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In this paper, we study the codimensions of Hopf bifurcation and Bogdanov–Takens bifurcation of a predator–prey model with alternative prey and prey refuges, which was proposed by Chen et al. [2023]. The results show that the predator–prey model can undergo a supercritical Hopf bifurcation or a Bogdanov–Takens bifurcation of codimension two under certain parameter conditions. It means that there are some predator–prey models with an alternative prey and prey refuges which have a limit cycle or a homoclinic loop. Moreover, it is also shown that the codimension of Hopf bifurcation is at most one and codimension of Bogdanov–Takens bifurcation is at most two. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background: The monoamine neurotransmitter disorders are neurometabolic syndromes caused by disturbances in the synthesis, transport and metabolism of the biogenic amines (the catecholamines dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine; serotonin), which are increasingly recognized as an expanding group of inherited neurometabolic syndromes. Case Description: A 6-month-old male infant who presented with developmental delay and suspected cerebral palsy was diagnosed with infantile parkinsonism-dystonia-2 (MIM: 618049). The whole-exome sequencing identified a homozygous c.710C > T (p.Pro237His) transition in the monoamine transporter gene SLC18A2, which was due to paternal uniparental disomy (UPD) of chromosome 10p15.3q26.3, resulting in brain dopamine-serotonin vesicular transport disease. Sanger sequencing confirmed that his unaffected father carried the same mutation in the heterozygous state, while his mother did not carry the same mutation. Autosomal recessive gene mutations in SLC18A2 has been identified in three families in different countries. The infant was treated with pramipexole, a dopamine agonist, and the static tremor was better compared with that before treatment, but the movement disorder was not significantly improved. Conclusion: This case confirmed the causal mutation of SLC18A2 gene and brain dopamine-serotonin vesicular transport disease, which suggested the mechanism of UPD homozygous formation, and confirmed that dopamine agonist treatment could improve some symptoms in affected individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) and its variants have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and shown serious social influence worldwide. Jilin Province, China, experienced the first wave of the outbreak from December 2020 to February 2021. Here, we analyzed the genomic characteristics of the SARS‐CoV‐2 outbreak in Jilin province using a phylogeographic tree and found that clinical isolates belonged to the B.1 lineage, which was considered to be the ancestral lineage. Several dominant SARS‐CoV‐2 specific linear B cell epitopes that reacted with the convalescent sera were also analysed and identified using a peptide microarray composed of S, M, and E proteins. Moreover, the serum of convalescent patients infected with SARS‐CoV‐2 showed neutralizing activity against four widely spreading SARS‐CoV‐2 variants; however, significant differences were observed in neutralizing activities against different SARS‐CoV‐2 variants. These data provide important information on genomic characteristics, linear epitopes, and neutralizing activity of SARS‐CoV‐2 outbreak in Jilin Province, China, which may aid in understanding disease patterns and regional aspects of the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SARS-CoV-2 belongs to the subgenus Sarbecovirus , which universally encodes the accessory protein ORF6. SARS-CoV-2 ORF6 is an antagonist of the interferon (IFN)-mediated antiviral response and plays an important role in viral infections. However, the mechanism by which the host counteracts the function of ORF6 to restrict viral replication remains unclear. In this study, we found that most ORF6 proteins encoded by sarbecoviruses could be ubiquitinated and subsequently degraded via the proteasome pathway. Through extensive screening, we identified that the deubiquitinase USP1, which effectively and broadly deubiquitinates sarbecovirus ORF6 proteins, stabilizes ORF6 proteins, resulting in enhanced viral replication. Therefore, ubiquitination and deubiquitination of ORF6 are important for antagonizing IFN-mediated antiviral signaling and influencing the virulence of SARS-CoV-2. These findings highlight an essential molecular mechanism and may provide a novel target for therapeutic interventions against viral infections.IMPORTANCEThe ORF6 proteins encoded by sarbecoviruses are essential for effective viral replication and infection and are important targets for developing effective intervention strategies. In this study, we confirmed that sarbecovirus ORF6 proteins are important antagonists of the host immune response and identified the regulatory mechanisms of ubiquitination and deubiquitination of most sarbecovirus ORF6 proteins. Moreover, we revealed that DUB USP1 prevents the proteasomal degradation of all ORF6 proteins, thereby promoting the virulence of SARS-CoV-2. Thus, impeding ORF6 function is helpful for attenuating the virulence of sarbecoviruses. Therefore, our findings provide a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying sarbecovirus infections and offer potential new therapeutic targets for the prevention and treatment of these infections., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Editing operations such as cut, copy, paste, and correcting errors in typed text are often tedious and challenging to perform on smartphones. In this paper, we present VT, a voice and touch-based multi-modal text editing and correction method for smartphones. To edit text with VT, the user glides over a text fragment with a finger and dictates a command, such as "bold" to change the format of the fragment, or the user can tap inside a text area and speak a command such as "highlight this paragraph" to edit the text. For text correcting, the user taps approximately at the area of erroneous text fragment and dictates the new content for substitution or insertion. VT combines touch and voice inputs with language context such as language model and phrase similarity to infer a user's editing intention, which can handle ambiguities and noisy input signals. It is a great advantage over the existing error correction methods (e.g., iOS's Voice Control) which require precise cursor control or text selection. Our evaluation shows that VT significantly improves the efficiency of text editing and text correcting on smartphones over the touch-only method and the iOS's Voice Control method. Our user studies showed that VT reduced the text editing time by 30.80%, and text correcting time by 29.97% over the touch-only method. VT reduced the text editing time by 30.81%, and text correcting time by 47.96% over the iOS's Voice Control method.

Back-of-device interaction is a promising approach to interacting on smartphones. In this paper, we create a back-of-device command and text input technique called BackSwipe, which allows a user to hold a smartphone with one hand, and use the index finger of the same hand to draw a word-gesture anywhere at the back of the smartphone to enter commands and text. To support BackSwipe, we propose a back-of-device word-gesture decoding algorithm which infers the keyboard location from back-of-device gestures, and adjusts the keyboard size to suit the gesture scales; the inferred keyboard is then fed back into the system for decoding. Our user study shows BackSwipe is feasible and a promising input method, especially for command input in the one-hand holding posture: users can enter commands at an average accuracy of 92% with a speed of 5.32 seconds/command. The text entry performance varies across users. The average speed is 9.58 WPM with some users at 18.83 WPM; the average word error rate is 11.04% with some users at 2.85%. Overall, BackSwipe complements the extant smartphone interaction by leveraging the back of the device as a gestural input surface.