Altered whole-brain functional network in patients with frontal low-grade gliomas: a resting-state functional MRI study.

PURPOSE: Gliomas are the most common primary brain tumor. Currently, topological alterations of whole-brain functional network caused by gliomas are not fully understood. The work here clarified the topological reorganization of the functional network in patients with unilateral frontal low-grade gliomas (LGGs). METHODS: A total of 45 patients with left frontal LGGs, 19 with right frontal LGGs, and 25 healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled. All the resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) images of the subjects were preprocessed to construct the functional network matrix, which was used for graph theoretical analysis. A two-sample t-test was conducted to clarify the differences in global and nodal network metrics between patients and HCs. A network-based statistic approach was used to identify the altered specific pairs of regions in which functional connectivity in patients with LGGs. RESULTS: The local efficiency, clustering coefficient, characteristic path length, and normalized characteristic path length of patients with unilateral frontal LGGs were significantly lower than HCs, while there were no significant differences of global efficiency and small-worldness between patients and HCs. Compared with the HCs, betweenness centrality, degree centrality, and nodal efficiency of several brain nodes were changed significantly in patients. Around the tumor and its adjacent areas, the inter- and intra-hemispheric connections were significantly decreased in patients with left frontal LGGs. CONCLUSION: The patients with unilateral frontal LGGs have altered global and nodal network metrics and decreased inter- and intra-hemispheric connectivity. These topological alterations may be involved in functional impairment and compensation of patients.

Angiosperm-wide analysis of fruit and ovary evolution aided by a new nuclear phylogeny supports association of the same ovary type with both dry and fleshy fruits.

Fruit functions in seed protection and dispersal and belongs to many dry and fleshy types, yet their evolutionary pattern remains unclear in part due to uncertainties in the phylogenetic relationships among several orders and families. Thus we used nuclear genes of 502 angiosperm species representing 231 families to reconstruct a well supported phylogeny, with resolved relationships for orders and families with previously uncertain placements. Using this phylogeny as a framework, molecular dating supports a Triassic origin of the crown angiosperms, followed by the emergence of most orders in the Jurassic and Cretaceous and their rise to ecological dominance during the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution. The robust phylogeny allowed an examination of the evolutionary pattern of fruit and ovary types, revealing a trend of parallel carpel fusions during early diversifications in eudicots, monocots, and magnoliids. Moreover, taxa in the same order or family with the same ovary type can develop either dry or fleshy fruits with strong correlations between specific types of dry and fleshy fruits; such associations of ovary, dry and fleshy fruits define several ovary-fruit "modules" each found in multiple families. One of the frequent modules has an ovary containing multiple ovules, capsules and berries, and another with an ovary having one or two ovules, achenes (or other single-seeded dry fruits) and drupes. This new perspective of relationships among fruit types highlights the closeness of specific dry and fleshy fruit types, such as capsule and berry, that develop from the same ovary type and belong to the same module relative to dry and fleshy fruits of other modules (such as achenes and drupes). Further analyses of gene families containing known genes for ovary and fruit development identified phylogenetic nodes with multiple gene duplications, supporting a possible role of whole-genome duplications, in combination with climate changes and animal behaviors, in angiosperm fruit and ovary diversification.

Mesoporous Nickel Sulfide Microsphere Encapsulated in Nitrogen, Sulfur Dual-Doped Carbon with Large Subsurface Region for Enhanced Sodium Storage.

Nickel sulfides are promising anode candidates in sodium ion batteries (SIBs) due to high capacity and abundant reserves. However, their applications are restricted by poor cycling stability and slow reaction kinetics. Thus, mesoporous nickel sulfide microsphere encapsulated in nitrogen, sulfur dual-doped carbon (MNS@NSC) is prepared. The packaged structure and carbon matrix restrain the volume variation together, the N, S dual-doping improves the electronic conductivity and offers extra active sites for sodium storage. Ex-situ X-ray diffraction  appeals copper collector adsorbs polysulfide to inhibit the polysulfide accumulation and enhance conductivity. Moreover, the large subsurface attributed to C-S-S-C bonding further boosts pseudocapacitive capacity, conducive to charge transfer. As a result, MNS@NSC delivers a high reversible capacity of 640.2 mAh g-1 after 100 cycles at 0.1 A g-1 , an excellent rate capability (569.8 mAh g-1 at 5 A g-1 ), and a remained capacity of 513.8 mAh g-1 after undergoing 10000 circulations at 10 A g-1 . The MNS@NSC|| Na3 V2 (PO4 )3 full cell shows a cycling performance of specific capacity of 230.8 mAh g-1 after 100 cycles at 1 A g-1 . This work puts forward a valid strategy of combing structural design and heteroatom doping to synthesize high-performance nickel sulfide materials in SIBs.

Inactivation of RPX1 in Arabidopsis confers resistance to Plutella xylostella through the accumulation of the homoterpene DMNT.

The lepidopteran crop pest Plutella xylostella causes severe constraints on Brassica cultivation. Here, we report a novel role for RPX1 (resistance to P. xylostella) in resistance to this pest in Arabidopsis thaliana. The rpx1-1 mutant repels P. xylostella larvae, and feeding on the rpx1-1 mutant severely damages the peritrophic matrix structure in the midgut of the larvae, thereby negatively affecting larval growth and pupation. This resistance results from the accumulation of defence compounds, including the homoterpene (3E)-4,8-dimethyl-1,3,7-nonatriene (DMNT), due to the upregulation of PENTACYCLIC TRITERPENE SYNTHASE 1 (PEN1), which encodes a key DMNT biosynthetic enzyme. P. xylostella infestation and wounding induce RPX1 protein degradation, which may confer a rapid response to insect infestation. RPX1 inactivation and PEN1 overexpression are not associated with negative trade-offs for plant growth but have much higher seed production than the wild-type in the presence of P. xylostella infestation. This study offers a new strategy for plant molecular breeding against P. xylostella.

976†nm all-polarization-maintaining mode-locked fiber laser based on nonlinear polarization evolution.

An all-polarization-maintaining (PM) mode-locked fiber laser based upon nonlinear polarization evolution (NPE) that operates around 976 nm is presented. The NPE-based mode-locking is realized using a special section of the laser which comprises three pieces of PM fibers with specific deviation angles between the polarization axes and a polarization-dependent isolator. By optimizing the NPE section and adjusting the pump power, dissipative soliton (DS) pulses with a pulse duration of ∼6 ps, a spectral bandwidth of >10 nm and a maximum pulse energy of 0.54 nJ are generated. Self-starting, steady mode-locking operation is achievable within a pump power range of ∼2 W. Moreover, by incorporating a segment of passive fiber into the appropriate location in the laser resonator, an intermediate regime between stable single-pulse mode-locking and noise-like pulse (NLP) is realized in the laser. Our work expands the dimension of the research on the mode-locked Yb-doped fiber laser operating around 976 nm.

Compound Nanoemulsion Combined with Differentiation/Cytotoxicity Drugs for Modulating Breast Cancer Stemness.

Breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) are the culprit of triple-negative breast cancer invasiveness and are heterogeneous. It is recognized that the combination of chemotherapy and differentiation therapy for killing BCSCs and non-BCSCs simultaneously is a reliable strategy. In this study, an oil-in-water nanoemulsion was prepared by high-pressure homogenization with coencapsulation of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) and doxorubicin (DOX). The preparation process was simple, and the production was easy to scale up. The particle size of the nanoemulsion was 127.2 ± 2.0 nm. Cellular toxicity assay showed that the composite index of the ATRA and DOX was less than 1 and exhibited a fine combined effect. In vivo antitumor efficacy showed that the compound nanoemulsion could reduce the proportion of BCSCs to 1.18% by inhibiting the expression of Pin1. In addition, the combination of ATRA and DOX could reduce the cardiotoxicity of DOX and had higher safety. Hopefully, this work can provide a new insight into developing pharmaceutically acceptable technology for treating BCSCs.

Efficient Construction of MXene/V2O5 Nanocomposites for Optimizing the Combustion of Ammonium Perchlorate-Based Composite Solid Propellants.

The combustion performance of composite solid propellants (CSPs) significantly affects their application in the field of military and civil aircraft. Ammonium perchlorate/hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (AP/HTPB) composite propellants are one of the common CSPs, and their combustion performance is mainly affected by AP thermal decomposition. In this work, a simple strategy was put forward to effectively construct MXene-supported vanadium pentoxide nanocomposites (MXene/V2O5, MXV). MXene provided a good loading interface for V2O5 nanoparticles, which made MXV obtain a large specific surface area and simultaneously improved the catalytic performance of MXV for AP thermal decomposition. The catalytic experiment results showed that the decomposition temperature of AP mixed with MXV (MXV-4, 2.0 wt %) was 83.4 °C lower than that of pure AP. Moreover, the ignition delay of the AP/HTPB propellant was significantly reduced by 80.4% after adding MXV-4. The burning rate of the propellant was also increased by 202% under the catalytic action of MXV-4. Based on the above results, MXV-4 was expected to be an additive for optimizing the burning process of AP-based composite solid propellants.

A radiomics feature-based machine learning models to detect brainstem infarction (RMEBI) may enable early diagnosis in non-contrast enhanced CT.

OBJECTIVES: Magnetic resonance imaging has high sensitivity in detecting early brainstem infarction (EBI). However, MRI is not practical for all patients who present with possible stroke and would lead to delayed treatment. The detection rate of EBI on non-contrast computed tomography (NCCT) is currently very low. Thus, we aimed to develop and validate the radiomics feature-based machine learning models to detect EBI (RMEBIs) on NCCT. METHODS: In this retrospective observational study, 355 participants from a multicentre multimodal database established by Huashan Hospital were randomly divided into two data sets: a training cohort (70%) and an internal validation cohort (30%). Fifty-seven participants from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University were included as the external validation cohort. Brainstems were segmented by a radiologist committee on NCCT and 1781 radiomics features were automatically computed. After selecting the relevant features, 7 machine learning models were assessed in the training cohort to predict early brainstem infarction. Accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, F1-score, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were used to evaluate the performance of the prediction models. RESULTS: The multilayer perceptron (MLP) RMEBI showed the best performance (AUC: 0.99 [95% CI: 0.96-1.00]) in the internal validation cohort. The AUC value in external validation cohort was 0.91 (95% CI: 0.82-0.98). CONCLUSIONS: RMEBIs have the potential in routine clinical practice to enable accurate computer-assisted diagnoses of early brainstem infarction in patients with NCCT, which may have important clinical value in reducing therapeutic decision-making time. KEY POINTS: • RMEBIs have the potential to enable accurate diagnoses of early brainstem infarction in patients with NCCT. • RMEBIs are suitable for various multidetector CT scanners. • The patient treatment decision-making time is shortened.

Development and validation of a radiomics-based prediction pipeline for the response to stereotactic radiosurgery therapy in brain metastases.

OBJECTIVES: The first treatment strategy for brain metastases (BM) plays a pivotal role in the prognosis of patients. Among all strategies, stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is considered a promising therapy method. Therefore, we developed and validated a radiomics-based prediction pipeline to prospectively identify BM patients who are insensitive to SRS therapy, especially those who are at potential risk of progressive disease. METHODS: A total of 337 BM patients (277, 30, and 30 in the training set, internal validation set, and external validation set, respectively) were enrolled in the study. 19,377 radiomics features (3 masks × 3 MRI sequences × 2153 features) extracted from 9 ROIs were filtered through LASSO and Max-Relevance and Min-Redundancy (mRMR) algorithms. The selected radiomics features were combined with 4 clinical features to construct a two-stage cascaded model for the prediction of BM patients' response to SRS therapy using SVM and an ensemble learning classifier. The performance of the model was evaluated by its accuracy, specificity, sensitivity, and AUC curve. RESULTS: Radiomics features were integrated with the clinical features of patients in our optimal model, which showed excellent discriminative performance in the training set (AUC: 0.95, 95% CI: 0.88-0.98). The model was also verified in the internal validation set and external validation set (AUC 0.93, 95% CI: 0.76-0.95 and AUC 0.90, 95% CI: 0.73-0.93, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The proposed prediction pipeline could non-invasively predict the response to SRS therapy in patients with brain metastases thus assisting doctors to precisely designate individualized first treatment decisions. CLINICAL RELEVANCE STATEMENT: The proposed prediction pipeline combines the radiomics features of multi-modal MRI with clinical features to construct machine learning models that noninvasively predict the response of patients with brain metastases to stereotactic radiosurgery therapy, assisting neuro-oncologists to develop personalized first treatment plans. KEY POINTS: • The proposed prediction pipeline can non-invasively predict the response to SRS therapy. • The combination of multi-modality and multi-mask contributes significantly to the prediction. • The edema index also shows a certain predictive value.

Safe Decision Controller for Autonomous DrivingBased on Deep Reinforcement Learning inNondeterministic Environment.

Autonomous driving systems are crucial complicated cyber-physical systems that combine physical environment awareness with cognitive computing. Deep reinforcement learning is currently commonly used in the decision-making of such systems. However, black-box-based deep reinforcement learning systems do not guarantee system safety and the interpretability of the reward-function settings in the face of complex environments and the influence of uncontrolled uncertainties. Therefore, a formal security reinforcement learning method is proposed. First, we propose an environmental modeling approach based on the influence of nondeterministic environmental factors, which enables the precise quantification of environmental issues. Second, we use the environment model to formalize the reward machine's structure, which is used to guide the reward-function setting in reinforcement learning. Third, we generate a control barrier function to ensure a safer state behavior policy for reinforcement learning. Finally, we verify the method's effectiveness in intelligent driving using overtaking and lane-changing scenarios.

Lockdown spillovers.

Lockdowns imposed to fight the Covid-19 pandemic have cross-border effects. In this paper, we estimate the empirical magnitude of lockdown spillovers in a set of panel local projections. We use daily indicators of economic activity such as stock returns, effective exchange rates, NO2 emissions, mobility and maritime container trade. Lockdown shocks originating in the most important trading partners have a strong and significant adverse effect on economic activity in the home economy. For stock prices and exports, the spillovers can even be larger than the effect of domestic lockdown shocks. The results are robust with respect to alternative country weights used to construct foreign shocks, i.e. weights based on foreign direct investment or the connectedness through value chains. We find that lockdown spillovers have been particularly strong during the first wave of the pandemic. Countries with a higher export share are particularly exposed to lockdown spillovers.

miR-486 improves fibrotic activity in myocardial infarction by targeting SRSF3/p21-Mediated cardiac myofibroblast senescence.

The regulation of fibrotic activities is key to improving pathological remodelling post-myocardial infarction (MI). Currently, in the clinic, safe and curative therapies for cardiac fibrosis and improvement of the pathological fibrotic environment, scar formation and pathological remodelling post-MI are lacking. Previous studies have shown that miR-486 is involved in the regulation of fibrosis. However, it is still unclear how miR-486 functions in post-MI regeneration. Here, we first demonstrated that miR-486 targeting SRSF3/p21 mediates the senescence of cardiac myofibroblasts to improve their fibrotic activity, which benefits the regeneration of MI by limiting scar size and post-MI remodelling. miR-486-targeted silencing has high potential as a novel target to improve fibrotic activity, cardiac fibrosis and pathological remodelling.

Linkage mapping combined with GWAS revealed the genetic structural relationship and candidate genes of maize flowering time-related traits.

BACKGROUND: Flowering time is an important agronomic trait of crops and significantly affects plant adaptation and seed production. Flowering time varies greatly among maize (Zea mays) inbred lines, but the genetic basis of this variation is not well understood. Here, we report the comprehensive genetic architecture of six flowering time-related traits using a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population obtained from a cross between two maize genotypes, B73 and Abe2, and combined with genome-wide association studies to identify candidate genes that affect flowering time. RESULTS: Our results indicate that these six traits showed extensive phenotypic variation and high heritability in the RIL population. The flowering time of this RIL population showed little correlation with the leaf number under different environmental conditions. A genetic linkage map was constructed by 10,114 polymorphic markers covering the whole maize genome, which was applied to QTL mapping for these traits, and identified a total of 82 QTLs that contain 13 flowering genes. Furthermore, a combined genome-wide association study and linkage mapping analysis revealed 17 new candidate genes associated with flowering time. CONCLUSIONS: In the present study, by using genetic mapping and GWAS approaches with the RIL population, we revealed a list of genomic regions and candidate genes that were significantly associated with flowering time. This work provides an important resource for the breeding of flowering time traits in maize.

A Triple Therapeutic Strategy with Antiexosomal Iron Efflux for Enhanced Ferroptosis Therapy and Immunotherapy.

Ferroptosis is a form of regulated cell death which can not only kill tumor cells but also enhance immunogenicity of tumor cells, and it is evidenced to be involved in a variety of tumor treatments, especially in cancer immunotherapy. Tumor cell-derived exosomes are reported to influence the progression and metastasis process of tumors. In the process of ferroptosis, exosomes are also demonstrated as mediators to export iron under high intracellular iron concentration and resist ferroptosis. Under this regard, the combined application of ferroptosis inducer and the inhibitor of iron-containing exosomes may enhance the ferroptosis. Herein, biocompatible hybrid nanoparticles composed of the iron oxide nanoparticles, polymers with oxaliplatin attached, and siProminin2 are constructed. The siProminin2 mediated exosomal inhibition can restore the intracellular iron concentration, which can also inhibit the secretion of tumor cell-derived exosomes. The combination of immunotherapy with oxaliplatin, ferroptosis-based cancer therapy and inhibition of tumor cell-derived exosomes can enhance the immune activation effects. The nanoparticles represent an excellent triple therapeutic strategy for enhancing ferroptosis-based cancer therapy and immunotherapy.

FISI: frequency domain integration sequential imaging at 1.26×1013 frames per second and 108 lines per millimeter.

High spatial resolution on the image plane (intrinsic spatial resolution) has always been a problem for ultrafast imaging. Single-shot ultrafast imaging methods can achieve high spatial resolution on the object plane through amplification systems but with low intrinsic spatial resolutions. We present frequency domain integration sequential imaging (FISI), which encodes a transient dynamic by an inversed 4f (IFF) system and decodes it using optical spatial frequencies recognition (OFR), which overcomes the limitation of the spatial frequencies recognition algorithm. In an experiment on the process of an air plasma channel, FISI achieved shadow imaging of the channel with a framing rate of 1.26×1013 fps and an intrinsic spatial resolution of 108 lp/mm (the spatial resolution on the image plane). Owing to its excellent framing time and high intrinsic spatial resolution, FISI can probe both repeatable and unrepeatable ultrafast phenomena, such as laser-induced damage, plasma physics, and shockwave interactions in living cells with high quality.

Tunable mode-locked Tm-doped fiber laser based upon cross-phase modulation.

We demonstrate the generation of soliton and dissipative soliton in an ultrafast thulium (Tm) doped fiber laser based upon cross-phase modulation (XPM) induced mode-locking. The mode-locking is realized by periodically modulating the 2-µm signal through XPM that is activated by an injected 1.5-µm pulsed laser. Such a mechanism enables the laser to be mode-locked in various operation regimes without any real or artificial saturable absorbers. Thanks to the XPM pulling effect, the wavelength of the Tm-doped fiber laser can be tuned by adjusting the repetition frequency of the 1.5-µm pulsed laser. The maximum tuning ranges achieved in this work for the soliton and dissipative soliton regimes are respectively 11 nm and 15 nm. The outcomes of this work not only provide a continuously and controllably wavelength-tunable ultrafast laser but also offer a passively synchronized dual-color fiber laser system, which is promised for many important applications such as Raman spectroscopy, nonlinear frequency conversion systems, and multi-color pump-probe systems.

Strong photoperiod sensitivity is controlled by cooperation and competition among Hd1, Ghd7 and DTH8 in rice heading.

Rice (Oryza sativa) is a short-day (SD) plant originally having strong photoperiod sensitivity (PS), with SDs promoting and long days (LDs) suppressing flowering. Although the evolution of PS in rice has been extensively studied, there are few studies that combine the genetic effects and underlying mechanism of different PS gene combinations with variations in PS. We created a set of isogenic lines among the core PS-flowering genes Hd1, Ghd7 and DTH8 using CRISPR mutagenesis, to systematically dissect their genetic relationships under different day-lengths. We investigated their monogenic, digenic, and trigenic effects on target gene regulation and PS variation. We found that Hd1 and Ghd7 have the primary functions for promoting and repressing flowering, respectively, regardless of day-length. However, under LD conditions, Hd1 promotes Ghd7 expression and is recruited by Ghd7 and/or DTH8 to form repressive complexes that collaboratively suppress the Ehd1-Hd3a/RFT1 pathway to block heading, but under SD conditions Hd1 competes with the complexes to promote Hd3a/RFT1 expression, playing a tradeoff relationship with PS flowering. Natural allelic variations of Hd1, Ghd7 and DTH8 in rice populations have resulted in various PS performances. Our findings reveal that rice PS flowering is controlled by crosstalk of two modules - Hd1-Hd3a/RFT1 in SD conditions and (Hd1/Ghd7/DTH8)-Ehd1-Hd3a/RFT1 in LD conditions - and the divergences of these genes provide the basis for rice adaptation to broad regions.

Effects of Trust and Threat Messaging on Academic Cheating: A Field Study.

Morality-based interventions designed to promote academic integrity are being used by educational institutions around the world. Although many such approaches have a strong theoretical foundation and are supported by laboratory-based evidence, they often have not been subjected to rigorous empirical evaluation in real-world contexts. In a naturalistic field study (N = 296), we evaluated a recent research-inspired classroom innovation in which students are told, just prior to taking an unproctored exam, that they are trusted to act with integrity. Four university classes were assigned to a proctored exam or one of three types of unproctored exam. Students who took unproctored exams cheated significantly more, which suggests that it may be premature to implement this approach in college classrooms. These findings point to the importance of conducting ecologically valid and well-controlled field studies that translate psychological theory into practice when introducing large-scale educational reforms.

Recent Progress on the Synthesis of Chiral Sulfones.

Chiral sulfones extensively exist in drugs, agricultural chemicals, chiral organic intermediates, and functional materials. Their importance causes the rapid development of their synthetic methods in recent years. Many transition metal complex catalysts with chiral ligands and chiral organocatalysts are adopted in synthesis of chiral sulfones. Most of the methods to construct chiral sulfones are based on the reduction of unsaturated sulfones and the introduction of sulfone groups into unsaturated hydrocarbons. This review describes all classes of asymmetric reactions for synthesis of chiral sulfones.

Epidemiological and clinical analysis of the outbreak of dengue fever in Zhangshu City, Jiangxi Province, in 2019.

This study analyzed the epidemiological and clinical features of dengue fever in Zhangshu, Jiangxi Province, in 2019 and provided evidence for the diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and control of dengue fever. A total of 718 dengue fever patients in Zhangshu in 2019 were involved. ELISA and qRT-PCR were used for pathogenic detection of dengue virus. Multiple adjuvant therapies were applied, and the condition of patients after treatment was examined. Patients were between the ages of 0.75 and 92 years old, and all of them had a fever. A total of 519 cases had fatigue, and 413 cases had generalized myalgia and bone ache; 356 cases had dry mouth, 289 cases had bitter taste, and 167 cases felt dry and bitter taste; 279 cases had rash, and 93 cases had pruritus; 587 cases had decreased leukocyte, among which, 7 cases had leukocyte lower than 1 × 10 [9]/L; 380 cases had a low platelet count, and the platelet count of 29 cases was lower than 50 × 10 [9]/L; 488 cases had increased aspartic transaminase, and 460 cases had increased alanine aminotransferase; 5 cases had a severe disease. It proved that the majority of dengue fever sufferers were adults, with the main clinical features being fever and rash and the chief injured organs being the blood system, liver, heart, and gastrointestinal tract. Besides, over 40% of patients had dry and bitter taste, and 12 cases had alopecia after discharge. It indicates that the incidence of dengue fever in Zhangshu is closely related to the sudden population flow and imported cases.