MicroRNA and transcription factor co-regulatory networks and subtype classification of seminoma and non-seminoma in testicular germ cell tumors

Recent studies have revealed that feed-forward loops (FFLs) as regulatory motifs have synergistic roles in cellular systems and their disruption may cause diseases including cancer. FFLs may include two regulators such as transcription factors (TFs) and microRNAs (miRNAs). In this study, we extensively investigated TF and miRNA regulation pairs, their FFLs, and TF-miRNA mediated regulatory networks in two major types of testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT): seminoma (SE) and non-seminoma (NSE). Specifically, we identified differentially expressed mRNA genes and miRNAs in 103 tumors using the transcriptomic data from The Cancer Genome Atlas. Next, we determined significantly correlated TF-gene/miRNA and miRNA-gene/TF pairs with regulation direction. Subsequently, we determined 288 and 664 dysregulated TF-miRNA-gene FFLs in SE and NSE, respectively. By constructing dysregulated FFL networks, we found that many hub nodes (12 out of 30 for SE and 8 out of 32 for NSE) in the top ranked FFLs could predict subtype-classification (Random Forest classifier, average accuracy ≥90%). These hub molecules were validated by an independent dataset. Our network analysis pinpointed several SE-specific dysregulated miRNAs (miR-200c-3p, miR-25-3p, and miR-302a-3p) and genes (EPHA2, JUN, KLF4, PLXDC2, RND3, SPI1, and TIMP3) and NSE-specific dysregulated miRNAs (miR-367-3p, miR-519d-3p, and miR-96-5p) and genes (NR2F1 and NR2F2). This study is the first systematic investigation of TF and miRNA regulation and their co-regulation in two major TGCT subtypes

Brzo otkrivanje uzročnika virusnog proljeva goveda u mlijeku iz spremnika pomoću kombinacije metoda umnožene rekombinazne polimeraze i test-traka za „lateral flow“ analizu

Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is one of the most prevalent and economically important pathogens of ruminants, and leads to significant financial losses to the livestock industry worldwide. Development of rapid and accurate diagnostic methods is of great importance for the control and eradication of BVDV infection. The aim of this study was to develop a novel isothermal recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) method combined with a lateral flow dipstick (LFD), for rapid detection of BVDV. RPA primers and a probe targeting the specific conserved 5′-UTR of BVDV genome were designed. The RPA amplification could be finished at a constant temperature of 38 0000C for 15 min, and the amplification product was easily visualized on a simple LFD within 5 min. The detection limit of this assay was 20 copies per reaction, and there was no cross-reactivity with other bovine infectious viruses, such as infectious bovine rhinotracheitis virus (IBRV), bovine enterovirus (BEV), bovine coronavirus (BcoV), bovine parainfluenza virus type 3 (BPIV-3), bovine ephemeral fever virus (BEFV) and bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV). The assay performance on bulk tank milk was also evaluated, and the sensitivity and accuracy of BVDV LFD RPA was compared with real-time RT-PCR. Of 284 pool or bulk tank milk samples, 51 were found to be positive by RPA assay, whereas 52 were positive by real-time RT-PCR. The coincidence rate between LFD RPA and real-time RT-PCR was 97.54% (277/284).Uzročnik virusnog proljeva goveda (BVDV) jedan je od najčešćih i ekonomski važnih patogena preživača koji uzrokuje znatne financijske gubitke u stočarskoj industriji širom svijeta. Razvoj brzih i točnih dijagnostičkih metoda iznimno je važan za kontrolu i iskorjenjivanje zaraze BVDV-om. Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je razviti novu metodu za brzo otkrivanje BVDV-a baziranu na kombinaciji metoda umnožene rekombinazne polimeraze i test-traka za „lateral flow“ analizu. Oblikovane su početnice i probe za umnažanje rekombinazne polimeraze usmjerene na specifični konzervirani 5’-UTR u genomu BVDV-a. Umnažanje se moglo završiti pri konstantnoj temperaturi od 38 °C tijekom 15 minuta i produkt umnažanja je lako vizualiziran na jednostavnoj test-traci za „lateral flow“ analizu unutar 5 minuta. Test je ograničen na 20 kopija po reakciji, pri čemu nije bilo križne reaktivnosti s drugim goveđim zaraznim virusima kao što su infektivni rinotraheitis virusa goveda (IBRV), goveđi enterovirus (BEV), goveđi koronavirus (BcoV), virus goveđe parainfluence tipa 3 (BPIV-3), virus gljivične ephemeralne groznice (BEFV) i goveđi respiratorni sincicijski virus (BRSV). Učinkovitost kombinacije navedenih metoda istražena je i s obzirom na usporedbu osjetljivosti odnosno točnosti koja se dobiva uporabom RT-PCR metode. Od 284 skupna uzorka mlijeka iz spremnika, kombinacijom metoda umnožene rekombinazne polimeraze i test-traka za „lateral flow“ analizu utvrđen je 51 pozitivan uzorak, a RT-PCR 52 pozitivna uzorka. Stopa podudarnosti između navedenih metoda bila je 97,54 % (277/284)

UniMSE: Towards Unified Multimodal Sentiment Analysis and Emotion Recognition

Multimodal sentiment analysis (MSA) and emotion recognition in conversation (ERC) are key research topics for computers to understand human behaviors. From a psychological perspective, emotions are the expression of affect or feelings during a short period, while sentiments are formed and held for a longer period. However, most existing works study sentiment and emotion separately and do not fully exploit the complementary knowledge behind the two. In this paper, we propose a multimodal sentiment knowledge-sharing framework (UniMSE) that unifies MSA and ERC tasks from features, labels, and models. We perform modality fusion at the syntactic and semantic levels and introduce contrastive learning between modalities and samples to better capture the difference and consistency between sentiments and emotions. Experiments on four public benchmark datasets, MOSI, MOSEI, MELD, and IEMOCAP, demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method and achieve consistent improvements compared with state-of-the-art methods.Comment: Accepted to EMNLP 2022 main conferenc

Future Fertility of Patients With No Embryo Transfer in Their First IVF Cycle Attempts

ObjectiveWe aimed to evaluate the future outcomes of patients undergoing their first IVF (in vitro fertilization) attempt with no oocyte retrieved, no normal zygotes formed, or no embryos available for transfer and to identify factors affecting the live birth rate.MethodsPatients who underwent no transplantable embryo in their first IVF cycles but carried out several consecutive cycles between January 2012 to December 2020 were retrospectively enrolled and divided into three groups:group A (no egg retrieval), group B (no normal zygotes formed), and group C (no embryos available to transfer). The patients were also divided into the live birth group and non-live birth group according to whether they got a live baby or not. The clinical data and the cumulative clinical outcomes of groups were compared.Results496 patients met the inclusion criteria and enrolled, with 121 patients with no oocytes retrieved in group A, 138 patients with no normal zygotes formed in group B, and 237 patients with no embryos available to transfer in group C. The age [(34.75(5.82) vs 31.91(5.31), P<0.001; 34.75(5.82) vs 32.25(5.72), P<0.001)] and baseline FSH level [(13.04(8.82) vs 10.52(7.39), P=0.005; 13.04(8.82) vs 9.91(5.95), P<0.001)] of women in group A were significantly higher than those in groups B and C. The stable cumulative live birth rate/patient of three groups achieved 18.18% (after 5 cycles, group A), 28.98% (after 3 cycles, group B) and 20.25% (after 7 cycles, group C). Moreover, the multivariate regression analysis showed that female age and basic FSH were main factors affecting live birth outcome of patients with no embryo transfer in their first IVF cycle attempts.ConclusionsThe future clinical outcome may be better in women with no normal zygotes than those with no oocyte retrieved or no available embryo at their first IVF cycle attempts. The main factors influencing the live birth are age and ovarian reserve

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) versus conventional in vitro fertilisation (IVF) in couples with non-severe male infertility (NSMI-ICSI) : protocol for a multicentre randomised controlled trial

Funding This study was supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC1000201; 2018YFC1002104) and the National Science Foundation of China (81730038). The study funders had no rule in the study design, implementation, analysis, manuscript, preparation or decision to submit this article for publication.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Design of a Wireless Sensor Module for Monitoring Conductor Galloping of Transmission Lines

Conductor galloping may cause flashovers and even tower collapses. The available conductor galloping monitoring methods often employ acceleration sensors to measure the conductor translations without considering the conductor twist. In this paper, a new sensor for monitoring conductor galloping of transmission lines based on an inertial measurement unit and wireless communication is proposed. An inertial measurement unit is used for collecting the accelerations and angular rates of a conductor, which are further transformed into the corresponding geographic coordinate frame using a quaternion transformation to reconstruct the galloping of the conductor. Both the hardware design and the software design are described in details. The corresponding test platforms are established, and the experiments show the feasibility and accuracy of the proposed monitoring sensor. The field operation of the proposed sensor in a conductor spanning 734 m also shows its effectiveness

Aggregation-Induced Intermolecular Charge Transfer Emission for Solution-Processable Bipolar Host Material via Adjusting the Length of Alkyl Chain

Molecules with donor–spacer–acceptor configuration have been developed rapidly given their peculiar properties. How to utilize intermolecular interactions and charge transfers for solution-processed organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) greatly relies on molecular design strategy. Herein, soluble luminophores with D-spacer-A motif were constructed via shortening the alkyl chain from nonane to propane, where the alkyl chain was utilized as a spatial linker between the donor and acceptor. The alkyl chain blocks the molecular conjugation and induces the existence of aggregation-induced intermolecular CT emission, as well as the improved solubility and morphology in a solid-state film. In addition, the length of the alkyl chain affects the glass transition temperature, carrier transport and balance properties. The mCP-3C-TRZ with nonane as the spacer shows better thermal stability and bipolar carrier transport ability, so the corresponding solution-processable phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes exhibit superior external quantum efficiency of 9.8% when using mCP-3C-TRZ as a host material. This work offers a promising strategy to establish a bipolar host via utilizing intermolecular charge transfer process in an aggregated state

Molecular signatures identified by integrating gene expression and methylation in non-seminoma and seminoma of testicular germ cell tumours

Testicular germ cell tumours (TGCTs) are the most common cancer in young male adults (aged 15 to 40). Unlike most other cancer types, identification of molecular signatures in TGCT has rarely reported. In this study, we developed a novel integrative analysis framework to identify co-methylated and co-expressed genes [mRNAs and microRNAs (miRNAs)] modules in two TGCT subtypes: non-seminoma (NSE) and seminoma (SE). We first integrated DNA methylation and mRNA/miRNA expression data and then used a statistical method, CoMEx (Combined score of DNA Methylation and Expression), to assess differentially expressed and methylated (DEM) genes/miRNAs. Next, we identified co-methylation and co-expression modules by applying WGCNA (Weighted Gene Correlation Network Analysis) tool to these DEM genes/miRNAs. The module with the highest average Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient (PCC) after considering all pair-wise molecules (genes/miRNAs) included 91 molecules. By integrating both transcription factor and miRNA regulations, we constructed subtype-specific regulatory networks for NSE and SE. We identified four hub miRNAs (miR-182-5p, miR-520b, miR-520c-3p, and miR-7-5p), two hub TFs (MYC and SP1), and two genes (RECK and TERT) in the NSE-specific regulatory network, and two hub miRNAs (miR-182-5p and miR-338-3p), five hub TFs (ETS1, HIF1A, HNF1A, MYC, and SP1), and three hub genes (CDH1, CXCR4, and SNAI1) in the SE-specific regulatory network. miRNA (miR-182-5p) and two TFs (MYC and SP1) were common hubs of NSE and SE. We further examined pathways enriched in these subtype-specific networks. Our study provides a comprehensive view of the molecular signatures and co-regulation in two TGCT subtypes

Coping with DNA Double-Strand Breaks via ATM Signaling Pathway in Bovine Oocytes

As a common injury almost all cells face, DNA damage in oocytes—especially double-strand breaks (DSBs), which occur naturally during the first meiosis phase (meiosis I) due to synaptic complex separation—affects the fertilization ability of oocytes, instead of causing cancer (as in somatic cells). The mechanism of oocytes to effectively repair DSB damage has not yet been clearly studied, especially considering medically induced DSBs superimposed on naturally occurring DSBs in meiosis I. It was found that maturation rates decreased or increased, respectively corresponding with overexpression or interference of p21 in bovine oocytes. At the same time, the maturation rate of bovine oocytes decreased with a gradual increase in Zeocin dose, and the p21 expression in those immature oocytes changed significantly with the gradual increase in Zeocin dose (same as increased DSB intensity). Same as p21, the variation trend of ATM expression was consistent with the gradual increase in Zeocin dose. Furthermore, the oocytes demonstrated tolerance to DSBs during meiosis I, while the maturation rates decreased when the damage exceeded a certain threshold; according to which, it may be that ATM regulates the p53–p21 pathway to affect the completion of meiosis. In addition, nonhomologous recombination and cumulus cells are potentially involved in the process by which oocytes respond to DSB damage

Effects of permafrost collapse on soil bacterial communities in a wet meadow on the northern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Abstract Background Permafrost degradation may develop thermokarst landforms, which substantially change physico–chemical characteristics in the soil as well as the soil carbon stock. However, little is known about changes of bacterial community among the microfeatures within thermokarst area. Results We investigated bacterial communities using the Illumina sequencing method and examined their relationships with soil parameters in a thermokarst feature on the northern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. We categorized the ground surface into three different micro-relief patches based on the type and extent of permafrost collapse (control, collapsing and subsided areas). Permafrost collapse significantly decreased the soil carbon density and moisture content in the upper 10 cm samples in the collapsing areas. The highest loading factors for the first principal component (PC) extracted from the soil parameters were soil carbon and nitrogen contents, while soil moisture content and C:N ratios were the highest loading factors for the second PC. The relative abundance of Acidobacteria decreased with depth. Bacterial diversity in subsided areas was higher than that in control areas. Conclusions Bacterial community structure was significantly affected by pH and depth. The relative abundance of Gemmatimonadetes and Firmicutes were significantly correlated with the first and second PCs extracted from multiple soil parameters, suggesting these phyla could be used as indicators for the soil parameters in the thermokarst terrain