WEPS and environmental factors, distinguished the main driving factors, and proposed suggestions for successive projects. The results showed that, compared with 2000, the amount of WEPSs in 2015 increased by 12.60%, and forest and grassland in the WEPS-increased area was 1.34 times that in the declining area. There were east–west differences in the driving mechanism of WEPS improvement. In addition to climatic and topographic factors, the western division was mainly affected by changes in vegetation quality, whereas the eastern division was affected by the combined influence of vegetation quality and quantity. This study shows the necessity of land-use management and project zoning policies, and provides a reference for policy formulation and management of large-scale ecological projects.

The dairy sheep industry is an important but lacking part of the small ruminant industry. For a sheep breeding program, in addition to wool and meat use, sheep milk can also be processed into high-end dairy products such as cheese and milk powder and bring high economic interests for businesses home and abroad. With increasing interest in sheep milk, the content of which is becoming increasingly clearer, people have found that the nutritional value of sheep milk is higher than that of goat milk and cow milk, with abundant fat yield, protein percentage, and mineral contents, which provide a good opportunity for the development of the sheep milk industry. This review will introduce some dairy sheep breeds with the highest milk production worldwide and compare sheep milk nutrition contents with other ruminants’ milk. Moreover, genes influencing lactation or mammary gland growth like CSN2, SLC2A2, SCD, and SOCS2, which have been revealed in recent studies to significantly affect milk production and milk composition traits will be discussed. For the SLC2A2 gene, working as an important solute carrier to transport small molecular nutrition from blood to milk and SOCS2 gene mutation as an indicator of mastitis, in addition, other genes have been detected that correlate with milk traits, which will be introduced in the review. Some personal opinions into future sheep milk development will be given in the final part of the text. Although the research of sheep milk genetic factors has achieved some progress in recent years, there is still a long way to go.

Polygalacturonase-inhibiting protein (PGIP) is an important plant biochemical anti-disease factor. PGIP has a leucine-rich repeat structure that can selectively bind and inhibit the activity of endo-polygalacturonase (endo-PG) in fungi, playing a key role in plant disease resistance. The regulation of PGIP in plant disease resistance has been well studied, and the effect of PGIP to increase disease resistance is clear. This review summarizes recent advances in understanding the PGIP protein structure, the PGIP mechanism of plant disease resistance, and anti-disease activity by PGIP gene transfer. This overview should contribute to a better understanding of PGIP function and can help guide resistance breeding of PGIP for anti-disease effects.

Autumn phenology, commonly represented by the end of season (EOS), is considered to be the most sensitive and crucial productivity indicator of alpine and cold grassland in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Previous studies typically assumed that the rates of EOS changes remain unchanged over long time periods. However, pixel-scale analysis indicates the existence of turning points and differing EOS change rates before and after these points. The spatial heterogeneity and controls of these turning points remain unclear. In this study, the EOS turning point changes are extracted and their controls are explored by integrating long time-series remote sensing images and piecewise regression methods. The results indicate that the EOS changed over time with a delay rate of 0.08 days/year during 1982–2015. The rates of change are not consistent over different time periods, which clearly highlights the existence of turning points. The results show that temperature contributed most strongly to the EOS changes, followed by precipitation and insolation. Furthermore, the turning points of climate, human activities (e.g., grazing, economic development), and their intersections are found to jointly control the EOS turning points. This study is the first quantitative investigation into the spatial heterogeneity and controls of the EOS turning points on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, and provides important insight into the growth mechanism of alpine and cold grassland.

A trait-based approach is an effective way to quantify plant adaptation strategies in response to changing environments. Single trait variations have been well depicted before; however, multi-trait covariations and their roles in shaping plant adaptation strategies along aridity gradients remain unclear. The purpose of this study was to reveal multi-trait covariation characteristics, their controls and their relevance to plant adaptation strategies. Using eight relevant plant functional traits and multivariate statistical approaches, we found the following: (1) the eight studied traits show evident covariation characteristics and could be grouped into four functional dimensions linked to plant strategies, namely energy balance, resource acquisition, resource investment and water use efficiency; (2) leaf area (LA) together with traits related to the leaf economic spectrum, including leaf nitrogen content per area (Narea), leaf nitrogen per mass (Nmass) and leaf dry mass per area (LMA), covaried along the aridity gradient (represented by the moisture index, MI) and dominated the trait–environmental change axis; (3) together, climate, soil and family can explain 50.4% of trait covariations; thus, vegetation succession along the aridity gradient cannot be neglected in trait covariations. Our findings provide novel perspectives toward a better understanding of plant adaptations to arid conditions and serve as a reference for vegetation restoration and management programs in arid regions.

Accurate monitoring of motion and sleep states is critical for human health assessment, especially for a healthy life, early diagnosis of diseases, and medical care. In this work, a smart wearable sensor (SWS) based on a dual-channel triboelectric nanogenerator was presented for a real-time health monitoring system. The SWS can be worn on wrists, ankles, shoes, or other parts of the body and cloth, converting mechanical triggers into electrical output. By analyzing these signals, the SWS can precisely and constantly monitor and distinguish various motion states, including stepping, walking, running, and jumping. Based on the SWS, a fall-down alarm system and a sleep quality assessment system were constructed to provide personal healthcare monitoring and alert family members or doctors via communication devices. It is important for the healthy growth of the young and special patient groups, as well as for the health monitoring and medical care of the elderly and recovered patients. This work aimed to broaden the paths for remote biological movement status analysis and provide diversified perspectives for true-time and long-term health monitoring, simultaneously.

A well-developed root system in rice and other crops can ensure plants to efficiently absorb nutrients and water. Auxin is a key regulator for various aspect of root development, but the detailed molecular mechanisms by which auxin controls crown root development in rice are not understood. We show that overexpression of a YUC gene, which encodes the rate-limiting enzyme in auxin biosynthesis, causes massive proliferation of crown roots. On the other hand, we find that disruption of TAA1, which functions upstream of YUC genes, greatly reduces crown root development. We find that YUC overexpression-induced crown root proliferation requires the presence of the transcription factor WOX11. Moreover, the crown rootless phenotype of taa1 mutants was partially rescued by overexpression of WOX11. Furthermore, we show that WOX11 expression is induced in OsYUC1 overexpression lines, but is repressed in the taa1 mutants. Our results indicate that auxin synthesized by the TAA/YUC pathway is necessary and sufficient for crown root development in rice. Auxin activates WOX11 transcription, which subsequently drives crown root initiation and development, establishing the YUC-Auxin-WOX11 module for crown root development in rice.