The ecotoxicological effects of Ciprofloxacin hydrochloride (CIP) were tested on population densities of plankton assemblages consisting of two algae (Isochrysis galbana and Platymonas ...subcordiformis) and a rotifer (Brachionus plicatilis). The I. galbana showed a significant decrease in densities when concentrations of CIP were above 2.0 mg L
in single-species tests, while P. subcordiformis and B. plicatilis were stable in densities when CIP were less than10.0 mg L
. The equilibrium densities of I. galbana in community test increased with CIP concentrations after falling to a trough at 5.0 mg L
, showed a completely different pattern of P. subcordiformis which decreased with CIP concentrations after reaching a peak at 30.0 mg L
. The observed beneficial effect was a result of interspecies interactions of trophic cascade that buffered for more severe direct effects of toxicants. The community test-based NOEC of CIP (2.0 mg L
), embodying the indirect effects, was different from the extrapolated one derived by single-species tests (0.5 mg L
), but all lacked confidence interval. A CIP threshold concentration of obvious relevance to ecological interaction was calculated with a simplified plankton ecological model, achieving a value of 1.26 mg L
with a 95% bootstrapping confidence interval from 1.18 to 1.31 mg L
.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
As an information technology that could significantly improve supply chain visibility and process automation, blockchain has been extensively applied in the field of supply chain finance (SCF). ...However, tradeoffs among the security, the operation cost, and the efficiency of the blockchain system may cause the SCF system dominated by a financial institution to inevitably fall into the dilemmas of risky or un-economic if the blockchain technology is applied inappropriately. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to optimise the blockchain application in the financial institution-based SCF system. We first analyse the application of blockchain security in SCF, and then the performance tradeoffs of blockchain and its impact on the performance of the supported SCF system. Based on the analysis above, an optimisation approach has been proposed and a corresponding non-linear integer programming (NIP) model has been constructed to select the best blockchain design schemes for the SCF system to achieve overall optimal in terms of security, cost, and efficiency. A designed ant colony algorithm is used to solve the optimisation problem. An application case analysis is used to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the optimisation model.
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BFBNIB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
End resection in homologous recombination (HR) and HR-mediated repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) removes several kilobases from 5′ strands of DSBs, but 3′ strands are exempted from ...degradation. The mechanism by which the 3′ overhangs are protected has not been determined. Here, we established that the protection of 3′ overhangs is achieved through the transient formation of RNA-DNA hybrids. The DNA strand in the hybrids is the 3′ ssDNA overhang, while the RNA strand is newly synthesized. RNA polymerase III (RNAPIII) is responsible for synthesizing the RNA strand. Furthermore, RNAPIII is actively recruited to DSBs by the MRN complex. CtIP and MRN nuclease activity is required for initiating the RNAPIII-mediated RNA synthesis at DSBs. A reduced level of RNAPIII suppressed HR, and genetic loss > 30 bp increased at DSBs. Thus, RNAPIII is an essential HR factor, and the RNA-DNA hybrid is an essential repair intermediate for protecting the 3′ overhangs in DSB repair.
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•RNAPIII actively catalyzes transcription at DSBs and promotes end resection•The 3′ overhangs are protected through the transient formation of RNA-DNA hybrids•The RNA-DNA hybrid is an essential intermediate of homologous recombination•Disruption of RNA-DNA hybrid formation causes genetic deletions
During homologous recombination (HR) and the HR-mediated repair of DNA double-strand breaks, RNA polymerase III synthesizes an RNA strand that transiently forms an RNA-DNA hybrid to protect the 3′ overhang from degradation.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The target and mechanism of ellagic acid (EA) against rotavirus (RV) were investigated by network pharmacology, computational biology, and surface plasmon resonance verification. The target of EA was ...obtained from 11 databases such as HIT and TCMSP, and RV-related targets were obtained from the Gene Cards database. The relevant targets were imported into the Venny platform to draw a Venn diagram, and their intersections were visualized. The protein-protein interaction networks (PPI) were constructed using STRING, DAVID database, and Cytoscape software, and key targets were screened. The target was enriched by Gene Ontology (GO) and KEGG pathway, and the 'EA anti-RV target-pathway network' was constructed. Schrodinger Maestro 13.5 software was used for molecular docking to determine the binding free energy and binding mode of ellagic acid and target protein. The Desmond program was used for molecular dynamics simulation. Saturation mutagenesis analysis was performed using Schrodinger's Maestro 13.5 software. Finally, the affinity between ellagic acid and TLR4 protein was investigated by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) experiments. The results of network pharmacological analysis showed that there were 35 intersection proteins, among which Interleukin-1β (IL-1β), Albumin (ALB), Nuclear factor kappa-B1 (NF-κB1), Toll-Like Receptor 4 (TLR4), Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), Tumor protein p53 (TP53), Recombinant SMAD family member 3 (SAMD3), Epidermal growth factor (EGF) and Interleukin-4 (IL-4) were potential core targets of EA anti-RV. The GO analysis consists of biological processes (BP), cellular components (CC), and molecular functions (MF). The KEGG pathways with the highest gene count were mainly related to enteritis, cancer, IL-17 signaling pathway, and MAPK signaling pathway. Based on the crystal structure of key targets, the complex structure models of TP53-EA, TLR4-EA, TNF-EA, IL-1β-EA, ALB-EA, NF-κB1-EA, SAMD3-EA, EGF-EA, and IL-4-EA were constructed by molecular docking (XP mode of flexible docking). The MMGBS analysis and molecular dynamics simulation were also studied. The Δaffinity of TP53 was highest in 220 (CYS → TRP), 220 (CYS → TYR), and 220 (CYS → PHE), respectively. The Δaffinity of TLR4 was highest in 136 (THR → TYR), 136 (THR → PHE), and 136 (THR → TRP). The Δaffinity of TNF-α was highest in 150 (VAL → TRP), 18 (ALA → GLU), and 144 (PHE → GLY). SPR results showed that ellagic acid could bind TLR4 protein specifically. TP53, TLR4, and TNF-α are potential targets for EA to exert anti-RV effects, which may ultimately provide theoretical basis and clues for EA to be used as anti-RV drugs by regulating TLR4/NF-κB related pathways.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
The load capacity of small robots plays a crucial role in practical applications. Drawing inspiration from biological load‐carrying mechanisms, a crawling robot based on piezoelectric bending is ...proposed. It is an insect‐scale piezoelectric‐driven crawling robot with a load capacity of 100.4 times its weight, which is the highest measured among published insect‐scale robots. The robot was designed and fabricated in a monolithic manner, enhancing the assembly efficiency of the robot. It weighs only 0.68 g and has a length of only 40 mm. The robot can achieve rapid movement and jumping by using two different driving methods. Its maximum forward speed is 7.77 BL/s (body lengths per second), and it can reach a forward speed of 1 BL/s under a load of 41.6 g, the maximum load of the robot is 68.24 g. It can move rapidly, climb slopes, traverse ground obstacles, and pass through pipes, similar to an insect.
The prototype robot is only 0.68 g, and it has a body length (BL) of 4 cm. The maximum load of the robot is 68.24 g (100.4 times its weight) with speed of 0.2 BL/s. It can move rapidly, climb slopes, traverse ground obstacles, and pass through pipes, similar to an insect.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Beta vulgaris L. is one of the main sugar-producing crop species and is highly adaptable to saline soil. This study explored the alterations to the carbon and nitrogen metabolism mechanisms enabling ...the roots of sugar beet seedlings to adapt to salinity.
The ionome, metabolome, and transcriptome of the roots of sugar beet seedlings were evaluated after 1 day (short term) and 7 days (long term) of 300 mM Na
treatment. Salt stress caused reactive oxygen species (ROS) damage and ion toxicity in the roots. Interestingly, under salt stress, the increase in the Na
/K
ratio compared to the control ratio on day 7 was lower than that on day 1 in the roots. The transcriptomic results showed that a large number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were enriched in various metabolic pathways. A total of 1279 and 903 DEGs were identified on days 1 and 7, respectively, and were mapped mainly to 10 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways. Most of the genes were involved in carbon metabolism and amino acid (AA) biosynthesis. Furthermore, metabolomic analysis revealed that sucrose metabolism and the activity of the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle increased in response to salt stress. After 1 day of stress, the content of sucrose decreased, whereas the content of organic acids (OAs) such as L-malic acid and 2-oxoglutaric acid increased. After 7 days of salt stress, nitrogen-containing metabolites such as AAs, betaine, melatonin, and (S)-2-aminobutyric acid increased significantly. In addition, multiomic analysis revealed that the expression of the gene encoding xanthine dehydrogenase (XDH) was upregulated and that the expression of the gene encoding allantoinase (ALN) was significantly downregulated, resulting in a large accumulation of allantoin. Correlation analysis revealed that most genes were significantly related to only allantoin and xanthosine.
Our study demonstrated that carbon and nitrogen metabolism was altered in the roots of sugar beet plants under salt stress. Nitrogen metabolism plays a major role in the late stages of salt stress. Allantoin, which is involved in the purine metabolic pathway, may be a key regulator of sugar beet salt tolerance.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Abstract
Scintillators that exhibit X-ray-excited luminescence have great potential in radiation detection, X-ray imaging, radiotherapy, and non-destructive testing. However, most reported ...scintillators are limited to inorganic or organic crystal materials, which have some obstacles in repeatability and processability. Here we present a facile strategy to achieve the X-ray-excited organic phosphorescent scintillation from amorphous copolymers through the copolymerization of the bromine-substituted chromophores and acrylic acid. These polymeric scintillators exhibit efficient X-ray responsibility and decent phosphorescent quantum yield up to 51.4% under ambient conditions. The universality of the design principle was further confirmed by a series of copolymers with multi-color radioluminescence ranging from green to orange-red. Moreover, we demonstrated their potential application in X-ray radiography. This finding not only outlines a feasible principle to develop X-ray responsive phosphorescent polymers, but also expands the potential applications of polymer materials with phosphorescence features.
Recent studies have shown that oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) is a target for the effective attenuation of cancer drug resistance. OXPHOS inhibitors can improve treatment responses to anticancer ...therapy in certain cancers, such as melanomas, lymphomas, colon cancers, leukemias and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). However, the effect of OXPHOS on cancer drug resistance is complex and associated with cell types in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Cancer cells universally promote OXPHOS activity through the activation of various signaling pathways, and this activity is required for resistance to cancer therapy. Resistant cancer cells are prevalent among cancer stem cells (CSCs), for which the main metabolic phenotype is increased OXPHOS. CSCs depend on OXPHOS to survive targeting by anticancer drugs and can be selectively eradicated by OXPHOS inhibitors. In contrast to that in cancer cells, mitochondrial OXPHOS is significantly downregulated in tumor-infiltrating T cells, impairing antitumor immunity. In this review, we summarize novel research showing the effect of OXPHOS on cancer drug resistance, thereby explaining how this metabolic process plays a dual role in cancer progression. We highlight the underlying mechanisms of metabolic reprogramming in cancer cells, as it is vital for discovering new drug targets.
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To achieve the best management of the ecosystem and sustainable socioeconomic development, it is crucial to clarify the matching relationship between the supply and demand of ecosystem services ...(ESs). Four types of ESs were chosen for the Hexi region in this study: food supply, carbon sequestration, water yield, wind erosion control and sediment retention. We assessed the supply-demand and matching relationships of different ESs using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Service and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model, the ESs supply-demand ratio and the four-quadrant model. Moreover, we also analyzed the supply-demand ratio of integrated ESs and their cold spots. The findings suggest that (1) from 2000 to 2020, the average supply of food supply, carbon sequestration, water yield, wind erosion control and sediment retention increased by 44.31 t/km
, 128.44 t/hm
, 14,545.94 m
/km
and 0.14 kg/m
respectively, which showed a spatial pattern of "high in the southeast and low in the northwest". The average demand for food supply and carbon sequestration increased by 1.33 t/km
and 0.32 t/hm
respectively, while the average demand for water yield and wind erosion control and sediment retention decreased by 2997.25 m
/km
and 1.19 kg/km
respectively. The spatial distribution is consistent with the layout of population density, production and residential areas, and fragile ecological areas. (2) The supply-demand ratio of food supply, carbon sequestration and water yield is greater than 0.095, which is in a state of oversupply, and the supply-demand ratio of wind erosion control and sediment retention is less than 0, which is in a state of shortage; all ESs are mainly in low-low spatial matching areas, mainly concentrated in the desert areas of the northwest in the Hexi region. (3) The supply-demand ratio of integrated ESs increased by 0.024, and the proportion of cold spots and sub-cold spots was more than 50% and concentrated in the northwest, while hot spots and sub-hot spots accounted for only about 16%, mainly distributed in the southern Qilian Mountains and some oasis areas.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Conventional deep learning methods have shown promising results in the medical domain when trained on accurate ground truth data. Pragmatically, due to constraints like lack of time or annotator ...inexperience, the ground truth data obtained from clinical environments may not always be impeccably accurate. In this paper, we investigate whether the presence of noise in ground truth data can be mitigated. We propose an innovative and efficient approach that addresses the challenge posed by noise in segmentation labels. Our method consists of four key components within a deep learning framework. First, we introduce a Vision Transformer-based modified encoder combined with a convolution-based decoder for the segmentation network, capitalizing on the recent success of self-attention mechanisms. Second, we consider a public CT spine segmentation dataset and devise a preprocessing step to generate (and even exaggerate) noisy labels, simulating real-world clinical situations. Third, to counteract the influence of noisy labels, we incorporate an adaptive denoising learning strategy (ADL) into the network training. Finally, we demonstrate through experimental results that the proposed method achieves noise-robust performance, outperforming existing baseline segmentation methods across multiple evaluation metrics.
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