Search Results (1,004)

Soil microbes play pivotal roles in nutrient cycling and ecosystem functioning across diverse farmland systems. Orchard grass coverage has been demonstrated to effectively alter microbial community structure and promote nutrient cycling. However, the effects of soybean intercropping on soil bacterial community characteristics and nutrient contents in citrus orchards remain poorly understood. In this study, a field experiment was conducted in a citrus orchard involving three planting patterns: clean tillage (CT), natural grass (NG), and soybean intercropping (SI). The physicochemical properties and bacterial community structure of the topsoil (0–40 cm depth) were determined. Results showed that compared with CT, NG and SI significantly increased cation exchange capacity (CEC), soil organic matter (SOM), alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen (AN), and available potassium (AK). SI further elevated soil pH and available phosphorus (AP) relative to CT and NG. Bacterial diversity ranked SI > NG > CT, with PCoA showing lower community variation under SI. A total of 31 bacterial phyla were detected in the citrus orchard soil, with Cyanobacteria (17.20~40.81%), Proteobacteria (15.04~24.19%), Acidobacteriota (8.95~14.66%), and Chloroflexi (3.93~21.13%) identified as the dominant phyla. SI enriched Cyanobacteria and Proteobacteria but reduced Acidobacteriota, Chloroflexi, and Actinobacteriota. Mantel tests confirmed CEC and SOM as key drivers of bacterial community structure. Overall, soybean intercropping improves soil microecology and exhibits great potential for soil quality improvement in citrus orchards under local conditions. Full article

The pancreas is an organ with two functions: endocrine and exocrine. The proper functioning of the pancreas depends on many factors. One of these is trace elements—precise control of trace element homeostasis is important for both the endocrine and exocrine parts. This review provides a comprehensive summary of current knowledge regarding the role of trace elements: iron (Fe), copper (Cu), cobalt (Co), iodine (I), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), silver (Ag), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), and selenium (Se) in pancreatic physiology and their influence on the pathogenesis of key diseases of this organ, such as diabetes (DM), acute (AP) and chronic pancreatitis (CP), autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP), and pancreatic cancer (PC). Trace elements, including Fe, Cu, Zn, Se, and Mn, play a fundamental role in maintaining endocrine and exocrine homeostasis, participating in insulin synthesis, stabilizing digestive enzymes, and the functioning of antioxidant systems. It has been demonstrated that disturbances in their concentrations lead to the activation of pathological molecular pathways, including oxidative stress, chronic inflammation, and beta-cell apoptosis. In the context of diabetes, excess Fe promotes ferroptosis, whilst exposure to heavy metals such as Cd, Pb, and Hg induces insulin resistance and pancreatic islet dysfunction. In the course of pancreatitis, elements such as Zn and Se exhibit protective potential by stabilizing tissue barriers, whereas toxic metals impair ion transport, exacerbating fibrotic processes. Furthermore, analysis of available data indicates a significant association between heavy metal accumulation and pancreatic carcinogenesis, driven by DNA damage and oncogene modulation. Understanding pancreatic metallomics opens new prospects for early diagnosis, environmental prevention, and the development of targeted therapeutic strategies that restore the body’s micronutrient balance. Full article

Epidermal hyperinnervation is a major cause of intractable itch in barrier dysfunction conditions such as atopic dermatitis. Keratinocyte-derived semaphorin 3A (Sema3A) suppresses epidermal hyperinnervation, but its expression is markedly reduced in barrier-disrupted skin. Although konjac ceramide (kCer) has been reported to act as a Sema3A-like ligand, the mechanisms by which it regulates Sema3A expression in keratinocytes remain unclear. Normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEKs) were treated with kCer, konjac glucosylceramide (kGlcCer), or C24 ceramide. Sema3A mRNA and protein levels were assessed by quantitative real-time PCR and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively. The involvement of intracellular signaling was examined using mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) inhibitors, activator protein-1 (AP-1) inhibitors, retinoic acid-related orphan receptor alpha (RORα) inverse agonists, and siRNAs targeting c-Jun, c-Fos, and RORα. kCer induced Sema3A expression in NHEKs more potently than kGlcCer or C24 ceramide and promoted Sema3A protein secretion. Pharmacological inhibition or genetic knockdown of MEK1/2, JNK, AP-1 components, or RORα significantly attenuated kCer-induced Sema3A expression, indicating involvement of the MAPK/AP-1 signaling axis and RORα. kCer upregulates Sema3A expression in human keratinocytes through MAPK/AP-1 signaling and RORα, suggesting it may represent a promising antipruritic agent for epidermal hyperinnervation associated with skin barrier dysfunction. Full article

The Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, is a major insect pest of potatoes. Our previous studies have demonstrated that two cytochrome P450 monooxygenase (P450s) genes, CYP9Z140 and CYP9AY1, and a uridine diphosphate–glycosyltransferase (UGT) gene, UGT321AP1, play important roles in thiamethoxam resistance to L. decemlineata. However, the related upstream regulatory mechanism remains unclear. In this study, we first monitored the resistance of L. decemlineata field populations to thiamethoxam in Xinjiang to determine the resistance ratios. The predicted results demonstrated that four transcription factors (TFs), CncC/Maf, Abd-B, FoxO, and Ptx1, may bind to the core regions of three gene promoters. The qRT-PCR results revealed that the TFs were significantly upregulated by thiamethoxam and exhibited specific spatiotemporal expression patterns. Dual-luciferase reporter assays indicated that the CncC pathway could regulate the expression of three detoxification genes, whereas Abd-B and FoxO only regulate CYP9Z140 and UGT321AP1 expressions, respectively. Ptx1 could regulate the expression of both CYP9AY1 and UGT321AP1. Furthermore, knockdown of several TFs through RNA interference significantly reduced expression of the corresponding detoxification genes, consistent with the dual-luciferase reporter assay results, and increased the thiamethoxam susceptibility of test adults. These findings aid in gaining a deeper understanding of the transcriptional regulation mechanisms of insecticide resistance in insects. Full article

Down quality is the core evaluation indicator of thermal insulation products, and its grade determination strictly complies with the down content index specified in the national standard GB/T 17685-2016 Feather and Down. Traditional down quality inspection adopts manual sorting and weighing methods, which are plagued by low efficiency, strong subjectivity and high error rates, thereby restricting the intelligent upgrading of the down industry. This study aims to develop an automatic down detection and quantitative grading method conforming to national standards based on deep learning. A down dataset consisting of 632 RGB images is constructed, with each image containing 5–10 individual down samples and covering five categories: mature down clusters, immature down clusters, down filaments, feathers, and yellow-tail down. Three mainstream frameworks including YOLOv8, YOLOv11 and YOLOv26 are trained for performance comparison. Precision, recall, mAP@50 and mAP@50-95 are adopted as evaluation metrics. In addition, this paper proposes a research idea for down content calculation and automatic classification and grading of down quality in accordance with relevant national standards. The experimental results demonstrate that the latest models do not necessarily achieve the optimal performance. The newly released YOLOv26n and YOLOv26m exhibit relatively low accuracy in the down detection task, with mAP@50 values of only 0.98556 and 0.99077, and recall rates of 0.95032 and 0.97848, respectively, failing to outperform their previous-generation counterparts. In contrast, YOLOv11n achieves the best comprehensive performance, with an mAP@50 of 0.99416, a precision of 0.99544, a recall of 0.99722, and an mAP@50-95 of 0.63464. Meanwhile, the model has only 2.58 M parameters, a computational complexity of 6.3 GFLOPs, and a single training time of approximately 6.7 min, achieving an optimal balance between detection accuracy and computational efficiency. All models show the highest detection accuracy for mature down clusters and yellow-tailed down, while slight confusion exists between immature down clusters and down filaments. This study verifies the feasibility of the YOLO series models in down quality inspection in accordance with national standards, and reveals that model architecture iteration does not necessarily lead to performance improvement on specific industrial datasets. The lightweight and robustly designed YOLOv11n presents greater practical value. The intelligent detection scheme proposed in this paper can assist in optimizing the traditional manual quality inspection workflow, alleviating the burden of manual counting and reducing subjective errors. It provides new ideas and technical references for the rapid screening and objective determination of down quality. Furthermore, the proposed research framework for automatic classification and grading of down quality is expected to promote the development of down quality inspection toward standardization, intelligence, and automation in the future. Full article

Generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP) is a rare, severe, and potentially life-threatening inflammatory dermatosis increasingly recognized as a distinct disease entity rather than a variant of plaque psoriasis. Emerging evidence indicates that GPP is primarily driven by dysregulation of the interleukin-36 (IL-36) signaling axis, leading to amplification of proinflammatory cascades in keratinocytes and a predominantly innate, neutrophil-driven immune response. This promotes rapid neutrophil recruitment, sterile pustule formation, and abrupt cutaneous and systemic inflammation. Consistent with this, GPP demonstrates a greater predominance of innate immune and neutrophil-driven inflammation, whereas plaque psoriasis is more strongly associated with IL-23/Th17-mediated adaptive immune responses. Transcriptomic and genetic studies further support this distinction, demonstrating enrichment of IL-36-associated and neutrophil-related signatures, activation of MyD88-dependent pathways, and mutations in genes regulating the IL-36 axis, including IL36RN, AP1S3, and CARD14. Consequently, conventional systemic therapies and biologics targeting TNF-α, IL-17, and IL-23 pathways show variable efficacy and may act more slowly in GPP. In contrast, IL-36 receptor inhibitors represent a more mechanism-aligned approach and have demonstrated rapid and clinically meaningful responses in acute flares. However, important gaps remain, including the lack of validated biomarkers and limited data on long-term treatment outcomes. This review provides an integrated perspective on IL-36-driven inflammation in GPP, including comparison with plaque psoriasis, and outlines its implications for mechanism-based therapeutic approaches. Full article

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a severe inflammatory disorder with limited therapeutic options. Novel bile acids have emerged as potent immunomodulators, but the function of norcholic acid (NorCA) previously remained unknown. In this study, we identified NorCA’s role as a novel immunomodulator that alleviates acute pancreatitis through peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα)-mediated macrophage reprogramming and efferocytosis. Targeted metabolomics was performed on serum from patients with AP and caerulein-induced AP mice. The functional role and mechanism of NorCA were investigated using flow cytometry, immunofluorescence, efferocytosis assays, and network pharmacology, both in vitro and in vivo. Our findings indicate that NorCA levels were significantly elevated in both patients and mice with AP, correlating with disease severity and complications. NorCA treatment markedly reduced serum amylase/lipase and pancreatic histopathological damage in AP mice. Mechanistically, NorCA promoted M1-to-M2 macrophage reprogramming and enhanced efferocytosis of apoptotic cells. These effects were dependent on PPARα activation, as demonstrated by siRNA silencing and pharmacological antagonism. These findings position NorCA as a promising therapeutic candidate and severity-associated metabolite in AP. Full article

Background/Objectives: Tumor suppressor genes are often inactivated by genetic and epigenetic mechanisms. However, whether genetic alterations of these genes, including CDKN2A/P16, are coupled with epigenetic changes in cancer development and progression is unknown. Methods: Freshly frozen gastric carcinoma (GC) samples, paired noncancer surgical margin (SM) samples, white blood cell (WBC) samples, and clinicopathological information were collected from 200 patients. The copy number (CN) of the CDKN2A/P16 gene in these samples was determined by a P16-Light assay and normalized to that in white blood cells (WBCs). The DNA methylation level of the P16 promoter in GC and SM samples was determined by a 115 bp P16-specific MethyLight assay. Results: Both the P16 copy number and the DNA methylation level were significantly lower in GC samples than in SM samples (median, 1.94 vs. 2.14, p < 0.001 for P16 CN; 0.0004 vs. 0.0013, p = 0.002 for P16 methylation) and were associated with GC metastasis. The normalized P16 copy number was significantly lower in GCs without vs. with P16 methylation (p = 0.007). Similarly, more P16 somatic copy number deletions (SCNdel) were detected in GCs without vs. with P16 methylation (38.6% vs. 24.1%, p = 0.027). Conclusions: Somatic P16 copy number variations are closely coupled with P16 promoter DNA methylation during GC development. SCNdel and promoter DNA methylation complementarily inactivate P16 in GC development and promote GC metastasis. Full article

Root knot nematodes (RKNs) induce galls, containing multinucleated giant cells (GCs) to nourish them. The differentiation of precursor cells to galls/GCs involves extensive cellular reprogramming with multiple layers of regulation. Epigenetic regulation during the early stages of infection indicates that RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) and microRNA-dependent gene silencing contribute to transcriptional and post-transcriptional reprogramming during gall organogenesis. Although later stages of galls/GC development are crucial for nematode life-cycle maintenance, epigenetic reprogramming events remain largely unexplored. An integrative analysis of sRNAs, DNA methylation, and transcriptomic dynamics in galls induced by Meloidogyne javanica revealed that enrichment of 24 nt sRNAs represents a gall hallmark across early and late developmental stages. Fewer gall-distinctive sRNAs were detected at mid-to-late stages than at early stages, alongside a pronounced spatial reorganization of rasiRNA accumulation. At early stages, gall-distinctive rasiRNAs preferentially accumulated in pericentromeric retrotransposon-rich regions, whereas, at mid-to-late stages, they predominantly localized to chromosome arms, matching DNA transposons, promoters, and gene bodies. A decline in the regulatory influence of miRNAs was observed as infection progressed, possibly reflecting a transition toward specialized regulatory states associated with gall maintenance. Moreover, three regulatory modules, miR2111-5p/HOLT, miR172/AP2, and miR156/SPL10, were tightly but oppositely regulated at 3 and 14 days post-infection. Furthermore, miR156/SPL10 showed crucial functions during gall formation and/or maintenance, possibly influenced by hormonal cues involving ARF8 among other ARFs. Our results highlight stage-specific patterns involving sRNA dynamics, DNA methylation, and transcriptomic changes underlying nematode feeding site development and maintenance. Full article

Reclaiming saline–alkaline soil is critical for food security and land expansion. While paddy rice is the key pioneer crop for remediation, the soil fertility–yield relationship remains poorly understood. To optimize remediation strategies, this study evaluated soil fertility under 16 agronomic treatments—integrating irrigation quality, fertilizer regimes, and soil amendments—across three rice growth stages (tillering, heading, and maturity) in the Yellow River Delta using the minimum data set (MDS), integrated soil fertility index (SFI), and random forest models. Saline water irrigation increased soil salinity by 24.6%, while straw returning and desulfurization gypsum reduced salinity by 18.3% and 22.7%, respectively. Straw, biochar, and desulfurization gypsum significantly influenced soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), inorganic nitrogen (NH₄⁺-N, NO₃⁻-N), and available phosphorus (AP), with effects varying across growth stages. Growth-stage-specific MDS indicators were significantly correlated with SFI based on the total data set (R² = 0.70, 0.65, and 0.81, p < 0.01), and stage-specific SFI was significantly positively related to rice yield. Notably, heading-stage SFI, although relatively low, explained the highest yield variance (R² = 0.51, p < 0.01) and prediction accuracy (%IncMSE = 25.22), especially under conventional NPK combined with full straw incorporation and desulfurization gypsum. These findings highlight the critical role of heading-stage soil fertility in regulating rice production, providing a targeted nutrient management blueprint for saline–alkaline paddy fields in the Yellow River Delta. Overall, this study offers a reliable scientific template to enhance yield and promote sustainable agriculture in comparable saline–alkaline paddy fields globally. Full article

Skin wound healing is a complex and highly coordinated biological process involving inflammation, cell migration and proliferation, angiogenesis, extracellular matrix remodeling and tissue regeneration. While the zebrafish-derived antimicrobial peptide AP10W exhibits broad-spectrum antimicrobial properties, its potential in tissue repair remains unexplored. Herein, we demonstrate that AP10W possesses intrinsic wound-healing capabilities, providing a preliminary investigation into its underlying mechanisms. In this study, using a full-thickness murine wound model and in vitro cell-based assays to evaluate the effects of AP10W on fibroblasts, keratinocytes, endothelial cells, and macrophages, we found that AP10W significantly promoted fibroblast and keratinocyte migration and proliferation. Furthermore, it enhanced endothelial cell motility, survival, and tube formation, while upregulating key pro-angiogenic factors, including Vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA), Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), and Fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2). Concurrently, AP10W drove macrophage reprogramming from a pro-inflammatory M1 phenotype toward a pro-healing M2 state, as evidenced by upregulated Arginase-1 (Arg-1) and Interleukin-10 (Il-10) expression, alongside attenuated Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (Tnf-α), Interleukin-1 beta (Il-1β), Interleukin-6 (Il-6), and Inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) levels. In vivo, the topical application of AP10W accelerated wound closure, markedly improving re-epithelialization, collagen deposition, vascularization, tissue perfusion, and skin appendage regeneration. Preliminary mechanistic studies revealed that AP10W increased YAP expression and nuclear translocation; conversely, the pharmacological inhibition of YAP significantly abrogated these pro-healing effects. Collectively, our findings identify AP10W as a multifunctional peptide with potent wound-healing properties, positioning it as a promising candidate for wound therapy. Full article

In the field of smart plant protection, accurate early monitoring of winged aphids is critical, as it enables the interruption of viral disease transmission and reduces dependence on pesticides. In response to the core challenges of low efficiency in manual counting associated with current sticky trap-based monitoring, as well as the insufficient recognition accuracy and poor robustness of computer vision models in dense small-target scenarios, this study aims to develop a high-precision, highly reliable automated identification method for winged aphids. To achieve this, a specialized detection model named PCSNet is proposed. Based on YOLOv12, this model innovatively incorporates a coordinate attention mechanism to enhance the perception of spatial structures for small targets. Simultaneously, a shallow feature enhancement branch (SFEB) is introduced to enrich detailed information, and the Normalized Wasserstein Distance loss function is integrated to optimize bounding box regression. Comparative experiments conducted on a self-constructed dataset of sticky trap images encompassing complex field backgrounds demonstrate that the PCSNet model achieves optimal detection performance, with a mean average precision (mAP) of 0.791 and a precision of 0.866, significantly outperforming mainstream detection models and various attention mechanism variants. This research provides an effective technical solution for constructing a real-time and automated intelligent pest monitoring system, offering substantial application value for advancing the intelligent transformation of pest and disease monitoring and promoting practices in green prevention and control. Full article

Continuous cropping obstacles represent a major constraint in agricultural production, yet the underlying microbial mechanisms remain incompletely understood. This study systematically compared soil physicochemical properties, microbial diversity, community composition, and nutrient-microbe relationships between continuous cropping (CC) and non-continuous cropping (CK) celery rhizospheres using high-throughput sequencing, soil physicochemical analysis, and Mantel tests. The results revealed that CC soils exhibited severe depletion of available potassium (AK, 69.9% decreased) and alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen (AN, 65.9% decreased), accompanied by a modest but statistically significant accumulation of total phosphorus (TP, 8.0% increased). Strikingly, bacterial and fungal communities displayed diametrically opposed diversity responses: CC significantly reduced bacterial α-diversity (Shannon: 5.66 vs. 6.67, p < 0.01) and richness (ACE: 2018 vs. 2623, p < 0.01), whereas fungal diversity and richness more than doubled under CC (ACE: 619 vs. 296, p < 0.01; Shannon: 4.13 vs. 3.34, p < 0.01). β-diversity analyses (NMDS and ANOSIM) confirmed fundamental community restructuring in CC soils for both microbial domains. At the taxonomic level, CC soils showed significant depletion of beneficial plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), including Bacillus (↓89.3%), Mesobacillus (↓72.8%), and Pseudomonas (↓30.8%), coupled with dramatic enrichment of the phytopathogenic genus Fusarium (10.9-fold increase, 8.81% vs. 0.81%, p < 0.001). LEfSe analysis identified Fusarium, Arrhenia, and Mortierella as specific biomarkers of CC soils, whereas Bacillus, Mesobacillus, Cladosporium, and Alternaria were biomarkers of CK soils. Mantel tests further revealed that CC significantly altered nutrient-microbe coupling relationships, with bacterial communities significantly correlated with TP, AN, and OC, and fungal communities with TP, TK, AP, and AN. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that continuous celery cropping shifts the rhizosphere microbiome from a bacterial-dominated profile associated with beneficial taxa (e.g., Bacillus, Pseudomonas) toward a fungal-enriched profile dominated by the pathogen Fusarium, suggesting a potential transition from a putatively disease-suppressive to a disease-conducive microbial state. Full article

Improving animal welfare through standardized management protocols remains a key challenge in intensive pig production. Auditory enrichment, such as music, represents a promising non-invasive strategy, yet its application is often empirical, lacking mechanistic understanding and objective assessment tools. This study investigated growing pigs’ active preferences for structured musical parameters to establish a precision auditory enrichment framework. Seventy-two crossbred pigs were subjected to a free-choice paradigm under simulated farm conditions, with a 2 × 2 factorial design manipulating musical stimulus type (a guqin string piece vs. a Mozart wind excerpt) and tempo (fast: 200 bpm vs. slow: 65 bpm) was continuously quantified using an enhanced YOLOv11-based automated recognition system (mean average precision mAP₅₀: 90.5% ± 1.5%). Results revealed highly parameter-dependent effects: the slow-tempo GS stimulus and the fast-tempo MF stimulus significantly prolonged occupancy time (p < 0.01) and elicited distinct profiles. The GS stimulus promoted a calm, investigative state, increasing lying, exploration, and drinking time (p < 0.05), while the MF stimulus stimulated an active playful state, characterized by increased walking and playing (p < 0.05). Other musical combinations showed negligible effects, whereas noise exposure consistently triggered stress-related responses. This study establishes an integrated “parametric design → automated assessment → specific output” methodology for precision auditory enrichment, providing an empirical basis for evidence-based acoustic protocols in commercial pig production. Full article

This study investigates how processing parameters and powder characteristics influence the mechanical performance of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) applied to a Ti-6Al-4V alloy. Two TBCs were deposited by Atmospheric Plasma Spray (APS) using different processing conditions, feedstock characteristics, and coating thicknesses (thin and thick configurations). TBC characterization included powder size analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), surface roughness, X-ray diffraction, instrumented indentation, and scratch testing. Mechanical behavior was assessed using creep testing at 125 MPa and 500 °C for coated and uncoated samples. Fracture surfaces of crept samples were analyzed by SEM and stereomicroscopy. Thicker TBC exhibited higher elastic modulus but contained microcracks and higher porosity, resulting in a higher steady-state creep rate (0.0006 h⁻¹, approximately 167% above the uncoated substrate) and reduced rupture time. Conversely, thinner TBC remained initially crack-free, promoting stress redistribution and leading to a lower creep rate (0.0002 h⁻¹, about 67% below the substrate) and delayed failure. Fractographic analysis revealed ductile fracture of Ti-6Al-4V in all conditions, indicating that coatings influenced damage accumulation rather than fracture mode. These findings underscore the combined effect of processing parameters and coating architecture on TBC performance for aerospace applications. Full article