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Abstract Background Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrine and metabolic disorder in women of reproductive age. Anovulation is one of the most important clinical features of PCOS, and insulin resistance (IR) is one of the critical pathogenic factors. Woxuanzhongzhou (WXZZ) is a traditional herbal formulation that has shown efficacy in treating PCOS combined with IR, but the underlying mechanism is not clear. The aim of this study was to investigate the molecular mechanism of WXZZ on dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate and high fat diet induced PCOS with IR mice. Methods 40 female C57BL/6 mice were randomized to 4 groups: control group, model group, metformin group, and WXZZ group. Some mice is induced by dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA) and high-fat diet (HFD) for 3 weeks. Following model induction, metformin and WXZZ were administered by gavage. Body weight, fasting blood glucose (FBG), fasting insulin (FINS) levels, the homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), and gonadal hormones were measured. Estrous cycles were monitored. The structure of the gastrocnemius muscle and subcutaneous fatty tissue were also evaluated. Additionally, serum irisin and non-esterified fatty acids (NEAF) levels and the protein and gene expression levels of AMPK, PGC1-α, FNDC5, irisin in the gastrocnemius muscle and CaMKK, AMPK, PGC1-α, UCP1 in fat were analyzed. Results The DHEA + HFD + WXZZ group exhibited significant improvements in several key parameters compared to the DHEA + HFD group. WXZZ ameliorated endocrine and metabolic disorders, resumed estrous cycle in DHEAS and high-fat diet-induced IR and anovulatory mice. Significant reductions were observed in body weight, serum testosterone, luteinizing hormone, luteinizing hormone/ follicle-stimulating hormone ratio, FINS, and HOMA-IR. Additionally, WXZZ promoted irisin expression and secretion by up-regulating the protein and gene AMPK/PGC1-α/FNDC5 expression in gastrocnemius muscle and up-regulated the protein and gene CaMKK/AMPK/PGC1-α/UCP1 expression in fat. WXZZ inhibited the overproduction of serum NEFA, and reduced lipid accumulation. Structural analysis of the gastrocnemius muscle and adipose tissue revealed partial restoration. Conclusion WXZZ exhibits therapeutic effects in DHEAS and high-fat diet-induced IR and anovulatory mice. These effects may be mediated through the activation of AMPK/PGC1-α pathway in muscle to promote the secretion of irisin.

Receptor kinases play a pivotal role in detecting environmental signals, and consequently, gene pleiotropy is frequently observed within this family. However, the trade-off in trait expression resulting from gene pleiotropy poses a constraint on the utilization of such genes in agricultural breeding. In this study, we identified the receptor kinase gene FERONIA-Like Receptor 13 (FLR13) as a pleiotropic gene influencing plant height, tillering, grain yield, and disease resistance. Using promoter editing, we generated novel alleles (FLR13T5T6-1, FLR13T5T6-2) that confer resistance to rice blast and increase per-plant yield. The knockout of the T5T6 segment alleviates the inhibitory effects of two transcription factors, OsGBP1 and OsWRKY53, on FLR13 expression. In summary, our study presents a promising avenue for enhancing the pivotal attributes of receptor-like kinases through a promoter-editing strategy.

Abstract The technology for face‐to‐sketch synthesis transforms optical face images into a sketch‐style format. However, traditional style losses are insufficient to discern the modal differences between optical and sketch domain images, leading to unclear images. At the same time, generated images lack clarity due to traditional approaches' disregard for high‐frequency texture. To address these issues, a modality separation approach for facial sketch synthesis is proposed. First, a modality separation structure is proposed, using a quicksort algorithm to merge features of optical and sketch images as target modality (positive samples), ensuring the generated images' feature distribution matches real sketches. By controlling the Euclidean distance between generated images (anchors) and both target and filtered modality (positive and negative samples), irrelevant information is effectively filtered out. Next, an edge‐promoting module feeds processed blurry sketch images into the discriminator to enhance robustness. Lastly, a detail optimization module uses Laplacian filtering to extract high‐frequency texture from optical face images for local enhancement. Experimental validation on CUHK, AR, and XM2VTS datasets shows that this method outperforms mainstream sketch face synthesis methods in terms of Fréchet inception distance and learned perceptual image patch similarity, producing more realistic and natural images with richer texture details.

Abstract Weakly supervised video anomaly detection aims to detect anomalous events with only video-level labels. In the absence of boundary information for anomaly segments, most existing methods rely on multiple instance learning. In these approaches, the predictions for unlabeled video snippets are guided by the classification of labeled untrimmed videos. However, these methods do not account for issues such as video blur and visual occlusion, which can hinder accurate anomaly detection. To address these issues, we propose a novel weakly supervised video anomaly detection method that fuses multimodal and multiscale features. Firstly, RGB and optical flow snippets are input into pre-trained I3D to extract appearance and motion features. Then, we introduce an Attention De-redundancy (AD) module, which employs an attention mechanism to filter out task-irrelevant redundancy in these appearance and motion features. Next, to mitigate the effects of video blurring and visual occlusion, we propose a Multi-scale Feature Learning module. This module captures long-term and short-term temporal dependencies among video snippets to provide global and local guidance for blurred or occluded video snippets. Finally, to effectively utilize the discriminative features of different modalities, we propose an Adaptive Feature Fusion module. This module adaptively fuses appearance and motion features based on their respective feature weights. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method outperforms mainstream unsupervised and weakly supervised methods in terms of AUC. Specifically, our proposed method achieves 97.00% AUC and 85.31% AUC on two benchmark datasets, i.e., ShanghaiTech and UCF-Crime, respectively.

The dynamic and static elastic parameters of rocks exhibit differences. It is of great practical significance to carry out experiments on dynamic and static elastic parameters of rocks under reservoir conditions and determine the conversion relationship between dynamic and static elastic parameters. In this study, shale oil samples from the second member of Kongdong sag in Dagang Oilfield were analyzed by triaxial compression experiments at different bedding angles and longitudinal and shear wave velocity tests. Dynamic and static stiffness coefficient, elastic modulus and acoustic wave velocity change under different directions of pressure and pressure relief. The results indicate that the P-wave velocity, fast shear wave velocity, slow shear wave velocity, dynamic and static Young’s modulus exhibit an increase as the confining pressure rises, and the parameters are greater during the unloading process than during loading process. At identical confining pressures, the dynamic Young’s modulus measured by cores with parallel bedding plane is greater than that measured by cores with vertical bedding plane. The dynamic and static elastic mechanical parameters of different bedding angles can be transformed under varying pressures, and the dynamic elastic mechanical parameters measured under varying levels of confining pressure can be transformed into static elastic mechanical parameters under equivalent confining pressures, which offer fundamental parameters for examining rock mechanics properties and serving as a reference for developing fracturing construction plans for oil and gas reservoirs.

Abstract Acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is a major global health concern due to its high mortality and disability rates. Hemorrhagic transformation, a common complication of AIS, leads to poor prognosis yet lacks effective treatments. Preclinical studies indicate that hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) treatment within 12 h of AIS onset alleviates ischemia/reperfusion injuries, including hemorrhagic transformation. However, clinical trials have yielded conflicting results, suggesting some underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we confirmed that HBO treatments beginning within 1 h post reperfusion significantly alleviated the haemorrhage and neurological deficits in hyperglycemic transient middle cerebral arterial occlusion (tMCAO) mice, partly due to the inhibition of the NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated pro-inflammatory response in microglia. Notably, reactive oxygen species (ROS) mediate the anti-inflammatory and protective effect of early HBO treatment, as edaravone and N-Acetyl-l-Cysteine (NAC), two commonly used antioxidants, reversed the suppressive effect of HBO treatment on NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated inflammation in microglia. Furthermore, NAC countered the protective effect of early HBO treatment in tMCAO mice with hyperglycemia. These findings support that early HBO treatment is a promising intervention for AIS, however, caution is warranted when combining antioxidants with HBO treatment. Further assessments are needed to clarify the role of antioxidants in HBO therapy for AIS.

Abstract Background Penicillium oxalicum is an important fungal agent in the composting of cattle manure, but the changes that occur in the microbial community, physicochemical factors, and potential functions of microorganisms at different time points are still unclear. To this end, the dynamic changes occurring in the microbial community and physicochemical factors and their correlations during the composting of cattle manure with Penicillium oxalicum were analysed. Results The results showed that the main phyla observed throughout the study period were Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Halanaerobiaeota, Apicomplexa and Ascomycota. Linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) illustrated that Chitinophagales and Eurotiomycetes were biomarker species of bacteria and eukaryote in samples from Days 40 and 35, respectively. Bacterial community composition was significantly correlated with temperature and pH, and eukaryotic microorganism community composition was significantly correlated with moisture content and NH4 +-N according to redundancy analysis (RDA). The diversity of the microbial communities changed significantly, especially that of the main pathogenic microorganisms, which showed a decreasing trend or even disappeared after composting. Conclusions In conclusion, a combination of high-throughput sequencing and physicochemical analysis was used to identify the drivers of microbial community succession and the composition of functional microbiota during cattle manure composting with Penicillium oxalicum. The results offer a theoretical framework for explaining microecological assembly during cattle manure composting with Penicillium oxalicum.

The utilisation of bio-based materials has significantly increased in recent years, driven by a growing awareness of environmentally friendly alternatives in the construction industry. This study introduces innovative natural fibre pultruded profiles for load-bearing applications in structural systems. By employing pultrusion technology with flax fibres and customised plant-based matrix, linear and unidirectional biocomposite profiles were developed. These profiles were used in the creation of LightPRO Shell, an active-bending structure combining biocomposite profiles with a membrane outer skin, demonstrating their mechanical properties and suitability for such applications. The paper focuses on the geometrical and structural design development of the structure employing computational design tools for optimisation, ensuring design parameters and performance requirements were met. The final structure, a 10-m span doubly curved gridshell, features a continuous perimeter beam and consists of 44 profiles ranging from 6 to 12.5 m, showcasing the potential of natural fibre biocomposites as sustainable alternatives in construction.

It is well documented that immunosuppression in chickens increases the risk of secondary infections and immunodeficiencies, resulting in significant financial setbacks for the poultry sector. It is crucial to determine if Lycium barbarum polysaccharide (LBP) can counteract immune suppression in young chickens, considering its known ability to modulate immune responses. The aim of this study was to investigate the antagonistic effect and mechanism of LBP on immunosuppression in chicks. A total of 200 seven-day-old Hyland Brown laying hens were used to develop an immunosuppression model and to investigate the optimal time of use and optimal dosage of LBP. A further 120 seven-day-old Hyland Brown laying hens were used to investigate the mechanism of antagonism of LBP against immunosuppression at the optimal time and dosage. The results demonstrated that LBP significantly elevated body weight, spleen index, and peripheral lymphocyte transformation rate, and ameliorated pathological spleen damage in immunosuppressed chickens. A total of 178 differential genes were significantly upregulated following LBP intervention, with a significant enrichment in immune-related pathways, including the chemokine signalling pathway, the C-type lectin receptor signalling pathway, the B-cell receptor signalling pathway, platelet activation, natural killer cell-mediated cytotoxicity, and Th1 and Th2 cell differentiation. A total of 20 different metabolites were identified by metabolomics, which were mainly involved in vitamin metabolism, lipid metabolism, nucleic acid metabolism and amino acid metabolism. The integrated examination of transcriptomic and metabolomic data revealed that the glycerophospholipid metabolic pathway stands out as the most significant among all metabolic pathways. The results demonstrated that LBP regulate the immune system in a multi-pathway and multi-target way.

Abstract Background and aims Portal vein thrombosis (PVT) is a common complication of liver cirrhosis that can aggravate portal hypertension. However, there are features of both PVT and cirrhosis that are not recapitulated in most current animal models. In this study, we aimed to establish a stable animal model of PVT and cirrhosis, intervene with anticoagulant, and explore the related mechanism. Methods First, 49 male SD rats received partial portal vein ligation (PPVL), and 44 survival rats were divided into 6 groups: PPVL control group; 4-week, 6 -week, 8-week, and 10-week model group; and the rivaroxaban (RIVA)-treated group. The rats were intoxicated with or without carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) for 4–10 weeks. Seven normal rats were used as the normal controls. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels and parameters for blood coagulation were all assayed with kits. Liver inflammation, collagen deposition and hydroxyproline (Hyp) levels were also measured. The extrahepatic macro-PVT was observed via portal vein HE staining, etc. The intrahepatic microthrombi was stained via fibrin immunohistochemistry. The portal blood flow velocity (PBFV) and diameter were detected via color Doppler ultrasound. Vascular endothelial injury was evaluated by von Willebrand Factor (vWF) immunofluorescence. Fibrinolytic activity was estimated by western blot analysis of fibrin and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1). Results After PPVL surgery and 10 weeks of CCl4 intoxication, a rat model that exhibited characteristics of both cirrhosis and extra and intrahepatic thrombi was established. In cirrhotic rats with PVT, the PBFV decreased, both factors of pro- and anti-coagulation decreased, but with relative hypercoagulable state, vascular endothelial injured, and fibrinolytic activity decreased. RIVA-treated rats had improved coagulation function, increased PBFV and attenuated thrombi. This effect was related to the improvements in endothelial injury and fibrinolytic activity. Conclusions A new rat model of PVT with cirrhosis was established through partial portal vein ligation plus CCl4 intoxication, with the characteristics of macrothrombi at portal veins and microthrombi in hepatic sinusoids, as well as liver cirrhosis. Rivaroxaban could attenuate PVT in cirrhosis in the model rats. The underlying mechanisms of PVT formation in the rat model and pharmacological action of rivaroxaban are related to the regulation of portal blood flow, coagulant factors, and vascular endothelial cell function.

Abstract Autoimmune uveitis is a leading cause of severe vision loss, and animal models provide unique opportunities for studying its pathogenesis and therapeutic strategies. Here we employ scRNA-seq, RNA-seq and various molecular and cellular approaches to characterize mouse models of classical experimental autoimmune uveitis (EAU), revealing that EAU causes broad retinal neuron degeneration and marker downregulation, and that Müller glia may act as antigen-presenting cells. Moreover, EAU immune response is primarily driven by Th1 cells, and results in dramatic upregulation of CC chemokines, especially CCL5, in the EAU retina. Accordingly, overexpression of CCR5, a CCL5 receptor, in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) enhances their homing capacity and improves their immunomodulatory outcomes in preventing EAU, by reducing infiltrating T cells and activated microglia and suppressing Nlrp3 inflammasome activation. Taken together, our data not only provide valuable insights into the molecular characteristics of EAU but also open an avenue for innovative MSC-based therapy.

Abstract Sketch face recognition has recently gained significant attention in the field of computer vision due to its ability to quickly identify matched pairs of optical and sketch images. This technology has the potential to greatly improve the efficiency of law enforcement agencies in criminal investigations. However, there are still challenges that need to be addressed in sketch face recognition algorithms, such as modal differences and limited sample sizes. To overcome these issues, this study proposes a Residual Serialized Cross Grouping Transformer (RSCGT), which contains a residual serialized module to reduce the computation complexity, a two-layer Cross Grouping Transformer module that is capable of extracting modality-invariant context features, a domain adaptive module to mitigate the impact of modal differences. Additionally, we introduce a meta-learning training strategy to augment the generalization ability of this model. Experimental results demonstrate that the RSCGT achieves high accuracy in sketch face recognition tasks, even with small-scale datasets.

Mycoplasma bovis is one of the most important pathogens in animal husbandry, and the current infection and morbidity rates are increasing year by year, causing great losses to the farming industry and seriously affecting animal welfare. In this study, we took tracheal tissues from calves infected with M. bovis to make pathological tissue sections for observation, and selected tracheal tissues for transcriptome sequencing to screen differentially expressed genes based on the threshold |log2FoldChange| > 1 and Padjust < 0.05 and functional enrichment, to explore in depth the potential mechanisms of bovine tracheal damage caused by bovine tracheitis. Experiments were conducted to observe the changes in tracheal tissues after M. bovis infection through pathological sections of the trachea of M. bovis-infected calves. From the transcriptome sequencing results, we mined the main differential genes and important metabolic pathways of M. bovis causing damage to the trachea of calves. It was found that the cricoid cartilage tissue of the trachea was congested and hemorrhagic after M. bovis infection in calves, and the pathological sections showed localized necrosis of epithelial cells, disorganization, high inflammatory cell infiltration in the interepithelial and lamina propria, and some epithelial cell detachment. Transcriptome sequencing identified 4199 DEGs, including 1378 up-regulated genes and 2821 down-regulated genes. KEGG enrichment analysis indicated that the differential genes were enriched to 59 significantly differing signaling pathways, and a number of important metabolic pathways related to tracheitis induced by M. bovis-infected calves were unearthed. The major ones included IL-17, the Toll-like receptor, JAK/STAT, the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, etc. In this study, we found that M. bovis infection of calves caused inflammatory damage to the trachea, and transcriptome sequencing results also showed significant differences in the expression of key genes such as IL-6 inflammatory factor, CASP8, and APOA1.

Human activity recognition by radar sensors plays an important role in healthcare and smart homes. However, labeling a large number of radar datasets is difficult and time-consuming, and it is difficult for models trained on insufficient labeled data to obtain exact classification results. In this paper, we propose a multiscale residual weighted classification network with large-scale, medium-scale, and small-scale residual networks. Firstly, an MRW image encoder is used to extract salient feature representations from all time-Doppler images through contrastive learning. This can extract the representative vector of each image and also obtain the pre-training parameters of the MRW image encoder. During the pre-training process, large-scale residual networks, medium-scale residual networks, and small-scale residual networks are used to extract global information, texture information, and semantic information, respectively. Moreover, the time–channel weighting mechanism can allocate weights to important time and channel dimensions to achieve more effective extraction of feature information. The model parameters obtained from pre-training are frozen, and the classifier is added to the backend. Finally, the classifier is fine-tuned using a small amount of labeled data. In addition, we constructed a new dataset with eight dangerous activities. The proposed MRW-CN model was trained on this dataset and achieved a classification accuracy of 96.9%. We demonstrated that our method achieves state-of-the-art performance. The ablation analysis also demonstrated the role of multi-scale convolutional kernels and time–channel weighting mechanisms in classification.

Mycoplasma bovis pneumonia is a highly contagious respiratory infection caused by Mycoplasma bovis. It is particularly prevalent in calves, posing a significant threat to animal health and leading to substantial economic losses. Dang-Shen-Yu-Xing decoction is often used to treat this condition in veterinary clinics. It exhibits robust anti-inflammatory effects and can alleviate pulmonary fibrosis. However, its mechanism of action remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to preliminarily explore the molecular mechanism of Dang-Shen-Yu-Xing decoction for treating mycoplasma pneumonia in calves through a combination of network pharmacology, molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulation methods, and experimental validation. The active components and related targets of Dang-Shen-Yu-Xing decoction were extracted from several public databases. Additionally, complex interactions between drugs and targets were explored through network topology, Gene Ontology, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analyses. Subsequently, the binding affinity of drug to disease-related targets was verified through molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation. Finally, the pharmacodynamics were verified via animal experiments. The primary network topology analysis revealed two core targets and 10 key active components of Dang-Shen-Yu-Xing decoction against Mycoplasma bovis pneumonia. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis showed that the mechanism of Dang-Shen-Yu-Xing decoction for treating mycoplasma bovis pneumonia involved multiple signaling pathways, with the main pathways including PI3K-Akt and IL17 signaling pathways. Moreover, molecular docking predicted the binding affinity and conformation of the core targets of Dang-Shen-Yu-Xing decoction, IL6, and IL10, with the associated main active ingredients. The results showed a strong binding of the active ingredients to the hub target. Further, molecular docking dynamics simulation revealed three key active components of IL10 induced by Dang-Shen-Yu-Xing decoction against Mycoplasma bovis pneumonia. Finally, animal experiments confirmed Dang-Shen-Yu-Xing decoction pharmacodynamics, suggesting that it holds potential as an alternative therapy for treating mycoplasma bovis pneumonia.

Summary: Breast cancer is the second leading cause of carcinoma-linked death in women. We developed a multi-modal deep-learning model (BreNet) to differentiate breast cancer from benign lesions. BreNet was constructed and trained on 10,108 images from one center and tested on 3,762 images from two centers in three steps. The diagnostic ability of BreNet was first compared with that of six radiologists; a BreNet-aided scheme was constructed to improve the diagnostic ability of the radiologists; and the diagnosis of real-world radiologists’ scheme was then compared with the BreNet-aided scheme. The diagnostic performance of BreNet was superior to that of the radiologists (area under the curve [AUC]: 0.996 vs. 0.841). BreNet-aided scheme increased the pooled AUC of the radiologists from 0.841 to 0.934 for reviewing images, and from 0.892 to 0.934 in the real-world test. The use of BreNet significantly enhances the diagnostic ability of radiologists in the detection of breast cancer.

Transforming optical facial images into sketches while preserving realism and facial features poses a significant challenge. The current methods that rely on paired training data are costly and resource-intensive. Furthermore, they often fail to capture the intricate features of faces, resulting in substandard sketch generation. To address these challenges, we propose the novel hierarchical contrast generative adversarial network (HCGAN). Firstly, HCGAN consists of a global sketch synthesis module that generates sketches with well-defined global features and a local sketch refinement module that enhances the ability to extract features in critical areas. Secondly, we introduce local refinement loss based on the local sketch refinement module, refining sketches at a granular level. Finally, we propose an association strategy called “warmup-epoch” and local consistency loss between the two modules to ensure HCGAN is effectively optimized. Evaluations of the CUFS and SKSF-A datasets demonstrate that our method produces high-quality sketches and outperforms existing state-of-the-art methods in terms of fidelity and realism. Compared to the current state-of-the-art methods, HCGAN reduces FID by 12.6941, 4.9124, and 9.0316 on three datasets of CUFS, respectively, and by 7.4679 on the SKSF-A dataset. Additionally, it obtained optimal scores for content fidelity (CF), global effects (GE), and local patterns (LP). The proposed HCGAN model provides a promising solution for realistic sketch synthesis under unpaired data training.

Abstract Background Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae (M. ovipneumoniae) is a significant pathogen causing respiratory infections in goats and sheep. This study focuses on investigating vulnerability of Hu sheep to M. ovipneumoniae infection in the context of late spring’s cold weather conditions through detailed autopsy of a severely affected Hu sheep and whole genome sequencing of M. ovipneumoniae. Results The autopsy findings of the deceased sheep revealed severe pulmonary damage with concentrated tracheal and lung lesions. Histopathological analysis showed tissue degeneration, mucus accumulation, alveolar septum thickening, and cellular necrosis. Immunohistochemistry analysis indicated that M. ovipneumoniae was more in the bronchi compared to the trachea. Genome analysis of M. ovipneumoniae identified a 1,014,835 bp with 686 coding sequences, 3 rRNAs, 30 tRNAs, 6 CRISPRs, 11 genomic islands, 4 prophages, 73 virulence factors, and 20 secreted proteins. Conclusion This study investigates the vulnerability of Hu sheep to M. ovipneumoniae infection during late spring’s cold weather conditions. Autopsy findings showed severe pulmonary injury in affected sheep, and whole genome sequencing identified genetic elements associated with pathogenicity and virulence factors of M. ovipneumoniae.

Remote sensing image change detection (RSCD) based on deep learning technology has made remarkable achievements. Meanwhile, the enhancement of network architectures and advancements in optimization algorithms have pushed RSCD performance to a higher stage. However, the existing RSCD methods mainly focus on extracting differential information between pixel pairs from bitemporal images, while neglecting the importance of using complementary multiscale features to uncover hierarchical semantic change information. To address these issues, we propose a multiscale feature interaction hybrid network (MFIHNet), which aims to enhance feature discriminability by multiscale features interaction and fusion to enhance model RSCD performance. Specifically, we first design a cascaded convolutional neural networks (CNN)-Transformer feature extraction network to capture hierarchical features at different scales. This strategy enables the network to preserve detailed information in shallow layers while grasping more contextual information in high layers. Subsequently, based on the differences between hierarchical features, we design a novel edge enhancement module (EM) to adaptively focus on key areas under the guidance of edge information to make the changed information clearer. Furthermore, to ensure complementary advantages among different feature layers, we devise a novel cross-scale feature interaction module, which introduces a region-specific atrous convolution into the multiscale attention mechanism for improving feature coassistance capacity. In this way, the MFIHNet not only effectively obtains different types of fine-grained information but also reduces the loss incurred during the feature fusion process, thereby improving the performance of remote sensing RSCD tasks. Extensive experimental results on the challenging CDD and GZ-CD datasets, with mean F1 scores reaching 98.1% and 87.4%, respectively, demonstrate that the proposed method achieves competitive performance. Our source codes are available at https://github.com/qliu520/MFIHNet.

Mycoplasma bovis is a global concern for the cattle industry owing to its high rates of infection and resulting morbidity, but there are no reports on the lipid composition and metabolic pathways. This study examined the lipidomics of M. bovis to better investigate the biological characteristics of clinical isolates of M. bovis. The M. bovis strains NX114 and PG45, cultivated to log-phase, underwent untargeted lipidomics via ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry for differential analysis. Over 65 lipid types and 1476 lipid molecules were identified. We found that glycerophospholipids and sphingolipids constitute the predominant lipid components of M. bovis, with significant constituents of its cell membrane comprising ceramides, phosphatidylglycerols, sphingomyelins, triacylglycerols, hexosylceramides, ether-linked oxidized phosphatidylcholines, and oxidized phosphatidylglycerols. Secondly, 562 differentially expressed lipid molecules were identified, including 17 lipid subclasses (15 up-regulated and 2 down-regulated) with significant differences in relative content. These findings indicate that distinct M. bovis isolates contain structurally varied lipid molecules, with sphingomyelin, phosphatidylinositol, cardiolipin, and phosphatidylcholine being characteristic lipids. The glycerophospholipid metabolism pathway was identified as a key pathway regulating lipid metabolism in M. bovis by KEGG pathway enrichment analysis. The results indicated alterations in the lipid metabolism of M. bovis, offering insights into its pathogenic mechanisms.

The emergence of inactivation enzyme-encoding genes tet(X), blaEBR, and estT challenges the effectiveness of tetracyclines, β-lactams, and macrolides. This study aims to explore the concurrence and polymorphism of their variants in Empedobacter sp. strains from food-producing animals and surrounding environments. A total of eight tet(X) variants, seven blaEBR variants, and seven estT variants were detected in tet(X)-positive Empedobacter sp. strains (6.7%) from chickens, sewage, and soil, including 31 Empedobacter stercoris and 6 novel species of Taxon 1. All of them were resistant to tigecycline, tetracycline, colistin, and ciprofloxacin, and 16.2% were resistant to meropenem, florfenicol, and cefotaxime. The MIC90 of tylosin, tilmicosin, and tildipirosin was 128 mg/L, 16 mg/L, and 8 mg/L, respectively. Cloning expression confirmed that tet(X6) and the novel variants tet(X23), tet(X24), tet(X25), tet(X26), and tet(X26.2) conferred high-level tigecycline resistance, while all of the others exhibited relatively low-level activities or were inactivated. The bacterial relationship was diverse, but the genetic environments of tet(X) and blaEBR were more conserved than estT. An ISCR2-mediated tet(X6) transposition structure, homologous to those of Acinetobacter sp., Proteus sp., and Providencia sp., was also identified in Taxon 1. Therefore, the tet(X)-positive Empedobacter sp. strains may be ignored and pose a serious threat to food safety and public health.

Mycoplasma bovis is a global problem for the cattle industry due to its high infection rates and associated morbidity, although its pathophysiology is poorly understood. In this study, the M. bovis transcriptome and proteome were analyzed to further investigate the biology of clinical isolates of M. bovis. A differential analysis of M. bovis, a clinical isolate (NX114), and an international type strain (PG45) at the logarithmic stage of growth, was carried out using prokaryotic transcriptome and 4D-label-free quantitative non-labeled proteomics. Transcriptomics and proteomics identified 193 DEGs and 158 DEPs, respectively, with significant differences in 49 proteins/34 transcriptomic CDS post-translational protein sequences (15 jointly up-regulated and 21 jointly down-regulated). GO comments indicate membrane, cytoplasmic and ribosome proteins were important components of the total proteins of M. bovis NX114 clinical isolate. KEGG enrichment revealed that M. bovis NX114 is mainly associated with energy metabolism, the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, and the ABC transporters system. In addition, we annotated a novel adhesion protein that may be closely related to M. bovis infection. Triosephosphate isomerase (TpiA) and Pyruvate kinase (Pyk) genes may be the key enzymes that regulate the growth and maintenance of M. bovis and are involved in the pathogenic process as virulence factors. The results of the study revealed the biology of different isolates of M. bovis and may provide research ideas for the pathogenic mechanism of M. bovis.

Abstract Background Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae (M. ovipneumoniae) is one of the main pathogens of sheep pneumonia, causing a series of clinical symptoms, such as depression, anorexia, hyperthermia, cough, dyspnea, and tract secretions. In recent years, the prevalence of M. ovipneumoniae pneumonia has become increasingly serious in sheep farms in Ningxia, China, leading to the death of sheep, and causing significant economic losses. In this study, the pathological organs infected by M. ovipneumoniae were collected to observe histopathological change, to determine the tissue localization of M. ovipneumoniae, and to analyze the cytokine changes, which lays a basis for the diagnosis and pathogenesis of M. ovipneumoniae disease. Results In this study, M. ovipneumoniae was detected in 97 of 105 samples collected from 13 large-scale sheep farms for nucleic acid by PCR. One representative isolate per farm was isolated from 13 farms. The lesions caused by M. ovipneumoniae were mainly in the trachea, bronchus, and lung, including necrosis of tracheal mucosal epithelial cells, disintegration of some epithelial cells, edema of mucosal lamina propria, with inflammatory cell infiltration, cytoplasmic vacuolization of epithelial cells of bronchial mucosa, massive infiltration of inflammatory cells in the alveolar space of lung, necrosis and hyperplasia of alveolar epithelial cells. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that the proportion of M. ovipneumoniae positive area in the lung was the largest, followed by that in the bronchus and trachea. Compared to healthy animals, diseased animals exhibited up-regulated gene expression levels of IL-1β, IL-6, and NF-κB in the trachea, bronchus, and lungs. In contrast, the expression of IL-10, IL-12, and IFN-γ was primarily limited to the trachea and bronchus. The expression of IL-1β showed differential patterns across different lung regions, with variations observed among lung lobes. Additionally, other cytokines consistently showed significant up-regulation specifically in the bronchus. Conclusions M. ovipneumoniae is primarily found in the lungs of infected individuals. NF-κB, an essential transcription factor, is involved in the regulation of IL-1β transcription. IL-12 may enhance the cytotoxic function of natural killer cells during M. ovipneumoniae infection. Those findings demonstrate the distinct expression profiles of cytokines in various anatomical sites throughout disease progression, suggesting the potential role of bronchial tissue as a major site of immune response.

Abstract Sketch face recognition has a wide range of applications in criminal investigation, but it remains a challenging task due to the small‐scale sample and the semantic deficiencies caused by cross‐modality differences. The authors propose a light semantic Transformer network to extract and model the semantic information of cross‐modality images. First, the authors employ a meta‐learning training strategy to obtain task‐related training samples to solve the small sample problem. Then to solve the contradiction between the high complexity of the Transformer and the small sample problem of sketch face recognition, the authors build the light semantic transformer network by proposing a hierarchical group linear transformation and introducing parameter sharing, which can extract highly discriminative semantic features on small–scale datasets. Finally, the authors propose a domain‐adaptive focal loss to reduce the cross‐modality differences between sketches and photos and improve the training effect of the light semantic Transformer network. Extensive experiments have shown that the features extracted by the proposed method have significant discriminative effects. The authors’ method improves the recognition rate by 7.6% on the UoM‐SGFSv2 dataset, and the recognition rate reaches 92.59% on the CUFSF dataset.

Objectives: Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) shows poor prognosis since it metastasizes widely at early stage. Paired box gene (PAX) 8 is a transcriptional factor of PAX family, of which the expression in lung cancer is a controversial issue, and its prognostic value of PAX8 in SCLC is still unclear. Materials and methods: Overall, 184 subjects who were pathologically diagnosed with SCLC were enrolled in the study. Immunohistochemical analysis of PAX8 and Ki-67 were performed. The correlations between PAX8 expression and clinical features or Ki-67 index were further analyzed. Subsequently, an analysis of the association between PAX8, stage, Ki-67 status, and overall survival (OS) were performed in 169 subjects with follow-up information. Results: PAX8 was positive in 53.8% (99/184) SCLC specimens. The positive rate is significantly higher in extensive-stage specimens (61.0%) than in limited-stage specimens (45.24%). PAX8 expression is positively correlated with Ki-67 index (P = 0.001) while negatively correlated with OS (HR = 3.725, 95% CI 1.943–7.139, P＜0.001). In combination groups, the PAX8 negative and limited stage group had the most promising OS. Conclusion: PAX8 expression rate in SCLC specimens is not low. It has prognostic value in small cell lung cancer.

Abstract Background The gastrointestinal tract contains a massive microbiota, and targeting the gut could be a potential intervention for sepsis. However, the interaction between sepsis and the intestinal microbiota is defined as an “incompletely understood bidirectional relationship”. Methods This retrospective observational cohort study investigated the fecal microbiota of sepsis patients admitted to the Department of Critical Care Medicine of the Central Hospital of Wuhan, China, from May 2019 to January 2020. 14 septic patients were divided into the non-severe group and the severe group according to the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score. Herein, fecal samples were serially collected on admission, the third, fourth, and fifth days, and ICU discharge. The fecal microbiota was analyzed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and its correlation with clinical parameters was evaluated. Results Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria were dominant phyla at ICU admission, and fecal biodiversity was not significantly different between the non-severe group (APACHE II 15). However, the diversity of the gut microbiota was significantly lower at ICU discharge than that at ICU admission with the extension of treatment time. Further significant difference flora analysis (LEfSe) showed that the genera Veillonella and Ruminococcus were the most discriminant biomarkers at ICU admission in non-severe and severe patients, respectively, while Enterococcus was the most discriminant biomarker at ICU discharge in all septic patients. Of note, liver function tests, including ALT, AST, TBIL, and DBIL correlated with the prevalence of various bacterial genera. Conclusions The diversity of the gut microbiota in patients with sepsis decreases dramatically during ICU stay, and there are distinct dynamic changes in gut microbiota among patients with different severity in sepsis.

Vaccination is the key to interrupting the transmission of viruses, reducing public health losses, and improving the efficiency of public health emergency management. The implementation of vaccination requires communication between the government and the public, and the participation of multiple subjects. Strengthening the coordination of multiple subjects in the process of vaccination can improve the vaccination rate and broaden its scope. Therefore, from the perspective of inter-organizational interaction, a public health emergency vaccination game model based on health management departments, vaccinologists, and the public was constructed in this study. With the objective of improving the effectiveness of vaccination, the influential factors in a public health emergency vaccination game system and game subjects’ strategy selection were explored using a numerical simulation analysis. The research results showed that the range of vaccination, the diversification of vaccination information release, the level of emergency coordination between health management departments and vaccinologists, and the public’s awareness of emergency protection can all effectively promote vaccination. Among them, the effects of vaccination range (δ) and the diversification of vaccination information release (φ) on game subjects’ strategy selection fluctuated, but did not affect the overall trend. Both the level of emergency collaboration (θ) and public safety awareness (ε) can enhance the initiative of game subjects to participate in vaccination. When the stable strategy combination formed by the game system are positive promotion strategy, active guidance strategy and active vaccination strategy, the convergence rate of health management departments and vaccinologists to form a stable strategy is greater than that of the public. Further, the implications of promoting the effective implementation of vaccination are put forward via improving the vaccination strategy, strengthening vaccination collaboration, mobilizing the enthusiasm of vaccinologists, and enhancing the initiative of the public.

The present study explores the intricate dynamics influencing the self-efficacy of Chinese university students through the interplay of participation in artistic activities, positive psychological capital, and emotional intelligence. In the context of technological advancements and various challenges post pandemic, this study delves into the multifaceted aspects of university life, where arts education plays a pivotal role in addressing students' emotional needs. By integrating emotional intelligence with self-efficacy, this study underscores the positive impact of artistic engagement on self-efficacy, while emphasizing on the transformative power of these pursuits. Also, this study establishes that the optimism and resilience contribute to this relationship by considering the mediating role of positive psychological capital. The moderating influence of emotional intelligence in the complex dynamics between arts education and positive psychological capital is another concern, thereby emphasizing the nuanced role of emotional intelligence. With a structured set of questions that were administered to 673 participants with 93.61% recovery rate, this study performs the Cronbach's α-test, validation factor, and several related tests in SPSSStatistics 29.0, bootstrap, and AMOS 25.0 software. Current results shows the importance of a holistic approach in Chinese institutions. With a focus on promoting artistic engagement to enhance students' self-efficacy, this study determines the profound impact of arts education on students' overall wellbeing and educational experience. In conclusion, this research highlights the constructive impact of artistic engagement on the self-efficacy of Chinese university students. Chinese institutions should encourage a varied range of artistic engagements as a response to the contemporary challenges confronted by their students.

The primary significance of this work is that the commercial yeast proteins particles were successfully used to characterize the high internal phase Pickering emulsions (HIPPEs). The different sonication time (0,3,7,11,15 min) was used to modulate the structure and interface characteristics of yeast proteins (YPs) that as Pickering particles. Immediately afterward, the influence of YPs particles prepared at different sonication time on the rheological behavior and coalescence mechanism of HIPPEs was investigated. The results indicate that the YPs sonicated for 7 min exhibited a more relaxed molecular structures and conformation, the smallest particle size, the highest H0 and optimal amphiphilicity (the three-phase contact (θ) was 88.91°). The transition from extended to compact conformations of YPs occurred when the sonication time exceeded 7 min, resulting in an augmentation of size of YPs particles, a reduction in surface hydrophobicity (H0), and an elevation in hydrophilicity. The HIPPEs stabilized by YPs particles sonicated for 7 min exhibited the highest adsorption interface protein percentage and a more homogeneous three-dimensional (3D) protein network, resulting in the smallest droplet size and the highest storage (G′). The HIPPEs sample that stabilized by YPs particles sonicated for 15 min showed the lowest adsorption protein percentage. This caused a reduction in the thickness of its interface protein layer and an enlargement in the droplet diameter (D [3,2]). It was prone to droplet coalescence according to the equation used to evaluate the coalescence probability of droplets (Eq (2)). And the non-adsorbed YPs particles form larger aggregation structures in the continuous phase and act as “structural agents” in 3D protein network. Therefore, mechanistically, the interface protein layer formed by YPs particles sonicated 7 min contributed more to HIPPEs stability. Whereas the “structural agents” contributed more to HIPPEs stability when the sonication time exceeded 7 min. The present results shed important new light on the application of commercial YPs in the functional food fields, acting as an available and effective alternative protein.

It has been demonstrated that supplementing late-gestation cow diets with NCG (N-carbamoylglutamic acid) increases the serum protein level, boosts immunological function, and increases the birth weight of the calves. However, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. In this experiment, 30 late-gestation Angus heifers almost at same conditions were chosen for this experiment. They were randomly divided into two groups of 15 cows each. A basal diet was provided to the control group, and 30 g/(d-head) of NCG was added to the basal diet of the test group (NCG group). Blood samples were collected from the jugular vein after birth and before the end (when the calves were 90 days old) of the experiment for plasma metabolomics analysis. The metabolomics analysis identified 53 metabolites between the NCG group and control group, with 40 significantly up-regulated and 13 significantly down-regulated. Among them, 33 lipids and lipid-like molecules made up 57.89% of all the metabolites that were found. Thirty-three metabolic pathways enriched by metabolites showed p.adjust

With the development of modern sheep raising technology, the increasing density of animals in sheep house leads to the accumulation of microbial aerosols in sheep house. It is an important prerequisite to grasp the characteristics of bacteria in aerosols in sheep house to solve the problems of air pollution and disease prevention and control in sheep house. In this study, the microorganisms present in the air of sheep houses were investigated to gain insights into the structure of bacterial communities and the prevalence of pathogenic bacteria. Samples from six sheep pens in each of three sheep farms, totaling 18, were collected in August 2022 from Ningxia province, China. A high-volume air sampler was utilized for aerosol collection within the sheep housing followed by DNA extraction for 16S rRNA sequencing. Employing high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing technology, we conducted an in-depth analysis of microbial populations in various sheep pen air samples, enabling us to assess the community composition and diversity. The results revealed a total of 11,207 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) within the bacterial population across the air samples, encompassing 152 phyla, 298 classes, 517 orders, 853 families, 910 genera, and 482 species. Alpha diversity and beta diversity analysis indicated that differences in species diversity, evenness and coverage between different samples. At the bacterial phylum level, the dominant bacterial groups are Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, and Actinobacteria, among which Firmicutes (97.90–98.43%) is the highest. At the bacterial genus level, bacillus, Bacteroides, Fusobacterium, etc. had higher abundance, with Bacillus (85.47–89.87%) being the highest. Through an in-depth analysis of microbial diversity and a meticulous examination of pathogenic bacteria with high abundance in diverse sheep house air samples, the study provided valuable insights into the microbial diversity, abundance, and distinctive features of prevalent pathogenic bacteria in sheep house air. These findings serve as a foundation for guiding effective disease prevention and control strategies within sheep farming environments.

A flexible reinforcement learning (RL) optimal collision-avoidance control formulation for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with discrete-time frameworks is revealed in this work. By utilizing the neural network (NN) estimating capacity and the actor-critic control scheme of the RL technique, an adaptive RL optimal collision-free controller with a minimal learning parameter (MLP) is formulated, which is based on a novel strategic utility function. The optimal collision-avoidance control issue, which couldn’t be addressed in the prior literature, can be resolved by the suggested approaches. Furthermore, the proposed MPL adaptive optimal control formulation allows for a reduction in the quantity of adaptive laws, leading to reduced computational complexity. Additionally, a rigorous stability analysis is provided, demonstrating that the uniform ultimate boundedness (UUB) of all signals in the closed-loop system is ensured by the proposed adaptive RL. Finally, the simulation outcomes illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed optimal RL control approaches.

Abstract The frequency degree of freedom of optical photons has been recently explored for efficient quantum information processing. Significant reduction in hardware resources and enhancement of quantum functions can be expected by leveraging the large number of frequency modes. Here, we develope an integrated photonic platform for the generation and parallel processing of quantum frequency combs (QFCs). Cavity-enhanced parametric down-conversion with Sagnac configuration is implemented to generate QFCs with identical spectral distributions. On-chip quantum interference of different frequency modes is simultaneously realized with the same photonic circuit. High interference visibility is maintained across all frequency modes with the identical circuit setting. This enables the on-chip reconfiguration of QFCs. By deterministically separating QFCs without spectral filtering, we further demonstrate high-dimensional Hong-Ou-Mandel effect. Our work provides the critical step for the efficient implementation of quantum information processing with integrated photonics using the frequency degree of freedom.

Abstract The failure of melanoma immunotherapy can be mediated by immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment (TME), and insufficient activation of effector T cells against the tumor. Here, we show that inhibition of galectin-3 (gal-3) enhances the infiltration of T cells in TME and improves the sensitivity of anti-PD-L1 therapy. We identify that RNF8 downregulated the expression of gal-3 by K48-polyubiquitination and promoted gal-3 degradation via the ubiquitin–proteasome system. RNF8 deficiency in the host but sufficiency in implanted melanoma results in immune exclusion and tumor progression due to the upregulation of gal-3. Upregulation of gal-3 decreased the immune cell infiltration by restricting IL-12 and IFN-γ. Inhibition of gal-3 reverses immunosuppression and induces immune cell infiltration in the tumor microenvironment. Moreover, gal-3 inhibitor treatment can increase the sensitivity of PD-L1 inhibitors via increasing immune cell infiltration and enhancing immune response in tumors. This study reveals a previously unrecognized immunoregulation function of RNF8 and provides a promising strategy for the therapy of “cold” tumors. Tremendous effects of melanoma treatment can be achieved by facilitating immune cell infiltration combined with anti-PD-L1 treatment.

This article explored the effect of insoluble okara fiber (IOF) on the properties of okara protein (SOP) emulsion. The effects of different concentrations of IOF (0.25 wt%, 0.50 wt%, 0.75 wt% and 1.00 wt%) on the microstructure, interfacial activity, emulsifying activity and stability of SOP emulsion were studied with sunflower oil as oil phase. The results showed that with the increase of the IOF concentration, the particle size of the SOP/IOF emulsion showed a trend of gradual increase. The laser confocal microscope observation experiment showed that the emulsion droplets change in the same trend, and the absolute value of the zeta potential presents an increasing trend. The content and concentration of interfacial protein showed an increasing trend, and the change of rheological index showed that the trend of shear thinning was increasing, and high concentration of IOF could significantly enhance the long-term storage stability, acid resistance stability and salt resistance stability of SOP emulsion. This provides a theoretical basis for the further application of IOF in the protein emulsion gel system.

Nanochannels in laminated graphene oxide nanosheets featuring confined mass transport have attracted interest in multiple research fields. As an important aspect for efficient pressure-driven membrane processes, authors investigate the response and deformation behaviours of such nanochannels to different external conditions.

In space-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR), the sliding spotlight mode can acquire images with both high-resolution and wide-swath in azimuth direction. Due to the significant two-dimensional spatial variance of Doppler parameters, the traditional imaging algorithms based on the conventional range models is not available. In this article, the strategy of continuously varying pulse repetition interval (CVPRI) is likely to lead to a novel approach to dealing with the azimuth variance problem to realize high-resolution wide-swath (HRWS) imaging in azimuth direction for sliding spotlight SAR. First, the eighth-order Taylor expansion of the modified equivalent squint range model (MESRM-TE8) is adopted, and the accuracy of MESRM-TE8 is accordingly explained. Then, the properties of the spatial variance for the MESRM-TE8 are analyzed in detail, based on which the strategy of CVPRI is given theoretically to eliminate the azimuth variance. An improved imaging algorithm based on CVPRI is subsequently proposed to address the azimuthal-variant Doppler parameters and realize a batch data processing of a large scene in azimuth frequency domain. The extended scaling method is integrated in this algorithm to uniformly compensate cubic phase modulation introduced by CVPRI and circumvent azimuth time folding caused by subaperture processing in the focused image. Finally, the effectiveness of the CVPRI strategy and the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by the simulation results.

Abstract Background The aim of this observational study was to identify ocular and visual perceptive risk factors related to treatment results following refractive correction and patching in children with anisometropic amblyopia, who were between the ages of 4 to 14 years old. Methods One-hundred and two children with newly diagnosed anisometropic amblyopia were recruited. Successful treatment of amblyopia was defined as the final best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) better than or equal to 0.1 logMAR and amblyopic eye BCVA within 1 line of the sound eye BCVA by the end of the treatment period. BCVA, cycloplegic refraction, stereoacuity, perceptual eye position (PEP) and interocular suppression were measured. Results Of these patients, 45.10% achieved successful treatment of amblyopia after refractive correction and patching for 10.5 months. The mean age was not significantly different between patients who were successfully and unsuccessfully treated (5.50 ± 1.59 years vs 6.14 ± 2.19 years, respectively). Patients who failed treatment had significantly larger interocular difference of BCVA at the time of initial treatment (successful group: 0.33 ± 0.29 logMAR, unsuccessful group: 0.65 ± 0.35 logMAR) and after refractive adaptation (successful group: 0.15 ± 0.13 logMAR, unsuccessful group: 0.42 ± 0.35 logMAR). They also had higher spherical equivalent (SE) of amblyopic eyes (successful group: 3.08 ± 3.61 D, unsuccessful group: 5.27 ± 3.38 D), bigger interocular difference of SE (successful group: 0.94 ± 2.71 D, unsuccessful group: 3.09 ± 3.05 D), worse stereoacuity (successful group: 2.32 ± 0.37 log seconds of arc, unsuccessful group: 2.75 ± 0.32 log seconds of arc), larger vertical PEP deviation (successful group: 6.41 ± 6.08 pixel, unsuccessful group: 19.07 ± 24.96 pixel) and deeper interocular suppression (successful group: 21.7 ± 19.7%, unsuccessful group: 37.8 ± 27.1%) than those of successfully treated patients. The most influential treatment failure risk factors were larger vertical PEP deviation [adjusted odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval) 1.12 (1.02–1.22)] and worse stereoacuity [adjusted odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval) 7.72 (1.50–39.85)] in multiple logistic regression analysis. Conclusions Larger vertical PEP deviation and worse stereoacuity were the most influential treatment failure risk factors in children with anisometropic amblyopia. The vertical PEP deviation and stereoacuity, which can reflect interocular interaction, may be useful in predicting the response to therapy.

Abstract Background Peste des petits ruminants (PPR), foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and sheep pox and goat pox are three important infectious diseases that infect goats, sheep and other small ruminants. It is well-known that the prevention of three diseases rely mainly on their individual vaccines. However, the vaccines have a variety of different disadvantages, such as short duration of immunity, increasing the number of vaccinations, and poor thermal stability. The purpose of this study is to construct a recombinant goat pox virus (rGPV) capable of expressing the F gene of PPRV and the P12A3C gene of FMDV as a live vector vaccine. Results The IRES, FMDV P12A3C and PPRV F genes into the multi-cloning site of the universal transfer plasmid pTKfpgigp to construct a recombinant transfer plasmid pTKfpgigpFiP12A3C, and transfected GPV-infected lamb testis (LT) cells with liposomes and produced by homologous recombination Recombinant GPV (rGPV/PPRVF-FMDVP12A3C, rGPV). The rGPV was screened and purified by green florescence protein (GFP) and xanthine-guanine-phosphoribosyltransferase gene (gpt) of Escherichia coli as selective markers, and the expression of rGPV in LT cells was detected by RT-PCR and immunofluorescence techniques. The results showed that the virus strain rGPV/PPRVF-FMDVP12A3C containing FMDV P12A3C and PPRV F genes was obtained. The exogenous genes FMDV P12A3C and PPRV F contained in rGPV were normally transcribed and translated in LT cells, and the expression products could specifically react with PPRV and FMDV antiserum. Then, the rGPV was intradermally inoculated with goats, the animal experiments showed that rGPV/PPRVF-FMDVP12A3C could induce high levels of specific antibodies against GPV, PPRV and FMDV. Conclusions The constructed rGPV induced high levels of specific antibodies against GPV, PPRV and FMDV. The study provides a reference for “ one vaccine with multiple uses “ of GPV live vector vaccine.

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic relapsing intestinal disease with complex pathogenesis. The increasing morbidity and mortality of UC become a global public health threat. Baitouweng decoction (BD), a formulated prescription of Traditional Chinese Medicine, has been applied to cure UC for many centuries. However, the therapeutic efficacy and working mechanisms of this medicine are not well studied. Aim of study: In this study we determined whether Pulsatillae radix, one of four ingredients in BD, had a therapeutic effect on colitis. And explore the underlying mechanism of Pulsatilla chinensis (Bunge) Regel radix in the improvement of DSS-induced colitis in mice model. Methods: The active compounds of Pulsatilla chinensis was identified by UPLC. The composition of the mice's cecum microbiota was determined by 16S rRNA sequencing. And gene expression profile of colon was detected by transcriptome. Results: The results showed that Pulsatillae radix significantly improved the clinical symptom, prevented the shorten of colon length, and decreased the diseased activity index (DAI) in an 3 % DSS-induced ulcerative colitis mouse model. We found that Pulsatillae radix reversed the dysbiosis of gut microbiota as evidenced by increase in the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes, Deferribacteres, and Proteobacteria phyla and decrease in Firmicutes, as well as by decrease in the genera levels of Bacteroides, Parabacteroides, Prevotella, Mucispirillum, Coprococcus, Oscillospira, and Escherichia. The results of transcriptome showed Pulsatillae radix administration led to 128 genes up-regulation, and 122 genes down-regulation, up-regulate NOD-like receptor signaling pathway, down-regulate Cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, and TNF and IL-17 signaling pathways. Conclusion: in this study, we demonstrate Pulsatillae radix alleviates DSS-induced colitis probably via modulating gut microbiota and inflammatory signaling pathway in DSS-induced colitis mouse model.

Probiotics are a prominent alternative to antibiotics in antimicrobial-free broiler farming. To assess the effect of Sphingomonas sp. Z392 (isolated and identified) on broiler growth, 600 one-day-old Kebao broiler chickens were randomly divided into a control group and an experimental group. Each group had three replicates, with 100 broiler chickens being raised in each replicate. Regarding the experimental group of broiler chickens, 4.0 × 105 CFU/mL of Sphingomonas Z392 was added to their drinking water. Then, the changes in broiler body weight, the EPI, intestinal histological structure, and gut microbiota were examined. The results show that the supplementation of the broilers’ drinking water with 4 × 105 CFU/mL of Sphingomonas Z392 resulted in an increase in the relative abundance of Lactobacillus, Bacteroides, Lachnospiraceae, Aminobacterium, Oribacterium, Christensenellaceae, Faecalibacterium, Barnesiella, Ruminococcus, Parabacteroides, Phascolarctobacterium, Butyricicoccaceae, and Caproiciproducens, which have been reported to be positively correlated with the improved digestion and absorption of broiler chickens. The relative abundance of Odoribacter, Alistipes, Parabacteroides, and Rikenellaceae increased, and these have been reported to be negatively correlated with the occurrence of intestinal diseases. The relative abundance of Campylobacter, Shigella Castellani, Bilophila, Campylobacter, Clostridia, and Anaerotruncus decreased, and these have been reported to be positively correlated with the occurrence of intestinal diseases. At the same time, the following also increased: the integrity of small intestinal villus morphology; the number of goblet cells in small intestinal epithelial cells; the health of the mitochondria in the cytoplasm of jejunal villous epithelial cells; the number of lysosomes in the cytoplasm of goblet cells in the small intestinal epithelium, ileal villous epithelial cells, and mitochondria in the cytoplasm of large intestinal villous epithelial cells; the VH/CD of the ileum; and digestive, absorption, and defense capabilities. In particular, the final weight increased by 4.33%, and the EPI increased by 10.10%. Therefore, the supplementation of broiler drinking water with Sphingomonas generated better economic benefits from the broiler chickens.

Cholesteric liquid crystal microcapsules (CLCMs) are used to improve the stability of liquid crystals while ensuring their stimulus response performance and versatility, with representative applications such as sensing, anticounterfeiting, and smart fabrics. However, the reflectivity and angular anisotropy decrease because of the anchoring effect of the polymer shell matrix, and the influence of particle size on this has not been thoroughly studied. In this study, the effect of synthesis technology on microcapsule particle size was investigated using a complex coalescence method, and the effect of particle size on the reflectivity and angular anisotropy of CLCMs was investigated in detail. A particle size of approximately 66 µm with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA, 1:1) exhibited a relative reflectivity of 16.6% and a bandwidth of 20 nm, as well as a narrow particle size distribution of 22 µm. The thermosetting of microcapsules coated with PVA was adjusted and systematically investigated by controlling the mass ratio. The optimized mass ratio of microcapsules (66 µm) to PVA was 2:1, increasing the relative reflectivity from 16.6% (1:1) to 32.0% (2:1) because of both the higher CLCM content and the matching between the birefringence of the gelatin–arabic shell system and PVA. Furthermore, color based on Bragg reflections was observed in the CLCM-coated ortho-axis and blue-shifted off-axis, and this change was correlated with the CLCM particle size. Such materials are promising for anticounterfeiting and color-based applications with bright colors and angular anisotropy in reflection.

IntroductionLaboratory teaching of medical microbiology involves highly pathogenic microorganisms, thus posing potential biosafety risks to the students and the teacher. To address these risks, non/low-pathogenic microorganisms were modified to mimic highly pathogenic ones or highly pathogenic microorganisms were attenuated directly using the CRISPR/Cas9 technology. This study describes the modification of Escherichia coli DH5α to mimic Shigella and its evaluation as a safe alternative for medical laboratory teaching.MethodsTo generate E. coli DH5α△FliC△tnaA2a, the tnaA and FliC genes in E. coli DH5α were knocked out using CRISPR/Cas9 technology; a plasmid bearing the O-antigen determinant of S. flexneri 2a was then constructed and transformed. Acid tolerance assays and guinea pig eye tests were used to assess the viability and pathogenicity, respectively. Questionnaires were used to analyze teaching effectiveness and the opinions of teachers and students.ResultsThe survey revealed that most teachers and students were inclined towards real-time laboratory classes than virtual classes or observation of plastic specimens. However, many students did not abide by the safety regulations, and most encountered potential biosafety hazards in the laboratory. E. coli DH5α△FliC△tnaA2a was biochemically and antigenically analogous to S. flexneri 2a and had lower resistance to acid than E. coli. There was no toxicity observed in guinea pigs. Most of teachers and students were unable to distinguish E. coli DH5α△FliC△tnaA2a from pure S. flexneri 2a in class. Students who used E. coli DH5α△FliC△tnaA2a in their practice had similar performance in simulated examinations compared to students who used real S. flexneri 2a, but significantly higher than the virtual experimental group.DiscussionThis approach can be applied to other high-risk pathogenic microorganisms to reduce the potential biosafety risks in medical laboratory-based teaching and provide a new strategy for the development of experimental materials.

Background: Thyroid hormones are known to regulate bone metabolism and may influence bone mineral density (BMD), as well as the risk of osteoporosis (OP) and fractures in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Recently, sensitivity to thyroid hormone indices has been linked with T2DM and OP independently. However, the relationship between thyroid hormone sensitivity and OP in euthyroid T2DM patients has yet to be investigated. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the association between sensitivity to thyroid hormone indices and the risk of OP in euthyroid patients with T2DM. Design: This study employed a retrospective, cross-sectional design and utilized data acquired from the Cangzhou Central Hospital in China between 2019 and 2020. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the data of 433 patients with T2DM for anthropometric measurements, clinical laboratory test results, and BMD. The thyroid-stimulating hormone index, thyrotroph thyroxine resistance index, and thyroid feedback quantile-based index (TFQI) were calculated to determine thyroid hormone sensitivity. Finally, multivariable logistic regression, generalized additive models, and subgroup analysis were performed to detect the association between sensitivity to thyroid hormone indices and the risk of OP in these patients. Results: We did not observe a statistically significant linear relationship between sensitivity to thyroid hormones indices and OP after covariate adjustment. However, a nonlinear relationship existed between TFQI and the prevalence of OP. The inflection point of the TFQI was at −0.29. The effect sizes (odds ratio) on the left and right of the inflection point were 0.07 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.01–0.71; p = 0.024] and 2.78 (95% CI: 1.02–7.58; p = 0.046), respectively. This trend was consistent in older female patients with higher body mass index (BMI; 25–30 kg/m 2 ). Conclusion: An approximate U-shaped relationship was observed between sensitivity to thyroid hormone indices and OP risk in euthyroid patients with T2DM with variations in sex, age, and BMI. These findings provide a new perspective to elucidate the role of thyroid hormones in OP, specifically in patients with T2DM.

Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) is one of the major causative agents of chronic respiratory diseases in poultry. The biofilms of MG are highly correlated to its chronic infection. However data on genes involved in biofilm formation ability are still scarse. MG strains with distinct biofilm intensity were screened by crystal violet staining morphotyped and characterized for the drug sensitivity. Two MG strains NX-01 and NX-02 showed contrasted ability to biofilm formation. The biofilm formation ability of NX-01 strain was significantly higher than that of NX-02 strain (p

ABSTRACT Scab, caused by the biotrophic fungal pathogen Venturia inaequalis, is the most economically important disease of apples. During infection, V. inaequalis colonizes the subcuticular host environment, where it develops specialized infection structures called runner hyphae and stromata. These structures are thought to be involved in nutrient acquisition and effector (virulence factor) delivery, but also give rise to conidia that further the infection cycle. Despite their importance, very little is known about how these structures are differentiated. Likewise, nothing is known about how these structures are protected from host defenses or recognition by the host immune system. To better understand these processes, we first performed a glycosidic linkage analysis of sporulating tubular hyphae from V. inaequalis developed in culture. This analysis revealed that the V. inaequalis cell wall is mostly composed of glucans (44%) and mannans (37%), whereas chitin represents a much smaller proportion (4%). Next, we used transcriptomics and confocal laser scanning microscopy to provide insights into the cell wall carbohydrate composition of runner hyphae and stromata. These analyses revealed that, during subcuticular host colonization, genes of V. inaequalis putatively associated with the biosynthesis of immunogenic carbohydrates, such as chitin and β-1,6-glucan, are downregulated relative to growth in culture, while on the surface of runner hyphae and stromata, chitin is deacetylated to the less-immunogenic carbohydrate chitosan. These changes are anticipated to enable the subcuticular differentiation of runner hyphae and stromata by V. inaequalis, as well as to protect these structures from host defenses and recognition by the host immune system. IMPORTANCE Plant-pathogenic fungi are a major threat to food security. Among these are subcuticular pathogens, which often cause latent asymptomatic infections, making them difficult to control. A key feature of these pathogens is their ability to differentiate specialized subcuticular infection structures that, to date, remain largely understudied. This is typified by Venturia inaequalis, which causes scab, the most economically important disease of apples. In this study, we show that, during subcuticular host colonization, V. inaequalis downregulates genes associated with the biosynthesis of two immunogenic cell wall carbohydrates, chitin and β-1,6-glucan, and coats its subcuticular infection structures with a less-immunogenic carbohydrate, chitosan. These changes are anticipated to enable host colonization by V. inaequalis and provide a foundation for understanding subcuticular host colonization by other plant-pathogenic fungi. Such an understanding is important, as it may inform the development of novel control strategies against subcuticular plant-pathogenic fungi.

In recent years, sketch face recognition has a wide application in law enforcement agencies and criminals. Deep learning plays a crucial role in the recent developments of face recognition, however, it is challenging to employ deep learning methods for sketch face recognition due to insufficient face photo–sketch data. Moreover, compared to photos, sketches lack detailed texture, and there exists a domain gap between photos and sketches, hence, traditional homogeneous face recognition methods perform poorly in sketch face recognition. In this paper, a novel deep learning method termed Domain Adaptation Scaled Entropy Meta-Network (DASEMN) is proposed to tackle sketch face recognition tasks. Specifically, a meta-learning training strategy is designed to tackle the few-shot problem and improve the generalization ability of the network. Then, a generalized entropy loss termed scaled mean entropy loss is proposed to guide the network to extract discriminate features. Finally, a domain adaptation module is introduced in the training set to reduce the domain gap between the sketch domain and the photo domain. Experiments on UoM-SGFS and CUFSF sketch face databases show that the proposed method is superior to other sketch face recognition methods.

IntroductionProbiotic is adjuvant therapy for traditional drug treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC). In the present study, Lactobacillus acidophilus C4 with high acid and bile salt resistance has been isolated and screened, and the beneficial effect of L. acidophilus C4 on Dextran Sulfate Sodium (DSS)-induced colitis in mice has been evaluated. Our data showed that oral administration of L. acidophilus C4 remarkably alleviated colitis symptoms in mice and minimized colon tissue damage.MethodsTo elucidate the underlying mechanism, we have investigated the levels of inflammatory cytokines and intestinal tight junction (TJ) related proteins (occludin and ZO-1) in colon tissue, as well as the intestinal microbiota and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in feces.ResultsCompared to the DSS group, the inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α in L. acidophilus C4 group were reduced, while the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione (GSH), and catalase (CAT) were found to be elevated. In addition, proteins linked to TJ were elevated after L. acidophilus C4 intervention. Further study revealed that L. acidophilus C4 reversed the decrease in intestinal microbiota diversity caused by colitis and promoted the levels of SCFAs.DiscussionThis study demonstrate that L. acidophilus C4 effectively alleviated DSS-induced colitis in mice by repairing the mucosal barrier and maintaining the intestinal microecological balance. L. acidophilus C4 could be of great potential for colitis therapy.

Abstract Electrochemical carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction (ECR) is a promising technology to produce valuable fuels and feedstocks from CO2. Despite large efforts to develop ECR catalysts, the investigation of the catalytic performance and electrochemical behavior of complex metal oxides, especially perovskite oxides, is rarely reported. Here, the inorganic perovskite oxide Ag‐doped (La0.8Sr0.2)0.95Ag0.05MnO3–δ (LSA0.05M) is reported as an efficient electrocatalyst for ECR to CO for the first time, which exhibits a Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 84.3%, a remarkable mass activity of 75 A g−1 (normalized to the mass of Ag), and stability of 130 h at a moderate overpotential of 0.79 V. The LSA0.05M catalyst experiences structure reconstruction during ECR, creating the in operando‐formed interface between the perovskite and the evolved Ag phase. The evolved Ag is uniformly distributed with a small particle size on the perovskite surface. Theoretical calculations indicate the reconstruction of LSA0.05M during ECR and reveal that the perovskite–Ag interface provides adsorption sites for CO2 and accelerates the desorption of the *CO intermediate to enhance ECR. This study presents a novel high‐performance perovskite catalyst for ECR and may inspire the future design of electrocatalysts via the in operando formation of metal–metal oxide interfaces.