Structural divergence and phylogenetic relationships of Ajania (Asteraceae) from plastomes and ETS.

BACKGROUND: Ajania Poljakov, an Asteraceae family member, grows mostly in Asia's arid and semi-desert areas and is a significant commercial and decorative plant. Nevertheless, the genus' classification has been disputed, and the evolutionary connections within the genus have not been thoroughly defined. Hence, we sequenced and analyzed Ajania's plastid genomes and combined them with ETS data to assess their phylogenetic relationships. RESULTS: We obtained a total of six new Ajania plastid genomes and nine ETS sequences. The whole plastome lengths of the six species sampled ranged from 151,002 bp to 151,115 bp, showing conserved structures. Combined with publicly available data from GenBank, we constructed six datasets to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships, detecting nucleoplasmic clashes. Our results reveal the affinities of Artemisia, Chrysanthemum and Stilpnolepis to Ajania and validate the early taxonomy reclassification. Some of the plastid genes with low phylogenetic information and gene trees with topological differences may have contributed to the ambiguous phylogenetic results of Ajania. There is extensive evolutionary rate heterogeneity in plastid genes. The psbH and ycf2 genes, which are involved in photosynthesis and ATP transport, are under selective pressure. Plastomes from Ajania species diverged, and structural aspects of plastomes may indicate some of the real evolutionary connections. We suggest the ycf1 gene as a viable plastid DNA barcode because it has significant nucleotide diversity and better reflects evolutionary connections. CONCLUSION: Our findings validate the early Ajania taxonomy reclassification and show evolutionary rate heterogeneity, genetic variety, and phylogenetic heterogeneity of plastid genes. This research might provide new insights into the taxonomy and evolution of Ajania, as well as provide useful information for germplasm innovation and genetic enhancement in horticultural species.

Unlocking Liquid Sulfur Chemistry for Fast-Charging Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.

A recent study of liquid sulfur produced in an electrochemical cell has prompted further investigation into regulating Li-S oxidation chemistry. In this research, we examined the liquid-to-solid sulfur transition dynamics by visually observing the electrochemical generation of sulfur on a graphene-based substrate. We investigated the charging of polysulfides at various current densities and discovered a quantitative correlation between the size and number density of liquid sulfur droplets and the applied current. However, the areal capacities exhibited less sensitivity. This observation offers valuable insights for designing fast-charging sulfur cathodes. By incorporating liquid sulfur into Li-S batteries with a high sulfur loading of 4.2 mg cm-2, the capacity retention can reach ∼100%, even when increasing the rate from 0.1 to 3 C. This study contributes to a better understanding of the kinetics involved in the liquid-solid sulfur growth in Li-S chemistry and presents viable strategies for optimizing fast-charging operations.

Recent advances in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis.

Proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers (PEMWEs) are an attractive technology for renewable energy conversion and storage. By using green electricity generated from renewable sources like wind or solar, high-purity hydrogen gas can be produced in PEMWE systems, which can be used in fuel cells and other industrial sectors. To date, significant advances have been achieved in improving the efficiency of PEMWEs through the design of stack components; however, challenges remain for their large-scale and long-term application due to high cost and durability issues in acidic conditions. In this review, we examine the latest developments in engineering PEMWE systems and assess the gap that still needs to be filled for their practical applications. We provide a comprehensive summary of the reaction mechanisms, the correlation among structure-composition-performance, manufacturing methods, system design strategies, and operation protocols of advanced PEMWEs. We also highlight the discrepancies between the critical parameters required for practical PEMWEs and those reported in the literature. Finally, we propose the potential solution to bridge the gap and enable the appreciable applications of PEMWEs. This review may provide valuable insights for research communities and industry practitioners working in these fields and facilitate the development of more cost-effective and durable PEMWE systems for a sustainable energy future.

Visualizing the Interfacial Chemistry in Multivalent Metal Anodes by Transmission Electron Microscopy.

Multivalent metal batteries (MMBs) have been considered potentially high-energy and low-cost alternatives to commercial Li-ion batteries, thus attracting tremendous research interest for energy-storage applications. However, the plating and stripping of multivalent metals (i.e., Zn, Ca, Mg) suffer from low Coulombic efficiencies and short cycle life, which are largely rooted in the unstable solid electrolyte interphase. Apart from exploring new electrolytes or artificial layers for robust interphases, fundamental works on deciphering interfacial chemistry have also been conducted. This work is dedicated to summarizing the state-of-the-art advances in understanding the interphases for multivalent metal anodes revealed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) methods. Operando and cryogenic TEM with high spatial and temporal resolutions realize the dynamic visualization of the vulnerable chemical structures in interphase layers. Following a scrutinization of the interphases on different metal anodes, we elucidate their features for appealing multivalent metal anodes. Finally, perspectives are proposed for the remaining issues on analyzing and regulating interphases for practical MMBs.

Secondary Mycobacterium abscessus Infection after Debridement in Child with Dog Bite: a Case Report.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, there have been increasing reports related to infection caused by Mycobacterium abscessus (MAB). As one of the most common mycobacterium iatrogenic infections, it is characterized by pulmonary infection. However, only a few reports of MAB-related skin and soft tissue infections are available. This study reported a 3-year-old child admitted to our hospital for a dog bite with MAB infection after debridement. METHODS: The diagnosis of MAB in this child was made after detecting the bacteria in the wound secretion based on secretion culture in clinical laboratory. RESULTS: The result of the first bacterial isolation and culture of wound secretion was negative. However, the results were positive two days later and was diagnosed as MAB infection for samples of the purulent secretions collected by puncture and aspiration during debridement from the red and swollen regions of the thigh. The drug sensitivity results suggested that the child was sensitive to cefoxitin. However, she was resistant to amikacin, linezolid, minocycline, imipenem, tobramycin, moxifloxacin, clarithromycin, and doxycycline. The combined treatment strategy was used for managing MAB infection with a good effect. CONCLUSIONS: The management of MAB soft tissue infection has limitations, like poor tolerance, toxicity, and mul¬ti-drug interaction. The combined treatment strategy is important for MAB infection, and monitoring adverse re-actions and toxicity is the key.

Enhanced toxicity of entomopathogenic fungi Beauveria bassiana with bacteria expressing immune suppressive dsRNA in a leaf beetle.

The entomopathogenic fungus is recognized as an ideal alternative to chemical pesticides, nonetheless, its efficacy is often limited by insect's innate immune system. The suppression of the host immunity may overcome the obstacle and promote the toxicity of the fungi. Here, by using an entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana and immune genes dsRNA-expressing bacteria, we explored the potentially synergistic toxicity of the two agents on a leaf beetle Plagiodera versicolora (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). We first determined the susceptibilities of P. versicolora to a B. bassiana 476 strain (hereafter referred to Bb476). And the immune genes were identified based on the transcriptome of Bb476 challenged beetles. Subsequently, five immune genes (PGRP1, Toll1, Domeless，SPN1，and Lysozyme) were targeted by feeding dsRNA-expressing bacteria, which produced a 71.4, 39.0, 72.0, 49.0, and 68.7% gene silencing effect, respectively. Furthermore, we found a significantly increased mortality of P. versicolora when combined the Bb476 and the immune suppressive dsRNAs. Taking together, this study highlights the importance of insect immunity in the defense of entomopathogens and also paves the way toward the development of a more efficient pest management strategy that integrates both entomopathogens and immune suppressive dsRNAs.

Novel methylated flavoalkaloids from Echa 1 green tea inhibit fat accumulation and enhance stress resistance in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Methylation is a common structural modification of catechins in tea, which can improve the bioavailability of catechins. Flavoalkaloids are catechin derivatives with a nitrogen containing five-membered ring at the C-6 or C-8 position. Here we isolated three new methylated flavoalkaloids from Echa 1 green tea (Camellia sinensis cv. Echa 1) and synthesized another four new methylated flavoalkaloids. The structures of the new ester-type methylated catechins (etmc)-pyrrolidinone A-G (1-7) were elucidated by various spectroscopic techniques, including nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), optical rotation, infrared, UV-vis, experimental and calculated circular dichroism (CD) spectra, and high-resolution mass. Among them, 6 and 7 showed the strongest α-glucosidase inhibitory activity and significantly lowered lipid content of Caenorhabditis elegans with 73.50 and 67.39% inhibition rate, respectively. Meanwhile, 6 and 7 also exhibited strong antioxidant activity in vitro and stress resistance to heat, oxidative stress, and UV irradiation in nematodes.

Integrated Analysis of Altered lncRNA, circRNA, microRNA, and mRNA Expression in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Carrying TERT Promoter Mutations.

Background and Objectives: Telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) promoter mutations are one of the most common mutations responsible for the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) play a regulatory role in different cancers through the long noncoding RNA (lncRNA)/circular RNA (circRNA)-microRNA (miRNA)-mRNA axis. The aim of the study was to explore the influence of TERT promoter mutations on the ncRNA regulatory network in HCC. Methods: Four tumor samples with a wildtype TERT promoter and four tumor samples with TERT promoter mutations (sequencing cohort) were collected from HCC patients for high-throughput next-generation sequencing. Selected ncRNAs and mRNAs were validated by qPCR in 15 HCC tumors with a wildtype TERT promoter and seven HCC tumors with TERT promoter mutations (validation cohort, including the sequencing cohort). Results: In the mutant TERT promoter group, 536 lncRNAs, 21 circRNAs, 41 miRNAs, and 266 mRNAs were significantly up-regulated, while 1745 lncRNAs, 23 circRNAs, 32 miRNAs, and 1117 mRNAs were significantly down-regulated (P < 0.05) compared with the findings in wildtype group. AL360169.3-201, LINC02672-203, hsa_circ_0021412, hsa-miR-29b-1-5p, hsa-miR-4699-5p, hsa-miR-199a-5p, REG3A, SFRP5, and GSTM1 were verified at the RNA expression level to validate the sequencing results. A differentially expressed lncRNA/circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network was constructed to explore the effects of TERT promoter mutations on ncRNA regulation. Two ncRNA regulatory axes associated with TERT promoter mutations (hsa_circ_0003154/hsa_circ_0008952/IGLL5-AS1/LINC576/LINC575-hsa-miR-1260b -CLPTM1L/GSTM1 and hsa_circ_0031584/LINC2101-hsa-miR-214-3p-CD151) had carcinogenic potential. Conclusion: This study provides novel insights into the role of TERT promoter mutations on ncRNAs regulatory network in HCC progression.

Two new catechins from Zijuan green tea enhance the fitness and lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans via insulin-like signaling pathways.

Green tea polyphenols show positive effects on human health and longevity. However, knowledge of the antiaging properties of green tea is limited to the major catechin epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). The search for new ingredients in tea with strong antiaging activity deserves further study. Here we isolated and identified two new catechins from Zijuan green tea, named zijuanin E (1) and zijuanin F (2). Their structures were identified by extensive high-resolution mass spectroscopy (HR-MS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), ultraviolet-vis (UV), infrared (IR) and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopic analyses, and their 13C NMR and CD data were calculated. We used the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) to analyze the health benefits and longevity effects of 1 and 2. Compounds 1 and 2 (100 µM) remarkably prolonged the lifespan of C. elegans by 67.2% and 56.0%, respectively, delaying the age-related decline of phenotypes, enhancing stress resistance, and reducing ROS and lipid accumulation. Furthermore, 1 and 2 did not affect the lifespan of daf-16, daf-2, sir-2.1, and skn-1 mutant worms, suggesting that they might work via the insulin/IGF and SKN-1/Nrf2 signaling pathways. Meanwhile, 1 and 2 also exhibited strong antioxidant activity in vitro. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) evidence suggests that zijuanins E and F have strong human serum albumin (HSA) binding ability. Together, zijuanins E and F represent a new valuable class of tea components that promote healthspan and could be developed as potential dietary therapies against aging.

Integrated Analysis of the Altered lncRNA, microRNA, and mRNA Expression in HBV-Positive Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is the most prominent risk factor for developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which can increase the incidence of HCC by more than 100 times. Accumulated evidence has revealed that non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) play a regulatory role in various tumors through the long non-coding RNA (lncRNA)-microRNA (miRNA)-mRNA regulation axis. However, the involvement of the ncRNA regulatory network in the progression of HBV infection-induced HCC remains elusive. In the current work, five tumor samples from patients with hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive HCC and three tumor samples from patients with HBsAg-negative HCC were collected for whole-transcriptome sequencing. Between the two groups, 841 lncRNAs, 54 miRNAs, and 1118 mRNAs were identified to be differentially expressed (DE). The Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses indicated that DE genes were mainly involved in cancer-related pathways, including Wnt and MAPK signaling pathways. The Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) analysis further validated the selected DE mRNAs. The DE lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA network was built to explore the effect of HBV infection on the regulation of ncRNAs in HCC. These findings provide novel insights into the role of HBV infection in the progression of HCC.

Reassessment of the Phylogeny and Systematics of Chinese Parnassia (Celastraceae): A Thorough Investigation Using Whole Plastomes and Nuclear Ribosomal DNA.

Parnassia L., a perennial herbaceous genus in the family Celastraceae, consists of about 60 species and is mainly distributed in the Pan-Himalayan and surrounding mountainous regions. The taxonomic position and phylogenetic relationships of the genus are still controversial. Herein, we reassessed the taxonomic status of Parnassia and its intra- and inter-generic phylogeny within Celastraceae. To that end, we sequenced and assembled the whole plastid genomes and nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) of 48 species (74 individuals), including 25 species of Parnassia and 23 species from other genera of Celastraceae. We integrated high throughput sequence data with advanced statistical toolkits and performed the analyses. Our results supported the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group IV (APG IV) taxonomy which kept the genus to the family Celastraceae. Although there were topological conflicts between plastid and nrDNA phylogenetic trees, Parnassia was fully supported as a monophyletic group in all cases. We presented a first attempt to estimate the divergence of Parnassia, and molecular clock analysis indicated that the diversification occurred during the Eocene. The molecular phylogenetic results confirmed numerous taxonomic revisions, revealing that the morphological characters used in Parnassia taxonomy and systematics might have evolved multiple times. In addition, we speculated that hybridization/introgression might exist during genus evolution, which needs to be further studied. Similarly, more in-depth studies will clarify the diversification of characters and species evolution models of this genus.

Plastome sequencing reveals phylogenetic relationships among Comastoma and related taxa (Gentianaceae) from the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

Genus Comastoma (subt. Swertiinae, Gentianaceae) contains species, such as "Zangyinchen," that are important herbs in Tibetan medicine. The phylogenetic relationship of this within Gentianaceae and the circumscriptions of its species have long been controversial with conflicting morphological and molecular data reported. Here, we used whole chloroplast genome sequences for Comastoma species and related taxa to reconstruct their phylogeny and clarify their taxonomic relationships. The results revealed that the length of all plastome sequenced varied from 149 to 151 kb and have high similarity in structure and gene content. Phylogenomic analysis showed that Comastoma is a monophyletic group, closely related to the genus Lomatogonium. The divergence time estimation showed that Gentianaceae diverged at about 21.81 Ma, while the split of Comastoma occurred at 7.70 Ma. However, the results suggested the crown age of species formation in this genus is after 4.19 Ma. Our results suggest that QTP uplift, the alternation of Quaternary glaciation and interglaciation, and monsoon changes might have acted as drivers of speciation in Comastoma.

Preparing and Rearing Axenic Insects with Tissue Cultured Seedlings for Host-Gut Microbiota Interaction Studies of the Leaf Beetle.

Insect guts are colonized by diverse bacteria that can profoundly impact the host's physiological traits. Introducing a particular bacterial strain into an axenic insect is a powerful method to verify gut microbial function and elucidate the mechanisms underlying gut microbe-host interactions. Administering antibiotics or sterilizing egg surfaces are two commonly used methods to remove gut bacteria from insects. However, in addition to the potential adverse effects of antibiotics on insects, previous studies indicated that feeding antibiotics could not eliminate gut bacteria. Thus, germ-free artificial diets are generally employed to maintain axenic insects, which is a tedious and labor-intensive process that cannot fully resemble nutritional components in natural food. Described here is an efficient and simple protocol to prepare and maintain axenic larvae of a leaf beetle (Plagiodera versicolora). Specifically, surfaces of the beetle eggs were sterilized, following which germ-free poplar leaves were used to rear axenic larvae. The axenic status of the insects was further confirmed via culture-dependent and culture-independent assays. Collectively, by combining egg disinfection and germ-free cultivation, an efficient and convenient method was developed to obtain axenic P. versicolora, providing a readily transferable tool for other leaf-eating insects.

Robust whole slide image analysis for cervical cancer screening using deep learning.

Computer-assisted diagnosis is key for scaling up cervical cancer screening. However, current recognition algorithms perform poorly on whole slide image (WSI) analysis, fail to generalize for diverse staining and imaging, and show sub-optimal clinical-level verification. Here, we develop a progressive lesion cell recognition method combining low- and high-resolution WSIs to recommend lesion cells and a recurrent neural network-based WSI classification model to evaluate the lesion degree of WSIs. We train and validate our WSI analysis system on 3,545 patient-wise WSIs with 79,911 annotations from multiple hospitals and several imaging instruments. On multi-center independent test sets of 1,170 patient-wise WSIs, we achieve 93.5% Specificity and 95.1% Sensitivity for classifying slides, comparing favourably to the average performance of three independent cytopathologists, and obtain 88.5% true positive rate for highlighting the top 10 lesion cells on 447 positive slides. After deployment, our system recognizes a one giga-pixel WSI in about 1.5 min.

An unsupervised style normalization method for cytopathology images.

Diverse styles of cytopathology images have a negative effect on the generalization ability of automated image analysis algorithms. This article proposes an unsupervised method to normalize cytopathology image styles. We design a two-stage style normalization framework with a style removal module to convert the colorful cytopathology image into a gray-scale image with a color-encoding mask and a domain adversarial style reconstruction module to map them back to a colorful image with user-selected style. Our method enforces both hue and structure consistency before and after normalization by using the color-encoding mask and per-pixel regression. Intra-domain and inter-domain adversarial learning are applied to ensure the style of normalized images consistent with the user-selected for input images of different domains. Our method shows superior results against current unsupervised color normalization methods on six cervical cell datasets from different hospitals and scanners. We further demonstrate that our normalization method greatly improves the recognition accuracy of lesion cells on unseen cytopathology images, which is meaningful for model generalization.

Determining the effects of blended learning using the community of inquiry on nursing students' learning gains in sudden patient deterioration module.

AIMS: To determine the effectiveness of blended learning using the community of inquiry framework on nursing students' learning gains in a sudden patient deterioration module. DESIGN: A quasi-experimental trial. METHODS: 233 Chinese nursing students in their fourth semester of a sudden patient deterioration learning module were assigned to control (N = 113) and experimental group (N = 120). Students in experimental group engaged in community of inquiry-based blended learning in sudden patient deterioration module, including computer-aided self-instruction, team-based topic discussion and simulation training. Control group learned similar contents through face-to-face teaching comprising of a presentation with lecture, tutorial and simulation training. Student assessment of learning gains, knowledge and practical ability was quantified after the interventions. RESULTS: Compared with control group, students in experimental group had improved student assessment of learning gains (p = .001, Cohen d = 0.69) and practical ability (p < .001, Cohen d = 0.48). Although no significant difference in overall knowledge score, experimental group students did better performance in application and analysis (p = .001, Cohen d = 0.45).

The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Neopallasia pectinata (Asteraceae).

The complete chloroplast (cp) genome of Neopallasia pectinata was sequenced and analyzed in this study. It was 150,766 bp in length and has a typical circular structure, including a large single copy (LSC) with 82,605 bp, two inverted repeats (IRs) with 24,944 bp, and a small single copy (SSC) with 18,273 bp. The phylogenetic analysis of N. pectinata and its related taxa was conducted depended on the complete cp-genome sequences. The maximum likelihood tree indicates a close relationship between Chrysanthemum and Neopallasia. The cp-genome of N. pectinata is useful for future phylogenetic studies of Asteraceae.

Reactivity of Vinyl Epoxides/Oxetanes/Cyclopropanes toward Arynes: Access to Functionalized Phenanthrenes.

The reactivity of vinyl epoxides/oxetanes/cyclopropanes toward arynes has been demonstrated under mild conditions to give the corresponding phenanthrenes in moderate to good yields. This transition-metal-free cascade process involves a series of Diels-Alder reaction, ring-opening aromatization, and ene reaction. Various functionalized phenanthrenes could be synthesized utilizing the versatile hydroxy group. Interestingly, vinyl epoxides/oxiranes experience preferentially the Diels-Alder reaction toward arynes over nucleophilic attack of epoxides/oxiranes.

Hole Transfer Layer Engineering for CdTe Nanocrystal Photovoltaics with Improved Efficiency.

Interface engineering has led to significant progress in solution-processed CdTe nanocrystal (NC) solar cells in recent years. High performance solar cells can be fabricated by introducing a hole transfer layer (HTL) between CdTe and a back contact electrode to reduce carrier recombination by forming interfacial dipole effect at the interface. Here, we report the usage of a commercial product 2,2',7,7'-tetrakis[N,N-di(4-methoxyphenyl)amino]-9,9'-spirobifluorene (Spiro) as a hole transfer layer to facilitate the hole collecting for CdTe nanocrystal solar cells. It is found that heat treatment on the hole transfer layer has significant influence on the NC solar cells performance. The Jsc, Voc, and power conversion efficiency (PCE) of NC solar cells are simultaneously increased due to the decreased contact resistance and enhanced built-in electric field. We demonstrate solar cells that achieve a high PCE of 8.34% for solution-processed CdTe NC solar cells with an inverted structure by further optimizing the HTL annealing temperature, which is among the highest value in CdTe NC solar cells with the inverted structure.

Regional Injection of CAR-T Cells for the Treatment of Refractory and Recurrent Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma: A Case Report.

BACKGROUND: Lymphoma is a common hematological malignancy with many subtypes and considerable heterogeneity. Traditional treatments include chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery. Patients with relapsed, refractory or advanced stage lymphoma have a dismal prognosis. In recent years, chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) have been recognized as powerful tools that redirect antigen-specific T cells independent of human lymphocyte antigen (HLA) restriction and specifically kill tumor cells. Satisfactory results with CAR-based treatments have been achieved in relapsed/refractory B cell leukemia/lymphoma. Our center explored the strategy of subcutaneous injections combined with intravenous drip to overcome certain issues. CASE PRESENTATION: A patient with stage IV refractory and relapsed diffuse large B cell lymphoma was treated with regional and intravenous CAR-T cells. During the observation period, the temperature of the skin at the abdominal wall mass was slightly elevated, and tolerable pain in the injection area was reported. Imaging showed regional liquefactive necrosis. After the sequential administration of ibrutinib and venetoclax, the abdominal wall mass significantly decreased in size. CONCLUSION: The regional injection of CAR-T cells might be safe and feasible for the treatment of regional lesions in patients with refractory and relapsed advanced lymphoma.