MafB-restricted local monocyte proliferation precedes lung interstitial macrophage differentiation.

peer reviewedResident tissue macrophages (RTMs) are differentiated immune cells that populate distinct niches and exert important tissue-supportive functions. RTM maintenance is thought to rely either on differentiation from monocytes or on RTM self-renewal. Here, we used a mouse model of inducible lung interstitial macrophage (IM) niche depletion and refilling to investigate the development of IMs in vivo. Using time-course single-cell RNA-sequencing analyses, bone marrow chimeras and gene targeting, we found that engrafted Ly6C+ classical monocytes proliferated locally in a Csf1 receptor-dependent manner before differentiating into IMs. The transition from monocyte proliferation toward IM subset specification was controlled by the transcription factor MafB, while c-Maf specifically regulated the identity of the CD206+ IM subset. Our data provide evidence that, in the mononuclear phagocyte system, the ability to proliferate is not merely restricted to myeloid progenitor cells and mature RTMs but is also a tightly regulated capability of monocytes developing into RTMs in vivo

Check on the features of potted 20-inch PMTs with 1F3 electronics prototype at Pan-Asia

The Jiangmen underground neutrino observatory (JUNO) is a neutrino project with a 20-kton liquid scintillator detector located at 700-m underground. The large 20-inch PMTs are one of the crucial components of the JUNO experiment aiming to precision neutrino measurements with better than 3% energy resolution at 1 MeV. The excellent energy resolution and a large fiducial volume provide many exciting opportunities for addressing important topics in neutrino and astro-particle physics. With the container #D at JUNO Pan-Asia PMT testing and potting station, the features of waterproof potted 20-inch PMTs were measured with JUNO 1F3 electronics prototype in waveform and charge, which are valuable for better understanding on the performance of the waterproof potted PMTs and the JUNO 1F3 electronics. In this paper, basic features of JUNO 1F3 electronics prototype run at Pan-Asia will be introduced, followed by an analysis of the waterproof potted 20-inch PMTs and a comparison with the results from commercial electronics used by the container #A and #B

Real-time Monitoring for the Next Core-Collapse Supernova in JUNO

Core-collapse supernova (CCSN) is one of the most energetic astrophysical events in the Universe. The early and prompt detection of neutrinos before (pre-SN) and during the SN burst is a unique opportunity to realize the multi-messenger observation of the CCSN events. In this work, we describe the monitoring concept and present the sensitivity of the system to the pre-SN and SN neutrinos at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), which is a 20 kton liquid scintillator detector under construction in South China. The real-time monitoring system is designed with both the prompt monitors on the electronic board and online monitors at the data acquisition stage, in order to ensure both the alert speed and alert coverage of progenitor stars. By assuming a false alert rate of 1 per year, this monitoring system can be sensitive to the pre-SN neutrinos up to the distance of about 1.6 (0.9) kpc and SN neutrinos up to about 370 (360) kpc for a progenitor mass of 30$M_{\odot}$ for the case of normal (inverted) mass ordering. The pointing ability of the CCSN is evaluated by using the accumulated event anisotropy of the inverse beta decay interactions from pre-SN or SN neutrinos, which, along with the early alert, can play important roles for the followup multi-messenger observations of the next Galactic or nearby extragalactic CCSN.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

Recognising Cattle Behaviour with Deep Residual Bidirectional LSTM Model Using a Wearable Movement Monitoring Collar

Cattle behaviour is a significant indicator of cattle welfare. With the advancements in electronic equipment, monitoring and classifying multiple cattle behaviour patterns is becoming increasingly important in precision livestock management. The aim of this study was to detect important cattle physiological states using a neural network model and wearable electronic sensors. A novel long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural network model that uses two-way information was developed to accurately classify cattle behaviour and compared with baseline LSTM. Deep residual bidirectional LSTM and baseline LSTM were used to classify six behavioural patterns of cows with window sizes of 64, 128 and 256 (6.4 s, 12.8 s and 25.6 s, respectively). The results showed that when using deep residual bidirectional LSTM with window size 128, four classification performance indicators, namely, accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score, achieved the best results of 94.9%, 95.1%, 94.9%, and 94.9%, respectively. The results showed that the deep residual bidirectional LSTM model can be used to classify time-series data collected from twelve cows using inertial measurement unit collars. Six aim cattle behaviour patterns can be classified with high accuracy. This method can be used to quickly detect whether a cow is suffering from bovine dermatomycosis. Furthermore, this method can be used to implement automated and precise cattle behaviour classification techniques for precision livestock farming

Genetic relationship between 1780 Ma dykes and coeval volcanics in the Lvliang area, North China

The 1780 Ma dykes and coeval volcanics constitute a large igneous province in the North China Craton; however, whether these dykes and volcanic rocks of varying compositions originated from one or multiple sources remains controversial. The ca. 1780 Ma Lvliang dykes are characterized by widespread E-W-oriented dykes and minor N-W-oriented diabase dykes. The E-W-oriented dykes are bimodal and comprise two subgroups: one is dominated by acidic high-silica dykes (SiO2 > 63 wt%), while the other is dominated by mafic to intermediate relatively low-silica dykes (SiO2 < 63 wt%). The ca. 1780 Ma volcanics (in the Xiaoliangling Group) in the Lvliang area are also bimodal and dominated by rhyolite to dacite volcanics and basalt to andesite volcanics with few clastic interlayers. SIMS U-Pb dating on zircons from one high-silica dyke and a rhyolite volcanic layer yields Pb-207/Pb-206 ages of 1783 +/- 7 Ma and 1776 +/- 6 Ma, respectively, and SIMS U-Pb dating on baddeleyites from a low-silica dyke yields a Pb-207/Pb-206 age of 1789 +/- 5 Ma. They are all tholeiitic in composition (MgO: 0.36.1 wt%; SiO2: 51-74 wt%), enriched in light rare earth elements ((La/Yb)(N) = 7.9-20.2) and show negative anomalies in Nb, Ta, Sr and Eu (Eu/Eu* = 0.30.9). They also have similar in-situ Hf isotopes of baddeleyite/zircon (epsilon Hf values of -14.5 to -1.8) and bulk rock epsilon Nd (-6.7 to -3.0) isotopes. Furthermore, immiscible textures are identified from the Xiaoliangling Group volcanics, which are characterized by some silica-rich melts globules in the Fe-rich magma. These spatiotemporal affinities and geochemical similarities, as well as the identified immiscible textures, reveal that the low-silicate dykes are conduits for the basalt-andesite with significant fractionation of clinopyroxene and plagioclase; while the high-silica dykes are conduits for the rhyolite-dacite with distinct immiscible segregation prior to eruption. In addition, there is a sharp change of epsilon Hf values at 1780-1730 Ma, and their Hf TDM ages are similar to 2750-1950 Ma. As these rocks originated from the subcontinental lithospheric mantle, this may indicate that the subcontinental lithospheric mantle was metasomatized during this time period, possibly by a paleo-plume event

Nature of charnockite and Closepet granite in the Dharwar Craton: Implications for the architecture of the Archean crust

The architecture of the Archean crust is crucial in understanding the geodynamics of cratonization. The Dharwar Craton in the Indian peninsula is well known for its continuous change of metamorphic grades from granulite facies in the south to amphibolite facies in the middle and greenschist facies in the north. Here the genetic relationship of different units is re-analyzed to decipher the crustal architecture of the craton. The major lithologic unit – the granitoids can be subdivided into TTG, charnockite, Closepet granite and anatectic granites/migmatites. The charnockite near Salem has two types of occurrence: one is massive, garnet-free and plutonic, crystallized at ~2560 Ma, and the other is gneissic, garnet-bearing and incipient, metamorphosed at ~2490 Ma. Both types are compositionally close to tonalite-granodiorite, and generally show positive Eu-anomalies. A large proportion of zircons of both types show positive ɛHft values (varying from −3 to +9), indicating a relatively juvenile parent (2900 Ma) crust at medium-pressure (in the middle crustal level) with significant mantle contribution. The genetic relationship of different units, the spatial age difference of greenstone belts and the spatial variation of metamorphic grade in the Dharwar craton suggest a trinity of Archean crustal architecture (‘sandwich’ structure), with 2700–2500 Ma-dominated uppercrust, 3400–2900 Ma-dominated middle crust, and ~2560 to 2500 Ma anatectic lower crust. This ‘sandwich’ structure possibly indicates vertical growth of the crust in the Archean. The whole craton was tilted at ~2500 Ma with the southern end uplifted the most by an intra-cratonic process, and then it was shaped by later orogenic events resulting in the formation of the dominantly N-S trending structures in the basement

14-3-3 Binding Sites in the Snail Protein Are Essential for Snail-Mediated Transcriptional Repression and Epithelial-Mesenchymal Differentiation

The Snail transcription factor is a repressor and a master regulator of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) events in normal embryonic development and during tumor metastases. Snail directly regulates genes affecting cell adhesion, motility, and polarity. Invasive tumor cells express high levels of Snail, which is a marker for aggressive disease and poor prognosis. Transcriptional repression and EMT induction by Snail requires binding to its obligate corepressor, the LIM protein Ajuba. It is unclear how this complex is assembled and maintained on Snail target genes. Here we define functional 14-3-3 binding motifs in Snail and Ajuba, which selectively bind 14-3-3 protein isoforms. In Snail, an NH2-terminal motif in the repression domain cooperates with a COOH-terminal, high-affinity motif for binding to 14-3-3 proteins. Coordinate mutation of both motifs abolishes 14-3-3 binding and inhibits Snail-mediated gene repression and EMT differentiation. Snail, 14-3-3 proteins, and Ajuba form a ternary complex that is readily detected through chromatin immunoprecipitation at the endogenous E-cadherin promoter. Collectively, these data show that 14-3-3 proteins are new components of the Snail transcriptional repression machinery and mediate its important biological functions.</p

Short-Term Surveillance of Cytokines and C-Reactive Protein Cannot Predict Efficacy of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation for Ulcerative Colitis.

There were no reports on predicting long-term efficacy of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) for ulcerative colitis (UC). This study aimed to detect short-term changes of cytokines and C-reactive protein (CRP) in patients with UC undergoing FMT, and to evaluate the predictive value of CRP and cytokines for the long-term efficacy of FMT.Nineteen patients with moderate to severe UC (Mayo score ≥ 6) were treated with single fresh FMT through mid-gut. Serum samples were collected before and three days post-FMT. Clinical responses were evaluated by a minimum follow-up of three months. Patients with clinical improvement and remission at the assessment point of three-month were included as response group, while patients without clinical improvement or remission were included as non-response group. Serum concentrations of cytokines (IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-11, IL-17A, IFN-γ, TNF, TNFR-1, TNFR-2, MCP-1, G-CSF, GM-CSF) and CRP were assayed to predict the clinical response of FMT.In total, 10.5% (2/19) of patients achieved clinical remission and 47.4% (9/19) achieved clinical improvement (Response group, including clinical remission and clinical improvement), 42.1% (8/19) failed to benefit from FMT (Non-response group). In both Response group and Non-response group, the level of CRP at three days after FMT didn't show significant decrease compared with that before FMT (p>0.05). However, in Response group, CRP level at three months after FMT decreased significantly than that before FMT (p0.05).Patients with moderate to severe UC presented a complex disorder of cytokines. However, the efficacy of FMT for UC might not be predicted by the short-term surveillance of cytokines and CRP