IGF2BP2 inhibits invasion and migration of clear cell renal cell carcinoma via targeting Netrin-4 in an m6A-dependent manner.

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), the most common subtype of renal cell carcinoma, often leads to a poor prognosis due to metastasis. The investigation of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) methylation, a crucial RNA modification, and its role in ccRCC, particularly through the m6A reader insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA-binding protein 2 (IGF2BP2), revealed significant insights. We found that IGF2BP2 was notably downregulated in ccRCC, which correlated with tumor aggressiveness and poor prognosis. Thus, IGFBP2 has emerged as an independent prognostic factor of ccRCC. Moreover, a strong positive correlation was observed between the expression of IGF2BP2 and Netrin-4. Netrin-4 was also downregulated in ccRCC, and its lower levels were associated with increased malignancy and poor prognosis. Overexpression of IGF2BP2 and Netrin-4 suppressed the invasion and migration of ccRCC cells, while Netrin-4 knockdown reversed these effects in ccRCC cell lines. RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP)-quantitative polymerase chain reaction validated the robust enrichment of Netrin-4 mRNA in anti-IGF2BP2 antibody immunoprecipitates. MeRlP showed significantly increased Netrin4 m6A levels after lGF2BP2 overexpression. Moreover, we found that IGF2BP2 recognized and bound to the m6A site within the coding sequence of Netrin-4, enhancing its mRNA stability. Collectively, these results showed that IGF2BP2 plays a suppressive role in the invasion and migration of ccRCC cells by targeting Netrin-4 in an m6A-dependent manner. These findings underscore the potential of IGF2BP2/Netrin-4 as a promising prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target in patients with ccRCC metastasis.

Continuously tunable silicon waveguide optical switched delay line based on grating-assisted contradirectional coupler.

The integrated optical delay line plays a crucial role in microwave photonic chips. Continuous tunability is a growing trend in filtering and beamforming techniques of microwave photonics. Based on the silicon platform, we present and experimentally demonstrate an integrated continuously optical tunable delay line (OTDL) chip, which contains a 4-bit optical switched delay line (OSDL) and a thermally tunable delay line based on grating-assisted Contradirectional coupler (CDC). The OSDL can achieve stepwise optical delays, while the CDC is introduced to improve delay tuning resolution within one step delay of the OSDL. The combination of the two modules can realize tuning delays from 0 to 160 ps. Additionally, it is easy to increase the maximum delay by cascading more optical switches. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed OTDL shows outstanding performance and good expansibility.

Research on Simultaneous Measurement of Magnetic Field and Temperature Based on Petaloid Photonic Crystal Fiber Sensor.

In this paper, we propose and design a magnetic field and temperature sensor using a novel petaloid photonic crystal fiber filled with magnetic fluid. The PCF achieves a high birefringence of more than 1.43 × 10-2 at the wavelength of 1550 nm via the design of material parameters, air hole shape and the distribution of the photonic crystal fiber. Further, in order to significantly improve the sensitivity of the sensor, the magnetic-fluid-sensitive material is injected into the pores of the designed photonic crystal fiber. Finally, the sensor adopts a Mach-Zehnder interferometer structure combined with the ultra-high birefringence of the proposed petaloid photonic crystal fiber. Magnetic field and temperature can be simultaneously measured via observing the spectral response of the x-polarization state and y-polarization state. As indicated via simulation analysis, the sensor can realize sensitivities to magnetic fields and temperatures at -1.943 nm/mT and 0.0686 nm/°C in the x-polarization state and -1.421 nm/mT and 0.0914 nm/°C in the y-polarization state. The sensor can realize the measurement of multiple parameters including temperature and magnetic intensity and has the advantage of high sensitivity.

Coherent high-spectral-resolution lidar for the measurement of the atmospheric Mie-Rayleigh-Brillouin backscatter spectrum.

In this study, a 1550 nm coherent high-spectral-resolution lidar (CHSRL) is developed to measure the optical properties of aerosols and atmospheric wind profiles in the atmospheric boundary layer. To determine the optical properties, a coherent frequency discriminator based on the fast Fourier transform is designed in the CHSRL to separate the Mie and the Rayleigh-Brillouin backscatter spectra to fulfill the needs of high-spectral measurements. The atmospheric wind velocity is retrieved using the simultaneously measured Doppler shift. This non-optical frequency discriminator is a feasible and low-cost solution compared to a narrow-bandwidth optical filter, such as a Fabry-Perot interferometer or an atomic filter. However, shot, amplifier spontaneous emission, and detector noise interfere with the Rayleigh-Brillouin spectrum. Therefore, a spectrum correction algorithm is proposed to recover the interfered Rayleigh-Brillouin spectrum, and the measurement results of the spectral line agree well with those modeled with Tenti S6 at different central frequencies. Finally, field observations for comparison are conducted with the co-located CHSRL, Raman lidar, and coherent Doppler wind lidar. The comparison results indicate that the correlation coefficient of the aerosol backscatter coefficient is 0.84. The correlation coefficient and standard deviation of wind velocity are 0.98 and 0.13 m · s-1, respectively.

The ABI4-RbohD/VTC2 regulatory module promotes reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation to decrease seed germination under salinity stress.

Salinity stress enhances reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation by activating the transcription of NADPH oxidase genes such as RbohD, thus mediating plant developmental processes, including seed germination. However, how salinity triggers the expression of ROS-metabolism-related genes and represses seed germination has not yet been fully addressed. In this study, we show that Abscisic Acid-Insensitive 4 (ABI4), a key component in abscisic acid (ABA) signaling, directly combines with RbohD and Vitamin C Defective 2 (VTC2), the key genes involved in ROS production and scavenging, to modulate ROS metabolism during seed germination under salinity stress. Salinity-induced ABI4 enhances RbohD expression by physically interacting with its promoter, and subsequently promotes ROS accumulation, thus resulting in cell membrane damage and a decrease in seed vigor. Additional genetic evidence indicated that the rbohd mutant largely rescues the salt-hypersensitive phenotype of ABI4 overexpression seeds. Consistently, the abi4/vtc2 double mutant showed the salt-sensitive phenotype, similar to the vtc2 mutant, suggesting that both RbohD and VTC2 are epistatic to ABI4 genetically. Altogether, these results suggest that the salt-induced RbohD transcription and ROS accumulation is dependent on ABI4, and that the ABI4-RbohD/VTC2 regulatory module integrates both ROS metabolism and cell membrane integrity, ultimately repressing seed germination under salinity stress.

Discriminable Multi-Label Attribute Selection for Pre-Course Student Performance Prediction.

The university curriculum is a systematic and organic study complex with some immediate associated steps; the initial learning of each semester's course is crucial, and significantly impacts the learning process of subsequent courses and further studies. However, the low teacher-student ratio makes it difficult for teachers to consistently follow up on the detail-oriented learning situation of individual students. The extant learning early warning system is committed to automatically detecting whether students have potential difficulties-or even the risk of failing, or non-pass reports-before starting the course. Previous related research has the following three problems: first of all, it mainly focused on e-learning platforms and relied on online activity data, which was not suitable for traditional teaching scenarios; secondly, most current methods can only proffer predictions when the course is in progress, or even approaching the end; thirdly, few studies have focused on the feature redundancy in these learning data. Aiming at the traditional classroom teaching scenario, this paper transforms the pre-class student performance prediction problem into a multi-label learning model, and uses the attribute reduction method to scientifically streamline the characteristic information of the courses taken and explore the important relationship between the characteristics of the previously learned courses and the attributes of the courses to be taken, in order to detect high-risk students in each course before the course begins. Extensive experiments were conducted on 10 real-world datasets, and the results proved that the proposed approach achieves better performance than most other advanced methods in multi-label classification evaluation metrics.

High-sensitivity refractive index and temperature sensor based on cascaded dual-wavelength fiber laser and SNHNS interferometer.

A novel differential intensity-measurement high-sensitivity refractive index (RI) sensor based on cascaded dual-wavelength fiber laser and single-mode-no-core-hollow-core-no-core-single-mode (SNHNS) structure is proposed and demonstrated. The sensing unit consists of one uniform fiber Bragg grating (FBG) and an SNHNS structure as all-fiber interferometer filter. The dual-wavelength fiber laser has a ring cavity composed of two FBGs with central wavelengths of 1550.10nm and 1553.61nm. Through monitoring the wavelength shift and the output power difference of the dual-wavelength fiber laser, the simultaneous measurement for RI and temperature is realized. In our experiment, the proposed fiber laser sensor exhibits high RI sensitivities of -193.1dB/RIU and 174.8dB/RIU in the range of 1.334-1.384. The relative variation of output power at the two FBG wavelengths shows a higher RI sensitivity of -367.9dB/RIU with better stability, which is greater than the traditional modal interferometer structure. Meanwhile, the temperature sensitivity of the proposed sensor is 8.53 × 10-3nm/°C, and the changes of laser output power caused by temperature are -0.223dB/°C and 0.215dB/°C.

Identification of the targets of HbEIN3/EILs in genomic wide in Hevea brasiliensis.

EIN3/EILs are key regulators in ET signaling pathway. In this work, 4 members of EIN3/EILs of Hevea brasiliensis (HbEIN3/EILs) showed interaction with two F box proteins, HbEBF1 and HbEBF2. HbEIN3 located in nucleus and exhibited strong transcriptional activity. HbEIN3 was induced by ET treatment in C-serum, but not in B-serum of latex. HbEIN3/EILs bound to G-box cis-element. To globally search the potential targets of HbEIN3/EILs, genomic sequences of H. brasiliensis was re-annotated and an HCES (Hevea Cis-Elements Scanning) program was developed ( www.h-brasiliensis.com ). HCES scanning results showed that ET- and JA- responsive cis-elements distribute overlapping in gene promoters. 3146 genes containing G-box in promoters are potential targets of HbEIN3, including 41 genes involved in biosynthesis and drainage of latex, of which 7 rate-limiting genes of latex production were regulated by both ET and JA, suggesting that ET and JA signaling pathways coordinated the latex biosynthesis and drainage in H. brasiliensis. Abbreviations: ABRE: ABA responsive elements; bHLH: basic helix-loop-helix; COG: Orthologous Groups; DRE: dehydration response element; ERE: ethylene responsive element; ET: Ethylene; GO: Gene Ontology; HCES: Hevea Cis-Elements Scanning; JA: jasmonates; JRE: Jasmonate-responsive element; KEGG: Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes; NR: non-redundant database; PLACE: Plant Cis-acting Regulatory DNA Elements; qRT-PCR: quantitative real-time RT-PCR.

Chilling-induced DNA Demethylation is associated with the cold tolerance of Hevea brasiliensis.

BACKGROUND: Low temperature influences the development and latex production of rubber trees (Hevea brasiliensis) when extension to suboptimal high-latitude areas. The successful extension of Hevea brasiliensis cultivation to high-latitude areas has long believed to benefit from the breeding of cold-tolerant cultivars. A puzzling incongruity is the variation in cold tolerance among the cultivated clones despite their similar genetic make-up. RESULTS: To investigate this, we first transferred cultivar Reyan 7-33-97 to short-term cold treatment, and showed that cold-related genes (such as HbICE1 and HbCBF2), cold-responsive (COR) genes, and DNA-methylation related genes (such as HbMET1) were induced by cold treatment. Furthermore, long-term cold treatment not only elevated the transcriptional activities of the HbICE1, HbCBF2, and HbMET, but also induced DNA demethylation of their promoters. Cold treatment increased the transcriptional activities of demethylation-related genes such as the HbDME, HbROS, and HbDML genes, but did not alter the promoter methylation status. Furthermore, the HbICE1 and HbMET promoters showed hypomethylation status in samples collected at the end of winter from 12 different cultivars grown in four geographical locations, but switched to hypermethylation status at the end of summer. Expression of COR was correlated with the low temperature. Given that little genetic diversity exists in the HbICE1 and HbMET promoters among different cultivars, the DNA demethylation induced by cold was highly correlated with low temperature, but not with the genetic backgrounds of cultivars. CONCLUSION: Cold-induced epigenetic modification might play an important role in cold tolerance of H. brasiliensis.

Function of Hevea brasiliensis NAC1 in dehydration-induced laticifer differentiation and latex biosynthesis.

MAIN CONCLUSIONS: HbNAC1 is a transcription factor in rubber plants whose expression is induced by dehydration, leading to latex biosynthesis. Laticifer is a special tissue in Hevea brasiliensis where natural rubber is biosynthesized and accumulated. In young stems of epicormic shoots, the differentiation of secondary laticifers can be induced by wounding, which can be prevented when the wounding site is wrapped. Using this system, differentially expressed genes were screened by suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) and macroarray analyses. This led to the identification of several dehydration-related genes that could be involved in laticifer differentiation and/or latex biosynthesis, including a NAC transcription factor (termed as HbNAC1). Tissue sections confirmed that local tissue dehydration was a key signal for laticifer differentiation. HbNAC1 was localized at the nucleus and showed strong transcriptional activity in yeast, suggesting that HbNAC1 is a transcription factor. Furthermore, HbNAC1 was found to bind to the cis-element CACG in the promoter region of the gene encoding the small rubber particle protein (SRPP). Transgenic experiments also confirmed that HbNAC1 interacted with the SRPP promoter when co-expressed, and enhanced expression of the reporter gene ß-glucuronidase occurred in planta. In addition, overexpression of HbNAC1 in tobacco plants conferred drought tolerance. Together, the data suggest that HbNAC1 might be involved in dehydration-induced laticifer differentiation and latex biosynthesis.

Puerarin ameliorates cognitive deficits in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.

Previous research has indicated that Diabetes is a high risk of learning and memory deficits. Puerarin, an isoflavonoid extracted from Kudzu roots, has been reported to possess antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic and anti-diabetic properties which are useful in the treatment of various diseases. Recently, Puerarin was found to have the effects on learning and memory performances in humans and animal models. However, up to now, there is no detailed evidence on the effect of Puerarin on diabetes-associated cognitive decline (DACD). In this study, we designed to assess the effects of Puerarin on diabetes-associated cognitive decline (DACD) using a streptozotocin (STZ)-injected rat model and exploring its potential mechanism. Diabetic rats were treated with Puerarin (100 mg/kg per d) for 7 days. The learning and memory function was evaluated by morris water maze test. The acetylcholinesterase (AChE), choline acetylase (ChAT), oxidative indicators [malondialdehyde (MDA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD)] and inflammatory cytokine (TNF-a, IL-1ß and IL-6) were measured in hippocampus by using corresponding commercial kits. mRNA and Protein levels of Bcl-2 were analyzed by RT-PCR and Westernblot. The results showed that supplementation of Puerarin improved the learning and memory performances compared with the STZ group by the morris water maze test. In addition, Puerarin supplement significantly prevented AChE and MDA activities, increased ChAT and SOD activities, and alleviated the protein level of TNF-α, IL-1ß and IL-6 in the hippocampus compared with the STZ group. Moreover, the pretreatment with Puerarin also significantly increased the Bcl-2 expression. It is concluded that Puerarin possesses neuroprotection to ameliorate cognitive deficits in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats by anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antiapototic effects.

Wogonoside Shows Antifibrotic Effects in an Experimental Regression Model of Hepatic Fibrosis.

BACKGROUD: Wogonoside (WO), a flavonoid extracted from Huangqin, plays multiple physiological roles. However, it has remained elusive how WO regulates hepatic fibrogenesis until now. AIM: The purpose of the study was to investigate the potential protective effects of WO against liver fibrosis induced by carbon tetrachloride (CCl4). METHODS: In this study, male rats were randomly allocated into four groups: a control group, the CCl4 group, the CCl4 and WO (4 mg/kg) group, and CCl4 and WO (8 mg/kg) group. Hepatic fibrosis was induced by subcutaneous injection of CCl4 twice a week for a continuous 6-week period. Then the rats were intragastrically administrated with WO daily for 4 weeks before being killed. RESULTS: As expected, histopathological assessment, Masson trichrome staining, and Sirius red staining demonstrated that WO drastically ameliorated the hepatic fibrosis caused by CCl4. WO significantly attenuated the CCl4-induced upregulations of liver indices including alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1ß, IL-6, hexadecenoic acid and laminin in serum, as well as hydroxyproline, malondialdehyde and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein Kinase B(Akt)/mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR)/nuclear factor-kappa B signalings in liver. Meanwhile, WO also effectively recovered the depletions of superoxide dismutase, glutathione and IL-10. Furthermore, we evaluated the effects of WO on the alpha smooth muscle actin, type I collagen expressions, and PI3K/Akt/ mTOR/ribosomal protein S6 kinase 70 kDa (p70S6K) signaling in transforming growth factor (TGF-ß) stimulated hepatic stellate cell-T6 cells. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggested that WO had significant protective effects against liver fibrosis induced by CCl4.

Constant force grinding controller for robots based on SAC optimal parameter finding algorithm.

Since conventional PID (Proportional-Integral-Derivative) controllers hardly control the robot to stabilize for constant force grinding under changing environmental conditions, it is necessary to add a compensation term to conventional PID controllers. An optimal parameter finding algorithm based on SAC (Soft-Actor-Critic) is proposed to solve the problem that the compensation term parameters are difficult to obtain, including training state action and normalization preprocessing, reward function design, and targeted deep neural network design. The algorithm is used to find the optimal controller compensation term parameters and applied to the PID controller to complete the compensation through the inverse kinematics of the robot to achieve constant force grinding control. To verify the algorithm's feasibility, a simulation model of a grinding robot with sensible force information is established, and the simulation results show that the controller trained with the algorithm can achieve constant force grinding of the robot. Finally, the robot constant force grinding experimental system platform is built for testing, which verifies the control effect of the optimal parameter finding algorithm on the robot constant force grinding and has specific environmental adaptability.

Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Analysis of Sucrose Nonfermenting 1-Related Protein Kinase (SnRK) Genes in Salvia miltiorrhiza in Response to Hormone.

The SnRK gene family is the chief component of plant stress resistance and metabolism through activating the phosphorylation of downstream proteins. S. miltiorrhiza is widely used for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases in Asian countries. However, information about the SnRK gene family of S. miltiorrhiza is not clear. The aim of this study is to comprehensively analyze the SnRK gene family of S. miltiorrhiza and its response to phytohormone. Here, 33 SmSnRK genes were identified and divided into three subfamilies (SmSnRK1, SmSnRK2 and SmSnRK3) according to phylogenetic analysis and domain. SmSnRK genes within same subgroup shared similar protein motif composition and were unevenly distributed on eight chromosomes of S. miltiorrhiza. Cis-acting element analysis showed that the promoter of SmSnRK genes was enriched with ABRE motifs. Expression pattern analysis revealed that SmSnRK genes were preferentially expressed in leaves and roots. Most SmSnRK genes were induced by ABA and MeJA treatment. Correlation analysis showed that SmSnRK3.15 and SmSnRK3.18 might positively regulate tanshinone biosynthesis; SmSnRK3.10 and SmSnRK3.12 might positively regulate salvianolic acid biosynthesis. RNAi-based silencing of SmSnRK2.6 down-regulated the biosynthesis of tanshinones and biosynthetic genes expression. An in vitro phosphorylation assay verified that SmSnRK2.2 interacted with and phosphorylated SmAREB1. These findings will provide a valuable basis for the functional characterization of SmSnRK genes and quality improvement of S. miltiorrhiza.

Topological Transformation of Hydrogen-Terminated Germanium to Germanium Nanosheets for Fast Lithium Storage.

Germanium has been recognized as a promising anode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to its high theoretical capacity and excellent lithium-ion diffusivity. Nonetheless, it is challenging to enhance both the high-rate performance and long-term cycling stability simultaneously. This study introduces a novel heterostructure composed of germanium nanosheets integrated with graphene (Ge NSs@Gr). These nanosheets undergo an in situ phase transformation from a hydrogen-terminated multilayer germanium compound termed germanane (GeH) derived via topochemical deintercalation from CaGe2. This approach mitigates oxidation and prevents restacking by functionalizing the exfoliated germanane with octadecenoic organic molecules. The resultant germanium nanosheets retain their structural integrity from CaGe2 and present an exposed, active (111) surface that features an open crystal lattice, facilitating swift lithium-ion migration conducive to lithium storage. The composite material delivers a substantial reversible capacity of 1220 mA h g-1 at a current density of 0.2 C and maintains a capacity of 456 mA h g-1 even at an ultrahigh current density of 10 C over extended cycling. Impressively, a capacity of 316 mA h g-1 remains after 5000 cycles. The exceptional high-rate performance and durable cycling stability underscore the Ge NSs@Gr anode's potential as a highly viable option for LIBs.

Prediction of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer recurrence using deep learning of pathology image.

We aimed to build a deep learning-based pathomics model to predict the early recurrence of non-muscle-infiltrating bladder cancer (NMIBC) in this work. A total of 147 patients from Xuzhou Central Hospital were enrolled as the training cohort, and 63 patients from Suqian Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University were enrolled as the test cohort. Based on two consecutive phases of patch level prediction and WSI-level predictione, we built a pathomics model, with the initial model developed in the training cohort and subjected to transfer learning, and then the test cohort was validated for generalization. The features extracted from the visualization model were used for model interpretation. After migration learning, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the deep learning-based pathomics model in the test cohort was 0.860 (95% CI 0.752-0.969), with good agreement between the migration training cohort and the test cohort in predicting recurrence, and the predicted values matched well with the observed values, with p values of 0.667766 and 0.140233 for the Hosmer-Lemeshow test, respectively. The good clinical application was observed using a decision curve analysis method. We developed a deep learning-based pathomics model showed promising performance in predicting recurrence within one year in NMIBC patients. Including 10 state prediction NMIBC recurrence group pathology features be visualized, which may be used to facilitate personalized management of NMIBC patients to avoid ineffective or unnecessary treatment for the benefit of patients.

Modeling and Experiments of Droplet Evaporation with Micro or Nano Particles in Coffee Ring or Coffee Splat.

Experimental and numerical experiments were carried out to study the coffee rings or coffee splats formed by droplet evaporation with micro or nano polystyrene sphere particles (Dp = 10 µm or 100 nm). Particle image velocimetry (PIV) and a high-resolution camera were used in this experiment, along with a temperature-controlled heater and a data-acquisition computer. The results showed that a nano particle could form a homogeneous coffee splat, instead of the common coffee ring formed when using micro particles. In order to account for this phenomenon, this paper developed a complex multiphase model, one which included the smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) fluid model coupled with the van der Waals equation of state for droplet evaporation, the rigid particle model of finite-size micro particles, and the point-particle model of the nanometer particles. The numerical simulation was operated on a GPU-based algorithm and tested by four validation cases. A GPU could calculate 533 times the speed of a single-core CPU for about 300,000 particles. The results showed that, for rigid solid particles, the forms emerged spontaneously on the wall, and their structure was mainly affected by the boundary wettability, and less affected by the fluid flow and thermal condition. When the wall temperature was low, it was easier for the particles to be deposited on the contact line. At high wall temperature, the coffee ring effect would be weakened, and the particles were more likely to be deposited in the droplet center. The hydrophilic surface produced a larger coffee ring compared to the hydrophobic surface. The experimental and numerical results proved that particle size could play a significant role during the particle deposition, which may be a possible route for producing uniform-distributed and nano-structure coatings.

Effects of backrest and seat-pan inclination of tractor seat on biomechanical characteristics of lumbar, abdomen, leg and spine.

Seat is a direct human-machine interaction component between the tractor and driver, and thus its reasonable parameter design is of great significance for preventing occupational diseases and improving driving comfort, safety and operation efficiency. In this study, a biomechanical model of seat-driver system was established with the AnyBody biomechanical software. The activities of the lumbar, abdominal and leg muscles and the load of the spine of the driver were used as indicators for quantitative simulation analysis of the inclination of backrest and seat-pan. The results reveal that the optimal range of backrest inclination angle is 3-15°, which contributes to the lowest muscle activity and spinal load of the driver. As for the seat-pan inclination, the activities of lumbar and abdominal muscles and the spinal load generally show slight fluctuations with increasing inclination angle, but there are complex changes in the activities of leg muscles, and the seat-pan inclination angle of 5-16° was determined as the optimal range for better overall driving comfort.

Suppressed Akt/GSK-3ß/ß-catenin signaling contributes to excessive adipogenesis of fibro-adipogenic progenitors after rotator cuff tears.

Muscular fatty infiltration is a common and troublesome pathology after rotator cuff tears (RCT), which mainly derives from fibro-adipogenic progenitors (FAPs). Compared to the RCT, fatty infiltration is not so severe in Achilles tendon tears (ATT). The knowledge of why fatty infiltration is more likely to occur after RCT is limited. In this study, more severe fatty infiltration was verified in supraspinatus than gastrocnemius muscles after tendon injury. Additionally, we revealed higher adipogenic differentiation ability of RCT-FAPs in vitro. Activation of Akt significantly stimulated GSK-3ß/ß-catenin signaling and thus decreased PPARγ expression and adipogenesis of RCT-FAPs, while the inhibition effect was attenuated by ß-catenin inhibitor. Furthermore, Wnt signaling activator BML-284 limited adipogenesis of RCT-FAPs, alleviated muscular fatty infiltration, and improved parameters in gait analysis and treadmill test for RCT model. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that suppressed Akt/GSK-3ß/ß-catenin signaling increased PPARγ expression and thus contributed to excessive adipogenesis in RCT-FAPs. Modulation of Akt/GSK-3ß/ß-catenin signaling ameliorated excessive fatty infiltration of rotator cuff muscles and improved shoulder function after RCT.

Mercury bioaccumulation and prediction in terrestrial insects from soil in Huludao City, Northeast China.

Mercury accumulation was investigated by constructing and testing empirical equations based on mercury in soil (C(s)) and in 10 terrestrial insects (C(i)). C(s) ranged from 0.13 to 41.01 mg/kg. C(i) differed with species and the highest was found in dragonfly. C(s) and C(i) showed a good linear fit, and a simple equation was used in predicting C(i) when insects were classified into one Insecta group (r = 0.3399, p = 0.0037). The taxonomy can affect validities of empirical equations, which fit field data well when insects were grouped by feeding habits, and when grouped by species, empirical equations were suitable only for certain insects.