The evolution of cardiolipin biosynthesis and maturation pathways and its implications for the evolution of eukaryotes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cardiolipin (CL) is an important component in mitochondrial inner and bacterial membranes. Its appearance in these two biomembranes has been considered as evidence of the endosymbiotic origin of mitochondria. But CL was reported to be synthesized through two distinct enzymes--CLS_cap and CLS_pld in eukaryotes and bacteria. Therefore, how the CL biosynthesis pathway evolved is an interesting question.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Phylogenetic distribution investigation of CL synthase (CLS) showed: most bacteria have CLS_pld pathway, but in partial bacteria including proteobacteria and actinobacteria CLS_cap pathway has already appeared; in eukaryotes, Supergroup Opisthokonta and Archaeplastida, and Subgroup Stramenopiles, which all contain multicellular organisms, possess CLS_cap pathway, while Supergroup Amoebozoa and Excavata and Subgroup Alveolata, which all consist exclusively of unicellular eukaryotes, bear CLS_pld pathway; amitochondriate protists in any supergroups have neither. Phylogenetic analysis indicated the CLS_cap in eukaryotes have the closest relationship with those of alpha proteobacteria, while the CLS_pld in eukaryotes share a common ancestor but have no close correlation with those of any particular bacteria.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The first eukaryote common ancestor (FECA) inherited the CLS_pld from its bacterial ancestor (e. g. the bacterial partner according to any of the hypotheses about eukaryote evolution); later, when the FECA evolved into the last eukaryote common ancestor (LECA), the endosymbiotic mitochondria (alpha proteobacteria) brought in CLS_cap, and then in some LECA individuals the CLS_cap substituted the CLS_pld, and these LECAs would evolve into the protist lineages from which multicellular eukaryotes could arise, while in the other LECAs the CLS_pld was retained and the CLS_cap was lost, and these LECAs would evolve into the protist lineages possessing CLS_pld. Besides, our work indicated CL maturation pathway arose after the emergence of eukaryotes probably through mechanisms such as duplication of other genes, and gene duplication and loss occurred frequently at different lineage levels, increasing the pathway diversity probably to fit the complicated cellular process in various cells. Our work also implies the classification putting Stramenopiles and Alveolata together to form Chromalveolata may be unreasonable; the absence of CL synthesis and maturation pathways in amitochondriate protists is most probably due to secondary loss.</p

A neglected event in endovascular repair of aortic dissection: acute blood pressure variability during aortic angiography

[Purpose]To investigate acute blood pressure change during aortic angiography in aortic dissection endovascular repair, and analyse the potential risk of this incident.[Method]24 patients with aortic dissection underwent endovascular repair in department of vascular surgery of Changhai hospital between May 2016 and July 2016 were enrolled in this research. Patients were divided into two groups: patients underwent general anesthesia and patients underwent lumbar anesthesia. Blood pressure was monitored by intro-artery catheter. Blood pressure readings were recorded every 10 seconds during the procedure of angiography. Outcome of these patients were observed in hospital. [Result] All patients received endovascular aortic repair, with 19 underwent lumbar anesthesia and 5 underwent general anesthesia. Patients underwent lumbar anesthesia presented temporary blood pressure decrease with average of -11.2±13.4mmHg, while patients underwent general anesthesia presented temporary blood pressure elevation with average of 4.2±6.3mmHg. The Maximum time interval were 26.7±12.7s vs25.8±15.8s, and difference in blood pressure between pre- and post-angiography were 1.53±4.4mmHg vs. 4.6±3.4mmHg, both without significance (P&gt;0.05).[Conclusion] Angiography is an effective factor influencing blood pressure during TEVAR, it’s a potential “trigger” of intra-operative cardiovascular events. Blood pressure should be kept on proper level to avoid cardiovascular events induced by blood pressure variability with angiography. Angiography with General anesthesia has less influence on blood pressure than with lumbar anesthesia

A Fully Data-Driven Approach for Realistic Traffic Signal Control Using Offline Reinforcement Learning

The optimization of traffic signal control (TSC) is critical for an efficient transportation system. In recent years, reinforcement learning (RL) techniques have emerged as a popular approach for TSC and show promising results for highly adaptive control. However, existing RL-based methods suffer from notably poor real-world applicability and hardly have any successful deployments. The reasons for such failures are mostly due to the reliance on over-idealized traffic simulators for policy optimization, as well as using unrealistic fine-grained state observations and reward signals that are not directly obtainable from real-world sensors. In this paper, we propose a fully Data-Driven and simulator-free framework for realistic Traffic Signal Control (D2TSC). Specifically, we combine well-established traffic flow theory with machine learning to construct a reward inference model to infer the reward signals from coarse-grained traffic data. With the inferred rewards, we further propose a sample-efficient offline RL method to enable direct signal control policy learning from historical offline datasets of real-world intersections. To evaluate our approach, we collect historical traffic data from a real-world intersection, and develop a highly customized simulation environment that strictly follows real data characteristics. We demonstrate through extensive experiments that our approach achieves superior performance over conventional and offline RL baselines, and also enjoys much better real-world applicability.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Different Effects of Six Antibiotics and Ten Traditional Chinese Medicines on Shiga Toxin Expression by Escherichia coli

This study compared the effects of ten types of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) and six different antibiotics on E. coli O157:H7 Shiga toxin gene (stx2) mRNA expression level based on real-time PCR and the expression level of Stx toxin using an ELISA quantitative assay. We also compared their effects on the induction of the SOS response. The results clearly indicated that all ten TCMs had negative results in the SOS response induction test, while most TCMs did not increase the levels of stx2 mRNA and the Stx toxin. Some TCMs did increase the mRNA levels of the stx2 gene and the Stx toxin level, but their increases were much lower than those caused by antibiotics. With the exception of cefotaxime, the six antibiotics increased the Stx toxin level and increased the stx2 gene mRNA level. With the exceptions of cefotaxime and tetracycline, the antibiotics increased the SOS induction response. These results suggest that TCMs may have advantages compared with antibiotics, when treating E. coli O157:H7; TCMs did not greatly increase Stx toxin production and release

A Novel Strong Tracking Fault Prognosis Algorithm

Improving the ability to track abruptly changing states and resolving the degeneracy are two difficult problems to particle filter applied to fault prognosis. In this paper, a novel strong tracking fault prognosis algorithm is proposed to settle the above problems. In the proposed algorithm, the artificial immunity algorithm is first introduced to resolve the degeneracy problem, and then the strong tracking filter is introduced to enhance the ability to track abruptly changing states. The particles are updated by strong tracking filter, and better particles are selected by utilizing the artificial immune algorithm to estimate states. As a result, the degeneracy problem is resolved and the accuracy of the proposed fault prognosis algorithm is improved accordingly. The feasibility and validity of the proposed algorithm are demonstrated by the simulation results of the standard validation model and the DTS200 system

Expression of telomerase inhibits hydroxyl radical-induced apoptosis in normal telomerase negative human lung fibroblasts

AbstractIn tumor cells telomerase activity is associated with resistance to apoptosis and the introduction of the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) subunit into normal human cells is associated with life span extension of the cells. To determine the role of telomerase in regulating apoptosis, telomerase negative human embryo lung fibroblasts were transfected with the hTERT gene. Unlike the control fibroblasts, the telomerase-expressing cells had elongated telomeres and were resistant to apoptosis induced by hydroxyl radicals. The results indicate that expression of telomerase and, thus, the maintenance of telomere length in normal human somatic cells caused resistance to not only cellular senescence but also apoptosis. Moreover, we found that hydroxyl radical-induced apoptosis in telomerase-expressing and control fibroblasts was caspase-3 independent. These findings have revealed a new type of interrelation between telomerase and caspase-3, which may indicate that in this case the expressed telomerase may inhibit apoptosis at a site not related to the caspase-3 cascade

First-Shot Unsupervised Anomalous Sound Detection With Unknown Anomalies Estimated by Metadata-Assisted Audio Generation

First-shot (FS) unsupervised anomalous sound detection (ASD) is a brand-new task introduced in DCASE 2023 Challenge Task 2, where the anomalous sounds for the target machine types are unseen in training. Existing methods often rely on the availability of normal and abnormal sound data from the target machines. However, due to the lack of anomalous sound data for the target machine types, it becomes challenging when adapting the existing ASD methods to the first-shot task. In this paper, we propose a new framework for the first-shot unsupervised ASD, where metadata-assisted audio generation is used to estimate unknown anomalies, by utilising the available machine information (i.e., metadata and sound data) to fine-tune a text-to-audio generation model for generating the anomalous sounds that contain unique acoustic characteristics accounting for each different machine types. We then use the method of Time-Weighted Frequency domain audio Representation with Gaussian Mixture Model (TWFR-GMM) as the backbone to achieve the first-shot unsupervised ASD. Our proposed FS-TWFR-GMM method achieves competitive performance amongst top systems in DCASE 2023 Challenge Task 2, while requiring only 1% model parameters for detection, as validated in our experiments.Comment: Submitted to ICASSP 202

The significance of Notch ligand expression in the peripheral blood of children with hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD)

BACKGROUND: Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), a virus-induced infectious disease that usually affects infants and children, has an increased incidence in China in recent years. This study attempted to investigate the role of the Notch signaling pathway in the pathogenesis of HFMD. METHODS: Eighty-two children diagnosed with HFMD were enrolled into this study. The HFMD group was further divided into the uncomplicated HFMD and HFMD with encephalitis groups. The control group included 40 children who underwent elective surgery for treatment of inguinal hernias. RESULTS: Children with HFMD displayed significantly reduced CD3+, CD3+CD4+ and CD3+CD8+ cell subsets, but substantially enhanced CD3−CD19+ cell subset (p < 0.05 versus control subjects). The expression levels of Notch ligands Dll1 and Dll4 in the peripheral blood of the HFMD group were significantly higher than those in the control group (p < 0.05). There were statistically significant differences in CD3+, CD3+CD4+ and CD3−CD19+ cell subsets, but not in Notch ligand expression, between the uncomplicated HFMD and HFMD with encephalitis groups. Dll4 expression in HFMD subjects correlated negatively with the CD3+ and CD3+CD8+ cell subsets (p < 0.05), but positively with the CD3−CD19+ cell subset (p < 0.05). Furthermore, Dll4 expression in HFMD with encephalitis subjects correlated positively with total white blood cell (WBC) counts and total protein contents in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The Notch ligand Dll4 exhibits a strong correlation with the CD3+, CD3+CD8+ and CD3−CD19+ cell subsets in children with HFMD, indicating that the Notch signaling may be involved in the development of HFMD by affecting the number and status of peripheral lymphocytes

Constraining the cosmological parameters using gravitational wave observations of massive black hole binaries and statistical redshift information

Space-borne gravitational wave detectors like TianQin are expected to detect GW signals emitted by the mergers of massive black hole binaries. Luminosity distance information can be obtained from GW observations, and one can perform cosmological inference if redshift information can also be extracted, which would be straightforward if an electromagnetic counterpart exists. In this paper, we concentrate on the conservative scenario where the EM counterparts are not available, and comprehensively study if cosmological parameters can be inferred through a statistical approach, utilizing the non-uniform distribution of galaxies as well as the black hole mass-host galaxy bulge luminosity relationship. By adopting different massive black hole binary merger models, and assuming different detector configurations, we conclude that the statistical inference of cosmological parameters is indeed possible. TianQin is expected to constrain the Hubble constant to a relative error of about 4%-7%, depending on the underlying model. The multidetector network of TianQin and LISA can significantly improve the precision of cosmological parameters. In the most favorable model, it is possible to achieve a level of 1.7% with a network of TianQin and LISA. We find that without EM counterparts, constraints on all other parameters need a larger number of events or more precise sky localization of GW sources, which can be achieved by the multidetector network or under a favorable model for massive black hole mergers. However, in the optimistic case, where EM counterparts are available, one can obtain useful constraints on all cosmological parameters in the Lambda-CDM cosmology, regardless of the population model. Moreover, we can also constrain the equation of state of the dark energy without the EM counterparts, and it is even possible to study the evolution of EoS of the DE when the EM counterparts are observed.Comment: 34 pages, 17 figures, update to match published versio

Razvoj kvantitativnog PCR testa temeljenog na SYBR Green I za identifikaciju cirkovirusa svinja 1, 2 i 3

Porcine Circovirus (PCV) includes Porcine Circovirus 1(PCV1), Porcine Circovirus 2 (PCV2) and Porcine Circovirus 3 (PCV3). In recent years, co-infection exists between PCV1, PCV2 and PCV3 serotypes. Therefore, it is particularly necessary to establish a fast, specific and sensitive SYBR Green I real-time quantitative PCR detection method for PCV1, PCV2 and PCV3. In this experiment, specific primers were selected and the reaction conditions were optimized. A real-time quantitative PCR identification method was established. The results showed the detection limits of this assay were 40.3 copies/μl for PCV1, 25.2 copies/μl for PCV2 and22.4 copies/ μl for PCV3. There was no cross-reactivity with swine fever virus (CSFV), porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), porcine pseudorabies virus (PRV) and porcine parvovirus (PPV). The intra-assay and inter-assay coefficients of variation were less than 1%. The test results of 100 PCV suspected positive samples revealed that the PCV1, PCV2 and PCV3 singular infection rate was 10% (10/100), 64% (64/100) and 52% (52/100), respectively. The PCV1 and PCV2 co-infection rate was 8% (8/100), the PCV1 and PCV3 co-infection rate was 7% (7/100), the PCV2 and PCV3 co-infection rate was 26% (26/100), and the PCV1, PCV2 and PCV3 co-infection rate was 7% (7/100). This method has good specificity, sensitivity and stability. It provides a promising tool for rapid differential detection of PCV1, PCV2 and PCV3.Među cirkovirusima svinja razlikujemo cirkovirus svinja tipa 1 (PCV1), cirkovirus svinja tipa 2 (PCV2) i cirkovirus svinja tipa 3 (PCV3). Posljednjih se godina pojavljuje koinfekcija ovim trima serotipovima, stoga je potrebno uspostaviti brzu, specifičnu i osjetljivu metodu kako bi se kvantitativnim PCR testom temeljenom na SYBR Green I mogli identificirati PCV1, PCV2 i PCV3. U ovom su istraživanju upotrijebljene specifične početnice te su optimizirani uvjeti rekacije za uspostavljanje kvantitativnog PCR-a u stvarnom vremenu. Rezultati su pokazali da su granice detekcije ovog testa 40,3 kopije/μL za PCV1, 25,2 kopije/μL za PCV2 i 22,4 kopije/μL za PCV3. Nije bilo križne reaktivnosti s virusom svinjske kuge (CSFV), virusom reproduktivnog i respiratornog sindroma svinja (PRRSV), virusom pseudobjesnoće svinja (PRV) i parvovirusom svinja (PPV). Koeficijenti varijacije unutar testa i među testovima bili su manji od 1 %. Rezultati analize 100 uzoraka sa sumnjom na PCV pokazali su da je stopa infekcije serotipom PCV1 bila 10% (10/100), PCV2 64% (64/100), a PCV3 52% (52/100). Stopa koinfekcije serotipovima PCV1 i PCV2 bila je 8% (8/100), PCV1 i PCV3 7% (7/100), a PCV2 i PCV3 26% (26/100). Koinfekcija svim trima serotipovima, PCV1, PCV2 i PCV3, bila je 7% (7/100). Metoda primjenjena u ovom istraživanju ima dobru specifičnost, osjetljivost i postojanost te je obećavajući alat za brzo otkrivanje serotipova PCV1, PCV2 i PCV3