Effect of short-term nitrogen deposition on dry-wet seasonal variation of soil respiration in degraded Poa pratensis alpine meadow of the Napahai, Yunnan, China.

To explore the coupling of dry-wet seasonal variations of soil respiration with their environmental factors in the alpine meadow under the background of increasing nitrogen (N) deposition, we conducted an experiment in the typical degraded Poa pratensis meadow in the Napahai, Yunnan. There were four treatments, i.e., control (0 g·m-2·a-1), low (5 g·m-2·a-1), medium (10 g·m-2·a-1), and high (15 g·m-2·a-1) levels. We examined the effects of aboveground biomass, plant diversity, and soil physicochemical properties on soil respiration. The results showed that N deposition significantly promoted soil respiration. Compared with that in the control, soil respiration rates increased by 21.9%-53.9% and 27.3%-51.2% in dry and wet seasons, respectively. The maximum value of soil respiration rate was recorded in the medium N treatment. N deposition dramatically elevated aboveground biomass (52.2%-66.4%). Plant diversity declined with increasing N addition levels, with the maximum value (13.5%-24.2%) being recorded in high treatment in wet season. The values of ammonium nitrogen, organic matter, microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen, temperature and moisture in the three N treatments were elevated by 14.3%-333.5% compared with the control, while those of soil pH were decreased by 9.0%-34.6%. Results of the structural equation modelling showed that plant biomass, Shannon diversity, microbial biomass, soil temperature, and moisture showed a positive effect on soil respiration, while bulk density had a negative effect. Soil nitrogen pool and pH were main factors driving soil CO2 emissions, accounting for 55.7% and 45.1% of the variations, respectively. Therefore, short-term atmospheric N deposition stimulated soil respiration primarily via altering soil pH and nitrogen pool components in the degraded alpine meadow.

Subthalamic nucleus dynamics track microlesion effect in Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's Disease (PD) is characterized by the temporary alleviation of motor symptoms following electrode implantation (or nucleus destruction), known as the microlesion effect (MLE). Electrophysiological studies have explored different PD stages, but understanding electrophysiological characteristics during the MLE period remains unclear. The objective was to examine the characteristics of local field potential (LFP) signals in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) during the hyperacute period following implantation (within 2 days) and 1 month post-implantation. 15 patients diagnosed with PD were enrolled in this observational study, with seven simultaneous recordings of bilateral STN-LFP signals using wireless sensing technology from an implantable pulse generator. Recordings were made in both on and off medication states over 1 month after implantation. We used a method to parameterize the neuronal power spectrum to separate periodic oscillatory and aperiodic components effectively. Our results showed that beta power exhibited a significant increase in the off medication state 1 month after implantation, compared to the postoperative hyperacute period. Notably, this elevation was effectively attenuated by levodopa administration. Furthermore, both the exponents and offsets displayed a decrease at 1 month postoperatively when compared to the hyperacute postoperative period. Remarkably, levodopa medication exerted a modulatory effect on these aperiodic parameters, restoring them back to levels observed during the hyperacute period. Our findings suggest that both periodic and aperiodic components partially capture distinct electrophysiological characteristics during the MLE. It is crucial to adequately evaluate such discrepancies when exploring the mechanisms of MLE and optimizing adaptive stimulus protocols.

Calcitonin Inhibits Phenotypic Switching of Aortic Smooth Muscle Cells and Neointimal Hyperplasia through the AMP-Activated Protein Kinase/Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin Pathway.

Calcitonin (CT) is a peptide hormone secreted by the parafollicular C cells of the thyroid gland, salmon calcitonin was originally extracted from the hind cheek of salmon. Neointimal hyperplasia refers to the excessive proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). In this study, a rat model of restenosis was employed to explore the impact of calcitonin on neointima proliferation. Calcitonin was administered via continuous injections for a duration of 14 days postsurgery, and the expression of proteins associated with proliferation, migration, and phenotypic switching was assessed using the vascular smooth muscle cells. Additionally, metabolomic analyses were conducted to shed light on the mechanisms that underlie the role of calcitonin in the development of cardiovascular disease. In our study, we found that calcitonin possesses the capability to dispute the proliferation, migration, and phenotypic transformation of VSMCs induced by platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB) and 15% fetal bovine serum in vitro. Calcitonin has demonstrated a favorable impact on smooth muscle cells, both in vitro and in vivo. More specifically, it has been observed to mitigate phenotypic switching, proliferation, and migration of these cells. Moreover, calcitonin has been identified as a protective factor against phenotypic switching and the formation of neointima, operating through the AMP-activated protein kinase/mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway.

Association between Troponin Elevation and Decreased Myocardial Blood Flow Reserve in Patients without Obstructive Coronary Artery Disease.

INTRODUCTION: To study the prognostic factors of patients with chest pain and without obstructive coronary artery disease is of great significance for the management of such patients. We assessed whether a high-sensitivity troponin I (hs-TnI) is associated with prognosis in patients with chest pain and without obstructive coronary artery disease. METHODS: From 2011 to 2017, 489 consecutively hospitalized patients with chest pain and without significant coronary artery stenosis (<50%) were tested for hs-TnI and underwent stress myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE). Myocardial blood flow reserve (MBFR) was measured by stress MCE. Patients were followed (median, 41 months) for composite endpoints, including cardiovascular death and non-fatal myocardial infarction. Cox proportional hazards models were performed to determine associations between hs-TnI and the composite endpoints. RESULTS: Among 489 patients with chest pain and without significant coronary artery stenosis, 257 patients (52.6%) had elevated hs-TnI. Compared to patients with normal hs-TnI, patients with elevated hs-TnI were older (p = 0.013) and had a higher prevalence of atrial fibrillation (p = 0.003), higher left ventricular mass index (p = 0.002) and E/e' septal (p < 0.001), and a lower MBFR (p < 0.001). After adjustment, there was still a significant association between hs-TnI and MBFR (odds ratio = 1.145; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.079-1.214; p < 0.001). Compared with patients with normal hs-TnI, patients with elevated hs-TnI had a greater cumulative event rate (log-rank p = 0.002). Males (hazard ratio [HR], 4.770; 95% CI, 1.175-19.363; p = 0.029) and reduced MBFR (HR, 2.496; 95% CI, 1.446-4.311; p = 0.001) were risk factors associated with composite endpoints in patients with elevated hs-TnI. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with chest pain and without obstructive coronary artery disease, elevated hs-TnI is associated with decreased myocardial perfusion by contrast echocardiography as well as a higher incidence of cardiovascular events.

MRLC controls apoptotic cell death and functions to regulate epidermal development during planarian regeneration and homeostasis.

Adult stem cells (ASCs) are pluripotent cells with the capacity to self-renew and constantly replace lost cells due to physiological turnover or injury. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of the precise coordination of stem cell proliferation and proper cell fate decision is important to regeneration and organismal homeostasis. The planarian epidermis provides a highly tractable model to study ASC complex dynamic due to the distinct spatiotemporal differentiation stages during lineage development. Here, we identified the myosin regulatory light chain (MRLC) homologue in the Dugesia japonica transcriptome. We found high expression levels of MRLC in wound region during regeneration and also expressed in late epidermal progenitors as an essential regulator of the lineage from neoblasts to mature epidermal cells. We investigated the function of MRLC using in situ hybridization, real-time polymerase chain reaction and double fluorescent and uncovered the potential mechanism. Knockdown of MRLC leads to a remarkable increase in cell death, causes severe abnormalities during regeneration and homeostasis and eventually leads to animal death. The global decrease in epidermal cell in MRLC RNAi animals induces accelerated epidermal proliferation and differentiation. Additionally, we find that MRLC is co-expressed with cdc42 and acts cooperatively to control the epidermal lineage development by affecting cell death. Our results uncover an important role of MRLC, as an inhibitor of apoptosis, involves in epidermal development.

Competing-risks model for predicting the prognostic value of lymph nodes in medullary thyroid carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is an infrequent form malignant tumor with a poor prognosis. Because of the influence of competitive risk, there may suffer from bias in the analysis of prognostic factors of MTC. METHODS: By extracting the data of patients diagnosed with MTC registered in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database from 1998 to 2016, we established the Cox proportional-hazards and competing-risks model to retrospectively analyze the impact of related factors on lymph nodes statistically. RESULTS: A total of 2,435 patients were included in the analysis, of which 198 died of MTC. The results of the multifactor competing-risk model showed that the number of total lymph nodes (19-89), positive lymph nodes (1-10,11-75) and positive lymph node ratio (25%-53%,>54%), age (46-60,>61), chemotherapy, mode of radiotherapy (others), tumor size(2-4cm,>4cm), number of lesions greater than 1 were poor prognostic factors for MTC. For the number of total lymph nodes, unlike the multivariate Cox proportional-hazards model results, we found that it became an independent risk factor after excluding competitive risk factors. Competitive risk factors have little effect on the number of positive lymph nodes. For the proportion of positive lymph nodes, we found that after excluding competitive risk factors, the Cox proportional-hazards model overestimates its impact on prognosis. The competitive risk model is often more accurate in analyzing the effects of prognostic factors. CONCLUSIONS: After excluding the competitive risk, the number of lymph nodes, the number of positive and the positive proportion are the poor prognostic factors of medullary thyroid cancer, which can help clinicians more accurately evaluate the prognosis of patients with medullary thyroid cancer and provide a reference for treatment decision-making.

Multiple roles of LncRNA-BMNCR on cell proliferation and apoptosis by targeting miR-145/CBFB axis in BMECs.

Bovine mastitis is one of the most serious and costly disease affecting dairy cattle production. The present study explored the inflammatory response and autoprotective mechanism of a novel specific high expression BMNCR (bovine mastitis related long non-coding RNA) in S. aureus induced mastitis by miR-145/CBFB axis in dairy cows from the perspective of molecular genetics. In bovine mammary epithelial cells, we preformed loss of function experiments to detect changes in cytokine, proliferation and apoptosis by qRT-PCR, western blot, flow cytometry and EdU staining. The results demonstrated that BMNCR significantly increased cell apoptosis, and inhibited cell proliferation. However, the secretion of IL-1α, IL-2, IL-6, IL-8 and IL-12 were enhanced after knock-down BMNCR. Bioinformatics analysis demonstrated that BMNCR could target 8 miRNAs, in-depth analyses indicated that BMNCR acts as a molecular sponge for bta-miR-145 and CBFB was one of 23 target gene of bta-miR-145 . The results of the present study demonstrated that the role of BMNCR in S. aureus induced mastitis can be mediated by sponge bta-miR-145 activating CBFB expression. BMNCR could be a potential target for mastitis diagnosis and therapy, which may enrich the theoretical research of therapeutic intervention, and further increase milk yield and improve milk quality.

[Research progress on vascularization of organoids].

Organoids are three-dimensional structures formed by self-organizing growth of cells in vitro, which own many structures and functions similar with those of corresponding in vivo organs. Although the organoid culture technologies are rapidly developed and the original cells are abundant, the organoid cultured by current technologies are rather different with the real organs, which limits their application. The major challenges of organoid cultures are the immature tissue structure and restricted growth, both of which are caused by poor functional vasculature. Therefore, how to develop the vascularization of organoids has become an urgent problem. We presently reviewed the progresses on the original cells of organoids and the current methods to develop organoids vascularization, which provide clues to solve the above-mentioned problems.

The Spontaneous Vesicle-Micelle Transition in a Catanionic Surfactant System: A Chemical Trapping Study.

Typically, the formation of vesicles requires the addition of salts or other additives to surfactant micelles. However, in the case of catanionic surfactants, unilamellar vesicles can spontaneously form upon dilution of the micellar solutions. Our study explores the intriguing spontaneous vesicle-to-micelle transition in catanionic surfactant systems, specifically cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) and sodium octylsulfonate (SOS). To gain insights into the changes occurring at the interface, we employ a chemical trapping method to characterize variations in the molarities of sulfonate headgroups, water, and bromide ions during the transition. Our findings reveal the formation of ion pairs between the cationic component of CTAB and the anionic component of SOS, leading to tight interfacial packing in CTAB/SOS solutions. This interfacial packing promotes vesicle formation at low surfactant concentrations. Due to the significant difference in critical micelle concentration (cmc) between CTAB and SOS, an increase in the stoichiometric surfactant concentration results in a substantial rise in the SOS-to-CTAB ratio within the interfacial region. This enrichment of SOS in the aggregates triggers the transition from vesicles to micelles. Overall, our study may shed new light on the design of morphologies in catanionic and other surfactant systems.

A method for constructing word sense embeddings based on word sense induction.

Polysemy is an inherent characteristic of natural language. In order to make it easier to distinguish between different senses of polysemous words, we propose a method for encoding multiple different senses of polysemous words using a single vector. The method first uses a two-layer bidirectional long short-term memory neural network and a self-attention mechanism to extract the contextual information of polysemous words. Then, a K-means algorithm, which is improved by optimizing the density peaks clustering algorithm based on cosine similarity, is applied to perform word sense induction on the contextual information of polysemous words. Finally, the method constructs the corresponding word sense embedded representations of the polysemous words. The results of the experiments demonstrate that the proposed method produces better word sense induction than Euclidean distance, Pearson correlation, and KL-divergence and more accurate word sense embeddings than mean shift, DBSCAN, spectral clustering, and agglomerative clustering.

Identification cloning and functional analysis of novel natural antisense lncRNA CFL1-AS1 in cattle.

Long noncoding RNAs have been identified as important regulators of gene expression and animal development. The expression of natural antisense transcripts (NATs) transcribed in the opposite direction to protein-coding genes is usually positively correlated with the expression of homologous sense genes and is the key factor for expression. Here, we identified a conserved noncoding antisense transcript, CFL1-AS1, that plays an important role in muscle growth and development. CFL1-AS1 overexpression and knockout vectors were constructed and transfected into 293T and C2C12 cells. CFL1-AS1 positively regulated CFL1 gene expression, and the expression of CFL2 was also downregulated when CFL1-AS1 was knocked down. CFL1-AS1 promoted cell proliferation, inhibited apoptosis and participated in autophagy. This study expands the research on NATs in cattle and lays a foundation for the study of the biological function of bovine CFL1 and its natural antisense chain transcript CFL1-AS1 in bovine skeletal muscle development. The discovery of this NAT can provide a reference for subsequent genetic breeding and data on the characteristics and functional mechanisms of NATs.

Crazing Initiation and Growth in Polymethyl Methacrylate under Effects of Alcohol and Stress.

Polymer crazing is typically a precursor to damage and considerably reduces the mechanical performance of polymer materials. The concentrated stress caused by machines and the solvent atmosphere created during machining exacerbates the formation of crazing. In this study, the tensile test method was employed to examine the initiation and progression of crazing. The research focused on polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), both regular and oriented, and the impact of machining and alcohol solvents on the formation of crazing. The results showed that the alcohol solvent influenced PMMA through physical diffusion, whereas machining primarily affected crazing growth via residual stress. Treatment reduced the crazing stress threshold of PMMA from 20% to 35% and produced a threefold increase in its sensitivity to stress. The findings revealed that oriented PMMA exhibited 20 MPa higher resistance to crazing stress compared with regular PMMA. The results also indicated that the extension of the crazing tip and thickening were in conflict, with the crazing tip of regular PMMA severely bending under tensile stress. This study provides valuable insight into the initiation of crazing and the methods of its prevention.

Meis1 Controls the Differentiation of Eye Progenitor Cells and the Formation of Posterior Poles during Planarian Regeneration.

As a member of TALE family, Meis1 has been proven to regulate cell proliferation and differentiation during cell fate commitment; however, the mechanism is still not fully understood. The planarian, which has an abundance of stem cells (neoblasts) responsible for regenerating any organ after injury, is an ideal model for studying the mechanisms of tissue identity determination. Here, we characterized a planarian homolog of Meis1 from the planarian Dugesia japonica. Importantly, we found that knockdown of DjMeis1 inhibits the differentiation of neoblasts into eye progenitor cells and results in an eyeless phenotype with normal central nervous system. Furthermore, we observed that DjMeis1 is required for the activation of Wnt signaling pathway by promoting the Djwnt1 expression during posterior regeneration. The silencing of DjMeis1 suppresses the expression of Djwnt1 and results in the inability to reconstruct posterior poles. In general, our findings indicated that DjMeis1 acts as a trigger for the activation of eye and tail regeneration by regulating the differentiation of eye progenitor cells and the formation of posterior poles, respectively.

Djck1α Is Required for Proper Regeneration and Maintenance of the Medial Tissues in Planarians.

CK1α (Casein kinase 1α) is a member of the casein kinase 1(CK1) family that is involved in diverse cellular processes, but its functions remain unclear in stem cell development. Freshwater planarians are capable of whole-body regeneration, making it a classic model for the study of regeneration, tissue homeostasis, and polarity in vivo. To investigate the roles of CK1α in regeneration and homeostasis progress, we characterize a homolog of CK1α from planarian Dugesia japonica. We find that Djck1α, which shows an enriched expression pattern in the nascent tissues, is widely expressed especially in the medial regions of planarians. Knockdown of CK1α by RNAi presents a thicker body due to dorsal hyperplasia, along with defects in the medial tissues including nerve proliferation, missing epidermis, intestine disturbance, and hyper-proliferation during the progression of regeneration and homeostasis. Moreover, we find that the ck1α RNAi animals exhibit expansion of the midline marker slit. The eye deficiency induced by slit RNAi can be rescued by ck1α and slit double RNAi. These results suggest that ck1α is required for the medial tissue regeneration and maintenance in planarian Dugesia japonica by regulating the expression of slit, which helps to further investigate the regulation of planarian mediolateral axis.

Quantum interference between dark-excitons and zone-edged acoustic phonons in few-layer WS2.

Fano resonance which describes a quantum interference between continuum and discrete states, provides a unique method for studying strongly interacting physics. Here, we report a Fano resonance between dark excitons and zone-edged acoustic phonons in few-layer WS2 by using the resonant Raman technique. The discrete phonons with large momentum at the M-point of the Brillouin zone and the continuum dark exciton states related to the optically forbidden transition at K and Q valleys are coupled by the exciton-phonon interactions. We observe rich Fano resonance behaviors across layers and modes defined by an asymmetry-parameter q: including constructive interference with two mirrored asymmetry Fano peaks (weak coupling, q > 1 and q < - 1), and destructive interference with Fano dip (strong coupling, ∣q∣ < < 1). Our results provide new insight into the exciton-phonon quantum interference in two-dimensional semiconductors, where such interferences play a key role in their transport, optical, and thermodynamic properties.

Expression profile and functional prediction of novel LncRNA 5.8S rRNA-OT1 in cattle.

Long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) are generally longer than 200 bp in length and play an important regulatory role in the growth and development of skeletal muscle. In the previous work, the non-coding RNAs with abundant expression in bovine tissues were screened out. After quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR), 33 lncRNAs with differential expression in various bovine tissues were identified. Differential expression analysis base on tissue expression profiles of 33 lncRNAs, a long non-coding RNA LncRNA13, which may have effects on bovine muscle development, was found. The expression levels in embryo muscle and adult cattle muscle were significantly different (p < 0.01), so it is speculated that it may have a certain impact on the development of cattle muscle. It was named LncRNA 5.8S rRNA-OT1, and its overexpression vector pcDNA3.1-LncRNA 5.8S rRNA-OT1 was cloned and constructed. The purpose of this study is to further explore its impact on the proliferation and differentiation of bovine muscle cells and accumulate data to lay a foundation for further exploration of the function of LncRNA 5.8S rRNA-OT1 and add basic data for the study of the regulatory mechanism of lncRNA.

Djsnon, a downstream gene of Djfoxk1, is required for the regeneration of the planarian central nervous system.

Regulators of adult neurogenesis are crucial targets for neuronal repair. Freshwater planarians are ideal model systems for studying neuronal regeneration as they can regenerate their entire central nervous system (CNS) using pluripotent adult stem cells. Here, we identified Djfoxk1 in planarian Dugesia japonica to be required for planarian CNS regeneration. Knockdown of Djfoxk1 inhibits the regeneration of the cephalic ganglia, resulting in the failure of eye regeneration. By RNAi screening of Djfoxk1 downstream genes, we identified Djsnon as another regulator of planarian neuronal regeneration. Inhibition of Djsnon with RNA interference (RNAi) results in similar phenotypes caused by Djfoxk1 RNAi without affecting cell proliferation and wound healing. Our findings show that Djsnon as a downstream gene of Djfoxk1 regulates the regeneration of the planarian CNS.

Actin restricts cell proliferation and promotes differentiation during planarian regeneration.

Actin is an integral component of the cytoskeleton, which plays an important role in various fundamental cellular processes, such as affecting the polarity of embryonic cells during embryonic development in various model organisms. Meanwhile, previous studies have demonstrated that the polymerization of the actin cytoskeleton can affect cell migration, proliferation, and differentiation. Actin polymerization state regulated osteogenic differentiation and affected cell proliferation. However, the function of actin in regenerative biology has not been thoroughly elucidated. The planarian flatworm, which contains a large number of adult somatic stem cells (neoblasts), is an ideal model organism to study regenerative biology. Here, we identified a homolog of actin in planarian Dugesia japonica and found that RNAi targeting actin during planarian regeneration results in the formation of protrusions on the dorsal side, where the division of phospho-H3 mitotic cells is increased. In addition, a decrease in differentiation is observed in regenerating tissues after Djactin RNAi. These results indicate that Djactin functions in proliferation and differentiation control in planarian regeneration.

Exposure to construction dust and health impacts - A review.

Construction dust contributes a significant proportion of airborne particulate matter, affecting the health of its surrounding environment and population. Construction workers are normally exposed to dust at high levels and bear severe health risks. The existing articles concerning the exposure and health impacts of construction dust are limited, but this research field has received more and more attention. This work reviews literature in the field and tries to systematically assess the current research state. Here, we review (1) methods used to monitor or sample construction dust; (2) main characteristics of construction dust, including dust classification, exposed populations, and exposure concentrations; (3) potential health hazards and (4) health risk assessment of construction dust. From existing literature, the exposure concentrations of different types and sources of construction dust are usually the focus of attention, while its particle size distribution and chemical composition are rarely mentioned. The classification and characteristics of populations exposed to construction dust ought to be a key consideration but not clear enough so far. There still lacks in-depth study of health hazards and systematic assessment of risks associated with construction dust. In future, it is valuable to develop utility instruments to precisely monitor construction dust. Besides, control means to reduce the pollution of construction dust deserve more studies. Health hazards of construction dust should be verified by biological experiments. Moreover, emerging algorithm models should be utilized in the risk assessment. The findings will help gain a better understanding of construction dust exposure and associated health risks.

Advances in Regulating Cellular Behavior Using Micropatterns.

Micropatterns, characterized as distinct physical microstructures or chemical adhesion matrices on substance surfaces, have emerged as a powerful tool for manipulating cellular activity. By creating specific extracellular matrix microenvironments, micropatterns can influence various cell behaviors, including orientation, proliferation, migration, and differentiation. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the latest advancements in the use of micropatterns for cell behavior regulation. It discusses the influence of micropattern morphology and coating on cell behavior and the underlying mechanisms. It also highlights future research directions in this field, aiming to inspire new investigations in materials medicine, regenerative medicine, and tissue engineering. The review underscores the potential of micropatterns as a novel approach for controlling cell behavior, which could pave the way for breakthroughs in various biomedical applications.