Boron deficiency decreased the root activity of Ga-exposed rice seedlings by reducing iron accumulation and increasing Ga in iron plaque.

Gallium (Ga) is an emerging chemical pollutant chiefly associated with high-tech industries. Boron (B) alleviates the negative effects of toxic elements on plant growth. Thereby, the effects of B fertilization on Ga toxicity in rice seedlings was studied to clarify the role of iron plaque in the distribution of Ga, Fe, and B in Ga-treated rice seedlings in the presence or absence of B. Gallium exposure significantly reduced the biomass of rice seedlings. Boron deficiency induced a significant change in the distribution of B in Ga-treated rice seedlings compared with "Ga+B" treatments. Accumulation of Ga in roots, dithionite-citrate-bicarbonate (DCB) extracts, and shoots showed a dose-dependent manner from both +B and -B rice seedlings. Boron nutrition levels affect the distribution of Fe in roots, DCB extracts, and shoots, in which DCB-extractable Fe was significantly decreased from "Ga-B" treatments compared with "Ga+B" treatments. Root activity was significantly decreased in both Ga-exposed rice seedlings; however, B-deficient seedlings showed a severe reduction than +B rice seedlings. These results reveal that Fe plaque might be a temporary sink for B accumulation when plants are grown with proper B, wherein the re-utilization of DCB-extractable B stored in Fe plaque is mandatory for plant growth under B deficiency. Correlation analysis revealed that B deficiency decreased the root activity of Ga-exposed rice seedlings by reducing DCB-extractable Fe and increasing DCB-extractable Ga in Fe plaque. This study enhances our understanding of how B nutritional levels affect Ga toxicity in rice plants.

Dynamical and statistical features of soliton interactions in the focusing Gardner equation.

In this paper, the dynamical properties of soliton interactions in the focusing Gardner equation are analyzed by the conventional two-soliton solution and its degenerate cases. Using the asymptotic expressions of interacting solitons, it is shown that the soliton polarities depend on the signs of phase parameters, and that the degenerate solitons in the mixed and rational forms have variable velocities with the time dependence of attenuation. By means of extreme value analysis, the interaction points in different interaction scenarios are presented with exact determination of positions and occurrence times of high transient waves generated in the bipolar soliton interactions. Next, with all types of two-soliton interaction scenarios considered, the interactions of two solitons with different polarities are quantitatively shown to have a greater contribution to the skewness and kurtosis than those with the same polarity. Specifically, the ratios of spectral parameters (or soliton amplitudes) are determined when the bipolar soliton interactions have the strongest effects on the skewness and kurtosis. In addition, numerical simulations are conducted to examine the properties of multi-soliton interactions and their influence on higher statistical moments, especially confirming the emergence of the soliton interactions described by the mixed and rational solutions in a denser soliton ensemble.

Integrable turbulence and statistical characteristics of chaotic wave field in the Kundu-Eckhaus equation.

Integrable turbulence, as an irregular behavior in dynamic systems, has attracted a lot of attention in integrable and Hamiltonian systems. This article focuses on the studies of integrable turbulence phenomena of the Kundu-Eckhaus (KE) equation as well as the generation of rogue waves from the numerical and statistical viewpoints. First, via the Fourier collocation method, we obtain the spectral portraits of different analytical solutions. Second, we perform the numerical simulation on the KE equation under the initial condition of a plane wave with random noise to simulate the chaotic wave fields. Then, we analyze the influences of standard deviation and correlation length on the integrable turbulence and amplitude of wave field. It's found that both of the two parameters have positive effects on the generation probability of rogue wave caused by the interactions. But only the variation of standard deviation can lead to the transition from the breather turbulence to soliton turbulence. Furthermore, by analyzing the effects of additional higher-order nonlinear terms on the chaotic wave field, we find that those two higher-order nonlinear effects in the KE equation can lead to a larger amplitude of the chaotic wave field and a higher probability of generating rouge waves compared with the NLS equation.

3D-printed near-infrared-light-responsive on-demand drug-delivery scaffold for bone regeneration.

Although several bioactive 3D-printed bone scaffolds loaded with multiple kinds of biomolecules for enhanced bone regeneration have been recently developed, the manipulation of on-demand release profiles of different biomolecules during bone regeneration remains challenging. Herein, a 3D-printed dual-drug-loaded biomimetic scaffold to regulate the host stem cell recruitment and osteogenic differentiation in a two-stage process for bone regeneration was successfully fabricated. First, a chemotactic small-molecule drug, namely, simvastatin (SIM) was directly incorporated into the hydroxyapatite/collagen bioink for printing and could be rapidly released during the early stage of bone regeneration. Further, near-infrared (NIR)-light-responsive polydopamine-coated hydroxyapatite nanoparticles were designed to deliver the osteogenic drug, i.e., pargyline (PGL) in a controllable manner. Together, our scaffold displayed an on-demand sequential release of those two drugs and could optimize their therapeutic effects to align with the stem cell recruitment and osteoblastic differentiation, thereby promoting bone regeneration. The results confirmed the suitable mechanical strength, high photothermal conversion efficiency, good biocompatibility of our scaffold. The scaffold loaded with SIM could efficiently accelerate the migration of stem cells. In addition, the scaffold with on-demand sequential release promoted alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, significantly upregulated gene expression levels of osteogenesis-related markers, and enhanced new-bone-formation capabilities in rabbit cranial defect models. Altogether, this scaffold not only offers a promising strategy to control the behavior of stem cells during bone regeneration but also provides an efficient strategy for controllable sequential release of different biomolecule in bone tissue engineering.

Boron deficiency energizes cyanide uptake and assimilation through activating plasma membrane H+-ATPase in rice plants.

The effect of boron (B) deficiency on mediating the contribution of H+-ATPase in the uptake and assimilation of exogenous cyanide (CN-) is investigated. Under CN- treatments, rice seedlings with B-deficient (-B) conditions exhibited significantly higher CN- uptake and assimilation rates than B-supplemented (+B) seedlings, whereas NH4+ uptake and assimilation rates were slightly higher in -B rice seedlings than in +B. In this connection, the expression pattern of genes encoding ß-CAS, ST, and H+-ATPase was assessed to unravel their role in the current scenario. The abundances of three ß-CAS isogenes (OsCYS-D1, OsCYS-D2, and OsCYS-C1) in rice tissues are upregulated from both "CN--B" and "CN-+B" treatments, however, only OsCYS-C1 in roots from the "CN--B" treatments was significantly upregulated than "CN-+B" treatments. Expression patterns of ST-related genes (OsStr9, OsStr22, and OsStr23) are tissue specific, in which significantly higher upregulation of ST-related genes was observed in shoots from "CN--B" treatments than "CN-+B" treatments. Expression pattern of 7 selected H+-ATPase isogenes, OsA1, OSA2, OsA3, OsA4, OsA7, OsA8, and OsA9 are quite tissue specific between "CN-+B" and "CN--B" treatments. Among these, OsA4 and OsA7 genes were highly activated in the uptake and assimilation of exogenous CN- in -B nutrient solution. These results indicated that B deficiency disturbs the pattern of N cycles in CN--treated rice seedlings, where activation of ST during CN- assimilation decreases the flux of the innate pool of NH4+ produced from CN- assimilation by the ß-CAS pathway in plants. Collectively, the B deficiency increased the uptake and assimilation of exogenous CN- through activating H+-ATPase.

Prognostic Value of Coronary Microvascular Dysfunction Assessed by Coronary Angiography-Derived Index of Microcirculatory Resistance in Patients With ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction.

BACKGROUND: CaIMR is proposed as a novel angiographic index designed to assess microcirculation without the need for pressure wires or hyperemic agents. We aimed to investigate the impact of caIMR on predicting clinical outcomes in STEMI patients. METHODS: One hundred and forty patients with STEMI who received PCI in Putuo Hospital of Shanghai from October 2021 to September 2022 were categorized into CMD and non-CMD groups according to the caIMR value. The baseline information, patient-related examinations, and the occurrence of MACE at the 12-month follow-up were collected to investigate risk factors in patients with STEMI. RESULTS: We divided 140 patients with STEMI enrolled into two groups according to caIMR results, including 61 patients diagnosed with CMD and 79 patients diagnosed with non-CMD. A total of 21 MACE occurred during the 1 year of follow-up. Compared with non-CMD group, patients with CMD showed a significantly higher risk of MACE. A multivariate Cox regression model was conducted for the patients, and it was found thatcaIMR was a significant predictor of prognosis in STEMI patients (HR: 8.921). Patients with CMD were divided into culprit vascular CMD and non-culprit vascular CMD, and the result found that culprit vascular CMD was associated with the incidence of MACE (OR: 4.75) and heart failure (OR: 7.50). CONCLUSION: CaIMR is a strong predictor of clinical outcomes and can provide an objective risk stratification for patients with STEMI. There is a strong correlation among leukocyte index, the use of furosemide, Killips classification, and clinical outcomes.

Identification of the Key Genes Involved in Proline-Mediated Modification of Cell Wall Components in Rice Seedlings under Trivalent Chromium Exposure.

Chromium (Cr) toxicity exerts a detrimental effect on various physiological, biochemical, and molecular attributes of plants including the structure and functions of cell walls. On the other hand, the exogenous application of proline (Pro) is a beneficial strategy to overcome Cr toxicity. Therefore, it is a novel strategy to find the key genes associated with cell wall composition in rice under trivalent Cr with/without Pro application. A total of 203 genes were activated in the four cell wall biosynthesis pathways under chromium stress, namely cellulose (60), hemicellulose (57), lignin (35), and pectin (51). Based on the expression abundance of microarrays, the number of differentially expressed genes, and the expression level of genes, the lignin pathway was a crucial pathway in response to Cr treatments, followed by the cellulose pathway. Through the estimation of gene expression variation factors between 'Cr' and 'Cr+Pro' treatments, OsUGP1, OsBGLU24, OsBGLU29, OsBGLU33, OsBMY1, and OsBMY2 in the cellulose pathway; OsXTH9, OsXTH10, OsXTH16, OsGAUT3, OsGAUT19, OsGAUT28, OsXTH1, OsGAUT12, and OsGAUT21 in the hemicellulose pathway; OsPAL3, OsPAL3, OsPOX1, and OsPRX77 in the lignin pathway; and OsPME25, OsPGL27, OsPME26, OsPGL9, and OsPLL12 in the pectin pathway are the key genes involved in cell wall modification during Cr exposure with exogenous Pro application. The Pro-mediated activation of these genes could be crucial players in modifying the cell wall structure and composition of rice plants under Cr stress, which needs to be further clarified.