Elaborate plumage patterning in a Cretaceous bird

Integumentary patterns and colors can differentiate species, sexes, and life changes and can inform on habitat and ecology. However, they are rarely preserved in the fossil record. Here, we report on an extremely well-preserved specimen of the Cretaceous bird Confuciusornis with unprecedented complexity, including small spots on the wings, crest, and throat. Morphological and chemical evidence suggest that these patterns are produced by melanin, but unusual preservation prevents assignment of specific colors. Based on comparisons with extant birds, these patterns were likely used for camouflage, although other functions including sexual signaling cannot be ruled out. Our data show that even more elaborate plumage patterns than the spangles in Anchiornis and stripes in Sinosauropteryx were present at a relatively early stage of avian evolution, showing the significance of coloration and patterning to feather evolution

Towards Robust Text Retrieval with Progressive Learning

Retrieval augmentation has become an effective solution to empower large language models (LLMs) with external and verified knowledge sources from the database, which overcomes the limitations and hallucinations of LLMs in handling up-to-date and domain-specific information. However, existing embedding models for text retrieval usually have three non-negligible limitations. First, the number and diversity of samples in a batch are too restricted to supervise the modeling of textual nuances at scale. Second, the high proportional noise are detrimental to the semantic correctness and consistency of embeddings. Third, the equal treatment to easy and difficult samples would cause sub-optimum convergence of embeddings with poorer generalization. In this paper, we propose the PEG, a progressively learned embeddings for robust text retrieval. Specifically, we increase the training in-batch negative samples to 80,000, and for each query, we extracted five hard negatives. Concurrently, we incorporated a progressive learning mechanism, enabling the model to dynamically modulate its attention to the samples throughout the entire training process. Additionally, PEG is trained on more than 100 million data, encompassing a wide range of domains (e.g., finance, medicine, and tourism) and covering various tasks (e.g., question-answering, machine reading comprehension, and similarity matching). Extensive experiments conducted on C-MTEB and DuReader demonstrate that PEG surpasses state-of-the-art embeddings in retrieving true positives, highlighting its significant potential for applications in LLMs. Our model is publicly available at https://huggingface.co/TownsWu/PEG

A new prognostic scale for the early prediction of ischemic stroke recovery mainly based on traditional Chinese medicine symptoms and NIHSS score: a retrospective cohort study

TCM symptoms & signs with appearance rate no less than 5 %. In practical analysis we selected 57 TCM symptoms with the appearance rate ≥5 % from 157 TCM symptoms& signs except tongue and pulse. (CSV 1 kb

Ossification patterns of the carpus and tarsus in salamanders and impacts of preaxial dominance on the fin-to-limb transition

Early limb skeletogenesis in salamanders is characterized by preaxial elements, digits I and II forming earlier than their postaxial counterparts (digits III to V), a phenomenon known as preaxial dominance, whereas in amniotes and anurans, these developmental sequences are reversed. This pattern characterizes the late skeletogenesis of digits and zeugopodium of anamniote tetrapods but remains unknown in carpals/tarsals. To correct this gap in knowledge, we investigate the ossification patterns of the carpals/tarsals in six salamander families/clades based on micro–computed tomography scans. We found that preaxial dominance is seen in the distal carpals/tarsals of several salamander clades and diverse early tetrapods, such as temnospondyls and amniotes. This distribution suggests that preaxial dominance is a primitive developmental pattern in tetrapods. Our results demonstrate that the distal carpals/tarsals are developmentally and evolutionarily independent in the autopodium, and preaxial dominance facilitates stabilization of the number of distal carpals/tarsals during fin-to-limb transition and digit reduction in early tetrapods

Heterogeneous Responses of Gastric Cancer Cell Lines to Tenovin-6 and Synergistic Effect with Chloroquine

Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most frequently diagnosed cancer and the third leading cause of cancer death. Approximately 15% of GC is associated with Epstein–Barr virus (EBV). GC is largely incurable with a dismal five-year survival rate. There is an urgent need to identify new therapeutic agents for the treatment of GC. Tenovin-6 was initially identified as a p53 activator, but it was later found to inhibit autophagy flux, and the protein deacetylase activity of sirtuins. Tenovin-6 shows promising therapeutic effect in various malignancies. However, it remains unknown whether Tenovin-6 is effective for GC. In this study, we found that EBV-positive and -negative GC cell lines were sensitive to Tenovin-6 but with different response times and doses. Tenovin-6 suppressed anchorage-independent growth of GC cells. Tenovin-6 induced different levels of apoptosis and phases of cell-cycle arrest depending on the cell lines with some manifesting gap 1 (G1) and others showing synthesis (S) phase cell-cycle arrest. Mechanistically, Tenovin-6 induced autophagy or p53 activation in GC cells depending on the status of TP53 gene. However, initiation of autophagy following treatment with Tenovin-6 conferred some protective effect on numerous cells. Combined treatment with Tenovin-6 and autophagy inhibitor chloroquine increased the cytotoxic effect by inducing microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3B (LC3B)-II accumulation, and by enhancing apoptosis and cell-cycle arrest. These results indicated that Tenovin-6 can be used as a potential therapeutic agent for GC, but the genetic background of the cancer cells might determine the response and mechanism of action. Treatment with Tenovin-6 alone or in combination with chloroquine could be a promising therapeutic approach for G

Sol-gel synthesis and electrochemical performance of NiCo2O4 nanoparticles for supercapacitor applications

In this work, NiCo2O4 nanoparticles with enhanced supercapacitive performance have been successfully synthesized via a facile sol-gel method and subsequent calcination in air. The morphology and composition of as-prepared samples were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Raman spectroscopy (Raman). The electrochemical performances of NiCo2O4 nanoparticles as supercapacitor electrode materials were evaluated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge/discharge (GCD) tests in 3 mol L-1 KOH aqueous solution. The results show that as-prepared NiCo2O4 nanoparticles have diameters of about 20-30 nm with uniform distribution. There are some interspaces between nanoparticles observed, which could increase the effective contact area with the electrolyte and provide fast path for the insertion and extraction of electrolyte ions. The electrochemical tests show that the prepared NiCo2O4 nanoparticles for supercapacitors exhibit excellent electrochemical performance with high specific capacitance and good cycle stability. The specific capacitance of NiCo2O4 electrode has been found as high as 1080, 800, 651, and 574 F g-1 at current densities of 1, 4, 7, and 10 A g-1, respectively. Notably, the capacitance retention rate (compared with 1 A g-1) is up to 74.1 %, 60.3 %, and 53.1 % at current densities of 4, 7, and 10 A g-1 respectively. After 100 cycles, higher capacitance retention rate is also achieved. Therefore, the results indicate that NiCo2O4 material is the potential electrode material for supercapacitors

Metastasis-Associated Protein 1 Deficiency Results in Compromised Pulmonary Alveolar Capillary Angiogenesis in Mice.

Background The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of metastasis-associated protein 1 (MTA1) deficiency during angiogenesis of pulmonary alveolar capillaries in mice and to determine the molecular mechanisms involved. Material/Methods The expressions of MTA1, CD34, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), alpha smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), and HIF-1α were analyzed in the lungs of MTA1-knockout (KO) and wild-type mice at embryonic day 18.5 and 2 months by quantitative PCR, immunoblotting, and immunohistochemistry. The morphological changes were investigated during pulmonary alveolar capillary formation. The heart weight/body weight (HW/BW) ratio and the size of the right ventricular wall cardiomyocytes were also measured. Regulation of MTA1 on HIF-1α was determined in vitro. Results MTA1 deficiency reduced the number of pulmonary alveolar capillaries compared to the wild-type mice. MTA1-KO mice exhibited a decreased expression of HIF-1α and VEGF in the lungs. The retarded growth of the MTA1-KO mice was also noticed during the first week after birth. Accordingly, MTA1 deficiency resulted in increased infant mortality. In surviving adult mice, MTA1 deficiency induced myocardial hypertrophy, highlighted by an increased heart weight/body weight ratio and larger cardiomyocytes. In cultured cells, HIF-1α and VEGF levels were significantly upregulated upon MTA1 overexpression, suggesting a close relationship between all 3 molecules. Conclusions MTA1 participates in the formation of pulmonary capillaries via stabilization of HIF-1α. This finding sheds new light on the function of MTA1 in lung development, opening new avenues for the diagnosis/treatment of related pulmonary diseases

Influence of Disturbance on Soil Respiration in Biologically Crusted Soil during the Dry Season

Soil respiration (Rs) is a major pathway for carbon cycling and is a complex process involving abiotic and biotic factors. Biological soil crusts (BSCs) are a key biotic component of desert ecosystems worldwide. In desert ecosystems, soils are protected from surface disturbance by BSCs, but it is unknown whether Rs is affected by disturbance of this crust layer. We measured Rs in three types of disturbed and undisturbed crusted soils (algae, lichen, and moss), as well as bare land from April to August, 2010, in Mu Us desert, northwest China. Rs was similar among undisturbed soils but increased significantly in disturbed moss and algae crusted soils. The variation of Rs in undisturbed and disturbed soil was related to soil bulk density. Disturbance also led to changes in soil organic carbon and fine particles contents, including declines of 60–70% in surface soil C and N, relative to predisturbance values. Once BSCs were disturbed, Q10 increased. Our findings indicate that a loss of BSCs cover will lead to greater soil C loss through respiration. Given these results, understanding the disturbance sensitivity impact on Rs could be helpful to modify soil management practices which promote carbon sequestration

Preparation of biodegradable polypropylene carbonate-polylactic acid core yarn by electrospinning and its antibacterial finishing

With the improvement of living standards, people’s awareness of health and environmental protection continues to strengthen. The production of textiles with antibacterial functions is one of the effective ways to protect people from or reduce bacterial invasion. Therefore, textiles with antibacterial functions are increasingly favored by people. At the same time, due to the impact of global warming, people are committed to reducing carbon emissions in all aspects of life. The biodegradable material polypropylidene carbonate (PPC) that can consume carbon dioxide (CO2) in the production process fully conforms to people’s environmental protection concept. However, polypropylidene carbonate itself has poor thermal stability and narrow application range. Polypropylidene carbonate thermoplastic polyurethane (PPC-TPU) is obtained by chain extension modification, which can broaden the application range of polypropylidene carbonate. To develop a yarn with excellent antibacterial and mechanical properties, which can be woven into fabrics for medical applications while taking into account environmental protection and degradability, the antibacterial yarn in this article was prepared by electrospinning using PPC-TPU and polylactic acid (PLA) yarn as raw materials. The preparation process was optimized by adjusting the supply speed, winding collection speed and horn barrel speed, and the optimal concentration of antimicrobial agent was explored by adding different concentrations of benzalkonium bromide antimicrobial. Through the characterization of the properties of the materials, we believe that PPC-PLA yarn with the addition of 5% benzalkonium bromide has broad development prospects in the medical field due to its excellent mechanical and antibacterial properties