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The citrus cultivar 'Local Juhong', which has historically been used as a traditional Chinese medicinal material, originated in Yuanjiang County, Hunan Province.Its parental type and genetic background are indistinct as of yet. Morphological observation shows that 'Local Juhong' has a slight oblateness in fruit shape, a relatively smooth pericarp, a fine and slightly raised oil vacuole, and an inward concave at the blossom end. The tree form and fruit and leaf morphology of 'Local Juhong' are similar to those of 'Huangpi' sour orange. To reveal the genetic background of 'Local Juhong', 21 citrus accessions were evaluated using nuclear and chloroplast SSR markers and whole-genome SNP information. 'Local Juhong' was grouped with mandarins and sub-grouped with 'Miyagawa Wase' and 'Yanxi Wanlu' in a nuclear SSR analysis, which indicated that its pollen parent might be mandarins. It was closely clustered with orange and pummelo in the chloroplast SSR analysis. The genomic sequence similarity rate of 'Local Juhong' with mandarin and pummelo heterozygosity was 70.88%; the main part was the heterozygosity, except for the unknown (19.66%), mandarin (8.73%), and pummelo (3.9%) parts. Thus, 'Local Juhong' may be an F1 hybrid with pummelo as the female parent and mandarin as the male parent, sharing sisterhood with 'Huangpi' sour orange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A compact all-fiber pulsed coherent Doppler lidar (PCDL) for boundary layer wind measurement was developed by the Institute of Oceanographic Instrumentation, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences). It has been deployed at Zhongshan Station (69.4° S, 76.4° E) during the 2020 austral summer season by the 36th Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition (CHINARE) and started routine observation in January 2020. This system, based on the 1550 nm all-fiber components, employs a 100 mm telescope with a long focal length of 632.6 mm to emit and collect laser pulses. It provides the ability to measure vertically resolved wind fields with a spatial resolution of 30 m and a temporal resolution of 1 min; the maximum detection range is up to 1.5 km in Antarctica. Wind speed and direction inversion methods were introduced subsequently. Preliminary measurement results of wind profiles indicate that this Doppler lidar can be operated successfully in Antarctica. The synchronous observations between the lidar, anemometer, and radiosondes at Zhongshan station are presented and have good consistency with each other. The comparison results between the lidar and anemometer indicate a root mean square deviation (RMSD) of 0.98 m s−1 and 10.55° for wind speed and direction, respectively. The lidar continuous observations of wind profiles provide an opportunity to study the spatiotemporal variation of Antarctic wind with high resolutions, which is useful for further understanding of the atmosphere in Antarctic regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continued increase in greenhouse gas emissions as a result of unprecedented eutrophication has resulted in a rising trend of red tides in the sea, which may be responsible for ecological degradation in the surrounding environment. Studies rarely investigate the accurate concentration of seawater eutrophication substances in offshore aquaculture areas, which may lead to the exacerbated pollution of inshore aquaculture. We examined whether offshore seawater quality monitoring can be effectively performed through unmanned aerial vehicles' (UAVs) airborne hyperspectral remote sensing technique at Jiaozhou Bay, a water body associated with eutrophication. We used the UAV airborne hyperspectral imager to detect and measure typical marine aquaculture areas in Jiaozhou Bay and selected the key parameters of seawater quality, chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentrations, and total suspended matter (TSM) concentrations as indicators of seawater eutrophication. The hyperspectral inversion model of the Jiaozhou Bay seawater (JZBZ) was established with the optimal sensitive band of parameters. Results showed that in comparison with the traditional inversion model, the inversion R2 of the Chl-a was 0.712, the RPD was 3.72, and the inversion R2 of the TSM concentration was 0.756 while the RPD was 5.83. We found that this model is more suitable for the retrieval of water color parameters in Jiaozhou Bay. Additionally, by actual measurement, it can be seen that the concentration ranges of Chl-a in the observation area are 0.380–1.74 mg/m3, and the concentration range of TSM is 12.6–131 mg/L. The results of this study indicate that the Jiaozhou Bay Water Quality Translation Model (JZBM), based on the UAV airborne hyperspectral imager, performs well in the inversion of the concentration of chlorophyll and suspended particulate matter in offshore water, which advances our understanding with a new method to assess the degree of eutrophication in coastal waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An underwater coaxial scanning photon counting Lidar system based on two-dimensional turntable is developed. • A spatiotemporal correlation method based on instrument response function matched filtering preprocessing is proposed. • The ranging accuracy and resolution of the system are better than 1.0 cm. • An effective method are provided for high precision and high resolution 3D imaging of underwater targets. A coaxial scanning photon counting Lidar is developed to achieve three-dimensional (3D) imaging of underwater targets. A spatiotemporal correlation-based method is proposed to achieve high-precision detection, which involves preprocessing using matched filtering with the instrument response function. A single-point repeatability measurement of a planar target and a 3D image of a resolution plate are performed using the Lidar system and the signal reconstruction algorithm. The experimental results demonstrate that the ranging accuracy is better than 1.0 cm. Compared with the maximum likelihood estimation method, the proposed method exhibits higher ranging accuracy when the target distance does not change steeply. Additionally, the 3D imaging results of the target model consisting of a car and a suitcase can clearly distinguish features such as the rearview mirror, headlight, handle, and lock. The system has potential applications in underwater target identification, ocean engineering construction, underwater archaeology, and other fields requiring high-precision 3D imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The RUL prognosis framework combines the wavelet transform and the ConvLSTM. • Channel self-attention highlights weak but crucial features in wavelet coefficients. • Global attention improves the representation of the learned features in multiple wavelet coefficients of different channels. • Hybrid attention-based method boosts convlstm's performance in RUL prognosis. Wavelet transform, a time-frequency analysis method for evaluating non-stationary signals, can assist in representing equipment degradation over prolonged usage. However, a single wavelet basis function is challenging to apply to all periodic transient waveforms. As a result, this research suggests a hybrid attention-based multi-wavelet coefficient fusion method for evaluating the remaining useful life (RUL) of bearings. Firstly, a two-dimensional map is created by organizing the decomposed individual frequency bands after the approach employs several wavelets to get the original signal properties. Secondly, a hybrid attention-based ConvLSTM (HA-ConvLSTM) network is designed to weight wavelet coefficient channels adaptively. The learned features are used to evaluate RULs by a multi-layer perceptron. Finally, tests were run on the PHM2012 rolling bearing dataset to validate the proposed method. Overall, the suggested scheme outperforms previous comparable methods in the performance index. This approach optionally resolves the wavelet basis function matching issue for periodic transient waveforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuron-derived neurotrophic factor (NDNF) is a glycosylated, disulfide-bonded secretory protein that contains a fibronectin type III domain. NDNF has been identified as a neurotrophic factor; however, its role in carcinogenesis has not yet been identified. To investigate the expression and role of NDNF in carcinogenesis, the expression of NDNF in human Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) cell lines and tissues was detected by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and western blot analysis. Cell proliferation was investigated using CCK-8 and colony formation assays, and the cell invasion and immigration capacity was evaluated using the transwell assay. The results demonstrated that NDNF expression was downregulated in RCC cell lines and RCC tissues. Restoring NDNF expression significantly inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion of RCC cells. The study also demonstrated that the inhibitory effect of NDNF on invasive ability was mediated by suppressing the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in RCC cells. NDNF may therefore be considered an important regulator of EMT in RCC progression and may represent a novel promising target for antimetastatic therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives To evaluate the efficacy of resiniferatoxin in the treatment of patients with lifelong premature ejaculation. Methods A total of 41 outpatients (mean age 26.14 ± 4 years) with premature ejaculation completed the present study. They were randomly separated into the resiniferatoxin group and the placebo group. The resiniferatoxin group included 11 patients with redundant prepuce and 10 patients without redundant prepuce, whereas the placebo group contained 10 patients with redundant prepuce and 10 patients without. For the treatment, the glans were respectively soaked in 30 mL of resiniferatoxin with a concentration of 100 nmol/L or 10% alcohol solution for 30 min before sexual intercourse. Clinical efficacy was assessed by using the Chinese Index of Sexual Function for Premature Ejaculation-5 and the intravaginal ejaculation latency time before or 4 weeks after the treatment. The side-effects were also evaluated. Results In the resiniferatoxin group, the effective rate of patients with redundant prepuce was 63.6%, and both the intravaginal ejaculation latency time and Chinese Index of Sexual Function for Premature Ejaculation-5 significantly increased ( P < 0.05). However, the effective rate of patients without redundant prepuce was 20%, and there were no significant changes of their intravaginal ejaculation latency time and Chinese Index of Sexual Function for Premature Ejaculation-5 before and after the resiniferatoxin treatment ( P > 0.05). The total effective rate of patients treated with resiniferatoxin was 42.9%. In the placebo group, the effective rate of patients with or without redundant prepuce was 20% and 10%, respectively. The total effective rate of patients treated with placebo was 15%, and there were no significant changes of their intravaginal ejaculation latency time and Chinese Index of Sexual Function for Premature Ejaculation-5 before and after the placebo treatment ( P > 0.05). The side-effects included a slight burning sensation for the glans penis and dysuria. Conclusions These preliminary results show that resiniferatoxin might be suitable for treating patients with lifelong premature ejaculation and particularly those with redundant prepuce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Activation of telomerase can be observed in almost all human tumor histotypes and detection of the urinary telomerase activities is useful for the diagnosis and surveillance of bladder cancer. In this study, we screened, by Sanger sequencing, 302 patients with various urogenital cancers for somatic mutations in the promoter of the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene and determined the clinical relevance of TERT promoter mutations in urogenital cancer. In vitro assays were also performed to evaluate the functional influence of the discovered mutations. We found that the frequencies of somatic mutations in the TERT promoter varied substantially between different types of urogenital tumors (range: 0–63.7%), with urothelial carcinomas showing the highest mutation frequency and prostate cancer showing no mutation. The mutations upregulated the expression of TERT and enhanced the invasiveness of the tumor cells. The mutations were more prevalent in older patients with invasive diseases and advanced tumor stages, and were associated with significantly shorter survival time. Moreover, we also observed a significant co-occurrence of mutations between the TERT promoter and the tumor protein 51/retinoblastoma1 (TP53/RB1) signaling pathway. Hence, TERT promoter mutations may serve as important markers for the differential diagnosis and surveillance of urogenital tumors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Human CMTM3 has been proposed as a putative tumor suppressor gene. The loss of CMTM3 has been found in several carcinomas. However, the regulation of CMTM3 expression and its function in tumor progression remain largely unknown. Here, we investigated the regulation of CMTM3 expression, function and molecular mechanism in human testicular cancer cells. CMTM3 was frequently downregulated or silenced in testicular cancer cell lines and tumor tissues but highly expressed in normal testis tissues. The re-expression of CMTM3 significantly suppressed the colony formation, proliferation, and migration capacity of testicular cancer cells by inducing a G2 cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Moreover, the re-expression of CMTM3 activated the transcription of p53, induced p53 accumulation, up-regulated the expression of p21, and increased the cleavage of caspase 9, 8, 3, and PARP. The downregulation of CMTM3 in clinical tumor tissues was associated with the methylation of a single CpG site located within the Sp1/Sp3-responsive region of the core promoter. These results indicate that CMTM3 can function as tumor suppressor through the induction of a G2 cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. CMTM3 is thus involved in testicular cancer pathogenesis, and it is frequently at least partially silenced by the methylation of a single, specific CpG site in tumor tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bladder cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide, with transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) being the predominant form. Here we report a genomic analysis of TCC by both whole-genome and whole-exome sequencing of 99 individuals with TCC. Beyond confirming recurrent mutations in genes previously identified as being mutated in TCC, we identified additional altered genes and pathways that were implicated in TCC. Notably, we discovered frequent alterations in STAG2 and ESPL1, two genes involved in the sister chromatid cohesion and segregation (SCCS) process. Furthermore, we also detected a recurrent fusion involving FGFR3 and TACC3, another component of SCCS, by transcriptome sequencing of 42 DNA-sequenced tumors. Overall, 32 of the 99 tumors (32%) harbored genetic alterations in the SCCS process. Our analysis provides evidence that genetic alterations affecting the SCCS process may be involved in bladder tumorigenesis and identifies a new therapeutic possibility for bladder cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• 'Huarongdao Zhoupigan' is a cultivated landrace with a history of more than a hundred years. • Parentage and origination was predicted by morphological, SSR marker and genomic analyses. • 'Huarongdao Zhoupigan' may be a natural hybrid with sour orange (a sexual hybrid of pummelo and mandarin) as the seed parent and mandarin as the pollen parent. The cultivated landrace 'Huarongdao Zhoupigan' originated in China, and it has a history of more than a hundred years. It is widely cultivated for its distinctive pericarp, soft juicy pulp, slight bitter taste, and rich flavonoids and vitamin C (17.2 ± 0.08 mg•mL−1). Morphological observation shows that 'Huarongdao Zhoupigan' is mandarin-like in leaf shape, fruit flesh, easy peeling and crumpled pericarp, implying this variety may be a hybrid of orange and mandarin. To reveal the genetic background of 'Huarongdao Zhoupigan', 21 citrus accessions were evaluated using nuclear and chloroplast SSR markers and whole-genome SNP information. 'Huarongdao Zhoupigan' was grouped with mandarins and closely clustered with 'Yuanjiang Nanju' in the nuclear SSR analysis and sub-grouped with 'Goutou' sour orange, 'Dahong' sweet orange and 'Newhall' navel orange in the chloroplast SSR analysis. The genomic sequence similarity rate of 'Huarongdao Zhoupigan' with mandarin was 36.09%, with mandarin heterozygosity of 46.50%; the rough ratio of the two main parts was nearly 1:1, except for the unknown (19.11%) and pummelo (1.46%) parts. Thus, 'Huarongdao Zhoupigan' may be a natural hybrid with sour orange (a sexual hybrid of pummelo and mandarin) as the seed parent and mandarin as the pollen parent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aims of this study were to evaluate the clinical significance and potential prognostic value of pregnancy up-regulated non-ubiquitous calmodulin kinase (PNCK) in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) patients. Materials and Methods: The expression of PNCK mRNA was determined in 24 paired samples of ccRCCs and adjacent normal tissues using real-time RT-PCR. The expression of PNCK was determined in 248 samples of ccRCCs and 92 paired samples of adjacent normal tissues by immunohistochemical analysis. Statistical analysis was performed to define the relationship between PNCK expression and the clinical features of ccRCC. Results: The mRNA level of PNCK was significantly higher in tumorous tissues than in the adjacent non-tumorous tissues (p<0.001). An immunohistochemical analysis of 92 paired tissue specimens showed that PNCK expression was higher in tumorous tissues than in the adjacent non-tumorous tissues (p<0.001). Moreover, there was a significant correlation between the PNCK expression and various clinicopathological parameters such as Fuhrman grade (p = 0.011), tumor size (p<0.001), T stage (p<0.001) and N stage (p = 0.015). Patients with higher PNCK expression had shorter overall survival time than those with lower PNCK expression (p<0.001). Multivariate analysis indicated that PNCK expression was an independent predictor for poor survival of ccRCC patients. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study that determines the relationship between PNCK and prognosis in ccRCC. We found that increased PNCK expression is associated with poor prognosis in ccRCC. PNCK may represent a novel prognostic marker for ccRCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Idiopathic azoospermia (IA) is a severe form of male infertility due to unknown causes. The HSF2 gene, encoding the heat shock transcription factor 2, had been suggested to play a significant role in the spermatogenesis process since the Hsf2-knockout male mice showed spermatogenesis defects. To examine whether HSF2 is involved in the pathogenesis of IA in human, we sequenced all the exons of HSF2 in 766 patients diagnosed with IA and 521 proven fertile men. A number of coding mutations private to the patient group, which include three synonymous mutations and five missense mutations, were identified. Of the missense mutations, our functional assay demonstrated that one heterozygous mutation, R502H, caused a complete loss of HSF2 function and that the mutant suppressed the normal function of the wild-type (WT) allele through a dominant-negative effect, thus leading to the dominant penetrance of the mutant allele. These results support a role for HSF2 in the pathogenesis of IA and further implicate this transcription factor as a potential therapeutic target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The use of ketamine as a recreational drug is on the increase among young adults attending clubs and parties. Recreational ketamine users have anecdotally reported increased lower urinary tract symptoms while using the substance. Methods: We describe the severe lower urinary tract symptoms experienced in 6 patients with chronic recreational ketamine use. We obtained a detailed history and physical examination along with further investigation to identify a relationship between recreational ketamine use and these symptoms. Results: The urine cultures were sterile in all cases. Intravenous urography was performed in 3 patients and demonstrated bilateral upper ureteric narrow, mild bilateral hydronephrosis and contracted bladder urodynamic studies showed detrusor instability with urinary leakage when the bladder was filled to a capacity of 30- 50 ml. Cystoscopy revealed a small capacity bladder with erythematous lesions throughout the bladder. Bladder biopsies were performed in 3 patients and showed up as chronic cystitis. Ketamine cessation along with intravesical sodium hyaluronate solution appeared to provide some symptomatic relief. Conclusion: Ketamine-associated urinary tract dysfunction appears to be a relatively new clinical phenomenon. The pathological mechanism of ketamine-associated urinary tract dysfunction is unknown and current management strategies are ketamine cessation along with intravesical sodium hyaluronate solution. Copyright © 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Recent studies have suggested roles for PCDH10 as a novel tumor suppressor gene. In our previous work, we located the core promoter of PCDH10 to a 462-bp segment of 5′-flanking region characterized by a high GC content. Here we further identified and characterized the promoter for PCDH10. Transient transfection of PC3 and LNCaP cells with a series of deleted promoter constructs indicated that the minimal promoter region was between nucleotides −144 and −99. This segment contained a CAAT box, a GT box, and a putative transcription factor binding site for AP-4. Mutational analysis identified that the CAAT box and GT box are necessary for promoter activity. Ectopic expression of NF-Ys increased reporter gene activity, whereas expression of a dominant-negative NF-YA decreased reporter gene activity. Co-transfection of Sp1/Sp3 expression plasmids enhanced reporter gene activity in a dose-dependent manner. Mithramycin A, an inhibitor of Sp–DNA interaction, reduced PCDH10 promoter activity. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays and chromatin immunoprecipitation demonstrated binding of transcription factors Sp1/Sp3 to the promoter region in vitro and in vivo. Our data show that Sp1/Sp3 and CBF/NF-Y transcription factors play a crucial role in the basal expression of the human PCDH10 gene. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A polarized micropulse lidar (P-MPL) employing a pulsed laser at 532 nm was developed by the Institute of Oceanographic Instrumentation, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences). The optomechanical structure, technical parameters, detection principle, overlap factor calculation method, and inversion methods of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) depth and depolarization ratio (DR) were introduced. Continuous observations using the P-MPL were carried out at Xi'an Meteorological Bureau, and the observation data were analyzed. In this study, we gleaned much information on aerosols and clouds, including the temporal and spatial variation of aerosols and clouds, aerosol extinction coefficient, DR, and the structure of ABL were obtained by the P-MPL. The variation of aerosols and clouds before and after a short rainfall was analyzed by combining time-height-indication (THI) of range corrected signal (RCS) and DR was obtained by the P-MPL with profiles of potential temperature (PT) and relative humidity (RH) detected by GTS1 Digital Radiosonde. Then, the characteristics of tropopause cirrus cloud were discussed using the data of DR, PT, and RH. Finally, a haze process from January 1st to January 5th was studied by using aerosol extinction coefficients obtained by the P-MPL, PT, and RH profiles measured by GTS1 Digital Radiosonde and the time-varying of PM2.5 and PM10 observed by ambient air quality monitor. The source of the haze was simulated by using the NOAA HYSPLIT Trajectory Model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We sequenced whole exomes of ten clear cell renal cell carcinomas (ccRCCs) and performed a screen of ?1,100 genes in 88 additional ccRCCs, from which we discovered 12 previously unidentified genes mutated at elevated frequencies in ccRCC. Notably, we detected frequent mutations in the ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis pathway (UMPP), and alterations in the UMPP were significantly associated with overexpression of HIF1? and HIF2? in the tumors (P = 0.01 and 0.04, respectively). Our findings highlight the potential contribution of UMPP to ccRCC tumorigenesis through the activation of the hypoxia regulatory network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Current knowledge about the molecular properties and prognostic markers of upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) is sparse and often based on bladder urothelial carcinoma (UC), which is thought to share common risk factors with UTUC. However, studies have suggested that differences exist regarding tumor behavior and molecular biology of these cancers, comprehensive investigations are needed to guide the clinical management of UTUC. In recent years, massively parallel sequencing has allowed insights into the biology of many cancers, and molecular prognostic markers based on this approach are rapidly emerging. The goal of this study was to characterize the gene expression patterns of UTUC using massively parallel sequencing, and identify potential molecular markers for prognosis in patients with UTUC. Methods: We compared the genome-wide mRNA expression profile of cancer and matched normal tissues from 10 patients with UTUC to identify significantly deregulated genes. We also examined the protein levels of prognostic marker candidates in 103 patients with UTUC, and tested the association of these markers with overall survival using Kaplan-Meier model and Cox regression. Results: Functional enrichment of significantly deregulated genes revealed that expression patterns of UTUC were characterized by disorders of cell proliferation and metabolism. And we also compared the expression profile of UTUC with that of bladder UC. Our results highlighted both shared (e.g. disorders of cell cycling and growth signal transduction) and tumor-specific (e.g. abnormal metabolism in UTUC and disruptions of adhesion pathways in bladder UC) features of these two cancers. Importantly, we identified that low protein expression of ALDH2 while high CCNE1 and SMAD3 were significantly associated with increased depth (*P <0.05) and lower overall survival (***P <0.0001) in an independent set of 103 patients. Multivariate Cox regression revealed that all these three genes were independent prognostic indicators in patients with UTUC (***P <0.001). Conclusions: In conclusion, our study characterized the comprehensive expression profile of UTUC and highlighted both commons and differences in expression patterns between UTUC and bladder UC. And we, for the first time, revealed that ALDH2, CCNE1 and SMAD3 are associated with prognosis in patients with UTUC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]