Production of Glycopeptide Derivatives for Exploring Substrate Specificity of Human OGA Toward Sugar Moiety.

O-GlcNAcase (OGA) is the only enzyme responsible for removing N-acetyl glucosamine (GlcNAc) attached to serine and threonine residues on proteins. This enzyme plays a key role in O-GlcNAc metabolism. However, the structural features of the sugar moiety recognized by human OGA (hOGA) remain unclear. In this study, a set of glycopeptides with modifications on the GlcNAc residue, were prepared in a recombinant full-length human OGT-catalyzed reaction, using chemoenzymatically synthesized UDP-GlcNAc derivatives. The resulting glycopeptides were used to evaluate the substrate specificity of hOGA toward the sugar moiety. This study will provide insights into the exploration of probes for O-GlcNAc modification, as well as a better understanding of the roles of O-GlcNAc in cellular physiology

Satellite-based precipitation datasets evaluation using gauge observation and hydrological modeling in a typical arid land watershed of Central Asia

Hydrological modeling has always been a challenge in the data-scarce watershed, especially in the areas with complex terrain conditions like the inland river basin in Central Asia. Taking Bosten Lake Basin in Northwest China as an example, the accuracy and the hydrological applicability of satellite-based precipitation datasets were evaluated. The gauge-adjusted version of six widely used datasets was adopted; namely, Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks-Climate Data Record (CDR), Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS), Global Precipitation Measurement Ground Validation National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Prediction Center (NOAA CPC) Morphing Technique (CMORPH), Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for GPM (GPM), Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP), the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA). Seven evaluation indexes were used to compare the station data and satellite datasets, the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model, and four indexes were used to evaluate the hydrological performance. The main results were as follows: 1) The GPM and CDR were the best datasets for the daily scale and monthly scale rainfall accuracy evaluations, respectively. 2) The performance of CDR and GPM was more stable than others at different locations in a watershed, and all datasets tended to perform better in the humid regions. 3) All datasets tended to perform better in the summer of a year, while the CDR and CHIRPS performed well in winter compare to other datasets. 4) The raw data of CDR and CMORPH performed better than others in monthly runoff simulations, especially CDR. 5) Integrating the hydrological performance of the uncorrected and corrected data, all datasets have the potential to provide valuable input data in hydrological modeling. This study is expected to provide a reference for the hydrological and meteorological application of satellite precipitation datasets in Central Asia or even the whole temperate zone

Production of Glycopeptide Derivatives for Exploring Substrate Specificity of Human OGA Toward Sugar Moiety

O-GlcNAcase (OGA) is the only enzyme responsible for removing N-acetyl glucosamine (GlcNAc) attached to serine and threonine residues on proteins. This enzyme plays a key role in O-GlcNAc metabolism. However, the structural features of the sugar moiety recognized by human OGA (hOGA) remain unclear. In this study, a set of glycopeptides with modifications on the GlcNAc residue, were prepared in a recombinant full-length human OGT-catalyzed reaction, using chemoenzymatically synthesized UDP-GlcNAc derivatives. The resulting glycopeptides were used to evaluate the substrate specificity of hOGA toward the sugar moiety. This study will provide insights into the exploration of probes for O-GlcNAc modification, as well as a better understanding of the roles of O-GlcNAc in cellular physiology

The association between Toll-like receptor 2 single-nucleotide polymorphisms and hepatocellular carcinoma susceptibility

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Toll-like receptors (TLR) are key innate immunity receptors participating in an immune response. Growing evidence suggests that mutations of TLR2/TLR9 gene are associated with the progress of cancers. The present study aimed to investigate the temporal relationship of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) of TLR2/TLR9 and the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this single center-based case-control study, SNaPshot method was used to genotype sequence variants of TLR2 and TLR9 in 211 patients with HCC and 232 subjects as controls.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Two synonymous SNPs in the exon of TLR2 were closely associated with risk of HCC. Compared with those carrying wild-type homozygous genotypes (T/T), risk of HCC decreased significantly in individuals carrying the heterozygous genotypes (C/T) of the rs3804099 (adjusted odds ratio (OR), 0.493, 95% CI 0.331 - 0.736, <it>P </it>< 0.01) and rs3804100 (adjusted OR, 0.509, 95% CI 0.342 - 0.759, <it>P </it>< 0.01). There was no significant association found in two TLR9 SNPs concerning the risk of HCC. The haplotype TT for TLR2 was associated significantly with the decreased risk of HCC (OR 0.524, 95% CI 0.394 - 0.697, <it>P </it>= 0.000). Inversely, the risk of HCC increased significantly in patients with the haplotype CC (OR 2.743, 95% CI 1.915 - 3.930, <it>P </it>= 0.000).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results suggested that TLR2 rs3804099 C/T and rs3804100 C/T polymorphisms were closely associated with HCC. In addition, the haplotypes composed of these two TLR2 synonymous SNPs have stronger effects on the susceptibility of HCC.</p

NTIRE 2024 Quality Assessment of AI-Generated Content Challenge

This paper reports on the NTIRE 2024 Quality Assessment of AI-Generated Content Challenge, which will be held in conjunction with the New Trends in Image Restoration and Enhancement Workshop (NTIRE) at CVPR 2024. This challenge is to address a major challenge in the field of image and video processing, namely, Image Quality Assessment (IQA) and Video Quality Assessment (VQA) for AI-Generated Content (AIGC). The challenge is divided into the image track and the video track. The image track uses the AIGIQA-20K, which contains 20,000 AI-Generated Images (AIGIs) generated by 15 popular generative models. The image track has a total of 318 registered participants. A total of 1,646 submissions are received in the development phase, and 221 submissions are received in the test phase. Finally, 16 participating teams submitted their models and fact sheets. The video track uses the T2VQA-DB, which contains 10,000 AI-Generated Videos (AIGVs) generated by 9 popular Text-to-Video (T2V) models. A total of 196 participants have registered in the video track. A total of 991 submissions are received in the development phase, and 185 submissions are received in the test phase. Finally, 12 participating teams submitted their models and fact sheets. Some methods have achieved better results than baseline methods, and the winning methods in both tracks have demonstrated superior prediction performance on AIGC

Comprehensive molecular characterization of gastric adenocarcinoma

Gastric cancer is a leading cause of cancer deaths, but analysis of its molecular and clinical characteristics has been complicated by histological and aetiological heterogeneity. Here we describe a comprehensive molecular evaluation of 295 primary gastric adenocarcinomas as part of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project. We propose a molecular classification dividing gastric cancer into four subtypes: tumours positive for Epstein–Barr virus, which display recurrent PIK3CA mutations, extreme DNA hypermethylation, and amplification of JAK2, CD274 (also known as PD-L1) and PDCD1LG2 (also knownasPD-L2); microsatellite unstable tumours, which show elevated mutation rates, including mutations of genes encoding targetable oncogenic signalling proteins; genomically stable tumours, which are enriched for the diffuse histological variant and mutations of RHOA or fusions involving RHO-family GTPase-activating proteins; and tumours with chromosomal instability, which show marked aneuploidy and focal amplification of receptor tyrosine kinases. Identification of these subtypes provides a roadmap for patient stratification and trials of targeted therapies

Multiplatform Analysis of 12 Cancer Types Reveals Molecular Classification within and across Tissues of Origin

Recent genomic analyses of pathologically-defined tumor types identify “within-a-tissue” disease subtypes. However, the extent to which genomic signatures are shared across tissues is still unclear. We performed an integrative analysis using five genome-wide platforms and one proteomic platform on 3,527 specimens from 12 cancer types, revealing a unified classification into 11 major subtypes. Five subtypes were nearly identical to their tissue-of-origin counterparts, but several distinct cancer types were found to converge into common subtypes. Lung squamous, head & neck, and a subset of bladder cancers coalesced into one subtype typified by TP53 alterations, TP63 amplifications, and high expression of immune and proliferation pathway genes. Of note, bladder cancers split into three pan-cancer subtypes. The multi-platform classification, while correlated with tissue-of-origin, provides independent information for predicting clinical outcomes. All datasets are available for data-mining from a unified resource to support further biological discoveries and insights into novel therapeutic strategies

Utilization of CO2 into recycled construction materials : a systematic literature review

In recent years, as the concepts of “zero waste” and “low carbon” gradually become hot topics, the unparalleled generation of construction and demolition (C&amp;D) waste that poses a significant obstacle to the sustainable development of the built environment has attracted a lot of attention from researchers. Whether the studies on the combination of C&amp;D waste recycling and carbon dioxide (CO2) utilization provide a feasible way to transform the two goals is worthy of discussion. Thus, this study targeted to review previous research to describe the research trend and clear the positive and negative sides of CO2 employment in recycled construction materials. It shows that after the utilization of CO2 in the recycling process, the performance of recycled construction materials can be improved in many aspects under a proper carbonation reaction. Besides, many studies have proved that the carbonation of C&amp;D waste is a recycling method and effective carbon capture and storage tool to accelerate the sequestration of CO2. It should be noted that although the current technical research on the carbonation of recycled construction materials has become mature and feasible, the use of carbonation has also contributed to apparent negative effects. On the one hand, carbonation is only positive for plain concrete, and the reinforced steel structure can be corroded by acid. On the other hand, the high equipment requirements used in the carbonation process could lead to increased economic costs. These reasons collectively hinder the application of carbonation technology in practical construction projects. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and carbon-neutral goals of countries have put forward higher and more explicit requirements for global sustainable development. Theoretically, the carbonation of recycled construction materials is one of the viable paths for sustainability. However, technical difficulties such as energy consumption, economic cost, and corrosion for widespread applications need to be overcome

Fabrication of a High Water Flux Conductive MWCNTs/PVC Composite Membrane with Effective Electrically Enhanced Antifouling Behavior

Membrane fouling is a major issue that deteriorates the performance of membrane filtration systems. The electrically assisted membrane filtration process is proven to be effective for alleviating membrane fouling. In this study, we synthesized an electrically conductive membrane by incorporating multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) into polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The synthesized membranes have larger porosity than the PVC membrane (incorporating polyethylene glycol (PEG)), and thus possess much higher water flux under the same testing conditions. The initial and stable water fluxes are 2033 L/(m2&middot;h) and 750 L/(m2&middot;h), respectively, which are much higher than that of the pure PVC membrane. More importantly, the membrane has higher surface charge density and excellent electrical conductivity, but the surface hydrophilicity and toughness decreased with the addition of the MWCNTs. The 25 wt % MWCNTs/PVC composite membrane possesses suitable electrical conductivity of 0.128 S/m. The same membrane shows electro-enhanced antifouling performance during the antifouling test with yeast as a model foulant because the external electric field (&minus;2 V) impulses a strong repulsion force while producing some micro bubbles to repel the foulant; thus, the membrane fouling is suppressed. In the current study, we develop a simple method to fabricate the electrically conductive membrane for application in the electrically assisted membrane filtration process