Cordyceps sinensis mycelium polysaccharide has been reported to regulate immune function, but its anti-lung cancer efficacy and its role in regulating the polarization of TAMs remain unelucidated. This study aims to investigate the anti-lung cancer activity of Cordyceps sinensis mycelium polysaccharide CP1 and its related mechanism. In vivo studies confirmed CP1 (40,80 or 160 mg/kg, i.p.) inhibited the A549 tumor growth, reduced the proportion of M2 macrophages infiltration in tumor tissues and the levels of IL-10 and TGF-β in serum of mice. In vitro, CP1 (80 μg/mL) lowered the mRNA levels of CD206, IL-10, Arg-1 and TGF-β, all markers indicative of M2 macrophage polarization. And CP1 decreased the proportion of M2 macrophages and reduced the secretion of IL-10 and TGF-β. Intriguingly, CP1 did not exhibit a direct inhibitory effect on A549 lung cancer cells. However, it did inhibit the proliferation, migration, and invasive abilities of these cells, achieved by modulating the M2 polarization of TAMs. This research revealed that CP1 may exert anti-lung cancer effects in vitro and in vivo by inhibiting M2 polarization of TAMs.

A document by Yao Yi . Click on the document to view its contents.

11institutetext: Knowledge-based Systems and Document Processing Research Group Faculty of Computer Science Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg 11email: katrin.krieger@ovgu.de Cancer-related death and morbidity are largely attributable to its widespread proliferation and invasiveness, which disrupts the normal functions of affected organs. Natural therapies such as plants have been used to treat cancer. Cancer can develop resistance to anticancer drugs over time, leading to treatment failure and tumor recurrence. A tetracyclic triterpene alcohol, euphol from Euphorbia. tirucalli sap, contain anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and analgesic properties. This review article mainly accentuated the different anticancer perspectives of euphol like breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, glioma cell line, and gastric cancer. In this review, we described on the possible effect of euphol in cancer prevention in in vitro assays and techniques such as cell viability/proliferation, apoptosis, cellular senescence, invasion and migration, oxidative stress and antioxidant effects, gene and protein expression, and angiogenesis in cancer drug discovery. Furthermore, role of bioactive compound (euphol) against cancer analyzed through network pharmacology (ADME, Networking and Docking). Kegg analysis showed euphol is effective through different cancer pathways. Docking analysis performed by receptor protein 7aei and 7aem that have best fit with the compound: with docking scores of −8.8 and -8.6 respectively. In conclusion, euphol can be characterized as novel compound in drug development. The current review summarizes the most recent investigation of euphol

Invasive species are one of the main threats to global biodiversity and, within marine ecosystems, tunicates feature some prominent examples. Styela plicata is an ascidian species inhabiting harbors in all temperate oceans and seas, thus being considered a thriving invasive species. However, this species’ adaptive mechanisms, introduction history, and population structure have never been completely elucidated. Here, by genotyping 87 S. plicata individuals from 18 localities worldwide with 2b-RADseq, we confirm the presence of four chromosome inversions, demonstrate population structuring on this species, detect local adaptation signals, and infer historical demographic events. The locality of North Carolina constitutes an utterly unrelated population, Atlanto-Mediterranean and Pacific localities constitute their own genetic clusters, and the South Carolina locality presents an intermediate genetic position between North Carolina and the other two groups. For each biogeographic population we highlight substructuring, being the most evident the split between North Atlantic+Mediterranean and the South Atlantic localities. We identify genomic drivers for adaptation, with functions involved with cell processes, metabolism, development, and ion transport, among others. We model ancient effective population sizes, providing evidence on three main bottlenecks that could correspond to different introduction events. Finally, hybridization tests point to South Carolina having a hybrid origin, likely resulting from a secondary contact between North Carolina and other ancient populations. Overall, this study highlights the complex historical processes of S. plicata, which have led this species to its current distribution, population structure, and local adaptation footprint in oceans worldwide.

Title:

Molecular Ecology News and Views

The chief objective of the present investigation is to study experimentally the hydraulic and thermal performance of a corrugated tube with copper foam cylindrical inserts (MFCI) containing a new types of inserts with the purpose to improve the procedure of heat transfer, which gives an elevated thermal enhancement factor (PEF) more than that of smooth tube beneath the similar operating circumstances. Also, in this paper, the study of the effect on the number of cylindrical insert was made from metal foam (10 PPI and porosity 0.9) on the Nusselt no. and Nusselt no. ratio as a double heat exchanger furnished with the suggested MFCI with various values of Reynolds numbers ranges from (1600) to (4000) via using water as the test fluid. The investigational outcomes revealed an enhancement in heat transfer as well as thermal performance of the corrugated tube with MFCI which being significantly augmented in comparison to those for smooth tube. Additionally, the average rise into the value of heat transfer is within (74%) and (90%) at the test range, relying upon the number of cylindrical inserts as well as Reynolds no., whereas the max. thermal performance is obtained to be around (2.4) for utilizing the corrugated tube having (4) cylindrical inserts at low Reynolds no. Furthermore, the outcome of the loss of pressure manifested that the corrugated tube’s mean friction factor is within 96% and 97% more than the smooth tube.

A great number of renewable energy sources and nonlinear loads are integrated into the distribution systems through power electronic converters, which leads to serious harmonic distortions. Correctly determining the location of harmonic sources is the primary task to manage the harmonic pollution users and develop a strategy for harmonic suppression on system level. Existing localization methods leverage the time-domain waveforms of voltage and currents across each feeder. Meanwhile, an accurate knowledge of network topology and line impedances are also required. However, these are difficult to meet in engineering practice. Only the RMS values of harmonics are uploaded from the power quality sensors to distribution management system. Besides, a small change of network topology would produce a totally wrong location result. In this letter, a harmonic source localization method based on Dynamic Graph Convolutional Recurrent Network (DGCRN) is proposed. Only the RMS values of harmonics and pre-defined topology of distribution systems are required to capture the spatio-temporal correlations between harmonic sources and harmonic distortion nodes. The effectiveness of the proposed method is tested in the IEEE14 distribution network. By using the same test set, the accuracy of proposed method is improved by 8.42% over the spatio-temporal graph convolutional network (STGCN).

To address the issues of short flight duration and the inability to carry high-computation resources in small observation Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) due to limited energy and payload capacities, we proposes a deployment framework for an air-water surface collaborative observation system based on energy replenishment and computation offloading. In this framework, the UAV serve as platforms for observation tools, while Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) act as platforms for energy replenishment and edge computing nodes. The edge computing nodes process, analyze, and distribute the observation data received from the UAV. Upon receiving a charging signal, the UAV perform coordinated positioning with the USV using high-precision BeiDou positioning, land on the USV. After recharging, the UAV resume their observation tasks. Experimental results demonstrate that this framework prevents the small observation UAV from having to carry heavy computational loads during flight，and also, the small observation UAV can utilize the USV platform for cyclic recharging and takeoff. The findings of this study can be extended to the collaborative application of multiple UAVs and USVs, enabling broader and more sustained observations. This approach has significant potential for applications in environmental monitoring, disaster rescue, marine mapping, border patrol, and marine aquaculture capacity monitoring.

The detection of working fatigue has been widely studied but is mainly about detecting the state based on current indicators. If indicators can be predicted, future fatigue states can be forecasted based on existing methods, so measures can be taken in advance to better cope with working fatigue. Feedback neural networks have been successfully proven to perform well in sequential applications. To address the challenge of indicator prediction, a gated recurrent unit neural network-based method is proposed, which contains two phases: First, an overlapping window sampling data preprocessing method is adopted to increase diversity. Then, a gated recurrent unit neural network with hyperparameters optimized by Bayesian is used for prediction. Experimental results on the mean RR Interval prediction problem have shown that the proposed method can be successfully applied to the prediction problem.

Quercus chungii is an endemic tree species in China, rare and endangered in subtropical areas of China. Understanding its population structure and temporal dynamics is crucial for conserving and restoring Q. chungii population and its associated ecosystems. However, large knowledge gaps remain about its population structure and temporal change, and its key demographic rates across size classes. In this study, we investigated the population structures of Q. chungii in 2013 and 2023 in a nature reserve specifically established to better conserve Q. chungii and its associated ecosystems. We found that Q. chungii increased in its overall abundance, frequency and tree size in the past decade, suggesting active regeneration and fast growth rate of this species and the effectiveness of past conservation efforts. The age structure in 2023 shows a pyramid shape, with a sharp decline in the numbers of individuals from germinated seeds to seedlings and from seedlings to saplings. These lead to the low numbers of seedlings and saplings and high age-specific death probabilities at the early developmental stages. These results indicate potential risks of future population decline. These risks may have already manifested over the past decade, as a high mortality rate during the seedling-to-sapling transition could be one of the primary reasons contributing to the decreased proportion of saplings in 2023 compared to 2013. We propose that future studies may benefit from in-depth studies on the regeneration processes of Q. chungii by considering seed predation and germination under changing climate. This study improves the prediction of population development of Q. chungii and provide theoretical guidance for the conservation of Q. chungii.

Harvesting forests and plantations for timbers and fuelwoods may cause land degradation and a decline in soil health and carbon storage. Promoting coppice growth can minimize the negative effects of clear-felling. Five plots of 0.1 ha area were marked in E. camaldulensis stands of similar age in Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojana area of Rajasthan, India for assessing such changes and devising improved management strategies in dryland plantations. Growth and biomass were recorded after harvesting 28-year-old stands in 2018-19 and stumps were left to coppice. Soil and tree/coppice samples were collected and analysed. Coppice growth was measured in June 2021. Stump density was 360-990 nos. ha -1 and diameter was 22.7-56.6 cm. Diameter at breast height (DBH) and height increased with decreased tree density. We observed highest (p <0.05) soil pH and SOC at RD1364; EC, SWC, tree growth, C content and C: N ratio, shoots stump -1 and CO 2-sequestered in biomass/soil at RD995; NH 4-N, NO 3-N, and PO 4-P, stump density and shoot height at RD764; shoot DBH, density and CO 2-seq and tree N at RD1033; and shoot N and CO 2 loss from soil were at RD15ND. Tree biomass and C and N contents (increased with diameter size) were 333.61 Mg ha -1, 45.19%, and 0.66% respectively. Clear-felling, variability in SWC, and coppice growth affected SOC and nutrients (decreased by 58.2-82.0%). CO 2-sequestration rate (Mg CO 2 ha -1 year -1) was 42.38 in coppice to 19.66 in harvested crops. C-stock was -118.68 Mg CO 2 ha -1 in 0-75 cm soil layer and +127.68 Mg CO 2 ha -1 in coppice biomass in 2021 against +188.82 Mg CO 2 ha -1 and +550.46 Mg CO 2 ha -1 respectively in 2018. Thus, strategies for promoting coppice growth showed positive effects, which may be further improved in subsequent years by minimizing the negative impact of clear-felling on SOC stock/nutrients through supplemental irrigation and soil amendments.

Habitat selection in animals results from a careful balance of individual requirements, environmental conditions, and ecological disturbances. Preferences can vary across sexes and ages due to differences in survival and reproductive priorities. Despite this variability, most studies have traditionally focused on isolated aspects of either sex or age-related differences in habitat selection, rather than considering a comprehensive range of influencing factors. The mountain dragon lizard (Diploderma splendidum) exemplifies a species adapted to shrub habitats in the dry-hot river valleys of the lower Jinsha River, western China, playing a crucial role in regional ecosystem stability. In this study, we examined the influence of 11 ecological factors on habitat selection by male and female D. splendidum across two distinct age classes (juvenile and adult) to explore sex and age-related disparities. The lizards showed considerable similarity in habitat preferences, but notable differences in their selection of specific ecological factors. Compared to adult females, adult males displayed a preference for higher tree positions, lower light intensity, and moderate vegetation density. Compared to juvenile females, juvenile males favored higher tree positions, low rock formations, and shrubby grassland and forest. Compared to juvenile females, adult females preferred higher tree positions and habitats further from water. Compared to juvenile males, adult males preferred higher tree habitats. Overall, habitat selection complexity in D. splendidum was significantly influenced by sex and age factors. This study contributes to our understanding of how these lizards respond to different physiological structures and resource requirements. These findings enhance current knowledge on reptile habitat selection and provide theoretical insights crucial for ecological restoration and species protection in the hot and dry valley areas of Hengduan Mountain.

11institutetext: Knowledge-based Systems and Document Processing Research Group Faculty of Computer Science Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg 11email: katrin.krieger@ovgu.de Correlative species distribution models (SDMs) are widely used to project the responses of biodiversity to global changes. The climatic niche of a species is calibrated under current climate conditions and then projected in space and/or time, making model extrapolation an important concern. This issue is particularly relevant when considering species that live at the same time at the boundaries of the current Earth’s climate and the edges of their physiological tolerance, such as desert-adapted species. To tackle these problems, alternative modelling approaches (e.g., hybrid SDMs) have been proposed. These models should explicitly consider the species’ physiological thermal tolerance, producing outputs that are closer to the species’ ecology. Here, considering mammals occurring in the Arabian Peninsula, we compared correlative SDMs with different extrapolation options (no-extrapolation, clamping, fade by clamping, full extrapolation) and hybrid SDMs incorporating the thermal tolerance of each species. We projected all models under current and future climate scenarios and measured the differences between the models’ outcomes. We found that different extrapolation options and hybrid SDMs produced important differences at least in future projections, especially for species physiologically adapted to the extreme climate conditions of the desert. Correlative SDMs blocking any extrapolations beyond the current climate conditions led to limited suitability, while SDMs allowing for extrapolations were extremely more liberal in their projections. Hybrid SDMs produced intermediate results, with up to 97% of the species losing large parts of their suitable ranges under future climate scenarios. Our findings highlight that hybrid SDMs provide a more reasonable projection of the future distribution of species that live at the edge of the current climate, given the inability of purely correlative models to track their thermal tolerances under extrapolation. For this reason, hybrid SDMs hold the premises for a better understanding of the impact of global changes on desert-adapted species.

11institutetext: Knowledge-based Systems and Document Processing Research Group Faculty of Computer Science Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg 11email: katrin.krieger@ovgu.de The process of agricultural intensification has led to significant reductions in biodiversity globally. Previous studies examined the role of semi-natural habitats within agroecosystems in supporting bird communities, but few have considered the effects of agricultural intensity on avian conservation potential of semi-natural habitats. Here, we disentangle the relative effects of semi-natural habitats within different agricultural intensities on bird community composition in central and eastern Jilin Province, China with significant agricultural intensity gradient. We established 322 sampling sites distributed across low, middle, and high agricultural intensities, with 103, 118, and 101 sites respectively. Each sampling site was visited 2 times in May and June 2023 to test the dissimilarities in bird composition between different agricultural intensities. We found that middle-intensity agriculture supported the highest bird diversity in most cases, but low-intensity plays an important role in maintaining insectivorous birds. Model selection was performed to assess the relative impacts of semi-natural habitats on bird community along agricultural intensity respectively. Our results showed that the effects of agriculture on bird communities were predominantly influenced by the amount of semi-natural habitats, with effects that differ in accordance with the level of agricultural intensity. Priority should be given to preserve or/and plant these semi-natural habitats in middle-intensity agriculture due to the stronger effect sizes on bird diversity. Specifically, we suggested preserving and promoting woodlands and shrubs in high-intensity agriculture, and human settlements in low-intensity agriculture, and simultaneously increasing crop diversity to protect bird diversity in agriculture landscapes in the context of increasing crop intensification globally.

Objective To identify outcomes that are important to families, to inform the development of a core outcome set for stillbirth care research. Design Qualitative interview study. Setting A national study in the United Kingdom. Population A diverse sample of parents with a personal history of stillbirth were interviewed. Methods Data collection, coding and analysis were influenced by a modified Grounded Theory approach. Parents’ lived experiences of stillbirth were translated into outcomes for the purpose of developing a core outcome set. Results Forty parents and family members were interviewed. Analysis identified 343 potential care outcomes, 298 (87%) of which have not been previously reported by stillbirth care studies. Outcomes were organised into four major care outcome themes: 1) Clinical 2) Mental health and wellbeing 3) Social and family 4) Future pregnancy and children. Short- and long-term outcomes related to the labour, birth, investigations to understand why a baby had died, stillbirth in a multiple pregnancy, postpartum, psychological and subsequent pregnancy care were reported. Outcomes infrequently measured in previous stillbirth care research yet discussed by most participants were social isolation, impact on occupation and need for mental health support. Parents spoke of the importance of counselling to help them understand their grief, however, the provision of this service was reported to be varied throughout the UK. Conclusion A comprehensive outcome inventory has now been constructed, from which the final core outcome set will be determined. Future care should be developed and evaluated using outcomes that directly relate to the lived experiences of parents and families exposed to stillbirth.

Theoretical neurosciences research community produces many models of different natures to capture activities or functions of the brain. Some of these models are some presented as "realistic" models, often because variable and parameters have biophysical units, but not always. In this short technical spotlight, I explain why this term can be misleading and I propose some elements that can be useful to characterize a model.

Objective To identify phenotypes of pain in patients with endometriosis and to investigate their associations with predictors and quality of life (QoL). Design Population-based study. Setting A referral university center in Quebec City, Canada. Population or Sample A total of 352 patients aged 18‒50 years and diagnosed with endometriosis. Methods Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify pain phenotypes. To assess the associations, the three-step approach of LCA was applied. Main Outcome Measures Pain phenotypes, predictors of pain phenotypes, QoL. Results A total of 352 patients were included in the analyses. The diagnosis of endometriosis was either based on histology (N=135), imaging (N=106) or clinical presentation (N=111). The optimal model identified two distinct and homogeneous phenotypes of patients with endometriosis. The two groups had distinct clinical presentations, one with more severe and frequent pain symptoms and poorer quality of life (54%); the other with mild and less frequent pain symptoms (46%). Predictors of a high pain phenotype were a previous treatment failure, use of pain killers, a family history of endometriosis, a low annual family income, and pain comorbidities such as painful bladder, fibromyalgia, migraines, low back pain, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety, and depression or mood disorders. The presence of endometrioma was predictive of the low pain phenotype. Phenotype membership was associated with distinct quality of life profiles (p<0.001). Conclusion Patients with endometriosis and pelvic pain can be grouped into two distinct and homogeneous phenotypes. Phenotypes membership correlates with quality of life and can be predicted with the patients’ characteristics. These findings will need to be validated in other populations and may inform the development of more specialized or personalized interventions based on the pain phenotypes.

Objective To assess the outcomes of a protocol led same day discharge for elective tonsillectomy patients. Design A retrospective series of all tonsillectomies performed from January 2018 to May 2023 at a tertiary hospital in Adelaide, Australia. The primary outcome was rate of readmission within 24 hours for same day surgery compared to hospital stay tonsillectomy patients. Secondary outcomes included post tonsillectomy haemorrhage (PTH). The patients were identified through the hospital’s tonsillectomy database, with subsequent review of medical charts to extract patient demographics, readmission and PTH data. Results During the study period, n=1658 elective tonsillectomies were performed. 664 patients (40.0%) were discharged the same day following tonsillectomy. 30% (199) of day surgery patients were paediatric (under 18 years old). The readmission rate within 24 hours was comparable between the two groups (0.60% for day surgery and 0.64% for those who stayed overnight in hospital). X 2(1, N=1600)=0.009, p=.9244. The primary PTH rate for day surgery patients was 0.3%, with a relative risk of 0.5. X 2(1, N=1658)=0.751, p=.3862. Conclusion The readmission rate within 24 hours for same day tonsillectomies was comparable to patients who stayed in hospital for one or more days post operatively. The low readmission rate and primary post-tonsillectomy haemorrhage within 24 hours post day surgery tonsillectomy for patients indicates that same day tonsillectomy is safe and feasible to implement.

During routine laboratory work in molecular biology, gel electrophoresis is used to follow experiments related to DNA, such as PCR, DNA extraction, and DNA digestion, and the use of molecular markers as important components for subsequent analysis is crucial, considering the quality of the DNA, the putative concentration, which is a qualitative measure of the molecular marker used as a reference, and the size of the DNA sample. There are nice and diverse molecular markers for use according to our needs; however, they could be expensive and inadequate for routine DNA analysis. In this work, we describe the preparation of a DNA molecular marker via a classical method. In essence, we digest Lambda phage DNA through two different restriction reactions, the StyI and HindIII enzymes, which produce the classical and popular DNA molecular marker used before the actual DNA Ladder molecular marker. We mix both digestion methods and produce a good and useful DNA molecular marker called Lambda HS. Both digestions produced 17 bands, from 23103 to 421 pb. The cost of production is also affordable for a typical molecular biology lab.

A document by Yuer GAO. Click on the document to view its contents.

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to reveal the cognitive mechanisms and factors influencing the degree of coherence of oral discourse output of bilinguals. This study examines the influence of the central executive system on the coherence of spoken discourse of bilinguals through a behavioural experiment. The experiment used two components of the central executive system: working memory capacity and attentional inhibition as independent variables, and nine indicators defined by Coh-Matrix to measure the degree of discourse coherence as dependent variables. Significance analyses showed that working memory capacity and attentional suppression had a significant effect on eight of the nine indicators of spoken discourse coherence, i.e., interreferentiality, lexical specificity, neighbourhood overlap, causality, discourse relevance, verb consistency, logic, and intentional consistency; however, they did not significantly correlate with full-sentence overlap; regression statistics found that working memory capacity and attentional suppression were highly correlated, and that both of them were highly correlated with the degree of spoken content Among the nine indicators of coherence, discourse relevance, intentional consistency and lexical specificity had the greatest influence.

Aims: Endostatin is a type of human vascular endostatin with more stable and higher activity. This study sought to evaluate pharmacokinetics (PK), safety and preliminary efficacy between treatment with endostatin 4 hours intravenous infusion and 72 hours or 168 hours intravenous pump infusion in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: A total of 24 patients with advanced NSCLC were randomly assigned to group A and B. All patients received a standard 21 days treatment cycle of platinum-based doublet chemotherapy (paclitaxel or pemetrexed) and endostatin. Endostatin was administered at 7.5 mg/m2/day for 4 hours from day 1 to day 14 of cycle 1. Starting from day 1 of cycle 2, endostatin was administered at 105 mg/m2/cycle for 72 hours (group A) or 168 hours (group B), respectively. The total treatment duration was 4 cycles, with the option to extend up to 6 cycles. Results: The PK exposure per cycle of endostatin 4 hours infusion and 72 hours or 168 hours pump infusion were comparable between group A and group B. The majority of adverse events during pump infusion were consistent with those observed during infusion and no endostatin-related serious adverse events were reported. The overall objective response rate (ORR) was 37.5%. Conclusion: The PK exposure between intravenous infusion and intravenous pump infusion at the same total cycle dose is similar. Both 72 hours and 168 hours intravenous pump infusion endostatin were well tolerated, and no new unexpected safety signals were observed.

Although previous studies have indicated that the occurrence of stimulus-response binding (and feature-response binding) is automatic, the influence of attention on the strength of stimulus-response binding remains unclear. This study investigated whether feature-based attention affected feature-response binding within multi-feature objects. We employed a modified partial repetition cost (PRC) paradigm. By maintaining a constant level of attention to features during the retrieval phase and manipulating the task relevance of features during the binding phase, we were able to modulate attention to features during the binding phase. Behavioral data and EEG signals were recorded, incorporating temporal EEG signal decomposition and representational similarity analysis (RSA) to comprehensively examine the influence of attention on the strength of stimulus-response binding during both the binding and retrieval phases. Our results indicated that features attended to during the binding phase exhibited greater behavioral PRC effects during the retrieval phase compared to unattended features. Correspondingly, ERP P3 and decomposed C-cluster P3 components showed larger amplitudes under partial repetition conditions, but this modulation was only observed for task-relevant features during the retrieval phase. Additionally, RSA results during the binding phase demonstrated higher representational similarity scores for feature-response binding when features were attended to. These findings suggest that feature-based attention during the binding phase enhances the strength of feature-response binding, aligning with the theory of intentional weighting in cognitive control.