The role of environmental conditions, climatic factors and spatial processes in driving multiple facets of stream macroinvertebrate beta diversity in a climatically heterogeneous mountain region

Highlights • We tested patterns of multi-faceted beta diversity across mountain streams. • All three facets of beta diversities increase from the north slope to south slope. • Spatial variables were most important in structuring three facets of beta diversity. • Functional and phylogenetic beta diversity complement to taxonomic beta diversity. • Combining multi-faceted biodiversity is essential for management and conservation.There is a growing recognition that examining patterns of ecological communities and their underlying determinants is not only feasible based on taxonomic data, but also functional and phylogenetic approaches. This is because these additional facets can enhance the understanding of the relative contribution of multiple processes in shaping biodiversity. However, few studies have focused on multifaceted beta diversities in lotic macroinvertebrates, especially when considering driving factors operating at multiple spatial scales. Here, we examined the spatial patterns of multi-faceted (i.e., taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic) beta diversity and their components (i.e., turnover and nestedness) of macroinvertebrates in 50 sites in 10 streams situated in the north and south slope of the Qinling Mountains, the geographical dividing line of Northern and Southern China. We found that the streams draining the north slope showed significantly lower values of beta diversity based on all three facets than the streams draining the south slope. Such north-to-south increases of beta diversity were caused by the distinct climatic and local environmental conditions between the sides of the mountain range. Moreover, spatial variables generally played the most important role in structuring all facets and components of beta diversity, followed by local environmental and climatic variables, whereas catchment variables were less important. Despite the similar results of relative contribution of explanatory variables on each beta diversity facet, the details of community-environment relationships (e.g., important explanatory variables and explanatory power) were distinct among different diversity facets and their components. In conclusion, measuring functional and phylogenetic beta diversity provides complementary information to traditional taxonomic approach. Therefore, an integrative approach embracing multiple facets of diversity can better reveal the mechanisms shaping biodiversity, which is essential in assessing and valuing aquatic ecosystems for biodiversity management and conservation

Comparative metabolomics analysis of milk components between Italian Mediterranean buffaloes and Chinese Holstein cows based on LC-MS/MS technology

Buffalo and cow milk have a very different composition in terms of fat, protein, and total solids. For a better knowledge of such a difference, the milk metabolic profiles and characteristics of metabolites was investigated in Italian Mediterranean buffaloes and Chinese Holstein cows were investigated by liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) in this study. Totally, 23 differential metabolites were identified to be significantly different in the milk from the two species of which 15 were up-regulated and 8 down-regulated in Italian Mediterranean buffaloes. Metabolic pathway analysis revealed that 4 metabolites (choline, acetylcholine, nicotinamide and uric acid) were significantly enriched in glycerophospholipid metabolism, nicotinate and nicotinamide metabolism, glycine, serine and threonine metabolism, as well as purine metabolism. The results provided further insights for a deep understanding of the potential metabolic mechanisms responsible for the different performance of Italian Mediterranean buffaloes’ and Chinese Holstein cows’ milk. The findings will offer new tools for the improvement and novel directions for the development of dairy industry

Atomic Sn–enabled high-utilization, large-capacity, and long-life Na anode

Constructing robust nucleation sites with an ultrafine size in a confined environment is essential toward simultaneously achieving superior utilization, high capacity, and long-term durability in Na metal-based energy storage, yet remains largely unexplored. Here, we report a previously unexplored design of spatially confined atomic Sn in hollow carbon spheres for homogeneous nucleation and dendrite-free growth. The designed architecture maximizes Sn utilization, prevents agglomeration, mitigates volume variation, and allows complete alloying-dealloying with high-affinity Sn as persistent nucleation sites, contrary to conventional spatially exposed large-size ones without dealloying. Thus, conformal deposition is achieved, rendering an exceptional capacity of 16 mAh cm−2 in half-cells and long cycling over 7000 hours in symmetric cells. Moreover, the well-known paradox is surmounted, delivering record-high Na utilization (e.g., 85%) and large capacity (e.g., 8 mAh cm−2) while maintaining extraordinary durability over 5000 hours, representing an important breakthrough for stabilizing Na anode

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to the Middle Frontal Gyrus During Attention Modes Induced Dynamic Module Reconfiguration in Brain Networks

The interaction between dorsal and ventral attention networks (VANs) is mediated by the middle frontal gyrus (MFG), which is functionally connected to both networks. However, the direct role of the MFG in selective and sustained attention remains controversial. In the current study, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and electroencephalography (EEG) to probe the connectivity dynamic changes of MFG-associated regions during different attention modes. The participants underwent visual, selective, and sustained attention tasks to observe TMS-induced network changes. Twenty healthy participants received single-pulse TMS over the left or right MFG during tasks, while synchronous EEG data was acquired. Behavioral results were recorded and time-varying brain network analyses were performed. We found that the MFG is involved in attention processing and that sustained attention was preferentially controlled by the right MFG. Moreover, compared with the right hemisphere, the left hemisphere was associated with selective attention tasks. Visual and selective attention tasks induced MFG-related changes in network nodes were within the left hemisphere; however, sustained attention induced changes in network nodes were in the bilateral posterior MFG. Our findings indicated that the MFG plays a crucial role in regulating attention networks. In particular, TMS-induced MFG alterations influenced key nodes of the time-varying brain network, leading to the reorganization of brain network modules

Intracellular CD24 disrupts the ARF–NPM interaction and enables mutational and viral oncogene-mediated p53 inactivation

CD24 is overexpressed in nearly 70% human cancers, whereas TP53 is the most frequently mutated tumour-suppressor gene that functions in a context-dependent manner. Here we show that both targeted mutation and short hairpin RNA (shRNA) silencing of CD24 retard the growth, progression and metastasis of prostate cancer. CD24 competitively inhibits ARF binding to NPM, resulting in decreased ARF, increase MDM2 and decrease levels of p53 and the p53 target p21/CDKN1A. CD24 silencing prevents functional inactivation of p53 by both somatic mutation and viral oncogenes, including the SV40 large T antigen and human papilloma virus 16 E6-antigen. In support of the functional interaction between CD24 and p53, in silico analyses reveal that TP53 mutates at a higher rate among glioma and prostate cancer samples with higher CD24 mRNA levels. These data provide a general mechanism for functional inactivation of ARF and reveal an important cellular context for genetic and viral inactivation of TP53. P53 is a tumour suppressor that is frequently mutated or downregulated in cancer. Here, Wang et al. show that CD24, a molecule frequently overexpressed in cancer, promotes p53 degradation by disrupting a regulatory ARF–MDM2 interaction, and silencing CD24 prevents the downregulation of p53

Fracture universality in amorphous nanowires

Crystalline nanowires exhibiting a wide range of size-dependent fracture and failure modes have been extensively studied, yet the fracture behaviors of amorphous materials and their size dependence remain elusive. Here extensive atomistic simulations are performed to reveal the deformation and fracture behaviors in a broad class of amorphous nanowires with varying sizes, including CuZr, CuZrAl, FeP, Si, and a ductile Lennard-Jones system. It is found that the fracture strain "f increases with nanowire length L but decreases with diameter D, which exhibits a linear relationship with the diameter-to-length ratio as "f cc D/L, -a scaling law valid in these five distinct glassy systems understudied. We develop a theoretical model, capturing the size of plastic zone at plastic yielding and its vital role in governing the final fracture strain, which shows an agreement with the simulation data. By taking into account the intrinsic atomic -level ideal strain, remarkably, all the size-dependent fracture strain data collapse, signifying the universality of fracture nature in a broad range of glassy materials

Applicable Framework for Evaluating Urban Vitality with Multiple-Source Data: Empirical Research of the Pearl River Delta Urban Agglomeration Using BPNN

Urban vitality is a mirror reflection of ‘urban disease’ in cities. The research on urban vitality has made great progress in evaluation frameworks; however, these frameworks cannot jointly account for the macro and micro performance of urban vitality. It is better to establish an integrated evaluation framework for this topic. This paper defines urban vitality as the comprehensive strength to support dense and diverse activities based on urban development and the urban environment, and subsequently develops an integrated framework including economic, social, cultural, and spatial dimensions. With the nonlinear evaluation model of a back propagation neural network, we further presented the result of an application on the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration. Our profiling results illustrate the core-edge structure of urban vitality. There are differences in vitality performance within built-up areas, which shows that areas with urban landscapes and excellent infrastructure are more vibrant. The integrated framework with good applicability improves the evaluation of urban vitality that is crucial to city examination and urban planning. Hence, this study provides a comprehensive reference for optimizing resource allocation and promoting sustainable development