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This study compared an anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) with a multi-staged UASB (MS-UASB) to investigate the effects of loading shocks on the anaerobic digestion in both reactors. Both reactors were subjected to five hydraulic/organic loading shocks, each lasting 3 days. During the hydraulic shock with the highest organic loading rate (OLR) (OLR of 24 g COD L−1 d−1), MS-UASB and ABR exhibited minimum effluent COD removal efficiency of 90.9 and 73.0%, with average methane concentrations decreasing to 62.4 ± 0.9% and 59.8 ± 3.0%. Under the highest organic shock (OLR of 12 g COD L−1 d−1), the minimum effluent COD removal efficiency of MS-UASB and ABR was 81.5 and 73.4%, with average methane concentrations decreasing to 60.4 ± 1.1% and 58.6 ± 0.8%. After the hydraulic and organic shock phase, the biomass concentration in the MS-UASB reached 159 and 130% of the ABR, respectively. The reason for the improved operational stability of the MS-UASB is due to the presence of the solid/liquid/gas separator, which promotes the formation of granular sludge and reduces biomass washout. In addition, MS-UASB exhibited a higher abundance of the syntrophic bacterium Candidatus cloacamonas, which plays a crucial role in maintaining the stability of anaerobic digestion systems. HIGHLIGHTS Application of MS-UASB to treat leachate from refuse transfer stations and comparison with ABR treatment performance.; The analysis of the sludge characteristics of ABR and MS-UASB revealed the reasons behind the stronger shock resistance of MS-UASB.; Changes in microbial populations before and after the shocks were explored.;

Abstract Background The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of zoledronic acid for reducing the incidence of cage subsidence and enhancing interbody fusion rates following oblique lumbar interbody fusion (OLIF) surgery, particularly as the first reported evidence of the role of zoledronic acid combined with OLIF. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on data from 108 elderly patients treated for degenerative lumbar diseases using OLIF combined with bilateral pedicle screw fixation from January 2018 to December 2021. Patients were divided into the zoledronic acid (ZOL) group (43 patients, 67 surgical segments) and the control group (65 patients, 86 surgical segments). A comparative analysis of the radiographic and clinical outcomes between the groups was performed, employing univariate and multivariate regression analyses to explore the relationships between cage subsidence and the independent variables. Results Radiographic outcomes, including anterior height, posterior height, disc height, coronal disc angle, foraminal height, and lumbar lordosis, were not significantly different between the two groups. Similarly, no statistically significant differences were noted in the back visual analog scale (VAS) scores and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) scores between the groups. However, at the 1-year follow-up, the leg VAS score was lower in the ZOL group than in the control group (P = 0.028). The ZOL group demonstrated a notably lower cage subsidence rate (20.9%) than did the control group (43.0%) (P

Background: Tuberculosis (TB), one of the deadliest infectious diseases globally, is increasingly exacerbated in China by the emergence of resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) strains. Drug-resistant TB, including mono-drug-resistant TB, multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB), presents significant public health challenges. Methods: We conducted a systematic literature review from January 2010 to February 2024 using databases such as PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Our focus was on empirical data related to drug resistance patterns in newly diagnosed TB cases. Non-empirical studies were excluded through meticulous filtering. For the meta-analysis, we used Review Manager (RevMan) 5.2 and assessed evidence quality using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). Results: Our search strategy identified 40 studies that met the inclusion criteria, encompassing a total sample size of 87,667 participants. Among new TB cases, the estimated prevalence of MDR-TB in China was 6.9% (95% CI: 5.6–8.1%). Prevalence rates for mono-drug resistance to first-line anti-TB medications were as follows: isoniazid at 18.2% (95% CI: 16.4–20.6%), rifampicin at 10.5% (95% CI: 8.6–12.8%), and ethambutol at 5.7% (95% CI: 4.1–7.3%). The prevalence of streptomycin resistance, a former first-line anti-TB drug, was 17.1% (95% CI: 14.6–19.1%). The prevalence of other types of mono-drug resistance was 15.2% (95% CI: 13.9–17.3%), and for XDR-TB, it was 0.9% (95% CI: 0.6–1.4%). Conclusions: The high prevalence of drug-resistant TB in China poses a significant public health challenge. There is an urgent need for targeted interventions and continued surveillance to combat the spread of drug-resistant TB.

Abstract Differentiable architecture search requires a larger computational consumption during architecture search, and there exists the depth gap problem under deeper network architecture. In this paper, we propose an attention-based progressive partially connected neural architecture search method (PPCAtt-NAS) to address these two issues. First, we introduce a progressive search strategy in the architecture search phase, build up the sophistication of the architecture gradually and perform path-level pruning in stages to bridge the depth gap. Second, we adopt a partial search scheme that performs channel-level partial sampling of the network architecture to further reduce the computational complexity of the architecture search. In addition, an attention mechanism is devised to improve the architecture search capability by enhancing the relevance between the feature channels. Finally, we conduct extensive comparison experiments with state-of-the-art methods on several public datasets, and our method is able to present higher architecture performance.

The azimuth wheel-rail of large reflector antennas is one of the key components, it not only supports the whole weight of the antenna, but also directly affects the antennas’ pointing performance by its surface accuracy. Usually, the whole weight of the large reflector antenna is thousands of tons, its azimuth frame rollers have great contact stress with the wheel-rail surface, repeated rolling can cause rolling contact fatigue on the wheel-rail surface, resulting in wear, cracks and other damage to the wheel-rail, and even lead to failure or fracture of the wheel-rail in serious cases, so it is very important to monitor the damage of the antenna wheel-rail. Current studies are based on Hertzian theory for stress analysis of rollers and wheel-rails, it cannot visually determine the damage. In order to visually detect the usage of antenna wheel-rail surfaces, this paper, for the first time, proposed the method using electromagnetic ultrasonic detection to detect the damage of antenna wheel-rail surface. Based on the principle of electromagnetic ultrasonic nondestructive testing, the simplified wheel-rail model containing wear, corrosion and crack damages are simulated. The results show that this method can effectively detect the surface damage of the antenna wheel-rail surface, and it can provide an important reference for the research of wheel-rail damage detection of large reflector antennas.

Differentiable neural architecture search, which significantly reduces the computational cost of architecture search by several orders of magnitude, has become a popular research issue in recent years. Architecture search can fundamentally be described as an optimization problem. The differentiable architecture search updates the search process based on gradients, then derives the final sub-network architecture from the super network of the search space. However, the gap between the super network and its sub-networks together with the inaccuracy of the gradient approximation during architecture optimization bring performance collapse problems in the architecture search, making the search process extremely unstable. To this end, we propose an inner loop-based modified differentiable neural architecture search method (InLM-NAS). Firstly, we redefine the objective function of the architecture optimization process in the search process by introducing an inner-loop mechanism to prevent overfitting problems of architecture parameters and avoid convergence of the architecture search to suboptimal architectures. Secondly, a novel approximation calculation is introduced in the architecture optimization process, which reduces the error caused by the gradient approximation. It alleviates the sensitivity to the hyper-parameters setting during the architecture search and enhances the stability of the architecture search. Finally, extensive validation experiments on public datasets demonstrate that our proposed method has a more robust search process, and the searched neural network architecture has a superior network performance.

Abstract. Background:. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine can induce a potent cellular and humoral immune response to protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, it was unknown whether SARS-CoV-2 vaccination can induce effective natural killer (NK) cell response in people living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLWH) and healthy individuals. Methods:. Forty-seven PLWH and thirty healthy controls (HCs) inoculated with SARS-CoV-2 inactivated vaccine were enrolled from Beijing Youan Hospital in this study. The effect of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine on NK cell frequency, phenotype, and function in PLWH and HCs was evaluated by flow cytometry, and the response of NK cells to SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Spike (SARS-2-OS) protein stimulation was also evaluated. Results:. SARS-CoV-2 vaccine inoculation elicited activation and degranulation of NK cells in PLWH, which peaked at 2 weeks and then decreased to a minimum at 12 weeks after the third dose of vaccine. However, in vitro stimulation of the corresponding peripheral blood monocular cells from PLWH with SARS-2-OS protein did not upregulate the expression of the aforementioned markers. Additionally, the frequencies of NK cells expressing the activation markers CD25 and CD69 in PLWH were significantly lower than those in HCs at 0, 4 and 12 weeks, but the percentage of CD16+ NK cells in PLWH was significantly higher than that in HCs at 2, 4 and 12 weeks after the third dose of vaccine. Interestingly, the frequency of CD16+ NK cells was significantly negatively correlated with the proportion of CD107a+ NK cells in PLWH at each time point after the third dose. Similarly, this phenomenon was also observed in HCs at 0, 2, and 4 weeks after the third dose. Finally, regardless of whether NK cells were stimulated with SARS-2-OS or not, we did not observe any differences in the expression of NK cell degranulation markers between PLWH and HCs. Conclusion:. s:SARS-CoV-2 vaccine elicited activation and degranulation of NK cells, indicating that the inoculation of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine enhances NK cell immune response.

ABSTRACT: Objectives: The incidence of Helicobacter pylori (HP) is 25–50% in developed countries and 80% in developing countries, including 56.2% in China. However, antibiotic resistance of HP is a threat to HP control. The purpose of this study was to comprehensively evaluate primary drug resistance of HP in China. Methods: The full text of reports of the primary antibiotic resistance prevalence of HP was obtained from multiple databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Evimed, Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledge Internet). Review Manager 5.2 was adopted for meta-analysis, sensitivity analysis, and bias analysis. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to assess the article quality. Results: In total, 38804 HP samples from 22 trials were extracted. The results suggested that the overall prevalence of amoxicillin, clarithromycin, metronidazole, and levofloxacin resistance among HP in adults was as follows: mean difference (MD) = 1.35%, 95% confidence interval (CI) [1.03%, 1.68%]; MD = 23.76%, 95% CI [20.23%, 27.3%]; MD = 69.32%, 95% CI [64.85%, 73.8%]; and MD = 29.45%, 95% CI [4.90, 176.96], respectively. From the results of sensitivity and publication bias, we find that these results are robust and had little publication bias. Conclusion: Our research showed that in China, the prevalence of HP resistance to primary antibiotics warrants attention, especially with regard to metronidazole, levofloxacin, and clarithromycin.

No novel biomarkers are currently available for evaluating immune reconstitution among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) receiving combined antiretroviral treatment (cART). The objective of this study was to analyze the expression patterns of interferon-stimulating genes (ISGs) in PLWH with the aim of identifying potential biomarkers for immune reconstitution. Study samples were collected from 105 PLWH, including 47 immunological non-responders (INRs) and 58 immunological responders (IRs). The expression of eight ISGs in the peripheral blood in INRs and IRs were detected by RT-qPCR. Expression differences between groups were analyzed with the Mann-Whitney U test, and a logistic regression model was developed to predict immune reconstitution. Among eight ISGs, the expression levels of IFI27 and IFI6 were significantly higher in INRs than IRs ( P =0.001 and 0.005, respectively). The model combining age, CD4 + T/CD8 + T ratio, IFI27, and IFI6 had the highest diagnostic value (AUC=0.836), with an optimal cut-off value of 0.6, sensitivity of 60.5%, and specificity of 98.1%. No significant change in the expression of IFI27 and IFI6 was observed in samples collected 3 years apart ( P =0.1232 and 0.4877, respectively), and the model score negatively correlated with ΔCD4 + T cells (r=−0.2888, P =0.0465). Enhanced expression of IFI27 and IFI6 in INRs are important characteristics that may serve as biomarkers of immune reconstitution after cART. The combination of age, CD4 + T/CD8 + T ratio, IFI27, and IFI6 was highly effective in discriminating INRs.

Abstract Objective To explore the forewarning immunological indicators during periodontal attachment loss progression in American adults. Methods A total of 5744 participants with periodontal attachment loss were enrolled from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) 2009–2014. In which, dependent variable was the counts of teeth with severe attachment loss (depth of periodontal probing was above 5 mm). Independent variables were circulatory immunological indexes, including counts of white blood cells (WBC), Lymphocytes, Monocytes, Neutrophils, Eosinophils, and Basophils. The association among variables was examined using multivariable linear regression models, fitting with smoothing curves, and generalizing additive models. Results Based on the indicators of 5744 subjects, we found that severe attachment loss tended to occur in the elderly or males and was accompanied by higher WBC, Monocytes, and Neutrophils, as well as lower poverty-income ratio and educational qualification. WBC (above the inflection point: 6200 cells/µL) and Neutrophils (above the inflection point: 3300 cells/µL) counts were positively associated with attachment loss progression in each multivariable linear regression model. On subgroup analyses, stratified by sex and race, the positive correlation of WBC or Neutrophils with severe attachment loss was stable in both men and women, as well as in all races except blacks (WBC β = − 0.0576, 95% CI − 0.1945 to 0.0793, Neutrophils β = − 0.0527, 95% CI − 0.2285 to 0.1231). Conclusion Increasing WBC (above 6200 cells/µL) and Neutrophils (above 3300 cells/µL) counts were risk indicators of severe periodontal attachment loss among all races, except in blacks.

Zero-shot learning recognizes the unseen samples via the model learned from the seen class samples and semantic features. Due to the lack of information of unseen class samples in the training set, some researchers have proposed the method of generating unseen class samples by using generative models. However, the generated model is trained with the training set samples first, and then the unseen class samples are generated, which results in the features of the unseen class samples tending to be biased toward the seen class and may produce large deviations from the real unseen class samples. To tackle this problem, we use the autoencoder method to generate the unseen class samples and combine the semantic features of the unseen classes with the proposed new sample features to construct the loss function. The proposed method is validated on three datasets and showed good results.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are increasingly recognized as cis- and trans-acting regulators of protein-coding genes in plants, particularly in response to abiotic stressors. Among these stressors, high soil salinity poses a significant challenge to crop productivity. Radish (Raphanus sativus L.) is a prominent root vegetable crop that exhibits moderate susceptibility to salt stress, particularly during the seedling stage. Nevertheless, the precise regulatory mechanisms through which lncRNAs contribute to salt response in radish remain largely unexplored. In this study, we performed genome-wide identification of lncRNAs using strand-specific RNA sequencing on radish fleshy root samples subjected to varying time points of salinity treatment. A total of 7,709 novel lncRNAs were identified, with 363 of them displaying significant differential expression in response to salt application. Furthermore, through target gene prediction, 5,006 cis- and 5,983 trans-target genes were obtained for the differentially expressed lncRNAs. The predicted target genes of these salt-responsive lncRNAs exhibited strong associations with various plant defense mechanisms, including signal perception and transduction, transcription regulation, ion homeostasis, osmoregulation, reactive oxygen species scavenging, photosynthesis, phytohormone regulation, and kinase activity. Notably, this study represents the first comprehensive genome-wide analysis of salt-responsive lncRNAs in radish, to the best of our knowledge. These findings provide a basis for future functional analysis of lncRNAs implicated in the defense response of radish against high salinity, which will aid in further understanding the regulatory mechanisms underlying radish response to salt stress.

Natural gas hydrate is a new energy source with great potential. Studying the seismic response characteristics of natural gas hydrate in permafrost area is crucial to the exploration and development of natural gas hydrate in China's land area. Based on the Kelvin viscoelastic media model, our work establishes a theoretical geological-geophysical model based on the actual geological and stratigraphic conditions of the Qilian Mountain permafrost, uses the staggered-grid finite difference method to perform forward numerical simulation, and performs wave field characteristic analysis and instantaneous seismic attribute extraction of self-excitation and self-receiving seismic records. The results show that the reflected amplitude energy is weaker when the seismic wave passes through the gas hydrate formation. In the range where the instantaneous frequency attribute profile can distinguish the layer thickness, the instantaneous frequency decreases marginally with the increase of the layer thickness. When seismic waves pass through natural gas-bearing formations, the reflected waves show strong reflection characteristics, and the instantaneous frequency energy increases. The instantaneous seismic attribute has better resolution for the wave-impedance interface, especially the instantaneous phase attribute profile. Therefore, the comprehensive analysis of the instantaneous attribute characteristics can provide a basis for the identification and prediction of terrestrial gas hydrates.

Abstract The production of traditional Peking opera facial masks often relies on hand painting by experienced painters, which restricts the inheritance and development of this intangible cultural heritage. Current research mainly focuses on the digital reconstruction and storage of existing Peking opera facial masks, while high-quality facial mask generation technology is still in an infancy stage. In this paper, different deep learning frameworks are improved for learning features of Peking opera facial masks and generating new masks, which can effectively promote the creative application of Peking opera facial masks. First, using different data enhancement methods, an improved Style Generative Adversarial Network-2 (StyleGAN2) can learn implicit and explicit features of Peking opera facial masks and automatically generate new facial masks. In addition, an image translation framework for joint cross-domain communication under weak supervision is used to translate face sketches and color reference maps to an intermediate feature domain, and then synthesize new facial masks through an image generation network. The experimental results show that the generated Peking opera facial masks have good local randomness and excellent visual quality.

Deep learning neural networks based on the manual design for image classification tasks usually require a large amount of a priori knowledge and experience from experts; thus, research on designing neural network architectures automatically has been widely performed. The neural architecture search (NAS) method based on the differentiable architecture search (DARTS) ignores the interrelationships within the searched network architecture cells. The optional operations in the architecture search space lack diversity, and the large parametric and non-parametric operations in the search space make the search process inefficient. We propose a NAS method based on a dual attention mechanism (DAM-DARTS). An improved attention mechanism module is introduced to the cell of the network architecture to deepen the interrelationships between the important layers within the architecture by enhancing the attention between them, which improves the accuracy of the architecture and reduces the architecture search time. We also propose a more efficient architecture search space by adding attention operations to increase the complex diversity of the searched network architectures and reduce the computational cost consumed in the search process by reducing non-parametric operations. Based on this, we further analyze the impact of changing some operations in the architecture search space on the accuracy of the architectures. Through extensive experiments on several open datasets, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed search strategy, which is highly competitive with other existing neural network architecture search methods.

Abstract Background We present a case of pelvic paraganglioma that presented with heart failure as the primary symptom. Case presentation A 35-year-old man was admitted to hospital due to heart failure. Contrast-enhanced pelvic CT showed mass shadows in the posterior wall of the bladder and multiple enlarged lymph nodes in the retroperitoneal area. Ultrasound-guided puncture was performed, and the pathologic diagnosis was extra-adrenal paraganglioma. The patient refused any chemotherapy and died within six months of diagnosis. Conclusion The possibility of neuroendocrine-related tumors, for example paragangliomas, should be considered in young patients with heart failure, especially those with concomitant hypertension and diabetes.

Abstract In recent years, there has been a national craze for metaverse concerts. However, existing meta-universe concert efforts often focus on immersive visual experiences and lack consideration of the musical and aural experience. But for concerts, it is the beautiful music and the immersive listening experience that deserve the most attention. Therefore, enhancing intelligent and immersive musical experiences is essential for the further development of the metaverse. With this in mind, we propose a metaverse concert generation framework — from intelligent music generation to stereo conversion and sound field design for virtual concert stages. First, combining the ideas of reinforcement learning and value functions, the Transformer-XL music generation network is improved and used in training all the music in the POP909 dataset. Experiments show that both improved algorithms have advantages over the original method in terms of objective evaluation and subjective evaluation metrics. In addition, this paper validates a neural rendering method that can be used to generate spatial audio based on a binaural-integrated neural network with a fully convolutional technique. And the purely data-driven end-to-end model performs to be more reliable compared with traditional spatial audio generation methods such as HRTF. Finally, we propose a metadata-based audio rendering algorithm to simulate real-world acoustic environments.

Abstract This study proposes a new generation network based on transformers and guided by the music theory to produce high‐quality music work. In this study, the decoding block of the transformer is used to learn the internal information of single‐track music, and cross‐track transformers are used to learn the information amongst the tracks of different musical instruments. A reward network based on the music theory is proposed, which optimizes the global and local loss objective functions while training and discriminating the network so that the reward network can provide a reliable adjustment method for the generation of the network. The method of combining the reward network and cross entropy loss is used to guide the training of the generator and produce high‐quality music work. Compared with other multi‐track music generation models, the experimental results verify the validity of the model.

The changes in functionality (solubility, emulsification, gelation) and digestibility of quercetin-soy protein isolate and rutin-soy protein isolate complexes were analyzed in this paper. The interaction was studied by UV-Vis spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy. The mechanism, the type of fluorescence quenching, the number of binding sites and thermodynamic parameters were analyzed. The results showed that quercetin and rutin could improve the functional properties of SPI. When the addition of quercetin and rutin were 8%, the hardness of SPI gel could be increased by 23.23% and 187.18%, respectively. The EAI, ESI and solubility of SPI increased first and then tended to level off. When the addition amount was 6% and 4%, the emulsifying activity and solubility reached the highest respectively, which were increased by 20.84% and 10.06% compared with SPI. With the increase of rutin addition, the EAI, ESI and solubility of SPI first increased and then decreased slightly. When the addition amount was 4% and 6%, the emulsifying activity and solubility reached the highest respectively, which was 26.17% and 19.27% than that of SPI. In addition, the interaction of quercetin and rutin with SPI could also improve the bioavailability of the protein. Further research on the interaction mechanism between the two flavonoid polyphenols and SPI showed that the fluorescence spectra of the two interacting complexes were blue-shifted, quercetin, rutin and SPI spontaneously combine, and mainly acted through hydrogen bonding and van der Waals forces. The interaction mechanism of quercetin, rutin and SPI was dynamic quenching and static quenching, respectively.

Abstract Background Heterotrimeric G-proteins, composed of Gα, Gβ and Gγ subunits, are important signal transmitters, mediating the cellular response to multiple stimuli in animals and plants. The Gγ subunit is an essential component of the G-protein, providing appropriate functional specificity to the heterotrimer complex and has been well studied in many species. However, the evolutionary history, expression pattern and functional characteristics of Gγ subunits has not been explored in the Rosaceae, representing many important fruit crops. Results In this study, 35 Gγ subunit genes were identified from the eight species belonging to the Rosaceae family. Based on the structural gene characteristics, conserved protein motifs and phylogenetic analysis of the Gγ subunit genes, the genes were classified into three clades. Purifying selection was shown to play an important role in the evolution of Gγ subunit genes, while a recent whole-genome duplication event was the principal force determining the expansion of the Gγ subunit gene family in the subfamily Maloideae. Gγ subunit genes exhibited diverse spatiotemporal expression patterns in Chinese white pear, including fruit, root, ovary and bud, and under abiotic stress conditions, the relative expression of Gγ subunit genes were up-regulated or down-regulated. In addition, seven of the Gγ subunit proteins in pear were located on the plasma membrane, in the cytoplasm or nucleus. Conclusion Overall, this study of the Gγ subunit gene family in eight Rosaceae species provided useful information to better understand the evolution and expression of these genes and facilitated further exploration of their functions in these important crop plants.

Abstract Recently some evidence has demonstrated the significance of PSMB8 in various malignancies. Nevertheless, PSMB8 (proteasome subunit beta 8), more familiar in the field of immunology contributing to the process of antigen presentation, is indeterminate in the role as a survival predictor of human pan-cancer. Besides, how PSMB8 interacts with immune cell infiltration in the tumor microenvironment requires further research. We then penetrated into the analysis of the PSMB8 expression profile among 33 types of cancer in the TCGA database. The results show that overexpression of PSMB8 was associated with poor clinical outcomes in overall survival (Sartorius et al. in Oncogene 35(22):2881–2892, 2016), disease-specific survival (DSS), disease-free interval (DFI), and progression-free interval (PFI) in most cancer varieties. In addition, there existed distinctly positive correlations between PSMB8 and immunity, reflected straightforwardly in the form of immune scores, tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs) abundance, microsatellite instability, tumor mutation burden, and neoantigen level. Notably, specific markers of dendrite cells exhibited the tightest association with PSMB8 expression in terms of tumor-related immune infiltration patterns. Moreover, gene enrichment analysis showed that elevated PSMB8 expression was related to multiple immune-related pathways. We finally validated the PSMB8 expression in our local breast samples via quantitative PCR assays and concluded that PSMB8 appeared to perform well in predicting the survival outcome of BRCA patients. These findings elucidate the pivotal role of the antigen presentation-related gene PSMB8, which could potentially serve as a robust biomarker for prognosis determination in multiple cancers.

BackgroundSince the introduction of HIV self-testing by UNAIDS in 2014, the practice has been extensively implemented around the world. HIV self-testing (HIVST) was developed in China around 2015, and the online purchase of HIVST kits through e-commerce platforms has since become the most important delivery method for self-testing, with advantages such as user-friendliness, speed, and better privacy protection. ObjectiveUnderstanding the spatiotemporal characteristics of online HIVST kit purchasing behavior and identifying potential impacting factors will help promote the HIV self-testing strategy. MethodsThe online retail data of HIVST kits from the 2 largest e-commerce platforms in China from 2015 to 2017 were collected for this study. The Bayesian spatiotemporal hierarchical model was used to investigate the spatiotemporal characteristics of online purchased HIVST kits. Ordinary least squares regression was used to identify potential factors associated with online purchase, including GDP per capita, population density, road density, HIV screening laboratory density, and newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS cases per 100,000 persons. The q statistics calculated by Geodetector were used to determine the interactive effect of every 2 factors on the online purchase. ResultsThe online purchase of HIVST kits increased rapidly in China from 2015 to 2017, with annual peak sales in May and December. Five economically superior regions in China, Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta, Chengdu and surrounding areas, Beijing and Tianjin areas, and Shandong Peninsula, showed a comparatively higher spatial preference for online purchased HIVST kits. The GDP per capita (P

IntroductionSkip metastasis, referred to as lymph node metastases to the lateral neck compartment without involvement of the central compartment, is generally unpredictable in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). This study aims to establish an effective predictive model for skip metastasis in PTC.Meterials and MethodsRetrospective analysis was performed of clinical samples from 18192 patients diagnosed with thyroid cancer between 2016 to 2020. The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University. The lateral lymph node metastasis was occureed in the training set (630 PTC patients) and validation set (189 PTC patients). The univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to detect the predictors of skip metastasis and the support vector machine (SVM) was used to establish a model to predict skip metastasis.ResultsThe rate of skip metastasis was 13.3% (84/631). Tumor size (≤10 mm), upper location, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, extrathyroidal extension, absence of BRAFV600E mutation, and less number of central lymph node dissection were considered as independent predictors of skip metastasis in PTC. For the training set, these predictors performed with 91.7% accuracy, 86.4% sensitivity, 92.2% specificity, 45.2% positive predictive value (PPV), and 98.9% negative predictive value (NPV) in the model. Meanwhile, these predictors showed 91.5% accuracy,71.4% sensitivity, 93.1% specificity, 45.5% PPV, and 97.6% NPV in validation set.ConclusionThis study screened the predictors of the skip lateral lymph node metastasis and to establish an effective and economic predictive model for skip metastasis in PTC. The model can accurately distinguish the skip metastasis in PTC using a simple and affordable method, which may have potential for daily clinical application in the future.

The leachate from municipal solid waste transfer stations has a complex composition of pollutants, contains high concentrations of organic matter, and produces odors. The anaerobic digestion of leachate generates excessive volatile organic acids (VFAs), acidifying the digestate and destabilizing or even collapsing the anaerobic process. To solve these issues, we set up a facultative anaerobic system with air exposure and an obligate anaerobic system without air exposure to explore the impact of anaerobic degree on intermediate accumulation and anaerobic process stability. When the organic loading raised from 0.6 to 6.0 kg COD/(m3·d), VFA accumulation in the facultative system peaked at 3.30 g COD/L, and the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal rate dropped from 95% to 60%. By contrast, the obligate system remained stable, with VFA concentrations below 0.50 g COD/L and COD removal rates between 85% and 99%. Microbial sequencing shows that VFA-oxidizing bacteria enhanced VFA degradation, such as Syntrophomonas and Smithella, which increased from 4.62% and 0.76% in the facultative system to 17.64% and 0.88% in the obligate system, respectively. Coenzyme F420 concentration as an indicator of methanogenic activity was 50% higher in the obligate system. Therefore, an obligate anaerobic system is promising to alleviate acidification for stable anaerobic digestion of leachate.

Abstract The powdery mildew fungi secrete numerous Candidate Secreted Effector Proteins (CSEPs) to manipulate host immunity during infection of host plants. However, the function of most of these CSEPs in cell death suppression has not yet been established. Here, we identified several CSEPs from Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei (Bgh) that have the potential to suppress BAX- and NtMEK2DD-triggered cell death in Nicotiana benthamiana. We further characterized two effector candidates, CSEP0139 and CSEP0182, from family six and thirty-two, respectively. CSEP0139 and CSEP0182 contain a functional signal peptide and are likely secreted effectors. Expression of either CSEP0139 or CSEP0182 suppressed cell death triggered by BAX and NtMEK2DD but not by the AVRa13/MLA13 pair in N. benthamiana. Transient overexpression of CSEP0139 or CSEP0182 also inhibited BAX-induced cell death and collapse of cytoplasm in barley cells. Furthermore, overexpression of either CSEPs significantly increased Bgh haustorial formation in barley, whereas host-induced gene silencing (HIGS) of the CSEP genes reduced haustorial formation, suggesting both CSEPs promote Bgh virulence in barley. In addition, expression of CSEP0139 and CSEP0182 reduced size of the lesions caused by the necrotrophic Botrytis cinerea in N. benthamiana. Our findings suggest that CSEP0139 and CSEP0182 may target cell death components in plants to promote fungal virulence, which extends the current understanding of the functions of Bgh CSEPs and provides an opportunity for further investigation of fungal virulence in relation to cell death pathways in host plants.

Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is the most common malignancy of the endocrine system, with an increase in incidence frequency. Major vault protein (MVP) is the main structural protein of the vault complex that has already been investigated in specific cancers. Yet the underlying biological functions and molecular mechanisms of MVP in PTC still remain considerably uncharacterized. Comprehensive analyses are predicated on several public datasets and local RNA-Seq cohort. Clinically, we found that MVP was upregulated in human PTC than in non-cancerous thyroid tissue and was correlated with vital clinicopathological parameters in PTC patients. MVP expression was associated with BRAFV600E, RAS, TERT, and RET status, and it was correlated with worse progression-free survival in PTC patients. Functionally, enrichment analysis provided new clues for the close relationship between MVP with cancer-related signaling pathways and the immune microenvironment in PTC. In PTC with high MVP expression, we found CD8+ T cells, regulatory T cells, and follicular helper T cells have a higher infiltration level. Intriguingly, MVP expression was positively correlated with multiple distinct phases of the anti-cancer immunity cycle. MVP knockdown significantly suppressed cell viability and colony formation, and promoted apoptosis. In addition, downregulated MVP markedly inhibited the migration and invasion potential of PTC cells. The rescue experiments showed that MVP could reverse the level of cell survival and migration. Mechanistically, MVP exerts its oncogenic function in PTC cells through activating PI3K/AKT/mTOR and MAPK/ERK pathways. These results point out that MVP is a reliable biomarker related to the immune microenvironment and provide a basis for elucidating the oncogenic roles of MVP in PTC progression.

Background: Recent infection testing algorithms (RITAs) incorporating clinical information with the HIV recency assay have been proven to accurately classify recent infection. However, little evidence exists on whether RITAs would help in precisely identifying major drivers of the ongoing HIV epidemic. Methods: HIV recency test results and clinical information were collected from 1152 newly diagnosed HIV cases between 2015 and 2017 in Dehong prefecture of Yunnan province, and the efficacy of four different RITAs in identifying risk factors for new HIV infection was compared. Results: RITA 1 uses the recency test only. RITA 2 and RITA 3 combine the recency test with CD4+ T cell count and viral load (VL), respectively. RITA 4 combines both CD4+ T cell count and VL. All RITAs identified the MSM group and young people between 15 and 24 years as risk factors for incident HIV infection. RITA 3 and RITA 4 further identified the Dai ethnic minority as a risk factor, which had not been identified before when only the HIV recency test was used. Conclusions: By comparing different RITAs, we determined that greater accuracy in classifying recent HIV infection could help elucidate major drivers impacting the ongoing epidemic and thus inform targeted interventions.

Human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) attacks the immune system, making people susceptible to various diseases, thus increasing their risk of death. Comprehensive detection of major HIV-1 strains circulating in China is vital for effective HIV-1 infection prevention and treatment. HIV-1 nucleic acid detection is considered effective for HIV-1 diagnosis since traditional immunological testing may fail to detect HIV-1 infection during the window period. This work demonstrates a one-pot two-stage amplification assay (RT-RAP), a combination of reverse transcription recombinase (RT- RAA), and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The turn-around time of the assay is only 50 min and can be performed with commonly available laboratory equipment, the qPCR devices. The RT-RAP assay could detect approximately 5 and 14 copies/reaction of HIV-1 DNA and RNA using recombinant plasmids and standard reference strains, respectively. Additionally, we found that the clinical performance of RT-RAP (detected 169 samples out of 170 specimens) was consistent with that of qRT-PCR. The sensitivity and specificity of RT-RAP were 100.00% (99/99) and 98.59% (70/71), respectively, while its positive and negative predictive values were 99.00% (99/100) and 100.00% (70/70), respectively. The total coincidence rate of the RT-RAP was 99.41% (169/170), with a kappa value of 0.988 (p < 0.05). We demonstrated that RT-RAP could rapidly detect the common HIV-1 subtypes commonly circulating in China with comparable sensitivity and specificity to qRT-PCR.

A site condition survey is extremely important for the seismic fortification of major projects. The distribution of underlying weak interlayer in sites is extremely harmful to buildings. However, it is a technical problem to find out the distribution of weak interlayer in the overburden. The shallow velocity structure can directly reflect the change characteristics of a stratigraphic structure. In this paper, acquisition of background noise is conducted using a microtremor linear array method, and the distribution characteristics of two typical stratigraphic structures in Wuhan, Hubei Province, are obtained through an inversion of the apparent S-wave velocity; meanwhile, the equivalent shear-wave velocity and the overburden thickness are estimated, which provides a basis for site classification. The research results are as follows: (1) The two-dimensional profile of the apparent S-wave velocity obtained by the microtremor linear array method can be used for fine imaging of the stratum with weak interlayer, and its distribution form and velocity structure characteristics are highly consistent with those of the drilling data. (2) Compared to the borehole data obtained through in situ test, the error of the overburden thickness and the equivalent shear-wave velocity estimated by the inversion of the apparent S-wave velocity is only about 10%, and the estimated parameters can be directly used for site classification. These results can provide important parameters for seismic fortification of major projects, and also provide reference for the exploration of unfavorable geological bodies, such as weak interlayer in complex urban areas, in the future, which can have good scientific significance and popularization value.

Abstract Background The members of the sucrose non-fermenting 1-related protein kinase 2 (SnRK2) family are specific serine/threonine protein kinases in plants that play important roles in stress signal transduction and adaptation. Because of their positive regulatory roles in response to adverse conditions, the genes encoding thes proteins are considered potential candidates for breeding of plants for disease resistance and genetic improvement. However, there is far less information about this kinase family, and the function of these genes has not been explored in Rosaceae. Results A genome-wide survey and analysis of the genes encoding members of the SnRK2 family were performed in pear (Pyrus bretschneideri) and seven other Rosaceae species. A total of 71 SnRK2 genes were identified from the eight Rosaceae species and classified into three subgroups based on phylogenetic analysis and structural characteristics. Purifying selection played a crucial role in the evolution of SnRK2 genes, and whole-genome duplication and dispersed duplication were the primary forces underlying the characteristics of the SnRK2 gene family in Rosaceae. Transcriptome data and qRT-PCR assay results revealed that the distribution of PbrSnRK2s was very extensive, including across the roots, leaves, pollen, styles, and flowers, although most of them were mainly expressed in leaves. In addition, under stress conditions, the transcript levels of some of the genes were upregulated in leaves in response to ABA treatment. Conclusions This study provides useful information and a theoretical introduction for the study of the evolution, expression, and functions of the SnRK2 gene family in plants.

Whether telbivudine (LdT) treatment to pregnant women with hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) affects infant immune response to hepatitis B vaccine (HepB) has not been investigated. A total of 127 HBsAg positive mothers and their neonates were enrolled and followed up at 11–13 months. Mothers took LdT (LdT group) or did not receive antiviral therapy (control group). Infant anti-HBs, immune cells and cytokines were measured after HepB was administered according to 0-1-6 procedure. We performed a 1:3 propensity score matching (PSM). Immune indexes in the two groups were compared. Baseline characteristics of mother-baby pairs were comparable in LdT group and control group. Infant anti-HBs geometric mean concentration (GMC) did not differ significantly between the two groups [767.70 (745.35) vs. 711.90 (819.60), P = .599]. There was no difference between the two groups in infant positive rate of anti-HBs [97.8% (91/93) vs. 97.1% (33/34), P = .999] and strong positive rate of anti-HBs [40.9% (38/93) vs. 44.1% (15/34), P = .742]. Infants with negative, low, medium, and high anti-HBs levels were similarly distributed between the two groups (P = .511). No differences in proportion of helper T cells, cytotoxic T cells, B cells, myeloid dendritic cells, and plasmacytoid dendritic cells of infants (P > .05) were detected between the two groups. Children in the LdT and control group had comparable levels of interleukin-2, interleukin-4, interleukin-6, interleukin-10, interleukin-12, interferon-α, interferon-γ and tumor necrosis factor-α (P > .05). Intrauterine exposure to LdT was safe to infant immune response to HepB after birth.

Triticum urartu, a diploid wild wheat and progenitor of the A genome of bread wheat, is an important resource for resistance to powdery mildew fungus caused by Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici (Bgt). In the present study we systematically characterized the interaction between the Bgt fungus and T. urartu at the microscopic level. We also tested 227 T. urartu accessions for reaction to Bgt isolate E09 and discovered previously uncategorized powdery mildew resistance in this collection. Pm60 is a CC-NB-LRR type powdery mildew resistance gene that has at least three functional alleles, Pm60, Pm60a, and Pm60b. A marker-assisted screen targeting the Pm60 locus identified a non-functional allele of Pm60a, designated as Pm60a′. A sequence comparison of Pm60a′ and Pm60a revealed that they differed by 58 SNPs and one 3-nucleotide deletion. Based on the sequence variations two molecular markers were developed to differentiate the functional Pm60a allele from the non-functional Pm60a′. Our screen revealed the presence of a previously uncharacterized powdery mildew resistance in T. urartu and provides new insights into the Pm60 locus. We believe that the two molecular markers developed here and new T. urartu resistant accessions will facilitate further identification of novel powdery mildew resistance genes and benefit breeding for powdery mildew resistance. Keywords: Blumeria graminis, Diploid wheat, Molecular marker, Pm60 alleles

Ebola virus (EBOV) is one of the most pathogenic viruses in humans which can cause a lethal hemorrhagic fever. Understanding the cellular entry mechanisms of EBOV can promote the development of new therapeutic strategies to control virus replication and spread. It has been known that EBOV virions bind to factors expressed at the host cell surface. Subsequently, the virions are internalized by a macropinocytosis-like process, followed by being trafficked through early and late endosomes. Recent researches indicate that the entry of EBOV into cells requires integrated and functional lipid rafts. Whilst lipid rafts have been hypothesized to play a role in virus entry, there is a current lack of supporting data. One major technical hurdle is the lack of effective approaches for observing viral entry. To provide evidence on the involvement of lipid rafts in the entry process of EBOV, we generated the fluorescently labeled Ebola virus like particles (VLPs), and utilized single-particle tracking (SPT) to visualize the entry of fluorescent Ebola VLPs in live cells and the interaction of Ebola VLPs with lipid rafts. In this study, we demonstrate the compartmentalization of Ebola VLPs in lipid rafts during entry process, and inform the essential function of lipid rafts for the entry of Ebola virus. As such, our study provides evidence to show that the raft integrity is critical for Ebola virus pathogenesis and that lipid rafts can serve as potential targets for the development of novel therapeutic strategies.

Abstract Background Osteoradionecrosis (ORN) is a complication that occurs after radiotherapy for head or neck malignancies. ORN of the spine is rare, with only few cases affecting the cervical spine reported to date. To our knowledge, no case of lumbar ORN has been reported. We report a rare case of ORN in the lumbar spine that occurred 2 years after radiotherapy and perform a literature review. Case presentation We present a case of lumbar ORN that occurred 2 years after radiotherapy for gallbladder carcinoma. The patient was successfully treated conservatively and followed up for > 10 years. Conclusions ORN of the spine is a rare complication of radiotherapy. Spinal ORN is clinically described as a chronic disease with a slow onset. The most common presenting symptom of spinal ORN is pain. However, as ORN progresses, spinal kyphosis and instability can lead to neurological compression and thus to induced myelopathy or radiculopathy. Treatment of spinal ORN is comprehensive, including orthosis, medication, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, surgery, and new treatment combinations of pentoxifylline and tocopherol. The surgical rate for spinal ORN is relatively high.

On May 18, 2006, a disastrous groundwater inrush occurred at the Xinjing coal mine in Datong, Shanxi province, China. Great effort was taken during the post-accident rescue. However, triggered by the accumulated water rushed from the nearby abandoned tunnels and goafs of the Yanzishan coal mine, which had been closed for tens of years, it caused great damage, including 56 deaths and direct economic loss of over 53 million yuan. The outburst groundwater was from the abandoned goafs in the No.14-1 coal seam of the neighbour Yanzishan coal mine. The passage formed in northeast part of the mining area in the No. 14-1 coal seam. The average inflow rate was 23,333.3 m3/h. Unidentified spatial distribution and water-filled degree of the abandoned tunnels and goafs of the Yanzishan coal mine are critical contributions to the accident. Illegal mining in the No.14-1 coal seam is an anthropogenic contribution. That mandatory regulations for excessive groundwater exploration and release were not carried out in the mining is the third fatal cause leading to the accident. Finally, the poor awareness on water inrush recognition and control of the miners also induced the accident to a disastrous extent.

Existing outdoor three-dimensional (3D) object detection algorithms mainly use a single type of sensor, for example, only using a monocular camera or radar point cloud. However, camera sensors are affected by light and lose depth information. When scanning a distant object or an occluded object, the data collected by the short-range radar point cloud sensor are very sparse, which affects the detection algorithm. To address the above challenges, we design a deep learning network that can combine the texture information of two-dimensional (2D) data and the geometric information of 3D data for object detection. To solve the problem of a single sensor, we use a reverse mapping layer and an aggregation layer to combine the texture information of RGB data with the geometric information of point cloud data and design a maximum pooling layer to deal with the input of multi-view cameras. In addition, to solve the defects of the 3D object detection algorithm based on the region proposal network (RPN) method, we use the Hough voting algorithm implemented by a deep neural network to suggest objects. Experimental results show that our algorithm has a 1.06% decrease in average precision (AP) compared to PointRCNN in easy car object detection, but our algorithm requires 37.7% less time to calculate than PointRCNN under the same hardware environment. Moreover, our algorithm improves the AP by 1.14% compared to PointRCNN in hard car object detection.

Phosphorus (P) is an essential macronutrient for the growth and development of fruit trees, playing an important role in photosynthesis, nucleic acid synthesis, and enzyme activity regulation. The plasticity of plant phenotypic has been investigated in diverse species under conditions of P-deficiency or P-excess. Based on these researches, P level fluctuations in different species result in different characteristics of the response. Nevertheless, little is known about the response of pear seedling rootstock (Pyrus betulifolia Bunge) to the changing of P levels. To explore the effects of different levels of P on the growth of pear seedling rootstock, we performed the hydroponic assays to determine and analyze the biological indexes including growth parameters, photosynthetic rate, root and shoot morphological traits, and concentrations of macro- and micronutrients. The results show that either deficiency or excess of P inhibited the growth and development of pear seedling rootstock. Root growth (down 44.8%), photosynthetic rate (down 59.8%), and acid phosphatase (ACP) activity (down 44.4%) were inhibited under the P-deficiency conditions (0mM), compared with normal P conditions (1mM). On the other hand, dark green leaves, suppression of root elongation (down 18.8%), and photosynthetic rate (down 25%) were observed under regimes of excessive P, compared with normal P conditions (1mM). Furthermore, the root concentration of not only P, but also those of other mineral nutrients were affected by either P treatment. In brief, these results indicated that a careful choice of P fertilizer supply is crucial to ensuring normal growth and development of pear seedling rootstock.

Powdery mildew is one of the most important fungal pathogen diseases. The genome of barley mildew fungus, Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei (Bgh), encodes a large number of candidate secreted effector proteins (CSEPs). So far, the function and mechanism of most CSEPs remain largely unknown. Here, we identify a Bgh effector CSEP0027, a member of family 41, triggering cell death in Nicotiana benthamiana. CSEP0027 contains a functional signal peptide (SP), verified by yeast secretion assay. We show that CSEP0027 promotes Bgh virulence in barley infection using transient gene expression and host-induced gene silencing (HIGS). Barley catalase HvCAT1 is identified as a CSEP0027 interactor by yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) screening, and the interaction is verified in yeast, in vitro and in vivo. The coexpression of CSEP0027 and HvCAT1 in barley cells results in altered localization of HvCAT1 from the peroxisome to the nucleus. Barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV)-silencing and transiently-induced gene silencing (TIGS) assays reveal that HvCAT1 is required for barley immunity against Bgh. We propose that CSEP0027 interacts with barley HvCAT1 to regulate the host immunity and likely reactive oxygen species (ROS) homeostasis to promote fungal virulence during barley infection.

BackgroundGenomic instability (GI) is among the top ten characteristics of malignancy. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are promising cancer biomarkers that are reportedly involved in GI. So far, the clinical value of GI-related lncRNAs (GIlncs) in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) has not been clarified.MethodsIntegrative analysis of lncRNA expression and somatic mutation profiles was performed to identify GIlncs. Analysis of differentially expressed lncRNAs in the group with high- and low- cumulative number of somatic mutations revealed significant GIlncs in PTC. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression analyses were performed to identify hub-GIlncs.ResultsA computational model based on four lncRNAs (FOXD2-AS1, LINC01614, AC073257.2, and AC005082.1) was identified as a quantitative index using an in-silicon discovery cohort. GILS score was significantly associated with poor prognosis, as validated in the TCGA dataset and further tested in our local RNA-Seq cohort. Moreover, a combination of clinical characteristics and the composite GILS-clinical prognostic nomogram demonstrates satisfactory discrimination and calibration. Furthermore, the GILS score and FOXD2-AS1, LINC01614, AC073257.2, and AC005082.1 were also associated with driver mutations and multiple clinical-pathological variables, respectively. Moreover, RNA-Seq confirmed the expression patterns of FOXD2-AS1, LINC01614, AC073257.2, and AC005082.1 in PTC and normal thyroid tissues. Biological experiments demonstrated that downregulated or overexpressed LINC01614 affect PTC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro. Activation of the stromal and immune cell infiltration was also observed in the high LINC01614 group in the PTC microenvironment.ConclusionIn summary, we identified a signature for clinical outcome prediction in PTC comprising four lncRNAs associated with GI. A better understanding of the GI providing an alternative evaluation of the progression risk of PTC. Our study also demonstrated LINC01614 as a novel oncogenic lncRNA and verified its phenotype in PTC.

Background: Previous geographic studies of HIV infection have usually used prevalence data, which cannot indicate the hot-spot areas of current transmission. To develop quantitative analytic measures for accurately identifying hot-spot areas in growth of new HIV infection, we investigated the geographic distribution features of recent HIV infection and long-term HIV infection using data from a whole-population physical examination in four key counties in Liangshan prefecture, which are most severely affected by HIV in China.Methods: Through a whole-population physical examination during November 2017- June 2018 in the four key counties, a total of 5,555 HIV cases were diagnosed and 246 cases were classified as recently infected by laboratory HIV recency tests. The geospatial patterns of recent and long-term HIV infected cases were compared using ordinary least squares regression and Geodetector. Further, geospatial-heterogeneity was quantified and indicated using a residual map to visualize hot-spot areas where new infection is increasing.Results: The geographic location of HIV cases showed an uneven distribution along major roads and clustered at road intersections. The geographic mapping showed that several areas were clustered with more recently infected HIV cases than long-term infected cases. The quantitative analyses showed that the geospatial asymmetry between recent and long-term HIV infection was 0.30 and 0.31 in ordinary least squares regression and Geodetector analysis, respectively. The quantitative analyses found twenty-three townships showing an increase in the number of recent infections.Conclusions: Quantitative analysis of geospatial-heterogeneous areas by comparing between recent and long-term HIV infections allows accurate identification of hot-spot areas where new infections are expanding, which can be used as a potent methodological tool to guide targeted interventions and curb the spread of the epidemic.

Abstract Background This study assessed clinical and radiographic outcomes of oblique lumbar interbody fusion (OLIF) in comparison with posterior reoperation for adjacent segment disease (ASD). Methods A total of 26 patients with symptomatic ASD after lumbar fusion were included in this retrospective case-controlled study conducted from January 2013 to December 2018. Twelve patients underwent single-segment OLIF with or without posterior instrumentation (OLIF group), whereas 14 patients underwent posterior reoperation (posterior approach group). The clinical outcomes included operative time, blood loss, hospital stay, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), and complications. Preoperative and postoperative radiographic outcomes were compared. Results The operative time (60.6 ± 16.1 min vs. 150.9 ± 28.5 min, respectively; P

The onsite next generation sequencing (NGS) of Ebola virus (EBOV) genomes during the 2013–2016 Ebola epidemic in Western Africa provides an opportunity to trace the origin, transmission, and evolution of this virus. Herein, we have diagnosed a cohort of EBOV patients in Sierra Leone in 2015, during the late phase of the outbreak. The surviving EBOV patients had a recovery process characterized by decreasing viremia, fever, and biochemical parameters. EBOV genomes sequenced through the longitudinal blood samples of these patients showed dynamic intra-host substitutions of the virus during acute infection, including the previously described short stretches of 13 serial T>C mutations. Remarkably, within individual patients, samples collected during the early phase of infection possessed Ts at these nucleotide sites, whereas they were replaced by Cs in samples collected in the later phase, suggesting that these short stretches of T>C mutations could emerge independently. In addition, up to a total of 35 nucleotide sites spanning the EBOV genome were mutated coincidently. Our study showed the dynamic intra-host adaptation of EBOV during patient recovery and gave more insight into the complex EBOV-host interactions.

A modified total variation MRI image denoising method is proposed in this paper. First, the proposed method removes the noise in K-space in compressed sensing MRI reconstruction. Then, the removed K-space data is used as a partial frequency observation in compressed sensing MRI model. The proposed method shows better results than RecPF method, LDP method, TVCMRI method, and FCSA method in sparse MRI reconstruction. The proposed method is tested against Shepp-Logan phantom and real MR images corrupted by noise of different intensity level, and it gives better Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), the relative error (ReErr), and the structural similarity (SSIM) than RecPF, LDP, TVCMRI, and FCSA.

Optimal transport distance, otherwise known as Wasserstein distance, recently has attracted attention in music signal processing and machine learning as powerful discrepancy measures for probability distributions. In this paper, we propose an ensemble approach with Wasserstein distance to integrate various music transcription methods and combine different music classification models so as to achieve a more robust solution. The main idea is to model the ensemble as a problem of Wasserstein Barycenter, where our two experimental results show that our ensemble approach outperforms existing methods to a significant extent. Our proposal offers a new visual angle on the application of Wasserstein distance through music transcription and music classification in multimedia analysis and fusion tasks.

Abstract Background Pear (Pyrus) is a globally grown fruit, with thousands of cultivars in five domesticated species and dozens of wild species. However, little is known about the evolutionary history of these pear species and what has contributed to the distinct phenotypic traits between Asian pears and European pears. Results We report the genome resequencing of 113 pear accessions from worldwide collections, representing both cultivated and wild pear species. Based on 18,302,883 identified SNPs, we conduct phylogenetics, population structure, gene flow, and selective sweep analyses. Furthermore, we propose a model for the divergence, dissemination, and independent domestication of Asian and European pears in which pear, after originating in southwest China and then being disseminated throughout central Asia, has eventually spread to western Asia, and then on to Europe. We find evidence for rapid evolution and balancing selection for S-RNase genes that have contributed to the maintenance of self-incompatibility, thus promoting outcrossing and accounting for pear genome diversity across the Eurasian continent. In addition, separate selective sweep signatures between Asian pears and European pears, combined with co-localized QTLs and differentially expressed genes, underline distinct phenotypic fruit traits, including flesh texture, sugar, acidity, aroma, and stone cells. Conclusions This study provides further clarification of the evolutionary history of pear along with independent domestication of Asian and European pears. Furthermore, it provides substantive and valuable genomic resources that will significantly advance pear improvement and molecular breeding efforts.

The aldo-keto reductase (AKR) superfamily plays a major role in oxidation-reduction in plants. D-galacturonic acid reductase (GalUR), an ascorbic acid (AsA) biosynthetic enzyme, belongs to this superfamily. However, the phylogenetic relationship and evolutionary history of the AKR gene family in plants has not yet been clarified. In this study, a total of 1268 AKR genes identified in 36 plant species were used to determine this phylogenetic relationship. The retention, structural characteristics, and expression patterns of AKR homologous genes in Brassica rapa and Arabidopsis thaliana were analyzed to further explore their evolutionary history. We found that the AKRs originated in algae and could be divided into A and B groups according to the bootstrap value; GalURs belonged to group A. Group A AKR genes expanded significantly before the origin of angiosperms. Two groups of AKR genes demonstrated functional divergence due to environmental adaptability, while group A genes were more conservative than those in group B. All 12 candidate GalUR genes were cloned, and their expression patterns under stress were analyzed, in Pak-choi. These genes showed an obvious expression divergence under multiple stresses, and BrcAKR22 exhibited a positive correlation between its expression trend and AsA content. Our findings provide new insights into the evolution of the AKR superfamily and help build a foundation for further investigations of GalUR’s functional characteristics.

The segmentation of buildings in remote-sensing (RS) images plays an important role in monitoring landscape changes. Quantification of these changes can be used to balance economic and environmental benefits and most importantly, to support the sustainable urban development. Deep learning has been upgrading the techniques for RS image analysis. However, it requires a large-scale data set for hyper-parameter optimization. To address this issue, the concept of “one view per city” is proposed and it explores the use of one RS image for parameter settings with the purpose of handling the rest images of the same city by the trained model. The proposal of this concept comes from the observation that buildings of a same city in single-source RS images demonstrate similar intensity distributions. To verify the feasibility, a proof-of-concept study is conducted and five fully convolutional networks are evaluated on five cities in the Inria Aerial Image Labeling database. Experimental results suggest that the concept can be explored to decrease the number of images for model training and it enables us to achieve competitive performance in buildings segmentation with decreased time consumption. Based on model optimization and universal image representation, it is full of potential to improve the segmentation performance, to enhance the generalization capacity, and to extend the application of the concept in RS image analysis.