Recent developments in the field of palaeoanthropology necessitate the suppression of two hominin taxa and the introduction of a new species of hominins to help resolve the current nebulous state of ...Middle Pleistocene (Chibanian) hominin taxonomy. In particular, the poorly defined and variably understood hominin taxa Homo heidelbergensis (both sensu stricto and sensu lato) and Homo rhodesiensis need to be abandoned as they fail to reflect the full range of hominin variability in the Middle Pleistocene. Instead, we propose: (1) introduction of a new taxon, Homo bodoensis sp. nov., as an early Middle Pleistocene ancestor of the Homo sapiens lineage, with a pan‐African distribution that extends into the eastern Mediterranean (Southeast Europe and the Levant); (2) that many of the fossils from Western Europe (e.g. Sima de los Huesos) currently assigned to H. heidelbergensis s.s. be reassigned to Homo neanderthalensis to reflect the early appearance of Neanderthal derived traits in the Middle Pleistocene in the region; and (3) that the Middle Pleistocene Asian fossils, particularly from China, likely represent a different lineage altogether.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Target mimicry is a recently identified regulatory mechanism for microRNA (miRNA) functions in plants in which the decoy RNAs bind to miRNAs via complementary sequences and therefore block the ...interaction between miRNAs and their authentic targets. Both endogenous decoy RNAs (miRNA target mimics) and engineered artificial RNAs can induce target mimicry effects. Yet until now, only the Induced by Phosphate Starvation1 RNA has been proven to be a functional endogenous microRNA target mimic (eTM). In this work, we developed a computational method and systematically identified intergenic or noncoding gene-originated eTMs for 20 conserved miRNAs in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and rice (Oryza sativa). The predicted miRNA binding sites were well conserved among eTMs of the same miRNA, whereas sequences outside of the binding sites varied a lot. We proved that the eTMs of miR160 and miR166 are functional target mimics and identified their roles in the regulation of plant development. The effectiveness of eTMs for three other miRNAs was also confirmed by transient agroinfiltration assay.
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BFBNIB, NMLJ, NUK, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Small RNAs (smRNAs) in plants, mainly microRNAs and small interfering RNAs, play important roles in both transcriptional and post-transcriptional gene regulation. The broad application of ...high-throughput sequencing technology has made routinely generation of bulk smRNA sequences in laboratories possible, thus has significantly increased the need for batch analysis tools. PsRobot is a web-based easy-to-use tool dedicated to the identification of smRNAs with stem-loop shaped precursors (such as microRNAs and short hairpin RNAs) and their target genes/transcripts. It performs fast analysis to identify smRNAs with stem-loop shaped precursors among batch input data and predicts their targets using a modified Smith-Waterman algorithm. PsRobot integrates the expression data of smRNAs in major plant smRNA biogenesis gene mutants and smRNA-associated protein complexes to give clues to the smRNA generation and functional processes. Besides improved specificity, the reliability of smRNA target prediction results can also be evaluated by mRNA cleavage (degradome) data. The cross species conservation statuses and the multiplicity of smRNA target sites are also provided. PsRobot is freely accessible at http://omicslab.genetics.ac.cn/psRobot/.
Two early Late Pleistocene (~105,000- to 125,000-year-old) crania from Lingjing, Xuchang, China, exhibit a morphological mosaic with differences from and similarities to their western contemporaries. ...They share pan–Old World trends in encephalization and in supraorbital, neurocranial vault, and nuchal gracilization. They reflect eastern Eurasian ancestry in having low, sagittally flat, and inferiorly broad neurocrania. They share occipital (suprainiac and nuchal torus) and temporal labyrinthine (semicircular canal) morphology with the Neandertals. This morphological combination reflects Pleistocene human evolutionary patterns in general biology, as well as both regional continuity and interregional population dynamics.
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BFBNIB, NMLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
We report a simple but efficient photocatalytic nitrobenzene reduction method employing eosin Y as the photocatalyst and TEOA as the reducing agent. With green LED light irradiation, the nitro group ...in the nitrobenzenes containing other reducible groups was chemoselectively reduced into an amino group, and the corresponding anilines were isolated in quantitative yields. The photoinduced electron transfer mechanism suggests that the high chemoselectivity originates from the better electron-withdrawing ability of the nitro group.
Aging is an independent risk factor for vascular diseases. Perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT), an active component of the vasculature, contributes to vascular dysfunction during aging. Identification ...of underlying cell types and their changes during aging may provide meaningful insights regarding the clinical relevance of aging‐related vascular diseases. Here, we take advantage of single‐cell RNA sequence to characterize the resident stromal cells in the PVAT (PVASCs) and identified different clusters between young and aged PVASCs. Bioinformatics analysis revealed decreased endothelial and brown adipogenic differentiation capacities of PVASCs during aging, which contributed to neointimal hyperplasia after perivascular delivery to ligated carotid arteries. Mechanistically, in vitro and in vivo studies both suggested that aging‐induced loss of peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor‐γ coactivator‐1 α (PGC1α) was a key regulator of decreased brown adipogenic differentiation in senescent PVASCs. We further demonstrated the existence of human PVASCs (hPVASCs) and overexpression of PGC1α improved hPVASC delivery‐induced vascular remodeling. Our finding emphasizes that differentiation capacities of PVASCs alter during aging and loss of PGC1α in aged PVASCs contributes to vascular remodeling via decreased brown adipogenic differentiation.
Loss of peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor‐γ coactivator‐1 α (PGC1α) in aged PVASCs showed decreased endothelial and adipogenic differentiation, especially brown adipocyte generation, which contribute to neointimal hyperplasia after injured arteries.
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DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an important and urgent threat to global health. Inflammation factors are important for COVID-19 mortality, and we aim to explore whether the baseline levels of ...procalcitonin (PCT), C-reaction protein (CRP) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) are associated with an increased risk of mortality in patients with COVID-19. A retrospective study was conducted and a total of 76 patients with confirmed COVID-19 were included between January 17, 2020 to March 2, 2020, of these cases, 17 patients were dead. After adjusting covariates, PCT (≥ 0.10 ng/mL) and CRP (≥ 52.14 mg/L) exhibited independent increasing risks of mortality were used hazard ratio (HR) of 52.68 (95% confidence interval CI: 1.77-1571.66) and 5.47 (95% CI: 1.04-28.72), respectively. However, NRL (≥ 3.59) was not found to be an independent risk factor for death in our study. Furthermore, the elevated PCT levels were still associated with increasing risk of mortality in the old age group (age ≥ 60 y), and in the critically severe and severe patients after adjustment for complications. Thu Baseline levels of PCT and CRP have been addressed as independent predictors of mortality in patients with COVID-19.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
In the context of Middle and Late Pleistocene eastern Eurasian human crania, the external auditory exostoses (EAE) of the late archaic Xuchang 1 and 2 and the Xujiayao 15 early Late Pleistocene human ...temporal bones are described. Xujiayao 15 has small EAE (Grade 1), Xuchang 1 presents bilateral medium EAE (Grade 2), and Xuchang 2 exhibits bilaterally large EAE (Grade 3), especially on the right side. These cranial remains join the other eastern Eurasian later Pleistocene humans in providing frequencies of 61% (N = 18) and 58% (N = 12) respectively for archaic and early modern human samples. These values are near the upper limits of recent human frequencies, and they imply frequent aquatic exposure among these Pleistocene humans. In addition, the medial extents of the Xuchang 1 and 2 EAE would have impinged on their tympanic membranes, and the large EAE of Xuchang 2 would have resulted in cerumen impaction. Both effects would have produced conductive hearing loss, a serious impairment in a Pleistocene foraging context.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
•ZnTi-LDOs were synthesized by a co-precipitation-calcination process.•ZnTi-LDOs were applied to efficient photocatalytic degradation of MO, RhB and MB.•pH effect on photocatalytic activity was ...investigated.•The active species were detected by free radical quenching experiment.
Zn-Ti layered double oxide (LDO) nanosheets were synthesized by a simple co-precipitation-calcination process for the enhanced photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange (MO), rhodamine B (RhB) and methylene blue (MB). ZnTi-LDOs nanosheets present higher photocatalytic efficiency for MO, RhB and MB removal, which is 5.4, 4.4 and 6.7 times of that of Zn-Ti layered double hydroxide (LDH), respectively. The photocatalytic activity of synthesized ZnTi-LDOs is greatly affected by the mole ratio of Zn/Ti, calcination temperature and pH value. It is found that the formation of ZnO/ZnTiO3 heterojunction in ZnTi-LDOs could effectively accelerate the rapid separation of charge carriers, and thus enhance the photocatalytic activity via enlarging the photoresponse range. The possible charge transfer mechanism for photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes by ZnTi-LDOs was proposed based on the active species test and UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectra. The results of active species trapping experiments showed that ‧OH, ‧O2−, h+, e− all had effect on the degradation of RhB, and ‧OH played a major role. This study provides a new insight for the photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants from wastewater by ZnTi-LDOs.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
10.
The endocranial anatomy of maba 1 Wu, Xiu-jie; Bruner, Emiliano
American journal of physical anthropology,
August 2016, Volume:
160, Issue:
4
Journal Article
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