Global knockout of the BK channel has been proven to affect bone formation; however, whether it directly affects osteoblast differentiation and the mechanism are elusive. In the current study, we ...further investigated the role of BK channels in bone development and explored whether BK channels impacted the differentiation and proliferation of osteoblasts via the canonical Wnt signaling pathway. Our findings demonstrated that knockout of Kcnma1 disrupted the osteogenesis of osteoblasts and inhibited the stabilization of β-catenin. Western blot analysis showed that the protein levels of Axin1 and USP7 increased when Kcnma1 was deficient. Together, this study confirmed that BK ablation decreased bone mass via the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Our findings also showed that USP7 might have the ability to stabilize the activity of Axin1, which would increase the degradation of β-catenin in osteoblasts.
Lycopi Herba has been broadly used as a traditional medicinal herb in Asia due to its ability to strengthen immunity. However, it is still obscure for its material basis and underlying mechanisms. ...Polysaccharide, as one of the most important components of most natural herbs, usually contributes to the immunomodulatory ability of herbs. Here, we aimed to detect polysaccharides from Lycopi Herba and examine their potential immunomodulatory activity. A novel polysaccharide (LHPW) was extracted from Lycopi Herba and purified by DEAE-52 cellulose chromatography and G-100 sephadex
.
According to physicochemical methods and monosaccharide composition analysis, LHPW was mainly composed of galactose, glucose, fructose, and arabinose. NMR and methylation analyses indicated that LHPW was a neutral polysaccharide with a backbone containing →3,6)-β-D-Galp-(1→, →4)-β-D-Galp-(1→ and →4)-α-D-Glcp-(1→, with the branches of →1)-β-D-Fruf-(2→ and →6)-α-D-Galp-(1→. Immunological tests indicated that LHPW could activate macrophage RAW264.7 and promote splenocyte proliferation. This study discovered a novel polysaccharide from Lycopi Herba and showed it was a potential immunomodulator.
Metal-organic frameworks (MOF) have been wildly synthesised and studied as electrode materials for supercapacitors, and bimetallic MOF of Ni and Co has been broadly studied to enhance both specific ...capacitance and stability of supercapacitors. Herein, a best performance (about 320 F/g) of Ni–Co bimetallic MOF was found in a uniform preparation condition by adjusting the ratio of Ni to Co. Then tiny third metal ion was introduced, and we found that the morphology of material has a significant change on the original basis. Furthermore, certain ions (Zn, Fe, Mn) introduced make a huge improvement in capacitance based on Ni–Co MOF of 320 F/g. The result shows that Zn–Ni–Co MOF, Fe–Ni–Co MOF and Mn–Ni–Co MOF perform specific capacitance of 1135 F/g, 870 F/g and 760F/g at 1 A/g, respectively. Meanwhile, the asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) was constructed by Zn–Ni–Co MOF as positive electrode and active carbon (AC) as negative electrode. The Zn–Ni–Co MOF//AC ASC possesses a energy density of 58 Wh/kg at a power density of 775 W/kg. This research provides a new methods to regulate the morphology of MOF and a novel viewpoint for assembling high-performance, low-price, and eco-friendly green energy storage devices.
The emergence of antibiotic-resistant Aeromonas strains in clinical settings has presented an escalating burden on human and public health. The dissemination of antibiotic resistance in Aeromonas is ...predominantly facilitated by chromosome-borne accessory genetic elements, although the existing literature on this subject remains limited. Hence, the primary objective of this study is to comprehensively investigate the genomic characteristics of chromosome-borne accessory genetic elements in Aeromonas. Moreover, the study aims to uncover novel genetic environments associated with antibiotic resistance on these elements. Aeromonas were screened from nonduplicated strains collected from two tertiary hospitals in China. Complete sequencing and population genetics analysis were performed. BLAST analysis was employed to identify related elements. All newly identified elements were subjected to detailed sequence annotation, dissection, and comparison. We identified and newly designated 19 chromosomal elements, including 18 integrative and mobilizable elements (IMEs) that could be classified into four categories: Tn6737-related, Tn6836-related, Tn6840-related, and Tn6844a-related IMEs. Each class exhibited a distinct pattern in the types of resistance genes carried by the IMEs. Several novel antibiotic resistance genetic environments were uncovered in these elements. Notably, we report the first identification of the bla
OXA-10
gene and bla
VEB-1
gene in clinical A. veronii genome, the first presence of a tetA(E)-tetR(E) resistance gene environment within the backbone region in IMEs, and a new mcr-3.15 resistance gene environment. The implications of these findings are substantial, as they provide new insights into the evolution, structure, and dissemination of chromosomal-borne accessory elements.
Renal fibrosis is the common outcome in all progressive forms of chronic kidney disease. Unfortunately, the pathogenesis of renal fibrosis remains largely unexplored, among which metabolic ...reprogramming plays an extremely crucial role in the evolution of renal fibrosis. Ceria nanoparticles (CeNP-PEG) with strong ROS scavenging and anti-inflammatory activities have been applied for mitochondrial oxidative stress and inflammatory diseases. The present study aims to determine whether CeNP-PEG has therapeutic value for renal fibrosis.
The unilateral ureteral obstructive fibrosis model was used to assess the therapeutic effects in vivo. Transforming growth factor beta1-induced epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in HK-2 cells was used as the in vitro cell model. The seahorse bioscience X96 extracellular flux analyzer was used to measure the oxygen consumption rate and extracellular acidification rate.
In the present study, CeNP-PEG treatment significantly ameliorated renal fibrosis by increased E-cadherin protein expression, and decreased α-SMA, Vimentin and Fibronectin expression both in vitro and in vivo. Additionally, CeNP-PEG significantly reduced the ROS formation and improved the levels of mitochondrial ATP. The seahorse analyzer assay demonstrated that the extracellular acidification rate markedly decreased, whereas the oxygen consumption rate markedly increased, in the presence of CeNP-PEG. Furthermore, the mitochondrial membrane potential markedly enhanced, hexokinase 1 and hexokinase 2 expression significantly decreased after treatment with CeNP-PEG.
CeNP-PEG can block the dysregulated metabolic status and exert protective function on renal fibrosis. This may provide another therapeutic option for renal fibrosis.
Object detection in remote sensing images plays an important role in both military and civilian remote sensing applications. Objects in remote sensing images are different from those in natural ...images. They have the characteristics of scale diversity, arbitrary directivity, and dense arrangement, which causes difficulties in object detection. For objects with a large aspect ratio and that are oblique and densely arranged, using an oriented bounding box can help to avoid deleting some correct detection bounding boxes by mistake. The classic rotational region convolutional neural network (R2CNN) has advantages for text detection. However, R2CNN has poor performance in the detection of slender objects with arbitrary directivity in remote sensing images, and its fault tolerance rate is low. In order to solve this problem, this paper proposes an improved R2CNN based on a double detection head structure and a three-point regression method, namely, TPR-R2CNN. The proposed network modifies the original R2CNN network structure by applying a double fully connected (2-fc) detection head and classification fusion. One detection head is for classification and horizontal bounding box regression, the other is for classification and oriented bounding box regression. The three-point regression method (TPR) is proposed for oriented bounding box regression, which determines the positions of the oriented bounding box by regressing the coordinates of the center point and the first two vertices. The proposed network was validated on the DOTA-v1.5 and HRSC2016 datasets, and it achieved a mean average precision (mAP) of 3.90% and 15.27%, respectively, from feature pyramid network (FPN) baselines with a ResNet-50 backbone.
Plant adaptation to abiotic stress is significantly influenced by galactinol synthase (GolS), which is a regulatory enzyme that catalyzes the synthesis of raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs). ...Soybean GolS genes,
GmGolS2-1
and
GmGolS2-2
were isolated in this study.
GmGolS2-1
was 993 bp and encoded a 330-amino acid polypeptide, and
GmGolS2-2
was 975 bp and encoded a 324-amino acid polypeptide. The deduced amino acid sequences contained common features of plant GolS proteins: a DXD motif and a hydrophobic pentapeptide (APSAA). Significant increase of
GmGolS2-1
and
GmGolS2-2
transcripts under drought stress was observed under real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (qPCR), while their transcripts only increased slightly under salt and cold stresses. The
GmGolS2-1
promoter region contained four methyl jasmonate-responsive elements, two anaerobic-induced elements, a wound-responsive element, and two MYB binding sites. Overexpression of
GmGolS2-1
enhanced the GolS activity along with expression of stress-associated genes in transgenic tobacco. Additionally, the overexpression of
GmGolS2-1
resulted in lower relative electrolyte leakage and malondialdehyde (MDA) content and higher soluble carbohydrates and proline content in transgenic tobacco than wild-type (WT) tobacco under drought stress. These findings indicate that
GmGolS2-1
improved transgenic tobacco drought resistance.
Key message
Two galactinol synthase genes,
GmGolS2-1
and
GmGolS2-1
, were isolated from soybean. They could be induced by abiotic stress.
GmGolS2-1
enhances tolerance to drought in transgenic tobacco.
Rapid economic development, industrialization and urbanization lead to environmental pollution and damage the stability of regional ecosystems. The Yangtze River Delta region is an economically ...developed region in China, faces the problems of water environment pollution and water ecosystem service degradation. Reasonable assessment of water ecosystem service value (ESV) is of great significance for grasping the status of regional water ecosystem services, improving water ecological environment, and realizing regional sustainable development. This study collects 119 research literature about China, including 156 observations to establish a value transfer database; specially builds a Meta-analysis model including the variables of climate conditions, environmental pollution and environmental protection, then assesses the waters ESV in the Yangtze River Delta using the model and analyzes the changes from 2009 to 2018. The study finds that the location, population density, the area of the site, average annual precipitation, literature characteristics, landscape characteristics, wastewater discharge, environmental protection expenditure, and wastewater treatment costs can affect the water ESV significantly. Based on the meta-analysis benefit transfer model to evaluate the water ESV in Yangtze River Delta region is RMB 177,126 yuan/
h
h
a
/
year
and the growth rate is 27.18%. The place with the highest value per unit area is Shanghai, and the total value in Jiangsu Province is the highest. Economic development, waste water discharge and wastewater treatment costs are the main reasons for the changes and differences in the value of water ecosystem services in the Yangtze River Delta region. The contribution of this study to the field of water ESV assessment is that the meta-analysis model includes a broader set of influencing variables, including landscape, population density, climate change and environmental protection. It provides a practical reference for water ESV assessment on the local scale and a scientific basis for water area management related to the development of water area and ecological compensation, as well as promote the sustainable development of water ecosystems.
Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Gram-negative bacteria are common in the community and hospitals. To monitor ESBLs mediated by the CTX-M genotype, we collected clinical ESBL pathogenic ...strains from a hospital in central China and observed a strain of
Escherichia coli
, namely Ec15103 carrying
bla
CTX–M–14
,
bla
CTX–M–64
and
bla
TEM–1
, isolated from the blood of a 7-day-old infant in 2015. Strain Ec15103 contains two drug resistance plasmids: pEc15103A, an IncFI-type plasmid that cannot be conjugatively transferred and carries the drug resistance genes
bla
TEM–1
,
aacC2
,
aadA5
,
sul1
,
mph
(A),
sul2
,
strAB
, and
tetA
(A); and pEc15103B, an IncK2/Z-type plasmid that carries the conjugation transfer gene and
bla
CTX–M–14
. In addition,
bla
CTX–M–64
is located on the chromosome of Ec15103, and it is the first report of pathogen with
bla
CTX–M–64
located on its chromosome (the search terms used “blaCTX-M-64” and “chromosome”).
bla
CTX–M–14
and
bla
CTX–M–64
are carried by IS
Ecp1
-mediated transposon Tn
6503a
and Tn
6502
, respectively. The conjugation transfer ability of pEc15103B was significantly inhibited by zidovudine (AZT) and linoleic acid (LA) and that expression of
bla
CTX–M–14
,
bla
CTX–M–64
and
bla
TEM–1
at the mRNA level did not change based on the concentration of cefotaxime or ampicillin. Co-occurrence of
bla
CTX–M–14
and
bla
CTX–M–64
in a single isolate will enhance the drug resistance of bacteria, and the presence of
bla
CTX–M–64
in the chromosome may make the resistance more maintain. This fact will facilitate its dissemination and persistence under different antimicrobial selection pressures. It is essential to prevent these strains from further spreading in a hospital environment.
We report spatially and temporally resolved measurements of photocarrier transfer process in van der Waals heterostructures. Graphene-WS
hetero-bilayers were fabricated by manually stacking ...monolayers of graphene and WS
obtained by mechanical exfoliation. Photocarriers were excited in WS
by an ultrafast laser pulse. Their transfer to graphene was monitored by measuring the differential reflection signal as a function of both time and space. Surprisingly, we found that the width of the photocarrier profile in graphene decreases with time. This counter-intuitive phenomenon suggests that the Coulomb field of the holes transferred from WS
to graphene can effectively drag the electrons to speed up their transfer. This effect illustrates that an externally applied electric field can be used to control the ambipolar photocarrier transfer in van der Waals heterostructures.
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