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In this study, we introduced the bovine immunoglobulin μ heavy-chain gene (the orphaned gene on BTA11) into mouse germline cells. Bovine IgM was highly expressed in selected transgenic lines, and it largely inhibited rearrangements of the endogenous immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) genes in these lines. The forced expression of bovine IgM resulted in reduced numbers of pro- and pre-B cells but increased the number of immature B cells in the transgenic mice. Bovine IgM-expressing B cells can migrate from the bone marrow to the spleen, but most of the cells are arrested at the T1 transitional B cell stage, leading to a significantly lower number of T2 transitional and mature B cells in the spleen. Although the serum concentrations of endogenous IgM and IgG in the transgenic mice were significantly decreased, the IgA levels were slightly increased compared to the WT mice. The bovine IgM level in the serum was only one-tenth to one-fifth of that of endogenous mouse IgM, suggesting that most of the serum immunoglobulin were contributed by endogenous IgH gene-expressing B cells. These transgenic mice also exhibited a lower frequency of unique complementarity determining region 3 (CDR3) sequences in their VH repertoire and V&Kgr; repertoire but exhibited an increased frequency of unique CDR3 in their V&Lgr; repertoire. Compared to the WT mice, the transgenic mice had a significantly higher percentage of mouse IgM-expressing B cells that expressed &Lgr; chains. Finally, we showed that the transgenic mice were deficient in a specific antibody response to antigen stimulation.

In view of problems that present discriminated methods of water burst source ca't realize prediction of water burst and has long processing time and high complexity, the paper designed a water quality detection system which adopts laser induce fluorescence technology and uses FPGA as core processor. Through on-line detection of fluorescence spectrum, the system can real-timely monitor changes of chemical components of underground water and rapidly monitor movement precursor of the water burst source, so as to achieve forewarning of water burst. The test results show that the system has high detection precision and fast response speed.

Southern corn leaf blight (SCLB) seriously threatens corn production. The timely and accurate monitoring of SCLB conditions (e.g., detection during the asymptomatic stage and severity classification during the symptomatic stage) is valuable for precision agriculture, because the application of pesticides depends on disease conditions. Compared with time-consuming and laborious field surveys, spectroscopy is a promising tool for plant disease monitoring. The unique advantages of combining multiple spectral enhancement features for monitoring rice and wheat diseases have been recognized. However, physiological and biochemical differences between maize leaves and rice and wheat leaves, along with the specific spectral response of SCLB, are likely to affect the performance of combining multiple spectral enhancement features. In addition, similar previous studies have not combined spectral slope features, i.e., first-order spectral derivatives (FSDs), with spectral bands (SBs) and spectral indices (SIs) and wavelet features (WFs) to improve plant disease detection. Thus, the performance of a method that combines FSDs, WFs, SBs, and SIs for SCLB asymptomatic detection, symptomatic detection, and symptomatic severity classification should be evaluated further. Here, the utility of combining SBs, SIs, WFs, and FSDs was quantified and evaluated in the asymptomatic detection, symptomatic detection, and symptomatic severity classification of SCLB. Various forms of spectral enhancement features that were sensitive to SCLB infection from the asymptomatic stage to the severe stage were first identified and combined using the RELIEF-F and sequential floating forward selection algorithms on the basis of two independent inoculation experiments. Finally, SCLB asymptomatic detection, symptomatic detection, and symptomatic severity classification models were developed and evaluated using the support vector machine algorithm. Results showed that combining FSDs with SBs, SIs, and WFs achieved the best performance in SCLB spectroscopic monitoring. (1) SCLB asymptomatic detection and symptomatic detection were moderately improved, i.e., overall accuracy (OA) and macro F1 (MF1) improved by ~ 1% to 2%. The OA of SCLB asymptomatic detection was 87.1% with an MF1 of 0.87, and that of symptomatic detection was 93.1% with an MF1 of 0.93. (2) SCLB symptomatic severity classification was significantly improved, i.e., OA and MF1 improved by ~ 7%. The OA of severity classification was 81.8% with am MF1 of 0.82. This study demonstrated that the complementary relationships among SBs, SIs, WFs, and FSDs could effectively improve SCLB spectroscopic monitoring. The proposed method provides a novel tool for large-scale SCLB spectroscopic monitoring. It has broad implications for assisting management decisions (i.e., when and where to apply pesticides and how much to apply) in precision agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a common thrombotic vascular disease that has a significant impact on people's well-being and quality of life. A plethora of clinical studies explore the relationship between inflammatory biomarkers and VTE but yield conflicting results. This article proposed to pool these studies to draw a more convincing conclusion. Methods: We searched several databases for studies before April 2023. Available data was processed using Stata software (version 15.0 SE) and R (version 4.1.2). This meta-analysis has been registered in PROSPERO (CRD42022321815). The VTE in this review encompassed pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, and cerebral venous thrombosis. Results: A total of 25 articles were finally involved in this study. Our results revealed that higher levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP, MD, 0.63, 95%CI, 0.21—1.05) and C-reactive protein (CRP)> 3ug/ml (OR, 1.52, 95%CI, 1.18—1.96) might be regarded as risk factors for future VTE occurrence. The elevated levels of monocyte (MD, 0.03, 95%CI, 0.00—0.05), hs-CRP (0.85, 0.61—1.08), CRP (0.66, 0.20—1.13) and IL-6 (0.47, 0.25—0.70) might represent the previous VTE; a series of markers such as white blood cell (1.43, 0.88—1.98), neutrophil (1.79, 1.02—2.56), monocyte (0.17, 0.14—0.21), hs-CRP (3.72, 1.45—5.99), IL−6 (5.99, 4.52—7.46), platelet-lymphocyte ratio (33.1, 24.45—41.78) and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (1.34, 0.95—1.73) increased during the acute phase of VTE. Conclusions: In general, activated inflammatory biomarkers might not only be correlated with an increased risk of VTE, but may also give a hint of the occurrence of VTE in clinical settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and purpose: Cortical vein thrombosis (CVT) is a rare form of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) in adolescent patients that has received little attention. We aimed to analyze the clinical and radiological features of adolescents with CVST and investigate the effects of CVT involvement. Methods: Patients aged ≥ 10 to ≤ 18 years and diagnosed with CVST were identified at Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University between January 2015 and August 2022 and divided into two groups according to the presence or absence of cortical vein involvement. Additionally, the patients were also categorized based on their sex. Clinical features, radiological characteristics, and 12-month follow-up outcomes were compared between the two groups. Results: Fifty-three adolescents, including 21 with CVT, were included (mean age: 15.2 ± 1.8 years; females, 54.7%). The CVT group was more likely to experience seizures (P = 0.028) and deterioration (28.6% vs. 6.2%, P = 0.047) during hospitalization than the non-CVT group. Poor short-term outcomes, based on the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score at discharge, were more common in adolescents with CVT (P = 0.007). The proportions of patients showing edema (42.9% vs. 6.2%, P = 0.004) and mass effect (P = 0.015) were significantly higher in the CVT group. Recanalization was observed in 61.9% and 82.1% of the patients in the CVT and non-CVT groups, respectively, during the first imaging review (median, 22 days). After a 12-month follow-up, female adolescents had more frequent resident secondary headaches than male adolescents (52.9% vs. 12.5%; P = 0.014). Conclusions: Cortical vein involvement in adolescents with CVST was associated with a higher risk of epilepsy at presentation, deterioration during hospitalization, edema, and mass effect on acute imaging. Moreover, cortical vein involvement may lead to worse short-term outcomes. Sex differences require consideration in etiological analyses and prolonged follow-ups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photocatalytic conversion of CO2 to added‐value fuels or chemicals is a promising technology for the effective utilization of the disturbing greenhouse gas, but its economic benefit is limited either by low efficiency due to the difficulty of water oxidation or by the employment of expensive sacrificial reagents. To overcome this dilemma, herein, an effective strategy is reported for the resourceful utilization of CO2 by creating an eco‐friendly bifunctional photocatalyst to achieve CO2 photoreduction concurrent with methanol photooxidation to the uniform product of formic acid for the first time. The bifunctional photocatalyst is elaborately constructed by in situ encapsulating lead‐free double perovskite (Cs2AgBiBr6, abbreviated as CABB) nanocrystals into the pores of Fe‐based metal−organic framework (MIL‐101(Fe)). The tight contact between CABB and MIL‐101(Fe) in the resultant CABB/MIL‐101(Fe) composite facilitates the efficient spatial separation of photogenerated carriers, which leads to the division of reduction and oxidation functional units. CABB/MIL‐101(Fe) composites can unify the redox products into formic acid, reaching an impressive formation yield of 1375 μmol g−1 h−1 with a high selectivity of 97.8%. This work provides a viable strategy for the efficient photosynthesis of formic acid, promoting the cost‐effective utilization of CO2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyperspectral remote sensing can quickly, nondestructively and accurately monitor crop water concentration and provide technical support for winter wheat growth monitoring, drought assessment, and variable irrigation. In this study, canopy spectral reflectance, leaf water concentration (LWC), leaf nitrogen concentration (LNC), leaf area index (LAI), and leaf dry matter (LDM) of four wheat cultivars were measured under different irrigation and nitrogen treatments, and the effects of nitrogen treatment and growth period on spectral reflectance and LWC were analyzed. Canopy spectral reflectance for different growth periods, irrigation, and nitrogen treatments showed significant changes, leading to the phenomena of "nitrogen treatment differentiation" and "growth period differentiation" for the normalized difference spectral index [NDSI (762, 1458, 2301)] and normalized difference infrared index (NDII) monitoring models. To reduce the influence of nitrogen treatment and growth period on the LWC estimation model, a modified normalized difference water index (mNDWI) was constructed by introducing the nitrogen factor (ratio of left and right peak area, RIDA) into the optimized combination of water-sensitive bands [ND (815, 1080), ND (1585, 1740), and ND (2030, 2260)]. Compared with NDSI (762, 1458, 2301), the R2 of mNDWI was improved by 36.2%–41.1% under different nitrogen levels and 18.6%–22.4% in different growth periods; this effectively reduced the impact of nitrogen status on LWC monitoring and realized the unified modeling and accurate inversion of LWC for the entire growth period. The new index mNDWI, especially mNDWI (815, 1080) and mNDWI (2030, 2260), can effectively monitor the LWC status of wheat under different cultivation conditions, which is important for the real-time diagnosis of plant moisture to guide precision field irrigation applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A kind of wear‐resistant diamond‐like carbon (DLC) films doped with Ni, N, and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are synthesized on Ti–6Al–4V titanium alloy by a combined method of pulsed electrodeposition and liquid‐phase electrodeposition. The effect of different concentrations of MWCNTs on the microstructure and friction mechanism of Co‐DLC films is investigated. The results show that the polydimethyl diallyl ammonium chloride (PDDA)‐MWCNTs complex tend to deposit parallel to the substrate. Benefiting from the "bridging" effect of the MWCNTs between the cluster structures, it effectively reduces the protrusions on the surface of the films. When the concentration of MWCNTs is 0.06 g L−1, the surface microstructure of the films is uniform and dense, and the films present a low ID/IG value (0.57) and a high sp3‐C content. The Raman and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy patterns reveal that the Ni/N/MWCNTs‐DLC films are typical amorphous carbon films. Furthermore, the micro‐indentation hardness of the Co‐DLC films reaches 513.24 HV. The lubricated Ni/N/MWCNTs‐DLC films significantly improve the frictional wear properties of the titanium alloy surface, which is mainly attributed to the homogeneous and dense structure and the low friction coefficient (0.146) and wear loss (1.40 × 10−5 kg m−1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has obvious clinical value in diabetes, but the conclusions on the diagnostic value of diabetic retinopathy (DR) are not consistent. This study aims to comprehensively evaluate the accuracy of circulating VEGF in the diagnosis of DR in the Asian population by a method of meta-analysis. PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and China Wanfang Databases were searched for relevant studies on the diagnostic value of VEGF for DR in Asia up to November 2021. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and areas under the curve (AUC) were calculated by Stata 15.0 software. After screening, eight eligible studies were enrolled, including 547 patients with DR. The results of the meta-analysis showed that the pooled DOR, sensitivity, specificity, PLR, and NLR were 31.67 (95%CI: 13.55 ~ 74.05), 0.86 (95%CI: 0.74 ~ 0.93), 0.84 (95%CI: 0.80 ~ 0.87), 5.33 (95%CI: 4.09 ~ 6.93), 0.17 (95%CI: 0.09 ~ 0.32), respectively. The AUC was 0.86 (95%CI: 0.82 ~ 0.89). Circulating VEGF has a good diagnostic value in DR in the Asian population, with the potential to be an early diagnostic marker for DR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]