Identification of crucial modules and genes associated with backfat tissue development by WGCNA in Ningxiang pigs

Fat deposition is an economically important trait in pigs. Ningxiang pig, one of the four famous indigenous breeds in China, is characterized by high fat content. The underlying gene expression pattern in different developmental periods of backfat tissue remains unclear, and the purpose of this investigation is to explore the potential molecular regulators of backfat tissue development in Ningxiang pigs. Backfat tissue (three samples for each stage) was initially collected from different developmental stages (60, 120, 180, 240, 300, and 360 days after birth), and histological analysis and RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) were then conducted. Fragments per kilobase of transcript per million (FPKM) method was used to qualify gene expressions, and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Furthermore, strongly co-expressed genes in modules, which were named by color, were clustered by Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) based on dynamic tree cutting algorithm. Gene ontology (GO) and kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) enrichment were subsequently implemented, and hub genes were described in each module. Finally, QPCR analysis was employed to validate RNA-seq data. The results showed that adipocyte area increased and adipocyte number decreased with development of backfat tissue. A total of 1,024 DEGs were identified in five comparison groups (120 days vs. 60 days, 180 days vs. 120 days, 240 days vs. 180 days, 300 days vs. 240 days, and 360 days vs. 300 days). The turquoise, red, pink, paleturquoise, darkorange, and darkgreen module had the highest correlation coefficient with 60, 120, 180, 240, 300, and 360 days developmental stage, while the tan, black and turquoise module had strong relationship with backfat thickness, adipocyte area, and adipocyte number, respectively. Thirteen hub genes (ACSL1, ACOX1, FN1, DCN, CHST13, COL1A1, COL1A2, COL6A3, COL5A1, COL14A1, OAZ3, DNM1, and SELP) were recognized. ACSL1 and ACOX1 might perform function in the early developmental stage of backfat tissue (60 days), and FN1, DCN, COL1A1, COL1A2, COL5A1, COL6A3, and COL14A1 have unignorable position in backfat tissue around 120 days developmental stage. Besides, hub genes SELP and DNM1 in modules significantly associated with backfat thickness and adipocyte area might be involved in the process of backfat tissue development. These findings contribute to understand the integrated mechanism underlying backfat tissue development and promote the progress of genetic improvement in Ningxiang pigs

Origin of Improved Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting in Mixed Perovskite Oxides

Owing to the versatility in their chemical and physical properties, transition metal perovskite oxides have emerged as a new category of highly efficient photocatalysts for photoelectrochemical water splitting. Here, to understand the underlying mechanism for the enhanced photoelectrochemical water splitting in mixed perovskites, we explore ideal epitaxial thin films of the BiFeO3-SrTiO3 system. The electronic struture and carrier dynamics are determined from both experiment and density-functional theory calculations. The intrinsic phenomena are measured in this ideal sytem, contrasting to commonly studied polycrstalline solid solutions where extrinsic structural features obscure the intrinsic phenomena. We determined that when SrTiO3 is added to BiFeO3 the conduction band minimum position is raised and an exponential tail of trap states from hybridized Ti 3d and Fe 3d orbitals emerges near the conduction band edge. The presence of these trap states strongly suppresses the fast electron-hole recombination and improves the photocurrent density in the visible-light region, up to 16 times at 0 VRHE compared to the pure end member compositions. Our work provides a new design approach for optimising the photoelectrochemical performance in mixed perovksite oxides.Comment: 7 pages and 5 figure

Aspect sentiment triplet extraction incorporating syntactic constituency parsing tree and commonsense knowledge graph

Cognitive Computation OnlineFirst articles</p

MSRL-Net: A multi-level semantic relation-enhanced learning network for aspect-based sentiment analysis

A*STAR, Singapore under its Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME

Changes in Spatial Working Memory in Stable Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Retrospective Study

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by irreversible airflow limitation and is often accompanied by cognitive impairment. Little is known about the working memory of COPD patients. The aim of the study is to evaluate the spatial working memory of COPD patients using the classical visuospatial working memory neuropsychological paradigms. This was a retrospective study of patients with COPD who were evaluated for neurocognitive functions between February and December 2018 at Hefei Second People’s Hospital. Healthy controls (HC) were included. The neuropsychological tests included the Beijing Version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test (MoCA), digit span test (DS), Chinese Auditory Verbal Learning Test (CAVLT), Stroop test, and Verbal Fluency Test (VFT). The COPD group performed worse in MoCA (22.3±4.5 vs. 26.1±2.9, P<0.001), Stroop interference test (44.2±16.9 vs. 36.8±10.3, P=0.038), and VFT (12.9±2.8 vs. 15.3±4.7, P=0.021) vs. the HC group. Compared with the HC group, COPD patients had statistically significant differences with respect to 0-back RT (657±46 vs. 578±107, P=0.001), 1-back accuracy (41.8±12.1% vs. 81.5±18.1%, P<0.001), 1-back RT (592±75 vs. 431±138, P<0.001), 2-back accuracy (31.4±9.9% vs. 68.1±16.6%, P<0.001), and 2-back RT (563±79 vs. 455±153, P=0.002). Only PaO2 was independently associated with 0-back RT (B=0.992±0.428, P=0.028) and 1-back ACC (B=0.003±0.001, P=0.004). COPD patients exhibit impairment in working memory and executive function, but not in short- or long-term memory. The impairment of working memory in a patient with COPD may be more due to integrate memory information rather than to memory information storage. COPD patients exhibit a frontal-type cognitive decline