Spatial-Temporal Variations and Trade-Offs of Ecosystem Services in Anhui Province, China.

Research on the spatiotemporal evolution and trade-offs of ecosystem services (ESs) is important for optimizing the ecological security barrier system and promoting coordinated socio-economic development. Natural factors, e.g., climate change, and human factors, e.g., unreasonable land use, have impacted and damaged ecosystem structure and function, leading to challenges with ES trade-offs and the spatial identification of priority protected areas. Here, the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of five ESs (water yield, nitrogen export, soil retention, carbon storage, and habitat quality) in Anhui Province, China, from 2000-2020 were analyzed based on the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs (InVEST) model. The trade-offs and spatial patterns among different ESs were explored using Pearson correlation and hotspot analyses; the dynamics of natural growth, cultivated land protection, and ecological protection scenarios for ESs in 2030 were simulated and analyzed by coupling InVEST with the patch-generating land use simulation (PLUS) model. The results reveal the following. (1) From 2000-2020, increases in water yield and soil retention occurred, with concurrent declines in the other services; the total nitrogen high-value area was mainly concentrated in the plain, with the other services' high-value areas mainly concentrated in the Dabieshan and Southern Anhui Mountains, with each ES showing similar spatial distributions across years. (2) The ESs were mainly synergistic, with trade-offs mainly between nitrogen export and other services. (3) Hotspot overlap between water yield and the other ESs was relatively low; no more than 6.53% of ecosystems per unit area provided five ESs simultaneously. (4) Other than water yield, the ecological protection scenario was more conducive to improving ecosystem functions. This study's results indicate inadequate synergy among ESs in Anhui Province; competition among land types must be further balanced in the future. This study provides a basic reference for implementing ecological projects and constructing ecological security patterns.

Evolutionary characteristics of ecosystem services and ecological risks at highly developed economic region: A case study on Yangtze River Delta, China.

Ecosystem services (ES) can mitigate ecological risks (ER), yet these services can also be affected by ER. Based on land use data, socioeconomic data, landscape index, and spatial analysis techniques such as spatial autocorrelation, we study the spatial and temporal characteristics of ES and ER in the Yangtze River Delta from 2000 to 2019. The conclusions are as follows: (1) During the study period, construction land has been growing rapidly, and the depth, complexity, and intensity of land use have been increasing. The reserve land resources in the Yangtze River Delta are scarce. (2) From 2000 to 2019, the ecosystem service value (ESV) has been declining, with a total loss of 107.562 billion RMB. The area of low ESV continues to grow rapidly, while the area of high ESV continues to shrink. High ecological risk potential exists in rivers, lakes, and coastal areas. (3) Although the ecological environment in economically developed areas is more fragile, the ecological risk potential can be reduced in two ways: strengthening urban clusters, thus improving cooperation and communication among them; and protecting ecosystems with high ES such as water area and forestland. When formulating regional development plans, in addition to socioeconomic benefits, managers and policy makers need to focus on natural benefits as well.

Monitoring and Regulating Intracellular GPX4 mRNA Using Gold Nanoflare Probes and Enhancing Erastin-Induced Ferroptosis.

Glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) plays an important effect on ferroptosis. Down-regulating the expression of GPX4 mRNA can decrease the content of GPX4. In this work, a gold nanoflare (AuNF) probe loaded with anti-sense sequences targeting for GPX4 mRNA was designed to monitor and down-regulate intracellular GPX4 mRNA using fluorescence imaging in situ and using anti-sense technology. The results revealed that there was a marked difference for the expression of GPX4 mRNA in different cell lines, and the survival rate of cancer cells was not significantly effected when the relative mRNA and protein expression levels of GPX4 was down-regulated by AuNF probes. However, when co-treated with AuNF probes, the low expression of GPX4 strengthened erastin-induced ferroptosis, and this synergy showed a better effect on inhibiting the proliferation of cancer cells.

Genome-Wide Identification of the A20/AN1 Zinc Finger Protein Family Genes in Ipomoea batatas and Its Two Relatives and Function Analysis of IbSAP16 in Salinity Tolerance.

Stress-associated protein (SAP) genes-encoding A20/AN1 zinc-finger domain-containing proteins-play pivotal roles in regulating stress responses, growth, and development in plants. They are considered suitable candidates to improve abiotic stress tolerance in plants. However, the SAP gene family in sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) and its relatives is yet to be investigated. In this study, 20 SAPs in sweetpotato, and 23 and 26 SAPs in its wild diploid relatives Ipomoea triloba and Ipomoea trifida were identified. The chromosome locations, gene structures, protein physiological properties, conserved domains, and phylogenetic relationships of these SAPs were analyzed systematically. Binding motif analysis of IbSAPs indicated that hormone and stress responsive cis-acting elements were distributed in their promoters. RT-qPCR or RNA-seq data revealed that the expression patterns of IbSAP, ItbSAP, and ItfSAP genes varied in different organs and responded to salinity, drought, or ABA (abscisic acid) treatments differently. Moreover, we found that IbSAP16 driven by the 35 S promoter conferred salinity tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis. These results provided a genome-wide characterization of SAP genes in sweetpotato and its two relatives and suggested that IbSAP16 is involved in salinity stress responses. Our research laid the groundwork for studying SAP-mediated stress response mechanisms in sweetpotato.

Development and Validation of an Artificial Intelligence Model for Small Bowel Capsule Endoscopy Video Review.

Importance: Reading small bowel capsule endoscopy (SBCE) videos is a tedious task for clinicians, and a new method should be applied to solve the situation. Objectives: To develop and evaluate the performance of a convolutional neural network algorithm for SBCE video review in real-life clinical care. Design, Setting, and Participants: In this multicenter, retrospective diagnostic study, a deep learning neural network (SmartScan) was trained and validated for the SBCE video review. A total of 2927 SBCE examinations from 29 medical centers were used to train SmartScan to detect 17 types of CE structured terminology (CEST) findings from January 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020. SmartScan was later validated with conventional reading (CR) and SmartScan-assisted reading (SSAR) in 2898 SBCE examinations collected from 22 medical centers. Data analysis was performed from January 25 to December 31, 2021. Exposure: An artificial intelligence-based tool for interpreting clinical images of SBCE. Main Outcomes and Measures: The detection rate and efficiency of CEST findings detected by SSAR and CR were compared. Results: A total of 5825 SBCE examinations were retrospectively collected; 2898 examinations (1765 male participants [60.9%]; mean [SD] age, 49.8 [15.5] years) were included in the validation phase. From a total of 6084 CEST-classified SB findings, SSAR detected 5834 findings (95.9%; 95% CI, 95.4%-96.4%), significantly higher than CR, which detected 4630 findings (76.1%; 95% CI, 75.0%-77.2%). SmartScan-assisted reading achieved a higher per-patient detection rate (79.3% [2298 of 2898]) for CEST findings compared with CR (70.7% [2048 of 2298]; 95% CI, 69.0%-72.3%). With SSAR, the mean (SD) number of images (per SBCE video) requiring review was reduced to 779.2 (337.2) compared with 27 910.8 (12 882.9) with CR, for a mean (SD) reduction rate of 96.1% (4.3%). The mean (SD) reading time with SSAR was shortened to 5.4 (1.5) minutes compared with CR (51.4 [11.6] minutes), for a mean (SD) reduction rate of 89.3% (3.1%). Conclusions and Relevance: This study suggests that a convolutional neural network-based algorithm is associated with an increased detection rate of SBCE findings and reduced SBCE video reading time.

Multi-pathway inducing ferroptosis by MnO2-based nanodrugs for targeted cancer therapy.

A multifunctional nanodrug (Tf-DHA-ASO-MnO2) based on manganese dioxide nanosheets was constructed by triple-dressing with transferrin, dihydroartemisinin, and antisense oligonucleotide sequences. Tf-DHA-ASO-MnO2 shows an effective targeted cancer therapy ability through the ferroptosis caused by the production of excessive lipid peroxides resulting from the combined effect of glutathione exhaustion, reactive oxygen species generation and down-regulation of glutathione peroxidase 4.

Parameter Optimization of Asynchronous Cyclic Waterflooding for Horizontal-Vertical Well Patterns in Tight Oil Reservoirs.

Tight oil resources in China are mainly exploited by staged-fractured horizontal wells; horizontal wells face the problems of the rapid decline rate and low primary oil recovery. Pilot tests on the asynchronous cyclic waterflooding for the horizontal-vertical well pattern were carried out in recent years and achieved good performance. However, there are few studies on the influencing factors and parameter optimization of asynchronous cyclic waterflooding, which limits its wide application. This work took the tight oil reservoir in Yanchang formation, Fuxian area, Ordos Basin as its object, and the oil recovery mechanisms of asynchronous cyclic waterflooding for the horizontal-vertical well pattern were analyzed first. Then, the operation parameters of asynchronous cyclic waterflooding were optimized by the numerical simulation method. Among them, the injection proportion was optimized by the fuzzy synthetic evaluation method. Finally, the oilfield test was carried out based on the optimized parameters. The results showed that pressure disturbance and streamline deviation are the main oil recovery mechanisms of asynchronous cyclic waterflooding. The asynchronous mode of the diagonal well row is better than other asynchronous modes. For the injection time interval, injection-production ratio, and the injection and shut-in time, the cumulative oil production all show the trend of increasing first and then decreasing with the increase in these parameters. The optimal injection time interval and injection-production ratio are 0.5 T and 1, respectively. The optimal injection and shut-in time can be calculated by empirical formulas. Ultimately, the fuzzy synthetic evaluation model was established to optimize the injection proportion. Field practices showed that the average daily oil production of horizontal wells was increased from 1.7 to 3.0 m3 with the optimized parameters, which further verified the accuracy of the optimized parameters. This research can provide theoretical support for the effective development of tight oil reservoirs.

Visualizing the down-regulation of hTERT mRNA expression using gold-nanoflare probes and verifying the correlation with cancer cell apoptosis.

The human telomerase reverse transcriptase catalytic subunit (hTERT) is the rate-limiting subunit of the telomerase holoenzyme. Down-regulating the expression of hTERT mRNA by antisense oligonucleotides would reduce the expression of hTERT, inhibit telomerase activity, and impair the growth of cancer cells in vitro. In this work, we propose a locked nucleic acid-functionalized gold nanoparticle flare probe (AuNP-probe). After transferring these probes into cells by endocytosis of the gold nanoparticles, the binding process of the antisense locked nucleic acid with hTERT mRNA along with gene regulation can be visualized by fluorescence recovery of flare-sequences. A significant decline in hTERT mRNA levels and the hTERT content occurred in cancer cells after treatment with the AuNP-probes, and only approximately 25% of the original level of hTERT mRNA remained after 72 h. AuNP-probe treated cancer cells were arrested in the G1 phase of the cell cycle and underwent apoptosis; cell viability decreased obviously compared with that of telomerase-negative normal cells.

Neo-5,22E-Cholestadienol Derivatives from Buthus martensii Karsch and Targeted Bactericidal Action Mechanisms.

The discovery and search for new antimicrobial molecules from insects and animals that live in polluted environments is a very important step in the scientific search for solutions to the current problem of antibiotic resistance. Previously, we have reported that the secondary metabolite with the antibacterial action discovered in scorpion. The current study further isolated three new compounds from Buthus martensii karsch, while compounds 1 and 2 possessed 5,22E-cholestadienol derivatives whose structure demonstrated broad spectrum bactericide activities. To explore the antibacterial properties of these new compounds, the result shows that compound 2 inhibited bacterial growth of both S. aureus and P. aeruginosa in a bactericidal rather than a bacteriostatic manner (MBC/MIC ratio ≤ 2). Similarly, with compound 1, a ratio of MBC/MIC ≤ 2 indicates bactericidal activity inhibited bacterial growth of P. aeruginosa. Remarkably, this suggests that two compounds can be classified as bactericidal agents against broad spectrum bactericide activities for 5,22E-cholestadienol derivatives from Buthus martensii karsch. The structures of compounds 1⁻3 were established by comprehensive spectra analysis including two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (2D-NMR) and high-resolution electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (HRESI-MS) spectra. The antibacterial mechanism is the specific binding (various of bonding forces between molecules) using compound 1 or 2 as a ligand based on the different receptor proteins'-2XRL or 1Q23-active sites from bacterial ribosome unit A, and thus prevent the synthesis of bacterial proteins. This unique mechanism avoids the cross-resistance issues of other antibacterial drugs.