The Geostationary Interferometric Microwave Sounder (GIMS) is a new concept of atmospheric microwave sounder for China's future geostationary Earth orbit meteorological satellite (FY-4). It is a ...microwave interferometric radiometer (MIR) using aperture synthesis and working in rotating time-sharing mode with a circular antenna array. A GIMS proof-of-concept demonstrator operating in the temperature sounding bands of 50-56 GHz has been successfully developed. The instrument uses a circular array with 28 elements (including one in the center of the array). It is capable of imaging a scene with an angular resolution of about 0.08° and a radiometric resolution of less than 1 K with 5-m integration time within a 5° field of view (FOV). Some theoretical aspects of the imaging characteristics of GIMS are discussed, such as the alias-free FOV, angular resolution, radiometric resolution, and imaging algorithm. Some early tests and preliminary imaging experiments of the GIMS demonstrator are also presented.
•This paper proposes a deep learning algorithm for rapid detection of aortic dissection using contrast-enhanced CT images.•We built a segmentation network that is more suitable for segmenting CT ...images of the aorta.•This research has laid the foundation for the development of an effective aortic dissection detection algorithm.
Aortic dissection (AD) is one of the most common aortic diseases, where blood enters the aortic wall through the aortic intimal rift and causes separation of the arterial wall. Any delay or misdiagnosis can have severe consequences for patients with aortic dissection and even lead to higher mortality rates. Therefore, rapid and accurate detection of aortic dissection saves patients valuable time and provides assistance for the selection of clinical treatment options. This paper describes a deep learning algorithm that uses contrast-enhanced CT images for segmentation and automatic detection of aortic dissection. First, we construct a U-Net based semantic segmentation architecture and apply it to contrast-enhanced CT images to segment the aortic true lumen. Then, we use the segmentation results for aortic circularity analysis to obtain slice-level detection results. Finally, we aggregated the slice-level results to present patient-level detection results. We tested our algorithm on 20 contrast-enhanced CT datasets, of which 10 were aortic dissections. In terms of temporal performance, we have achieved millisecond prediction on sliced images. At the same time, we achieved 85.00% accuracy, 90.00% sensitivity and 80.00% specificity in patient-level testing.
Abstract
Background
Phosphorus (P) is one of the most essential macronutrients on the planet, and microorganisms (including bacteria and archaea) play a key role in P cycling in all living things and ...ecosystems. However, our comprehensive understanding of key P cycling genes (PCGs) and microorganisms (PCMs) as well as their ecological functions remains elusive even with the rapid advancement of metagenome sequencing technologies. One of major challenges is a lack of a comprehensive and accurately annotated P cycling functional gene database.
Results
In this study, we constructed a well-curated P cycling database (PCycDB) covering 139 gene families and 10 P metabolic processes, including several previously ignored PCGs such as
pafA
encoding phosphate-insensitive phosphatase,
ptxABCD
(phosphite-related genes), and novel
aepXVWPS
genes for 2-aminoethylphosphonate transporters. We achieved an annotation accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV), sensitivity, specificity, and negative predictive value (NPV) of 99.8%, 96.1%, 99.9%, 99.8%, and 99.9%, respectively, for simulated gene datasets. Compared to other orthology databases, PCycDB is more accurate, more comprehensive, and faster to profile the PCGs. We used PCycDB to analyze P cycling microbial communities from representative natural and engineered environments and showed that PCycDB could apply to different environments.
Conclusions
We demonstrate that PCycDB is a powerful tool for advancing our understanding of microbially driven P cycling in the environment with high coverage, high accuracy, and rapid analysis of metagenome sequencing data. The PCycDB is available at
https://github.com/ZengJiaxiong/Phosphorus-cycling-database
.
Microorganisms play crucial roles in phosphorus (P) turnover and P bioavailability increases in heavy metal-contaminated soils. However, microbially driven P-cycling processes and mechanisms of their ...resistance to heavy metal contaminants remain poorly understood. Here, we examined the possible survival strategies of P-cycling microorganisms in horizontal and vertical soil samples from the world's largest antimony (Sb) mining site, which is located in Xikuangshan, China. We found that total soil Sb and pH were the primary factors affecting bacterial community diversity, structure and P-cycling traits. Bacteria with the gcd gene, encoding an enzyme responsible for gluconic acid production, largely correlated with inorganic phosphate (Pi) solubilization and significantly enhanced soil P bioavailability. Among the 106 nearly complete bacterial metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) recovered, 60.4% carried the gcd gene. Pi transportation systems encoded by pit or pstSCAB were widely present in gcd-harboring bacteria, and 43.8% of the gcd-harboring bacteria also carried the acr3 gene encoding an Sb efflux pump. Phylogenetic and potential horizontal gene transfer (HGT) analyses of acr3 indicated that Sb efflux could be a dominant resistance mechanism, and two gcd-harboring MAGs appeared to acquire acr3 through HGT. The results indicated that Sb efflux could enhance P cycling and heavy metal resistance in Pi-solubilizing bacteria in mining soils. This study provides novel strategies for managing and remediating heavy metal-contaminated ecosystems.
•Four typical flue gas heat recovery schemes are quantitatively analyzed.•The analysis considers thermodynamic, heat transfer and hydrodynamics factors.•Techno-economic analysis and optimization ...design are carried out.•High-stage steam substitute scheme obtains better energy-saving effect.•Large heat transfer area and high flue gas resistances weaken overall performance.
Coal-fired power plants in China consume nearly half of available coals, and the resulting CO2 emissions cover over 40% of total national emissions. Therefore, reducing the energy expenditure of coal-fired power plants is of great significance to China’s energy security and greenhouse gas reduction programs. For coal-fired power plants, the temperature of a boiler’s exhaust gas reaches 120–150°C or even higher. The thermal energy of boiler’s exhaust accounts for approximately 3–8% of the total energy of fuel input. Given these factors, we conducted a techno-economic analysis and optimization design of the heat recovery system using boiler exhaust gas. This research is conformed to the principles of thermodynamic, heat transfer, and hydrodynamics. Based on the data from an existing 1000MW typical power generation unit in China, four typical flue gas heat recovery schemes are quantitatively analyzed from the thermodynamics perspective. The impacts of flue gas heat recovery on net work output and standard coal consumption rate of various schemes are performed. Furthermore, the transfer area of heat recovery exchanger and the draft fan work increment due to the flue gas pressure drop are analyzed. Finally, a techno-economic analysis of the heat recovery schemes is conducted, and some recommendations on optimization design parameters are proposed, with full consideration of various factors such as the decrease on fuel cost due to energy conservation as well as the investment cost of heat recovery retrofitting. The results revealed that, high-stage steam substitute scheme of flue gas heat recovery in power plant can obtain higher energy-saving effects than that of low-stage steam substitute scheme. And the energy-saving benefit of flue gas heat recovery, especially with high-stage steam substitute scheme, is weakened by large heat exchange areas and flue gas pressure drop caused by lower temperature differentials. Therefore, the techno-economic performance of the flue gas heat recovery in power plant may not always increase with the increment of the recovered heat but have an optimum point.
In this paper, an illumination measurement system is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The system consists of two parts, including the illumination acquisition module mounted on the UAV and ...the real-time display interface of the cloud platform with control functions. The illuminance acquisition module consists of a light sensor, a distance sensor, a wireless communication module, and a power-supply component. For the other part, the OneNET cloud platform developed by China Mobile is chosen as the display interface for the system’s real-time data. In addition, the local-outlier factor (LOF) algorithm is used for outlier rejection to further improve the stability and accuracy of the system. The illuminance acquisition system designed and implemented was then applied to the illuminance measurement experiments in the stadium. In experiments, the illuminance data acquired by the system was used to investigate the illuminance distribution at different height levels in the stadium. It was learned that the root mean square error (RMSE) of the data acquired is calculated to be 2.45 compared to the illuminance standard values through experimentation, with an error range of −2.77% to −0.53% for dynamic measurements.
Acute lung injury (ALI) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) are common and devastating clinical disorders with high mortality and no specific therapy. An excessive inflammatory response ...results in the progression of ALI/ARDS, and the NLRP3 inflammasome is a key participant in inflammation. Erythropoietin (EPO), which is clinically used for anemia, reportedly exerts pleiotropic effects in ALI. However, whether EPO could protect against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ALI by regulating the NLRP3 inflammasome and its underlying mechanisms remain poorly elucidated. This study aimed to explore whether the therapeutic effects of EPO rely on the suppression of the NLRP3 inflammasome and the specific mechanisms in an LPS-induced ALI mouse model. ALI was induced in C57BL/6 mice by intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of LPS (15 mg/kg). EPO was administered intraperitoneally at 5 U/g after LPS challenge. The mice were sacrificed 8 h later. Our findings indicated that application of EPO markedly diminished LPS-induced lung injury by restoring histopathological changes, lessened lung wet/dry (W/D) ratio, protein concentrations in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) levels. Meanwhile, EPO evidently decreased interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and interleukin-18 (IL-18) secretion, the expression of NLRP3 inflammasome components including pro-IL-1β, NLRP3, and cleaved caspase-1 as well as phosphorylation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) p65, which may be associated with activation of EPO receptor (EPOR), phosphorylation of Janus-tyrosine kinase 2 (JAK2) and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3). However, all the beneficial effects of EPO on ALI and modulation NLRP3 inflammasome were remarkably abrogated by the inhibition of EPOR/JAK2/STAT3 pathway and knockout (KO) of NLRP3 gene. Taken together, this study indicates that EPO can effectively attenuate LPS-induced lung injury in mice by suppressing the NLRP3 inflammasome, which is dependent upon activation of EPOR/JAK2/STAT3 signaling and inhibition of the NF-κB pathway.
Under the circumstance of the increasing waiting list for liver transplantation, living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) can alleviate the shortage of liver donors to some extent. However, how to ...reduce both donor and graft ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is still an unsolved problem in LDLT. Hypoxia-induced transcription factor 1 (HIF1) activation is considered an important mechanism of cellular adaptation to hypoxia, and early activation of HIF1 may be a new way to alleviate liver IRI. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the impact of the HIF1 stabilizer dimethyloxalylglycine (DMOG) on IRI and the survival rate of donors and recipients of rat LDLT.
Seventy percent partial liver resection and 30% partial liver transplantation were used to simulate donor and recipient of clinical LDLT. Rats were treated with DMOG (40 mg/kg) or with an equivalent amount of saline. The expression of HIF1 and downstream targets was analyzed after 2 h of reperfusion. Liver function and histopathology, apoptosis and oxidative stress levels were detected 6 h after reperfusion. At the same time, the 7-day survival rate of rats was calculated.
DMOG pretreatment significantly reduced IR-induced injury in the donor and recipient, which was manifested by reducing liver function damage and promoting tissue recovery. Meanwhile, compared with the untreated group, the oxidative stress level and the cell apoptosis rate were decreased in the group pretreated with DMOG. In addition, the transcription and expression of HIF1 target genes in the DMOG group were significantly enhanced. Remarkably, DMOG also increased the survival rate of the recipient.
This study provides the first evidence that DMOG pretreatment of donors significantly alleviates liver IRI in both donors and recipients and increases the survival rate of recipients in LDLT. Therefore, DMOG may be a promising strategy for improving LDLT in the future.
Summary
Self‐incompatibility plays a vital role in angiosperms, by preventing inbreeding depression and maintaining genetic diversity within populations. Following polyploidization, many angiosperm ...species transition from self‐incompatibility to self‐compatibility.
Here, we investigated the S‐locus in Brassicaceae and identified distinct origins for the sRNA loci, SMI and SMI2 (SCR Methylation Inducer 1 and 2), within the S‐locus. The SMI loci were found to be widespread in Cruciferae, whereas the SMI2 loci were exclusive to Brassica species.
Additionally, we discovered four major S‐haplotypes (BnS‐1, BnS‐6, BnS‐7, and BnS‐1300) in rapeseed. Overexpression of BnSMI‐1 in self‐incompatible Brassica napus (‘S‐70S1300S6’) resulted in a significant increase in DNA methylation in the promoter regions of BnSCR‐6 and BnSCR‐1300, leading to self‐compatibility. Conversely, by overexpressing a point mutation of BnSmi‐1 in the ‘S‐70S1300S6’ line, we observed lower levels of DNA methylation in BnSCR‐6 and BnSCR‐1300 promoters. Furthermore, the overexpression of BnSMI2‐1300 in the ‘SI‐326S7S6’ line inhibited the expression of BnSCR‐7 through transcriptional repression of the Smi2 sRNA from the BnS‐1300 haplotype.
Our study demonstrates that the self‐compatibility of rapeseed is determined by S‐locus sRNA‐mediated silencing of SCR after polyploidization, which helps to further breed self‐incompatible or self‐compatible rapeseed lines, thereby facilitating the utilization of heterosis.
As a significant co-activator involved in cell cycle and cell growth, differentiation and development, p300/CBP has shown extraordinary potential target in cancer therapy. Herein we designed new ...compounds from the lead compound A-485 based on molecular dynamic simulations. A series of new spirocyclic chroman derivatives was prepared, characterized and proven to be a potential treatment of prostate cancer. The most potent compound B16 inhibited the proliferation of enzalutamide-resistant 22Rv1 cells with an IC50 value of 96 nM. Furthermore, compounds B16–P2 displayed favorable overall pharmacokinetic profiles, and better tumor growth inhibition than A-485 in an in vivo xenograft model.
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