A Philosophical Review of China's Eco–Countryside Construction

Currently, rural China is committed to constructing beautiful countryside and promoting ecological progress. However, this process is accompanied with a distinct misconception that eco–countryside construction only serves as a solution to rural environmental pollution and a tool for ecological progress, instead of a strategy for the innovation and development of the Chinese economy. China’s eco–countryside construction concerns its future economic development and transformation, as well as the improvement of the rural environment. This eco–countryside construction should be supposed to be a great strategy to boost China’s ecological progress. It is designed to bring about new economic drivers and rural prosperity. From a philosophical perspective, this paper reviews China’s eco–countryside construction, specifies its strategic value to economic development, and practical significance to the innovation of the Chinese economy

Fast-slow analysis for parametrically and externally excited systems with two slow rationally related excitation frequencies

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors express their gratitude to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions that help to improve the paper. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 11202085, No. 21276115, No. 11302087, No. 11302086, and No. 11402226), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. BK20130479), and the Research Foundation for Advanced Talents of Jiangsu University (Grant No. 11JDG075 ).Peer reviewe

The MERS-CoV N Protein Regulates Host Cytokinesis and Protein Translation via Interaction With EF1A

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), a pathogen causing severe respiratory disease in humans that emerged in June 2012, is a novel beta coronavirus similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV). In this study, immunoprecipitation and proximity ligation assays revealed that the nucleocapsid (N) protein of MERS-CoV interacted with human translation elongation factor 1A (EF1A), an essential component of the translation system with important roles in protein translation, cytokinesis, and filamentous actin (F-actin) bundling. The C-terminal motif (residues 359–363) of the N protein was the crucial domain involved in this interaction. The interaction between the MERS-CoV N protein and EF1A resulted in cytokinesis inhibition due to the formation of inactive F-actin bundles, as observed in an in vitro actin polymerization assay and in MERS-CoV-infected cells. Furthermore, the translation of a CoV-like reporter mRNA carrying the MERS-CoV 5′UTR was significantly potentiated by the N protein, indicating that a similar process may contribute to EF1A-associated viral protein translation. This study highlights the crucial role of EF1A in MERS-CoV infection and provides new insights into the pathogenesis of coronavirus infections

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Bursting patterns with complex structures in a parametrically and externally excited Jerk circuit system

This paper aims to report complex bursting patterns in a parametrically and externally excited Jerk circuit system. Typically, the common compound bursting with two clusters in each period can be observed in this system. By the fast-slow analysis, we find that the active states related to this type of bursting are created by supercritical Hopf bifurcations. Interestingly, with the increase of parametric excitation amplitude, the common bursting pattern evolves into the ones that display complex structures. We show that the parametric excitation amplitude plays a vital role in influencing the dynamical behaviors, which is apparent from the two-parameters analysis. Then, a rich variety of dynamical phenomena including period-doubling and inverse period-doubling cascades in orbits of period 2, 4, and 8 can be observed with the increase of parametric excitation amplitude, thereby leading to complex bursting patterns with multiple-periodically active states. Besides, as a result of the period-doubling cascades, chaotic attractors are eventually discovered, which can be corroborated by the maximal Lyapunov exponent. In particular, periodic windows with period-doubling and inverse period-doubling cascades also emerge in the chaotic region when the parametric excitation amplitude increases to higher values. These give rise to the complex bursting patterns with chaotically active states. Based on this, two types of bursting patterns with complex structures, i.e., bursting patterns with multiple-periodically active states and bursting patterns with chaotically active states are revealed. Our results enrich the routes to complex bursting and deepen the understanding of bursting patterns with complex structures

Integrative Analysis of the Nasal Microbiota and Serum Metabolites in Bovines with Respiratory Disease by 16S rRNA Sequencing and Gas Chromatography/Mass Selective Detector-Based Metabolomics

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) continues to pose a serious threat to the cattle industry, resulting in substantial economic losses. As a multifactorial disease, pathogen infection and respiratory microbial imbalance are important causative factors in the occurrence and development of BRD. Integrative analyses of 16S rRNA sequencing and metabolomics allow comprehensive identification of the changes in microbiota and metabolism associated with BRD, making it possible to determine which pathogens are responsible for the disease and to develop new therapeutic strategies. In our study, 16S rRNA sequencing and metagenomic analysis were used to describe and compare the composition and diversity of nasal microbes in healthy cattle and cattle with BRD from different farms in Yinchuan, Ningxia, China. We found a significant difference in nasal microbial diversity between diseased and healthy bovines; notably, the relative abundance of Mycoplasma bovis and Pasteurella increased. This indicated that the composition of the microbial community had changed in diseased bovines compared with healthy ones. The data also strongly suggested that the reduced relative abundance of probiotics, including Pasteurellales and Lactobacillales, in diseased samples contributes to the susceptibility to bovine respiratory disease. Furthermore, serum metabolomic analysis showed altered concentrations of metabolites in BRD and that a significant decrease in lactic acid and sarcosine may impair the ability of bovines to generate energy and an immune response to pathogenic bacteria. Based on the correlation analysis between microbial diversity and the metabolome, lactic acid (2TMS) was positively correlated with Gammaproteobacteria and Bacilli and negatively correlated with Mollicutes. In summary, microbial communities and serum metabolites in BRD were characterized by integrative analysis. This study provides a reference for monitoring biomarkers of BRD, which will be critical for the prevention and treatment of BRD in the future

Air-stable, transparent flexible ambipolar organic thin film transistors based on CuPc-F16CuPc bi-channel structure

We report the fabrication of air-stable, transparent flexible ambipolar organic thin film transistors based on CuPc and F16CuPc bi-channel films deposited under 10−1 Pa, by using graphene gate electrode, fluoropolymer Cytop dielectric layer, and Au source/drain electrodes on polyethylene terephthalate substrates. The devices show outstanding air-stability and high optical transparency of above 75% with electron and hole mobilities up to 0.031 and 0.029 cm2/V·s, respectively. The excellent ambipolar performance, along with the outstanding air-stability and high optical transparency, make CuPc-F16CuPc bi-channel transistors as a promising candidate for organic integrated circuits