Isolation of Thylakoid Membrane Complexes from Rice by a New Double-Strips BN/SDS-PAGE and Bioinformatics Prediction of Stromal Ridge Subunits Interaction

Thylakoid membrane complexes of rice (Oryza sativa L.) play crucial roles in growth and crop production. Understanding of protein interactions within the complex would provide new insights into photosynthesis. Here, a new “Double-Strips BN/SDS-PAGE” method was employed to separate thylakoid membrane complexes in order to increase the protein abundance on 2D-gels and to facilitate the identification of hydrophobic transmembrane proteins. A total of 58 protein spots could be observed and subunit constitution of these complexes exhibited on 2D-gels. The generality of this new approach was confirmed using thylakoid membrane from spinach (Spinacia oleracea) and pumpkin (Cucurita spp). Furthermore, the proteins separated from rice thylakoid membrane were identified by the mass spectrometry (MS). The stromal ridge proteins PsaD and PsaE were identified both in the holo- and core- PSI complexes of rice. Using molecular dynamics simulation to explore the recognition mechanism of these subunits, we showed that salt bridge interactions between residues R19 of PsaC and E168 of PasD as well as R75 of PsaC and E91 of PsaD played important roles in the stability of the complex. This stromal ridge subunits interaction was also supported by the subsequent analysis of the binding free energy, the intramolecular distances and the intramolecular energy

Interactions of the apolipoprotein C-III 3238C>G polymorphism and alcohol consumption on serum triglyceride levels

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Both apolipoprotein (Apo) C-III gene polymorphism and alcohol consumption have been associated with increased serum triglyceride (TG) levels, but their interactions on serum TG levels are not well known. The present study was undertaken to detect the interactions of the ApoC-III 3238C>G (rs5128) polymorphism and alcohol consumption on serum TG levels.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 516 unrelated nondrinkers and 514 drinkers aged 15-89 were randomly selected from our previous stratified randomized cluster samples. Genotyping of the ApoC-III 3238C>G was performed by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism combined with gel electrophoresis, and then confirmed by direct sequencing. Interactions of the ApoC-III 3238C>G genotype and alcohol consumption was assessed by using a cross-product term between genotypes and the aforementioned factor.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Serum total cholesterol (TC), TG, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), ApoA-I and ApoB levels were higher in drinkers than in nondrinkers (<it>P </it>< 0.05-0.001). There was no significant difference in the genotypic and allelic frequencies between the two groups. Serum TG levels in nondrinkers were higher in CG genotype than in CC genotype (<it>P </it>< 0.01). Serum TC, TG, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and ApoB levels in drinkers were higher in GG genotype than in CC or CG genotype (<it>P </it>< 0.01 for all). Serum HDL-C levels in drinkers were higher in CG genotype than in CC genotype (<it>P </it>< 0.01). Serum TC, TG, HDL-C and ApoA-I levels in CC genotype, TC, HDL-C, ApoA-I levels and the ratio of ApoA-I to ApoB in CG genotype, and TC, TG, LDL-C, ApoA-I and ApoB levels in GG genotype were higher in drinkers than in nondrinkers (<it>P </it>< 0.05-0.01). But the ratio of ApoA-I to ApoB in GG genotype was lower in drinkers than in nondrinkers (<it>P </it>< 0.01). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the levels of TC, TG and ApoB were correlated with genotype in nondrinkers (<it>P </it>< 0.05 for all). The levels of TC, LDL-C and ApoB were associated with genotype in drinkers (<it>P </it>< 0.01 for all). Serum lipid parameters were also correlated with age, sex, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, blood pressure, body weight, and body mass index in both groups.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study suggests that the ApoC-III 3238CG heterozygotes benefited more from alcohol consumption than CC and GG homozygotes in increasing serum levels of HDL-C, ApoA-I, and the ratio of ApoA-I to ApoB, and lowering serum levels of TC and TG.</p

Ruthenium Incorporated Cobalt Phosphide Nanocubes Derived From a Prussian Blue Analog for Enhanced Hydrogen Evolution

Electrochemical water splitting in alkaline media plays an important role in mass production of hydrogen. Ruthenium (Ru), as the cheapest member of platinum-group metals, has attracted much attention, and the incorporation of trace amount of Ru with cobalt phosphide could significantly improve the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalytic activity. In this work, ruthenium-incorporated cobalt phosphide nanocubes are synthesized via a reaction between Co–Co Prussian blue analog (Co-PBA) and ruthenium chloride (RuCl3) followed by the phosphidation. The sample with a Ru content of ~2.04 wt.% exhibits the best HER catalytic activity with a low overpotential of 51 and 155 mV, to achieve the current densities of −10 and −100 mA cm−2, respectively, and the Tafel slope of 53.8 mV dec−1, which is comparable to the commercial Pt/C. This study provides a new perspective to the design and construction of high performance electrocatalysts for HER and other catalytic applications in a relatively low price

Occurrence of neonicotinoids in Chinese apiculture and a corresponding risk exposure assessment

Neonicotinoids are the most widely used insecticides worldwide, but there is mounting evidence demonstrating that they have adverse effects on nontarget organisms. However, little is known about the extent of environmental neonicotinoids contamination in China. In this study, a total of 693 honey samples from across China, from both Apis melifera and Apis cerana, were analyzed to examine neonicotinoid concentrations and their geographical distribution, and correlation with the primary plant species from which the honey was obtained. Furthermore, chronic and acute exposure risk and risk ranking for humans eating honey were investigated, and risks to bees were also considered. The results revealed that 40.8% of the samples contained at least one of the five neonicotinoids tested. Honeys from commercial crops were found to be more frequently contaminated with neonicotinoids than those from noncommercial crops. Honey samples from Apis mellifera were more frequently contaminated than those from Apis cerana. The concentrations of neonicotinoids found in honey overlapped with those that have been found to have significant adverse effects on honeybee health. The dietary risk assessments indicated that the levels of neonicotinoids detected in honey were likely to be safe for human consumption

Context-Based User Typicality Collaborative Filtering Recommendation

Abstract Since contextual information significantly affecting users’ decisions, it has attracted widespread attention. User typicality indicates the preference of user for different item types, which could reflect the preference of user at a higher abstraction level than the items rated by user, and can alleviate data sparsity. But it does not consider the impact of contextual information on user typicality. This paper proposes a novel context-based user typicality collaborative filtering recommendation algorithm (named CBUTCF), which combines contextual information with user typicality to alleviate the data sparsity of context-aware collaborative filtering, and extracts, measures and integrates contextual information. First, the items are clustered and classified into different item types. For different users, the significance of contextual information for different item types is defined and measured via knowledge granulation. Then, the contextual information is combined with user typicality to measure the context-based user typicality; subsequently, the ‘neighbor’ users are determined. Finally, the unknown ratings under a single context are predicted, and the unknown ratings under multi-context are predicted according to the weighted summation of the significance of contextual information. The experimental results demonstrate that CBUTCF can effectively improve the accuracy of recommendation and increase coverage

Discrimination of Botanical Origins for Chinese Honey According to Amino Acids Content with Chemometric Approaches

In this study, 17 amino acids were analyzed by amino acid analyzer in 110 honey samples from three different monofloral honeys, i.e.acacia honey, linden honey and rape honey in China, and the honey variety discrimination was performed based on amino acid content combined with chemometrics. The results showed that the content of hydrolyzed amino acids was higher in rape honey than in acacia and linden honey, and the content of 16 amino acids showed significant differences among the honey varieties. The results of principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that the botanical origins of honey samples clustered according to their amino acid content. The results of least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) showed that rape honey could be distinguished from acacia honey and linden honey. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) showed that the overall discriminant rate of the three honeys was 92.7%, and the discriminant rate of rape honey was 92.3%. This study would provide data support and reference for the classification and identification of rape honey, acacia honey and linden honey

Narrow-band Imaging in the Diagnosis of Colorectal Hyper-plastic Lesions

Objective: To evaluate the differential diagnostic value of narrow-band imaging (NBI) endoscopy and indigo carmine staining endoscopy in the diagnosis of colorectal hyper-plastic lesions. Methods: A total of 71 lesions form 57 patients were examined with conventional colonoscopy, NBI endoscopy and indigo carmine staining endoscopy to compare and analyze the lesions outlines, pit patterns (PIT) and capillary patterns (CP), so as to distinguish neo-plastic and nonneo- plastic lesions and to compare with the results of pathological diagnosis. Results: The detection rate of conventional endoscopy was 91.5% (65/71), while it was 100% (71/71) under NBI and indigo carmine staining endoscopies, respectively. For the observation of lesion outlines and CP, NBI endoscopy was significantly better than conventional and indigo carmine staining endoscopies, while for the observation of PIT, NBI endoscopy was evidently better than conventional one but similar to indigo carmine staining endoscopy. The diagnostic accuracy rate, sensitivity and specificity of NBI were 91.5% (65/71), 81.8% (18/22) and 95.9% (47/49), which were not statistically significant when compared with indigo carmine staining endoscopy’s 88.7% (63/71), 77.3% (17/22) and 93.9% (46/49), but superior to those under conventional endoscopy. Conclusion: NBI endoscopy is superior to conventional colonoscopy in the diagnosis of colorectal hyper-plastic lesions, especially in the differentiation between neo-plastic and non-neo-plastic lesions. NBI has the advantage of showing the outlines changes of colorectal hyper-plastic lesions, PIT and CP clearly. In addition, it is easy and convenient in operation, so it is also an effective technique to make early diagnosis and has important functions in prevention of CRC

EFFECT OF LENVATINIB ON THE AUTOPHAGY AND MIGRATION OF CANCER-ASSOCIATED FIBROBLASTS IN HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA TISSUE

Objective To investigate the effect of lenvatinib on the autophagy and migration of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissue. Methods Primary CAFs from HCC patients were isolated and cultured and were then treated with an equal volume of DMSO (DMSO group) or 46 nmol/L lenvatinib (lenvatinib group) for 72 h. Transcriptomic sequencing and the omics analysis of drug targets were performed for the two groups, and GO functional enrichment analysis and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis were performed for differentially expressed genes and peptides. Transmission electron microscopy was used to observe the effect of lenvatinib on autophagy of CAFs, and Transwell assay and wound hea-ling assay were used to observe the effect of lenvatinib on the migration ability of CAFs. Results The differentially expressed genes and peptides between the DMSO group and the lenvatinib group were mainly enriched in the functions and pathways such as cell migration and autophagy. Transmission electron microscopy showed that the lenvatinib group had a significantly higher number of autophagosomes than the DMSO group (t=5.376,P&lt;0.05), and Transwell assay and wound healing assay showed that the lenvatinib group had a significantly weaker migration ability than the DMSO group (t=10.31,14.33,P&lt;0.05). Conclusion Lenvatinib can induce the autophagy of CAFs and inhibit their migration in HCC tissue

Self-Prompting Tracking: A Fast and Efficient Tracking Pipeline for UAV Videos

In the realm of visual tracking, remote sensing videos captured by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have seen significant advancements with wide applications. However, there remain challenges to conventional Transformer-based trackers in balancing tracking accuracy and inference speed. This problem is further exacerbated when Transformers are extensively implemented at larger model scales. To address this challenge, we present a fast and efficient UAV tracking framework, denoted as SiamPT, aiming to reduce the number of Transformer layers without losing the discriminative ability of the model. To realize it, we transfer the conventional prompting theories in multi-model tracking into UAV tracking, where a novel self-prompting method is proposed by utilizing the target’s inherent characteristics in the search branch to discriminate targets from the background. Specifically, a self-distribution strategy is introduced to capture feature-level relationships, which segment tokens into distinct smaller patches. Subsequently, salient tokens within the full attention map are identified as foreground targets, enabling the fusion of local region information. These fused tokens serve as prompters to enhance the identification of distractors, thereby avoiding the demand for model expansion. SiamPT has demonstrated impressive results on the UAV123 benchmark, achieving success and precision rates of 0.694 and 0.890 respectively, while maintaining an inference speed of 91.0 FPS