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Abstract Gas explosion is one of the five major hazards in mines, with about 36% of such incidents occurring in the excavation working face. Therefore, to investigate the impact of gas explosion propagation laws within excavation roadways, we conducted a simulation analysis of parameters such as peak of explosion overpressure, peak rate of pressure rise, and flame propagation speed in the presence of a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM). In the presence of the TBM, the explosion overpressure approximately doubles, and the flame propagation speed also greatly increases, exacerbating the explosion hazard. Thus, when investigating gas explosion laws within excavation roadways, the presence of a TBM emerges as a significant factor that cannot be overlooked. Furthermore, an analysis of the effects of methane concentration and gas accumulation length on explosion parameters was conducted. The results indicate that when the flame passes through the TBM baffle, the average flame propagation speed increases the most when the methane concentration is 9.5%, increasing by about 6 times. In addition, as the gas accumulation length increases, both explosion overpressure and flame propagation speed gradually increase. Additionally, TBM has a certain impact on flame propagation and methane dissipation.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) results in severe neurological deficits due to disrupted neural pathways. While the spinal cord possesses limited self-repair capabilities, recent advancements in hydrogel-based therapies have shown promise. Polyphenol-based hydrogels, known for their neuroprotective properties, offer a suitable microenvironment for neural regeneration. In this study, a novel poly(lipoic acid)/poly(dopamine) adhesive hydrogel was developed as a versatile platform for delivering therapeutic agents. This hydrogel was loaded with methylcobalamin, a neurotrophic factor, and tellurium nanoenzymes, potent antioxidants. The nanoenzymes effectively mitigated oxidative stress and inflammation, while methylcobalamin promoted nerve regeneration. The combined therapeutic effects of the nanoenzymatic hydrogel demonstrated significant efficacy in repairing spinal cord injuries, highlighting its potential as a promising strategy for treating this debilitating condition.

Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) allows non-invasive assessment of brain tissue microstructure. Current model-based tissue microstructure reconstruction techniques require a large number of diffusion gradients, which is not clinically feasible due to imaging time constraints, and this has limited the use of tissue microstructure information in clinical settings. Recently, approaches based on deep learning (DL) have achieved promising tissue microstructure reconstruction results using clinically feasible dMRI. However, it remains unclear whether the subtle tissue changes associated with disease or age are properly preserved with DL approaches and whether DL reconstruction results can benefit clinical applications. Here, we provide the first evidence that DL approaches to tissue microstructure reconstruction yield reliable brain tissue microstructure analysis based on clinically feasible dMRI scans. Specifically, we reconstructed tissue microstructure from four different brain dMRI datasets with only 12 diffusion gradients, a clinically feasible protocol, and the neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) and spherical mean technique (SMT) models were considered. With these results we show that disease-related and age-dependent alterations of brain tissue were accurately identified. These findings demonstrate that DL tissue microstructure reconstruction can accurately quantify microstructural alterations in the brain based on clinically feasible dMRI.

Calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs) serve as calcium ion sensors and play crucial roles in all aspects of plant life cycle. While CDPK gene family has been extensively studied in various plants, there is limited information available for CDPK members in oat, an important cereal crop worldwide. Totally, 60 AsCDPK genes were identified in oat genome and were classified into four subfamilies based on their phylogenetic relationship. The members within each subfamily shared similar gene structure and conserved motifs. Collinearity analysis revealed that AsCDPK gene amplification was attributed to segmental duplication events and underwent strong purifying selection. AsCDPK promoters were predicted to contain cis-acting elements associated with hormones, biotic and abiotic stresses. AsCDPK gene expressions were induced by different salt stresses, exhibiting stress-specific under different salt treatments. Moreover, overexpression of AsCDPK26 gene enhanced salt resistance in C. reinhardtii, a single-cell photoautotrophic model plants. Further analysis revealed a significant correlation between AsCDPK26 and Na+/H+ antiporter 1 (p

Carbon-free ammonia and hydrogen have various disadvantages when used individually, which limits their application as clean energies. These disadvantages can be effectively overcome by combining them as ammonia/hydrogen mixtures in a rational manner. In this paper, the combustion of ammonia/hydrogen in oxygen (the basic form of combustion) is experimentally investigated at various experimental conditions. The results display that the laminar burning velocities of ammonia/hydrogen/oxygen mixtures increase with increasing fuel ratios. At P0 = 0.5 atm and φ = 1.0, the laminar burning velocity proliferated from 1.91 m/s to 4.7 m/s with the increase of fuel ratio from 0.5 to 2.0. As the equivalence ratio increases, the laminar burning velocity rises first and then decreases, with the highest point appearing at φ = 0.8. The initial pressure has minimal impact on the laminar burning velocity. At x = 0.5 and φ = 1.0, the laminar burning velocity decreased slightly from 3.16 m/s to 2.96 m/s with the initial pressure increased from 0.1 atm to 1.0 atm. The empirical correlation among the laminar burning velocity versus the equivalence ratio and hydrogen ratio is given, and the laminar burning velocity of ammonia/hydrogen/oxygen under varying hydrogen ratios (0 %–100 %) and equivalence ratios (0.5–1.5) at atmospheric pressure can be well predicted by the empirical equations. NO is the most emitted NOx substance from hydrogen/ammonia combustion. The amount of NO produced decreases gradually with the growing equivalence ratio. The results of this research can be utilized to renew the basic flame data of ammonia/hydrogen mixture and are important for the development and application of ammonia/hydrogen mixtures.

During the mining process of deep coal mining faces, they are often affected by strong mining dynamic pressure, resulting in strong mining pressure and significant deformation and damage of the surrounding rock of the roadway. Especially for isolated working faces, the dynamic pressure effect is more significant, and the difficulty of controlling the surrounding rock increases exponentially. In order to solve the problem of the influence of strong dynamic pressure on the control of surrounding rock in mining tunnels in deep isolated working faces, this paper takes 2308 working face as the research background and uses methods such as theoretical analysis, numerical simulation, and on-site verification. Firstly, the structural model of the surrounding rock in the tunnel is analyzed to determine the main factors affecting the stability of the surrounding rock in the working face. Further research will be conducted on the two options of coal pillar width and drilling pressure relief, and based on the actual deformation of the tunnel surrounding rock, the asymmetric support parameters of the tunnel surrounding rock will be determined to achieve a “unloading and support balance” collaborative control plan for the mining tunnel affected by strong dynamic pressure. After on-site practice verification, the displacement of the roof and floor of the 2308 working face roadway is 260 mm, and the displacement of the two sides is 471 mm. The integrity of the surrounding rock of the roadway is enhanced, and deformation is effectively controlled. The use of “unloading and support balance” has a significant control effect on the surrounding rock of tunnels affected by dynamic pressure.

In the process of deep cooling and liquefaction of low-concentration (concentration

Salt stress can affect various physiological processes in plants, ultimately hindering their growth and development. Melatonin (MT) can effectively resist multiple abiotic stresses, improving plant stress resistance. To analyze the mechanism of exogenous MT to enhance salt tolerance in red clover, we conducted a comprehensive study to examine the influence of exogenous MT on various parameters, including seed germination indices, seedling morphological traits, and physiological and photosynthetic indicators, using four distinct red clover varieties (H1, H2, H3, and H4). This investigation was performed under various salt stress conditions with differing pH values, specifically utilizing NaCl, Na2SO4, NaHCO3, and Na2CO3 as the salt stressors. The results showed that MT solution immersion significantly improved the germination indicators of red clover seeds under salt stress. The foliar spraying of 50 μM and 25 μM MT solution significantly increased SOD activity (21–127%), POD activity, soluble sugar content, proline content (22–117%), chlorophyll content (2–66%), and the net photosynthetic rate. It reduced the MDA content (14–55%) and intercellular CO2 concentration of red clover seedlings under salt stress. Gray correlation analysis and the Mantel test further verified that MT is a key factor in enhancing seed germination and seedling growth of red clover under salt stress; the most significant improvement was observed for NaHCO3 stress. MT is demonstrated to improve the salt tolerance of red clover through a variety of mechanisms, including an increase in antioxidant enzyme activity, osmoregulation ability, and cell membrane stability. Additionally, it improves photosynthetic efficiency and plant architecture, promoting energy production, growth, and optimal resource allocation. These mechanisms function synergistically, enabling red clover to sustain normal growth and development under salt stress.

Salt stress caused by high concentrations of Na+ and Cl- in soil is one of the most important abiotic stresses in agricultural production, which seriously affects grain yield. The alleviation of salt stress through the application of exogenous substances is important for grain production. Melatonin (MT, N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine) is an indole-like small molecule that can effectively alleviate the damage caused by adversity stress on crops. Current studies have mainly focused on the effects of MT on the physiology and biochemistry of crops at the seedling stage, with fewer studies on the gene regulatory mechanisms of crops at the germination stage. The aim of this study was to explain the mechanism of MT-induced salt tolerance at physiological, biochemical, and molecular levels and to provide a theoretical basis for the resolution of MT-mediated regulatory mechanisms of plant adaptation to salt stress. In this study, we investigated the germination, physiology, and transcript levels of maize seeds, analyzed the relevant differentially expressed genes (DEGs), and examined salt tolerance-related pathways. The results showed that MT could increase the seed germination rate by 14.28–19.04%, improve seed antioxidant enzyme activities (average increase of 11.61%), and reduce reactive oxygen species accumulation and membrane oxidative damage. In addition, MT was involved in regulating the changes of endogenous hormones during the germination of maize seeds under salt stress. Transcriptome results showed that MT affected the activity of antioxidant enzymes, response to stress, and seed germination-related genes in maize seeds under salt stress and regulated the expression of genes related to starch and sucrose metabolism and phytohormone signal transduction pathways. Taken together, the results indicate that exogenous MT can affect the expression of stress response-related genes in salt-stressed maize seeds, enhance the antioxidant capacity of the seeds, reduce the damage induced by salt stress, and thus promote the germination of maize seeds under salt stress. The results provide a theoretical basis for the MT-mediated regulatory mechanism of plant adaptation to salt stress and screen potential candidate genes for molecular breeding of salt-tolerant maize.

Foam metal as a promising application of explosion-proof and explosion-suppression materials, which itself has a complex three-dimensional pore structure, can be more effective in quenching gas and dust explosion flame in this research, a platform was created to experiment with dust deflagration using transparent quartz tubes and high-speed photography. The study focused on how copper foam affects flame propagation during deflagration of three kinds of dust: polyethylene, aluminum, and wheat. The results showed that copper foam hinders the flame front displacement and reduces fluctuations in flame propagation velocity when compared to deflagrations that do not have copper foam. However, placing copper foam too close to the ignition source can increase the magnitude of fluctuations in the early stages of the deflagration. When copper foam was placed 360 mm above the source of ignition, the 10PPI and 20PPI copper foam were able to decrease the flame of polyethylene dust and aluminum dust. As the porosity of the metal foam increases, the 30PPI copper foam can completely extinguish the flame of the three powders. The research also found that copper foam can divide the flame, quench the flame entering the copper foam, and block some of the burned and unburned powders, thereby reducing the energy of the deflagration and weakening the reaction. Comprehensively, to explore the inhibition effect of different parameters of copper foam against dust deflagration, which is of some significance for the study of fire and explosion control.

Soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and total potassium (TK) are important indicators for evaluating soil fertility. Exploring the content and spatial distribution of these indicators is of great significance for optimizing cropland management measures and developing sustainable agriculture. Yunnan Province is one of the most important agricultural regions in southwestern China, characterized by large variations in the topography and an uneven distribution of soil fertility. In this study, the data of 8571 topsoil (0–20 cm) samples selected from Yunnan Province and a portion of related spatial data were used to carry out electronic mapping of the spatial distribution of soil sand content, clay content, silt content, SOC, TN, TP, TK content, and C:N ratio at 1 km resolution using the Random Forest (RF) model. The results indicated that the average measured contents of SOC, TN, TP, TK, and C:N ratio in the topsoil of Yunnan Province were 18.78 ± 0.09 g/kg, 1.78 ± 0.01 g/kg, 0.98 ± 0.01 g/kg, 13.89 ± 0.08 g/kg, and 10.56 ± 0.02, respectively. The spatial analysis showed that higher SOC was mainly distributed in northern and eastern Yunnan, and the spatial distribution pattern of TN and TP was similar to that of SOC. While higher TK was mainly distributed in southwestern Yunnan Province. There was a significant positive correlation between SOC and TN and TP contents with correlation coefficients of 0.889 and 0.463, however, there was a significant negative correlation between SOC and TK content with correlation coefficients of −0.060. It was also indicated that elevation, temperature, precipitation, clay content, sand content, and silt content were the most important factors affecting SOC, TN, TP, and TK content. The present study provided an understanding of soil nutrients characteristics and their affecting factors, which is helpful to optimize agricultural management practices and develop sustainable agriculture according to soil fertility.

MADS-box transcription factors are widely involved in the regulation of plant growth, developmental processes, and response to abiotic stresses. Perilla frutescens, a versatile plant, is not only used for food and medicine but also serves as an economical oil crop. However, the MADS-box transcription factor family in P. frutescens is still largely unexplored. In this study, a total of 93 PfMADS genes were identified in P. frutescens genome. These genes, including 37 Type I and 56 Type II members, were randomly distributed across 20 chromosomes and 2 scaffold regions. Type II PfMADS proteins were found to contain a greater number of motifs, indicating more complex structures and diverse functions. Expression analysis revealed that most PfMADS genes (more than 76 members) exhibited widely expression model in almost all tissues. The further analysis indicated that there was strong correlation between some MIKCC-type PfMADS genes and key genes involved in lipid synthesis and flavonoid metabolism, which implied that these PfMADS genes might play important regulatory role in the above two pathways. It was further verified that PfMADS47 can effectively mediate the regulation of lipid synthesis in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii transformants. Using cis-acting element analysis and qRT-PCR technology, the potential functions of six MIKCC-type PfMADS genes in response to abiotic stresses, especially cold and drought, were studied. Altogether, this study is the first genome-wide analysis of PfMADS. This result further supports functional and evolutionary studies of PfMADS gene family and serves as a benchmark for related P. frutescens breeding studies.

Abstract Background Plant carotenoids are essential for human health, having wide uses in dietary supplements, food colorants, animal feed additives, and cosmetics. With the increasing demand for natural carotenoids, plant carotenoids have gained great interest in both academic and industry research worldwide. Orange-fleshed sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) enriched with carotenoids is an ideal feedstock for producing natural carotenoids. However, limited information is available regarding the molecular mechanism responsible for carotenoid metabolism in sweetpotato tuberous roots. Results In this study, metabolic profiling of carotenoids and gene expression analysis were conducted at six tuberous root developmental stages of three sweetpotato varieties with different flesh colors. The correlations between the expression of carotenoid metabolic genes and carotenoid levels suggested that the carotenoid cleavage dioxygenase 4 (IbCCD4) and 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid cleavage dioxygenases 3 (IbNCED3) play important roles in the regulation of carotenoid contents in sweetpotato. Transgenic experiments confirmed that the total carotenoid content decreased in the tuberous roots of IbCCD4-overexpressing sweetpotato. In addition, IbCCD4 may be regulated by two stress-related transcription factors, IbWRKY20 and IbCBF2, implying that the carotenoid accumulation in sweeetpotato is possibly fine-tuned in responses to stress signals. Conclusions A set of key genes were revealed to be responsible for carotenoid accumulation in sweetpotato, with IbCCD4 acts as a crucial player. Our findings provided new insights into carotenoid metabolism in sweetpotato tuberous roots and insinuated IbCCD4 to be a target gene in the development of new sweetpotato varieties with high carotenoid production.

Abstract Background Drug-drug interactions (DDIs) prediction is vital for pharmacology and clinical application to avoid adverse drug reactions on patients. It is challenging because DDIs are related to multiple factors, such as genes, drug molecular structure, diseases, biological processes, side effects, etc. It is a crucial technology for Knowledge graph to present multi-relation among entities. Recently some existing graph-based computation models have been proposed for DDIs prediction and get good performance. However, there are still some challenges in the knowledge graph representation, which can extract rich latent features from drug knowledge graph (KG). Results In this work, we propose a novel multi-view feature representation and fusion (MuFRF) architecture to realize DDIs prediction. It consists of two views of feature representation and a multi-level latent feature fusion. For the feature representation from the graph view and KG view, we use graph isomorphism network to map drug molecular structures and use RotatE to implement the vector representation on bio-medical knowledge graph, respectively. We design concatenate-level and scalar-level strategies in the multi-level latent feature fusion to capture latent features from drug molecular structure information and semantic features from bio-medical KG. And the multi-head attention mechanism achieves the optimization of features on binary and multi-class classification tasks. We evaluate our proposed method based on two open datasets in the experiments. Experiments indicate that MuFRF outperforms the classic and state-of-the-art models. Conclusions Our proposed model can fully exploit and integrate the latent feature from the drug molecular structure graph (graph view) and rich bio-medical knowledge graph (KG view). We find that a multi-view feature representation and fusion model can accurately predict DDIs. It may contribute to providing with some guidance for research and validation for discovering novel DDIs.

Abstract The rupture of coal pillar can lead to spontaneous combustion or collapse of goaf, which endangers the safety of workers. To explore the relationship between the crack depth of the coal structure and the signal received by the piezoelectric ceramic sensor, the output data of coal samples were analyzed by using the piezoelectric effect, combined with the experiment and ABAQUS simulation. Based on the signal amplitude, the output signal characteristics of the coal model with different crack depths were analyzed, and the evaluation index of coal crack cracking degree (D c ) was defined. The results show that the piezoelectric fluctuation method can effectively identify the local cracks of coal. When the distance between the lead Piezoelectric Transducer (PZT) patch and crack position is constant, the amplitude of the PZT patch output signal will decay with the deepening of the crack depth, while the value of increases with the increase of crack depth. This study provides a theoretical basis for mine disaster prevention and control.

Abstract Background Dof transcription factors (TFs) containing C2-C2 zinc finger domains are plant-specific regulatory proteins, playing crucial roles in a variety of biological processes. However, little is known about Dof in Camelina sativa, an important oil crop worldwide, with high stress tolerance. In this study, a genome-wide characterization of Dof proteins is performed to examine their basic structural characteristics, phylogenetics, expression patterns, and functions to identify the regulatory mechanism underlying lipid/oil accumulation and the candidate Dofs mediating stress resistance regulation in C. sativa. Results Total of 103 CsDof genes unevenly distributed on 20 chromosomes were identified from the C. sativa genome, and they were classified into four groups (A, B, C and D) based on the classification of Arabidopsis Dof gene family. All of the CsDof proteins contained the highly-conserved typic CX2C-X21-CX2C structure. Segmental duplication and purifying selection were detected for CsDof genes. 61 CsDof genes were expressed in multiple tissues, and 20 of them showed tissue-specific expression patterns, suggesting that CsDof genes functioned differentially in different tissues of C. sativa. Remarkably, a set of CsDof members were detected to be possible involved in regulation of oil/lipid biosynthesis in C. sativa. Six CsDof genes exhibited significant expression changes in seedlings under salt stress treatment. Conclusions The present data reveals that segmental duplication is the key force responsible for the expansion of CsDof gene family, and a strong purifying pressure plays a crucial role in CsDofs’ evolution. Several CsDof TFs may mediate lipid metabolism and stress responses in C. sativa. Several CsDof TFs may mediate lipid metabolism and stress responses in C. sativa. Collectively, our findings provide a foundation for deep understanding the roles of CsDofs and genetic improvements of oil yield and salt stress tolerance in this species and the related crops.

Background: Ketamine, despite its efficacy in treating depression, raises concerns regarding safety due to potential abuse, cognitive impairment, and bladder toxicity. Ketamine can affect the locus coeruleus (LC) norepinephrine and attention networks. This study explored the protective effects of electroacupuncture (EA) on the LC of rats exposed to repeated administration of ketamine while investigating the potential role of the Calcium CaM-dependent protein kinase II (CAMK II)/ cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) pathway in mediating EA's impact on ketamine-induced neuronal injury in LC. Methods: Rats were repeatedly injected intraperitoneally with ketamine hydrochloride (50 mg/kg) once daily for seven days. Subsequently, EA was performed at the acupoints “Zusanli” (ST36) and “Sanyinjiao” (SP-6) once daily following ketamine administration. The Morris water maze test was employed to assess behavioral changes in the rats. Neuronal injury was examined using Nissl staining, and the expression of CAMK II, CREB, and phospho-CREB (p-CREB) was evaluated through immunohistochemistry and western blotting. Results: EA mitigated the cognitive and exploratory impairments and attenuated neuronal injury in the LC induced by repeated administration of ketamine. The expression of CAMK II and p-CREB proteins in the LC increased following 7 days of ketamine administration. However, EA treatment led to a downregulation of CAMK II and p-CREB expression. Conclusion: Repeated administration of ketamine in male rats can lead to neuronal injury and neurobehavioral dysfunction. However, EA was found to ameliorate neurodegeneration in the LC and enhance neurobehavioral symptoms. This therapeutic effect of EA may be attributed to its modulation of the CAMKII/CREB pathway, thereby mitigating the aforementioned adverse effects.

The extraction, transmission, and use of low-concentration gas in coal mines are often challenged by potential accidents due to proximity to the combustion and explosion concentration limit. Water sealing of fire barriers and explosion venting devices guarantee the safe transmission of low-concentration gas. The propagation and venting of gas explosion under different concentrations are experimentally investigated in a DN500 mm pipe explosion propagation test system. The water sealing of fire barrier vented explosion field evolution of methane-air mixture at the stoichiometric concentration (9.5 vol%) is examined through Fluent numerical simulation to reveal the water sealing of fire barrier further vented explosion pattern of gas transmission pipelines under low concentrations. The explosion overpressure and flame propagation of low-concentration gas in pipes are observed and correlated. Based on their coupling relationship, the design basis for the installation location of the explosion venting device is derived. The vented explosion characteristics of low-concentration gas during pipe transmission are summarized, proving that this explosion venting technique enhances both the explosion venting device and explosion parameters. Our observations and analysis can offer useful clues to underground gas explosion and prevention in coal mines.

d-α-Tocopheryl polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate (TPGS, also known as vitamin E-TPGS) is a biodegradable amphiphilic polymer prepared by esterification of vitamin E with polyethylene glycol (PEG) 1000. It is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and has found wide application in nanocarrier drug delivery systems (NDDS). Fully characterizing the in vivo fate and pharmacokinetic behavior of TPGS is important to promote the further development of TPGS-based NDDS. However, to date, a bioassay for the simultaneous quantitation of TPGS and its metabolite, PEG1000, has not been reported. In the present study, we developed such an innovative bioassay and used it to investigate the pharmacokinetics, tissue distribution and excretion of TPGS and PEG1000 in rat after oral and intravenous dosing. In addition, we evaluated the interaction of TPGS with cytochromes P450 (CYP450s) in human liver microsomes. The results show that TPGS is poorly absorbed after oral administration with very low bioavailability and that, after intravenous administration, TPGS and PEG1000 are mainly distributed to the spleen, liver, lung and kidney before both being slowly eliminated in urine and feces as PEG1000. In vitro studies show the inhibition of human CYP450 enzymes by TPGS is limited to a weak inhibition of CYP3A4. Overall, our results provide a clear picture of the in vivo fate of TPGS which will be useful in evaluating the safety of TPGS-based NDDS in clinical use and in promoting their further development.

Stroke continues to be the most common cause of death in China. It has great significance for mortality prediction for stroke patients, especially in terms of analyzing the complex interactions between non-negligible factors. In this paper, we present a gated spatio-temporal correlation network (GSTCNet) to predict the one-year post-stroke mortality. Based on the four categories of risk factors: vascular event, chronic disease, medical usage and surgery, we designed a gated correlation graph convolution kernel to capture spatial features and enhance the spatial correlation between feature categories. Bi-LSTM represents the temporal features of five timestamps. The novel gated correlation attention mechanism is then connected to the Bi-LSTM to realize the comprehensive mining of spatio-temporal correlations. Using the data on 2275 patients obtained from the neurology department of a local hospital, we constructed a series of sequential experiments. The experimental results show that the proposed model achieves competitive results on each evaluation metric, reaching an AUC of 89.17%, a precision of 97.75%, a recall of 95.33% and an F1-score of 95.19%. The interpretability analysis of the feature categories and timestamps also verified the potential application value of the model for stroke.

The role of melatonin in plant growth and response to environmental stress has been widely demonstrated. However, the physiological and molecular regulation of salt tolerance in wheat seedlings by melatonin remains unclear. In this study, we investigated changes in phenotype, physiology, photosynthetic parameters, and transcript levels in wheat seedlings to reveal the role of melatonin in the regulation of salt tolerance in wheat. The results indicate that the application of exogenous melatonin significantly alleviates growth inhibition, reactive oxygen species accumulation, and membrane oxidative damage induced by salt stress in wheat. Additionally, exogenous melatonin increased antioxidant enzyme activity and regulated photosynthetic gas exchange. Transcriptomic data showed a significant up-regulation of genes encoding light-harvesting chlorophyll protein complex proteins in photosynthesis and genes related to chlorophyll and carotenoid biosynthesis under the influence of melatonin. These results suggest that exogenous melatonin improves salt tolerance in wheat seedlings by enhancing the antioxidant, photoprotective, and photosynthesis activities.

Abstract Background TOAST subtype classification is important for diagnosis and research of ischemic stroke. Limited by experience of neurologist and time-consuming manual adjudication, it is a big challenge to finish TOAST classification effectively. We propose a novel active deep learning architecture to classify TOAST. Methods To simulate the diagnosis process of neurologists, we drop the valueless features by XGB algorithm and rank the remaining ones. Utilizing active learning framework, we propose a novel causal CNN, in which it combines with a mixed active selection criterion to optimize the uncertainty of samples adaptively. Meanwhile, KL-focal loss derived from the enhancement of Focal loss by KL regularization is introduced to accelerate the iterative fine-tuning of the model. Results To evaluate the proposed method, we construct a dataset which consists of totally 2310 patients. In a series of sequential experiments, we verify the effectiveness of each contribution by different evaluation metrics. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves competitive results on each evaluation metric. In this task, the improvement of AUC is the most obvious, reaching 77.4. Conclusions We construct a backbone causal CNN to simulate the neurologist process of that could enhance the internal interpretability. The research on clinical data also indicates the potential application value of this model in stroke medicine. Future work we would consider various data types and more comprehensive patient types to achieve fully automated subtype classification.

Hydrogen is blended with natural gas to form hydrogenated natural gas (HCNG), which is a new, efficient and clean energy. CHEMKIN-PRO 19.0 software was combined with the GRI-Mech 3.0 mechanism to evaluate the capacity of H2 blending in reducing CO and CO2 emissions. Influences of H2 blending on combustion reactions of the CH4-air mixture were investigated. The results showed that the main reactants and products (CH4, CO, and CO2) decreased in gradient with increasing H2 blending ratio, accompanied by a shorter reaction duration and a faster reaction rate. After adding H2, important key radicals H, O, and OH increase significantly, so that the combustion reactions become more violent. Sensitivity analysis reveals that among relevant elementary reactions of CO and CO2, R38 (with its promotional effect) and R158 (with its inhibitory effect) show the greatest sensitivity. As the H2 concentration increases, the sensitivity of the two reactions (separately with promotional and inhibitory effects) decreases. Blending H2 in the natural gas can improve the combustion rate and reduce the generation of emissions CO and CO2, which is of important significance for realizing low-carbon goals and reducing air pollution.

Geothermal energy is a clean energy source to fulfill the increasing global energy demands. For the first time, several energy extraction strategies are proposed and compared through numerical simulations for effective energy recovery from low-permeability geothermal reservoirs. We simulate geothermal energy extraction using either Cyclic Water Injection (CWI) or Water-Assisted Gravity Drainage (WAGD) processes with or without hydraulic fracturing over a 10-year operation. We evaluate the positioning of injector and producer in WAGD process, well spacing, addition of one injector, and the time variation of injection/soaking periods in CWI process. The simulations indicate that the fractured reservoirs generate more energy than those without fracturing; CWI-based processes exhibit higher energy recovery efficiency than WAGD process in terms of Energy-Water-Ratio (EWR). EWR, as a newly proposed parameter in this study, is defined as the energy production specific to per unit volume of water injected, which is useful in evaluating the cost-effectiveness of a geothermal energy extraction process. The gravitational effect proves to be the dominant factor that determines energy generation compared to phase change in WAGD process. In addition, formation and impacts of steam chambers in CWI and WAGD-based processes are discussed. Furthermore, statistical analyses are performed to evaluate the effects of reservoir temperature, pressure, permeability, and their mutual interactions on cumulative energy production. Eventually, two correlation models for predicting cumulative energy production based on these formation properties are proposed. This study provides a new perspective on implementing different innovative exploration strategies and optimization processes for energy extraction from low-permeability geothermal reservoirs.

Abstract Background Engineering triacylglycerol (TAG) accumulation in vegetative tissues of non-food crops has become a promising way to meet our increasing demand for plant oils, especially the renewable production of biofuels. The most important target modified in this regard is diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT) enzyme responsible for the final rate-limiting step in TAG biosynthesis. Cyperus esculentus is a unique plant largely accumulating oleic acid-enriched oil in its underground tubers. We speculated that DGAT derived from such oil-rich tubers could function more efficiently than that from oleaginous seeds in enhancing oil storage in vegetative tissues of tobacco, a high-yielding biomass crops. Results Three CeDGAT genes namely CeDGAT1, CeDGAT2-1 and CeDGAT2-2 were identified in C. esculentus by mining transcriptome of developing tubers. These CeDGATs were expressed in tissues tested, with CeDGAT1 highly in roots, CeDGAT2-1 abundantly in leaves, and CeDGAT2-2 predominantly in tubers. Notably, CeDGAT2-2 expression pattern was in accordance with oil dynamic accumulation during tuber development. Overexpression of CeDGAT2-2 functionally restored TAG biosynthesis in TAG-deficient yeast mutant H1246. Oleic acid level was significantly increased in CeDGAT2-2 transgenic yeast compared to the wild-type yeast and ScDGA1-expressed control under culture with and without feeding of exogenous fatty acids. Overexpressing CeDGAT2-2 in tobacco led to dramatic enhancements of leafy oil by 7.15- and 1.7-fold more compared to the wild-type control and plants expressing Arabidopsis seed-derived AtDGAT1. A substantial change in fatty acid composition was detected in leaves, with increase of oleic acid from 5.1% in the wild type to 31.33% in CeDGAT2-2-expressed tobacco and accompanied reduction of saturated fatty acids. Moreover, the elevated accumulation of oleic acid-enriched TAG in transgenic tobacco exhibited no significantly negative impact on other agronomic traits such as photosynthesis, growth rates and seed germination except for small decline of starch content. Conclusions The present data indicate that CeDGAT2-2 has a high enzyme activity to catalyze formation of TAG and a strong specificity for oleic acid-containing substrates, providing new insights into understanding oil biosynthesis mechanism in plant vegetative tissues. Overexpression of CeDGAT2-2 alone can significantly increase oleic acid-enriched oil accumulation in tobacco leaves without negative impact on other agronomy traits, showing CeDGAT2-2 as the desirable target gene in metabolic engineering to enrich oil and value-added lipids in high-biomass plants for commercial production of biofuel oils.

BackgroundCerebral blood flow (CBF) alterations are involved in the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and can be a potential biomarker. However, CBF measured by single-delay arterial spin labeling (ASL) for discrimination of mild cognitive impairment (MCI, an early stage of AD) was lack of accuracy. Multi-delay ASL can not only provide CBF quantification but also provide arterial transit time (ATT). Unfortunately, the technique was scarcely applied to the diagnosis of AD. Here, we detected the utility of ASL with 1-delay and 7-delay in ten regions of interest (ROIs) to identify MCI and AD.Materials and MethodsPseudocontinuous ASL (pCASL) MRI was acquired on a 3T GE scanner in adults from the Chinese Imaging, Biomarkers, and Lifestyle (CIBL) Study of AD cohort, including 26 normal cognition (NC), 37 MCI, and 39 AD. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses with 1-delay and 7-delay ASL were performed for the identification of MCI and AD. The DeLong test was used to compare ROC curves.ResultsFor CBF of 1-delay or 7-delay the AUCs showed moderate-high performance for the AD/NC and AD/MCI comparisons (AUC = 0.83∼0.96) (p < 0.001). CBF of 1-delay performed poorly in MCI/NC comparison (AUC = 0.69) (p < 0.001), but CBF of 7-delay fared well with an AUC of 0.79 (p < 0.001). The combination of CBF and ATT of 7-delay showed higher performance for AD/NC, AD/MCI, and MCI/NC comparisons with AUCs of 0.96, 0.89, and 0.89, respectively (p < 0.001). Furthermore, combination of CBF, ATT, sex, age, APOE ε4, and education improved further the accuracy (p < 0.001). In subgroups analyses, there were no significant differences in CBF of 7-delay ASL for identification of AD or MCI between age subgroups (p > 0.05).ConclusionThe combination of CBF and ATT with 7-delay ASL showed higher performance for identification of MCI than CBF of 1-delay, when adding to sex, age, APOE ε4 carrier status, and education years, the diagnostic performance was further increased, presenting a potential imaging biomarker in early AD.

BackgroundThe ε4 allele of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene is a strong genetic risk factor for aging-related cognitive decline. However, the causal connection between ε4 alleles and cognition is not well understood. The objective of this study was to identify the roles of cerebral blood flow (CBF) in cognitive-related brain areas in mediating the associations of APOE with cognition.MethodsThe multiple linear regression analyses were conducted on 369 subjects (mean age of 68.8 years; 62.9% of women; 29.3% of APOE ε4 allele carriers). Causal mediation analyses with 5,000 bootstrapped iterations were conducted to explore the mediation effects.ResultAPOE ε4 allele was negatively associated with cognition (P < 0.05) and CBF in the amygdala, hippocampus, middle temporal gyrus, posterior cingulate, and precuneus (all P < 0.05). The effect of the APOE genotype on cognition was partly mediated by the above CBF (all P < 0.05).ConclusionCBF partially mediates the potential links between APOE genotype and cognition. Overall, the APOE ε4 allele may lead to a dysregulation of the vascular structure and function with reduced cerebral perfusion, which in turn leads to cognitive impairment.

Diacylglycerol acyltransferases (DGAT) function as the key rate-limiting enzymes in de novo biosynthesis of triacylglycerol (TAG) by transferring an acyl group from acyl-CoA to sn-3 of diacylglycerol (DAG) to form TAG. Here, two members of the type 3 DGAT gene family, GmDGAT3-1 and GmDGAT3-2, were identified from the soybean (Glycine max) genome. Both of them were predicted to encode soluble cytosolic proteins containing the typical thioredoxin-like ferredoxin domain. Quantitative PCR analysis revealed that GmDGAT3-2 expression was much higher than GmDGAT3-1's in various soybean tissues such as leaves, flowers, and seeds. Functional complementation assay using TAG-deficient yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) mutant H1246 demonstrated that GmDGAT3-2 fully restored TAG biosynthesis in the yeast and preferentially incorporated monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), especially oleic acid (C18:1) into TAGs. This substrate specificity was further verified by fatty-acid feeding assays and in vitro enzyme activity characterization. Notably, transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana benthamiana) data showed that heterogeneous expression of GmDGAT3-2 resulted in a significant increase in seed oil and C18:1 levels but little change in contents of protein and starch compared to the EV-transformed tobacco plants. Taken together, GmDGAT3-2 displayed a strong enzymatic activity to catalyze TAG assembly with high substrate specificity for MUFAs, particularly C18:1, playing an important role in the cytosolic pathway of TAG synthesis in soybean. The present findings provide a scientific reference for improving oil yield and FA composition in soybean through gene modification, further expanding our knowledge of TAG biosynthesis and its regulatory mechanism in oilseeds.

Abstract Background Haematococcus lacustris is an ideal source of astaxanthin (AST), which is stored in oil bodies containing esterified AST (EAST) and triacylglycerol (TAG). Diacylglycerol acyltransferases (DGATs) catalyze the last step of acyl-CoA-dependent TAG biosynthesis and are also considered as crucial enzymes involved in EAST biosynthesis in H. lacustris. Previous studies have identified four putative DGAT2-encoding genes in H. lacustris, and only HpDGAT2D allowed the recovery of TAG biosynthesis, but the engineering potential of HpDGAT2s in TAG biosynthesis remains ambiguous. Results Five putative DGAT2 genes (HpDGAT2A, HpDGAT2B, HpDGAT2C, HpDGAT2D, and HpDGAT2E) were identified in H. lacustris. Transcription analysis showed that the expression levels of the HpDGAT2A, HpDGAT2D, and HpDGAT2E genes markedly increased under high light and nitrogen deficient conditions with distinct patterns, which led to significant TAG and EAST accumulation. Functional complementation demonstrated that HpDGAT2A, HpDGAT2B, HpDGAT2D, and HpDGAT2E had the capacity to restore TAG synthesis in a TAG-deficient yeast strain (H1246) showing a large difference in enzymatic activity. Fatty acid (FA) profile assays revealed that HpDGAT2A, HpDGAT2D, and HpDGAT2E, but not HpDGAT2B, preferred monounsaturated fatty acyl-CoAs (MUFAs) for TAG synthesis in yeast cells, and showed a preference for polyunsaturated fatty acyl-CoAs (PUFAs) based on their feeding strategy. The heterologous expression of HpDGAT2D in Arabidopsis thaliana and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii significantly increased the TAG content and obviously promoted the MUFAs and PUFAs contents. Conclusions Our study represents systematic work on the characterization of HpDGAT2s by integrating expression patterns, AST/TAG accumulation, functional complementation, and heterologous expression in yeast, plants, and algae. These results (1) update the gene models of HpDGAT2s, (2) prove the TAG biosynthesis capacity of HpDGAT2s, (3) show the strong preference for MUFAs and PUFAs, and (4) offer target genes to modulate TAG biosynthesis by using genetic engineering methods.

Abstract Background WRKY transcription factors are a superfamily of regulators involved in diverse biological processes and stress responses in plants. However, there is limited knowledge about the WRKY family in camelina (Camelina sativa), an important Brassicaceae oil crop with strong tolerance for various stresses. Here, a genome-wide characterization of WRKY proteins is performed to examine their gene structures, phylogenetics, expression, conserved motif organizations, and functional annotation to identify candidate WRKYs that mediate stress resistance regulation in camelinas. Results A total of 242 CsWRKY proteins encoded by 224 gene loci distributed unevenly over the chromosomes were identified, and they were classified into three groups by phylogenetic analysis according to their WRKY domains and zinc finger motifs. The 15 CsWRKY gene loci generated 33 spliced variants. Orthologous WRKY gene pairs were identified, with 173 pairs in the C. sativa and Arabidopsis genomes as well as 282 pairs in the C. sativa and B. napus genomes, respectively. A total of 137 segmental duplication events were observed, but there was no tandem duplication in the camelina genome. Ten major conserved motifs were examined, with WRKYGQK being the most conserved, and several variants were present in many CsWRKYs. Expression analysis revealed that 50% more CsWRKY genes were expressed constitutively, and a set of them displayed tissue-specific expression. Notably, 11 CsWRKY genes exhibited significant expression changes in seedlings under cold, salt, and drought stresses, showing a preferentially inducible expression pattern in response to the stress. Conclusions The present article describes a detailed analysis of the CsWRKY gene family and its expression profiles in 12 tissues and under several stress conditions. Segmental duplication is the major force underlying the broad expansion of this gene family, and a strong purifying pressure occurred for CsWRKY proteins during their evolution. CsWRKY proteins play important roles in plant development, with differential functions in different tissues. Exceptionally, eleven CsWRKYs, particularly five alternative spliced isoforms, were found to be the possible key players in mediating plant responses to various stresses. Overall, our results provide a foundation for understanding the roles of CsWRKYs and the precise mechanism through which CsWRKYs regulate high stress resistance as well as the development of stress tolerance cultivars among Cruciferae crops.

Abstract Background Human demand for wheat will continue to increase together with the continuous global population growth. Agronomic traits in wheat are susceptible to environmental conditions. Therefore, in breeding practice, priority is given to QTLs of agronomic traits that can be stably detected across multiple environments and over many years. Results In this study, QTL analysis was conducted for eight agronomic traits using an introgression line population across eight environments (drought stressed and well-watered) for 5 years. In total, 44 additive QTLs for the above agronomic traits were detected on 15 chromosomes. Among these, qPH-6A, qHD-1A, qSL-2A, qHD-2D and qSL-6A were detected across seven, six, five, five and four environments, respectively. The means in the phenotypic variation explained by these five QTLs were 12.26, 9.51, 7.77, 7.23, and 8.49%, respectively. Conclusions We identified five stable QTLs, which includes qPH-6A, qHD-1A, qSL-2A, qHD-2D and qSL-6A. They play a critical role in wheat agronomic traits. One of the dwarf genes Rht14, Rht16, Rht18 and Rht25 on chromosome 6A might be the candidate gene for qPH-6A. The qHD-1A and qHD-2D were novel stable QTLs for heading date and they differed from known vernalization genes, photoperiod genes and earliness per se genes.

ScopeEvidence is mounting that astaxanthin (ATX), a xanthophyll carotenoid, used as a nutritional supplement to prevent chronic metabolic diseases. The present study aims to identify the potential function of ATX supplementation in preventing steatohepatitis and hepatic oxidative stress in diet-induced obese mice.Methods and ResultsIn this study, ATX as dose of 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75% have orally administered to mice along with a high-fat diet (HFD) to investigate the role of ATX in regulating liver lipid metabolism and gut microbiota. The study showed that ATX dose-dependently reduces body weight, lipid droplet formation, hepatic triglycerides and ameliorated hepatic steatosis and oxidative stress. 0.75% ATX altered the levels of 34 lipid metabolites related to hepatic cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism which might be associated with downregulation of lipogenesis-related genes and upregulation of bile acid biosynthesis-related genes. The result also revealed that ATX alleviates HFD-induced gut microbiota dysbiosis by significantly inhibiting the growth of obesity-related Parabacteroides and Desulfovibrio while promoting the growth of Allobaculum and Akkermansia.ConclusionThe study results suggested that dietary ATX may prevent the development of hepatic steatosis and oxidative stress with the risk of metabolic disease by gut-liver axis modulating properties.

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is an abundant mRNA modification and affects many biological processes. However, how m6A levels are regulated during physiological or pathological processes such as virus infections, and the in vivo function of m6A in the intestinal immune defense against virus infections are largely unknown. Here, we uncover a novel antiviral function of m6A modification during rotavirus (RV) infection in small bowel intestinal epithelial cells (IECs). We found that rotavirus infection induced global m6A modifications on mRNA transcripts by down-regulating the m6a eraser ALKBH5. Mice lacking the m6A writer enzymes METTL3 in IECs (Mettl3ΔIEC) were resistant to RV infection and showed increased expression of interferons (IFNs) and IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs). Using RNA-sequencing and m6A RNA immuno-precipitation (RIP)-sequencing, we identified IRF7, a master regulator of IFN responses, as one of the primary m6A targets during virus infection. In the absence of METTL3, IECs showed increased Irf7 mRNA stability and enhanced type I and III IFN expression. Deficiency in IRF7 attenuated the elevated expression of IFNs and ISGs and restored susceptibility to RV infection in Mettl3ΔIEC mice. Moreover, the global m6A modification on mRNA transcripts declined with age in mice, with a significant drop from 2 weeks to 3 weeks post birth, which likely has broad implications for the development of intestinal immune system against enteric viruses early in life. Collectively, we demonstrated a novel host m6A-IRF7-IFN antiviral signaling cascade that restricts rotavirus infection in vivo.

Colony-stimulating factor-1 receptor-microglial encephalopathy is a rare rapidly progressive dementia resulting from colony-stimulating factor-1 receptor (CSF1R) mutations, also named pigmentary orthochromatic leukodystrophy (POLD), hereditary diffuse leukoencephalopathy with spheroids (HDLS), adult-onset leukoencephalopathy with axonal spheroids, and pigmented glia (ALSP) and CSF1R-related leukoencephalopathy. CSF1R is primarily expressed in microglia and mutations normally directly lead to changes in microglial number and function. Many animal models have been constructed to explore pathogenic mechanisms and potential therapeutic strategies, including zebrafish, mice, and rat models which are with CSF1R monogenic mutation, biallelic or tri-allelic deletion, or CSF1R-null. Although there is no cure for patients with CSF1R-microglial encephalopathy, microglial replacement therapy has become a topical research area. This review summarizes CSF1R-related pathogenetic mutation sites and mechanisms, especially the feasibility of the microglia-original immunotherapy.

The unicellular green alga Haematococcus pluvialis has been recognized as an industry strain to produce simultaneously esterified astaxanthin (EAST) and triacylglycerol (TAG) under stress induction. It is necessary to identify the key enzymes involving in synergistic accumulation of EAST and TAG in H. pluvialis. In this study, a novel diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 was systematically characterized by in vivo and in silico assays. The upregulated expression of HpDGAT1 gene was positively associated with the significant increase of TAG and EAST contents under stress conditions. Functional complementation by overexpressing HpDGAT1 in a TAG-deficient yeast strain H1246 revealed that HpDGAT1 could restore TAG biosynthesis and exhibited a high substrate preference for monounsaturated fatty acyl-CoAs (MUFAs) and polyunsaturated fatty acyl-CoAs (PUFAs). Notably, heterogeneous expression of HpDGAT1 in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Arabidopsis thaliana resulted in a significant enhancement of total oils and concurrently a high accumulation of MUFAs- and PUFAs-rich TAGs. Furthermore, molecular docking analysis indicated that HpDGAT1 contained AST-binding sites. These findings evidence a possible dual-function role for HpDGAT1 involving in TAG and EAST synthesis, demonstrating that it is a potential target gene to enrich AST accumulation in this alga and to design oil production in both commercial algae and oil crops.

Background: Plasma-based biomarkers would be potential biomarkers for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) because they are more available and cost-effective than cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or neuroimaging. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate whether phosphorylated tau181 (p-tau181) in plasma could be an accurate AD predictor.Methods: Participants from the ADNI database included 185 cognitively unimpaired subjects with negative Aβ (CU–), 66 subjects with pre-clinical AD (CU with positive Aβ), 164 subjects with mild cognitive impairment with negative Aβ (MCI–), 254 subjects with prodromal AD (MCI with positive Aβ), and 98 subjects with dementia. Multiple linear regression models, linear mixed-effects models, and local regression were used to explore cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of plasma p-tau181 with cognition, neuroimaging, or CSF biomarkers adjusted for age, sex, education, and APOE genotype. Besides, Kaplan–Meier and adjusted Cox-regression model were performed to predict the risk of progression to dementia. Receiver operating characteristic analyses were performed to evaluate the predictive value of p-tau181.Results: Plasma p-tau181 level was highest in AD dementia, followed by prodromal AD and pre-clinical AD. In pre-clinical AD, plasma p-tau181 was negatively associated with hippocampal volume (β = −0.031, p-value = 0.017). In prodromal AD, plasma p-tau181 was associated with decreased global cognition, executive function, memory, language, and visuospatial functioning (β range −0.119 to −0.273, p-value < 0.05) and correlated with hippocampal volume (β = −0.028, p-value < 0.005) and white matter hyperintensity volume (WMH) volume (β = 0.02, p-value = 0.01). In AD dementia, increased plasma p-tau181 was associated with worse memory. In the whole group, baseline plasma p-tau181 was significantly associated with longitudinal increases in multiple neuropsychological test z-scores and correlated with AD-related CSF biomarkers and hippocampal volume (p-value < 0.05). Meanwhile, CU or MCI with high plasma p-tau181 carried a higher risk of progression to dementia. The area under the curve (AUC) of the adjusted model (age, sex, education, APOE genotype, and plasma p-tau181) was 0.78; that of additionally included CSF biomarkers was 0.84.Conclusions: Plasma p-tau181 level is related to multiple AD-associated cognitive domains and AD-related CSF biomarkers at the clinical stages of AD. Moreover, plasma p-tau181 level is related to the change rates of cognitive decline and hippocampal atrophy. Thus, this study confirms the utility of plasma p-tau181 as a non-invasive biomarker for early detection and prediction of AD.

Abscisic acid (ABA), one of phytohormones, plays an important regulatory role in plant growth and development. ABA receptor PYL4 (pyrabactin resistance 1-like 4) was previously detected to be involved in plant response to a variety of stresses. TaPYL4 overexpression could enhance wheat (Triticum aestivum) drought resistance. In order to further investigate TaPYL4’s role in regulating development of other major agronomic traits in wheat, genes of TaPYL4-2A, TaPYL4-2B, and TaPYL4-2D were cloned from wheat, respectively. Polymorphism analysis on TaPYL4 sequences revealed that encoding regions of the three genes were highly conserved, without any SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) presence. However, nine SNPs and four SNPs were identified in the promoter regions of TaPYL4-2A and TaPYL4-2B, respectively. Functional molecular markers were developed based on these polymorphisms, which were then used to scan a natural population of 323 common wheat accessions for correlation analysis between genotype and the target phenotypic traits. Both TaPYL4-2A and TaPYL4-2B markers were significantly correlated with plant growth-related traits under multiple environments (well-watered, drought and heat stress treatments). The additive effects of TaPYL4-2A and TaPYL4-2B were verified by the combinational haplotype (Hap-AB1∼Hap-AB4) effects determined from field data. Cis-acting elements were analyzed in the promoters of TaPYL4-2A and TaPYL4-2B, showing that a TGA-element bound by ARFs (auxin response factors) existed only in Hap-2A-1 of TaPYL4-2A. Gene expression assays indicated that TaPYL4-2A was constitutively expressed in various tissues, with higher expression in Hap-2A-1 genotypes than in Hap-2A-2 materials. Notably, TaARF4 could act as TaPYL4-2A transcription activator in Hap-2A-1 materials, but not in Hap-2A-2 genotypes. Analysis of geographic distribution and temporal frequency of haplotypes indicated that Hap-AB1 was positively selected in wheat breeding in China. Therefore, TaPYL4-2A and TaPYL4-2B could be a valuable target gene in wheat genetic improvement to develop the ideal plant architecture.

Stroke is one of the leading causes of disability and incidence. For the treatment of prognosis of stroke patients, Motor imagery (MI) as a novel experimental paradigm, clinically it is effective because MI based Brain-Computer interface system can promote rehabilitation of stroke patients. There is being a hot and challenging topic to recognize multi-class motor imagery action classification accurately based on electroencephalograph (EEG) signals. In this work, we propose a novel framework named MRC-MLP. Multiple Riemannian covariance is used for EEG feature extraction. We make a multi-scale spectral division to filter EEG signals. They consist of different frequency bandwidths name sub-band. We concatenate and vectorize features extracted by Riemannian covariance on each sub-band. We design a fully connected MLP model with an improved loss function for motor imagery EEG classification. Furthermore, our proposed method MRC-MLP outperforms state-of-the-art methods and achieves approximately mean accuracy with 76%.

Excessive sleep arousal affects one's sleep quality that would induce disease. Polysomnography is a powerful tool for sleep related monitoring. Clinically, there are being two kinds of causes on sleep arousal. One is apnea and hypopnea related arousal and the other is non-apnea and non-hypopnea arousal. The latter is relatively hidden and is difficult to determine in clinical. We aim to classify the sleep arousal caused by non-apnea and non-hypopnea from apnea and hypopnea related arousal. We propose an improved ensemble deep learning architecture that use a positional embedding based multi-head attention method to keep temporal relations of multimodal physiological signals. The experimental datasets are based on an open access dataset from the public cardiology challenge 2018. We conduct several groups of comparison experiments among our proposed convolutional-residual network with positional embedding and multi-head attention (CRPEMA) method and other methods that includes methods presented on the cardiology challenge 2018. The results show that CRPEMA has high efficiency and accuracy. When the parameters decrease by more than 50%, the accuracy is keeping improved. Experiment results reflect that CRPEMA outperforms others and obtains the Area Under the Precision-Recall curve (AUPRC) of 0.391.

Abstract Background Compared with white-fleshed sweetpotato (WFSP), purple-fleshed sweetpotato (PFSP) is a desirable resource for functional food development because of the abundant anthocyanin accumulation in its tuberous roots. Some studies have shown that the expression regulation mediated by miRNA plays an important role in anthocyanin biosynthesis in plants. However, few miRNAs and their corresponding functions related to anthocyanin biosynthesis in tuberous roots of sweetpotato have been known. Results In this study, small RNA (sRNA) and degradome libraries from the tuberous roots of WFSP (Xushu-18) and PFSP (Xuzishu-3) were constructed, respectively. Totally, 191 known and 33 novel miRNAs were identified by sRNA sequencing, and 180 target genes cleaved by 115 known ib-miRNAs and 5 novel ib-miRNAs were identified by degradome sequencing. Of these, 121 miRNAs were differently expressed between Xushu-18 and Xuzishu-3. Integrated analysis of sRNA, degradome sequencing, GO, KEGG and qRT-PCR revealed that 26 differentially expressed miRNAs and 36 corresponding targets were potentially involved in the anthocyanin biosynthesis. Of which, an inverse correlation between the expression of ib-miR156 and its target ibSPL in WFSP and PFSP was revealed by both qRT-PCR and sRNA sequencing. Subsequently, ib-miR156 was over-expressed in Arabidopsis. Interestingly, the ib-miR156 over-expressing plants showed suppressed abundance of SPL and a purplish phenotype. Concomitantly, upregulated expression of four anthocyanin pathway genes was detected in transgenic Arabidopsis plants. Finally, a putative ib-miRNA-target model involved in anthocyanin biosynthesis in sweetpotato was proposed. Conclusions The results represented a comprehensive expression profiling of miRNAs related to anthocyanin accumulation in sweetpotato and provided important clues for understanding the regulatory network of anthocyanin biosynthesis mediated by miRNA in tuberous crops.

Soil salinity is one of the most critical factors limiting plant growth and development. Carex leucochlora is an important turfgrass species with a wide distribution in northern China that is highly sensitive to salt stress, which impairs its development. Recently, melatonin has emerged as a nontoxic biomolecule that regulates growth and enhances salt tolerance in plants. In this study, the mechanism of melatonin’s regulation of plant growth and anatomical characteristics in C. leucochlora seedlings under continuous salt stress was explored. Our results indicated that salt stress strongly suppressed plant growth and leaf cell activity, inhibited root morphology and root activity, and negatively affected leaf and root anatomic structures in the seedlings. Conversely, melatonin (150 μmol L−1) pretreatment improved the detrimental effect of salt stress by restoring the morphology of the leaf, alleviating damage to the cell membrane, improving root activity, and altering the root architecture and plant growth attributes. Moreover, after 12 days of salt stress, anatomical observations of the leaf showed that the thickness of the leaf blade, vascular bundle area of the leaf main vein, vesicular cell area, thickness of the upper epidermis, and thickness of the lower epidermis were increased by 30.55, 15.63, 12.60, 16.76 and 27.53%, respectively, with melatonin under salinity. Melatonin treatment also showed an increase of 5.91, 7.59, 15.57, and 20.51% in epidermal thickness, vascular cylinder diameter, xylem vessel diameter, and pith cell diameter, respectively, compared with salt stress after 12 days. These results suggest that melatonin alleviated salt stress through augmenting seedling growth, leaf cell activity, and root characteristics, maintained the stability of anatomic traits to maintain chloroplast cell homeostasis, and also protected the vascular tissues to promote the radial transport of water and ions in the C. leucochlora seedlings. These modifications induced by the exogenous application of melatonin may help C. leucochlora to acclimate successfully to saline soils.

Background: Depression is common in Alzheimer's disease (AD) with an unclear neural mechanism. This study aimed to investigate the underlying cerebral perfusion associated with depression in AD and evaluate its clinical significance.Method: Twenty-one AD patients and 21 healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled in this study. The depressive symptom was defined according to the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD). Nine patients were diagnosed as AD with depression symptoms (HAMD >7). Three-dimensional pseudocontinuous arterial spin labeling MR imaging was conducted to measure regional cerebral blood flow (CBF). Neuropsychological tests covered cognition and depressive scores. Between-group comparisons on clinical variables and regional CBFs, relationship between regional CBF and depressive score, and identification of AD patients with depression were performed using covariance analysis, linear regression, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, respectively.Results: Compared with HCs, AD patients without depression exhibited lower gray matter CBF (p = 0.016); compared with AD patients without depression, AD patients with depression had higher CBF in the right supplementary motor area (39.23 vs. 47.91 ml/100 g/min, p = 0.017) and right supramarginal gyrus (35.54 vs. 43.85 ml/100 g/min, p = 0.034). CBF in the right supplementary motor area was correlated with depressive score (β = 0.46, p = 0.025). The combination of CBF in the right supplementary motor area and supramarginal gyrus and age could identify AD patients with depression from those without depression with a specificity of 100%, sensitivity of 66.67%, accuracy of 85.71%, and area under the curve of 0.87.Conclusions: Our findings suggested that hyperperfusion of the right supplementary motor area and right supramarginal gyrus were associated with depression syndrome in AD, which could provide a potential neuroimaging marker to evaluate the depression state in AD.

Stress association proteins (SAPs) are A20/AN1 zinc-finger domain proteins, which play important roles in plant adaptation to abiotic stress and plant development. The functions of SAPs in some plants were reported, but little is known about it in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). In this study, we characterized a novel 2AN1-type stress association protein gene TaSAP7-A, which was mapped to chromosome 5A in wheat. Subcellular localization indicated that TaSAP7-A was distributed in the nucleus and cytoplasm. Unlike previously known A20/AN1-type SAP genes, TaSAP7-A was negatively regulated to abiotic stress tolerance. Overexpressing TaSAP7-A Arabidopsis lines were hypersensitive to ABA, osmotic and salt stress at germination stage and post-germination stage. Overexpression of TaSAP7-A Arabidopsis plants accelerated the detached leaves’ chlorophyll degradation. Association analysis of TaSAP7-A haplotypes and agronomic traits showed that Hap-5A-2 was significantly associated with higher chlorophyll content at jointing stage and grain-filling stage. These results jointly revealed that TaSAP7-A is related to the chlorophyll content in the leaves of Arabidopsis and wheat. Both in vivo and in vitro experiments demonstrated that TaSAP7-A interacted with TaS10B, which was the component of regulatory subunit in 26S proteasome. In general, TaSAP7-A was a regulator of chlorophyll content, and favorable haplotypes should be helpful for improving plant chlorophyll content and grain yield of wheat.

Gas explosion accidents in underground coal mines caused a significant number of casualties. By using a large laneway test system, the damage to Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats at locations at different distances from the source of ignition along the direction of propagation of an explosion was investigated after 100 m3 of the gas-air mixture was ignited and exploded. In this way, the data pertaining to explosion flames and explosion pressures at different propagation distances were obtained to investigate the propagation of explosion flames and explosion pressures along the laneway. Besides, the damage to SD rats at different propagation distances was statistically analyzed. Furthermore, the damage mechanism of explosion flames, explosion pressures, and hazardous gases on humans or animals was discussed. The results indicated that explosive blast injury induced by the gas explosion was the primary reason for the death of animals and SD rats at a distance equal to or greater than 80 m from the point of ignition under the effects of an explosive blast even though SD rats at a distance of 240 m were killed. During the explosion of 100 m3 of mixed gas, the explosion flames propagated 40 m from the point of ignition, and the SD rats in the cage located some 40 m from the point of ignition were subjected to combined damage involving being burned at high temperature and suffering the effects of the explosive blast. These findings provide a theoretical basis for emergency rescue and salvage after gas explosion accidents in underground coal mines.

Palmitoleic acid (16:1Δ9) possesses a double bond at the seventh carbon atom from methyl end of the acyl chain and belongs to unusual ω-7 monounsaturated fatty acids with broad applications in food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, biofuel, and other industries. This high-value fatty acid accumulates up to >40% of total lipid in the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum. The present study was conducted to determine the key gene responsible for 16:1Δ9 biosynthesis in this unicellular alga. A new full-length cDNA and genomic DNA encoding acyl-ACP Δ9 desaturase (PtAAD) were isolated from P. tricornutum cells. Expression levels of PtAAD gene under normal and stress culture conditions were both positively correlated with 16:1Δ9 accumulation, implying its potential role for fatty acid determination. Functional complementation assay of a yeast mutant strain BY4839 evidenced that PtAAD could restore the synthesis of unsaturated fatty acid, especially generating high levels of 16:1Δ9. Further transient expression of PtAAD gene in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves was accompanied by the accumulation of 16:1Δ9, which was absent from control groups. Three-dimensional structure modeling studies showed that functional domain of PtAAD contained three variant amino acids (F160, A223, and L156), which may narrow the space shape of substrate-binding cavity to ensure the entry of 16:0-ACP. Consistent with this prediction, the mutated version of PtAAD gene (F160L, A223T, and L156M) in N. benthamiana systems failed to accumulate 16:1Δ9, but increased levels of 18:1Δ9. Taken together, PtAAD exhibits a strong enzymatic activity and substrate preference for 16:0-ACP, acting as the key player for high biosynthesis and accumulation of 16:1Δ9 in this alga. These findings provide new insights for better understanding the palmitoleic acid and oil biosynthetic mechanism in P. tricornutum, indicating that PtAAD gene may have practical applications for enriching palmitoleic acid and oil yield in other commercial oleaginous algae and crops.

Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz is an important Brassicaceae oil crop with a number of excellent agronomic traits including low water and fertilizer input, strong adaptation and resistance. Furthermore, its short life cycle and easy genetic transformation, combined with available data of genome and other “-omics” have enabled camelina as a model oil plant to study lipid metabolism regulation and genetic improvement. Particularly, camelina is capable of rapid metabolic engineering to synthesize and accumulate high levels of unusual fatty acids and modified oils in seeds, which are more stable and environmentally friendly. Such engineered camelina oils have been increasingly used as the super resource for edible oil, health-promoting food and medicine, biofuel oil and high-valued chemical production. In this review, we mainly highlight the latest advance in metabolic engineering towards the predictive manipulation of metabolism for commercial production of desirable bio-based products using camelina as an ideal platform. Moreover, we deeply analysis camelina seed metabolic engineering strategy and its promising achievements by describing the metabolic assembly of biosynthesis pathways for acetyl glycerides, hydroxylated fatty acids, medium-chain fatty acids, ω-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, palmitoleic acid (ω-7) and other high-value oils. Future prospects are discussed, with a focus on the cutting-edge techniques in camelina such as genome editing application, fine directed manipulation of metabolism and future outlook for camelina industry development.

Abstract Background Multi-label classification of data remains to be a challenging problem. Because of the complexity of the data, it is sometimes difficult to infer information about classes that are not mutually exclusive. For medical data, patients could have symptoms of multiple different diseases at the same time and it is important to develop tools that help to identify problems early. Intelligent health risk prediction models built with deep learning architectures offer a powerful tool for physicians to identify patterns in patient data that indicate risks associated with certain types of chronic diseases. Results Physical examination records of 110,300 anonymous patients were used to predict diabetes, hypertension, fatty liver, a combination of these three chronic diseases, and the absence of disease (8 classes in total). The dataset was split into training (90%) and testing (10%) sub-datasets. Ten-fold cross validation was used to evaluate prediction accuracy with metrics such as precision, recall, and F-score. Deep Learning (DL) architectures were compared with standard and state-of-the-art multi-label classification methods. Preliminary results suggest that Deep Neural Networks (DNN), a DL architecture, when applied to multi-label classification of chronic diseases, produced accuracy that was comparable to that of common methods such as Support Vector Machines. We have implemented DNNs to handle both problem transformation and algorithm adaption type multi-label methods and compare both to see which is preferable. Conclusions Deep Learning architectures have the potential of inferring more information about the patterns of physical examination data than common classification methods. The advanced techniques of Deep Learning can be used to identify the significance of different features from physical examination data as well as to learn the contributions of each feature that impact a patient’s risk for chronic diseases. However, accurate prediction of chronic disease risks remains a challenging problem that warrants further studies.