Global-Local Spatial-Temporal Residual Correlation Network for Urban Traffic Status Prediction.

The recent proposed Spatial-Temporal Residual Network (ST-ResNet) model is an effective tool to extract both spatial and temporal characteristics and has been successfully applied to urban traffic status prediction. However, the ST-ResNet model only extracts the local spatial characteristics and ignores the very important global spatial characteristics. In this paper, a novel Global-Local Spatial-Temporal Residual Correlation Network (GL-STRCN) model is proposed for urban traffic status prediction to further improve the prediction accuracy of the existing ST-ResNet model. The GL-STRCN model firstly applies Pearson's correlation coefficient method to extract high correlation series. Then, considering both global and local spatial properties, two components consisting of 2D convolution and residual operation are used to capture spatial features. After that, based on Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) or Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU), a novel long-term temporal feature extraction component is proposed to capture temporal features. Finally, the spatial and temporal features are aggregated together in a weighted way for final prediction. Experiments have also been performed using two datasets from TaxiCD and PEMS-BAY. The results indicated that the proposed model produces a better prediction performance compared with the results based on other baseline solutions, e.g., CNN, ST-ResNet, GL-TCN, and DGLSTNet.

[Cloning and functional characterization of farnesyl diphosphate synthase in Senecio scandens].

As a secondary metabolite, sesquiterpenes are not only have important functions in plant defense and signaling, but also play potential roles in basic materials for pharmaceuticals, cosmetic and flavor. As a traditional Chinese herbal medicine, Senecio scandens exhibits effects of anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive, as well as invigorating the blood and removing extravasated blood. Over 600 sesquiterpenes with diverse structures were isolated from S. scandens and related species in the same genus. To characterize sesquiterpenes synthesis, two FPS genes(SsFPS1 and SsFPS2) were identified in S. scandens through transcriptomic analysis. Bioinformatic analysis showed that both SsFPSs have conserved motifs for FPS function. Both SsFPSs exhibited constitutive gene expression in S. scandens tissues and SsFPS2 accumulated higher transcript in leaves and roots than SsFPS1. Meanwhile consistent with constitutive sesquiterpene accumulation in S.scandens tissues, most of these sesquiterpenes were detected in leaves and roots more than stems and flowers. Recombinant expression through Escherichia coli metabolic engineering, SsFPS1 or SsFPS2 was co-transformed with ZmTPS11(maize ß-macrocarpene synthase) into BL21 competent cells. The results showed that the content of ß-macrocarpene was increased by co-transformation with SsFPSs. It is demonstrated that SsFPS1 and SsFPS2 catalyzed E,E-FPP formation and provided FPP precursor for downstream sesquiterpene synthases. Characterization of SsFPSs provided the foundation for the exploration of biosynthesis of sesquiterpenoid with diverse structures and potential pharmaceutical values in S.scandens, and provide an important theoretical basis for the development of S. scandens abundant resources.

[Functional characterization of SsNES responsible for nerolidol biosynthesis in Senecio scandens].

A short terpene synthase gene was obtained by screening the transcriptome data of Senecio scandens. The phylogenetic tree and sequence alignment putatively identified this gene as a nerolidol synthase gene, named SsNES(GenBank MH518312). Protein homology modeling indicated that SsNES contained a complete conserved domain and folded correctly. SsNES was cloned and successfully expressed in Escherichia coli as soluble protein. The biochemical function of SsNES was characterized by E. coli metabolic engineering, which showed that SsNES catalyzed formation of trans-nerolidol with(E, E)-farnesyl diphosphate as the substrate. Nerolidol was also detected in stems and leaves of S. scandens, indicating that SsNES might act as the nerolidol synthase in plant. RT-PCR analysis indicated that SsNES was mainly expressed in stem, flowers and leaves, and no expression was observed in roots. After the treatment of SA, MeJA or Ala, SsNES was induced significantly at 6 h, indicating involvement in the defense response of S. scandens. The identification of SsNES not only clarified biosynthesis of nerolidol in S. scandens, but also provided diversity of sesquiterpene synthase, as well as theoretical basis for disease and pest defense mediated by the terpene metabolites.

[Identification of stable reference gene by qRT-PCR in Senecio scandens].

As a traditional Chinese medicine, Senecio scandens is rich in important compounds such as flavonoid and sesquiterpenoid. Based on the transcriptome data of S. scandens, 15 candidate reference genes were selected including ABCT, ACT1, ACT2, ACT3, ACBP, ARF, ATPS, EF-H, EF-1α, ETIF, GAPDH, GTPB, MPS, UCE and 60S. Firstly, 9 candidate genes with relatively stable expressions such as ACT1, ACBP, ARF, ATPS, EF-1α, GAPDH, MPS, UCE and 60S were screened from different tissues of S. scandens by RT-PCR. Then, qRT-PCR was used to quantitatively analyze gene expression of these nine candidates in S. scandens with or without stress treatments. Further analysis of these gene expression data by geNorm and NormFinder showed that ACT1 exhibited the stablest expression in all samples and could serve as a reference gene for future study of S. scandens, and provide an endogenous control for gene expression analysis.

[Research advances on prenatal maternal serum markers for screening adverse pregnancy outcomes].

The routine prenatal maternal serum testing is widely used for screening of birth defects, including Down syndrome, trisomy 18 syndrome and neural tube defects. The testing results are also associated with other adverse pregnant outcomes such as fetal surface structural abnormalities, gestational hypertension disease, intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, premature rupture of membranes, abortion, stillbirth, intrauterine growth restriction and macrosomia; therefore the abnormal levels of serum markers might be used for predicting these adverse pregnant outcomes.

[Cloning and functional characterization of phytoene desaturase in Andrographis paniculata].

A full-length cDNA of phytoene desaturase (PDS) gene from Andrographis paniculata was obtained through RACE-PCR. The cDNA sequence consists of 2 224 bp with an intact ORF of 1 752 bp (GeneBank: KP982892), encoding a ploypeptide of 584 amino acids. Homology analysis showed that the deduced protein has extensive sequence similarities to PDS from other plants, and contains a conserved NAD ( H) -binding domain of plant dehydrase cofactor binding-domain in N-terminal. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that ApPDS was more related to PDS of Sesamum indicum and Pogostemon cablin. The semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis revealed that ApPDS expressed in whole aboveground tissues with the highest expression in leaves. Virus induced gene silencing (VIGS) was performed to characterize the functional of ApPDS in planta. Significant photobleaching was not observed in infiltrated leaves, while the PDS gene has been down-regulated significantly at the yellowish area. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first report of PDS gene cloning and functional characterization from A. paniculata, which lays the foundation for further investigation of new genes, especially that correlative to andrographolide biosynthetic pathway.