Cardiomyocyte ßII spectrin plays a critical role in maintaining cardiac function by regulating mitochondrial respiratory function.

AIMS: ßII spectrin is a cytoskeletal protein known to be tightly linked to heart development and cardiovascular electrophysiology. However, the roles of ßII spectrin in cardiac contractile function and pathological post-myocardial infarction remodeling remain unclear. Here, we investigated whether and how ßII spectrin, the most common isoform of non-erythrocytic spectrin in cardiomyocytes, is involved in cardiac contractile function and ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. METHODS AND RESULTS: We observed that the levels of serum ßII spectrin breakdown products (ßII SBDPs) were significantly increased in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Concordantly, ßII spectrin was degraded into ßII SBDPs by calpain in mouse hearts after I/R injury. Using tamoxifen-inducible cardiac-specific ßII spectrin knockout mice, we found that deletion of ßII spectrin in the adult heart resulted in spontaneous development of cardiac contractile dysfunction, cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis at 5 weeks after tamoxifen treatment. Moreover, at 1 week after tamoxifen treatment, although spontaneous cardiac dysfunction in cardiac-specific ßII spectrin knockout mice had not developed, deletion of ßII spectrin in the heart exacerbated I/R-induced cardiomyocyte death and heart failure. Furthermore, restoration of ßII spectrin expression via adenoviral small activating RNA (saRNA) delivery into the heart reduced I/R injury. Immunoprecipitation coupled with mass spectrometry (IP-LC-MS/MS) analyses and functional studies revealed that ßII spectrin is indispensable for mitochondrial complex I activity and respiratory function. Mechanistically, ßII spectrin promotes translocation of NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase 75 kDa Fe-S protein 1 (NDUFS1) from the cytosol to mitochondria by crosslinking with actin filaments (F-actin) to maintain F-actin stability. CONCLUSION: ßII spectrin is an essential cytoskeletal element for preserving mitochondrial homeostasis and cardiac function. Defects in ßII spectrin exacerbate cardiac I/R injury.

Water resource dynamics and protection strategies for inland lakes: A case study of Hongjiannao Lake.

Globally, lakes are drying up and shrinking and inland lakes, in particular, face severe water shortage problems. Thus, the degradation mechanisms and protection measures for inland lakes urgently need to be explored. Hongjiannao Lake (HL), an inland lake on the border of Shaanxi Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China, was selected for the present case study. The evolution of HL was analyzed and the current lake water storage was measured on site. The driving factors of water resource changes in HL were discussed based on meteorological and landcover data. The results showed that (1) from 1929 to 2021, the lake area of HL experienced four stages: formation, stability, shrinkage and recovery. The smallest water area was 31.08 km2 in 2015, half the size of lake in the 1960s. (2) Spatially, the morphological changes of HL mainly occurred where the rivers entered the lake. (3) In 2021, the average depth of HL was 3.77 m, and the water storage capacity was 140.56 million m3. (4) The annual average evaporation was 3.36 times the amount of the annual average precipitation in Hongjiannao Basin (HB), but climate change was not the main driver of changes in the HL area. (5) In the past 20 years, cultivated land and artificial surface increased by 3.11% and 1.04%, respectively, whereas grassland and water body decreased by 3.51% and 0.45%, respectively. The expansion of cultivated land and artificial surface, as well as the construction of reservoirs upstream of the lake, hindered the replenishment of water resources to HL. This study recommends a range of strategies for water resource protection in inland lakes, including implementing ecological restoration projects, carrying out inter-basin water transfer measures, improving the efficiency of regional water resource use, and improving industrial structure and distribution.

Grpel2 maintains cardiomyocyte survival in diabetic cardiomyopathy through DLST-mediated mitochondrial dysfunction: a proof-of-concept study.

BACKGROUND: Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) has been considered as a major threat to health in individuals with diabetes. GrpE-like 2 (Grpel2), a nucleotide exchange factor, has been shown to regulate mitochondrial import process to maintain mitochondrial homeostasis. However, the effect and mechanism of Grpel2 in DCM remain unknown. METHODS: The streptozotocin (STZ)-induced DCM mice model and high glucose (HG)-treated cardiomyocytes were established. Overexpression of cardiac-specific Grpel2 was performed by intramyocardial injection of adeno-associated virus serotype 9 (AAV9). Bioinformatics analysis, co-immunoprecipitation (co-IP), transcriptomics profiling and functional experiments were used to explore molecular mechanism of Grpel2 in DCM. RESULTS: Here, we found that Grpel2 was decreased in DCM induced by STZ. Overexpression of cardiac-specific Grpel2 alleviated cardiac dysfunction and structural remodeling in DCM. In both diabetic hearts and HG-treated cardiomyocytes, Grpel2 overexpression attenuated apoptosis and mitochondrial dysfunction, including decreased mitochondrial ROS production, increased mitochondrial respiratory capacities and increased mitochondrial membrane potential. Mechanistically, Grpel2 interacted with dihydrolipoyl succinyltransferase (DLST), which positively mediated the import process of DLST into mitochondria under HG conditions. Furthermore, the protective effects of Grpel2 overexpression on mitochondrial function and cell survival were blocked by siRNA knockdown of DLST. Moreover, Nr2f6 bond to the Grpel2 promoter region and positively regulated its transcription. CONCLUSION: Our study provides for the first time evidence that Grpel2 overexpression exerts a protective effect against mitochondrial dysfunction and apoptosis in DCM by maintaining the import of DLST into mitochondria. These findings suggest that targeting Grpel2 might be a promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of patients with DCM.

Suppressing Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Ferroptosis Via Targeting a Metabolism-Epigenetics Axis Corrects their Poor Retention and Insufficient Healing Benefits in the Injured Liver Milieu.

Mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) implantation is a promising option for liver repair, but their poor retention in the injured liver milieu critically blunts therapeutic effects. The aim is to clarify the mechanisms underlying massive MSC loss post-implantation and establish corresponding improvement strategies. MSC loss primarily occurs within the initial hours after implantation into the injured liver milieu or under reactive oxygen species (ROS) stress. Surprisingly, ferroptosis is identified as the culprit for rapid depletion. In ferroptosis- or ROS-provoking MSCs, branched-chain amino acid transaminase-1 (BCAT1) is dramatically decreased, and its downregulation renders MSC susceptible to ferroptosis via suppressing the transcription of glutathione peroxidase-4 (GPX4), a vital ferroptosis defensing enzyme. BCAT1 downregulation impedes GPX4 transcription via a rapid-responsive metabolism-epigenetics coordinating mechanism, involving α-ketoglutarate accumulation, histone 3 lysine 9 trimethylation loss, and early growth response protein-1 upregulation. Approaches to suppress ferroptosis (e.g., incorporating ferroptosis inhibitors in injection solvent and overexpressing BCAT1) significantly improve MSC retention and liver-protective effects post-implantation. This study provides the first evidence indicating that excessive MSC ferroptosis is the nonnegligible culprit for their rapid depletion and insufficient therapeutic efficacy after implantation into the injured liver milieu. Strategies suppressing MSC ferroptosis are conducive to optimizing MSC-based therapy.

Identifying a suitable model for predicting hourly pollutant concentrations by using low-cost microstation data and machine learning.

Accurately predicting the concentration of PM2.5 (fine particles with a diameter of 2.5 µm or less) is essential for health risk assessment and formulation of air pollution control strategies. At present, there is also a large amount of air pollution data. How to efficiently mine its hidden features to obtain the future concentration of pollutants is very important for the prevention and control of air pollution. Therefore we build a pollutant prediction model based on Lightweight Gradient Boosting Model (LightGBM) shallow machine learning and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural network. Firstly, the PM2.5 pollutant concentration data of 34 air quality stations in Beijing and the data of 18 weather stations were matched in time and space to obtain an input data set. Subsequently, the input data set was cleaned and preprocessed, and the training set was obtained by methods such as input feature extraction, input factor normalization, and data outlier processing. The hourly PM2.5 concentration value prediction was achieved in accordance with experiments conducted with the hourly PM2.5 data of Beijing from January 1, 2018 to October 1, 2020. Ultimately, the optimal hourly series prediction results were obtained after model comparisons. Through the comparison of these two models, it is found that the RMSE predicted by LSTM model for each pollutant is nearly 50% lower than that of LightGBM, and is more consistent with the fitting curve between the actual observations. The exploration of the input step size of LSTM model found that the accuracy of 3-h input data was higher than that of 12-h input data. It can be used for the management and decision-making of environmental protection departments and the formulation of preventive measures for emergency pollution incidents.

Development and application of an environment monitoring system based on IPv6.

The widespread use of the Internet of Things (Iot) makes it possible to connect everything but having enough IP addresses is a fundamental requirement of this paradigm. All previous environmental monitoring systems in China are based on IPv4. In combination with the characteristics and requirements of China's atmospheric environment monitoring system, this paper develops a monitoring system based on IPv6 technology. Users can directly access the monitoring equipment through the IPv6 website to view data and configure operations. This paper first introduces the design and implementation of the software and hardware of the system, then introduces the simplification of IPv6 protocol, the transplantation of IPv6 protocol on ARM and the design and implementation of embedded Web server system. The experimental results show that the developed atmospheric environment monitoring system can realize continuous data acquisition based on IPv6 and provide data-driven support for environmental protection management and decision-making.

From "blood transfusion" to "hematopoiesis": watershed eco-compensation in China.

At present, the number of watershed eco-compensations in China is increasing. And the area covered by a single project is also increasing. Under the current model, governments are the primary source of funding. It is difficult to meet the growing funding gap of subsidies. Researches on watershed eco-compensation need to reform and explore a new model for it, expand the fund source of watershed eco-compensation expense, and establish a sustainable "hematopoietic" model. This paper clarifies the concept of watershed eco-compensation and then compares the design principles of eco-compensation projects, definitions of stakeholders, analysis, and summary of watershed eco-compensation models in different regions. It can be found that the model in which the government dominates is still the mainstream. However, the considerable cost of this model will be a heavy burden for governments. Therefore, it becomes an important option to involve more stakeholders in these projects, and governments should transfer part of the lead to dilute costs. How to reduce the expenditures of governments in watershed eco-compensation projects under the premise of maintaining normal operation of the projects has become an important exploration direction concerning watershed eco-compensation in China, which requires transforming from "blood transfusion" to "hematopoiesis."

Grpel2 alleviates myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury by inhibiting MCU-mediated mitochondrial calcium overload.

Mitochondrial calcium ([Ca2+]m) overload is considered a major trigger of cardiomyocyte death during myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Grpel2 is located in mitochondria and facilitates the mtHSP70 protein folding cycle in oxidative stress. However, Grpel2 expression during I/R injury and its impact on I/R injury remain poorly understood. This study explored the role of Grpel2 in I/R injury and its underlying mechanism. Mice were intramyocardially injected with recombinant adenovirus vectors to knockdown cardiac Grpel2 expression, and a myocardial I/R model was established. We confirmed that cardiac Grpel2 is upregulated during I/R injury. Cardiac-specific Grpel2 knockdown exacerbates mitochondrial fission, cardiomyocyte death and cardiac contractile dysfunction induced by I/R injury. Moreover, our study revealed that Grpel2 knockdown increased both MCU expression and [Ca2+]m content. Excessive mitochondrial fission and apoptosis were rescued by Ru360, an inhibitor of MCU opening. In summary, our findings suggest that Grpel2 alleviates myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury by inhibiting MCU-mediated mitochondrial calcium overload and provide new insights into the mechanism of MCU-mediated [Ca2+]m homeostasis during I/R injury.

Validation of leaf area index measurement system based on wireless sensor network.

Accurate measurement of leaf area index (LAI) is important for agricultural analysis such as the estimation of crop yield, which makes its measurement work important. There are mainly two ways to obtain LAI: ground station measurement and remote sensing satellite monitoring. Recently, reliable progress has been made in long-term automatic LAI observation using wireless sensor network (WSN) technology under certain conditions. We developed and designed an LAI measurement system (LAIS) based on a wireless sensor network to select and improve the appropriate algorithm according to the image collected by the sensor, to get a more realistic leaf area index. The corn LAI was continuously observed from May 30 to July 16, 2015. Research on hardware has been published, this paper focuses on improved system algorithm and data verification. By improving the finite length average algorithm, the data validation results are as follows: (1) The slope of the fitting line between LAIS measurement data and the real value is 0.944, and the root means square error (RMSE) is 0.264 (absolute error ~ 0-0.6), which has high consistency with the real value. (2) The measurement error of LAIS is less than LAI2000, although the result of our measurement method will be higher than the actual value, it is due to the influence of weeds on the ground. (3) LAIS data can be used to support the retrieval of remote sensing products. We find a suitable application situation of our LAIS system data, and get our application value as ground monitoring data by the verification with remote sensing product data, which supports its application and promotion in similar research in the future.

Design and implementation of a highly accurate spatiotemporal monitoring and early warning platform for air pollutants based on IPv6.

The development of industry has brought about the pollution of the atmospheric environment. Pollution is harmful to people's health. Realizing the real-time monitoring of atmospheric environmental quality parameters can improve the above-mentioned effects. China's existing environmental monitoring systems focus on the accuracy of the system hardware itself for assessment, lack of data analysis and forecasting and early warning, and cannot provide managers and ordinary people with decision-making and activity guidance. This paper develops an IPV6-based high-spatial-temporal precision air pollutant monitoring and early warning platform. The feasibility of the system is verified through networking tests, operation tests, and early warning tests. Through actual data analysis and comparison, it is concluded that the monitoring system has field feasibility, and the atmospheric environment monitoring for the target observation area has achieved the desired observation function. This system integrates GIS technology and B/S architecture to analyze changes in the regional environment to provide support for regional environmental air quality management. The forecast and early warning module constructed by combining the weight method of the influence of different input factors on the environmental quality index and minute-level observations can provide technical support for the government to improve the level of supervision.

Validation of GPS-Based Monitoring and Remote Sensing of Ice-Shelf and Ice-Sheet Movement Changes.

The north and south poles of the earth (hereinafter referred to as the polar regions) are important components of the earth system. Changes in the material balance and movement of the polar ice shelf reflect the influence of the polar regions on global climate change and are also a response to global climate change. Through a comprehensive investigation of ice-shelf kinematics, with sufficient accuracy, it is possible to obtain ice-shelf elevation, movement-state data, ice-shelf material balance state, and the ice-shelf movement dynamics mechanism. Due to the extremely harsh environment in polar regions, remote sensing is currently widely used. Manual and equipment monitoring methods show insufficient accuracy or discontinuous time series. There is an urgent need to obtain continuous real-time ice-shelf kinematics-related parameters on the ground to verify the reliability of the parameters obtained by satellite remote sensing. These parameters should be combined with remote sensing monitoring to provide data support. In this paper, a monitoring system for the movement of polar ice and shelf ice cover is developed, and it is proposed that various data can be acquired by integrating high-precision GPS (global positioning system) and other sensors. Solutions to the problem of low-temperature power supply in the polar regions, data acquisition and storage strategies, and remote communication methods are proposed. Testing and remote sensing validation verified that the developed acquisition system can fulfill the requirements for monitoring the movement of the polar unmanned ice shelves and ice sheets.

Incorporation of CD40 ligand or granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor into Hantaan virus (HTNV) virus-like particles significantly enhances the long-term immunity potency against HTNV infection.

PURPOSE: Hantavirus infections cause severe haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in humans and are associated with high fatality rates. In 2017, numerous outbreaks were reported in China and Germany. This represents a significant public-healthcare issue with no effective HFRS vaccines that offer a long-term immune response. In this study, we investigated the long-term humoral and cellular immune responses and protective immunity of Hantaan virus (HTNV) granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and CD40 ligand (CD40L) virus-like particles (VLPs) in mice. METHODOLOGY: GM-CSF and CD40L VLPs were constructed via co-transfection of pCI-S and pCI-M-CD40L, and pCI-S and pCI-M-GM-CSF, into dihydrofolatereductase (dhfr)-deficient Chinese hamster ovary cells, respectively. Mice were immunized with HTNV VLPs 2 weeks apart. The animals were challenged 6 months after immunization. Specific and neutralizing antibodies were assessed by ELISA; IFN-γ was measured by enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISpot) assay and effectiveness by cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) cytotoxicity assays. Nucleic acid loads of HTNV were tested by quantitative real-time PCR and viral antigen was detected via indirect ELISA. Pathological alterations were detected via haematoxylin-eosin staining. RESULTS: GM-CSF and CD40L VLPs provided stable, long-term protection with a high titre of neutralizing antibody in mice 6 months after immunization. Furthermore, VLPs increased HTNV-specific cellular immune responses via higher expression of IFN-γ and CTL responses. HTNV challenge assay results showed long-term protection against HFRS. No significant pathological alteration was observed in the organs of mice after immunization. CONCLUSION: This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first report demonstrating the long-term potency of HTNV VLP vaccines against HTNV infection and offers new insights into HTNV vaccine development.

Development and Application of an Atmospheric Pollutant Monitoring System Based on LoRa-Part I: Design and Reliability Tests.

At present, as growing importance continues to be attached to atmospheric environmental problems, the demand for real-time monitoring of these problems is constantly increasing. This article describes the development and application of an embedded system for monitoring of atmospheric pollutant concentrations based on LoRa (Long Range) wireless communication technology, which is widely used in the Internet of Things (IoT). The proposed system is realized using a combination of software and hardware and is designed using the concept of modularization. Separation of each function into independent modules allows the system to be developed more quickly and to be applied more stably. In addition, by combining the requirements of the remote atmospheric pollutant concentration monitoring platform with the specific requirements for the intended application environment, the system demonstrates its significance for practical applications. In addition, the actual application data also verifies the sound application prospects of the proposed system.

An Extended Kriging Method to Interpolate Near-Surface Soil Moisture Data Measured by Wireless Sensor Networks.

In the practice of interpolating near-surface soil moisture measured by a wireless sensor network (WSN) grid, traditional Kriging methods with auxiliary variables, such as Co-kriging and Kriging with external drift (KED), cannot achieve satisfactory results because of the heterogeneity of soil moisture and its low correlation with the auxiliary variables. This study developed an Extended Kriging method to interpolate with the aid of remote sensing images. The underlying idea is to extend the traditional Kriging by introducing spectral variables, and operating on spatial and spectral combined space. The algorithm has been applied to WSN-measured soil moisture data in HiWATER campaign to generate daily maps from 10 June to 15 July 2012. For comparison, three traditional Kriging methods are applied: Ordinary Kriging (OK), which used WSN data only, Co-kriging and KED, both of which integrated remote sensing data as covariate. Visual inspections indicate that the result from Extended Kriging shows more spatial details than that of OK, Co-kriging, and KED. The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of Extended Kriging was found to be the smallest among the four interpolation results. This indicates that the proposed method has advantages in combining remote sensing information and ground measurements in soil moisture interpolation.

Validation of Remote Sensing Retrieval Products using Data from a Wireless Sensor-Based Online Monitoring in Antarctica.

Of the modern technologies in polar-region monitoring, the remote sensing technology that can instantaneously form large-scale images has become much more important in helping acquire parameters such as the freezing and melting of ice as well as the surface temperature, which can be used in the research of global climate change, Antarctic ice sheet responses, and cap formation and evolution. However, the acquirement of those parameters is impacted remarkably by the climate and satellite transit time which makes it almost impossible to have timely and continuous observation data. In this research, a wireless sensor-based online monitoring platform (WSOOP) for the extreme polar environment is applied to obtain a long-term series of data which is site-specific and continuous in time. Those data are compared and validated with the data from a weather station at Zhongshan Station Antarctica and the result shows an obvious correlation. Then those data are used to validate the remote sensing products of the freezing and melting of ice and the surface temperature and the result also indicated a similar correlation. The experiment in Antarctica has proven that WSOOP is an effective system to validate remotely sensed data in the polar region.

The design and implementation of the leaf area index sensor.

The quick and accurate acquisition of crop growth parameters on a large scale is important for agricultural management and food security. The combination of photographic and wireless sensor network (WSN) techniques can be used to collect agricultural information, such as leaf area index (LAI), over long distances and in real time. Such acquisition not only provides farmers with photographs of crops and suggestions for farmland management, but also the collected quantitative parameters, such as LAI, can be used to support large scale research in ecology, hydrology, remote sensing, etc. The present research developed a Leaf Area Index Sensor (LAIS) to continuously monitor the growth of crops in several sampling points, and applied 3G/WIFI communication technology to remotely collect (and remotely setup and upgrade) crop photos in real-time. Then the crop photos are automatically processed and LAI is estimated based on the improved leaf area index of Lang and Xiang (LAILX) algorithm in LAIS. The research also constructed a database of images and other information relating to crop management. The leaf length and width method (LAILLW) can accurately measure LAI through direct field harvest. The LAIS has been tested in several exemplary applications, and validation with LAI from LAILLW. The LAI acquired by LAIS had been proved reliable.

[Research on the relationship between water and eco-environment construction in Loess Hilly and Gully regions].

Water is an important factor for eco-environmental construction. Eco-environmental construction has a great impact on water. There is a circular correlation between eco-environmental construction and water. Water resource is lack and loss of soil and water is serious in the loess hilly and gully regions. The regions are the main regions of eco-environmental construction, especially of vegetation restoration and rehabilitation. It is important studying the relationship between water and eco-environmental construction in the regions. According to the data in Yanhe River watershed, some conclusion are demonstrated: 1. More water resource was demanded when population was increasing rapidly and economy was developing fleetly. Water for eco-environmental construction was threatened directly. 2. Eco-environmental construction, especially the built vegetation decreased the runoff. The dried soil layers have appeared in some places. 3. Shortage of water resource limited the farther tree and grass planting and brought on some negative impacts. Small aged trees have appeared in some places. The eco-environmental benefits of the built vegetation have been influenced. On the basis of relationship between water and eco-environmental construction, some advice for sustainable use of water resource, sustainable construction of eco-environment and sustainable development of society and economy was given.