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Aim Materials and Methods Results Conclusions To identify an optimized strategy for the large‐scale production of nanovesicles (NVs) that preserve the biological properties of exosomes (EXOs) for use in periodontal regeneration.NVs from dental follicle stem cells (DFSCs) were prepared through extrusion, and EXOs from DFSCs were isolated. The yield of both extruded NVs (eNVs) and EXOs were quantified through protein concentration and particle number analyses. Their pro‐migration, pro‐proliferation and pro‐osteogenesis capacities were compared subsequently in vitro. Additionally, proteomics analysis was conducted. To further evaluate the periodontal regeneration potential of eNVs and EXOs, they were incorporated into collagen sponges and transplanted into periodontal defects in rats. In vivo imaging and H&E staining were utilized to verify their biodistribution and safety. Micro‐Computed Tomography analysis and histological staining were performed to examine the regeneration of periodontal tissues.The yield of eNVs was nearly 40 times higher than that of EXOs. Interestingly, in vitro experiments indicated that the pro‐migration and pro‐proliferation abilities of eNVs were superior, and the pro‐osteogenesis potential was comparable to EXOs. More importantly, eNVs exhibited periodontal regenerative potential similar to that of EXOs.Extrusion has proven to be an efficient method for generating numerous eNVs with the potential to replace EXOs in periodontal regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dietary trans 10, cis 12-conjugated linoleic acid (t10c12-CLA) is a potential candidate in anti-obesity trials. A transgenic mouse was previously successfully established to determine the anti-obesity properties of t10c12-CLA in male mice that could produce endogenous t10c12-CLA. To test whether there is a different impact of t10c12-CLA on lipid metabolism in both sexes, this study investigated the adiposity and metabolic profiles of female Pai mice that exhibited a dose-dependent expression of foreign Pai gene and a shift of t10c12-CLA content in tested tissues. Compared to their gender-match wild-type littermates, Pai mice had no fat reduction but exhibited enhanced lipolysis and thermogenesis by phosphorylated hormone-sensitive lipase and up-regulating uncoupling proteins in brown adipose tissue. Simultaneously, Pai mice showed hepatic steatosis and hypertriglyceridemia by decreasing gene expression involved in lipid and glucose metabolism. Further investigations revealed that t10c10-CLA induced excessive prostaglandin E2, adrenaline, corticosterone, glucagon and inflammatory factors in a dose-dependent manner, resulting in less heat release and oxygen consumption in Pai mice. Moreover, fibroblast growth factor 21 overproduction only in monoallelic Pai/wt mice indicates that it was sensitive to low doses of t10c12-CLA. These results suggest that chronic t10c12-CLA has system-wide effects on female health via synergistic actions of various hormones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem which is concerned with filter-based neural control for switched uncertain nonlinear systems with incomplete measurement is studied in this paper. Filters are used to estimate unknown states, while neural networks approximate unknown functions. Data loss, saturation and other problems often occur during data transmission. An appropriate control law is designed by a backstepping method to solve this problem. Through using the average dwell time, it is proved that the switching system tends to be stable in a certain time. The analysis of probabilistic stability is also carried out to ensure that the system can achieve uniformly ultimately boundedness. Finally, the effectiveness of the previous design is proved by simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD), a major microvascular complication of diabetes, is characterized by its complex pathogenesis, high risk of chronic renal failure, and lack of effective diagnosis and treatment methods. GSK3β (glycogen synthase kinase 3β), a highly conserved threonine/serine kinase, was found to activate glycogen synthase. As a key molecule of the glucose metabolism pathway, GSK3β participates in a variety of cellular activities and plays a pivotal role in multiple diseases. However, these effects are not only mediated by affecting glucose metabolism. This review elaborates on the role of GSK3β in DKD and its damage mechanism in different intrinsic renal cells. GSK3β is also a biomarker indicating the progression of DKD. Finally, the protective effects of GSK3β inhibitors on DKD are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing penetration of wind and solar energies, the accompanying uncertainty that propagates in the system places higher requirements on the expansion planning of power systems. A source-grid-load-storage coordinated expansion planning model based on stochastic programming was proposed to suppress the impact of wind and solar energy fluctuations. Multiple types of system components, including demand response service entities, converter stations, DC transmission systems, cascade hydropower stations, and other traditional components, have been extensively modeled. Moreover, energy storage systems are considered to improve the accommodation level of renewable energy and alleviate the influence of intermittence. Demand-response service entities from the load side are used to reduce and move the demand during peak load periods. The uncertainties in wind, solar energy, and loads were simulated using stochastic programming. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed model is verified through numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi‐resonance thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR‐TADF) emitters with narrow emission spectra have garnered significant attention in future organic light‐emitting diode (OLED) displays. However, current C=O/N‐embedded MR‐TADF systems still lack satisfactory performance in terms of electroluminescence bandwidths and external quantum efficiencies (EQEs). In this study, a C=O/N‐embedded green MR‐TADF emitter, featuring two acridone units incorporated in a sterically protected 11‐ring fused core skeleton, is successfully synthesized through finely controlling the reaction selectivity. The superior combination of multiple intramolecular fusion and steric wrapping strategies in the design of the emitter not only imparts an extremely narrow emission spectrum and a high fluorescence quantum yield to the emitter but also mitigates aggregation‐induced spectral broadening and fluorescence quenching. Therefore, the emitter exhibits leading green OLED performance among C=O/N‐based MR‐TADF systems, achieving an EQE of up to 37.2 %, a full width at half maximum of merely 0.11 eV (24 nm), and a Commission Internationale de l′Éclairage coordinate of (0.20, 0.73). This study marks a significant advance in the realization of ideal C=O/N‐based MR‐TADF emitters and holds profound implications for the design and synthesis of other MR‐TADF systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi‐resonance thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR‐TADF) emitters with narrow emission spectra have garnered significant attention in future organic light‐emitting diode (OLED) displays. However, current C=O/N‐embedded MR‐TADF systems still lack satisfactory performance in terms of electroluminescence bandwidths and external quantum efficiencies (EQEs). In this study, a C=O/N‐embedded green MR‐TADF emitter, featuring two acridone units incorporated in a sterically protected 11‐ring fused core skeleton, is successfully synthesized through finely controlling the reaction selectivity. The superior combination of multiple intramolecular fusion and steric wrapping strategies in the design of the emitter not only imparts an extremely narrow emission spectrum and a high fluorescence quantum yield to the emitter but also mitigates aggregation‐induced spectral broadening and fluorescence quenching. Therefore, the emitter exhibits leading green OLED performance among C=O/N‐based MR‐TADF systems, achieving an EQE of up to 37.2 %, a full width at half maximum of merely 0.11 eV (24 nm), and a Commission Internationale de l′Éclairage coordinate of (0.20, 0.73). This study marks a significant advance in the realization of ideal C=O/N‐based MR‐TADF emitters and holds profound implications for the design and synthesis of other MR‐TADF systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, a novel organic transformation involving rhodium-catalyzed divergent dehydroxylation/alkenylation of hydroxyisoindolinone with vinylene carbonate is reported, and a series of architecturally rigid and widely used spirolactams are obtained with excellent functional group tolerance and high selectivity. Remarkably, the promising vinylene carbonate reagent presents a distinct chemical reactivity as a vinyl-oxygen cyclic synthon and first transfers the C–H bond to spiroheterocycle scaffolds. Moreover, another chemoselectivity, direct dehydrogenative coupling with vinylene carbonate, is also presented. This protocol is compatible with green chemistry and only releases H2O and CO2 as byproducts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glycolysis has a major role in cancer progression and can affect the tumor immune microenvironment, while its specific role in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) remains poorly studied. We obtained publicly available data from The Cancer Genome Atlas and Gene Expression Omnibus databases and used R software to analyze the specific role of glycolysis in LUAD. The Single Sample Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (ssGSEA) indicated a correlation between glycolysis and unfavorable clinical outcome, as well as a repression effect on the immunotherapy response of LUAD patients. Pathway enrichment analysis revealed a significant enrichment of MYC targets, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), hypoxia, G2M checkpoint, and mTORC1 signaling pathways in patients with higher activity of glycolysis. Immune infiltration analysis showed a higher infiltration of M0 and M1 macrophages in patients with elevated activity of glycolysis. Moreover, we developed a prognosis model based on six glycolysis-related genes, including DLGAP5, TOP2A, KIF20A, OIP5, HJURP, and ANLN. Both the training and validation cohorts demonstrated the high efficiency of prognostic prediction in this model, which identified that patients with high risk may have a poorer prognosis and lower sensitivity to immunotherapy. Additionally, we also found that Th2 cell infiltration may predict poorer survival and resistance to immunotherapy. The study indicated that glycolysis is significantly associated with poor prognosis in patients with LUAD and immunotherapy resistance, which might be partly dependent on the Th2 cell infiltration. Additionally, the signature comprised of six genes related to glycolysis showed promising predictive value for LUAD prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Siniperca undulata and S. obscura (Centrarchiformes: Sinipercidae) are small Chinese perches, living in creeks and streams in southern China. While they have sympatric distribution and occupy similar macrohabitat, their body sizes and ecological niches have many differences. Determining the genome sequences of S. undulata and S. obscura would provide us an essential data set for better understanding their genetic makeup and differences that may play important roles in their adaptation to different niches. We determined the genome sequences of both S. undulata and S. obscura using 10× genomics technology and the next-generation sequencing. The assembled genomes of S. undulata and S. obscura were 744 and 733 Mb, respectively. Gene family analysis revealed that there were no overlap between S. undulata and S. obscura in terms of rapid expanding and rapid contracting genes families, which were related to growth, immunity, and mobility. Positive selection analyses also cooperated that the function of selected genes involve growth, athletic ability, and immunity, which may explain the preference of different niches by S. undulata and S. obscura. Pairwise sequentially Markovian coalescent analyses for the two species suggested that populations of both S. undulata and S. obscura showed a rising trend between 90 and 70 Ka probably due to the mild environment during the last interglacial period. A stage of population shrinking occurred from 70 to 20 Ka, which was in with the Tali glacial period in eastern China (57-16 Ka). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mixed electronic and oxide ionic conduction was enabled in digermanate-type La2−xCaxGe2O7−x/2 containing Ge3O10 chains and isolated GeO4 units by substitution of La3+ with Ca2+. The structure and solid solution limit of Ca doped La2Ge2O7 were studied by systematic experiments, including rotation electron diffraction (RED), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and neutron powder diffraction (NPD) experiments, etc. The preferred occupation of Ca2+ and oxygen vacancies was investigated by Rietveld analysis of the NPD data. The obtained conducting material La1.925Ca0.075Ge2O6.963 exhibits superior thermal stability and an order of magnitude improvement in conductivity compared to the parent La2Ge2O7 (∼9 × 10−5 S cm−1 at 1000 °C). BVEL calculations reveal that the oxygen vacancies were stabilized and transported within the framework of La2Ge2O7 by sharing oxygen and oxygen exchange between the adjacent Ge3O10 chains and GeO4 units, exhibiting a three-dimensional oxide ion transport nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This cross-sectional study examined the levels of self-stigma, hope, and family functioning among Chinese people with mental illness (MI). We also investigated the mediating role of family functioning in the relationship between self-stigma and hope. Method: Three-hundred thirty participants with MI (Mage = 42.73, SD = 14.11, 52.09% female, 61.74% schizophrenia) were surveyed. Hayes' PROCESS macro analysis (Model 4) was performed to verify the mediating effect. Results: The analysis revealed that 43.1% of the respondents had a high level of self-stigma, 68.5% indicated a low/moderate level of hope, and 54% had moderate/severe impairment in family functioning. This supports the partial mediating effect of family functioning on the relationship between self-stigma and hope. Conclusions: The self-stigmatizing experiences of Chinese people with MI adversely impair normal family functioning and reduce hope, limiting recovery prospects. Relevant results highlight the influence of the family environment on the psychological mechanisms of PMI. Limitations and future research directions are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the effects of heavy ion irradiation is significant for materials and devices applied in the field of nuclear radiation detection. In this paper, the relationship between heavy ions (20 MeV Cl) and electric performance in CdZnTe crystals has been investigated. A damage layer is introduced 6 μm below the CdZnTe crystal surface and dominated by donor defects according to the SRIM (stopping and range of ions in matter) calculation and Hall effect results. The current–voltage (I–V) is asymmetrical, which is attributed to the n+/n homojunction formed by the damage layer. The barrier height of the homojunction increases from 0.845 to 0.946 eV with radiation fluence. For low irradiation fluences, the I–V curves follow the Schottky emission model at a bias of 0–100 V because of barrier lowering due to the applied field and the image force. When the irradiation fluence is greater than 2.5 × 1012 n cm−2, the increasing leakage current after 40 V voltage conforms to the Poole–Frenkel (PF) effect caused by deep traps. The carrier mobility largely decreases from ∼1100 cm2 V−1 s−1 to 267–658 cm2 V−1 s−1 due to the scattering of ionized impurities. The energy resolving capability of γ-rays deteriorates from ∼8% to 15.3–26.8% by the trapping effect. The photopeak of the γ spectrum could not be recognized when the fluence reached 1.4 × 1013 n cm−2. This work provides important irradiation protection reference data for CdZnTe devices in various high-fluence application fields, such as industrial monitoring and nuclear spectroscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a new type of flexible retaining structure, reinforced soil retaining wall is widely used in civil engineering and highway engineering because of good seismic performance and economy. The residual displacement under seism is one of the most important parameters to evaluate the seismic performance of reinforced soil retaining wall. The related theoretical research is rare. Taking the pseudo-dynamic method and kinematic differential equation as the theoretical basis, considering the residual deformation under large magnitude, a theoretical method is proposed to calculate the residual displacement of reinforced soil retaining wall under seismic. The rationality and accuracy of the theoretical method is verified by centrifuge model test. The results would provide some reference for the performance design and damage evaluation of reinforced soil retaining wall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless Sensor Networks are booming with the development of computer technology, network communication technology, and sensor technology. However, the question of how to use fewer nodes to achieve maximum coverage still exists. In this paper, a two-layer Surrogate-Assisted Phasmatodea Population Evolution (SAPPE) is proposed for 3D coverage of wireless sensors by combining the characteristics of meta-heuristic algorithms and surrogate models. In this algorithm, Radial Basis Function Networks are used to construct the surrogate model, and the two surrogate models are global surrogate-assisted and local surrogate-assisted, respectively. The global-surrogate model is used to smooth the fitness function, and the local surrogate-assisted model is used to find the optimal value accurately. They use the same archive DataBase (DB) to store particle positions and true fitness values. However, the number of particles involved in the creation of the surrogate-assisted model is different. Seven benchmark functions are used to test and analyze the algorithm, and the results show that the algorithm has good performance. Also, the algorithm verified the significance of the algorithm using Wilcoxon rank test. The result shows that the proposed algorithm is effective compared with PPE, PSO, PPSO, FMO, and BA. This paper compares the number of nodes and coverage radius using different algorithms to ensure maximum coverage. The result shows that the SAPPE algorithm has better performance in terms of 3D coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of big data, there are numerous duplicate code snippets on the Internet, it is especially necessary to make use of them to build new software projects. In this paper, we present a toolkit (KG4Py) for generating a knowledge graph of Python files in GitHub repositories and conducting semantic search with the knowledge graph. In KG4Py, we remove all duplicate files in 317 K Python files and perform static code analyses of these files by using a concrete syntax tree (CST) to build a code knowledge graph of Python functions. We integrate a pre-trained model with an unsupervised model to generate a new model, and combine this new model with a code knowledge graph for the purpose of searching code snippets with natural language descriptions. The experimental results show that KG4Py achieves good performance in both the construction of the code knowledge graph and the semantic search of code snippets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective phage cocktails consisting of multiple virus types are essential for successful phage therapy against pandrug-resistant pathogens, including Salmonella enterica serovar (S.) Typhimurium. Here we show that a Salmonella phage, F118P13, with non-productive infection and a lytic phage, PLL1, combined to inhibit pandrug-resistant S. Typhimurium growth and significantly limited resistance to phages in vitro. Further, intraperitoneal injection with this unique phage combination completely protected mice from Salmonella-induced death and inhibited bacterial proliferation rapidly in various organs. Furthermore, the phage combination treatment significantly attenuated the inflammatory response, restored the generation of CD4+ T cells repressed by Salmonella, and allowed macrophages and granulocytes to participate in immunophage synergy to promote bacterial clearance. Crucially, the non-productive phage F118P13 is less likely to be cleared by the immune system in vivo, thus providing an alternative to phage cocktail against bacterial infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lung cancer is one of the fatal cancers worldwide, and over 60% of patients are lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Our clinical data demonstrated that DNA methylation of the promoter region of miR-126-3p was upregulated, which led to the decreased expression of miR-126-3p in 67 cases of lung cancer tissues, implying that miR-126-3p acted as a tumor suppressor. Transduction of miR-126-3p is a potential therapeutic strategy for treating LUAD, yet the physiological environment and properties of miRNA challenge current transduction approaches. Methods: We evaluated the expression of miR-126-3p in 67 pairs of lung cancer tissues and the corresponding adjacent non-tumorous tissues by Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). The relationship between the overall survival of lung cancer patients and miR-126-3p was analyzed by the Cancer Genome Atlas cohort database (Oncolnc, http://www.oncolnc.org). We analyzed DNA methylation Methylation-specific PCR (MSP) analysis. To determine whether ADAM9 is the direct target of miR-126-3p, we performed the 3′-UTR luciferase reporter assay. The protein levels in the cells or tissues were evaluated with western blotting (WB) analysis. The biodistribution of nanoparticles were monitored by in vivo tracking system. Results: We describe the development of novel stealth and matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2)-activated biomimetic nanoparticles, which are constructed using MMP2-responsive peptides to bind the miR-126-3p (known as MAIN), and further camouflaged with red blood cell (RBC) membranes (hence named REMAIN). REMAIN was able to effectively transduce miRNA into lung cancer cells and release them via MMP2 responsiveness. Additionally, REMAIN possessed the advantages of the natural RBC membrane, including extended circulation time, lower toxicity, better biocompatibility, and immune escape. Moreover, in vitro and in vivo results demonstrated that REMAIN effectively induced apoptosis of lung cancer cells and inhibited LUAD development and progression by targeting ADAM9. Conclusion: The novel style of stealth and MMP2-activated biomimetic nanoparticles show great potential in miRNA delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Osimertinib-based therapy effectively improves the prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) patients with epidermal growth factor receptor mutations. However, patients will have cancer progression after approximately one year due to the occurrence of drug resistance. Extensive evidence has revealed that lipid metabolism and tumor-associated macrophage (TAM) are associated with drug resistance, which deserves further exploration. Methods: An osimertinib resistance index (ORi) was built to investigate the link between lipid metabolism and osimertinib resistance. The ORi was constructed and validated using TCGA and GEO data, and the relationship between ORi and immune infiltration was discussed. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis based on the M2/M1 macrophage ratio determined the hub gene TIAM2 and the biological function of TIAM2 in LUAD was verified in vitro. Results: ORi based on nine lipid metabolism-related genes was successfully constructed, which could accurately reflect the resistance of LUAD patients to osimertinib, predict the prognosis, and correlate with M2-like TAM. Additionally, TIAM2 was found to increase osimertinib tolerance, enhance cell motility, and promote M2-like TAM polarization in LUAD. Conclusions: The lipid metabolism gene is strongly connected with osimertinib resistance. TIAM2 contributes to osimertinib resistance, enhances cell motility, and induces M2-like TAM polarization in LUAD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural products (NPs) and their derivatives are important resources for drug discovery. There are many in silico target prediction methods that have been reported, however, very few of them distinguish NPs from synthetic molecules. Considering the fact that NPs and synthetic molecules are very different in many characteristics, it is necessary to build specific target prediction models of NPs. Therefore, we collected the activity data of NPs and their derivatives from the public databases and constructed four datasets, including the NP dataset, the NPs and its first-class derivatives dataset, the NPs and all its derivatives and the ChEMBL26 compounds dataset. Conditions, including activity thresholds and input features, were explored to access the performance of eight machine learning methods of target prediction of NPs, including support vector machines (SVM), extreme gradient boosting, random forests, K-nearest neighbor, naive Bayes, feedforward neural networks (FNN), convolutional neural networks and recurrent neural networks. As a result, the NPs and all their derivatives datasets were selected to build the best NP-specific models. Furthermore, the consensus models, as well as the voting models, were additionally applied to improve the prediction performance. More evaluations were made on the external validation set and the results demonstrated that (1) the NP-specific model performed better on the target prediction of NPs than the traditional models training on the whole compounds of ChEMBL26. (2) The consensus model of FNN + SVM possessed the best overall performance, and the voting model can significantly improve recall and specificity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-uniformly distributed data in unbalanced datasets have the phenomenon of data stacking and data scattering. However, most traditional metric learning algorithms often overemphasize the intra-class compactness and inter-class dispersion of data. When dealing with the typical non-uniformly distributed data, these traditional methods may distort a few classes of data in the embedding space and finally reduce the classification accuracy. To solve these problems, we propose a novel metric learning method based on constructing a uniform data hypersphere via simulated forging approach (CUDH-SF). CUDH-SF aims to achieve a uniformly distributed embedding space through conducting local forging and global forging on the original data, so that the problem of data stacking and data scattering can be more effectively alleviated. Although the uniform data hypersphere changes the absolute position of the original data, it does not change its relative relationship, that is, the geometric structure of the data can be maintained. Such data transformation is helpful to strengthen the representation ability of the input data, so that the subsequent distance-based classifiers can better construct the decision boundary. Moreover, CUDH-SF does not have the parameters needed for tuning in the validation set, which makes it easier to use. Extensive experiments on eight datasets demonstrate the better performance of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the most common histological subtype of lung cancer (LC) and one of the leading causes of cancer-related death worldwide. LUAD has a low survival rate owing to tumour invasion and metastasis. Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are precursors of distant metastasis, which are considered to adopt the characteristics of cancer stem cells (CSCs). Therefore, analysing the risk factors of LUAD from the perspective of CTCs may provide novel insights into the metastatic mechanisms and may help to develop diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.Methods: A total of 447 patients from TCGA dataset were included in the training cohort, and 460 patients from the GEO dataset were included in the validation cohort. A CTC-related-gene risk model was constructed using LASSO penalty-Cox analysis, and its predictive value was further verified. Functional enrichment analysis was performed on differentially expressed genes (DEGs), followed by immune correlation analysis based on the results. In addition, western blot, CCK-8 and colony formation assays were used to validate the biological function of RAB26 in LUAD.Results: A novel in-silico CTC-related-gene risk model, named the CTCR model, was constructed, which successfully divided patients into the high- and low-risk groups. The prognosis of the high-risk group was worse than that of the low-risk group. ROC analysis revealed that the risk model outperformed traditional clinical markers in predicting the prognosis of patients with LUAD. Further study demonstrated that the identified DEGs were significantly enriched in immune-related pathways. The immune score of the low-risk group was higher than that of the high-risk group. In addition, RAB26 was found to promote the proliferation of LUAD.Conclusion: A prognostic risk model based on CTC-related genes was successfully constructed, and the relationship between DEGs and tumour immunity was analysed. In addition, RAB26 was found to promote the proliferation of LUAD cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Pyroptosis is a form of programmed cell death, playing a significant role in cancer. Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common malignant brain tumor. The poor prognosis in GBM due to temozolomide (TMZ) resistance has been widely discussed. Such being the case, the correlation between TMZ resistance and pyroptosis is seldom investigated. On this basis, this paper aims to explore the potential prognostic value of genes related to TMZ resistance and pyroptosis as well as their relationship to the immune microenvironment in GBM. Methods. A total of 103 patients from TCGA were assigned to a training cohort; 190 from CGGA were assigned to a validation cohort. The prognostic risk model reflecting pyroptosis and TMZ resistance was built from the training cohort using multivariate Cox regression and performed validation. RT-qPCR was used to examine the expression of 4 genes from the risk signature. FOXP3 was selected for overexpression and verified using the western blot. The TMZ IC50 of FOXP3-overexpressed cell lines was determined by CCK8. Results. A four genes-based risk signature was established and validated, separating GBM patients into high- and low-risk groups. Compared with the low-risk group, the high-risk group presented worse clinical survival outcomes. Its differential expressed genes were enriched in immune-related pathways and closely related to the immune microenvironment. Moreover, RT-qPCR results suggested that FOXP3, IRF3, and CD274 were significantly upregulated in TMZ-resistant strains, while TP63 was downregulated. FOXP3-overexpressed GBM cell lines had higher TMZ IC50, implying an increased resistance of TMZ. Conclusion. A novel gene signature relevant to pyroptosis and TMZ resistance was constructed and could be used for the prognosis of GBM. The four genes from the risk model might play a potential role in antitumor immunity and serve as therapeutic targets for GBM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of big data, there are numerous duplicate code snippets on the Internet, it is especially necessary to make use of them to build new software projects. In this paper, we present a toolkit (KG4Py) for generating a knowledge graph of Python files in GitHub repositories and conducting semantic search with the knowledge graph. In KG4Py, we remove all duplicate files in 317 K Python files and perform static code analyses of these files by using a concrete syntax tree (CST) to build a code knowledge graph of Python functions. We integrate a pre-trained model with an unsupervised model to generate a new model, and combine this new model with a code knowledge graph for the purpose of searching code snippets with natural language descriptions. The experimental results show that KG4Py achieves good performance in both the construction of the code knowledge graph and the semantic search of code snippets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rhinogobius similis is distributed in East and Southeast Asia. It is an amphidromous species found mostly in freshwater and sometimes brackish waters.We have obtained a high-resolution assembly of the R. similis genome using nanopore sequencing, high-throughput chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C), and transcriptomic data. The assembled genome was 890.10Mb in size and 40.15% in GC content. Including 1373 contigs with contig N50 is 1.54Mb, and scaffold N50 is 41.51Mb. All of the 1373 contigs were anchored on 22 pairs of chromosomes. The BUSCO evaluation score was 93.02% indicating high quality of genome assembly. The repeat sequences accounted for 34.92% of the whole genome, with retroelements (30.13%), DNA transposons (1.64%), simple repeats (2.34%), and so forth. A total of 31,089 protein-coding genes were predicted in the genome and functionally annotated using Maker, of those genes, 26,893 (86.50%) were found in InterProScan5. There were 1910 gene families expanded in R. similis, 1171 gene families contracted and 170 gene families rapidly evolving. We have compared one rapidly change gene family (PF05970) commonly found in four species (Boleophthalmus pectinirostris, Neogobius melanostomus, Periophthalmus magnuspinnatus, and R. similis), which was found probably related to the lifespan of those species. During 400–10Ka, the period of the Guxiang Ice Age, the population of R. similis decreased drastically, and then increased gradually following the last interglacial period. A high-resolution genome of R. similis should be useful to study taxonomy, biogeography, comparative genomics, and adaptive evolution of the most speciose freshwater goby genus, Rhinogobius. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The first study to comprehensively discover and identify alkaloids from Cyclocarya paliurus. (Batal) leaves. • 10 alkaloids were identified from Cyclocarya paliurus (Batal.) leaves by using UPLC-QTOF-MS. • Alkaloids from Cyclocarya paliurus (Batal.) leaves improve insulin resistance by activating the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway in HepG2 cells. Cyclocarya paliurus (Batal.) leaves, which contain a range of bioactive compounds, have been used as a traditional Chinese medicine homologous food since ancient times. However, there is a paucity of literature on comprehensive studies of alkaloids in the leaves of Cyclocarya paliurus (Batal.). For the first time, this study aimed to discover and identify alkaloids extracted from Cyclocarya paliurus (Batal.) leaves by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF-MS). A total of ten alkaloids have been identified from Cyclocarya paliurus (Batal.) leaves based on accurate mass spectra (mass accuracy, isotopic spacing and distribution) and comparison to fragmentation spectra reported in the literature. In vitro, alkaloids alleviated insulin resistance by increasing glucose consumption and glycogen content in insulin resistance HepG2 cells. The RNA-seq and western blotting results showed that alkaloids could upregulate the expression of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), and increase the phosphorylation of insulin receptor protein kinase B (AKT). This study not only clarified the chemical constituents and revealed that diverse alkaloids also presented from Cyclocarya paliurus (Batal.) leaves, also, it will provide chemical information on potential compounds for developing new drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metabolomics, the systematic study of metabolites, is dedicated to a comprehensive analysis of all aspects of plant-based food research and plays a pivotal role in the nutritional composition and quality control of plant-based foods. The diverse chemical compositions of plant-based foods lead to variations in sensory characteristics and nutritional value. This review explores the application of the metabolomics method to plant-based food origin tracing, cultivar identification, and processing methods. It also addresses the challenges encountered and outlines future directions. Typically, when combined with other omics or techniques, synergistic and complementary information is uncovered, enhancing the classification and prediction capabilities of models. Future research should aim to evaluate all factors affecting food quality comprehensively, and this necessitates advanced research into influence mechanisms, metabolic pathways, and gene expression. [Display omitted] • Metabolomics applications for plant-based foods in origins, cultivars and processing were reviewed. • The combination of multiple techniques makes the metabolomics analysis more comprehensive. • The combination of genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomics will be the trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A new DPV-5G BS-ES communication and power mutual coupling system is developed. • A BSSCP model is proposed to minimize the number of 5G base station deployments. • The ISOM model is used to optimize the microgrid connection lines in 3D space. • Economically optimal simulation experiments are conducted for different PV systems. The emergence of ultra-dense 5G networks and a large number of connected devices will bring with them significant increases in energy consumption, operating costs, and CO 2 emissions. At the same time, the deployment of distributed photovoltaic (DPV) in megacities plays an important role in promoting the integration of "building-photovoltaic", adjusting the city's clean energy supply system, and building a green, and low-carbon smart city. The development of a new "DPV-5G Base Station-Energy Storage (DPV-5G BS-ES)" coupled DC microgrid system and its pre-deployment investment costs are fundamental factors to be considered when the problem of large-scale DPV and BS deployment in cities has to be addressed. There are almost no published papers on this issue in the literature, which only consider the problem of maximizing the deployment of 5G BS service coverage or only perform optimization analyses for the performance of microgrid systems without considering the economic optimality and low-carbon green issues in the construction of urban utilities. In order to solve the problem of 5G BS deployment and economic optimization of topology in the "DPV-5G BS-ES" coupled DC microgrid system, a novel deployment strategy is proposed in this paper. The strategy is divided into: (a) The Geographic Information System (GIS) for extracting and analyzing 3D data from all buildings in the area. (b) A GIS-based formulation of a mixed integer quadratic constrained planning model (BSSCP) under discrete fixed radius coverage constraints is used to delineate building clusters within the area and determine the optimal deployment location of 5G BS under each sub-cluster. (c) An Improved Self-Organizing Mapping (ISOM) model combines GIS and microgrid performance parameters to address the economically optimal connection of grid lines for DPV in 3D space. (d) Simulation experiments were conducted for the power output and profitability of eight different PV panels and tracking systems to calculate the economically optimal type of DPV generation hardware. The experimental results show that the BSSCP model proposed in this study reduced the 5G BS deployment cost input by up to 35.8974 % compared to that of the control experimental model. Meanwhile, the ISOM model obtained an average reduction of 52.3741 % in the cost of connecting cables for the optimized 25 DPV planning and DC microgrid topology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activity‐based E2 conjugating enzyme (E2)‐ubiquitin (Ub) probes have recently emerged as effective tools for studying the molecular mechanism of E3 ligase (E3)‐catalyzed ubiquitination. However, the preparation of existing activity‐based E2‐Ub probes depends on recombination technology and bioconjugation chemistry, limiting their structural diversity. Herein we describe an expedient total chemical synthesis of an E2 enzyme variant through a hydrazide‐based native chemical ligation, which enabled the construction of a structurally new activity‐based E2‐Ub probe to covalently capture the catalytic site of Cys‐dependent E3s. Chemical cross‐linking coupled with mass spectrometry (CXMS) demonstrated the utility of this new probe in structural analysis of the intermediates formed during Nedd4 and Parkin‐mediated transthiolation. This study exemplifies the utility of chemical protein synthesis for the development of protein probes for biological studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activity‐based E2 conjugating enzyme (E2)‐ubiquitin (Ub) probes have recently emerged as effective tools for studying the molecular mechanism of E3 ligase (E3)‐catalyzed ubiquitination. However, the preparation of existing activity‐based E2‐Ub probes depends on recombination technology and bioconjugation chemistry, limiting their structural diversity. Herein we describe an expedient total chemical synthesis of an E2 enzyme variant through a hydrazide‐based native chemical ligation, which enabled the construction of a structurally new activity‐based E2‐Ub probe to covalently capture the catalytic site of Cys‐dependent E3s. Chemical cross‐linking coupled with mass spectrometry (CXMS) demonstrated the utility of this new probe in structural analysis of the intermediates formed during Nedd4 and Parkin‐mediated transthiolation. This study exemplifies the utility of chemical protein synthesis for the development of protein probes for biological studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on direct targets of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is the key to study the mechanism and material basis of it, but there is still no effective methods at present. We took Compound Danshen dropping pills (CDDP) as a study case to establish a strategy to identify significant direct targets of TCM. As a result, thirty potential active kinase targets of CDDP were identified. Nine of them had potential dose-dependent effects. In addition, the direct inhibitory effect of CDDP on three kinases, AURKB, MET and PIM1 were observed both on biochemical level and cellular level, which could not only shed light on the mechanisms of action involved in CDDP, but also suggesting the potency of drug repositioning of CDDP. Our results indicated that the research strategy including both in silico models and experimental validation that we built, were relatively efficient and reliable for direct targets identification for TCM prescription, which will help elucidating the mechanisms of TCM and promoting the modernization of TCM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visceral pain is a common clinical symptom, which is caused by mechanical stretch, spasm, ischemia and inflammation. Fragile X syndrome (FXS) with lack of fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) protein is an inherited disorder that is characterized by moderate or severe intellectual and developmental disabilities. Previous studies reported that FXS patients have self-injurious behavior, which may be associated with deficits in nociceptive sensitization. However, the role of FMRP in visceral pain is still unclear. In this study, the FMR1 knock out (KO) mice and SH-SY5Y cell line were employed to demonstrate the role of FMRP in the regulation of visceral pain. The data showed that FMR1 KO mice were insensitive to zymosan treatment. Recording in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a structure involved in pain process, showed less presynaptic glutamate release and postsynaptic responses in the FMR1 KO mice as compared to the wild type (WT) mice after zymosan injection. Zymosan treatment caused enhancements of adenylyl cyclase 1 (AC1), a pain-related enzyme, and NMDA GluN2B receptor in the ACC. However, these up-regulations were attenuated in the ACC of FMR1 KO mice. Last, we found that zymosan treatment led to increase of FMRP levels in the ACC. These results were further confirmed in SHSY5Y cells in vitro. Our findings demonstrate that FMRP is required for NMDA GluN2B and AC1 upregulation, and GluN2B/ AC1/FMRP forms a positive feedback loop to modulate visceral pain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) play important roles in the progression of human cancers. circRNA nuclear receptor interacting protein 1 (circNRIP1) has been reported to play as an oncogene in gastric cancer. However, the mechanism underlying circNRIP1 in gastric cancer progression is far from understood. Patients and Methods: Forty-five gastric cancer patients were recruited and overall survival of patients was analyzed. Gastric cancer cell lines MGC-803 and AGS cells were cultured for study in vitro. The expression levels of circNRIP1, microRNA (miR)-182 and rho-associated protein kinase 1 (ROCK1) were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction or Western blot. Cell migration, invasion, cell cycle distribution and apoptosis were determined by transwell, flow cytometry and Western blot assays, respectively. The target association between miR-182 and circNRIP1 or ROCK1 was assessed by luciferase reporter assay and RNA immunoprecipitation. Results: circNRIP1 expression was enhanced in gastric cancer tissues and cells and high expression of circNRIP1 indicated poor survival of patients. Knockdown of circNRIP1 suppressed cell migration and invasion, arrested cell cycle at G0-G1 phase and promoted apoptosis in gastric cancer cells. miR-182 was a target of circNRIP1 and its deficiency reversed the effect of circNRIP1 silence on cell migration, invasion, cell cycle distribution and apoptosis in gastric cancer cells. Moreover, ROCK1 was validated as a target of miR-182 and competitively regulated by circNRIP1. Conclusion: Silence of circNRIP1 inhibited progression of gastric cancer by increasing miR-182 and decreasing ROCK1, providing a novel target for the treatment of gastric cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The big-eye mandarin fish (Siniperca knerii) is an endemic species of southern China. It belongs to the family Sinipercidae, which is closely related to the well-known North American sunfish family Centrarchidae. Determining the genome sequence of S. knerii would provide a foundation for better examining its genetic diversity and population history. A novel sequenced genome of the Sinipercidae also would help in comparative study of the Centrarchidae using Siniperca as a reference. Here, we determined the genome sequence of S. knerii using 10x Genomics technology and next-generation sequencing. Paired-end sequencing on a half lane of HiSeq X platform generated 56 Gbp of raw data. Read assembly using Supernova assembler resulted in two haplotype genomes with 732.1 Mb in size and an average GC content of 40.4%, which is consistent with genome size previously reported or estimated using k-mer counting. A total of 7,989 scaffolds with an N50 score of 12.64 Mb were obtained. The longest scaffold was 30.54 Mb. Evaluation of the genome completeness using BUSCO confirmed that 96.5% genes of the Actinopterygii Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs were found in the assembled genome of S. knerii. Gene prediction using Maker annotation kit resulted in 28,440 genes, of which 25,899 genes had at least one hit comparing to the NCBI Nr database, KEGG or InterProScan5. Pairwise sequentially Markovian coalescent (PSMC) analysis of the genome showed that there was a bottleneck event of the population of S. knerii between 70 ka -- 20 ka, which was concordant with the Tali glacier period, suggesting a population decline of S. knerii probably due to climate conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyperbilirubinemia may increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) but its mechanistic role in AD pathogenesis remains obscure. Here, we used animal models to investigate the short- and long-term effects of neonatal systemic exposure to bilirubin on brain histology and function as well as the acute effect of lateral ventricle injection of bilirubin in adult rats. We found that three days exposure to bilirubin in newborn rats could induce AD-like pathological changes in late life, including tau protein hyperphosphorylation at multiple sites, increased Aβ production in brain tissues, and spatial learning and memory injury. Bilirubin activated the activities of several protein kinases (GSK-3β, CDK5, and JNK), which were positively correlated with hyperphosphorylated tau; simultaneously increased the expression of AβPP γ-secretase PS2 and decreased the expression of α-secretase ADAM17, which were positively correlated with Aβ production. The above results were well replicated in primary hippocampal cell cultures. These data demonstrate that bilirubin encephalopathy is an AD-like disease, suggesting a potent role of bilirubin in AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice agriculture is of great ecological, environmental, and socioeconomic importance in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley, as its distribution and size heavily impact food production and a number of ecosystem services. Long-term rice mapping is challenging as a result of insufficient training data – both in spatial amount and in temporal coverage, the high cost of powerful geospatial data processing platforms, and incomplete image coverage during the critical window to capture the unique rice signals. Here, we developed a simple yet effective method for rice field extraction without heavy reliance on the complete profiles of Landsat time series or repeated training data. The core is a multiple-year training sample normalization that extends the samples obtained in one year for classification in another year. Pseudo-invariant objects and a set of linear regressions were used to predict what the given vegetation index values of training samples would be if they had been acquired under the same conditions in a different mapping year. The generated pseudo training samples were further utilized to classify the mapping image. We experimented with four years' Landsat Thematic Mapper and Operational Land Imager data and achieved comparable accuracies as the single-year classification. Because of its simplicity and low computational requirements, it can be efficiently implemented on cloud computing platforms, such as Google Earth Engine platform. This technique provides an affordable and effective solution to derive crop distribution information on a large-scale basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of contour levees for rice irrigation represents a major landscape management activity with impacts on irrigation water use efficiency, crop management decisions, and food production. However, levee distribution information traditionally relies on local field surveys because remote sensing approaches are complicated by irregular spacing, shape, and landscape variability within the field. In this paper the authors develop a deep learning approach capable of identifying rice fields with contour style levee irrigation practices from open-source aerial imagery. To generate a levee-identification scheme, a hybrid ResNet/Unet model is built from the commonly known Residual Network (ResNet) architecture for multi-layer deep learning strategies. The model takes a 320 × 320 RGB aerial landscape image from the US National Agricultural Imagery Program as input along with label data to then generate a probability map of the distribution of farm fields that use contour levees within the image. In performing this task, the model generates a 0.991 receiver operating characteristic curve score. The model continues to perform well under the introduction of clouds, data augmentation, or minor reductions in spatial resolution. Throughout these tests, the model performed within 0.2 of its original score, except for when the image quality was reduced to 60 m wherein the model score dropped to 0.691. Via these tests the model demonstrates potential to function well given different spatial extents or potential satellite remote sensing with moderate (10 m) resolutions. This model provides a proof-of-concept for the use of aerial imagery and a deep learning strategy for irrigation-type mapping practices. • Contour levee identification method using aerial images yields ROC score of 0.991. • A ResNet/UNet hybrid provides ample performance for remote sensing applications. • The method is insensitive to simulated cloud cover up to 40% opacity. • Performance degrades with a decrease in resolution from 1 m to less than 10 m. • The introduction of dense static noise could present a challenge for the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the ERA-5 monthly reanalysis data and precipitation observations, this paper analyses the interdacal dry-wet transition and its mechanism in the Tarim Basin(TB) during summer. From the long-term perspective(1961–2021), TB is in a trend of "wet in the west and dry in the east". By taking a nine-year moving average of the precipitation(PRE), the research period is divided into three subperiods: P1(1961–1987), P2(1988–2009) and P3(2010−2021). From P1 to P3, the regional averaged Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index(SPEI) demonstrates an interdecadal turning of "wetting to drying". During P2(1988–2009), the dynamic component of water vapor increases the zonal moisture transport, causing a slight increase in PRE. The potential evapotranspiration(PET) is weakened by the increase in PRE and relative humidity(RH), the decrease in 2-m temperature(T2m) and 10-m wind speed(10UV), resulting in the humidification of the TB. In the P3(2010–2021), the non-linear component of water vapor increases moisture convergence in the western TB, causing a significant increase in PRE. However, the decrease in RH, accompanied by increases in T2m and UV10, results in a rapid increase in PET. The TB gets dry. The South Asian high(SAH) develops southeastward, guiding more water vapor transport from the upstream westerly and the tropical Indian Ocean. The Western Pacific subtropical high(WPSH) extends northwestward, increasing water vapor convergence in the western TB. The main reason for the increased precipitation changes from increased water vapor advection to enhanced water vapor convergence. The differences in PRE formation and T2m amplitude cause the interdecadal change in RH, deriving an interdecadal transition of wet and dry in the TB. Our findings may deepen the understanding of climate change, and provide a scientific support for ecological development, and global climate governance in arid/semi-arid regions. • TB has been presented an interdacal dry-wet transition in summer. • The summer SPEI in the TB is consistent with the interdacadal variations of PET. • The SAH and the WPSH modulate the moisture transport pathways and precipitation formation, influence the dry-wet transition in the TB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of bacteriophages to control foodborne bacterial pathogens in foods has gained traction in recent years. Poultry meat is a major source of Campylobacter jejuni, and a target for the application of bacteriophages. To offer the prospect of a post-harvest control measure, the bacteriophage must function at refrigeration temperatures, where C. jejuni does not grow but can survive. Here, we report actions of three classes of Campylobacter bacteriophage at 4 °C. The pre-incubation of broth cultures at 4 °C before a shift to 42 °C under conditions that support the growth of the host bacteria revealed differences in the time to lysis compared with cultures incubated at 42 °C. The pre-adsorption of the bacteriophage to a sub-population of bacteria is consistent with the observation of asynchronous infection. To ascertain whether the bacteriophages adsorb and infect (the commitment to replicate), we investigated bacteriophage transcription at 4 °C. RNA transcripts for all the bacteriophage host combinations were detected after 15 min, indicating that the interaction is not merely passive. Bacteriophages can infect C. jejuni at refrigeration temperatures, but the infection does not proceed to lysis in the absence of host cell division. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme weather events affect the development and survival of disease pathogens and vectors. Our aim was to investigate the potential effects of heat waves on the population dynamics of Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), which is a major vector of dengue and Zika viruses. We modeled the population abundance of blood-fed mosquito adults based on a mechanistic population model of Ae. albopictus with the consideration of diapause. Using simulated heat wave events derived from a 35-year historical dataset, we assessed how the mosquito population responded to different heat wave characteristics, including the onset day, duration, and the average temperature. Two important observations are made: (1) a heat wave event facilitates the population growth in the early development phase but tends to have an overall inhibitive effect; and (2) two primary factors affecting the development are the unusual onset time of a heat wave and a relatively high temperature over an extended period. We also performed a sensitivity analysis using different heat wave definitions, justifying the robustness of the findings. The study suggests that particular attention should be paid to future heat wave events with an abnormal onset time or a lasting high temperature in order to develop effective strategies to prevent and control Ae. albopictus-borne diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Purpose To assess the longitudinal changes of allograft pathophysiology by intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) and blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) MRI in a rat model of acute renal allograft rejection. Materials and methods Acute rejection (AR) was induced by transplantation of Dark Agouti donor kidneys into Lewis recipients (n = 18). A Lewis-Lewis rat syngeneically transplanted (sTX) model served as the control (n = 6). Acute tubular necrosis (n = 6) and acute calcineurin inhibitor toxicity (n = 6) groups were established using Lewis rats. MRI was performed on postoperative day (POD) 1, 4 and 7 in the allogeneically transplanted (aTX) group and on POD4 in the other groups. Histological evaluation and PCR were performed. Results After the allogenic transplantation, all MRI parameters of allograft further decreased until POD7, and the D and ADC values in the cortex were significantly lower than that in the sTX group (1.03 ± 0.09 vs 1.52 ± 0.09 × 10−3 mm2/s, P adj < 0.05; 1.21 ± 0.03 vs 1.78 ± 0.07 × 10−3 mm2/s, P adj < 0.05). The D*, f and R2* values of the aTX group in the cortex and medulla were significantly lower than those in the sTX group on POD7 (cortex, D*: 25.60 ± 4.78 vs 69.32 ± 9.79 × 10−3 mm2/s, P adj < 0.05; f: 7.84 ± 1.83 vs 20.34 ± 3.08%, P adj < 0.05; R2*: 16.61 ± 4.18 vs 31.48 ± 6.43 1/s, P adj < 0.05; medulla, D*: 13.59 ± 6.08 vs 62.75 ± 9.20 × 10−3 mm2/s, P adj < 0.05; f: 7.46 ± 1.62 vs 14.68 ± 2.05%, P adj < 0.05; R2*: 21.59 ± 3.45 vs 39.53 ± 4.34 1/s, P adj < 0.05). AR grafts presented serve interstitial inflammation, tubulitis and infiltration of T-lymphocytes and macrophages. The MRI parameters, including D, ADC, D*, f and R2*, were significantly correlated with the histological changes, cell infiltration and inflammatory cytokine mRNA levels. Conclusions IVIM coupled with BOLD MRI allows longitudinal assessment of allograft diffusion, perfusion and oxygen consumption impairment caused by acute renal allograft rejection in rat model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The carrier state is an alternative bacteriophage life cycle by which virulent bacteriophage can persist in association with host bacteria. Campylobacter jejuni carrier state strains exhibit growth phase dependent motility due to a truncated flagella phenotype. Genome sequencing identified a T368A substitution in the G3 domain of the SRP‐like GTPase FlhF from C. jejuni PT14CP30A carrier state strains, which we hypothesized to be the cause of the complex motility phenotype. We have analyzed the role of this mutation in C. jejuni PT14 and demonstrated that flhF(T368A) leads to a large proportion of cells unable to synthesize flagella, while the remaining cells form a single flagellum at one pole leading to significantly reduced motility. The flhF(T368A) mutation causes a reduction in the phage adsorption constant, which leads to a decrease in infection efficiency. Down‐regulation of σ28 and σ54 dependent flagellar genes were observed as responses to the flhF(T368A) mutation. FlhF(T368A) protein is impaired in GTPase activity and exhibits reduced stability. C. jejuni carrying flhF(T368A) are less sensitive to bacteriophage infection and formation of the carrier state. The acquisition of flhF(T368A) in carrier state strains acts to prevent super‐infection and maintain association with the bacteriophage that provoked the interaction. Campylobacters are enteric bacteria that cause foodborne disease. Bacteriophages are viruses that kill specific bacteria. Understanding how virulent bacteriophages interact with bacteria is of importance for pathogen control, and the extra‐intestinal transmission of bacteriophage and bacteria. The carrier state is an alternative bacteriophage life cycle by which virulent bacteriophages can persist in association with the host. Carrier state campylobacters acquire the mutation FlhF(T368A) that impairs GTPase activity to modulate cell motility and bacteriophage resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Ethylene responsive factor (ERF) subfamily transcription factors play an important role in plant abiotic and biotic stress tolerance. A cold responsive ERF, MfERF1, was isolated from Medicago falcata, an important forage legume that has great cold tolerance. Overexpression of MfERF1 resulted in an increased tolerance to freezing and chilling in transgenic tobacco plants, whereas down‐regulation of the ortholog of MfERF1 in Medicago truncatula resulted in reduced freezing tolerance in RNAi plants. Higher transcript levels of some stress responsive genes (CHN50, OSM, ERD10C, and SAMS) and those involved in spermidine (Spd) and spermine (Spm) synthesis (SAMDC1, SAMDC2, SPDS1, SPDS2, and SPMS) and catabolism (PAO) were observed in transgenic plants than in wild type. However, neither Spd nor Spm level was accumulated in transgenic plants as a result of promoted polyamine oxidase activity. Transgenic plants had higher activities of antioxidants associated with the induced encoding genes including Cu, Zn‐SOD, CAT1, CAT2, CAT3, and cpAPX and accumulated more proline associated with induced P5CS and reduced PROX2 transcription as compared with wild type. The results suggest that MfERF1 confers cold tolerance through promoted polyamine turnover, antioxidant protection, and proline accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common gynecological cancer worldwide. Although prophylactic vaccination presents the most effective method for cervical cancer prevention, chemotherapy is still the primary invasive intervention. It is urgent to exploit low-toxic natural anticancer drugs on account of high cytotoxicity and side-effects of conventional agents. As a natural product, (-)-epigallocatechingallate (EGCG) has abilities in anti-proliferation, anti-metastasis and pro-apoptosis of cervical cancer cells. Moreover, EGCG also has pharmaceutical synergistic effects with conventional agents such as cisplatin (CDDP) and bleomycin (BLM). The underlying mechanisms of EGCG suppressive effects on cervical cancer are reviewed in this article. Further research directions and ambiguous results are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distribution of leafless and full-canopy trees in fall is essential in understanding the phenological and morphological characteristics of forests and those are critical baseline information for several scientific questions and management scenarios. The rapid progress of very high-resolution satellite-borne sensors provides a feasible solution to fast and accurately map tree coverage during the growing season. However, less attention has been paid to the leaf-off seasons. One biggest challenge with classification on fall imagery is the potential confusion among different land features, as evidenced by the no significant difference between bare land and leafless trees from t-test and transformed divergence (TD) analysis results. We proposed an integrative approach to classifying leafless and full-canopy trees on fall imagery of 0.46-m WorldView-2 (WV-2). We adopted a two-step classification approach by first removing the non-forest area from the WV-2 imagery with the mask layer generated from the publicly available summer imagery of 1-m National Agriculture Imagery Program imagery via object-based image analysis. Two classification methods, namely decision tree (DT) and nearest neighborhood (NN), were employed to classify full canopy and leafless trees in the masked WV-2 imagery. DT performed slightly better than NN regarding higher overall accuracy and fewer feature requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-spectral photometric stereo can recover pixel-wise surface normal from a single RGB image. The difficulty lies in that the intensity in each channel is the tangle of illumination, albedo and camera response; thus, an initial estimate of the normal is required in optimization-based solutions. In this paper, we propose to make a rough depth estimation using the deep convolutional neural network (CNN) instead of using depth sensors or binocular stereo devices. Since high-resolution ground-truth data is expensive to obtain, we designed a network and trained it with rendered images of synthetic 3D objects. We use the model to predict initial normal of real-world objects and iteratively optimize the fine-scale geometry in the multi-spectral photometric stereo framework. The experimental results illustrate the improvement of the proposed method compared with existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protein chemical synthesis can provide the homogeneous atypical ubiquitin chains that are usually difficult to obtain by other methods. Herein, we report a new one-pot ligation approach for the synthesis of atypical Ub chains based on the Tfacm-protected isoUb building block with operational simplicity and high efficiency. The key intermediate, the Tfacm-protected isoUb building block can be readily prepared by Fmoc SPPS. The practicality and efficiency of the new method is demonstrated by the successful preparation of K11-linked di-Ub. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemical ubiquitination is an effective approach for accessing structurally defined, atypical ubiquitin (Ub) chains that are difficult to prepare by other techniques. Herein, we describe a strategy that uses a readily accessible premade isopeptide-linked 76-mer (isoUb), which has an N-terminal Cys and a C-terminal hydrazide, as the key building block to assemble atypical Ub chains in a modular fashion. This method avoids the use of auxiliary-modified Lys and instead employs the canonical and therefore more robust Cys-based native chemical ligation technique. The efficiency and capacity of this isoUb-based strategy is exemplified by the cost-effective synthesis of several linkage- and length-defined atypical Ub chains, including K27-linked tetra-Ub and K11/K48-branched tri-, tetra-, penta-, and hexa-Ubs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemical ubiquitination is an effective approach for accessing structurally defined, atypical ubiquitin (Ub) chains that are difficult to prepare by other techniques. Herein, we describe a strategy that uses a readily accessible premade isopeptide-linked 76-mer (isoUb), which has an N-terminal Cys and a C-terminal hydrazide, as the key building block to assemble atypical Ub chains in a modular fashion. This method avoids the use of auxiliary-modified Lys and instead employs the canonical and therefore more robust Cys-based native chemical ligation technique. The efficiency and capacity of this isoUb-based strategy is exemplified by the cost-effective synthesis of several linkage- and length-defined atypical Ub chains, including K27-linked tetra-Ub and K11/K48-branched tri-, tetra-, penta-, and hexa-Ubs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]