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Abstract. Background:. Although overnight fasting is recommended prior to endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), the benefits and safety of high-carbohydrate fluid diet (CFD) intake 2 h before ERCP remain unclear. This study aimed to analyze whether high-CFD intake 2 h before ERCP can be safe and accelerate patients' recovery. Methods:. This prospective, multicenter, randomized controlled trial involved 15 tertiary ERCP centers. A total of 1330 patients were randomized into CFD group (n = 665) and fasting group (n = 665). The CFD group received 400 mL of maltodextrin orally 2 h before ERCP, while the control group abstained from food/water overnight (>6 h) before ERCP. All ERCP procedures were performed using deep sedation with intravenous propofol. The investigators were blinded but not the patients. The primary outcomes included postoperative fatigue and abdominal pain score, and the secondary outcomes included complications and changes in metabolic indicators. The outcomes were analyzed according to a modified intention-to-treat principle. Results:. The post-ERCP fatigue scores were significantly lower at 4 h (4.1 ± 2.6 vs. 4.8 ± 2.8, t = 4.23, P

More steel scrap consumption in the iron and steel industry can not only mitigate the shortage of iron ore resources but also greatly lower production costs and carbon emissions to the atmosphere, which is a crucial link in low-carbon metallurgy. Because of the drawbacks of different factors, the amount of steel scrap consumed in the current converter steelmaking process is restricted, and the technology of multipoint adding scrap comes into play. Thus, steel scrap addition into ladles has gradually garnered attention from metallurgical experts, but there are few reports on the three-dimensional melting behavior of steel scrap in a real ladle environment with argon blowing. To examine the melting law of steel scrap in a ladle, in this study, the flow field, temperature distribution, and melting behavior of steel scrap in a 70 t refining ladle at various argon blowing rates with steel scrap addition of different specific surface areas and preheating temperatures were numerically investigated and compared using a mutiphysical mathematical model. The results revealed that the melting rate of steel scrap increases with increasing specific surface area, and bottom argon blowing can accelerate the melting of steel scrap, while the promoting effect gradually decreases with increasing specific area. With bottom argon blowing, the core temperature of steel scrap with specific surface areas of 120, 130.22, and 160.81 m2·m–3 increased by 7.06, 6.51, and 3.73 K·s–1, the melting rate was increased by 0.92, 0.88, and 0.28 cm3·s–1, and the melting time was shortened by 17, 15, and 3 s, respectively, compared with those without bottom blowing. When the initial temperature of steel scrap increases from 300 to 1000 K, the melting rate increases from 2.97 to 3.26 cm2·s–1 and the melting time is shortened by 3 s accordingly. The argon blowing rate significantly influenced the melting rate of steel scrap. When the argon blowing rate increases from 100 to 200 L·min–1, the melting time of steel scrap with specific surface areas of 120, 130.22, and 160.81 m2·m–3 is reduced from 44 to 35 s, 42 to 34 s, and 34 s to 31 s, respectively. Thus, on the premise of smooth production, the melting speed of the steel scrap in the ladle can be significantly increased by increasing the argon blowing rate and adding the slab scrap at higher initial temperatures and specific surface areas. This work offers a reference for developing steel scrap rapid-melting technology for ladles in steel plants.

The combination of the dipping effect and hydromechanical (H-M) coupling effect can easily lead to water inrush disasters in water-rich roadways with different dip angles in coal mines. Therefore, H-M coupling tests of bedded sandstones under identical osmotic pressure and various confining pressures were conducted. Then, the evolution curves of stress-strain, permeability and damage, macro- and mesoscopic failure characteristics were obtained. Subsequently, the mechanical behaviour was characterized, and finally the failure mechanism was revealed. The results showed that: (1) The failure of the sandstone with the bedding angle of 45° or 60° was the structure-dominant type, while that with the bedding angle of 0°, 30° or 90° was the force-dominant type. (2) When the bedding angle was in the range of (0°, 30°) or (45°, 90°), the confining pressure played a dominant role in influencing the peak strength. However, within β∈(30°, 45°), the bedding effect played a dominant role in the peak strength. (3) With the increase in bedding angle, the cohesion increased first, then decreased and finally increased, while the internal friction angle was the opposite. (4) When the bedding angle was 0° or 30°, the “water wedging” effect and the “bedding buckling” effect would lead to the forking or converging shear failure. When the bedding angle was 45° or 60°, the sliding friction effect would lead to the shear slipping failure. When the bedding angle was 90°, the combination of the “bedding buckling” effect and shear effect would lead to the mixed tension-shear failure. The above conclusions obtained are helpful for the prevention of water inrush disasters in water-rich roadways with different dips in coal mines.

Abstract GLP‐1 is a vital candidate for stimulating insulin secretion in a glucose‐dependent manner, reducing body weight and eliminating nonalcoholic fatty liver disease with few side effects. Therefore, elevating GLP‐1 secretion and antagonizing the enzymatic cleavage by DPP4 are the main direction of GLP‐1‐based drug development. The present study implies that ferulic acid (FA) treatment increased the serum GLP‐1 level in diet‐induced obesity mice. The binding of FA to GLP‐1 effectively prevented the enzymatic cleavage of GLP‐1 by DPP4, which led to the effective elimination of hepatic cellular lipids by GLP‐1 in vitro. Furthermore, studies of fluorescence titration and molecular simulation showed that the combination ratio of FA and GLP‐1 was 1:1, and FA could enhance the stability of GLP‐1 through van der Waals force and electrostatic force binding to GLP‐1. In turn, it increased the level of endogenous GLP‐1. More importantly, data from mass spectrometry analysis revealed that FA bound to GLN‐17, ALA‐18, or ALA‐19 sites of GLP‐1 differently. In addition, after binding to FA, the α‐helix in GLP‐1 did not change significantly, and the biological activity of GLP‐1 was unaffected. These results highlight that FA‐rich food, such as millet and oats, is an excellent source of dietary intervention for metabolic disorders.

Abstract The anti-foreign tissue (transplant rejection) response, mediated by the immune system, has been the biggest obstacle to successful organ transplantation. There are still many enigmas regarding this process and some aspects of the underlying mechanisms driving the immune response against foreign tissues remain poorly understood. Here, we found that a large number of neutrophils and macrophages were attached to the graft during skin transplantation. Furthermore, both types of cells could autonomously adhere to and damage neonatal rat cardiomyocyte mass (NRCM) in vitro. We have demonstrated that Complement C3 and the receptor CR3 participated in neutrophils/macrophages-mediated adhesion and damage this foreign tissue (NRCM or skin grafts). We have provided direct evidence that the damage to these tissues occurs by a process referred to as trogocytosis, a damage mode that has never previously been reported to directly destroy grafts. We further demonstrated that this process can be regulated by NFAT, in particular, NFATc3. This study not only enriches an understanding of host-donor interaction in transplant rejection, but also provides new avenues for exploring the development of novel immunosuppressive drugs which prevent rejection during transplant therapy.

Abstract Schistosoma parasites, causing schistosomiasis, exhibit typical host specificity in host preference. Many mammals, including humans, are susceptible to infection, while the widely distributed rodent, Microtus fortis, exhibits natural anti-schistosome characteristics. The mechanisms of host susceptibility remain poorly understood. Comparison of schistosome infection in M. fortis with the infection in laboratory mice (highly sensitive to infection) offers a good model system to investigate these mechanisms and to gain an insight into host specificity. In this study, we showed that large numbers of leukocytes attach to the surface of human schistosomes in M. fortis but not in mice. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analyses revealed that macrophages might be involved in the cell adhesion, and we further demonstrated that M. fortis macrophages could be mediated to attach and kill schistosomula with dependence on Complement component 3 (C3) and Complement receptor 3 (CR3). Importantly, we provided direct evidence that M. fortis macrophages could destroy schistosomula by trogocytosis, a previously undescribed mode for killing helminths. This process was regulated by Ca2+/NFAT signaling. These findings not only elucidate a novel anti-schistosome mechanism in M. fortis but also provide a better understanding of host parasite interactions, host specificity and the potential generation of novel strategies for schistosomiasis control.

Ethylene is the main factor controlling fruit ripening of pear (Pyrus ussuriensis). Ethylene production rate is negatively correlated with fruit shelf life; therefore, it is important to decrease the ethylene levels for optimal fruit storage. Here, we observed that blue light treatment could inhibit ethylene production and promote the expression of ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL 5 (PuHY5), a basic leucine zipper domain (bZIP) transcription factor. The following studies showed that PuHY5 could bind to the promoter of ACC synthase 1 (PuACS1), a rate-limiting enzyme in ethylene biosynthesis, and inhibit its expression. For pears in which PuHY5 was silenced, the ethylene production and PuACS1 expression were much higher than those in the control fruit. These results demonstrated that blue light inhibited ethylene production through the induction of PuHY5 in pear. Our finding provides a new method for prolonging fruit shelf life.

Abstract Chemotherapy represents a major type of clinical treatment against colorectal cancer (CRC). Aberrant drug efflux mediated by transporters acts as a key approach for tumor cells to acquire chemotherapy resistance. Increasing evidence implies that tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) play a pivotal role in both tumorigenesis and drug resistance. Nevertheless, the specific mechanism through which TAMs regulate drug efflux remains elusive. Here, we discovered that TAMs endow CRC cells with resistance to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) treatment via a cell-cell interaction-mediated MRP1-dependent drug efflux process. Mechanistically, TAM-secreted C-C motif chemokine ligand 17 (CCL17) and CCL22, via membrane receptor CCR4, activated the PI3K/AKT pathway in CRC tumor cells. Specifically, phosphorylation of AKT inactivated IP3R and induced calcium aggregation in the ER, resulting in the activation of ATF6 and upregulation of GRP78. Accordingly, excessive GRP78 can interact with MRP1 and promote its translocation to the cell membrane, causing TAM-induced 5-FU efflux. Taken together, our results demonstrated that TAMs promote CRC chemotherapy resistance via elevating the expression of GRP78 to promote the membrane translocation of MRP1 and drug efflux, providing direct proof for TAM-induced drug resistance.

A better mechanistic understanding of virus-host dependencies can help reveal vulnerabilities and identify opportunities for therapeutic intervention. Of particular interest are essential interactions that enable production of viral proteins, as those could target an early step in the virus lifecycle. Here, we use subcellular proteomics, ribosome profiling analyses and reporter assays to detect changes in protein synthesis dynamics during SARS-CoV-2 (CoV2) infection. We identify specific translation factors and molecular chaperones that are used by CoV2 to promote the synthesis and maturation of its own proteins. These can be targeted to inhibit infection, without major toxicity to the host. We also find that CoV2 non-structural protein 1 (Nsp1) cooperates with initiation factors EIF1 and 1A to selectively enhance translation of viral RNA. When EIF1/1A are depleted, more ribosomes initiate translation from a conserved upstream CUG start codon found in all genomic and subgenomic viral RNAs. This results in higher translation of an upstream open reading frame (uORF1) and lower translation of the main ORF, altering the stoichiometry of viral proteins and attenuating infection. Replacing the upstream CUG with AUG strongly inhibits translation of the main ORF independently of Nsp1, EIF1, or EIF1A. Taken together, our work describes multiple dependencies of CoV2 on host biosynthetic networks and proposes a model for dosage control of viral proteins through Nsp1-mediated control of translation start site selection.

Background. Distal malignant biliary obstruction (DMBO) can result in obstructive jaundice. Endoscopic ultrasound- (EUS-) guided biliary drainage (EUS-BD) has been an alternative for DMBO after failed ERCP. Aim. To compare the efficacy and safety between antegrade and transluminal approaches in patients with unresectable DMBO when ERCP failed. Methods. Patients with DMBO leading to obstructive jaundice after failed ERCP were enrolled in this study. We retrospectively evaluated the safety and efficacy between EUS-guided transluminal stenting (TLS group) and antegrade stenting (AGS group). Results. 82 patients were enrolled, of which 45 patients were in TLS group and 37 in AGS group. There were no statistical differences in the malignancy type, baseline common bile duct diameter, total bilirubin level, reason for EUS-BD, and history of biliary drainage between TLS and AGS groups. The technical success rate was statistically higher in TLS group than in AGS group (97.8 vs. 81.1%, P=0.031). There were no statistical differences in clinical success rate, procedure-related adverse events, stent migration rate, stent dysfunction rate, reintervention rate, and overall patient survival time between TLS and AGS groups. The median time to stent dysfunction or patient death in TLS and AGS groups was 53 and 81 days, respectively (P=0.017). Conclusions. Although AGS had a lower technical success rate than TLS, it was superior to TLS in stent patency in patients with DMBO.

Continuous basalt fiber is an emerging high-performance foundational material that can be widely used in fields such as road construction, energy conservation and environmental protection, aerospace, military equipment, and marine ships. However, it is difficult for existing processing techniques to form continuous basalt architectures with three-dimensional (3D) complex shapes. In addition, the basalt fibers in the architectures are filled with polymers, which cannot fully utilize the performance of basalt fibers. Therefore, here, we report the fabrication of continuous basalt fibers with fireproof and thermal insulation performance through the combination of an Additive manufacturing (AM) manipulator, two-step precursor infiltration and pyrolysis (PIP) processes. Using SiOC ceramics to fill between continuous basalt fibers will help improve the architectures' fire and thermal insulation performance. The continuous basalt fibers coated with thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) were processed into 3D architectures under the action of the laser. Through the vacuum infiltration of the SiOC precursor and debinding process, TPU in the 3D architectures was removed. In order to reduce the structural defects generated by the first PIP process, the final part with fireproof and thermal insulation performance was fabricated through the second PIP process. We further demonstrated the final part with excellent fireproof and thermal insulation performance. The final part had a shell temperature of 788.8 ℃ and an internal temperature of about 50 ℃ under the flame spray gun for the 20 s. By replacing polymers with inorganic materials, our basalt architectures exhibit their potential applications in military, aviation, and civil fireproof and thermal insulation equipment.

Abstract Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a major staple food for more than one-third of the world’s population. Tiller number is an important agronomic trait in wheat, but only few related genes have been cloned. Here, we isolate a wheat mutant, tiller number1 (tn1), with much fewer tillers. We clone the TN1 gene via map-based cloning: TN1 encodes an ankyrin repeat protein with a transmembrane domain (ANK-TM). We show that a single amino acid substitution in the third conserved ankyrin repeat domain causes the decreased tiller number of tn1 mutant plants. Resequencing and haplotype analysis indicate that TN1 is conserved in wheat landraces and modern cultivars. Further, we reveal that the expression level of the abscisic acid (ABA) biosynthetic gene TaNCED3 and ABA content are significantly increased in the shoot base and tiller bud of the tn1 mutants; TN1 but not tn1 could inhibit the binding of TaPYL to TaPP2C via direct interaction with TaPYL. Taken together, we clone a key wheat tiller number regulatory gene TN1, which promotes tiller bud outgrowth probably through inhibiting ABA biosynthesis and signaling.

Abstract Flexible wearable sweat sensors allow continuous, real-time, noninvasive detection of sweat analytes, provide insight into human physiology at the molecular level, and have received significant attention for their promising applications in personalized health monitoring. Electrochemical sensors are the best choice for wearable sweat sensors due to their high performance, low cost, miniaturization, and wide applicability. Recent developments in soft microfluidics, multiplexed biosensing, energy harvesting devices, and materials have advanced the compatibility of wearable electrochemical sweat-sensing platforms. In this review, we summarize the potential of sweat for medical detection and methods for sweat stimulation and collection. This paper provides an overview of the components of wearable sweat sensors and recent developments in materials and power supply technologies and highlights some typical sensing platforms for different types of analytes. Finally, the paper ends with a discussion of the challenges and a view of the prospective development of this exciting field.

Triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) structures prepared by additive manufacturing (AM) have been widely used in aerospace and thermal management systems due to their functional advantages such as high specific strength and excellent heat transfer coefficient. However, lattices with uniform or simple gradients cannot match the regional diversity needs of functional advantages in service. This study proposed a field-driven AM data processing framework for dual functionally graded TPMS lattices. For unified data processing, mathematical functions, simulated outcomes, and geometric models were transformed into fields. I-WP and Diamond units were selected as the primitive and filling structures of Ti-6Al-4V lattices, respectively. According to the functional requirements, the gradient distribution design guided by the simulated stress field is completed through the proposed framework. The results illustrate that the field-driven dual graded lattices present superior compressive mechanical response. At almost equal volume fractions, their compressive strength is approximately 100% more than that of primitive lattices and 69% greater than that of dual uniform lattices. Furthermore, the dual lattices have larger specific surface areas than the primitive lattices, making them better at heat insulation and heat dissipation. This field-driven digital framework will show enormous potential in the matching design of functionally graded lattices.

Abstract Background To explore the use of a digestive endoscopy professional online platform by domestic endoscopists and its application effect on endoscopists’ continuing medical education, analyse the related problems of continuing medical education using this method, and propose targeted improvement suggestions. Methods Based on the “Doctor’s Circle” app, a questionnaire was sent to all members who successfully registered on the Hebei Biliary and Pancreatic Endoscopy Diagnosis and Treatment Alliance online platform. The questionnaire was available for 30 days. The questionnaire survey results were collected and counted for a grouping comparison. Results By the deadline, 703 completed questionnaires had been received. After the registered doctors joined the platform, 469 (66.7%) experienced a significant influence on their own endoscopic operation ability level, and 354 (50.3%) felt a significant improvement in their ability to diagnose biliary- and pancreatic-related diseases. The application effect of the platform on members’ continuing medical education was affirmed by the vast majority of registered doctors. The clinical specialty of registered doctors, the length of time they joined the platform, the length of time they participated in the platform activities each time, and whether they played back course videos after the live broadcast of the course on the platform were the main factors affecting the application effect on continuing medical education (P

Abstract Correlation filters with convolutional neural network (CNN) features have been successfully applied to visual tracking owing to their impressive combined capability for object representation. Unfortunately, further performance improvement is limited due to unwanted boundary effects of the circular structure. In this work, through an in‐depth study of the features’ characteristics, the authors propose a novel tracking strategy to achieve simultaneous filter matching and regularization with CNN features when tracking is on the fly. With a feature decomposed transform matrix, a spatial semantic regularization is generated to reduce the boundary effect effectively during filter optimization. Before each output, the regularized filter is then back performed to match with the extracted features of a search region to find the optimum candidate. Specifically, the most important advantage of the proposed spatial semantic map is to initialize only in the first frame as all the other tracking strategies. Besides, the authors design a novel updating strategy to tackle the cases where the object is occluded or disappeared in the scene. At this time, the maximum of the map is small, even negative. A substantial experiment has been carried out on the popular benchmark tracking datasets; the reliable results have demonstrated that the authors’ method is able to outperform most of the state‐of‐the‐art tracking works in both accuracy and robustness.

As a traditional and popular dietary supplement, lotus rhizome starch (LRS) has health benefits for its many nutritional components and is especially suitable for teenagers and seniors. In this paper, the approximate composition, apparent amylose content (AAC), and structural characteristics of five LRS samples from different regions were investigated, and their correlations with the physicochemical properties of granular and gelatinized LRS were revealed. LRS exhibited rod-shaped and ellipsoidal starch granules, with AAC ranging from 26.6% to 31.7%. LRS-3, from Fuzhou, Jiangxi Province, exhibited a deeper hydrogel color and contained more ash, with 302.6 mg/kg iron, and it could reach the pasting temperature of 62.6 °C. In comparison, LRS-5, from Baoshan, Yunnan Province, exhibited smoother granule surface, less fragmentation, and higher AAC, resulting in better swelling power and freeze-thaw stability. The resistant starch contents of LRS-3 and LRS-5 were the lowest (15.3%) and highest (69.7%), respectively. The enzymatic digestion performance of LRS was positively correlated with ash content and short- and long-term ordered structures but negatively correlated with AAC. Furthermore, the color and network firmness of gelatinized LRS was negatively correlated with its ash content, and the retrograde trend and freeze-thaw stability were more closely correlated with AAC and structural characteristics. These results revealed the physicochemical properties of LRS from different regions and suggested their advantages in appropriate applications as a hydrogel matrix.

Abstract It is beneficial to understand deeply the permeability properties of coal and rock for the stability control of mining engineering, underground engineering, oil and gas engineering, nuclear waste storage engineering, and so on. Therefore, new insights for the permeability properties of bedded coal and rock are summarized and proposed. (1) "Five guarantees" coring technology is worth for vigorous promotion and application. (2) The internal spatial fabric has the significant effect on the mechanical behavior evolution law of (bedded) coal and rock, but the effect is not dominant. (3) The permeability‐energy evolution models of (bedded) coal and rock should be constructed considering the idea of initial high in situ stress reduction, which is helpful for the energy visualization characterization of (bedded) coal and rock. Meanwhile, it can be combined with the structural evolution theory for in‐depth characterization and disclosure. (4) Researches on the permeability properties of (bedded) coal and rock under multi‐field or multi‐phase or phase‐field coupling conditions should be strengthened based on considering the initial damage produced and the distribution characteristics of in situ stress under the coring environment. (5) More accurate and scientific permeability evolution models of (bedded) coal and rock should be vigorously constructed based on the above insights.

Gluten peptides from wheat enter the bloodstream and are excreted in urine but are yet to be chemically characterised. Here, the authors show by mass spectrometry that quantitative and qualitative differences in urinary peptides can be detected between healthy people and patients with celiac disease.

Curcumin, the primary bioactive substance in turmeric, exhibits potential therapeutic effects on ulcerative colitis. However, its mechanism for regulating necroptosis in colitis has not been fully elucidated. In this study, the effect of curcumin on experimental colitis-induced necroptosis of intestinal epithelial cells was investigated, and its molecular mechanism was further explored. We found that curcumin blocked necroptosis in a dose-dependent manner by inhibiting the phosphorylation of RIP3 and MLKL instead of RIP1 in HT-29 cells. Co-Immunoprecipitation assay showed that curcumin weakened the interaction between RIP1 and RIP3, possibly due to the direct binding of curcumin to RIP3 as suggested by drug affinity responsive target stability analysis. In a classical in vivo model of TNF-α and pan-caspase inhibitor-induced necroptosis in C57BL/6 mice, curcumin potently inhibited systemic inflammatory responses initiated by the necroptosis signaling pathway. Then, using a dextran sodium sulfate-induced colitis model in C57BL/6 mice, we found that curcumin inhibited the expression of p-RIP3 in the intestinal epithelium, reduced intestinal epithelial cells loss, improved the function of the intestinal tight junction barrier, and reduced local intestinal inflammation. Collectively, our findings suggest that curcumin is a potent targeted RIP3 inhibitor with anti-necroptotic and anti-inflammatory effects, maintains intestinal barrier function, and effectively alleviates colitis injury.

Bacteria play an important role in the formation of primary Common Bile Duct (CBD) stones. However, the composition and function of the microbiota of bile duct in patients with primary CBD stones remained to be explored. We utilized the 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing technology to analyze the microbial diversity and community composition of biliary and duodenal microbiota in 15 patients with primary CBD stones and 4 patients without biliary tract diseases. Alpha diversity analysis showed that the microbiota richness was similar in bile and intestinal fluid; Beta diversity analysis showed that there were differences in the composition between biliary microbiota and the duodenal microbiota, but the abundance of the main groups showed similarities. The composition of the biliary microbiota from gallstone patients was more complex, as was the duodenal microbiota. Proteobacteria and Firmicutes were the dominant bacteria at phylum level, accounting for at least 75% of the total reads in each subgroup. Pseudomonas and Escherichia−Shigella were the major genus among subgroups, but Escherichia-Shigella had increased abundance in duodenal microbiota with primary choledocholithiasis, which may play an important role in stone formation. It is noteworthy that Clostridiumsensu_stricto, Lachnospiraceae _UCG-008, Butyrivibrio and Roseburia which could produce short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), were significantly decreased in biliary microbiota with primary CBD stones (p

Understanding the interaction of T-cell receptor (TCR) with major histocompatibility-peptide (MHC-peptide) complex is extremely important in human immunotherapy and vaccine development. However, due to the limited available data, the performance of existing models for predicting the interaction of T-cell receptors (TCR) with major histocompatibility-peptide complexes is still unsatisfactory. Deep learning models have been applied to prediction tasks in various fields and have achieved better results compared with other traditional models. In this study, we leverage the gMLP model combined with attention mechanism to predict the interaction of MHC-peptide and TCR. Experiments show that our model can predict TCR-peptide interactions accurately and can handle the problems caused by different TCR lengths. Moreover, we demonstrate that the models trained with paired CDR3β-chain and CDR3α-chain data are better than those trained with only CDR3β-chain or with CDR3α-chain data. We also demonstrate that the hybrid model has greater potential than the traditional convolutional neural network.

One of the most significant transcription factors in plants, WRKYs, are crucial for plant growth and stress response. In this study, we analyzed the physicochemical properties, evolutionary relationships, conservation structure, and expression of the WRKY gene family in S. baicalensis. The WRKY family has highly conserved structural domains, which have been classified into three major categories, I, II, and III, based on the number of WRKY structural domains and zinc finger structural features. SbWRKYs of the same subgroup are functionally similar and essentially contain the same motif. Additionally, different drought stress situations resulted in varying levels of SbWRKYs expression, with the majority of these factors being up-regulated in moderate drought stress settings, and fewer of them were up-regulated under severe drought stress conditions. Under moderate drought stress, the expression of key enzymes increased, while under severe drought stress, the expression of key enzymes decreased. Mild drought stress resulted in a 26.42% increase in baicalin accumulation, while severe drought stress led to a 22.88% decrease. The protein interaction analysis of key enzyme genes and SbWRKYs revealed that the expression of key enzyme genes affected the expression of SbWRKYs. We screened nine SbWRKYs with a significant relationship with baicalin accumulation, and SbWRKY8 and SbWRKY16 showed the highest correlation with the baicalin content. These findings offer a theoretical framework for more research on the roles of SbWRKYs and show that SbWRKYs can respond to drought stress in S. baicalensis.

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a staple food crop that provides 20% of total human calorie consumption. Gene duplication has been considered to play an important role in evolution by providing new genetic resources. However, the evolutionary fates and biological functions of the duplicated genes in wheat remain to be elucidated. In this study, the resulting data showed that the duplicated genes evolved faster with shorter gene lengths, higher codon usage bias, lower expression levels, and higher tissue specificity when compared to non-duplicated genes. Our analysis further revealed functions of duplicated genes in various biological processes with significant enrichment to environmental stresses. In addition, duplicated genes derived from dispersed, proximal, tandem, transposed, and whole-genome duplication differed in abundance, evolutionary rate, gene compactness, expression pattern, and genetic diversity. Tandem and proximal duplicates experienced stronger selective pressure and showed a more compact gene structure with diverse expression profiles than other duplication modes. Moreover, genes derived from different duplication modes showed an asymmetrical evolutionary pattern for wheat A, B, and D subgenomes. Several candidate duplication hotspots associated with wheat domestication or polyploidization were characterized as potential targets for wheat molecular breeding. Our comprehensive analysis revealed the evolutionary trajectory of duplicated genes and laid the foundation for future functional studies on wheat.