A soybean bZIP transcription factor is involved in submergence resistance.

Although the functions of basic leucine zipper (bZIP) family transcription factors in the regulation of various abiotic stresses are beginning to be unveiled, the precise roles of bZIP proteins in plants coping with submergence stress remain unclear. Here we identified a bZIP gene GmbZIP71-4 from soybean, which localized in the nucleus. The GmbZIP71-4 over-expressed tabocco line showed reduced submergence resistance due to the decreased abscisic acid (ABA) content. GO and KEGG pathway analysis based on chromatin immunoprecipitation assay sequencing (ChIP-seq) indicated that the differences expressed genes between submergence treatment and control groups were specially enriched in plant hormone signal transduction items, especially those in response to ABA. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA) demonstrated that GmbZIP71-4 bound to the promoter of GmABF2 gene, which is consistent with the ChIP-qPCR results. GmbZIP71-4 function as a negative regulator of soybean in responding to submergence stress through manipulating ABA signaling pathway. This findings will set a solid foundation for the understanding of submergence resistance in plants.

Genetic support of the causal association between gut microbiome and COVID-19: a bidirectional Mendelian randomization study.

Background: The association between gut microbiome and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has attracted much attention, but its causality remains unclear and requires more direct evidence. Methods: In this study, we conducted the bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to assess the causal association between gut microbiome and COVID-19 based on the summary statistics data of genome-wide association studies (GWASs). Over 1.8 million individuals with three COVID-19 phenotypes (severity, hospitalization and infection) were included. And 196 bacterial taxa from phylum to genus were analyzed. The inverse-variance weighted (IVW) analysis was chosen as the primary method. Besides, false discovery rate (FDR) correction of p-value was used. To test the robustness of the causal relationships with p-FDR < 0.05, sensitivity analyses including the secondary MR analyses, horizontal pleiotropy test, outliers test, and "leave-one-out" analysis were conducted. Results: In the forward MR, we found that 3, 8, and 10 bacterial taxa had suggestive effects on COVID-19 severity, hospitalization and infection, respectively. The genus Alloprevotella [odds ratio (OR) = 1.67; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.32-2.11; p = 1.69×10-5, p-FDR = 2.01×10-3] was causally associated with a higher COVID-19 severity risk. In the reverse MR, COVID-19 severity, hospitalization and infection had suggestive effects on the abundance of 4, 8 and 10 bacterial taxa, respectively. COVID-19 hospitalization causally increased the abundance of the phylum Bacteroidetes (OR = 1.13; 95% CI, 1.04-1.22; p = 3.02×10-3; p-FDR = 2.72×10-2). However, secondary MR analyses indicated that the result of COVID-19 hospitalization on the phylum Bacteroidetes required careful consideration. Conclusion: Our study revealed the causal association between gut microbiome and COVID-19 and highlighted the role of "gut-lung axis" in the progression of COVID-19.

Associations of Dietary Intakes with Gynecological Cancers: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Gynecological cancers, including cervical cancer, ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer are leading causes of cancer-related death in women worldwide. Diet plays an important role in cancer development, which is widely accepted. However, the associations between dietary intakes and gynecological cancers remain unclear. Methods: A total of 12,437 women aged over 20 years from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), conducted from 2007−2016, were included in this study. The relationships between 30 dietary factors (4 macronutrients, 15 vitamins, 9 minerals, caffeine and alcohol) and gynecological cancers were assessed. Results: We observed negative correlations of intakes of phosphorus (odds ratio (OR), 95% confidence interval (CI); 0.998 (0.996, 0.999), p = 0.002) with cervical cancer, and intakes of vitamin B12 (0.812 (0.714, 0.925), p = 0.002), phosphorus (0.997 (0.996, 0.999), p < 0.001) and alcohol (0.971 (0.950, 0.992), p = 0.009) with endometrial cancer. The data showed positive associations of intake of caffeine (1.002 (1.001, 1.003), p = 0.003) with cervical cancer, and intake of copper (2.754 (1.313, 5.778), p = 0.009) with endometrial cancer. In addition, we found potential negative correlations between intake of vitamin B1 (p = 0.025) and cervical cancer; zinc (p = 0.048) and ovarian cancer; and potassium (p = 0.032) and endometrial cancer. Potential positive associations were found between intake of calcium and cervical cancer (p = 0.026) and endometrial cancer (p = 0.034), and between sodium (p = 0.042) and endometrial cancer. Intakes of protein, total sugars, total fat, cholesterol, vitamin A, alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, beta-cryptoxanthin, lycopene, vitamin B2, niacin, vitamin B6, food folate, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin K, magnesium, iron and selenium showed no relationship with gynecological cancers (p > 0.05). Conclusions: Specific dietary factors were associated with gynecological cancers. More epidemiological studies are needed to validate our results.

Sinomenine Inhibits Vasculogenic Mimicry and Migration of Breast Cancer Side Population Cells via Regulating miR-340-5p/SIAH2 Axis.

Hypoxia and its induced vasculogenic mimicry (VM) formation, which both closely related with stem-like side population (SP) cells, are the main culprits leading to tumor invasion and metastasis. Sinomenine exhibits excellent anticancer activity in breast cancer, but whether and how it affects hypoxia-triggered VM formation in breast cancer SP cells remains unclear. In this study, breast cancer SP cells were sorted from MDA-MB-231 cells and cultured with sinomenine under hypoxic conditions. Sinomenine obviously repressed the migration and VM formation of breast cancer SP cells. Through downregulating SIAH2 and HIF-1α, sinomenine can inhibit epithelial-mesenchymal transition process of breast cancer SP cells. SIAH2 was identified as a target of miR-340-5p and was downregulated by it, and sinomenine can upregulate miR-340-5p. Hypoxia-induced downregulation of miR-340-5p and activation of SIAH2/HIF-1α pathway can be both counteracted by the sinomenine. Moreover, miR-340-5p inhibition and SIAH2 overexpression can partly counteract the anticancer effects of sinomenine. Taken together, sinomenine inhibits hypoxia-caused VM formation and metastasis of breast cancer SP cells by regulating the miR-340-5p/SIAH2 axis.

Comparative transcriptome and weighted correlation network analyses reveal candidate genes involved in chlorogenic acid biosynthesis in sweet potato.

Chlorogenic acids (CGAs) are important secondary metabolites produced in sweet potato. However, the mechanisms of their biosynthesis and regulation remain unclear. To identify potential genes involved in CGA biosynthesis, analysis of the dynamic changes in CGA components and RNA sequencing were performed on young leaves (YL), mature leaves (ML), young stems (YS), mature stems (MS) and storage roots (SR). Accordingly, we found that the accumulation of six CGA components varied among the different tissues and developmental stages, with YS and YL recording the highest levels, while SR exhibited low levels. Moreover, the transcriptome analysis yielded 59,287 unigenes, 3,767 of which were related to secondary-metabolite pathways. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified based on CGA content levels by comparing the different samples, including ML vs. YL, MS vs. YS, SR vs. YL and SR vs. YS. A total of 501 common DEGs were identified, and these were mainly implicated in the secondary metabolites biosynthesis. Additionally, eight co-expressed gene modules were identified following weighted gene co-expression network analysis, while genes in darkgrey module were highly associated with CGA accumulation. Darkgrey module analysis revealed that 12 unigenes encoding crucial enzymes (PAL, 4CL, C4H, C3H and HCT/HQT) and 42 unigenes encoding transcription factors (MYB, bHLH, WD40, WRKY, ERF, MADS, GARS, bZIP and zinc finger protein) had similar expression patterns with change trends of CGAs, suggesting their potential roles in CGA metabolism. Our findings provide new insights into the biosynthesis and regulatory mechanisms of CGA pathway, and will inform future efforts to build a genetically improve sweet potato through the breeding of high CGA content varieties.

Development of An Anybody Musculoskeletal Model of The Thoroughbred Forelimb.

Musculoskeletal injuries in horses are the main cause of retirement, rest, and death. To understand these injuries, it is necessary to study loads in muscles, tendons and ligaments. A musculoskeletal model makes it possible to consider all structures simultaneously and avoids invasive measurements. At present, most computational models of the equine limb described in the literature have been limited to the distal limb. The aim of this study was to create a preliminary musculoskeletal model of the whole equine forelimb and to run it with kinematic data collected during gait. The model was developed with the AnyBody Modelling System. It includes six limb segments, 11 muscle groups and 17 ligaments. Kinematic data were collected from the right forelimb of four Thoroughbreds at trot, right and left lead canter, and were then used in the model to compute sagittal plane joint excursions and ligament and tendon strains. The modelled joint excursions were in reasonable agreement with previous reports in the literature despite breed, gait and surface differences. Strain patterns of the tendons of the suspensory apparatus agreed with the literature, with maxima in mid-stance or at the end of stance. Strains in the distal palmar ligaments peaked in mid-stance, while strain in lacertus fibrosus peaked at the stance-swing transition. Tendon and ligament strains at canter were greatest when the measured forelimb was the trailing limb. Strain amplitudes varied against earlier models and these differences are discussed in relation to variations in methods, and especially in relation to attachment points of tendons and ligaments.

A Novel Load Cell-Supported Research Platform to Measure Vertical and Horizontal Motion of a Horse's Centre of Mass During Trailer Transport.

During transport, horses are subjected to acceleration in three dimensions, rapid braking, turning, noise, and other stressors. The animal's ability to make postural corrections may be insufficient to prevent injury or distress, and so knowledge of the compensatory motion patterns of the horse in the trailer is a necessary precondition for smart design of transport systems. A custom two-horse trailer was built for this project. It had a horse compartment 1.85 m wide by 3.95 m long, with adjustable bulkheads and a centre divider separating the horses. The floor was instrumented with 24 shearbeam load cells to measure the vertical load imposed by each horse and its horizontal motion. Two horses were driven on a 56 km trip on both rural and urban roads. Load data were collected at 100 Hz for the 58-minute trip and were filtered with a cut-off frequency of 5 Hz using a Butterworth low-pass filter and then vertical acceleration computed. A pivot table counted sign reversals in the vertical acceleration signal, and vertical displacement was calculated using the fundamental frequency of the resulting acceleration data. Total vertical motion was calculated by making the negative displacements absolute and summing these with the positive displacements, and vertical work done was calculated by multiplying the force by the displacement measures. Horizontal motion was calculated by averaging the transverse and cranio-caudal position of the centre of pressure every second and adding the resultant displacements. Absolute vertical displacement of the two horses was 69.55 m and 97.56 m. In addition to the work done by standing, vertical work done in response to vibration was 322.4 kJ and 443.2 kJ. Horizontal excursion was 227.1 m and 243.0 m. This is a first effort to quantify the additional workload imposed on animals during transport, which will aid in the design of smart transport vehicles that will minimize the stress to horses.

Review-Microwave Radar Sensing Systems for Search and Rescue Purposes.

This paper presents a survey of recent developments using Doppler radar sensor in searching and locating an alive person under debris or behind a wall. Locating a human and detecting the vital signs such as breathing rate and heartbeat using a microwave sensor is a non-invasive technique. Recently, many hardware structures, signal processing approaches, and integrated systems have been introduced by researchers in this field. The purpose is to enhance the accuracy of vital signs' detection and location detection and reduce energy consumption. This work concentrates on the representative research on sensing systems that can find alive people under rubble when an earthquake or other disasters occur. In this paper, various operating principles and system architectures for finding survivors using the microwave radar sensors are reviewed. A comparison between these systems is also discussed.

Probabilities of False Alarm for Vital Sign Detection on the Basis of a Doppler Radar System.

Vital detection on the basis of Doppler radars has drawn a great deal of attention from researchers because of its high potential for applications in biomedicine, surveillance, and finding people alive under debris during natural hazards. In this research, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the remote vital-sign detection system is investigated. On the basis of different types of noise, such as phase noise, Gaussian noise, leakage noise between the transmitting and receiving antennae, and so on, the SNR of the system has first been examined. Then the research has focused on the investigation of the detection and false alarm probabilities of the system when the transmission link between the human and the radar sensor system took the Nakagami-m channel model. The analytical model for the false alarm and the detection probabilities of the system have been derived. The proposed theoretical models for the SNR and detection probability match with the simulation and measurement results. These theoretical models have the potential to be used as good references for the hardware development of the vital-sign detection radar sensor system.

Rapid prototype modeling and customized titanium plate fabrication for correction of a persistent hard palate defect in a dog.

CASE DESCRIPTION: An 8-month-old crossbred dog was evaluated because of an oronasal fistula following 2 previous attempts to surgically correct a secondary palate defect. CLINICAL FINDINGS: Three months after initial evaluation and successful closure of the soft palate section of the secondary palate defect via 2 surgeries, an oronasal fistula was present. The oronasal fistula was predominantly right sided, involving the rostral third of the hard palate and, at the widest aspect, spanning the transverse palate at the level of the maxillary canine teeth. TREATMENT AND OUTCOME: Following CT of the rostral aspect of the skull, rapid prototyping technology was used to create a stereolithographic model of the skull, allowing fabrication of a customized titanium plate for intranasal stenting. The titanium plate was inserted via a rostral nasal approach and secured rostrally with 1.5-mm screws and caudally with 2.4-mm screws from the nasal bridge. An oronasal fistula formed laterally at the edge of the plate, but bonding of a dental glass ionomer product resulted in successful resolution of the fistula. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Results suggested that rapid prototyping and creation of customized implants may provide an option for the management of large or nonreconstructible oronasal defects in dogs.