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•Early-life exposure to TDCIPP caused anxiety-like behavior in adult female zebrafish.•Dopamine neuron and dopaminergic signaling related genes were reduced in brains of adult ...females.•Upregulation of DNA methylation transferases genes were observed in larvae and adult female brain.•Increased DNA methylation and down-regulation of gene transcriptions in larvae and brains of adult females.•Early-life exposure to TDCIPP could cause delayed neurotoxicity in adult zebrafish.
Early-life exposure to toxicants could affect health outcomes in adulthood. We determined the effects of early-life exposure to the organophosphorus flame-retardant tris (1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TDCIPP) in adult zebrafish. Embryos were exposed to TDCIPP from early embryogenesis (2 h post-fertilization) to 10 days post-fertilization (dpf), and larvae were transferred to clean water until adulthood (150 dpf). TDCIPP showed accumulation in larvae, but returned to control levels after 7 days of depuration. In adult zebrafish exposed to TDCIPP in early life, vulnerability to anxiety-like behavior was observed in females but not males, suggesting gender-dependent neurotoxicity. Decreased dopamine (DA) concentration and down-regulation of dopaminergic signaling related genes were observed in the brains of adult females. Upregulation of DNA methylation transferases (dnmt1, dnmt3a, and dnmt3b) genes were observed in larvae and brains of adult females. Further, the promoter regions of the selected key genes (bdnf, drd4b, zc4h2 and th) showed increased DNA methylation status, accompanied by down-regulation of gene transcription in larvae and brains of adult females. Our results indicate that early-life exposure to TDCIPP could cause delayed neurotoxicity in adult zebrafish.
Ultrasonic surface rolling process (USRP) is a novel surface modification technique based on surface severe plastic deformation (SSPD). The present study aims to investigate the surface ...characteristics and micro-mechanical properties of uranium by USRP treatment. By means of theoretical calculations and experimental tests, it was concluded that the USRP treated specimen showed a smoother and more densified surface. The surface roughness Rv, Rp and Ra were reduced to 0.590 μm, 0.669 μm and 0.249 μm, respectively. Meanwhile, the U(002) basal texture and stronger residual compressive stresses were presented on the surface. The gradient microstructure including severe deformation layer and deformation twinning layer was generated after USRP treatment. Furthermore, there was a typical gradient strength distribution with significantly higher values on the top surface, followed by a gradual decrease until the matrix was reached. As a result, the improvement of surface strength was achieved and the ductility of matrix in core was maintained. These improvements in the micro-mechanical properties were attributed to the results of surface integrality, orientation of grains, residual compressive stress, severe deformation layer and deformation twinning layer. However, excessive passes of USRP treatment led to the nucleation and propagation of surface cracks and the release of residual compressive stress, which were not conducive to the improvement of micro-mechanical properties.
The microstructure evolution of uranium after USRP treatment: (a) SEM image of gradient microstructure; (b) TEM image of severe deformation layer; (c) Depths of deformation layers. Display omitted
•The smoother surface and stronger residual compressive stresses are obtained in uranium specimens after USRP treatment.•The U(002) basal texture, severe deformation layer and deformation twinning layer are presented after USRP treatment.•There is a gradient strength distribution along the depth with significant higher values on the top surface.•The micro-mechanical properties of uranium are much enhanced by USRP which can improve resource sustainability greatly.
Dunaliella salina is a good model organism for studying salt stress. In order to have a global understanding of the expression profiles of Dunaliella salina in response to hypersaline stress, we ...performed quantitative transcriptomic analysis of Dunaliella salina under hypersaline stress (2.5 M NaCl) of different time duration by the second and third generation sequencing method.
Functional enrichment of the up-regulated genes was used to analyze the expression profiles. The enrichment of photosynthesis was observed, accompanied by enrichments of carbon fixation, pigment biosynthetic process and heme biosynthetic process, which also imply the enhancement of photosynthesis. Genes responsible for starch hydrolysis and glycerol synthesis were significantly up-regulated. The enrichment of biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids implies the plasma membrane undergoes changes in desaturation pattern. The enrichment of endocytosis implies the degradation of plasma membrane and might help the synthesis of new glycerophospholipid with unsaturated fatty acids. Co-enrichments of protein synthesis and degradation imply a higher protein turnover rate. The enrichments of spliceosome and protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum imply the enhancement of regulations at post-transcriptional and post-translational level. No up-regulation of any Na
or Cl
channels or transporters was detected, which implies that the extra exclusion of the ions by membrane transporters is possibly not needed. Voltage gated Na
and Cl
channels, mechanosensitive ion channel are possible signal receptors of salt stress, and Ca
and MAP kinase pathways might play a role in signal transduction.
At global transcriptomic level, the response of Dunaliella salina to hypersaline stress is a systematic work, possibly involving enhancements of photosynthesis, carbon fixation, and heme biosynthetic process, acceleration of protein turnover, spliceosome, protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum, and endocytosis, as well as degradation of starch, synthesis of glycerol, membrane lipid desaturation. Altogether, the changes of these biological processes occurred at trancriptomic level will help understand how a new intracellular balance achieved in Dunaliella salina to adapt to hypersaline environment, which are worth being confirmed at the physiological levels.
In the face of rapid environmental changes, understanding and monitoring biological traits and functional diversity are crucial for effective biomonitoring. However, when it comes to freshwater ...macroinvertebrates, a significant dearth of biological trait data poses a major challenge. In this opinion article, we put forward a machine-learning framework that incorporates phylogenetic conservatism and trait collinearity, aiming to provide a better vision for predicting macroinvertebrate traits in freshwater ecosystems. By adopting this proposed framework, we can advance biomonitoring efforts in freshwater ecosystems. Accurate predictions of macroinvertebrate traits enable us to assess functional diversity, identify environmental stressors, and monitor ecosystem health more effectively. This information is vital for making informed decisions regarding conservation and management strategies, especially in the context of rapidly changing environments.
Since terrorist attacks pose a great threat, protective structures need to be applied in terms of the safety of buildings and personnel. The installation of anti-ram bollards around buildings and ...infrastructures could block potential hazards, including the damage caused by car bombs and vehicular impacts on the buildings. In order to provide effective protection for buildings, the dynamic behaviors of anti-ram bollards should be examined, which is under insufficient research. In this paper, by adopting the FE program LS-DYNA, the FE models of corresponding anti-ram bollards are established, and the FEMs are validated by comparison with the experimental results of five existing vehicle crash tests. On this basis, the dynamic response of the optimized K12 anti-ram bollards under vehicular impact is numerically analyzed, and the influences of various parameters on the deformation of anti-ram bollards, as well as the displacement of the vehicle is studied.
Canine distemper, caused by Canine distemper virus (CDV), is a highly contagious and fatal systemic disease in free-living and captive carnivores worldwide. Recombinase polymerase amplification ...(RPA), as an isothermal gene amplification technique, has been explored for the molecular detection of diverse pathogens.
A real-time reverse transcription RPA (RT-RPA) assay for the detection of canine distemper virus (CDV) using primers and exo probe targeting the CDV nucleocapsid protein gene was developed. A series of other viruses were tested by the RT-RPA.Thirty-two field samples were further tested by RT-RPA, and the resuts were compared with those obtained by the real-time RT-PCR.
The RT-RPA assay was performed successfully at 40 °C, and the results were obtained within 3 min-12 min. The assay could detect CDV, but did not show cross-detection of canine parvovirus-2 (CPV-2), canine coronavirus (CCoV), canine parainfluenza virus (CPIV), pseudorabies virus (PRV) or Newcastle disease virus (NDV), demonstrating high specificity. The analytical sensitivity of RT-RPA was 31.8 copies in vitro transcribed CDV RNA, which is 10 times lower than the real-time RT-PCR. The assay performance was validated by testing 32 field samples and compared to real-time RT-PCR. The results indicated an excellent correlation between RT-RPA and a reference real-time RT-PCR method. Both assays provided the same results, and R
value of the positive results was 0.947.
The results demonstrated that the RT-RPA assay offers an alternative tool for simple, rapid, and reliable detection of CDV both in the laboratory and point-of-care facility, especially in the resource-limited settings.
Background/Aims: Circadian locomotor output cycles protein kaput (CLOCK) plays a key role in maintaining circadian rhythms and activation of downstream elements. However, its function on human female ...reproductive system remains unknown. Methods: To investigate the potential role of CLOCK, CLOCK-shRNAs were transfected into mouse 129 ES cells or injected into the ovaries of adult female mice. Western blotting was utilized to analyze the protein interactions and flow cytometry was used to assess apoptosis. Results: The expression of CLOCK peaked at the 6th week in the healthy fetuses. However, an abnormal expression of CLOCK was detected in fetuses from spontaneous miscarriage. To determine the effect of CLOCK on female fertility, a small hairpin RNA (shRNA) strategy was used to specifically knockdown the CLOCK gene expression in vitro and in vivo. Knockdown of CLOCK induced apoptosis in mouse embryonic stem (mES) cells and inhibited the proliferation in mES cells in vitro. CLOCK knockdown also led to decreased release of oocytes and smaller litter size compared with control in vivo. Conclusions: Collectively, theses findings indicate that CLOCK plays an important role in fertility and that the CLOCK knockdown leads to reduction in reproduction and increased miscarriage risk.
Resource sharing among users serves as the foundation of cloud computing, which, however, may also cause vulnerabilities to diverse co-residence attacks launched by malicious virtual machines (VM) ...residing in the same physical server with the victim VMs. In this paper, we aim to defend against such co-residence attacks through a secure, workload-balanced, and energy-efficient VM allocation strategy. Specifically, we model the problem as an optimization problem by quantifying and minimizing three key factors: (1) the security risks, (2) the power consumption and (3) the unbalanced workloads among different physical servers. Furthermore, this work considers a realistic environmental setting by assuming a random number of VMs from different users arriving at random timings, which requires the optimization solution to be continuously evolving. As the optimization problem is NP-hard, we propose to first cluster VMs in time windows, and further adopt the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm to identify the optimal allocation strategy for each time window. Comprehensive experimental results based on real world cloud traces validates the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
...human activities and biological invasions have led to widespread loss of biodiversity on Earth, posing threats to aspects such as food and medicine supply and ecosystem functioning regulation ...(McGeoch et al., 2010; Diaz et al., 2019). ...accurately measuring biodiversity and predicting its temporal and spatial changes have been central research focuses in ecology (Solow and Polasky, 1994; Cardinale et al., 2012). Mere numerical comparisons among the outcomes of these independent DMs do not inherently convey the significance of the moderating factors. ...our approach responds to the pressing need for models that align with our proposed conceptual framework, offering a comprehensive understanding of the intricate ecological mechanisms at play within beta diversity patterns and addressing this research frontier with rigor and innovation. 2 Integration of moderators into the model The comprehensive DM workflow consists of six key steps (Figure 1). ...results are interpreted (Step 6) to decipher how environmental factors influence species composition disparities and how spatial distance shapes species distribution patterns. ...this advancement holds significant potential for strengthening the development of dependable management and conservation strategies in a rapidly changing world.
Mycoplasmal pneumonia is an important infectious disease that threatens sheep and goat production worldwide, and Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae is one of major etiological agent causing mycoplasmal ...pneumonia. Recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) is an isothermal nucleic acid amplification technique, and RPA-based diagnostic assays have been described for the detection of different types of pathogens.
The RPA assays using real-time fluorescence detection (real-time RPA) and lateral flow strip detection (LFS RPA) were developed to detect M. ovipneumoniae targeting a conserved region of the 16S rRNA gene. Real-time RPA was performed in a portable florescence scanner at 39 °C for 20 min. LFS RPA was performed in a portable metal bath incubator at 39 °C for 15 min, and the amplicons were visualized with the naked eyes within 5 min on the lateral flow strip. Both assays were highly specific for M. ovipneumoniae, as there were no cross-reactions with other microorganisms tested, especially the pathogens involved in respiratory complex and other mycoplasmas frequently identified in ruminants. The limit of detection of LFS RPA assay was 1.0 × 10
copies per reaction using a recombinant plasmid containing target gene as template, which is 10 times lower than the limit of detection of the real-time RPA and real-time PCR assays. The RPA assays were further validated on 111 clinical sheep nasal swab and fresh lung samples, and M. ovipneumoniae DNA was detected in 29 samples in the real-time RPA, 31 samples in the LFS RPA and 32 samples in the real-time PCR assay. Compared to real-time PCR, the real-time RPA and LFS RPA showed diagnostic specificity of 100 and 98.73%, diagnostic sensitivity of 90.63 and 93.75%, and a kappa coefficient of 0.932 and 0.934, respectively.
The developed real-time RPA and LFS RPA assays provide the attractive and promising tools for rapid, convenient and reliable detection of M. ovipneumoniae in sheep, especially in resource-limited settings. However, the effectiveness of the developed RPA assays in the detection of M. ovipneumoniae in goats needs to be further validated.
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