Conservation and diversification of the miR166 family in soybean and potential roles of newly identified miR166s

Identity between pre-miR166s in soybean. (TIF 5906 kb

Regulation of the Optical Properties of Cellulose Nanocrystal Films by Sealed Deposition Treatment

Cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) can self-assemble and arrange at specific concentrations, imparting unique optical properties to the system. This paper investigated the effects of sealed deposition time and CNC concentration on the formation and alignment of cholesteric liquid crystals within the naturally dried films by analyzing the changes of CNC films in macroscopic color, UV-vis spectra, polarization optics, microscopic morphology, and crystal structure to elucidate the mechanism of CNC self-assembly behavior during the formation of CNC films. The results showed that when the sealed deposition time was extended to 48 h, the structural color development range and the long-range ordering of the cholesteric phase structure of CNC films were considerably enhanced. As the concentration increased, the CNC particle spacing decreased, the torsion angle between neighboring particles increased, and the pitch was compressed, decreasing from 480 nm to 344 nm. The results of polarized light microscopy analysis demonstrated that the sealed deposition treatment had a significant advantage in the formation of long-range ordered cholesteric phase structure in high-concentration CNC suspensions. The results of this research indicated that prolonging the sealed deposition time and increasing the CNC concentration could enhance the improvement of long-range orderliness in the films and promote the formation of cholesteric phase structural domains. This further improved the scientific basis for the preparation of CNC-based smart packaging materials and had a positive effect on the development of new visual food packaging and inspection materials

Efficacy and safety of belimumab for the treatment of refractory childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus: A single-center, real-world, retrospective study

ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of belimumab for treating children with refractory childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus (cSLE).MethodsTwenty-six cSLE patients who received belimumab treatment in our hospital from January 2020 to September 2021 (23 of them for more than 52 weeks) were enrolled in this study. Their clinical and laboratory data, assessment of disease activity, glucocorticoid dosage, and treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) were retrieved for analysis. The paired samples t-test and the nonparametric test were used to compare the baseline and post-treatment data.ResultsThe mean age of onset was 10.3 ± 2.4 years old; the mean disease duration was 41.6 ± 37.4 months; the median Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index 2000 (SLEDAI-2K) score was 10 (P25, P75: 3, 17); and the mean Physician’s Global Assessment (PGA) score at baseline was 1.9 ± 1.0. Compared with the baseline values, there was a significant decrease in the 24-h urine protein quantifications at 24 and 52 weeks of treatment (P<0.05) as well as an elevated complement (C) 3 and C4 levels at 4, 12, 24, and 52 weeks of treatment. In addition, the SLEDAI-2K and PGA scores as well as the percentage of CD19+ B cells were significantly decreased at 12, 24, and 52 weeks of treatment compared with the baseline values (P<0.05). The dosage of glucocorticoid at 4, 12, 24, and 52 weeks of treatment was significantly less than that at baseline or the previous follow-up (P<0.05). At 52 weeks, 14 subjects (53.8%) achieved Lupus Low Disease Activity State (LLDAS), and 4 subjects (15.4%) reached clinical remission (CR). At the last follow-up, 16 subjects (61.5%) achieved LLDAS, and 10 subjects (38.5%) reached CR.ConclusionsBelimumab treatment can significantly improve laboratory indicators, reduce disease activity, and decrease the dosage of glucocorticoid required in children with cSLE. Moreover, it has a good safety profile

Messenger RNA Sequencing and Pathway Analysis Provide Novel Insights Into the Susceptibility to Salmonella enteritidis Infection in Chickens

Salmonella enteritidis (SE) is a foodborne pathogen that negatively affects both animal and human health. Controlling poultry SE infection will have great practical significance for human public health, as poultry are considered to be important sources and carriers of the disease. In this study, the splenic transcriptomes of challenged-susceptible (S), challenged-resistant (R) and non-challenged (C) chicks (3-days old, specific-pathogen-free White Leghorn) were characterized in order to identify the immune-related gene markers and pathways. A total of 934 significant differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in comparisons among the C, R and S birds. First reported here, the DEGs involved in the Forkhead box O (FoxO) signaling pathway, especially FoxO3, were identified as potential markers for host resistance to SE infection. The challenged-susceptible birds exhibited strong activation of the FoxO signaling pathway, which may be a major defect causing immune cell apoptosis as part of SE-induced pathology; these S birds also showed weak activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)-related genes, contrasting with strong splenic activation in the R birds. Interestingly, suppression of several pathways in the immune response against Salmonella, including cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction and Jak-STAT, was only found in S birds and there was evidence of cross-talk among these pathways, perhaps contributing to susceptibility to Salmonella infection. These findings will help facilitate understanding resistance and susceptibility to SE infection in the earliest phases of the host immune response through Salmonella-induced pathways, provide new approaches to develop strategies for SE prevention and treatment, and may enhance innate resistance by genetic selection in animals

An Optimization Model for Condition-based Maintenance Decision Considering Total Risk of Grid Operation

optimizing; total risk of grid operation Abstract: In the background of condition-based maintenance (CBM), the equipment maintenance levels in a certain state have different choices, which has different impacts on the improvement of the equipment state and maintenance costs, which in turn affects the time schedule of equipment maintenance. Therefore, in this paper the equipment maintenance time and maintenance level are viewed as decision variables to make maintenance schedules. This paper presents a risk-based optimization model for system maintenance scheduling problem, considering the state of equipment, correlations of the equipment and the operation of grid. An optimization model minimizing total risk of grid operation by balancing system maintenance risk and failure risk is established, so that both optimal maintenance level and optimal maintenance time could be determined simultaneously. An example is taken to verify the validity of the model

Jacobian Consistency of a Smoothing Function for the Weighted Second-Order Cone Complementarity Problem

In this paper, a weighted second-order cone (SOC) complementarity function and its smoothing function are presented. Then, we derive the computable formula for the Jacobian of the smoothing function and show its Jacobian consistency. Also, we estimate the distance between the subgradient of the weighted SOC complementarity function and the gradient of its smoothing function. These results will be critical to achieve the rapid convergence of smoothing methods for weighted SOC complementarity problems

Identification of differentially expressed genes and pathways for intramuscular fat metabolism between breast and thigh tissues of chickens

Abstract Background Intramuscular fat (IMF) is one of the important factors influencing meat quality, however, for chickens, the molecular regulatory mechanisms underlying this trait have not yet been clear. In this study, a systematic identification of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and molecular regulatory mechanism related to IMF metabolism between Beijing-you chicken breast and thigh at 42 and 90 days of age was performed. Results IMF contents, Gene Ontology (GO) terms, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways were analyzed, The results showed that both IMF contents in breast at 42 and 90 d were significantly lower (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01) than those in thigh. By microarray, 515 common known DEGs and 36 DEGs related to IMF metabolism were identified between the breast and thigh at 42 and 90 d. Compared to thigh, the expression levels of PPARG had significantly down-regulated (P < 0.01) in breast, but the expression levels of RXRA and CEBPB had significantly up-regulated (P < 0.01). However, the expression levels of LPL, FABP4, THRSP, RBP7, LDLR, FABP3, CPT2 and PPARGC1A had significantly down-regulated in breast (P < 0.01), supporting that PPARG and its down-stream genes had the important regulatory function to IMF deposition. In addition, based on of DEGs, KEGG analysis revealed that PPAR signaling pathway and cell junction-related pathways (focal adhesion and ECM-receptor interaction, which play a prominent role in maintaining the integrity of tissues), might contribute to the IMF metabolism in chicken. Conclusions Our data had screened the potential candidate genes associated with chicken IMF metabolism, and imply that IMF metabolism in chicken is regulated and mediated not only by related functional genes and PPAR pathway, but also by others involved in cell junctions. These findings establish the groundwork and provide new clues for deciphering the molecular mechanisms underlying IMF deposition in poultry. Further studies at the translational and posttranslational level are now required to validate the genes and pathways identified here