Background and Aims
Studies verify that intercropping increases soil macro-aggregates but the mechanism underlying the increase is poorly understood.
Methods
Three long-term field experiments were ...conducted starting in 2009 at three sites in an oasis in northwest China. The first was a split-plot design:
Rhizobium
(with or without inoculation) and three cropping systems (faba bean/maize intercropping and corresponding monocultures). The second and third experiments were both single-factorial randomized block designs with nine cropping systems (maize intercropped with faba bean, chickpea, soybean, or oilseed rape, and the corresponding monocultures). Soil aggregates were determined by the wet sieving method. Microbial biomass and community composition in 2015 and 2016 were determined by phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) and high throughput sequencing analysis of 16S
rRNA
.
Results
Soil macro-aggregates (> 2 mm) in intercropping systems increased by 15.5–58.6% across three sites and two years, an effect derived partly from increased relative abundance of soil
Sordariales
, from enhanced arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi biomass, or from reduced relative abundance of
Nitrospirae
, depending on soil type.
Conclusions
Intercropping alters soil microbial community composition and further facilitates soil aggregation. These findings provide insights into the mechanisms underlying the maintenance of biodiversity in ecosystem functioning.
Depth-Aware Unpaired Video Dehazing Yang, Yang; Guo, Chun-Le; Guo, Xiaojie
IEEE transactions on image processing,
2024, Volume:
33
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
This paper investigates a novel unpaired video dehazing framework, which can be a good candidate in practice by relieving pressure from collecting paired data. In such a paradigm, two key issues ...including 1) temporal consistency uninvolved in single image dehazing, and 2) better dehazing ability need to be considered for satisfied performance. To handle the mentioned problems, we alternatively resort to introducing depth information to construct additional regularization and supervision. Specifically, we attempt to synthesize realistic motions with depth information to improve the effectiveness and applicability of traditional temporal losses, and thus better regularizing the spatiotemporal consistency. Moreover, the depth information is also considered in terms of adversarial learning. For haze removal, the depth information guides the local discriminator to focus on regions where haze residuals are more likely to exist. The dehazing performance is consequently improved by more pertinent guidance from our depth-aware local discriminator. Extensive experiments are conducted to validate our effectiveness and superiority over other competitors. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the initial foray into the task of unpaired video dehazing. Our code is available at https://github.com/YaN9-Y/DUVD .
Diabetic wounds, one of the most enervating complications of diabetes mellitus, affect millions of people worldwide annually. Vascular insufficiency, caused by hyperglycemia, is one of the primary ...causes and categories of diabetic impaired wound healing. Recently, long noncoding RNA (LncRNA)-H19, which is significantly decreased in diabetes and may be crucial in triggering angiogenesis, has attracted increasing interest. The possible relationship between the decrease of LncRNA-H19 and the impairment of angiogenesis in diabetes could involve impairment of the insulin-phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)-Akt pathway via the interdiction of LncRNA-H19. Thus, a therapeutic strategy utilizing LncRNA-H19 delivery is feasible. In this study, we investigated the possibility of using high-yield extracellular vesicle-mimetic nanovesicles (EMNVs) as an effective nano-drug delivery system for LncRNA, and studied the function of EMNVs with a high content of LncRNA-H19 (
H19
EMNVs). The results, which were exciting, showed that
H19
EMNVs had a strong ability to neutralize the regeneration-inhibiting effect of hyperglycemia, and could remarkably accelerate the healing processes of chronic wounds. Our results suggest that bioengineered EMNVs can serve as a powerful instrument to effectively deliver LncRNA and will be an extremely promising multifunctional drug delivery system in the immediate future.
Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) evolve more rapidly than mRNAs. Whether conserved lncRNAs undergo conserved processing, localization, and function remains unexplored. We report differing subcellular ...localization of lncRNAs in human and mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs). A significantly higher fraction of lncRNAs is localized in the cytoplasm of hESCs than in mESCs. This turns out to be important for hESC pluripotency. FAST is a positionally conserved lncRNA but is not conserved in its processing and localization. In hESCs, cytoplasm-localized hFAST binds to the WD40 domain of the E3 ubiquitin ligase β-TrCP and blocks its interaction with phosphorylated β-catenin to prevent degradation, leading to activated WNT signaling, required for pluripotency. In contrast, mFast is nuclear retained in mESCs, and its processing is suppressed by the splicing factor PPIE, which is highly expressed in mESCs but not hESCs. These findings reveal that lncRNA processing and localization are previously under-appreciated contributors to the rapid evolution of function.
Display omitted
•Subcellular localization of conserved lncRNAs is different in hESCs and mESCs•Cytoplasmic hFAST but not nuclear mFast promotes WNT signaling in hESC pluripotency•PPIE regulates distinct FAST processing in hESCs and mESCs•RNA processing and localization contribute to lncRNA functional evolution
A pair of lncRNA orthologs exhibits different subcellular localization in human and murine ESCs because of differential RNA processing, which, in turn, leads to their functional divergence in the context of pluripotency regulation. The findings highlight how conserved lncRNAs may achieve functional evolution through non-conserved RNA processing.
Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) play critical roles in controlling obesity-associated inflammation and metabolic disorders. Exosomes from ADSCs exert protective effects in several diseases, but ...their roles in obesity and related pathological conditions remain unclear. In this study, we showed that treatment of obese mice with ADSC-derived exosomes facilitated their metabolic homeostasis, including improved insulin sensitivity (27.8% improvement), reduced obesity, and alleviated hepatic steatosis. ADSC-derived exosomes drove alternatively activated M2 macrophage polarization, inflammation reduction, and beiging in white adipose tissue (WAT) of diet-induced obese mice. Mechanistically, exosomes from ADSCs transferred into macrophages to induce anti-inflammatory M2 phenotypes through the transactivation of arginase-1 by exosome-carried active STAT3. Moreover, M2 macrophages induced by ADSC-derived exosomes not only expressed high levels of tyrosine hydroxylase responsible for catecholamine release, but also promoted ADSC proliferation and lactate production, thereby favoring WAT beiging and homeostasis in response to high-fat challenge. These findings delineate a novel exosome-mediated mechanism for ADSC-macrophage cross talk that facilitates immune and metabolic homeostasis in WAT, thus providing potential therapy for obesity and diabetes.
To evaluate the value of whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (WBMRI) in diagnosing muscular and extra muscular lesions in patients with polymyositis (PM) and dermatomyositis (DM).
A retrospective ...analysis of WBMRI data from PM/DM patients who met the Bohan and Peter diagnostic criteria was performed. X2 test was used to compare the rate of positive diagnosis of newly diagnosed patients using WBMRI, serum creatine kinase test, and EMG. McNemar test was used to compare the performance of WBMRI and chest CT in detecting interstitial lung disease (ILD).
The study included 129 patients (30 PM cases and 99 DM cases). Of them, 81.4% (105/129) showed a visible inflammatory muscular edema on their WBMRI; 29.5% (38/129) had varying degrees of fatty infiltration (9 cases with clear muscular atrophy). Of the 66 newly diagnosed patients, the positive rates of WBMRI, muscle biopsy, serum creatine kinase test and EMG were 86.4% (57/66), 92.4% (61/66), 71.2% (47/66) and 71.1% (32/45), respectively. There was no significant difference in the positive rates between WBMRI and muscle biopsy (X2 = 1.28, P = 0.258). The WBMRI had a higher positive rate than both serum creatine kinase test (X2 = 4.53, P = 0.033) and EMG (X2 = 3.92, P = 0.047). In addition to muscular changes, WBMRI also detected interstitial lung disease (ILD) in 38 cases (29.5%), osteonecrosis in 15 cases (11.6%), and neoplastic lesions (5 malignant; 7 benign) in 12 cases (9.3%). Of the 61 patients who underwent routine chest CT examinations, the WBMRI and CT revealed ILD in 29 cases and 35 cases respectively. There was no significant difference in the sensitivity between WBMRI and CT (p = 0.146).
WBMRI is a sensitive, non-invasive and efficient imaging method. It comprehensively displays the extent of muscular involvement in PM/DM patients, and it has the ability to diagnose other associated extra muscular diseases, such as ILD and systemic malignancy. WBMRI can also help screen steroid-induced osteonecrosis.
Layering in the sun: Layered graphene and quantum dot (QD) films can be fabricated simply on transparent conducting indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates from aqueous solutions. The structure and ...favorable work function of graphene make it effective for the collection and transfer of photogenerated charges to the electrode, resulting in a high‐performance photovoltaic device (see picture; IPCE=incident photon‐to‐charge‐carrier conversion efficiency, SWNT=single‐walled carbon nanotube).
Due to the light absorption and scattering induced by the water medium, underwater images usually suffer from some degradation problems, such as low contrast, color distortion, and blurring details, ...which aggravate the difficulty of downstream underwater understanding tasks. Therefore, how to obtain clear and visually pleasant images has become a common concern of people, and the task of underwater image enhancement (UIE) has also emerged as the times require. Among existing UIE methods, Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) based methods perform well in visual aesthetics, while the physical model-based methods have better scene adaptability. Inheriting the advantages of the above two types of models, we propose a physical model-guided GAN model for UIE in this paper, referred to as PUGAN. The entire network is under the GAN architecture. On the one hand, we design a Parameters Estimation subnetwork (Par-subnet) to learn the parameters for physical model inversion, and use the generated color enhancement image as auxiliary information for the Two-Stream Interaction Enhancement sub-network (TSIE-subnet). Meanwhile, we design a Degradation Quantization (DQ) module in TSIE-subnet to quantize scene degradation, thereby achieving reinforcing enhancement of key regions. On the other hand, we design the Dual-Discriminators for the style-content adversarial constraint, promoting the authenticity and visual aesthetics of the results. Extensive experiments on three benchmark datasets demonstrate that our PUGAN outperforms state-of-the-art methods in both qualitative and quantitative metrics. The code and results can be found from the link of https://rmcong.github.io/proj_PUGAN.html .
Diabetic nephropathy is one of the most serious complications in patients with diabetes. At present, there are no satisfactory treatments available for diabetic nephropathy. Stem cells are currently ...the main candidates for the development of new treatments for diabetic nephropathy, as they may exert their therapeutic effects mainly through paracrine mechanisms. Exosomes derived from stem cells have been reported to play an important role in kidney injury. In this article, we try to investigate whether exosomes retrieved from urine stem cells could itself prevent diabetic nephropathy at an early stage in vivo and in vitro.
Exosomes from conditioned medium of urine-derived stem cells (USCs-Exo) were isolated using ultrafiltration-combined purification methods. USCs-Exo were then verified by morphology, size, and specific biomarkers using transmission electron microscopy, tunable resistive pulse sensing analysis, and western blotting. After establishment of the streptozotocin-induced Sprague-Dawley rat model, the effects of USCs-Exo on kidney injury and angiogenesis were observed via weekly tail intravenous injection of USCs-Exo or control until 12 weeks. In vitro, podocytes cultured in high-glucose medium were treated with USCs-Exo to test the protective effect of USCs-Exo on podocytic apoptosis. Meanwhile, the potential factors in promoting vascular regeneration in USCs-Exo and urine-derived stem cell conditioned medium were investigated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
Urine-derived stem cells were cultured and were verified by positive markers for CD29, CD73, CD90 and CD44 antigens, and negative markers for CD34, CD45 and HLA-DR. USCs-Exo were approximately 50-100 nm spherical vesicles, and the specific markers included CD9, CD63 and CD81. Intravenous injections of USCs-Exo could potentially reduce the urine volume and urinary microalbumin excretion, prevent podocyte and tubular epithelial cell apoptosis, suppress the caspase-3 overexpression and increase glomerular endothelial cell proliferation in diabetic rats. In addition, USCs-Exo could reduce podocytic apoptosis induced by high glucose in vitro. USCs-Exo contained the potential factors, including growth factor, transforming growth factor-β1, angiogenin and bone morphogenetic protein-7, which may be related with vascular regeneration and cell survival.
USCs-Exo may have the potential to prevent kidney injury from diabetes by inhibiting podocyte apoptosis and promoting vascular regeneration and cell survival.
The study of pedestrian catchment areas for metro stations serves as the foundation for addressing issues such as-passenger flow forecasting, land use planning around stations, and transportation ...link facility planning. This study aims to investigate how various factors related to pedestrians, the environment, and the characteristics of metro stations affect the areas where pedestrians are attracted to. The goal is to gain insights into design strategies and policy interventions that can enhance the appeal of metro stations. The present study considers the metro stations in the Chengdu area as the primary research objects. A framework for examining the connection between the built environment and the pedestrian catchment area of a subway station through the use of a hybrid gradient decision tree approach has been used. The study examines the pedestrian catchment areas of these stations and confirms the presence of a nonlinear relationship between pedestrian catchment areas and variables at these stations. There exists a negative correlation, within specific thresholds, between the number of companies, bus stops, and road network density with the catchment area of passengers. Concurrently, there is a positive correlation between the distances to the city center and the catchment area. Furthermore, this framework, which accounts for spatial heterogeneity, showed significant goodness-of-fit and predictive capability, aspects that were overlooked in earlier research. As a result, these research findings can serve as a key foundation for advancing the theoretical framework and statistical proof to facilitate land planning and development near metro stations, predicting passenger flow, and designing essential connecting amenities in the vicinity of such facilities.
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