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Highlights Plasma-assisted phosphorization has been used to prepare defect-rich metal phosphides. The p-NiCoP/NCF@CC shows high activities and excellent stability for the hydrogen evolution reaction and the oxygen evolution reaction. The p-NiCoP/NCF@CC shows great potential for overall water splitting.

Adhesives have been widely applied in various fields. However, most industrial adhesives contain organic solvents, which are toxic and difficult to clean after use. Importantly, most adhesives are used in a relatively small temperature range (0–50 °C), which is due to the fragmentation of the morphology and properties of supramolecular polymer gels at low temperatures. Most of the supramolecular adhesives need to be heated during the bonding process, which cannot meet the requirements of low-temperature adhesion in daily life and industry. In this study, based on the concept of using deep eutectic solvents (DESs) as a platform, cyclodextrin (β-CD) and carboxyl terminated hyperbranched polyester (DCHP) were used to prepare solvent-free supramolecular polymer gel (CD-DCHP), which was non-toxic and easy to clean. Due to the joint action of deep eutectic solvent and supramolecular polymer structure, CD-DCHP showed excellent mechanical properties, super strong adhesion (up to 4.55 MPa on glass surface), and excellent low-temperature performance (up to 1.64 MPa at –60 °C). This supramolecular polymer gel also showed excellent tolerance to acids, alkalis, and various organic solvents. It greatly expanded the application of DES and provided a new approach to the development of supramolecular adhesives.

Abstract Variations in the pathogenicity of Newcastle disease virus (NDV), the agent causing Newcastle disease, are associated with variants of different virulence. A few studies have characterized the expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) in NDV-infected avian cells. Here, the expression of miRNAs in chicken embryo fibroblasts (CEFs) infected with Herts/33 and LaSota NDV strains (highly virulent and nonvirulent, respectively) was determined using RNA sequencing. miRNAs involved in NDV infection included 562 previously documented and 184 novel miRNAs. miRNA target genes involved transcription factors, cell apoptosis, ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis, and protein processing in the endoplasmic reticulum. Potential target genes associated with autophagy were verified by qRT-PCR. No studies have documented the miRNA profiles of CEFs infected with NDVs variants. This study adds to our knowledge of the cellular miRNAs involved in NDV infection and the complex molecular mechanisms mediating virus-host interactions. The results of this study will aid the development of strategies against the chicken virus.

Abstract Background Cross breeding is an important way to improve livestock performance. As an important livestock and poultry resource in Henan Province of China, Bohuai goat was formed by crossing Boer goat and Huai goat. After more than 20 years of breeding, BoHuai goats showed many advantages, such as fast growth, good reproductive performance, and high meat yield. In order to better develop and protect Bohuai goats, we sequenced the whole genomes of 30 BoHuai goats and 5 Huai goats to analyze the genetic diversity, population structure and genomic regions under selection of BoHuai goat. Furthermore, we used 126 published genomes of world-wide goat to characterize the genomic variation of BoHuai goat. Results The results showed that the nucleotide diversity of BoHuai goats was lower and the degree of linkage imbalance was higher than that of other breeds. The analysis of population structure showed that BoHuai goats have obvious differences from other goat breeds. In addition, the BoHuai goat is more closely related to the Boer goat than the Huai goat and is highly similar to the Boer goat. Group by selection signal in the BoHuai goat study, we found that one region on chromosome 7 shows a very strong selection signal, which suggests that it could well be the segment region under the intense artificial selection results. Through selective sweeps, we detected some genes related to important traits such as lipid metabolism (LDLR, STAR, ANGPTL8), fertility (STAR), and disease resistance (CD274, DHPS, PDCD1LG2). Conclusion In this paper, we elucidated the genomic variation, ancestry composition, and selective signals related to important economic traits in BoHuai goats. Our studies on the genome of BoHuai goats will not only help to understand the characteristics of the crossbred but also provide a basis for the improvement of cross-breeding programs.

(1) Background: Copy number variation (CNV) is a critical component of genome structural variation and has garnered significant attention. High-throughput screening of the KCNJ15 gene has revealed a correlation between the CNV region and the growth traits of goats. We aimed to identify the CNV of the KCNJ15 gene in five goat breeds and analyze its association with growth characteristics. (2) Methods: We utilized 706 goats from five breeds: Guizhou black goat (GZB), Guizhou white goat (GZW), Bohuai goat (BH), Huai goat (HH), and Taihang goat (TH). To evaluate the number of copies of the KCNJ15 gene using qPCR, we analyzed the correlation between the CNV and growth characteristics and then used a universal linear model. The findings revealed variations in the distribution of different copy number types among the different goat breeds. (3) Results: Association analysis revealed a positive influence of the CNV in the KCNJ15 gene on goat growth. In GZB, individuals with duplication types exhibited superior performance in terms of cannon bone circumference (p < 0.05). In HH, individuals with duplication types exhibited superior performance in terms of body slanting length (p < 0.05). Conversely, normal TH demonstrated better body height and body weight (p < 0.05), while in GZW, when CN = 3, it performed better than other types in terms of body weight and chest circumference (p < 0.05). However, in BH, it had no significant effect on growth traits. (4) Conclusions: We confirmed that the CNV in the KCNJ15 gene significantly influences the growth characteristics of four distinct goat breeds. The correlation between KCNJ15 gene CNVs and goat growth traits offers valuable insights to breeders, enabling them to employ precise and efficient breeding methods that enhance livestock welfare, productivity, and overall economic benefits in the industry.

Abstract Lightweighting of automotives is crucial for the decrease of fuel and energy consumption, as well as CO2 emission and environmental pollution. Polymer composites, especially the high strength glass fiber/polyamide (GF/PA) composites, have great potential in lightweight; however, they have not been universally accepted due to their insufficient performance. Here, a stearate‐ended hyperbranched polyester (HBP‐12‐n) is designed and high‐performance GF/PA6 composites with high GF content are prepared. The flowability of the composites can be further increased by combining carboxyl‐ended hyperbranched polymer (HyPer C181) with HBP‐12‐n. Compared with unmodified GF/PA6 composites, the melt flow index (MFI) can be increased remarkably to 587% by adding a 0.7 wt% mixture of HBP‐12‐75 and HyPer C181, and the strength and toughness remain competitive. The simultaneous improvement in MFI and impact strength of GF/PA6 composites is the first discovery of this kind, and a synergistic mechanism of amphiphilic bridging‐deformation slipping‐interfacial strengthening of hyperbranched polymers is proposed to account for this phenomenon. This work provides a simple strategy to fabricate GF/PA6 composites with the extensive application for automotive parts and has great prospects in making automotives lightweight and reduction of CO2 emissions.

ABSTRACT Newcastle disease virus (NDV) is an avian paramyxovirus that causes major economic losses to the poultry industry around the world, with NDV pathogenicity varying due to strain virulence differences. However, the impacts of intracellular viral replication and the heterogeneity of host responses among cell types are unknown. Here, we investigated the heterogeneity of lung tissue cells in response to NDV infection in vivo and that of the chicken embryo fibroblast cell line DF-1 in response to NDV infection in vitro using single-cell RNA sequencing. We characterized the NDV target cell types in the chicken lung at the single-cell transcriptome level and classified cells into five known and two unknown cell types. The five known cell types are the targets of NDV in the lungs with virus RNA detected. Different paths of infection in the putative trajectories of NDV infection were distinguished between in vivo and in vitro, or between virulent Herts/33 strain and nonvirulent LaSota strain. Gene expression patterns and the interferon (IFN) response in different putative trajectories were demonstrated. IFN responses were elevated in vivo, especially in myeloid and endothelial cells. We distinguished the virus-infected and non-infected cells, and the Toll-like receptor signaling pathway was the main pathway after virus infection. Cell-cell communication analysis revealed the potential cell surface receptor-ligand of NDV. Our data provide a rich resource for understanding NDV pathogenesis and open the way to interventions specifically targeting infected cells. IMPORTANCE Newcastle disease virus (NDV) is an avian paramyxovirus that causes major economic losses to the poultry industry around the world, with NDV pathogenicity varying due to strain virulence differences. However, the impacts of intracellular viral replication and the heterogeneity of host responses among cell types are unknown. Here, we investigated the heterogeneity of lung tissue cells in response to NDV infection in vivo and that of the chicken embryo fibroblast cell line DF-1 in response to NDV infection in vitro using single-cell RNA sequencing. Our results open the way to interventions specifically targeting infected cells, suggest principles of virus-host interactions applicable to NDV and other similar pathogens, and highlight the potential for simultaneous single-cell measurements of both host and viral transcriptomes for delineating a comprehensive map of infection in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, this study can be a useful resource for the further investigation and understanding of NDV.

Fast and precise pressure control for an electropneumatic brake system is essential for ensuring the safe operation of trains. However, the nonlinearity and uncertainties of the system make controller design challenging. This paper proposes a prescribed performance control method integrating an extended state observer to address this issue. A thermodynamical model of the brake cylinder is first built based on the pneumatic characteristics of the braking system, considering multiple modes, coupling effects, and input saturation. Then, an extended state observer is designed to estimate model uncertainty due to temperature variation and disturbances and to achieve online compensation of the model. A feedback control law with a specified prescribed performance function is developed based on the updated thermodynamic model to guarantee the transient and steady-state performance of the pressure control. A parameter adaptive method is also utilized to handle input saturation. The observer’s bounded convergence and stability analysis of the closed-loop control system is given using the Lyapunov theory. Compared experimental results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Abstract Background Native cattle breeds are an important source of genetic variation because they might carry alleles that enable them to adapt to local environment and tough feeding conditions. Jiaxian Red, a Chinese native cattle breed, is reported to have originated from crossbreeding between taurine and indicine cattle; their history as a draft and meat animal dates back at least 30 years. Using whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data of 30 animals from the core breeding farm, we investigated the genetic diversity, population structure and genomic regions under selection of Jiaxian Red cattle. Furthermore, we used 131 published genomes of world-wide cattle to characterize the genomic variation of Jiaxian Red cattle. Results The population structure analysis revealed that Jiaxian Red cattle harboured the ancestry with East Asian taurine (0.493), Chinese indicine (0.379), European taurine (0.095) and Indian indicine (0.033). Three methods (nucleotide diversity, linkage disequilibrium decay and runs of homozygosity) implied the relatively high genomic diversity in Jiaxian Red cattle. We used θπ, CLR, F ST and XP-EHH methods to look for the candidate signatures of positive selection in Jiaxian Red cattle. A total number of 171 (θπ and CLR) and 17 (F ST and XP-EHH) shared genes were identified using different detection strategies. Functional annotation analysis revealed that these genes are potentially responsible for growth and feed efficiency (CCSER1), meat quality traits (ROCK2, PPP1R12A, CYB5R4, EYA3, PHACTR1), fertility (RFX4, SRD5A2) and immune system response (SLAMF1, CD84 and SLAMF6). Conclusion We provide a comprehensive overview of sequence variations in Jiaxian Red cattle genomes. Selection signatures were detected in genomic regions that are possibly related to economically important traits in Jiaxian Red cattle. We observed a high level of genomic diversity and low inbreeding in Jiaxian Red cattle. These results provide a basis for further resource protection and breeding improvement of this breed.

Wound repair, as one of the most intricate biological mechanisms, is essential to ensure the formation and integrity of the skin barrier. However, multiple factors can cause delays and severe debilitating effects in wound repair, which bring serious challenges. Metal elements such as calcium, copper, iron, and zinc serve irreplaceable roles in various regulatory pathways of the human body and directly or indirectly affect the orderly wound repair process. Biomaterials have proven to be an attractive strategy that can be applied to wound repair and have excellent potential to induce skin regeneration. In recent decades, with in-depth research on the regulatory mechanisms of metal elements involved in wound repair, metal-based biomaterials have been widely reported. Metal-based zero-dimensional (0D) biomaterials such as Ångstrom-scale metallic materials and metal quantum dots, metal-based one-dimensional (1D) biomaterials such as nanorods, nanowires and nanofibers, metal-based two-dimensional (2D) biomaterials such as nanofilms and nanosheets, and metal-based three-dimensional (3D) biomaterials such as nanoframes have achieved remarkable results, which provide great support for accelerated wound repair. In this review, we systematically investigated the advances and impacts of various metal-based biomaterial platforms for wound repair to provide valuable guidance for future breakthroughs in wound treatment.

The present study showed that pretreatment of triadimefon (TDM), a triazole compound, could improve tolerance of soybean seedlings to subsequent water stress. TDM pretreatment resulted in early and late rise in superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities, and upregulation of ascorbate (AsA) content in non-stressed and water-stressed seedlings, leading to late increase in net photosynthetic rate (Pn), late decrease in hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and electrolyte leakage in stressed ones. These TDM-induced changes were blocked by application of abscisic acid (ABA) biosynthesis inhibitor tungstate, which inhibited early rise of ABA and H2O2 contents in non-stressed and stressed seedlings. However, ABA pretreatment overcomed the effects of this inhibitor. Application of NADPH oxidase inhibitor diphenyleneiodonium (DPI), polyamine oxidase (PAO) inhibitor 2-hydroxyethylhydrazine (2-HEH) and H2O2 scavenger dimethylthiourea (DMTU) prevented early TDM-induced rise of H2O2 content. DPI, 2-HEH and DMTU also decreased SOD, CAT and AsA levels, but did not affect ABA content during early and late phases in both seedlings pretreated with TDM. In addition, these chemicals decreased Pn, and increased H2O2 content and electrolyte leakage during late phase in TDM-pretreated stressed seedlings. Overall, these results indicated that TDM pretreatment alleviated adverse effects of water stress on soybean seedlings, which was at least in part, due to increase of antioxidant capacity and decrease of oxidative damage induced by early ABA-dependent H2O2 generation.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) induction is an effective mechanism to kill cancer cells for many chemotherapeutics, while resettled redox homeostasis induced by the anticancer drugs will promote cancer chemoresistance. Natural ent-kaurane diterpenoids have been found to bind glutathione (GSH) and sulfhydryl group in antioxidant enzymes covalently, which leads to the destruction of intracellular redox homeostasis. Therefore, redox resetting destruction by ent-kaurane diterpenoids may emerge as a viable strategy for cancer therapy. In this study, we isolated 30 ent-kaurane diterpenoids including 20 new samples from Chinese liverworts Jungermannia tetragona Lindenb and studied their specific targets and possible application in cancer drug resistance through redox resetting destruction. 11β-hydroxy-ent-16-kaurene-15-one (23) possessed strong inhibitory activity against several cancer cell lines. Moreover, compound 23 induced both apoptosis and ferroptosis through increasing cellular ROS levels in HepG2 cells. ROS accumulation induced by compound 23 was caused by inhibition of antioxidant systems through targeting peroxiredoxin I/II (Prdx I/II) and depletion of GSH. Furthermore, compound 23 sensitized cisplatin (CDDP)-resistant A549/CDDP cancer cells in vitro and in vivo by inducing apoptosis and ferroptosis. Thus, the ent-kaurane derivative showed potential application for sensitizing CDDP resistance by redox resetting destruction through dual inhibition of Prdx I/II and GSH in cancer chemotherapy.

Copy number variation is a part of genomic structural variation and has caused widespread concern. According to the results of high-throughput screening of the MLLT10 gene, we found that the copy number variation region of the MLLT10 gene was correlated with bovine growth traits. We aimed to detect the MLLT10 gene copy number variation and provide materials for the Chinese yellow cattle breed. In this study, the SPSS software was used to analyze the correlation among the copy number type of six different cattle breeds (i.e., Qinchuan, Xianan, Jiaxian, Yanbian, Sinan, Yunling) and the corresponding growth traits. The results showed the following: In Qinchuan cattle, the copy number duplication type was greater than the deletion and normal types; in Xianan cattle, the copy number duplication and normal types were less as compared with the deletion type; and in Yunling cattle, the frequency of the duplication type was dominant among the three types of copy number variants. The correlation analysis result showed that there is a significant correlation between the copy number variation (CNV) of the MLLT10 gene and the growth traits of three cattle breeds. Furthermore, correlation analysis showed that MLLT10 CNV had positive effects on growth traits such as hip width, rump length, hucklebone width, and cannon bone circumference (p < 0.05). This study provides a basis for the molecular-assisted marker breeding of cattle and contributes to the breeding of cattle.