The FGF6 amplification mutation plays an important role in the progression and treatment of malignant meningioma.

Meningioma is a benign tumor with slow growth and long course. However, patients with recurrent malignant meningioma still face a lack of effective treatment. Here, we report a rare case of primary mediastinal malignant meningioma with lung and bone metastases, who benefited from the treatment of apatinib (≥33 months) and anlotinib (until the publication date). Retrospective molecular analysis revealed the frequent amplification of FGF6 in primary and metastatic lesions. Then we constructed the FGF6 over-expressed IOMM-LEE and CH157MN malignant meningioma cell lines, and in vitro and vivo experiments showed that overexpression of FGF6 can promote the proliferation, migration and invasion of malignant meningioma cells. Based on the Western analysis, we revealed that FGF6 can promote the phosphorylation of FGFR, AKT, and ERK1/2, which can be inhibited by anlotinib. Together, we were the first to verify that overexpression of FGF6 promotes the progression of malignant meningiomas by activating FGFR/AKT/ERK1/2 pathway and pointed out that anlotinib may effectively inhibit the disease progression of patients with FGF6 amplification.

Carbon coated Na3+xV2-xCux(PO4)3@C cathode for high-performance sodium ion batteries.

Na3V2(PO4)3 is considered as one of the most promising cathodes for sodium ion batteries owing to its fast Na+ diffusion, good structural stability and high working potential. However, its practical application is limited by its low intrinsic electronic conductivity. Herein, a carbon coated Cu2+-doped Na3V2(PO4)3 cathode was prepared. The carbon coating not only improve its apparent conductivity, but also inhibit crystal growth and prevent agglomeration of particles. Moreover, Cu2+ doping contributes to an enhanced intrinsic conductivity and decreased Na+ diffusion energy barrier, remarkably boosting its charge transfer kinetics. Based on the structure characterizations, electrochemical performances tests, charge transfer kinetics analyses and theoretical calculations, it's proved that such an elaborate design ensures the excellent rate performances (116.9 mA h g-1 at 0.1C; 92.6 mA h g-1 at 10C) and distinguished cycling lifespan (95.8 % retention after 300 cycles at 1C; 84.8 % retention after 3300 cycles at 10C). Besides, a two-phase reaction mechanism is also confirmed via in-situ XRD. This research is expected to promote the development of Na3V2(PO4)3-based sodium ion batteries with high energy/power density and excellent cycling lifespan.

Mulberry leaf supplementation inhibits skatole deposition by regulating gut microbiota and upregulating liver cytochrome P450 1A1 expression in finishing pigs.

Skatole, a strong fecal odor substance, is generated through microbial degradation of tryptophan in the animal hindgut. It easily accumulates in adipose tissue and affects meat quality. In this study, the effect of mulberry leaf supplementation on skatole in finishing pigs was studied. In a 35-day trial, 20 finishing pigs (barrows and gilts) were fed with a basal diet or basal diet with 6% mulberry leaves. Growth performance of the pigs (n = 10) was automatically recorded by a performance-testing feeder system and 8 pigs in each treatment were slaughtered and sampled for the remaining tests. Skatole and short-chain fatty acids were detected using HPLC and gas chromatography, respectively. Fecal microbiota were analyzed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The metabolomics analysis of feces and serum was performed with UHPLC-MS/MS. The major cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes that catalyze skatole degradation in the liver were tested by using RT-PCR and Western blot. Effects of major bioactive compounds in mulberry leaves on the CYP genes were verified in the hepatic cell line HepG2 in an in vitro test (n = 3). In finishing pigs, mulberry leaf supplementation had no significant effect on the average daily gain, average daily feed intake, and feed conversion ratio (P > 0.05), but reduced skatole levels in feces, serum, and backfat (P < 0.05), and increased acetic acid levels in feces (P = 0.027). Mulberry leaf supplementation decreased the relative abundance of the skatole-producing bacteria Megasphaera and Olsenella (P < 0.05). Indole-3-acetic acid, the intermediate that is essential for skatole production, was significantly reduced in feces by mulberry leaf supplementation (P < 0.05) and was positively correlated with skatole content in feces (P = 0.004). In pigs treated with mulberry leaves, liver CYP1A1 expression was increased (P < 0.05) and was negatively correlated with skatole content in backfat (P = 0.045). The in vitro test demonstrated that mulberry leaf polyphenols and polysaccharides could directly stimulate CYP1A1 expression in hepatic cells. These findings suggest that mulberry leaf supplementation reduces skatole production and deposition in finishing pigs by regulating the gut microbiota and promoting skatole degradation in liver.

Preliminary Comparisons of Tender Shoots and Young Leaves of 12 Mulberry Varieties as Vegetables and Constituents Relevant for Their Potential Use as Functional Food for Blood Sugar Control.

Vegetables are essential for maintaining health and preventing diseases due to their nutrients and functional components. However, vegetables specifically designed for blood sugar control are limited. The mulberry tree (Morus) offers potential as a source of functional vegetables with blood-sugar-lowering properties, mainly attributed to 1-Deoxynojirimycin (DNJ). This study compared the nutritional composition and DNJ content in various edible parts of twelve mulberry tree varieties. Sensory evaluations were also conducted to assess sensory attributes. Interestingly, DNJ was found to show a positive correlation with sensory evaluations. Furthermore, the sugar content, particularly sucrose, was significantly higher in tender shoots than leaves, indicating tender shoots as a preferable choice for development as a functional food for blood sugar control. Finally, VM 19 and VM 22 are considered as good candidates for the mulberry vegetable using varieties after sensory evaluation and combining with the DNJ content. These findings provide valuable insights for future research into vegetable selections for blood sugar management and support the potential commercialization of mulberry leaf vegetables as functional food options.

Identification and Characterization of a Novel Quanzhou Mulberry Virus from Mulberry (Morus alba).

In this study, we discovered a new virus named Quanzhou mulberry virus (QMV), which was identified from the leaves of an ancient mulberry tree. This tree is over 1300 years old and is located at Fujian Kaiyuan Temple, a renowned cultural heritage site in China. We obtained the complete genome sequence of QMV using RNA sequencing followed by rapid amplification of complementary DNA ends (RACE). The QMV genome is 9256 nucleotides (nt) long and encodes five open reading frames (ORFs). Its virion was made of icosahedral particles. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that it belongs to the unclassified Riboviria. An infectious clone for QMV was generated and agroinfiltrated into Nicotiana benthamiana and mulberry, resulting in no visible disease symptoms. However, systemic movement of the virus was only observed in mulberry seedlings, suggesting that it has a host-specific pattern of movement. Our findings provide a valuable reference for further studies on QMV and related viruses, contributing to the understanding of viral evolution and biodiversity in mulberry.

A new approach to COVID-19 data mining: A deep spatial-temporal prediction model based on tree structure for traffic revitalization index.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic has had a huge impact on a global scale and its impact has covered almost all human industries. The Chinese government enacted a series of policies to restrict the transportation industry in order to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus in early 2020. With the gradual control of the COVID-19 epidemic and the reduction of confirmed cases, the Chinese transportation industry has gradually recovered. The traffic revitalization index is the main indicator for evaluating the degree of recovery of the urban transportation industry after being affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. The prediction research of traffic revitalization index can help the relevant government departments to know the state of urban traffic from the macro level and formulate relevant policies. Therefore, this study proposes a deep spatial-temporal prediction model based on tree structure for the traffic revitalization index. The model mainly includes spatial convolution module, temporal convolution module and matrix data fusion module. The spatial convolution module builds a tree convolution process based on the tree structure that can contain directional features and hierarchical features of urban nodes. The temporal convolution module constructs a deep network for capturing temporal dependent features of the data in the multi-layer residual structure. The matrix data fusion module can perform multi-scale fusion of COVID-19 epidemic data and traffic revitalization index data to further improve the prediction effect of the model. In this study, experimental comparisons between our model and multiple baseline models are conducted on real datasets. The experimental results show that our model has an average improvement of 21%, 18%, and 23% in MAE, RMSE and MAPE indicators, respectively.

Synthesis of Cu-Doped TiO2 on Wood Substrate with Highly Efficient Photocatalytic Performance and Outstanding Recyclability for Formaldehyde Degradation.

Photocatalytic oxidation is considered one of the most effective ways to remove formaldehyde from indoor air. However, the use of powder photocatalysts is limited by their low adsorption capacity and strong aggregation tendency. Hence, there is a need for a composite material with good cycling stability and high degradation efficiency. In the present study, a unique wood-based composite is produced by arranging Cu-TiO2 nanoparticles on porous structured wood. The porous structure of wood can adsorb formaldehyde, and the abundant functional groups on the surface can act as a reaction platform for anchoring the Cu-TiO2 nanoparticles. Cu doping facilitates electron interaction between TiO2 and Cu, promotes the transfer of charge carriers, lowers the electron-hole recombination rate, and improves the photocatalytic degradation efficiency of formaldehyde. The photocatalytic efficiency of the wood-based composites was highest (85.59%) when the n(Cu)/n(Ti) ratio was 7%. After nine cycles, the wood composites still had a high degradation rate, indicating good recyclability. Overall, this wood composite is an eco-friendly and promising material for indoor air filtration.

Effect of benomyl-mediated mycorrhizal association on the salinity tolerance of male and monoecious mulberry clones.

Mulberry is an economically important crop for sericulture in China. Mulberry plantations are shifting inland, where they face high salinity. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) reportedly enhance mulberry's tolerance to salinity. Here, we assessed if additional adaptive advantages against salinity are provided by sex differences beyond those provided by mycorrhizal symbiosis. In a pot experiment, male and monoecious plants were exposed to three salinity regimes (0, 50, and 200 mM NaCl) and two mycorrhiza-suppressed conditions (with or without benomyl application) for more than 16 months. We noticed that salinity alone significantly decreased the mycorrhizal colonization rate, salinity tolerance, K+ concentrations, and the ionic ratios of all plants. Mycorrhizal association mildly ameliorated the salt-induced detrimental effects, especially for monoecious plants, and sex-specific responses were observed. Meanwhile, both sexes had adopted different strategies to enhance their salinity resistance. Briefly, mycorrhizal monoecious plants exhibited a higher net photosynthetic rate and lower translocation of Na+ from root to shoot compared with mycorrhizal males under saline conditions. Their salt tolerance was probably due to the Ca2+/Na+ in roots. In comparison, male plants exhibited lower Na+ acquisition, more Na+ translocated from root to shoot, higher root biomass allocation, and higher N concentrations under harsh saline conditions, and their salt tolerance was mainly related to the K+/Na+ in their shoots. In conclusion, our results highlight that AMF could be a promising candidate for improving plant performance under highest salinity, especially for monoecious plants. Cultivators must be mindful of applying fungicides, such as benomyl, in saline areas.

PPy-Coated Mo3S4/CoMo2S4 Nanotube-like Heterostructure for High-Performance Lithium Storage.

Heterostructured materials show great potential to enhance the specific capacity, rate performance and cycling lifespan of lithium-ion batteries owing to their unique interfaces, robust architectures, and synergistic effects. Herein, a polypyrrole (PPy)-coated nanotube-like Mo3S4/CoMo2S4 heterostructure is prepared by the hydrothermal and subsequent in situ polymerization methods. The well-designed nanotube-like structure is beneficial to relieve the serious volume changes and facilitate the infiltration of electrolytes during the charge/discharge process. The Mo3S4/CoMo2S4 heterostructure could effectively enhance the electrical conductivity and Li+ transport kinetics owing to the refined energy band structure and the internal electric field at the heterostructure interface. Moreover, the conductive PPy-coated layer could inhibit the obvious volume expansion like a firm armor and further avoid the pulverization of the active material and aggregation of generated products. Benefiting from the synergistic effects of the well-designed heterostructure and PPy-coated nanotube-like architecture, the prepared Mo3S4/CoMo2S4 heterostructure delivers high reversible capacity (1251.3 mAh g-1 at 300 mA g-1), superior rate performance (340.3 mAh g-1 at 5.0 A g-1) and excellent cycling lifespan (744.1 mAh g-1 after 600 cycles at a current density of 2.0 A g-1). Such a design concept provides a promising strategy towards heterostructure materials to enhance their lithium storage performances and boost their practical applications.

Investigation of the Effect of Nanometakaolin on the Compression Behavior of Concrete by Acoustic Emission.

To investigate the influence of nanometakaolin (NMK) on the compression behavior of concrete, acoustic emission (AE) is applied to monitor the development of cracks on ordinary concrete as a control sample and concrete with the addition of 1% or 3% NMK during the whole compressive process. The AE parameters (event, count, RA-AF, etc.) and Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) were analyzed. The results show that the addition of NMK results in a decrease of crack number and crack width. Compared to the control concrete, the concrete with NMK inhibits the initial crack, increases the crack initiation stress and crack damage stress, and improves the energy of crack propagation. Correspondingly, we proposed a critical point where the ringing counts and amplitude fit parameters are less than a certain threshold. This index can be used as a failure precursor for crack instability. According to the criterion and the GMM, what is found from the relation between RA and AF is that the resistance to tensile and shear is improved in the case of the concrete with NMK.

Biological characteristics, bioactive compounds, and antioxidant activities of off-season mulberry fruit.

To understand the yield and quality of off-season mulberry fruits, which are cultivated in open fields from autumn, the biological characteristics, bioactive compounds, and antioxidant activities of them were analyzed. Compared with mulberry fruits in normal season, the fruit length, fruit diameter, single fruit weight, fruit yield per meter strip, and the fruits yield per 667 m2 are significantly lower. The moisture content and juice yield of off-season mulberry fruits are lower than the mulberry fruits in normal season; the pH and soluble solids are higher. The contents of mass fraction of crude protein, total sugar, reducing sugar, total acids, total anthocyanins, and total flavonoids decreased significantly in all batches of off-season mulberry fruits compared with those of normal season. Of off-season mulberry fruits, the contents of glucose, fructose and sucrose, expression, anthocyanin biosynthesis genes, and antioxidant capacity are significantly lower than those in normal season.

Identification of Three Viruses Infecting Mulberry Varieties.

Viruses-mediated genome editing in plants is a powerful strategy to develop plant cultivars with important and novel agricultural traits. Mulberry alba is an important economic tree species that has been cultivated in China for more than 5000 years. So far, only a few viruses have been identified from mulberry trees, and their application potential is largely unknown. Therefore, mining more virus resources from the mulberry tree can pave the way for the establishment of useful engineering tools. In this study, eight old mulberry plants were gathered in seven geographic areas for virome analysis. Based on transcriptome analysis, we discovered three viruses associated with mulberries: Citrus leaf blotch virus isolate mulberry alba 2 (CLBV-ML2), Mulberry-associated virga-like virus (MaVLV), and Mulberry-associated narna-like virus (MaNLV). The genome of CLBV-ML2 was completely sequenced and exhibited high homology with Citriviruses, considered to be members of the genus Citrivirus, while the genomes of MaVLV and MaNLV were nearly completed lacking the 5' and 3' termini sequences. We tentatively consider MaVLV to be members of the family Virgaviridae and MaNLV to be members of the genus Narnavirus based on the results of phylogenetic trees. The infection experiments showed that CLBV-ML2 could be detected in the inoculated seedlings of both N. benthamiana and Morus alba, while MaVLV could only be detected in N. benthamiana. All of the infected seedlings did not show obvious symptoms.

Non-targeted metabonomics and transcriptomics revealed the mechanism of mulberry branch extracts promoting the growth of Sanghuangporus vaninii mycelium.

Sanghuangprous vaninii is a wood-inhabiting fungus, and its mycelium and fruiting body show excellent medicinal values. Mulberry is one of the major hosts of S. vaninii, however, the mechanism of mulberry affecting the growth of S. vaninii has not been reported. In the present study, a mulberry-inhabiting strain of S. vaninii was selected to explore the effects of mulberry branch extracts (MBE) on the growth of the strain. Results showed that MBE could significantly promote the growth of S. vaninii mycelium at the concentration of 0.2 g/l. After 16 days of liquid culture, the dry weight of mycelium in 0.2 g/l MBE medium was higher by three times compared with that in the control. The non-targeted metabonomic analysis of the culture medium at different culture times and concentrations was conducted to find the key components in MBE that promoted the growth of S. vaninii mycelium. Under the different concentrations of MBE culture for 10 and 16 days, 22 shared differential metabolites were identified. Next, in accordance with the peak value trend of these metabolites, HPLC-MS and liquid culture validation, four components derived from MBE (i.e., scopoletin, kynurenic acid, 3,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid and 2,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid) could significantly increase the growth rate of mycelium at the concentration of 2 mg/l. Transcriptomic and qRT-PCR analyzes showed that MBE could upregulate hydrolase-related genes, such as serine-glycine-asparaginate-histidine (SGNH) hydrolase, alpha-amylase, poly-beta-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) depolymerase, glycosyl hydrolase family 61, cerato-platanin protein and Fet3, which might enhance the nutrient absorption ability of S. vaninii. Importantly, MBE could significantly increase the content of harmine, androstenedione and vesamicol, which have been reported to possess various medicinal effects. Results suggested that MBE could be an excellent additive for liquid culture of S. vaninii mycelium, and these hydrolase-related genes also provided candidate genes for improving the nutrient absorption capacity of S. vaninii.

Integrative Analyses of Transcriptomics and Metabolomics in Sex Differentiation of Mulberry Flowers.

Sex determination and sex differentiation of plants are important physiological processes of plant development. Mulberry (Morus indica L.) is an important economic tree being cultivated in sericulture countries, and mulberry leaf is commonly used for sericulture. The transcriptomic and metabolomic differences between the staminate flowers (SFs) and pistillate flowers (PFs) of mulberry were investigated by RNA sequencing and ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). Overall, we uncovered 4,230 genes and 209 metabolites are significantly differentially expressed between the SFs and PFs of mulberry. The combined transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis revealed these differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and differentially expressed metabolites (DEMs) are involved in flavonoid biosynthesis, galactose metabolism, plant-pathogen interaction, and starch and sucrose metabolism, and these detected DEGs and DEMs may be associated with sex differentiation of mulberry through the regulation of the enrichment pathways, such as the MAPK pathway, flavonoid biosynthesis, galactose metabolism, plant-pathogen interaction, and starch and sucrose metabolism. This study will provide a rich source for the analysis of the molecular mechanism of mulberry sex differentiation processes.

A graph spatial-temporal model for predicting population density of key areas.

Predicting the population density of key areas of the city is crucial. It helps reduce the spread risk of Covid-19 and predict individuals' travel needs. Although current researches focus on using the method of clustering to predict the population density, there is almost no discussion about using spatial-temporal models to predict the population density of key areas in a city without using actual regional images. We abstract 997 key areas and their regional connections into a graph structure and propose a model called Word Embedded Spatial-temporal Graph Convolutional Network (WE-STGCN). WE-STGCN is mainly composed of the Spatial Convolution Layer, the Temporal Convolution Layer, and the Feature Component. Based on the data set provided by the DataFountain platform, we evaluate the model and compare it with some typical models. Experimental results show that WE-STGCN has 53.97% improved to baselines on average and can commendably predicting the population density of key areas.

Deep learning in the COVID-19 epidemic: A deep model for urban traffic revitalization index.

The research of traffic revitalization index can provide support for the formulation and adjustment of policies related to urban management, epidemic prevention and resumption of work and production. This paper proposes a deep model for the prediction of urban Traffic Revitalization Index (DeepTRI). The DeepTRI builds model for the data of COVID-19 epidemic and traffic revitalization index for major cities in China. The location information of 29 cities forms the topological structure of graph. The Spatial Convolution Layer proposed in this paper captures the spatial correlation features of the graph structure. The special Graph Data Fusion module distributes and fuses the two kinds of data according to different proportions to increase the trend of spatial correlation of the data. In order to reduce the complexity of the computational process, the Temporal Convolution Layer replaces the gated recursive mechanism of the traditional recurrent neural network with a multi-level residual structure. It uses the dilated convolution whose dilation factor changes according to convex function to control the dynamic change of the receptive field and uses causal convolution to fully mine the historical information of the data to optimize the ability of long-term prediction. The comparative experiments among DeepTRI and three baselines (traditional recurrent neural network, ordinary spatial-temporal model and graph spatial-temporal model) show the advantages of DeepTRI in the evaluation index and resolving two under-fitting problems (under-fitting of edge values and under-fitting of local peaks).

A Coral-Like FeP@NC Anode with Increasing Cycle Capacity for Sodium-Ion and Lithium-Ion Batteries Induced by Particle Refinement.

We present a coral-like FeP composite with FeP nanoparticles anchored and dispersed on a nitrogen-doped 3D carbon framework (FeP@NC). Due to the highly continuous N-doped carbon framework and a spring-buffering graphitized carbon layer around the FeP nanoparticle, a sodium-ion battery with the FeP@NC composite exhibits an ultra-stable cycling performance at 10 A g-1 with a capacity retention of 82.0 % in 10 000 cycles. Also, particle refinement leads to a capacity increase during cycling. The FeP nanoparticles go through a refining-recombination process during the first cycle and present a global refining trend after dozens of cycles, which results in a gradually increase in graphitization degree and interface magnetization, and further provides more active sites for Na+ storage and contributes to a rising capacity with cycling. The capacity ascending phenomenon can also extend to lithium-ion batteries.

Shikonin inhibits the Warburg effect, cell proliferation, invasion and migration by downregulating PFKFB2 expression in lung cancer.

Lung cancer is one of the most lethal diseases and therefore poses a significant threat to human health. The Warburg effect, which is the observation that cancer cells predominately produce energy through glycolysis, even under aerobic conditions, is a hallmark of cancer. 6­phosphofructo­2­kinase/fructose­2,6­biphosphatase 2 (PFKFB) is an important regulator of glycolysis. Shikonin is a Traditional Chinese herbal medicine, which has been reported to exert antitumor effects. The present study aimed to investigate the anticancer activity of shikonin in lung cancer. Cell Counting Kit­8 (CCK­8) and colony formation assays were used to analyze proliferation in A549 and H446 cells. Wound healing and Transwell assays were used to measure migration and invasion in A549 and H446 cells. Cell apoptosis was analyzed using flow cytometry. Lactate levels, glucose uptake and cellular ATP levels were measured using their corresponding commercial kits. Western blotting was performed to analyze the protein expression levels of key enzymes involved in aerobic glucose metabolism. Reverse transcription­quantitative PCR was used to analyze the mRNA expression levels of PFKFB2. The results of the present study revealed that PFKFB2 expression levels were significantly upregulated in NSCLC tissues. Shikonin treatment decreased the proliferation, migration, invasion, glucose uptake, lactate levels, ATP levels and PFKFB2 expression levels and increased apoptosis in lung cancer cells in a dose­dependent manner. The overexpression of PFKFB2 increased the proliferation, migration, glucose uptake, lactate levels and ATP levels in lung cancer cells, while the knockdown of PFKFB2 expression exerted the opposite effects. Moreover, there were no significant differences in lung cancer cell migration, apoptosis, glucose uptake, lactate levels and ATP levels between cells with knocked down PFKFB2 expression or treated with shikonin and the knockdown of PFKFB2 in cells treated with shikonin. In conclusion, the results of the present study revealed that shikonin inhibited the Warburg effect and exerted antitumor activity in lung cancer cells, which was associated with the downregulation of PFKFB2 expression.