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IntroductionAs a renewable forest resource, bamboo plays a role in sustainable forest development. However, traditional cutting systems, selection cutting (SeC) and clear-cutting (ClC), result in an unsustainable production of bamboo forests due to labor-consuming or bamboo degradation. Recently, a strip clear-cutting (StC) was theoretically proposed to promote the sustainability of bamboo production, while little is known about its application consequence.MethodsBased on a 6-year experiment, we applied the strip clear-cutting system in a typical running bamboo (Phyllostachys glauca McClure) forest to assess its feasibility and sustainability. Using SeC and ClC as controls, we set three treatments with different strip widths (5 m, 10 m, and 20 m) for strip clear-cutting, simplified as StC-5, StC-10, and StC-20, respectively. Then, we investigated leaf physiological traits, bamboo size and productivity, population features, and economic benefits for all treatments.ResultsThe stands managed by StC had high eco-physiological activities, such as net photosynthetic rate (Pn), photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency (PNUE), and photosynthetic phosphorus use efficiency (PPUE), and thus grew well, achieved a large diameter at breast height (DBH), and were tall. The stand biomass of StC (8.78 t hm-2 year-1) was 1.19-fold and 1.49-fold greater than that of SeC and ClC, respectively, and StC-10 and StC-20 were significantly higher than SeC or ClC (p< 0.05). The income and profit increased with the increase in stand density and biomass, and StC-20 and StC-10 were significantly higher than SeC or ClC (p< 0.05). Using principal components analysis and subordinate function analysis, we constructed a composite index to indicate the sustainability of bamboo forests. For the sustainability assessment, StC-10 had the highest productive sustainability (0.59 ± 0.06) and the second highest economic sustainability (0.59 ± 0.11) in all cutting treatments. StC-10 had the maximum overall sustainability, with a value of 0.53 ± 0.02, which was significantly higher than that of ClC (p< 0.05).ConclusionThe results verified that StC for Phyllostachys glauca forests is feasible and sustainable as its sustainability index outweighs those of traditional cutting systems (SeC and ClC), and 10 m is the optimum distance for the strip width of StC. Our findings provide a new cutting system for managing other running bamboo forests sustainably.

HER2-positive acantholytic squamous cell carcinoma (ASCC) of the breast is exceptionally rare, and its clinicopathologic features are poorly understood. The impact of neoadjuvant therapy on HER2-positive breast ASCC is unclear. Here we report on a 58-year-old woman who was diagnosed with HER2-positive ASCC of the right breast, who underwent neoadjuvant treatment with albumin-paclitaxel, carboplatin, and trastuzumab, and surgery. Neoadjuvant therapy was effective, with no recurrence or metastasis after 1.5 years of postoperative follow-up.

Abstract Background A hydatidiform mole is a condition caused by abnormal proliferation of trophoblastic cells. MicroRNA miR-30a acts as a tumor suppressor gene in most tumors and participates in the development of various cancers. However, its role in hydatidiform moles is not clear. Methods Quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR was used to verify the expression level of miR-30a and STOX2 (encoding storkhead box 2). Flow cytometry assays were performed to detect the cell cycle in cell with different expression levels of miR-30a and STOX2. Cell Cycle Kit-8, 5-ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine, and colony formation assays were used to detect cell proliferation and viability. Transwell assays was used to test cell invasion and migration. Dual-luciferase reporter assays and western blotting were used to investigate the potential mechanisms involved. Result Low miR-30a expression promoted the proliferation, migration, and invasion of trophoblastic cells (JAR and HTR-8). Dual luciferase assays confirmed that STOX2 is a target of miR-30a and resisted the effect of upregulated miR-30a in trophoblastic cells. In addition, downregulation of STOX2 by miR-30a could activate ERK, AKT, and P38 signaling pathways. These results revealed a new mechanism by which ERK, AKT, and P38 activation by miR-30a/STOX2 results in excessive proliferation of trophoblast cells in the hydatidiform mole. Conclusions In this study, we found that miR-30a plays an important role in the development of the hydatidiform mole. Our findings indicate that miR-30a might promote the malignant transformation of human trophoblastic cells by regulating STOX2, which strengthens our understanding of the role of miR-30a in regulating trophoblastic cell transformation.

PolyJet 3D printing can be used to fabricate colored physical models of anatomical structures such as skull and heart with realistic appearances. These medical models can be used for surgical simulation and planning of complex operations, as well as anatomy teaching. PolyJet is theoretically capable of producing any color by mixing multiple materials. However, the measured color of a sample printed by PolyJet is often different from the specified color in the printer software. Therefore, it is often difficult to predict the measured color of a sample before printing. This paper reports a study on predictive relationships between measured color and four control factors of PolyJet (i.e., three RGB values of specified color and finish type) by design of experiments and application of multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network model. Experimental data are collected using a full factorial design of experiments. These data are used to train and test the MLP model using 5-fold cross validation. Then, the prediction performances of the MLP model are compared with a linear regression model and a cubic regression model. The results show that the MLP model is capable of predicting measured color with higher accuracy.

Explainable machine learning attracts increasing attention as it improves the transparency of models, which is helpful for machine learning to be trusted in real applications. However, explanation methods have recently been demonstrated to be vulnerable to manipulation, where we can easily change a model's explanation while keeping its prediction constant. To tackle this problem, some efforts have been paid to use more stable explanation methods or to change model configurations. In this work, we tackle the problem from the training perspective, and propose a new training scheme called Adversarial Training on EXplanations (ATEX) to improve the internal explanation stability of a model regardless of the specific explanation method being applied. Instead of directly specifying explanation values over data instances, ATEX only puts constraints on model predictions which avoids involving second-order derivatives in optimization. As a further discussion, we also find that explanation stability is closely related to another property of the model, i.e., the risk of being exposed to adversarial attack. Through experiments, besides showing that ATEX improves model robustness against manipulation targeting explanation, it also brings additional benefits including smoothing explanations and improving the efficacy of adversarial training if applied to the model.

The objective of this paper is to study the issue of the projection uniformity of asymmetric fractional factorials. On the basis of level permutation and mixture discrepancy, the average projection mixture discrepancy to measure the uniformity for low-dimensional projection designs is defined, the uniformity pattern and minimum projection uniformity criterion are presented for evaluating and comparing any asymmetric factorials. Moreover, lower bounds to uniformity pattern have been obtained, and some illustrative examples are also provided.

Background This study aimed to gain an understanding of the growth response of Phyllostachys edulis (moso bamboo) seedlings to nitrogen (N) and potassium (K) to benefit nutrient management practices and the design of proper fertilizer in nursery cultivation. Methods An orthogonal array L8(4×24) was used to study the effects of N forms (NH4+, NO3−), N concentrations (8, 32 mmol/L), and K+concentrations (0, 0.5, 1.5, 3 mmol/L) on seedling height, leaf number, chlorophyll content (SPAD value), biomass, root systems, and N content of P. edulis seedlings. Plants were grown in vermiculite under controlled greenhouse conditions. Results Our study showed that N form played a significant role in the overall performance of P. edulis seedlings, followed by the effect of N and K+ concentrations. Among the N forms, NH4+ significantly improved the growth of P. edulis seedlings compared with NO3−. Seedling height, leaf number, chlorophyll SPAD value, biomass, and root system architecture (root length, root surface area, root volume, and root tips) were greater with 8 mmol/L of NH4+ treatments than with 32 mmol/L of NH4+treatments, whereas root diameter and N content of P. edulis seedlings were higher with 32 mmol/L of NH4+ than with 8 mmol/L of NH4+. K displayed inconsistent effects on the growth of P. edulis seedlings. Specifically, seedling height, leaf number, biomass and root volume increased when the K+ concentration was increased from 0 to 0.5 mmol/L, followed by a decrease when the K+ concentration was further increased from 0.5 to 3 mmol/L. Root average diameter of the seedlings was the highest with a K+ concentration of 1.5 mmol/L, and K had some inhibitory effects on the chlorophyll SPAD value of the seedlings. P. edulis seedlings performed well with 8 mmol/L NH4+and further tolerated a higher concentration of both NH4+ and NO3−, although excessive N could inhibit seedling growth. A lower concertation of K (≤ 0.5 mmol/L) promoted seedling growth and increasing K+ concentration in the nutrient solution did not alleviate the inhibitory effect of high N on the growth of P. edulis seedlings. Therefore, NH4+nitrogen as the main form of N fertilizer, together with a low concertation of K+, should be supplied in the cultivation and nutrient management practices of moso bamboo.

It is known that 3D printing can facilitate greater design flexibility in the printing of custom shapes for packaging and construction applications using biomass–fungi composite materials. The feasibility of this new method was demonstrated by a preliminary experiment, the results of which were reported in a journal publication in 2020. As a follow-up, this paper reports on an experimental study on the relationship between the mixture composition (i.e., the psyllium husk powder content) and print quality using this new method. Four mixtures were prepared by varying the amounts of psyllium husk powder (in grams) added to 400 mL of water. The ratios (g/mL) of psyllium husk powder weight (wp) over volume of water (vw) for the mixtures were 0, 1:40, 2:40, and 3:40. Each mixture also contained 100 g of biomass–fungi material and 40 g of whole wheat flour. The print quality of the samples was evaluated based on the extrudability and shape stability. The results showed that mixtures without any psyllium husk powder were not extrudable. An increase in the ratio of psyllium husk powder to water from 1:40 to 2:40 resulted in improved print quality; however, when the psyllium husk powder to water ratio was increased to 3:40, the extrudability became worse. This phenomenon was explained by analyzing the rheological properties of the mixtures.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding RNAs that are closely associated with carcinogenesis. Accumulating data indicate that miR-196b participates in the development of various types of cancers. However, the role of miR-196b in the formation of hydatidiform mole (HM) is still unclear. Our previous studies have demonstrated that miR-196b levels were decreased in JAR and BeWo cells and in HM tissue samples, as demonstrated by RT-PCR analysis. Furthermore, we discovered that overexpression of miR-196b in JAR and BeWo cells inhibited cellular proliferation, migration and invasion, as shown by Cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) and transwell assays, respectively. Subsequently, we explored the interaction of miR-196b with its target gene in human choriocarcinoma cell lines. MAP3K1 is a target gene predicted by bioinformatic analysis that was previously shown to exhibit reduced expression levels following treatment with miR-196b in JAR and BeWo cells. We demonstrated that MAP3K1 was a direct target of miR-196b using the dual-luciferase reporter assay in Hela cells. In summary, the present study demonstrated that miR-196b suppressed proliferation, migration and invasion of human choriocarcinoma cells by inhibiting its transcriptional target MAP3K1. miR-196b and MAP3K1 may be considered potential targets for the clinical treatment of HM.