pLM33 provides tolerance of persistent Listeria monocytogenes ST5 to various stress conditions and also enhances its virulence.

Listeria monocytogenes is a major foodborne pathogen. In our previous study, we found that L. monocytogenes ST5 and ST121 strains were dominant in two food plants of Shanghai.

High-visibility calculating ghost imaging with self-reconstruction capability and extendible depth-of-field.

We customized light speckle fields with both super-bunching and non-diffracting properties, accordingly named as the super-bunching, non-diffracting (SP-ND) speckle fields, by introducing pupil function of a ring aperture with azimuthally correlated phases in the vertically opposite angles. Calculating ghost imaging based on the SP-ND speckle fields was demonstrated to be of higher visibility, higher spatial resolution and larger depth of field than that based on the conventional speckle fields such as pseudo-thermal fields. Interestingly, the SP-ND speckles are also of self-healing capability in respect of not only the speckle intensity distribution but also the high-order coherence properties.

Analysis and actuation design of a novel at-scale 3-DOF biomimetic flapping-wing mechanism inspired by flying insects.

Insects' flight is imbued with endless mysteries, offering valuable inspiration to the flapping-wing robots. Particularly, the multi-mode wingbeat motion such as flapping, sweeping and twisting in coordination presents advantages in promoting unsteady aerodynamics and enhancing lift force. To achieve the flapping-twisting-sweeping motion capability, this paper proposes an at-scale three-degree-of-freedom (3-DOF) mechanism driven by three piezoelectric actuators, which consists of three four-bar mechanisms and a parallel spherical mechanism.

Repurposing flubendazole for glioblastoma ferroptosis by affecting xCT and TFRC proteins.

New uses of old drugs hold great promise for clinical translation. Flubendazole, an FDA-approved antiparasitic drug, has been shown to target p53 and promote apoptosis in glioblastoma (GBM) cells. However, its damaging mechanism in GBM remains elusive.

Study of a coal fly ash-based integrated CO capture-mineralization material: Preparation method, modification mechanism, and CO mineralization property.

Utilizing industrial solid waste for CO mineralization not only reduces CO emissions but also promotes the resource utilization of solid waste. Additionally, it allows for the permanent sequestration of CO and enables green value-added utilization of the products. Coal fly ash (CFA) is one of the most abundant industrial solid wastes with significant carbon mineralization potential.

Absolutely Structural Disorder Boosting Bandwidth toward Full-Spectrum White Light from Single Occupancy of Activator.

Achieving single-phase full-spectrum white light (SFWL) phosphors is a central goal in the optical field because they simplify white-LEDs assembly and avoid long-term color instability. Despite many approaches are developed, current SFWL phosphors still suffer from chromaticity drift due to inconsistent thermal quenching of multiple emitting centers. Herein, an absolutely structural disorder strategy is established to develop a single-emitting center-based SFWL phosphor.

Physiological and Transcriptome Analyses Reveal the Effects of Fertilization on the Yield of Winter Wheat and on the Photosynthetic Performance of Leaves during the Flowering Period.

Fertilization significantly affects the growth and development of wheat. However, the precise mechanisms underlying gene regulation during flowering in response to fertilization deficiency remain elusive. In this study, fertilization (F) and non-fertilization (CK) ) treatments were set up to reveal examine the effect of fertilization on the photosynthetic capacity of winter wheat during the flowering period through physiological, biochemical, and transcriptome analyses.

Synthetic Microbial Community Promotes Bacterial Communities Leading to Soil Multifunctionality in Desertified Land.

Soil desertification is an important challenge in global soil management, and effectively and stably restoring soil function is an urgent problem. Using synthetic microbial communities (SynComs) is a burgeoning microbial strategy aimed at enhancing soil nutrients through functional synergies among diverse microorganisms; nevertheless, their effectiveness in restoring desertified soils remains unknown. In this study, we conducted a two-year field experiment using a SynCom constructed by in situ probiotic bacteria and set up control, chemical fertilizer, and combined SynCom-chemical fertilizer (combined fertilizer) treatments to investigate the linkage between microbial communities and soil multifunctionality in the soil surface layer (0-10 cm).

The role of immune cell signatures in the pathogenesis of ovarian-related diseases: a causal inference based on Mendelian randomization.

Background: Immune cells play a pivotal role in maintaining ovarian function. However, the specific contributions of different immune cell phenotypes to the pathogenesis of specific ovarian-related diseases remain poorly understood. The authors aim to investigate the correlation between 731 immunophenotypes and ovarian-related diseases.

The role of MrUbp4, a deubiquitinase, in conidial yield, thermotolerance, and virulence in Metarhizium robertsii.

Ubiquitin-specific proteases (UBPs), the largest subfamily of deubiquitinating enzymes, regulate ubiquitin homeostasis and play diverse roles in eukaryotes. Ubp4 is essential for the growth, development, and pathogenicity of various fungal pathogens. However, its functions in the growth, stress responses, and virulence of entomopathogenic fungi remain unclear.

Exploring the Drought Tolerant Quantitative Trait Loci in Spring Wheat.

Drought-induced stress poses a significant challenge to wheat throughout its growth, underscoring the importance of identifying drought-stable quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for enhancing grain yield. Here, we evaluated 18 yield-related agronomic and physiological traits, along with their drought tolerance indices, in a recombinant inbred line population derived from the XC7 × XC21 cross. These evaluations were conducted under both non-stress and drought-stress conditions.

Self-Supervised Learning for Real-World Super-Resolution from Dual and Multiple Zoomed Observations.

In this paper, we consider two challenging issues in reference-based super-resolution (RefSR) for smartphone, (i) how to choose a proper reference image, and (ii) how to learn RefSR in a self-supervised manner. Particularly, we propose a novel self-supervised learning approach for real-world RefSR from observations at dual and multiple camera zooms. Firstly, considering the popularity of multiple cameras in modern smartphones, the more zoomed (telephoto) image can be naturally leveraged as the reference to guide the super-resolution (SR) of the lesser zoomed (ultra-wide) image, which gives us a chance to learn a deep network that performs SR from the dual zoomed observations (DZSR).

Recent advances on the formation, detection, resistance mechanism, and control technology of Listeria monocytogenes biofilm in food industry.

Listeria monocytogenes is an important foodborne pathogen that causes listeriosis, a severe and fatal condition. Biofilms are communities of microorganisms nested within a self-secreted extracellular polymeric substance, and they protect L. monocytogenes from environmental stresses.

Causality between Ankylosing Spondylitis and osteoarthritis in European ancestry: a bidirectional Mendelian randomization study.

Objective: To explore the bidirectional causal relationship between Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) and Osteoarthritis (OA) at the genetic level within the European ancestry.

Methods: We implemented a series of quality control steps to select instrumental variables (IVs) related to the exposure. We conducted two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) using the inverse-variance weighted method as the primary approach.

Survey of transformers and towards ensemble learning using transformers for natural language processing.

The transformer model is a famous natural language processing model proposed by Google in 2017. Now, with the extensive development of deep learning, many natural language processing tasks can be solved by deep learning methods. After the BERT model was proposed, many pre-trained models such as the XLNet model, the RoBERTa model, and the ALBERT model were also proposed in the research community.

Comparison of the transcriptome and metabolome of wheat ( L.) proteins content during grain formation provides insight.

Introduction: Wheat is a food crop with a large global cultivation area, and the content and quality of wheat glutenin accumulation are important indicators of the quality of wheat flour.

Methods: To elucidate the gene expression regulation and metabolic characteristics related to the gluten content during wheat grain formation, transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses were performed for the high gluten content of the Xinchun 26 cultivar and the low proteins content of the Xinchun 34 cultivar at three periods (7 d, 14 d and 21 d) after flowering.

Results: Transcriptomic analysis revealed that 5573 unique differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were divided into two categories according to their expression patterns during the three periods.

Preparation and characterization of zein-tannic acid nanoparticles/chitosan composite films and application in the preservation of sugar oranges.

Chitosan-based food packaging film was prepared by incorporating zein-tannic acid nanoparticles (ZTNPs) into chitosan and was evaluated in terms of structure, physical, mechanical and functional properties. Results showed that there were hydrogen bonding interactions between ZTNPs and chitosan matrix, which is conductive to mechanical enhancements of chitosan films. Compared with the pure chitosan film, the composite films with 10% ZTNPs at pH 4 showed the increased tensile strength by 196.

The association between childhood adiposity in northeast China and anthropogenic heat flux: A new insight into the comprehensive impact of human activities.

Anthropogenic heat has been reported to have significant health impacts, but research on its association with childhood adiposity is still lacking. In this study, we matched the 2008-2012 average anthropogenic heat flux, as simulated by a grid estimation model using inventory methods, with questionnaire and measurement data of 49,938 children randomly recruited from seven cities in Northeast China in 2012. After adjusting for social demographic and behavioral factors, we used generalized linear mixed-effect models to assess the association between anthropogenic heat flux and adiposity among children.

The Effects of Acute Exposure to Ammonia on Oxidative Stress, Hematological Parameters, Flesh Quality, and Gill Morphological Changes of the Large Yellow Croaker ().

Ammonia is considered to be the major chemical pollutant causing fish poisoning in aquaculture. This research aimed to evaluate the impact of acute ammonia exposure on the large yellow croaker's meat quality, gill morphology, liver oxidative stress, and hematological parameters. The fish were exposed to total ammonia nitrogen concentrations of 0, 2.