Functional response and predation rate of Cryptolaemus montrouzieri (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) to Paracoccus marginatus (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) at different temperatures.

The ladybug, Cryptolaemus montrouzieri (Mulsant) (Coleoptera: Cocccinellidae)(Mulsant)(Coleoptera: Cocccinellidae), is a highly efficient predator in controlling mealybug populations and is considered an effective agent for controlling the papaya mealybugs (Paracoccus marginatus) (Williams & Granara de Willink) (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae). Various criteria have been proposed for evaluating predator effectiveness, with the consumption rate of prey by individual predators, specifically the functional response, emerging as a common and crucial metric. This study evaluated the functional responses of third- and fourth-instar larvae, as well as male and female adults (<48 h old) of C. montrouzieri to adult females of P. marginatus at 3 different temperatures (22 °C, 28 °C, and 35 °C) with 70% ±â€…5% RH and a 12L:12D h photoperiod. Prey densities were 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 45, or 60 papaya mealybugs per predator for all tests. The response to prey density by third- and fourth-instar larvae or both sexes of adult C. montrouzieri was a type II at all temperatures. The highest attack rate and lowest handling time were estimated at 28 °C in males and 35 °C in females, respectively. The highest daily prey consumption rate occurred at 35 °C in both the immature and adult stages of C. montrouzieri. These findings support the potential of C. montrouzieri in controlling the papaya mealybug, especially in tropical and subtropical regions, given its search efficiency at high temperatures tested in this study. However, additional field investigations are needed to ascertain the control efficacy of C. montrouzieri for this mealybug in biocontrol programs.

Solibacillus ferritrahens sp. nov., a novel siderophore-producing bacterium isolated from Wumeng Mountain National Nature Reserve in Yunnan Province.

A gram-stain-positive, aerobic, rod-shaped bacterial strain capable of producing siderophores, named YIM B08730T, was isolated from a soil sample collected from Wumeng Mountain National Nature Reserve, Zhaotong City, Yunnan Province. Growth occurred at 10-45 °C (optimum, 35-40 â„ƒ), pH 7.0-9.0 (optimum, 7.0) and in the presence of 0-5 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0-1 %, w/v). A comparative analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence (1558 bp) of strain YIM B08730T showed the highest similarity to Solibacillus isronensis JCM 13838T (96.2 %), followed by Solibacillus silvestris DSM 12223T (96.0 %) and Solibacillus kalamii ISSFR-015T (95.4 %). The main polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylserine and one unidentified lipid. The main respiratory quinone of strain YIM B08730T was menaquinone 7 (MK-7). The major fatty acids were iso-C15:0 and C16:1ω7c alcohol. The digital DNA-DNA hybridization and average nucleotide identity values between strain YIM B08730T and the reference strain S. isronensis JCM 13838T were 24.8 % and 81.2 %, respectively. The G + C content of the genomic DNA was 37.1 mol%. The genome of the novel strain contained genes associated with the production of siderophores, and it also revealed other functional gene clusters involved in plant growth promotion and soil bioremediation. Based on these phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic analyses, strain YIM B08730T is considered to be a novel species of the genus Solibacillus, for which the name Solibacillus ferritrahens sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM B08730T (= NBRC 116268T = CGMCC 1.60169T).

Chitinolyticbacter albus sp. Nov., A Novel Chitin-Degrading Bacterium Isolated from Ancient Wood Rhizosphere Soil.

In this study, a novel aerobic mesophilic bacterial strain with capable of degrading chitin, designated YIM B06366T, was isolated and classified. The rod-shaped, Gram-stain-negative, on-spore-forming bacterium originated from rhizosphere soil sample collected in Kunming City, Yunnan Province, southwest PR China. Strain YIM B06366T exhibited growth at temperatures between 20 and 35 °C (optimum, 30 °C) and at pH 6.0-8.0 (optimum, pH 6.0). The analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity revealed that strain YIM B06366T was most closely related to type strain Chitinolyticbacter meiyuanensis SYBC-H1T (98.9%). Phylogenetic analysis based on genome data indicated that strain YIM B06366T should be assigned to the genus Chitinolyticbacter. The Average Nucleotide Identity (ANI) and digital DNA-DNA Hybridization (dDDH) values between strain YIM B06366T and the reference strain Chitinolyticbacter meiyuanensis SYBC-H1T were 84.4% and 27.7%, respectively. The major fatty acids included Summed Feature 3 (C16:1 ω6c/C16:1 ω7c), Summed Feature 8 (C18:1 ω6c/C18:1 ω7c), and C16:0. The polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, aminophospholipids, and two unidentified phospholipids. The predominant menaquinone was Q-8, and the genomic DNA G + C content was 64.1%. Considering the polyphasic taxonomic evidence, strain YIM B06366T is proposed as a novel species within the genus Chitinolyticbacter, named Chitinolyticbacter albus sp. nov. (type strain YIM B06366T = KCTC 92434T = CCTCC AB 2022163T).

Pseudomonas subflava sp. nov., a new Gram-negative bacterium isolated from Guishan in Yunnan province, south-west China.

A new Gram-negative, rod-shaped, flagellated bacterium was isolated from soil in the Guishan, Xinping County, Yuxi City, Yunnan Province, China, and named YIM B01952T. Growth occurred at 10-40 °C (optimum, 30 °C), pH 6.0-9.0 (optimum, pH 7.5) and with up to ≤ 5.0% (w/v) NaCl on Tryptic Soy Broth Agar (TSA) plates. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene and draft-genome sequence showed that strain YIM B01952T belonged to the genus Pseudomonas, and was closely related to the type strain of Pseudomonas alcaligenes (sequence similarity was 98.8%). The digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) value between strain YIM B01952T and the parallel strain P. alcaligenes ATCC 14909T was 49.0% based on the draft genome sequence. The predominant menaquinone was Q-9. The major fatty acids were summed feature 8 (C18:1 ω6c and/or C18:1 ω7c), summed feature 3 (C16:1 ω6c and/or C16:1 ω7c) and C16:0. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol, and phosphatidylglycerol. The genome size of strain YIM B01952T was 4.341 Mb, comprising 4156 predicted genes with a DNA G + C content of 66.4 mol%. In addition, we detected that strain YIM B01952T had some traditional functional genes (plant growth promotion and multidrug resistance), unique genes through genome comparison and analysis with similar strains. Based on genetic analyses and biochemical characterization, the strain YIM B01952T was identified as a novel species in the genus Pseudomonas, for which the name Pseudomonas subflava sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM B01952T (=CCTCC AB 2021498T = KCTC 92073T).

Effects of Elevated CO2 on the Fitness Parameters of Individually- and Group-Reared Agasicles hygrophila (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae).

Agasicles hygrophila Selman and Vogt (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) is a natural enemy of Alternanthera philoxeroides (Mart.) Griseb (Amaranthaceae: Alternanthera), a worldwide invasive weed. Elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations may have significant impacts plants, herbivorous insects, and natural enemies. To assess the concurrent effect of elevated CO2 on the development time, fecundity, and population parameters of A. hygrophila, the age-stage, two-sex life table was used to understand the fitness and population parameters of individually-reared and group-reared A. hygrophila under elevated CO2 concentration. In individually-reared population, the development time of preadults, adult pre-oviposition period, and total pre-oviposition period of A. hygrophila in the elevated CO2 (eCO2, 750 ppm) treatment were shorter than those in the ambient CO2 (aCO2, 420 ppm) treatment. In group-reared population, the developmental time of preadults, female adult longevity, female proportion, adult pre-oviposition period, and total pre-oviposition period of A. hygrophila in eCO2 were longer than those in aCO2. Additionally, in both individually-reared and group-reared population, fecundity and oviposition days of A. hygrophila in eCO2 were higher than those in aCO2, and a higher intrinsic rate of increase, finite rate of increase, and the net reproductive rate of A. hygrophila were observed at eCO2. Moreover, shorter preadult development time, adult pre-oviposition period, total pre-oviposition period, male adult longevity, and higher fecundity were found in group-reared cohort at both aCO2 and eCO2. The results indicates that elevated CO2 has effects on the growth and reproduction of A. hygrophila, and the population growth rate of group-reared was faster and produced more offspring.

Distributed Differential Evolution With Adaptive Resource Allocation.

Distributed differential evolution (DDE) is an efficient paradigm that adopts multiple populations for cooperatively solving complex optimization problems. However, how to allocate fitness evaluation (FE) budget resources among the distributed multiple populations can greatly influence the optimization ability of DDE. Therefore, this article proposes a novel three-layer DDE framework with adaptive resource allocation (DDE-ARA), including the algorithm layer for evolving various differential evolution (DE) populations, the dispatch layer for dispatching the individuals in the DE populations to different distributed machines, and the machine layer for accommodating distributed computers. In the DDE-ARA framework, three novel methods are further proposed. First, a general performance indicator (GPI) method is proposed to measure the performance of different DEs. Second, based on the GPI, a FE allocation (FEA) method is proposed to adaptively allocate the FE budget resources from poorly performing DEs to well-performing DEs for better search efficiency. This way, the GPI and FEA methods achieve the ARA in the algorithm layer. Third, a load balance strategy is proposed in the dispatch layer to balance the FE burden of different computers in the machine layer for improving load balance and algorithm speedup. Moreover, theoretical analyses are provided to show why the proposed DDE-ARA framework can be effective and to discuss the lower bound of its optimization error. Extensive experiments are conducted on all the 30 functions of CEC 2014 competitions at 10, 30, 50, and 100 dimensions, and some state-of-the-art DDE algorithms are adopted for comparisons. The results show the great effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed framework and the three novel methods.

Surrogate-Assisted Hybrid-Model Estimation of Distribution Algorithm for Mixed-Variable Hyperparameters Optimization in Convolutional Neural Networks.

The performance of a convolutional neural network (CNN) heavily depends on its hyperparameters. However, finding a suitable hyperparameters configuration is difficult, challenging, and computationally expensive due to three issues, which are 1) the mixed-variable problem of different types of hyperparameters; 2) the large-scale search space of finding optimal hyperparameters; and 3) the expensive computational cost for evaluating candidate hyperparameters configuration. Therefore, this article focuses on these three issues and proposes a novel estimation of distribution algorithm (EDA) for efficient hyperparameters optimization, with three major contributions in the algorithm design. First, a hybrid-model EDA is proposed to efficiently deal with the mixed-variable difficulty. The proposed algorithm uses a mixed-variable encoding scheme to encode the mixed-variable hyperparameters and adopts an adaptive hybrid-model learning (AHL) strategy to efficiently optimize the mixed-variables. Second, an orthogonal initialization (OI) strategy is proposed to efficiently deal with the challenge of large-scale search space. Third, a surrogate-assisted multi-level evaluation (SME) method is proposed to reduce the expensive computational cost. Based on the above, the proposed algorithm is named s urrogate-assisted hybrid-model EDA (SHEDA). For experimental studies, the proposed SHEDA is verified on widely used classification benchmark problems, and is compared with various state-of-the-art methods. Moreover, a case study on aortic dissection (AD) diagnosis is carried out to evaluate its performance. Experimental results show that the proposed SHEDA is very effective and efficient for hyperparameters optimization, which can find a satisfactory hyperparameters configuration for the CIFAR10, CIFAR100, and AD diagnosis with only 0.58, 0.97, and 1.18 GPU days, respectively.

Dual Differential Grouping: A More General Decomposition Method for Large-Scale Optimization.

Cooperative coevolution (CC) algorithms based on variable decomposition methods are efficient in solving large-scale optimization problems (LSOPs). However, many decomposition methods, such as the differential grouping (DG) method and its variants, are based on the theorem of function additively separable, which may not work well on problems that are not additively separable and will result in a bottleneck for CC to solve various LSOPs. This deficiency motivates us to study how the decomposition method can decompose more kinds of separable functions, such as the multiplicatively separable function, to improve the general problem-solving ability of CC on LSOPs. With this concern, this article makes the first attempt to decompose multiplicatively separable functions and proposes a novel method called dual DG (DDG) for better LSOP decomposition and optimization. The novelty and advantage of DDG are that it can be suitable for not only additively separable functions but also multiplicatively separable functions, which can considerably expand the application scope of CC. In this article, we will first define the multiplicatively separable function, and then mathematically show its relationship to the additively separable function and how they can be transformed into each other. Based on this, the DDG can use two kinds of differences to detect the separable structure of both additively and multiplicatively separable functions. In addition, the time complexity of DDG is analyzed and a DDG-based CC algorithm framework is developed for solving LSOPs. To verify the superiority of DDG, experiments and comparisons with some state-of-the-art and champion algorithms are conducted not only on 30 LSOPs based on the test suite of the IEEE CEC large-scale global optimization competition, but also on a case study of the parameter optimization for a neural network-based application.

Brevibacillus daliensis sp. nov., Isolated From Soil in Machangqing Nature Reserve.

A new aerobic bacterial strain, designated strain YIM B02290T, was isolated from the soil of Machangqing, Dali city, Yunnan Province, China. Cells were Gram-stain-positive, sporogenous, rod-shaped, and motile with peritrichous flagella. Strain YIM B02290T showed the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with Brevibacillus laterosporus (97.6%) and Brevibacillus halotolerans (97.6%). The ANI and dDDH values between strain YIM B02290T and the two reference strains Brevibacillus laterosporus LAM00312T and Brevibacillus halotolerans DSM 25T are 72.6% and 72.2%, 20.2% and 19.5% based on the draft genome sequence, respectively. The major cellular fatty acids contain anteiso-C15: 0 and iso-C15: 0. The diagnostic diamino acid of the cell-wall peptidoglycan was meso-diaminopimelic acid. The predominant menaquinone was identified as menaquinone-7. The main polar lipids of strain YIM B02290T were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phospholipid, phosphatidyl monomethylethanolamine. The genomic DNA G + C content was 40.6 mol%. All results showed that strain YIM B02290T represents a novel species of the genus Brevibacillus, for which the name Brevibacillus daliensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM B02290T (= CCTCC AB 2021094T = CGMCC 1.18802T = KCTC 43376T).

Sublethal and Transgenerational Toxicities of Chlorfenapyr on Biological Traits and Enzyme Activities of Paracoccus marginatus (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae).

Papaya mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus Williams and Granara de Willink (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), is an economically important, invasive insect that is now distributed worldwide. Chlorfenapyr has been demonstrated to have a significant control effect on P. marginatus. In order to evaluate the sublethal and transgenerational effects of chlorfenapyr on P. marginatus, the life table data of three consecutive generations were collected and analyzed by the age stage, two-sex life table method, and the enzyme activities were assayed using a spectrophotometer. The results showed that exposure to the insecticide had significant effects on the biological traits of subsequent generations of P. marginatus, and a higher intrinsic rate of increase (r), finite rate of increase (λ), net reproductive rate (R0), and a shorter mean generation time (T) were observed in the chlorfenapyr-treated F1 mealybugs. Enzyme activity assays showed that chlorfenapyr significantly inhibited the activities of catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POD) while activating the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), which suggested that SOD, CAT, and POD may play an important role in the self-defense of P. marginatus against chlorfenapyr. These results conclusively demonstrated that exposure of P. marginatus to sublethal concentrations of chlorfenapyr induced hormetic effects on the F1 generation while having negative effects on the F0 and F3 generations.

Fitness of the Papaya Mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), after Transferring from Solanum tuberosum to Carica papaya, Ipomoea batatas, and Alternanthera philoxeroides.

The papaya mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus Williams and Granara de Willink (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), is a polyphagous invasive pest in China. The effect that the shifting of the host plant has on the fitness of a polyphagous pest is critical to its prevalence and potential pest control. In order to assess the fitness changes of P. marginatus after transferal from potato (Solanum tuberosum (Tubiflorae: Solanaceae)) to papaya (Carica papaya (Parietales: Caricacea)), sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (Tubiflorae: Convolvulaceae)), and alligator weed (Alternanthera philoxeroides (Centrospermae: Amaranthaceae)), the life table data of three consecutive generations were collected and analyzed using the age-stage, two-sex life table method. The results showed that when P. marginatus was transferred from S. tuberosum to papaya, a higher intrinsic rate of increase (r) and finite rate of increase (λ) were observed. Paracoccus marginatus individuals transferred to I. batatas had the significantly lower population parameters than those on C. papaya; however, the fitness recovered for those on I. batatas after two generations. Paracoccus marginatus individuals were unable to complete development on A. philoxeroides. Our results conclusively demonstrate that P. marginatus individuals can readily adapt to C. papaya and I. batatas even after host plant shifting, and are capable of causing severe damage to these hosts.

Plant Volatile Compounds of the Invasive Alligatorweed, Alternanthera philoxeroides (Mart.) Griseb, Infested by Agasicles hygrophila Selman and Vogt (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae).

Plants release a variety of volatiles and herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) after being damaged by herbivorous insects, which play multiple roles in the interactions with other plants and insects. Agasicles hygrophila Selman and Vogt (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) is a monophagous natural enemy and an effective biocontrol agent for Alternanthera philoxeroides (Mart.) Griseb. Here, we reported differences among the volatiles of A. philoxeroides by solid phase microextraction (SPME) using a gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS). We compared the volatile emission of: (1) clean plants (CK); (2) A. philoxeroides plants with mechanical damage treatment (MD); and (3) A. philoxeroides plants infested with A. hygrophila 1st, 2nd, and 3rd larvae and female and male adults. A total of 97 volatiles were recorded, of which 5 occurred consistently in all treatments, while 61 volatiles were only observed in A. philoxeroides infested by A. hygrophila, such as trans-nerolidol, (E)-ß-farnesene, and (3E,7E)-4,8,12-trimethyltrideca-1,3,7,11-tetraene (E, E-TMTT), etc. Among the 97 volatile compounds, 37 compounds belong to alkenes, 29 compounds belong to alkanes, and there were 8 esters, 8 alcohols and 6 ketones. Orthogonal partial least squares-discrimination analysis (OPLS-DA) showed that the different treatments were separated from each other, especially insect feeding from CK and MD treatments, and 19 volatiles contributed most to the separation among the treatments, with variable importance for the projection (VIP) values > 1. Our findings indicated that the alligatorweed plants could be induced to release volatiles by different stages of A. hygrophila, and the volatile compounds released differ quantitatively and qualitatively. The results from this study laid an important foundation for using volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and HIPVs of alligatorweed to improve the control effect of A. hygrophila on A. philoxeroides.

Cohnella mopanensis sp. nov., a new Gram-negative bacterium isolated from soil in Xinping Mountain National Forest Park.

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped bacteria strain, named YIM B01951T, was isolated from a forest soil sample collected from Mopan Mountain National Forest Park, Xinping City, Yunnan Province, southwest PR China (101°58'06" N, 23°03'02" E). Growth occurred at 15-40 °C (optimum, 30 °C), pH 5.0-8.0 (optimum, pH 6.5) and with up to ≤ 3.0% (w/v) NaCl on Nutrient Agar plates. The results of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity analysis showed that strain YIM B01951T was closely related to the type strain of Cohnella arctica M9-62T (96.5%) and Cohnella lupini RLAHU4BT (96.3%). YIM B01951T contains anteiso-C15:0 and iso-C16:0 as the major cellular fatty acids; the main polar lipids are diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG), phosphatidylglycerol (PG), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), lysylphosphatidylglycerol (PGL) and five aminophospholipids (APL). The MK-7 is the major respiratory quinone and the DNA G + C content is 49.2 mol%. Based on these phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic analyses, strain YIM B01951T is considered to be a novel species of the genus Cohnella, and named Cohnella mopanensis sp. nov. The type strain is YIM B01951T (= NBRC 115331T = KCTC 43370T).

Spatio-temporal distribution patterns of Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) in a fine-scale agricultural landscape based on geostatistical analysis.

A detailed knowledge on the spatial distribution of pests is crucial for predicting population outbreaks or developing control strategies and sustainable management plans. The diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella, is one of the most destructive pests of cruciferous crops worldwide. Despite the abundant research on the species's ecology, little is known about the spatio-temporal pattern of P. xylostella in an agricultural landscape. Therefore, in this study, the spatial distribution of P. xylostella was characterized to assess the effect of landscape elements in a fine-scale agricultural landscape by geostatistical analysis. The P. xylostella adults captured by pheromone-baited traps showed a seasonal pattern of population fluctuation from October 2015 to September 2017, with a marked peak in spring, suggesting that mild temperatures, 15-25 °C, are favorable for P. xylostella. Geostatistics (GS) correlograms fitted with spherical and Gaussian models showed an aggregated distribution in 21 of the 47 cases interpolation contour maps. This result highlighted that spatial distribution of P. xylostella was not limited to the Brassica vegetable field, but presence was the highest there. Nevertheless, population aggregations also showed a seasonal variation associated with the growing stage of host plants. GS model analysis showed higher abundances in cruciferous fields than in any other patches of the landscape, indicating a strong host plant dependency. We demonstrate that Brassica vegetables distribution and growth stage, have dominant impacts on the spatial distribution of P. xylostella in a fine-scale landscape. This work clarified the spatio-temporal dynamic and distribution patterns of P. xylostella in an agricultural landscape, and the distribution model developed by geostatistical analysis can provide a scientific basis for precise targeting and localized control of P. xylostella.

Data-Driven Evolutionary Algorithm With Perturbation-Based Ensemble Surrogates.

Data-driven evolutionary algorithms (DDEAs) aim to utilize data and surrogates to drive optimization, which is useful and efficient when the objective function of the optimization problem is expensive or difficult to access. However, the performance of DDEAs relies on their surrogate quality and often deteriorates if the amount of available data decreases. To solve these problems, this article proposes a new DDEA framework with perturbation-based ensemble surrogates (DDEA-PES), which contain two efficient mechanisms. The first is a diverse surrogate generation method that can generate diverse surrogates through performing data perturbations on the available data. The second is a selective ensemble method that selects some of the prebuilt surrogates to form a final ensemble surrogate model. By combining these two mechanisms, the proposed DDEA-PES framework has three advantages, including larger data quantity, better data utilization, and higher surrogate accuracy. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework, this article provides both theoretical and experimental analyses. For the experimental comparisons, a specific DDEA-PES algorithm is developed as an instance by adopting a genetic algorithm as the optimizer and radial basis function neural networks as the base models. The experimental results on widely used benchmarks and an aerodynamic airfoil design real-world optimization problem show that the proposed DDEA-PES algorithm outperforms some state-of-the-art DDEAs. Moreover, when compared with traditional nondata-driven methods, the proposed DDEA-PES algorithm only requires about 2% computational budgets to produce competitive results.

Generation-Level Parallelism for Evolutionary Computation: A Pipeline-Based Parallel Particle Swarm Optimization.

Due to the population-based and iterative-based characteristics of evolutionary computation (EC) algorithms, parallel techniques have been widely used to speed up the EC algorithms. However, the parallelism usually performs in the population level where multiple populations (or subpopulations) run in parallel or in the individual level where the individuals are distributed to multiple resources. That is, different populations or different individuals can be executed simultaneously to reduce running time. However, the research into generation-level parallelism for EC algorithms has seldom been reported. In this article, we propose a new paradigm of the parallel EC algorithm by making the first attempt to parallelize the algorithm in the generation level. This idea is inspired by the industrial pipeline technique. Specifically, a kind of EC algorithm called local version particle swarm optimization (PSO) is adopted to implement a pipeline-based parallel PSO (PPPSO, i.e., P3SO). Due to the generation-level parallelism in P3SO, when some particles still perform their evolutionary operations in the current generation, some other particles can simultaneously go to the next generation to carry out the new evolutionary operations, or even go to further next generation(s). The experimental results show that the problem-solving ability of P3SO is not affected while the evolutionary speed has been substantially accelerated in a significant fashion. Therefore, generation-level parallelism is possible in EC algorithms and may have significant potential applications in time-consumption optimization problems.

Rosamultin Attenuates Acute Hypobaric Hypoxia-Induced Bone Injuries by Regulation of Sclerostin and Its Downstream Signals.

Wang, Xing-Min, Hui Liu, Jian-Yu Li, Jin-Xia Wei, Xia Li, Yong-Liang Zhang, Ling-Zhi Li, and Xi-Zheng Zhang. Rosamultin attenuates acute hypobaric hypoxia-induced bone injuries by regulation of sclerostin and its downstream signals. High Alt Med Biol. 21:273-286, 2020. Background: Rosamultin, one of the compounds extracted from Potentilla anserina L., exhibited significant pharmacological activity against oxidative stress and hypoxic injury in our previous study. However, the effect of rosamultin on bone damage induced by acute hypobaric hypoxia (HH) has not been thoroughly studied. Methods: In this study, we first investigated the protective effect of rosamultin against bone damage in rats following acute exposure to simulated high-altitude hypoxia. Furthermore, we explored the detailed mechanism involved in the regulation of rat bone remodeling by rosamultin in an acute HH environment through analysis of sclerostin expression and the regulation of downstream signaling pathways. Results: Pretreatment with rosamultin significantly reduced HH-induced oxidative stress and inflammation, improved bone metabolic abnormalities, and alleviated the imbalance in bone remodeling in rats exposed to acute HH. Rosamultin markedly downregulated the expression of sclerostin, activated the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway, and enhanced the ratio of osteoprotegerin/receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa B ligand to maintain the balance of bone formation and resorption. Conclusions: Rosamultin attenuates acute HH-induced bone damage and improves abnormal bone remodeling in rats by inhibition of sclerostin expression and activation of the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway.

Asymmetry of Subthalamic Neuronal Firing Rate and Oscillatory Characteristics in Parkinson's Disease.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to compare the neuronal firing rate and oscillatory activity of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) between the more affected (MA) and the less affected (LA) hemispheres in Parkinson's disease (PD). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We recorded and analyzed the intra-operative microelectrode recordings (MER) from the STN of 24 PD subjects. Lateralized Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) III sub-scores (item 20-26) were calculated. The STN corresponding to the MA side was designated as the MA STN while the other side as the LA STN. Single unit characteristics including interspike intervals were identified and spectral analyses were assessed. Further, the mean spontaneous firing rate (MSFR) of neurons was calculated. The correlations between clinical symptoms and neuronal activity were analyzed. RESULTS: The firing rate in the MA and LA sides were 43.18 ± 0.74 Hz and 36.94 ± 1.32 Hz, respectively, with an increase of 16.9% in the MA group. The number of neurons that oscillated in the Tremor-Frequency Band (TFB), ß-Frequency Band (ßFB), and the non-oscillatory cells in the MA group were 43, 115, and 62 versus 78, 68, and 54 in the LA group, respectively. The proportions of the three types of neurons were different between both groups. The firing rate of the STN neurons and the UPDRS III sub-scores were positively correlated. Additionally, we observed a positive correlation between the percentage of ßFB oscillatory neurons and bradykinesia score. CONCLUSION: The firing rate of the STN in the MA hemisphere is higher than in the LA side, following disease progression and there seems to be an increase in firing rate. The ßFB oscillatory neurons are at a larger proportion in the MA group while there were larger percentage of TFB oscillatory cells in the LA group. The proportion of ßFB oscillatory neurons is selectively correlated with the severity of bradykinesia.

Possible involvement of alpha B-crystallin in the cardioprotective effect of n-butanol extract of Potentilla anserina L. on myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury in rat.

BACKGROUND: It has been reported that n-butanol extract of Potentilla anserina L (NP) had protective effect against acute myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in mice. Because of limited phytochemical study on NP, its bioactive compounds and underlying protective mechanisms are largely unclear. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the major bioactive compounds and possible mechanism for the cardioprotective effect of NP on rat with I/R injury. METHODS: We analyzed the phytochemical isolation of NP and identified the structure of compounds, which was elucidated by a combination of spectroscopic analyses. An I/R model was established by I-30 min/R-2 h in Sprage-Dawley rats. The rats were given intragastric administration of NP (49.3, 98.6, and 197.2 mg•kg-1) continuously for 10 days before I/R operation. The morphological changes and apoptosis of cardiomyocytes were observed by H&E staining, Transmission electron microscope and TUNEL staining respectively. The activities or contents of catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA) and glutathione (GSH) in plasma were detected. Apoptosis related factors were also measured by RT-PCR and western blot. In order to discover the underlying mechanism of NP on I/R, we performed proteomic analysis using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) and matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/MS) to describe differential proteins expression. Potential target protein resulted from 2D-DIGE coupled to MALDI-TOF/MS analysis were further confirmed by immunohistochemical staining, RT-PCR, and western blot. RESULTS: We isolated and identified 14 compounds, of which 7 compounds belong to triterpenes. Rats pretreated with NP showed a significant increase on the activities of GSH, SOD and CAT, and remarkable decrease on the content of MDA. NP significantly inhibited the apoptosis of cardiomyocyte and decreased the expression of Cyt C and cleaved-caspase-3. Proteomic analysis revealed that alpha B-crystallin (CryAB) might participate in the NP protective effect against I/R. NP enhanced the level of pCryAB Ser59, whereas the expression of CryAB was decreased. CONCLUSION: NP was showed to alleviate I/R injury and inhibit myocardial apoptosis, which might be associated with reduction on oxidative stress and apoptosis. CryAB as a possible target involved in the NP protective effect. This study supplied valuable information to develop novel cardioprotective agents from NP extract.

Indirect Effect of Elevated CO2 on Population Parameters and Growth of Agasicles hygrophila (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), a Biocontrol Agent of Alligatorweed (Amaranthaceae).

Alligatorweed, Alternanthera philoxeroide (Mart.) Griseb. (Amaranthaceae) is an invasive weed in China that is often kept under control by the alligatorweed flea beetle, Agasicles hygrophila Selman and Vogt (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) introduced into China from Argentina in the 1980s. Elevated CO2 levels have been shown to have a direct effect on Ag. hygrophila. In order to fully evaluate the indirect effects of three different atmospheric concentrations of CO2 (420, 550, and 750 ppm) on the population parameters of Ag. hygrophila reared on Al. philoxeroides, we collected life table data for Ag. hygrophila using the age-stage, two-sex life table method. In general, there were no significant differences in the lengths of the preadult parameters among the three treatments. The adult duration and total longevity of males, however, did increase as CO2 increased in concentration. Although the adult preoviposition and total preoviposition periods decreased, the fecundity, oviposition days, eggs per oviposition day, net reproductive rate, intrinsic rate of increase, and finite rate of increase all increased significantly at the high CO2 concentration. Consequently, we determined that the Ag. hygrophila population size will potentially increase rapidly over a short period of time at elevated CO2 concentrations. Our results suggest that 550 and 750 ppm CO2 may also cause physiological changes in Al. philoxeroides that, in turn, provide enhanced nutrition for increasing reproduction in Ag. hygrophila by accelerating maturation of their reproductive system. These results indicate that the efficacy of Ag. hygrophila as a biological control agent against Al. philoxeroides will likely be increased at 550 and 750 ppm CO2.