Abstract
Background
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) and N
6
-methyladenosine (m
6
A) have been shown to play an increasingly critical role in the development of different cancers. However, there is limited ...evidence on how circRNAs and m
6
A interact to affect the radiosensitivity of cervical cancer (CC). This study provides a mechanistic understanding of the novel m
6
A-regulated circRNF13 in enhancing radioresistance in CC.
Methods
Differentially expressed circRNAs were identified from radiosensitive and radioresistant CC tissues. Meanwhile, these circRNAs were subjected to methylated RNA immunoprecipitation (Me-RIP). Finally, the effects of these circRNAs on radiosensitivity were characterized.
Results
CircRNF13 was poorly expressed in CC patients that were sensitive to concurrent radiochemotherapy. Experiments conducted both in vitro and in vivo confirmed that the knockdown of circRNF13 potentiated the radiosensitivity of CC cells. Further mechanistic studies revealed that METTL3/YTHDF2 promoted the degradation of circRNF13 and subsequently affected the stability of CXC motif chemokine ligand 1 (CXCL1), ultimately enhancing the radiosensitivity of CC cells.
Conclusion
This study identified circRNF13 as a novel m
6
A-modified circRNA and validated the METTL3/YTHDF2/circRNF13/CXCL1 axis as a potential target for CC radiotherapy.
Three-dimensional excitation-emission matrix fluorescence spectroscopy (3D EEMs) has been extensively used for dissolved organic matter (DOM) characterization. However, the application of 3D EEMs is ...constantly limited by issues such as contradictory component identification, confusing interpretation of spectral indicators, and inability to establish biodegradability. In this study, some improvements were proposed by investigating the 3D EEMs, spectral indicators, and degradability of the standard and representative DOM. To overcome the unclear identification of DOM components, it was recommended to partition 3D EEMs into three subareas: aromatic protein (New-I), humic-like (New-II), and soluble microbial by-product-like (New-III). Significant strong positive correlations (ρ = 0.727, P < 0.001) were observed between fluorescence index (FI) and biological index (BIX), and (R = 0.809, P < 0.001) humification index (HIX) and specific ultraviolet absorbance of 254 nm (SUVA254). Except for FI (R = -0.483, P = 0.023), no other spectral indicators (P > 0.05) were found to be significantly correlated with molecular weight. As thence results, the FI and HIX were the most suitable indicators for evaluating DOM. The half-life (20 < 21 < 26 < 29 < 46 days) revealed that the degradability of individual DOM components was in the order of tyrosine > tryptophan > fulvic acid > protein > humic acid. The degradation dynamics were governed by first-order decay kinetics (R2 = 0.91–0.99). This study clarified the fluorescence properties and degradability of DOM, as well as the reliability of spectral indicators. The degradation performance of individual DOM components engaged in the carbon cycling process was revealed, paving the path for further applications of 3D EEMs in DOM research.
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•The study re-examined the utility of the 3D EEMs application in DOM research.•The 3D EEMs was re-divided into aromatic protein, humic-like and SMP-like DOM.•The FI and HIX were the most suitable indicators for evaluating DOM.•There were differences in the degradability and degradation dynamics of DOM.
Alertness is the state of attention by high sensory awareness. A lack of alertness is one of the main reasons of serious accidents. Traffic accidents caused by driver’s drowsy driving have a high ...fatality rate. This paper presents an EEG-based alertness detection system. In order to ensure the convenience and long-term wearing comfort of EEG recordings, the wearable electrode cap will be the principal choice in the future, and the selection of channels will be limited. We first built a 3-D simulated driving platform using Unity3D. Then, we perform an experiment with driving drift task. EEG signals are recorded form frontal and occipital regions. We select data segments using the driving reaction time, classify the state of alertness with a support vector machine (SVM), and select the optimal combination of channels with minimum number of channels. Our results demonstrate that alertness can be classified efficiently with one channel (PO6) at accuracy of 93.52%, with two channels (FP1+PO6) at 95.85% and with three channels (FP1+PO6+PO5 and FP1+PO6+POZ) at 96.11%.
To provide insights into the modulation of neuronal activity by extremely low-frequency (ELF) magnetic field (MF), we present a conductance-based neuron model and introduce ELF sinusoidal MF as an ...additive voltage input. By analyzing spike times and spiking frequency, it is observed that neuron with distinct spiking patterns exhibits different response properties in the presence of MF exposure. For tonic spiking neuron, the perturbations of MF exposure on spike times is maximized at the harmonics of neuronal intrinsic spiking frequency, while it is maximized at the harmonics of bursting frequency for burst spiking neuron. As MF intensity increases, the perturbations also increase. Compared with tonic spiking, bursting dynamics are less sensitive to the perturbations of ELF MF exposure. Further, ELF MF exposure is more prone to perturb neuronal spike times relative to spiking frequency. Our finding suggests that the resonance may be one of the neural mechanisms underlying the modulatory effects of the low-intensity ELF MFs on neuronal activities. The results highlight the impacts of ELF MFs exposure on neuronal activity from the single cell level, and demonstrate various factors including ELF MF properties and neuronal spiking characteristics could determine the outcome of exposure. These insights into the mechanism of MF exposure may be relevant for the design of multi-intensity magnetic stimulus protocols, and may even contribute to the interpretation of MF effects on the central nervous systems.
Herein, Single-atom palladium (Pd) anchoring in N-doped carbon (Pd1/N-C) was prepared by freeze-drying assisted pyrolysis method for the electrochemical detection of furazolidone (FZD). The series of ...characterizations revealed that the synergistic effect originating from the coalescent of atomically dispersed Pd sites and N-doped porous carbon boost charge transfer kinetics as well as the production of more active sites, promoting FZD effectively detection. The Pd1/N-C modified by glassy carbon electrode (Pd1/N-C/GCE) obviously enhanced electrocatalytic activity toward FZD redox, whose reduction peak currents were 2.19 and 2.90 times higher than those of Pd NPs/N-C and the pristine N-C modified GCEs, respectively. The modified electrode Pd1/N-C/GCE showed two linear dynamic ranges of 0.01–50 µM and 50–300 µM with a detection limit of 3.3 nM for the voltammetric determination of FZD, respectively. Furthermore, the Pd1/N-C/GCE was applied successfully for FZD determination in actual samples including tap and lake water. The proposed Pd1/N-C materials can be considered an effective and promising application for the real-time analysis of antibiotic in the future.
The fusion of infrared (IR) and visible images should not only increase the brightness of the infrared targets, but also preserve more details in visible images. A fusion approach to infrared and ...visible images with Gabor filter and sigmoid function is proposed in this paper. In order to make targets prominent in the fused image, the IR image is normalized by the sigmoid function to get a mapping matrix W, and then the visible image is enhanced by the matrix W to obtain an enhanced visible image, so that the contrast between the target and the background in the visible image is enhanced. After the decomposition of the IR image, the visible image and the enhanced visible image with Gabor filter, the detail layers of the visible image and the enhanced visible image are fused using the “max-absolute” rule, and the base layers are fused using the rule of weighted summation, which greatly increases the amount of information in the visible image. The weighted summation is calculated for the basic layers of the infrared and fused visible image, and the absolute maximum value is calculated for their detail layers. Finally, the fused image is generated by a linear combination of the final detail layer and the final base layer. Nine existing algorithms with better performance and the algorithm proposed in this paper are tested on public datasets, and use six evaluation metrics such as average gradient (AG), cross entropy (CE), edge gradient (EI), information entropy (IE), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and spatial frequency (SF) to evaluate the quality of the fused image. Experiments show that the new algorithm has achieved better visual effects, and most of the objective evaluation metrics are also better than other algorithms. In particular, the low-light image is enhanced by the sigmoid function and then fused, so that the fused image is clearer and the target is more prominent. The gradient information is retained in the fused image as much as possible. All these prove the advantage and effectiveness of the new algorithm.
•The visible image is enhanced by a mapping matrix gotten from the IR image using the sigmoid function.•The base and detail layer of the image are generated by the real and imaginary parts of the Gabor filter.•Using the weighted sum rule to fuse base layers of the visible image and the enhanced visible image.•The base layers of the infrared image and the fused visible image are fused using the mapping matrix W.
With the implementation of the ‘Grain-for-Green’ program on the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP), drought-tolerant deep-rooted plants have been increasingly introduced to the northwest in China. However, ...the vertical features of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in deep soil profiles on CLP during the ‘Grain-for-Green’ program is still not well understood. In the study, ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) spectroscopy and three-dimensional fluorescence excitation-emission matrices (3D-EEMs) with parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) were used to characterize DOM in 5-m profile of farmland and forestland (Pinus tabulaeformis and Robinia pseudoacacia) in the southern CLP. The results demonstrated that the average dissolved organic carbon (DOC) content of the surface layer of farmland (119.3 mg kg−1 soil) was lower than that of forestland (Pinus tabulaeformis 175.5 mg kg−1 soil; Robinia pseudoacacacia 166.4 mg kg−1 soil). The DOC content gradually decreased with increasing soil depth and reached stability after 2 m depth. Three substances, including tryptophan-like substances (C1) and two humic acid-like substances (C2, C3), were detected from all samples. Tryptophan-like substances (C1) significantly increased with soil depth while humic acid-like substances (C2, C3) significantly decreased particularly in farmland. The humic acid-like content of surface soils (Robinia pseudoacacia) was relatively higher, but the difference between the two vegetation soils was not significant. The freshness index (β/α) values of DOM as well as biological index (BIX) values were significantly higher in farmland than that in forestland, and the humification index (HIX) values were lower than in forestland soils, indicating that the change of soil DOM in farmland was more active than that in forestland and more dependent on local terrestrial sources. These results could contribute to a better understanding of the vertical distribution and features of soil DOM during the ‘Grain-for-Green’ program of CLP.
•Soil DOC content in farmland was lower than that in forestland in southern CLP.•Tryptophan-like substances increase and humus-like substances decrease with increasing soil depth.•Soil DOM in farmland was more active than that in forestland and more dependent on terrestrial sources.
In this paper, we investigate the abatement of spike-and-wave discharges in a thalamocortical model using a closed-loop brain stimulation method. We first explore the complex states and various ...transitions in the thalamocortical computational model of absence epilepsy by using bifurcation analysis. We demonstrate that the Hopf and double cycle bifurcations are the key dynamical mechanisms of the experimental observed bidirectional communications during absence seizures through top-down cortical excitation and thalamic feedforward inhibition. Then, we formulate the abatement of epileptic seizures to a closed-loop tracking control problem. Finally, we propose a neural network based sliding mode feedback control system to drive the dynamics of pathological cortical area to track the desired normal background activities. The control system is robust to uncertainties and disturbances, and its stability is guaranteed by Lyapunov stability theorem. Our results suggest that the seizure abatement can be modeled as a tracking control problem and solved by a robust closed-loop control method, which provides a promising brain stimulation strategy.
This article investigates a closed-loop brain stimulation method based on model predictive control strategy to suppress epileptic seizures. A neural mass model (NMM), exhibiting the normal and ...various epileptic seizures by changing physiologically meaningful parameters, is used as a black-box model of the brain. Based on system identification, an auto-regressive moving-average Volterra model is established to reveal the relationship between stimulation and neuronal responses. Then, the model predictive control strategy is implemented based the Volterra model, which can generate an optimal stimulation waveform to eliminate epileptiform waves. The computational simulation results indicate the proposed closed-loop control strategy can optimize the stimulation waveform without particular knowledge of the physiological properties of the system. The robustness of the proposed control strategy to system disturbances makes it more appropriate for future clinical application.
Biochar (BC) has been widely utilized in constructed wetland (CW) for intensifying the removal of pollutants from low carbon/nitrogen (C/N) wastewater. However, there are knowledge gaps about the ...optimal proportion of BC as an external carbon substrate. This study developed four sets of aerated vertical flow (VF) CWs with different BC amendment proportions (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%) to explore the influence of BC dosage on the treatment performance, enzyme activity and microbial community. The results showed that all CWs achieved better COD (above 90%) and NH4+-N (above 99%) removal due to adequate oxygen supplement, while the best TN removal (67%) was obtained in CW with 50% BC addition. TP removal ascended gradually with the increasing BC amendment proportion. The activity of enzymes and the proportion of Proteobacteria and Patescibacteria at the phylum level were appreciably enhanced with the addition of BC.
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•50% biochar addition obtained the highest total nitrogen removal.•75% biochar addition achieved the better total phosphorus removal.•Biochar addition in wetland systems increased the nitrous oxide emission.•Biochar addition enhanced enzyme activity and altered microbial community composition.
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