Ting Xiang

In this study, we compared the microbial communities colonising ancient cave wall paintings of the Mogao Grottoes exhibiting signs of biodeterioration. Ten samples were collected from five different caves built during different time periods and analysed using culture-independent and culture-dependent methods. The clone library results revealed high microbial diversity, including the bacterial groups Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Gemmatimonadetes, Planctomycetes, and Chloroflexi and the fungal groups Euascomycetes, Dothideomycetes, Eurotiomycetes, Sordariomycetes, Saccharomycetes, Plectomycetes, Pezizomycetes, Zygomycota, and Basidiomycota. The bacterial community structures differed among the samples, with no consistent temporal or spatial trends. However, the fungal community diversity index correlated with the building time of the caves independent of environmental factors (e.g., temperature or relative humidity). The enrichment cultures revealed that many culturable strains were highly resistant to various stresses and thus may be responsible for the damage to cave paintings in the Mogao Grottoes.

Histone lysine crotonylation (Kcr), as a posttranslational modification, is widespread as acetylation (Kac); however, its roles are largely unknown in kidney fibrosis. In this study, we report that histone Kcr of tubular epithelial cells is abnormally elevated in fibrotic kidneys. By screening these crotonylated/acetylated factors, a crotonyl-CoA-producing enzyme ACSS2 (acyl-CoA synthetase short chain family member 2) is found to remarkably increase histone 3 lysine 9 crotonylation (H3K9cr) level without influencing H3K9ac in kidneys and tubular epithelial cells. The integrated analysis of ChIP-seq and RNA-seq of fibrotic kidneys reveal that the hub proinflammatory cytokine IL-1β, which is regulated by H3K9cr, play crucial roles in fibrogenesis. Furthermore, genetic and pharmacologic inhibition of ACSS2 both suppress H3K9cr-mediated IL-1β expression, which thereby alleviate IL-1β-dependent macrophage activation and tubular cell senescence to delay renal fibrosis. Collectively, our findings uncover that H3K9cr exerts a critical, previously unrecognized role in kidney fibrosis, where ACSS2 represents an attractive drug target to slow fibrotic kidney disease progression.

Background and Purpose: The systemic immune-inflammation index, a new index based on platelets, neutrophils and lymphocytes, has been shown to be associated with outcomes of patients with venous sinus thrombosis and cancer. However, its application in acute ischemic stroke has rarely been reported. Therefore, we examined the relationship between systemic immune-inflammation index levels at hospital admission and the outcomes of patients 3 months after onset, and plotted a nomogram to predict the probability of adverse outcomes in patients with acute ischemic stroke. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed a total of 208 patients with acute ischemic stroke who were admitted between January 2020 and December 2020, and recorded the modified Rankin score 3 months later. A modified Rankin score ≥ 3 was defined as an adverse outcome. Age, sex, NIHSS score, SII, hypertension and coronary heart disease were included in the binary logistic regression, and the nomogram was plotted with a regression equation. Results: Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis indicated that the best cutoff value of the systemic immune-inflammation index was 802.8, with a sensitivity of 70.9% and specificity of 58.2% (area under the curve: 0.657, 95% confidence interval: 0.572-0.742). The nomogram had a C index of 0.802. The average error of the calibration curves of the training set and the validation set was 0.021 and 0.034, respectively. Conclusion: The systemic immune-inflammation index is associated with short-term adverse outcomes in patients with acute ischemic stroke, and the nomograms can predict the risk of adverse outcomes in patients with acute ischemic stroke.

13 quinic acid derivatives along with caffeic acid, methyl caffeate, myo-inositol, bis[5-formylfurfuryl] ether and 6,7-dihydroxycoumarin were isolated from the ethanol extract of the flower buds of Lonicera bournei Hemsl., among which 8 compounds were firstly obtained from this genus. The effects of different solvent soluble fractions of the ethanol extract and the pure compounds on heptocyte death induced by D-galactosamine (D-GalN)/tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) were studied, and the structure-activity relationships were also discussed.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly used in instant delivery scenarios. The combined delivery of vehicles and UAVs has many advantages compared to their respective separate delivery, which can greatly improve delivery efficiency. Although a few studies in the literature have explored the issue of vehicle-assisted UAV delivery, we did not find any studies on the scenario of an UAV serving several customers. This study aims to design a new vehicle-assisted UAV delivery solution that allows UAVs to serve multiple customers in a single take-off and takes energy consumption into account. A multi-UAV task allocation model and a vehicle path planning model were established to determine the task allocation of the UAVs as well as the path of UAVs and the vehicle, respectively. The model also considered the impact of changing the payload of the UAV on energy consumption, bringing the results closer to reality. Finally, a hybrid heuristic algorithm based on an improved K-means algorithm and ant colony optimization (ACO) was proposed to solve the problem, and the effectiveness of the scheme was proven by multi-scale experimental instances and comparative experiments.