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Chitosan encourages the growth of plants, controls their metabolic processes and homeostasis, and activates their defence mechanisms. On one side, it hinders the ability of pathogens by preventing their growth and limiting their reproduction, so it will become a more common and ideal asset for agricultural sustainability. Additionally, cesium (Cs) stimulated the SOS1 pathway and raised a number of gene transcripts related to energy generation, phenol metabolism, proton motive force, salt compartmentalization, and other processes. However, plants exposed to salt stress were treated with cesium nanoparticles (CsNPs) and modified CsBMs, which boosted indole terpene alkaloid metabolism, defense-related genes, decreased ROS formation by boosting jasmonic acid (JA) signalling, increased essential oil, anthocyanins, membrane stability, alkaloids, and diterpene glycosides. This is the first review that specifically compares Cs/CsNPs/modified CsBMs treatment options under salt stress and offers insights about the biological and biochemical parameters of the plants. It also recommends using CsNPs and modified CsBMs rather than Cs for better plant function under salinity stress.

Climate change has had significant impacts on agriculture, particularly on cotton production, where drought has emerged as a major threat worldwide. Long and intense dry periods in cotton-growing regions have become more frequent and severe. Drought stress severely affects various aspects of cotton plants, including chlorophyll pigments, carbohydrate metabolism, and enzyme activities related to fiber development, such as vacuolar invertase and sucrose synthase. Furthermore, drought stress disrupts the movement of nutrients toward the reproductive tissues in cotton, resulting in compromised pollen function, propagative failure, and fiber characteristics. To tackle these issues, scientists have made advancements in creating drought-resistant cotton varieties through transgenic methods or molecular breeding techniques, genome editing, CRISPR/Cas9, utilizing quantitative trait loci (QTL). Moreover, the application of plant growth regulators and mineral elements has displayed the potential to improve cotton’s ability to endure drought stress while also enhancing fiber yield and quality. These approaches activate stress-responsive signaling pathways, which could contribute to mitigating reproductive failure and improving fiber characteristics. While the impact of drought stress on cotton plants has been extensively studied, the variations in fiber quality resulting from drought stress are not yet completely understood. Current research has been focused on unraveling the mechanisms underlying these changes, including the physiological, biochemical, and molecular alterations during the multiplicative growth phase that contribute to poor fiber development. Understanding these mechanisms will facilitate the development of novel strategies to alleviate the adverse impact of worldwide weather changes on cotton growth and fiber quality. This research focuses on the drought stress in cotton cultivation and explores its different effects on cotton morphology, physiology, crop yield, and fiber characteristics as well as mechanisms by which cotton exhibits drought tolerance and highlights innovative strategies to mitigate drought stress.

Salicylic acid (SA) is a plant growth regulator known to take part in defense responses against different types of stresses, including salt stress. In this study, the role of foliar applied SA in improving the growth of berseem variety ‘Anmol’ under salt stress was examined. Plants were sown in plastic pots in the sand. Plants were treated with different concentrations of salinity (0, 60 mM and 120 mM NaCl) and salicylic acid (0, 100 mg L-1 and 150 mg L-1) was applied as a foliar spray. Salinity stress significantly reduced root and shoot fresh and dry weight, root and shoot length, photosynthetic pigments including Chl. a, b, a/b, total soluble proteins, total amino acids and uptake of K+ and Ca2+ ions in root and shoot tissues. Exogenous application of salicylic acid improved growth traits including shoot length, shoot fresh weight, root length, root fresh and weight, shoot dry weight, pigments contents (Chl. a, a/b and carotenoids). Total soluble protein and amino acid contents, activities of antioxidants peroxidase (POD), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) were also enhanced by the foliar spray of SA under saline and non-saline conditions. SA played a crucial role in lowering Na+ and Cl− ions content in shoot and root tissues while enhancing the uptake of K+ and Ca2+ ions. The study revealed that 100 mg L-1 SA treatment significantly influenced several plant parameters, including shoot length (8 cm), root length 6.7 cm, chlorophyll (1.2 mg/g FW), total soluble proteins (0.8 mg/g FW) and total amino acids (2.5 mg/g FW), SOD (1.22 U/mg protein), CAT (1.75 U/mg FW), potassium ions (29 mg/g DW), and calcium ions (43 mg/g DW) during salinity stress. Therefore, field use of SA (100 mg L-1) is recommended to enhance the growth of berseem and other fodder crops in saline soils.

Addressing the complex equipment and network challenges in new energy power plant industrial control systems, this study introduces a Markov time-varying machine learning algorithm, leveraging classification-constrained Boltzmann machines for real-time network security risk prediction. By employing a hybrid training mode for innovative feature extraction and classification, the algorithm forecasts future security risk states through an up-to-date state transition probability matrix. Integrating with the Markov time-varying model enhances the efficiency over traditional Boltzmann machines, facilitating nuanced network state analyses. The proposed model demonstrates high effectiveness against various network attacks, with average precision, recall, and F1 scores of 0.96, 0.93, and 0.94, respectively, and maintains over 80% accuracy under noise levels up to 40 dB. This research provides a solid foundation for proactive security defense mechanisms in industrial control systems.

Drought stress (DS) is one of the most destructive abiotic stresses that negatively affects plant growth, and yield. The intensity of DS is continuously increasing due rapid of water sources, less rainfall, and an increase in global warming. The world’s population is increasing at an alarming rate which needs a substantial increase in crop production to meet global food needs. Therefore, in this context, we must have to increase crop production in the scenarios of rapid climate change and increasing intensity of abiotic stresses. Globally, different measures are used to mitigate the adverse impacts of DS, recently biochar (BC) has emerged as an excellent soil amendment to mitigate the toxic effects of DS and improve crop production. The application maintains membrane integrity, plant water relations, nutrient homeostasis, photosynthetic performance, hormonal balance and osmolytes accumulation, and gene expression thereby improving plant performance under DS. Moreover, BC application under DS also improves soil organic matter, water holding capacity, soil structure stability, and activity of beneficial microbes which can improve the plant performance under DS. In the present review different mechanisms through which BC mitigates the adverse impacts of DS on plants are discussed. This review provides new suggestions on the role of BC in mitigating the adverse impacts of DS.

Wheat production suffers greatly from drought stress, resulting in yield losses. Endophytes and rhizobacteria have been recognized as a valuable source in mitigating of drought stress by improving plant resistance and growth. In this review, we discuss how endophytes and rhizobacteria help wheat cope with drought stress. During drought stress, endophytes have been found to increase plant water usage efficiency and decrease water loss. Endophytes are harmless microorganisms that live inside plant tissues. Rhizobacteria establish colonies in the root system through various procedures, including phytohormones production, modification of root architecture, and activation of stress-inducible genes, thereby promoting plant growth and enhancing stress resistance. Numerous studies have shown how endophytes and rhizobacteria can improve the potential of wheat to withstand drought. For instance, inoculation with endophytes like Piriformospora indica and Bacillus spp. has been proven to enhance wheat plant yield and drought resistance. Similarly, it has been proven that rhizobacteria like Pseudomonas spp. and Azospirillum brasilense enhance drought tolerance through a variety of mechanisms. To minimize the consequence of wheat under drought conditions, the efficient method is the use of endophytes and rhizobacteria as biofertilizers, which could ultimately boost yields and sustainability. More research needs to be done so that it can be used most effectively in the field and so that we can better understand how they work. We explained current understanding of the role and mechanisms of endophytes and rhizobacteria in minimizing drought stress effects in wheat. Additionally, we highlighted areas of limited knowledge and suggested directions for future research. This review will provide the new suggestion on the role of endophytes and rhizobacteria in mitigating the drought stress in plants.

Objective To investigate the association of sperm DNA methylation level with routine semen parameters and sperm chromatin integrity. Methods A total of 73 male individuals who were sampled from our previously established cohort of the male reproductive health in Chongqing college students (MARHCS) study were recruited in this study. The routine semen parameters (semen volume, sperm density, total sperm count and sperm motility) and indicators of sperm chromatin integrity were detected and analyzed with computer-aided sperm analysis system (CASA) and sperm chromatin structure analysis (SCSA), respectively. ELISA was used to detect the sperm DNA 5mC content, which reflected the methylation level of sperm DNA. Meanwhile, age, BMI, abstinence time and lifestyle of the volunteers were collected through questionnaire survey. Multiple linear regression model was applied to explore the correlation of sperm DNA 5mC content with routine semen parameters and sperm chromatin integrity. The differences in percentages of different grade of sperm were compared in the high and low 5mC% groups (binary classification according to the median value of 5mC%). Results The semen routine parameters (median value) of the volunteers were as follows: semen volume was 4.18 mL, sperm density was 55.60×106/mL, total sperm count was 246.93×106, and sperm motility was 57.00%; Sperm chromatin was in structural integrity, with a median value of sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI) and high DNA stainablity (HDS) of 10.99% and 3.39%, respectively. The median value of sperm DNA 5mC level was 2.63%. After adjustment for confounding factors, multiple linear regression analysis showed that sperm DNA 5mC level was negatively correlated with sperm density (β=-0.22, 95%CI: -0.36~-0.06, P=0.008) and total sperm count (β=-0.20, 95%CI: -0.33~-0.05, P=0.015), but no statistical correlations were observed in sperm DNA 5mC level with DFI and HDS (P>0.05). Meanwhile, there were no significant differences in the percentages of different grade of sperm (grade A~D) in the high 5mC group than the low 5mC group (P>0.05). Conclusion Elevated sperm DNA methylation level may be a biomarker for the decrease of sperm density and total sperm count, while is not correlated with indicators of sperm chromatin integrity.

Objective To investigate the effect of 1-nitropyrene (1-NP) on the proliferation, cycle progression and sex hormone synthesis of human ovarian granulosa cell line KGN via inducing mitochondrial damage. Methods After KGN cells were treated with 1-NP at different concentrations (0.625, 1.25, 2.5, 5 and 10 μmol/L) for 48 h, cell proliferation, cell cycle, and contents of estradiol and pregnenolone in the supernatant were detected by EdU assay, flow cytometry and ELISA, respectively.And the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), mitochondrial superoxide (MitoSOX) and mitochondrial membrane potential were examined with specific fluorescent probes including DCFH-DA probe, MitoSOX probe and JC-1 probe, respectively.In addition, ATP kit was adopted to measure the cellular ATP level, and Western blotting was also conducted to determine the expression of proteins related with the cell proliferation, cycle progression, DNA damage response and synthesis of sex hormones.Finally, the mitochondrial antioxidant idebenone (IDE, 1 μmol/L) and 1-NP (10 μmol/L) were combined to treat the cells for 48 h, and then the above indicators were determined correspondingly again. Result As compared with the control cells, 1-NP (0.625~10 μmol/L) treatment significantly inhibited cell proliferation (P < 0.05).The expression of PCNA, a marker of cell proliferation, was reduced after treatment with 1-NP (2.5, 5 or 10 μmol/L), and the percentage of cells at G2/M phase was elevated at 5 and 10 μmol/L of 1-NP (P < 0.05).Western blotting showed that the expression of γ-H2AX began to rise after 1-NP treatment (10 μmol/L) for 3 h (P < 0.01), and the levels of DNA damage pathway proteins, p-ATM, p53 and p21cip1 were also obviously increased (P < 0.05), while those of G2/M phase block-related proteins, CDK-1 and CyclinB1, were notably decreased at different doses of 1-NP (P < 0.05).In addition, the contents of estradiol and pregnenolone in the supernatant of KGN cells were remarkably diminished after 1-NP treatment (P < 0.05), and the expression levels of sex hormone synthesis-related proteins CYP19 and CYP11A1 were inhibited as well (P < 0.05).The detection of mitochondrial and oxidative stress-related indicators indicated that the levels of ROS and MitoSOX in KGN cells were greatly up-regulated due to 1-NP treatment, while the mitochondrial membrane potential and ATP level were decreased in a dose-dependent manner.However, the combination of 1-NP and IDE significantly declined the percentage of G2/M-phase cells, elevated the contents of estradiol and pregnenolone, and restored the expression levels of proteins related to DNA damage, cell cycle as well as sex hormone synthesis when compared with the cells treated with 10 μmol/L 1-NP.Moreover, the combination treatment also ameliorated the mitochondrial damage induced by 1-NP, including lowering ROS and MitoSOX levels and improving the mitochondrial membrane potential and ATP level. Conclusion 1-NP can cause mitochondrial damage, which leads to proliferation inhibition, cycle arrest and disorder of sex hormone synthesis, improve mitochondrial function, and thus partially alleviate 1-NP-induced dysfunction in KGN cells.

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is the important and strategic cereal crop for the majority of world’s populations. It is significant staple food of about two billion people. In next few years, world demand for wheat is expected to be 40 percent higher than that of its level today. Keeping in view the importance of the crop research work was conducted in the laboratory of Plant Breeding and Molecular Genetics, University of Poonch Rawalakot, AJK, Pakistan. The aim of the research was to find out the genetic diversity of different wheat lines. In the experiment, 50 different lines of wheat species (Triticum aestivum L.) was used to detect genetic diversity by utilizing Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis and biochemical analysis. On the basis of biochemical analysis lines 3111 and 3123 was diverse among 50 lines for antioxidant activity by using DPPH radical and 3135 and 3139 for phenolic contents and for flavonoid 3148 and 3107 was found more promising. Molecular characterization by SDS PAGE showed diversity in three wheat lines 3136, 3138 and 3110. These wheat lines could be our potential lines for future wheat improvement program as they were also promising regarding to the high yields.

Salinity stress is a serious abiotic stress that negatively affect the crop growth and development. Mineral nutrient supplementation is considered as an effective strategy to mitigate the adverse effects of salinity. Nitrogen (N) is an important nutrient needed for plants and its application also an effective strategy to mitigate adverse impacts of salinity. Salinity stress disturbs plant physiological, and biochemical functions, antioxidant activities, cellular membranes, antioxidant activities and nutrient uptake thereby cause significant reduction in plant growth and development. The application of N maintains membrane stability, plant water relations, leaf gas exchange characteristics, and protect the plants from oxidative damages which induce the salt tolerance in plants. Besides, this N also improves nutrient uptake and it also induce cellular signaling that mitigate the adverse impacts of salinity. Therefore, it is interesting to understand the role of N in inducing salt tolerance in plants. In present review the mechanisms of N uptake and assimilation in plants under saline conditions are discussed. The present review provides information on how N mitigates ionic toxicity, and oxidative damages and maintains nutrient balance to counter the toxic effects of salinity stress in plants. This review will help the readers to learning more about the role of N in inducing salt tolerance in plants.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a progressive metabolic disease characterized by chronic hyperglycemia and caused by different degree of pancreatic islet dysfunction and/or insulin resistance (IR). Long course DM can lead to a variety of macrovascular and microvascular complications which involve artery vessels, heart, kidney, retina, nervous system, etc. In recent years, DM has attracted more and more attention due to its high morbidity and mortality. In addition to achieve effective glycemic control, prevention of complications has also been considered a priority for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) management. Herein, we provide a comprehensive overview on the pharmacotherapeutics for T2DM and perspectives on the future directions of basic and translational research on anti-diabetic therapy and pharmatheutical development of new drugs.

In this work, a dynamic structured light 3D reconstruction method adapted to random phase shift step size is proposed for the problem of dynamic workpiece 3D reconstruction in industrial manufacturing scenes. The method firstly utilizes a structured light sinusoidal grating pattern to match the relative phase shift of the workpieces moving along the perpendicular direction of the stripes on the conveyor belt. Secondly, in order to solve the problem of non-uniform phase shift step length due to external vibration, electromagnetic radiation and other disturbing factors of the conveyor belt and other mechanical devices, the method proposes a dynamic structured light 3D reconstruction model based on RPSNet, which is based on the CycleGAN network model, and uses the AIR2U-net model proposed in this paper as the generator, and the multilayer convolutional neural network CNN as the discriminator to realize the grating map. discriminator to realize the conversion of raster map to depth map. Finally, for the problem that the network model needs a large amount of data for training and it is difficult to collect data in the actual industrial scene, this paper uses the Thing10k dataset, and the dataset made by Blender simulation software for model training. Finally, a higher quality 3D reconstruction of the workpiece is realized.

Breast cancer has become the most prevalent malignant tumor worldwide. Screening improves the rate of early detection and is important for the treatment and prognosis of breast cancer. Breast ultrasound is a common method for screening breast cancer, which can be used as a complementary screening tool to mammography to improve the rate of detection, or used for screening breast cancer alone. In recent years, the use of new techniques of ultrasound in screening breast cancer such as shear wave elastography and contrast-enhanced ultrasound, are rapidly developing. This article reviewed the research progress of clinical application of breast ultrasound in screening breast cancer.

Background: Non-invasive prenatal screening (NIPS) is a highly sensitive and specific screening test to detect fetal chromosomal abnormalities. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the NIPS as an effective method for prenatal detection of aneuploidies in both high-risk and low-risk pregnancies. Methods: In current study, we performed NIPS in 32,394 pregnancies, out of which results were available in 32,361 (99.9%) of them. Illumina sequencing was performed for NIPS screening. Hypothesis Z test was used to classify fetal autosomal aneuploidy of T21, T18, and T13. Karyotyping was performed to determine the true negative and true positive NIPS results. Results: Among the 32,361 confirmed samples, 164 cases had positive results and 32197 cases had negative results. Of these positive cases, 116 cases were trisomy 21, 34 cases were trisomy 18 and 14 cases were trisomy 13. No false negative results were found in this cohort. The overall sensitivity and specificity were 100% and 99.91%, respectively. There was no significant difference in test performance between the 7,316 high-risk and 25,045 low-risk pregnancies, (sensitivity, 100% vs 100% (P>0.05); specificity, 99.96% vs 99.95% (P > 0.05)). Factors contributing to false-positive results included fetal copy number variants (CNVs), fetal mosaicism and typically producing Z scores between 3 and 4. Moreover, we analyzed NIPS wholegenome sequencing to investigate the Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) associations with drug response or risk of disease. As compare to the 1000g East Asian genome data, the results revealed a significant difference in 7,285,418 SNPs variants of Shanxi pregnant women including 19,293 clinvar recorded variants and 7,266,125 non-clinvar recorded. Conclusions: Our findings showed that NIPS was an effective assay that may be applied as routine screening for fetal trisomies in the prenatal setting. In addition, this study also provides an accurate assessment of significant differences in 7,285,418 SNPs variants in Shanxi pregnant women that were previously unavailable to clinicians in Shanxi population.

Objective To investigate the changes of vaspin and TNF⁃α levels in gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) of type 2 diabetic (T2DM) patients with chronic periodontitis (CP) after non⁃surgical periodontal treatment. Methods 60 subjects were divided into 4 groups: DM ⁃CP group (patients with both T2DM and CP, n＝15); CP group (CP patients without T2DM, n＝15); DM group (T2DM patients without CP, n＝15), and CTRL group (systemically and periodontally healthy individuals, n＝15). The clinical parameters of periodontal tissue and GCF were measured before and 8 weeks after non⁃surgical periodontal treatment. The levels of vaspin and TNF⁃α were measured by ELISA. Results The lev⁃ els of vaspin and TNF⁃α in CP group were significantly higher than those in CTRL group (P < 0.05), while the levels of vaspin and TNF⁃α in CP group were significantly decreased after treatment (P < 0.05). There was a statistically signifi⁃ cant positive correlation between the total amount of vaspin and the total amount of TNF⁃α, the level of HbA1c, gingival index (GI) and probing depth (PD) (P < 0.05). Conclusion The results shows that vaspin and TNF⁃α are greatly de⁃creased in periodontitis after non⁃surgical periodontal treatment. It suggests that vaspin and TNF⁃ α in GCF may serve as inflammatory markers for the diagnosis and prognosis of diabetes and periodontitis.