R2R3-MYB transcription factor CsMYB60 controls mature fruit skin color by regulating flavonoid accumulation in cucumber.

Skin color is an important trait that determines the cosmetic appearance and quality of fruits. In cucumber, the skin color ranges from white to brown in mature fruits. However, the genetic basis for this important trait remains unclear. We conducted a genome-wide association study of natural cucumber populations, along with map-based cloning techniques, on an F2 population resulting from a cross between Pepino (with yellow-brown fruit skin) and Zaoer-N (with creamy fruit skin). We identified CsMYB60 as a candidate gene responsible for skin coloration in mature cucumber fruits. In cucumber accessions with white to pale yellow skin color, a premature stop mutation (C to T) was found in the second exon region of CsMYB60, whereas light yellow cucumber accessions exhibited splicing premature termination caused by an intronic mutator-like element insertion in CsMYB60. Transgenic CsMYB60c cucumber plants displayed a yellow-brown skin color by promoting accumulation of flavonoids, especially hyperoside, a yellow-colored flavonol. CsMYB60c encodes a nuclear protein that primarily acts as a transcriptional activator through its C-terminal activation motif. RNA sequencing and DNA affinity purification sequencing assays revealed that CsMYB60c promotes skin coloration by directly binding to the YYTACCTAMYT motif in the promoter regions of flavonoid biosynthetic genes, including CsF3'H, which encodes flavonoid 3'-hydroxylase. The findings of our study not only offer insight into the function of CsMYB60 as dominantly controlling fruit coloration, but also highlight that intronic DNA mutations can have a similar phenotypic impact as exonic mutations, which may be valuable in future cucumber breeding programs.

Chemotherapy plus therapeutic plasmapheresis with 4% human albumin solution in multiple myeloma patients with acute kidney injury: a prospective, open-label, proof-of-concept study.

As no unified treatment protocol or evidence yet exists for plasmapheresis without plasma, this study explored the outcomes of using 4% human albumin (ALB) solution as a replacement solution in patients undergoing plasma exchange for multiple myeloma (MM) patients with acute kidney injury (AKI). This study was prospectively registered (ChiCTR2000030640 and NCT05251896). Bortezomib-based chemotherapy plus therapeutic plasmapheresis (TPP) with 4% human ALB solution was assessed for three years in patients with MM aged >18 years, with AKI according to the Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes criteria, and without previous renal impairment from other causes. The primary endpoints were changes in renal function over 18 weeks and survival outcomes at 36 months. The secondary endpoints were the incidence of adverse reactions and symptom improvement. Among the 119 patients included in the analysis, 108 experienced renal reactions. The M protein (absolute changes: median -12.12%, interquartile ranges (IQRs) -18.62 to -5.626) and creatine (median -46.91 µmol/L, IQR -64.70 to -29.12) levels decreased, whereas the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) increased (median 20.66 mL/(min·1.73 m2), IQR 16.03-25.29). Regarding patient survival, 68.1% and 35.3% of patients survived for >12 and >36 months, respectively. The three symptoms with the greatest relief were urine foam, poor appetite, and blurred vision. All 11 patients (7.6%) who experienced mild adverse reactions achieved remission. In conclusion, in MM patients with AKI, plasma-free plasmapheresis with 4% human ALB solution and bortezomib-based chemotherapy effectively alleviated light chain damage to kidney function while improving patient quality of life.

Development and Analysis of an Origami-Based Elastomeric Actuator and Soft Gripper Control with Machine Learning and EMG Sensors.

This study investigates the characteristics of a novel origami-based, elastomeric actuator and a soft gripper, which are controlled by hand gestures that are recognized through machine learning algorithms. The lightweight paper-elastomer structure employed in this research exhibits distinct actuation features in four key areas: (1) It requires approximately 20% less pressure for the same bending amplitude compared to pneumatic network actuators (Pneu-Net) of equivalent weight, and even less pressure compared to other actuators with non-linear bending behavior; (2) The control of the device is examined by validating the relationship between pressure and the bending angle, as well as the interaction force and pressure at a fixed bending angle; (3) A soft robotic gripper comprising three actuators is designed. Enveloping and pinch grasping experiments are conducted on various shapes, which demonstrate the gripper's potential in handling a wide range of objects for numerous applications; and (4) A gesture recognition algorithm is developed to control the gripper using electromyogram (EMG) signals from the user's muscles.

Enantioselective synthesis of chiral α-alkynylated thiazolidones by tandem S-addition/acetalization of alkynyl imines.

A SPINOL-derived chiral phosphoric acid catalyzed asymmetric formal [2 + 3]-annulation of in situ generated alkynyl imines and 1,4-dithiane-2,5-diol has been developed to afford enantiopure α-alkynylated thiazolidones with up to 72% yield and 98.5 : 1.5 er. This tandem annulation involved a tandem S-addition of alkynyl imines/intramolecular acetalization, followed by PDC-mediated oxidation. The α-alkynylated thiazolidones could facilely afford the corresponding chiral α-alkynylated or α-alkenylated cyclic sulfoxides via further elaboration.

Effect of alkali treatment on enzymatic hydrolysis of p-toluenesulfonic acid pretreated bamboo substrates.

The comprehensive separation and utilization of whole components of lignocellulosic materials has received extensive attention in present research. This study focused on the efficacy of alkali treatment for enzymatic saccharification of cellulose based on p-toluenesulfonic acid (p-TsOH) pretreated bamboo substrate. The results showed that the cellulose to glucose conversion yield was 94.69 % under optimized conditions of 0.4 g NaOH/g, 160 °C and 4 h (soaked), which after only 6 h enzymatic hydrolysis time. Alkali lignin recovery was 88.51 %, with potential for conversion to lignin derivatives. The yield of hemicellulose in the pretreated filtrate was 51.85 % after the 4th cycling reuse of p-TsOH. This work has borrowed the advantages of p-TsOH pretreatment of depolymerized hemicellulose from bamboo, combined with a low-priced weak alkali secondary treatment method, which can be effectively applied to the co-production of lignin, xylooligosaccharide, xylose and glucose, and the whole process is green and economically sustainable.

Pretreatment of moso bamboo with p-toluenesulfonic acid for the recovery and depolymerization of hemicellulose.

Bamboo and its mechanical processing residues have broad prospects for high value-added utilization. In this research, p-toluenesulfonic acid was used for the pretreatment of bamboo to investigate the effects of extraction and depolymerization of hemicellulose. The response and behavior of changes of cell-wall chemical components were investigated after different solvent concentration, time, and temperature pretreatment. Results indicated that the maximum extraction yield of hemicellulose was 95.16 % with 5 % p-toluenesulfonic acid at 140 °C for 30 min. The depolymerized components of hemicellulose in the filtrate were mainly xylose and xylooligosaccharide, with xylobiose accounting for 30.77 %. The extraction of xylose from the filtrate reached a maximum of 90.16 % with 5 % p-toluenesulfonic acid at 150 °C for 30 min pretreatment. This research provided a potential strategy for the industrial production of xylose and xylooligosaccharide from bamboo and for the future conversion and utilization.

WeChat-based remote follow-up management reduces the burden of home care and anxiety on parents of children with refractory epilepsy: A randomized controlled study.

OBJECTIVE: The present research was designed to study the effect of WeChat-based remote follow-up management on the burden of home care and anxiety on parents of children with refractory epilepsy. METHODS: 161 refractory epileptic children were included in this study. They were divided into control group and WeChat group according to their management protocols after discharge, namely, control group with traditional follow-up (n = 81) and WeChat group with remote follow-up based on WeChat (n = 81). We evaluated home care burden by family caregiver task Inventory (FCTI) scale and zarit burden interview (ZBI) scale, and evaluated negative emotion by self-rating anxiety Scale (SAS) scale and self-Rating depression scale (SDS) scale. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the demographic characteristics of epileptic children and their parents and the scores of FCTI, ZBI, SAS and SDS before treatment between the 2 groups (all P > .05), and the score of FCTI (20.86 ± 4.26), ZBI (39.63 ± 4.46), SAS (44.49 ± 4.15) and SDS (50.02 ± 4.13) in WeChat group were all significantly lower than the score of FCTI (25.25 ± 3.71), ZBI (45.47 ± 4.61), SAS (52.75 ± 4.93) and SDS (54.51 ± 6.59) in control group (all P < .05). CONCLUSION: WeChat-based remote follow-up management reduces the burden of home care and anxiety on parents of children with refractory epilepsy.

Would Household Medical Expenditure Affect Chinese Citizens to Have More Children?

This research investigates how household medical expenditure affects Chinese citizens having more children. We examined the causal relationship and found a negative influence of household medical expenditure on the willingness to have more children, confirming that increasing household expenditure on medical care may specifically decrease the high willingness. Chinese policymakers should adopt appropriate and effective strategies to mitigate the potential negative effects of household medical expenditure on the birthrate. These analyses emphasize the importance of promoting economic growth, increasing public health expenditure, and increasing medical security in the context of population imbalance and the trend of a rapidly aging society in order to encourage people to have more children, thereby slowing population decline.

Enhancing the potential production of bioethanol with bamboo by γ-valerolactone/water pretreatment.

In this study, the effect of the γ-valerolactone (GVL)/H2O pretreatment system on bamboo (Neosinocalamus affinis) for enzymatic hydrolysis and ethanol fermentation was investigated. The performance characterization of the pretreated bamboo substrates, including the chemical composition, the structural characteristics, and the ability to produce bioethanol, were evaluated. The recovered substrates were enzymatically hydrolyzed for 48 h and then fermented to bioethanol. For the cellulose in the raw bamboo material, the highest cellulose-to-glucose conversion yield (CGCY) was achieved at 140 °C for 2 h with GVL : H2O = 8 : 2, which was 73.39%, and the cellulose-to-ethanol conversion yield (CECY) was 67.00%. This indicated that 183.5 kg of bioethanol could be produced per ton of bamboo, which was 9.71-folds higher than that directly converted from the untreated raw bamboo powder. Under these conditions, 50.60% of the active lignin can be recovered and be used as a wood-derived feedstock for further high-valued utilization. Meanwhile, the maximum concentration of fermentation inhibitors formed after pretreatment was about 140.9 mmol L-1, and had weak inhibition to the subsequent reaction. It has been shown that the cellulose could be effectively separated from bamboo and converted into bioethanol through the GVL/H2O pretreatment system.

MnMoO4-S nanosheets with rich oxygen vacancies for high-performance supercapacitors.

The structure of materials is closely related to their electrochemical properties. MnMoO4 materials have good stability as supercapacitors but their specific capacitance performance is not excellent. To improve electrochemical performance of MnMoO4, this study conducts secondary hydrothermal treatment in thiourea solution on MnMoO4 electrode material grown on nickel foam synthesized by traditional hydrothermal method. A more compact S-doped MnMoO4 electrode material with more oxygen vacancies and higher specific capacitance was obtained. At the current density of 1 A g-1, the specific capacitance of the composite material reached 2526.7 F g-1, which increased by 140.9% compared with that of ordinary MnMoO4 material. The capacitance retention rate of the composite material was 95.56% after 2000 cycles at 10 A g-1. An asymmetric supercapacitor was fabricated using S-doped MnMoO4 as the positive electrode, activated carbon as the negative electrode, and 6 mol L-1 KOH solution as the electrolyte. The specific capacitance of the assembled supercapacitor was 117.50 F g-1 at 1 A g-1, and a high energy density of 47.16 W h kg-1 at the power density of 849.98 W kg-1 was recorded. This method greatly improves the specific capacitance of MnMoO4 through simple processing, which makes it have great application potential.

Regeneration of the Waste Selective Catalytic Reduction Denitrification Catalyst by Nitric Acid Washing.

In this study, the waste V2O5-WO3/TiO2 denitrification catalysts from the coal-fired power plant were washed with water or nitric acid, followed by impregnating different contents of V2O5. The effects of the HNO3 concentration and the additional amount of vanadium on the low-temperature selective catalytic reduction denitrification activity were investigated under the condition of high concentration of SO2 and H2O. The catalysts were characterized by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry, X-ray powder diffraction , N2 adsorption/desorption, H2-temperature-programmed reduction, NH3-temperature-programmed desorption , Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , and Raman spectroscopy. The evaluation results revealed that optimum activity was achieved by using 0.8 mol/L HNO3 solution and loading 1.60 wt % V2O5 to make the total V2O5 reach 2.3 wt %. The characterization results showed that nitric washing can remove most of the ammonium salts deposited on the surface of the waste catalyst and produce crystalline WO3, which can effectively inhibit the agglomeration of vanadium species in the process of impregnation. Furthermore, it can also increase the amount of oligomeric VO x , which can improve the denitration activity.

A rapid throughput assay for screening (R)-2-(4-hydroxyphenoxy)propionic acid producing microbes.

(R)-2-(4-hydroxyphenoxy)propionic acid ((R)-HPOPA) is an important intermediate for the synthesis of optically pure aryloxyphenoxypropionic acid herbicides. Regioselective hydroxylation of (R)-2-phenoxypropionic acid ((R)-POPA) by microbes is one of the most useful methods for the industrial production of (R)-HPOPA. In this study, we designed and optimized a rapid throughput assay for screening (R)-HPOPA producing bacterial/fungal strains which can regioselectively hydroxylate (R)-POPA. (R)-HPOPA could react with 4-aminoantipyrine (4-AAP) in the presence of potassium hexacyanoferrate (K3[Fe(CN)6]) to form indoxyl antipyrine, an orange-red chromophore, that can easily spectrophotometrically be determined at 550 nm. During the verification of the assay we observed an average recovery rate of between 97.3% and 104.5%. Apart from the rapid throughput, no obvious differences in detection (R)-HPOPA in the culture broth samples were found between our rapid throughput multiplate assay and a high-performance liquid chromatography method. Our optimized assay method is simple, rapid and accurate with high repeatability. It has the potential for high throughput screening (about 3000-5000 samples/day) of the (R)-HPOPA producing strains.

Engineering extracellular matrix structure in 3D multiphase tissues.

In native tissues, microscale variations in the extracellular matrix (ECM) structure can drive different cellular behaviors. Although control over ECM structure could prove useful in tissue engineering and in studies of cellular behavior, isotropic 3D matrices poorly replicate variations in local microenvironments. In this paper, we demonstrate a method to engineer local variations in the density and size of collagen fibers throughout 3D tissues. The results showed that, in engineered multiphase tissues, the structures of collagen fibers in both the bulk ECM phases (as measured by mesh size and width of fibers) as well as at tissue interfaces (as measured by density of fibers and thickness of tissue interfaces) could be modulated by varying the collagen concentrations and gelling temperatures. As the method makes use of a previously published technique for tissue bonding, we also confirmed that significant adhesion strength at tissue interfaces was achieved under all conditions tested. Hence, this study demonstrates how collagen fiber structures can be engineered within all regions of a multiphase tissue scaffold by exploiting knowledge of collagen assembly, and presents an approach to engineer local collagen structure that complements methods such as flow alignment and electrospinning.