Phenylethanoid glycosides from traditional Mongolian medicine Cymbaria daurica alleviate alloxan-induced INS-1 cells oxidative stress and apoptosis

Cymbaria daurica L. is a well-known traditional Mongolian medicine, which has been used to treat diabetesrelated conditions characterized by persistent thirst and hunger, copious urination, and weight loss. We aimed to investigate the protective effects of C. daurica extracts and phenylethanoid glycosides including verbascoside and isoacteoside on INS-1 cells. We discovered phenylethanoid glycosides from n-butanol extract with large content through extraction and separation. We continue to study the protective effects of phenylethanoid glycosides including verbascoside and isoacteoside on INS-1 cells. INS-1 cells were treated with C. daurica, cell viability assay, RNA-seq technology, superoxide dismutase activity and malonaldehyde content, quantitative real time-PCR and Western blot analysis were used to study the protective effects of C. daurica. Cell viability assay resulted that n-butanol extract and verbascoside, isoacteoside showed protective effects of C. daurica. According to the RNA-seq technology to identify the differentially expressed genes in INS-1 cells, the pathway of gene enrich the protective effect of C. daurica on oxidative stress. SOD activity and the content of MDA indicated that C. daurica could enhance the antioxidant capacity of INS-1 cells. Further investigation indicated C. daurica alleviate oxidative stress by inhibiting INS-1 cell apoptosis. C. daurica may play an anti-diabetic role by inhibiting islet cell apoptosis.

Transcriptome Analysis of Inflorescence Development at the Five-Leaf Stage in Castor(Ricinus communis L.)

The yield of castor is influenced by the type of inflorescence and the proportion of female flowers.However,there are few studies on the genetic mechanism involved in the development and differentiation of castor inflorescences.In this study,we performed transcriptomic analyses of three different phenotypes of inflorescences at the five-leaf stage.In comparison to the MI(complete pistil without willow leaves),290 and 89 differentially expressed genes(DEGs)were found in the SFI(complete pistil with willow leaves)and the BI(monoecious inflorescence),respectively.Among the DEGs,104 and 88 were upregulated in the SFI and BI,respectively,compared to the MI.In addition,186 DEGs and 1 DEG were downregulated in the SFI and BI compared to the MI.Moreover,we conducted GO and KEGG enrichment analyses of the DEGs.In comparison to the MI,the SFI and BI exhibited the enrichment of functional branches in DEGs,specifically in pollen wall assembly,pollen development,and cellular component assembly involved in morphogenesis.In our study,RADL5 showed low expression levels between SFI-vs.-MI types.In addition,we found that the expression of NAC in the SFI differed from that in MI and BI,and some genes related to hormonal signaling changed their expression levels during inflorescence differentiation.These results reveal the genetic mechanism of sex genotypes in castor,which will not only guide researchers in the breeding of castor but also provide a reference for genetic research on other flowering plants.

Kalman Filter-Based CNN-BiLSTM-ATT Model for Traffic Flow Prediction

To accurately predict traffic flow on the highways,this paper proposes a Convolutional Neural Network-Bi-directional Long Short-Term Memory-Attention Mechanism(CNN-BiLSTM-Attention)traffic flow prediction model based on Kalman-filtered data processing.Firstly,the original fluctuating data is processed by Kalman filtering,which can reduce the instability of short-term traffic flow prediction due to unexpected accidents.Then the local spatial features of the traffic data during different periods are extracted,dimensionality is reduced through a one-dimensional CNN,and the BiLSTM network is used to analyze the time series information.Finally,the Attention Mechanism assigns feature weights and performs Soft-max regression.The experimental results show that the data processed by Kalman filter is more accurate in predicting the results on the CNN-BiLSTM-Attention model.Compared with the CNN-BiLSTM model,the Root Mean Square Error(RMSE)of the Kal-CNN-BiLSTM-Attention model is reduced by 17.58 and Mean Absolute Error(MAE)by 12.38,and the accuracy of the improved model is almost free from non-working days.To further verify the model’s applicability,the experiments were re-run using two other sets of fluctuating data,and the experimental results again demonstrated the stability of the model.Therefore,the Kal-CNN-BiLSTM-Attention traffic flow prediction model proposed in this paper is more applicable to a broader range of data and has higher accuracy.

Network pharmacology-based screening of the active ingredients and mechanisms of Cymbaria daurica against diabetes mellitus

Cymbaria daurica L.has a long history as a folk medicine and tea for the treatment of diabetes.However,the biological activity and mechanism of its hypoglycemic effect have not been fully elucidated.In this study,the potential mechanism of C.daurica against type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM)was postulated via pharmacological network analysis.Based on data mining techniques involving topological parameters,gene ontology,and pathway enrichment,we established a compound-target,protein-protein interaction,and target-pathway network to identify central targets and pathways.Pathway enrichment analysis revealed that the most important pathway associated with C.daurica in treating T2DM is the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway.Molecular docking was performed to validate the predicted results.Then,a HepG2 cell insulin resistance model and a high-fat,high-glucose diet combined with a streptozotocin-induced T2DM rat model was established to assess the fasting glucose changes and lipid profile after C.daurica treatment,respectively.Finally,real-time PCR and western blotting were used to verify changes in key targets.The anti-diabetic mechanism of the active ingredient in C.daurica may involve the regulation of IRS-2,Akt1,GLUT4,and GSK3β.

Functional Studies of Castor(Ricinus communis L.)PLC Family Genes in Arabidopsis Inflorescence Development

Castor(Ricinus communis L.)is one of the top 10 oil crops in the world,and inflorescence is a trait that directly affects its yield.Phospholipase C(PLCs)is involved in many plant activities and metabolic processes.To study the functions of PLC family genes in the regulation of the inflorescence development of the female line of Lm-type castor aLmAB2,we determined the expression levels of six PLC family genes of three types of inflorescences of aLmAB2(isofemale line,female line,bisexual line)at different developmental stages.The results showed that the 6 genes of the castor PLC family had relative expression levels at different developmental stages of the three types of inflorescences.The subcellular location of all six protein products was the cell membrane.The six genes were heterologously overexpressed in Arabidopsis thaliana to obtain the T3 generation-resistant Arabidopsis thaliana plants.The results showed that the overexpression of six genes significantly promoted the maturation of Arabidopsis thaliana,the growth of lateral moss,and the development of flowers and pods,but the development of basal leaves and stem leaves of Arabidopsis thaliana was significantly inhibited.According to homology analysis,it is speculated that PLC2,PLC2M,PLC2N,PLC4,PLC4X2,and PLC6 genes have the same regulatory function.

Proteomic Analyses of Three Inflorescence Styles of Castor(Ricinus communis L.)at Different Developmental Stages

Castor(Ricinus communis L.)is one of ten oil crops in the world and has complex inflorescence styles.Generally,castor has three inflorescence types:single female inflorescence(SiFF),standard female inflorescence(StFF)and bisexual inflorescence(BF).StFF is realized as a restorer line and as a maintainer line,which was applied to castor hybrid breeding.However,the developmental mechanism of the three inflorescences is not clear.Therefore,we used proteomic techniques to analyze different inflorescence styles.A total of 72 diferentially abundant protein species(DAPs)were detected.These DAPs are primarily involved in carbon and energy metabolism and carbon fixation in the photosynthetic organism pathway.The results showed that DAPs are involved in photosynthesis to control the distribution of imported carbohydrates and exported photoassimilates and thus affect the inflorescence development of castor.In addition,these DAPs are also involved in cysteine and methionine metabolism.Quantitative real-time PCR(qRT-PCR)results demonstrated that the proteomics data collected in this study were reliable.Our findings indicate that the carbon cycle and amino acid metabolism influence the inflorescence development of castor.

Effects of Heterologously Overexpressing PIP5K-Family Genes in Arabidopsis on Inflorescence Development

Castor is one of the top 10 oil crops in the world and has extremely valuable uses.Castor inflorescences directly affect yield,so the study of inflorescence development is very important in increasing castor yield.Our previous studies have shown that the PIP5K gene family(PIP5Ks)is associated with inflorescence development.In this study,to determine the function of each PIP5K gene in castor,a female Lm-type castor line,aLmAB2,was used to determine the relative expression levels of the PIP5Ks in castor inflorescences.Six PIP5K genes were heterologously overexpressed in Arabidopsis thaliana,the relative expression of each gene and the effect on plants was determined in A.thaliana,and the relationships among the PIP5Ks in castor were inferred.The expression levels of the PIP5Ks in the female Lm-type castor line aLmAB2 were analyzed.The relative expression levels of the PIP5K9 and PIP5K11 genes were high(p<0.05)in isofemale inflorescences,and those of PIP5K1,PIP5K2,PIP5K6,and PIP5K8 were high(p<0.05)in female inflorescences but low(p<0.05)in bisexual inflorescences.The PIP5Ks were heterologously overexpressed in A.thaliana,and T3-generation plants with stable genetic resistance,i.e.,AT-PIP5K^(+)plants(AT-PIP5K1^(+),AT-PIP5K2^(+),AT-PIP5K6^(+),AT-PIP5K8^(+),AT-PIP5K9^(+),and ATPIP5K11^(+) plants),were obtained.Biological tests of the AT-PIP5K+plants showed that the growth of the main stem was significantly delayed in AT-PIP5K+plants compared with Columbia wild-type(WT)A.thaliana plants;the PIP5K1 and PIP5K2 genes promoted lateral stem growth and flower and silique development;and the PIP5K6,PIP5K8,PIP5K9 and PIP5K11 genes inhibited lateral stem growth and flower and silique development.The correlations among PIP5Ks in castor suggest that there may be a synergistic relationship among PIP5K1,PIP5K2,and PIP5K6 in castor inflorescences,and PIP5K8,PIP5K9,and PIP5K11 are complementary to the other three genes.

In vitro establishment of a highly effective method of castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) regeneration using shoot explants

An efficient plant regeneration protocol was established for castor bean （Ricinus communis L.）, in which 0.3 mg L-1 thidiazuron （TDZ） induced shoot clusters and increased the number of adventitious shoots from hypocotyl tissue. Our results showed that treatment under dark conditions significantly promoted the average number of shoots per explant to 37.36±4.54 （with a 6-d treatment）. Modified 1/2 Murashige and Skoog （MS） basal medium supplemented with 440 mg L-1 Ca2＋, 0.2 mg L-1 gibberellic acid and 0.1 mg L-1 TDZ significantly increased shoot elongation rates and lowered vitrification rates. Further- more, 1/2 MS media supplemented with 0.2 mg L-11-naphthaleneacetic acid induced a higher rooting rate compared with other culture conditions.

Study on Maize-water Model for Supplemental Irrigation in Loess Plateau

The Loess Plateau has a typical semi-arid climate, and the area suffers from very harsh ecological environment, severe soil erosion and water runoff, and uneven distributed precipitation. Due to the relatively low holding capacity, current rainwater-collecting and conservation facilities can only supplement a maximum of18 mm of water for crop production in each irrigation. In this study, mathematical models were constructed to identify the water requirement critical period of maize crop by evaluating response of each individual developmental stage to supplemental irrigation with harvested rainwater. In the transformed Jensen model, ETmin/Eta was used as the index of relative evapotranspiration. The use of relative yield and relative crop evapotranspiration was able to eliminate influences from unintended environmental factors. A BP neural network crop-water model for extreme water deficit condition was constructed using the index of relative evapotranspiration as the input and the index of relative yield as the output after iterative training and adjustment of weight values. Comparison of measured maize yields to those predicted by the two models confirmed that the BP neural network crop-water model is more accurate than the transformed Jensen model in predicting the sensitivity index to waterdeficit at various growth stages and maize yield when provided with supplemental irrigation with harvested rainwater.

Facile and controllable synthesis of BaCO_3 crystals superstructures using a CO_2-storage material

We here report a new CO_2 capture and storage method that converts CO_2 into a novel alkyl carbonate salt, denoted as CO_2 SM, by a system consisting of equimolar 1,4-butanediol(BDO) and 1,2-ethylenediamine(EDA). This novel CO_2 SM was then used to prepare BaCO_3 crystals through a simple and fast hydrothermal synthesis under mild conditions. The CO_2 SM was both the source of CO_2 and the modifier to regulate the nucleation and growth of BaCO_3 crystals. The morphology of the BaCO_3 crystals could be tuned from rod to shuttle by adjusting the key influencing factors, including CO_2 SM concentration, mineralization temperature, and mineralization time. A possible mechanism for the synthesis of BaCO_3 crystals from the CO_2 SM was also presented. After the BaCO_3 crystals were isolated, the filtrate of the hydrothermal reaction could be recycled to again absorb CO_2 and prepare BaCO_3 crystals of the same polymorph. This novel approach appears promising for preparing well-formed metal carbonates.

Recognition model for coated red clover seeds using YOLOv5s optimized with an attention module

The non-destructive recognition of coated seeds is crucial for advancing studies in coating theory.Currently,the recognition of coated seeds heavily relies on manual visual inspection and machine vision detection.However,these methods pose challenges such as high misclassification rates,low recognition efficiency,and elevated labor intensity.In response to the aforementioned challenges,this study leveraged deep learning techniques to develop a coated seed recognition model named YOLO-Coated Seeds Recognition(YOLO-CSR),aiming to address the challenges posed by coated seed recognition tasks.The experiment of this study mainly includes the following steps:First,a seed coating machine was set up to coat red clover seeds,resulting in three types of coated red clover seeds.Subsequently,by collecting images of the three types of coated seeds,a coated seed image dataset was further constructed.Then,the YOLOv5s was built,incorporating the Convolutional Block Attention Module(CBAM)into the model’s backbone to enhance its ability to learn features of coated seeds.Finally,the training results of YOLO-CSR were compared with those of other classical recognition models.The experimental results showed that YOLO-CSR achieved the best recognition performance on the self-built coated seed image dataset.The average precision(AP)for recognizing the three types of coated seeds reached 98.43%,97.91%,and 97.26%,with a mean average precision@0.5(mAP@0.5)of 97.87%.Compared to YOLOv5,YOLO-CSR showed a 1.18%improvement in mAP@0.5.Additionally,YOLO-CSR has a model size of only 14.9 MB,with an average recognition time(ART)of 10.1 ms and a frame per second(FPS)of 99.Experimental results prove that YOLO-CSR can accurately,efficiently,and rapidly recognize coated red clover seeds.The findings of this study provide technical support for the non-destructive recognition of spherical coated seeds.

Gut microbiota axis:potential target of phytochemicals from plant-based foods

Food-microbiota-host interactions provide an overarching framework for understanding the function of the gut microbiota axis.Diet is a major modulator of gut microbiota.Plant-based foods are rich in phytochemicals;therefore,it is essential to assess such foods and elucidate the mechanisms underlying their action.In this review,we summarize the role of gut microbiota in the communication between the gut and the brain,liver,lung,kidney,and joints,as well as the role of the gut microbiota axis in diseases involving these organs.In addition,we assess the effects of phytochemicals from plant-based foods on the gut microbiota axis via different pathways.

Silencing of the Nonspecific Phospholipase C6(NPC6)Gene Induces Ricinoleic Acid Accumulation in Castor Seeds

Castor,scientifically known as Ricinus communis L.,is among the top ten oil crops globally.It is considered a renewable resource and is commonly referred to as‘green oil’.Castor seeds contain castor oil as their main component,which is predominantly composed of ricinoleic acid.This study utilized RNAi technology to silence the NPC6 gene in NO.2129 castor,resulting in the creation of mutant plants L1 and L2.The weight of 100 dry seed kernels from L1 and L2 exceeds that from NO.2129.The crude fat and ricinoleic acid levels of L1 and L2 were higher than those of NO.2129 at various developmental stages.In the proteomics analysis of 60-day-old castor seeds,a total of 21 differentially expressed proteins were identified,out of which 19 were successfully recognized.Eleven of the differentially expressed proteins identified were legumins,which play a crucial role in nutrient storage within the seed.Silencing the NPC6 gene results in the accumulation of ricinoleic acid in castor seeds.The findings of this study not only enhance our knowledge of NPC6’s role in regulating castor seed oil synthesis but also offer fresh perspectives for investigating oil synthesis and accumulation in other plant species.

Thermoelectric enhancement in triple-doped strontium titanate with multi-scale microstructure

Strontium titanate(SrTiO_(3))is a thermoelectric material with large Seebeck coefficient that has potential applications in high-temperature power generators.To simultaneously achieve a low thermal conductivity and high electrical conductivity,polycrystalline SrTiO_(3)with a multi-scale architecture was designed by the co-doping with lanthanum,cerium,and niobium.High-quality nano-powders were synthesized via a hydrothermal method.Nano-inclusions and a nano/micro-sized second phase precipitated during sintering to form mosaic crystal-like and epitaxial-like structures,which decreased the thermal conductivity.Substituting trivalent Ce and/or La with divalent Sr and substituting pentavalent Nb with tetravalent Ti enhanced the electrical conductivity without decreasing the Seebeck coefficient.By optimizing the dopant type and ratio,a low thermal conductivity of 2.77 W·m^(-1)·K^(-1)and high PF of 1.1 mW·m^(-1)·K^(-2)at 1000 K were obtained in the sample co-doped with 5-mol%La,5-mol%Ce,and 5-mol%Nb,which induced a large ZT of 0.38 at 1000 K.

Bioactive effects advances of natural polysaccharides

Taking into account the rising incidence of metabolic diseases,it is an urgent need for effective treatments to control human health problems.Natural polysaccharides have been found effective on metabolic diseases in more and more researches.In the context of serious side effects of drugs,natural polysaccharides will be verified in the prevention and treatment of metabolic diseases and show their advantages of low toxicity and high efficiency.This review mainly summarized the activity of polysaccharides from different sources in regulating metabolism,and laid a reference for metabolic diseases by natural polysaccharides.