The plateau pika, a typical hypoxia-tolerant mammal lives 3000–5000 m above sea level on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, has acquired many physiological and morphological characteristics and strategies in ...its adaptation to sustained, high-altitude hypoxia. Blunted hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction is one such strategy, but the genes involved in this strategy have not been elucidated. Here, we investigated the genes involved and their expression profiles in the lung transcriptome of plateau pikas subjected to different hypoxic conditions (using low-pressure oxygen cabins). A slight, right ventricular hypertrophy was observed in pikas of the control group (altitude: 3200 m) vs. those exposed to 5000 m altitude conditions for one week. Our assembly identified 67,774 genes; compared with their expression in the control animals, 866 and 8364 genes were co-upregulated and co-downregulated, respectively, in pikas subjected to 5000 m altitude conditions for 1 and 4 w. We elucidated pathways that were associated with pulmonary vascular arterial pressure, including vascular smooth muscle contraction, HIF-1 signalling, calcium signalling, cGMP-PKG signalling, and PI3K-Akt signalling based on the differentially expressed genes; the top-100 pathway enrichments were found between the control group and the group exposed to 5000 m altitude conditions for 4 w. The mRNA levels of 18 candidate gene showed that more than 83% of genes were expressed and the number of transcriptome The up-regulated genes were EPAS1, Hbα, iNOS, CX40, CD31, PPM1B, HIF-1α, MYLK, Pcdh12, Surfactant protein B, the down-regulated genes were RYR2, vWF, RASA1, CLASRP, HIF-3α. Our transcriptome data are a valuable resource for future genomic studies on plateau pika.
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Phytochemical investigation of the root of Sophora flavescens Ait. led to the isolation of previously uncharacterized pterocarpan derivative sophoracarpanol A (1), along with eight known compounds, ...including seven pterocarpans (1–7) and two 2-arylbenzofurans (8 and 9). Their chemical structures were established based on extensive spectroscopic analysis. Among them, compounds 3–5 are the characteristic class of secondary metabolites of S. flavescens. And this is the first report of the presence of compounds 2, 6, and 7 from the genus Sophora and compounds 8 and 9 were firstly isolated from S. flavescens. Furthermore, the chemotaxonomic significance of the isolates was discussed.
•Seven pterocarpans and two 2-arylbenzofurans were isolated from the roots of S. flavescens.•Interestingly, this study resulted in the isolation of a new pterocarpan derivative sophoracarpanol A.•Chemotaxonomic significance of these compounds was discussed.
We present a new method to investigate the local optical dielectric permittivity using layered capacitors. The method has been applied to study the optical dielectric constants of Si/SiO
2
structures ...without defects, with dangling bonds, and with dangling bonds passivated by H. For each of the three structures, models composed of 5, 7, and 12 Si layers were studied, and the effect of the Si layer thickness was assessed. The different local optical dielectric constants in the adjacent Si interface region were obtained for the nine models, and the effect of the Si layer thickness, the bond lengths, and the oxidation states of Si at the interface were analyzed. The results showed that the local optical dielectric constant of the structure with dangling bonds in the region adjacent to the Si interface was larger than that of the structure with no defects; and the effect of the interface defect Si
+1
on the dielectric constant is stronger than that of the Si layer thickness, and effect scope of Si
+1
reached approximate 7 Å in silicon region.
Microvascular complications are the leading causes of acquired blindness, end-stage renal failure, and varieties of neuropathy associated with diabetes. Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), an ...endogenous nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, is involved in endothelial dysfunction, oxidative stress, and inflammation associated with the progression of diabetic microvascular complications. Elevated ADMA has been detected in experimental animals and patients with diabetic microangiopathy like retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy. In the review, we focus on the role of ADMA in the pathobiology of major microvascular complications of diabetes.
The cryopreservation and transplantation of ovarian tissue underscore its paramount importance in safeguarding reproductive capacity and ameliorating reproductive disorders. However, challenges ...persist in ovarian tissue cryopreservation and transplantation (OTC-T), including the risk of tissue damage and dysfunction. Consequently, there has been a compelling exploration into the realm of nanoregulators to refine and enhance these procedures. This review embarks on a meticulous examination of the intricate anatomical structure of the ovary and its microenvironment, thereby establishing a robust groundwork for the development of nanomodulators. It systematically categorizes nanoregulators and delves deeply into their functions and mechanisms, meticulously tailored for optimizing ovarian tissue cryopreservation and transplantation. Furthermore, the review imparts valuable insights into the practical applications and obstacles encountered in clinical settings associated with OTC-T. Moreover, the review advocates for the utilization of microbially derived nanomodulators as a potent therapeutic intervention in ovarian tissue cryopreservation. The progression of these approaches holds the promise of seamlessly integrating nanoregulators into OTC-T practices, thereby heralding a new era of expansive applications and auspicious prospects in this pivotal domain.
Punctate palmoplantar keratoderma (PPPK) is a rare autosomal dominant skin disorder characterised by numerous hyperkeratotic papules irregularly distributed on the palms and soles. To date, no causal ...gene for this disease has been identified.
We performed exome sequencing analysis of four affected individuals and two unaffected controls from one Chinese PPPK family where disease locus was mapped at 8q24.13-8q24.21 by our previous linkage analysis.
We identified a novel heterozygous mutation in COL14A1 gene (c.4505C→T (p.Pro1502Leu)), which located within the linkage region that we previously identified for PPPK. The mutation was shared by the four affected individuals, but not for the two controls of the family. Sanger sequencing confirmed this mutation in another four cases from this family. This mutation was invisible in the normal controls of this family as well as the additional 676 unrelated normal controls and 781 patients with other disease. The shared COL14A1 mutation, p.Pro1502Leu, is a missense substitution at a highly conserved amino acid residue across multiple species.
The power of combining exome sequencing and linkage information in the study of genetics of autosomal dominant disorders, even in simplex cases, has been demonstrated. Our results suggested that COL14A1 would be a casual gene for PPPK, which was helpful for advancing us on understanding of the pathogenesis of PPPK.
In this study, we explore long short-term memory recurrent neural networks (LSTM-RNNs) for speech enhancement. First, a regression LSTM-RNN approach for a direct mapping from the noisy to clean ...speech features is presented and verified to be more effective than deep neural network (DNN) based regression techniques in modeling long-term acoustic context. Then, a comprehensive comparison between the proposed direct mapping based LSTM-RNN and ideal ratio mask (IRM) based LSTM-RNNs is conducted. We observe that the direct mapping framework achieves better speech intelligibility at low signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) while the IRM approach shows its superiority at high SNRs. Accordingly, to fully utilize this complementarity, a novel multiple-target joint learning approach is designed. The experiments under unseen noises show that the proposed framework can consistently and significantly improve the objective measures for both speech quality and intelligibility.
Dental caries severely hinders efficient access to adequate energy in wildlife. Different food supplies will develop characteristic plaque, and the microorganisms of these plaque are closely related ...to dental health. Here, plaque samples from panda cubs with caries and caries-free were collected for 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing. All sequences clustered into 337 operational taxonomic units (OTUs; 97% identity), representing 268 independent species belonging to 189 genera, 98 families, 51 orders, 24 classes, and 13 phyla. Two groups shared 218 OTUs, indicating the presence of a core plaque microbiome. α diversity analysis showed that the microbial diversity in plaques with caries exceeded that of caries-free. The dominant phyla of plaque microbiota included Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Fusobacteria, and Actinobacteria. The dominant genera included
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
and
. β diversity analysis showed that the plaque microbial community structure was different between two groups. Using LEfSe analysis, 19 differentially abundant taxa were identified as potential biomarkers. Finally, function predictions analysis showed All the energy related metabolic pathways on KEGG level 2 were enriched in caries-active group. Consistent with the mainstream caries-causing narrative, our results illuminate the lack of information regarding the oral microflora composition and function within giant panda cubs.
ABSTRACT
Ethylene has been regarded as a stress hormone involved in many stress responses. However, ethylene receptors have not been studied for the roles they played under salt stress condition. ...Previously, we characterized an ethylene receptor gene NTHK1 from tobacco, and found that NTHK1 is salt‐inducible. Here, we report a further investigation towards the function of NTHK1 in response to salt stress by using a transgenic approach. We found that NTHK1 promotes leaf growth in the transgenic tobacco seedlings but affects salt sensitivity in these transgenic seedlings under salt stress condition. Differential Na+/K+ ratio was observed in the control Xanthi and NTHK1‐transgenic plants after salt stress treatment. We further found that the NTHK1 transgene is also salt‐inducible in the transgenic plants, and the higher NTHK1 expression results in early inductions of the ACC (1‐aminocyclopropane‐1‐carboxylic acid) oxidase gene NtACO3 and ethylene responsive factor (ERF) genes NtERF1 and NtERF4 under salt stress. However, NTHK1 suppresses the salt‐inducible expression of the ACC synthase gene NtACS1. These results indicate that NTHK1 regulates salt stress responses by affecting ion accumulation and related gene expressions, and hence have significance in elucidation of ethylene receptor functions during stress signal transduction.
Evaluate the effect of the combination of clindamycin with low-dose trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP/SMX) regimen on sever
pneumonia (PCP) after renal transplantation.
20 severe PCP patients after ...renal transplantation were included in this historical-control, retrospective study. A 10 patients were treated with the standard dose of TMP/SMX (T group), the other 10 patients were treated with the combination of clindamycin and low dose TMP/SMX (CT group).
Although there was no significant difference in the hospital survival between the two groups, the CT protocol improved the PaO2/FiO2 ratio more significantly and rapidly after the 6th ICU day (1.51 vs. 0.38,
= 0.014). CT protocol also ameliorated the pulmonary infiltration and the lactate dehydrogenase level more effectively. Moreover, the CT protocol reduced the incidence of pneumomediastinum (0 vs. 50%,
= 0.008), the length of hospital staying (26.5 vs. 39.0 days,
= 0.011) and ICU staying (12.5 vs. 22.5 days,
= 0.008). Furthermore, more thrombocytopenia (9/10 vs. 3/10,
= 0.020) was emerged in the T group than in the CT group. The total adverse reaction rate was much lower in the CT group than in the T group (8/80 vs. 27/80,
< 0.001). Consequently, the dosage of TMP/SMX was reduced in 8 patients, while only 2 patients in the CT group received TMP/SMX decrement (
= 0.023).
The current study proposed that clindamycin combined with low-dose TMP/SMX was more effective and safer the than single use of TMP/SMX for severe PCP patients after renal transplantation (NCT04328688).
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