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Leaf senescence is the final stage of leaf development and appropriate onset and progression of leaf senescence are critical for reproductive success and fitness. Although great progress has been made in identifying key genes regulating leaf senescence and elucidating the underlining mechanisms in model plant Arabidopsis, there is still a gap to understand the complex regulatory network. In this study, we discovered that Arabidopsis ANAC087 transcription factor (TF) positively modulated leaf senescence. Expression of ANAC087 was induced in senescing leaves and the encoded protein acted as a transcriptional activator. Both constitutive and inducible overexpression lines of ANAC087 showed earlier senescence than control plants, whereas T-DNA insertion mutation and dominant repression of ANAC087 delayed senescence rate. A qRT-PCR profiling showed that expression of an array of senescence-associated genes were up-regulated in inducible ANAC087 overexpression plants including BFN1, NYE1, CEP1, RbohD, SAG13, SAG15 and VPEs, which are involved in programmed cell death (PCD), chlorophyll degradation and reactive active oxygen (ROS) accumulation. In addition, EMSA and ChIP-qPCR assays demonstrated that ANAC087 directly bound to the canonical NAC recognition sequence (NACRS) motif in promoters of its target genes. Moreover, mutation of two representative target genes, BFN1 or NYE1 alleviated the senescence rate of ANAC087-overexpression plants, suggesting their genetic regulatory relationship. Taken together, this study indicates that ANAC087 serves as an important regulator linking PCD, ROS, chlorophyll degradation to leaf senescence. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Introduction. Neuropathic pain is a commonly seen symptom and one of the most intractable comorbidities following spinal cord injury (SCI). Acupuncture has been widely used for neuropathic pain after SCI in clinical settings. There is no systematic review or meta‐analysis evaluating the efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of SCI-induced neuropathic pain. Thus, this study aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the efficacy of acupuncture on SCI-induced neuropathic pain. Methods. Seven databases were comprehensively searched, including PubMed, the Cochrane Library, the Web of Science, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), the Chinese Biomedical Literature Service System (SinoMed), the Wanfang Database, and the Chinese Scientific Journals Database (VIP) from their inception to 30 September 2021. Two independent reviewers evaluated the eligibility of the data retrieved based on the pre-established eligibility criteria and assessed the methodological quality of the included studies using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool. The outcome indexes in this study included the visual analogue scale, the numeric rating scale, the present pain intensity, and the pain region index. Sensitivity and subgroup analyses were also performed to specifically evaluate the intervention effects. In addition, publication bias was analyzed. Results. Six randomized controlled trials (145 participants in the experimental groups and 141 participants in the control groups) were identified that evaluated the application of acupuncture for neuropathic pain after SCI and were included in this study. The results of our study revealed that acupuncture had a positive effect on the pain severity (standardized mean difference (SMD): −1.40, 95% confidence interval (CI): −2.23; −0.57), the present pain intensity (MD = −0.61, 95% CIs = −0.98; −0.23), and the pain region index (MD = −3.04, 95% CI = −3.98; −2.11). In addition, sensitivity analyses showed that these results were robust and stable. Subgroup analyses indicated that electroacupuncture (EA) had better effects on SCI-induced neuropathic pain. However, a publication bias was observed. Conclusion. Available evidence appears to suggest that acupuncture may have a role in SCI-induced neuropathic pain management, but this remains to be determined.

Background Remimazolam is a new type of benzodiazepine, which has been widely used for general anesthesia and sedation. However, the association between remimazolam and intraoperative cerebral oxygen saturation and postoperative cognitive function in older patients undergoing nasal endoscopic surgery remains unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of general anesthesia with remimazolam during nasal endoscopic surgery on intraoperative cerebral oxygen saturation and postoperative cognitive function in the elderly.Methods This single-center retrospective study reviewed data from patients older than 65 years who underwent nasal endoscopic surgery under general anesthesia at our institution between December 2020 and December 2021. Patient intraoperative regional cerebral oxygen saturation (rcSO2) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores were obtained from patient records. According to the sedatives used in anesthesia, the patients were divided into the remimazolam (R) and propofol groups (P) for analysis.Results Sixty patients were included in the final analysis (R group, n = 30; P group, n = 30). The relative maximum reduction of intraoperative rcSO2 was significantly lower in the R group than in the P group (P Conclusion Remimazolam may benefit elderly patients during nasal endoscopic surgery in terms of rcSO2, but has no significant association with postoperative cognitive function.

Sanitary landfills and uncontrolled dumpsites are plastic wastes (PWs) reservoirs containing ∼60% of all the plastics ever made, amounting to 5,000 × 106 tons as of 2017. The distribution, long-term behavior, and release of macro- and microplastics (MPs) from disposal sites are critical to global plastics pollution, but are poorly understood and lack systematic assessments. We review comprehensively the available knowledge in the three aspects herein. The spatial and temporal distribution of PW in 616 municipal solid waste (MSW) samples retrieved from 275 disposal sites in 56 countries are summarized. The weight percentages of PW (%PW) generally decrease with increasing year of disposal and disposal depth. Other influential factors are disposal duration and country income level. The %PW values in different disposal sites show high regionality and spatial variability and heterogeneity. Disposal sites mostly have harsh temperature and stress, reactive liquids, and microbial activities, which are conducive to long-term processes of PW and MPs. The major processes are chemical degradation, dissolution, leaching and adsorption, biological degradation, mechanical wearing, pneumatic and hydrological transport and deposition, and conglomeration. PW leaves disposal sites via recycling, scavenging, mining, wind and surface runoff, coastal erosion and flooding, and slope failure. The release and removal pathways of PW from disposal sites have been recognized only qualitatively. In addition, the sources, presences, and secondary generation of MPs in disposal sites have been studied occasionally, whereas the transport and fate of MPs within and from disposal sites remain largely unstudied. Economic Development Board (EDB) Nanyang Technological University The authors would like to acknowledge Nanyang Technological University (NTU, Singapore), Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute (Singapore), and Economic Development Board (Singapore) for the financial support and scholarships of this research. Xunchang Fei thanks the supports from Debris of the Anthropocene to Resources (DotA2) Lab at NTU. Jun Ma was supported by the China Scholarship Council (Grant No. 201904910309).

A fluorescent sensing platform based on the “off–on” mode is proposed for the detection of low concentrations of Ag+ and S2O32−.

Calibrating the microsimulation model is essential to enhance its ability to capture reality. The paper proposes a Bayesian neural network (BNN)-based method to calibrate parameters of microscopic traffic simulators, which reduces repeated running of simulations in the calibration and thus significantly improves the calibration efficiency. We use BNN with probability distributions on the weights to quickly predict the simulation results according to the inputs of the parameters to be calibrated. Based on the BNN model with the best performance, heuristic algorithms (HAs) are performed to seek the optimal values of the parameters to be calibrated with the minimum difference between the predicted results of BNN and the field-measured values. Three HAs are considered, including genetic algorithm (GA), evolutionary strategy (ES), and bat algorithm (BA). A TransModeler case of highway links in Shanghai, China, indicates the validity of the proposed calibration method in terms of error and efficiency. The results demonstrate that the BNN model is able to accurately predict the simulation and adequately capture the uncertainty of the simulation. We also find that the BNN-BA model produces the best calibration efficiency, while the BNN-ES model offers the best performance in calibration accuracy.

Fruits and vegetables contain a large number of volatile compounds, which constitute their unique odor and contribute to their flavor. However, there are only a few key aroma compounds that contrib...

Under ultrasonic vibration, the MIL-100(Fe) deforms for the polarization of bound charges to form a piezoelectric field with the high piezo-potential for a band tilting, facilitating free charges transfer to reach a high yield of H2.

To understand the evolution of aroma in jujubes during dynamic freeze drying (FD), the relationship between aroma compounds, precursors, and related enzyme activities were analyzed. Fifty-three volatiles were identified during FD processing. After FD, the total aroma contents were increased from 11,004 to 14,603 μg/kg, ketones content was significantly decreased by 54.11 %, resulted in the loss of creamy note in freeze-dried jujube (FDJ). Through the network analysis, serine, glycine, proline, valine, cysteine, arginine, glutamic acid, lysine and leucine had the significant correlation with pyrazines, dominated the roasty note of FDJ. Linoleic acid, α-linolenic acid and oleic acid with lipoxygenase had important effects on the increase of esters (from 412 to 9,486 μg/kg), contributed fruity and sweet notes of FDJ. Besides, through the Mantel test, the influence degree of factors on the formation of FDJ aroma was ranked as temperature enzyme activity fatty acids amino acids.

Background High carotenoid content always lead to a yellower/redder color in carrots, while a puzzling phenomenon still exists that freeze-dried carrots (FDC) have a higher carotenoid content but a lighter color compared with thermal-dried carrots. It seems that carotenoid is not the only main factor affecting sample color. Hence the discoloration characteristics of freeze-dried carrots were comprehensively analyzed from physical structure and color-related chemical composition profile. Results Outcomes of low-field nuclear magnetic resonance and scanning electron microscopy showed that sublimation of immobilized water preserved the intact porous structure of FDC, which kept the volume shrinkage below 30% and led to less accumulations of color-related compositions. Besides, results of correlation and principal component analysis-X model proved that lutein and caffeic acid mainly affected a* value (r = 0.917) and b* value (r = 0.836) of FDC, respectively. Moreover, lipoxygenase indirectly affected sample color by degrading carotenoids, and the lutein content loss for fresh and blanching FDC was 41.56% and 47.14%, respectively. Conclusions The discoloration of FDC was significantly affected by both physical structure and color-related chemical compositions. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.

Biomass is regarded as an excellent candidate for the preparation of carbon nanomaterials. A pH sensor was established based on carbon dots synthesized from black fungus, and possesses good fluorescence response and reversibility for pH detection. Meanwhile, the CDs can also be applied to intra-cellular bioimaging, showing potential for bioimaging.

Delayed abducens nerve palsy after chemoradiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is often accompanied by ocular ischemia and cranial nerve damage, thereby increasing the risk of conventional strabismus surgery. Therefore, patients often prefer conservative treatment. Herein we report a case of acupuncture for delayed abducens nerve palsy after chemoradiotherapy for NPC.A 39-year-old patient who previously received chemotherapy and radiotherapy for NPC developed a unilateral abducens nerve palsy with numbness in the face and stiffness in the neck muscles after six years. Based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), medical history, and physical examination, he was diagnosed with abducens nerve palsy after chemoradiotherapy. The acupuncture treatment regimen was mainly based on periocular electroacupuncture, supplemented with wheat grain moxibustion and warming needle moxibustion, which were performed three times a week. After one month with a total of 17 acupuncture sessions, the patient's affected eye abduction function recovered completely. Facial sensory abnormalities and neck stiffness also improved significantly. Follow-up at two months reported no recurrence.Acupuncture may be a conservative treatment option for patients with abducens nerve palsy after chemoradiotherapy.

Senescence is an integrative final stage of plant development that is governed by internal and external cues. The NAM, ATAF1/2, CUC2 (NAC) transcription factor (TF) family is specific to plants and membrane-tethered NAC TFs (MTTFs) constitute a unique and sophisticated mechanism in stress responses and development. However, the function of MTTFs in oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) remains unknown. Here, we report that BnaNAC60 is an MTTF associated with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane. Expression of BnaNAC60 was induced during the progression of leaf senescence. Translocation of BnaNAC60 into nuclei was induced by ER stress and oxidative stress treatments. It binds to the NTLBS motif, rather than the canonical NAC recognition site. Overexpression of BnaNAC60 devoid of the transmembrane domain, but not the full-length BnaNAC60, induces significant reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and hypersensitive response-like cell death in both tobacco (Nicotiana benthamiana) and oilseed rape protoplasts. Moreover, ectopic overexpression of BnaNAC60 devoid of the transmembrane domain, but not the full-length BnaNAC60, in Arabidopsis also induces precocious leaf senescence. Furthermore, screening and expression profiling identified an array of functional genes that are significantly induced by BnaNAC60 expression. Further it was found that BnaNAC60 can activate the promoter activities of BnaNYC1, BnaRbohD, BnaBFN1, BnaZAT12, and multiple BnaVPEs in a dual-luciferase reporter assay. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay and chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled to quantitative PCR assays revealed that BnaNAC60 directly binds to the promoter regions of these downstream target genes. To summarize, our data show that BnaNAC60 is an MTTF that modulates cell death, ROS accumulation, and leaf senescence.

The effects of heating temperatures (50, 60, and 70 °C) and oxygen contents (vacuum degrees of 10 Pa and 105 Pa) on the color, carotenoids, and peroxidase degradation of seed-used pumpkins’ byproducts (SUPBs) during drying processes were investigated. Changes of carotenoid monomer contents were analyzed as well. Overall, heating temperatures showed more significant effects on color and carotenoid contents of SUPBs than oxygen content. A higher b* value was desirable after drying process, and the highest b* value (61.62) was obtained under 50 °C (105 Pa). Meanwhile, both of total color difference and browning index were mainly influenced by b* value (p < 0.01). In addition, significant positive correlation between total carotenoid content and peroxidase enzyme activity was observed (R2 = 0.95*), and the highest retention ratios were both obtained at 60 °C (105 Pa). Among the four carotenoid monomers (lutein, α-carotene, β-carotene, and cryptoxanthin) measured, lutein was the most abundant one in SUPBs with a higher thermal stability, and α-carotene was significantly related to peroxidase enzyme activity (p < 0.05). All of total carotenoid content, lutein, α-carotene, β-carotene showed positive correlations with b* value, which indicated carotenoids might appropriately determine the yellow color of SUPB samples.

Jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) powder is hygroscopic and highly prone to caking during storage which could significantly reduce product quality. Anticaking agents are usually added to maintain flowability of powders and prevent caking. Caking behaviors of jujube powder and blends with anticaking agents (calcium stearate, magnesium stearate, and silicon dioxide at 1, 2, 3% w/w) as affected by temperature (25 °C, 35 °C, 45 °C), mixing speed (22, 73, 96 rpm), and mixing time (1, 5, 10, 15, 20 min at 25 °C) of powders exposed at 75% RH for 5 h were investigated by FT4 powder rheometer. Energy of crust that formed during caking was determined. Results showed that anticaking agents resulted in significant effect on the moisture sorption and crust strength formed during caking of jujube powders. Calcium stearate (2% w/w) proved to be the most effective to improve the flowability and delay onset of powder caking with significant reduction in the crust strength of powder cake from 170 to 2 mJ/g when powders exposed to 75% RH for 5 h at 25 °C. Mixing speed at 73 rpm and mixing time of 5~20 min could present better flowability of jujube powders and delay the onset of caking. Lower (22 rpm) and higher (96 rpm) mixing speeds and higher temperatures (45 °C) could speed up caking rate in powder blends. State diagrams established based on moisture sorption isotherm and glass transition curves showed that jujube powders with and without calcium stearate addition were stable at 25 °C when water content was lower than 0.095 and 0.088 g water/g sample, respectively.

As one of the largest families of transcription factors in plants, the R2R3-MYB proteins play important roles in diverse biological processes including growth and development, primary and secondary metabolism such as flavonoid and anthocyanin biosynthesis as well as abiotic and biotic stress responses. However, functions of R2R3-MYB genes in rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) remain elusive. Here, we characterized BnaMYB111L, which is homologous to Arabidopsis MYB111 and encodes an R2R3-MYB protein in rapeseed. BnaMYB111L is responsive to abscisic acid (ABA), heat, cold, hydrogen peroxide and fungal pathogen Sclerotinia scelerotiorum treatments through quantitative RT-PCR assay. BnaMYB111L encodes a transcriptional activator and is localized exclusively to nuclei. Interestingly, overexpression of BnaMYB111L in tobacco (Nicotiana benthamiana) and rapeseed protoplasts promoted reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and hypersensitive response-like cell death, accumulation of malondialdehyde (MDA) as well as degradation of chlorophyll. Furthermore, BnaMYB111L expression evoked the alterations of transcript levels of genes encoding ROS-producing enzyme, vacuolar processing enzymes and genes implicated in defense responses. A further dual luciferase reporter assay indicated that BnaMYB111L activated the expression of RbohB, MC4 and ACRE132, which are involved in ROS generation, cell death as well as defense responses. Taken together, this study characterized the function of rapeseed MYB111L and identified its putative target genes involved in ROS production and cell death.

Leaf senescence is one of the most visible forms of programmed cell death in plants. It can be a seasonal adaptation in trees or the final stage in crops ensuring efficient translocation of nutrients to seeds. Along with developmental cues, various environmental factors could also trigger the onset of senescence through transcriptional cascades. Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) is an important oil crop with its yielding affected by significant falling leaves as a result of leaf senescence, compared to many other crops. Therefore, a better understanding of leaf senescence and developing strategies controlling the progress of leaf senescence in rapeseed is necessary for warranting vegetable oil security. Here we functionally characterized the gene BnaNAM encoding No Apical Meristem (NAM) homologue to identify transcriptional regulation of leaf senescence in rapeseed. A combination of transient and stable expression techniques revealed overexpression of BnaNAM induced ROS production and leaf chlorosis. Quantitative evaluation of up-regulated genes in BnaNAM overexpression lines identified genes related to ROS production (RbohD, RbohF), proteases (βVPE, γVPE, SAG12, SAG15), chlorophyll catabolism (PaO, PPH) and nucleic acid degradation (BFN1) as the putative downstream targets. A dual luciferase-based transcriptional activation assay of selected promoters further confirmed BnaNAM mediated transactivation of promoters of the downstream genes. Finally, an electrophoretic mobility shift assay further confirmed direct binding of BnaNAM to promoters of βVPE, γVPE, SAG12, SAG15 and BFN1. Our results therefore demonstrate a novel role of BnaNAM in leaf senescence.