Search Results (7,019)

Hippophae gyantsensis Lian is an important native tree species in the “One River, Two Streams” valley of Tibet, valued for its ecological restoration potential and nutrient-rich fruits. However, this species has several limitations, including a long fruiting cycle (3–5 years to flowering and 10–15 years to reach peak fruit production), small fruit size, and numerous branch thorns. These traits hinder large-scale cultivation and mechanized harvesting, creating an urgent need for improved varieties with larger fruit and higher yield. In this study, we established an efficient Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation system for H. gyantsensis using hypocotyls as explants. Under optimized conditions (OD₆₀₀ = 0.5, AS = 200 μmol/L, infection time = 15 min), the transformation efficiency reached 36.67% (calculated as the number of PCR-positive plants divided by the total number of explants initially inoculated with Agrobacterium). A rooting rate of 12.5% was achieved using 100 mg/L rooting powder (ABT1) for 40 min, resulting in an overall success rate of approximately 4–5%. Furthermore, we identified and cloned two fruit-size-related genes, Hgfw2.2 and Hgfw3.2, from H. gyantsensis. Heterologous expression of Hgfw2.2 and Hgfw3.2 in tomato decreased and increased fruit size, respectively, consistent with their regulatory roles in fruit development. Given the positive regulatory effect of Hgfw3.2, this gene was further transformed into H. gyantsensis. This study represents the first report of a stable genetic transformation platform for H. gyantsensis, providing a robust technical foundation for future molecular breeding and the development of improved, large-fruited varieties. Full article

Background: Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) vectors are highly immunogenic vaccine platforms for the delivery of recombinant antigens. Efficient downstream processing is still challenging, particularly because substantial fractions of the virus remain intracellular. While chemical cell lysis that releases MVA particles into the supernatant before clarification can greatly enhance process efficiency and scalability, this step remains insufficiently characterized. Methods: This study assessed the compatibility of ionic, non-ionic, and zwitterionic detergents with the virus as purification target. Polysorbate 20 (Tween 20) was selected as a candidate detergent and evaluated across harvest times of 48–72 h post-infection (hpi) at concentrations of 0.01–0.5% (v/v). Results: The addition of 0.01% to 0.05% Tween 20 at 48 hpi resulted in a twofold increase in supernatant virus within one hour of application. Extended exposure to Tween 20, combined with a 650 mM mixture of NaCl, NaBr, and KCl, promoted virus particle release. However, Tween 20 concentrations above 0.1% reduced MVA infectivity. A filtration cascade using pore sizes of 5 µm and 1.2 µm achieved product yields of 77–83% at 48 hpi and 41–69% at 72 hpi, respectively. Host-cell DNA is an important contaminant during viral vector processing. However, the application of 0.05% (v/v) Tween 20 resulted in a 35% reduction of dsDNA released into the culture supernatant; the nuclei could not be preserved intact under high-salt conditions to avoid the release of cellular DNA. Conclusions: In summary, this comprehensive data demonstrated that non-ionic detergents can be used to induce cell lysis while maintaining infectious activity of enveloped MVA. Full article

Against the backdrop of increasingly stringent natural forest protection and comprehensive logging bans, forest-dependent regions confront structural constraints between ecological conservation and economic development, necessitating the exploration of alternative livelihood pathways and collaborative governance mechanisms. As a cross-regional institutional synergy arrangement, the “Poverty-Relief Enclave” model integrates factor resources and industrial platforms, thereby offering a new trajectory for income source transformation and industrial succession in forest areas. However, its operational process entails multi-agent interactions and complex incentive and constraint relationships, and the stability of cooperation still warrants systematic investigation. In light of this, this paper constructs a quadripartite evolutionary game model encompassing the host government, the home government, the forest region industrial alliance, and the village collective. Within a bounded rationality and dynamic evolutionary framework, it analyzes the multi-agent strategic evolution process and its stability conditions. The findings reveal that the “Poverty-Relief Enclave” model in forest regions does not spontaneously converge to a high-level cooperative state; rather, three types of stable equilibria may emerge under varying cost–benefit structures and institutional incentives. An ideal state of multi-agent synergy is attainable only under conditions of incentive compatibility. Coordinated supervision by both governments, incentives for high-quality production by industrial entities, and guaranteed participation of village collectives are identified as pivotal factors shaping cooperation stability. The cross-regional institutional arrangement facilitating the “outward shift of income sources” helps alleviate pressure on direct forest resource utilization and fortifies the institutional enforcement foundation through grassroots participation mechanisms. From the perspectives of forest governance and multi-agent collaboration, this study unveils the intrinsic operating mechanism of the “Poverty-Relief Enclave” model in forest regions, thereby furnishing a theoretical underpinning for sustainable transformation and institutional innovation in forest-dependent areas. Full article

Hypertrophic scars are characterized by excessive collagen deposition, fibrotic remodeling, and functional impairment. However, the ability of current models is limited in recapitulating human pathology. This study presents a novel approach using induced pluripotent stem cell-derived scar organoids to model hypertrophic scar characteristics in vitro. Following established protocols, human pluripotent stem cells were differentiated into skin organoids and induced fibrotic transformation by treatment with TGF-β1 (10 ng/mL) and hypoxia (5% O₂) from day 45 onward. Scar organoids exhibited significant contraction and increased collagen I deposition compared with skin organoids. Immunofluorescence analysis showed reduced LHX2 expression, indicating loss of hair follicle development, while collagen I expression was significantly elevated. Dark-field imaging revealed marked morphological divergence between skin and scar organoids. RNA sequencing revealed distinct transcriptomic profiles. Expression of hair follicle-associated gene families (KRT and KRTAP) was upregulated in scar organoids, whereas epidermal structure-related genes (KRT4, KRT7, CLDN7, and WNT7) were downregulated. These findings demonstrate that iPSC-derived scar organoids successfully recapitulate key features of human hypertrophic scars, including excessive collagen production, loss of skin appendage development, and contractile behavior. This platform offers potential for future applications in drug screening, precision medicine, and understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying scar formation. Full article

The objectives of this study are to examine the direct relationships among perceived ethics, perceived sustainability, customer trust, customer engagement, and customer loyalty; and to investigate the mediating roles of customer trust and customer engagement in explaining the relationship between ethical and sustainability perceptions and customer loyalty. Using the Stimulus–Organism–Response (SOR) framework and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as theoretical foundations, this research examines how ethical and sustainability perceptions within social commerce environments influence customers’ psychological states and behavioral responses. A quantitative approach was used, involving data collection from 360 Thai consumers who had previously bought sustainable fashion items through social media. The proposed model was then evaluated using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results suggest that consumers’ evaluations of seller ethics significantly enhance their perceptions of product sustainability, customer trust, and engagement. Furthermore, perceived sustainability of fashion products affects both trust and engagement. Customer trust subsequently promotes both engagement and loyalty; however, customer engagement exhibits the most substantial direct effect on customer loyalty. Mediation analysis confirms the essential functions of trust and engagement in mediating the impacts of ethical and sustainability perceptions on loyalty. These findings highlight the importance of ethical transparency and proactive customer engagement in fostering trust and long-term customer loyalty within social media-based sustainable fashion commerce. Therefore. This study provides both theoretical and practical insights for sustainable fashion enterprises functioning within digital contexts. Full article

A TiO₂/hydrazine system was investigated as a proof-of-concept platform for coupling chemical CO₂ capture with light-driven H₂ evolution under UV irradiation. Hydrazine served as the CO₂ capture agent, leading to the formation of carbamate-type intermediates, while TiO₂ acted as the photoresponsive solid. FT-IR, UV-Vis, and mass spectrometry analyses supported carbamate formation after CO₂ uptake and confirmed H₂ generation during irradiation, reaching a maximum of 33.2 μmol under the conditions evaluated. Deuterated experiments showed no detectable HD or D₂, indicating that H₂ evolution predominantly proceeded via hydrazine dehydrogenation rather than direct water splitting. On the basis of the available spectroscopic evidence, a tentative pathway involving carbamate intermediates and nitrogen-containing oxidation products is proposed. However, key control experiments required to confirm a strictly photocatalytic origin of H₂ evolution were not performed in the present exploratory study. Therefore, the observed behavior is more appropriately interpreted as preliminary photoinduced reactivity in a TiO₂/hydrazine/CO₂ system rather than definitive proof of a fully established photocatalytic mechanism. Overall, the results establish a preliminary proof of concept, while the limitations related to control experiments, product identification, quantification, and reproducibility are recognized. Full article

Protected horticulture moves fragile pots, plug trays, seedlings, harvested products, and carriers through narrow, humid, and crowded spaces. Transport robots must therefore integrate locomotion, perception, localization, handling, placement, scheduling, and human–robot interaction rather than operate as simple carts. This structured narrative review reorganizes evidence from seedling transplanting, nursery operations, harvest support, manipulation, perception, and autonomous navigation around the complete transport chain: target recognition, pickup, loading, loaded navigation, docking, unloading or placement, payload protection, and workflow feedback. The synthesis covers mobile platforms, payload support, perception and localization, motion control, gentle handling, digital support, and fleet coordination. Three barriers remain: short laboratory tests rarely provide season-long evidence; many prototypes are too specialized for variable workflows; and benchmarks seldom combine motion accuracy, handling reliability, payload quality, and resilience. Progress will require modular platforms, robust sensing, payload-safe control, standardized interfaces, and closer co-design between robotics and horticultural operations. Full article

With colorectal cancer (CRC) accounting for over 1.9 million new cases and 930,000 deaths globally in 2020, there is a critical need for innovative indicators to forecast disease advancement and therapeutic outcomes. The gut microbiome has emerged as a fertile area for discovering such diagnostic and prognostic signals. This narrative review collected current evidence on intestinal microorganisms and their metabolic products as candidate markers for CRC control. Intestinal communities influence malignancy through diverse mechanisms, including metabolic shifts, immune modulation, inflammation, proliferation/apoptosis regulation, genotoxicity, and mucosal barrier disruption. Pathogenic species, such as Fusobacterium nucleatum and enterotoxigenic Bacteroides fragilis, facilitate tumorigenesis via FadA-mediated signaling and Th17/IL-17 responses. In contrast, beneficial taxa like Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Akkermansia muciniphila provide protective effects through short chain fatty acid production. Macrophage phenotype physiological equilibrium is altered and inflammatory status fluctuates under the former. Metabolically, hydrogen sulfide damages mitochondrial DNA and secondary bile acids stimulate cellular proliferation. While 16S rRNA sequencing and shotgun metagenomics are established detection strategies, innovative platforms like organoids and gene arrays remain in the exploratory stage. Clinical data indicates that F. nucleatum aligns with advanced tumor stage, and its combined detection with colibactin-producing E. coli achieves high sensitivity for early-stage screening. Additionally, A. muciniphila levels can anticipate the efficacy of PD-1 blockade immunotherapy. Microbiota-derived tools represent a transformative direction in oncology. Future research must focus on standardizing protocols and validating multi-marker panels to enhance clinical translation. Full article

Chloroplasts are the primary sites of photosynthesis, but growing evidence highlights their broader role as central hubs that coordinate plant responses to environmental challenges. They retain a semi-autonomous genetic system and communicate extensively with the nucleus through anterograde and retrograde signalling pathways, enabling coordinated cellular regulation. Beyond energy conversion, chloroplasts host key biosynthetic pathways and dynamically adjust their metabolic and redox states in response to developmental and environmental cues. This review summarizes the current knowledge of chloroplast functions in response to abiotic and biotic stresses, emphasizing their contribution to plant resilience, productivity and sustainability. Under abiotic stress, chloroplasts undergo structural, metabolic and redox reprogramming to maintain photosynthetic efficiency and metabolic homeostasis. During biotic stress, they act as a powerful signalling platform that integrates immune responses with metabolic and redox regulation. These functions rely on overlapping signalling pathways that are differentially tuned to support acclimation or defence. By coordinating stress responses with photosynthetic activity and metabolic efficiency, chloroplasts play a central role in sustaining plant productivity and represent promising targets for enhancing crop resilience and agricultural sustainability under climate change and increasing pathogen pressure. Full article

Neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), Huntington’s disease (HD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), arise from highly interconnected molecular and cellular abnormalities that progressively lead to neuronal dysfunction, synaptic failure, and cell death. This review provides a unified framework to understand the interrelated molecular mechanisms driving these diseases, with a focus on identifying key disease-specific intervention nodes. Core contributors include oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, protein aggregation, neuroinflammation, and emerging roles of peroxisomal dysfunction in redox imbalance, lipid dysregulation, and inflammatory amplification. Single-target therapies often show limited efficacy due to the complex, interconnected nature of these pathways. In contrast, polypharmacology, which targets multiple disease-relevant mechanisms simultaneously, offers a more promising therapeutic strategy. This review critically examines how pathway crosstalk drives neurodegenerative progression, with particular emphasis on mitochondrial–ROS–inflammatory signaling, aggregation–proteostasis failure, synaptic–neuroimmune dysfunction, and gut–brain communication. It evaluates various multi-node intervention strategies, including multi-target-directed ligands (MTDLs), molecular hybrids, natural products, drug repurposing, and nanocarrier-based delivery systems. Advances in network pharmacology, artificial intelligence (AI), bioinformatics, and multi-omics have enhanced the identification of actionable therapeutic nodes, candidate compounds, and brain-targeted delivery platforms. Notably, the NOD-like receptor pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome and cyclic GMP–AMP synthase (cGAS)—stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathways—play distinct roles in neuroinflammation, amplifying neuronal damage by releasing inflammatory cytokines and inducing mitochondrial dysfunction. However, successful translation into clinical practice remains constrained by challenges such as blood–brain barrier penetration, patient heterogeneity, and biomarker limitations. The review advocates for a shift towards mechanism-informed, patient-stratified polypharmacological strategies to better address the network pathology of neurodegeneration, despite significant translational hurdles. Full article

To address the need for dynamic and static parameter testing of IGBT modules, an integrated test platform was developed. In production-line applications, consistency differences in key parameters between the upper and lower bridge arms of manufactured modules were found to be difficult to quantify using a single metric. To overcome this limitation, a multi-parameter consistency evaluation method was proposed. Based on more than 400 sets of production-level measurements obtained from newly manufactured IGBT modules from the same batch, eight key parameters, including E_on, E_off, dv/dt, di/dt, V_CES, I_CES, V_GEth and I_GES, were selected to construct paired samples of the upper and lower bridge arms. A dimensionless consistency index (CI) was introduced to quantify relative deviations between bridge arms, and consistency characteristics were analyzed using raw-parameter boxplots, CI boxplots, and paired scatter plots in terms of distribution, discrepancy quantification, and sample-wise pairing. The results show that different parameters exhibit different levels of distributional difference and relative deviation between the two bridge arms under identical test conditions, and that the three analyses reveal mutually consistent trends. The proposed method provides an effective basis for within-batch quality assessment, bridge-arm matching, abnormal sample identification, and production process troubleshooting. Full article

As the “fifth major factor of production,” data plays a crucial role in fostering China’s tourism industry, advancing high-quality economic development, and gaining competitive market advantages. Serving as institutional infrastructure for data factor rights confirmation, pricing, trading, and value conversion, data trading platforms are central to the market-based allocation of data factors. The efficient flow and value realization of data elements have paved the way for the rapid development of digital tourism; new forms of digital tourism represent a profound transformation of the industry resulting from integration and innovation with other sectors. Based on the platform ecosystem theory, we select the panel data of 297 Chinese cities from 2012 to 2024 and innovatively use the Double/Debiased Machine Learning (DDML) model to empirically test the impact of data trading platforms on the new forms of digital tourism and its mechanisms. It is found that the construction of data trading platforms effectively empowers the development of new forms of digital tourism, and this conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests, such as changing the sample split ratio, replacing the machine learning algorithm, and the instrumental variables method. Mechanism analysis indicates that data trading platforms significantly promote new forms of digital tourism through dual pathways of talent agglomeration and technological innovation, an effect further strengthened by increased government support. Heterogeneity analysis found that the empowerment effect is more significant in cities with lower resource endowment and common administrative level and historical cities, which can be effectively transformed into an employment support effect. Spatial effect analysis reveals that the establishment of data trading platforms exerts a positive pull effect on new forms of tourism in surrounding cities within a 30 km core zone. However, this effect gradually weakens with increasing distance, turning into a significant negative siphon effect beyond 60 km. The findings provide theoretical basis and empirical support for regionally differentiated digital tourism development policies. Full article

This review summarizes mechanisms regulating mRNA translation under cellular stress and highlights design strategies to improve translation efficiency and stability in the gene therapy of human diseases. mRNA-based therapeutics are emerging as a versatile gene therapy platform enabling transient and controllable expression of therapeutic proteins for the treatment of cancer, genetic disorders, and inflammatory diseases. The efficacy of mRNA-based gene therapy is strongly influenced by sequence design, chemical modifications, and structural features. Evidence shows that rational mRNA engineering can significantly enhance translation efficiency even under stress conditions that impair canonical protein synthesis, as observed in many pathological states. Cellular stress activates regulatory pathways that suppress global translation; however, optimized mRNA constructs can partially bypass these inhibitory mechanisms, enabling sustained protein expression. By improving mRNA stability and resistance to stress-responsive translational control, robust therapeutic protein production can be achieved even in challenging cellular environments. This article was prepared as a narrative review focused on translational regulation mechanisms relevant to therapeutic mRNA design under cellular stress conditions. Literature was collected from PubMed, Google Scholar, and Web of Science using keywords including “mRNA therapeutics,” “cellular stress,” “translation regulation,” “UTR engineering,” and “cap-independent translation.” Studies published mainly between 2010 and 2025 were considered. Original articles and reviews related to stress-responsive translation and therapeutic mRNA optimization were included, while studies outside the scope of translational control and mRNA engineering were excluded. Priority was given to recent and mechanistically relevant publications. Full article

Background: Live-attenuated Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) vectors are a clinically validated cancer immunotherapy platform, but translation requires reproducible, clinically realistic workflows for dose preparation and infusion. For live bacterial products, in-use stability and device compatibility can drive dose variability through adsorption, settling, and device losses. Methods: We developed and GMP-manufactured an attenuated Lm vaccine expressing human GUCY2C (Lm-GUCY2C) and performed translational characterization, including construct verification and immunogenicity readouts, and defined the administration-focused in-use stability and device compatibility. Post-thaw stability was assessed in primary cryovials and during preparation and delivery from 250 mL saline infusion bags using standard clinical devices (syringes/needles, filter-free IV tubing) and OnGuard2 closed-system components. Samples were collected over 24 h at room temperature, and viable Lm-GUCY2C were quantified by CFU recovery. Results: Lm-GUCY2C remained stable in thawed cryovials for 24 h with no significant CFU loss. High-dose infusion bags (3 × 10⁹ CFU/bag) maintained CFU recovery through 6 h, whereas low-dose bags (3 × 10⁸ CFU/bag) exhibited significant losses beginning at 3 h, supporting a practical in-use window of up to 2 h for low-dose preparations. OnGuard2 intravenous (i.v.) connectors did not measurably affect CFU recovery, while OnGuard2 vial adapters reduced recovery. Conclusions: This work provides an end-to-end, translationally focused characterization of a GMP-manufactured Lm cancer vaccine, including clinically actionable in-use handling constraints and device compatibility. These data define preparation and administration guardrails (notably, time-to-infusion limits for low-dose bag preparations) that can improve dose accuracy and reproducibility in clinical testing. Full article

Intelligent retail cabinets require accurate and real-time detection of small retail products in complex environments, particularly under low-light conditions and large-scale variations. However, existing object detection methods often suffer from insufficient feature representation and unstable performance in small-object retail commodity recognition tasks under low illumination and complex backgrounds. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a real-time small retail product detection framework based on YOLOv26 for low-light intelligent cabinet environments, aiming to improve detection accuracy, robustness, and deployment efficiency. A C3k2-enhanced multi-scale feature extraction module is introduced to strengthen feature representation for small retail products, while a novel detection head integrates minimum-resolution feature layers and an Efficient Multi-scale Attention (EMA) mechanism to enhance feature fitting ability under low-light conditions. In addition, convolution-based downsampling and Content-Aware ReAssembly of Features module (CARAFE) is adopted to improve feature fusion efficiency and reduce computational overhead. Experimental results on the RPC commodity dataset and the 6th Commodity Recognition Competition dataset demonstrate that the proposed method achieves improved detection performance compared with baseline models, with a 0.9% increase in Recall and a 0.2% improvement in mean Average Precision at IoU threshold 0.50 (mAP@50) while maintaining competitive mean Average Precision averaged over IoU thresholds from 0.50 to 0.95 (mAP@50-95). While the GFLOPS value rose from 5.8 to 6.3, deployment on the Jetson Nano platform achieves 25 FPS, demonstrating real-time detection capability in intelligent retail environments. The proposed framework provides a reliable and deployable solution for small retail product detection in low-light intelligent cabinet systems. Full article