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Members of the phylum Bacteroidetes play a key role in the marine carbon cycle through their degradation of polysaccharides via carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) and polysaccharide utilization loci (PULs). The discovery of novel CAZymes and PULs is important for our understanding of the marine carbon cycle. In this study, we isolated and identified a potential new genus of the family Catalimonadaceae, in the phylum Bacteroidetes, from the southwest Indian Ocean. Strain TK19036, the type strain of the new genus, is predicted to encode CAZymes that are relatively abundant in marine Bacteroidetes genomes. Tunicatimonas pelagia NBRC 107804T, Porifericola rhodea NBRC 107748T and Catalinimonas niigatensis NBRC 109829T, which exhibit 16 S rRNA similarities exceeding 90% with strain TK19036, and belong to the same family, were selected as reference strains. These organisms possess a highly diverse repertoire of CAZymes and PULs, which may enable them to degrade a wide range of polysaccharides, especially pectin and alginate. In addition, some secretory CAZymes in strain TK19036 and its relatives were predicted to be transported by type IX secretion system (T9SS). Further, to the best of our knowledge, we propose the first reported “hybrid” PUL targeting alginates in T. pelagia NBRC 107804T. Our findings provide new insights into the polysaccharide degradation capacity of marine Bacteroidetes, and suggest that T9SS may play a more important role in this process than previously believed.

Leading national space exploration agencies and private enterprises are actively engaged in lunar exploration initiatives to accomplish manned lunar landings and establish permanent lunar bases in the forthcoming years. With limited access to lunar surface materials on Earth, lunar regolith simulants are crucial for lunar exploration research. The Chang’e-5 (CE-5) samples have been characterized by state-of-the-art laboratory equipment, providing a unique opportunity to develop a high-quality lunar regolith simulant. We have prepared a high-fidelity PolyU-1 simulant by pulverizing, desiccating, sieving, and blending natural mineral materials on Earth based on key physical, mineral, and chemical characteristics of CE-5 samples. The results showed that the simulant has a high degree of consistency with the CE-5 samples in terms of the particle morphology, mineral and chemical composition. Direct shear tests were conducted on the simulant, and the measured internal friction angle and cohesion values can serve as references for determining the mechanical properties of CE-5 lunar regolith. The PolyU-1 simulant can contribute to experimental studies involving lunar regolith, including the assessment of interaction between rovers and lunar regolith, as well as the development of in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) technologies.

Abstract Background Carboxylesterase 1(CES1) is expressed mainly in the liver and adipose tissue and is highly hypothesized to play an essential role in metabolism. Our study aimed to investigate the association between CES1 and metabolic syndrome (MetS) and metabolic dysfunction associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) in children with obesity in China. Methods This study included 72 children with obesity aged 6-13years (including 25(35%) diagnosed as MetS and 36(50%) diagnosed as MASLD). All subjects were measured in anthropometry, serum level of biochemical parameters related to obesity, circumstance levels of insulin-like growth factor1, adipokines (adiponectin, leptin and growth differentiation factor 15) and CES1. Results Higher serum CES1 level were found in the MetS group (P = 0.004) and the MASLD group (P

Seasonal influenza A virus subtype H3N2 (A/H3N2) circulates globally and has been linked to higher hospitalization rates and summer outbreaks in temperate regions. Here, A/H3N2 circulation in Shanghai, China was systematically studied using data and materials generated by the Shanghai influenza surveillance network from 2005 to 2023. Time-series analysis of incidence and subtyping data showed that A/H3N2 co-circulated with other (sub)types and dominated in multiple seasonal influenza peaks, preferentially in summer. Whole genomes of 528 representative strains were sequenced, and spatiotemporal phylodynamic analysis using these and GISAID-archived sequences demonstrated that in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic, phylogenetically similar strains were circulating locally and elsewhere. However, clade 1a.1 (within 3C.2a.1b.2a), circulated in and only in Shanghai and domestically in 2022, while the sibling clade 2 predominated in other regions. Interestingly, clade 1a.1 was swiftly and completely replaced by clade 2, mostly 2a.3a.1, at the start of 2023. In hemagglutination inhibition and neutralization assays, sera from healthy donors collected in 2022 displayed higher or similar reactivity against 2a.3a.1 compared to 1a.1. By contrast, transcription and replication competence of 2a.3a.1 in MDCK cells was higher than 1a.1. These results indicated that instead of antigenicity differences enabling evasion of pre-existing immunity, higher replicative capability more likely contributed to 2a.3a.1 viruses achieving dominance in China. In addition to summarizing patterns of A/H3N2 local circulation in Shanghai, this work revealed an unusual episode in A/H3N2 global circulation and evolution dynamics in connection to the COVID-19 pandemic and explored possible mechanistic explanations.

Due to significant population concentration and capital influx in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the construction of cross-sea tunnels with significant consumption of various resources and materials, has been frequently witnessed. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding how carbon emissions of cross-sea transportation infrastructure are generated across its life-cycle stages. This study proposes a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach for quantifying the carbon emissions and exploring the carbon reduction potentials with a case study of a world-renowned cross-sea tunnel project in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The results find that this project contributes approximately 849 kilotons CO2eq of carbon emissions with an emission intensity of 1.1 kilotons CO2eq per meter. The materialization stage is the largest contributor of carbon emissions (474.9 kilotons CO2eq), followed by service stage (248.3 kilotons CO2eq, accounting for 29.2 %). Some carbon emissions of raw materials can be offset by using recycled materials. The discarded concrete, block, stone, and sand, occupying over 90 % of the total recycled waste in weight could achieve a 93.5 % of carbon reduction potentially. It provides the opportunity to reveal the engineering details and carbon emission for a world-class super complex cross-sea transportation infrastructure. This study makes one of the first attempts to quantify life-cycle carbon emissions of cross-sea transportation infrastructure, which enriches foundational dataset for environmental impact assessment in this emerging field. The findings of this study can provide scientific references for formulating targeted low-carbon strategies for cross-sea transportation infrastructure across its different life-cycle stages.

ABSTRACTPreviously, we reported a cohort of Japanese encephalitis (JE) patients with Guillain–Barré syndrome. However, the evidence linking Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) infection and peripheral nerve injury (PNI) remains limited, especially the epidemiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, treatment, and outcome significantly differ from traditional JE. We performed a retrospective and multicenter study of 1626 patients with JE recorded in the surveillance system of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, spanning the years 2016–2020. Cases were classified into type 1 and type 2 JE based on whether the JE was combined with PNI or not. A comparative analysis was conducted on demographic characteristics, clinical manifestations, imaging findings, electromyography data, laboratory results, and treatment outcomes. Among 1626 laboratory confirmed JE patients, 230 (14%) were type 2 mainly located along the Yellow River in northwest China. In addition to fever, headache, and disturbance of consciousness, type 2 patients experienced acute flaccid paralysis of the limbs, as well as severe respiratory muscle paralysis. These patients presented a greater mean length of stay in hospital (children, 22 years [range, 1–34]; adults, 25 years [range, 0–183]) and intensive care unit (children, 16 years [range, 1–30]; adults, 17 years [range, 0–102]). The mortality rate was higher in type 2 patients (36/230 [16%]) compared to type 1 (67/1396 [5%]). The clinical classification of the diagnosis of JE may play a crucial role in developing a rational treatment strategy, thereby mitigating the severity of the disease and potentially reducing disability and mortality rates among patients.

Motor imagery (MI) based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) enable the direct control of external devices through the imagined movements of various body parts. Unlike previous systems that used fixed-length EEG trials for MI decoding, asynchronous BCIs aim to detect the user’s MI without explicit triggers. They are challenging to implement, because the algorithm needs to first distinguish between resting-states and MI trials, and then classify the MI trials into the correct task, all without any triggers. This paper proposes a sliding window prescreening and classification (SWPC) approach for MI-based asynchronous BCIs, which consists of two modules: a prescreening module to screen MI trials out of the resting-state, and a classification module for MI classification. Both modules are trained with supervised learning followed by self-supervised learning, which refines the feature extractors. Within-subject and cross-subject asynchronous MI classifications on four different EEG datasets validated the effectiveness of SWPC, i.e., it always achieved the highest average classification accuracy, and outperformed the best state-of-the-art baseline on each dataset by about 2%.

Abstract Objectives To develop a nomogram using pretreatment ultrasound (US) and contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) to predict the clinical response of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in patients with borderline resectable pancreatic cancer (BRPC) or locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC). Methods A total of 111 patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) treated with NAC between October 2017 and February 2022 were retrospectively enrolled. The patients were randomly divided (7:3) into training and validation cohorts. The pretreatment US and CEUS features were reviewed. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to determine the independent predictors of clinical response in the training cohort. Then a prediction nomogram model based on the independent predictors was constructed. The area under the curve (AUC), calibration plot, C-index and decision curve analysis (DCA) were used to assess the nomogram’s performance, calibration, discrimination and clinical benefit. Results The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the taller-than-wide shape in the longitudinal plane (odds ratio [OR]:0.20, p = 0.01), time from injection of contrast agent to peak enhancement (OR:3.64; p = 0.05) and Peaktumor/ Peaknormal (OR:1.51; p = 0.03) were independent predictors of clinical response to NAC. The predictive nomogram developed based on the above imaging features showed AUCs were 0.852 and 0.854 in the primary and validation cohorts, respectively. Good calibration was achieved in the training datasets, with C-index of 0.852. DCA verified the clinical usefulness of the nomogram. Conclusions The nomogram based on pretreatment US and CEUS can effectively predict the clinical response of NAC in patients with BRPC and LAPC; it may help guide personalized treatment.

The continuous growth in building decoration activities has led to significant energy and material consumption, increasing carbon emissions in the construction sector. Existing literature frequently overlooks the carbon impact of building decorations. This study employs the life cycle assessment (LCA) method to quantify the carbon emissions associated with building decorations across five typic building types: residential, hospital, educational, sports cultural, and office buildings. Data were gathered using a mix of field investigations, document reviews, and semi-structured interviews, ensuring comprehensive coverage of all life cycle stages. The results reveal that carbon emission intensities of the studied building decorations ranged from 70.01 to 298.79 kg CO2 eq/m2, with the lowest emissions found in educational buildings and the highest in sports and cultural buildings. The decoration material production stage consistently emerges as the major contributor to emissions, accounting for over 50% of the life cycle of carbon emissions across all building types. The transportation stage also represents a significant share, contributing 18.6% to 24.5% across the building types. It also indicates that ceiling engineering as well as wall and column engineering are the primary carbon emission sources in terms of decoration activities. This study systematically compares the carbon emission characteristics of building decorations across multiple building types, addressing a gap that has been largely overlooked in the existing literature. It highlights the key sources of carbon emissions and proposes targeted mitigation strategies. The findings also suggest future research directions, including the application of innovative low-carbon materials, advanced construction technologies, and optimization of logistics. These insights lay a solid foundation for future low-carbon design and construction practices within the building sector.

Backgrounds: A contemporary public health challenge is the increase in the prevalence rates of herpes zoster (HZ) worldwide. Methods: In this work, the gE gene structure was analyzed using bioinformatics techniques, and three plasmids of varying lengths, tgE537, tgE200, and tgE350, were expressed in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. These proteins were used to immunize BALB/c mice with Al/CpG adjuvant; ELISPOT and FCM were used to evaluate cellular immunity; and ELISA, VZV microneutralization, and FAMA assays were performed to detect antibody titers. Results: Target protein concentrations of 1.8 mg/mL for tgE537, 0.15 mg/mL for tgE200 and 0.65 mg/mL for tgE350 were effectively produced. The ability of the three protein segments to stimulate CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, as well as to cause lymphocytes to secrete IFN-γ and IL-4, did not significantly differ from one another. Both tgE537 and tgE350 were capable of generating VZV-specific antibodies and neutralizing antibodies, while tgE350 had the highest neutralizing antibody titer (4388). There was no equivalent humoral immune response induced by tgE200. Conclusions: The results of this investigation provide the groundwork for the creation of HZ recombinant vaccines using truncated proteins as antigens.

Frequency-hopping sequences (FHSs) have a decisive influence on the whole frequency-hopping communication system. The Hamming correlation function plays an important role in evaluating the performance of FHSs. Constructing FHS sets that meet the theoretical bounds is crucial for the research and development of frequency-hopping communication systems. In this paper, three new classes of optimal FHSs based on trace functions are constructed. Two of them are optimal FHSs and the corresponding periodic Hamming autocorrelation value is calculated by using the known Gaussian period. It is shown that the new FHSs are optimal according to the Lempel-Greenberger bound. The third class of FHSs is the near-optimal FHSs.

Introduction To characterise age-mixing patterns among index cases and contacts of COVID-19, and explore when patients are most infectious during the disease process.Methods This study examined all initial 90 885 confirmed index cases in Shanghai and their 450 770 close contacts. A generalised additive mixed model was used to analyse the associations of the number of close contacts with different demographic and clinical characteristics. The effect of different exposure time windows on the infection of close contacts was evaluated using a modified mixed-effects Poisson regression.Results Analysis of contacts indicated that 82 467 (18.29%; 95% CI 18.17%, 18.42%) were second-generation cases. Our result indicated the q-index was 0.300 (95% CI 0.298, 0.302) for overall contact matrix, and that assortativity was greatest for students (q-index=0.377; 95% CI 0.357, 0.396) and weakest for people working age not in the labour force (q-index=0.246; 95% CI 0.240, 0.252). The number of contacts was 4.96 individuals per index case (95% CI 4.86, 5.06). Contacts had a higher risk if they were exposed from 1 day before to 3 days after the onset of symptoms in the index patient, with a maximum at day 0 (adjusted relative risk (aRR)=1.52; 95% CI 1.30, 1.76). Contacts exposed from 3 days before to 3 days after an asymptomatic index case had a positive reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR) result had a higher risk, with a maximum on day 0 (aRR=1.48; 95% CI 1.37, 1.59).Conclusions The greatest assortativity was for students and weakest for people working age not in the labour force. Contact in the household was a significant contributor to the infection of close contacts. Contact tracing should focus on individuals who had contact soon before or soon after the onset of symptoms (or positive RT-PCR test) in the index case.

Tibet orbivirus (TIBOV) was first isolated from Anopheles maculatus mosquitoes in Xizang, China, in 2009. In recent years, more TIBOV strains have been isolated in several provinces across China, Japan, East Asia, and Nepal, South Asia. Furthermore, TIBOVs have also been isolated from Culex mosquitoes, and several midge species. Additionally, TIBOV neutralizing antibodies have been detected in serum specimens from several mammals, including cattle, sheep, and pigs. All of the evidence suggests that the geographical distribution of TIBOVs has significantly expanded in recent years, with an increased number of vector species involved in its transmission. Moreover, the virus demonstrated infectivity towards a variety of animals. Although TIBOV is considered an emerging orbivirus, detailed reports on its genome and molecular evolution are currently lacking. Thus, this study performed the whole-genome nucleotide sequencing of three TIBOV isolates from mosquitoes and midges collected in China in 2009, 2011, and 2019. Furthermore, the genome and molecular genetic evolution of TIBOVs isolated from different countries, periods, and hosts (mosquitoes, midges, and cattle) was systematically analyzed. The results revealed no molecular specificity among TIBOVs isolated from different countries, periods, and vectors. Meanwhile, the time-scaled phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that the most recent common ancestor (TMRCA) of TIBOV appeared approximately 797 years ago (95% HPD: 16-2347) and subsequently differentiated at least three times, resulting in three distinct genotypes. The evolutionary rate of TIBOVs was about 2.12 × 10-3 nucleotide substitutions per site per year (s/s/y) (95% HPD: 3.07 × 10-5, 9.63 × 10-3), which is similar to that of the bluetongue virus (BTV), also in the Orbivirus genus. Structural analyses of the viral proteins revealed that the three-dimensional structures of the outer capsid proteins of TIBOV and BTV were similar. These results suggest that TIBOV is a newly discovered and rapidly evolving virus transmitted by various blood-sucking insects. Given the potential public health burden of this virus and its high infectious rate in a wide range of animals, it is significant to strengthen research on the genetic variation of TIBOVs in blood-feeding insects and mammals in the natural environment and the infection status in animals.

Soft rot of konjac (Amorphophallus spp.) is a devastating disease caused by the bacterium Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum (Pcc) with serious adverse effects on plantation development, corm quality and crop yield due to the current lack of effective control measures. The main objective of the present study was to elucidate the mechanisms underlying plant resistance to soft rot disease. A combination of transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses demonstrated significant enrichment of differentially expressed genes (DEG) and differentially accumulated metabolites (DAM) associated with plant hormones, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis and, in particular, alkaloid metabolism, in Amorphophallus muelleri following Pcc infection compared with A. konjac, these data implicate alkaloid metabolism as the dominant mechanism underlying disease resistance of A. muelleri. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis further revealed involvement of PAL, CYP73A16, CCOAOMT1, RBOHD and CDPK20 genes in the response of konjac to Pcc. Analysis of the bacteriostatic activities of total alkaloid from A. muelleri validated the assumption that alkaloid metabolism positively regulates disease resistance of konjac. Our collective results provide a foundation for further research on the resistance mechanisms of konjac against soft rot disease.

Abstract Objectives CD8+ T cells play a critical role in the immune dysfunction associated with liver cirrhosis. CD38+HLA‐DR+CD8+ T cells, or bystander‐activated CD8+ T cells, are involved in tissue injury but their specific contribution to liver cirrhosis remains unclear. This study sought to identify the mechanism for CD38+HLA‐DR+CD8+ T cell‐mediated pathogenesis during liver cirrhosis. Methods The immunophenotype, antigen specificity, cytokine secretion and cytotoxicity‐related indicators of CD38+HLA‐DR+CD8+ T cells were determined using flow cytometry. The functional properties of these cells were assessed using transcriptome analysis. CD38+HLA‐DR+CD8+ T‐cell killing was detected using cytotoxicity and antibody‐blocking assays. Results The proportion of CD38+HLA‐DR+CD8+ T cells was significantly elevated in liver cirrhosis patients and correlated with tissue damage. Transcriptome analysis revealed that these cells had innate‐like functional characteristics. This CD8+ T‐cell population primarily consisted of effector memory T cells and produced a high level of cytotoxicity‐related cytokines, granzyme B and perforin. IL‐15 promoted CD38+HLA‐DR+CD8+ T‐cell activation and proliferation, inducing significant TCR‐independent cytotoxicity mediated through NKG2D. Conclusions CD38+HLA‐DR+CD8+ T cells correlated with cirrhosis‐related liver injury and contributed to liver damage by signalling through NKG2D in a TCR‐independent manner.

BackgroundJapanese encephalitis (JE) is a notifiable infectious disease in China. Information on every case of JE is reported to the superior health administration department. However, reported cases include both laboratory-confirmed and clinically diagnosed cases. This study aimed to differentiate between clinical and laboratory-confirmed cases of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) infection, and improve the accuracy of reported JE cases by analyzing the acute-phase serum and cerebrospinal fluid of all reported JE cases in the Sichuan province from 2012 to 2022.MethodsAll acute-phase serum and/or cerebrospinal fluid samples of the reported JE cases were screened for IgM(ImmunoglobulinM)to JEV using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the detection of the viral genes of JEV and 9 other pathogens including enterovirus (EV), using reverse transcription PCR was attempted. Epidemiological analyses of JE and non-JE cases based on sex, age, onset time, and geographical distribution were also performed.ResultsFrom 2012 to 2022, 1558 JE cases were reported in the Sichuan province. The results of serological (JEV-specific IgM) and genetic testing for JEV showed that 81% (1262/1558) of the reported cases were confirmed as JEV infection cases (laboratory-confirmed cases). Among the 296 cases of non-JEV infection, 6 viruses were detected in the cerebrospinal fluid in 62 cases, including EV and the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), constituting 21% (62/296) of all non-JE cases. Among the 62 non-JEV infection cases with confirmed pathogens, infections with EV and EBV included 17 cases each, herpes simplex virus (HSV-1/2) included 14 cases, varicella- zoster virus included 6 cases, mumps virus included 2 cases, and human herpes viruses-6 included 1 case. Additionally, there were five cases involving mixed infections (two cases of EV/EBV, one case of HSV-1/HSV-2, one case of EBV/HSV-1, and one case of EV/herpes viruses-6). The remaining 234 cases were classified as unknown viral encephalitis cases. Our analysis indicated that those aged 0–15 y were the majority of the patients among the 1558 reported JE cases. However, the incidence of laboratory-confirmed JE cases in the >40 y age group has increased in recent years. The temporal distribution of laboratory-confirmed cases of JE revealed that the majority of cases occurred from May to September each year, with the highest incidence in August.ConclusionThe results of this study indicate that there is a certain discrepancy between clinically diagnosed and laboratory-confirmed cases of JE. Each reported case should be based on laboratory detection results, which is of great importance in improving the accuracy of case diagnosis and reducing misreporting. Our results are not only important for addressing JE endemic to the Sichuan province, but also provide a valuable reference for the laboratory detection of various notifiable infectious diseases in China and other regions outside China.

IntroductionThe Hedi virus (HEDV) and Wuxiang virus (WUXV) are newly discovered Bunyaviruses transmitted by sandflies. The geographical distribution of isolation of these two viruses continues to expand and it has been reported that WUXV causes neurological symptoms and even death in suckling mice. However, little is known about the prevalence of the two viruses in mammalian infections.MethodsIn order to understand the infection status of HEDV and WUXV in humans and animals from regions where the viruses have been isolated, this study used Western blotting to detect the positive rates of HEDV and WUXV IgG antibodies in serum samples from febrile patients, dogs, and chickens in the forementioned regions.ResultsThe results showed that of the 29 human serum samples, 17.24% (5/29) tested positive for HEDV, while 68.96% (20/29) were positive for WUXV. In the 31 dog serum samples, 87.10% (27/31) were positive for HEDV and 70.97% (22/31) were positive for WUXV, while in the 36 chicken serum samples, 47.22% (17/36) were positive for HEDV, and 52.78% (19/36) were positive for WUXV.DiscussionThese findings suggest there are widespread infections of HEDV and WUXV in mammals (dogs, chickens) and humans from the regions where these viruses have been isolated. Moreover, the positive rate of HEDV infections was higher in local animals compared to that measured in human specimens. This is the first seroepidemiological study of these two sandfly-transmitted viruses. The findings of the study have practical implications for vector-borne viral infections and related zoonotic infections in China, as well as providing an important reference for studies on the relationship between sandfly-transmitted viruses and zoonotic infections outside of China.

We isolated a new orthonairovirus from Dermacentor silvarum ticks near the China–North Korea border. Phylogenetic analysis showed 71.9%–73.0% nucleic acid identity to the recently discovered Songling orthonairovirus, which causes febrile illness in humans. We recommend enhanced surveillance for infection by this new virus among humans and livestock.

Songling virus (SGLV) is a spherical, enveloped, fragmented, negative-stranded RNA virus belonging to the genus Orthonairovirus in the Nairoviridae family. SGLV is transmitted by ticks and can cause disease in humans. This study identified and characterized SGLV in Haemaphysalis concinna ticks collected in 2023 in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture (China) near the China-North Korea border. A real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to screen for SGLV nucleic acid in ticks. Baby hamster kidney (BHK-21) and African green monkey kidney (Vero) cells were used to isolate strains of SGLV from nucleic acid-positive samples through three successive passages. Next-generation sequencing and phylogenetics methods were used to characterize the SGLVs. Of the 1659 ticks collected from 6 towns in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture near the China-North Korea border, positive SGLV nucleic acid results were identified in 19 H. concinna tick pools from Helong and Longjing towns. This discovery led to the extraction of 17 SGLV genome sequences. Homology analysis that compare the newly discovered L, M, and S segments of SGLV strain HLJ1202 revealed nucleotide similarities ranging from 95.5%–97.1%, 91.9%–98.9%, and 98.3%–99.2%, respectively, and amino acid similarities ranging from 95.7%–97.4%, 97.1%–98.8%, and 98.2%–98.9%, respectively. Six distinct clades, characterized by specific geographic locations and host organisms, were identified on the Maximum Likelihood tree of the L segment. The YB129 and YB150 isolates demonstrated SGLV nucleic acid replication across three successive passages in Vero cells, as evidenced by the decrease in RT-qPCR Ct values. This study marks the initial identification of SGLV in H. concinna within the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture.

Rail transit is an important part of the urban transportation system, while the noise generated during construction seriously affects the engineering personnel and surrounding residents. To investigate the noise emissions and characteristics during the construction of the enclosure structures in the rail transit engineering project, an empirical study is conducted through on-site surveys, semi-structured interviews, and experimental monitoring. The results indicate that during enclosure structure construction, there are nine key noise-emitting machines and four key noise-generating construction processes. Among them, the equivalent average sound levels of six machines, including pneumatic hammers, pneumatic drills, concrete pump trucks, construction drills, rotary drilling rigs, and grooving machines, exceed 80 dB(A). The energy contribution rate curves of machine spectra peak at 63 Hz, 500 Hz, 1000 Hz, and 4000 Hz, which have certain effects on construction personnel and nearby residents. Meanwhile, guide wall construction, groove construction, reinforcement cage fabrication and hoisting, and concrete pouring are identified as key noise-generating construction processes. This empirical investigation helps to establish a theoretical basis for noise control during the construction of enclosure structures in urban rail transit engineering projects, and the results provide valuable references for the formulation of auxiliary noise reduction measures.

The public' s disfavour of recycled aggregate (RA) produced from construction and demolition waste is recognized as a main hinder for RA's promotion. To understand their real thought, this study measures not only their explicit attitude but also implicit attitude. Particularly, this study explores the effective strategy of information intervene to change their attitude based on psychological experimental methods. The initial measurements show that subjects prevailingly report positive explicit attitude, but indeed, majority of them hold negative implicit attitude. The information intervention can positively change both explicit and implicit attitude. Large quantity of rational information and small quantity of affective information are more effective to change explicit attitude. Whereas, large quantity of rational information is the most effective way to change implicit attitude. The supposed ironic effect does not appear. This study provides valuable psychological guidance for the publicity campaign of RA and the development of circular economy in the construction industry.

The Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is classified into five distinct genotypes, with genotypes 1 and 3 historically showing higher activity. These genotypes are the primary agents of viral encephalitis in the Asian continent. Genotypes 4 and 5 have remained silent in low-latitude tropical regions since their discovery. From 2009, the hidden genotype 5 suddenly emerged simultaneously in mosquitoes from the Tibetan region of China and those from South Korea in East Asia. The detection of genotype 5 of JEV in these mosquitoes was associated with cases of viral encephalitis in the local population. Similarly, in 2022, the long-silent genotype 4 of JEV emerged in Australia, resulting in a local outbreak of viral encephalitis that primarily affected adults and caused fatalities. The emergence and outbreaks of genotypes 4 and 5 of JEV present new challenges for the prevention and control of Japanese encephalitis (JE). This study not only analyzes the recent emergence of these new genotypes but also discusses their implications in the development of JE vaccines and laboratory tests for newly emerging JEV infections.

In July 2018, a virus (JXLC1806-2) was isolated from Culicoides biting midges collected in Lichuan County, Jiangxi Province, China. The virus isolate showed significant cytopathic effects within 48 hours after inoculation with mammalian cells (BHK-21). JXLC1806-2 virus could form plaques in BHK-21 cells, and the virus titer was 1×105.6 pfu/mL. After inoculation with the virus, suckling mice developed disease and died. The nucleotide and amino sequence analysis showed that the JXLC1806-2 virus genome was composed of S, M and L segments. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the S, M and L genes of JXLC1806-2 virus belonged to the Tete serogroup, Orthobunyavirus, but formed an independent evolutionary branch from the other members of the Tete serogroup. The results showed that the JXLC1806-2 virus, which was named as Lichuan virus, is a new member of Tete serogroup, and this is the first time that a Tete serogroup virus has been isolated in China.

The type and content of carbohydrates in konjac corms are an essential factors in determining the quality of konjac; however, the pattern of carbohydrate changes and the mechanism regulating the development of mother and daughter corms in the “relay growth” process of Amorphophallus muelleri remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate changes in corm carbohydrates during the growth cycle of A. muelleri and to compare the carbohydrate composition and the expression of related genes between mother and daughter corms. Integrated metabolome and RNA-seq analyses identified 37 differential metabolites as well as 8074 genes that were differentially expressed between mother and daughter corms, the majority of which were involved in starch and sucrose metabolism. More than 80% of the differential metabolites, including sucrose and starch, tended to accumulate in the mother corms; however, konjac glucomannan (KGM), as one of the most important carbohydrates and its major component of the corm, accumulated in higher amounts in the daughter corms. In addition, the expression of invertase and alpha-amylase that promote the breakdown of sucrose and starch was 351.78- and 15.63-fold higher, respectively, in the daughter corm, whereas that of the starch synthesis gene AkWAXY was only 0.096 times as high as in the mother corms. Furthermore, the level of cellulose synthase-like protein G, which promotes KGM synthesis, was 3.85 times higher in daughter corms compared to mother corms. Thus, we inferred that the daughter and mother corms had two distinct carbohydrate utilization strategies. This study provides insights into temporal changes in carbohydrates during the growth cycle of A. muelleri.

Summary: Massive expansion of immature and suppressive myeloid cells is a common feature of malignant solid tumors. Over-expression of cyclin-dependent kinase 20, also known as cell cycle-related kinase (CCRK), in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) correlates with reduced patient survival and low immunotherapy responsiveness. Beyond tumor-intrinsic oncogenicity, here we demonstrated that CCRK is upregulated in myeloid cells in tumor-bearing mice and in patients with HCC. Intratumoral injection of Ccrk-knockdown myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) increased tumor-infiltrating CD8+T cells and suppressed HCC tumorigenicity. Using an indel mutant transgenic model, we showed that Ccrk inactivation in myeloid cells conferred a mature phenotype with elevated IL-12 production, driving Th1 responses and CD8+T cell cytotoxicity to reduce orthotopic tumor growth and prolong survival. Mechanistically, CCRK activates STAT3/E4BP4 signaling in MDSCs to acquire immunosuppressive activity through transcriptional IL-10 induction and IL-12 suppression. Taken together, our findings unravel mechanistic insights into MDSC-mediated immunosuppression and offer a therapeutic kinase-target for cancer immunotherapy.

Due to the limitations of traditional time series models in handling semantic values and small-scale data, the concept of fuzzy time series forecasting has been introduced in academia. This model performs exceptionally well on fuzzy datasets, prompting many researchers to delve into this field. The general process of fuzzy time series analysis consists of the following stages: 1) domain partitioning; 2) formation of fuzzy sets for fuzzifying data; 3) extraction of fuzzy relationships; and 4) forecasting and defuzzification. Domain partitioning and the extraction of fuzzy relationships have always been crucial components of fuzzy time series forecasting. Until now, neural networks have been less commonly applied in the step of determining fuzzy relationships. Some researchers have attempted to utilize the Pi-Sigma neural network for the determination of fuzzy relationships. However, due to the fixed network structure that Pi-Sigma neural networks cannot adapt to changes over time, it has been indicated that it is not a universal approximator. Its performance in handling complex dynamic time series has not been satisfactory. In this paper, we utilize Fuzzy C-Means Clustering (FCM) to partition the domain into unequal-length intervals and employ a high-order dynamic neural network known as Dynamic Ridge Polynomial Neural Network (DRPNN). This network can start with a small basic structure and gradually increase its structural complexity as learning progresses until it achieves the required task accuracy, which demonstrates superior performance in handling complex time series data. During the training process, we employ a novel gradient descent training algorithm with penalty terms. We conducted tests on this algorithm using nine real-world datasets and performed Friedman and Bonferroni-Dunn tests to ensure that the proposed algorithm exhibits statistical performance superiority compared to other methods in the literature. The results indicate that our algorithm outperforms those from other studies.

Motor imagery (MI) is a classical paradigm in electroencephalogram (EEG) based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). Online accurate and fast decoding is very important to its successful applications. This paper proposes a simple yet effective front-end replication dynamic window (FRDW) algorithm for this purpose. Dynamic windows enable the classification based on a test EEG trial shorter than those used in training, improving the decision speed; front-end replication fills a short test EEG trial to the length used in training, improving the classification accuracy. Within-subject and cross-subject online MI classification experiments on three public datasets, with three different classifiers and three different data augmentation approaches, demonstrated that FRDW can significantly increase the information transfer rate in MI decoding. Additionally, FR can also be used in training data augmentation. FRDW helped win national champion of the China BCI Competition in 2022.

Steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) is one of the most popular brain-computer interface (BCI) paradigms, with high information transmission rate and signal-to-noise ratio. Many calibration-free and calibration-based approaches have been proposed to improve the performance of SSVEP-based BCIs. This paper considers a quick calibration scenario, where there are plenty of data from multiple source subjects, but only a small number of calibration trials from a subset of stimulus frequencies for the new subject. We propose small data least-squares transformation (sd-LST) to solve this problem. Experiments on three publicly available SSVEP datasets demonstrated that sd-LST outperformed several classical or state-of-the-art approaches, with only about 10 calibration trials for 40-target SSVEP-based BCI spellers.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, different SARS-CoV-2 variants have been identified and associated with higher transmissibility than the ancestral nonvariant strain. During January 1, 2021–January 15, 2022, we assessed differences in clinical and viral parameters in a convenience sample of COVID-19 outpatients and inpatients 0–21 years of age in Columbus, Ohio, USA, according to the infecting variant, identified using a mutation-specific reverse transcription PCR assay. Of the 676 patients in the study, 17.75% were infected with nonvariant strains, 18.49% with the Alpha variant, 41.72% with Delta, and 16.42% with Omicron. Rates of SARS-COV-2/viral co-infections were 15.66%–29.41% and were comparable across infecting variants. Inpatients with acute Delta and Omicron infections had lower SARS-CoV-2 cycle threshold values and more frequent fever and respiratory symptoms than those with nonvariant strain infections. In addition, SARS-COV-2/viral co-infections and the presence of underlying conditions were independently associated with worse clinical outcomes, irrespective of the infecting variant.

With the development of cloud and edge computing, deep learning based on big data has been widely utilized for lithium-ion battery state of health (SoH) online estimation, where improving the accuracy, robustness, and real-time applicability are current research challenges. Focusing on these points, this paper proposes a novel health feature analysis and screening method and a dual self-attention multivariate time series estimation network (DSMTNet). First, the correlation between all feature sequences and the SoH is evaluated by the Pearson correlation coefficient method. On this basis, the 15 most relevant features are selected by the light gradient boosting machine method as the DSMTNet input. Next, multi-head convolutional neural networks are utilized for encoding the battery features to enhance the final representation learning results. Then, a global attention unit is utilized to model the weights of the encoded feature sequences to extract common information, and a local attention unit is chosen to obtain the differentiated information, which is used as supplementary information. Finally, the accuracy, robustness, and computing time of the DSMTNet method are verified on experimental data. The results prove the superiority of the proposed method compared with other implemented approaches.

BackgroundCo-existence of colistin, β-lactam and carbapenem in multidrug-resistant Enterobacteriaceae isolates poses a serious threat to public health. In this study, we investigated and characterized the co-occurrence of blaCTX-M-65, blaOXA-1, and mcr-1.1 strain isolated from a clinical extensively-drug-resistant Escherichia coli ST744 in Shanghai.MethodsAntimicrobial susceptibility test was carried out by agar dilution methods. Whole genome sequencing was conducted, and resistance genes, and sequence types of colistin in E. coli isolates were analyzed. Plasmid stability and amino acid mutations were assessed in E. coli isolates.ResultsA colistin resistant E. coli ST744, named ECPX221, was identified out of 145 fecal samples collected. The strain carries a 60,168 IncI2 plasmid with the mcr-1.1 gene. The strain also has blaCTX-M-65, blaOXA-1, dfrA14, qnrS1, cmlA5, arr2, ampC, aph(4)-Ia, sul1, and aadA5 resistance genes. The plasmid pECPX221 was capable of conjugation with an efficiency of 2.6 × 10−2. Notably, 45% of the transconjugants were determined as mcr-1.1-harboring in the colistin-free environment after 60 generation of passage. No mutations occurred in pmrB, mgrB, and phoPQ gene in the mcr-1.1-harboring transconjugants. Bioinformatic analysis indicated pECPX221 shared highly similar backbone with the previously reported mcr-1.1-harboring pAH62-1, pMFDS1339.1, pSCZE4, and p2018-10-2CC. Furthermore, sequencing and phylogenetic analyses revealed a similarity between other MCR-1-homolog proteins, indicating that ECPX221 was colistin resistant.ConclusionThe stable transferable mcr-1.1-harboring plasmid found in the E. coli ST744 strain indicated the high risk to disseminate the extensively-drug-resistance phenotype among Enterobacteriaceae.

Amorphophallus sp. is an economically important crop for rural revitalization in southwest China. However, Fusarium solani often infects Amorphophallus sp. corms during storage, damaging the corm quality and affecting leaf elongation and flowering in the subsequent crop. In this study, the mechanism of resistance to F. solani was investigated in the leaf bud and flower bud corms of Amorphophallus muelleri through transcriptome and metabolome analyses. A total of 42.52 Gb clean reads and 1,525 metabolites were detected in a total of 12 samples including 3 samples each of disease-free leaf bud corms (LC), leaf bud corms inoculated with F. solani for three days (LD), disease-free flower bud corms (FC), and flower bud corms inoculated with F. solani for three days (FD). Transcriptome, metabolome, and conjoint analyses showed that ‘MAPK signal transduction’, ‘plant-pathogen interaction’, ‘plant hormone signal transduction’, and other secondary metabolite biosynthesis pathways, including ‘phenylpropane biosynthesis’, ‘arachidonic acid metabolism’, ‘stilbene, diarylheptane and gingerolin biosynthesis’, and ‘isoquinoline alkaloids biosynthesis’, among others, were involved in the defense response of A. muelleri to F. solani. Ultimately, the expression of six genes of interest (AmCDPK20, AmRBOH, AmWRKY33, Am4CL, Am POD and AmCYP73A1) was validated by real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and the results indicated that these genes were involved in the response of A. muelleri to F. solani. Ferulic acid inhibited the growth of F. solani, reducing the harm caused by F. solani to A. muelleri corms to a certain extent. Overall, this study lays a strong foundation for further investigation of the interaction between A. muelleri and F. solani, and provides a list of genes for the future breeding of F. solani-resistant A. muelleri cultivars.

There is an increase in decoration and renovation activities in the construction industry, and waste generation rates (WGRs) play a crucial role in guiding the management of demolition waste in decoration and renovation projects (DWDRPs). However, there has been little systematic research on this type of waste. Based on site surveys and a document review of 26 projects, this study offers insights into DWDRP wastes, from their initial generation to their final disposal. The results revealed that the WGRs for DWDRPs ranged from 30.96 kg/m2 to 629.96 kg/m2 and that the key components of DWDRPs included mortar, concrete, timber, tile, and metal; these five types of waste contributed 75.02% of the total waste. Although these findings deviate slightly from those of previous studies, these variations are attributed to diverse waste management practices, awareness levels, and employed construction technologies. Despite its importance, in China, the management of DWDRPs faces challenges, such as limited public awareness, inadequate collection and sorting guidance, and insufficient legislation. To counter these issues, we recommend a set of strategies, including stringent regulations, enhanced supervision, government incentives, improved collection and sorting methods, and the adoption of innovative technologies. This study not only sheds light on the specific challenges in decoration and demolition waste management in rapidly urbanizing areas but also proposes a comprehensive approach for improving waste management practices.

To investigate the effect of nitrogen application and soil microbial activity on the decomposition process of stalk material in stalk composite pipes (SCPs) under subsurface irrigation with stalk composite pipes (SSI), in this study, a field experiment was conducted with two fertilization strategies—banding fertilization and SCP fertigation—at three nitrogen doses (126, 168, and 210 kg/ha), and the Biolog Ecoplate™ was employed to determine soil microbial activity. The results showed that under banding fertilization, the soil microbial activity at 20 cm subsoil and at the SCP wall increased with the increase in nitrogen dosage, ranging from 37.6% to 54.3% and from 21.5% to 23.7%, respectively. Under SCP fertigation, the soil microbial activity at 20 cm subsoil first showed a 58% surge, followed by a 3.9% decrease, with no significant variation in soil microbial activity at the SCP wall. Forty-five days later, the crude fiber content in the SCP wall under SCP fertigation was 17.6–26.3% lower than that under banding fertilization. Based on the comprehensive analysis of the soil microbial activity, SCP fertigation combined with high nitrogen application can accelerate the decay rate of straw in SCPs. This research can provide a reference for formulating irrigation and fertilization regimes for SSI.

Wuxiang virus (WUXV) is the first sandfly-borne Phlebovirus isolated from Phlebotomus chinensis collected in China and has been established as a consistent viral presence in the local sandfly populations of both Wuxiang County and Yangquan City. However, its distribution in the Shanxi Province remains unclear. In this study, three novel WUXV strains were isolated from sandflies collected from Jiexiu City, Shanxi Province, China, in 2022. Subsequently, whole-genome sequences of these novel strains were generated using next-generation sequencing. The open reading frame (ORF) sequences of the WUXV strains from the three locations were subjected to gene analysis. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that WUXV belongs to two distinct clades with geographical differences. Strains from Wuxiang County and Yangquan City belonged to clade 1, whereas strains from Jiexiu City belonged to clade 2. Reassortment and recombination analyses indicated no gene reassortment or recombination between the two clades. However, four reassortments or recombination events could be detected in clade 1 strains. By aligning the amino acid sequences, eighty-seven mutation sites were identified between the two clades, with seventeen, sixty, nine, and one site(s) in the proteins RdRp, M, NSs, and N, respectively. Additionally, selection pressure analysis identified 17 positively selected sites across the entire genome of WUXV, with two, thirteen, one, and one site(s) in the proteins RdRp, M, NSs, and N, respectively. Notably, sites M-312 and M-340 in the M segment not only represented mutation sites but also showed positive selective pressure effects. These findings highlight the need for continuous nationwide surveillance of WUXV.

BackgroundJapanese encephalitis virus (JEV; Flaviridae: Flavivirus) causes Japanese encephalitis (JE), which is the most important arboviral disease in Asia and the western Pacific. Among the five JEV genotypes (GI-V), GI has dominated traditional epidemic regions in the past 20 years. We investigated the transmission dynamics of JEV GI through genetic analyses.MethodsWe generated 18 JEV GI near full length sequences by using multiple sequencing approaches from mosquitoes collected in natural settings or from viral isolates obtained through cell culture. We performed phylogenetic and molecular clock analyses to reconstruct the evolutionary history by integrating our data with 113 publicly available JEV GI sequences.ResultsWe identified two subtypes of JEV GI (GIa and GIb), with a rate of 5.94 × 10-4 substitutions per site per year (s/s/y). At present, GIa still circulates within a limited region, exhibited no significant growth, the newest strain was discovered in China (Yunnan) in 2017, whereas most JEV strains circulating belong to the GIb clade. During the past 30 years, two large GIb clades have triggered epidemics in eastern Asia: one epidemic occurred in 1992 [95% highest posterior density (HPD) = 1989-1995] and the causative strain circulates mainly in southern China (Yunnan, Shanghai, Guangdong, and Taiwan) (Clade 1); the other epidemic occurred in 1997 (95% HPD = 1994-1999) and the causative strain has increased in circulation in northern and southern China during the past 5 years (Clade 2). An emerging variant of Clade 2 contains two new amino acid markers (NS2a-151V, NS4b-20K) that emerged around 2005; this variant has demonstrated exponential growth in northern China.ConclusionJEV GI stain circulating in Asia have shifted during the past 30 years, spatiotemporal differences were observed among JEV GI subclade. GIa is still circulating within a limited range, exhibite no significant growth. Two large GIb clades have triggered epidemics in eastern Asia, all JEV sequences identified in northern China during the past 5 years were of the new emerging variant of G1b-clade 2.

Abstract The majority of recently demonstrated Deep-Learning Side-Channel Analysis (DLSCA) use neural networks trained on a segment of traces containing operations only related to the target subkey. However, when the size of the training set is limited, as in this paper with only 5K power traces, the deep learning (DL) model cannot effectively learn the internal features of the data due to insufficient training data. In this paper, we propose a cross-subkey training approach that acts as a trace augmentation. We train deep-learning models not only on a segment of traces containing the SBox operation of the target subkey of AES-128 but also on segments for other 15 subkeys. Experimental results show that the accuracy of the subkey combination training model is $$28.20\%$$ 28.20 % higher than that of the individual subkey training model on traces captured in the microcontroller implementation of the STM32F3 with AES-128. And validation is performed on two additional publicly available datasets. At the same time, the number of traces that need to be captured when the model is trained is greatly reduced, demonstrating the effectiveness and practicality of the method.

In recent years, numerous viruses have been identified from ticks, and some have been linked to clinical cases of emerging tick-borne diseases. Chinese northeast frontier is tick infested. However, there is a notable lack of systematic monitoring efforts to assess the viral composition in the area, leaving the ecological landscape of viruses carried by ticks not clear enough. Between April and June 2017, 7101 ticks were collected to perform virus surveillance on the China–North Korea border, specifically in Tonghua, Baishan, and Yanbian. A total of 2127 Ixodes persulcatus were identified. Further investigation revealed the diversity of tick-borne viruses by transcriptome sequencing of Ixodes persulcatus. All ticks tested negative for tick-borne encephalitis virus. Transcriptome sequencing expanded 121 genomic sequence data of 12 different virus species from Ixodes persulcatus. Notably, a new segmented flavivirus, named Baishan Forest Tick Virus, were identified, closely related to Alongshan virus and Harz mountain virus. Therefore, this new virus may pose a potential threat to humans. Furthermore, the study revealed the existence of seven emerging tick-borne viruses dating back to 2017. These previously identified viruses included Mudanjiang phlebovirus, Onega tick phlebovirus, Sara tick phlebovirus, Yichun mivirus, and three unnamed viruses (one belonging to the Peribunyaviridae family and the other two belonging to the Phenuiviridae family). The existence of these emerging tick-borne viruses in tick samples collected in 2017 suggests that their history may extend further than previously recognized. This study provides invaluable insights into the virome of Ixodes persulcatus in the China–North Korea border region, enhancing our ongoing efforts to manage the risks associated with tick-borne viruses.

Salient Object Detection (SOD) aims at identifying the most visually distinctive objects in a scene. However, learning a mapping directly from a raw image to its corresponding saliency map is still challenging. First, the binary annotations of SOD impede the model from learning the mapping smoothly. Second, the annotator’s preference introduces noisy labeling in the SOD datasets. Motivated by these, we propose a novel learning framework which consists of the Self-Improvement Training (SIT) strategy and the Augmentation-based Consistent Learning (ACL) scheme. SIT aims at reducing the learning difficulty, which provides smooth labels and improves the SOD model in a momentum-updating manner. Meanwhile, ACL focuses on improving the robustness of models by regularizing the consistency between raw images and their corresponding augmented images. Extensive experiments on five challenging benchmark datasets demonstrate that the proposed framework can play a plug-and-play role in various existing state-of-the-art SOD methods and improve their performances on multiple benchmarks without any architecture modification.

Bacteriophages, or phages, can be used as natural biological control agents to eliminate pathogenic bacteria during aquatic product cultivation. Samples were collected from seafood aquaculture water and aquaculture environmental sewage, and phage VA5 was isolated using the double-layer agar plate method, with Vibrio alginolyticus as the host bacteria. The purified phage strain was subjected to genome sequencing analysis and morphological observation. The optimal multiplicity of infection (MOI), the one-step growth curve, temperature stability, and pH stability were analyzed. Phage VA5 was observed to have a long tail. Whole-genome sequencing revealed that the genome was circular dsDNA, with 35,866 bp length and 46% G+C content. The optimal MOI was 1, the incubation period was 20 min, the outbreak period was 30 min, and the cleavage amount was 92.26 PFU/cell. The phage showed good activity at −20 °C, 70 °C, and pH 2–10. Moreover, the phage VA5 exhibited significant inhibitory effects on V. alginolyticus-infected shrimp culture. The isolated phage VA5 has a wide range of host bacteria and is a good candidate for biological control of pathogenic bacteria.

While the construction and operation of subways have brought convenience to commuters, it has also caused ground subsidence and cracks of facilities around subways. The industry mainly adopts traditional manual detection methods to monitor these settlements and cracks. The current approaches have difficulties in achieving all-weather, all-region dynamic monitoring, increasing the traffic burden of the city during the monitoring work. The study aims to provide a large-scale settlement detection approach based on PS-InSAR for the monitoring of subway facilities. Meanwhile, this paper proposes a crack detection method that is based on UAVs and the VGG16 algorithm to quantify the length and width of cracks. The experimental data of Shenzhen University Section of Metro Line 9 are used to verify the proposed settlement model and to illustrate the monitoring process. The developed model is innovative in that it can monitor the settlement of large-scale facilities around the subway with high accuracy around the clock and automatically identify and quantify the cracks in the settled facilities around the subway.

Abstract Background The duration of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in Covid-19 patients remains uncertain. Longitudinal serological studies are needed to prevent disease and transmission of the virus. Methods In 2020, 414 blood samples were tested, obtained from 157 confirmed Covid-19 patients, in a prospective cohort study in Shanghai. Results The seropositive rate of IgM peaked at 40.5% (17/42) within 1 month after illness onset and then declined. The seropositive rate of IgG was 90.6% (58/64) after 2 months, remained above 85% from 2 to 9 months and was 90.9% (40/44) after 9 months. Generalized estimating equations models suggested that IgM (P

Deep Learning Side-Channel Attacks (DLSCAs) have become a realistic threat to implementations of cryptographic algorithms, such as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). By utilizing deep-learning models to analyze side-channel measurements, the attacker is able to derive the secret key of the cryptographic algorithm. However, when traces have multiple leakage intervals for a specific attack point, the majority of existing works train neural networks on these traces directly, without a appropriate preprocess step for each leakage interval. This degenerates the quality of profiling traces due to the noise and non-primary components. In this paper, we first divide the multi-leaky traces into leakage intervals and train models on different intervals separately. Afterwards, we concatenate these neural networks to build the final network, which is called multi-input model. We test the proposed multi-input model on traces captured from STM32F3 microcontroller implementations of AES-128 and show a 2-fold improvement over the previous single-input attacks.

Abstract Background Although a vaccination campaign has been conducted since 2004, Japanese encephalitis (JE) is still a public health problem in Guizhou, one of the provinces with the highest incidence of JE in China. The aim of this study was to understand the spatiotemporal distribution of JE and its relationship with environmental factors in Guizhou Province in the post-vaccination era, 2004–2016. Methods We collected data on human JE cases in Guizhou Province from 2004 to 2016 from the national infectious disease reporting system. A Poisson regression model was used to analyze the relationship between JE occurrence and environmental factors amongst counties. Results Our results showed that the incidence and mortality of JE decreased after the initiation of vaccination. JE cases were mainly concentrated in preschool and school-age children and the number of cases in children over age 15 years was significantly decreased compared with the previous 10 years; the seasonality of JE before and after the use of vaccines was unchanged. JE incidence was positively associated with cultivated land and negatively associated with gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, vegetation coverage, and developed land. In areas with cultivated land coverage 55%, and urban area coverage > 25%, the JE risk was lower. The highest JE incidence was among mid-level GDP areas and in moderately urbanized areas. Conclusions This study assessed the relationship between incidence of JE and environmental factors in Guizhou Province. Our results highlight that the highest risk of JE transmission in the post-vaccination era is in mid-level developed areas.

Amorphophallus species are one of the main economic crops in the mountainous areas of southwest China. However, soft rot disease (Pectobacterium carotovorum ssp. carotovorum) is devastating for this crop. This study explored the Amorphophallus resistance mechanism against soft rot disease by analyzing transcriptome data using a weighted gene coexpression network analysis. The RNA sequencing of plants infected for 0, 12, 24, and 48 hours produced a total of 52.25 Gb of clean reads. A total of 29,096 genes were divided into 34 modules. Six modules of interest with the highest correlation with the target traits were selected to elucidate the resistance genes and pathways. The selected modules were enriched in the α-linolenic acid metabolism, phenylpropane biosynthesis, plant hormone signal transduction, and plant pathogen interaction pathways. Ultimately, AmBGLU, AmCAML, AmCDPK, AmLOX, and AmRBOHD were identified as genes of interest in the four significantly related metabolic pathways for real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction verification. The determination of salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) in Amorphophallus muelleri and Amorphophallus konjac that suffered from soft rot disease showed that SA and JA were involved in the A. muelleri and A. konjac defense response against soft rot disease. Methyl jasmonate treatment delayed the onset of A. konjac soft rot disease. This study provides a reference for the interaction between Amorphophallus species and soft rot disease and the breeding of broad-spectrum and specific Amorphophallus cultivars that are resistant to soft rot disease.

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is the most important cause of acute encephalitis in Eastern/Southern Asia. Infection with this virus also induces peripheral nerve injury. However, the disease pathogenesis is still not completely understood. Reliable animal models are needed to investigate the molecular pathogenesis of this condition. We studied the effect of Japanese encephalitis virus infection in C57BL/6 mice after a subcutaneous challenge. Limb paralysis was determined in mice using behavioral tests, including a viral paralysis scale and the hanging wire test, as well as by changes in body weight. Nerve conduction velocity and electromyography testing indicated the presence of demyelinating neuropathy of the sciatic nerve. Pathological changes in neural tissues were examined by immunofluorescence and transmission electron microscopy, which confirmed that the predominant pathologic change was demyelination. Although Western blots confirmed the presence of the virus in neural tissue, additional studies demonstrated that an immune-induced inflammatory response resulted in severe never injury. Immunofluorescence confirmed the presence of Japanese encephalitis virus in the brains of infected mice, and an inflammatory reaction was observed with hematoxylin-eosin staining as well. However, these observations were inconsistent at the time of paralysis onset. In summary, our results demonstrated that Japanese encephalitis virus infection could cause inflammatory demyelination of the peripheral nervous system in C57BL/6 mice.

ObjectiveTo develop a preoperative scoring system (PSS) to predict whether laparoendoscopic single-site extracorporeal (LESS-E) cystectomy can be performed in patients with benign ovarian cysts.MethodWe reviewed data on patients who underwent LESS cystectomy between August 2016 and October 2019 at the first Affiliated Hospital, Army Medical University. The independent predictors of LESS-E cystectomy in patients with benign ovarian cysts were identified using multivariate logistic regression analyses. A nomogram for predicting LESS-E cystectomy in patients with benign ovarian cysts was developed, and to simplify the score, we establish a preoperative scoring system to guide the choice of surgical approach in patients with highly probable benign ovarian cysts.ResultsOur analysis showed that age, BMI, height and the diameter of ovarian cysts were independent predictors of LESS-E cystectomy. A nomogram was developed based on these four factors, which had a concordance index of 0.838 and R2 = 0.415. To simplify the score, the predicted indicators in the regression model were scored by dividing the beta coefficient by the absolute value of the minimum beta coefficient, and the sum of each predictor score established a PSS. In the total set, the selected cutoff value according to the maximum point of the Youden index was 8, and a preoperative score ≥ 8 identified patients undergoing LESS-E cystectomy with a positive predictive value of 67.4% and a negative predictive value of 88.6%.ConclusionA PSS to predict the chances of LESS-E cystectomy was established. This system could be helpful for selecting the appropriate surgical strategy for patients with benign ovarian cysts.

ABSTRACT Dengue virus (DENV) is the most globally prevalent member of the genus Flavivirus in the family Flaviviridae, which can be classified into four serotypes. Historically, molecular epidemiological studies of DENV depended on E gene sequencing. The development of next-generation sequencing (NGS) allowed its application to viral whole-genome sequencing (WGS). In this study, we report the improvement of the existing WGS process for DENV by optimizing the primer design procedure, designing serotype-specific primer panels and reducing the sizes of amplicons. A total of 31 DENV-positive serum samples belonging to 4 serotypes and 9 genotypes of DENV were involved in the validation of the primer panels. The threshold cycle (CT) values of these samples ranged from 23.91 to 35.11. The validation results showed that the length of consensus sequences generated at a coverage depth of 20× or more ranged from 10,370 to 10,672 bp, with 100.00% coverage of the open reading frames and 97.34% to 99.52% coverage of the DENV genome. The amplification efficiency varied across amplicons, genotypes, and serotypes of DENVs. These results indicate that the serotype-specific primer panels allow users to obtain the whole genome of DENV directly from clinical samples, providing a universal, rapid, and effective tool for the integration of genomics with dengue surveillance. IMPORTANCE Dengue virus (DENV) is becoming the most globally prevalent arbovirus. The number of people living under the threat of DENV is increasing year by year. With the development of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology, whole-genome sequencing (WGS) has been more and more widely used in infectious disease surveillance and molecular epidemiological studies. DENV population sequencing by NGS can increase our understanding of the changing epidemiology and evolution of the DENV genome at the molecular level, which demands universal primer panels and combination with NGS platforms. Multiplex PCR with a short-amplicon approach proved superior for amplifying viral genomes from clinical samples, particularly when the viral RNA was present at low concentrations. Additionally, DENV are known for their genetic diversity within serotype groups and geographical regions, so the primer panels we designed focused on universality, which would be useful in future local DENV outbreaks.

Amorphophallus muelleri has a multileaf growth pattern different from that of other konjacs; however, the hormonal mechanism underlying this phenomenon is not clear. In this study, the levels of hormones closely related to the sprouting of the axillary bud, including five types of cytokinins, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and abscisic acid (ABA) were measured. In the second leaf sprouting stage, the content of trans-zeatin riboside (tZR) in corms increased more than 5000-fold over that in the dormancy period. Surprisingly, although the expression of CYP735A1 and CYP735A2, which synthesize the precursors for tZR was elevated at the second leaf sprouting stage, the expression of IPTs, which have key roles in cytokinin biosynthesis, did not change significantly. In addition, most cytokinin contents in leaves during the same period were significantly lower than those in corms. We speculate that the high cytokinin contents in the corms may not biosynthesized de novo in corms. In addition, the IAA content in the corms also considerably increased during the second leaf sprouting stage. Indole-3-acetaldehyde oxidase (AO1) and auxin efflux carrier PIN1A, presented relatively high expression levels in the same period. In contrast, ABA content, and the expression of NCED1, a rate-limiting enzyme in ABA biosynthesis, were suppressed at the second leaf sprouting stage. It is worth mentioning that N6-(Δ2-isopentenyl) adenosine (iP)-type cytokinins have a high content in corms in the dormant period that significantly decreases after the first leaf sprouting stage, which is completely different from the trend of tZR. By treating dormant corms with iP, the percentage of multibud plants increased, and the growth performance in terms of bud and root length was significantly higher than those of the control. This implies that iP-type cytokinins tend to play a role in promoting first seedling sprouting. Furthermore, there was a remarkable increase of the IAA content in both corms and roots under iP treatment but an inhibitory effect in buds. We speculate that the increase in the IAA content induced by iP is tissue specific. These results will assist in the understanding of the role of hormones, especially cytokinins, in the multileaf growth type of konjac.