Morphologic, cytometric, quantitative transcriptomic and functional characterisation provide insights into the haemocyte immune responses of Pacific abalone (Haliotis discus hannai)

In recent years, the abalone aquaculture industry has been threatened by the bacterial pathogens. The immune responses mechanisms underlying the phagocytosis of haemocytes remain unclear in Haliotis discus hannai. It is necessary to investigate the immune mechanism in response to these bacterial pathogens challenges. In this study, the phagocytic activities of haemocytes in H. discus hannai were examined by flow cytometry combined with electron microscopy and transcriptomic analyses. The results of Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio alginolyticus and Staphylococcus aureu challenge using electron microscopy showed a process during phagosome formation in haemocytes. The phagocytic rate (PP) of S. aureus was higher than the other five foreign particles, which was about 63%. The PP of Vibrio harveyi was about 43%, the PP peak of V. alginolyticus in haemocyte was 63.7% at 1.5 h. After V. parahaemolyticus and V. alginolyticus challenge, acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase, total superoxide dismutase, lysozyme, total antioxidant capacity, catalase, nitric oxide synthase and glutathione peroxidase activities in haemocytes were measured at different times, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified by quantitative transcriptomic analysis. The identified DEGs after V. parahaemolyticus challenge included haemagglutinin/amebocyte aggregation factor-like, supervillin-like isoform X4, calmodulin-like and kyphoscoliosis peptidase-like; the identified DEGs after V. alginolyticus challenge included interleukin-6 receptor subunit beta-like, protein turtle homolog B-like, rho GTPase-activating protein 6-like isoform X2, leukocyte surface antigen CD53-like, calponin-1-like, calmodulin-like, troponin C, troponin I-like isoform X4, troponin T-like isoform X18, tumor necrosis factor ligand superfamily member 10-like, rho-related protein racA-like and haemagglutinin/amebocyte aggregation factor-like. Some immune-related KEGG pathways were significantly up-regulated or down-regulated after challenge, including thyroid hormone synthesis, Th17 cell differentiation signalling pathway, focal adhesion, melanogenesis, leukocyte transendothelial migration, inflammatory mediator regulation of TRP channels, ras signalling pathway, rap1 signalling pathway. This study is the first step towards understanding the H. discus hannai immune system by adapting several tools to gastropods and providing a first detailed morpho-functional study of their haemocytes

Albumin Adducts of Electrophilic Benzene Metabolites in Benzene-Exposed and Control Workers

BACKGROUND: Metabolism of benzene produces reactive electrophiles, including benzene oxide (BO), 1,4-benzoquinone (1,4-BQ), and 1,2-benzoquinone (1,2-BQ), that are capable of reacting with blood proteins to produce adducts. OBJECTIVES: The main purpose of this study was to characterize relationships between levels of albumin adducts of these electrophiles in blood and the corresponding benzene exposures in benzene-exposed and control workers, after adjusting for important covariates. Because second blood samples were obtained from a subset of exposed workers, we also desired to estimate within-person and between-person variance components for the three adducts. METHODS: We measured albumin adducts and benzene exposures in 250 benzene-exposed workers (exposure range, 0.26–54.5 ppm) and 140 control workers (exposure range < 0.01–0.53 ppm) from Tianjin, China. Separate multiple linear regression models were fitted to the logged adduct levels for workers exposed to benzene < 1 ppm and ≥ 1 ppm. Mixed-effects models were used to estimate within-person and between-person variance components of adduct levels. RESULTS: We observed nonlinear (hockey-stick shaped) exposure–adduct relationships in log-scale, with inflection points between about 0.5 and 5 ppm. These inflection points represent air concentrations at which benzene contributed marginally to background adducts derived from smoking and from dietary and endogenous sources. Adduct levels were significantly affected by the blood-collection medium (serum or plasma containing either heparin or EDTA), smoking, age, and body mass index. When model predictions of adduct levels were plotted versus benzene exposure ≥ 1 ppm, we observed marked downward concavity, particularly for adducts of the benzoquinones. The between-person variance component of adduct levels increased in the order 1,2-BQ < 1,4-BQ < BO, whereas the within-person variance components of the three adducts followed the reverse order. CONCLUSIONS: Although albumin adducts of BO and the benzoquinones reflect exposures to benzene ≥ 1 ppm, they would not be useful biomarkers of exposure at ambient levels of benzene, which tend to be < 0.01 ppm, or in those working populations where exposures are consistently < 1 ppm. The concavity of exposure–adduct relationships is consistent with saturable metabolism of benzene at air concentrations > 1 ppm. The surprisingly large effect of the blood-collection medium on adduct levels, particularly those of the benzoquinones, should be further investigated

Genome wide association mapping of grain arsenic, copper, molybdenum and zinc in rice (Oryza sativa L.) grown at four international field sites

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The role of PEP Carboxylases for carbon fixation in the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum

publishe

The Study on the Influential Factors of Chinese Workers&apos; Rights Realization 1

Abstract The aim of this paper is to investigate the degree of Realization of Workers&apos; Rights and Influential Factors of Workers&apos; Rights Realization in China. The survey shows: the overall degree of Chinese workers&apos; rights realization is relatively low. Specifically, the lowest lies in the right of access to vocation and rest. The possibility of workers&apos; being treated fairly when disputing with the employer is low and workers&apos; overall level of payment is low. Vocational training is provided at a poor level and the proportion of the workers who join the housing fund and have maternity insurance is kept low; In all, among the 10 sub-factors that are considered to affect workers&apos; right realization, individual related labor contract factors; employer related factors; government related factors are considered more important than worker related factors and union related factors. These results may be indicated that the way of development of labor relations in China may be different from that in Anglo-American countries. It is likely to reach a mutual cooperation and win-win relationship on the whole-via the ways of employers&apos; self-control and the government&apos;s regulation under the concept of harmonious society and harmonious labor relations

A Self-embedding Robust Digital Watermarking Algorithm with Blind Detection

In order to achieve the perfectly blind detection of robustness watermarking algorithm, a novel self-embedding robust digital watermarking algorithm with blind detection is proposed in this paper. Firstly the original image is divided to not overlap image blocks and then decomposable coefficients are obtained by lifting-based wavelet transform in every image blocks. Secondly the low-frequency coefficients of block images are selected and then approximately represented as a product of a base matrix and a coefficient matrix using NMF. Then the feature vector represent original image is obtained by quantizing coefficient matrix, and finally the adaptive quantization of the robustness watermark is embedded in the low-frequency coefficients of LWT. Experimental results show that the scheme is robust against common signal processing attacks, meanwhile perfect blind detection is achieve

Predicting Prolonged Length of ICU Stay through Machine Learning

This study aimed to construct machine learning (ML) models for predicting prolonged length of stay (pLOS) in intensive care units (ICU) among general ICU patients. A multicenter database called eICU (Collaborative Research Database) was used for model derivation and internal validation, and the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC) III database was used for external validation. We used four different ML methods (random forest, support vector machine, deep learning, and gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT)) to develop prediction models. The prediction performance of the four models were compared with the customized simplified acute physiology score (SAPS) II. The area under the receiver operation characteristic curve (AUROC), area under the precision-recall curve (AUPRC), estimated calibration index (ECI), and Brier score were used to measure performance. In internal validation, the GBDT model achieved the best overall performance (Brier score, 0.164), discrimination (AUROC, 0.742; AUPRC, 0.537), and calibration (ECI, 8.224). In external validation, the GBDT model also achieved the best overall performance (Brier score, 0.166), discrimination (AUROC, 0.747; AUPRC, 0.536), and calibration (ECI, 8.294). External validation showed that the calibration curve of the GBDT model was an optimal fit, and four ML models outperformed the customized SAPS II model. The GBDT-based pLOS-ICU prediction model had the best prediction performance among the five models on both internal and external datasets. Furthermore, it has the potential to assist ICU physicians to identify patients with pLOS-ICU risk and provide appropriate clinical interventions to improve patient outcomes

Wideband transmit-array antenna design with dual-layer ultrathin Huygens’ meta-surface for vehicular sensing and communication

This article proposes a wideband high-gain transmitarray (TA) antenna for vehicular sensing and communication, which employs a dual-layer ultrathin Huygens’ meta-surface (HMS). It consists of a 33 × 33 HMS unit cells-based TA, a feeder horn, and a three-dimensional printed fixture to hold them. Each HMS unit cell has two identical metal patterns (MPs) of two symmetrical U-shaped patches and one H-shaped patch, which are distributed on both surfaces of the ultrathin substrate. A pair of top U-shaped patches form the first single-wavelength loop mode, and another pair of bottom U-shaped patches forms the second single-wavelength loop mode. Due to the different phases of the incident waves on the top and bottom U-shaped patches, the two loop modes are generated at different frequencies. A third half-wavelength dipole mode is provided by the H-shaped patch. The three modes correspond to three different frequencies, forming a wide transmission frequency band. Three near-unity transmission peaks are yielded to ensure high and stable aperture efficiency (AE). As well, the transmission phase of the HMS unit cell varies with geometric dimensions, and five unit cell types are quantized to obtain 360° phase range with a low loss of less than 2.6 dB. To verify the design concept, a prototype is fabricated. Measurements show a 3-dB gain bandwidth of 17.9%, a maximum gain of 30.5 dBi at 26.2 GHz, and a high AE of 41.9%. It has unidirectional radiation pattern while reducing backlobe.This work was supported in part by the Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Flight Techniques and Flight Safety, CAAC under Grant FZ2021KF08 and in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61601074