Multiple solvers for implicit temperature calculation of heat conduction with the MPS method

In this study, an implicit algorithm and different solvers are applied to the Moving Particle Semi-Implicit (MPS) method for temperature calculation. The original MPS method uses an explicit method for temperature calculation and is limited by time increment due to diffusion number. In this paper, the heat conduction of plates with Dirichlet boundary condition and Neumann boundary condition is studied. The accuracy of explicit and implicit calculation of plate heat transfer cases are compared. In addition, different solvers are compared. Consequently, it is shown thatthe error of the implicit algorithm is not much different from the original one. And CG is still the better solver,CGS is also a superior solver. The implicit algorithm increases the size of a single time stepby a maximum of 50 times (original diffusion number is 0.2), while the calculation time of a single time step does not increase Substantially, so it has a significant effect on the acceleration of calculation

Methyl jasmonate-induced accumulation of metabolites and transcriptional responses involved in triterpene biosynthesis in Siraitia grosvenorii fruit at different growing stages

The cucurbitane-type triterpenoid glycosides, mogrosides, are the main active components of Siraitia grosvenorii fruit. Squalene and cucurbitadienol are among the intermediates of the biosynthetic pathway for the formation of cucurbitane-type triterpenoid backbones of mogrosides. It is recognized that the exogenous application of methyl jasmonate (MeJA) increases the accumulation of secondary metabolites in various plant species. Here, the effect of MeJA (50, 200, and 500 μM) on the accumulation of squalene and cucurbitadienol in the fruits of S. grosvenorii at 10, 20, and 30 days after flowering (DAF) was tested for the first time. Since mogroside II E is the main cucurbitane-type triterpenoid present at this time, its concentration was also determined. The results show that MeJA can indeed promote squalene and cucurbitadienol accumulation, the application of 500 μM MeJA at 30 DAF being optimal. The concentration of squalene and cucurbitadienol increased up to 0.43 and 4.71 μg/g dry weight (DW), respectively, both of which were 1.2-fold greater than that of the control. The content of mogroside II E increased by 15% over the untreated group. We subsequently analyzed the expression of key genes involved in the mogroside biosynthetic pathway, including the 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase gene (SgHMGR), squalene synthetase gene (SgSQS), cucurbitadienol synthase gene (SgCS), and cytochrome P450 (SgCYP450) with quantitative real-time PCR. The results showed that transcriptional levels of these genes were upregulated following the treatment described above. Additionally, their responses in the presence of MeJA was related to the concentration and timing of MeJA treatment

Methyl jasmonate-induced accumulation of metabolites and transcriptional responses involved in triterpene biosynthesis in Siraitia grosvenorii fruit at different growing stages

The cucurbitane-type triterpenoid glycosides, mogrosides, are the main active components of Siraitia grosvenorii fruit. Squalene and cucurbitadienol are among the intermediates of the biosynthetic pathway for the formation of cucurbitane-type triterpenoid backbones of mogrosides. It is recognized that the exogenous application of methyl jasmonate (MeJA) increases the accumulation of secondary metabolites in various plant species. Here, the effect of MeJA (50, 200, and 500 μM) on the accumulation of squalene and cucurbitadienol in the fruits of S. grosvenorii at 10, 20, and 30 days after flowering (DAF) was tested for the first time. Since mogroside II E is the main cucurbitane-type triterpenoid present at this time, its concentration was also determined. The results show that MeJA can indeed promote squalene and cucurbitadienol accumulation, the application of 500 μM MeJA at 30 DAF being optimal. The concentration of squalene and cucurbitadienol increased up to 0.43 and 4.71 μg/g dry weight (DW), respectively, both of which were 1.2-fold greater than that of the control. The content of mogroside II E increased by 15% over the untreated group. We subsequently analyzed the expression of key genes involved in the mogroside biosynthetic pathway, including the 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase gene (SgHMGR), squalene synthetase gene (SgSQS), cucurbitadienol synthase gene (SgCS), and cytochrome P450 (SgCYP450) with quantitative real-time PCR. The results showed that transcriptional levels of these genes were upregulated following the treatment described above. Additionally, their responses in the presence of MeJA was related to the concentration and timing of MeJA treatment

An Effective Screening Method and a Reliable Screening Trait for Salt Tolerance of Brassica napus at the Germination Stage

Salinity is a major and complex abiotic stress that inhibits plant growth and reduces crop yield. Given the global increase in soil salinity, there is a need to develop salt-tolerant species. Brassica napus L. is an important oilseed crop with some level of salt tolerance. However, few studies have evaluated its salt tolerance thoroughly or screened for traits that can be reliably evaluated for salt tolerance. Here, we evaluated salt tolerance in 549 B. napus inbred lines with different genetic backgrounds using the membership function value (MFV) of certain traits, including the germination rate, root and shoot length, root and shoot fresh weight, and total fresh weight. According to the evaluation criteria-mean MFV, 50 highly salt-tolerant, 115 salt-tolerant, 71 moderately salt-tolerant, 202 salt-sensitive, and 111 highly salt-sensitive inbred lines were screened at the germination stage. We also developed a mathematical evaluation model and identified that the salt tolerance index of shoot fresh weight is a single trait that reliably represents the salt tolerance of B. napus germplasm at the germination stage. These results are useful for evaluating and breeding salt-tolerant B. napus germplasm

Effectiveness of neoadjuvant immunochemotherapy compared to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer patients: Real-world data of a retrospective, dual-center study

BackgroundStudying the application of neoadjuvant immunochemotherapy (NICT) in the real world and evaluating its effectiveness and safety in comparison with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT) are critically important.MethodsThis study included the II-IIIB stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients receiving NCT with or without PD-1 inhibitors and undergoing surgery after neoadjuvant treatments between January 2019 to August 2022. The clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes were retrospectively reviewed and analyzed.ResultsA total of 66 patients receiving NICT and 101 patients receiving NCT were included in this study. As compared to NCT, NICT showed similar safety while not increasing the surgical difficulty. The ORR in the NICT and NCT groups was 74.2% and 53.5%, respectively, P = 0.009. A total of 44 patients (66.7%) in the NICT group and 21 patients (20.8%) in the NCT group showed major pathology response (MPR) (P <0.001). The pathology complete response (pCR) rate was also significantly higher in NICT group than that in NCT group (45.5% vs. 10.9%, P <0.001). After Propensity Score Matching (PSM), 42 pairs of patients were included in the analysis. The results showed no significant difference in the ORR between the two groups (52.3% vs. 43.2%, P = 0.118), and the proportions of MPR (76.2%) and pCR (50.0%) in NICT group were significantly higher than those of MPR (11.9%) and pCR (4.7%) in the NCT group (P <0.001). The patients with driver mutations might also benefit from NICT.ConclusionsAs compared to NCT, the NICT could significantly increase the proportions of patients with pCR and MPR without increasing the operation-related bleeding and operation time

Identification of Glycine Receptor α3 as a Colchicine-Binding Protein

Colchicine (Col) is considered a kind of highly effective alkaloid for preventing and treating acute gout attacks (flares). However, little is known about the underlying mechanism of Col in pain treatment. We have previously developed a customized virtual target identification method, termed IFPTarget, for small-molecule target identification. In this study, by using IFPTarget and ligand similarity ensemble approach (SEA), we show that the glycine receptor alpha 3 (GlyRα3), which play a key role in the processing of inflammatory pain, is a potential target of Col. Moreover, Col binds directly to the GlyRα3 as determined by the immunoprecipitation and bio-layer interferometry assays using the synthesized Col-biotin conjugate (linked Col and biotin with polyethylene glycol). These results suggest that GlyRα3 may mediate Col-induced suppression of inflammatory pain. However, whether GlyRα3 is the functional target of Col and serves as potential therapeutic target in gouty arthritis requires further investigations

DPHL: A DIA Pan-human Protein Mass Spectrometry Library for Robust Biomarker Discovery

To address the increasing need for detecting and validating protein biomarkers in clinical specimens, mass spectrometry (MS)-based targeted proteomic techniques, including the selected reaction monitoring (SRM), parallel reaction monitoring (PRM), and massively parallel data-independent acquisition (DIA), have been developed. For optimal performance, they require the fragment ion spectra of targeted peptides as prior knowledge. In this report, we describe a MS pipeline and spectral resource to support targeted proteomics studies for human tissue samples. To build the spectral resource, we integrated common open-source MS computational tools to assemble a freely accessible computational workflow based on Docker. We then applied the workflow to generate DPHL, a comprehensive DIA pan-human library, from 1096 data-dependent acquisition (DDA) MS raw files for 16 types of cancer samples. This extensive spectral resource was then applied to a proteomic study of 17 prostate cancer (PCa) patients. Thereafter, PRM validation was applied to a larger study of 57 PCa patients and the differential expression of three proteins in prostate tumor was validated. As a second application, the DPHL spectral resource was applied to a study consisting of plasma samples from 19 diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients and 18 healthy control subjects. Differentially expressed proteins between DLBCL patients and healthy control subjects were detected by DIA-MS and confirmed by PRM. These data demonstrate that the DPHL supports DIA and PRM MS pipelines for robust protein biomarker discovery. DPHL is freely accessible at https://www.iprox.org/page/project.html?id=IPX0001400000

Sustainable shape memory polymers based on epoxidized natural rubber cured by zinc ferulate via oxa-Michael reaction

Although various shape memory polymers (SMPs) or diverse applications have been widely reported, the SMPs based on rubbers have been rarely realized due to the low triggering temperature of rubbers. In another aspect, the SMPs based on sustainable substances are highly desired for the growing shortage in fossil resources. In the present study, we accordingly developed the sustainable SMPs with tunable triggering temperature, based on natural rubber (NR) and ferulic acid (FA) as the raw materials. Specifically, the SMPs are based on a crosslinked network of epoxidized natural rubber (ENR) crosslinked by in situ formed zinc ferulate (ZDF) via oxa-Michael reaction. The excellent shape memory effect (SME) is found in these SMPs, as evidenced by the high fixity/recovery ratio and the tunable triggering temperature. With the incorporation of natural halloysite nanotubes (HNTs), the stress and recovery rate of the SMPs are found to be tunable, which widens the application of this kind of SMPs. The combination of adoption of sustainable raw materials, and the excellent and tunable SME makes these SMPs potentially useful in many applications, such as various actuators and heat-shrinkable package materials

The Effect of Seawater on Mortar Matrix Coated with Hybrid Nano-Silica-Modified Surface Protection Materials

Surface treatment technology is an effective method to reinforce the durability of concrete. In this study, cement-based materials containing industrial solid wastes were modified by hybrid nano-silica (HN), then applied as a novel surface protection material (SPM-HN). The effect of SPM-HN on surface hardness of mortar matrix exposed to seawater was investigated. Further, the microstructure was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP). The results show SPM-HN could significantly enhance the surface hardness of matrix in seawater curing, and the rebound number is increased by 94%.The microstructure analysis demonstrates that the incorporation of HN inhibits the formation of ettringite, thaumasite, and Friedel’s salt. In addition, thermodynamic modeling shows the incorporation of hybrid nano-silica could generate more C-S-H, and decrease the maximum volume of Friedel’s salt when SPM is exposed to seawater. This research indicates SPM-HN can be applied as a concrete protective layer in the marine environment