Study on current status and climatic characteristics of wine regions in China

The aim of this paper is to improve the knowledge of the current status and climatic characteristics of Chinese wine regions. An investigation of Chinese winegrowing regions, which concerned the distribution, area and cultivars, was conducted using "questionnaires + expert consultation + available literature". On the basis of the results of the investigation, a map was drawn to depict the distribution of Chinese wine regions. Furthermore, observation records of weather stations located within winegrowing zones during 1982–2011 were employed to analyze the climatic characteristics of each region by using the climatic indices of frost-free season (FFS), dryness index (DI), and extremely low temperature (ELT). According to the findings of the investigation, wine grapes have been widely cultivated in 179 counties of China, with a total cultivation area of 163,200 ha. 'Cabernet Sauvignon' was the most widely cultivated variety. The analysis of the climatic characteristics revealed a regional difference within and between wine regions. Moreover, most wine regions were suitable for wine production in terms of the climatic indices, which in turn verified the applicability of the climate indices system

The method of coal and gas outburst risk zones division based on quantitative coupling of gas and stress

In order to realize the accurate division of coal and gas outburst risk zones, taking Juji Coal Mine as the case study, the method of coal and gas outburst risk zones division based on quantitative coupling of gas and stress is proposed. The results show that the high gas pressure zones are concentrated in the eastern of No.23 mining area, and most of No.26 and No.27 mining area. The vertical stress in the mine ranges from 6 MPa to 36 MPa. The comprehensive weights of gas pressure and stress are determined by AHP-entropy weight method, and the outburst risk comprehensive index Q is calculated accordingly. According to the range of Q, the mine is divided into low risk zone (Q \u3c 0.5), medium risk zone (0.5 ≤ Q ≤ 0.75) and high risk zone (Q \u3e 0.75). It has been verified that the drilling cuttings S value in No.26 mining area (high risk zone), No.27 mining area (medium risk zone) and No.211 mining area (low risk zone) is 3.6~4.8 kg/m, 3.2~4.6 kg/m and 3.0~4.4 kg/m, and the initial gas emission velocity q value ranged from 0 to 3.7 L/min, 0 to 0.46 L/min and 0 L/min, respectively

PHF8 and REST/NRSF co-occupy gene promoters to regulate proximal gene expression

Chromatin regulators play an important role in the development of human diseases. In this study, we focused on Plant Homeo Domain Finger protein 8 (PHF8), a chromatin regulator that has attracted special concern recently. PHF8 is a histone lysine demethylase ubiquitously expressed in nuclei. Mutations of PHF8 are associated with X-linked mental retardation. It usually functions as a transcriptional co-activator by associating with H3K4me3 and RNA polymerase II. We found that PHF8 may associate with another regulator, REST/NRSF, predominately at promoter regions via studying several published PHF8 chromatin immunoprecipitation-sequencing (ChIP-Seq) datasets. Our analysis suggested that PHF8 not only activates but may also repress gene expression

Methodology for identifying the damage state of sandstone using Mel-frequency cepstral coefficient of acoustic emission

Rock mass structure rupture is an important factor that seriously restricts the construction and safe operation of underground space engineering projects such as mines, subways and tunnels. Realizing the identification of rock mass fracture state is one of the hotspots and emphases of current research. In this study, some experiments of sandstone loading failure under different conditions were carried out, the acoustic emission Mel-frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC) and its fluctuation difference during the whole loading process were extracted, the variation law of the coefficient and its fluctuation difference during the whole loading failure process was studied, and the correlation characteristics of coefficient No.1 (According to the calculation of acoustic emission Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients, it can be seen that a set of acoustic emission Mel-frequency cepstral coefficient includes 12, and coefficient No.1 refers to the first Mel-frequency cepstral coefficient) and its fluctuation difference with the fracture state of sandstone were analyzed. Based on this, a method to identify sandstone fracture state using the Mel-frequency cepstral of acoustic emission was proposed, and the identification criteria was constructed. The identification effect was finally verified. The results show that with loading increase, the coefficient No.1 increases as a whole, and the coefficient value and its discreteness increase significantly in the failure stage and show significant regular fluctuations. The fluctuation difference of the coefficient has the characteristics of periodic variation. The size of the fluctuation difference and its fluctuation can characterize the fracture of sandstone. The overall increase and sudden increase of the fluctuation difference can reflect the macroscopic fracture of sandstone in the unstable deformation and post-peak failure stage, and the sudden increase level of the fluctuation difference can reflect the fracture degree of sandstone. The acoustic emission Mel-frequency cepstral coefficient and its fluctuation difference show good response characteristics to sandstone fracture, which is less affected by different loading conditions, thus they have applicability in reflecting sandstone fracture. The coefficient No.1 and its fluctuation difference have a good correlation with the fracture state of sandstone. The correlation can be divided into three stages as: in the micro-fracture stage of sandstone, the coefficient No.1 and its fluctuation difference are intensively distributed; in the unstable deformation stage just prior to the peak load, the distribution range increases sharply, the overall value increases and the high abnormal value appears; in the post-peak failure stage, the distribution range further increases, the overall value is higher, and more high abnormal values appear. The identification method and criteria of sandstone fracture state were constructed by using the 75% site value and outliers of coefficient No.1 and the 75% site value and outliers of the fluctuation difference of coefficient No.1. The effect of the identification criteria was tested by the confusion matrix of the three-classification model. The accuracy and precision of identification are 90.43% and 94.45%, respectively, which indicate the identification effect is good. The results can provide a reference for the identification of the fracture state of other types of coal and rocks, and for the monitoring and early warning of coal rock instability

Whole exome sequencing study identifies novel rare and common Alzheimer's-Associated variants involved in immune response and transcriptional regulation

Correction: Volume: 25 Issue: 8 Pages: 1901-1903 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-019-0529-7The Alzheimer's Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP) undertook whole exome sequencing in 5,740 late-onset Alzheimer disease (AD) cases and 5,096 cognitively normal controls primarily of European ancestry (EA), among whom 218 cases and 177 controls were Caribbean Hispanic (CH). An age-, sex- andAPOEbased risk score and family history were used to select cases most likely to harbor novel AD risk variants and controls least likely to develop AD by age 85 years. We tested ~1.5 million single nucleotide variants (SNVs) and 50,000 insertion-deletion polymorphisms (indels) for association to AD, using multiple models considering individual variants as well as gene-based tests aggregating rare, predicted functional, and loss of function variants. Sixteen single variants and 19 genes that met criteria for significant or suggestive associations after multiple-testing correction were evaluated for replication in four independent samples; three with whole exome sequencing (2,778 cases, 7,262 controls) and one with genome-wide genotyping imputed to the Haplotype Reference Consortium panel (9,343 cases, 11,527 controls). The top findings in the discovery sample were also followed-up in the ADSP whole-genome sequenced family-based dataset (197 members of 42 EA families and 501 members of 157 CH families). We identified novel and predicted functional genetic variants in genes previously associated with AD. We also detected associations in three novel genes:IGHG3(p = 9.8 x 10(-7)), an immunoglobulin gene whose antibodies interact with beta-amyloid, a long non-coding RNAAC099552.4(p = 1.2 x 10(-7)), and a zinc-finger proteinZNF655(gene-based p = 5.0 x 10(-6)). The latter two suggest an important role for transcriptional regulation in AD pathogenesis.Peer reviewe

3D-printed integrative probeheads for magnetic resonance

射频探头前端作为核磁共振设备的核心部件之一，极大程度的决定着系统实验性能的优劣。探头前端通常由射频线圈、射频电路及样品检测管道等部分组成。现有的射频线圈制作技术主要是通过手工或机械手段按照所需的线圈形状进行绕制。但是，当线圈结构较为复杂、不规则，或体积尺寸较小时，常规绕制方法便难以满足结构设计和制造的精度需求，因此造成线圈性能的劣化，增大检测区域的射频场不均匀性，对核磁共振检测产生负面影响。本研究中，利用3D打印熔融沉积制造或光敏树脂选择性固化技术精确加工出一体化磁共振探头前端，使用常温液态金属填充线圈模型管路形成射频线圈，搭建出稳定的一体化磁共振射频探头。利用高精度3D打印和液态金属灌注技术制备出包含有射频线圈和定制化样品管道结构在内的一体化磁共振射频探头前端，克服了传统磁共振三维微型线圈成型困难、与样品腔匹配程度差等问题，提高了探头的信噪比，为定制化的磁共振检测提供了新思路。 该工作由厦门大学电子科学与技术学院陈忠教授、游学秋副研究员和孙惠军高级工程师共同指导完成，博士研究生谢君尧为论文第一作者。厦门大学电子科学与技术学院黄玉清高级工程师、王忻昌副教授、倪祖荣助理教授、硕士研究生张德超，化学化工学院杨朝勇教授、博士研究生李星锐，萨本栋微米纳米科学技术研究院陈宏教授为合作作者。【Abstract】Magnetic resonance (MR) technology has been widely employed in scientific research, clinical diagnosis and geological survey. However, the fabrication of MR radio frequency probeheads still face difficulties in integration, customization and miniaturization. Here, we utilized 3D printing and liquid metal filling techniques to fabricate integrative radio frequency probeheads for MR experiments. The 3D-printed probehead with micrometer precision generally consists of liquid metal coils, customized sample chambers and radio frequency circuit interfaces. We screened different 3D printing materials and optimized the liquid metals by incorporating metal microparticles. The 3D-printed probeheads are capable of performing both routine and nonconventional MR experiments, including in situ electrochemical analysis, in situ reaction monitoring with continues-flow paramagnetic particles and ions separation, and small-sample MR imaging. Due to the flexibility and accuracy of 3D printing techniques, we can accurately obtain complicated coil geometries at the micrometer scale, shortening the fabrication timescale and extending the application scenarios.The work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants U1632274, 11761141010, U1805261, 11475142, 22073078, and 61801411), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2017M622075).研究工作得到国家自然科学基金、中国博士后科学基金等项目支持

Broad-spectrum CRISPR-mediated inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 variants and endemic coronaviruses in vitro

A major challenge in coronavirus vaccination and treatment is to counteract rapid viral evolution and mutations. Here we demonstrate that CRISPR-Cas13d offers a broad-spectrum antiviral (BSA) to inhibit many SARS-CoV-2 variants and diverse human coronavirus strains with >99% reduction of the viral titer. We show that Cas13d-mediated coronavirus inhibition is dependent on the crRNA cellular spatial colocalization with Cas13d and target viral RNA. Cas13d can significantly enhance the therapeutic effects of diverse small molecule drugs against coronaviruses for prophylaxis or treatment purposes, and the best combination reduced viral titer by over four orders of magnitude. Using lipid nanoparticle-mediated RNA delivery, we demonstrate that the Cas13d system can effectively treat infection from multiple variants of coronavirus, including Omicron SARS-CoV-2, in human primary airway epithelium air-liquid interface (ALI) cultures. Our study establishes CRISPR-Cas13 as a BSA which is highly complementary to existing vaccination and antiviral treatment strategies

Common variants in Alzheimer’s disease and risk stratification by polygenic risk scores

Funder: Funder: Fundación bancaria ‘La Caixa’ Number: LCF/PR/PR16/51110003 Funder: Grifols SA Number: LCF/PR/PR16/51110003 Funder: European Union/EFPIA Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Number: 115975 Funder: JPco-fuND FP-829-029 Number: 733051061Genetic discoveries of Alzheimer's disease are the drivers of our understanding, and together with polygenetic risk stratification can contribute towards planning of feasible and efficient preventive and curative clinical trials. We first perform a large genetic association study by merging all available case-control datasets and by-proxy study results (discovery n = 409,435 and validation size n = 58,190). Here, we add six variants associated with Alzheimer's disease risk (near APP, CHRNE, PRKD3/NDUFAF7, PLCG2 and two exonic variants in the SHARPIN gene). Assessment of the polygenic risk score and stratifying by APOE reveal a 4 to 5.5 years difference in median age at onset of Alzheimer's disease patients in APOE ɛ4 carriers. Because of this study, the underlying mechanisms of APP can be studied to refine the amyloid cascade and the polygenic risk score provides a tool to select individuals at high risk of Alzheimer's disease

Rare coding variants in PLCG2, ABI3, and TREM2 implicate microglial-mediated innate immunity in Alzheimer's disease

We identified rare coding variants associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in a 3-stage case-control study of 85,133 subjects. In stage 1, 34,174 samples were genotyped using a whole-exome microarray. In stage 2, we tested associated variants (P<1×10-4) in 35,962 independent samples using de novo genotyping and imputed genotypes. In stage 3, an additional 14,997 samples were used to test the most significant stage 2 associations (P<5×10-8) using imputed genotypes. We observed 3 novel genome-wide significant (GWS) AD associated non-synonymous variants; a protective variant in PLCG2 (rs72824905/p.P522R, P=5.38×10-10, OR=0.68, MAFcases=0.0059, MAFcontrols=0.0093), a risk variant in ABI3 (rs616338/p.S209F, P=4.56×10-10, OR=1.43, MAFcases=0.011, MAFcontrols=0.008), and a novel GWS variant in TREM2 (rs143332484/p.R62H, P=1.55×10-14, OR=1.67, MAFcases=0.0143, MAFcontrols=0.0089), a known AD susceptibility gene. These protein-coding changes are in genes highly expressed in microglia and highlight an immune-related protein-protein interaction network enriched for previously identified AD risk genes. These genetic findings provide additional evidence that the microglia-mediated innate immune response contributes directly to AD development