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Abstract Background The abnormality of chromosomal karyotype is one factor causing poor prognosis of lymphoma. In the analysis of abnormal karyotype of lymphoma patients, three smallest overlap regions were found, in which MYCT1 was located. MYCT1 is the first tumor suppressor gene cloned by our research team, but its studies relating to the occurrence and development of lymphoma have not been reported. Methods R banding analyses were employed to screen the abnormality of chromosomal karyotype in clinical specimen and MYCT1 over-expression cell lines. FISH was to monitor MYCT1 copy number aberration. RT-PCR and Western blot were to detect the mRNA and protein levels of the MYCT1 and RUNX1 genes, respectively. The MYCT1 and RUNX1 protein levels in clinical specimen were evaluated by immunohistochemical DAB staining. The interaction between MYCT1 and MAX proteins was identified via Co-IP and IF. The binding of MAX on the promoter of the RUNX1 gene was detected by ChIP and Dual-luciferase reporter assay, respectively. Flow cytometry and CCK-8 assay were to explore the effects of MYCT1 and RUNX1 on the cell cycle and proliferation, respectively. Results MYCT1 was located in one of three smallest overlap regions of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, it altered chromosomal instability of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma cells. MYCT1 negatively correlated with RUNX1 in lymphoma tissues of the patients. MAX directly promoted the RUNX1 gene transcription by binding to its promoter region. MYCT1 may represses RUNX1 transcription by binding MAX in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma cells. MYCT1 binding to MAX probably suppressed RUNX1 transcription, leading to the inhibition of proliferation and cell cycle of the diffuse large B-cell lymphoma cells. Conclusion This study finds that there is a MYCT1-MAX-RUNX1 signaling pathway in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. And the study provides clues and basis for the in-depth studies of MYCT1 in the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of lymphoma.

BackgroundNowadays, e-learning significantly affects college students’ academic life. This study aims to examine the factors that influence college students’ satisfaction with online learning outcomes.MethodThe study population consisted of undergraduate students from Dalian Medical University, with a total of 715 college students participating in the study. Out of these participants, 602 valid questionnaires were obtained. Demographic data was analyzed using SPSS.22, and the data was cleaned and prepared for testing the research hypotheses. The proposed research framework was examined using structural equation modeling (SEM) through Smart-PLS 3.0.ResultsThe results of the study showed that student satisfaction with learning outcomes was positively correlated with several factors: quality of teacher instruction (β = 0.100, p

Objective To explore the role of urinary osteopontin (uOPN) in predicting clinical responses to induction therapy and renal prognosis in adults with lupus nephritis (LN). Methods A total of 53 type Ⅲ/Ⅳ LN adults were recruited. At the same time, 24 healthy volunteers visiting our hospital for physical examination in the same period were selected as healthy control group. Levels of uOPN were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Renal biopsies were performed at baseline and after induction therapy. According to the criteria of American College of Rheumatology (ACR), they were divided into two groups of clinical response or non-response. Patients with ≥50% improvement in renal activity index scores were selected as histological response group. Results Baseline and post-treatment levels of uOPN were significantly higher in LN patients than those in healthy controls [2.33(1.84, 2.83)mg/L, 2.07(1.55, 2.72)mg/L vs 0.94(0.70, 1.46)mg/L](P0.05). Multivariate Logistic regression analysis revealed that baseline uOPN was an independent predictor of histological response to LN induction therapy (P

Oomycete, particularly Phytophthora species, causes the most devastating crop diseases, such as potato late blight, and threatens the sustainable crop production worldwide. Our previous studies identified Resistance to Phytophthora parasitica 1 (RTP1) as a negative regulator of Arabidopsis resistance to multiple biotrophic pathogens and RTP1 loss-of-function plants displayed rapid cell death and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production during early colonization of P. parasitica. In this study, we aim to decipher the mechanism of RTP1-mediated cell death, and identify a member of vaculoar processing enzymes (VPEs), γVPE, playing a role in rtp1-mediated resistance to P. parasitica and cell death occurrence. Our results showed up-regulation of the expression of γVPE as well as increased VPE/caspase 1-like protease activity in P. parasitica-infected rtp1 mutant plants. Besides, we found that the VPE/caspase 1-like protease activity was required for the cell death occurrence in Arabidopsis plants during the infection of P. parasitica as well as rtp1-mediated resistance to P. parasitica. Further pathogenicity assays on either Arabidopsis γvpe mutant plants or leaves of Nicotiana benthamiana with transient overexpression of γVPE demonstrated γVPE could positively affect plant resistance to P. parasitica. Together, our studies suggest that γVPE might function as an important regulator of plant defense and cell death occurrence in response to P. parasitica infection, and VPE/caspase 1-like protease activity is required for rtp1-mediated resistance to P. parasitica.

To address the problems of low accuracy and slow convergence of traditional multilevel image segmentation methods, a symmetric cross-entropy multilevel thresholding image segmentation method (MSIPOA) with multi-strategy improved pelican optimization algorithm is proposed for global optimization and image segmentation tasks. First, Sine chaotic mapping is used to improve the quality and distribution uniformity of the initial population. A spiral search mechanism incorporating a sine cosine optimization algorithm improves the algorithm's search diversity, local pioneering ability, and convergence accuracy. A levy flight strategy further improves the algorithm's ability to jump out of local minima. In this paper, 12 benchmark test functions and 8 other newer swarm intelligence algorithms are compared in terms of convergence speed and convergence accuracy to evaluate the performance of the MSIPOA algorithm. By non-parametric statistical analysis, MSIPOA shows a greater superiority over other optimization algorithms. The MSIPOA algorithm is then experimented with symmetric cross-entropy multilevel threshold image segmentation, and eight images from BSDS300 are selected as the test set to evaluate MSIPOA. According to different performance metrics and Fridman test, MSIPOA algorithm outperforms similar algorithms in global optimization and image segmentation, and the symmetric cross entropy of MSIPOA algorithm for multilevel thresholding image segmentation method can be effectively applied to multilevel thresholding image segmentation tasks.

Abstract Due to the complexity of real environments, it is hard to detect toxic and harmful gases by sensors. To address such an issue, an artificial olfactory system is promoted, emulating the function of the human nose by means of gas sensors and an inference system. In this work, an artificial olfactory inference system based on memristive devices is developed to classify four gases (ethanol, methane, ethylene, and carbon monoxide) with 10 different concentrations. First, the spike trains converted from signals of the sensor array are inputted to a reservoir computing (RC) system based on volatile memristive devices, which extracts spatiotemporal features; then the features are processed by a classifier based on nonvolatile memristive devices; the output of the classifier indicates the classification result. Moreover, to reduce the device number and the power consumption, three strategies are applied to reduce the extracted features from the RC system. Eventually, the olfactory inference system successfully identifies the gases with a high accuracy of 95%.

The advent of the intelligent society leads to the exponential growth of information, imposing urgent requirements in a time‐ and energy‐efficient way to process information where data are generated. This issue can be addressed by the neuromorphic paradigm of computing inspired by biological sensory systems that build up the association between external stimuli and the response of an organism in real‐time; in the paradigm, a neuromorphic system is integrated with sensors to form an artificial sensory system. Herein, a neuromorphic sensory system with integrated capabilities of gas sensing, data storage, and processing is demonstrated. Leaky integrate‐and‐fire (LIF) neurons, the basic computing units in the system, are realized with volatile memristive device Pt/Ag/TaOx/Pt; sensory neurons, i.e., the LIF neurons connected with an array of gas sensors, detect gases and convert the chemical information of gases into neural spikes; synapses based on nonvolatile memristive device Pt/Ta/TaOx/Pt transmit the signals from sensory neurons to relay neurons according to synaptic weights, which are trained by the supervised spike‐rate dependent plasticity; relay neurons then process the signals from the synapses and classify gases. The approach of this work can also be applied to emulate other biological perceptions through the integration with different sensors.

Nonaqueous Li−air batteries with ultrahigh theoretical energy density have attracted much attention in the development of clean energy technology. However, a series of safety challenges including the flammable, volatile organic liquid electrolyte, together with the electrolyte decomposition have greatly hindered their practical development. Solid‐state electrolytes with superior mechanical strength, good chemical stability under open‐air system, wide electrochemical window, nonflammable properties provide a feasible strategy to overcome the safety issues and achieve a stable, applicable Li−air battery system. In this article, a comprehensive review of solid‐state Li−air batteries is provided. Based on the overall understanding of the necessity of developing a solid‐state Li−air battery and ion migration mechanism in solid electrolytes, the construction strategies of solid‐state Li−air battery including cathode fabrication, Li anode optimization, electrolyte design, and the interface regulation between electrodes and electrolyte are presented. The prospects of solid‐state Li−air batteries are also proposed at the end. It is expected that this review would provide a systematic understanding and theoretical guidance in designing and developing safe, stable, applicable solid‐state Li−air batteries.

Li–O2 batteries represent one of the promising paths toward high energy density battery systems. Here the authors synthesize single atom Co electrocatalysts to regulate the formation and decomposition of the major discharge product Li2O2, realizing high round-trip efficiency and stability in a Li–O2 cell.

Introduction: Results from recent trials assessing the effect of oral vitamin C supplementation on serum uric acid (SUA) have been inconsistent. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore the association between oral vitamin C supplementation and serum uric acid. Methods: PUBMED, EMBASE, CNKI, Web of Science, and CENTRAL of Cochrane library databases were searched to identify relevant articles published up to February 2020. Heterogeneity was evaluated using I-square (I2) statistics. Random-effects model was used to pool weighted mean differences (WMD) and 95 % confidence interval (CI) as summary effect sizes. Results: The total sixteen eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs) containing 1,013 participants were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled findings showed that vitamin C supplementation had a significant effect of lowering SUA. The subgroup analyses showed that the effect of vitamin C supplementation on SUA has positive association with mean age of participants

H5N1 influenza represents one of the great challenges to public health. Some H5N1 viruses (i.e., A/goose/Hubei/65/05, GS/65) are weakly pathogenic, while the others (i.e., A/duck/Hubei/49/05, DK/49) are highly pathogenic to their natural hosts. Here, we performed brain and spleen transcriptomic analyses of control ducks and ones infected by the DK/49 or the GS/65 H5N1 virus. We demonstrated that, compared to the GS/65 virus, the DK/49 virus infection changed more numerous immune genes’ expression and caused continuous increasing of immune pathways (i.e., RIG-I and MDA5) in ducks. We found that both H5N1 virus strains might escape or subvert host immune response through affecting alternative translation of immune genes, while the DK/49 virus seemed to induce alternative translation of more immune genes than the GS/65 virus. We also identified five co-expressional modules associated with H5N1 virus replication through the weight correlation network analysis (WGCNA). Moreover, we first demonstrated that the duck BCL2L15 and DCSTAMP in one of these five modules inhibited both the highly pathogenic and weakly pathogenic H5N1 virus replication efficiently. These analyses, in combination with our comprehensive transcriptomic data, provided global view of the molecular architecture for the interaction between host and H5N1 viruses.

2´-5´-Oligoadenylate synthetase like protein (OASL) plays a key role in response to viral infections through selectively activating the OAS/RNase L or OASL/RIG-I signaling pathway. Although classic pathway of OASL is well-known, its regulated genes or co-actors are largely unknown. To study the possible molecular mechanism of duck OASL (dOASL), we performed RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) and immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry (IP-MS) at the level of mRNA and protein, respectively. For RNA-seq, we used DF1 cell lines (DF1dOASL+/+, DF1cOASL–/–, and DF1) with or without the CK/0513 H5N1 virus (A/chicken/huabei/0513/2007) infection. 1 737 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified as candidate target genes regulated by dOASL. Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis and Weighted Correlation Network Analysis (WGCNA) were performed. We identified one important yellow co-expression module correlated with antiviral immune response. In this module, Ankyrin repeat and FYVE domain containing 1 (ANKFY1), harboring a BTB domain similar to the methyl CpG-binding protein 1 (MBD1) which bound to OASL in human, was regulated by dOASL. At protein level, 133 host proteins were detected. Interestingly, ANKFY1 was one of them binding to dOASL protein. Further phylogenomic and chromosomal syntenic analysis demonstrated MBD1 was absent in birds, while mammals retained. It is suggested that OASL-ANKFY1 interaction might act as a compensatory mechanism to regulate gene expression in birds. Our findings will provide a useful resource for the molecular mechanism research of dOASL.

Summary: The rapid and effective formation and decomposition of Li2O2 during cycling is crucial to solve the problems associated with the practical limitation of lithium-oxygen (Li-O2) batteries. In this work, a highly dispersed electrocatalyst with Ru nanoclusters inside the special organic molecular cage (RuNCs@RCC3) through a reverse double-solvent method for Li-O2 batteries has been proposed for the first time. This RuNCs@RCC3 shows an effective catalyst enabling reversible formation and decomposition of the Li2O2 at the interface between the Li2O2 and the liquid electrolyte, rather than the sluggish solid-solid interface reactions on commonly used solid catalysts. As a result, the Li-O2 cells with RuNCs@RCC3 show enhanced electrochemical performance, including low overpotential (310 mV at a current density of 100 mA g−1), high specific capacity (15,068 mAh g−1), good rate capability (1,800 mAh g−1 at a current density of 2.8 A g−1), and especially superior cycle stability up to 470 cycles. : Electrochemistry; Energy Storage; Energy Materials Subject Areas: Electrochemistry, Energy Storage, Energy Materials

Abstract Background Similar to other eukaryotes, splicing is emerging as an important process affecting development and stress tolerance in plants. Ski-interacting protein (SKIP), a splicing factor, is essential for circadian clock function and abiotic stress tolerance; however, the mechanisms whereby it regulates flowering time are unknown. Results In this study, we found that SKIP is required for the splicing of serrated leaves and early flowering (SEF) pre-messenger RNA (mRNA), which encodes a component of the ATP-dependent SWR1 chromatin remodeling complex (SWR1-C). Defects in the splicing of SEF pre-mRNA reduced H2A.Z enrichment at FLC, MAF4, and MAF5, suppressed the expression of these genes, and produced an early flowering phenotype in skip-1 plants. Conclusions Our findings indicate that SKIP regulates SWR1-C function via alternative splicing to control the floral transition in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Caddisflies of Stenopsyche angustata (Trichoptera, Stenopsychidae) are widely distributed in various freshwater bodies and a few species inhabit marine environments. The mitochondrial genome was sequenced by Illumina high-throughput sequencing, and then the complete mitochondrial genome sequence was obtained through splicing and assembly. The mitochondrial genome sequence size was 15,371 bp, comprising 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, two rRNA genes, and a control region. Two of the protein-coding genes (COX 2 and nad 5) had an incomplete termination codon T. In addition, the start codon of all protein-coding genes was ATN, except for the start codon of the nad4l gene which was GTG. The base composition of the mitochondrial genome was 41.64% A, 35.03% T, 7.81% G, and 15.52% C.

Amphioxus is the closest living invertebrate proxy of the vertebrate ancestor. Systematic gene identification and expression profile analysis of amphioxus organs are thus important for clarifying the molecular mechanisms of organ function formation and further understanding the evolutionary origin of organs and genes in vertebrates. The precise regulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) is crucial for the functional specification and differentiation of organs. In particular, those miRNAs that are expressed specifically in organs (OSMs) play key roles in organ identity, differentiation, and function. In this study, the genome-wide miRNA transcriptome was analyzed in eight organs of adult amphioxus Branchiostoma belcheri using deep sequencing. A total of 167 known miRNAs and 23 novel miRNAs (named novel_mir), including 139 conserved miRNAs, were discovered, and 79 of these were identified as OSMs. Additionally, analyses of the expression patterns of eight randomly selected known miRNAs demonstrated the accuracy of the miRNA deep sequencing that was used in this study. Furthermore, potentially OSM-regulated genes were predicted for each organ type. Functional enrichment of these predicted targets, as well as further functional analyses of known OSMs, was conducted. We found that the OSMs were potentially to be involved in organ-specific functions, such as epidermis development, gonad development, muscle cell development, proteolysis, lipid metabolism, and generation of neurons. Moreover, OSMs with non–organ-specific functions were detected and primarily include those related to innate immunity and response to stimuli. These findings provide insights into the regulatory roles of OSMs in various amphioxus organs.

In this paper, a dynamical two-stage game with R&D competition and joint profit maximization is built. The stability of all the equilibrium points is discussed through Jury condition, and the stability region of the Nash equilibrium point is then given. The influence of the parameters on the system is discussed, and we find that the firm can even benefit from chaos, when it has higher innovation efficiency and higher adjusting speed. And then the coexistence of multiple attractors is studied using basin of attraction. Our research result shows that the coexisting attractors can be observed in the two-parameter bifurcation diagram. At last, the boundary of feasible region, global bifurcations, and formation mechanism of fractal structure of attracting basin are analyzed through critical curves and noninvertible map theory.

Abundant genetic diversity and rational population structure of germplasm benefit crop breeding greatly. To investigate genetic variation among geographically diverse set of japonica germplasm, we analyzed 233 japonica rice cultivars collected from Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces of China, which were released from 1970 to 2011 by using 62 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers and 8 functional gene tags related to yield. A total of 195 alleles (Na) were detected with an average of 3.61 per locus, indicating a low level of genetic diversity level among all individuals. The genetic diversity of the cultivars from Jilin Province was the highest among the three geographic distribution zones. Moreover, the genetic diversity was increased slightly with the released period of cultivars from 1970 to 2011. The analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed that genetic differentiation was more diverse within the populations than that among the populations. The neighbor-joining (NJ) tree indicated that cultivar clusters based on geographic distribution represented three independent groups, among which the cluster of cultivars from Heilongjiang is distinctly different to the cluster of cultivars from Liaoning. For the examined functional genes, two or three allelic variations for each were detected, except for IPA1 and GW2, and most of elite genes had been introgressed in modern japonica rice varieties. These results provide a valuable evaluation for genetic backgrounds of current japonica rice and will be used directly for japonica rice breeding in future.

Upon publication of the original article [1], the authors noticed that they omitted Additional file 16: Table S10 from the Additional file list. Additional file 16: Table S10 can be found attached to this Correction and the caption of this Additional file can be found below.