Egg production, an important economic trait in the poultry industry, is sensitive to heat stress. The hypothalamus is a crucial center for thermoregulation by detecting temperature changes and ...regulating the autonomic nervous system in poultry. Baihu decoction (BH), which contains four ingredients (Rhizoma Anemarrhenae, Gypsum Fibrosum, Radix Glycyrrhizae, and Semen Oryzae Nonglutinosae), is a traditional Chinese medicinal formula for clearing heat. Our study aimed to investigate the changes in gene transcription levels in the hypothalamus of laying hens treated with heat stress with and without BH using RNA sequencing. A total of 223 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in the heat-treated group compared with the control group and 613 DEGs were identified in the BH group compared with the heat-treated group. Heat shock led to significant changes in the expression of multiple genes involved in the “neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction” pathway. Moreover, feeding BH led to significant upregulation in the expression of eight genes encoding heat shock proteins (HSPs), which were highlighted as candidates to control the “protein processing in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)” pathway. These results provide the novel insight that BH responds to heat stress by participating in regulation of the ER signaling pathway and HSPs expression.
Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), essential amino acids for the human body, are mainly obtained from food. High levels of BCAAs in circulation are considered as potential markers of ...metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) in humans. However, there are conflicting reports about the effects of supplement of BCAAs on MAFLD, and research on BCAAs and gut microbiota is not comprehensive. Here, C57BL/6J mice were fed with a high-fat diet with or without BCAAs to elucidate the effects of BCAAs on the gut microbiota and metabolic functions in a mouse model of MAFLD. Compared to high-fat diet (HFD) feeding, BCAA supplementation significantly reduced the mouse body weight, ratio of liver/body weight, hepatic lipid accumulation, serum levels of total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and the expressions of the lipogenesis-related enzymes Fas, Acc, and Scd-1 and increased expressions of the lipolysis-related enzymes Cpt1A and Atgl in the liver. BCAAs supplementation also counteracted HFD-induced elevations in serum BCAAs levels by stimulating the enzymatic activity of BCKDH. Furthermore, BCAAs supplementation markedly improved the gut bacterial diversity and altered the gut microbiota composition and abundances, especially those of genera, in association with MAFLD and BCAAs metabolism. These data suggest that BCAA treatment improves HFD-induced MAFLD through mechanisms involving intestinal microbes.
The Upper Triassic flysch—Langjiexue Group (tentatively named the “Shannan Terrane”) of the eastern Himalaya Orogen has been tectonically assigned either to the Tethys Himalaya or the Yarlung Zangbo ...Suture Zone (YZSZ). In this work, geochronology of detrital zircon U–Pb isotope shows that the Shannan Terrane is characterized by the population of ~260–200Ma (peak ca. 240Ma), strongly supporting the view of no affinity to the Tethys Himalaya. The detrital zircons dated as ~400–290Ma display relatively positive εHf(t) values of −5.0 to +15.0 with TDMC ages of 2.6–1.3Ga for the Shannan Terrane, whereas highly negative are of −20.0 to −5.0 for the Lhasa Terrane, indicating that the two terranes have different Devonian–Carboniferous sources. Numerous Cr-spinels found in the Shannan Terrane but not in the Lhasa Terrane, exhibit contents in Cr2O3 and Cr# of mainly 44–100% and 48–95%, in TiO2 of 0.01–1.0%, and in Al2O3 of 5–257%, respectively, denoting several parent lithologies. These differences suggested that the Shannan Terrane has multiple sources, not only from the Lhasa Terrane, but also from oceanic (island) arc/seamount and mid-ocean ridge areas as well as likely from Greater India and Australia. Considering the Early Cretaceous diabase dykes within the Upper Triassic flysch defined to the Comei–Bunbury Large Igneous Province, we propose that the Langjiexue Group could have been deposited on the ocean between India and Australia, and would have not stopped till the Lhasa Terrane was separated from Australia during the terminal Triassic. According to the Cenozoic deformation and metamorphic history and palaeogeography of the Langjiexue Group, we postulate that the Shannan Terrane could have been loaded onto the Greater India during the middle Early Cretaceous, and subsequently drifted northward to the collision zone of India and Asia, implying that it does not represent an accretionary prism within the YZSZ.
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•Upper Triassic flysch in eastern Himalaya orogen is of multiple sources.•Sedimentary basin was formed on ocean between India and Australia.•Shannan Terrane was upheaved onto Greater India till collision of India and Asia.•The flysch is not an accretionary prism within Yarlung Zangbo Suture.
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•Pig manure bacteria were tracked in a soil–plant system based on SynCom approach.•Firmicutes of SynCom were efficiently filtered out in the rhizosphere.•Invasion of SynCom spread ...TRGs from pig manure to soil and plant.•Priority establishment of soil bacteria limited spread of manured TRGs in systems.•Doxycycline promoted HGT of the resistance plasmid RP4 within SynCom in A. thaliana.
The spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in agroecosystems through the application of animal manure is a global threat to human and environmental health. However, the adaptability and colonization ability of animal manure-derived bacteria determine the spread pathways of ARG in agroecosystems, which have rarely been studied. Here, we performed an invasion experiment by creating a synthetic communities (SynCom) with ten isolates from pig manure and followed its assembly during gnotobiotic cultivation of a soil-Arabidopsis thaliana (A. thaliana) system. We found that Firmicutes in the SynCom were efficiently filtered out in the rhizosphere, thereby limiting the entry of tetracycline resistance genes (TRGs) into the plant. However, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria in the SynCom were able to establish in all compartments of the soil–plant system thereby spreading TRGs from manure to soil and plant. The presence of native soil bacteria prevented the establishment of manure-borne bacteria and effectively reduced the spread of TRGs. Achromobacter mucicolens and Pantoea septica were the main vectors for the entry of tetA into plants. Furthermore, doxycycline stress promoted the horizontal gene transfer (HGT) of the conjugative resistance plasmid RP4 within the SynCom in A. thaliana by upregulating the expression of HGT-related mRNAs. Therefore, this study provides evidence for the dissemination pathways of ARGs in agricultural systems through the invasion of manure-derived bacteria and HGT by conjugative resistance plasmids and demonstrates that the priority establishment of soil bacteria in the rhizosphere limited the spread of TRGs from pig manure to soil-plant systems.
The early Albian Oceanic Anoxic Event (OAE), i.e., OAE1b, is well documented in western Tethys and in the primary North Atlantic Ocean, but has not yet been reported from eastern Tethys. In this ...paper, we present bulk carbon isotope data of hemipelagites to examine if it was recorded in eastern Tethys. Samples were taken from the upper Chuangdepu Member (nannofossil zone CC8) of the lower Gyabula (former Shadui) Formation at the Bangbu section, Qonggyai, southern Tibet of China. The δ13C values mainly range from −0.6‰ to 1.8‰ with a maximum of 1.87‰ and a minimum of −0.69‰. Three stages of carbon isotope evolution were distinguished with three boundaries. By the constraint of the stratigraphic sequence and nannofossil biostratigraphic zone CC8, the rapid δ13C change and correlation with western Tethys and Atlantic Ocean together suggest that these three boundaries of the carbon isotope evolution probably correspond to three subevents of the early Albian OAE1b, and the subevent levels of upper Kilian, Paquier, and Leenhardt are recorded in eastern Tethys (southern Tibet). The fact that the amount of δ13C shift is less by ∼1.5–2.0‰ in eastern Tethys than in western Tethys and Atlantic Ocean is interpreted as a result of possible cool sea surface (∼14–16 °C) of the southeastern Tethys (northern Indian passive margin of Greater India), which was probably located in a medium–high latitude during the Albian, leading to low primary productivity. The recognition of OAE-1b from Tethys Himalaya can improve our understanding of the Tethys and global paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic changes during the mid-Cretaceous.
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•We analyzed carbon isotopes of early Albian hemipelagite in southern Tibet.•Three subevent levels of OAE 1b were recognized.•Light δ13C values were attributed to cool-cold sea water in southeastern Tethys.•It improves understanding of Tethys/global paleoclimate during greenhouse Mid-Cretaceous.
This study proposes a model test system to study the evolutionary process of surface subsidence under the excavation disturbance of shallow depth and small-spacing soil tunnels. During the excavation ...of urban shallow small-spacing tunnels, the stress state of the middle soil pillar is complex, which further affects the deformation of the overlying strata. Based on the Yuhan Road underground tunnel, a new soil material of shallow depth stratum is developed using a large number of material ratios and physical and mechanical performance parameter tests. The evolutionary characteristics of the stress around the tunnel and the surface subsidence during different stages of tunnel excavation are analysed. The results show that the surrounding soil stress of the tunnel continues to decrease with an increase in the excavation stage. The stress of the middle soil pillar demonstrates the most rapid decrease, and the surrounding soil is close to an unstable failure state. With the instability of the middle soil pillar, the surface subsidence displacement also increases sharply, and the peak subsidence gradually shifts from the vault to the middle soil pillar. The model test results align with the existing subsidence prediction methods for single-tunnel prediction. However, this test method is more accurate in predicting the surface subsidence caused by the excavation of a small-spacing tunnel, thus contributing to further understanding the stability of the middle soil pillar, which must be ensured to avoid large-scale subsidence or collapse.
Recently, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are widely used in many fields due to the low cost and high flexibility. One of the most popular applications of UAV is vehicle detection in aerial images ...which plays an important role in traffic surveillance and urban planning. Although, many deep learning based detectors have achieved state-of-the-art (SOTA) performance in natural images, the significant variation in object scales caused by the altitude change of the UAV platform brings great challenges to these detectors for precise localization of vehicles in aerial images. To improve the detection performance for vehicles with different scales, we propose a novel detection algorithm which consists of three stages. In the first stage, to reduce the distortion of vehicles during image resizing and keep more information of aerial images, we utilize an image cropping strategy to divide the image into two patches. In the second stage, we combine the original image and two patches into a batch and detect vehicles with a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). For feature representation in our detector, we propose Scale-specific Prediction to strengthen the multi-scale features of vehicles with context information. In the final stage, to fuse detections and suppress false alarms, we propose an Outlier-Aware Non-Maximum Suppression. Extensive experiments are conducted to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed algorithm by comparison with other SOTA solutions.
Carbon and oxygen isotopic ratios were determined from ~100 Lower Cretaceous samples from four carbonate-bearing facies in Southeast (SE) and Northwest (NW) China for palaeoclimatic and ...palaeoenvironmental analyses. The samples were interpreted as sediments within sublithofacies of distal alluvial ponds (SF1), open shallow lakes (SF2), littoral lakes (SF3), and marshes (SF4). Results of analyses show in SE China, δ13C values range between −5.0‰ and 3.0‰ with a negative trend through time, and δ18O values are all negative (−19.3‰–−7.4‰); in NW China, δ13C values range from −4.0‰ to 4.0‰ with periodic change, and δ18O values range between −18.0‰ and 1.5‰.
Both relatively heavy values and pronounced covariances of most δ13C and δ18O indicate semiarid climate and domination of closed brackish lakes, marshes, and ponds in NW and SE China during the Early Cretaceous. Of them, positive δ13C (0.0‰ to 4.0‰) and relatively heavy δ18O (−5.0‰ to 1.5‰) values suggest interruptions of arid-evaporation in intermittences of the early Hauterivian in SW Fujian, of the middle Aptian in West Jiuquan basin, of the late Aptian in SW Ordos basin, and of the late Aptian–early Albian in Liupanshan basin. In a short interval of the early Aptian, the hot and humid climate occurred in local SW Zhejiang by high kaolinite content and in West Jiuquan basin by warm flora could be an exception. Particularly, extremely negative δ18O values (mainly −19.0–−9.0‰) indicate relatively low temperature in SE Fujian in the Berriasian–Barremian, in Liupanshan basin in the late Aptian, in SW Ordos basin in the late Albian, and in West Jiuquan basin in the mid-late Aptian, which is supposed to attribute to the presence of 2500m–4500m in elevation. More positive values and more covariance ratios of δ13C and δ18O in NW China than in SE China and in mainland China than in America indicate a arider climate in former than in later, probably attributing to the palaeogeography in distance to sea.
A tentative correlation of the Early Cretaceous δ13C value excursion of calcretes shows a good compatibility between marine OAEs and terrestrial carbonate sediments and between NW China and America continents, implying a global response to carbon cycle in both marine and terrestrial environments. The feature suggests the potential of global correlation and application of terrestrial calcrete δ13C excursions in pre-Cenozoic.
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•We reconstruct Early Cretaceous environment and climate in SE and NW China.•C-isotopes of terrestrial carbonates range −5.0 to 4.0‰, O-isotopes −19.3 to 1.5‰.•C–O isotopes indicate alternation of evaporate, arid and semiarid climate.•Lakes, marshes, and ponds are dominantly closed brackish, few open or salt.•C-isotope excursions are correlatible in Aptian–Albian between China and America.
The prediction of the production capacity of the enhanced geothermal system (EGS) is crucial for the extraction of geothermal resources. To better optimize the EGS project, it is necessary to make a ...reasonable prediction of the heat-production capacity of the geothermal site. This work aims to provide an accurate and simpler calculation method based on geometric split-productivity superposition of multi-well EGS productivity prediction in large geothermal fields to guide the design and optimization of EGS in large geothermal fields. First, based on a complex potential function, a steady-state seepage model of well groups is established in a limited plane. After splitting the flow field according to the flow law in the plane, the productivity control area of a single injection well is obtained. The splitting method of the small well-group is obtained, which uses the bisector of the angle between the adjacent injection wells and the production well. Then, the three-dimensional finite-element numerical models of the EGS are established for the small well-group in the limited area and the single-pore double-well after splitting. By analyzing the heat production performance of the two methods, the correctness of the splitting method of the plane small well-group is verified. These models are based on the mathematical model of flow–heat coupling composed of the Dupuit formula, groundwater-flow equation, and porous-medium heat-transfer equation, combined with the split production-capacity-control area of the single injection well and the influence of the production well eccentricity. The comparison of the heat-production performances of the two methods shows that the maximum relative error rate of the two results does not exceed 9% and that the fluctuation trend of the corresponding double-well heat exchange EGS is consistent with the whole heat exchange EGS. These results prove that the splitting method has good applicability of predicting the EGS productivity of well groups in a limited area by calculating the superposition of the double-well EGS productivity after splitting. The total capacity of the well-group EGS in a limited area is equal to the sum of the capacity of each split double-well heat exchange EGS. Furthermore, this paper also provides proof of the rationality of the split method.
It is known that muscle strength and muscle mass play a crucial role in maintaining bone mineral density (BMD). Despite this, there are uncertainties about how muscle mass, lower extremity muscular ...strength, and BMD are related. We examined the impact of lower extremity muscle strength and mass on BMD in the general American population using cross-sectional analysis.
In the study, we extracted 2165 individuals from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2002. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to examine the association between muscle strength, muscle mass, and BMD. Fitted smoothing curves and generalized additive models were also performed. To ensure data stability and avoid confounding factors, subgroup analysis was also conducted on gender and race/ethnicity.
After full adjustment for potential confounders, significant positive associations were detected between peak force (PF) 0.167 (0.084, 0.249) P < 0.001, appendicular skeletal muscle index (ASMI) 0.029 (0.022, 0.036) P < 0.001, and lumbar spine BMD. A positive correlation was also found between PF, ASMI, and pelvis and total BMD. Following stratification by gender and race/ethnicity, our analyses illustrated a significant correlation between PF and lumbar spine BMD in both men 0.232 (0.130, 0.333) P < 0.001 and women 0.281 (0.142, 0.420) P < 0.001. This was also seen in non-Hispanic white 0.178 (0.068, 0.288) P = 0.002, but not in non-Hispanic black, Mexican American and other race-ethnicity. Additionally, there was a positive link between ASMI and BMD in both genders in non-Hispanic whites, and non-Hispanic blacks, but not in any other racial group.
PF and ASMI were positively associated with BMD in American adults. In the future, the findings reported here may have profound implications for public health in terms of osteopenia and osteoporosis prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment.
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