Shell characterization and effects on cavity volume of wild Jinjiang oyster Crassostrea ariakensis in different estuaries of China

Jinjiang oyster Crassostrea ariakensis,a species with economic and ecological value,is distributed along the estuaries and coasts of East Asia.With the decline in natural resources,the conservation and aquaculture of this species is urgent.However,studies characterizing their shell shape remain scarce.We investigated the morphological differences in the shells of wild Jinjiang oysters from six populations(Qinzhou,Shanghai,Nantong,Qingdao,and Binzhou hard or muddy bottom)along the coast of China.The color of the shell and adductor muscle scar showed associations with temperature gradient along its geographical distribution.Oyster shape was defined by shell height to shell length ratio,and the ratio varies among geographic locations of the populations.They were found nearly round(Qinzhou and Nantong populations),oval(Qingdao and Binzhou populations),or water-droplet-shaped(Shanghai population).Binzhou populations living on muddy substrates are more elongated than those on hard substrate.In addition,we developed a method to measure the cavity volume in oysters.Correlation and path analysis showed that shell height significantly influenced cavity volume.The synergistic effect of the two factors(the height,length,and width of the shell in pairs)on the cavity volume resulted in differences between northern and southern groups:samples from the southern group(Qinzhou and Shanghai)showed correlation between shell height and shell width,while those from the northern group(Nantong,Qingdao,and Binzhou)showed correlation between shell height and shell length.All populations showed significant correlation between shell height and cavity height,and shell length and cavity length,while the correlation between shell width and cavity width was minimal,which may have been resulted from uneven shell thickness.The linear equation for shell height and cavity volume under different ratios of shell height to length was obtained.In this study,we determined that shell height has the most influence on cavity volume,and specific cavity volume fitting linear equations are given for different shell types,which may provide a reference for future oyster breeding for shell shaping.

Avoiding Non-Manhattan Obstacles Based on Projection of Spatial Corners in Indoor Environment

Monocular vision-based navigation is a considerable ability for a home mobile robot. However, due to diverse disturbances, helping robots avoid obstacles, especially nonManhattan obstacles, remains a big challenge. In indoor environments, there are many spatial right-corners that are projected into two dimensional projections with special geometric configurations. These projections, which consist of three lines,might enable us to estimate their position and orientation in 3 D scenes. In this paper, we present a method for home robots to avoid non-Manhattan obstacles in indoor environments from a monocular camera. The approach first detects non-Manhattan obstacles. Through analyzing geometric features and constraints,it is possible to estimate posture differences between orientation of the robot and non-Manhattan obstacles. Finally according to the convergence of posture differences, the robot can adjust its orientation to keep pace with the pose of detected non-Manhattan obstacles, making it possible avoid these obstacles by itself. Based on geometric inferences, the proposed approach requires no prior training or any knowledge of the camera’s internal parameters,making it practical for robots navigation. Furthermore, the method is robust to errors in calibration and image noise. We compared the errors from corners of estimated non-Manhattan obstacles against the ground truth. Furthermore, we evaluate the validity of convergence of differences between the robot orientation and the posture of non-Manhattan obstacles. The experimental results showed that our method is capable of avoiding non-Manhattan obstacles, meeting the requirements for indoor robot navigation.

Annual Variation of Water Quality in Aquaculture Ponds for Apostichopus japonicus

By measuring water temperature,salinity,pH,dissolved oxygen,nitrite and ammonia nitrogen,the annual variation regularity of water quality in the aquaculture ponds for sea cucumbers Apostichopus japonicus in Dalian were studied.Results showed that the physicochemical indicators kept changing in the year,and the various ranges of water temperature,salinity,pH,dissolved oxygen,nitrite,and ammonia nitrogen were 6.38-27.27℃,29.20‰-33.78‰,7.86-8.38,5.19-13.36 mg/L,0.0037-0.0090 mg/L and 0.0171-0.0908 mg/L,respectively.Analysis indicated that there was an extremely significant negative correlation between water temperature and dissolved oxygen(P<0.01),an extremely significant positive correlation between water temperature and ammonia nitrogen(P<0.01),a significant negative correlation between salinity and nitrite(P<0.05),a significant negative correlation between dissolved oxygen and nitrite(P<0.05),and an extremely significant negative correlation between dissolved oxygen and ammonia nitrogen(P<0.01)in the aquaculture ponds for sea cucumber in Dalian.Research showed that the water quality of aquaculture ponds kept fluctuating all the time during the tested period,there were complicated and close relationships among physicochemical indicators,and a slight variation of external factors would bring consecutive reactions to different indicators in the water quality of aquaculture ponds.A reference for the production and management of sea cucumbers could be provided from the results.

Management and Control of Outsourcing in Dispersed Network Manufacturing Systems

The trend of economic globalisation and advances in i nformation technology has led to the emergence of dispersed manufacturing system s as a form of the virtual organisation. New manufacturing strategy pays more at tention to the management of the total value chain and therefore puts emphasis o n outsourcing. In fact, outsourcing is an efficient way of utilizing available r esources and has become one key aspect of the manufacturing strategy. Improved d ecision and organization on outsourcing will result in cost production and short er lead-times. However, most concepts and practice of traditional outsourcing do not adapt to t he changing environment and meet increasing performance requirements. On the oth er hand, virtual organisations might display instability between pure outsourcin g and establishing alliance. Balance and trade-off between independent agents a nd creating alliance are thus required. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop a model to support decision-making, management and control on outsou rcing in a dispersed network manufacturing system and to discuss several key iss ues that are relevant to the relationship between the agents of the network. Dev elopment of the model will deploy Applied System Theory and will be built on fou ndations of earlier research on industrial management such the theories of Outso urcing, Order Entry Points, Design of Organisations and Logistic Control. The is sues that will be addressed in this paper are: · The selection of suppliers and co-makers; · Communication between suppliers and clients; · The mechanisms for profit-sharing between agents; · The product data management to integrate the knowledge of the different agent s into product design. Industrial companies will benefit from this research by the practical methods an d implementation extending their business models beyond concepts for outsourcing and alliances. Additionally, the exploration will lead to proactive contributio n of manufacturing during engineering, which would improve management and contro l of dispersed manufacturing systems.

GRK2 inhibits Flt-1^(+)macrophage infiltration and its proangiogenic properties in rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis(RA)is an autoimmune disease with a complex etiology.Monocyte-derived macrophages(MDMs)infiltration are associated with RA severity.We have reported the deletion of G-protein-coupled receptor kinase 2(GRK2)reprograms macrophages toward an anti-inflammatory phenotype by recovering G-protein-coupled receptor signaling.However,as more GRK2-interacting proteins were discovered,the GRK2 interactome mechanisms in RA have been understudied.Thus,in the collagen-induced arthritis mouse model,we performed genetic GRK2 deletion using GRK2^(f/f)Lyz2-Cre^(+/−)mice.Synovial inflammation and M1 polarization were improved in GRK2^(f/f)Lyz2-Cre^(+/−)mice.Supporting experiments with RNA-seq and dual-luciferase reporter assays identified peroxisome proliferator-activated receptorγ(PPARγ)as a new GRK2-interacting protein.We further confirmed that fms-related tyrosine kinase 1(Flt-1),which promoted macrophage migration to induce angiogenesis,was inhibited by GRK2-PPARγsignaling.Mechanistically,excess GRK2 membrane recruitment in CIA MDMs reduced the activation of PPARγligand-binding domain and enhanced Flt-1 transcription.Furthermore,the treatment of mice with GRK2 activity inhibitor resulted in significantly diminished CIA pathology,Flt-1^(+)macrophages induced-synovial inflammation,and angiogenesis.Altogether,we anticipate to facilitate the elucidation of previously unappreciated details of GRK2-specific intracellular signaling.Targeting GRK2 activity is a viable strategy to inhibit MDMs infiltration,affording a distinct way to control joint inflammation and angiogenesis of RA.

Chitosan@Puerarin hydrogel for accelerated wound healing in diabetic subjects by miR-29ab1 mediated inflammatory axis suppression

Wound healing is one of the major global health concerns in patients with diabetes.Overactivation of pro-inflammatory M1 macrophages is associated with delayed wound healing in diabetes.miR-29ab1 plays a critical role in diabetes-related macrophage inflammation.Hence,inhibition of inflammation and regulation of miR-29 expression have been implicated as new points for skin wound healing.In this study,the traditional Chinese medicine,puerarin,was introduced to construct an injectable and self-healing chitosan@puerarin(C@P)hydrogel.The C@P hydrogel promoted diabetic wound healing and accelerated angiogenesis,which were related to the inhibition of the miR-29 mediated inflammation response.Compared to healthy subjects,miR-29a and miR-29b1 were ectopically increased in the skin wound of the diabetic model,accompanied by upregulated M1-polarization,and elevated levels of IL-1βand TNF-α.Further evaluations by miR-29ab1 knockout mice exhibited superior wound healing and attenuated inflammation.The present results suggested that miR-29ab1 is essential for diabetic wound healing by regulating the inflammatory response.Suppression of miR-29ab1 by the C@P hydrogel has the potential for improving medical approaches for wound repair.

Lanthanide-Doped Inorganic Nanoprobes for Luminescent Assays of Biomarkers

Tremendous progress in nanomaterial and nanotechnology has been made in recent years,which greatly contributes to the development of inorganic nanoparticles(NPs)as luminescent probes in diverse biomedical applications.In particular,these luminescent nanoprobes are widely employed for sensitive assays of biomarkers like disease markers.Generally,the luminescent bioassay technologies mainly rely on conventional molecular probes such as lanthanide(Ln3+)chelates or organic dyes,which suffer from inferior photochemical stability,low photobleaching,potential long-term toxicity,or high background noise.In contrast,Ln3+-doped NPs possess distinct physicochemical properties including better photostability,lower toxicity,and superior optical properties like long photoluminescent(PL)lifetime,narrow emission band,and tunable spectral range from the ultraviolet to the second near-infrared(NIR-II),which make them extremely ideal as luminescent nanoprobes.As such,enormous research enthusiasm has been invested in this fascinating field of Ln3+-doped luminescent nanoprobes in recent years.Accordingly,background-free luminescent bioassays with high signal-to-noise have been achieved by employing Ln3+-doped NPs on the basis of their downshifting luminescence(DSL)with a long PL lifetime,NIR-II luminescence with long-wavelength emissions,or upconverting luminescence(UCL)upon NIR excitation.However,there are still key challenges for Ln3+-doped nanoprobes owing to their low brightness and quantum yield,which restrict their biomedical applications.During the past decade,we have explored efficient approaches for the synthesis and design of highly efficient Ln3+-doped nanoprobes toward ultrasensitive luminescent bioassay of disease markers.In this Account,we summarize our most recent endeavors toward the development of inorganic Ln3+-doped NPs as sensitive nanoprobes for luminescent bioassays.First,we overview the approaches of controlled synthesis and optical manipulation to obtain highly efficient Ln3+-doped NPs with desirable optical properties.Second,we survey the design of Ln3+-doped nanoprobes with outstanding water dispersibility and excellent biocompatibility through surface functional bioconjugation of NPs.By employing these nanoprobes,we propose and exemplify several background-free luminescent bioassay strategies in an effort to suppress the interference of background noise from scattered lights and autofluorescence from biological samples.Third,we highlight the ultrasensitive bioassay of disease markers such as the time-resolved luminescent bioassay,NIR-II luminescent bioassay,and UCL bioassay.Finally,the major challenges,promising emerging trends,and future perspectives on this attractive field are discussed.Through this Account,we aim to offer a series of effective approaches to luminescent bioassay with high sensitivity and excellent specificity based on Ln3+-doped nanoprobes,which may broaden the roadway for clinical bioassays and accelerate the exploration of novel nanoprobes in versatile biomedical applications.

Dynamic disease manifestations among individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant

To the Editor:The unprecedented pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)has put tremendous pressure on healthcare resources and economic development worldwide.Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2)Omicron strain has become the dominant causative strain of COVID-19 in most countries since the end of 2021.Although a large cohort study comparing the symptomatic presentation of SARSCoV-2 Omicron and Delta infection has been made in the UK,[1]features and evolution of symptoms of individuals infected with Omicron are rarely reported in other countries or regions,especially among Asian individuals.