SGDP: A Stream-Graph Neural Network Based Data Prefetcher

Data prefetching is important for storage system optimization and access performance improvement. Traditional prefetchers work well for mining access patterns of sequential logical block address (LBA) but cannot handle complex non-sequential patterns that commonly exist in real-world applications. The state-of-the-art (SOTA) learning-based prefetchers cover more LBA accesses. However, they do not adequately consider the spatial interdependencies between LBA deltas, which leads to limited performance and robustness. This paper proposes a novel Stream-Graph neural network-based Data Prefetcher (SGDP). Specifically, SGDP models LBA delta streams using a weighted directed graph structure to represent interactive relations among LBA deltas and further extracts hybrid features by graph neural networks for data prefetching. We conduct extensive experiments on eight real-world datasets. Empirical results verify that SGDP outperforms the SOTA methods in terms of the hit ratio by 6.21%, the effective prefetching ratio by 7.00%, and speeds up inference time by 3.13X on average. Besides, we generalize SGDP to different variants by different stream constructions, further expanding its application scenarios and demonstrating its robustness. SGDP offers a novel data prefetching solution and has been verified in commercial hybrid storage systems in the experimental phase. Our codes and appendix are available at https://github.com/yyysjz1997/SGDP/

High Throughput Sequencing Identifies MicroRNAs Mediating α-Synuclein Toxicity by Targeting Neuroactive-Ligand Receptor Interaction Pathway in Early Stage of Drosophila Parkinson\u27s Disease Model.

Parkinson\u27s disease (PD) is a prevalent neurodegenerative disorder with pathological features including death of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra and intraneuronal accumulations of Lewy bodies. As the main component of Lewy bodies, α-synuclein is implicated in PD pathogenesis by aggregation into insoluble filaments. However, the detailed mechanisms underlying α-synuclein induced neurotoxicity in PD are still elusive. MicroRNAs are ~20nt small RNA molecules that fine-tune gene expression at posttranscriptional level. A plethora of miRNAs have been found to be dysregulated in the brain and blood cells of PD patients. Nevertheless, the detailed mechanisms and their in vivo functions in PD still need further investigation. By using Drosophila PD model expressing α-synuclein A30P, we examined brain miRNA expression with high-throughput small RNA sequencing technology. We found that five miRNAs (dme-miR-133-3p, dme-miR-137-3p, dme-miR-13b-3p, dme-miR-932-5p, dme-miR-1008-5p) were upregulated in PD flies. Among them, miR-13b, miR-133, miR-137 are brain enriched and highly conserved from Drosophila to humans. KEGG pathway analysis using DIANA miR-Path demonstrated that neuroactive-ligand receptor interaction pathway was most likely affected by these miRNAs. Interestingly, miR-137 was predicted to regulate most of the identified targets in this pathway, including dopamine receptor (DopR, D2R), γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptor (GABA-B-R1, GABA-B-R3) and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor (Nmdar2). The validation experiments showed that the expression of miR-137 and its targets was negatively correlated in PD flies. Further experiments using luciferase reporter assay confirmed that miR-137 could act on specific sites in 3\u27 UTR region of D2R, Nmdar2 and GABA-B-R3, which downregulated significantly in PD flies. Collectively, our findings indicate that α-synuclein could induce the dysregulation of miRNAs, which target neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction pathway in vivo. We believe it will help us further understand the contribution of miRNAs to α-synuclein neurotoxicity and provide new insights into the pathogenesis driving PD

Zinc oxide nanoparticles enhanced rice yield, quality, and zinc content of edible grain fraction synergistically

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) have been widely used in agriculture as a new type of Zn fertilizer, and many studies were conducted to evaluate the effect of ZnO NPs on plant growth. However, there are relatively few studies on the effects of application methods and appropriate dosages of ZnO NPs on rice yield, quality, grain Zn content, and distribution. Therefore, in the 2019 and 2020, field trials were conducted with six ZnO NPs basal application dosages of no ZnO NPs, 3.75 kg hm−2, 7.5 kg hm−2, 15 kg hm−2, 30 kg hm−2, and 60 kg hm−2, and the effects of ZnO NPs application on rice yield, quality, grain Zn content, and distribution were investigated. The results demonstrated that applying ZnO NPs in Zn-deficient soils (available Zn < 1.0 mg kg−1) increased rice grain yield by 3.24%–4.86% and 3.51%–5.12% in 2019 and 2020, respectively. In addition, ZnO NPs improved the quality of rice by increasing the head milling rate, reducing chalky grain percentage, and increasing the taste value and breakdown of rice. In terms of Zn accumulation in rice, ZnO NPs application significantly increased the Zn content in both milled rice and brown rice, compared with no Zn treatment, in 2019 and 2020, Zn content in milled rice significantly increased by 20.46%–41.09% and 18.11%–38.84%, respectively, and in brown rice significantly increased by 25.78%–48.30% and 20.86%–42.00%, respectively. However, the Zn fertilizer utilization gradually decreased with increasing ZnO NPs application dosage. From the perspective of yield, rice quality, Zn fertilizer utilization, and Zn accumulation, basal application of 7.5 kg–30 kg hm−2 ZnO NPs is beneficial for rice yield and quality improvement and rice Zn accumulation. This study effectively demonstrated that ZnO NPs could be a potential high‐performed fertilizer for enhancing rice yield, quality, and zinc content of edible grain fraction synergistically

New material of alagomyids

29 p. : ill. ; 26 cm.Includes bibliographical references (p. 26-29).Newly discovered specimens of alagomyids, mostly isolated teeth collected by screenwashing at the Gashatan (late Paleocene) Subeng locality in Inner Mongolia, document considerable intraspecific variation in Tribosphenomys minutus that has not been appreciated previously because of limited sample sizes. P4s of Tribosphenomys are described for the first time, which helps to clarify the posterior premolar identification of alagomyids. Some of the alagomyid specimens are referred to Tribosphenomys cf. T. secundus and Neimengomys qii gen. and sp. nov. Based on the new data, Tribosphenomys borealis from the Bumban Member of the Naran Bulak Formation, Mongolia, is considered to be a junior synonym of Alagomys inopinatus, and T. tertius from the Zhigden Member of the Naran Bulak Formation is regarded as a junior synonymof T. minutus. Alagomyidae, consisting of Tribosphenomys, Alagomys and Neimengomys, is maintained as a valid family. The presence of a diversity of alagomyids and other recently obtained fossils and stratigraphic evidence from the Erlian Basin suggest that the Gashatan and Bumbanian of Asia are probably correlative to the late Tiffanian-early Wasachian of North America. The faunal turnover during the Gashatan and Bumbanian in Asia is probably related to the late Paleocene-early Eocene global warming, but current evidence is insufficient to link any specific event with the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum