Biocrust reduces the soil erodibility of coral calcareous sand by regulating microbial community and extracellular polymeric substances on tropical coral island, South China Sea

Tropical coral islands assume a pivotal role in the conservation of oceanic ecosystem biodiversity. However, their distinctive environmental attributes and limited vegetation render them highly susceptible to soil erosion. The biological soil crust (biocrust), owing to its significant ecological role in soil stabilization and erosion prevention, is deemed an effective means of mitigating soil erosion on coral island. However, existing research on the mechanisms through which biocrusts resist soil erosion has predominantly concentrated on arid and semi-arid regions. Consequently, this study will specifically delve into elucidating the erosion-resistant mechanisms of biocrusts in tropical coral island environments, South China Sea. Specifically, we collected 16 samples of biocrusts and bare soil from Meiji Island. High-throughput amplicon sequencing was executed to analyze the microbial community, including bacteria, fungi, and archaea. Additionally, quantitative PCR was utilized to assess the abundance of the bacterial 16S rRNA, fungal ITS, archaeal 16S rRNA, and cyanobacterial 16S rRNA genes within these samples. Physicochemical measurements and assessments of extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs) were conducted to characterize the soil properties. The study reported a significantly decreased soil erodibility factor after biocrust formation. Compared to bare soil, soil erodibility factor decreased from 0.280 to 0.190 t h MJ−1 mm−1 in the biocrusts. Mechanistically, we measured the microbial EPS contents and revealed a negative correlation between EPS and soil erodibility factor. Consistent with increased EPS, the abundance of bacteria, fungi, archaea, and cyanobacteria were also detected significantly increased with biocrust formation. Correlation analysis detected Cyanobacteria, Chloroflexi, Deinococcota, and Crenarchaeota as potential microbials promoting EPSs and reducing soil erosion. Together, our study presents the evidence that biocrust from tropical coral island in the South China Sea promotes resistance to soil erosion, pinpointing key EPSs-producing microbials against soil erosion. The findings would provide insights for island soil restoration

Decreased expression of dual-specificity phosphatase 9 is associated with poor prognosis in clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Background: The molecular mechanisms involved in the development and progression of clear cell renal cell carcinomas (ccRCCs) are poorly understood. The objective of this study was to analyze the expression of dual-specificity phosphatase 9 (DUSP-9) and determine its clinical significance in human ccRCCs. Methods: The expression of DUSP-9 mRNA was determined in 46 paired samples of ccRCCs and adjacent normal tissues by using real-time qPCR. The expression of the DUSP-9 was determined in 211 samples of ccRCCs and 107 paired samples of adjacent normal tissues by immunohistochemical analysis. Statistical analysis was performed to define the relationship between the expression of DUSP-9 and the clinical features of ccRCC. Results: The mRNA level of DUSP-9, which was determined by real-time RT-PCR, was found to be significantly lower in tumorous tissues than in the adjacent non-tumorous tissues (p < 0.001). An immunohistochemical analysis of 107 paired tissue specimens showed that the DUSP-9 expression was lower in tumorous tissues than in the adjacent non-tumorous tissues (p < 0.001). Moreover, there was a significant correlation between the DUSP-9 expression in ccRCCs and gender (p = 0.031), tumor size (p = 0.001), pathologic stage (p = 0.001), Fuhrman grade (p = 0.002), T stage (p = 0.001), N classification (p = 0.012), metastasis (p = 0.005), and recurrence (p < 0.001). Patients with lower DUSP-9 expression had shorter overall survival time than those with higher DUSP-9 expression (p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis indicated that low expression of the DUSP-9 was an independent predictor for poor survival of ccRCC patients. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first study that determines the relationship between DUSP-9 expression and prognosis in ccRCC. We found that decreased expression of DUSP-9 is associated with poor prognosis in ccRCC. DUSP-9 may represent a novel and useful prognostic marker for ccRCC

A Systematic Analysis on DNA Methylation and the Expression of Both mRNA and microRNA in Bladder Cancer

Background: DNA methylation aberration and microRNA (miRNA) deregulation have been observed in many types of cancers. A systematic study of methylome and transcriptome in bladder urothelial carcinoma has never been reported. Methodology/Principal Findings: The DNA methylation was profiled by modified methylation-specific digital karyotyping (MMSDK) and the expression of mRNAs and miRNAs was analyzed by digital gene expression (DGE) sequencing in tumors and matched normal adjacent tissues obtained from 9 bladder urothelial carcinoma patients. We found that a set of significantly enriched pathways disrupted in bladder urothelial carcinoma primarily related to "neurogenesis" and "cell differentiation" by integrated analysis of -omics data. Furthermore, we identified an intriguing collection of cancer-related genes that were deregulated at the levels of DNA methylation and mRNA expression, and we validated several of these genes (HIC1, SLIT2, RASAL1, and KRT17) by Bisulfite Sequencing PCR and Reverse Transcription qPCR in a panel of 33 bladder cancer samples. Conclusions/Significance: We characterized the profiles between methylome and transcriptome in bladder urothelial carcinoma, identified a set of significantly enriched key pathways, and screened four aberrantly methylated and expressed genes. Conclusively, our findings shed light on a new avenue for basic bladder cancer research

The crystal structure of 1-(2-chlorobenzyl)-3-(3,5-dichlorophenyl)urea, C14H11Cl3N2O

C14H11Cl3N2O, orthorhombic, P212121 (no. 19), a = 8.3600(4) Å, b = 12.0085(8) Å, c = 14.3665(6) Å, V = 1442.27(13) Å3, Z = 4, Rgt (F) = 0.0460, wRref (F 2) = 0.0944, T = 293 K

Fast source camera identification using matching signs between query and reference fingerprints

Fast camera fingerprint search is an important issue for source camera identification in real-world applications. So far there has been little work done in this area. In this paper, we propose a novel fast search algorithm. We use global information derived from the relationship between the query fingerprint/digest and the reference fingerprints/digests in the database to guide fast search. This information can provide more accurate and robust clues for the selection of candidate matching database fingerprints. Because the quality of query fingerprints may degrade or vary in realistic applications, the construction of robust search clues is significant. To speed up the search process, we adopt a lookup table that is built on the separate-chaining hash table. The proposed algorithm has been tested using query images from real-world photos. Experiments demonstrate that our algorithm can well adapt to query fingerprints with different quality. It can achieve higher detection rates with lower computational cost than the traditional brute-force search algorithm and a pioneering fast search algorithm in literature

Scalable XSLT Evaluation

Abstract. XSLT is an increasingly popular language for processing XML data. It is widely supported by application platform software. However, little optimization effort has been made inside the current XSLT processing engines. Evaluating a very simple XSLT program on a large XML document with a simple schema may result in extensive usage of memory. In this paper, we present a novel notion of Streaming Processing Model (SPM) to evaluate a subset of XSLT programs on XML documents, especially large ones. With SPM, an XSLT processor can transform an XML source document to other formats without extra memory buffers required. Therefore, our approach can not only tackle large source documents, but also produce large results. We demonstrate with a performance study the advantages of the SPM approach. Experimental results clearly confirm that SPM improves XSLT evaluation typically 2 to 10 times better than the existing approaches. Moreover, the SPM approach also features high scalability.

Numerical Simulation and Wind Tunnel Test of a Variable Geometry Auxiliary Inlet for a Wide-Body Aircraft Environmental Control System

A variable geometry auxiliary inlet for a wide-body aircraft environmental control system with moveable deflectors operating in a large mass flow rate range is studied through numerical simulation and wind tunnel tests, which yields a design method for the variable geometry auxiliary inlet with high performance. The characteristics of the flow field are studied by numerical simulation. The results show that the favorable pressure gradient and the roll-up vortices are the major impetus that inhales the incoming flow into the inlet. The law of regulation and the performance variation under different conditions are obtained by wind tunnel test. The flow coefficient increases first but then decreases with the increase in the inlet opening, and the pressure rise ratio and total pressure recovery coefficient increase first and then decrease with the increase in the mass flow rate. In general, under the condition of a high Mach number (Ma > 0.4), the inlet opening of this test configuration should not exceed 50%. The deflectors can maintain the normal work of the environmental control system by moving properly to control the mass flow rate of the auxiliary inlet

Structural Optimization of the Aircraft NACA Inlet Based on BP Neural Networks and Genetic Algorithms

With the development of the increasing demand for cooling air in cabin and electronic components on aircraft, it urges to present an energy-efficient optimum method for the ram air inlet system. A ram air performance evaluation method is proposed, and the main structural parameters can be extended to a certain type of aircraft. The influence of structural parameters on the ram air performance is studied, and a database for the performance is generated. A new method of integrating the BP neural networks and genetic algorithm is used for structure optimization and is proven effective. Moreover, the optimum result of the structure of the NACA ram air inlet system is deduced. Results show that (1) the optimization algorithm is efficient with less prediction error of the mass flow rate and fuel penalty. The average relative error of the mass flow rate is 1.37%, and the average relative error of the fuel penalty is 1.41% in the full samples. (2) Predicted deviation analysis shows very little difference between optimized and unoptimized design. The relative error of the mass flow rate is 0.080% while that of the fuel penalty is 0.083%. The accuracy of the proposed optimization method is proven. (3) The mass flow rate after optimization is increased to 2.506 kg/s, and the fuel penalty is decreased by 74.595 Et kg. The BP neural networks and genetic algorithms are studied to optimize the design of the ram air inlet system. It is proven to be a novel approach, and the efficiency can be highly improved