Comparative genomics of five Valsa species gives insights on their pathogenicity evolution

Valsa is a genus of ascomycetes within the Valsaceae family. This family includes many wood destructive pathogens such as the well known Valsa mali and Valsa pyri which cause canker diseases in fruit trees and threaten the global fruit production. Lack of genomic information of this family is impeding our understandings about their evolution and genetic basis of their pathogenicity divergence. Here, we report genome assemblies of Valsa malicola, Valsa persoonii, and Valsa sordida which represent close relatives of Valsa mali and Valsa pyri with different host preferences. Comparative genomics analysis revealed that segmental rearrangements, inversions, and translocations frequently occurred among Valsa spp. genomes. Gene families that exhibited gene copy expansions tended to be associated with secondary metabolism, transmembrane transport, and pyrophosphatase activities. Orthologous genes in regions lost synteny exhibited significantly higher rate of synonymous substitution (KS) than those in regions retained synteny. Moreover, among these genes, membrane transporter families associated with antidrug (MFS, DHA) activities and nutrient transportation (SP and APCs) activities were significantly over-represented. Lineage specific synonymous substitution (KS) and nonsynonymous substitution (KA) analysis based on the phylogeny constructed from 11 fungal species identified a set of genes with selection signatures in Valsa clade and these genes were significantly enriched in functions associated with fatty acid beta-oxidation, DNA helicase activity, and ATPase activity. Furthermore, unique genes that possessed or retained by each of the five Valsa species are more likely part of the secondary metabolic (SM) gene clusters. SM gene clusters conserved across five Valsa species showed various degrees of diversification in both identity and completeness. All 11 syntenically conserved SM clusters showed differential expression during the infection of apple branch with Valsa mali suggesting involvements of secondary metabolism in the pathogenicity of Valsa species

Case report: A rare case of desmoid-type fibromatosis originating in the small intestine

BackgroundDesmoid-type fibromatosis (DF) is characterized by a rare monoclonal fibroblast proliferation that exhibits variable and unpredictable clinical presentation. DF can be classified into sporadic and hereditary types. Despite extensive research efforts, the exact etiology of DF remains elusive.Case descriptionA 31-year-old male patient presented to the hospital with a progressively growing mass in the right lower abdomen, accompanied by abdominal discomfort. Symptoms are discovered 1 week before admission. Enteroscopy revealed no evidence of colonic abnormalities, and blood tests did not indicate any abnormalities. Due to the indeterminate nature of the mass during surgery, a partial resection of the ileum and cecum was performed, followed by ileocolonic end-to-end anastomosis, with no postoperative complications. The final pathological diagnosis confirmed primary desmoid-type fibromatosis of the distal ileum (invasive fibromatosis). To effectively manage DF, we recommend a follow-up schedule for patients. This includes appointments every 3 months in the first year following surgery, followed by appointments every 6 months up to the fifth year, and then once a year thereafter. The follow-up examinations should include collection of the patient’s medical history, physical examination, blood tests, ultrasounds, CT scans, and other relevant assessments. During the first year of the follow-up period, no further treatment was administered, and the patient remained disease-free.ConclusionDesmoid-type fibromatosis (DF) originating from the small intestine is an extremely rare condition that exhibits local invasiveness and can be life-threatening. Despite its benign histology, DF has a high local recurrence rate and lacks metastatic potential. Diagnosis of DF remains challenging, especially in cases where surgical intervention is not feasible due to asymptomatic patients or partial organ impairment. In such cases, a “watchful waiting” approach is recommended as the initial treatment strategy. However, when preoperative diagnosis is difficult, surgery is typically considered the best option. Given the potential for local recurrence and the uncertain long-term prognosis, regular follow-up is necessary

A Dopamine/Tannic-Acid-Based Co-Deposition Combined with Phytic Acid Modification to Enhance the Anti-Fouling Property of RO Membrane

Reverse osmosis (RO) membranes are widely used in the field of water treatment. However, there are inevitably various fouling problems during long-term use. Surface engineering of RO membranes, such as hydrophilic modification, has attracted broad attention for improving the anti-fouling performance. In this work, we constructed a green biomimetic composite modification layer on the surface of polyamide membranes using a dopamine (DA)/tannic acid (TA) co-deposited layer to bridge the polyamide surface and hydrophilic phytic acids (PhA). The DA/TA interlayer could firmly adhere to the RO membranes, reducing the aggregation of DA and providing abundant phenolic hydroxyl sites to graft PhA. Meanwhile, the anchored PhA molecule bearing six phosphate groups could effectively improve the superficial hydrophilicity. The membranes were characterized by the SEM, AFM, XPS, water contact angle test, and zeta potential test. After surface modification, the hydrophilicity, smoothness, and surface electronegativity were enhanced obviously. The flux and rejection of the virgin membrane were 76.05 L·m−2·h−1 and 97.32%, respectively. While the modified D2/T4-PhA membrane showed decent permeability with a water flux of 57.37 L·m−2·h−1 and a salt rejection of 98.29%. In the dynamic fouling test, the modified RO membranes demonstrated enhanced anti-fouling performance toward serum albumins (BSA), sodium alginates (SA), and dodecyl trimethyl ammonium bromides (DTAB). In addition, the modified membrane showed excellent stability in the 40 h long-term test

A Hybrid Prognostics Deep Learning Model for Remaining Useful Life Prediction

Remaining Useful Life (RUL) prediction is significant in indicating the health status of the sophisticated equipment, and it requires historical data because of its complexity. The number and complexity of such environmental parameters as vibration and temperature can cause non-linear states of data, making prediction tremendously difficult. Conventional machine learning models such as support vector machine (SVM), random forest, and back propagation neural network (BPNN), however, have limited capacity to predict accurately. In this paper, a two-phase deep-learning-model attention-convolutional forget-gate recurrent network (AM-ConvFGRNET) for RUL prediction is proposed. The first phase, forget-gate convolutional recurrent network (ConvFGRNET) is proposed based on a one-dimensional analog long short-term memory (LSTM), which removes all the gates except the forget gate and uses chrono-initialized biases. The second phase is the attention mechanism, which ensures the model to extract more specific features for generating an output, compensating the drawbacks of the FGRNET that it is a black box model and improving the interpretability. The performance and effectiveness of AM-ConvFGRNET for RUL prediction is validated by comparing it with other machine learning methods and deep learning methods on the Commercial Modular Aero-Propulsion System Simulation (C-MAPSS) dataset and a dataset of ball screw experiment

(Table 1) Lake elevation change derived from 4 or more years of measurements

In this study, ICESat altimetry data are used to provide precise lake elevations of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) during the period of 2003-2009. Among the 261 lakes examined ICESat data are available on 111 lakes: 74 lakes with ICESat footprints for 4-7 years and 37 lakes with footprints for 1 -3 years. This is the first time that precise lake elevation data are provided for the 111 lakes. Those ICESat elevation data can be used as baselines for future changes in lake levels as well as for changes during the 2003-2009 period. It is found that in the 74 lakes (56 salt lakes) examined, 62 (i.e. 84%) of all lakes and 50 (i.e. 89%) of the salt lakes show tendency of lake level increase. The mean lake water level increase rate is 0.23 m/year for the 56 salt lakes and 0.27 m/year for the 50 salt lakes of water level increase. The largest lake level increase rate (0.80 m/year) found in this study is the lake Cedo Caka. The 74 lakes are grouped into four subareas based on geographical locations and change tendencies in lake levels. Three of the four subareas show increased lake levels. The mean lake level change rates for subareas I, II, III, IV, and the entire TP are 0.12, 0.26, 0.19, -0.11, and 0.2 m/year, respectively. These recent increases in lake level, particularly for a high percentage of salt lakes, supports accelerated glacier melting due to global warming as the most likely cause

Crystallization and Thermal Behaviors of Poly(ethylene terephthalate)/Bisphenols Complexes through Melt Post-Polycondensation

Three kinds of modified poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) were prepared by solution blending combined with melt post-polycondensation, using 4,4′-thiodiphenol (TDP), 4,4′-oxydiphenol (ODP) and hydroquinone (HQ) as the bisphenols, respectively. The effects of TDP, ODP and HQ on melt post-polycondensation process and crystallization kinetics, melting behaviors, crystallinity and thermal stability of PET/bisphenols complexes were investigated in detail. Excellent chain growth of PET could be achieved by addition of 1 wt% bisphenols, but intrinsic viscosity of modified PET decreased with further bisphenols content. Intermolecular hydrogen bonding between carbonyl groups of PET and hydroxyl groups of bisphenols were verified by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Compare to pure PET, both the crystallization rate and melting temperatures of PET/bisphenols complexes were reduced obviously, suggesting an impeded crystallization and reduced lamellar thickness. Moreover, the structural difference between TDP, ODP and HQ played an important role on crystallization kinetics. It was proposed that the crystallization rate of TDP modified PET was reduced significantly due to the larger amount of rigid benzene ring and larger polarity than that of PET with ODP or HQ. X-ray diffraction results showed that the crystalline structure of PET did not change from the incorporation of bisphenols, but crystallinity of PET decreased with increasing bisphenols content. Thermal stability of modified PET declined slightly, which was hardly affected by the molecular structure of bisphenols

Optimization and Performance Analysis of Rail-Train Coupling System with Inerters

Optimization for vertical vibration performance of a rail-train coupling system is investigated in this paper with the introduction of inerters for both primary and secondary suspensions. A model of a typical Chinese passenger train that travels on a traditional rail with track, sleepers, and ballast is simulated. The goal is to improve the ride quality for the train and vibration attenuation for the rail system in response to track irregularities. Optimizations for only inertance and all suspension parameters are carried out by the particle swarm algorithm (PSO). Performance benefits for both the train and the rail system are demonstrated and suspension layouts with inerters connected in parallel and series are compared with the traditional one in both time domain and frequency domain