Atherosis-associated lnc_000048 activates PKR to enhance STAT1-mediated polarization of THP-1 macrophages to M1 phenotype

Our previous study has demonstrated that lnc_000048 is upregulated in large-artery atherosclerotic stroke and promotes atherosclerosis in ApoE^(-/-)mice.However,little is known about the role of lnc_000048 in classically activated macrophage(M1)polarization.In this study,we established THP-1-derived testing state macrophages(M0),M1 macrophages,and alternately activated macrophages(M2).Real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR was used to verify the expression of marker genes and the expression of lnc_000048 in macrophages.Flow cytometry was used to detect phenotypic proteins(CD11b,CD38,CD80).We generated cell lines with lentivirus-mediated upregulation or downregulation of lnc_000048.Flow cytometry,western blot,and real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR results showed that down-regulation of lnc_000048 reduced M1 macrophage polarization and the inflammation response,while over-expression of lnc_000048 led to the opposite effect.Western blot results indicated that lnc_000048 enhanced the activation of the STAT1 pathway and mediated the M1 macrophage polarization.Moreover,catRAPID prediction,RNA-pull down,and mass spectrometry were used to identify and screen the protein kinase RNA-activated(PKR),then catRAPID and RPIseq were used to predict the binding ability of lnc_000048 to PKR.Immunofluorescence(IF)-RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization(FISH)double labeling was performed to verify the subcellular colocalization of lnc_000048 and PKR in the cytoplasm of M1 macrophage.We speculate that lnc_000048 may form stem-loop structure-specific binding and activate PKR by inducing its phosphorylation,leading to activation of STAT1 phosphorylation and thereby enhancing STAT1 pathway-mediated polarization of THP-1 macrophages to M1 and inflammatory factor expression.Taken together,these results reveal that the lnc_000048/PKR/STAT1 axis plays a crucial role in the polarization of M1 macrophages and may be a novel therapeutic target for atherosclerosis alleviation in stroke.

Research on Data Tampering Prevention Method for ATC Network Based on Zero Trust

The traditional air traffic control information sharing data has weak security characteristics of personal privacy data and poor effect,which is easy to leads to the problem that the data is usurped.Starting from the application of the ATC(automatic train control)network,this paper focuses on the zero trust and zero trust access strategy and the tamper-proof method of information-sharing network data.Through the improvement of ATC’s zero trust physical layer authentication and network data distributed feature differentiation calculation,this paper reconstructs the personal privacy scope authentication structure and designs a tamper-proof method of ATC’s information sharing on the Internet.From the single management authority to the unified management of data units,the systematic algorithm improvement of shared network data tamper prevention method is realized,and RDTP(Reliable Data Transfer Protocol)is selected in the network data of information sharing resources to realize the effectiveness of tamper prevention of air traffic control data during transmission.The results show that this method can reasonably avoid the tampering of information sharing on the Internet,maintain the security factors of air traffic control information sharing on the Internet,and the Central Processing Unit(CPU)utilization rate is only 4.64%,which effectively increases the performance of air traffic control data comprehensive security protection system.

Bacteroides-derived isovaleric acid enhances mucosal immunity by facilitating intestinal IgA response in broilers

Background:The interaction between nutrition and immunity plays a vital role in nutrient digestion,absorption,and metabolism during poultry production.Recent studies showed that the gut microbiota contributes to the development of intestinal mucosal immunity.However,the mechanisms by which gut microbes regulate this process remain unclear.Methods:We compared the intestinal mucosal immunity and gut microbiota of Arbor Acre broilers AA(lower mucosal immunity)and Chinese native Wuliang Mountain Black-bone chickens(WLMB)(higher mucosal immunity)using 16S rDNA sequencing,transcriptomic analysis,and immunoglobulin A(IgA)antibody repertoire sequencing.We then combined 16S rDNA sequencing with transcriptomics to identify the key microbes and found that they were positively correlated with IgA production.Next,we transplanted candidate microbes into 1-day-old broiler to explore their role in intestinal mucosal immunity.Finally,we verified the function of candidate microbial metabolites in regulating the immune function of macrophages and the intestinal-epithelial cells(IECs)using in vitro experiments.Results:WLMB performs stronger mucosal immunity than AA,including higher IgA levels,more diverse IgA antibody repertoire,and higher bacterial affinity.Bacteroides was identified as the key microbes related to the intestinal IgA response.Bacteroides transplantation could increase IgA concentration in the duodenal contents by enhancing the expression of IgA,polymeric immunoglobin receptor(PIgR),B cell-activating factor of the TNF family(BAFF),and activation-induced cytidine deaminase(AID)in the duodenum.Additionally,Bacteroides-derived isovaleric acid promoted M2 macrophage polarization of macrophage via mTOR/PPAR-γ/STAT3 signaling pathways and regulated the immunologic function of IECs to produce cytokines,including interleukin(IL)-10,IL-4,BAFF,and transforming growth factor-beta(TGF-β),thus promoting IgA production in B cells by facilitating AID expression.Conclusion:Our study revealed that Bacteroides modulate the intestinal IgA response and maintain gut health in broilers.Bacteroides may be a promising alternative as an immunomodulatory microbial agent for developing nextgeneration probiotics for broiler production.

A Study of Ensemble Feature Selection and Adversarial Training for Malicious User Detection

The continuously booming of information technology has shed light on developing a variety of communication networks,multimedia,social networks and Internet of Things applications.However,users inevitably suffer from the intrusion of malicious users.Some studies focus on static characteristics of malicious users,which is easy to be bypassed by camouflaged malicious users.In this paper,we present a malicious user detection method based on ensemble feature selection and adversarial training.Firstly,the feature selection alleviates the dimension disaster problem and achieves more accurate classification performance.Secondly,we embed features into the multidimensional space and aggregate it into a feature map to encode the explicit content preference and implicit interaction preference.Thirdly,we use an effective ensemble learning which could avoid over-fitting and has good noise resistance.Finally,we propose a datadriven neural network detection model with the regularization technique adversarial training to deeply analyze the characteristics.It simplifies the parameters,obtaining more robust interaction features and pattern features.We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach with numerical simulation results for malicious user detection,where the robustness issues are notable concerns.

Identification of QTL for kernel number-related traits in a rice chromosome segment substitution line and fine mapping of qSP1

A chromosome segment substitution line (CSSL) is a powerful tool for combining quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping with the pyramiding of desirable alleles. The rice CSSL Z1364 with increased kernel number was identified in a BC3F8 population derived from a cross of Nipponbare as the recipient with Xihui 18 as the donor parent. Z1364 carried three substitution segments distributed on chromosomes 1, 6, and 8. The mean substitution length was 1.19 Mb. Of 17 QTL identified on the substitution segments, qSP1 for spikelets per panicle, qSSD1 for seed-set density, and qNSB1 for number of secondary branches explained respectively 57.34%, 87.7%, and 49.44% of the corresponding phenotypic variance and were all linked to RM6777. Chi-square analysis showed that the increased kernel number in Z1364 was inherited recessively by a single gene. By fine mapping, qSP1 was delimited to a 50-kb region on the short arm of chromosome 1. Based on DNA sequence, a previously uncharacterized rice homolog of Arabidopsis thaliana AT4G32551 was identified as a candidate gene for qSP1 in which mutation increases the number of spikelets and kernels in Z1364. qSP1 was expressed in all tissues, but particularly in 1-cm panicles. The expression levels of OsMADS22, GN1A, and DST were upregulated and those of LAX2, GNP1, and GHD7 were downregulated in Nipponbare. These results provide a foundation for functional research on qSP1.

shRNA-mediated Slc38a1 silencing inhibits migration, but not invasiveness of human pancreatic cancer cells

Objective：Early metastasis is a major biological feature of pancreatic cancer.The current study examined whether silencing Slc38a1,a gene involved in energy metabolism,using short hairpin RNA （shRNA） could inhibit the growth,migration,and invasiveness of pancreatic cancer cells.Methods：A series of Slc38a1 shRNAs were designed and cloned into the pGPU6/GFP/Neo vectors.An shRNA with the most efficacious inhibitory action on SCL38A1 expression （65％ inhibition） upon screening in DH5α bacteria was used to transfect SW1990 human pancreatic cancer cells.Cell growth,migration,and invasiveness were examined using cell counting kit-8,Boyden chamber without and with Matrigel,respectively.Results：Transfection of SW1990 cells with the SLCs38A1 shRNA significantly decreased the proliferation （P＜0.0001） and migratory potential （by 46.7％,P=0.0399） of the cancer cells.Invasiveness,however,was not affected.Conclusions：Inhibiting Slc38a1 using shRNA technology could decrease the growth and migration of representative pancreatic cancer cells.However,the fact that invasiveness was not affected suggested that SLC38A1 is unlikely to be responsible for early metastasis.

Ultrathin defective high-entropy layered double hydroxides for electrochemical water oxidation

One of the fundamental driving forces in the materials science community is the hunt for new materials with specific properties that meet the requirements of rapidly evolving technology.

An Efficient Correlation-Aware Anomaly Detection Framework in Cellular Network

Nowadays,the fifth-generation(5G)mobile communication system has obtained prosperous development and deployment,reshaping our daily lives.However,anomalies of cell outages and congestion in 5G critically influence the quality of experience and significantly increase operational expenditures.Although several big data and artificial intelligencebased anomaly detection methods have been proposed for wireless cellular systems,they change distributions of the data and ignore the relevance among user activities,causing anomaly detection ineffective for some cells.In this paper,we propose a highly effective and accurate anomaly detection framework by utilizing generative adversarial networks(GAN)and long short-term memory(LSTM)neural networks.The framework expands the original dataset while simultaneously keeping the distribution of data unchanged,and explores the relevance among user activities to further improve the system performance.The results demonstrate that our framework can achieve 97.16%accuracy and 2.30%false positive rate by utilizing the correlation of user activities and data expansion.

Exchange-coupling-induced fourfold magnetic anisotropy in CoFeB/FeRh bilayer grown on SrTiO_(3)(001)

Exchange coupling across the interface between a ferromagnetic(FM)layer and an antiferromagnetic(AFM)or another FM layer may induce a unidirectional magnetic anisotropy and/or a uniaxial magnetic anisotropy,which has been extensively studied due to the important application in magnetic materials and devices.In this work,we observed a fourfold magnetic anisotropy in amorphous Co Fe B layer when exchange coupling to an adjacent Fe Rh layer which is epitaxially grown on an SrTiO_(3)(001)substrate.As the temperature rises from 300 K to 400 K,Fe Rh film undergoes a phase transition from AFM to FM phase,the induced fourfold magnetic anisotropy in the Co Fe B layer switches the orientation from the Fe Rh<110>to Fe Rh<100>directions and the strength is obviously reduced.In addition,the effective magnetic damping as well as the two-magnon scattering of the Co Fe B/Fe Rh bilayer also remarkably increase with the occurrence of magnetic phase transition of Fe Rh.No exchange bias is observed in the bilayer even when Fe Rh is in the nominal AFM state,which is probably because the residual FM Fe Rh moments located at the interface can well separate the exchange coupling between the below pinned Fe Rh moments and the Co Fe B moments.

Sliding Window Network Coding for Free Viewpoint Multimedia Streaming in MANETs

Network coding(NC)can prove to be particularly useful in multimedia streaming applications,where it could help to increase the network throughput and data persistence in Mobile Ad hoc NETwork(MANET).Slidingwindow Network Coding is a variation of NC that is an addition to multimedia streaming and improves the data delay on MANETs.In this paper,we propose a Sliding Window Network Coding for free Viewpoint Multimedia streaming in MANETs(SWNC-VM).SWNC-VM preserves the degree distribution of the encoded packets through the recombination at the nodes.SWNC-VM enables to control the decoding complexity of each sliding-window independently from the packets received and recover the original data.The performance of the SWNCVM is studied using NS2 and evaluated in terms of the encoding overhead,decoding delay,packet loss probability and throughput when a packet is transmitted.The simulations result shows that the SWNC-VM with our proposition can significantly improve the network throughput and encoding efficiency.

Identification and functional characterization of female antennae-biased odorant receptor 23 involved in acetophenone detection of the Indian meal moth Plodia interpunctella

The Indian meal moth,Plodia interpunctella(Lepidoptera:Pyralidae),a globally distributed storage pest,relies on odors that are emitted from stored foods to select a suitable substrate for oviposition.However,the molecular mechanism underlying the chemical communication between P.interpunctella and its host remains elusive.In this study,130 chemosensory genes were identified from the transcriptomes of 7 P.interpunctella tissues,and the quantitative expression levels of all 56 P.interpunctella odorant receptor genes(PintORs)were validated using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction.The functional characteristics of 5 PintORs with female antennae-biased expression were investigated using 2-electrode voltage clamp recordings in Xenopus laevis oocytes.PintOR23 was found to be specifically tuned to acetophenone.Acetophenone could elicit a significant electrophysiological response and only attracted mated females when compared with males and virgin females.In addition,molecular docking predicted that the hydrogen bonding sites,TRP-335 and ALA-167,might play key roles in the binding of PintOR23 to acetophenone.Our study provides valuable insights into the olfactory mechanism of oviposition substrate detection and localization in P.interpunctella and points toward the possibility of developing eco-friendly odorant agents to control pests of stored products.

Dissimilatory iron reduction contributes to anaerobic mineralization of sediment in a shallow transboundary lake

Dissimilatory iron reduction(DIR)coupled with carbon cycling is increasingly being recognized as an influential process in freshwater wetland soils and sediments.The role of DIR in organic matter(OM)mineralization,however,is still largely unknown in lake sediment environments.In this study,we clarified rates and pathways of OM mineralization in two shallow lakes with seasonal hydrological connectivity and different eutrophic situations.We found that in comparison with the domination of DIR(55%)for OM mineralization in Lake Xiaoxingkai,the contribution of methanogenesis was much higher(68%)in its connected lake(Lake Xingkai).The differences in rates and pathways of sediment OM mineralization between the two lakes were attributed to higher concentrations of carbonate associated iron oxides(Fecarb)in Lake Xiaoxingkai compared to Lake Xingkai(P=0.002),due to better deposition mixing,more contributions of terrigenous detrital materials,and higher OM content in Lake Xiaoxingkai.Results of structural equation modeling showed that Fecarb and total iron content(TFe)regulated 25%of DIR in Lake Xiaoxingkai and 76%in Lake Xingkai,accompanied by a negative effect of TFe on methanogenesis in Lake Xingkai.The relative abundance and diversity of Fe-reducing bacteria were significantly different between the two lakes,and showed a weak effect on sediment OM mineralization.Our findings emphasize the role of iron minerals and geochemical characterizations in regulating rates and pathways of OM mineralization,and deepen the understanding of carbon cycling in lake sediments.

EVA2.0:Investigating Open-domain Chinese Dialogue Systems with Large-scale Pre-training

Large-scale pre-training has shown remarkable performance in building open-domain dialogue systems.However,previous works mainly focus on showing and evaluating the conversational performance of the released dialogue model,ignoring the discussion of some key factors towards a powerful human-like chatbot,especially in Chinese scenarios.In this paper,we conduct extensive experiments to investigate these under-explored factors,including data quality control,model architecture designs,training approaches,and decoding strategies.We propose EVA2.0,a large-scale pre-trained open-domain Chinese dialogue model with 2.8 billion parameters,and will make our models and codes publicly available.Automatic and human evaluations show that EVA2.0 significantly outperforms other open-source counterparts.We also discuss the limitations of this work by presenting some failure cases and pose some future research directions on large-scale Chinese open-domain dialogue systems.

Identification of gut microbes associated with feed efficiency by daily-phase feeding strategy in growing-finishing pigs

Feed efficiency is one of the most important issues for sustainable pig production.Daily-phase feeding(DPF)is a form of precision feeding that could improve feed efficiency in pigs.Gut microbiota can regulate host nutrient digestion,absorption,and metabolism.However,which key microbes may play a vital role in improving the feed efficiency during DPF remains unclear.In the present study,we used a DPF program compared to a three-phase feeding(TPF)program in growing-finishing pigs to investigate the effects of gut microbiota on feed efficiency.A total of 204 Landrace×Yorkshire pigs(75 d)were randomly assigned into 2 treatments.Each treatment was replicated 8 times with 13 to 15 pigs per replicate pen.Pigs in the TPF group were fed with a commercial feeding program that supplied fixed feed for phasesⅠ,Ⅱ,andⅢ,starting at 81,101,and 132 d of age,respectively,and pigs in the DPF group were fed a blend of adjacent phase feed from 81 to 155 d at a gradual daily ratio and phaseⅢfeed from 155 to 180 d of age.Daily feed intake and body weight were recorded by a computerized device in the feeders.Feces and blood samples were collected from 1 pig per replicate at 155 and 180 d of age.The results showed that the DPF program remarkably improved the feed efficiency at 155 d(P<0.001)and 180 d of age(P<0.001),with a significant reduction of the intake of crude protein(P<0.01),net energy(P<0.001),crude fiber(P<0.001),ether extract(P<0.01),and ash(P<0.001).The daily-phase feeding program increased the abundance of Prevotella copri(P<0.05)and Paraprevotella clara(P<0.05),while it decreased the abundance of Ocilibacter(P<0.05)at 155 d of age.The results of correlation analysis indicated that the differentially abundant microbiota communities were closely associated with 20 metabolites which enriched amino acid and phenylalanine metabolism.Our results suggest that 2 key microbes may contribute to feed efficiency during daily-phase feeding strategies in pigs.

Pulmonary endogenous progenitor stem cell subpopulation:Physiology,pathogenesis,and progress

Lungs are structurally and functionally complex organs consisting of diverse cell types from the proximal to distal axis.They have direct contact with the external environment and are constantly at risk of various injuries.Capable to proliferate and differentiate,pulmonary endogenous progenitor stem cells contribute to the maintenance of lung structure and function both under homeostasis and following injuries.Discovering candidate pulmonary endogenous progenitor stem cell types and underlying regenerative mechanisms provide insights into therapeutic strategy development for lung diseases.In this review,we reveal their compositions,roles in lung disease pathogenesis and injury repair,and the underlying mechanisms.We further underline the advanced progress in research approach and potential therapy for lung regeneration.We also demonstrate the feasibility and prospects of pulmonary endogenous stem cell transplantation for lung disease treatment.

Integrated analysis of multi-tissues lipidome and gut microbiome reveals microbiota-induced shifts on lipid metabolism in pigs

Lipid metabolism is very important for meat quality in pigs.Accumulating evidence shows that gut microbiota can contribute to this physiological process.However,the gut microbiota that function in lipid metabolism and adipogenesis remains unclear.Here,we compared the characteristics of fat deposition and gut microbial community between Laiwu pigs and Duroc(LandraceYorkshire)(DLY)pigs.Fecal microbiota transplantation(FMT)was performed to determine the possible impact of gut microbiota on lipid metabolism in pigs.An integrated analysis of the gut microbiome and lipidome of the small intestine,plasma,and liver was conducted to investigate the effects of FMT on host lipid metabolism.The comparative analysis of the gut microbiome showed higher abundance of Bacteroidetes(P=0.0018)while lower abundance of Firmicutes(P=0.012)in Laiwu pigs,and the microbial composition can be transferred from Laiwu pigs into DLY pigs.Transmission electron microscope and Oil red-O staining were performed to analyze the effects of FMT on lipid deposition in liver,the main target organ for lipid metabolism.The results showed that FMT significantly increased the number of lipid droplets(P=0.0035)and lipid accumulation(P=0.0026)in liver.Furthermore,integrated multi-tissues lipidome analysis demonstrated that the fatty acyls and glycerophospholipids were significantly increased(P<0.01)in intestine and liver,while glycerolipids and fatty acyls were reduced(P<0.01)in plasma.In the small intestine,FMT increased(P<0.01)the relative abundance of polyketides and prenol lipids but reduced(P<0.01)the saccharolipids.Correlation analysis revealed the potential interactions between microbiota and lipid metabolites.Together,our results indicated that the gut microbiota may regulate the lipid metabolism and enhance the accumulation of lipid droplets in the liver of pigs.

Finding Nuggets in Patent Portfolios: Core Patent Mining and Its Applications

Patents are critically important for a company to protect its core business concepts and proprietary technologies. Effective patent mining in massive patent databases not only provides business enterprises with valuable insights to develop strategies for research and development, intellectual property management, and product marketing, but also helps patent offices to improve efficiency and optimize their patent examination processes. This paper describes the patent mining problem of automatically discovering core patents （i.e., novel and influential patents in a domain）. In addition, the value of core patent mining is illustrated by revealing the potential competitive relationships among companies in their core patents. The work addresses the unique patent vocabulary usage which is not considered in traditional word-based statistical methods with a topic-based temporal mining approach that quantifies a patent＇s novelty and influence through topic activeness variations. Tests of this method on real-world patent portfolios show the effectiveness of this approach over state-of-the-art methods.

Dietary guanidinoacetic acid supplementation improves water holding capacity and lowers free amino acid concentration of fresh meat in finishing pigs fed with various dietary protein levels

The current study was carried out to detect the effect of dietary guanidinoacetic acid(GAA)supplementation on carcass characteristics and meat quality in finishing pigs fed different dietary crude protein(CP)levels.Sixty-four barrows with an initial body weight of 73.05±2.34 kg were randomly allocated into 1 of 4 dietary treatments in a 2(100%vs.125%NRC CP level)×2(0 vs.300 mg/kg GAA)factorial arrangement(n=7).The feeding trial lasted for 49 d.GAA supplementation significantly reduced drip loss(P=0.01),free water distribution(T23peak area ratio)(P=0.05)and the concentrations of free alanine,threonine,methionine and isoleucine(P<0.05);but increased total glycine content(P=0.03)in the longissimus dorsi muscle of finishing pigs regardless of the dietary CP levels.Furthermore,primary myogenic cell differentiation system was employed to investigate the influence of inclusion of GAA on free amino acid concentrations in myotubes(n=4)and validate the finding in the animal feeding trial.We found that GAA inclusion in culture medium also decreased intracellular concentrations of free alanine,threonine,methionine,isoleucine,valine and proline in differentiated primary myogenic cells in vitro(P<0.05).Meanwhile,relative to diets with 100%NRC CP level,the intake of diets with 125%NRC CP level improved sarcoplasmic protein solubility,increased the contents of carnosine and total free amino acids as well as flavor amino acids in the longissimus dorsi muscle and decreased backfat thickness at the 6-7th ribs in pigs(P<0.05).In addition,we observed that the impact of dietary GAA supplementation on the last rib fat thickness,shear force,and free lysine content in the longissimus dorsi muscle was dependent on dietary CP levels(P<0.05).Collectively,dietary GAA supplementation can reduce drip loss,decrease the concentrations of free amino acids and flavor amino acids of fresh meat independent of dietary CP levels.

Economics analysis of food waste treatment in China and its influencing factors

This study examines the economic benefits of food waste treatment projects in China and factors affecting them.National-level pilot projects for food waste treatment located in 29 cities were selected as samples.The economics of food waste recycling from the investors’perspective,in terms of investment during the construction phase and cost and benefit during the operation phase,was assessed.Results indicate that the average tonnage investment of food waste treatment projects was RMB 700.0±188.9 thousand yuan,with a profit to cost ratio of 0.08±0.37.This ratio increased to 0.95±0.57 following the application of government subsidies.It highlights the limited economic benefits of food waste treatment facilities,which rely on government subsidies to maintain their operations in China.Further analysis using a multi-factor analysis model revealed that regional location,service population size,processing technique,and urban income exerted varying impacts on the economy of food waste treatment.Population size exerted the highest impact(P=0.016)during the construction stage,and processing techniques notably influenced the project economy during the operation stage.The study highlights the need to prioritize service population size and processing techniques during economic decision-making and management of food waste recycling projects.The results of this study can serve as a valuable practical reference for guiding future policies regarding food waste treatment and related planning.