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Water shortage is a key factor that can restrict peach tree growth. Plants produce fatty acids and the fatty acid derivatives lauric acid (LA) and 12-hydroxylauric acid (LA-OH), which are involved in abiotic stress responses, but the underlying stress response mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, physiological examination revealed that in Prunus persica (L.) Batsch, pretreatment with 50 ppm LA-OH and LA reduced drought stress, efficiently maintained the leaf relative water content, and controlled the relative conductivity increase. Under drought stress, LA-OH and LA treatments prevented the degradation of photosynthetic pigments, increased the degree of leaf stomatal opening and enhanced the net photosynthetic rate. Compared with drought stress, LA-OH and LA treatment effectively increased the net photosynthetic rate by 204.55% and 115.91%, respectively, while increasing the Fv/Fm by 2.75% and 7.75%, respectively, but NPQ decreased by 7.67% and 37.54%, respectively. In addition, the level of reactive oxygen species increased under drought stress. The content of O2- in LA-OH and LA treatment decreased by 12.91% and 11.24% compared to CK-D, respectively, and the content of H2O2 decreased by 13.73% and 19.94%, respectively. At the same time, the content of malondialdehyde (MDA) decreased by 55.56% and 58.48%, respectively. We believe that the main reason is that LA-OH and LA treatment have improved the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), and catalase (CAT). The application of exogenous LA increased the levels of soluble sugars, soluble proteins, proline and free amino acids under drought stress, and maintained the osmotic balance of cells. Compared with CK-D treatment, it increased by 24.11%, 16.89%, 29.3% and 15.04%, respectively. At the same time, the application of exogenous LA-OH also obtained similar results. In conclusion, exogenous LA-OH and LA can alleviate the damage to peach seedlings caused by drought stress by enhancing the photosynthetic and antioxidant capacities, increasing the activities of protective enzymes and regulating the contents of osmotic regulators, but the molecular mechanism is still in need of further exploration.

Copper toxicity involves the destruction of mitochondrial metabolic enzymes, triggering an unusual mechanism of cell death called cuproptosis, which proposes a novel approach using copper toxicity to treat cancer. However, the biological function of cuproptosis has not been fully elucidated in kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC). Using the expression profile of 13 cuproptosis regulators, we first identified two molecular subtypes related to cuproptosis defined as “hot tumor” and “cold tumor”, having different levels of biological function, clinical prognosis, and immune cell infiltration. We obtained three gene clusters using the differentially expressed genes between the two cuproptosis-related subtypes, which were associated with different molecular activities and clinical characteristics. Next, we developed and validated a cuproptosis prognostic model that included two genes (FDX1 and DBT). The calculated risk score could divide patients into high- and low-risk groups. The high-risk group had a poorer prognosis, lower level of immune infiltration, higher frequency of gene alterations, and greater levels of FDX1 methylation and limited DBT methylation. The risk score was also an independent predictive factor for overall survival in KIRC. The established nomogram calculating the risk score achieved a high predictive ability for the prognosis of individual patients (area under the curve: 0.860). We then identified small molecular inhibitors as potential treatments and analyzed the sensitivity to chemotherapy of the signature genes. Tumor immune dysfunction and exclusion (TIDE) showed that the high-risk group had a higher level of TIDE, exclusion and dysfunction that was lower than the low-risk group, while the microsatellite instability of the high-risk group was significantly lower. The results of two independent immunotherapy datasets indicated that cuproptosis regulators could influence the response and efficacy of immunotherapy in KIRC. Our study provides new insights for individualized and comprehensive therapy of KIRC.

Sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction (SIMD) is a fatal disease with no specific treatment worldwide to this day. As a biological product, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has attracted much attention due to its diverse and potential biological effects. However, its role in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced cardiac injury has not been fully investigated. This study aimed to explore the mechanism of PRP in SIMD. PRP (30 µL) was injected in situ into the heart, and LPS (10 mg/kg) was injected intraperitoneally into mice. Neonatal rat cardiomyocytes were treated with LPS (1 μg/ml) for 24 h. The results showed that, compared with the LPS group, PRP significantly decreased the levels of Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and Creatine Kinase MB (CK-MB), and improved cardiac function. In addition, PRP markedly decreased the Malonic dialdehyde (MDA) content, and increased the Superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and Glutathione (GSH) level, demonstrating that PRP alleviated LPS-induced oxidative stress. The Western blot and qPCR results showed that LPS-induced ferroptosis and inflammation effects in vivo and in vitro were ameliorated after PRP treatment. Moreover, PRP can alleviate erastin-induced ferroptosis and improve cell viability. Mechanistically, p-AKT and p-mTOR expressions were down-regulated after treatment with LPS, while PRP pretreatment could reverse this effect. In summary, our study demonstrated that PRP could play a unique role in reducing LPS-induced cardiac injury through regulation of AKT/mTOR signaling pathways. These findings provide a new therapeutic direction for treating SIMD.

Abstract Background Glioblastomas (GBMs) are grade IV central nervous system tumors characterized by a poor prognosis and a short median overall survival. Effective induction of GBM cell death is difficult because the GBM cell population is genetically unstable, resistant to chemotherapy and highly angiogenic. In recent studies, ubiquitin-specific protease 7 (USP7) is shown to scavenge ubiquitin from oncogenic protein substrates, so effective inhibition of USP7 may be a potential key treatment for GBM. Methods Immunohistochemistry and western blotting were used to detect the expression of USP7 in GBM tissues. In vitro apoptosis assay of USP7 inhibition was performed by western blotting, immunofluorescence, and flow cytometry. Anti-apoptotic substrates of USP7 were defined by Co-IP and TMT proteomics. Western blotting and IP were used to verify the relationship between USP7 and its substrate. In an in vivo experiment using an intracranial xenograft model in nude mice was constructed to assess the therapeutic effect of target USP7. Results Immunohistochemistry and western blotting confirmed that USP7 was significantly upregulated in glioblastoma samples. In in vitro experiments, inhibition of USP7 in GBM induced significant apoptosis. Co-IP and TMT proteomics identified a key anti-apoptotic substrate of USP7, ADP-ribosylation factor 4 (ARF4). Western blotting and IP confirmed that USP7 interacted directly with ARF4 and catalyzed the removal of the K48-linked polyubiquitinated chain that binded to ARF4. In addition, in vivo experiments revealed that USP7 inhibition significantly suppressed tumor growth and promoted the expression of apoptotic genes. Conclusions Targeted inhibition of USP7 enhances the ubiquitination of ARF4 and ultimately mediates the apoptosis of GBM cells. In a clinical sense, P5091 as a novel specific inhibitor of USP7 may be an effective approach for the treatment of GBM.

Abstract The dark channel prior (DCP) algorithm has been widely used in the field of image defogging because of its simple theory and clear restoration result. However, the DCP algorithm has significant limitations. This study clarifies the relationship between halo artfacts and the size of the dark channel patch of the DCP algorithm and analyses the reason why the colour of close‐range white objects appears distorted in the restored images. An amended DCP method is then proposed to solve these problems, utilising a locally variable weighted 4‐directional L1 regularisation and a corresponding parallel algorithm to optimise the transmission. A deep neural network, 4DL1R‐net, is then trained to further enhance the processing speed. Extensive experiments demonstrate that this method is effective. The proposed method can obtain clear details, maintain the natural clarity of images, and achieve significant improvements over state‐of‐the‐art methods.

Abstract Tobacco bacterial wilt (TBW) is seriously damages the growth of tobacco. There is an urgent need to find a safer and more effective measure to control TBW. In this study, B. amyloliquefaciens ZM9 and marigold powder were applied to the tobacco roots alone or in combination, and the potential inhibition of TBW was assessed. On the other hand, the effects of these treatments on soil physicochemical properties, rhizosphere microbial community and soil metabolites were also evaluated. The results showed that the application of B. amyloliquefaciens ZM9 or marigold powder alone significantly reduced the abundance of R. solanacearum in rhizosphere soil, while the integrated treatment showed the strongest inhibitory effect. Moreover, the integrated treatment can inhibit the secretion of chemoattractants, and affect the change of rhizosphere soil microbial composition. In conclusion, the combination of antagonistic bacteria agent B. amyloliquefaciens ZM9 with marigold powder can enhance the suppression of TBW. Furthermore, B. amyloliquefaciens ZM9 and marigold have synergistic effects on suppressing TBW by regulation soil physicochemical properties, soil metabolites and microbial structure. This study provide a promising strategy for TBW control by integrated applying of B. amyloliquefaciens ZM9 and marigold powder.

In Gram-negative bacteria, lipoproteins are transported from the inner membrane (IM) to the outer membrane (OM) by the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter LolCDE. Here the authors present cryo-EM structures of nanodisc-embedded LolCDE in different states, providing mechanistic insight into the transport mechanism.

Abstract Background A red blood cell membrane (RBCm)-derived drug delivery system allows prolonged circulation of an antitumor treatment and overcomes the issue of accelerated blood clearance induced by PEGylation. However, RBCm-derived drug delivery systems are limited by low drug-loading capacities and the lack of tumor-targeting ability. Thus, new designs of RBCm-based delivery systems are needed. Results Herein, we designed hyaluronic acid (HA)–hybridized RBCm (HA&RBCm)-coated lipid multichambered nanoparticles (HA&RBCm-LCNPs) to remedy the limitations of traditional RBCm drug delivery systems. The inner core co-assembled with phospholipid-regulated glycerol dioleate/water system in HA&RBCm-LCNPs met the required level of blood compatibility for intravenous administration. These newly designed nanocarriers had a honeycomb structure with abundant spaces that efficiently encapsulated paclitaxel and IR780 for photochemotherapy. The HA&RBCm coating allowed the nanocarriers to overcome the reticuloendothelial system barrier and enhanced the nanocarriers specificity to A549 cells with high levels of CD44. These properties enhanced the combinatorial antitumor effects of paclitaxel and IR780 associated with microtubule destruction and the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. Conclusions The multifunctional HA&RBCm-LCNPs we designed expanded the functionality of RBCm and resulted in a vehicle for safe and efficient antitumor treatment. Graphical abstract

AbstractSeptic cardiomyopathy (SCM) is a serious complication caused by sepsis that will further exacerbate the patient's prognosis. However, immune-related genes (IRGs) and their molecular mechanism during septic cardiomyopathy are largely unknown. Therefore, our study aims to explore the immune-related hub genes (IRHGs) and immune-related miRNA-mRNA pairs with potential biological regulation in SCM by means of bioinformatics analysis and experimental validation.MethodFirstly, screen differentially expressed mRNAs (DE-mRNAs) from the dataset GSE79962, and construct a PPI network of DE-mRNAs. Secondly, the hub genes of SCM were identified from the PPI network and the hub genes were overlapped with immune cell marker genes (ICMGs) to further obtain IRHGs in SCM. In addition, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was also performed in this process to determine the disease diagnostic capability of IRHGs. Finally, the crucial miRNA-IRHG regulatory network of IRHGs was predicted and constructed by bioinformatic methods. Real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) and dataset GSE72380 were used to validate the expression of the key miRNA-IRHG axis.ResultThe results of immune infiltration showed that neutrophils, Th17 cells, Tfh cells, and central memory cells in SCM had more infiltration than the control group; A total of 2 IRHGs were obtained by crossing the hub gene with the ICMGs, and the IRHGs were validated by dataset and qRT-PCR. Ultimately, we obtained the IRHG in SCM: THBS1. The ROC curve results of THBS1 showed that the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.909. Finally, the miR-222-3p/THBS1 axis regulatory network was constructed.ConclusionIn summary, we propose that THBS1 may be a key IRHG, and can serve as a biomarker for the diagnosis of SCM; in addition, the immune-related regulatory network miR-222-3p/THBS1 may be involved in the regulation of the pathogenesis of SCM and may serve as a promising candidate for SCM therapy.

To explore the relationship between the changes in the physiological period and the fecal microbial population of female rhesus monkeys by measuring microbial composition of fecal samples and the serum hormones. Blood and fecal samples were collected from six female adult rhesus monkeys during the menstrual period (MP), ovulation period (OP), and Luteal period (LP). Serum estradiol (E2) and progesterone (P) levels were determined by the chemiluminescence method and the stool samples were subjected to high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing. The highest level of E2 and P secretions were during the MP, and LP, respectively. Stool samples produced valid sequences and the number of operational taxonomic unit/OTU was: 810056/3756 (MP), 845242/4159 (OP), 881560/3970 (LP). At the phylum level, the three groups of Firmicutes and Bacteroides accounted for > 95%. The dominant flora at the LP was Bacteroides (53.85%), the dominant flora at the MP and OP was Firmicutes, 64.08 and 56.53%, respectively. At the genus level, the dominant genus at the LP was Prevotella, the dominant genera at the MP were Prevotella, Oncococcus, Streptococcus, and Kurtella. The dominant genera at OP were Prevotella and Nocococcus. At the phylum level, P levels were negatively correlated to Firmicutes, Actinomycetes Actinobacteria, and Fibrobacteres, but positively correlated to Bacteroidetes. Likewise, E2 was positively correlated to Proteobacteria but negatively correlated to Euryarchaeota. At the genus level, P hormone showed a significant correlation with 16 bacterial species, and E2 was significantly correlated to seven bacterial species. Function prediction analysis revealed a high similarity between the MP and OP with six differentially functional genes (DFGs) between them and 11 DFGs between OP and LP (P < 0.05). Fecal microbiota types of female rhesus monkeys varied with different stages of the menstrual cycle, possibly related to changes in hormone levels.

Nowadays, it is very popular to employ genetic algorithm (GA) and its improved strategies to optimize neural networks (i.e., WNN) to solve the modeling problems of aluminum electrolysis manufacturing system (AEMS). However, the traditional GA only focuses on restraining the infinite growth of the optimal species without reducing the similarity among the remaining excellent individuals when using the exclusion operator. Additionally, when performing arithmetic crossover or Cauchy mutation, a functional operator that conforms to the law of evolution is not constructed to generate proportional coefficients, which seriously restricted the exploitation of the hidden potential in genetic algorithms. To solve the above problems, this paper adopts three new methods to explore the performance enhancement of genetic algorithms (EGA). First, the mean Hamming distance (H-Mean) metric is designed to measure the spatial dispersion of individuals to alleviate selection pressure. Second, arithmetic crossover with transformation of the sigmoid-based function is developed to dynamically adjust the exchange proportion of offspring. Third, an adaptive scale coefficient is introduced into the Gauss-Cauchy mutation, which can regulate the mutation step size in real time and search accuracy for individuals in the population. Finally, the EGA solver is employed to deeply mine the optimal initial parameters of wavelet neural network (EGAWNN). Moreover, the paper provides the algorithm performance test, convergence analysis and significance test. The experimental results reveal that the EGAWNN model outperforms other relevant wavelet-based forecasting models, where the RMSE in test sets based on EGAWNN is 305.72 smaller than other seven algorithms.

Colorectal adenocarcinoma (CRC) is the third most common malignancy worldwide. Metastatic CRC has a poor prognosis because of chemotherapy resistance. Our previous study demonstrated that semaphorin 3F (SEMA3F) signaling may contribute to reversing chemotherapy resistance in CRC cells by reducing E-cadherin and integrin αvβ3 expression levels. Another study showed that upregulation of p27 significantly increase the expression of E-cadherin and integrin. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of SEMA3F on P27 and whether it can reverse resistance in CRC cells. We compared the chemosensitivity of human colorectal cancer cell lines with different SEMA3F expression levels to 5-Fu through cell experiment and animal experiment. Then the interaction between SEMA3F and p27 and its possible mechanism were explored by Western Blot, immunofluorescence and immunocoprecipitation. We also compared the disease-free survival of 118 CRC patients with high or low expression of SEMA3F.The results showed that overexpresstion of SEMA3F enhanced the chemotherapy sensitivity and apoptosis of CRC cells in vitro and in vivo. Among 118 postoperative CRC specimens, the disease-free survival of patients with positive SEMA3F expression was significantly longer than that with negative SEMA3F expression after adjuvant treatment. Upregulation of SEMA3F in multicellular spheroid culture (MSC) could increase p27 phosphorylation at serine 10 (Ser10), subsequently promote the cytosolic translocation of P27. Overall, our results reveal a novel molecular mechanism: SEMA3F mediates the degradation of p27 and regulates its subcellular localization to enhance chemosensitivity to 5-Fu in CRC cells, rather than inhibits p27 expression.

Objectives To assess participants’ satisfaction with and predictors of upper gastrointestinal cancer screening in rural areas.Design Cross-sectional study.Setting Ten screening centres in seven cities across five provinces in China.Participants Of the 452 participants screened during the survey period, 438 completed the survey (response rate: 96.90%).Primary outcome measures Screening satisfaction was the primary outcome and it was assessed using the Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire-18. Ordinal logistic regression analysis was used to analyse the predictors of satisfaction.Results The percentages of satisfaction with the General Satisfaction, Technical Quality, Interpersonal Manner, Communication, Financial Aspects, Time Spent With Doctor, and Convenience and Accessibility dimensions were 95.89%, 79.68%, 88.36%, 83.56%, 75.11%, 82.19% and 66.44%, respectively. Education (OR 0.25, 95% CI 0.07 to 0.90), health self-assessment (OR 15.29, 95% CI 2.86 to 81.78) and family history of cancer (OR 4.20, 95% CI 1.29 to 13.71) were associated with General Satisfaction. Residence (OR 4.31, 95% CI 1.89 to 9.81) was associated with Technical Quality. Occupation (OR 0.27, 95% CI 0.08 to 0.88), health self-assessment (OR 11.30, 95% CI 3.94 to 32.43), screening purpose (OR 0.18, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.92) and distance from the screening centre (OR 4.59, 95% CI 1.35 to 15.61) were associated with interpersonal manner. Gender (OR 1.85, 95% CI 1.02 to 3.34), residence (OR 3.23, 95% CI 1.23 to 8.53) and endoscopy in the previous year (OR 2.79, 95% CI 1.13 to 6.90) were associated with Communication. Body mass index (BMI; OR 5.06, 95% CI 1.40 to 18.25) and health self-assessment (OR 2.09, 95% CI 1.12 to 3.88) were associated with financial aspects. Gender (OR 1.90, 95% CI 1.07 to 3.38), residence (OR 3.19, 95% CI 1.30 to 7.79), BMI (OR 5.26, 95% CI 1.14 to 24.34) and health self-assessment (OR 2.14, 95% CI 1.06 to 4.34) were associated with time spent with doctor. Gender (OR 1.64, 95% CI 1.04 to 2.60) and residence (OR 3.17, 95% CI 1.46 to 6.88) were associated with convenience and accessibility.Conclusion There was heterogeneity across the dimensions of satisfaction with rural upper gastrointestinal cancer screening. Project manager should prioritise improving the aspects related to the convenience and accessibility dimension. Furthermore, to improve the efficiency of potential interventions, the predictors of the various dimensions should be considered.

Over 170 RNA modifications have been identified after transcriptions, involving in regulation of RNA splicing, processing, translation and decay. Growing evidence has unmasked the crucial role of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) in cancer development and progression, while, as a relative newly found RNA modification, N7-methylguanosine (m7G) is also certified to participate in tumorigenesis via different catalytic machinery from that of m6A. However, system analysis on m7G RNA modification-related regulator genes is lack. In this study, we first investigated the genetic alteration of m7G related regulator genes in 33 cancers, and found mRNA expression levels of most regulator genes were positively correlated with copy number variation (CNV) and negatively correlated with methylation in most cancers. We built a m7G RNA modification model based on the enrichment of the regulator gene scores to evaluate the m7G modification levels in 33 cancers, and investigated the connections of m7G scores to clinical outcomes. Furthermore, we paid close attention to the role of m7G in immunology due to the widely used immune checkpoint blockade therapy. Our results showed the higher m7G scores related to immunosuppression of tumor cells. Further confirmation with phase 3 clinical data with application of anti-PDL1/PDL indicated the impact of m7G modification level on immunotherapy effect. Relevance of m7G regulator genes and drug sensitivity was also evaluated to provide a better treatment choice when treating cancers. In summary, our study uncovered the profile of m7G RNA modification through various cancers, and figured out the connection of m7G modification levels with therapeutical outcomes, providing potential better options of cancer treatment.

In this work, a single-frequency fiber amplifier with output power of 703 W was demonstrated at 1,064.4 nm in an all-fiber configuration. Cascaded Yb3+-doped fiber structure with different dopant concentration and hybrid 915/976 nm pump scheme were employed in power scaling stage to improve the gain saturation for higher transverse mode instability threshold. An overall optical efficiency of 67.5% was achieved at the maximum output power and the M2 was measured to be ∼1.4. A spectral linewidth of 2 kHz was obtained from the 703-W single-frequency laser. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a single-frequency all-fiber amplifier with kHz-level spectral linewidth is achieved at such high output power.

Offline perceptions are self-generated sensations that do not involve physical stimulus. These perceptions can be induced by external hallucinated objects or internal imagined objects. However, how the brain dissociates these visual sensations remains unclear. We aimed to map the brain areas involved in internal and external visual sensations induced by intracranial electrical stimulation and further investigate their neural differences. In this study, we collected subjective reports of internal and external visual sensations elicited by electrical stimulation in 40 drug-refractory epilepsy during presurgical evaluation. The response rate was calculated and compared to quantify the dissociated distribution of visual responses. We found that internal and external visual sensations could be elicited when different brain areas were stimulated, although there were more overlapping brain areas. Specifically, stimulation of the hippocampus and inferior temporal cortex primarily induces internal visual sensations. In contrast, stimulation of the occipital visual cortex mainly triggers external visual sensations. Furthermore, compared to that of the dorsal visual areas, the ventral visual areas show more overlap between the two visual sensations. Our findings show that internal and external visual sensations may rely on distinct neural representations of the visual pathway. This study indicated that implantation of electrodes in ventral visual areas should be considered during the evaluation of visual sensation aura epileptic seizures.

DNA methylation serves as a reversible and prognostic biomarker for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients. It is unclear whether the effect of DNA methylation on OSCC overall survival varies with age. As a result, we performed a two-phase gene–age interaction study of OSCC prognosis on an epigenome-wide scale using the Cox proportional hazards model. We identified one CpG probe, cg11676291MORN1, whose effect was significantly modified by age (HRdiscovery = 1.018, p = 4.07 × 10−07, FDR-q = 3.67 × 10−02; HRvalidation = 1.058, p = 8.09 × 10−03; HRcombined = 1.019, p = 7.36 × 10−10). Moreover, there was an antagonistic interaction between hypomethylation of cg11676291MORN1 and age (HRinteraction = 0.284; 95% CI, 0.135–0.597; p = 9.04 × 10−04). The prognosis of OSCC patients was well discriminated by the prognostic score incorporating cg11676291MORN1–age interaction (HRhigh vs. low = 3.66, 95% CI: 2.40–5.60, p = 1.93 × 10−09). By adding 24 significant gene–age interactions using a looser criterion, we significantly improved the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of the model at 3- and 5-year prognostic prediction (AUC3-year = 0.80, AUC5-year = 0.79, C-index = 0.75). Our study identified a significant interaction between cg11676291MORN1 and age on OSCC survival, providing a potential therapeutic target for OSCC patients.

Abstract Transition metal single‐atom catalysts (SACs) are of immense interest, but how exactly they are evolved upon pyrolysis of the corresponding precursors remains unclear as transition metal ions in the complex precursor undergo a series of morphological changes accompanied with changes in oxidation state as a result of the interactions with the carbon support. Herein, the authors record the complete evolution process of Co SAC during the pyrolysis a Co/Zn‐containing zeolitic imidazolate framework. Aberration‐corrected environmental TEM coupled with in‐situ EELS is used for direct visualization of the evolution process at 200–1000 °C. Dissolution of carbon into the nanoparticles of Co is found to be key to modulating the wetting behavior of nanoparticles on the carbon support; melting of Co nanoparticles and their motion within the zeolitic architecture leads to the etching of the framework structure, yielding porous C/N support onto which Co‐single atoms reside. This uniquely structured Co SAC is found to be effective for the oxidation of a series of aromatic alkanes to produce selective ketones among other possible products. The carbon dissolution and melting/sublimation‐driven structural dynamics of transition metal revealed here will expand the methodology in synthesizing SACs and other high‐temperature processes.

In the process of production, processing, transportation, and storage of edible oils, the oils inevitably come into contact with plastic products. As a result, plasticizers migrate into edible oils, are harmful to human health, and can exhibit reproductive toxicity. Therefore, the determination of plasticizers in edible oils is very important, and a series of sample preparation methods and determination techniques have been developed for the determination of plasticizers in edible oils. Phthalic acid ester (PAE) plasticizers are the most widely used among all plasticizers. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the sample preparation methods and detection techniques reported for the determination of PAEs in edible oils since 2010, focusing on sample preparation methods of edible oils combined with various separation-based analytical techniques, such as gas chromatography (GC) and liquid chromatography (LC) with different detectors. Furthermore, the advantages, disadvantages, and limitations of these techniques as well as the prospective future developments are also discussed.

Current knowledge regarding the long-term humoral response of people infected with human immunodeficiency virus to the third dose of inactivated coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine is incomplete. As a result, concerns remain about the safety and efficacy of the vaccination. To improve our understanding of the safety and immunogenicity of the COVID-19 inactivated vaccine booster in people living with HIV (PLWH), a prospective study was conducted on participants who had not yet received a third dose of the COVID-19 inactivated vaccine, had no history of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and had received a second dose of the vaccine more than six months prior. The primary safety outcomes included the incidence of adverse reactions, changes in CD4+ T-cell count, viral load, blood routine examination, liver and kidney function examination, blood sugar, and blood lipid examination. The pseudovirus-neutralizing antibody responses to the D614G variant, Delta variant, and Omicron variants BA.5 and BF.7 were evaluated before vaccination, 14 days, 28 days, 3 months, and 6 months after vaccination to evaluate the immune response of PLWH to the injection of inactivated vaccine booster and the safety of the vaccine. In conclusion, COVID-19 vaccine booster shots were effective in PLWH, resulting in an increase in the number of CD4+ T-cells, neutralizing antibodies that lasted up to six months, and higher levels of neutralizing antibodies lasting approximately 3 months. However, the vaccine protection against the two variants of BA.5 and BF.7 was significantly lower than that of D614G and Delta.

The presence or absence of subcutaneous adipose accumulation will affect the energy storage, insulation resistance and metabolism of animals. Proliferation and differentiation of preadipocytes play a significant role in lipid deposition. The objective of this study was to clone the goat CXCL17 gene and investigate its potential functions on goat subcutaneous preadipocytes’ proliferation by gaining or losing function in vitro. The goat CXCL17 gene was cloned by Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) and bioinformatics analysis was performed. The expression of the CXCL17 gene in the different goat tissues and adipocytes at different differentiation stages was detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (qPCR). The results showed that the cloned sequence of goat CXCL17 gene is 728 bp and the CDS region is 357 bp, encoding 118 amino acids. CXCL17 protein is located in nucleus, cytoplasm, mitochondria and extracellular matrix. Tissue-expression profiles revealed that CXCL17 expressed in all of the examined tissues. In visceral tissues, the highest expression level was found in lung (p < 0.01); in muscle tissues, the highest CXCL17 expression level was found in the longissimus dorsi (p < 0.01) and in adipose tissues, the highest expression level was found in subcutaneous adipose (p CXCL17 expression levels upregulated at 48 h (p < 0.01), 72 h (p < 0.01), 120 h (p < 0.01) and downregulated at 96 h (p < 0.01). Furthermore, the results of crystal violet staining and semi-quantitative assay showed that transfection with 1 μg CXCL17 expression plasmid reduced the cell numbers in vitro. Meanwhile, the expression of CCND1 was significantly decreased. A similar consequence happened after interfering with CXCL17 expression. However, plasmid transfected with 2 μg pEGFPN1-CXCL17 increased the number of cells in vitro. These results suggest that CXCL17 is involved in the proliferation of goat subcutaneous preadipocytes.

As a vivid practice of urban-rural interaction, empowerment is playing an increasingly salient role in rural revitalization around the world. Yet, existing studies on empowerment practices are still insufficient. This paper examines how empowerment practices affect the economic development of rural communities in China. This study constructs an integrated variable to measure the practice of rural empowerment in China. Data for this study were obtained from the community data of the China Rural Household Panel Survey (CRHPS) in 2017 to empirically verify the impact of empowerment practices on the rural collective economy. The results indicate that empowerment practice has a significant role in promoting the economic development of rural communities. Regarding the heterogeneity of the number of leaders, the fewer rural community leaders there are, the less empowered a village will be. For the heterogeneity of the income of the rural collective economy, the higher the income is, the more significant the promoting effect of empowerment on rural communities will be.

Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) positions include various useful signals and some unmodeled errors. In order to enhance the accuracy and extract the features of the GNSS daily time sequence, an improved method of complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition (CEEMD) and multi-PCA (MPCA) based on correlation coefficients and block spatial filtering was proposed. The results showed that the mean standard deviations of the raw residual time sequence were 1.09, 1.20 and 4.79 mm, while those of the newly proposed method were 0.15, 0.20 and 2.86 mm in north, east and up directions, respectively. The proposed method outperforms wavelet decomposition (WD)-PCA and empirical mode decomposition (EMD)-PCA in effectively eliminating low- and high-frequency noise, and is suitable for denoising nonlinear and nonstationary GNSS position sequences. Furthermore, feature extraction of the denoised GNSS daily time series was based on CEEMD, which is superior to WD and EMD. Results of noise analysis suggested that the noise components in the original and denoised GNSS time sequence are complex. The advantages of the proposed method are the following: (i) it fully exploits the merits of CEEMD and WD, where CEEMD is first used to obtain the limited intrinsic modal functions (IMFs) and then to extract seasonal and trend features; (ii) it has good adaptive processing ability via WD for noise-dominant IMFs; and (iii) it fully considers the correlation between the different components of each station and the non-uniform behavior of common mode error on a spatial scale.

There are two high-temperature and high-yield geothermal wells, located in the deep ancient buried hill northeast of the Gaoyang geothermal field at the Xiong'an New Area, are constructed by China Geological Survey during the past two years. The successful implementation of the two deep wells reveal that there is a second space for geothermal development in deep Xiong'an New Area. The deep carbonate rock has a high thermal storage temperature, large flow rate, and huge development potential. On the basis of previous studies, this article fully summarizes the latest survey results of geothermal resources in deep buried hills in the northeast of Gaoyang Geothermal Field and these comprehensive analysis show that the heat accumulation mechanism of the study area are as follows: ① Affected by the westward subduction of the Pacific Plate, the eastern North China Craton is significantly damaged, and the thickness of the lithosphere and crust has been greatly reduced, which is conducive to conduct the mantle-derived heat to the shallow depth; ②The regional Marcy fault and other deep strike-slip faults cut through the lithosphere, which contributed to the deep mantle-derived thermal material and deep magma intruding into the crust; ③The heat flow is gathered from the low thermal conductivity depression to the high thermal conductivity. Besides, groundwater is heated by deep cycle and convection along the fault, and the confluence area of regional karst groundwater also has a certain heat accumulation effect. Because of the combined effect of various favorable factors, a high-temperature and high-productivity carbonate type reservoir is formed in the northeast of the Gaoyang geothermal field.

The 2019 Military World Games was the largest special sports event in the history of Military Sports Events. Volunteers as a soft infrastructure play a critical role in the success of the Military World Games. However, few systematic studies have been conducted on volunteer motivation of Military World Games. Drawing on the social identity theory, a theoretical model has been developed, which includes a new theme-related motivation of love of military based on the version of VMS-ISE scale. Through investigating 2,114 respondents, results show that motivations of expression of values, patriotism and city involvement, interpersonal contacts, personal growth, love of sport, and love of military have positively impact on volunteer satisfaction. Especially, volunteers with the deep passion of military sport would highly increase volunteer satisfaction. Follow-up analyses may contribute a deeper understanding and practical guidance of organizers to recruit and manage volunteers in special sport events with the certain theme.

Background: Combinatorial inhibition of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and BRAF shows remarkable clinical benefits in patients with BRAF V600E-mutant metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). However, the tumor may inevitably develop resistance to the targeted therapy, thereby limiting the response rate and durability. This study aimed to determine the genetic alterations associated with intrinsic and acquired resistance to EGFR/BRAF inhibitors in BRAF V600E-mutant mCRC. Methods: Targeted sequencing of 520 cancer-related genes was performed in tumor tissues and in plasma samples collected from patients with BRAF V600E-mutant mCRC, who were treated with EGFR/BRAF ± MEK inhibitors, before and after the targeted treatment. Clinical benefit was defined as an objective response or a stable disease lasting longer than the median progression-free survival (PFS). Results: In all, 25 patients with BRAF V600E-mutant mCRC were included in this study. Those with RNF43 mutations ( n = 8) were more likely to achieve clinical benefit from EGFR/BRAF inhibitors than those with wild-type RNF43 (87.5% versus 37.5%, p = 0.034). Genetic alterations in receptor tyrosine kinase genes ( n = 6) were associated with worse PFS ( p = 0.005). Among the 23 patients whose disease progressed after the EGFR/BRAF-targeted therapy, at least one acquired resistance-related mutation was detected in 12 patients. Acquired mutations were most frequently observed in the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway-related genes ( n = 9), including KRAS (G12D and Q61H/R), NRAS (Q61L/R/K and amplification), BRAF (amplification), and MEK1 (K57T). MET amplification and PIK3R1 Q579fs mutation emerged in three patients and one patient, respectively, after disease progression. Conclusion: Multiple genetic alterations are associated with clinical benefits and resistance to EGFR/BRAF inhibitors in BRAF V600E-mutant mCRC. Our findings provide novel insights into strategies for overcoming resistance to EGFR/BRAF inhibitors in patients with BRAF V600E-mutant mCRC.

Septic cardiomyopathy (SCM) is a cardiac dysfunction caused by severe sepsis, which greatly increases the risk of heart failure and death, and its molecular mechanism is unclear. The immune response has been reported to be an important process in septic cardiomyopathy and is present in the cardiac tissue of patients with sepsis, suggesting that the immune response may be an underlying mechanism of myocardial injury in SCM. Therefore, we explored the role of immune-related genes (IRGs) in SCM and aimed to identify pivotal immune-related targets with the aim of identifying key immune-related targets in SCM and potential therapeutic mechanisms involved in the pathological process of SCM. To explore the regulatory mechanisms of immune responses in SCM, we identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs) shared in the SCM datasets GSE179554 and GSE40180 by bioinformatics analysis and then obtained hub genes from the DEGs. Then, we obtained the immune-related hub genes (IRHGs) by intersecting the hub genes with IRGs and performed quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction to confirm the abnormal expression of IRHGs. Finally, we further constructed an immune-related lncRNA–miRNA–IRHG ceRNA regulatory network. In this study, we identified an IRHG that may be involved in the pathogenesis of SCM, which helps us to further elucidate the role of immune response in SCM and gain insights into the molecular mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets of SCM.

From 2019 to 2021, we constructed two high-productivity geothermal wells with wellhead temperatures of 109.2 and 123.4°C in the Gaoyang geothermal field. Based on the two wells, it was proved that Gaoyang is a medium-temperature carbonate geothermal field with great development potential. The article reported the latest exploration achievements of deep buried hill geothermal resources in the geothermal field. The productivity of D34 and D35 geothermal wells were evaluated by James end-pressure method: the total flow of steam–water mixture was 234.59–331.92 (t/h), the dryness was 1.36–2.03%, and the single-well power generation potential was 2.10–2.55 MW. Combined with those results, the heat control factors and heat accumulation mechanism of the deep carbonatite geothermal field were confirmed. The westward subduction of the Pacific plate caused obvious damage to the eastern North China Craton and greatly reduced the thickness of the lithosphere and crust. This process facilitated the conduction of mantle-derived heat to shallow crust. Deep strike-slip faults (e.g., Maxi fault) cut through the lithosphere, leading the deep mantle-derived heat and magma to migrate into the crust. The heat accumulated from the depression with low thermal conductivity to the uplift with high thermal conductivity. Groundwater was heated up by deep cycle and convection along faults. The catchment of regional karst groundwater also had a certain effect on the heat accumulation. The Gaoyang geothermal field was formed by these factors.

Summary: Hydro-fluctuation belt (HFB) is the most sensitive area of a large reservoir. This research aimed to identify the impact of catastrophic flooding on the local microplastics organization in the HFB soil of the Three Gorges Reservoir, the largest reservoir in China. We found that the catchment-wide flooding efficiently alleviated the local microplastics abundance from 7,633 to 4,875 items/kg (from 44 to 18 mg/kg) but added to the pollution risk in the reservoir body. After flooding, the overall size distribution of local microplastics was minimally altered. Interestingly, the preferential retention of the small-sized polyethylene was found in HFB after flooding. Approximately 5.0×1014 items (∼2,360 tons) of microplastics were evacuated into the reservoir, equivalent to 15.8 wt% of the plastic flux of the Yangtze River into the ocean. We observed that HFB is a significant source of local microplastics in reservoir, and the long-term source–sink transformation mechanism in the HFB should be further investigated.

Goats are popular in China because of their superior meat quality, delicate flesh, and unique flavor. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. However, the effects of lncRNAs on adipocyte differentiation in goat has not been fully elucidated yet. In this investigation, we performed RNA-Seq analysis of intramuscular and subcutaneous adipocytes from Jianzhou Daer goat before and after differentiation, including both intramuscular preadipocytes (IMPA) vs. intramuscular adipocytes (IMA) and subcutaneous preadipocytes (SPA) vs. subcutaneous adipocytes (SA). A total of 289.49 G clean reads and 12,519 lncRNAs were obtained from 20 samples. In total, 3,733 differentially expressed RNAs (182 lncRNAs and 3,551 mRNAs) were identified by pairwise comparison. There were 135 differentially expressed lncRNAs (DELs) specific to intramuscular adipocytes, 39 DELs specific to subcutaneous adipocytes, and 8 DELs common to both adipocytes in these 182 DELs. Some well-known and novel pathways associated with preadipocyte differentiation were identified: fat acid metabolism, TGF-beta signaling pathway and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. By integrating miRNA-seq data from another study, we also identified hub miRNAs in both types of fat cells. Our analysis revealed the unique and common lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA networks of two kinds of adipocytes. Several lncRNAs that regulate potentially goat preadipocyte differentiation were identified, such as XR_001918 647.1, XR_001917728.1, XR_001297263.2 and LNC_004191. Furthermore, our findings from the present study may contribute to a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying in goat meat quality and provide a theoretical basis for further goat molecular breeding.

Global changes have significant impacts on changes in ecosystem services (ESs) and their interrelationships. The Yellow River Basin (YRB) is an important ecological barrier in China, and it is important for ecological decision-making and management in the basin by quantitatively assessing the trends and drivers of ESs and analyzing the trade-offs and synergies among them. In this study, the food production model, InVEST model, and RUSLE model were used to quantitatively assess three ESs (food production, water yield, and soil conservation) in the YRB from 2000 to 2018. The spatio-temporal trends and future trends were quantified using Theil-Sen Median trend analysis and Hurst exponent. Correlation analysis was used to determine the main influencing factors of the spatio-temporal changes of ESs and analyze the trade-offs and synergies among ESs. The research results show that during 2000–2018, in terms of spatial distribution, food production in the YRB gradually decreases from east to west, water yield gradually decreases from south to north, and the dominant areas of soil conservation are mainly distributed in the plateau areas in the upper and middle reaches of the basin; in terms of temporal changes, food production shows a continuous increase, while water yield and soil conservation generally show an increasing trend in fluctuation. Excluding areas with no significant change and random change, food production will mainly show improvement in the future, and water yield and soil conservation will show some degree of decline in the future. Food production is mainly influenced by the type of land use, water yield is mainly influenced by precipitation, and soil conservation is influenced by a combination of slope and land use type. ESs in the YRB were generally dominated by synergy but locally dominated by trade-offs. Our results will provide reference for policymakers in ecological construction, and analyze trade-offs and synergies of regional ESs in a holistic and local context based on the assessment results and change trends of ESs, thus providing a basis for formulating scientific and reasonable ecological protection policies, and will promote the high-quality development of the YRB.

With continuous urbanization and the fragmentation of green areas that affect human well-being, the establishment of a green infrastructure (GI) network is important in future urban planning. As a National Central City, Zhengzhou has a large population and is undergoing rapid economic development, resulting in an urgent demand for green space within the city in recent years. We selected the main urban area of Zhengzhou as the study area based on the two phases of Landsat 8 satellite remote sensing image data, for 2016 and 2021, and used the patch-generating land use simulation (PLUS) model to predict the spatial distribution of GI in the future; compared with traditional methods, this method identified green spaces from a future perspective. A GI network—consisting of an open space with vegetation as the main body—was designed for the main urban area of Zhengzhou using the traditional landscape ecological pattern theory, integrating morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA), the minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) model, circuit theory, and other methods. Evidently, the area of green space in Zhengzhou City in 2021 was 36 231.6 hm2. GI prediction results indicate that continuous expansion of the main urban area did not result in significant changes in the size of GI in the city. The GI within the urban area was relatively fragmented, forming 15 GI hubs, most of which were densely distributed along the edges of the main urban area. This study proposed the construction of a GI network with a target corridor and target points based on the existing corridor. This included the identification of seven target corridors and 15 target hubs; the total length of the corridor was 77.032 km, with a total of 31 target points. In summary, the GI network pattern of “one protection barrier, two lines, three loops and more points” was proposed. With new urban problems constantly emerging, this research could provide a theoretical reference basis for the planning of GI in the main urban area of the National Central City. The study provides concrete evidence on the optimum pattern for the construction of GI networks in cities with large populations.

It is interesting to explore the effects of second language (L2) acquisition on anatomical change in brain at different stages for the neural structural adaptations are dynamic. Short-term Chinese training effects on brain anatomical structures in alphabetic language speakers have been already studied. However, little is known about the adaptations of the gray matter induced by acquiring Chinese language for a relatively long learning period in adult alphabetic language speakers. To explore this issue, we recruited 38 Indian overseas students in China as our subjects. The learned group included 17 participants who had learned Mandarin Chinese for an average of 3.24 years and achieved intermediate Chinese language proficiency. The control group included 21 subjects who had no knowledge about Chinese. None of the participants had any experience in learning logographic and tonal language before Chinese learning. We found that (1) the learned group had significantly greater gray matter volume (GMV) in the left lingual gyrus (LG) compared with the control group; (2) the Chinese characters’ reading accuracy was significantly and positively correlated to the GMV in the left LG and fusiform gyrus (FG) across the two groups; and (3) in the learned group, the duration of Chinese learning was significantly and positively correlated with the GMV in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) after correction for multiple comparisons with small volume corrections. Our structural imaging findings are in line with the functional imaging studies reporting increased brain activation induced by Chinese acquisition in alphabetic language speakers. The regional gray matter changes reflected the additional requirements imposed by the more difficult processing of Chinese characters and tones. The present study also show that the biological bases of the adaptations induced by a relatively long period of Chinese learning were limited in the common areas for first and foreign language processing.

Studying the flow path of geothermal water in geothermal fields is an important basis for the scientific development and management of geothermal resources. However, due to the influence of engineering volume, economic benefits and demand, it is very difficult to fully grasp the flow path of deep geothermal water in large areas. The use of hydrogeochemical tracers to determine the flow path of geothermal water is a scientific and effective research method. In order to accurately describe the flow path of carbonate geothermal water in the Xiong’an New Area and its surrounding areas, this study systematically analyzed the 14C, 18O, and 2H data of carbonate and Cenozoic sandstone geothermal water, Quaternary groundwater, as well as mountain spring water of the study area. Based on these results, we can conclude that 1) The 14C, d, and 18O values are favourable clues for indicating the circulating runoff conditions and runoff paths of geothermal water. 2) The salinity of the Xushui-Wenan and Lilan transfer zone are 3 g/l, the 14C values are higher than 40,000 years, the d value is lower, and the phenomenon of “18O drift” is obvious, all these indicating that the tectonic sites are the convergence areas of regional karst geothermal water, featured by relative high temperature. 4) The hydrochemical indicators combined with previous carbonate groundwater flow field indicate that the recharge of carbonate geothermal water in the Xiong’an New Area may not only drive from the western Taihang Mountains, but also along the Xushui-Wenan transfer zone and the Lilan fault, with the recharge of carbonate groundwater from the Cangxian uplift from east to west. By further identifying and defining the dominant flow path and supply direction of carbonate geothermal water in the Xiong’an New Area and surrounding areas, it provides strong support for the scientific development of regional carbonate geothermal water.

Pseudomonas plecoglossicida is a facultative fish pathogen that possesses three distinct type VI secretion systems (named T6SS-1, T6SS-2, and T6SS-3). Our previous work indicated that only T6SS-2 of P. plecoglossicida mediates interbacterial competition. However, the antibacterial T6SS effectors and their functions are unclear. Here, we reported two T6SS effectors that mediate antibacterial activity. We first identified four putative antibacterial effectors (denoted as Txe1, Txe2, Txe3, and Txe4) and their cognate immunity proteins encoded in P. plecoglossicida strain XSDHY-P by analyzing the regions downstream of three vgrG genes. We showed that the growth of Escherichia coli cells expressing Txe1, Txe2, and Txe4 was inhibited, and these three effectors exhibited nuclease activity in vivo. The interbacterial competition assays with single- or multi-effector deletion mutants as attackers revealed that Txe1 was the predominant T6SS toxin of P. plecoglossicida strain XSDHY-P mediating the interbacterial killing. This work contributes to our understanding of bacterial effectors involved in the interbacterial competition.

Abstract Tobacco bacterial wilt (TBW) caused by Ralstonia solanacearum is the most serious soil-borne disease of tobacco. However, molecular mechanism information of R. solanacearum resistance is limited to tobacco, hindering better breeding of resistant tobacco. In this study, the expression profiles of the rootstalks of Yunyan87 (susceptible cultivar) and Fandi3 (resistant cultivar) at different stages after R. solanacearum infection were compared to explore molecular mechanisms of tobacco resistance against the bacterium. Findings from gene-expression profiling indicated that the number of upregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) at 3 and 7 days post-inoculation (dpi) increased significantly in the resistant cultivar. WRKY6 and WRKY11 family genes in WRKY transcription factors, ERF5 and ERF15 family genes in ERFs transcription factors, and genes encoding PR5 were significantly upregulated in the resistant cultivar response to the infection. For the first time, WRKY11 and ERF15 were found to be possibly involved in disease-resistance. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis demonstrated glutathione metabolism and phenylpropane pathways as primary resistance pathways to R. solanacearum infection. In the resistant cultivar, DEGs encoding CYP450, TCM, CCoAOMT, 4CL, PAL, CCR, CSE, and CADH, involved in the synthesis of plant antitoxins such as flavonoids, stilbenoids, and lignins, enriched in the phenylpropane pathway were upregulated at 3 and 7 dpi. Furthermore, a pot experiment was performed to verify the role of flavonoids in controlling TBW. This study will strongly contribute to a better understanding of molecular interactions between tobacco plants and R. solanacearum.

In recent years, virtual synchronous generator (VSG) control algorithm has been widely studied in distributed grid-connected power inverters to deal with active and reactive power adjustment by simulating the operation principle of the actual synchronous generator. Nevertheless, once the current sensor fails, the grid-connected power inverter will lose its stability. To enhance the fault-tolerant operation ability of the grid-connected power inverter, a new inverter side current sensor-less model predictive control method based on sliding mode observer (SMO) is proposed. The stability of the SMO is analyzed by using the Lyapunov stability criterion. The gains of the SMO are then designed by analyzing their influences on the current and voltage observation based on the closed-loop transfer functions. Besides, to show the influences of the capacitance changes on the current observation, a detailed parameter sensitivity analysis is also carried out. Then, by using the estimated inductance current from the SMO, a current sensor-less model predictive control method is finally proposed. The main novelty of the proposed method is that both the output voltage of the inverter and the inverter side inductance are not required in the proposed SMO. So, the accuracy of current sensor-less control is improved. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, detailed experimental studies are carried out based on a Typhoon and PE-Expert 4 based experimental platform.

In attosecond and strong-field physics, the acquisition of few-cycle laser sources open up a new area. We report a nonlinear pulse compression technology combining multi-thin-plate spectral broadening and nonlinear self-compression that generates a 0.52 mJ, good spatial quality characteristics and a spectral bandwidth supporting a 14 fs Fourier transform limited duration at 1 kHz repetition rate and at a center wavelength of 1.9 μm. The total energy transfer efficiency is up to 83%. Pulse to pulse stability of the energy output is 0.7% (RMS). The pulse duration is near 3 optical cycles. This pulse compression approach can be a key-enabling technology for the next generation of extreme photonics, attosecond research and coherent x ray-science, and it also can be further extended to mid-infrared lasers with longer wavelengths and higher peak power.

The width of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) is crucial for improving performance. Many wide CNNs use a convolutional layer to fuse multiscale features or fuse the preceding features to subsequent features. However, these CNNs rarely use blocks, which consist of a series of successive convolutional layers, to fuse multiscale features. In this paper, we propose an approach for improving performance by fusing the low-level features extracted from different blocks. We utilize five different convolutions, including $3\times 3, 5\times 5, 7\times 7,5\times 3\,\cup \, 3\times 5$ and $7\times 3\,\cup \, 3\times 7$ , to generate five low-level features, and we design two fusion strategies: low-level feature fusion (L-Fusion) and high-level feature fusion (H-Fusion). Experimental results show that the L-Fusion is more helpful for improving the performance of CNNs, and the $5\times 5$ convolution is more suitable for multiscale feature fusion. We summarize the conclusion as a strategy that fuses multiscale features in the preceding stage of CNNs. Furthermore, we propose a new architecture to perceive the input of CNNs by using two self-governed blocks based on the strategy. Finally, we modify five off-the-shelf networks, DenseNet-BC (depth = 40), ALL-CNN-C (depth = 9), Darknet 19 (depth = 19), Resnet 18 (depth = 18) and Resnet 50 (depth = 50), by utilizing the proposed architecture to verify the conclusion, and these updated networks provide more competitive results.

Constrained multi-objective optimization problems are common in practical engineering and are more difficult to handle than unconstrained problems. In general, it is necessary to find a balance between the convergence and diversity of solutions, as well as its feasibility. For the constrained multi/many-objective optimization problem, a particle swarm optimization algorithm based on a two-level balance strategy is proposed. In contrast to existing views, the first level of the proposed algorithmic framework emphasizes convergence, while diversity and feasibility are considered together as the second-level scheme. An ensemble fitness ranking was used to improve the convergence of the proposed algorithm. To balance the diversity and solution feasibility, the solutions are selected by combining the angles between the solutions using the constraint dominance principle. A penalty-based boundary-crossing approach is used as a utility function to calculate the fitness of the populations, which is compared with six state-of-the-art constrained multi/many-objective evolutionary optimization algorithms on multiple constrained test suites, and the experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is highly competitive in most test problems. Furthermore, to illustrate the effect of different utility functions on the performance of the algorithm, the Chebyshev decomposition method is employed and compared with the former, and the results show that different utility functions need to be chosen to cope with problems of different characteristics.

Abstract Bacterial wilt as a soil-borne disease was caused by Ralstonia solanacearum, and seriously damages the growth of tobacco. Integrated biocontrol method was explored to control bacterial wilt. Nevertheless, the long-term effects of the integrated biocontrol method on soil bacterial community, soil physicochemical properties and the incidence of bacterial wilt are not well understood. In this study, B. amyoliquefaciens ZM9, calcium cyanamide and rice bran were applied to tobacco fields in different ways. The disease index and incidence of tobacco bacterial wilt (TBW), soil physicochemical properties, colonization ability of B. amyoliquefaciens ZM9, and rhizopshere bacterial community were investigated. The results showed that the integrated application of B. amyoliquefaciens ZM9, rice bran and calcium cyanamide had the highest control efficiency of TBW and bacteria community diversity. Additionally, the integrated biocontrol method could improve the colonization ability of B. amyoliquefaciens ZM9. Furthermore, the integrated biocontrol method could effectively suppress TBW by regulating soil physicochemical properties, promoting beneficial bacteria and antagonistic bacteria of rhizopshere soil. This strategy has prospect of overcoming the defects in application of a single antagonistic bacteria and provides new insights to understand how to improve the colonization capacity of antagonistic bacteria and control efficacy for TBW.

Recently, deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been widely explored in single image super-resolution(SISR) and obtained remarkable performance. However, most of the existing CNN-based SISR methods tend to produce over-smoothed outputs and miss some textural details. To address these issues, we propose a wavelet-based asymmetric convolution network (WACN). Different from conventional CNN methods that directly infer HR images, our approach firstly learns to predict the LR’s corresponding series of HR’s wavelet coefficients before reconstructing HR images from them. This helps to capture more structural information in images to preserve texture information and avoid artifacts. To enhance the ability of feature extraction, we propose an asymmetric convolution block (ACB) structure to form a very deep network. In the training phase, ACB can provide different receptive fields to enrich feature information. In the inference phase, ACB’s asymmetric convolution kernel can be equivalently fused into the standard square-kernel layers, such that no extra computational burdens are introduced in the inference phase. Furthermore, we propose a variance-based channel attention (VCA) mechanism to adaptively rescale channel-wise features by considering interdependencies among channels. Extensive experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed WACN in comparison with the state-of-the-art methods.

Intramuscular fat contributes to the improvement of goat meat quality. N6-Methyladenosine (m6A)-modified circular RNAs play important roles in adipocyte differentiation and metabolism. However, the mechanisms by which m6A modifies circRNA before and after differentiation of goat intramuscular adipocytes remain poorly understood. Here, we performed methylated RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (MeRIP-seq) and circRNA sequencing (circRNA-seq) to determine the distinctions in m6A-methylated circRNAs during goat adipocyte differentiation. The profile of m6A-circRNA showed a total of 427 m6A peaks within 403 circRNAs in the intramuscular preadipocytes group, and 428 peaks within 401 circRNAs in the mature adipocytes group. Compared with the intramuscular preadipocytes group, 75 peaks within 75 circRNAs were significantly different in the mature adipocytes group. Furthermore, the Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses of intramuscular preadipocytes and mature adipocytes showed that the differentially m6A-modified circRNAs were enriched in the PKG signaling pathway, endocrine and other factor-regulated calcium reabsorption, lysine degradation, etc. m6A-circRNA–miRNA–mRNA interaction networks predicted the potential m6A-circRNA regulation mechanism in different goat adipocytes. Our results indicate that there is a complicated regulatory relationship between the 12 upregulated and 7 downregulated m6A-circRNAs through 14 and 11 miRNA mediated pathways, respectively. In addition, co-analysis revealed a positive association between m6A abundance and levels of circRNA expression, such as expression levels of circRNA_0873 and circRNA_1161, which showed that m6A may play a vital role in modulating circRNA expression during goat adipocyte differentiation. These results would provide novel information for elucidating the biological functions and regulatory characteristics of m6A-circRNAs in intramuscular adipocyte differentiation and could be helpful for further molecular breeding to improve meat quality in goats.

PDZK1IP1 is highly expressed in tumor tissue and has been identified as a tumor biomarker. However, the role of PDZK1IP1 in goat subcutaneous preadipocyte differentiation remains largely unknown. The molecular mechanism of autophagy in regulating the differentiation of goat subcutaneous preadipocytes has not been clarified yet. In our study, PDZK1IP1 gain of function and loss of function were performed to reveal its functions in preadipocyte differentiation and autophagy. Our results showed that the overexpression of PDZK1IP1 inhibited the differentiation of goat subcutaneous preadipocytes, whereas it promoted autophagy. Consistently, the knockdown of PDZK1IP1 demonstrated the opposite tendency. Next, we investigated whether PDZK1IP1 inhibited the differentiation of goat preadipocytes by regulating autophagy. We found that inhibiting autophagy can rescue the PDZK1IP1-induced differentiation restraint in goat subcutaneous preadipocytes. In conclusion, PDZK1IP1 acts as a regulator of adipogenesis, and inhibits goat subcutaneous preadipocyte differentiation through promoting autophagy. Our results will contribute to further understanding the role and mechanism of PDZK1IP1 in controlling adipogenesis.

Watershed water cycles undergo profound changes under changing environments. Analyses of runoff evolution characteristics are fundamental to our understanding of the evolution of water cycles under changing environments. In this study, linear regression, moving average, Mann–Kendall, Pettitt, accumulative anomaly, STARS, wavelet analysis, and CEEMDAN methods were used to analyze the trends, mutations, and periodic and intrinsic dynamic patterns of runoff evolution using long-term historical data. The intra-annual distribution of runoff in the Dawen River Basin was uneven, with an overall decreasing trend and mutations in 1975–1976. The main periods of runoff were 1.9 and 2.2 years, and the strongest oscillations in the study period occurred in 1978–1983. The runoff decomposition high-frequency term (intra-annual fluctuation term) had a stronger fluctuation frequency, with a period of 0.51–0.55 years, while the low-frequency term (interannual fluctuation term) had a period of 1.55–2.26 years. The trend term for the runoff decomposition tended to decrease throughout the monitoring period and gradually stabilized at the end of the monitoring period, while the period gradually decreased from upstream to downstream. In summary, we used multiple methods to analyze the evolutionary characteristics of runoff, which are of great relevance to the adaptive management of water resources under changing environments.

Leaf inclination is one of the most important components of the ideal architecture, which effects yield gain. Leaf inclination was shown that is mainly regulated by brassinosteroid (BR) and auxin signaling. Here, we reveal a novel regulator of leaf inclination, auxin transporter OsPIN1b. Two CRISPR-Cas9 homozygous mutants, ospin1b-1 and ospin1b-2, with smaller leaf inclination compared to the wild-type, Nipponbare (WT/NIP), while overexpression lines, OE-OsPIN1b-1 and OE-OsPIN1b-2 have opposite phenotype. Further cell biological observation showed that in the adaxial region, OE-OsPIN1b-1 has significant bulge compared to WT/NIP and ospin1b-1, indicating that the increase in the adaxial cell division results in the enlarging of the leaf inclination in OE-OsPIN1b-1. The OsPIN1b was localized on the plasma membrane, and the free IAA contents in the lamina joint of ospin1b mutants were significantly increased while they were decreased in OE-OsPIN1b lines, suggesting that OsPIN1b might action an auxin transporter such as AtPIN1 to alter IAA content and leaf inclination. Furthermore, the OsPIN1b expression was induced by exogenous epibrassinolide (24-eBL) and IAA, and ospin1b mutants are insensitive to BR or IAA treatment, indicating that the effecting leaf inclination is regulated by OsPIN1b. This study contributes a new gene resource for molecular design breeding of rice architecture.

Intramuscular fat (IMF) deposits help improve meat quality such as marbling, juicy, flavor and tenderness. Long-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (ACADL) is a key enzyme for catalyzing fatty acid oxidation, and studies have shown ACADL is involved in the deposition and differentiation of intramuscular adipocytes. However, the effect of ACADL on intramuscular adipocytes differentiation in goats needs further study. In this study, to explore the mechanism of ACADL on the development of goat intramuscular adipocytes, we constructed an over-expression plasmids and a SI-RNA of ACADL to explore the function of ACADL on the development of goat IMF. It was found that overexpression of ACADL promoted the differentiation of goat intramuscular adipocytes, and promoted the expression of fat cell differentiation marker genes lipoprotein lipase (LPL), peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma (PPARγ), APETALA-2-like transcription factor gene (AP2), CCAT enhancer binding protein (CEBPα), preadipocyte Factor 1 (Pref-1) and CCAT enhancer binding protein (CEBPβ), and the opposite trend occurred after interference. In addition, we screened of this related tumor necrosis factor (TNF) signaling pathway by RNA-Seq. So, we validate the signaling pathway with inhibitor of TNF signaling pathway. In summary, these results indicate that ACADL promotes intramuscular adipocytes differentiation through activation TNF signaling pathway. This study provides an important basis for the mechanism of IMF development.

During forest vegetation rehabilitation, changes in aboveground litter and underground root inputs affect soil microbial communities. Clarifying the effects of forest ecosystem carbon inputs on soil microbial community structure can provide a theoretical basis for the microbial driving mechanism of soil fertility evolution and ecosystem rehabilitation of vegetation rehabilitation in degraded red soil. Our research focuses on a Schima superba pure forest recovered from eroded and degraded red soil in a subtropical region. Five treatments were set as follows: control treatment (CT), mycorrhiza (M), root + mycorrhiza (RM), litter + root + mycorrhiza (LRM), and double litter + root + mycorrhiza (DLRM). We used Illumina HiSeq technology to study the effects of different organic carbon inputs on soil microbial community structure. The results showed that all organic carbon input treatments reduced the total population of soil bacteria by 55–79%; M, RM, and DLRM treatments increased the quantity of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) by 25–37%, ACE index by 25–34%, and Chao1 index by 28–39%. Acidobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Actinobacteria were the dominant bacteriophyta in the Schima superba pure forest soil. The relative abundance of Alphaproteobacteria decreased by 55% under LRM treatment, and Thermoleophilia increased by 81% under M treatment. The dominant fungal phyla were Basidiomycota and Ascomycota. RM, LRM, and DLRM treatments reduced the relative abundance of Sordariomycetes by 46–64% and increased the relative abundance of Mortierellomycetes by 251–615%. The order of effects of different organic carbon inputs on the bacterial community composition at the phylum level was LRM > RM > M > DLRM and that on the fungal community composition was DLRM > LRM and RM > M. Alphaproteobacteria, Thermoleophilia, Sordariomycetes, and Mortierellomycetes were the main microbial groups affected by changes in organic carbon inputs. Soil organic carbon and total nitrogen were the key factors affecting the change of Mortierellomycetes. The bacterial community mainly affected the activity of soil acid invertase, while the fungal community affected the activities of various enzymes, with positive or negative effects. We concluded that the organic carbon inputs changed the species and quantity of soil microorganisms in the Schima superba forest, and the influence of organic carbon input on the fungal community structure was greater than that of bacteria.

Background: There is a close relationship between neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) and venous thromboembolism (VTE). The regulatory role and mechanism of glucocorticoids (GC) in the formation of NETs are unclear. Objective: This study was conducted to assess the effect of GC on the formation of NETs. Methods: We constructed a mouse VTE model and treated them with GC to observe the effect of GC on the formation of NETs. In this regard, peripheral blood neutrophils were isolated, and the effect and mechanism of GC in neutrophil activation were analyzed. Results: Following LPS treatment, the colony-forming ability of neutrophils and their ability to form NETs increased significantly. The analysis of cytokine changes by RT-PCR combined with ELISA showed that the level of inflammatory factors in LPS-activated neutrophils increased significantly; however, these factors were significantly inhibited after GC treatment, and the inhibitory effect was positively correlated with the concentration of GC. LPS treatment was able to activate the production of ROS and lipid peroxides, however, this activation was significantly inhibited after GC treatment, and the inhibition increased with increasing doses of GC. Further examination of the changes in NF-κB signaling activation revealed that LPS-induced NF-κB signaling was significantly inhibited after GC treatment, and this inhibition increased with increasing the GC concentration. Conclusion: Glucocorticoids were able to inhibit neutrophil activation and reduce the formation of NETs. The research results provided a new research direction for clinical antithrombotic treatment.