Nest decoration:Black feathers prevent Crested Mynas from nest usurpation

Nests are important structures for birds to raise their offspring and for signaling.Many birds incorporate feathers into the nest,since feathers were traditionally thought to serve the function of insulation.Hypotheses in recent years have considered that some birds place feathers in conspicuous locations in the nest for decoration to trigger a fear response in the competitors.In this study,we investigated whether decorative feathers could deter nest usurpation by Crested Mynas(Acridotheres cristatellus)by manipulating nest box contents.The results revealed that Crested Mynas preferred black feathers to white feathers as decorations and occupied nest boxes decorated with black feathers significantly less than those decorated with white feathers,suggesting that black decorative feathers in the nest could be more effective in preventing nest usurpation by Crested Mynas and that white decorative feathers may have other functions.The black feathers in the nest are prominently placed at the edge of the nest to convey the message that“this nest is occupied”or“the owner of this nest has been preyed upon”to visitor Crested Mynas,thus effectively preventing them from usurping the nest at a later stage.

Egg recognition and nestling discrimination in the Crested Myna(Acridotheres cristatellus):Size matters

Most studies exploring abilities of hosts to detect brood parasitism are based on detecting colour and/or pattern differences among parasitic and host eggs or nestlings,while only few were focused on size differences.True recognition and recognition by discordancy are used to explain cognitive mechanisms of host egg recognition;however,only a few studies have found that hosts use recognition by discordancy.This study investigated:1)whether egg and nestling recognitions in the Crested Myna(Acridotheres cristatellus) are based on size cues;2)whether the egg cognitive mechanism is recognition by discordancy based on size cues;and 3) whether the longer the experiment time,the higher the egg recognition rate.Our results showed that the Crested Myna uses egg or nestling size as a recognition cue while the egg and nestling colour and patterning are not associated with egg or nestling rejection,thus the cognitive mechanism of egg recognition in the Crested Myna is recognition by discordancy based on egg size cues.Furthermore,there is a rejection delay in time of egg rejection behaviour of the Crested Myna.Therefore,we suggest that the periodicity of egg rejection experiments could be appropriately extended,especially for species with relatively low egg recognition ability.

Full-length transcriptome sequence and SSR marker development for genetic diversity research in yellowfin seabream Acanthopagrus latus

Yellowfin seabream Acanthopagrus latus is an important economic fish in Chinese coastal areas.Given its narrow distribution and overfishing,the genetic diversity of yellowfin seabream has been restricted for artificial breeding and reproduction.We performed full-length transcriptome sequencing and assembly of the genome of yellowfin seabream.A total of 68086 unigenes were obtained,with an N50 of 3391 bp on average length of 2933 bp.A total number of 50593 expressed sequence tags linked to simple sequence repeats(EST-SSR)were identified,among them dinucleotide repeats(40.6%)and AC/GT motifs(38.5%)were the most frequent.Of the 190 EST-SSRs for which PCR primer pairs were designed,150 primer pairs successfully amplified target loci and 15 SSRs showed high polymorphism.The alleles per locus ranged 6-50 on average of 25.3.The expected and observed heterozygosity varied from 0.632 to 0.969 and from 0.519 to 0.953,respectively.The polymorphic index content(PIC)values of each locus ranged 0.587-0.966 on average of 0.851.Among six yellowfin seabream population samples preliminarily tested for genetic diversity and differentiation,the Fangchenggang(FCG)population in Guangxi Province had the highest mean observed heterozygosity(H_(o))value(0.786),whereas the Zhangzhou(ZZ)population in Fujian Province had the lowest(0.678).The pairwise fixation index(Fst)values indicated significant population differentiation among six yellowfin seabream populations.This study provided evidence for the usefulness of the transcriptomic resource information and EST-SSR markers for natural resource conservation,population genetics,and breeding studies of yellowfin seabream in South China.

Antitumor activity of aumolertinib, a third-generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in non-small-cell lung cancer harboring uncommon EGFR mutations

Uncommon epidermal growth factor receptor(EGFR) mutations account for 10% 20% of all EGFR mutations in non-small-cell lung cancer(NSCLC). The uncommon EGFR-mutated NSCLC is associated with poor clinical outcomes and generally achieved unsatisfactory effects to the current therapies using standard EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitors(TKIs), including afatinib and osimertinib. Therefore, it is necessary to develop more novel EGFR-TKIs to treat uncommon EGFR-mutated NSCLC.Aumolertinib is a third-generation EGFR-TKI approved in China for treating advanced NSCLC with common EGFR mutations. However, it remains unclear whether aumolertinib is effective in uncommon EGFR-mutated NSCLC. In this work, the in vitro anticancer activity of aumolertinib was investigated in engineered Ba/F3 cells and patient-derived cells bearing diverse uncommon EGFR mutations. Aumolertinib was shown to be more potent in inhibiting the viability of various uncommon EGFR-mutated cell lines than those with wild-type EGFR. And in vivo, aumolertinib could also significantly inhibit tumor growth in two mouse allograft models(V769-D770insASV and L861Q mutations) and a patientderived xenografts model(H773-V774insNPH mutation). Importantly, aumolertinib exerts responses against tumors in advanced NSCLC patients with uncommon EGFR mutations. These results suggest that aumolertinib has the potential as a promising therapeutic candidate for the treatment of uncommon EGFR-mutated NSCLC.

新冠肺炎时期公众对野生动物消费和贸易意愿的调查

新冠肺炎疫情的暴发,使得对野生动物的消费与贸易中的公共健康安全问题引起广泛关注。为了给相关的立法和政策制定提供参考,我们通过网络对于全国及部分海外华人发放问卷进行了调查,共收回74,040份有效问卷。根据问卷调查结果,本文对普通公众对于野生动物消费和贸易立法意愿及影响因素进行了分析。研究结果包括:(1)公众对全面取缔野味餐馆和集市、禁止消费野味、禁止野生动物及其制品的买卖以及禁止野生动物商业性活体展演的立法动议持赞成态度的比例均超过90%;(2)现有野生动物消费群体经历新冠肺炎疫情后倾向于停止消费行为;(3)曾经消费野生动物或周围有人从事野生动物相关产业的群体相比其他人群更有可能不支持全面禁止对野生动物的消费和贸易。结果表明,全国人民代表大会常务委员会禁食野生动物的决定和修改野生动物保护法的动议在受高等教育者和城镇居民中有良好的公众基础。

A Fully Self-Healing Piezoelectric Nanogenerator for Self-Powered Pressure Sensing Electronic Skin

As an important way of converting mechanical energy into electric energy,a piezoelectric nanogenerator(PENG)has been widely applied in energy harvesting as well as self-powered sensors in recent years.However,its robustness and durability are still severely challenged by frequent and inevitable mechanical impacts in real application environments.Herein,a fully selfhealing PENG(FS-PENG)as a self-powered pressure sensing electronic skin is reported.The self-healing piezoelectric composite and self-healing Ag NW electrode fabricated through mixing piezoelectric PZT particles and conductive Ag NWs into self-healing polydimethylsiloxane(H-PDMS)are assembled into the sandwich structure FS-PENG.The FS-PENG could not only effectively convert external stimulation into electrical signals with a linear response to the pressure but also retain the excellent self-healing and stable sensing property after multiple cycles of cutting and self-healing process.Moreover,a self-healing pressure sensor array composed of 9 FS-PENGs was attached on the back of the human hand to mimic the human skin,and accurate monitoring of the spatial position distribution and magnitude of the pressure was successfully realized.

Fabric-Based Triboelectric Nanogenerators

In the past decades,the progress of wearable and portable electronics is quite rapid,but the power supply has been a great challenge for their practical applications.Wearable power sources,especially wearable energy-harvesting devices,provide some possible solutions for this challenge.Among various wearable energy harvesters,the high-performance fabric-based triboelectric nanogenerators(TENGs)are particularly significant.In this review paper,we first introduce the fundamentals of TENGs and their four basic working modes.Then,we will discuss the material synthesis,device design,and fabrication of fabric-based TENGs.Finally,we try to give some problems that need to be solved for the further development of TENGs.

The genomic and bulked segregant analysis of Curcuma alismatifolia revealed its diverse bract pigmentation

Compared with most flowers where the showy part comprises specialized leaves(petals)directly subtending the reproductive structures,most Zingiberaceae species produce showy“flowers”through modifications of leaves(bracts)subtending the true flowers throughout an inflorescence.Curcuma alismatifolia,belonging to the Zingiberaceae family,a plant species originating from Southeast Asia,has become increasingly popular in the flower market worldwide because of its varied and esthetically pleasing bracts produced in different cultivars.Here,we present the chromosome-scale genome assembly of C.alismatifolia“Chiang Mai Pink”and explore the underlying mechanisms of bract pigmentation.Comparative genomic analysis revealed C.alismatifolia contains a residual signal of whole-genome duplication.Duplicated genes,including pigment-related genes,exhibit functional and structural differentiation resulting in diverse bract colors among C.alismatifolia cultivars.In addition,we identified the key genes that produce different colored bracts in C.alismatifolia,such as F3′5'H,DFR,ANS and several transcription factors for anthocyanin synthesis,as well as chlH and CAO in the chlorophyll synthesis pathway by conducting transcriptomic analysis,bulked segregant analysis using both DNA and RNA data,and population genomic analysis.This work provides data for understanding the mechanism of bract pigmentation and will accelerate breeding in developing novel cultivars with richly colored bracts in C.alismatifolia and related species.It is also important to understand the variation in the evolution of the Zingiberaceae family.