Evaluating the impact and risk of pluvial flash flood on intra-urban road net- work: A case study in the city center of Shanghai, China

Urban pluvial flood are attracting growing public concern due to rising intense precipitation and increasing consequences. Accurate risk assessment is critical to an efficient urban pluvial flood management, particularly in transportation sector. This paper describes an integrated methodology, which initially makes use of high resolution 2D inundation modeling and flood depth-dependent measure to evaluate the potential impact and risk of pluvial flash flood on road network in the city center of Shanghai, China. Intensity–Duration–Frequency relationships of Shanghai rainstorm and Chicago Design Storm are combined to generate ensemble rainfall scenarios. A hydrodynamic model (FloodMap-HydroInundation2D) is used to simulate overland flow and flood inundation for each scenario. Furthermore, road impact and risk assessment are respectively conducted by a new proposed algorithm and proxy. Results suggest that the flood response is a function of spatio-temporal distribution of precipitation and local characteristics (i.e. drainage and topography), and pluvial flash flood is found to lead to proportionate but nonlinear impact on intra-urban road inundation risk. The approach tested here would provide more detailed flood information for smart management of urban street network and may be applied to other big cities where road flood risk is evolving in the context of climate change and urbanization

Differential Communications between Fungi and Host Plants Revealed by Secretome Analysis of Phylogenetically Related Endophytic and Pathogenic Fungi

<div><p>During infection, both phytopathogenic and endophytic fungi form intimate contact with living plant cells, and need to resist or disable host defences and modify host metabolism to adapt to their host. Fungi can achieve these changes by secreting proteins and enzymes. A comprehensive comparison of the secretomes of both endophytic and pathogenic fungi can improve our understanding of the interactions between plants and fungi. Although <i>Magnaporthe oryzae</i>, <i>Gaeumannomyces graminis</i>, and <i>M</i>. <i>poae</i> are economically important fungal pathogens, and the related species <i>Harpophora oryzae</i> is an endophyte, they evolved from a common pathogenic ancestor. We used a pipeline analysis to predict the <i>H</i>. <i>oryzae</i>, <i>M</i>. <i>oryzae</i>, <i>G</i>. <i>graminis</i>, and <i>M</i>. <i>poae</i> secretomes and identified 1142, 1370, 1001, and 974 proteins, respectively. Orthologue gene analyses demonstrated that the <i>M</i>. <i>oryzae</i> secretome evolved more rapidly than those of the other three related species, resulting in many species-specific secreted protein-encoding genes, such as avirulence genes. Functional analyses highlighted the abundance of proteins involved in the breakdown of host plant cell walls and oxidation-reduction processes. We identified three novel motifs in the <i>H</i>. and <i>M</i>. <i>oryzae</i> secretomes, which may play key roles in the interaction between rice and <i>H</i>. <i>oryzae</i>. Furthermore, we found that expression of the <i>H</i>. <i>oryzae</i> secretome involved in plant cell wall degradation was downregulated, but the <i>M</i>. <i>oryzae</i> secretome was upregulated with many more upregulated genes involved in oxidation-reduction processes. The divergent <i>in planta</i> expression patterns of the <i>H</i>. and <i>M</i>. <i>oryzae</i> secretomes reveal differences that are associated with mutualistic and pathogenic interactions, respectively.</p></div

Secreted proteins involved in KEGG metabolic pathways.

<p>Secreted proteins involved in KEGG metabolic pathways.</p

Venn diagram showing orthologues among the <i>H</i>. <i>oryzae</i>, <i>M</i>. <i>oryzae</i>, <i>G</i>. <i>graminis</i>, and <i>M</i>. <i>poae</i> secretomes.

<p>The values indicate the counts of the orthologue groups.</p

The 25 most abundant PFAM domains in the four secretomes.

<p>The 25 most abundant PFAM domains in the four secretomes.</p

Expression patterns of genes encoding secreted proteins in <i>H</i>. and <i>M</i>. <i>oryzae</i>.

<p>(a) <i>H</i>. <i>oryzae</i> genes. (b) <i>M</i>. <i>oryzae</i> genes. Red, decrease in transcript abundance; green, increase in transcript abundance. Heat maps were produced based on expression changes (log2 DAI6/DAI2). 1, proteins with Glyco_hydro domain; 2, peptidase; 3, lipase; 4, tyrosinase; 5, cutinase; 6, cellulase; 7, proteins with CBM domain; 8, proteins with Chitin_bind_1 domain; 9, proteins with LysM domain, 10, proteins with FAD_binding_4 domain; 11, proteins with Cu-oxidase domain; and 12, proteins with GMC_oxred_N domain.</p

Summary of <i>H</i>. and <i>M</i>. <i>oryzae</i> secretome expression. Fold-changes of gene expression (DAI6 versus DAI2) are presented.

<p>(a) Annotated secretomes. (b) Unannotated secretomes. DAI2 and DAI6 refer to transcripts expressed by <i>H</i>. or <i>M</i>. <i>oryzae</i> infecting rice roots at 2 and 6 days after inoculation, respectively. Unregulated genes, genes with fold-change ≤ 2 and ≥ 0.5; Upregulated genes, genes with fold change > 2; Downregulated genes, genes with fold change < 0.5.</p

<i>De novo</i> motif searches of the unannotated <i>H</i>. and <i>M</i>. <i>oryzae</i> secretomes.

<p>(a) Sequences of the three motifs. (b) Distribution of the three motifs in the amino acid sequence of each protein. Each circle represents one motif.</p

The analysis pipeline applied to the <i>H</i>. <i>oryzae</i>, <i>M</i>. <i>oryzae</i>, <i>G</i>. <i>graminis</i>, and <i>M</i>. <i>poae</i> secretomes.

<p>The pipeline can be divided in three main steps: 1) secretome prediction, 2) functional analysis, and 3) expression analysis.</p

Antioxidant and Antiapoptotic Effects of 1,1′-(Biphenyl-4,4′-diyl)-bis(3-(dimethylamino)-propan-1-one) on Protecting PC12 Cells from Aβ-Induced Injury

Abnormal extracellular deposition of β-amyloid (Aβ) is thought to play a key role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Preventing Aβ-induced neurotoxicity has become a potential therapeutic approach to improve the onset and progression of AD. Here we report the synthesis of 1,1′-(biphenyl-4,4′-diyl)-bis­(3-(dimethylamino)-propan-1-one) (BDBDP) and evaluate whether it protects PC12 cells from Aβ_1–42-induced cytotoxicity in PC12 cells. Treating cells with Aβ_1–42 significantly reduced cell viability and mitochondrial membrane potential while also significantly increasing apoptosis and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Pretreating the cells with BDBDP significantly ameloriated these Aβ_1–42-induced effects. Futhermore, BDBDP strongly reduced pro-apoptotic signaling in response to ROS by reducing levels of activated caspase-3 and increasing the ratio of Bcl-2 to Bax. These findings provide evidence that BDBDP protects against Aβ_1–42-induced neurotoxicity in PC12 cells by inhibiting oxidative stress and cell apoptosis