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Purpose: Fat infiltration (FI) of the deep neck extensor muscles has been shown to be associated with poor outcomes in cervical injury, mechanical neck pain, and axial symptoms after cervical spine surgery. However, information is scarce on the severity of FI in cervical extensors associated with different clinical syndromes in patients with cervical spondylosis. Objective: To investigate the relationship between the severity of FI in the cervical multifidus musculature and its clinical correlates in the syndromes and sagittal alignment of patients with cervical spondylosis. Methods: This study was conducted as a retrospective study of twenty-eight healthy volunteers (HV) together with sixty-six patients who underwent cervical radiculopathy (CR), degenerative myelopathy (DM), and axial joint pain (AJP) from January 2020 to March 2022. MRI was used to measure the fat cross-sectional area (FCSA), functional muscle cross-sectional area (FMCSA), total muscle cross-sectional area (TMCSA), FI ratio of the cervical multifidus musculature at each cervical level from the C3 to C6 segments and the cervical lordosis angle in the included subjects. Results: The difference in the FCSA and FI ratio in patient groups with cervical spondylosis was significantly greater than that of the HV group (P < 0.05), and the Cobb angle of the DM group, AJP group and HV group was significantly greater than that of the CR group (P < 0.05). The FI ratio comparison showed no significant difference by sex, and the comparison of FCSA, FMCSA, TMCSA and FI ratio showed no significant difference by age range from 35 to 69 in the included subjects. The FCSA and TMCSA in patients with cervical spondylosis were positively related to the Cobb angle (rs= 0.336, P = 0.006, rs =0.319, P = 0.009, respectively), and the FI ratio was inversely correlated with the Cobb angle (rs= -0.285, P = 0.020) and positively correlated with age (rs =0.261, P = 0.034). In the HV group, FMCSA was inversely correlated with age (rs= -0.400, P = 0.035), while the FI ratio had a positive correlation with age (rs= -0.423, P = 0.025). Conclusion: Compared with healthy subjects, a more severe degree of FI in the multifidus musculature and sagittal imbalance were found in patients with cervical spondylosis. These two imaging features are considered to be important concomitant phenomena of cervical spondylosis, and the more severe FI is, the worse the sagittal imbalance. However, each syndrome had no obvious difference in FI in the multifidus musculature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work aims to design a distributed extended object tracking system over a realistic network, where both the extent and kinematics are required to retain consensus within the entire network. To this end, we resort to the multiplicative error model (MEM) that allows the extent parameters of perpendicular axis‐symmetric objects to have individual uncertainty. To incorporate the MEM into the information filter (IF) style, we use the moment‐matching technique to derive two pair linear models with only additive noise. The separation is merely in a fashion, and the cross‐correlation between states is preserved as parameters in each other's model. As a result, the closed‐form expressions are transferred into an alternating iteration of two linear IFs. With the two models, a centralized IF is proposed wherein the measurements are converted into a summation of innovation parts. Later, under a sensor network with the communication nodes and sensor nodes, we present two distributed IFs through the consensus on information and consensus on measurement schemes, respectively. Moreover, we prove the estimation errors of the proposed filter are exponentially bounded in the mean square. The benefits are testified by numerical experiments in comparison to state‐of‐the‐art filters in literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: Tomato DWARF14 regulates the development of roots, shoot branches and leaves, and also plays a role in photosynthetic pigment accumulation and photosynthetic capacity. Strigolactones (SLs) are a novel class of plant hormones. DWARF14 (D14) is the only SL receptor identified to date, but it is not functionally analyzed in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). In the present study, we identified the potential SL receptor in tomato by bioinformatic analysis, which was designated as SlD14. SlD14 was expressed in roots, stems, flowers and developing fruits, with the highest expression level in leaves. sld14 mutant plants produced by the CRISPR/Cas9 system displayed reduced plant height and root biomass, increased shoot branching and altered leaf shape comparing with WT plants. The cytokinin biosynthetic gene ISOPENTENYLTRANSFERASE 3 (SlIPT3), auxin biosynthetic genes FLOOZY (SlFZY) and TRYPTOPHAN AMINOTRANSFERASE RELATED 1 (SlTAR1) and several auxin transport genes SlPINs, which are involved in branch formation, showed higher expression levels in the sld14 plant stem. In addition, sld14 plants exhibited light-green leaves, reduced chlorophyll and carotenoid contents, abnormal chloroplast structure and reduced photosynthetic capacity. Transcriptomic analysis showed that the transcript levels of six chlorophyll biosynthetic genes, three carotenoid biosynthetic genes and numerous chlorophyll a/b-binding protein genes were decreased in sld14 plants. These results suggest that tomato SL receptor gene SlD14 not only regulates the development of roots, shoot branches and leaves, but also plays a role in regulating photosynthetic pigment accumulation and photosynthetic capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To address intraoperative bleeding in cardiac surgery, reducing blood transfusion requirements, is mandatory to achieve effective hemostasis. Hemostatic agents may limit localized persistent bleeding. The introduction of carboxymethyl-chitosan component into the hemostatic agent and the application of the radiation crosslinking technique maintain its capacity for achieving intraoperative hemostasis, thus increasing the clinical utility.Methods: A prospective, noninferiority and randomized controlled clinical trial to compare the safety and efficacy of absorbable macroporous polysaccharide composites (AMPC, treatment group) with compound microporous polysaccharide hemostatic powder (CMPHP, control group) (2:1 ratio) as adjuncts to hemostasis in open surgery. The main indication was used for hemostasis in various traumatic hemorrhage areas, including cardiothoracic, vascular, and general surgery. The primary endpoint was success rate of hemostasis within 300 s (at a 10% noninferiority margin). The secondary endpoint was hemostasis time. Both endpoints were assessed in the modified intention-to-treat (MITT) population. Safety parameters were assessed. This study is fully compliant with the CONSORT statement.Results: Randomized patients in AMPC and CMPHP groups were 168 and 84, respectively. In MITT population, the success rates of hemostasis within 300 s were 98.8% (163 of 165) in AMPC and 94.0% (78 of 83) in CMPHP (treatment difference 4.8% [95% CI -0.57% to 10.20%]). AMPC was thus noninferior to CMPHP. Hemostasis time (median [interquartile range]) with AMPC (87 [52.5, 180] s) was better than CMPHP (110 [54.5, 181] s). Changes in laboratory parameters over time and shifts to abnormal values were typical of surgeries and similar between two groups. No noticeable adverse effects associated with AMPC or CMPHP were observed.Conclusions: AMPC is well tolerated as topical hemostatic agent, noninferior to commercial CMPHP, and exhibits excellent safety. This study provides a novel hemostatic agent which appears to offer significant clinical advantage in various hemorrhage areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge graphs are large graph-structured knowledge bases with incomplete or partial information. Numerous studies have focused on knowledge graph embedding to identify the embedded representation of entities and relations, thereby predicting missing relations between entities. Previous embedding models primarily regard (subject entity, relation, and object entity) triplet as translational distance or semantic matching in vector space. However, these models only learn a few expressive features and hard to handle complex relations, i.e., 1-to-N, N-to-1, and N-to-N, in knowledge graphs. To overcome these issues, we introduce a multi-scale dynamic convolutional network (M-DCN) model for knowledge graph embedding. This model features topnotch performance and an ability to generate richer and more expressive feature embeddings than its counterparts. The subject entity and relation embeddings in M-DCN are composed in an alternating pattern in the input layer, which helps extract additional feature interactions and increase the expressiveness. Multi-scale filters are generated in the convolution layer to learn different characteristics among input embeddings. Specifically, the weights of these filters are dynamically related to each relation to model complex relations. The performance of M-DCN on the five benchmark datasets is tested via experiments. Results show that the model can effectively handle complex relations and achieve state-of-the-art link prediction results on most evaluation metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To evaluate the effects of periodic application of effective microorganism (EM) bacteria and calcium peroxide on water environment restoration of a trench wetland ecosystem and its impact on microbiota in water and sediment. Methods and Results: The EM bacteria and calcium peroxide were alternately sprayed into the trench water, and changes in the physicochemical indices of water and sediment, and in microbiota structure were subsequently investigated. Alternately spraying of calcium peroxide and EM bacteria improved the water quality, especially in terms of the dissolved oxygen and transparency of water body, and could further reduce the levels of total nitrogen, total phosphorus and ammonia nitrogen. At the same time, the microbiota structure of the water body was significantly changed by spraying with calcium peroxide and EM bacteria, and the relative abundances of Pseudanabaena, Legionellaceae, Planktothrix, Planctomyces, Phenylobacterium, Rhodobacter, Rhodoferax and Aquirestis were significantly increased. However, there was no significant effect on the physicochemical indexes and microbiota composition of the sediment. Conclusions: The water quality of the Baiyangdian trench could be significantly restored by regular sprinkling of calcium peroxide and EM bacteria. Significance and Impact of Study: The results provide an effective technical method for the restoration of trench wetland water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • This research paper concentrates on the biological formulation and characterization of Cu NPs derived from P. ginseng. • There have been no previous research on the anti-human renal cell carcinoma efficacies of copper nanoparticles formulated by P. ginseng. • The XRD results revealed that the CuNPs had a CuO formula and exhibited a spherical morphology with a size of less than 80 nm. • The IC 50 values of CuNPs were found to be 102, 149, 178 and 191 µg/mL on HEK293, CaKi-2, RCC-GH, and RCC-JW renal cell carcinoma cells, respectively. • CuNPs were able to inhibit 50 % of DPPH at 193 µg/mL. A recent study was undertaken to investigate the possible cytotoxic effects of copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) that include an aqueous extract of Panax ginseng on various human renal cell carcinoma cell lines, namely HEK293, CaKi-2, RCC-GH, and RCC-JW (KTCTL-195) for the first time. The identification of these nanoparticles was carried out using different techniques. To evaluate the potential anti-human renal cell carcinoma properties of the synthesized NPs, a 2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay was conducted. Additionally, the 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay was conducted to investigate the antioxidant efficacy. The peaks observed at 3398, 2918, 1617, and 1015 cm−1 in the secondary metabolites of the P. ginseng extract corresponded to the functional groups of O–H, C–H, C = O, C = C, and C-O, respectively. The X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) results revealed that the CuNPs had a CuO formula and exhibited a spherical morphology with a size of less than 80 nm, as observed in the FE-SEM image. To assess the anti-renal cell carcinoma efficacy of CuNPs, an MTT assay was performed on HUVEC, HEK293, CaKi-2, RCC-GH, and RCC-JW (KTCTL-195) cells. Notably, CuNPs exhibited high anti-renal cell carcinoma efficacy on the aforementioned tumor cells. The IC 50 values of CuNPs were found to be 102, 149, 178 and 191 µg/mL on HEK293, CaKi-2, RCC-GH, and RCC-JW (KTCTL-195) cells, respectively. The results of this study revealed significant anti-renal cell carcinoma and antioxidant efficacies of CuNPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vegetation community affects the composition and diversity of the insect community in grasslands. To explore the effects of vegetation management on insect community abundance and diversity, regular mowing of the vegetation was conducted, and tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) and ryegrass (Lolium perenne) were exclusively planted at Tianjin Binhai International Airport. A total of 1886 insects were collected, representing 8 orders, 23 families, and 29 species; Acrididae (Orthoptera), Coccinellidae (Coleoptera), and Chironomidae (Diptera) were the dominant taxa. The abundance and biomass of insects in the turf areas were significantly lower than those in the control area and were reduced by 45.8 and 48.5% in the ryegrass area, respectively. In all areas, insect abundance and biomass peaked in summer, and the abundance of individuals and taxa decreased as the temperature decreased. Greater diversity and richness were found in summer compared with the other two seasons, and the turf areas had lower diversity and richness indices than the control areas in spring and summer. Our results suggest that the abundance, biomass and diversity of insects can be effectively decreased by artificial regulation of grassland vegetation at the airport, the planting of a single turfgrass – specifically ryegrass had the greatest effect. The present study provides a theoretical basis for the ecological control of insects at the airport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge graph embedding aims to learn the embedded representation of entities and relations in knowledge graphs which is very important for the subsequent link prediction task. However, two key issues are existed for learning knowledge graph embedding: 1) How to take full advantage of the deep learning algorithms to generate expressive embeddings? 2) How to solve the polysemy phenomenon caused by multi-relations knowledge graphs that entities and relations show different semantics after involving different predictions? In this article, to tackle the first problem, the multi-layer convolutional networks are adopted to generate features about entities and relations then used to predict candidate entity. Moreover, the representation power of the networks is strengthened by integrating an effective recalibration mechanism which can accentuate informative features selectively. To tackle the second problem, we propose to learn multiple specific interaction embeddings. Instead of directly learning one general embedding to preserve all information for each entity and relation, their interactions are captured to model the cross-semantic influence from relations to entities and from entities to relations. Compared to traditional embedding models, the proposed model can provide more generalization capabilities and effectively capture potential links between entities and relations. Experimental results have revealed that the proposed model achieves the state-of-the-art performance for general evaluation metrics on link prediction tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel image processing method to extract the gender feature from frontal face combining Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and an improved Genetic Algorithm (GA) to reduce the interference of facial expression, lighting or wear. The collected facial images are first cropped and aligned automatically, then the gray-level information can be converted to feature vectors via PCA. After eigen-features are extracted with high classification performance by the aid of an improved GA, the neural network classifier can be trained accordingly. Compared to the classification methods based on global gray-level information, the obtained classifier has better identification rate but less used feature dimension, so the calculation load can substantially be reduced during training and classification procedures, which benefits to the development of a real-time identification system. Furthermore, FERET dataset and FEI dataset are used to validate the generality of the proposed method, where 94% and 96% accuracy rates of the gender recognition can be achieved respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hard carbon is the leading candidate anode for commercialization of Na-ion batteries. Hard carbon has a unique local atomic structure, which is composed of nanodomains of layered rumpled sheets that have short-range local order resembling graphene within each layer, but complete disorder along the c-axis between layers. A primary challenge holding back the development of Na-ion batteries is that a complete understanding of the structure-capacity correlations of Na-ion storage in hard carbon has remained elusive. This article presents two key discoveries: first, the characteristics of hard carbons structure can be modified systematically by heteroatom doping, and second, that these structural changes greatly affect Na-ion storage properties, which reveals the mechanisms for Na storage in hard carbon. Specifically, via P or S doping, the interlayer spacing is dilated, which extends the low-voltage plateau capacity, while increasing the defect concentrations with P or B doping leads to higher sloping sodiation capacity. The combined experimental studies and first principles calculations reveal that it is the Na-ion-defect binding that corresponds to the sloping capacity, while the Na intercalation between graphenic layers causes the low-potential plateau capacity. The understanding suggests a new design principle of hard carbon anode: more reversibly binding defects and dilated turbostratic domains, given that the specific surface area is maintained low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rate capability of hard carbon has long been underestimated in prior studies that used carbon/Na two-electrode half-cells. Through a three-electrode cell setup, we discover that it is the overpotential of the sodium counter electrode that drives the half-cells to the lower cutoff potential prematurely during hard carbon sodiation, particularly at high current rates, which prevents the hard carbon anode from being fully sodiated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge graphs are multi-relational data that contain massive entities and relations. As an effective graph representation technique based on deep learning, graph neural network has reported outstanding performance for modeling knowledge graphs in recent studies. However, previous graph neural network-based models have not fully considered the heterogeneity of knowledge graphs. Furthermore, the attention mechanism has demonstrated its great potential in many areas. In this paper, a novel heterogeneous graph neural network framework based on a hierarchical attention mechanism is proposed, including entity-level, relation-level, and self-level attentions. Thus, the proposed model can selectively aggregate informative features and weights them adequately. Then the learned embeddings of entities and relations can be utilized for the downstream tasks. Extensive experimental results on various heterogeneous graph tasks demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed model compared to several state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small-molecule thiols are essential for maintaining the cellular redox homeostasis and play important roles in regulating various cellular functions. New reaction-based fluorescent turn-on probes based on fast thiolysis of NBD (7-nitro-1,2,3-benzoxadiazole)ether were rationally designed for sensing of biothiols in physiological buffer and in cells. The blue-light-excited probes were based on a new developed excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) fluorophore. The combination use of ESIPT fluorophore and electron-withdrawing effect in the probe design led to fast-response fluorescent probes toward cysteine (Cys) with reaction rate ( k 2 ) up to 616.7 M −1 s −1 . The probes were highly selective toward biothiols over other amino acids and could be used for bioimaging in cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pseudomonas furukawaii ZS1, isolated from grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) culture water, exhibits efficient aerobic nitrate reduction without nitrite accumulation; however, the molecular pathway underlying this aerobic nitrate reduction remains unclear. In this study, we constructed a complete genome map of P. furukawaii ZS1 and performed a comparative genomic analysis with a reference strain. The results showed that P. furukawaii ZS1 genome was 6 026 050 bp in size and contained 5427 predicted protein-coding sequences. The genome contained all the necessary genes for the dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonia pathway but lacked those for the assimilatory nitrate reduction pathway; additionally, genes that convert ammonia to organic nitrogen were also identified. The presence of putative genes associated with the nitrogen and oxidative phosphorylation pathways implied that ZS1 can perform respiration and nitrate reduction simultaneously under aerobic conditions, so that nitrite is rapidly consumed for detoxication by denitrification. The aim of this study is to indicate the great potential of strain ZS1 for future full-scale applications in aquaculture. This work provided insights at the molecular level on the nitrogen metabolic pathways in Pseudomonas species. The understanding of nitrogen metabolic pathways also provides significant molecular information for further Pseudomonas species modification and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A novel method combining the dense fluidized bed and the floating catalytically chemical vapor deposition method (FCCVD) to prepare carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was proposed. Propylene was decomposed at 660 °C, using the CNTs as supports and the metal particles from the in situ pyrolysis of ferrocene as catalyst. The conversion of propylene in this process was closed to 100% under an optimum condition. By SEM and TEM observations, the growth of new generation of CNTs was proven. It was demonstrated that the short and thin CNT branches exist on the tips or sidewalls of CNTs. Based on the analysis of the formation of catalytic sites in the FCCVD in a fluidized bed, a physical model of the formation of branches was proposed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) resin has been compounded with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) using a twin-screw extruder. The composites of 4wt% CNTs in PET had a volume electrical resistance of 103 Ωcm, which was 12 orders lower than pure PET. The volume electrical conductivity of CNTs/PET composites with different CNTs containing followed a percolation scaling law of the form σ = κ(ρ − ρ c) t well. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrograph showed that CNTs had been well dispersed in PET matrix. Optical microscopy micrograph showed that discontinuity of conductive phase existed in some segments of composite fiber. Rheological behavior of CNTs/PET composites showed that the viscosity of CNTs/PET composites containing high nanotube loadings exhibited a large decrease with increasing shear frequency. Crystallization behavior of CNTs/PET composites was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and the nucleating effect of CNTs in the cooling crystallization process of PET was confirmed. Composite fiber was prepared using the conductive CNTs/PET composites and pure PET resin by composite spinning process. Furthermore, cloth was woven by the composite fiber and common terylene with the ratio 1:3. The cloth had excellent anti-static electricity property and its charge surface density was only 0.25μC/m2. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Preparation of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) was conducted using a nano-agglomerate bed of quartz with 44 mm inner diameter and 1000 mm height in the temperature range 500–650°C. Ethylene and propylene were used as carbon source materials, and four kinds of catalysts containing oxides of Fe, Cu, and Ni, prepared by co-precipitation method, were used. Effect of catalyst composition on morphology of CNTs was studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It shows that better quality CNTs can be achieved with Fe-catalysts, and carbon nano-fibers were produced at high carbon yield with Ni-catalysts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Sodium ion batteries (NIBs) are an attractive alternative to lithium‐ion batteries in applications that require large‐scale energy storage due to sodium's high natural abundance and low cost. Hard carbon (HC) is the most promising anode material for NIBs; however, there is a knowledge gap in the understanding of the sodium binding mechanism that prevents a rational design of HC. This study tunes sucrose‐derived HC via synthesis temperature then evaluates the structural, physical, and electrochemical properties. Neutron total scattering is used to generate structural models by fitting pair distribution functions (PDF) with a combination of molecular dynamics and reverse Monte Carlo methods. From this model, the number and type of structural features are identified, quantified, and correlated to the galvanostatic charge/discharge. A method of PDF "fingerprinting" binding sites using Na probe atoms is developed and analyzing these PDFs reveals an atomistic view of ion binding sites responsible for "defect" storage mechanisms. Combining these techniques results in an atomic‐level study that provides a big picture of the Na‐binding mechanism in NIBs, which allows for more precise tuning of the structure–property relationships in the future. The methodologies developed will also enable new strategies for the analysis of amorphous functional materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Accurate individual (per‐user) traffic prediction in cellular networks is considered a critical capability for the system performance improvement in terms of dynamic bandwidth allocation and network optimization. However, existing methods have limitations in capturing the characteristics of individual traffic, because the observed traffic data are usually incomplete and traffic consumption patterns significantly differ among users. In this paper, to fully exploit the inherent temporal‐spatial correlations of individual traffic data, this work models the traffic data as a three‐dimensional traffic tensor. Different from the "three‐step" strategies (i.e., "data processing + decomposition + prediction") in the existing methods, we propose a novel tensor completion (TC)‐based "two‐step" strategy, that is, "data processing & decomposition + prediction" for individual traffic prediction, which can recover and decompose the traffic data simultaneously. Furthermore, an efficient algorithm based on the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) framework is proposed to solve the resulting model. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to apply the TC‐based "two‐step" strategy for individual traffic prediction in cellular networks. Experiments conducted on a real cellular traffic dataset empirically validate the superiority of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome sequence ofCarassius auratus var. high back crucian carp(C. auratus var.) was determined (GenBank accession number is KT756205). The mitochondrial genome sequence ofC. auratus var. was a circular molecule with 16 581 bp in length, and contained 37 typical animal mitochondrial genes, including 2 ribosomal RNA genes, 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes and a control region (D-loop). Four nucleotide compositions and their relative proportions of the entire mitogenome was 26.19% C, 16.06% G, 31.57% A and 26.18% T, with contents of A + T and G + C being 57.75% and 42.25%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

TheSinilabeo rendahli(S. rendahli) belongs to the familyCyprinidaeand the orderCypriniformes, which is an economic fish species in southern China. In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome ofS. rendahliwas determined (the GenBank accession number is KT336714). The mitochondrial genome sequence ofS. rendahliwas a circular molecule with 16 586 bp in length, and it contained 37 typical animal mitochondrial genes including 2 ribosomal RNA genes, 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes and a control region (D-loop). Four nucleotide compositions and their relative proportions of the entire mitogenome were, 26.62% C, 15.29% G, 32.31% A and 25.78% T, with an A + T and G + C contents being 58.09 and 41.91%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Advanced energy‐storage devices are in tremendous demand to meet the ever‐growing electrification of the economy. To design batteries, it is critical to understand the evolving structures of the electrode materials, the compositions of the solid electrolyte interphase, and the reaction intermediates during the electrochemical processes. To this end, a plethora of characterization techniques are employed in battery research to bridge the fundamental understanding to practical optimization of battery systems. Vibrational spectroscopy methods, including Raman spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy are powerful analytic tools for the purposes of battery studies. Here, the usage of Raman and FTIR spectroscopy techniques for secondary batteries, such as lithium‐ion batteries, lithium–sulfur batteries, lithium–oxygen batteries, sodium‐ion batteries, and potassium‐ion batteries, is described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Living in high expressed emotion (EE) environments tends to increase the relapse rate in schizophrenia (SZ). At present, the neural substrates responsible for high EE in SZ remain poorly understood. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) may be of great use to quantitatively assess cortical hemodynamics and elucidate the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders. In this study, we designed novel low- (positivity and warmth) and high-EE (criticism, negative emotion, and hostility) stimulations, in the form of audio, to investigate cortical hemodynamics. We used fNIRS to measure hemodynamic signals while participants listened to the recorded audio. Healthy controls (HCs, n = 42 ) showed increased hemodynamic activation in the major language centers across EE stimulations, with stronger activation in Wernicke's area during the processing of negative emotional language. Compared to HCs, people with SZ ( n = 41 ) exhibited smaller hemodynamic activation in the major language centers across EE stimulations. In addition, people with SZ showed weaker or insignificant hemodynamic deactivation in the medial prefrontal cortex. Notably, hemodynamic activation in SZ was found to be negatively correlated with the negative syndrome scale score at high EE. Our findings suggest that the neural mechanisms in SZ are altered and disrupted, especially during negative emotional language processing. This supports the feasibility of using the designed EE stimulations to assess people who are vulnerable to high-EE environments, such as SZ. Furthermore, our findings provide preliminary evidence for future research on functional neuroimaging biomarkers for people with psychiatric disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive hepatic lipid accumulation is a common phenomenon in cultured fish; however, its underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Lipid droplet (LD)-related proteins play vital roles in LD accumulation. Herein, using a zebrafish liver cell line (ZFL), we show that LD accumulation is accompanied by differential expression of seven LD-annotated genes, among which the expression of dehydrogenase/reductase (SDR family) member 3 a/b (dhrs3a/b) increased synchronously. RNAi-mediated knockdown of dhrs3a delayed LD accumulation and downregulated the mRNA expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (pparg) in cells incubated with fatty acids. Notably, Dhrs3 catalyzed retinene to retinol, the content of which increased in LD-enriched cells. The addition of exogenous retinyl acetate maintained LD accumulation only in cells incubated in a lipid-rich medium. Correspondingly, exogenous retinyl acetate significantly increased pparg mRNA expression levels and altered the lipidome of the cells by increasing the phosphatidylcholine and triacylglycerol contents and decreasing the cardiolipin, phosphatidylinositol, and phosphatidylserine contents. Administration of LW6, an hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF1α) inhibitor, reduced the size and number of LDs in ZFL cells and attenuated hif1αa, hif1αb, dhrs3a, and pparg mRNA expression levels. We propose that the Hif-1α/Dhrs3a pathway participates in LD accumulation in hepatocytes, which induces retinol formation and the Ppar-γ pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Load can change the mechanical environment of dynamic and static stable structures of the shoulder joint, increase the risk of tissue damage and affect the stability of the shoulder joint, but its biomechanical mechanism is still unclear. Therefore, a finite element model of the shoulder joint was constructed to analyze the mechanical index changes of shoulder joint abduction under different loads. The stress of the articular side on the supraspinatus tendon was higher than that of the capsular side, with a maximum difference of 43% due to the increased load. For the deltoid muscle and glenohumeral ligaments, increases in stress and strain were obvious in the middle and posterior deltoid muscles and inferior glenohumeral ligaments. The above results indicate that load increases the stress difference between the articular side and the capsular side on the supraspinatus tendon and increases the mechanical indices of the middle and posterior deltoid muscles, as well as the inferior glenohumeral ligament. The increased stress and strain in these specific sites can lead to tissue injury and affect the stability of the shoulder joint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most knowledge graphs(KGs) are large and incomplete graph-structure database, which can be completed by predicting miss links according to the existing knowledge. The mainstream method is knowledge graph embedding (KGE) which is designed to learn low dimensional embedding of entities and relations. However, knowledge graph embedding still faces two major issues: (1) How to generate more expressive embeddings? (2) How to solve semantic polysemy of entities in different relations? In this paper, we propose a novel KG embedding model, RIECN (Relation-based Interactive Embedding Convolutional Network), which achieves high-quality performance and shows some advancements in modeling complex relations. In RIECN, FIR (Feature Interaction Reshaping) method is introduced to increase the feature interactions between entity and relation embeddings to generate more expressive feature maps. In addition, a new method of generating relation-based dynamic convolution filters, RDCF, is proposed. RDCF generates specific relation and hybird-size convolution filters, which enriches the feature maps of each entity improving the accuracy of link prediction task especially in complex relations scenario. We tested the performance of our model on five benchmark datasets. The experimental results show that the RIECN model significantly outperforms recent state-of-the-art models by 0.1–3.2% and 1.1–3.7%, in terms of MMR metric and Hit@1 metric, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There exist tremendous needs for sustainable storage solutions for intermittent renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind energy. Thus, systems based on Earth-abundant elements deserve much attention. Potassium-ion batteries represent a promising candidate because of the abundance of potassium resources. As for the choices of anodes, graphite exhibits encouraging potassium-ion storage properties; however, it suffers limited rate capability and poor cycling stability. Here, nongraphitic carbons as K-ion anodes with sodium carboxymethyl cellulose as the binder are systematically investigated. Compared to hard carbon and soft carbon, a hard-soft composite carbon with 20 wt% soft carbon distributed in the matrix phase of hard carbon microspheres exhibits highly amenable performance: high capacity, high rate capability, and very stable long-term cycling. In contrast, pure hard carbon suffers limited rate capability, while the capacity of pure soft carbon fades more rapidly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We prepared Prussian white analogues—K x MFe(CN) 6 ·mH 2 O (M = Fe, Co, Ni, or Cu). These compounds are investigated as cathode materials for potassium-ion batteries with a non-aqueous electrolyte. Each of these materials exhibits different K-ion storage properties with reversible capacity values ranging from 35 to 110 mAh g − 1 at high potentials above 3.2 V vs. K + /K. Among them, FeFe-Prussian white, K 1.68 Fe 1.09 Fe(CN) 6 ·2.1H 2 O, exhibits the highest reversible capacity of 110 mAh g − 1 and stable cycling performance in contrast to rapid capacity fading of other analogues. Our results demonstrate a remarkable potential of this family of cathode materials for the emerging potassium-ion batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) is known to increase muscle hardness, which has been of particular interest in food animals, but the detailed mechanism for the ROS‐induced changes remains unclear. To explore the responsible molecular pathway, we conducted a detailed gene/protein expression analysis on the crisp grass carp model using four groups fed with different diets: control commercial feed (C group), a natural pro‐oxidant faba bean (FB group) only, FB + antioxidants vitamins C and E (FB + AO group), and commercial feed + a pro‐oxidant vitamin K3 (O group). Real‐time PCR and parallel reaction monitoring, an emerging high‐resolution mass spectrometry analysis, were employed. Our expression analysis highlighted two main effects of dietary pro‐oxidants: endogenous ROS production and enhancement of muscle regeneration. The CGC and O groups generally increased the expression of genes/proteins related to ROS generation (e.g. mitochondrial proteins), caspase 3 (a candidate mediator of muscle regeneration) and muscle structural proteins such as tropomyosin and collagen. Most changes were not observed in the FB + AO group, indicating the causal role of ROS in the observed changes. These results explain part of molecular processes of ROS‐induced improvement in muscle hardness in grass carp and would be useful for further application of dietary pro‐oxidants to other species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SiO2-engineered nanoparticles (SiO2-ENPs) are one of the most commonly employed nanomaterials. There was a lack of research on the comprehensive effects of environmental factors on the stability of SiO2-ENPs. In the present work, the aggregation size, surface charge, and percentage of nanoparticles have been studied under the presence of monovalent/divalent cations combined with natural organic matter (NOM), in an effort to provide a comprehensive investigation of the stability of SiO2-ENPs in complex environmental conditions. Results show that NOM adsorbed to the particles and made their zeta potential more negative, hence stabilizing them by electrostatic repulsion, and the stability of nano-SiO2 in NOM solutions follows the order of pH 9 > pH 7 > pH 5. In addition, SiO2-ENPs size in solutions with humic acid (HA) was larger than that with fulvic acid (FA). The aggregation of SiO2-ENPs enhanced with the increase of cation concentrations, and divalent cations (Ca2+) show stronger influence on SiO2-ENPs aggregate than monovalent cations. Divalent cations partially neutralized the adsorbed organic matter, and aggregation was enhanced with Ca2+, suggesting the presence of specific Ca2+-NOM bridges. The aggregation of SiO2-ENPs in electrolyte (CaCl2 or NaCl) and CaCl2 + NOM solutions follows in the order of pH 5~pH 9 > pH 7, showing that weakly acidic or alkaline conditions are not favorable for the stability of SiO2-ENPs in complex environmental systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Batteries and supercapacitors are critical devices for electrical energy storage with wide applications from portable electronics to transportation and grid. However, rechargeable batteries are typically limited in power density, while supercapacitors suffer low energy density. Here, a novel symmetric Na-ion pseudocapacitor with a power density exceeding 5.4 kW kg−1 at 11.7 A g−1, a cycling life retention of 64.5% after 10 000 cycles at 1.17 A g−1, and an energy density of 26 Wh kg−1 at 0.585 A g−1 is reported. Such a device operates on redox reactions occurring on both electrodes with an identical active material, viz., Na3V2(PO4)3 encapsulated inside nanoporous carbon. This device, in a full-cell scale utilizing highly reversible and high-rate Na-ion intercalational pseudocapacitance, can bridge the performance gap between batteries and supercapacitors. The characteristics of the device and the potentially low-cost production make it attractive for hybrid electric vehicles and low-maintenance energy storage systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An 8‐week experiment was performed to investigate the effects of BBR on growth performance, hepatic glucose metabolism, antioxidant capacity, liver histology and intestinal digestive enzyme activity of largemouth bass. Fish (initial weight ≈122 g) were randomly allocated into 16 cages (280 L, 30 fish per tank) and fed four isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets containing 0, 0.5, 1 and 2 g/kg BBR respectively. The results indicated that diets with 1 and 2 g/kg BBR significantly promoted growth, decreased serum glucose, triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC) and low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol but increased serum high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (p < 0.05). The application of BBR significantly decreased hepatic alanine aminotransferase, TG and TC but increased hepatic superoxide dismutase and catalase (p < 0.05). Diets with 1 and 2 g/kg BBR significantly decreased hepatic malondialdehyde, aspartate aminotransferase and hepatic glycogen but increased intestinal farnesoid X receptor and fibroblast growth factor‐19 expression and dramatically altered its downstream glycolysis‐ and gluconeogenesis‐related genes, along with their enzyme activities (p < 0.05). Supplementation with BBR increased (p < 0.05) intestinal protease activity in B5, B10 and B20, lipase activity in B10 and B20 and amylase activity in B20. BBR reduced the liver voiding rate and fat content. These results indicated that dietary supplementation with BBR at 1 and 2 g/kg was beneficial for promoting growth and health in largemouth bass. The improved glycolysis and inhibited gluconeogenesis may account for the reduced hyperglycaemia by BBR. In addition, enhancing the activity of intestinal digestive enzymes is an effective way for BBR to improve carbohydrate utilization in largemouth bass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fatty liver, characterized by excessive lipid droplet (LD) accumulation in hepatocytes, is a common physiological condition in humans and aquaculture species. Lipid mobilization is an important strategy for modulating the number and size of cellular LDs. Cyclooxygenase (COX)-mediated arachidonic acid derivatives are known to improve lipid catabolism in fish; however, the specific derivatives remain unknown. In the present study, we showed that serum starvation induced LD degradation via autophagy, lipolysis, and mitochondrial energy production in zebrafish hepatocytes, accompanied by activation of the COX pathway. The cellular concentration of PGF2α, but not other prostaglandins, was significantly increased. Administration of a COX inhibitor or interference with PGF2α synthase abolished serum deprivation-induced LD suppression, LD–lysosome colocalization, and expression of autophagic genes. Additionally, exogenous PGF2α suppressed the accumulation of LDs, promoted the accumulation of lysosomes with LD and the autophagy marker protein LC3A/B, and augmented the expression of autophagic genes. Moreover, PGF2α enhanced mitochondrial accumulation and ATP production, and increased the transcript levels of β-oxidation- and mitochondrial respiratory chain-related genes. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that the COX pathway is implicated in lipid degradation induced by energy deprivation, and that PGF2α is a key molecule triggering autophagy, lipolysis, and mitochondrial development in zebrafish hepatocytes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary objective of knowledge tracing (KT) is to trace learners' changing knowledge states and predict their future performance by analyzing their learning trajectories. One of the fundamental assumptions underpinning KT is that estimating knowledge states is roughly equivalent to predicting future performance. However, this assumption has not been extensively explored in most studies, particularly in relation to the consistency between observable performance and latent knowledge state. To address this challenge, we propose a novel response speed enhanced fine-grained knowledge tracing (FKT) method. FKT leverages response speed through response time and integrates speed prediction as an additional task within a multi-task learning framework. Through this framework, FKT can separate representations of different knowledge state in the feature space, thereby facilitating fine-grained knowledge tracing. Moreover, we divide the task of predicting learner performance into three procedures: obtaining historical knowledge state, inferring future latent traits, and forecasting future performance. To this end, we formalize each learner's response interaction as a time cell and develop an encoder–decoder–predictor framework for KT. To enhance the accuracy of performance prediction, we introduce a time-distance attention mechanism and knowledge proficiency component and provide two multi-task objective functions. Our experimental results on four real-world datasets demonstrate the superiority of future performance prediction and good interpretability of FKT. • We propose two steps of consistency between performance and knowledge state in KT. • We add an extra response speed prediction task for KT with multi-task learning. • We design and optimize an encoder–decoder–predictor framework for KT. • We use a time-distance attention mechanism to mine association between time cells. • We use time sequence features to simulate knowledge proficiency during learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Broad bean imparted a "crispiness" to the texture of grass carp muscle. • We identified key volatile compounds in grass carp fed on broad bean. • Amino acids, phospholipids and nucleotides were the key differential metabolites. • A metabolic network map associated with flavor and taste formation was examined. Broad bean (Vicia faba L.) has received particular attention with regards to the improvement of flesh meat quality. However, the effect of broad bean diet on structure, flavor and taste of flesh meat is unclear. In present study, E-nose, E-tongue, TPA, HS-SPME-GC-MS, and LC–MS were used to characterize the structure, flavor and taste of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) fed with broad bean. Overall, broad bean significantly improved the texture of grass carp muscle, but reduced the overall taste and flavor. The 50 volatile compounds were detected using HS-SPME-GC-MS. The 252 differential metabolites were identified by LC-MS, of which 107 were up-regulated and 145 were down-regulated. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis demonstrated this reduction in taste and flavor was associated with the metabolism of amino acids, lipids and nucleotides. Our findings provide a theoretical basis for improving meat quality and the functional applications of broad bean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Blocking PD-L1 promotes pathogenic Th17 cell infiltration and activation in the liver, and exacerbate liver fibrosis. • IL-17A-neutralizing antibody combined with anti-PD-L1 antibody treatment inhibited hepatocellular carcinoma tumor growth and demonstrated significant anti-tumor efficacy in mice. • IL-17A/STAT3 signaling pathway upregulates PD-L1 expression. Understanding the mechanisms of resistance of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) to targeted therapies and immune checkpoint blockade is critical for the development of new combination therapies and improving patient survival. Here, we found that in HCC, anti-programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 (PD-L1) therapy reduces liver cancer growth, but the tumors eventually become resistant to continued therapy. Experimental analyses shows that the infiltration of pathogenic T helper 17 (pTh17) cells increases in drug-resistant HCC, and pTh17 cells secrete interleukin-17A (IL-17A), which promotes the expression of PD-L1 on the surface of HCC cells and produces resistance to anti-PD-L1 therapy. Anti-IL-17A combined with PD-L1 blockade significantly increased the infiltration of cytotoxic CD8+ T cells expressing high levels of interferon-γ and reduced treatment resistance in HCC. These results support the combination of anti-PD-L1 and anti-IL-17A as a novel strategy to induce effective T cell-mediated anti-tumor immune responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel confidence-aware recommender model (CARM) is proposed with representation learning. • The interactively of review is revealed to describe the interaction between user and item. • The robustness of the proposed model is verified by extensive experiments. The recommendation systems in the online platforms often suffer from the rating data sparseness and information overload issues. Previous studies on this topic often leverage review information to construct an accurate user/item latent factor. To address this issue, we propose a novel confidence-aware recommender model via review representation learning and historical rating behavior in this article. It is motived that ratings are consistent with reviews in terms of user preferences, and reviews often contain misleading comments (e.g., fake good reviews, fake bad reviews). To this end, the interaction latent factor of user and item in the framework is constructed by exploiting review information interactivity. Then, the confidence matrix, which measures the relationship between the rating outliers and misleading reviews, is employed to further improve the model accuracy and reduce the impact of misleading reviews on the model. Furthermore, the loss function is constructed by maximum a posteriori estimation theory. Finally, the mini-batch gradient descent algorithm is introduced to optimize the loss function. Experiments conducted on four real-world datasets empirically demonstrate that our proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art methods. The proposed method also further promotes the application in learning resource adaptation. The source Python code will be available upon request. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Submerged vegetation is essential for maintaining a clear water state in shallow lakes. To determine the optimal submerged macrophyte coverage required to improve water quality, field investigations and a simulation experiment were carried out in a sub-lake of Baiyangdian Lake, China. The effects of two seasons and five submerged macrophyte coverage gradients (0 [C-0], 25 [C-25], 50 [C-50], 75 [C-75], and 90% [C-90]) were examined in the field study, while the five submerged macrophyte coverage gradients were examined in an 80-day simulation experiment. In the field study, plant coverage, season, and their interaction all had a significant effect on most physicochemical parameters. Compared with C-0, the Secchi depth and pH of the water were higher, while the total nitrogen and total phosphorus concentrations were lower when submerged vegetation was present. Lowest values of total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and conductivity all appeared under C-50. Meanwhile, in the simulation experiment, the total nitrogen content decreased by 76.43, 90.98, 88.28 and 84.32%, and the total phosphorus content decreased by 85.15, 88.48, 87.76 and 79.00% at C-25, C-50, C-75 and C-90 compared with C-0, respectively. Moreover, plant coverage and time had a significant effect on all eight physiochemical parameters. There were no significant differences in the total nitrogen content among C-50, C-75 and C-90, but values were significantly lower than at C-0 and C-25. In contrast, the total phosphorus content was significantly higher at C-0 than all other groups, and the lowest value was observed at C-50. Overall, these findings suggest that 50% is the optimal submerged macrophyte coverage for improvements in water quality in temperate shallow lakes. • Field and simulation results suggest that submerged macrophytes improve water quality. • Coverage affected the physicochemistry of the water in the field and simulation. • Submerged macrophyte coverage of 50% was optimal. • Above 50% coverage, no further improvements in water quality were observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mechanism underlying the efficacy of different bile acids (BAs) as feed additives to prevent or treat fatty liver disease in cultured fish remains poorly understood. This study compared the effect of different types of BAs on farnesoid X receptor (FXR) activity and lipid accumulation in grass carp. A survey revealed that grass carp (608.24 ± 17.511 g) with severe fatty liver had impaired FXR activity and increased liver total bile acids (TBA) content. In an in vitro study, four typical BAs, chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA), cholic acid (CA), lithocholic acid (LCA), and deoxycholic acid (DCA), were found to significantly upregulate the expression of FXR and small heterodimer partner (SHP) and decreased lipid droplet accumulation in the hepatocytes of grass carp. Among these, DCA and CDCA exerted the most significant effects. In an in vivo study, grass carp (6.29 ± 0.05 g) were fed 100 mg/kg CDCA, CA, LCA, and DCA for 8 weeks; DCA alone significantly reduced lipid content in the liver and total cholesterol (T-CHO), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL C) content in the serum. In addition, DCA improved the lipid catabolic activity, inhibited the lipid anabolic activity, and alleviated inflammation in the liver. In contrast, LCA, CDCA, and CA had the opposite effect on these indices. Mechanistically, DCA had a dominant impact on activating FXR in the liver, whereas the other BAs either inhibited gut FXR activity or had the risk in damaging liver cells. In conclusion, our results suggest that different BAs have varying effects on regulating fat accumulation, and DCA appears to be a particularly effective BA in suppressing fat accumulation via FXR pathway activation in the liver of grass crap. • Liver fat accumulation accompanied by impaired FXR activity and increased BA content in the liver of grass carp. • BAs (CA, CDCA, LCA, and DCA) can activate FXR activity and reduce lipid droplets in grass carp hepatocytes. • Only dietary DCA depresses the hepatic lipid accumulation in vivo. • Dietary DCA activates FXR activity in the liver but not in the gut. • Gut FXR trends to be more effective in controlling fat accumulation than liver FXR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aerobic denitrification is the key process in the elimination of nitrogen from aquaculture wastewater, especially for wastewater with high dissolved oxygen and low carbon/nitrogen (C/N) ratio. However, a low C/N ratio, especially in low-temperature environments, restricts the activity of aerobic denitrifiers and decreases the nitrogen elimination efficiency. In this study, an iron-based multi-solid carbon source composite that immobilized aerobic denitrifying bacteria ZS1 (IMCSCP) was synthesized to treat aerobic (DO > 5 mg/L), low temperature (<15 °C) and low C/N ratio (C/N = 4) aquaculture wastewater. The results showed that the sequencing batch biofilm reactor (SBBR) packed with IMCSCP exhibited the highest nitrogen removal performance, with removal rates of 95.63% and 85.44% for nitrate nitrogen and total nitrogen, respectively, which were 33.03% and 30.75% higher than those in the reactor filled with multi-solid carbon source composite (MCSC). Microbial community and network analysis showed that Pseudomonas furukawaii ZS1 successfully colonized the SBBR filled with IMCSCP, and Exiguobacterium, Cellulomonas and Pseudomonas were essential for the nitrogen elimination. Metagenomic analysis showed that an increase in gene abundance related to carbon metabolism, nitrogen metabolism, extracellular polymer substance synthesis and electron transfer in the IMCSCP, enabling denitrification in the SBBR to be achieved via multiple pathways. The results of this study provided new insights into the microbial removal mechanism of nitrogen in SBBR packed with IMCSCP at low temperatures. [Display omitted] • The SBBR packed with IMCSCP exhibited the best N removal performance at low temperature. • Acidovorax is the key iron based autotrophic denitrification bacteria. • Genes related to carbon metabolism, EPS synthesis and electron transfer were upregulated. • The narGHI , napAB and nirBD genes were stimulated leading to NO 3 −-N directly removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Heat stress lowered growth performance, the contents of whole-body lipid, muscle protein and lipid in Nile tilapia. • Heat stress decreased antioxidant status and increased lipid and protein oxidation in fish muscle. • Heat stress induced apoptosis by modulating the expressions of apoptosis-related genes. • Heat stress affected amino acids, fatty acids, and nucleotide metabolism, lowering flavor and nutritional value. The present study investigated the effects of chronic heat stress (HS) on the chemical composition, oxidative stability, muscle metabolism, and meat quality of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). Compared with the control (26 °C), chronic HS (32 °C) lowered growth performance, the contents of whole-body lipid, muscle protein, and muscle lipid. Also, HS significantly increased the contents of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and decreased antioxidative status, causing a decline in meat quality, including increased lipid and protein oxidation, the centrifugal water loss, and cooking loss as well as decreased the fragmentation index and pH at 24 h, which may be attributed to induced apoptosis by excessive ROS in Nile tilapia meat. Moreover, metabolomic analysis showed HS lowered flavor and nutritional value by affecting amino acid, lipid, and nucleotide metabolism. These results reveal that HS adversely affects oxidative stability, meat quality, flavor, and nutrition, warranting its recognition and prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extensins (EXTs) are major protein components in plant cell walls that play crucial roles in higher plants. The function of EXTs has been reported in several plants but is limited in tomato, especially in fruit ripening. In this study, we identified 83 EXTs in tomato, and divided them into seven groups. The gene intron-exon structure and protein-motif composition of SlEXTs were similar within each group but different among groups. SlEXT genes showed different expression patterns in roots, leaves, flowers and fruits, and some SlEXT gene expressions in flowers could be regulated by treatments of auxin, gibberellic acid and jasmonic acid. In particular, SlSEXT8 had higher and increased expression during tomato fruit ripening, and its expression could be induced by ethylene, suggesting SlSEXT8 may be involved in tomato fruit softening. The result provides insights into the function of EXTs, and will facilitate to further study EXT roles in tomato fruit ripening. • Eighty-three extensins in tomato were identified by genome-wide identification. • Extensins have different expressions in tomato organs and by hormone treatments. • Some extensins may be involved in fruit softening as high expression in ripe fruits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-substrates were developed to control pollution created in pond-based intensive aquaculture. In this study, organic carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus budgets and concentrations were quantified to determine if restoring eco-substrate is an effective method to reverse the effects of pollution. The experiment was performed in 1.0 hm2 ponds with and without the addition of eco-substrate, i.e. treatment and control groups, respectively. Results showed that eco-substrate significantly reduced ammonia nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, total organic carbon, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus in the water of intensive aquaculture ponds (P <.05). The water accumulation of organic carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in the treatment group was significantly lower than that in the control group water (P <.05), as was the sediment accumulation of organic carbon and nitrogen (P <.05); no significant difference was found in the sediment accumulation of phosphorus (P >.05). The utilization efficiency of organic carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus of the eco-substrate group was significantly higher than that of the control group (P <.05). Therefore, eco-substrate could significantly improve water quality, reduce nutrient accumulation, and improve the utilization efficiency of nutrients. Nonetheless, China's large aquaculture industry emits 4.19 × 105 tons of organic carbon, 2.79 × 105 tons of nitrogen, and 2.89 × 104 tons of phosphorus annually. Thus, additional studies are necessary to improve treatment methods for large-scale aquaculture effluents. • The eco-substrate improved the yield and water quality significantly. • The eco-substrate significantly reduced the accumulation of organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in the pond. • Utilization efficiency of organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in the eco-substrate ponds were improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract. Persistent urban-rural disparity in subjective health and quality of life is a growing concern for healthcare systems across the world. In general, urban population performs better on most health indicators compared with their rural counterparts. However, research evidence on the urban-rural disparity on perceived health, happiness, and quality of life among the young adult population is scarce in South American countries like Guyana. Therefore, in the present study we aimed to investigate whether subjective health, happiness, and quality of life differ according to place of residence among the young adult population in Guyana. Methods. Cross-sectional data on 2,434 men and women aging between 15 and 24 years were collected from the most recent Guyana Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey conducted in 2014. Outcome variables were perceived: satisfaction about health, life, and happiness, as well as life satisfaction before and after one year from the time of the survey. The urban-rural disparity in reporting satisfaction for these indicators was assessed by multivariate regression methods and by adjusting for relevant sociodemographic factors. Results. More than four-fifth of the respondents reported satisfaction with health (82.4%) and life (81.4%) and 77.9% reported being happy. A vast majority expressed improvement in life situation compared with a year ago (81.4%), and nearly all of the participants (95.4%) expect to have better life situation a year later. Multivariate analysis revealed an inverse association between rural residence and subjective health among men [OR = 0.518, 95%CI = 0.297, 0.901], and happiness [OR = 0.662, 95%CI = 0.381, 0.845] and life satisfaction [OR = 3.722, 95%CI = 1.502, 9.227] among women. Women having secondary [OR = 2.219, 95%CI = 1.209, 3.720] and higher [OR = 1.600, 95%CI = 1.041, 3.302] education also had higher odds of satisfaction with happiness. Conclusions. Our findings demonstrate the existence of significant urban–rural disparities in perceived health and quality of life among the young adult population in Guyana, especially among women. National health promotion projects should therefore take proper policy actions to address the underlying factors contributing to the urban–rural gaps in order to establish a more equitable healthcare system. Further researches are necessary to explore the underlying causes behind such disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important regulatory roles in numerous biological processes, but there is no report on miRNAs of hybrid snakehead. In this study, four independent small RNA libraries were constructed from the spleen, liver kidney and muscle of hybrid snakehead. These libraries were sequenced using deep sequencing technology, as result, a total of 1,067,172, 1,152,002, 1,653,941 and 970,866 clean reads from these four libraries were obtained. 252 known miRNAs and 63 putative novel miRNAs in these small RNA dataset were identified. The stem-loop RT-qPCR analysis indicated that eight known miRNAs and two novel miRNAs show different expression in eight different kinds of tissues. For better understanding the functions of miRNAs, 95,947 predicated target genes were analyzed by GO and their pathways, the results indicated that these targets of the identified miRNAs are involved in a broad range of physiological functions. • A total of 252 known miRNAs belonging to 97 miRNA families and 63 predicted novel miRNAs were identified from four tissues of hybird snakehead by deep sequencing approach. Among them, 175 miRNAs showed co-expressed in all four tissues. • Selected ten differential expression miRNAs of hybird snakehead were determined by Stem-loop RT-qPCR, which showed differential expression patterns from eight different tissues. • 95,947 potential targets were predicted and these target genes were analysis by GO and KEGG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Feeding grass carp with faba bean conferred them with "crisp" muscle texture. • "Crisp" grass carp muscle is characterized by substantial protein N -glycosylation. • N -glycosylated proteins participate in myogenesis, muscle function, & ECM formation. • N -glycosylation regulation is independent with phosphorylation regulation and protein expression. • These findings lay a foundation for optimizing fish fillet texture & quality. Post-translational protein modification affects muscle physiochemistry. To understand the roles of N- glycosylation in this process, the muscle N- glycoproteomes of crisp grass carp (CGC) and ordinary grass carp (GC) were analyzed and compared. We identified 325 N- glycosylated sites with the NxT motif, classified 177 proteins, and identified 10 upregulated and 19 downregulated differentially glycosylated proteins (DGPs). Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes annotations revealed that these DGPs participate in myogenesis, extracellular matrix content formation, and muscle function. The DGPs partially accounted for the molecular mechanisms associated with the relatively smaller fiber diameter and higher collagen content observed in CGC. Though the DGPs diverged from the identified differentially phosphorylated proteins and differentially expressed proteins detected in previous study, they all shared similar metabolic and signaling pathways. Thus, they might independently alter fish muscle texture. Overall, the present study provides novel insights into the mechanisms underlying fillet quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]