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).

Supplementary Information to“Balancing the quantum speed limit and instantaneous energy cost in adiabatic quantum evolution”

I.SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE 1:THEORETICAL MATERIALS.The quantum speed limit(QSL)is essential for quantum computing and quantum communication,referring to the minimum time required for a quantum system to evolve from one state to another.Two well-known forms of the QSL are the Mandelstam-Tamm(MT)relation TqsL≥πh/2△E[S1]and the Margolus-Levitin(ML)relation TqsL≥πh/2(E)[S2]where Tqst is denoted as the QSL time,h is the reduced Planck's constant,△E is the energy uncertainty(standard deviation)of the system,and(E)is the average energy of the system above its ground state.Both of relations provide a lower bound on the evolution time.

Balancing the Quantum Speed Limit and Instantaneous Energy Cost in Adiabatic Quantum Evolution

Adiabatic time-optimal quantum controls are extensively used in quantum technologies to break the constraints imposed by short coherence times.However,practically it is crucial to consider the trade-off between the quantum evolution speed and instantaneous energy cost of process because of the constraints in the available control Hamiltonian.Here,we experimentally show that using a transmon qubit that,even in the presence of vanishing energy gaps,it is possible to reach a highly time-optimal adiabatic quantum driving at low energy cost in the whole evolution process.This validates the recently derived general solution of the quantum Zermelo navigation problem,paving the way for energy-efficient quantum control which is usually overlooked in conventional speed-up schemes,including the well-known counter-diabatic driving.By designing the control Hamiltonian based on the quantum speed limit bound quantified by the changing rate of phase in the interaction picture,we reveal the relationship between the quantum speed limit and instantaneous energy cost.Consequently,we demonstrate fast and high-fidelity quantum adiabatic processes by employing energy-efficient driving strengths,indicating a promising strategy for expanding the applications of time-optimal quantum controls in superconducting quantum circuits.

Ginsenoside Rb1 attenuates activated microglia-induced neuronal damage

The microglia-mediated inflammatory reaction promotes neuronal damage under cerebral isch- emia/hypoxia conditions. We therefore speculated that inhibition of hypoxia-induced microglial activation may alleviate neuronal damage. To test this hypothesis, we co-cultured ginsenoside Rb 1, an active component of ginseng, and cortical neurons. Ginsenoside Rb l protected neuronal morphology and structure in a single hypoxic culture system and in a hypoxic co-culture system with microglia, and reduced neuronal apoptosis and caspase-3 production. The protective effect was observable prior to placing in co-culture. Additionally, ginsenoside Rbl inhibited levels of tumor necrosis factor-a in a co-culture system containing activated N9 microglial cells. Ginse-noside Rbl also significantly decreased nitric oxide and superoxide production induced by N9 microglia. Our findings indicate that ginsenoside Rbl attenuates damage to cerebral cortex neu-rons by downregulation of nitric oxide, superoxide, and tumor necrosis factor-a expression in hypoxia-activated microglia.

A Real Plug-and-Play Fog: Implementation of Service Placement in Wireless Multimedia Networks

Initially as an extension of cloud computing, fog computing has been inspiring new ideas about moving computing tasks to the edge of networks. In fog, we often repeat the procedure of placing services because of the geographical distribution of mobile users. We may not expect a fixed demand and supply relationship between users and service providers since users always prefer nearby service with less time delay and transmission consumption. That is, a plug-and-play service mode is what we need in fog. In this paper, we put forward a dynamic placement strategy for fog service to guarantee the normal service provision and optimize the Quality of Service (QoS). The simulation results show that our strategy can achieve better performance under metrics including energy consumption and end-to-end latency. Moreover, we design a real Plug-and-Play Fog (PnPF) based on Raspberry Pi and OpenWrt to provide fog services for wireless multimedia networks.

Measuring Quantum Geometric Tensor of Non-Abelian System in Superconducting Circuits

Topology played an important role in physics research during the last few decades.In particular,the quantum geometric tensor that provides local information about topological properties has attracted much attention.It will reveal interesting topological properties but have not been measured in non-Abelian systems.Here,we use a four-qubit quantum system in superconducting circuits to construct a degenerate Hamiltonian with parametric modulation.By manipulating the Hamiltonian with periodic drivings,we simulate the Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang model and obtain the quantum geometric tensor from interference oscillation.In addition,we reveal its topological feature by extracting the topological invariant,demonstrating an effective protocol for quantum simulation of a non-Abelian system.

Safety and efficacy of Yupingfeng granules in children with recurrent respiratory tract infection:A randomized clinical trial

Importance:Recurrent respiratory tract infection(RRTI)is common in children.Inappropriate RRTI treatment will lead to asthma and other diseases,thereby seriously affecting the growth and physical health of children.Immune function modulation can prevent and alleviate childhood RRTI.Yupingfeng(YPF),a patented traditional Chinese medicine(TCM),has immunomodulatory effects and is widely used in China to treat children with RRTI.Objective:To evaluate the safety and efficacy of YPF monotherapy in treating children with RRTI.Methods:This multicenter,randomized,double-blind,double-simulation,noninferiority clinical trial was conducted from January 2015 to August 2017,with an 8-week treatment period and 52-week follow-up after the drug withdrawal.Children aged 2–6 years with RRTI meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria were enrolled in 13 hospitals in China and divided randomly into three groups(2:2:1 ratio)to receive YPF,pidotimod,or placebo.The primary outcome was the proportion of RRTI returning to normal standard level during the follow-up.The secondary outcomes were reduction in the number of RRTI recurrences,effect on clinical symptoms(in accord with TCM practice),effect per symptom,and safety.The trial was registered at the Chinese Clinical Trials Registry(www.chictr.org.cn)under the unique identifier ChiCTR-IPR-15006847.Results:Three hundred and fifty-one children were enrolled and randomly assigned to 3 groups;124,125,and 61 children in the YPF,pidotimod,and placebo groups,respectively,had completed the trial.During the follow-up,the proportion of RRTI returning to normal standard level was 73.13%,67.15%,and 38.81%with YPF,pidotimod,and placebo,respectively(P<0.0001).The proportion of cases who returned to normal standard level in the YPF group was 34.32%higher than that in the placebo group.The safety profile did not significantly differ among the groups.Interpretation:YPF granules were noninferior to the active control drug pidotimod oral solution for the treatment of RRTI in children,and were superior to placebo,with a high safety profile.

Genome sequence of Gossypium anomalum facilitates interspecific introgression breeding

Crop wild relatives are an important reservoir of natural biodiversity. However, incorporating wild geneticdiversity into breeding programs is often hampered by reproductive barriers and a lack of accurate genomicinformation. We assembled a high-quality, accurately centromere-anchored genome of Gossypium anomalum, a stress-tolerant wild cotton species. We provided a strategy to discover and transfer agronomicallyvaluable genes from wild diploid species to tetraploid cotton cultivars. With a (Gossypium hirsutum 3 G.anomalum)2 hexaploid as a bridge parent, we developed a set of 74 diploid chromosome segment substitution lines (CSSLs) of the wild cotton species G. anomalum in the G. hirsutum background. This set of CSSLsincluded 70 homozygous substitutions and four heterozygous substitutions, and it collectively containedabout 72.22% of the G. anomalum genome. Twenty-four quantitative trait loci associated with plant height,yield, and fiber qualities were detected on 15 substitution segments. Integrating the reference genome withagronomic trait evaluation of the CSSLs enabled location and cloning of two G. anomalum genes thatencode peroxiredoxin and putative callose synthase 8, respectively, conferring drought tolerance andimproving fiber strength. We have demonstrated the power of a high-quality wild-species reference genomefor identifying agronomically valuable alleles to facilitate interspecific introgression breeding in crops.