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There is a lack of effective therapeutic drugs for pulmonary arterial hypertension. Previous studies have demonstrated the positive cardiovascular system protective effects of the new peptide ACTY116. However, its stability in ordinary aqueous solution injections is poor and its half‐life in the body is short, which has hindered the development of preparations. This study aimed to prepare in situ forming implants (ISFIs) of the peptide ACTY116 and investigate its impact on pulmonary arterial hypertension. We prepared ISFIs using NMP/TA as a solvent and PLGA as a polymer. These ISFIs exhibited low viscosity, low toxicity and sustained release properties. In a mouse model of pulmonary hypertension induced by SU5416/hypoxia, both ISFIs and ACTY116 peptides effectively reduced pulmonary hypertension, cardiac hypertrophy and pulmonary blood vessel wall thickness. In conclusion, this study highlights the potential of ACTY116 as a treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension and suggests that incorporating it into an in‐situ gel implant could be a promising option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice blast is one of the most devastating diseases and a serious threat to global food security. It is caused by the ascomycetous fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. During the pathogenic development of M. oryzae, ferroptotic death of conidial cells is critical for appressorium formation and infection to host rice. In this study, we identified and functionally characterised orthologs of fatty acid desaturase (Fad2) and acyl-CoA synthetase long-chain family (Acsl4) in M. oryzae. Pathogenicity was impaired in the fad2Δ or acsl4Δ mutant and targeted lipidomics analysis demonstrated that Fad2 and Acsl4 were involved in the production of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs)-containing phospholipids (PUFA-PLs) potentially contributing to ferroptosis. Treatment with FeCl3, an oxidative agent to cause lipid peroxidation, could partially restore fad2Δ pathogenicity. Fad2 was also found to potentially interact with proteins involved in cellular redox homoeostasis. Overall, our results elucidate the role of PUFA-PLs biosynthesis in fungal cell death and fungal pathogenicity, providing a theoretical basis for the development of specific pesticides/drugs targeting ferroptosis caused by lipid peroxidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Snow and ice melting in the Upper Indus Basin (UIB) is crucial for regional water availability for mountainous communities. We analyzed glacier changes in the Astak catchment, UIB, from 2000 to 2020 using remote sensing techniques based on optical satellite images from Landsat and ASTER digital elevation models. We used a surface feature-tracking technique to estimate glacier velocity. To assess the impact of climate variations, we examined temperature and precipitation anomalies using ERA5 Land climate data. Over the past two decades, the Astak catchment experienced a slight decrease in glacier area (−1.8 km2) and the overall specific mass balance was −0.02 ± 0.1 m w.e. a−1. The most negative mass balance of −0.09 ± 0.06 m w.e. a−1 occurred at elevations between 2810 to 3220 m a.s.l., with a lesser rate of −0.015 ± 0.12 m w.e. a−1 above 5500 m a.s.l. This variation in glacier mass balance can be attributed to temperature and precipitation gradients, as well as debris cover. Recent glacier mass loss can be linked to seasonal temperature anomalies at higher elevations during winter and autumn. Given the reliance of mountain populations on glacier melt, seasonal temperature trends can disturb water security and the well-being of dependent communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer‐related death worldwide. This study aimed to establish novel multiclassification prediction models based on machine learning (ML) to predict the probability of malignancy in pulmonary nodules (PNs) and to compare with three published models. Methods: Nine hundred fourteen patients with PNs were collected from four medical institutions (A, B, C and D), which were organized into tables containing clinical features, radiologic features and laboratory test features. Patients were divided into benign lesion (BL), precursor lesion (PL) and malignant lesion (ML) groups according to pathological diagnosis. Approximately 80% of patients in A (total/male: 632/269, age: 57.73 ± 11.06) were randomly selected as a training set; the remaining 20% were used as an internal test set; and the patients in B (total/male: 94/53, age: 60.04 ± 11.22), C (total/male: 94/47, age: 59.30 ± 9.86) and D (total/male: 94/61, age: 62.0 ± 11.09) were used as an external validation set. Logical regression (LR), decision tree (DT), random forest (RF) and support vector machine (SVM) were used to establish prediction models. Finally, the Mayo model, Peking University People's Hospital (PKUPH) model and Brock model were externally validated in our patients. Results: The AUC values of RF model for MLs, PLs and BLs were 0.80 (95% CI: 0.73–0.88), 0.90 (95% CI: 0.82–0.99) and 0.75 (95% CI: 0.67–0.88), respectively. The weighted average AUC value of the RF model for the external validation set was 0.71 (95% CI: 0.67–0.73), and its AUC values for MLs, PLs and BLs were 0.71 (95% CI: 0.68–0.79), 0.98 (95% CI: 0.88–1.07) and 0.68 (95% CI: 0.61–0.74), respectively. The AUC values of the Mayo model, PKUPH model and Brock model were 0.68 (95% CI: 0.62–0.74), 0.64 (95% CI: 0.58–0.70) and 0.57 (95% CI: 0.49–0.65), respectively. Conclusions: The RF model performed best, and its predictive performance was better than that of the three published models, which may provide a new noninvasive method for the risk assessment of PNs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider the Oldroyd-B model with stress tensor diffusion in R d with d ≥ 2. We first establish the global well-posedness of solutions to this model for small initial data (u 0 , τ 0) ∈ ( B ˙ p , 1 d p − 1 ∩ B ˙ p , 1 d p + 1) d × ( B ˙ p , 1 d p ) d × d with 1 ≤ p < ∞. Furthermore, under some additional L 2 type conditions on (u 0 , τ 0) , but without any more smallness restrictions, we get the L 2 decay rates of all derivatives of (u , τ). It is shown that the velocity u decays as fast as the solution to the corresponding homogeneous linear heat equation, and the symmetry τ decays as fast as ∇ u. In particular, when d = 3 the velocity u admits the decay rate faster than (1 + t) − 3 4 in L 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adequate level of carbohydrates in aquafeeds help to conserve protein and reduce cost. However, studies have indicated that high-carbohydrate (HC) diet disrupt the homeostasis of the gut–liver axis in largemouth bass, resulting in decreased intestinal acetate and butyrate level. Method: Herein, we had concepted a set of feeding experiment to assess the effects of dietary sodium acetate (SA) and sodium butyrate (SB) on liver health and the intestinal microbiota in largemouth bass fed an HC diet. The experimental design comprised 5 isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets, including LC (9% starch), HC (18% starch), HCSA (18% starch; 2 g/kg SA), HCSB (18% starch; 2 g/kg SB), and HCSASB (18% starch; 1 g/kg SA + 1 g/kg SB). Juvenile largemouth bass with an initial body weight of 7.00 ± 0.20 g were fed on these diets for 56 d. Results: We found that dietary SA and SB reduced hepatic triglyceride accumulation by activating autophagy (ATG101, LC3B and TFEB), promoting lipolysis (CPT1α, HSL and AMPKα), and inhibiting adipogenesis (FAS, ACCA, SCD1 and PPARγ). In addition, SA and SB decreased oxidative stress in the liver (CAT, GPX1α and SOD1) by activating the Keap1-Nrf2 pathway. Meanwhile, SA and SB alleviated HC-induced inflammation by downregulating the expression of pro-inflammatory factors (IL-1β, COX2 and Hepcidin1) through the NF-κB pathway. Importantly, SA and SB increased the abundance of bacteria that produced acetic acid and butyrate (Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1). Combined with the KEGG analysis, the results showed that SA and SB enriched carbohydrate metabolism and amino acid metabolism pathways, thereby improving the utilization of carbohydrates. Pearson correlation analysis indicated that growth performance was closely related to hepatic lipid deposition, autophagy, antioxidant capacity, inflammation, and intestinal microbial composition. Conclusions: In conclusion, dietary SA and SB can reduce hepatic lipid deposition; and alleviate oxidative stress and inflammation in largemouth bass fed on HC diet. These beneficial effects may be due to the altered composition of the gut microbiota caused by SA and SB. The improvement effects of SB were stronger than those associated with SA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a serious inflammatory disease with high morbidity and mortality. Rosavin is an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant phenylpropanoid and glucoside, which is isolated from Rhodiola rosea L. However, its potential molecular mechanisms and whether it has protective effects against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ALI remain to be elucidated. To assess the in vitro anti-inflammatory effects and anti-lung injury activity of rosavin, RAW264.7 and A549 cells were stimulated using 1 μg/mL LPS. Rosavin attenuated LPS-induced activation of the TLR-4/NF-κB signaling pathway in RAW264.7 cells and inhibited LPS-induced release of inflammatory factors in A549 cells. A mouse model of acute lung injury was constructed by intraperitoneal injection of 5 mg/kg LPS to observe the therapeutic effect of rosavin. Transcriptomics analysis and Western blot assays were utilized to verify the molecular mechanism, rosavin (20, 40, and 80 mg/kg) dose-dependently ameliorated histopathological alterations, reduced the levels of inflammatory factors, and inhibited the TLR-4/NF-κB/MAPK signaling pathway and apoptosis activation. Rosavin is a promising therapeutic candidate for acute lung injury by inhibiting the TLR-4/NF-κB/MAPK pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel Zn dipyrazolate metal‐organic framework (MOF), Zn(azbpz) (azbpz2−=4,4′‐azobis(3,5‐dimethylpyrazolate), has been synthesized and structurally characterized using micro‐crystal electron diffraction. The framework contains chain‐type secondary building units comprised of tetrahedral Zn2+ ions bridged by pyrazolate groups, resulting in guest‐accessible channels lined with methyl and azo functional groups. CO2, C2H2, C2H4, C2H6, C3H6, and C3H8 gas adsorption isotherms were measured to investigate the potential of Zn(azbpz) as an adsorbent for selective separation of binary gas mixtures. The data reveal selective adsorption of acetylene over CO2, and column breakthrough experiments demonstrate good performance for C2H2/CO2 separation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gleditsia sinensis is a species endemic to China, an ecologically economic multipurpose tree with great development potential, which could be used as medicine, food, industrial materials and wood. It is well known that the standardized description of plant development stages according to their phenological characteristics not only is crucial for conduct of various agronomic practices, but also facilitates the exchange of new findings based on the same understanding of the plant. However, a uniform phenology scale of G. sinensis has rarely been reported, despite its expanding plant area and rapid development of this industry over the past few years. Thus, phenological events of G. sinensis were monitored based on the BBCH scale during two consecutive years in this study. Eight of the 10 BBCH stages described in detail by combining numbers and letters based on its species characteristic were accurately recorded, including bud development (0), leaf development (1), shoot development (3), inflorescence emergence (5), flowering (6), pod development (7), maturity of pod (8) and senescence (9). As far as we know, it is the first time that a special phenological rhythm for G. sinensis has been developed using an extended BBCH scale, which not only provides the basis for other basic research, but also assists growers in conducting planting management practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) is a common cyanotic congenital heart malformation that carries a high risk of right-to-left shunting. Anemia is characterized by decreased hemoglobin (Hb) levels that can affect tissue oxygen delivery and impact postoperative recovery in patients. Chronic hypoxia caused by right-to-left shunting of TOF could lead to compensatory increases in Hb to maintain systemic oxygen balance. This study aims to investigate whether preoperative Hb and blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) can predict adverse outcomes in children undergoing corrective surgery for TOF. Methods: This retrospective study included patients under 18 years of age who underwent corrective surgery for TOF at Fuwai Hospital between January 2016 and December 2018. Adverse outcomes, including in-hospital death, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation implantation, ICU stay > 30 days, and severe complications, were considered as the primary outcome. Univariable and multivariable logistic analyses were performed to identify independent risk factors for adverse outcomes. Propensity score-matched (PSM) analysis was also conducted to minimize the confounding factors. Results: A total of 596 children were included in the study, of which 64 (10.7%) experienced adverse outcomes. Hb*SpO2 < aaHb was identified as an independent risk factor for adverse outcomes (OR = 2.241, 95% CI = 1.276–3.934, P = 0.005) after univariable and multivariable logistic analyses. PSM analysis further confirmed the association between Hb*SpO2 < aaHb and adverse outcomes. Patients with Hb*SpO2 < aaHb had a significantly higher incidence of postoperative adverse outcomes, longer time of mechanical ventilation, and hospital stay, as well as higher in-hospital costs. Conclusions: Hb*SpO2 < aaHb is significantly associated with adverse outcomes in children undergoing corrective surgery for TOF. Clinicians can use this parameter to early identify high-risk children and optimize their postoperative management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: In total, 17 QTLs for lint percentage in short-season cotton, including three stable QTLs, were detected. Twenty-eight differentially expressed genes located within the stable QTLs were identified, and two genes were validated by qRT-PCR. The breeding and use of short-season cotton have significant values in addressing the question of occupying farmlands with either cotton or cereals. However, the fiber yields of short-season cotton varieties are significantly lower than those of middle- and late-maturing varieties. How to effectively improve the fiber yield of short-season cotton has become a focus of cotton research. Here, a high-density genetic map was constructed using genome resequencing and an RIL population generated from the hybridization of two short-season cotton accessions, Dong3 and Dong4. The map contained 4960 bin markers across the 26 cotton chromosomes and spanned 3971.08 cM, with an average distance of 0.80 cM between adjacent markers. Based on the genetic map, quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping for lint percentage (LP, %), an important yield component trait, was performed. In total, 17 QTLs for LP, including three stable QTLs, qLP-A02, qLP-D04, and qLP-D12, were detected. Three out of 11 non-redundant QTLs overlapped with previously reported QTLs, whereas the other eight were novel QTLs. A total of 28 differentially expressed genes associated with the three stable QTLs were identified using RNA-seq of ovules and fibers at different seed developmental stages from the parental materials. The two genes, Ghir_A02G017640 and Ghir_A02G018500, may be related to LP as determined by further qRT-PCR validation. This study provides useful information for the genetic dissection of LP and promotes the molecular breeding of short-season cotton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of pre-oxidation viscosity reduction technology of coal has been carried out on a fixed ffuidized bed device. The effects of temperature, atmosphere, residence time on the bond index were investigated. The results showed that the bond index could be reduced to below 5 under the conditions of temperature 200 °C, residence time 30 min, atmosphere air and air containing atmosphere, and the coke type has changed from F-type to C-type,and from weakly sticky coal to non sticky coal. By analyzing the com¬position of ZSLB and ZSLA tar products, it was found that tar of ZSLB and ZSLA mainly consists of naphthalene series, alkanes, phenols, phenanthrene series, benzene series, anthracene series, pyrene series, fluorene series, indene series, and other substances, with a similar proportion, with the highest content of naphthalene series; the content of low distillate substances in tar of ZSLB is higher, and the temperature corresponding to the same fraction is earlier, presents a lighter weight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gandouling tablets are used in a clinical agent for the treatment of hepatocellular degeneration; however, their chemical constituents have not been elucidated. Here, we screened and identified the chemical constituents of Gandouling tablets using ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC)‐quadrupole time of flight/mass spectrometry. A method for the quality evaluation of Gandouling tablets was developed by combining the UHPLC fingerprints and the simultaneous quantitative analysis of multiple active ingredients. For fingerprint analysis, 20 shared peaks were identified to assess the similarities among the 10 batches of Gandouling tablets and the similarity was >0.9. The levels of nine representative active ingredients were simultaneously determined to ensure consistency in quality. A total of 99 chemical components were identified, including 18 alkaloids, 20 anthraquinones, 13 flavonoids, 11 phenolic acids, 9 polyphenols, 7 phenanthrenes, 5 sesquiterpenes, 3 curcuminoids, 2 lignans, 2 isoflavones, 2 dianthranones, and 7 other components. The retention times, molecular formulae, and secondary fragmentation information of these compounds were analyzed, and the cleavage pathways and characteristic fragments of some of the representative compounds were elucidated. This systematic analysis used to identify the chemical components of Gandouling tablets lays the foundation for its further quality control and research on their pharmacodynamic substances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The evidence-base for mass tuberculosis screening among persons with diabetes (PWD) is poor. We evaluated the yield and costs of mass screening among PWD in eastern China. Methods We included individuals with type 2 diabetes from 38 townships in Jiangsu Province. Screening comprised of physical examinations, symptom screening, and chest X-rays; smear and culture testing were performed through clinical triage. We assessed the yield and number needed to screen (NNS) to detect 1 tuberculosis case among all PWD, those with symptoms, and with suggestive chest X-rays. Unit costing was collected to estimate screening costs and to calculate cost per case detected. We performed a systematic review of other mass tuberculosis screening programs concentrated on PWD. Results Of 89 549 screened PWD, 160 were diagnosed with tuberculosis (179 cases per 100 000 persons; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 153–205). The NNS was 560 (95% CI: 513–606), 248 (95% CI: 217–279), and 36 (95% CI: 24–48) among all participants, with abnormal chest X-rays, and symptoms. The cost per case was high overall (US$13 930) but lower with symptoms (US$1037) and high fasting blood glucose levels (US$6807). From systematic review, the pooled NNS to detect one case among all PWD (regardless of symptoms or chest X-ray results) in high- versus low-burden settings was 93 (95% CI: 70–141) versus 395 (95% CI: 283–649). Conclusions A mass tuberculosis screening program focused on PWD was feasible however, the overall yield was low and not cost-efficient. Risk-stratified approaches may be practical among PWD in low- and medium tuberculosis burden settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationship between academic achievement, psychological distress, and smartphone addiction in medical students. In total, 513 medical students voluntarily completed a survey that included the Personal Information Questionnaire, the Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version (SAS-SV), the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21), and the Interaction Anxiousness Scale (IAS). Results showed that 321 participants were screened positive for smartphone addiction and the prevalence of smartphone addiction was 62.6%. We found that the prevalence of smartphone addiction was higher among male rather than female students (67.1% vs 58.2%; p = 0.039). There were significant differences between the smartphone addiction group and the smartphone non-addiction group as per the DASS-21 scores and the IAS scores. In addition, multiple regression indicated that psychological distress including anxiety, stress, depression, and social anxiety might be the predictors of smartphone addiction. However, smartphone addiction was found to have no significant correlation with academic performance in 274 undergraduate medical students. In conclusion, the study revealed the high prevalence of smartphone addiction in medical students. Smartphone addiction was associated with states of depression, anxiety, stress, and social anxiety, and there was no significant relationship between academic performance and smartphone addiction in undergraduate medical students. Further longitudinal research is needed to clarify the causal relationship between smartphone addiction and psychological distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this remark, we consider regularity criterion for weak solutions to the 3d incompressible Navier–Stokes equations via pressure. It is proved that if the corressponding pressure P satisfies ∇ h ˜ P ∈ L β (0 , T ; L p (R x 1 ; L q (R x 2 ; L r (R x 3)))) with 2 β + 1 p + 1 q + 1 r = 3 , 6 5 < p , q , r ≤ 3 and 2 − (1 p + 1 q + 1 r) ≥ 0 , then the weak solution remains smooth on (0 , T ] . Here, ∇ h ˜ = (0 , ∂ 2 , ∂ 3) . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several poly (biphenyl piperidine-trifluoroacetophenone) based polymers with different grafting ratios of polar alkyl nitrile side chains are synthesized, named PBPAp-PN-x. The relationship between structure and performance is studied, including conductivity, swelling ratio (SR), morphology, single-cell performance, etc. The SR and conductivity at 80 °C of PBPAp-PN30% are 41.0% and 142.3 mS cm−1, whereas those of PBPAp-PN0% are 77.8% and 155.3 mS cm−1, respectively. Further, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are carried out to microcosmically reveal the mechanism of structure-property relationship, which simulate the number of water molecules (N H2O) and the diffusion coefficients (D). The simulations also indicate polar cyanide groups can form close contacts, which is similar to physical crosslinking to inhibit the swelling of backbone. As a result, the advantage of grafting dipolar molecules in AEMs not only effectively resolves the "trade-off" problem between ionic conductivity and dimensional stability, but also might be a promising application in fuel cells. [Display omitted] • PBP-based AEMs tethered with dipolar molecular side chains were synthesized. • Investigating the effect of intermolecular interaction on the performance of AEMs. • Solving the "trade-off" problem between dimensional stability and ionic conductivity. • Molecular dynamics provides the effect of polar molecules on AEMs performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many porous materials, including metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), have been reported to selectively adsorb C2H2 in C2H2/CO2 separation processes, CO2‐selective sorbents are much less common. Here, we report the remarkable performance of MFU‐4 (Zn5Cl4(bbta)3, bbta=benzo‐1,2,4,5‐bistriazolate) toward inverse CO2/C2H2 separation. The MOF facilitates kinetic separation of CO2 from C2H2, enabling the generation of high purity C2H2 (>98 %) with good productivity in dynamic breakthrough experiments. Adsorption kinetics measurements and computational studies show C2H2 is excluded from MFU‐4 by narrow pore windows formed by Zn−Cl groups. Postsynthetic F−/Cl− ligand exchange was used to synthesize an analogue (MFU‐4‐F) with expanded pore apertures, resulting in equilibrium C2H2/CO2 separation with reversed selectivity compared to MFU‐4. MFU‐4‐F also exhibits a remarkably high C2H2 adsorption capacity (6.7 mmol g−1), allowing fuel grade C2H2 (98 % purity) to be harvested from C2H2/CO2 mixtures by room temperature desorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many porous materials, including metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), have been reported to selectively adsorb C2H2 in C2H2/CO2 separation processes, CO2‐selective sorbents are much less common. Here, we report the remarkable performance of MFU‐4 (Zn5Cl4(bbta)3, bbta=benzo‐1,2,4,5‐bistriazolate) toward inverse CO2/C2H2 separation. The MOF facilitates kinetic separation of CO2 from C2H2, enabling the generation of high purity C2H2 (>98 %) with good productivity in dynamic breakthrough experiments. Adsorption kinetics measurements and computational studies show C2H2 is excluded from MFU‐4 by narrow pore windows formed by Zn−Cl groups. Postsynthetic F−/Cl− ligand exchange was used to synthesize an analogue (MFU‐4‐F) with expanded pore apertures, resulting in equilibrium C2H2/CO2 separation with reversed selectivity compared to MFU‐4. MFU‐4‐F also exhibits a remarkably high C2H2 adsorption capacity (6.7 mmol g−1), allowing fuel grade C2H2 (98 % purity) to be harvested from C2H2/CO2 mixtures by room temperature desorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resistance and inductance of an inductor working at high frequencies depend on frequency because of eddy currents caused by the skin and proximity effects. In addition, the stray capacitance among winding coils would give significant influence. This paper proposes an equivalent circuit model which can consider the displacement and eddy currents simultaneously in frequency and time domain. In the proposed circuit model, the capacitance and complex inductance are determined by solving electrostatic and magnetostatic equations with finite element method (FEM). It is shown that the input impedance of an air-core coil is consistent with that computed by FEM at low frequencies. Moreover, the former is shown to be consistent with the measured result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pinus elliottii used as rootstock instead of homologous rootstock, have been proved to accelerate early growth of the scion (Pinus massoniana), for cultivation of large diameter wood. However, the basal diameter of scions in heterologous grafts was significantly smaller than self-graft 10 years later, according to field investigation, which was opposed to cultivation objectives. Although advantage of heterologous grafts has been reported, less is known about the long term effect of heterologous rootstock on scions of P. massoniana. The aim of present study was to investigate the mechanism of the above difference. Toward this aim, the growth traits and physiological characteristics of scions in the two graft groups were studied, and the underlying mechanism was preliminarily explored through transcriptome sequencing technology. Results showed that scions of heterologous grafts had less TSCA compared to self-grafts, while no significant difference of plant height, number of branches and canopy volume between two graft groups. Besides, scion leaves of heterologous grafts displayed higher antioxidant enzyme activity and lower chlorophyll content. And interactions between rootstocks and scions had also changed the mineral element composition of scion leaves. Compared with homologous grafts, scion leaves of heterologous grafts accumulated more K+, Mg2+ and Zn2+, but less Ca2+,which have been proved to be conducive to the growth of stem diameter of P. massoniana. Moreover, a comparative transcriptome analysis of two graft groups showed that DEGs between them were mainly caused by the specificity of rootstock. GO and KEGG analysis found that heterologous rootstock had different gene expression preferences, and the gene expression level between rootstocks and scions were significantly different, such as auxin auxin-related genes and stress responsive genes. That may imply that auxin pathway played an important role not only in grafting healing process, but also in maintaining the growth between scion and stock. Summary of all above results, we concluded that the long term effect of heterologous rootstock on scions may be unsatisfactory with the later rapidly growth of scion, probably due to delayed graft incompatibility between scion and stock of heterologous grafts. This study may remind us that the long-term growth of the scion deserves attention as well as the healing process, which could also provide a basis for delayed graft incompatibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, air pollution is amongst the most significant causes of premature death. Nevertheless, studies on the relationship between fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure and blood lipids have typically not been population-based. In a large, community-based sample of residents in Yixing city, we assessed the relationship between short-term outdoor PM2.5 exposure and blood lipid concentrations. Participants who attended the physical examination were enrolled from Yixing People's hospital from 2015 to 2020. We collected general characteristics of participants, including gender and age, as well as test results of indicators of blood lipids. Data on daily meteorological factors were collected from the National Meteorological Data Sharing Center (http://data.cma.cn/) and air pollutant concentrations were collected from the China Air Quality Online Monitoring and Analysis Platform (https://www.aqistudy.cn/) during this period. We applied generalized additive models to estimate short-term effects of ambient PM2.5 exposure on each measured blood lipid-related indicators and converted these indicators into dichotomous variables (non- hyperlipidemia and hyperlipidemia) to calculate risks of hyperlipidemia associated with PM2.5 exposure. A total of 197,957 participants were included in the analysis with mean age 47.90 years (± SD, 14.28). The increase in PM2.5 was significantly associated with hyperlipidemia (odds ratio (OR) 1.003, 95% CI 1.001–1.004), and it was still significant in subgroups of males and age < 60 years. For every 10 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5, triglyceride levels decreased by 0.5447% (95% CI − 0.7873, − 0.3015), the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration increased by 0.0127 mmol/L (95% CI 0.0099, 0.0156), the total cholesterol concentration increased by 0.0095 mmol/L (95% CI 0.0053, 0.0136), and no significant association was observed between PM2.5 and the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration. After excluding people with abnormal blood lipid concentrations, the associations remained significant except for the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration. PM2.5 was positively correlated with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and total cholesterol, and negatively correlated with triglyceride, indicating PM2.5 can potentially affect health through blood lipid levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Body size is an important biological phenotypic trait that has attracted substantial attention. Small domestic pigs can serve as excellent animal models for biomedicine and also help meet sacrificial culture needs in human societies. Although the mechanisms underlying vertebral development regulating body size variation in domestic pigs during the embryonic period have been well described, few studies have examined the genetic basis of body size variation in post embryonic developmental stages. In this study, seven candidate genes—PLIN1, LIPE, PNPLA1, SCD, FABP5, KRT10 and IVL—significantly associated with body size were identified in Min pigs, on the basis of weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), and most of their functions were found to be associated with lipid deposition. Six candidate genes except for IVL were found to have been subjected to purifying selection. PLIN1 had the lowest ω value (0.139) and showed heterogeneous selective pressure among domestic pig lineages with different body sizes (p < 0.05). These results suggested that PLIN1 is an important genetic factor regulating lipid deposition and consequently affecting body size variation in pigs. The culture of whole pig sacrifice in Manchu during the Qing Dynasty in China might have contributed to the strong artificial domestication and selection of Hebao pigs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate regularity criteria for weak solutions to the Cauchy problem of the 3d co-rotational Beris-Edwards system for nematic liquid crystals, which couples the Navier–Stokes equations for the fluid velocity u with an evolution-diffusion equations for the Q -tenser. Our results yield that for any positive constant γ > 0 , if either the negative part of the associated pressure Π satisfies Π − [ ln ⁡ (1 + Π −) ] 1 + γ ∈ L ∞ (R + ; L 3 2 , ∞ (R 3)) , or the quantity 2 Π + | u | 2 + | ∇ Q | 2 satisfies (2 Π + + | u | 2 + | ∇ Q | 2) [ ln ⁡ (1 + 2 Π + + | u | 2 + | ∇ Q | 2) ] 1 + γ ∈ L ∞ (R + ; L 3 2 , ∞ (R 3)) , then the weak solution (u , Q) , to the 3d co-rotational Beris-Edwards system, is global-in-time smooth. Here, the subscript "−" and "+" denote the negative and the nonnegative part, respectively. L 3 2 , ∞ (R 3) denotes the standard weak Lebesgue space. If Q ≡ 0 , then our results extend some previous known results from the theory of the 3d Navier–Stokes equations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Prolonged mechanical ventilation (PMV) after pediatric cardiac surgery imposes a great burden on patients in terms of morbidity, mortality as well as financial costs. Ebstein anomaly (EA) is a rare congenital heart disease, and few studies have been conducted about PMV in this condition. This study aimed to establish a simple-to-use nomogram to predict the risk of PMV for EA children. Methods: The retrospective study included patients under 18 years who underwent corrective surgeries for EA from January 2009 to November 2021. PMV was defined as postoperative mechanical ventilation time longer than 24 hours. Through multivariable logistic regression, we identified and integrated the risk factors to develop a simple-to-use nomogram of PMV for EA children and internally validated it by bootstrapping. The calibration and discriminative ability of the nomogram were determined by calibration curve, Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results: Two hundred seventeen children were included in our study of which 44 (20.3%) were in the PMV group. After multivariable regression, we obtained five risk factors of PMV. The odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were as follows: preoperative blood oxygen saturation, 0.876(0.805,0.953); cardiothoracic ratio, 3.007(1.107,8.169); Carpentier type, 4.644(2.065,10.445); cardiopulmonary bypass time, 1.014(1.005,1.023) and postoperative central venous pressure, 1.166(1.016,1.339). We integrated the five risk factors into a nomogram to predict the risk of PMV. The area under ROC curve of nomogram was 0.805 (95% CI, 0.725,0.885) and it also provided a good discriminative information with the corresponding Hosmer-Lemeshow p values > 0.05. Conclusions: We developed a nomogram by integrating five independent risk factors. The nomogram is a practical tool to early identify children at high-risk for PMV after EA corrective surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deciphering 3D genome conformation is important for understanding gene regulation and cellular function at a spatial level. The recent advances of single cell Hi-C technologies have enabled the profiling of the 3D architecture of DNA within individual cell, which allows us to study the cell-to-cell variability of 3D chromatin organization. Computational approaches are in urgent need to comprehensively analyze the sparse and heterogeneous single cell Hi-C data. Here, we proposed scDEC-Hi-C, a new framework for single cell Hi-C analysis with deep generative neural networks. scDEC-Hi-C outperforms existing methods in terms of single cell Hi-C data clustering and imputation. Moreover, the generative power of scDEC-Hi-C could help unveil the differences of chromatin architecture across cell types. We expect that scDEC-Hi-C could shed light on deepening our understanding of the complex mechanism underlying the formation of chromatin contacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inonotus obliquus is a medicinal fungus with potential for use in various health applications. To better utilize this fungus, this study focused on epidermis and internal tissues of five sclerotia from different regions in Jilin, Inner Mongolia, and Heilongjiang, examining their polyphenols, polysaccharides, flavonoids, and total triterpenes contents. And evaluated the extracts from sclerotia for their total antioxidant capacity and scavenging ability of DPPH free radicals. The study also isolated the associated fungi from the epidermis and internal tissues of three sclerotia. Results revealed that the polyphenol content was higher in the epidermis than in internal tissue of every sclerotium. However, flavonoid and total triterpenoid content was lower in the epidermis of every sclerotium. The polysaccharide content was no significant in different parts of three sclerotia, but the epidermal polysaccharide content in two sclerotia was significantly higher than in internal tissues. The internal tissue extracts from tested sclerotia exhibited better scavenging ability of DPPH free radicals than those from the epidermis. There was no significant difference in total antioxidant capacity among different parts of three sclerotia, and the internal tissues' total antioxidant capacity in two sclerotia was higher than the epidermis. The number and species of associated fungi in the internal tissues were far less than that in the epidermis. The study suggests separating the epidermis and internal tissue for medicinal use. The research provides insights into the bioactive components and associated fungi of I. obliquus to inform its practical application in medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the industry in charge of the cultivation of Macrobrachium nipponense (M.nipponense) has suffered significant economic losses due to an infectious pathogen called Spiroplasma eriocheiris (S.eriocheiris). There has therefore been a need to identify the key immune and autophagy genes that respond to M.nipponense 's infection with S. eriocheiris to analyze its immune response mechanism and the regulation of related microRNAs (miRNAs). In this study, the mRNA and miRNA transcriptome of M.nipponense 's hemocytes were analyzed at different stages of infection. This analysis employed the second and third-generation sequencing technologies. In the mRNA transcriptome, 1656 genes were expressed in healthy and susceptible M.nipponense. 892 of these were significantly up-regulated, while 764 were down-regulated. 118 genes with significant differences in autophagy, endocytosis, lysosome, Toll, IMD, and VEGF pathways were obtained from the transcriptome. In the miRNA transcriptome, 312 miRNAs (Conserved: 112, PN-type: 18, PC-type: 182) were sequenced. 74 were significantly up-regulated, and 57 were down-regulated. There were 25 miRNAs involved in regulating the Toll and IMD pathways, 41 in endocytosis, 30 in lysosome, and 12 in the VEGF pathway. An integrated analysis of immune-related miRNAs and mRNAs showed that miRNAs with significant differences (P < 0.05) such as ame-miR-29b-3p, dpu-miR-1and PC-3p-945_4074, had corresponding regulatory relationships with 118 important immune genes such as Relish , Dorsal , Caspase-3, and NF-κB. This study obtained the key immune and autophagy-related genes and corresponding regulatory miRNAs in M. nipponense' s hemocytes in response to an infection by S.eriocheiris. The results can provide vital data that further reveals the defense mechanism of M.nipponense 's immune system against S.eriocheiris. It can also help further comprehension and interpretation of M.nipponense's resistance mechanism to the invading S.eriocheiris , and provide molecular research information for the realization of host-directed therapies (HDT) for M.nipponense. • Comprehensive mRNA and miRNA transcriptome profiling of M.nipponense challenged with S. eriocheiris. • 118 significant genes related to autophagy, endocytosis, lysosome, Toll, IMD, and VEGF pathways were excavated. • A total of 312 miRNAs, of which 74 were significantly up-regulated and 57 were significantly down-regulated. • The key immune and autophagy-related genes and miRNAs in hemocytes in response to an infection by S.eriocheiris. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tuberculosis recurrence after an initial successful treatment episode can occur from either reinfection or relapse. In a population-based sample and whole genome sequencing in eastern China, we aimed to evaluate risk factors for tuberculosis recurrence and assess the proportion of recurrence because of either reinfection or relapse. Successfully treated pulmonary tuberculosis patients with sputum culture positive results were recruited from five cities in Jiangsu Province from 2013 to 2015 and followed for 2 years for tuberculosis recurrence. Among patients developing a second tuberculosis episode, whole genome sequencing was performed to distinguish relapse or reinfection through a distance threshold of 6-single-nucleotide polymorphisms. We analyzed risk factors for recurrence and epidemiological characteristics of different types of recurrent patients. Of 1897 successfully treated tuberculosis patients, 7.4% (141/1879) developed recurrent tuberculosis. Compared with nonrecurrent tuberculosis, patients were at higher risk of recurrence in older age (adjusted odds ratio, 1.02 for each additional year; 95% CI, 1.01 to 1.03, p = 0.003), patients previously treated for tuberculosis (adjusted odds ratio = 2.22; 95% CI, 1.52 to 3.26, p < 0.001), or with bilateral cavities (adjusted odds ratio, 1.56; 95% CI, 1.05 to 2.32, p = 0.029). Among 27.0% (38/141) recurrent tuberculosis patients with successfully sequenced pairs, relapse was substantially more common than reinfection (71.1% vs 28.9%, p = 0.014). Endogenous relapse was significantly more common than exogenous reinfection in the first 2 years after treatment in eastern China. Prioritization of high-risk groups for recurrence, such as the elderly, with a previous tuberculosis diagnosis, or with bilateral cavities, may provide opportunities to reduce post-tuberculosis morbidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) is a heterogeneous midbrain structure involved in various brain functions, such as motor control, learning, reward, and sleep. Previous studies using conventional tracers have shown that the PPN receives extensive afferent inputs from various cortical areas. To examine how these cortical axons make collateral projections to other subcortical areas, we used a dual-viral injection strategy to sparsely label PPN-targeting cortical pyramidal neurons in CaMKIIα-Cre transgenic mice. Using a high-speed volumetric imaging with on-the-fly-scan and Readout (VISoR) technique, we visualized brain-wide axonal projections of individual PPN-targeting neurons from several cortical areas, including the prelimbic region (PL), anterior cingulate area (ACA) and secondary motor cortex (MOs). We found that each PPN-projecting neuron had a unique profile of collateralization, with some subcortical areas being preferential targets. In particular, PPN-projecting neurons from all three traced cortical areas exhibited common preferential collateralization to several nuclei, with most neurons targeting the striatum (STR), lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) and periaqueductal gray (PAG), and a substantial portion of neurons also targeting the zona incerta (ZI), median raphe nucleus (MRN) and substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr). Meanwhile, very specific collateralization patterns were found for other nuclei, including the intermediate reticular nucleus (IRN), parvicellular reticular nucleus (PARN) and gigantocellular reticular nucleus (GRN), which receive collateral inputs almost exclusively from the MOs. These observations provide potential anatomical mechanisms for cortical neurons to coordinate the PPN with other subcortical areas in performing different physiological functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Microbes are associated with many human diseases and influence drug efficacy. Small-molecule drugs may revolutionize biomedicine by fine-tuning the microbiota on the basis of individual patient microbiome signatures. However, emerging endeavors in small-molecule microbiome drug discovery continue to follow a conventional "one-drug-one-target-one-disease" process. A systematic pharmacology approach that would suppress multiple interacting pathogenic species in the microbiome, could offer an attractive alternative solution. Results: We construct a disease-centric signed microbe–microbe interaction network using curated microbe metabolite information and their effects on host. We develop a Signed Random Walk with Restart algorithm for the accurate prediction of effect of microbes on human health and diseases. With a survey on the druggable and evolutionary space of microbe proteins, we find that 8–10% of them can be targeted by existing drugs or drug-like chemicals and that 25% of them have homologs to human proteins. We demonstrate that drugs for diabetes can be the lead compounds for development of microbiota-targeted therapeutics. We further show that the potential drug targets that specifically exist in pathogenic microbes are periplasmic and cellular outer membrane proteins. Conclusion: The systematic studies of the polypharmacological landscape of the microbiome network may open a new avenue for the small-molecule drug discovery of the microbiome. We believe that the application of systematic method on the polypharmacological investigation could lead to the discovery of novel drug therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To develop anion exchange membranes with excellent chemical stability and high performance. A series of quaternary ammonium functionalized (hydrophilic) hydrophobic rigid poly (carbazole-butanedione) (HOCB-TMA-x) anion exchange membranes were prepared, where x represents the percentage content of hydrophobic unit octylcarbazole (OCB). Due to the introduction of hydrophobic rigid unit octylcarbazole and hexyl flexible side chain, the hydrophilic-hydrophobic microstructure of AEMs was developed. The AEMs exhibit excellent overall performance, specifically the low swelling ratio HOCB-TMA-30 membrane exhibits the highest OH− conductivity of 152.9 mS/cm at 80 °C. Furthermore, the ionic conductivity of AEM decreased by only 9.5% after 2250 h of immersion in 1 M NaOH. The maximum peak power density of a single cell with a current density of 4.38 A/cm2 at 80 °C was 1.85 W/cm2. [Display omitted] • A series of poly(carbazole-butanedione) AEMs were prepared. • The effect of hydrophobic unit on the performance of AEMs was investigated. • The membrane showed a maximum OH− conductivity of 152.9 mS/cm at 80 °C. • The introduction of hydrophobic unit improves the overall performance of AEMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predictive modeling of drug-induced gene expressions is a powerful tool for phenotype-based compound screening and drug repurposing. State-of-the-art machine learning methods use a small number of fixed cell lines as a surrogate for predicting actual expressions in a new cell type or tissue, although it is well known that drug responses depend on a cellular context. Thus, the existing approach has limitations when applied to personalized medicine, especially for many understudied diseases whose molecular profiles are dramatically different from those characterized in the training data. Besides the gene expression, dose-dependent cell viability is another important phenotype readout and is more informative than conventional summary statistics (e.g., IC50) for characterizing clinical drug efficacy and toxicity. However, few computational methods can reliably predict the dose-dependent cell viability. To address the challenges mentioned above, we designed a new deep learning model, MultiDCP, to predict cellular context-dependent gene expressions and cell viability on a specific dosage. The novelties of MultiDCP include a knowledge-driven gene expression profile transformer that enables context-specific phenotypic response predictions of novel cells or tissues, integration of multiple diverse labeled and unlabeled omics data, the joint training of the multiple prediction tasks, and a teacher-student training procedure that allows us to utilize unreliable data effectively. Comprehensive benchmark studies suggest that MultiDCP outperforms state-of-the-art methods with unseen cell lines that are dissimilar from the cell lines in the supervised training in terms of gene expressions. The predicted drug-induced gene expressions demonstrate a stronger predictive power than noisy experimental data for downstream tasks. Thus, MultiDCP is a useful tool for transcriptomics-based drug repurposing and compound screening that currently rely on noisy high-throughput experimental data. We applied MultiDCP to repurpose individualized drugs for Alzheimer's disease in terms of efficacy and toxicity, suggesting that MultiDCP is a potentially powerful tool for personalized drug discovery. Author summary: Conventional target-based compound screening that follows the one-drug-one-gene drug discovery paradigm has a low success rate in tackling multi-genic systemic diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. A systems pharmacology strategy is needed to target gene regulatory networks. To enable systems pharmacology-oriented phenotypic screening, it is critical to utilize a mechanistic phenotype readout to link drug responses in a model system to drug toxicity and efficacy in an individual. Chemical-induced dose-dependent gene expression profiles provide critical information on drug mode of action and off-target effects and can identify drug candidates that reverse disease phenotypes. However, state-of-the-art machine learning methods for predicting chemical-induced gene expressions are all trained using data from a limited number of cancer cell lines and can only achieve suboptimal performance when applied to new cell types or patient samples. Here, we have developed a new deep learning framework to address this challenge and demonstrated its potential in personalized drug repurposing using Alzheimer's disease as a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau have experienced continuous mass losses in response to global warming. However, the seasonal dynamics of glaciers on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau have rarely been reported in terms of glacier surface elevation and velocity. This paper presents a first attempt to explore the seasonal dynamics of the debris-covered Dagongba Glacier within the southeastern Tibetan Plateau. We use the multitemporal unoccupied aerial vehicle images collected over the lower ablation zone on 8 June and 17 October 2018, and 13 May 2019, and then perform an analysis concerning climatic fluctuations. The results reveal that the mean surface elevation decrease of the Dagongba Glacier during the warm season ($2.81\pm 0.44$ m) was remarkably higher than the cold season ($0.72\pm 0.45$ m). Particularly notable glacier surface elevation changes were found around supraglacial lakes and ice cliffs where ice ablation rates were $\sim$ 3 times higher than the average. In addition, a larger longitudinal decline of glacier surface velocity was observed in the warm season than that in the cold season. In terms of further comparative analysis, the Dagongba Glacier experienced a decrease in surface velocity between 1982–83 and 2018–19, with a decrease in the warm season possibly twice as large as that in the cold season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The weak dominance relation between two binary operations was introduced as an extension of the dominance relation and the modularity equation. This paper continues the study of the weak dominance between t-norms and t-conorms. First, we present the characterization of the weak dominance of a nilpotent t-norm over a continuous Archimedean t-norm. Second, we establish the generalized sufficient and necessary conditions for the weak dominance of continuous t-norms over continuous t-norms. Finally, we obtain a generalized characterization of a continuous t-conorm weakly dominating a continuous t-norm by showing that S M weakly dominates any t-norm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • N addition decreases bacterial diversity by triggering soil acidification. • Soil bacterial community shifts from Acidobacteria to Actinobacteria under N addition. • The Resin-P, HCl- P and NaOH-Pi show positive relationship with the fungal Chao1. • Changes of soil bacterial and fungal communities are indicated by enzyme stoichiometry. • Soil microbial diversity is regulated by abiotic factor rather than microbial interaction. Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) additions can alter the aboveground plant community structure, affecting ecosystem function. However, the mechanisms underlying belowground microbial community composition in response to N and P additions remain poorly understood in subtropical forests. We conducted a nine-year nutrient manipulation experiment in a Chinese fir plantation. We collected soil samples from three soil layers (0–5 cm, 5–10 cm, and 10–20 cm) and measured P fractions, microbial enzyme activity, microbial community, and other physicochemical properties. We found that N addition significantly decreased bacterial Chao1 and Shannon index at a 0–10 cm soil layer, while P addition increased fungal Chao1 at a 0–5 cm soil layer. Furthermore, N addition changed the bacterial composition structure, decreasing the relative abundance of Acidobacteria , while increasing that of Actinobacteria. N and P additions did not change interactions between microbial species and network complexity. N and P additions increased the soil enzyme stoichiometry ratios of BG: NAG and BG: AP at three soil layers. N addition exacerbated soil acidification with increased NH 4 +-N and NO 3 −-N, and decreased soil pH, which caused the decline of bacterial diversity. Resin-P, NaOH-P, HCl-P, and BG: AP ratio were positively correlated with fungal diversity. Moreover, the BG: NAG ratio was related to the relative abundance of dominant bacterial phyla (Acidobacteria and Actinobacteria). Our results suggested that nutrient addition affected soil bacterial and fungal communities via alteration of pH and P fractions rather than microbial interactions, which was confirmed by the enzyme stoichiometry response. These findings highlight how the soil microbial community may respond to future scenarios of anthropogenic N and P deposition in subtropical forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an aircraft fleet with multiple aeroengines in service, the gas path parameter measurement values from engines of the same type are dispersed within a certain range due to manufacturing technology, assembly tolerances, operation conditions, and maintenance. This dispersion cannot be ignored and makes it impossible to apply unified health diagnosis criteria to all engines. To address this issue, a fault diagnosis solution for aeroengines with dispersedly clumped gas path parameters based on meta aero-engine is proposed. The concept of meta aero-engine is proposed to derive an engine group with dispersedly clumped parameters. To diagnose engines, a sphenophyllum classifier is proposed, which has a unified judgement criterion. A new weak classifier ensemble method based on divide-and-conquer is proposed to enhance the classification ability of the sphenophyllum classifier. The results of the basic classifier are partitioned and then analyzed in combination with the results of other classifiers in the classifier ensemble method. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through turbofan engine simulation dataset. The proposed method has strong interpretability for engine fleet with dispersedly clumped gas path parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amendment application is one of the effective measures used to remediate structural problems in coarse‐textured soils. However, the application of water‐based spent drilling mud (WBSM) as a potential amendment and its associated impacts on physical and hydraulic soil properties is not well‐studied. This research aimed to investigate the effect of the application of WBSM on basic hydrophysical properties of coarse‐textured loessial soil sampled from the Loess Plateau, China. Application of WBSM to repacked loessial soil at four application rates (0, 25.0, 50.0, 75.0 g kg−1, dry basis), denoted as control (H0), low (HDL), medium (HDM) and high (HDH), respectively, was used to investigate changes in soil bulk density (ρb), soil total porosity (ƒ), saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks), relative gas diffusivity (Dp/Do), soil‐water retention and soil evaporation characteristics. The results showed that the soil ρb in HDL and HDM decreased by 4.0% and 5.5%, respectively, as compared to H0 (p < 0.05). Measured Ks changed to 36.7% (HWL), 12.2% (HWM) and 4.4% (HWH) as compared to H0 (5.56 cm d−1). The application of WBSM further decreased the percentage of soil pore sizes >30 μm, but increased the proportion of medium pore sizes (≥30–50 μm), micro pore sizes (≥0.3–5 μm) and extremely micro pore sizes (<0.3 μm), which was attributed to the clogging effect of the fine and clay particles contained in WBSM. Decline in Dp/Do, however, was observed with increasing WBSM, likely due to the increased pore tortuosity in fine‐grained soil. The van Genuchten soil‐water retention model parameters differed largely across the WBSM application rates, with increased soil available water‐holding capacity by 50.9%, 65.9% and 64.1% in HDL, HDM and HWH, respectively, as compared to H0. However, WBSM application also increased soil available water‐holding capacity and reduced evaporative water loss, which has useful implications for the management of coarse‐textured soils with a distinct water deficit in fragile ecosystems. Widespread use of WBSM to amend coarse‐textured soils requires further studies to evaluate the effects of WBSM amendments in field trials and its environmental consequences. Highlights: Water‐based spent drilling mud (WBSM) altered the texture of loessial soil.WBSM increased soil total porosity and changed pore size distribution.WBSM affected the characteristics of soil water and gas transport.The soil water availability was improved by WBSM application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation Single-cell technologies play a crucial role in revolutionizing biological research over the past decade, which strengthens our understanding in cell differentiation, development and regulation from a single-cell level perspective. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) is one of the most common single cell technologies, which enables probing transcriptional states in thousands of cells in one experiment. Identification of cell types from scRNA-seq measurements is a fundamental and crucial question to answer. Most previous studies directly take gene expression as input while ignoring the comprehensive gene–gene interactions. Results We propose scGraph, an automatic cell identification algorithm leveraging gene interaction relationships to enhance the performance of the cell-type identification. scGraph is based on a graph neural network to aggregate the information of interacting genes. In a series of experiments, we demonstrate that scGraph is accurate and outperforms eight comparison methods in the task of cell-type identification. Moreover, scGraph automatically learns the gene interaction relationships from biological data and the pathway enrichment analysis shows consistent findings with previous analysis, providing insights on the analysis of regulatory mechanism. Availability and implementation scGraph is freely available at https://github.com/QijinYin/scGraph and https://figshare.com/articles/software/scGraph/17157743. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asia has a very high burden of acute hepatitis; thus, a comprehensive study of the current burden and long-term trends of acute hepatitis in Asia is needed. We aimed to assess the current status and trends from 1990 to 2019 of acute hepatitis burden in Asia, using the data from the Global Burden of Diseases Study 2019 (GBD 2019) results. Methods: We used the data from the GBD 2019. Absolute death, incidence, and disability adjusted life years (DALY) number and rate of acute hepatitis in Asia were derived from the database from 1990 to 2019. Age-standardized mortality, incidence and DALY rates (ASMR, ASIR and ASDR) were used to compare populations in different regions and times. The estimated annual percentage change (EAPC) in the rates quantified the trends of the acute hepatitis burden. Results: From 1990 to 2019, the ASMR and ASDR of acute hepatitis decreased significantly at different paces, with the largest decrease in acute hepatitis C and the smallest in acute hepatitis E. The ASIR of acute hepatitis decreased relatively slowly, by an average of 0.06% (95% CI, 0.05–0.08%) per year in acute hepatitis A, 0.91% (0.64–1.18%) per year in acute hepatitis C and 0.26% (0.24–0.28%) per year in acute hepatitis E; while the ASIR of acute hepatitis B decreased by an average of 1.95% (1.08–2.11) per year. From 1990 to 2019, the incidence rate of acute hepatitis A increased in most age groups (from the age of 5 to 70), with the 50–55 years group having the fastest increase by an average of 1.81% (95% CI, 1.67–1.95%) per year. In 2019, Afghanistan had the highest ASMR (10.44 per 100,000) and ASDR (357.85 per 100,000) of acute hepatitis, and the highest ASIR was in Mongolia (4703.14 per 100,000). Conclusions: In Asia, the burden of acute viral hepatitis was at a relatively high level, compared with the other four continents. International cooperation and multifaceted and multisectoral actions are needed for Asian countries to eliminate viral hepatitis and to contribute to the global elimination of viral hepatitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Drug resistance is a critical obstacle in cancer therapy. Discovering cancer drug response is important to improve anti-cancer drug treatment and guide anti-cancer drug design. Abundant genomic and drug response resources of cancer cell lines provide unprecedented opportunities for such study. However, cancer cell lines cannot fully reflect heterogeneous tumor microenvironments. Transferring knowledge studied from in vitro cell lines to single-cell and clinical data will be a promising direction to better understand drug resistance. Most current studies include single nucleotide variants (SNV) as features and focus on improving predictive ability of cancer drug response on cell lines. However, obtaining accurate SNVs from clinical tumor samples and single-cell data is not reliable. This makes it difficult to generalize such SNV-based models to clinical tumor data or single-cell level studies in the future. Results: We present a new method, DualGCN, a unified Dual Graph Convolutional Network model to predict cancer drug response. DualGCN encodes both chemical structures of drugs and omics data of biological samples using graph convolutional networks. Then the two embeddings are fed into a multilayer perceptron to predict drug response. DualGCN incorporates prior knowledge on cancer-related genes and protein–protein interactions, and outperforms most state-of-the-art methods while avoiding using large-scale SNV data. Conclusions: The proposed method outperforms most state-of-the-art methods in predicting cancer drug response without the use of large-scale SNV data. These favorable results indicate its potential to be extended to clinical and single-cell tumor samples and advancements in precision medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relative contributions to the zonal mean meridional heat transport by the climatological annual mean, climatological annual variation, synoptic, intra‐seasonal and lower‐frequency motions were examined based on the ERA‐Interim reanalysis data for the period of 1981–2015. The meridional heat transport analysed in this study only includes the component related to meridional wind and temperature. In the tropics, the climatological annual mean circulations dominate the long‐term mean meridional heat transport, while the interaction between the climatological annual mean temperature and the seasonal anomalous flow largely contributes to the seasonal variation of the meridional heat transport. In the middle latitudes, the climatological annual mean circulations and transient eddies (mostly synoptic and intra‐seasonal eddies) are of roughly equal importance in the poleward heat transport, leading to the maximum poleward heat transport around 50°N/S. The upper‐ and lower‐tropospheric heat transports by the climatological annual mean circulations appear opposite, with the magnitude of the lower‐tropospheric transport being greater. The preferred maximum zonal mean heat transport at 50°N by the climatological mean flow is attributed to the maximum zonal mean low‐level southerly in situ. The preferred peak latitude of the mid‐latitude poleward heat transport by synoptic eddies near 50°N arises from the combined effect of the strong synoptic‐scale meridional wind and temperature variabilities in situ and their in‐phase relationship. The heat transport by tropical cyclones (TCs) was estimated by applying a statistical relationship between TC intensity and the vertically integrated temperature averaged over the TC core region derived from high‐resolution Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model simulations. For northern hemisphere summer, TCs contribute about 35% of the total heat transport in the active TC regions, suggesting that TCs play a critical role in the regional meridional heat transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wilson disease (WD) is an inherited disorder characterized by abnormal copper metabolism with complex pathological features. Currently, this mechanism of copper overload-induced hepatic injury remains unclear. In this study, male toxic milk (TX) mice were selected as experimental subjects. Copper levels and biochemical indices were measured by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and kits. Liver tissue ultrastructure was observed by hematoxylin-eosin (H&E), sirius red staining and transmission electron microscopy. Plasma and liver metabolic profiles of TX mice were characterized by untargeted metabolomics. In addition, the expression of enzymes related to arachidonic acid metabolism in liver tissue was detected by Western blotting. The results showed the excessive copper content, concomitant oxidative stress, and hepatic tissue structural damage in TX mice. Seventy-eight metabolites were significantly different in WD, mainly involved in the metabolism of arachidonic acid, glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids, niacin and nicotinamide, and phenylalanine. Furthermore, the arachidonic acid metabolic pathway is an important pathway involved in WD metabolism. The level of arachidonic acid in the liver of TX mice was significantly lower (p < 0.01) compared to the control group. The expression of cytoplasmic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2) and arachidonic acid 12-lipoxygenase (ALOX12), related to the arachidonic acid metabolic pathway, was significantly different in the liver of TX mice (p < 0.01). Modulation of the arachidonic acid metabolic pathway could be a potential therapeutic strategy to alleviate WD symptoms. • Copper accumulation and excretion disorders occurs in the WD. • Oxidative stress and inflammatory response are important factors in liver injury • The reduction of arachidonic acid in the liver is a hallmark dysregulation in WD. • The cPLA2 and ALOX12 co-regulate arachidonic acid levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Defect–free, ordered COF composite membranes was prepared by the improved IP process. • Monomers synthesis process and self–assembly of the oligomers were decoupled. • Self-assembly of the oligomers occurs on the support surface without being disturbed. • The TpPa–II/PMIA composite membrane exhibited excellent dye separation performance. • It maintains both its performance and structural stability in long-term filtration. Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are crystalline porous materials composed of organic building blocks linked by covalent bonds, which have attracted great attention for membrane–based separation applications. However, fabrication of COF membranes with high quality and performance remains a challenge, especially for the β –ketoenamine linked COFs. In the conventional IP methods, the synthesis process (the Schiff–base reaction of the monomers and the tautomerism of the oligomers) and the crystallization process (the self–assembly of the oligomers) of the COFs materials occur simultaneously on the surface of the support membrane, which can result in low crystallinity, high defect density, and poor separation performance of the COF layer. In this study, a novel strategy for fabricating large-area, defect–free COFs composite membranes by interfacial polymerization (IP) was presented to overcome this problem. By incorporating both the amine and aldehyde monomers in one organic phase, and dissolving organic acid catalyst in another phase (the water), the synthesis process mostly take place in the bulk of the organic phase, while the crystallization occurs on the surface of the support membrane under the influence of the organic acid catalyst. This strategy effectively decoupled the synthesis process with the crystallization, providing a stable growth region for crystalline layer, ultimately leading to the formation of a thin, defect–free and highly ordered COF layer on the support membrane. The strategy was demonstrate by synthesis of triformylphloroglucinol phenylenediamine (TpPa)–Ⅱ/Poly(m–phenylene isophthalaminde) (PMIA) composite membrane. We characterize the structure and morphology of the TpPa–Ⅱ/PMIA composite membrane by various analytical techniques to verify our hypothesis, and evaluate its separation performance using pure water permeance and dyes retention rate as indicators. The results show that the TpPa–Ⅱ/PMIA composite membrane has an 80 nm thick top-layer with regular COF structure and orderly pores. It exhibits an excellent dye separation performance, with a (pure water permeance) PWP of 105.6 L·m−2·h−1·bar−1 and CR rejection of 99.2 %, which surpasses most of the TpPa–type COFs composite membranes reported in literature, as well as the reference (TpPa–I/PMIA membrane) in this work. Moreover, the TpPa–Ⅱ/PMIA composite membrane maintains both its performance and structural stability during a 240–hour cross–flow filtration of the dye solution, demonstrating its excellent potential in the dye wastewater treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exchange protein directly activated by cAMP 1 (EPAC1), a major isoform of guanine nucleotide exchange factors, is highly expressed in vascular endothelia cells and regulates angiogenesis in the retina. High intratumor microvascular densities (MVD) resulting from angiogenesis is responsible for breast cancer development. Downregulation of EPAC1 in tumor cell reduces triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC)-induced angiogenesis. However, whether Epac1 expressed in vascular endothelial cells contributes to angiogenesis and tumor development of TNBC remains elusive. We employed NY0123, a previously identified potent EPAC inhibitor, to explore the anti-angiogenic biological role of EPAC1 in vitro and in vivo through vascular endothelial cells, rat aortic ring, Matrigel plug, and chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) and yolk sac membrane (YSM) assays, as well as the in vivo xenograft tumor models of TNBC in both chick embryo and mice. Inhibiting EPAC1 in vascular endothelial cells by NY0123 significantly suppresses angiogenesis and tumor growth of TNBC. In addition, NY0123 possesses a better inhibitory efficacy than ESI-09, a reported specific EPAC inhibitor tool compound. Importantly, inhibiting EPAC1 in vascular endothelia cells regulates the typical angiogenic signaling network, which is associated with not only vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)/vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR2) signaling, but also PI3K/AKT, MEK/ERK and Notch pathway. Our findings support that EPAC1 may serve as an effective anti-angiogenic therapeutic target of TNBC, and EPAC inhibitor NY0123 has the therapeutic potential to be developed for the treatment of TNBC. [Display omitted] • EPAC1 may serve as an effective anti-angiogenic therapeutic target of TNBC. • EPAC1 inhibitor NY0123 has the therapeutic potential to be developed for the treatment of TNBC. • NY0123 possesses a better anti-angiogenic efficacy than ESI-09. • Targeting EPAC1 inhibit angiogenesis through regulating VEGF and non-VEGF angiogenic signaling network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing feature models used in thermal infrared (TIR) tracking struggle to get strong discriminative features of TIR objects, because TIR image has few details and low contrast. This characteristic makes the existing TIR tracking methods easy to drift to similar distractors. To tackle this problem, we introduce a novel diverse fine-grained feature network for TIR tracking. Our proposed method emphasizes extracting fine-grained features from multiple local regions of the target to improve its ability to discriminate against distractors. Specifically, our feature model consists of a specific-designed fine-grained feature network architecture and an auxiliary diversity loss function. Firstly, the fine-grained feature network explores the subtle clues of the infrared target through a mask suppression mechanism. This mechanism can force the network to learn subtle cues of the target. Secondly, to guarantee the learned fine-grained features are various, we propose a diversity loss to force all fine-grained features to be unique. These two modules help the feature model learn diverse fine-grained features from two complementary aspects. To verify the effectiveness of the two modules, we evaluate them on four benchmarks. The relevant experimental results prove that our proposed method achieves the best performance compared to the state-of-the-art methods. • Infrared fine-grained features can improve the performance of target tracking. • The network can extract infrared fine-grained features without labels. • The proposed DFG loss can improve the diversity of fine-grained features. • Infrared targets require strong features because of the lack of details. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice-fish co-culture system (RFCS) is an eco-friendly agricultural mode, but traditional RFCS has revealed many deficiencies. In this study, we constructed a new system of ex-situ rice-fish co-culture (ESRF) and evaluated its performance in ecological advantages. Chemical environmental factors, plankton and microorganisms, as well as ecology and economic benefits, were analyzed in the ESRF system. Results showed that 23.6% fertilizer and 47.5% water were saved in ESRF compared with rice monoculture. After wastewater in the fish ponds flowed through the paddy fields, the concentrations of TN, TP, COD Mn , NH 4 +-N, NO 2 −-N and DIP decreased 72.78%, 63.81%, 53.32%, 45.54%, 51.31% and 44.05%, respectively through the absorption by rice. The phytoplankton abundance of cyanobacteria in wastewater, mainly Microcystis and Merismopedia tenuissima decreased significantly in ESRF system in July. Rotifer was the most dominant zooplankton in all samples and its abundance decreased significantly in ESRF system. After the aquaculture wastewater flowed through the paddy fields, the relative abundance of several bacteria with the ability of transforming nitrogen and phosphorus increased, such as Vogesella , Comamonadaceae , Flavobacterium , Sphingobium , Brevundimonas and Sphingomonas. These results suggest that ESRF is an eco-friendly and economical agricultural production mode and worthy of application in agriculture production. [Display omitted] • A new system of ex-situ rice-fish coculture (ESRF) was constructed. • ESRF significantly reduced the N and P pollution in aquaculture wastewater. • ESRF optimized the community structure of phytoplankton-zooplankton in water. • The abundance of bacteria transforming N and P was increased by this system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]