Research status and prospects of the fractal analysis of metal material surfaces and interfaces

As a mathematical analysis method,fractal analysis can be used to quantitatively describe irregular shapes with self-similar or self-affine properties.Fractal analysis has been used to characterize the shapes of metal materials at various scales and dimensions.Conventional methods make it difficult to quantitatively describe the relationship between the regular characteristics and properties of metal material surfaces and interfaces.However,fractal analysis can be used to quantitatively describe the shape characteristics of metal materials and to establish the quantitative relationships between the shape characteristics and various properties of metal materials.From the perspective of two-dimensional planes and three-dimensional curved surfaces,this paper reviews the current research status of the fractal analysis of metal precipitate interfaces,metal grain boundary interfaces,metal-deposited film surfaces,metal fracture surfaces,metal machined surfaces,and metal wear surfaces.The relationship between the fractal dimensions and properties of metal material surfaces and interfaces is summarized.Starting from three perspectives of fractal analysis,namely,research scope,image acquisition methods,and calculation methods,this paper identifies the direction of research on fractal analysis of metal material surfaces and interfaces that need to be developed.It is believed that revealing the deep influence mechanism between the fractal dimensions and properties of metal material surfaces and interfaces will be the key research direction of the fractal analysis of metal materials in the future.

Tongue image feature correlation analysis in benign lung nodules and lung cancer

Objective To analyze the differences in the correlation of tongue image indicators among patients with benign lung nodules and lung cancer.Methods From July 1;2020 to March 31;2022;clinical information of lung cancer patients and benign lung nodules patients was collected at the Oncology Department of Longhua Hos-pital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Physical Ex-amination Center of Shuguang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chi-nese Medicine;respectively.We obtained tongue images from patients with benign lung nod-ules and lung cancer using the TFDA-1 digital tongue diagnosis instrument;and analyzed these images with the TDAS V2.0 software.The extracted indicators included color space pa-rameters in the Lab system for both the tongue body(TB)and tongue coating(TC)(TB/TC-L;TB/TC-a;and TB/TC-b);textural parameters[TB/TC-contrast(CON);TB/TC-angular second moment(ASM);TB/TC-entropy(ENT);and TB/TC-MEAN];as well as TC parameters(perAll and perPart).The bivariate correlation of TB and TC features was analyzed using Pearson’s or Spearman’s correlation analysis;and the overall correlation was analyzed using canonical correlation analysis(CCA).Results Samples from 307 patients with benign lung nodules and 276 lung cancer patients were included after excluding outliers and extreme values.Simple correlation analysis indi-cated that the correlation of TB-L with TC-L;TB-b with TC-b;and TB-b with perAll in lung cancer group was higher than that in benign nodules group.Moreover;the correlation of TB-a with TC-a;TB-a with perAll;and the texture parameters of the TB(TB-CON;TB-ASM;TB-ENT;and TB-MEAN)with the texture parameters of the TC(TC-CON;TC-ASM;TC-ENT;and TC-MEAN)in benign nodules group was higher than lung cancer group.CCA further demon-strated a strong correlation between the TB and TC parameters in lung cancer group;with the first and second pairs of typical variables in benign nodules and lung cancer groups indicat-ing correlation coefficients of 0.918 and 0.817(P<0.05);and 0.940 and 0.822(P<0.05);re-spectively.Conclusion Benign lung nodules and lung cancer patients exhibited differences in correla-tion in the L;a;and b values of the TB and TC;as well as the perAll value of the TC;and the texture parameters(TB/TC-CON;TB/TC-ASM;TB/TC-ENT;and TB/TC-MEAN)between the TB and TC.Additionally;there were differences in the overall correlation of the TB and TC be-tween the two groups.Objective tongue diagnosis indicators can effectively assist in the diag-nosis of benign lung nodules and lung cancer;thereby providing a scientific basis for the ear-ly detection;diagnosis;and treatment of lung cancer.

Simulation Method and Feature Analysis of Shutdown Pressure Evolution During Multi-Cluster Fracturing Stimulation

Multistage multi-cluster hydraulic fracturing has enabled the economic exploitation of shale reservoirs,but the interpretation of hydraulic fracture parameters is challenging.The pressure signals after pump shutdown are influenced by hydraulic fractures,which can reflect the geometric features of hydraulic fracture.The shutdown pressure can be used to interpret the hydraulic fracture parameters in a real-time and cost-effective manner.In this paper,a mathematical model for shutdown pressure evolution is developed considering the effects of wellbore friction,perforation friction and fluid loss in fractures.An efficient numerical simulation method is established by using the method of characteristics.Based on this method,the impacts of fracture half-length,fracture height,opened cluster and perforation number,and filtration coefficient on the evolution of shutdown pressure are analyzed.The results indicate that a larger fracture half-length may hasten the decay of shutdown pressure,while a larger fracture height can slow down the decay of shutdown pressure.A smaller number of opened clusters and perforations can significantly increase the perforation friction and decrease the overall level of shutdown pressure.A larger filtration coefficient may accelerate the fluid filtration in the fracture and hasten the drop of the shutdown pressure.The simulation method of shutdown pressure,as well as the analysis results,has important implications for the interpretation of hydraulic fracture parameters.

MAIPFE:An Efficient Multimodal Approach Integrating Pre-Emptive Analysis,Personalized Feature Selection,and Explainable AI

Medical Internet of Things(IoT)devices are becoming more and more common in healthcare.This has created a huge need for advanced predictive health modeling strategies that can make good use of the growing amount of multimodal data to find potential health risks early and help individuals in a personalized way.Existing methods,while useful,have limitations in predictive accuracy,delay,personalization,and user interpretability,requiring a more comprehensive and efficient approach to harness modern medical IoT devices.MAIPFE is a multimodal approach integrating pre-emptive analysis,personalized feature selection,and explainable AI for real-time health monitoring and disease detection.By using AI for early disease detection,personalized health recommendations,and transparency,healthcare will be transformed.The Multimodal Approach Integrating Pre-emptive Analysis,Personalized Feature Selection,and Explainable AI(MAIPFE)framework,which combines Firefly Optimizer,Recurrent Neural Network(RNN),Fuzzy C Means(FCM),and Explainable AI,improves disease detection precision over existing methods.Comprehensive metrics show the model’s superiority in real-time health analysis.The proposed framework outperformed existing models by 8.3%in disease detection classification precision,8.5%in accuracy,5.5%in recall,2.9%in specificity,4.5%in AUC(Area Under the Curve),and 4.9%in delay reduction.Disease prediction precision increased by 4.5%,accuracy by 3.9%,recall by 2.5%,specificity by 3.5%,AUC by 1.9%,and delay levels decreased by 9.4%.MAIPFE can revolutionize healthcare with preemptive analysis,personalized health insights,and actionable recommendations.The research shows that this innovative approach improves patient outcomes and healthcare efficiency in the real world.

GP‐FMLNet:A feature matrix learning network enhanced by glyph and phonetic information for Chinese sentiment analysis

Sentiment analysis is a fine‐grained analysis task that aims to identify the sentiment polarity of a specified sentence.Existing methods in Chinese sentiment analysis tasks only consider sentiment features from a single pole and scale and thus cannot fully exploit and utilise sentiment feature information,making their performance less than ideal.To resolve the problem,the authors propose a new method,GP‐FMLNet,that integrates both glyph and phonetic information and design a novel feature matrix learning process for phonetic features with which to model words that have the same pinyin information but different glyph information.Our method solves the problem of misspelling words influencing sentiment polarity prediction results.Specifically,the authors iteratively mine character,glyph,and pinyin features from the input comments sentences.Then,the authors use soft attention and matrix compound modules to model the phonetic features,which empowers their model to keep on zeroing in on the dynamic‐setting words in various positions and to dispense with the impacts of the deceptive‐setting ones.Ex-periments on six public datasets prove that the proposed model fully utilises the glyph and phonetic information and improves on the performance of existing Chinese senti-ment analysis algorithms.

Feasibility and Path Analysis of Integrating Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education into“One-Stop”Student Communities

The“one-stop”student community provides new support for innovation and entrepreneurship education in universities.Integrating innovation and entrepreneurship education into the“one-stop”student community work enriches course materials,integrates teacher resources,improves students’participation in innovation and entrepreneurship,and solves problems such as low student participation,lack of course resources,insufficient teacher resources,and single evaluation methods in traditional classrooms.Through various means such as exploring course resources,innovating management models,and strengthening team construction,the role of“one-stop”student communities in innovation and entrepreneurship education has been fully utilized,promoting the development of innovation and entrepreneurship education.

Feasibility Analysis and Practice Research of Resource Utilization of Waste from Planting and Breeding Industry

With the extending scale of agricultural production,the treatment and utilization of waste have become increasingly serious environmental problem.Taking city garden and Zhongnan pasture in Pujiang Town of Minhang District in Shanghai for example,according to the analysis on discharge characteristic of waste and balance of resources and energy utilization,mixed anaerobic digestion was chosen to dispose waste based on government guidance and feasibility analysis of project,and the combining disposal and resource utilization of waste were realized in two enterprises,providing reference for close cases.

Feature extraction and damage alarming using time series analysis

Aiming at the problem of on-line damage diagnosis in structural health monitoring （SHM）, an algorithm of feature extraction and damage alarming based on auto-regressive moving-average （ARMA） time series analysis is presented. The monitoring data were first modeled as ARMA models, while a principalcomponent matrix derived from the AR coefficients of these models was utilized to establish the Mahalanobisdistance criterion functions. Then, a new damage-sensitive feature index DDSF is proposed. A hypothesis test involving the t-test method is further applied to obtain a decision of damage alarming as the mean value of DDSF had significantly changed after damage. The numerical results of a three-span-girder model shows that the defined index is sensitive to subtle structural damage, and the proposed algorithm can be applied to the on-line damage alarming in SHM.

Analysis on Features of Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Thunderstorm in Shanghai

Based in 11 daily weather observation station data in Shanghai from 1971 to 2008,a careful research and analysis on the features of thunderstorms spatial and temporal distribution and thunderstorm movement in Shanghai was carried out by using the statistical software of SAS,the method of Mann-Kendall test and wavelets. The results showed that the average annual numbers of thunderstorms days were 26.1,and inter-annual thunderstorm variability was obvious,the annual number of thunderstorm days had a decreasing trend,its value of decreasing days was about-0.418 5 d/10 a. Mann-Kendall test showed that there was an abrupt change in 2000. The seasonal variation of thunderstorm in Shanghai was explicit. The period from March to September was the season when thunderstorm occurred most frequently,about 64.9% of the thunderstorms in a year took place in summer. The results from wavelets analysis showed that the variation cycle period of the annual number of thunderstorms days was about 3,5,12 and 20 years.

Graffiti in College:Topic Analysis and Linguistic Features

This paper explores how the Chinese college students' life is represented in some graffiti collected in campus.The article analyzes and compares the topics of graffiti from different settings and the linguistic features they manifest.The findings show that fewer graffiti from female toilet and classroom in this university pay attention to political issues compared with the graffiti abroad.Graffiti in female toilet mainly focus on the theme of love,and are found to be more interactive in discourse.Whereas graffiti on desks tend to cover mixed themes and be less interactive.There are more graphic graffiti and exam answers on the undergraduate students' desk than on the postgraduates'.Graffiti have some linguistic features as thematization,repetition and salience,etc.

Differential Diagnostic Value of Texture Feature Analysis of Magnetic Resonance T2 Weighted Imaging between Glioblastoma and Primary Central Neural System Lymphoma

Objective To investigate the difference in tumor conventional imaging findings and texture features on T2 weighted images between glioblastoma and primary central neural system(CNS) lymphoma. Methods The pre-operative MRI data of 81 patients with glioblastoma and 28 patients with primary CNS lymphoma admitted to the Chinese PLA General Hospital and Hainan Hospital of Chinese PLA General Hospital were retrospectively collected. All patients underwent plain MR imaging and enhanced T1 weighted imaging to visualize imaging features of lesions. Texture analysis of T2 weighted imaging(T2 WI) was performed by use of GLCM texture plugin of ImageJ software, and the texture parameters including Angular Second Moment(ASM), Contrast, Correlation, Inverse Difference Moment(IDM), and Entropy were measured. Independent sample t-test and Mann-Whitney U test were performed for the between-group comparisons, regression model was established by Binary Logistic regression analysis, and receiver operating characteristic(ROC) curve was plotted to compare the diagnostic efficacy. Results The conventional imaging features including cystic and necrosis changes(P = 0.000), ‘Rosette' changes(P = 0.000) and ‘incision sign'(P = 0.000), except ‘flame-like edema'(P = 0.635), presented significantly statistical difference between glioblastoma and primary CNS lymphoma. The texture features, ASM, Contrast, Correlation, IDM and Entropy, showed significant differences between glioblastoma and primary CNS lympoma(P = 0.006,0.000, 0.002, 0.000, and 0.015 respectively). The area under the ROC curve was 0.671, 0.752, 0.695, 0.720 and 0.646 respectively, and the area under the ROC curve was 0.917 for the combined texture variables(Contrast, cystic and necrosis, ‘Rosette' changes, and ‘incision sign') in the model of Logistic regression. Binary Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that cystic and necrosis changes, ‘Rosette' changes and ‘incision sign' and texture Contrast could be considered as the specific texture variables for the differential diagnosis of glioblastoma and primary CNS lymphoma. Conclusion The texture features of T2 WI and conventional imaging findings may be used to distinguish glioblastoma from primary CNS lymphoma.

Screening biomarkers for spinal cord injury using weighted gene co-expression network analysis and machine learning

Immune changes and inflammatory responses have been identified as central events in the pathological process of spinal co rd injury.They can greatly affect nerve regeneration and functional recovery.However,there is still limited understanding of the peripheral immune inflammato ry response in spinal cord inju ry.In this study.we obtained microRNA expression profiles from the peripheral blood of patients with spinal co rd injury using high-throughput sequencing.We also obtained the mRNA expression profile of spinal cord injury patients from the Gene Expression Omnibus(GEO)database(GSE151371).We identified 54 differentially expressed microRNAs and 1656 diffe rentially expressed genes using bioinformatics approaches.Functional enrichment analysis revealed that various common immune and inflammation-related signaling pathways,such as neutrophil extracellular trap formation pathway,T cell receptor signaling pathway,and nuclear factor-κB signal pathway,we re abnormally activated or inhibited in spinal cord inju ry patient samples.We applied an integrated strategy that combines weighted gene co-expression network analysis,LASSO logistic regression,and SVM-RFE algorithm and identified three biomarke rs associated with spinal cord injury:ANO10,BST1,and ZFP36L2.We verified the expression levels and diagnostic perfo rmance of these three genes in the original training dataset and clinical samples through the receiver operating characteristic curve.Quantitative polymerase chain reaction results showed that ANO20 and BST1 mRNA levels were increased and ZFP36L2 mRNA was decreased in the peripheral blood of spinal cord injury patients.We also constructed a small RNA-mRNA interaction network using Cytoscape.Additionally,we evaluated the proportion of 22 types of immune cells in the peripheral blood of spinal co rd injury patients using the CIBERSORT tool.The proportions of naive B cells,plasma cells,monocytes,and neutrophils were increased while the proportions of memory B cells,CD8^(+)T cells,resting natural killer cells,resting dendritic cells,and eosinophils were markedly decreased in spinal cord injury patients increased compared with healthy subjects,and ANO10,BST1 and ZFP26L2we re closely related to the proportion of certain immune cell types.The findings from this study provide new directions for the development of treatment strategies related to immune inflammation in spinal co rd inju ry and suggest that ANO10,BST2,and ZFP36L2 are potential biomarkers for spinal cord injury.The study was registe red in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry(registration No.ChiCTR2200066985,December 12,2022).

A Review on Sources,Extractions and Analysis Methods of a Sustainable Biomaterial:Tannins

Condensed and hydrolysable tannins are non-toxic natural polyphenols that are a commercial commodity industrialized for tanning hides to obtain leather and for a growing number of other industrial applications mainly to substitute petroleum-based products.They are a definite class of sustainable materials of the forestry industry.They have been in operation for hundreds of years to manufacture leather and now for a growing number of applications in a variety of other industries,such as wood adhesives,metal coating,pharmaceutical/medical applications and several others.This review presents the main sources,either already or potentially commercial of this forestry by-materials,their industrial and laboratory extraction systems,their systems of analysis with their advantages and drawbacks,be these methods so simple to even appear primitive but nonetheless of proven effectiveness,or very modern and instrumental.It constitutes a basic but essential summary of what is necessary to know of these sustainable materials.In doing so,the review highlights some of the main challenges that remain to be addressed to deliver the quality and economics of tannin supply necessary to fulfill the industrial production requirements for some materials-based uses.

Telomerase-related advances in hepatocellular carcinoma:A bibliometric and visual analysis

BACKGROUND As a critical early event in hepatocellular carcinogenesis,telomerase activation might be a promising and critical biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)patients,and its function in the genesis and treatment of HCC has gained much attention over the past two decades.AIM To perform a bibliometric analysis to systematically assess the current state of research on HCC-related telomerase.METHODS The Web of Science Core Collection and PubMed were systematically searched to retrieve publications pertaining to HCC/telomerase limited to“articles”and“reviews”published in English.A total of 873 relevant publications related to HCC and telomerase were identified.We employed the Bibliometrix package in R to extract and analyze the fundamental information of the publications,such as the trends in the publications,citation counts,most prolific or influential writers,and most popular journals;to screen for keywords occurring at high frequency;and to draw collaboration and cluster analysis charts on the basis of coauthorship and co-occurrences.VOSviewer was utilized to compile and visualize the bibliometric data.RESULTS A surge of 51 publications on HCC/telomerase research occurred in 2016,the most productive year from 1996 to 2023,accompanied by the peak citation count recorded in 2016.Up to December 2023,35226 citations were made to all publications,an average of 46.6 citations to each paper.The United States received the most citations(n=13531),followed by China(n=7427)and Japan(n=5754).In terms of national cooperation,China presented the highest centrality,its strongest bonds being to the United States and Japan.Among the 20 academic institutions with the most publications,ten came from China and the rest of Asia,though the University of Paris Cité,Public Assistance-Hospitals of Paris,and the National Institute of Health and Medical Research(INSERM)were the most prolific.As for individual contributions,Hisatomi H,Kaneko S,and Ide T were the three most prolific authors.Kaneko S ranked first by H-index,G-index,and overall publication count,while Zucman-Rossi J ranked first in citation count.The five most popular journals were the World Journal of Gastroenterology,Hepatology,Journal of Hepatology,Oncotarget,and Oncogene,while Nature Genetics,Hepatology,and Nature Reviews Disease Primers had the most citations.We extracted 2293 keywords from the publications,120 of which appeared more than ten times.The most frequent were HCC,telomerase and human telomerase reverse transcriptase(hTERT).Keywords such as mutational landscape,TERT promoter mutations,landscape,risk,and prognosis were among the most common issues in this field in the last three years and may be topics for research in the coming years.CONCLUSION Our bibliometric analysis provides a comprehensive overview of HCC/telomerase research and insights into promising upcoming research.

Micro segment analysis of supercritical methane thermal-hydraulic performance and pseudo-boiling in a PCHE straight channel

The printed circuit heat exchanger(PCHE) is receiving wide attention as a new kind of compact heat exchanger and is considered as a promising vaporizer in the LNG process. In this paper, a PCHE straight channel in the length of 500 mm is established, with a semicircular cross section in a diameter of 1.2 mm.Numerical simulation is employed to investigate the flow and heat transfer performance of supercritical methane in the channel. The pseudo-boiling theory is adopted and the liquid-like, two-phase-like, and vapor-like regimes are divided for supercritical methane to analyze the heat transfer and flow features.The results are presented in micro segment to show the local convective heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop. It shows that the convective heat transfer coefficient in segments along the channel has a significant peak feature near the pseudo-critical point and a heat transfer deterioration when the average fluid temperature in the segment is higher than the pseudo-critical point. The reason is explained with the generation of vapor-like film near the channel wall that the peak feature related to a nucleateboiling-like state and heat transfer deterioration related to a film-boiling-like state. The effects of parameters, including mass flow rate, pressure, and wall heat flux on flow and heat transfer were analyzed.In calculating of the averaged heat transfer coefficient of the whole channel, the traditional method shows significant deviation and the micro segment weighted average method is adopted. The pressure drop can mainly be affected by the mass flux and pressure and little affected by the wall heat flux. The peak of the convective heat transfer coefficient can only form at high mass flux, low wall heat flux, and near critical pressure, in which condition the nucleate-boiling-like state is easier to appear. Moreover,heat transfer deterioration will always appear, since the supercritical flow will finally develop into a filmboiling-like state. So heat transfer deterioration should be taken seriously in the design and safe operation of vaporizer PCHE. The study of this work clarified the local heat transfer and flow feature of supercritical methane in microchannel and contributed to the deep understanding of supercritical methane flow of the vaporization process in PCHE.

3D Two-way Coupled TEHD Analysis on the Lubricating Characteristics of Thrust Bearings in Pump-turbine Units by Combining CFD and FEA

The thermal elastic hydro dynamic （TEHD） lubrication analysis for the thrust bearing is usually conducted by combining Reynolds equation with finite element analysis （FEA）. But it is still a problem to conduct the computation by combining computational fluid dynamics （CFD） and FEA which can simulate the TEHD more accurately. In this paper, by using both direct and separate coupled solutions together, steady TEHD lubrication considering the viscosity-temperature effect for a bidirectional thrust bearing in a pump-turbine unit is simulated combining a 3D CFD model for the oil film with a 3D FEA model for the pad and mirror plate. Cyclic symmetry condition is used in the oil film flow as more reasonable boundary conditions which avoids the oil temperature assumption at the leading and trailing edge. Deformations of the pad and mirror plate are predicted and discussed as well as the distributions of oil film thickness, pressure, temperature. The predicted temperature shows good agreement with measurements, while the pressure shows a reasonable distribution comparing with previous studies. Further analysis of the three-coupled-field reveals the reason of the high pressure and high temperature generated in the film. Finally, the influence of rotational speed of the mirror plate on the lubrication characteristics is illustrated which shows the thrust load should be balanced against the oil film temperature and pressure in optimized designs. This research proposes a thrust bearing computation method by combining CFD and FEA which can do the TEHD analysis more accurately.

Causal Analysis Between Rice Growth and Cadmium Accumulation and Transfer under Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Inoculation

Cadmium(Cd)contamination in rice has been a serious threat to human health.To investigate the effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi(AMF)on the Cd translocation in rice,a controlled pot experiment was conducted.The results indicated that AMF significantly increased rice biomass,with an increase of up to 40.0%,particularly in root biomass by up to 68.4%.Notably,the number of prominent rice individuals also increased,and their plasticity was enhanced following AMF inoculation.AMF led to an increase in the net photosynthetic rate and antioxidant enzyme activity of rice.In the AMF treatment group,the Cd concentration in the rice roots was significantly higher(19.1%‒68.0%)compared with that in the control group.Conversely,the Cd concentration in the rice seeds was lower in the AMF treatment group,indicating that AMF facilitated the sequestration of Cd in rice roots and reduced Cd accumulation in the seeds.Path coefficients varied across different treatments,suggesting that AMF inoculation reduced the direct impact of soil Cd concentration on the total Cd accumulation in seeds.The translocation of Cd was consistently associated with simultaneous growth dilution and compensatory accumulation as a result of mycorrhizal effects.Our study quantitatively analyzed this process through path analysis and clarified the causal relationship between rice growth and Cd transfer under the influence of AMF.

Iron and ferritin effects on intensive care unit mortality:A metaanalysis

BACKGROUND The effect of serum iron or ferritin parameters on mortality among critically ill patients is not well characterized.AIM To determine the association between serum iron or ferritin parameters and mortality among critically ill patients.METHODS Web of Science,Embase,PubMed,and Cochrane Library databases were searched for studies on serum iron or ferritin parameters and mortality among critically ill patients.Two reviewers independently assessed,selected,and abstracted data from studies reporting on serum iron or ferritin parameters and mortality among critically ill patients.Data on serum iron or ferritin levels,mortality,and demographics were extracted.RESULTS Nineteen studies comprising 125490 patients were eligible for inclusion.We observed a slight negative effect of serum ferritin on mortality in the United States population[relative risk(RR)1.002;95%CI:1.002-1.004].In patients with sepsis,serum iron had a significant negative effect on mortality(RR=1.567;95%CI:1.208-1.925).CONCLUSION This systematic review presents evidence of a negative correlation between serum iron levels and mortality among patients with sepsis.Furthermore,it reveals a minor yet adverse impact of serum ferritin on mortality among the United States population.

Identification of an Aux/IAA regulator for flesh firmness using combined GWAS and bulked segregant RNA-Seq analysis in watermelon

Watermelon is a highly cultivated fruit crop renowned for its quality properties of fruit flesh.Among various quality factors,fruit flesh firmness is a crucial quality parameter influencing the fruit texture,shelf life and its commercial value.The auxin/indole-3-acetic acid(Aux/IAA)plays a significant role in fruit development and ripening of non-climacteric fruits.However,the regulatory mechanism of Aux/IAA in controlling fruit flesh firmness and ripening in watermelon remains unknown.In this study,we employed an integrative approach combining genome-wide association study(GWAS)and bulked segregant RNA-Seq analysis(BSR-Seq)to identify an overlapping candidate region between 12776310 and 12968331 bp on chromosome 6,underlying an auxin-responsive gene(Aux/IAA)associated with flesh firmness in watermelon.Transcriptome analysis,followed by real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR(qRT-PCR),confirmed that the expression of Aux/IAA was consistently higher in fruits with high flesh firmness.The sequence alignment revealed a single base mutation in the coding region of Aux/IAA.Furthermore,the concomitant Kompetitive/Competitive allele-specific PCR(KASP)genotyping data sets for F2 population and germplasm accessions identified Aux/IAA as a strong candidate gene associated with flesh firmness.Aux/IAA was enriched in the plant hormone signal transduction pathway,involving cell enlargement and leading to low flesh firmness.We determined the higher accumulation of abscisic acid(ABA)in fruits with low flesh firmness than hard flesh.Moreover,overexpression of Aux/IAA induced higher flesh firmness with an increased number of fruit flesh cells while reducing ABA content and flesh cell sizes.Additionally,the allelic variation in Aux/IAA for soft flesh firmness was found to exist in Citrullus mucosospermus and gradually fixed into Citrullus lanatus during domestication,indicating that soft flesh firmness was a domesticated trait.These findings significantly enhanced our understanding of watermelon fruit flesh firmness and consequently the watermelon fruit quality.

Association of tumor budding with clinicopathological features and prognostic value in stage III-IV colorectal cancer

BACKGROUND Tumor budding(TB)has emerged as a promising independent prognostic biomarker in colorectal cancer(CRC).The prognostic role of TB has been extensively studied and currently affects clinical decision making in patients with stage I and II CRC.However,existing prognostic studies on TB in stage III CRC have been confined to small retrospective cohort studies.Consequently,this study investigated the correlation among TB categories,clinicopathological features,and prognosis in stage III-IV CRC to further enhance the precision and individualization of treatment through refined prognostic risk stratification.AIM To analyze the relationship between TB categories and clinicopathological characteristics and assess their prognostic value in stage III-IV CRC to further refine the prognostic risk stratification of stage III-IV CRC.METHODS The clinical data of 547 CRC patients were collected for this retrospective study.Infiltration at the front edge of the tumor buds was counted according to the 2016 International Tumor Budding Consensus Conference guidelines.RESULTS Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis demonstrated that chemotherapy(P=0.004),clinical stage IV(P<0.001),≥4 regional lymph node metastases(P=0.004),left-sided colonic cancer(P=0.040),and Bd 2-3(P=0.002)were independent prognostic factors in patients with stage III-IV CRC.Moreover,the density of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes was higher in Bd 1 than in Bd 2-3,both in the tumor stroma and its invasive margin.CONCLUSION TB has an independent predictive prognostic value in patients with stage III-IV CRC.It is recommended to complete the TB report of stage III-IV CRC cases in the standardized pathological report to further refine risk stratification.