Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) has brought about a great threat to global public health. Recently, a new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) variant B.1.1.529 has been ...reported in South Africa and induced a rapid increase in COVID‐19 cases. On November 24, 2021, B.1.1.529 named Omicron was designated as a variant under monitoring (VUM) by World Health Organization (WHO). Two days later, the Omicron variant was classified as a variant of concern (VOC). This variant harbors a high number of mutations, including 15 mutations in the receptor‐binding domain (RBD) of spike. The Omicron variant also shares several mutations with the previous VOC Alpha, Beta, and Gamma variants, which immediately raised global concerns about viral transmissibility, pathogenicity, and immune evasion. Here we described the discovery and characteristics of the Omicron variant, compared the mutations of the spike in the five VOCs, and further raised possible strategies to prevent and overcome the prevalence of the Omicron variant.
Delta variant possesses the L452R and T478K mutations in the receptor‐binding domain (RBD), while 15 mutations have been accumulated in the RBD of the Omicron variant. Among these substitutions, a bunch of residues are located nearby the bound angiotensin‐converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor.
Abstract
Motivation
Clustering analysis in a biological network is to group biological entities into functional modules, thus providing valuable insight into the understanding of complex biological ...systems. Existing clustering techniques make use of lower-order connectivity patterns at the level of individual biological entities and their connections, but few of them can take into account of higher-order connectivity patterns at the level of small network motifs.
Results
Here, we present a novel clustering framework, namely HiSCF, to identify functional modules based on the higher-order structure information available in a biological network. Taking advantage of higher-order Markov stochastic process, HiSCF is able to perform the clustering analysis by exploiting a variety of network motifs. When compared with several state-of-the-art clustering models, HiSCF yields the best performance for two practical clustering applications, i.e. protein complex identification and gene co-expression module detection, in terms of accuracy. The promising performance of HiSCF demonstrates that the consideration of higher-order network motifs gains new insight into the analysis of biological networks, such as the identification of overlapping protein complexes and the inference of new signaling pathways, and also reveals the rich higher-order organizational structures presented in biological networks.
Availability and implementation
HiSCF is available at https://github.com/allenv5/HiSCF.
Supplementary information
Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Ruminants are the only extant mammalian group possessing bony (osseous) headgear. We obtained 221 transcriptomes from bovids and cervids and sequenced three genomes representing the only two pecoran ...lineages that convergently lack headgear. Comparative analyses reveal that bovid horns and cervid antlers share similar gene expression profiles and a common cellular basis developed from neural crest stem cells. The rapid regenerative properties of antler tissue involve exploitation of oncogenetic pathways, and at the same time some tumor suppressor genes are under strong selection in deer. These results provide insights into the evolutionary origin of ruminant headgear as well as mammalian organ regeneration and oncogenesis.
Precipitation-hardening in fcc-based high-entropy alloys (HEAs) have usually been realized by introducing complex intermetallic compounds. In this study, enhanced strength is ascribed to the ...existence of L12 precipitates and B2/bcc conjoint phases in the fcc matrix. The nano-size particles in the Al0.5CoCrFeNi HEA are produced by cold-rolling, followed by intermediate-temperature-annealing at 650 ℃. For L12 ordering, the initial granular structure has transformed into lamella structure and then kept stable when the holding time prolonged to 200 h. The formation of this conjoint B2/bcc driven by the concentration profiles takes place when the diffusion process of elements is sufficient after long-time aging. Based on the microstructure analysis, changes in mechanical properties are associated with the shape, size scale and volume fraction of the precipitates. The peak ultimate tensile stress reaches 1221.5 MPa, 1.97 times compared with the as-cast alloy, remaining plasticity of 21.3%.
The influence of simple thermo-mechanical processing such as cold rolling and subsequent annealing on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the single phase Al0·25CoCrFeNi high-entropy ...alloy is systematically investigated. Experimental results obtained from ten different processing parameters indicate that the microstructure and mechanical properties of the alloy can be comprehensively tuned in a wide range. The grain size can be reduced from hundreds of micrometer size to several tens micrometer size, and the yield and tensile strength can be enhanced from 173 MPa to 425 MPa–1050 MPa and 1160 MPa, respectively, while the alloy still owns large tensile ductility above 10%. Based on detailed microstructure analysis, the strength mechanism is shown to be related with both the refined grain size, nanoscale precipitation in the grain boundaries and recrystallized grains. This research shows that with simple multistep cold rolling and annealing, the mechanical properties of face-centered-cubic single phase high-entropy alloy can be highly tailored for different engineering applications.
•Tailor strength of Al0·25CoCrFeNi HEA via multistep cold rolling and annealing.•Entirely different phase transformation results from the two types of heat treatment.•Grain refinement & nano precipitates result in good strength-ductility combination.
The ruminants are one of the most successful mammalian lineages, exhibiting morphological and habitat diversity and containing several key livestock species. To better understand their evolution, we ...generated and analyzed de novo assembled genomes of 44 ruminant species, representing all six Ruminantia families. We used these genomes to create a time-calibrated phylogeny to resolve topological controversies, overcoming the challenges of incomplete lineage sorting. Population dynamic analyses show that population declines commenced between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago, which is concomitant with expansion in human populations. We also reveal genes and regulatory elements that possibly contribute to the evolution of the digestive system, cranial appendages, immune system, metabolism, body size, cursorial locomotion, and dentition of the ruminants.
Preweaned rumen development is vital for animal health and efficient fermentation. In this study, we integrated ruminal transcriptomic and metagenomic data to explore the dynamics of rumen functions, ...microbial colonization, and their functional interactions during the first 8 weeks of life in goats.
The dynamic rumen transcriptomic and microbial profiles both exhibited two distinct phases during early rumen development. The differentially expressed genes of the rumen transcriptome between the two phases showed that the immune-related response was enriched in the first phase and nutrient-related metabolism was enriched in the second phase, whereas the differentially expressed genes of the rumen microbiome were enriched in bacteriocin biosynthesis and glycolysis/gluconeogenesis activities. The developmental shift in the rumen transcriptome (at d 21) was earlier than the feed stimulus (at d 25) and the shift in the rumen microbiome (at d 42). Additionally, 15 temporal dynamic rumen gene modules and 20 microbial modules were revealed by coexpression network analysis. Functional correlations between the rumen and its microbiome were primarily involved in rumen pH homeostasis, nitrogen metabolism and the immune response. Rumen gene modules associated with the microbial alpha diversity index were also enriched in the immune response process.
The present study touched the critical developmental process of rumen functions, microbial colonization and their functional interactions during preweaned development. Taken together, these results demonstrated that rumen development at the first phase is more likely a programmed process rather than stimulation from feed and the microbiome, while the shift of rumen metagenomes was likely regulated by both the diet and host. The intensive functional correlations between rumen genes and the microbiome demonstrated that synergistic processes occurred between them during early rumen development.
Abstract
In the past decades, a band alignment theory has become a basis for designing different high-performance semiconductor devices, such as photocatalysis, photoelectrocatalysis, ...photoelectrostorage and third-generation photovoltaics. Recently, a faradaic junction model (coupled electron and ion transfer) has been proposed to explain charge transfer phenomena in these semiconductor heterojunctions. However, the classic band alignment theory cannot explain coupled electron and ion transfer processes because it only regulates electron transfer. Therefore, it is very significant to explore a suitable design concept for regulating coupled electron and ion transfer in order to improve the performance of semiconductor heterojunctions. Herein, we propose a potential window alignment theory for regulating ion transfer and remarkably improving the photoelectrocatalytic performance of a MoS
2
/Cd-Cu
2
ZnSnS
4
heterojunction photocathode. Moreover, we find that a faradaic potential window, rather than the band position of the intermediate layer, is a criterion for identifying interface charge transfer direction. This finding can offer different perspectives for designing high-performance semiconductor heterojunctions with suitable potential windows for solar energy conversion and storage.
This article primarily investigates the width problem within weighted band-limited function space in a uniform setting. Through an analysis of the properties of s-numbers, we establish a connection ...between the widths of weighted band-limited function spaces and the s-numbers of infinite-dimensional diagonal operators. Furthermore, employing the discretization method, we estimate the exact asymptotic orders of Kolmogorov n-width and linear n-width in the weighted band-limited function space, which is characterized by the weight ω=ωk=|k|rk∈Z0.
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