The rice R2R3 MYB transcription factor FOUR LIPS connects brassinosteroid signaling to lignin deposition and leaf angle.

Leaf angle is an important agronomic trait for crop architecture and yield. In rice (Oryza sativa), the lamina joint is a unique structure connecting the leaf blade and sheath that determines leaf angle. Brassinosteroid (BR) signaling involving GLYCOGEN SYNTHASE KINASE-3 (GSK3)/SHAGGY-like kinases and BRASSINAZOLE-RESISTANT1 (BZR1) has a central role in regulating leaf angle in rice.

Acupuncture modulation of the ACE/Ang II/AT1R and ACE2/Ang(1-7)/MasR pathways in the rostral ventrolateral medulla reduces sympathetic output and prevents cardiac injury caused by SHR hypertension.

Acupuncture can reduce blood pressure, heart rate (HR), and ameliorate cardiac damage by modulating the excitability of the sympathetic nervous system, but the exact mechanism of this effect remains unclear. This study investigated the potential mechanisms of acupuncture in the treatment of cardiac damage in hypertension. Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) were used as the hypertension model with Wistar-Kyoto rats as the control.

Surface electromyography analysis of ankle flexor and extensor activity under different standing stability levels.

To observe the activation strategies of the ankle muscles using surface electromyography (sEMG) during single-leg standing (SLS) and both-leg standing (BLS) on flat ground (FG), soft mat (SM), and BOSU ball (BB) surfaces. Thirty healthy young adults participated in the study. The muscle activities of the tibialis anterior (TA) and gastrocnemius medial (GM) were measured on the three surfaces during SLS and BLS.

Effects of ankle-foot orthoses on gait parameters in post-stroke patients with different Brunnstrom stages of the lower limb: a single-center crossover trial.

Background: Ankle-foot orthoses (AFO) can improve gait posture and walking ability in post-stroke patients. However, the effect of AFO on gait parameters in post-stroke patients according to the Brunnstrom stage of stroke recovery of the lower limbs remains unclear. The study aimed to investigate whether stroke patients with different Brunnstrom stages benefit from wearing AFO.

Mechanisms of inflammation modulation by different immune cells in hypertensive nephropathy.

Hypertensive nephropathy (HTN) is the second leading cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and a chronic inflammatory disease. Persistent hypertension leads to lesions of intrarenal arterioles and arterioles, luminal stenosis, secondary ischemic renal parenchymal damage, and glomerulosclerosis, tubular atrophy, and interstitial fibrosis. Studying the pathogenesis of hypertensive nephropathy is a prerequisite for diagnosis and treatment.

Causal association between colorectal cancer and Alzheimer's disease: a bidirectional two-sample mendelian randomization study.

Colorectal cancer and Alzheimer's disease are both common life-threatening diseases in the elderly population. Some studies suggest a possible inverse relationship between colorectal cancer and Alzheimer's disease, but real-world research is subject to many biases. We hope to clarify the causal relationship between the two through a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization study.

The bidirectional causal association between psoriasis and psychological illnesses: a 2-sample Mendelian randomization study.

There have been reports of association between psoriasis and psychological illnesses. Nevertheless, it is not easy to draw conclusions with high quality causality from conventional observational studies. The objective of this study was to evaluate the causality of psoriasis and psychological illnesses.

Identification of biomarkers related to immune and inflammation in membranous nephropathy: comprehensive bioinformatic analysis and validation.

Background: Membranous nephropathy (MN) is an autoimmune glomerular disease that is predominantly mediated by immune complex deposition and complement activation. The aim of this study was to identify key biomarkers of MN and investigate their association with immune-related mechanisms, inflammatory cytokines, chemokines and chemokine receptors (CCRs).

Methods: MN cohort microarray expression data were downloaded from the GEO database.

Two-sample mendelian randomization reveals a causal association between membranous nephropathy and lung cancer.

A risk association between membranous nephropathy (MN) and lung cancer is reported, but traditional observational studies cannot provide strong evidence of its causality. This study aimed to assess genome-wide association studies data for a causal relationship between MN and lung cancer using a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) approach. Inverse-variance weighted, and MR Egger regression techniques were used to determine the association of genetic variants from cohorts of MN and lung cancer patients.

Fire acupuncture for anti-LGI1 antibody autoimmune encephalitis: a case report.

Autoimmune encephalitis, a class of encephalitis, is clinically characterized by multifocal or diffuse brain injury, including aberrant mental behavior, convulsions, and near-event memory impairment. In this article, we describe a female patient with autoimmune encephalitis who tested positive for leucine-rich glioma inactivated 1 (LGI1) antibodies and had hippocampal inflammatory edema in the lesion area. During the first 3 months of her illness, the patient primarily experienced memory loss, the onset of rigid twitching in her extremities that lasted for 1 min while in remission, and incontinence.

Acupuncture with twirling reinforcing and reducing manipulation shows a control of hypertension and regulation of blood pressure-related target brain regions in spontaneously hypertensive rat: a preliminary resting-state functional MRI study.

Aim: To observe the effects of acupuncture manipulations on blood pressure and brain function in spontaneously hypertensive rats and elucidate the anti-hypertensive effect of the manipulations' central mechanism.

Methods: This study used acupuncture twirling reinforcing, acupuncture twirling reducing, and acupuncture twirling uniform reinforcing-reducing manipulations to act on the bilateral TaiChong point of rats. The depth of acupuncture was 1.

Electroacupuncture and manual acupuncture at LR3 and ST36 have attenuating effects on hypertension and subsequent cognitive dysfunction in spontaneously hypertensive rats: A preliminary resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Introduction: Chronic hypertension may have a contributory role toward cognitive impairment. Acupuncture exerts protective effects on cognitive functions while controlling the blood pressure. However, the neural mechanism underlying the dual attenuating effect of acupuncture remains unclear.

Critical Vibration and Control of the Maglev High-Speed Motor Based on -Synthesis Control.

The Maglev motor has the characteristics of high-speed and high-power density, and is widely used in compressors, molecular pumps and other high-speed rotating machinery. With the requirements of miniaturization and high speed of rotating machinery, the rotor of the maglev motor will operate above the bending critical speed, and the critical vibration control of the flexible rotor is facing challenges. In order to solve the problem of the critical vibration suppression of the maglev high-speed motor, the system model of the maglev motor is established, the rotordynamics of the flexible rotor are analyzed and the rotor model is modal truncated to reduce the order.

Bioinformatics and systems biology approaches to identify molecular targeting mechanism influenced by COVID-19 on heart failure.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has emerged as a contemporary hazard to people. It has been known that COVID-19 can both induce heart failure (HF) and raise the risk of patient mortality. However, the mechanism underlying the association between COVID-19 and HF remains unclear.

PtoMPO1, a negative mediator, functions in poplar drought tolerance.

Drought, as one of the most severe abiotic stresses in nature, adversely affects plant growth and development. Poplar is a woody plant which is prone to water-deficit sensitivity. Therefore, it is important to improve our understanding of how poplar responds to drought stress.

The functional specificity of ERECTA-family receptors in Arabidopsis stomatal development is ensured by molecular chaperones in the endoplasmic reticulum.

Stomata are epidermal pores that control gas exchange between plants and the atmosphere. In Arabidopsis, the ERECTA family (ERECTAf) receptors, including ERECTA, ERECTA-LIKE 1 (ERL1) and ERL2, redundantly play pivotal roles in enforcing the 'one-cell-spacing' rule. Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that the functional specificities of receptors are likely associated with their differential subcellular dynamics.

Arabidopsis ERdj3B coordinates with ERECTA-family receptor kinases to regulate ovule development and the heat stress response.

The endoplasmic reticulum-localized DnaJ family 3B (ERdj3B), is a component of the stromal cell-derived factor 2 (SDF2)-ERdj3B-binding immunoglobulin protein (BiP) chaperone complex, which functions in protein folding, translocation, and quality control. We found that ERdj3B mutations affected integument development in the Ler ecotype but not in the Col-0 ecotype of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Map-based cloning identified the ERECTA (ER) gene as a natural modifier of ERdj3B.

Acupuncture at Taichong and Zusanli points exerts hypotensive effect in spontaneously hypertensive rats by metabolomic analysis.

Background: The development of hypertension affects several target organs, the kidneys being one of them. Acupuncture has been used to treat hypertension for a long time. Several mechanisms of acupuncture on hypotensive effect have been reveled, while the effects of acupuncture on the alterations in renal cortex from a metabolomic perspective are still unclear.

A Rice R2R3-Type MYB Transcription Factor OsFLP Positively Regulates Drought Stress Response via OsNAC.

Abiotic stresses adversely affect plant growth and the yield of crops worldwide. R2R3-MYB transcriptional factors have been found to be vital for plants to confer stress response. In , FOUR LIPS (FLP, MYB124) and its paralogous MYB88 function redundantly regulated the symmetric division of guard mother cells (GMCs) and abiotic stress response.

The protective effect of electroacupuncture on the renal cortex of SHRs: A metabonomic analysis.

Hypertension affects multiple organs in the body during the development of the disease. The antihypertensive effect of acupuncture has been confirmed. How the protective effect of electroacupuncture on the renal cortex of the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) is achieved has not yet been determined.

Connected function of PRAF/RLD and GNOM in membrane trafficking controls intrinsic cell polarity in plants.

Cell polarity is a fundamental feature underlying cell morphogenesis and organismal development. In the Arabidopsis stomatal lineage, the polarity protein BASL controls stomatal asymmetric cell division. However, the cellular machinery by which this intrinsic polarity site is established remains unknown.

Arabidopsis F-BOX STRESS INDUCED 4 is required to repress excessive divisions in stomatal development.

During the terminal stage of stomatal development, the R2R3-MYB transcription factors FOUR LIPS (FLP/MYB124) and MYB88 limit guard mother cell division by repressing the transcript levels of multiple cell-cycle genes. In Arabidopsis thaliana possessing the weak allele flp-1, an extra guard mother cell division results in two stomata having direct contact. Here, we identified an ethylmethane sulfonate-mutagenized mutant, flp-1 xs01c, which exhibited more severe defects than flp-1 alone, producing giant tumor-like cell clusters.

Arabidopsis MHP1, a homologue of yeast Mpo1, is involved in ABA signaling.

Sphingolipids and their intermediates play multiple roles in biological processes. The sphingoid long-chain base component of sphingolipids has emerged as a participant in the regulation of plant biotic and abiotic stress responses. The phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) regulates many stress responses in plants for environmental adaptation.

Cell polarity: Regulators and mechanisms in plants.

Cell polarity plays an important role in a wide range of biological processes in plant growth and development. Cell polarity is manifested as the asymmetric distribution of molecules, for example, proteins and lipids, at the plasma membrane and/or inside of a cell. Here, we summarize a few polarized proteins that have been characterized in plants and we review recent advances towards understanding the molecular mechanism for them to polarize at the plasma membrane.