Periodic inundation accelerates the release process of organic carbon from plant litter.

The total organic carbon (OC) from plant litter in riparian zones is an important nutrient source for aquatic organisms and plays a crucial role in the nutrient cycling of river ecosystems. Nevertheless, the total amount of OC in dammed rivers gradually decreases, and the restoration methods are rarely researched. A hypothesis was proposed that the periodic inundation altered the process of OC release from plant litter. To explore the impact of periodic inundation on OC release from litter in the riparian zone, litter bags in situ tests were conducted in the Yalong River. Three inundation treatments were conducted for the test samples, which were NS (never submerged by water), PIS (periodic submerged), and PMS (permanent submerged). Results indicated that the amount of OC released from litters in PIS treatment was about 1.1 times that in PMS treatment, and about 2.1 times that in NS treatment. The average release rate coefficient k of PIS treatment (at mean water level) was the highest (12.8 × 10-4 d-1), followed by PMS treatment (11.0 × 10-4 d-1), and NS treatment (5.6 × 10-4 d-1), which demonstrated that the periodic inundation was critical for OC release. The mean water level was a demarcation line where there was a significant difference in the release of OC in the riparian zone (p < 0.05). Flow velocity alone could account for 84% of the variation in OC release rate, while the flow velocity and inundation duration together could achieve an explanatory degree of 86%. This research can provide a valuable scientific basis for the protection and restoration of river ecosystems, especially for the recovery of OC concentration in dammed rivers.

ALKBH5 regulates chicken adipogenesis by mediating LCAT mRNA stability depending on m6A modification.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have demonstrated the role of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) RNA methylation in various biological processes, our research is the first to elucidate its specific impact on LCAT mRNA stability and adipogenesis in poultry. RESULTS: The 6 100-day-old female chickens were categorized into high (n = 3) and low-fat chickens (n = 3) based on their abdominal fat ratios, and their abdominal fat tissues were processed for MeRIP-seq and RNA-seq. An integrated analysis of MeRIP-seq and RNA-seq omics data revealed 16 differentially expressed genes associated with to differential m6A modifications. Among them, ELOVL fatty acid elongase 2 (ELOVL2), pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 4 (PDK4), fatty acid binding protein 9 (PMP2), fatty acid binding protein 1 (FABP1), lysosomal associated membrane protein 3 (LAMP3), lecithin-cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) and solute carrier family 2 member 1 (SLC2A1) have ever been reported to be associated with adipogenesis. Interestingly, LCAT was down-regulated and expressed along with decreased levels of mRNA methylation methylation in the low-fat group. Mechanistically, the highly expressed ALKBH5 gene regulates LCAT RNA demethylation and affects LCAT mRNA stability. In addition, LCAT inhibits preadipocyte proliferation and promotes preadipocyte differentiation, and plays a key role in adipogenesis. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, ALKBH5 mediates RNA stability of LCAT through demethylation and affects chicken adipogenesis. This study provides a theoretical basis for further understanding of RNA methylation regulation in chicken adipogenesis.

Integrated optical rotation detection scheme for chip-scale atomic magnetometer empowered by silicon-rich SiNx metalens.

High-performance atomic magnetometers (AMs) rely on the measurement of optical rotation, which requires a set of bulky polarization optics that limit their applications in scenarios where portability and compactness are necessary. In this study, a miniaturized AM is constructed based on a cubic 87Rb vapor cell and monolithic metalens, which provides an integrated scheme to achieve optical rotation detection induced by the circular birefringence of polarized atoms. The designed metalens achieves polarization splitting with deflection angles of ±10∘ and focusing with efficiencies of approximately 30% for orthogonal linear polarizations. The sensitivity of our compact device is ∼30 fT/Hz1/2 with a dynamic range of around ±1.45 nT. We envision that the presented approach paves the way for the chip integration of emerging atomic devices, which are in demand for applications such as biomagnetic imaging and portable atomic gyroscopes.

S-nitrosoglutathione reductase alleviates morphine analgesic tolerance by restricting PKCα S-nitrosation.

Morphine, a typical opiate, is widely used for controlling pain but can lead to various side effects with long-term use, including addiction, analgesic tolerance, and hyperalgesia. At present, however, the mechanisms underlying the development of morphine analgesic tolerance are not fully understood. This tolerance is influenced by various opioid receptor and kinase protein modifications, such as phosphorylation and ubiquitination. Here, we established a murine morphine tolerance model to investigate whether and how S-nitrosoglutathione reductase (GSNOR) is involved in morphine tolerance. Repeated administration of morphine resulted in the down-regulation of GSNOR, which increased excessive total protein S-nitrosation in the prefrontal cortex. Knockout or chemical inhibition of GSNOR promoted the development of morphine analgesic tolerance and neuron-specific overexpression of GSNOR alleviated morphine analgesic tolerance. Mechanistically, GSNOR deficiency enhanced S-nitrosation of cellular protein kinase alpha (PKCα) at the Cys78 and Cys132 sites, leading to inhibition of PKCα kinase activity, which ultimately promoted the development of morphine analgesic tolerance. Our study highlighted the significant role of GSNOR as a key regulator of PKCα S-nitrosation and its involvement in morphine analgesic tolerance, thus providing a potential therapeutic target for morphine tolerance.

An Investigation of the Magnitude of the Role of Different Plant Species in Grassland Communities on Species Diversity, China.

In this study, we selected four grassland plots in Altai forest area and used the field survey method of "two-valued occurrence" to obtain the occurrence data of each plant species in the plots so as to calculate the species diversity index value of the community as a whole and the species diversity index value of each plant species not present in the community and to make use of the difference between these two diversity indices to determine the role of each plant species in the overall species diversity of the community. The difference between these two diversity indices was used to investigate the role of each plant species in the overall species diversity of the community. The results show the following: (1) In the grassland of the Altai forest area in Xinjiang, Asteraceae, Poaceae, Fabaceae, Polygonaceae, and Rosaceae are the dominant families, among which the genera Puccinellia Parl, Taraxacum, Pharbitis, Lactuca, Geranium, and Alchemilla are the dominant genera. (2) The plant species with the greatest contribution to species diversity in the four grassland samples was not the first dominant species of the community, but rather the plant species whose dominance was in the second to sixth position. (3) The first dominant species was overwhelmingly dominant in the four sample plots, and it served to increase the overall diversity of the community. (4) The overall trend in the size of the role of species in diversity is unimodal, i.e., logarithmically increasing to a maximum as species dominance decreases and then exponentially or linearly decreasing and eventually converging to zero. The synthesis showed that it was not the first dominant species that played the largest role in species diversity in the different grassland communities and that the overwhelmingly dominant species reduced the species diversity of the community.

Proxiome assembly of the plant nuclear pore reveals an essential hub for gene expression regulation.

The nuclear pore complex (NPC) is vital for nucleocytoplasmic communication. Recent evidence emphasizes its extensive association with proteins of diverse functions, suggesting roles beyond cargo transport. Yet, our understanding of NPC's composition and functionality at this extended level remains limited. Here, through proximity-labelling proteomics, we uncover both local and global NPC-associated proteome in Arabidopsis, comprising over 500 unique proteins, predominantly associated with NPC's peripheral extension structures. Compositional analysis of these proteins revealed that the NPC concentrates chromatin remodellers, transcriptional regulators and mRNA processing machineries in the nucleoplasmic region while recruiting translation regulatory machinery on the cytoplasmic side, achieving a remarkable orchestration of the genetic information flow by coupling RNA transcription, maturation, transport and translation regulation. Further biochemical and structural modelling analyses reveal that extensive interactions with nucleoporins, along with phase separation mediated by substantial intrinsically disordered proteins, may drive the formation of the unexpectedly large nuclear pore proteome assembly.

Interspecific barrier effect driven by heavy metals makes soil bacterial functional assembly more stochastic.

Residual heavy metals in soils will destroy microbial community stability and influence its aggregation. However, exploring microbial ecology under heavy-metal stress still requires a conjoint analysis of bacterial interspecies communication and the community diversity maintenance mechanism. In this study, soil samples were collected from a heavy-metal-contaminated site in China to investigate the ecological response of indigenous microbial communities through high-throughput sequencing. Results showed that bacterial taxa and functions generated unusual decoupling phenomena. There were no significant differences in the diversity of species with the increase in concentration of heavy metals (Hg, Se, and Cr), but the functional diversity was lost. Also, the average niche breadth of bacterial species increased from 1.70 to 2.28, but community stability declined and the species assembly was always a deterministic process (NST <0.5). After the bacterial functional assembly changed from a stochastic process to a deterministic process (NST <0.5), it was transformed into a stochastic process (NST >0.5) again under the stress of high-concentration heavy metals, indicating that the collective stress resistance of bacterial communities changed from positive mutation into passive functional propagation. The research results can provide new insight into understanding the adaptive evolution of communities and ecosystem restoration under the stress of soil heavy metals.

MICPL: Motion-Inspired Cross-Pattern Learning for Small-Object Detection in Satellite Videos.

For small-object detection, vision patterns can only provide limited support to feature learning. Most prior schemes mainly depend on a single vision pattern to learn object features, seldom considering more latent motion patterns. In the real world, humans often efficiently perceive small objects through multipattern signals. Inspired by this observation, this article attempts to address small-object detection from a new prospective of latent pattern learning. To fulfill this purpose, it regards a real-world moving object as the spatiotemporal sequences of a static object to capture latent motion patterns. In view of this, we propose a motion-inspired cross-pattern learning (MICPL) scheme to capture the motion patterns for moving small-object scenarios. This scheme mainly consists of two crucial parts: motion pattern mining (MPM) and motion-vision adaption. The former is designed to effectively mine the motion pattern from time-dependent representation space. The latter is devised to correlate between motion patterns and vision semantics. In the meanwhile, we explore their cross-pattern interactions to guide MICPL to capture motion patterns effectively. Comparison experiments verify that, cooperated by motion pattern, even a simple detector could often refresh state-of-the-art (SOTA) results on moving small-object detection. Moreover, the experiments on two small-object-related tasks further prove the adaptivity and advantages of our cross-pattern feature learning scheme. Our source codes are available at https://github.com/ UESTC-nnLab/MICPL.

Biomolecular Condensates Decipher Molecular Codes of Cell Fate: From Biophysical Fundamentals to Therapeutic Practices.

Cell fate is precisely modulated by complex but well-tuned molecular signaling networks, whose spatial and temporal dysregulation commonly leads to hazardous diseases. Biomolecular condensates (BCs), as a newly emerging type of biophysical assemblies, decipher the molecular codes bridging molecular behaviors, signaling axes, and clinical prognosis. Particularly, physical traits of BCs play an important role; however, a panoramic view from this perspective toward clinical practices remains lacking. In this review, we describe the most typical five physical traits of BCs, and comprehensively summarize their roles in molecular signaling axes and corresponding major determinants. Moreover, establishing the recent observed contribution of condensate physics on clinical therapeutics, we illustrate next-generation medical strategies by targeting condensate physics. Finally, the challenges and opportunities for future medical development along with the rapid scientific and technological advances are highlighted.

GSNOR negatively regulates the NLRP3 inflammasome via S-nitrosation of MAPK14.

Hyperactivation of the NLRP3 inflammasome has been implicated in the pathogenesis of numerous diseases. However, the precise molecular mechanisms that modulate the transcriptional regulation of NLRP3 remain largely unknown. In this study, we demonstrated that S-nitrosoglutathione reductase (GSNOR) deficiency in macrophages leads to significant increases in the Nlrp3 and Il-1ß expression levels and interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß) secretion in response to NLRP3 inflammasome stimulation. Furthermore, in vivo experiments utilizing Gsnor-/- mice revealed increased disease severity in both lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced septic shock and dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis models. Additionally, we showed that both LPS-induced septic shock and DSS-induced colitis were ameliorated in Gsnor-/- Nlrp3-/- double-knockout (DKO) mice. Mechanistically, GSNOR deficiency increases the S-nitrosation of mitogen-activated protein kinase 14 (MAPK14) at the Cys211 residue and augments MAPK14 kinase activity, thereby promoting Nlrp3 and Il-1ß transcription and stimulating NLRP3 inflammasome activity. Our findings suggested that GSNOR is a regulator of the NLRP3 inflammasome and that reducing the level of S-nitrosylated MAPK14 may constitute an effective strategy for alleviating diseases associated with NLRP3-mediated inflammation.

IFNα-induced BST2+ tumor-associated macrophages facilitate immunosuppression and tumor growth in pancreatic cancer by ERK-CXCL7 signaling.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) features an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) that resists immunotherapy. Tumor-associated macrophages, abundant in the TME, modulate T cell responses. Bone marrow stromal antigen 2-positive (BST2+) macrophages increase in KrasG12D/+; Trp53R172H/+; Pdx1-Cre mouse models during PDAC progression. However, their role in PDAC remains elusive. Our findings reveal a negative correlation between BST2+ macrophage levels and PDAC patient prognosis. Moreover, an increased ratio of exhausted CD8+ T cells is observed in tumors with up-regulated BST2+ macrophages. Mechanistically, BST2+ macrophages secrete CXCL7 through the ERK pathway and bind with CXCR2 to activate the AKT/mTOR pathway, promoting CD8+ T cell exhaustion. The combined blockade of CXCL7 and programmed death-ligand 1 successfully decelerates tumor growth. Additionally, cGAS-STING pathway activation in macrophages induces interferon (IFN)α synthesis leading to BST2 overexpression in the PDAC TME. This study provides insights into IFNα-induced BST2+ macrophages driving an immune-suppressive TME through ERK-CXCL7 signaling to regulate CD8+ T cell exhaustion in PDAC.

Lysine Distinctively Manipulates Myogenic Regulatory Factors and Wnt/Ca2+ Pathway in Slow and Fast Muscles, and Their Satellite Cells of Postnatal Piglets.

Muscle regeneration, representing an essential homeostatic process, relies mainly on the myogenic progress of resident satellite cells, and it is modulated by multiple physical and nutritional factors. Here, we investigated how myogenic differentiation-related factors and pathways respond to the first limiting amino acid lysine (Lys) in the fast and slow muscles, and their satellite cells (SCs), of swine. Thirty 28-day-old weaned piglets with similar body weights were subjected to three diet regimens: control group (d 0-28: 1.31% Lys, n = 12), Lys-deficient group (d 0-28: 0.83% Lys, n = 12), and Lys rescue group (d 0-14: 0.83% Lys; d 15-28: 1.31% Lys, n = 6). Pigs on d 15 and 29 were selectively slaughtered for muscular parameters evaluation. Satellite cells isolated from fast (semimembranosus) and slow (semitendinosus) muscles were also selected to investigate differentiation ability variations. We found Lys deficiency significantly hindered muscle development in both fast and slow muscles via the distinct manipulation of myogenic regulatory factors and the Wnt/Ca2+ pathway. In the SC model, Lys deficiency suppressed the Wnt/Ca2+ pathways and myosin heavy chain, myogenin, and myogenic regulatory factor 4 in slow muscle SCs but stimulated them in fast muscle SCs. When sufficient Lys was attained, the fast muscle-derived SCs Wnt/Ca2+ pathway (protein kinase C, calcineurin, calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II, and nuclear factor of activated T cells 1) was repressed, while the Wnt/Ca2+ pathway of its counterpart was stimulated to further the myogenic differentiation. Lys potentially manipulates the differentiation of porcine slow and fast muscle myofibers via the Wnt/Ca2+ pathway in opposite trends.

LC-based lightfield camera prototype for rapidly creating target images optimized by finely adjusting several key coefficients and a LC-guided refocusing-rendering.

A lightfield camera prototype is constructed by directly coupling a liquid-crystal (LC) microlens array with an arrayed photosensitive sensor for performing a LC-guided refocusing-rendering imaging attached by computing disparity map and extracting featured contours of targets. The proposed camera prototype presents a capability of efficiently selecting the imaging clarity value of the electronic targets interested. Two coefficients of the calibration coefficient k and the rendering coefficient C are defined for quantitively adjusting LC-guided refocusing-rendering operations about the images acquired. A parameter Dp is also introduced for exactly expressing the local disparity of the electronic patterns selected. A parallel computing architecture based on common GPU through the OpenCL platform is adopted for improving the real-time performance of the imaging algorithms proposed, which can effectively be used to extract the pixel-leveled disparity and the featured target contours. In the proposed lightfield imaging strategy, the focusing plane can be easily selected and/or further adjusted by loading and/or varying the signal voltage applied over the LC microlenses for realizing a rapid or even intelligent autofocusing. The research lays a solid foundation for continuously developing or upgrading current lightfield imaging approaches.

Effective C4 Separation by Zeolite Metal-Organic Framework Composite Membranes.

Inorganic zeolites have excellent molecular sieving properties, but they are difficult to process into macroscopic structures. In this work, we use metal-organic framework (MOF) glass as substrates to engineer the interface with inorganic zeolites, and then assemble the discrete crystalline zeolite powders into monolithic structures. The zeolites are well dispersed and stabilized within the MOF glass matrix, and the monolith has satisfactory mechanical stabilities for membrane applications. We demonstrate the effective separation performance of the membrane for 1,3-butadiene (C4H6) from other C4 hydrocarbons, which is a crucial and challenging separation in the chemical industry. The membrane achieves a high permeance of C4H6 (693.00±21.83 GPU) and a high selectivity over n-butene, n-butane, isobutene, and isobutane (9.72, 9.94, 10.31, and 11.94, respectively). This strategy opens up new possibilities for developing advanced membrane materials for difficult hydrocarbon separations.

Psychometric evaluation of the Chinese version of the stressors in breast cancer scale: a translation and validation study.

OBJECTIVE: To translate the Stressors in Breast Cancer Scale (SBCS) from English to Chinese and assess its psychometric properties. METHODS: The Brislin's translation model was applied to perform forward translation, back translation, cross-cultural adaptation, Whereas the Chinese version of the SBCS was formed by conducting pre-testing. A cohort of 878 breast cancer patients participated in this methodological study. Content validity, construct validity, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and criterion-related validity were used to establish validity. Internal consistency reliability, split-half reliability, and test-retest reliability were used to establish reliability. RESULTS: The final scale contained five dimensions and 24 items, including interpersonal relationship and healthcare strains, worries and concerns about the future, physical appearance and sex strains, daily difficulties and health. The average content validity index of the scale was 0.975. The goodness-of-fit index (χ2/DF = 2.416, RMSEA = 0.057, GFI = 0.896, CFI = 0.947, IFI = 0.947, and TLI = 0.939) indicated that the model was well-fitted. The composite reliability (CR) of the dimensions ranged from 0.825 to 0.934, the average variance extracted (AVE) ranged from 0.539 to 0.712, and the correlation coefficients of each dimension with the other dimensions were less than the square root of the AVE for that dimension. The Criterion-related validity was 0.511. The Cronbach's alpha was 0.938, and the dimensions ranged from 0.779 to 0.900. Split-half reliability was 0.853, with dimensions ranging from 0.761 to 0.892. Test-retest reliability was 0.855. CONCLUSIONS: The Chinese version of the SBCS has good reliability and validity, which can be applied to the assessment of stressors in breast cancer patients in China.

Comparative skin histological and transcriptomic analysis of Rana kukunoris with two different skin colors.

This study compares the skin structures of Rana kukunoris with two different skin colors living in the same area of Haibei in the Northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The skin thickness of the khaki R. kukunoris was significantly greater than that of the brown R. kukunoris (P < 0.01), and significantly more mucous and granular glands were present on the dorsal skin of the khaki frog (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, the melanocytes on the dorsal skin of the brown frog were significantly larger than those on the khaki one (P < 0.05). Morphological changes in the expansion and aggregation of melanocytes seemed to deepen the skin color of R. kukunoris. Moreover, transcriptome sequencing identified tyrosine metabolism, melanogenesis, and riboflavin metabolism as the main pathways involved in melanin formation and metabolism in brown R. kukunoris. TYR, MC1R was upregulated as the skin color of R. kukunoris was deepened and contributed to melanin production and metabolism. In contrast, the khaki frog had significantly more upregulated genes and metabolic pathways related to autoimmunity. The khaki frog appeared to defend against ultraviolet (UV) radiation-induced damage by secreting mucus and small molecular peptides, whereas the brown frog protected itself by distributing a large amount of melanin. Hence, the different skin colors of R. kukunoris might represent different adaptation strategies for survival in the intense UV radiation environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Boosting Piezocatalytic Performance of BaTiO3 by Tuning Defects at Room Temperature.

Defect engineering constitutes a widely-employed method of adjusting the electronic structure and properties of oxide materials. However, controlling defects at room temperature remains a significant challenge due to the considerable thermal stability of oxide materials. In this work, a facile room-temperature lithium reduction strategy is utilized to implant oxide defects into perovskite BaTiO3 (BTO) nanoparticles to enhance piezocatalytic properties. As a potential application, the piezocatalytic performance of defective BTO is examined. The reaction rate constant increases up to 0.1721 min-1, representing an approximate fourfold enhancement over pristine BTO. The effect of oxygen vacancies on piezocatalytic performance is discussed in detail. This work gives us a deeper understanding of vibration catalysis and provides a promising strategy for designing efficient multi-field catalytic systems in the future.

Observation of plaid-like spin splitting in a noncoplanar antiferromagnet.

Spatial, momentum and energy separation of electronic spins in condensed-matter systems guides the development of new devices in which spin-polarized current is generated and manipulated1-3. Recent attention on a set of previously overlooked symmetry operations in magnetic materials4 leads to the emergence of a new type of spin splitting, enabling giant and momentum-dependent spin polarization of energy bands on selected antiferromagnets5-10. Despite the ever-growing theoretical predictions, the direct spectroscopic proof of such spin splitting is still lacking. Here we provide solid spectroscopic and computational evidence for the existence of such materials. In the noncoplanar antiferromagnet manganese ditelluride (MnTe2), the in-plane components of spin are found to be antisymmetric about the high-symmetry planes of the Brillouin zone, comprising a plaid-like spin texture in the antiferromagnetic (AFM) ground state. Such an unconventional spin pattern, further found to diminish at the high-temperature paramagnetic state, originates from the intrinsic AFM order instead of spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Our finding demonstrates a new type of quadratic spin texture induced by time-reversal breaking, placing AFM spintronics on a firm basis and paving the way for studying exotic quantum phenomena in related materials.

Spatiotemporal Heterogeneity of Temperature and Catalytic Activation within Individual Catalyst Particles.

Temperature is a critical parameter in chemical conversion, significantly affecting the reaction kinetics and thermodynamics. Measuring temperature inside catalyst particles of industrial interest (∼micrometers to millimeters), which is crucial for understanding the evolution of chemical dynamics at catalytic active sites during reaction and advancing catalyst designs, however, remains a big challenge. Here, we propose an approach combining two-photon confocal microscopy and state-of-the-art upconversion luminescence (UL) imaging to measure the spatiotemporal-resolved temperature within individual catalyst particles in the industrially significant methanol-to-hydrocarbons reaction. Specifically, catalyst particles containing zeolites and functional nanothermometers were fabricated using microfluidic chips. Our experimental results directly demonstrate that the zeolite density and particle size can alter the temperature distribution within a single catalyst particle. Importantly, the observed temperature heterogeneity plays a decisive role in the activation of the reaction intermediate and the utilization of active sites. We expect that this work opens a venue for unveiling the reaction mechanism and kinetics within industrial catalyst particles by considering temperature heterogeneity.

True-color and super-resolution imaging using an optical axis shiftable liquid crystal lens.

This study explores the utilization of a liquid crystal lens with a shiftable axis for true-color and super-resolution imaging. By maintaining the optical power and shifting the axis of the liquid crystal lens, precise sub-pixel level shifts are applied to the images formed on the sensor, enabling the construction of true-color and super-resolution images. A comparative analysis with the traditional interpolation-based demosaicing method reveals that true-color imaging not only enhances clarity and effective pixel count, but also significantly reduces occurrences of false color, edge aliasing, and color moiré artifacts.