Natural Language Processing Algorithms for Normalizing Expressions of Synonymous Symptoms in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

BACKGROUND: The modernization of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) demands systematic data mining using medical records. However, this process is hindered by the fact that many TCM symptoms have the same meaning but different literal expressions (i.e., TCM synonymous symptoms). This problem can be solved by using natural language processing algorithms to construct a high-quality TCM symptom normalization model for normalizing TCM synonymous symptoms to unified literal expressions. METHODS: Four types of TCM symptom normalization models, based on natural language processing, were constructed to find a high-quality one: (1) a text sequence generation model based on a bidirectional long short-term memory (Bi-LSTM) neural network with an encoder-decoder structure; (2) a text classification model based on a Bi-LSTM neural network and sigmoid function; (3) a text sequence generation model based on bidirectional encoder representation from transformers (BERT) with sequence-to-sequence training method of unified language model (BERT-UniLM); (4) a text classification model based on BERT and sigmoid function (BERT-Classification). The performance of the models was compared using four metrics: accuracy, recall, precision, and F1-score. RESULTS: The BERT-Classification model outperformed the models based on Bi-LSTM and BERT-UniLM with respect to the four metrics. CONCLUSIONS: The BERT-Classification model has superior performance in normalizing expressions of TCM synonymous symptoms.

Metagenomic insights into nitrogen and phosphorus cycling at the soil aggregate scale driven by organic material amendments.

The soil microbiome, existing as interconnected communities closely associated with soil aggregates, is the key driver in nutrient cycling. However, the underlying genomic information encoding the machinery of the soil microbiome involved in nutrient cycling at the soil aggregate scale is barely known. Here comparative metagenomics and genome binning were applied to investigate microbial functional profiles at the soil aggregate scale under different organic material amendments in a long-term field experiment. Soil samples were sieved into large macroaggregates (>2 mm), macroaggregates (0.25-2 mm) and microaggregates (<0.25 mm). Microbial taxonomic and functional alpha diversity were significantly correlated to soil NO3- and SOC. The highest abundance of nasB, nirK, and amoA genes, which are responsible for denitrification and ammonia oxidizers driving nitrification, was observed in microaggregates. Both manure and peat treatments significantly decreased the abundance of napA and nrfA that encode enzymes involved in dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA). As a biomarker for soil inorganic P solubilization, the relative abundance of gcd was significantly increased in macroaggregates and large macroaggregates. Three nearly complete genomes of Nitrososphaeraceae (AOA) and seven bacterial genomes were shown to harbor a series of genes involved in nitrification and P solubilization, respectively. Our study provides comprehensive insights into the microbial genetic potential for DNRA and P-solubilizing activity across different soil aggregate fractions and fertilization regimes.

Swine manure valorization for phosphorus and nitrogen recovery by catalytic-thermal hydrolysis and struvite crystallization.

Phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) recovery from swine manure has attracted considerable interest for biomass valorization. In this study, a catalytic-thermal hydrolysis (TH) process combined with struvite crystallization was investigated to promote P and N conversion from swine manure. Its potential as a phosphate-based fertilizer was investigated. Two periods for P solubilization and transformation were observed, i.e., an initial increase with reaction time followed by a decrease as treatment continued. Nitrogen conversion efficiency increased with increasing temperature and time. Treatment of swine manure by catalytic-TH with HCl + H2O2 showed the best performance for P and N solubilization and transformation. With a Mg2+/PO43- molar ratio of 2.49 and a pH of 9.11, the struvite crystallization efficiency from the supernatant after catalytic-TH with HCl + H2O2 reached 99.2%. Hydroculture bioassay showed that struvite had a positive effect on the early growth of wheat. The P concentrations in both root and shoot tissues for struvite treatment were more than two times higher than that of soluble P. These encouraging results warrant further studies on the conversion of biowaste given that recycling nutrients sources may outperform traditional synthetic fertilizers.

Exogenous phosphite application alleviates the adverse effects of heat stress and improves thermotolerance of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) seedlings.

Phosphite (Phi), an analog of phosphate (Pi) anion, is emerging as a potential biostimulator, fungicide and insecticide. Here, we reported that Phi also significantly enhanced thermotolerance in potatoes under heat stress. Potato plants with and without Phi pretreatment were exposed to heat stress and their heat tolerance was examined by assessing the morphological characteristics, photosynthetic pigment content, photosystem II (PS II) efficiency, levels of oxidative stress, and level of DNA damage. In addition, RNA-sequencing (RNA-Seq) was adopted to investigate the roles of Phi signals and the underlying heat resistance mechanism. RNA-Seq revealed that Phi orchestrated plant immune responses against heat stress by reprograming global gene expressions. Results from physiological data combined with RNA-Seq suggested that the supply of Phi not only was essential for the better plant performance, but also improved thermotolerance of the plants by alleviating oxidative stress and DNA damage, and improved biosynthesis of osmolytes and defense metabolites when exposed to unfavorable thermal conditions. This is the first study to explore the role of Phi in thermotolerance in plants, and the work can be applied to other crops under the challenging environment.