Comparative analysis of the pattern of population genetic diversity in three Indo-West Pacific Rhizophora mangrove species

Rhizophora species are the most widely distributed mangrove trees in the Indo-West Pacific (IWP) region. Comparative studies of these species with shared life history traits can help identify evolutionary factors that have played most important roles in determining genetic diversity within and between populations in ocean-current dispersed mangrove tree species. We sampled 935 individuals from 54 natural populations for genotyping with 13 microsatellite markers to investigate the level of genetic variation, population structure, and gene flow on a broad geographic scale in Rhizophora apiculata, Rhizophora mucronata, and Rhizophora stylosa across the IWP region. In contrast to the pattern expected of long-lived woody plants with predominant wind-pollination, water-dispersed seeds and wide geographic range, genetic variation within populations was generally low in all the three species, especially in those peripheral populations from geographic range limits. Although the large water-buoyant propagules of Rhizophora have capacity for long distance dispersal, such events might be rare in reality, as reflected by the low level of gene flow and high genetic differentiation between most of population pairs within each species. Phylogeographic separation of Australian and Pacific island populations from SE Asian lineages previously revealed with DNA sequence data was still detectable in R. apiculata based on genetic distances, but this pattern of disjunction was not always evident in R. mucronata and R. stylosa, suggesting that fast-evolving molecular markers could be more suitable for detecting contemporary genetic structure but not deep evolutionary divergence caused by historical vicariance. Given that mangrove species generally have small effective population sizes, we conclude that genetic drift coupled with limited gene flow have played a dominant role in producing the current pattern of population genetic diversity in the IWP Rhizophora species, overshadowing the effects of their life history traits. Recent population fragmentation and disturbances arising from human activities could further endanger genetic diversity in mangrove trees

Targeting EZH2 Regulates Tumor Growth and Apoptosis Through Modulating Mitochondria Dependent Cell-Death Pathway in HNSCC

EZH2 is a negative prognostic factor and is overexpressed or activated in most human cancers including head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Analysis of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) HNSCC data indicated that EZH2 over-expression was associated with high tumor grade and conferred poor prognosis. EZH2 inhibition triggered cell apoptosis, cell cycle arrest and decreased cell growth in vitro. MICU1 (mitochondrial calcium uptake1) was shown to be down regulated when EZH2 expression was inhibited in HNSCC. When the EZH2 and MICU1 were inhibited, HNSCC cells became susceptible to cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Mitochondrial membrane potential and cytosolic Ca2+ concentration analysis suggested that EZH2 and MICU1 were required to maintain mitochondrial membrane potential stability. A xenograft tumor model was used to confirm that EZH2 depletion inhibited HNSCC cell growth and induced tumor cell apoptosis. In summary, EZH2 is a potential anti-tumor target in HNSCC

Di-μ-aqua-bis­{diaqua­[μ-4-({4-[bis­(2-hy­droxy­eth­yl)amino]-6-chloro-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl}amino)­benzene­sulfonato]­sodium(I)}

In the dinuclear title compound, [Na2(C13H15ClN5O5S)2(H2O)6]n, two Na+ cations, disposed about a centre of inversion, are linked by two bridging water mol­ecules. The coordination geometry is based on an O5 donor set defined by four water mol­ecules and a 4-amino­benzene­sulfonate O atom in a distorted trigonal–bipyramidal geometry. In the crystal, significant O—H⋯O, O—H⋯N and N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds lead to the formation of a three-dimensional architecture

TRACE: 5D Temporal Regression of Avatars with Dynamic Cameras in 3D Environments

Although the estimation of 3D human pose and shape (HPS) is rapidly progressing, current methods still cannot reliably estimate moving humans in global coordinates, which is critical for many applications. This is particularly challenging when the camera is also moving, entangling human and camera motion. To address these issues, we adopt a novel 5D representation (space, time, and identity) that enables end-to-end reasoning about people in scenes. Our method, called TRACE, introduces several novel architectural components. Most importantly, it uses two new "maps" to reason about the 3D trajectory of people over time in camera, and world, coordinates. An additional memory unit enables persistent tracking of people even during long occlusions. TRACE is the first one-stage method to jointly recover and track 3D humans in global coordinates from dynamic cameras. By training it end-to-end, and using full image information, TRACE achieves state-of-the-art performance on tracking and HPS benchmarks. The code and dataset are released for research purposes.Comment: Project page: https://www.yusun.work/TRACE/TRACE.htm

Structure and Properties of La2O3-TiO2 Nanocomposite Films for Biomedical Applications

The hemocompatibility of La2O3-doped TiO2 films with different concentration prepared by radio frequency (RF) sputtering was studied. The microstructures and blood compatibility of TiO2 films were investigated by scan electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and UV-visible optical absorption spectroscopy, respectively. With the increasing of the La2O3 concentrations, the TiO2 films become smooth, and the grain size becomes smaller. Meanwhile, the band gap of the samples increases from 2.85 to 3.3 eV with increasing of the La2O3 content in TiO2 films from 0 to 3.64%. La2O3-doped TiO2 films exhibit n-type semiconductor properties due to the existence of Ti2+ and Ti3+. The mechanism of hemocompatibility of TiO2 film doped with La2O3 was analyzed and discussed