Rhopalosiphum padi is an important grain pest, causing severe losses during crop production. As a systemic insecticide, flonicamid can control piercing-sucking pests efficiently. In our study, the lethal effects of flonicamid on the biological traits of R. padi were investigated via a life table approach. Flonicamid is highly efficiently toxic to R. padi, with an LC50 of 9.068 mg L−1. The adult longevity and fecundity of the R. padi F0 generation were markedly reduced under the LC25 and LC50 concentrations of flonicamid exposure. In addition, negative transgenerational effects on R. padi were observed under exposure to lethal concentrations of flonicamid, with noticeable decreases in the reproductive period, adult longevity, total longevity, and total fecundity of the F1 generation under the LC25 concentration of flonicamid. Furthermore, the third nymph stage (N3), preadult stage, duration of the adult pre-reproductive period, duration of the total pre-reproductive period, reproductive period, adult longevity, total longevity, and total fecundity of the F1 generation were significantly lower under treatment with the LC50 concentration of flonicamid. The life table parameters were subsequently analysed, revealing that the intrinsic rate of increase (rm) and the net reproductive rate (R0) were significantly lower but that the finite rate of increase (λ) and the mean generation time (T) were not significantly different under the LC25 and LC50 concentrations of flonicamid. These data are beneficial for grain aphid control and are critical for exploring the role of flonicamid in the integrated management of this key pest.

Choline plays a crucial role in hepatic lipid homeostasis by acting as a major methyl-group donor. However, despite this well-accepted fact, no study has yet explored how choline’s methyl-donor function contributes to preventing hepatic lipid dysregulation. Moreover, the potential regulatory role of Ire-1α, an ER-transmembrane transducer for the unfolded protein response (UPRer), in choline-mediated hepatic lipid homeostasis remains unexplored. Thus, this study investigated the mechanism by which choline prevents hepatic lipid dysregulation, focusing on its role as a methyl-donor and the involvement of Ire-1α in this process. To this end, a model animal for lipid metabolism, yellow catfish (Pelteobagrus fulvidraco) were fed two different diets (adequate or deficient choline diets) in vivo for 10 weeks. The key findings of studies are as follows: 1. Dietary choline, upregulated selected lipolytic and fatty acid β-oxidation transcripts promoting hepatic lipid homeostasis. 2. Dietary choline ameliorated UPRer and prevented hepatic lipid dysregulation mainly through ire-1α signalling, not perk or atf-6α signalling. 3. Choline inhibited the transcriptional expression level of ire-1α by activating site-specific DNA methylations in the promoter of ire-1α. 4. Choline-mediated ire-1α methylations reduced Ire-1α/Fas interactions, thereby further inhibiting Fas activity and reducing lipid droplet deposition. These results offer a novel insight into the direct and indirect regulation of choline on lipid metabolism genes and suggests a potential crosstalk between ire-1α signalling and choline-deficiency-induced hepatic lipid dysregulation, highlighting the critical contribution of choline as a methyl-donor in maintaining hepatic lipid homeostasis.

The wheat aphid Sitobion miscanthi (CWA) is an important harmful pest in wheat fields. Insecticide application is the main method to effectively control wheat aphids. However, CWA has developed resistance to some insecticides due to its extensive application, and understanding resistance mechanisms is crucial for the management of CWA. In our study, a new P450 gene, CYP4CJ6, was identified from CWA and showed a positive response to imidacloprid and thiamethoxam. Transcription of CYP4CJ6 was significantly induced by both imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, and overexpression of CYP4CJ6 in the imidacloprid-resistant strain was also observed. The sensitivity of CWA to these two insecticides was increased after the knockdown of CYP4CJ6. These results indicated that CYP4CJ6 could be associated with CWA resistance to imidacloprid and thiamethoxam. Subsequently, the posttranscriptional regulatory mechanism was assessed, and miR-316 was confirmed to participate in the posttranscriptional regulation of CYP4CJ6. These results are crucial for clarifying the roles of P450 in the resistance of CWA to insecticides.

Cytochrome P450 monooxygenases play a key role in pest resistance to insecticides by detoxification. Four new P450 genes, CYP6AS160, CYP6AS161, CYP4AB73 and CYP4G232 were identified from Solenopsis invicta. CYP6AS160 was highly expressed in the abdomen and its expression could be induced significantly with exposure to fipronil, whereas CYP4AB73 was not highly expressed in the abdomen and its expression could not be significantly induced following exposure to fipronil. Expression levels of CYP6AS160 and CYP4AB73 in workers were significantly higher than that in queens. RNA interference-mediated gene silencing by feeding on double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) found that the levels of this transcript decreased (by maximum to 64.6%) when they fed on CYP6AS160-specific dsRNA. Workers fed dsCYP6AS160 had significantly higher mortality after 24 h of exposure to fipronil compared to controls. Workers fed dsCYP6AS160 had reduced total P450 activity of microsomal preparations toward model substrates p-nitroanisole. However, the knockdown of a non-overexpressed P450 gene, CYP4AB73 did not lead to an increase of mortality or a decrease of total P450 activity. The knockdown effects of CYP6AS160 on worker susceptibility to fipronil, combined with our other findings, indicate that CYP6AS160 is responsible for detoxification of fipronil. Feeding insects dsRNA may be a general strategy to trigger RNA interference and may find applications in entomological research and in the control of insect pests in the field.

Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has presented an unprecedented challenge to the health-care system across the world. The current study aims to identify the determinants of illness severity of COVID-19 based on ordinal responses. A retrospective cohort of COVID-19 patients from four hospitals in three provinces in China was established, and 598 patients were included from 1 January to 8 March 2020, and divided into moderate, severe and critical illness group. Relative variables were retrieved from electronic medical records. The univariate and multivariate ordinal logistic regression models were fitted to identify the independent predictors of illness severity. The cohort included 400 (66.89%) moderate cases, 85 (14.21%) severe and 113 (18.90%) critical cases, of whom 79 died during hospitalisation as of 28 April. Patients in the age group of 70+ years (OR = 3.419, 95% CI: 1.596–7.323), age of 40–69 years (OR = 1.586, 95% CI: 0.824–3.053), hypertension (OR = 3.372, 95% CI: 2.185–5.202), ALT >50 μ/l (OR = 3.304, 95% CI: 2.107–5.180), cTnI >0.04 ng/ml (OR = 7.464, 95% CI: 4.292–12.980), myohaemoglobin>48.8 ng/ml (OR = 2.214, 95% CI: 1.42–3.453) had greater risk of developing worse severity of illness. The interval between illness onset and diagnosis (OR = 1.056, 95% CI: 1.012–1.101) and interval between illness onset and admission (OR = 1.048, 95% CI: 1.009–1.087) were independent significant predictors of illness severity. Patients of critical illness suffered from inferior survival, as compared with patients in the severe group (HR = 14.309, 95% CI: 5.585–36.659) and in the moderate group (HR = 41.021, 95% CI: 17.588–95.678). Our findings highlight that the identified determinants may help to predict the risk of developing more severe illness among COVID-19 patients and contribute to optimising arrangement of health resources.

As the largest industrial and population centre in China, the Pearl River Delta is facing a growing threat of heavy metal pollution from local mining and power industries. This study investigates the distribution and potential health risks of copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) in paddy soils and rice at four typical sites. The Nemerow synthetic pollution index (PN) of soils from Fogang, Dabao Mountain, Shaoguan and Lechang were 8.40, 9.10, 4.64 and 10.28, respectively, indicating serious pollution at all four sampling sites. The average concentrations of Cu, Cd, Pb and Zn in rice grains were 2.23, 10.98, 29.84 and 1.62 times their corresponding maximum allowable levels, indicating potential health risks to humans. Cd has greater bioavailability because of its high mobility from soil to roots, and its subsequent transfer to grains. Pb mainly accumulates in roots because of its lower translocation rate from roots to grains. The greatest health risk index for Cd and Pb for adults and children was at the Shaoguan site, probably due to pollution from atmospheric deposition. Cd and Pb had greater health risk indices than Cu and Zn at almost all sites, indicating a major health risk to local people.

In this work, the reduction mechanism of potassium chromate (K2CrO4) was investigated via in situ high-temperature X-ray diffraction coupled with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. During the hydrogen reduction of K2CrO4, the formation of K3CrO4, KCrO2, and KxCrO2 were detected for the first time. The study discovered that K2CrO4 was firstly reduced to K3CrO4 and an amorphous Cr(III) intermediate product at low temperature (400–500 °C). Moreover, the K3CrO4 was the only crystalline material at this stage. As the temperature increased, a stabilized amorphous CrOOH was formed. At a high temperature (550–700 °C), KCrO2 was generated. Interestingly, a portion of KCrO2 was spontaneously decomposed during the hydrogen reduction, accompanying by the formation of K0.7CrO2. Finally, the results clearly illustrated the reduction mechanism of K2CrO4: K2CrO4 → K3CrO4 → amorphous intermediate → KCrO2.

Organ shortage is a severe challenge worldwide. Three-dimensional (3D) printing, a rapidly developing engineering and materials science tool, holds considerable promise in generating implantable organ scaffolds that may reduce or eliminate organ shortage. However, translation of 3D printing into clinical therapies has been astonishingly slow and certainly has not matched the pace of technology development. This review outlines challenges and opportunities for the application of 3D printing in tissue and organ regeneration, with emphasis on in vivo applications of 3D-printed scaffolds. Three-dimensional-printed scaffolds for the regeneration of complex tissues and organs, including bone, cartilage, tooth, and skin, serve as prototypes for 3D printing of other tissues and organs such as the liver, kidney, or heart. The aspiration to reduce or eliminate organ shortage appears to hinge on the translation of 3D bioprinting technologies into preclinical studies and clinical trials. The remaining challenges of cell survival, directed differentiation, angiogenesis, and metabolic exchange are far from trial and need to be addressed. Three-dimensional-printed materials will remain a biomaterials and engineering showcase unless applications in preclinical and clinical models are realized. In balance, 3D printing holds considerable promise in regenerative medicine as a unique approach to address organ shortage.

We summarise the construction of geometric cycles and their use in describing the Kasparov K-homology of a CW-complex X. When Kasparov K-homology is twisted by a degree three element of the Čech cohomology of X then there is a corresponding construction of twisted geometric cycles for the case where X is a smooth manifold however the method that was employed does not apply in the case of CW-complexes. In this article we propose a new approach to the construction of twisted geometric cycles for CW-complexes motivated by the study of D-branes in string theory.

Background: The genetic region coding for low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein1 (LRP1) is considered an intriguing susceptibility locus for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is characterized by episodic memory impairment and represents the prodromal stage of AD. Our aim in this study is to investigate the relationship between LRP1 genetic variation and aMCI, and the influence of LRP1 on cognitive performance.

Methods: We performed a case-control association study analyzing five polymorphisms in LRP1 gene by TaqMan Assays-on-Demand SNP Genotyping. All samples were derived from Chinese subjects (109 cases, 104 healthy controls) and assessed using multi-dimension neuropsychological instruments.

Results: We identified haplotypes within the region containing the LRP1 gene. Of these, haplotype TAA (T: rs1800194; A: rs11837145; A: rs10876967) was significantly associated with aMCI, being over-represented in aMCI versus healthy controls. Haplotype TAA was associated with poor performance on episodic memory in all subjects.

Conclusions: This study confirms the association between genetic variants in LRP1 and aMCI. Moreover, we have identified a relationship between LRP1 genetic variation and specific aspects of neurocognitive function. Our convergent results suggest that LRP1 plays an important role in cognitive function and possibly in the pathogenesis of aMCI.

Recent data from several studies suggest that oxidative stress is involved in the biochemical mechanisms that underlie neuropsychiatric disorders. The present study was designed to investigate oxidative stress status in depressive patients with gastric adenocarcinoma (GA) at TNM stage III. Oxidative stress, depression and expression of specific genes were monitored during a pretreatment period. Serum total antioxidant capacity, catalase, superoxide dismutase concentrations, and antisuperoxide anion capacity (A-ASC) were significantly decreased in depressive patients compared to control subjects, whereas serum malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were significantly increased. Importantly, the formation of 8-hydroxy-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) accumulated. Furthermore, SYBR Green real-time PCR revealed that the expression levels of human oxoguanine glycosylase 1 and APEX nuclease 1 (APEX1) were increased in depressive patients. Pearson correlation analysis revealed that depression was positively correlated with SAS, SCL-90, MDA, 8-OHdG and APEX1, but negatively correlated with A-ASC. Thus, this study confirms oxidative imbalance in depressive patients with GA, and oxidative stress may play a role in the onset and exacerbation of depression.

A 5′-flanking region and partial open reading frame (ORF) of the β-actin gene (GenBank accession No. EF026001) of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) was cloned by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification. The segment included a 1643 bp regulatory sequence and a 90 bp partial ORF which encoded a 30-amino-acid peptide. The regulatory sequence comprised a 108 bp 5′ proximal promoter, the first untranslated exon and the first intron of the β-actin gene. The proximal promoter region contained elements that were critical for transcription activity, including a CCAAT, TATA and CArG box located at –92, –29 and –62 bp upstream of the transcription initiation site, respectively. The regulatory sequence was inserted into the promoterless pDsRed2-1 vector to construct the expressing vector pNA-DsRed. The linearized pNA-DsRed was microinjected into the fertilized eggs of Tanichthys albonubes. The expression of the DsRed2 gene in transgenic fish could be observed under the microfluoroscope and anatomical lens. The results showed that the β-actin gene promoter possessed effective transcription activity.

We establish the Thom isomorphism in twisted K-theory for any real vector bundle and develop the push-forward map in twisted K-theory for any differentiable map f : X → Y (not necessarily K-oriented). We also obtain the wrong way functoriality property for the push-forward map in twisted K-theory. For D-branes satisfying Freed-Witten's anomaly cancellation condition in a manifold with a non-trivial B-field, we associate a canonical element in the twisted K-group to get the so-called D-brane charges.

Four steers, average body weight 260±15 kg, fitted with portal catheters were used in a 4×4 Latin Square design to evaluate the influence of dietary protein degradability in the rumen on peptide and amino acid fluxes across the gastrointestinal tract. Dietary protein degradability was regulated by using different protein sources and the diets were calculated to contain 130 g CP/kg and 9·62 MJ ME per kg DM. Plasma concentrations of amino acids were analysed before and after acid hydrolysis of samples first subjected to chemical deproteinization and physical ultrafiltration, and peptide amino acids (PAA) were calculated as the difference between total and free amino acids (FAA). Portal blood flow and arterial concentrations of FAA and PAA were not affected by protein degradability or by diet. Venoarterial concentration difference and net portal flux of FAA tended to increase (P < 0·10) with increase of degradable protein intake. Portal-arterial concentration difference (P < 0·05) and net portal flux (P < 0·10) of PAA increased linearly as dietary protein degradability increased. The proportion of PAA in total amino acid (FAA+PAA) net flux was not modified by dietary protein degradability or by diet, and the mean value as a proportion was 0·32. The major PAA absorbed were glutamate, leucine, aspartate and lysine for all diets, accounting in total for 0·50 of PAA flux. The results demonstrate that PAA may contribute significantly to AA flux across the portal-drained viscera (PDV) of steers, and both FAA and PAA net fluxes can be affected by degradable protein intake.

The non-linear nature of multi-photon fluorescence (FL) excitation, SHG and THG restricts the signal detecting volume to the vicinity of the focal point. As a result, the technology has intrinsic optical sectioning capability. The use of multi-photon fluorescence excitation also allows micro-fluorometry at high spatial resolution. Figure 1 shows a conventional optical micrograph of maize protoplasts, the time lapse fluorescence spectral change from a single chloroplast is shown in FIG 2. Under high intensity illumination, biological specimen not only emits fluorescence, but also generates harmonic emissions. in addition to the Ti-sapphire laser commonly used in multiphoton microscopy, the use of ultra-fast Cr-fosterite laser made simultaneous detecting two- and three-photon fluorescence, SHG and THG possible. in addition to the fluorescence signals generated by multi-photon excitation process, non-linear phenomena such as harmonic generation can also provide useful information about the structure and optical properties of a specimen (Kao et al., 2000). Simultaneous recording the spectral response in an image (x-y-λ) can provide insight about the nature of the signal.

The present experiment was conducted to quantify the net fluxes of both free and peptide amino acids across the mesenteric and stomach portions of the portal-drained viscera (PDV) of three yak cows (172·3±18·6 kg, BW) fed a straw-concentrate diet at maintenance level. Yaks had been fitted with sampling catheters in the portal vein, mesenteric artery and mesenteric vein prior to its convergence with the gastrosplenic vein. Blood flow was determined by measuring the dilution of para-aminohippurate (PAH) infused constantly into a distal mesenteric vein. Amino acids in the deproteinized plasma were analysed before and after acid hydrolysis. The increased amino acids after acid hydrolysis were considered as peptide-bound amino acids (PAA). The fluxes of free amino acids (FAA) and PAA across PDV and mesenteric-drained viscera (MDV) were calculated as the product of venoarterial differences and plasma flow. Flux across the stomach viscera (SDV) was calculated as the difference between portal and mesenteric fluxes. Portal blood flow was 389 l/h or 2·32 l/h kg BW, of which 37% was contributed by the mesenteric vein. There was net appearance of a large quantity of PAA across PDV, which accounted for 92% of the total nonprotein amino acid flux. Net release of PAA and FAA in SDV accounted for 78% and 42% of the net release in PDV, respectively. These results suggest that in yaks, peptide possibly is the primary form of amino acid absorption, and that the stomach area probably is the major site of peptide absorption.