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High spatial and temporal resolution remote sensing images are essential for monitoring vegetation, natural disasters, and changes in the ground surface. However, acquiring such images is challenging due to current technical limitations and cost constraints. Spatiotemporal fusion offers an effective and economical solution to achieve high spatial and temporal resolution simultaneously. This article introduces a new generative adversarial network (GAN) spatiotemporal fusion model based on multiscale convolution and attention mechanism for remote sensing images (MSCAM-GAN), to generate high-resolution fused images. The generator in MSCAM-GAN comprises three key components: feature extraction, feature fusion, and image reconstruction. Employing an encoder–decoder architecture, the generator effectively extracts multilevel features, accommodating significant resolution differences between high-resolution and low-resolution images. In the feature extraction stage, multiscale convolutional attention network (MSCAN) captures detailed features across multiple scales, dealing with spatial dependencies and long-distance relationships within the images. During the feature fusion stage, a dual parallel attention feature fusion mechanism is designed to fully integrate the extracted multiscale features. Different attention weights are assigned based on their contributions to the final output, resulting in more accurate predicted images. MSCAM-GAN was tested on the Coleambally irrigated area and lower Gwydir catchment datasets and compared with classic spatiotemporal fusion algorithms. Ablation experiments were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the various submodules in MSCAM-GAN. Experimental results and ablation analysis demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed method compared to other approaches.

Abstract Objective This study aimed to gather and assess the most reliable evidence on bone health management in patients undergoing endocrine therapy for prostate cancer, with the goal of informing clinical practice. Design and methods Utilizing the '6S' evidence model, a comprehensive literature search was conducted across various sources such as computerized decision support systems, national and international guideline networks, society websites, and databases encompassing clinical decision-making, guidelines, systematic reviews, evidence summaries, and expert consensus. The search spanned from April 2014 to April 2024, with two researchers independently evaluating the quality of the identified literature. Results A total of 12 articles were included, comprising 6 clinical guidelines, 5 expert consensus papers, and 1 systematic evaluation. The findings were categorized into risk assessment, prevention, and interventions for osteoporosis and fractures, yielding 26 pieces of best evidence. Conclusion This study synthesized key evidence on bone health management for prostate cancer patients undergoing endocrine therapy, emphasizing the importance of healthcare professionals utilizing this evidence to develop and implement effective bone health management strategies to mitigate the risk of osteoporosis and fractures.

Summary: Background: Emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants that escape neutralising antibodies hampers the development of vaccines and therapeutic antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. IGHV3-53/3-66-derived public antibodies, which are generally specific to the prototype virus and are frequently induced in infected or vaccinated individuals, show minimal affinity maturation and high potency against prototype SARS-CoV-2. Methods: Monoclonal antibodies isolated from a Delta breakthrough infection case were analysed for cross-neutralising activities against SARS-CoV-2 variants. The broadly neutralising antibody K4-66 was further analysed in a hamster model, and the effect of somatic hypermutations was assessed using the inferred germline precursor. Findings: Antibodies derived from IGHV3-53/3-66 showed broader neutralising activity than antibodies derived from IGHV1-69 and other IGHV genes. IGHV3-53/3-66 antibodies neutralised the Delta variant better than the IGHV1-69 antibodies, suggesting that the IGHV3-53/3-66 antibodies were further maturated by Delta breakthrough infection. One IGHV3-53/3-66 antibody, K4-66, neutralised all Omicron subvariants tested, including EG.5.1, BA.2.86, and JN.1, and decreased the viral load in the lungs of hamsters infected with Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5. The importance of somatic hypermutations was demonstrated by the loss of neutralising activity of the inferred germline precursor of K4-66 against Beta and Omicron variants. Interpretation: Broadly neutralising IGHV3-53/3-66 antibodies have potential as a target for the development of effective vaccines and therapeutic antibodies against newly emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. Funding: This work was supported by grants from AMED (JP23ym0126048, JP22ym0126048, JP21ym0126048, JP23wm0125002, JP233fa627001, JP223fa627009, JP24jf0126002, and JP22fk0108572), and the JSPS (JP21H02970, JK23K20041, and JPJSCCA20240006).

Abstract Cooking quality is the main factor determining the market value of rice. Although several major genes and a certain number of QTLs controlling cooking quality have been identified, the genetic complexity and environmental susceptibility limit the further improvement for cooking quality by molecular breeding. This research conducted a genome-wide association study to elucidate the QTLs related to cooking quality including amylose content (AC), gel consistency (GC) and alkali spreading value (ASV) by using 450 rice accessions consisting of 300 indica and 150 japonica accessions in two distinct environments. A total of 54 QTLs were identified, including 25 QTLs for AC, 12 QTLs for GC and 17 QTLs for ASV. Among them, 10 QTLs were consistently observed by the same population in both environments. Six QTLs were co-localized with the reported QTLs or cloned genes. The Wx gene for AC and GC, and the ALK gene for ASV were identified in every population across the two environments. The qAC9-2 for AC and the qGC9-2 for GC were defined to the same interval. The OsRING315 gene, encoding an E3 ubiquitin ligase, was considered as the candidate gene for both qAC9-2 and qGC9-2. The higher expression of OsRING315 corresponded to the lower AC and higher GC. Three haplotypes of OsRING315 were identified. The Hap 1 mainly existed in the japonica accessions and had lower AC. The Hap 2 and Hap 3 were predominantly present in the indica accessions, associated with higher AC. Meanwhile, the GC of accessions harboring Hap 1 was higher than that of accessions harboring Hap 3. In addition, the distribution of the three haplotypes in several rice-growing regions was unbalanced. The three traits of cooking quality are controlled by both major and minor genes and susceptible to environmental factors. The expression level of OsRING315 is related to both AC and GC, and this gene can be a promising target in quality improvement by using the gene editing method. Moreover, the haplotypes of OsRING315 differentiate between indica and japonica, and reveal the differences in GC and AC between indica and japonica rice.

Accurate characterization of interlayer heterogeneity is the key to solving the problem of severe interlayer disturbances caused by large well sections in commingling production reservoir. The numerical applicability of the Lorenz method in development field is investigated by experiments and reservoir engineering theories because it is the most commonly employed method for describing interlayer heterogeneity， but its applicability remains uncertain. The study reveals that the Lorenz method’s characterization of the heterogeneity has a weak correlation with development effects， exerting significant influence on development effects only within a localized sensitive range. Additionally， curve shape also affects development effects when Lorenz coefficients are equal， but traditional methods are ineffective in capturing this phenomenon. Consequently， a modification to the Lorenz method is introduced， followed by physical simulation experiments and validation with oilfield data. Experimental results demonstrate that the modification significantly broadens the sensitive ranges of Lorenz coefficients， leading to a substantial enhancement in the correlation between waterflooding development effects and Lorenz coefficients. Example applications show that the correlation coefficient between the Lorenz coefficients after the modification and recovery factors increases from 0.48 to 0.87 in the KL-A area and from 0.74 to 0.87 in the KL-B area. This highlights a significant enhancement in the correlation between interlayer heterogeneity and development indicators.

The analysis of large amounts of vessel trajectory data can facilitate more complex traffic management and route planning, thereby reducing the risk of accidents. The application of deep learning methods in vessel trajectory prediction is becoming more and more widespread; however, due to the complexity of the marine environment, including the influence of geographical environmental factors, weather factors, and real-time traffic conditions, predicting trajectories in less constrained maritime areas is more challenging than in path network conditions. Ship trajectory prediction methods based on kinematic formulas work well in ideal conditions but struggle with real-world complexities. Machine learning methods avoid kinematic formulas but fail to fully leverage complex data due to their simple structure. Deep learning methods, which do not require preset formulas, still face challenges in achieving high-precision and long-term predictions, particularly with complex ship movements and heterogeneous data. This study introduces an innovative model based on the transformer structure to predict the trajectory of a vessel. First, by processing the raw AIS (Automatic Identification System) data, we provide the model with a more efficient input format and data that are both more representative and concise. Secondly, we combine convolutional layers with the transformer structure, using convolutional neural networks to extract local spatiotemporal features in sequences. The encoder and decoder structure of the traditional transformer structure is retained by us. The attention mechanism is used to extract the global spatiotemporal features of sequences. Finally, the model is trained and tested using publicly available AIS data. The prediction results on the field data show that the model can predict trajectories including straight lines and turns under the field data of complex terrain, and in terms of prediction accuracy, our model can reduce the mean squared error by at least 6×10−4 compared with the baseline model.

Urban meshes semantic segmentation is essential for comprehending the 3D real-world environments, as it plays a vital role across various application domains, including digital twins, 3D navigation, and smart cities. Nevertheless, the inherent topological complexities of urban meshes impede the precise representation of dependencies and local structures, yielding compromised segmentation accuracy, especially for small or irregularly-shaped objects like vegetation and vehicles. To address this challenge, we introduce UrbanSegNet, a novel end-to-end model incorporating diffusion perceptron blocks and a vertex spatial attention mechanism. The diffusion perceptron blocks can dynamically enlarge receptive fields to capture features from local to completely global, enabling effective representation of urban meshes using multi-scale features and increasing small and irregularly-shaped object segmentation accuracy. The vertex spatial attention mechanism extracts the internal correlations within urban meshes to enhance semantic segmentation performance. Besides, a tailored loss function is designed to enhance overall performance further. Comprehensive experiments on two datasets demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art models in terms of mean F1 score, recall, and mean intersection over union (mIoU). The experimental results also demonstrate that UrbanSegNet achieves higher segmentation accuracy on vehicles and high vegetation compared to the state-of-the-art methods, highlighting the superiority of our proposed model in extracting features of small and irregularly-shaped objects.

Objective: In order to solve the problem of manual weighting of dragon fruit, including time-consuming, laborious and expensive, an automated weight estimation method based on machine vision and machine learning was proposed in this research. Methods: Firstly, 106 dragon fruits were weighed, recorded and photographed, and images of dragon fruits were constructed. Secondly, binary images were obtained after denoising and segmentation. Moreover, the three features of pixel area, major axis pixel length and minor axis pixel length of dragon fruits were extracted on the basis of binary images. The three features of each image and their corresponding weights were combined into a set of data, which was divided into training set and test set according to the ratio of 7∶3. Finally, the training set was input into the Gradient Boosting, Random Forest, K-Neighbors and Artificial Neural Networks machine-learning models for training, and the test sets were used for model evaluation. Results: The evaluation index of the Artificial Neural network performed well compared with other models, with R2 of 0.986 and RMSE of 13.091. Conclusion: The experimental result demonstrates that the method proposed in this research can accomplish the weight estimation of dragon fruit effectively, and meet the weight estimation requirements of dragon fruit.

Objective·To investigate the status of early mobilization and influencing factors of the patients undergoing laparoscopic radical resection of colorectal cancer (CRC).Methods·The convenience sampling method was used to select patients undergoing laparoscopic radical resection of CRC in the Department of Colorectal Surgery and Department of General Surgery, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine from January to December, 2022. The patients′ general information, disease-, surgery- and postoperation-related information, and the situation of postoperative early mobilization were collected by bedside interview and electronic medical record system at 24 h, 48 h and 72 h after surgery. The influencing factors were analyzed by univariate analyses and binary Logistic regression.Results·A total of 277 patients were included. Within 24 h after surgery, 47 patients got out of bed with the early mobilization rate of 16.97%. The walking distance of these patients was 55.46 (18.28, 145.60) m within 24 h after surgery, with a minimum of 2.60 m and a maximum of 803.68 m. The average scores of Brown rating of mobility within 24 h, >24－48 h, and >48－72 h after surgery were 2 (0, 4) points, 8 (0, 10) points, and 8 (8, 10) points, which respectively belonged to the low level, moderate level, and moderate level. There were statistical differences in age, preoperative hemoglobin level, anesthesia duration, and the number of indwelling catheters between the early mobilization group and the non-early mobilization group (all P

IntroductionThe severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) spike (S) protein is essential in mediating membrane fusion of the virus with the target cells. Several reports demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 S protein fusogenicity is reportedly closely associated with the intrinsic pathogenicity of the virus determined using hamster models. However, the association between S protein fusogenicity and other virological parameters remains elusive.MethodsIn this study, we investigated the virological parameters (e.g., S1/S2 cleavage efficiency, plaque size, pseudoviral infectivity, pseudovirus entry efficiency, and viral replication kinetics) of eleven previous variants of concern (VOCs) and variants of interest (VOIs) correlating with S protein fusogenicity.Results and discussionS protein fusogenicity was found to be strongly correlated with S1/S2 cleavage efficiency and plaque size formed by clinical isolates. However, S protein fusogenicity was less associated with pseudoviral infectivity, pseudovirus entry efficiency, and viral replication kinetics. Taken together, our results suggest that S1/S2 cleavage efficiency and plaque size could be potential indicators to predict the intrinsic pathogenicity and S protein fusogenicity of newly emerged SARS-CoV-2 variants.

In the face of increasing demands for tasks such as mountain rescue, geological exploration, and military operations in complex wilderness environments, planning an efficient walking route is crucial. To address the inefficiency of traditional two-dimensional path planning, this paper proposes a two-stage path planning algorithm. First, an improved Probabilistic Roadmap (PRM) algorithm is used to quickly and roughly determine the initial path. Then, the morphological dilation is applied to process the grid points of the initial path, retaining the surrounding area of the initial path for a precise positioning of the search range. Finally, the idea of the A∗ algorithm is applied to achieve precise path planning in the refined search range. During the process of constructing the topology map, we utilized parallelization acceleration strategies to expedite the graph construction. In order to verify the effectiveness of the algorithm, we used terrain data to construct a wilderness environment model, and tests were conducted on off-road path planning tasks with different terrains and distances. The experimental results show a substantial enhancement in the computational efficiency of the proposed algorithm relative to the conventional A∗ algorithm by 30 to 60 times.

Abstract Insects pose significant challenges in cotton‐producing regions. Here, they describe a high‐throughput CRISPR/Cas9‐mediated large‐scale mutagenesis library targeting endogenous insect‐resistance‐related genes in cotton. This library targeted 502 previously identified genes using 968 sgRNAs, generated ≈2000 T0 plants and achieved 97.29% genome editing with efficient heredity, reaching upto 84.78%. Several potential resistance‐related mutants (10% of 200 lines) their identified that may contribute to cotton‐insect molecular interaction. Among these, they selected 139 and 144 lines showing decreased resistance to pest infestation and targeting major latex‐like protein 423 (GhMLP423) for in‐depth study. Overexpression of GhMLP423 enhanced insect resistance by activating the plant systemic acquired resistance (SAR) of salicylic acid (SA) and pathogenesis‐related (PR) genes. This activation is induced by an elevation of cytosolic calcium [Ca2+]cyt flux eliciting reactive oxygen species (ROS), which their demoted in GhMLP423 knockout (CR) plants. Protein‐protein interaction assays revealed that GhMLP423 interacted with a human epidermal growth factor receptor substrate15 (EPS15) protein at the cell membrane. Together, they regulated the systemically propagating waves of Ca2+ and ROS, which in turn induced SAR. Collectively, this large‐scale mutagenesis library provides an efficient strategy for functional genomics research of polyploid plant species and serves as a solid platform for genetic engineering of insect resistance.

Cadmium (Cd) accumulation in rice grain is of health concern. Identifying genes involved in grain Cd accumulation and performing molecular breeding may reduce it. In this study, knockout of OsNRAMP2, a member of the NRAMP family, reduced grain Cd concentrations by more than 38%, and overexpressing OsNRAMP2 increased grain Cd concentrations by more than 50%. Physiological experiments showed that OsNRAMP2 facilitated Cd translocation from root to shoot by positively regulating Cd efflux from the vacuoles. At filling stage, OsNRAMP2 was highly expressed in all tissues except for husk, suggesting its role in Cd remobilization. Changes in OsNRAMP2 expression affected the concentrations of Fe, Mn, Zn, and Cu in grain and also affected rice growth. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the distribution of OsNRAMP2 haplotypes between japonica and indica was different. Among the four haplotypes of OsNRAMP2, Hap 1, with a 6-bp nucleotide insertion in exon 1, had grain Cd concentration at least 45.3% lower than any of the other three haplotypes. Almost all (99.3%) japonica accessions but rare indica accessions (4.44%) from the 3K sequenced rice genomes carry Hap 1 of OsNRAMP2. Our study sheds light on the molecular mechanism of grain Cd accumulation and provides a promising target for low-Cd rice breeding.

Abstract The inter-individual variations of gut microbiome contribute to the different responses toward drug therapy among populations, developing a reliable ex vivo culture method for mixed bacteria is the urgent need for predicting personal reaction to drug therapy. Unfortunately, very few attentions have been paid to the bias that could be introduced during the culture process for mixed bacteria. Here we systemically evaluated the factors that may affect the outcomes of cultured bacteria from human feces. We demonstrated that inter-individual difference of host gut microbiome was the main factor affecting the outcomes of cultured bacteria, followed by the culture medium and time point. We further optimized a new medium termed GB based on our established multi-dimensional evaluation method, which could mimic the status of in situ host gut microbiome to the highest extent. Finally, we assessed the inter-individual metabolism by host gut microbiome from 10 donors on three frequently used clinical drugs (aspirin, levodopa and doxifluridine) based on the optimized GB medium. Our results revealed obvious variation in drug metabolism by microbiome from different donors, especially levodopa and doxifluridine. This work suggested the optimized culture medium had the potential for exploring the inter-individual impacts of host gut microbiome on drug metabolism.

Abstract Background A pangenome aims to capture the complete genetic diversity within a species and reduce bias in genetic analysis inherent in using a single reference genome. However, the current linear format of most plant pangenomes limits the presentation of position information for novel sequences. Graph pangenomes have been developed to overcome this limitation. However, bioinformatics analysis tools for graph format genomes are lacking. Results To overcome this problem, we develop a novel strategy for pangenome construction and a downstream pangenome analysis pipeline (PSVCP) that captures genetic variants’ position information while maintaining a linearized layout. Using PSVCP, we construct a high-quality rice pangenome using 12 representative rice genomes and analyze an international rice panel with 413 diverse accessions using the pangenome as the reference. We show that PSVCP successfully identifies causal structural variations for rice grain weight and plant height. Our results provide insights into rice population structure and genomic diversity. We characterize a new locus (qPH8-1) associated with plant height on chromosome 8 undetected by the SNP-based genome-wide association study (GWAS). Conclusions Our results demonstrate that the pangenome constructed by our pipeline combined with a presence and absence variation-based GWAS can provide additional power for genomic and genetic analysis. The pangenome constructed in this study and the associated genome sequence and genetic variants data provide valuable genomic resources for rice genomics research and improvement in future.

Many kinds of spatio-temporal data in our daily lives, such as the trajectory data of moving objects, stream natively. Streaming systems exhibit significant advantages in processing streaming data due to their distributed architecture, high throughput, and real-time performance. The use of streaming processing techniques for spatio-temporal data applications is a promising research direction. However, due to the strong dynamic nature of data in streaming processing systems, traditional spatio-temporal indexing techniques based on relatively static data cannot be used directly in stream-processing environments. It is necessary to study and design new spatio-temporal indexing strategies. Hence, we propose a workload-controllable dynamic spatio-temporal index based on the R-tree. In order to restrict memory usage, we formulate an INSERT and batch-REMOVE (I&BR) method and append a collection mechanism to the traditional R-tree. To improve the updating performance, we propose a time-identified R-tree (TIR). Moreover, we propose a distributed system prototype called a time-identified R-tree farm (TIRF). Experiments show that the TIR could work in a scenario with a controllable usage of memory and a stable response time. The throughput of the TIRF could reach 1 million points per second. The performance of a range search in the TIRF is many times better than in PostgreSQL, which is a widely used database system for spatio-temporal applications.

【Objective】This study was committed to explore low-temperature germinability (LTG) related genes of rice, and clarify the molecular mechanism, which can provide theoretical foundation for genetic modification and molecular breeding of low-temperature germinability in rice.【Method】Based on the acquired RNA-seq data of low-temperature germination in different rice accessions, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened out. Genetic transformation materials of the chosen DEG were constructed, which were applied for the identification of gene function through seed germination trials.【Result】A Yippee family member encoding gene OsYIPL1, which had a higher expression level in high LTG accessions, was chosen for further study. The results of temporal and spatial expression of OsYIPL1 showed that it was specifically expressed higher in rice anther and young embryo. Two over-expression lines of OsYIPL1, OX-1and OX-2, were acquired and the seeds from the T2 generation were applied for germination trials at normal temperature (28℃) and low temperature (13 ℃). The results showed that when the expression of OsYIPL1 was increased to 44.5 times that of the wild type (OX-1), the germination rate of its seeds at normal temperature was 18.3% higher than that of the wild type on average. When the expression of OsYIPL1 was increased to 88.9 times that of the wild type (OX-2), the germination rate of its seeds at normal temperature was 54.5% lower than that of the wild type. At low temperature, overexpression of OsYIPL1 could reduce seed germination, and the germination rates of OX-1 and OX-2 were 43.8% and 81.5% lower than those of the control on average.【Conclusion】OsYIPL1 participates in regulation of rice seed germination, but the effects are obviously different at different temperatures. The underlying mechanism is waiting for further research.

Manufacturing is an important engine of China's economy, driving urban economic growth and spatial transformation. Therefore, the spatial evolution of manufacturing is a research hotspot for academics. This study takes the Changsha metropolitan area as an example, based on the micro-data on manufacturing enterprises from 1978 to 2020. Using the standard deviational ellipse, kernel density analysis method, and explored negative binomial regression model, the spatial evolution characteristics and influencing factors of the manufacturing industry in the Changsha metropolitan area from the point-and-surface perspective are explored. The main conclusions are as follows. From 1978 to 2020, the number of manufacturing enterprises in the Changsha metropolitan area show an overall increasing trend, with labor-intensive and capital-intensive manufacturing gradually upgrading to a technology-intensive form. In terms of spatial distribution, all manufacturing industries show an apparent movement of suburbanization in spatial distribution. Development zones are progressively becoming the primary spatial carrier for manufacturing reorganization and concentration. The manufacturing industry mainly expands along the "northwest-southeast" direction, showing a "point-axis" development pattern. In the process of spatial evolution, the Changsha manufacturing space has experienced a cyclical change from agglomeration to dispersion and then to accumulation. The evolution pattern has changed from mosaic filling to outward diffusion. Influenced by the characteristics of the industry, different types of manufacturing industries show apparent differences in spatial distribution. Labor-intensive enterprises are mostly micro-enterprises with flexible site layout, mainly contact diffusion and hierarchical diffusion, and the spatial characteristics of "central concentration and decentralized layout." The large-scale demand for land and employees in capital-intensive manufacturing industries-mainly large enterprises-restricts their concentration in urban centers. Meanwhile, preferential policies, such as "policy rent" in the development parks in peripheral suburbs, attract enterprises to move in, prompting capital-intensive manufacturing industries to show the spatial characteristics of "large-scale diffusion and small-scale concentration." Technology-intensive manufacturing industries are mostly small and medium-sized enterprises, which are attracted by national development zones and have strong vocational orientations. In the spatial evolution process of the manufacturing industry, factors such as socioeconomics, production cost, and governmental behavior have significant influence. Different factors play different roles in different industries. Labor-intensive enterprises are mainly affected by socioeconomics, production costs, and government behavior. Technology-intensive enterprises pay more attention to regional economic benefits, innovation environment, and policy support, while socio-economic factors, production cost, built-up environment, governmental actions, and innovation capacity all have important impacts on them. Capital-intensive enterprises are highlighted by the role of the population base, transportation accessibility, land cost, and industrial park policies. Capital-intensive enterprises are highly dependent on population, production cost, transportation accessibility, and the number of industrial zones. It can be found that the spatial evolution of all three types of manufacturing industries is significantly influenced by governmental actions; among which, the level of fixed asset investment and number of industrial parks reflect the planning guidance and policy orientation of Changsha's municipal government on manufacturing development. In addition, the degree of opening up to the outside world negatively affects the layout of all three types of manufacturing enterprises, indicating that the large influx of foreign capital tends to form industrial monopolies. This study provides a reference for optimizing the layout and high-quality development of urban manufacturing space.

Flexibly and actively updating expectations based on feedback is crucial for navigating daily life. Previous research has shown that people with schizophrenia (PSZ) have difficulty adjusting their expectations. However, there are studies suggesting otherwise. To explore this further, we used a novel trial-based expectation updating paradigm called attribute amnesia. In the task, the participants needed to report the location of a target stimulus among distractors in pre-surprise trials. In the surprise trial, they were unexpectedly asked to report the identity of the target before reporting its location. Afterward, control trials were conducted whereby the participants were asked the same questions as in the surprise trial. Notably, the surprise trial and control trials were nearly identical, except that the participants expected to be asked about identity information in the control trials but not in the surprise trial. Thus, an improvement in identity reporting accuracy in the control trials in comparison with the surprise trial indicated active updating of expectations. In the current study, a total of 63 PSZ and 60 healthy control subjects (HCS) were enrolled. We found that both the PSZ and the HCS were unable to report information that they had fully attended to (i.e., identity) in the surprise trial. However, both groups showed a significant improvement in reporting identity information even in the first control trial. Critically, there was no significant difference in the magnitude of improvement between the two groups. The current findings indicate that PSZ have the ability to update their expectations as quickly and flexibly as HCS, at least in the context of the current task. The possible factors that might contribute to the discrepancy regarding expectation updating are discussed.

Abstract Background Base editors (BEs) display diverse applications in a variety of plant species such as Arabidopsis, rice, wheat, maize, soybean, and cotton, where they have been used to mediate precise base pair conversions without the collateral generation of undesirable double-stranded breaks (DSB). Studies of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) underpinning plant traits are still challenging, particularly in polyploidy species where such SNPs are present in multiple copies, and simultaneous modification of all alleles would be required for functional analysis. Allotetraploid cotton has a number of homoeologous gene pairs located in the A and D sub-genomes with considerable SNPs, and it is desirable to develop adenine base editors (ABEs) for efficient and precise A-to-G single-base editing without DSB in such complex genome. Results We established various ABE vectors based on different engineered adenosine deaminase (TadA) proteins fused to Cas9 variants (dCas9, nCas9), enabling efficient A to G editing up to 64% efficiency on-target sites of the allotetraploid cotton genome. Comprehensive analysis showed that GhABE7.10n exhibited the highest editing efficiency, with the main editing sites specifically located at the position A5 (counting the PAM as positions 21–23). Furthermore, DNA and RNA off-target analysis of cotton plants edited with GhABE7.10n and GhABE7.10d by whole genome and whole-transcriptome sequencing revealed no DNA off-target mutations, while very low-level RNA off-target mutations were detected. A new base editor, namely GhABE7.10dCpf1 (7.10TadA + dCpf1), that recognizes a T-rich PAM, was developed for the first time. Targeted A-to-G substitutions generated a single amino acid change in the cotton phosphatidyl ethanolamine-binding protein (GhPEBP), leading to a compact cotton plant architecture, an ideotype for mechanized harvesting of modern cotton production. Conclusions Our data illustrate the robustness of adenine base editing in plant species with complex genomes, which provides efficient and precise toolkit for cotton functional genomics and precise molecular breeding.

Grain chalkiness is the main factor determining the market value of rice. Reducing chalkiness is an important breeding goal for genetic improvement of high quality rice. Identification of QTLs or genes controlling chalkiness is the prerequisite for molecular breeding in rice. Here, we conducted a genome-wide association study to identify QTLs associated with grain chalkiness including percentage of grains with chalkiness (PGWC) and degree of endosperm chalkiness (DEC) in 450 rice accessions consisting of 300 indica and 150 japonica rice in two environments. A total of 34 QTLs were identified, including 14 QTLs for PGWC and 20 QTLs for DEC. Among them, seven QTLs were commonly identified in two environments, and eight QTLs were simultaneously related to two traits. Based on the haplotype analysis, LD decay analysis, RNA-sequencing, qRT-PCR confirmation and haplotype comparisons, four genes (LOC_Os10g36170, LOC_Os10g36260, LOC_Os10g36340 and LOC_Os10g36610) were considered as the candidate genes for qDEC-10c1w,2wj, which could be identified in both environments and had the most significant p-value among the newly identified QTLs. These results provided new insight into the genetic basis of grain chalkiness and gene resources for improving quality by molecular breeding in rice.

Background and aims: Studies on the association between growth-differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15) level and adverse outcomes have yielded conflicting results in patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD). This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the association of baseline GDF-15 level with adverse outcomes in stable CAD patients. Methods: Two authors independently searched PubMed and Embase databases from inception to May 31, 2021 for available studies that investigated the association of baseline GDF-15 level with all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, or major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) in stable CAD patients. Pooled multivariable adjusted hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated for the highest vs. the lowest GDF-15 level. Results: Seven studies that involved 28,765 stable CAD patients were identified and analyzed. The meta-analysis showed that the highest GDF-15 level was associated with higher risk of MACEs (HR 1.42; 95% CI 1.29–1.57; p

This article aims to improve the stretching quality of the flat noodles products by optimizing the key processes such as refining, formula and steaming on the breaking distance of whole grain flat noodles.The results show that the breaking distance of whole grain flat noodles prepared by backfilling rice bran is significantly better than that of whole rice refining. Meanwhile, scanning electron microscopy analysis shows that the grains of backfilled whole grain rice slurry are small, fine and uniform. The particle size results show that 83.91% of the particles are below 10 μm, and 14.93% of the particles are between 10 μm to 100 μm, while only 1.16% of them are larger than 100 μm, which is close to polished rice slurry. To further improve the stretching quality, the rice bran to be backfilled is selected. At the same time, the effect of adding soy protein isolate, guar gum, konjac mannan, cassava starch, gluten and other ingredients on the breaking distance of flat noodles is compared. The stretching quality of whole grain flat noodles prepared from homologous defatted rice bran and added soybean protein isolate is the closest to that of ordinary rice noodles. The material-toliquid ratio of the optimized steaming process is 1∶1.4 (g∶mL) and the products are steamed for 9 min.

Abstract Background Direct seeding is an efficient rice cultivation practice. However, its application is often limited due to O2 deficiency following submergence, leading to poor seed germination, seedling establishment, and consequently yield loss. Identification of genes associated with tolerance to submergence and understanding their regulatory mechanisms is the fundamental way to address this problem. Unfortunately, the molecular mechanism of rice response to submergence stress is still not well understood. Results Here, we have performed a genome-wide identification of FCS-like zinc finger (FLZ) proteins and assessed their involvement in submergence response in rice. We identified 29 FLZ genes in rice, and the expression analysis revealed that several genes actively responded to submergence stress. Eight OsFLZ proteins interact with SnRK1A. As a case study, we demonstrated that OsFLZ18 interacted with SnRK1A and inhibited the transcriptional activation activity of SnRK1A in modulating the expression of its target gene αAmy3, a positive regulator in rice flooding tolerance. In line with this, OsFLZ18-overexpression lines displayed retarded early seedling growth and shorter coleoptile following submergence. Conclusions These data provide the most comprehensive information of OsFLZ genes in rice, and highlight their roles in rice submergence response.

High seedling vigor can improve the ability to compete against weeds and flooding at the seedling stage and is essential for the direct seeding of rice. Early shoot length is an important performance index in seedling vigor evaluation. However, information on the identity of rice germplasm with high seedling vigor, and the genetic basis of seedling vigor are not well understood. In this study, we have conducted a genome-wide association study using 302 international diverse rice accessions from the Rice Diversity Panel 2. Six quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were found to associate with shoot length (SL). The locus qSL2 was further analyzed for candidate gene characterization. We identified OsCPS1, which encodes CDP synthase and functions in GA (Gibberellins) biosynthesis in rice, exhibits differential expression between long and short SL accessions. Using the Nipponbare genome sequence as the reference, we identified a 36 bp deletion in the 5’ UTR of OsCPS1 in long SL accessions, which is absent in short SL accessions. GA content analysis showed that the levels of bioactive GA1 and GA4 are considerably higher in long SL accessions than in short SL accessions. Genome-wide gene expression analysis indicated the expression of some photosynthesis genes is higher in long SL accessions than in short SL accessions. In contrast, genes involved in ABA (Abscisic Acid)-activated signal pathway showed lower expression in long SL accessions. Population analysis across wild rice, indica and japonica, suggested that OsCPS1 may be under selection in japonica during domestication. The results suggest that OsCPS1 is a candidate gene underlying qSL2. These data provide a promising source for candidate genetic variation associated with seedling vigor, with practical applications in rice breeding.

Abstract Background Bacterial blight (BB), caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), is one of the most devastating diseases in rice all over the world. Due to the diversity and rapid evolution of Xoo, identification and use of the non-race specific quantitative resistance QTLs has been considered the preferred strategy for effective control of this disease. Although numerous QTLs for BB resistance have been identified, they haven’t been effectively used for improvement of BB resistance in rice due to their small effects and lack of knowledge on the function of genes underlying the QTLs. Results In the present study, a genome-wide association study of BB resistance was performed in a rice core collection from South China. A total of 17 QTLs were identified to be associated with BB resistance. Among them, 13 QTLs were newly identified in the present study and the other 4 QTLs were co-localized with the previously reported QTLs or Xa genes that confer qualitative resistance to Xoo strains. Particularly, the qBBR11–4 on chromosome 11 explained the largest phenotypic variation in this study and was co-localized with the previously identified QTLs for BB and bacterial leaf streak (BLS) resistance against diverse strains in three studies, suggesting its broad-spectrum resistance and potential value in rice breeding. Through combined analysis of differential expression and annotations of the predicted genes within qBBR11–4 between two sets of rice accessions selected based on haplotypes and disease phenotypes, we identified the transcription factor OsMYB21 as the candidate gene for qBBR11–4. The OsMYB21 overexpressing plants exhibited decreased resistance to bacterial blight, accompanied with down-regulation of several defense-related genes compared with the wild-type plants. Conclusion The results suggest that OsMYB21 negatively regulates bacterial blight resistance in rice, and this gene can be a promising target in rice breeding by using the gene editing method. In addition, the potential candidate genes for the 13 novel QTLs for BB resistance were also analyzed in this study, providing a new source for cloning of genes associated with BB resistance and molecular breeding in rice.

Abstract Background Although panicle blast is more destructive to yield loss than leaf blast in rice, the cloned genes that function in panicle blast resistance are still very limited and the molecular mechanisms underlying panicle blast resistance remain largely unknown. Results In the present study, we have confirmed that the three Oxalate oxidase (OXO) genes, OsOXO2, OsOXO3 and OsOXO4 from a blast-resistant cultivar BC10 function in panicle blast resistance in rice. The expression of OsOXO2, OsOXO3 and OsOXO4 were induced by panicle blast inoculation. Subcellular localization analysis revealed that the three OXO proteins are all localized in the nucleus and cytoplasm. Simultaneous silencing of OsOXO2, OsOXO3 and OsOXO4 decreased rice resistance to panicle blast, whereas the OsOXO2, OsOXO3 and OsOXO4 overexpression rice plants individually showed enhanced panicle blast resistance. More H2O2 and higher expression levels of PR genes were observed in the overexpressing plants than in the control plants, while the silencing plants exhibited less H2O2 and lower expression levels of PR genes compared to the control plants. Moreover, phytohormone treatment and the phytohormone signaling related gene expression analysis showed that panicle blast resistance mediated by the three OXO genes was associated with the activation of JA and ABA signaling pathways but suppression of SA signaling pathway. Conclusion OsOXO2, OsOXO3 and OsOXO4 positively regulate panicle blast resistance in rice. The OXO genes could modulate the accumulation of H2O2 and expression levels of PR gene in plants. Moreover, the OXO genes mediated panicle blast resistance could be regulated by ABA, SA and JA, and may be associated with the activation of JA and ABA signaling pathways but suppression of the SA signaling pathway.

Recent research has extensively investigated working memory (WM)-guided attention, which is the phenomenon of attention being directed towards information in the external environment that matches the content stored in WM. While prior studies have focused on the potential influencing factors of WM-guided attention, little is known about the nature of it. This attention system exhibits characteristics of two classical distinct attention systems: exogenous attention and endogenous attention, as it can operate automatically like exogenous attention yet persist for a long time and be modulated by cognitive resources like endogenous attention. Thus, the current study aimed to explore the mechanism of WM-guided attention by testing whether it competed with exogenous attention, endogenous attention, or both. Two experiments were conducted within a classic WM-guided attention paradigm. Experiment 1 included an exogenous cue and revealed an interaction between WM-guided attention and exogenous attention. Experiment 2 replaced the exogenous cue with an endogenous cue and demonstrated that endogenous attention had no impact on WM-guided attention. These findings indicate that WM-guided attention shares mechanisms with exogenous attention to some extent while operating in parallel with endogenous attention.

Spatio-temporal association analysis has attracted attention in various fields, such as urban computing and crime analysis. The proliferation of positioning technology and location-based services has facilitated the expansion of association analysis across spatio-temporal scales. However, existing methods inadequately consider the scale differences among spatio-temporal objects during analysis, leading to suboptimal precision in association analysis results. To remedy this issue, we propose a multiscale spatio-temporal object representation method, STO2Vec, for association analysis. This method comprises of two parts: graph construction and embedding. For graph construction, we introduce an adaptive hierarchical discretization method to distinguish the varying scales of local features. Then, we merge the embedding method for spatio-temporal objects with that for discrete units, establishing a heterogeneous graph. For embedding, to enhance embedding quality for homogeneous and heterogeneous data, we use biased sampling and unsupervised models to capture the association strengths between spatio-temporal objects. Empirical results using real-world open-source datasets show that STO2Vec outperforms other models, improving accuracy by 16.25% on average across diverse applications. Further case studies indicate STO2Vec effectively detects association relationships between spatio-temporal objects in a range of scenarios and is applicable to tasks such as moving object behavior pattern mining and trajectory semantic annotation.

A parallel real-time visualization software tool HiVecMap is proposed here for large-scale geographic vector data mapping. HiVecMap calculates the mapping value of each display cell instead of the value of each vector feature. The mapping value of each display cell is determined by the number of geographic vector features in the corresponding spatial range. Thereby, the computational complexity is depends on the number of the cells rather than the number of features of the whole geographic dataset. When the number of the cells is much smaller than the number of geographic features, the visualization efficiency can be greatly improved. HiVecMap is implemented with the MPI+OpenMP parallel strategy, and has been extensively tested. Results show that large-scale geographic vector data can be online mapped in real-time, which has a performance improvement of more than ten times compared with the existing best methods.

Although the popular path-planning algorithms based on graph-search such as Dijkstra and A* guarantee to find the optimal path, the search time will increase rapidly with the growth of map size. Those traditional graph-search based algorithms ignore the distribution of obstacles, causing much time wasted on exploring unrelated regions. A fast bidirectional-A* algorithm based on hierarchical map(QH-A*) was proposed in this paper with high real-time performance. QH-A* consists of two parts: offline pre-processing and online search. The offline pre-processing of QH-A* comprises map decomposition and construction of hierarchical map. In the map decomposition step, a modified quad-tree decomposition method was used to recursively divide the initial map into different regions. Then boundary nodes of each region were extracted. During the construction of hierarchical map, a kind of hierarchical map was defined and precomputation was done to construct the hierarchical map. In the online-search step, a revised bidirectional-A* specific to hierarchical map was proposed to finish the path-planning task. Experiments and theories proved that QH-A* can always find the shortest path. In addition, the search area required by QH-A* was 70%-80% less than that of A*, which verified high real-time performance of QH-A*.

Abstract Background Direct seeding is an efficient cultivation technique in rice. However, poor low temperature germinability (LTG) of modern rice cultivars limits its application. Identifying the genes associated with LTG and performing molecular breeding is the fundamental way to address this issue. However, few LTG QTLs have been fine mapped and cloned so far. Results In the present study, the LTG evaluation of 375 rice accessions selected from the Rice Diversity Panel 2 showed that there were large LTG variations within the population, and the LTG of Indica group was significantly higher than that of Japonica and Aus groups (p

Objective To investigate the protective effects of human placenta-derived mesenchymal stem cell (P-MSC) transplantation against severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) in rats. Methods A total of 32 healthy adult male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into control group, P-MSC group, SAP and SAP+P-MSCs group (n=8), and in the latter 2 groups, SAP was induced by retrograde injection of 4% sodium taurocholate into the common biliopancreatic duct. P-MSCs (1×106 cells/100 g) were delivered through the tail vein of the rats at 12 and 36 h after the induction of SAP. All the rats were sacrificed 72 h after the first P-MSC infusion. HE staining was used to assess the pancreatic pathologies of the rats after the treatments. The serum levels of the pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators, amylase and lipase were determined by ELISA, and the mRNA expression levels of the inflammatory mediators in the pancreatic tissue were detected using qRT-PCR. Immunohistochemistry was performed to examine macrophage infiltration in the pancreatic tissue of the rats. Results Homing of the infused P-MSCs to the injury site was observed in the rats with SAP. Transplantation of P-MSCs significantly ameliorated histopathological injury and lowered pancreatic pathological score of the pancreas, reduced serum levels of amylase, lipase, interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) (P < 0.05), increased serum levels of IL-10, IL-4 and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) (P < 0.05), decreased the expression levels of IL-1β and TNF-α (P < 0.05) and increased the expression of IL-10 and IL-4 in the pancreatic tissue (P < 0.05) of the rats with SAP. In addition, P-MSC transplantation effectively reduced macrophage infiltration in the pancreatic tissue of the rats. Conclusion Transplantation of P-MSCs can effectively alleviate local inflammatory response in the pancreas and systemic inflammatory response in rats with SAP probably by reducing local macrophage and neutrophil infiltration in the pancreas.

Pericarp colors (PC) in rice are determined by the types and content of flavonoids in the pericarp. The flavonoid compounds have strong antioxidant activities and are beneficial to human health. However, the genetic basis of PC in rice is still not well-understood. In this study, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of PC was performed in a diverse rice collection consisting of 442 accessions using different phenotyping methods in two locations over 2 years. In the whole population consisting of white and colored pericarp rice, a total of 11 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were identified using two phenotyping methods. Among these QTLs, nine were identified using the phenotypes represented by the presence and absence of pigmentation in pericarp, while 10 were identified using phenotypes of the degree of PC (DPC), in which eight are common QTLs identified using the two phenotyping methods. Using colored rice accessions and phenotypes based on DPC, four QTLs were identified, and they were totally different from the QTLs identified using the whole population, suggesting the masking effects of major genes on minor genes. Compared with the previous studies, 10 out of the 15 QTLs are first reported in this study. Based on the differential expression analysis of the predicted genes within the QTL region by both RNA-seq and real-time PCR (RT-PCR) and the gene functions in previous studies, LOC_Os01g49830, encoding a RAV transcription factor was considered as the candidate gene underlying qPC-1, a novel QTL with a large effect in this study. Our results provide a new insight into the genetic basis of PC in rice and contribute to developing the value-added rice with optimized flavonoid content through molecular breeding.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common obstructive respiratory disease characterized by persistent respiratory symptoms and limited airflow due to airway obstruction. The present study investigates the distribution characteristics of respiratory tract flora in both frequent and infrequent exacerbators of COPD. The 16S sequencing technique was adopted to differentiate the inherent differences of respiratory tract flora between frequent exacerbators and infrequent exacerbators. Additionally, cell counting kit 8 (CCK8), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) test, flow cytometry, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and western blot were carried out in human bronchial epithelial cells cultured in vitro and the regulatory effects of differential flora were verified. The results revealed that the observed species index, Chao1 index, and the ACE estimator of COPD frequent exacerbators were markedly higher than those of COPD infrequent exacerbators. The top five strains of COPD frequent exacerbators included g_Streptococcus (15.565%), g_Prevotella (10.683%), g_Veillonella (6.980%), g_Haemophilus (5.601%), and g_Neisseria (4.631%). Veillonella parvula generated obvious cytotoxicity and substantially reduced the activity of human bronchial epithelial cells (p < 0.01). Furthermore, the results of flow cytometry indicated that the proportion of human bronchial epithelial cells in both the S phase and G2 phase decreased following Veillonella parvula treatment indicated that Veillonella parvula inhibited cell proliferation. Meanwhile, being treated using Veillonella parvula, the expressions of interleukin-1 (IL-1), IL-6, Tumor Necrosis Factor α (TNF-α), and p-nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) of the cells were increased markedly (p < 0.01). Taken together, the current research demonstrated that the relative abundance of Veillonella in COPD frequent exacerbators was higher than that of infrequent exacerbators. Veillonella parvula activated the inflammatory pathway, ultimately destroyed the cell viability, and greatly impaired the activity of human bronchial epithelial cells, thereby inhibiting cell proliferation.

The head milled rice rate (HMRR) is the most important trait of milling quality, which affects the final yield and quality of rice. However, few genes related to HMRR have been identified and the regulatory mechanism of HMRR remains elusive. In this study, we performed a comparative analysis integrating the transcriptome sequencing of developing seeds at the grain-filling stage and a metabolome analysis of brown rice between two groups of accessions with contrasting performances in HMRR. A total of 768 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between the transcriptome profiles of low-HMRR and high-HMRR accessions. In comparison to the high-HMRR accessions, 655 DEGs were up-regulated in the low-HMRR accessions, which was 4.79 folds higher than the number of down-regulated genes. These up-regulated DEGs were enriched in various metabolic and biosynthetic processes, oxidation reduction, phosphorylation, ion transport and ATP-related processes. However, the 113 down-regulated DEGs in the low-HMRR accessions were concentrated in carbohydrate metabolic processes, cell-death-related processes and defense response. Among the 30 differential metabolites, 20 and 10 metabolites were down-/up-regulated, respectively, in the accessions with low HMRR. In addition, 10 differential metabolites, including five metabolites of the shikimate pathway and five metabolites of the pyruvate pathway, were integrated into two separate pathways, starting from sucrose. Our global analysis of HMRR provides an invaluable resource for a better understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying the genetic regulation of HMRR.

Genome editing technology has become one of the hottest research areas in recent years. Among diverse genome editing tools, the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/CRISPR-associated proteins system (CRISPR/Cas system) has exhibited the obvious advantages of specificity, simplicity, and flexibility over any previous genome editing system. In addition, the emergence of Cas9 mutants, such as dCas9 (dead Cas9), which lost its endonuclease activity but maintains DNA recognition activity with the guide RNA, provides powerful genetic manipulation tools. In particular, combining the dCas9 protein and transcriptional activator to achieve specific regulation of gene expression has made important contributions to biotechnology in medical research as well as agriculture. CRISPR/dCas9 activation (CRISPRa) can increase the transcription of endogenous genes. Overexpression of foreign genes by traditional transgenic technology in plant cells is the routine method to verify gene function by elevating genes transcription. One of the main limitations of the overexpression is the vector capacity constraint that makes it difficult to express multiple genes using the typical Ti plasmid vectors from Agrobacterium. The CRISPRa system can overcome these limitations of the traditional gene overexpression method and achieve multiple gene activation by simply designating several guide RNAs in one vector. This review summarizes the latest progress based on the development of CRISPRa systems, including SunTag, dCas9-VPR, dCas9-TV, scRNA, SAM, and CRISPR-Act and their applications in plants. Furthermore, limitations, challenges of current CRISPRa systems and future prospective applications are also discussed.