Epithelial-mesenchymal transition during the growth and involution of the prostate gland in wild ground squirrels (Spermophilus dauricus).

The prostate glands of wild ground squirrels display enlarged volume during the breeding season and shrunk size during the nonbreeding season, which enables the wild ground squirrel to be an ideal animal model for studying the mechanisms of prostate growth and involution. To clarify the possible mechanism underlying seasonal morphological changes of the prostate in wild ground squirrels, epithelial-mesenchymal transitions (EMT) were focused, and the expression of EMT-related genes was investigated in the current study. Histological results showed that the epithelial lumen enlarged in the breeding season, and the stromal cells expanded during the non-breeding season.

Niche-specific evolution and gene exchange of Salmonella in retail pork and chicken.

Salmonella exhibits extensive genetic diversity, facilitated by horizontal gene transfer occurring within and between species, playing a pivotal role in this diversification. Nevertheless, most studies focus on clinical and farm animal isolates, and research on the pangenome dynamics of Salmonella isolates from retail stage of the animal food supply chain is limited. Here, we investigated the genomes of 950 Salmonella isolates recovered from retail chicken and pork meats in seven provinces and one municipality of China in 2018.

Altered default-mode and frontal-parietal network pattern underlie adaptiveness of emotion regulation flexibility following task-switch training.

Emotion regulation flexibility (ERF) refers to one's ability to respond flexibly in complex environments. Adaptiveness of ERF has been associated with cognitive flexibility, which can be improved by task-switching training. However, the impact of task-switching training on ERF and its underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear.

Phosphine and phosphine plus ethyl formate for controlling papaya mealybug (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) on succulents.

The papaya mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), poses a serious threat to global trade and is classified as a quarantine pest in some countries. Phosphine (PH3) is considered an alternative to methyl bromide for postharvest control of P. marginatus.

Recycle or Not? An Exploration of Microplastic Generation During Plastic Processing via a Local Case Study.

Microplastic (MP), an emerging pollutant, has been identified as a critical target in tackling plastic pollution. Although a plethora of studies have explored MP generation from various sources, limited attention has been paid to plastic processing. This study investigated MP (10 μm-5 mm) generation in virgin and waste plastic extrusion processing.

Tracking the North American Asian Longhorned Beetle Invasion With Genomics.

Biological invasions pose significant threats to ecological and economic stability, with invasive pests like the Asian longhorned beetle ( Motschulsky, ALB) causing substantial damage to forest ecosystems. Effective pest management relies on comprehensive knowledge of the insect's biology and invasion history. This study uses genomics to address these knowledge gaps and inform existing biosurveillance frameworks.

The effects of reference selection methods on PROPELLER MRI.

PROPELLER MRI has been shown effective for rigid motion compensation, while the performance of existing PROPELLER reconstruction methods critically depend on selecting a proper reference blade. In this work, we proposed a robust implementation for PROPELLER reconstruction, which was incorporated with different reference selection methods, including single blade reference (SBR), combined blades reference (CBR), grouped blades reference (GBR) and Pipe et al.'s revised method, which requires no blade reference (NBR).

Application progress of ultrasound in the production and processing of traditional Chinese herbal medicines.

The quality of Chinese herbal medicines is the key to the quality of traditional Chinese medicine. The processing of Chinese herbal medicines is an important part of the production and quality formation of medicinal materials. Traditional processing methods have low productivity and cannot guarantee the quality of Chinese herbal medicines.

Melamine-Derived Mesoporous Carbon for Efficient and Selective Removal of Trace Hg(II) from Honeysuckle Decoction.

Melamine-derived mesoporous carbon, which was obtained from pyrolysis of modified melamine, was employed for the purpose of eliminating trace amounts of Hg(II) from honeysuckle decoction. The specific surface area of the mesoporous carbons with N-functional (MCN) was 648.372 m·g.

Methylated magnetic covalent organic framework for sample preparation and LC-MS/MS detection of 12 tadalafil analogs in dietary supplements.

Tadalafil analogs are often illegally added to dietary supplements such as herbal beverages, protein powders and tablet foods. Due to the complexity of the matrices, effective extraction of tadalafil analogs is the key to achieve accurate quantification. Therefore, it is of great significance to establish a rapid and effective method for the analytical determination of tadalafil analogs in complex matrices.

Predicting the compressive strength of high-performance concrete using an interpretable machine learning model.

Reliable predictions of concrete strength can reduce construction time and labor costs, providing strong support for building construction quality inspection. To enhance the accuracy of concrete strength prediction, this paper introduces an interpretable framework for machine learning (ML) models to predict the compressive strength of high-performance concrete (HPC). By leveraging information from a concrete dataset, an additional six features were added as inputs in the training process of the random forest (RF), AdaBoost, XGBoost and LightGBM models, and the optimal hyperparameters of the models were determined using 5-fold cross-validation and random search methods.

Aptamer-functionalized magnetic blade spray coupled with a nucleic acid dye-based mass tag strategy for miniature mass spectrometry analysis of endoglin.

Ambient ionization mass spectrometry (AIMS) allows rapid analysis of targets, while its overall selectivity is somewhat limited due to the lack of chromatographic separation. Recently, magnetic blade spray (MBS) has enhanced AIMS by incorporating immunomagnetic beads instead of the traditional coated blade spray (CBS) coating, thereby improving selectivity and sensitivity by targeted analyte detection and reducing background interference. In this study, an aptamer-functionalized and nucleic acid dye (GelRed)-loaded MS probe (AGMP) was developed and employed with MBS-based miniature mass spectrometer.

Research on motion target detection based on infrared biomimetic compound eye camera.

The cooled mid-wave infrared biomimetic compound eye camera has wide range of applications, such as industrial inspection, military project, and security. Due to the low resolution of individual eyes and the large field view of the imaging system, existing motion target enhancement and detection algorithms cannot effectively detect all potential targets. To address this issue, we propose an improved elementary motion detector model that combines a double-layer ON_OFF channel and a cross-type computational architecture, which is able to suppress a stationary background and enhance moving targets.

Method for Extracting Optical Element Information Using Optical Coherence Tomography.

This study examines the measurement of film thickness, curvature, and defects on the surface or inside of an optical element using a highly accurate and efficient method. This is essential to ensure their quality and performance. Existing methods are unable to simultaneously extract the three types of information: thickness, curvature, and defects.

Massive Point Cloud Processing for Efficient Construction Quality Inspection and Control.

The construction of large-scale civil infrastructures requires massive spatiotemporal data to support the management and control of scheduling, quality control, and safety monitoring. Existing artificial-intelligence-based data processing algorithms rely heavily on experienced engineers to adjust the parameters of data processing, which is inefficient and time-consuming when dealing with huge datasets. Limited studies have compared the performance of different algorithms on a unified dataset.

Black shank-mediated alteration of the community assembly of rhizosphere soil bacteria in tobacco.

Introduction: There is a close and complex interaction between the elements in the aboveground-underground ecosystem during the growth and development of plants. Specifically, when the aboveground part of plants is infected by pathogens, it induces the plant rhizosphere to synthesize specific root exudates. Consequently, a group of beneficial rhizosphere soil bacteria is recruited to help plants resist diseases.

Effect of electron beam irradiation treatment on microstructure, physicochemical properties, and bioactive content of areca nut.

Background: Electron beam irradiation treatment is a novel technology that uses low-dose ionizing radiation for the treatment of crops or food to enhance their quality. This study investigated the effects of electron beam irradiation on the microstructure, physicochemical properties, and bioactive compounds of areca nuts.

Results: As the irradiation dose increased, the cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin content in the areca nuts decreased significantly, whereas the polysaccharide and pectin content increased gradually.

Enhancing domain-specific text generation for power grid maintenance with P2FT.

The digitization of operation and maintenance in the intelligent power grid equipment relies on a diverse array of information for smart decision-making. In the domain of intelligent decision generation, proficiency is contingent upon extensive learning from copious amounts of text. This necessitates not only robust processing capabilities but also a high level of specialization.