Logical quantum processor based on reconfigurable atom arrays.

Suppressing errors is the central challenge for useful quantum computing1, requiring quantum error correction (QEC)2-6 for large-scale processing. However, the overhead in the realization of error-corrected 'logical' qubits, in which information is encoded across many physical qubits for redundancy2-4, poses substantial challenges to large-scale logical quantum computing. Here we report the realization of a programmable quantum processor based on encoded logical qubits operating with up to 280 physical qubits. Using logical-level control and a zoned architecture in reconfigurable neutral-atom arrays7, our system combines high two-qubit gate fidelities8, arbitrary connectivity7,9, as well as fully programmable single-qubit rotations and mid-circuit readout10-15. Operating this logical processor with various types of encoding, we demonstrate improvement of a two-qubit logic gate by scaling surface-code6 distance from d = 3 to d = 7, preparation of colour-code qubits with break-even fidelities5, fault-tolerant creation of logical Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states and feedforward entanglement teleportation, as well as operation of 40 colour-code qubits. Finally, using 3D [[8,3,2]] code blocks16,17, we realize computationally complex sampling circuits18 with up to 48 logical qubits entangled with hypercube connectivity19 with 228 logical two-qubit gates and 48 logical CCZ gates20. We find that this logical encoding substantially improves algorithmic performance with error detection, outperforming physical-qubit fidelities at both cross-entropy benchmarking and quantum simulations of fast scrambling21,22. These results herald the advent of early error-corrected quantum computation and chart a path towards large-scale logical processors.

Tuning Reactive Crystallization Pathways for Integrated CO2 Capture, Conversion, and Storage via Mineralization.

ConspectusAchieving carbon neutrality requires realizing scalable advances in energy- and material-efficient pathways to capture, convert, store, and remove anthropogenic CO2 emission in air and flue gas while cogenerating multiple high-value products. To this end, earth-abundant Ca- and Mg-bearing alkaline resources can be harnessed to cogenerate Ca- and Mg-hydroxide, silica, H2, O2, and a leachate bearing high-value metals in an electrochemical approach with the in situ generation of a pH gradient, which is a significant departure from existing pH-swing-based approaches. To accelerate CO2 capture and mineralization, CO2 in dilute sources is captured using solvents to produce CO2-loaded solvents. CO2-loaded solvents are reacted Ca- and Mg-bearing hydroxides to produce Ca- and Mg-carbonates while regenerating the solvents. These carbonates can be used as a temporary or permanent store of CO2 emissions. When carbonates are used as a temporary store of CO2 emissions, electrochemical sorbent regeneration pathways can be harnessed to produce high-purity CO2 while regenerating Ca- and Mg-hydroxide and coproducing H2 and O2. Figure 1 is a schematic representation of this integrated approach.Tuning the molecular-scale and nanoscale interactions underlying these reactive crystallization mechanisms for carbon transformations is crucial for achieving kinetic, chemical, and morphological controls over these pathways. To this end, the feasibility of (i) crystallizing Ca- and Mg-hydroxide during the electrochemical desilication of earth-abundant alkaline industrial residues, (ii) accelerating the conversion of Ca- and Mg-carbonates for temporary or permanent carbon storage by harnessing regenerable solvents, and (iii) regenerating Ca- and Mg-hydroxide while coproducing high-purity CO2, O2, and H2 electrochemically is established.Evidence of the fractionation of heterogeneous slag to coproduce silica, Ca- and Mg-hydroxide, and a leachate bearing metals during electrochemical desilication provides the basis for further tuning the physicochemical parameters to improve the energy and material efficiency of these pathways. To address the slow kinetics of CO2 capture and mineralization starting from ultradilute emissions, reactive capture pathways that harness solvents such as Na-glycinate are shown to be effective. The extents of carbon mineralization of Ca(OH)2 and Mg(OH)2 are 97% and 78% using CO2-loaded Na-glycinate upon reacting for 3 h at 90 °C. During the regeneration of Ca- and Mg-hydroxide and high-purity CO2 from carbonate sources, charge efficiencies of as high as 95% were observed for the dissolution of MgCO3 and CaCO3 while stirring at 100 rpm. Higher yields of Mg(OH)2 are observed compared to that for Ca(OH)2 during sorbent regeneration due to the lower solubility of Mg(OH)2. These findings provide the scientific basis for further tuning these reactive crystallization pathways for closing material and carbon cycles to advance a sustainable climate, energy, and environmental future.

Face-to-face Assembly Strategy of Au Nanocubes: Induced Generation of Broad Hotspot Regions for SERS-Fluorescence Dual-Signal Detection of Intracellular miRNAs.

While designing anisotropic noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) can enhance the signal intensity of Raman dyes, more sensitive surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) probes can be designed by oriented self-assembly of noble metal nanomaterials into dimers or higher-order nanoclusters. In this study, we engineered a self-assembly strategy in living cells for real-time fluorescence and SERS dual-channel detection of intracellular microRNAs (miRNAs), using Mg2+-dependent 8-17E DNAzyme sequences as the driving motors, gold nanocubes (AuNCs) as the driver components, and three-branched double-stranded DNA as the linking tool. The assembly selects adenine in DNA as a reporter molecule, simplifying the labeling process of Raman reporter molecules and reducing the synthesis process. In addition, adenine is stably distributed between the faces of AuNCs and the wide hotspot region gives good reproducibility of the adenine SERS signal. In this strategy, the SERS channel was consistently stable and more sensitive compared to the fluorescence channel. Among them, the detection limit of the SERS channel was 2.1 pM and the coefficient of variation was 1.26% in the in vitro liquid phase and 1.49% in MCF-7 cells. The strategy successfully achieved accurate tracking and quantification of miRNA-21 in cancer cells, showing good reproducibility in complex samples as well as cells. The reported strategy provides ideas for exploring intracellular specific triggering of nanoparticles for precise control of self-assembly.

Native Approach to Controlled-Z Gates in Inductively Coupled Fluxonium Qubits.

The fluxonium qubits have emerged as a promising platform for gate-based quantum information processing. However, their extraordinary protection against charge fluctuations comes at a cost: when coupled capacitively, the qubit-qubit interactions are restricted to XX interactions. Consequently, effective ZZ or XZ interactions are only constructed either by temporarily populating higher-energy states, or by exploiting perturbative effects under microwave driving. Instead, we propose and demonstrate an inductive coupling scheme, which offers a wide selection of native qubit-qubit interactions for fluxonium. In particular, we leverage a built-in, flux-controlled ZZ interaction to perform qubit entanglement. To combat the increased flux-noise-induced dephasing away from the flux-insensitive position, we use a continuous version of the dynamical decoupling scheme to perform noise filtering. Combining these, we demonstrate a 20 ns controlled-z gate with a mean fidelity of 99.53%. More than confirming the efficacy of our gate scheme, this high-fidelity result also reveals a promising but rarely explored parameter space uniquely suitable for gate operations between fluxonium qubits.

Meteorin-like protein/METRNL/Interleukin-41 ameliorates atopic dermatitis-like inflammation.

BACKGROUND: Meteorin-like protein (METRNL)/Interleukin-41 (IL-41) is a novel immune-secreted cytokine/myokine involved in several inflammatory diseases. However, how METRNL exerts its regulatory properties on skin inflammation remains elusive. This study aims to elucidate the functionality and regulatory mechanism of METRNL in atopic dermatitis (AD). METHODS: METRNL levels were determined in skin and serum samples from patients with AD and subsequently verified in the vitamin D3 analogue MC903-induced AD-like mice model. The cellular target of METRNL activity was identified by multiplex immunostaining, single-cell RNA-seq and RNA-seq. RESULTS: METRNL was significantly upregulated in lesions and serum of patients with dermatitis compared to healthy controls (p <.05). Following repeated MC903 exposure, AD model mice displayed elevated levels of METRNL in both ears and serum. Administration of recombinant murine METRNL protein (rmMETRNL) ameliorated allergic skin inflammation and hallmarks of AD in mice, whereas blocking of METRNL signaling led to the opposite. METRNL enhanced ß-Catenin activation, limited the expression of Th2-related molecules that attract the accumulation of Arginase-1 (Arg1)hi macrophages, dendritic cells, and activated mast cells. CONCLUSIONS: METRNL can bind to KIT receptor and subsequently alleviate the allergic inflammation of AD by inhibiting the expansion of immune cells, and downregulating inflammatory gene expression by regulating the level of active WNT pathway molecule ß-Catenin.

Development of a highly efficient prime editor system in mice and rabbits.

The recently developed prime-editing (PE) technique is more precise than previously available techniques and permits base-to-base conversion, replacement, and insertions and deletions in the genome. However, previous reports show that the efficiency of prime editing is insufficient to produce genome-edited animals. In fact, prime-guide RNA (pegRNA) designs have posed a challenge in achieving favorable editing efficiency. Here, we designed prime binding sites (PBS) with a melting temperature (Tm) of 42 °C, leading to optimal performance in cells, and we found that the optimal Tm was affected by the culture temperature. In addition, the ePE3max system was developed by updating the PE architecture to PEmax and expressing engineered pegRNA (epegRNA) based on the original PE3 system. The updated ePE3max system can efficiently induce gene editing in mouse and rabbit embryos. Furthermore, we successfully generated a Hoxd13 (c. 671 G > T) mutation in mice and a Tyr (c. 572 del) mutation in rabbits by ePE3max. Overall, the editing efficiency of modified ePE3max systems is superior to that of the original PE3 system in producing genome-edited animals, which can serve as an effective and versatile genome-editing tool for precise genome modification in animal models.

A new compact adenine base editor generated through deletion of HNH and REC2 domain of SpCas9.

BACKGROUND: Adenine base editors (ABEs) are promising therapeutic gene editing tools that can efficiently convert targeted A•T to G•C base pairs in the genome. However, the large size of commonly used ABEs based on SpCas9 hinders its delivery in vivo using certain vectors such as adeno-associated virus (AAV) during preclinical applications. Despite a number of approaches having previously been attempted to overcome that challenge, including split Cas9-derived and numerous domain-deleted versions of editors, whether base editor (BE) and prime editor (PE) systems can also allow deletion of those domains remains to be proven. In this study, we present a new small ABE (sABE) with significantly reduced size. RESULTS: We discovered that ABE8e can tolerate large single deletions in the REC2 (Δ174-296) and HNH (Δ786-855) domains of SpCas9, and these deletions can be stacked together to create a new sABE. The sABE showed higher precision than the original ABE8e, with proximally shifted protospacer adjacent motif (PAM) editing windows (A3- A15), and comparable editing efficiencies to 8e-SaCas9-KKH. The sABE system efficiently generated A-G mutations at disease-relevant loci (T1214C in GAA and A494G in MFN2) in HEK293T cells and several canonical Pcsk9 splice sites in N2a cells. Moreover, the sABE enabled in vivo delivery in a single adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector with slight efficiency. Furthermore, we also successfully edited the genome of mouse embryos by microinjecting mRNA and sgRNA of sABE system into zygotes. CONCLUSIONS: We have developed a substantially smaller sABE system that expands the targeting scope and offers higher precision of genome editing. Our findings suggest that the sABE system holds great therapeutic potential in preclinical applications.

Engineered domain-inlaid Nme2Cas9 adenine base editors with increased on-target DNA editing and targeting scope.

BACKGROUND: Nme2ABE8e has been constructed and characterized as a compact, accurate adenine base editor with a less restrictive dinucleotide protospacer-adjacent motif (PAM: N4CC) but low editing efficiency at challenging loci in human cells. Here, we engineered a subset of domain-inlaid Nme2Cas9 base editors to bring the deaminase domain closer to the nontarget strand to improve editing efficiency. RESULTS: Our results demonstrated that Nme2ABE8e-797 with adenine deaminase inserted between amino acids 797 and 798 has a significantly increased editing efficiency with a wide editing window ranging from 4 to 18 bases in mammalian cells, especially at the sites that were difficult to edit by Nme2ABE8e. In addition, by swapping the PAM-interacting domain of Nme2ABE8e-797 with that of SmuCas9 or introducing point mutations of eNme2-C in Nme2ABE8e-797, we created Nme2ABE8e-797Smu and Nme2ABE8e-797-C, respectively, which exhibited robust activities at a wide range of sites with N4CN PAMs in human cells. Moreover, the modified domain-inlaid Nme2ABE8e can efficiently restore or install disease-related loci in Neuro-2a cells and mice. CONCLUSIONS: These novel Nme2ABE8es with increased on-target DNA editing and expanded PAM compatibility will expand the base editing toolset for efficient gene modification and therapeutic applications.

Minimizing Task Age upon Decision for Low-Latency MEC Networks Task Offloading with Action-Masked Deep Reinforcement Learning.

In this paper, we consider a low-latency Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) network where multiple User Equipment (UE) wirelessly reports to a decision-making edge server. At the same time, the transmissions are operated with Finite Blocklength (FBL) codes to achieve low-latency transmission. We introduce the task of Age upon Decision (AuD) aimed at the timeliness of tasks used for decision-making, which highlights the timeliness of the information at decision-making moments. For the case in which dynamic task generation and random fading channels are considered, we provide a task AuD minimization design by jointly selecting UE and allocating blocklength. In particular, to solve the task AuD minimization problem, we transform the optimization problem to a Markov Decision Process problem and propose an Error Probability-Controlled Action-Masked Proximal Policy Optimization (EMPPO) algorithm. Via simulation, we show that the proposed design achieves a lower AuD than baseline methods across various network conditions, especially in scenarios with significant channel Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) differences and low average SNR, which shows the robustness of EMPPO and its potential for real-time applications.

Small-sample stacking model for qualitative analysis of aluminum alloys based on femtosecond laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy.

Material characterization using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) often relies on extensive data for effective analysis. However, data acquisition can be challenging, and the high dimensionality of raw spectral data combined with a large-scale sample dataset can strain computational resources. In this study, we propose a small sample size stacking model based on femtosecond LIBS to achieve accurate qualitative analysis of aluminum alloys. The proposed three-layer stacking algorithm performs data reconstruction and feature extraction to enhance the analysis. In the first layer, random forest spectral feature selection and specific spectral line spreading are employed to reconstruct the data. The second layer utilizes three heterogeneous classifiers to extract features from the reconstructed spectra in different feature spaces, generating second-level reconstructed data. Finally, the third layer utilizes the reconstructed dataset for qualitative prediction. Results indicate that the Stacking algorithm outperforms traditional methods such as k-nearest neighbors (KNN), support vector machine (SVM), and random forest (RF), including those combined with principal component analysis (PCA). The Stacking algorithm achieves an impressive 100% recognition rate in classification, with Accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 scores reaching 1.0. Moreover, as the number of samples decreases, the gap between the recognition accuracy of the Stacking algorithm and traditional approaches widens. For instance, using only 15 spectra for training, the Stacking algorithm achieves a recognition accuracy of 96.47%, significantly surpassing the improved RF's accuracy of 71.76%. Notably, the model demonstrates strong robustness compared to traditional modeling approaches, and the qualitative prediction error remains consistently below 5%. These findings underscore the model's enhanced generalization ability and higher prediction accuracy in small sample machine learning. This research contributes significantly to improving the applicability of the LIBS technique for fast detection and analysis of small samples. It provides valuable insights into the development of effective methodologies for material characterization, paving the way for advancements in the field.

Uncovering the molecular mechanisms of Fructus Choerospondiatis against coronary heart disease using network pharmacology analysis and experimental pharmacology.

Fructus Choerospondiatis (FC), a Mongolian medicine, was mainly used in Mongolian medical theory for the treatment of coronary heart disease (CHD). Nonetheless, the main components and mechanisms of action of FC in the treatment of coronary artery disease have not been studied clearly. AIM OF THE STUDY: The aim of this study is to identify the components of FC and analyze the pathways affected by the targets of these components to probe into the potential mechanisms of action of FC on coronary heart disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Identification of compounds in FC employing high performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-QTOF-MS) method, then further investigate the network pharmacology and molecular docking to obtain potential targets and elucidate the potential mechanism of action of FC in the therapy of CHD. Experimental validation was established to verify the mechanism of FC in vitro. RESULTS: 21 FC components were identified and 65 overlapping targets were gained. In addition, these ingredients regulated AMPK and PPAR signaling pathway by 65 target genes including IL6, AKT1 and PPARg, etc. Molecular docking displayed that the binding ability of the key target PPARg to FC components turned out to be better. Experimental validation proved that FC treatment decreased the expression of PPARg (p < 0.05) compare with model group, which may be involved in the PPAR signaling pathway. CONCLUSIONS: This study was the first to elucidate the mechanism of action of components of FC for the treatment of CHD using network pharmacology. It alleviated CHD by inhibiting the expression of PPARg to attenuate hypoxia/reoxygenation injury, and the results give a basis for elucidating the molecular mechanism of action of FC for the treatment of coronary heart disease.

Density Functional Theory and Raman Spectroscopy Studies of Adsorption Sites of Au Nanoparticles with Alectinib.

Alectinib is an ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitor, which is mainly used in patients with crizotinib-resistant nonsmall cell lung cancer. Alectinib has attracted much clinical attention for its longest progression-free survival time and the best therapeutic effect. The chemical adsorption of Au nanoclusters (AuNPs) with alectinib molecules is studied by density functional theory (DFT) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy (SERS) experiments. DFT/B3LYP-D3/6-311G** was used for optimization and vibration analysis of alectinib-Au6 complexes, as well as molecular electrostatic potential, frontier molecular orbital, and electro-optic-based charge transfer descriptors. Comparing the results of the DFT theory and SERS experiment, alectinib and AuNPs can form Au-N6 bonds primarily through chemical adsorption of N6 atoms, and the experimental results showed that the enhancement factor (EFCHEM) could reach 4.27. The results provide a theoretical basis for exploring the mechanism of chemical enhancement between AuNPs and alectinib.

Effects of Au6 and Au20 Adsorption Sites of Cyromazine-Au Complexes by Raman Spectroscopy and Density Functional Theory.

Cyromazine, when used as an insect growth regulator and low-toxicity insecticide, may degrade into melamine and pose a potential threat to the environment and soil health, which has thus attracted extensive research on eliminating such a harmful effect. In this paper, density functional theory (DFT)/LC-BLYP/6-311G(d,p) is used to optimize the geometric structure and analyze the vibration of cyromazine. The DFT/LC-BLYP/def2-SVP is used for the cyromazine-Au complex optimization and vibration analysis. The molecular electrostatic potential (MEP), frontier molecular orbitals (FMOs), vibration frequency, electrophilicity-based charge transfer (ECT) descriptor, binding energy (BE), polarizability, normal Raman spectroscopy (NRS), and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) of cyromazine adsorbing on Au6 and Au20 are calculated. The study of the chemical enhancement mechanism of SERS of cyromazine at different adsorption sites of Au6 or Au20 confirms the existence of a charge transfer between cyclopromazine and Au6 and Au20, which can adsorb and form stable cyromazine-Au complexes. The results show that N2, H13, and N4 are the adsorption sites of Au6 and Au20. The Raman spectra of the cyromazine-Au complex can be selectively enhanced with a factor up to 9.07. Compared with those of cyromazine-Au6, the Raman spectra of cyromazine-Au20 are enhanced more significantly.

Natural epidithiodiketopiperazine alkaloids as potential anticancer agents: Recent mechanisms of action, structural modification, and synthetic strategies.

Cancer has become a grave health crisis that threatens the lives of millions of people worldwide. Because of the drawbacks of the available anticancer drugs, the development of novel and efficient anticancer agents should be encouraged. Epidithiodiketopiperazine (ETP) alkaloids with a 2,5-diketopiperazine (DKP) ring equipped with transannular disulfide or polysulfide bridges or S-methyl moieties constitute a special subclass of fungal natural products. Owing to their privileged sulfur units and intriguing architectural structures, ETP alkaloids exhibit excellent anticancer activities by regulating multiple cancer proteins/signaling pathways, including HIF-1, NF-κB, NOTCH, Wnt, and PI3K/AKT/mTOR, or by inducing cell-cycle arrest, apoptosis, and autophagy. Furthermore, a series of ETP alkaloid derivatives obtained via structural modification showed more potent anticancer activity than natural ETP alkaloids. To solve supply difficulties from natural resources, the total synthetic routes for several ETP alkaloids have been designed. In this review, we summarized several ETP alkaloids with anticancer properties with particular emphasis on their underlying mechanisms of action, structural modifications, and synthetic strategies, which will offer guidance to design and innovate potential anticancer drugs.

Recent progress in chemistry and bioactivity of monoterpenoid indole alkaloids from the genus gelsemium: a comprehensive review.

Monoterpenoid indole alkaloids (MIAs) represent a major class of active ingredients from the plants of the genus Gelsemium. Gelsemium MIAs with diverse chemical structures can be divided into six categories: gelsedine-, gelsemine-, humantenine-, koumine-, sarpagine- and yohimbane-type. Additionally, gelsemium MIAs exert a wide range of bioactivities, including anti-tumour, immunosuppression, anti-anxiety, analgesia, and so on. Owing to their fascinating structures and potent pharmaceutical properties, these gelsemium MIAs arouse significant organic chemists' interest to design state-of-the-art synthetic strategies for their total synthesis. In this review, we comprehensively summarised recently reported novel gelsemium MIAs, potential pharmacological activities of some active molecules, and total synthetic strategies covering the period from 2013 to 2022. It is expected that this study may open the window to timely illuminate and guide further study and development of gelsemium MIAs and their derivatives in clinical practice.

Vortex-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction based on the hydrophobic deep eutectic solvent-based ferrofluid for extraction and detection of myclobutanil.

A vortex-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (VA-DLLME) procedure using hydrophobic deep eutectic solvent-based ferrofluid (HDES-FF) as an extractant was established. The developed sample preparation method coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector (HPLC-DAD) was applied to the pretreatment and determination of myclobutanil (MYC) in fruit juice. Hydrophobic deep eutectic solvent, synthesized by n-decanoic acid and DL-menthol, was as a carrier and combined with magnetic nanoparticles (Fe3O4@OA) to form HDES-FF as an extractant with high extraction capacity. The synthesized materials were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). Parameters affecting extraction efficiency were optimized using single-factor experiments and Box-Behnken design via response surface methodology (BBD-RSM). Parallel tests were performed three times under the optimal conditions predicted by the model, yielding an actual mean recovery of 94.77% with RSD of 2.7% (n = 3) and an enrichment factor of 41.8 ± 0.98 (mean value ± SD, n = 3). Under the optimal conditions, the linear range was 1.0-100.0 µg·mL-1; the limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were 0.25 and 0.80 µg·mL-1, respectively. The average spiked recoveries in the samples ranged from 98.2 to 100.5% with intra-day relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 1.2-3.5% (n = 3) and inter-day RSDs of 1.1-3.8% (n = 3). Finally, the method was successfully applied to the determination of MYC antimicrobial agent in different fruit juice samples. The proposed HDES-FF-VA-DLLME/HPLC-DAD method was verified to widely apply to the extraction of triazole fungicides.

Combined Metabolome and Transcriptome Analysis Elucidates Sugar Accumulation in Wucai (Brassica campestris L.).

Wucai (Brassica campestris L.) is a leafy vegetable that originated in China, its soluble sugars accumulate significantly to improve taste quality during maturation, and it is widely accepted by consumers. In this study, we investigated the soluble sugar content at different developmental stages. Two periods including 34 days after planting (DAP) and 46 DAP, which represent the period prior to and after sugar accumulation, respectively, were selected for metabolomic and transcriptomic profiling. Differentially accumulated metabolites (DAMs) were mainly enriched in the pentose phosphate pathway, galactose metabolism, glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, starch and sucrose metabolism, and fructose and mannose metabolism. By orthogonal projection to latent structures-discriminant s-plot (OPLS-DA S-plot) and MetaboAnalyst analyses, D-galactose and ß-D-glucose were identified as the major components of sugar accumulation in wucai. Combined with the transcriptome, the pathway of sugar accumulation and the interact network between 26 DEGs and the two sugars were mapped. CWINV4, CEL1, BGLU16, and BraA03g023380.3C had positive correlations with the accumulation of sugar accumulation in wucai. The lower expression of BraA06g003260.3C, BraA08g002960.3C, BraA05g019040.3C, and BraA05g027230.3C promoted sugar accumulation during the ripening of wucai. These findings provide insights into the mechanisms underlying sugar accumulation during commodity maturity, providing a basis for the breeding of sugar-rich wucai cultivars.

Elevation of Metrnß and Its Association with Disease Activity in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an auto-immune disease, the pathogenesis of which remains to be fully addressed. Metrnß is a novel cytokine involved in the pathogenesis of inflammatory disease, but its regulatory roles in SLE are unclear. We aimed to comprehensively investigate the clinical value of Metrnß in SLE. A massive elevation of circulating Metrnß levels was observed in SLE, and patients with an active phase displayed higher Metrnß concentrations than those with inactive phases. Additionally, we found that Metrnß expression was positively correlated with clinical indicators of SLE. Longitudinal cytokine and chemokine profiles revealed a disturbed immune response in SLE, with high activity profiles displayed severe pathogenic inflammation, and a positive correlation of the serum Metrnß with CXCL9, IL10, IL18 and IL1RA was observed as well. Moreover, Metrnß expressions exhibited an inverse correlation with Treg and B10. Of note, a significant decrease of ILC2 was found in SLE, and there was a negative correlation of Metrnß with ILC2 as well. Further ROC analysis showed that the area under the curve (AUC) for Metrnß was 0.8250 (95% CI: 0.7379-0.9121), with a cutoff value of 1131 pg/mL to effectively distinguish SLE patients from healthy controls. Our study herein demonstrated for the first time that Metrnß values were increased and were immunologically correlated with SLE activity, which could be utilized as an alternative biomarker for the early identification and predicting of the immuno-response of SLE.

Transcriptome analysis and differential gene expression profiling of wucai (Brassica campestris L.) in response to cold stress.

BACKGROUND: Wucai suffers from low temperature during the growth period, resulting in a decline in yield and poor quality. But the molecular mechanisms of cold tolerance in wucai are still unclear. RESULTS: According to the phenotypes and physiological indexes, we screened out the cold-tolerant genotype "W18" (named CT) and cold-sensitive genotype "Sw-1" (named CS) in six wucai genotypes. We performed transcriptomic analysis using seedling leaves after 24 h of cold treatment. A total of 3536 and 3887 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between the low temperature (LT) and control (NT) comparative transcriptome in CT and CS, respectively, with 1690 DEGs specific to CT. The gene ontology (GO) analysis showed that the response to cadmium ion (GO:0,046,686), response to jasmonic acid (GO:0,009,753), and response to wounding (GO:0,009,611) were enriched in CT (LT vs NT). The DEGs were enriched in starch and sucrose metabolism and glutathione metabolism in both groups, and α-linolenic acid metabolism was enriched only in CT (LT vs NT). DEGs in these processes, including glutathione S-transferases (GSTs), 13S lipoxygenase (LOX), and jasmonate ZIM-domain (JAZ), as well as transcription factors (TFs), such as the ethylene-responsive transcription factor 53 (ERF53), basic helix-loop-helix 92 (bHLH92), WRKY53, and WRKY54.We hypothesize that these genes play important roles in the response to cold stress in this species. CONCLUSIONS: Our data for wucai is consistent with previous studies that suggest starch and sucrose metabolism increased the content of osmotic substances, and the glutathione metabolism pathway enhance the active oxygen scavenging. These two pathways may participated in response to cold stress. In addition, the activation of α-linolenic acid metabolism may promote the synthesis of methyl jasmonate (MeJA), which might also play a role in the cold tolerance of wucai.

Fluxonium: An Alternative Qubit Platform for High-Fidelity Operations.

Superconducting qubits provide a promising path toward building large-scale quantum computers. The simple and robust transmon qubit has been the leading platform, achieving multiple milestones. However, fault-tolerant quantum computing calls for qubit operations at error rates significantly lower than those exhibited in the state of the art. Consequently, alternative superconducting qubits with better error protection have attracted increasing interest. Among them, fluxonium is a particularly promising candidate, featuring large anharmonicity and long coherence times. Here, we engineer a fluxonium-based quantum processor that integrates high qubit coherence, fast frequency tunability, and individual-qubit addressability for reset, readout, and gates. With simple and fast gate schemes, we achieve an average single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.97% and a two-qubit gate fidelity of up to 99.72%. This performance is comparable to the highest values reported in the literature of superconducting circuits. Thus our work, within the realm of superconducting qubits, reveals an alternative qubit platform that is competitive with the transmon system.