Construction of a New Model of Contactless Medical Services for Outpatients Based on the Project-Achieving Quality Control Circle

Objective: To carry out empirical research on the role of project-achieving quality control circle (QCC) in constructing a new model of contactless medical service for outpatients. Methods: A QCC, consisting of information office members from a grade A tertiary hospital in Wenzhou, was established to conduct a research project with the theme “Constructing a new model of contactless medical service based on outpatients’ experience.” According to the ten steps and PDCA cycle, an analysis was carried out before and after the QCC activities, focusing on improving pre-consultation services, providing steward-like services, and facilitating post-consultation management. Results: After the QCC activities, the mobile appointment rate, missed appointment rate, the proportion of smart check-ins, and the average check-in time were 55.68%, 4.02%, 39.75%, and 8.24 ± 3.66 min, respectively;in contrast, before the activities, they were 32.00%, 7.88%, 0.00%, and 14.96 ± 4.98 min, respectively;the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (χ2 = 3480.112, 4994.496;Fisher’s exact probability = 963788.570;t = 5.323, P < 0.001). Many experts have also visited the hospital to learn about this system, thus rendering social and economic benefits. Conclusion: Project-achieving QCC activities are suitable for complex situations, such as constructing a new model of contactless medical service, and can significantly improve outpatient service quality, enhance patients’ experience, and improve the abilities of circle members.

Comparative analysis of the complete chloroplast genome among Prunus mume,P.armeniaca,and P.salicina

Prunus mume Sieb.et Zucc.,P.armeniaca L.,and P.salicina L.are economically important fruit trees in temperate regions.These species are taxonomically perplexing because of shared interspecific morphological traits and variation,which are mainly attributed to hybridization.The chloroplast is cytoplasmically inherited and often used for evolutionary studies.We sequenced the complete chloroplast genomes of P.mume,P.armeniaca,and P.salicina using Illumina sequencing followed by de novo assembly.The three chloroplast genomes exhibit a typical quadripartite structure with conserved genome arrangement,structure,and moderate divergence.The lengths of the genomes are 157,815,157,797,and 157,916 bp,respectively.The length of the large single-copy region(LSC)region is 86,113,86,283,and 86,122 bp,and the length of the SSC region is 18,916,18,734,and 19,028 bp;the IR region is 26,393,26,390,and 26,383 bp,respectively.Each of the three chloroplast genomes encodes 133 genes,including 94 protein-coding,31 tRNA,and eight rRNA genes.Differential gene analysis for the three species revealed that trnY-ATA is a unique gene in P.armeniaca;in contrast,the gene trnI-TAT is only present in P.mume and P.salicina,though the position of the gene in these chloroplast genomes differs.Further comparative analysis of the complete chloroplast genome sequences revealed that the ORF genes and the sequences of linked regions rps16 and atpA,atpH and atpI,trnc-GCA and psbD,ycf3 and atpB,and rpL32 and ndhD are significantly different and may be used as molecular markers in taxonomic studies.Phylogenetic evolution analysis of the three species suggests that P.mume has a closer genetic relationship to P.armeniaca than to P.salicina.

Genomic variants of genes associated with three horticultural traits in apple revealed by genome re-sequencing

The apple(Malus×domestica Borkh.)cultivar‘Su Shuai’exhibits greater disease resistance,shorter internodes and lighter fruit flavor compared with its parents‘Golden Delicious’and‘Indo’.To obtain a comprehensive overview of the sequence variation in these three horticultural traits,the genomes of‘Su Shuai’and‘Indo’were resequenced using next-generation sequencing and compared to the genome of‘Golden Delicious’.A wide range of genetic variations were detected,including 2454406 and 18749349 single nucleotide polymorphism(SNP)and 59547 and 50143 structural variants(SVs)in the‘Indo’and‘Su Shuai’genomes,respectively.Among the SVs in‘Su Shuai’,17 genes related to disease resistance,10 genes related to Gibberellin(GA)and 19 genes associated with fruit flavor were identified.The expression patterns of eight of the SV genes were examined using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction(RT-qPCR).The results of this study illustrate the genomic variation in these cultivars and provide evidence for a genetic basis for the horticultural traits of disease resistance,short internodes and lighter flavor exhibited in these cultivars.These results provide a genetic basis for the phenotypic characteristics of‘Su Shuai’and,as such,these SVs could serve as gene-specific molecular markers in maker-assisted breeding of apples.

Molecular characteristics of S-RNase alleles as the determ inant of self-i ncompatibility in the style of Fragaria viridi

Strawberry(Fragaria spp.)is a member of the Rosoideae subfamily in the family Rosaceae.The self-incompatibility(SI)of some diploid species is a key agronomic trait that acts as a basic pollination barrier;however,the genetic mechanism underlying SI control in strawberry remains unclear.Two candidate S-RNases(S a-and S^-RNase)identi fi ed in the transcriptome of the styles of the self-incompatible Fragaria viridis 42 were con fi rmed to be SI determinants at the S locus following genotype identi fi cation and intraspeci fi c hybridization using sel fi ng progenies.Whole-genome collinearity and RNase T2 family analysis revealed that only an S locus exists in Fragaria;however,none of the compatible species contained S-RNase.Although the results of interspeci fi c hybridization experiments showed that F.viridis(SI)styles could accept pollen from F.mandshurica(self-compatible),the reciprocal cross was incompatible.S a and S b-RNase contain large introns,and their noncoding sequences(promotors and introns)can be transcribed into long noncoding RNAs(lncRNAs).Overall,the genus Fragaria exhibits S-RNase-based gametophytic SI,and S-RNase loss occurs at the S locus of compatible germplasms.In addition,a type of SI-independent unilateral incompatibility exists between compatible and incompatible Fragaria species.Furthermore,the large introns and neighboring lncRNAs in S-RNase in Fragaria could offer clues about S-RNase expression strategies.

Transcriptomic analysis of interstockinduced dwarfism in Sweet Persimmon(Diospyros kaki Thunb.)

Growth monitoring indicated that the height of‘Kanshu’plants with‘Nantong-xiaofangshi’as an interstock was significantly shorter than that of‘Kanshu’plants with no interstock.A transcriptome analysis of the two graft combinations(‘Kanshu’/Diospyros lotus and‘Kanshu’/‘Nantong-xiaofangshi’/Diospyros lotus)was conducted to explore the dwarfing genes related to the use of the‘Nantong-xiaofangshi’interstock.Hormone levels and water conductance were also measured in these two graft combinations.The results indicated that the levels of both IAA and GA were lower in‘Kanshu’that had been grafted onto the‘Nantong-xiaofangshi’interstock than in‘Kanshu’with no interstock;additionally,the water conductance was lower in grafts with interstocks than in grafts without interstocks.The expression of AUX/IAA and auxin-responsive GH3 genes was enhanced in scions grafted on the interstock and was negatively correlated with the IAA content and growth of scions.The expression of GA2ox,DELLA,and SPINDLY genes were also upregulated and associated with a decrease in the level of GA in scions grafted on the interstock.Since one of the GA2ox unigenes was annotated as DkGA2ox1 in Diospyros kaki,but was not functionally validated,a functional analysis was conducted in transgenic tobacco.Overexpression of DkGA2ox1 in transgenic plants resulted in a dwarf phenotype that could be recovered by the exogenous application of GA3.We conclude that the‘Nantong-xiaofangshi’interstock affects the water conductance and expression of genes related to the metabolism and transduction of IAA and GA in the grafted scion and thus regulates phytohormone levels,producing dwarfing.

Predicting Genotype Information Related to COVID-19 for Molecular Mechanism Based on Computational Methods

Novel coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)is an ongoing health emergency.Several studies are related to COVID-19.However,its molecular mechanism remains unclear.The rapid publication of COVID-19 provides a new way to elucidate its mechanism through computational methods.This paper proposes a prediction method for mining genotype information related to COVID-19 from the perspective of molecular mechanisms based on machine learning.The method obtains seed genes based on prior knowledge.Candidate genes are mined from biomedical literature.The candidate genes are scored by machine learning based on the similarities measured between the seed and candidate genes.Furthermore,the results of the scores are used to perform functional enrichment analyses,including KEGG,interaction network,and Gene Ontology,for exploring the molecular mechanism of COVID-19.Experimental results show that the method is promising for mining genotype information to explore the molecular mechanism related to COVID-19.

Metabolic changes upon flower bud break in Japanese apricot are enhanced by exogenous GA_(4)

Gibberellin (GA_(4)) has a significant effect on promoting dormancy release in flower buds of Japanese apricot (Prunus mume Sieb. et Zucc). The transcriptomic and proteomic changes that occur after GA_(4) treatment have been reported previously;however, the metabolic changes brought about by GA_(4) remain unknown. The present study was undertaken to assess changes in metabolites in response to GA_(4) treatment, as determined using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and principal component analysis. Fifty-five metabolites that exhibited more than two-fold differences in abundance (P < 0.05) between samples collected over time after a given treatment or between samples exposed to different treatments were studied further. These metabolites were categorized into six main groups: amino acids and their isoforms (10), amino acid derivatives (7), sugars and polyols (14), organic acids (12), fatty acids (4), and others (8). All of these groups are involved in various metabolic pathways, in particular galactose metabolism, glyoxylate and dicarboxylate metabolism, and starch and sucrose metabolism. These results suggested that energy metabolism is important at the metabolic level in dormancy release following GA_(4) treatment. We also found that more than 10-fold differences in abundance were observed for many metabolites, including sucrose, proline, linoleic acid, and linolenic acid, which might play important roles during the dormancy process. The current research extends our understanding of the mechanisms involved in budburst and dormancy release in response to GA_(4) and provides a theoretical basis for applying GA_(4) to release dormancy.

An insight into dwarfing mechanism:contribution of scion-rootstock interactions toward fruit crop improvement

Grafting has been commonly practiced for many centuries in the cultivation of horticultural crops.The use of dwarfing rootstocks has enabled a high-density plantation to produce maximum yield.Rootstock regulates scion phenotype,including precocity,fruit size,yield,quality characteristics,and tolerance to various environmental stresses.This review summarizes the existing information on the influence of rootstocks on scion growth and dwarfing mechanisms induced by multiple factors,including hormone signaling,photosynthesis,mineral transport,water relations,anatomical characteristics,and genetic markers.It has been shown that the complex interactions between scion and rootstock can regulate plant development and its structure.This information will provide interesting insights for future research related to rootstock-mediated dwarfing mechanisms and accelerate the breeding progress of dwarfing rootstocks.

BDLR:lncRNA identification using ensemble learning

Long non-coding RNAs(lncRNAs)play an important role in many life activities such as epigenetic material regulation,cell cycle regulation,dosage compensation and cell differentiation regulation,and are associated with many human diseases.There are many limitations in identifying and annotating lncRNAs using traditional biological experimental methods.With the development of high-throughput sequencing technology,it is of great practical significance to identify the lncRNAs from massive RNA sequence data using machine learning method.Based on the Bagging method and Decision Tree algorithm in ensemble learning,this paper proposes a method of lncRNAs gene sequence identification called BDLR.The identification results of this classification method are compared with the identification results of several models including Byes,Support Vector Machine,Logical Regression,Decision Tree and Random Forest.The experimental results show that the lncRNAs identification method named BDLR proposed in this paper has an accuracy of 86.61%in the human test set and 90.34%in the mouse for lncRNAs,which is more than the identification results of the other methods.Moreover,the proposed method offers a reference for researchers to identify lncRNAs using the ensemble learning.

Current status and perspective of persimmon research in China

The persimmon,belonging to the genus Diospyros,is one of the most common fruits with high edible and economic value.China has the largest cultivated area and annual production of persimmons in the world.Pollination-constant nonastringent(PCNA)persimmon,which has great advantages of natural deastringency and direct edibility,has been a key target for industry development and variety selection worldwide.However,there are still many challenges in the development of persimmons in China;for example,the ineffective cost of artificial deastringency treatment of persimmons,laborious breeding of fine varieties of PCNA persimmon,and severe symptoms of delayed graft-incompatibility.This review summarizes the current status and development of persimmons in China.The current progress on the removal of astringency in persimmons,screening of rootstocks with wide compatibility,and the breeding process of PCNA persimmon is highlighted.This review will help promote the breeding of excellent persimmon varieties and the sustainable development of the persimmon industry in China.

Actively tunable sandwich acoustic metamaterials with magnetorheological elastomers

Sandwich structures are widespread in engineering applications because of their advantageous mechanical properties.Recently,their acoustic performance has also been improved to enable attenuation of low-frequency vibrations induced by noisy environments.Here,we propose a new design of sandwich plates(SPs)featuring a metamaterial core with an actively tunable low-frequency bandgap.The core contains magnetorheological elastomer(MRE)resonators which are arranged periodically and enable controlling wave attenuation by an external magnetic field.We analytically estimate the sound transmission loss(STL)of the plate using the space harmonic expansion method.The low frequency sound insulation performance is also analyzed by the equivalent dynamic density method,and the accuracy of the obtained results is verified by finite-element simulations.Our results demonstrate that the STL of the proposed plate is enhanced compared with a typical SP analog,and the induced bandgap can be effectively tuned to desired frequencies.This study further advances the field of actively controlled acoustic metamaterials,and paves the way to their practical applications.