Inactivation mechanisms of Na/ cotransporter NBCe1 by phosphorylation.

The solute carriers (SLC) superfamily comprises 66 families with more than 450 members. The Na/ cotransporter NBCe1 (SLC4A4) of SLC4 family plays critical roles in intracellular pH regulation and transepithelial transport of fluid and electrolytes. Here, we explored the structural mechanisms of NBCe1-A regulation by two phosphorylation modules: P-loop in the amino-terminal domain and H-loop in the transmembrane domain.

Reducing Muscular Effort in Exoskeletons: A Bioinspired Design and Hierarchical Motion Recognition Framework.

Unlabelled: This study aims to address the limitations of traditional exoskeleton designs by developing a biomimetic actuation path and a hierarchical motion recognition framework to improve integration with human biomechanics and reduce muscular effort during walking.

Methods: A musculoskeletal model was used to quantify lower limb muscle force patterns, enabling the design of actuation paths aligned with natural muscle contraction trajectories. A hierarchical motion recognition system, combining an auto-encoder and an artificial neural network (ANN), was developed for real-time identification of gait events, activity levels, and walking speeds.

Functional characterization of a common XIa inhibitory Kunitz-domain Shp4 from nine schistosoma secreted proteins with diverse C-terminal fragments.

Coagulation factor XIa is a drug target for new anticoagulants, but no XIa inhibitors have been found from schistosoma, a worm living in the bloodstream. In this study, by sequence blasting and structural fold searching of Kunitz-domain containing proteins from schistosoma, a specific Kunitz-domain Shp4 that appears in nine secreted proteins from four schistosoma species was identified successfully. Functional studies showed that Shp4 is a novel XIa inhibitor with a Ki value of 3.

Susceptibility of acute sleep deprivation to cerebral cortex depolarization assisted by conductive nanoparticles based on medical thermography.

Acute sleep deprivation (SD) has significant effects on the cognitive function and behavioral performance of organisms. In recent years, medical thermal imagery has shown potential in monitoring physiological changes, especially in the study of electrical activity in the cerebral cortex. The purpose of this study was to investigate the application of conductive nanoparticle-assisted medical thermal imaging technology in assessing the sensitivity of acute sleep deprivation to cerebral cortex depolarization.

Spatiotemporal variations of precipitation and driving forces during wheat maturation season in Henan Province.

Since entering the twenty-first century, global warming has continued to escalate, and the frequency of rainfall occurrence during the wheat maturity period has increased significantly, which has seriously threatened the yield of wheat. In this study, based on the rainfall data and a variety of remote correlation factors during the wheat maturation period in Henan Province from 2000 to 2022, we comprehensively explored the spatial and temporal characteristics of wheat maturation rain and its drivers in Henan Province by using the Pettitt method, the Morlet wavelet method, the center of gravity model, and cross-wavelets. The results show that: (1) the wheat maturation rain in Henan Province shows an upward trend, the mutation point is mainly concentrated in 2013, and the cycle change is characterized by a small scale; (2) The multi-year averages of total rainfall, maximum daily rainfall and rainfall intensity in the southern part of Henan Province during the wheat-yellow period were all the highest, and the number of rainfall days also showed a significant upward trend; (3) In 2013 wheat maturation rain in Henan Province, the center of gravity of daily rainfall was mainly concentrated in northwestern Henan Province, and the typical rainfall event mainly experienced five processes of occurrence-intensification-dissipation-re-intensification-dissipation; (4) Total rainfall, maximum daily rainfall and rainfall intensity had the highest correlation with sunspot, and overall sunspot had the greatest impact on wheat maturation rain.

IRBITs, signaling molecules of great functional diversity.

IRBIT1 and IRBIT2 (collectively, the IRBITs) are signaling molecules with great universality in their expression (ubiquitous distribution in all major tissues in animals) and considerable versatility in their biological functions. Structurally, the IRBITs are highly homologous to S-adenosyl-L-homocysteine hydrolase (AHCY). However, the IRBITs had lost the catalytic activity during the evolution but gained new functions by the addition of a unique N-terminal IRBIT domain.

Molecule-rich solutions for achieving novel non-opioid analgesics.

Despite their efficacy, opioids have long been associated with risks of addiction, tolerance, and dependence, leaving an unmet clinical need for pain treatment. Efforts have been devoted to developing novel classes of pain-relieving medication that outperform current options in terms of pain relief, side-effect profiles, and potential for abuse, but with limited success. Recent advances in the neurobiology of pain have shed light on the potential of targeting non-opioid receptors involved in pain processing.

Redox state of NAD modulates the activation of Na-bicarbonate cotransporter NBCe1-B via IRBIT and L-IRBIT.

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) is well known as a coenzyme involved in many redox reactions in cellular energy metabolism, or as a substrate for many NAD-consuming enzymes, including those that generate the second messenger cyclic ADP-ribose or deacetylate proteins (e.g., histones).

Improvement in XIa Selectivity of Snake Venom Peptide Analogue BF9-N17K Using P2' Amino Acid Replacements.

Coagulation factor XIa is a new serine-protease family drug target for next-generation anticoagulants. With the snake venom Kunitz-type peptide BF9 as the scaffold, we obtained a highly active XIa inhibitor BF9-N17K in our previous work, but it also inhibited the hemostatic target plasmin. Here, in order to enhance the selectivity of BF9-N17K toward XIa, four mutants, BF9-N17K-L19A, BF9-N17K-L19S, BF9-N17K-L19D, and BF9-N17K-L19K, were further designed using the P2' amino acid classification scanning strategy.

Influence of elevation angle of tundish filter on removal rate of impurity in molten steel.

To investigate the effect of the filter device on the cleanliness of molten steel and the flow field distribution within the tundish. The tundish filters were designed into five groups of pores with 20°, 25°, 30°, 35° and 40° elevation angles, and the flow field distribution and impurity removal rate of molten steel were calculated by Discrete Phase Model (DPM). The results showed that the removal rate of impurity in the molten steel could be significantly improved by using the tundish filter with elevation angle.

Etiolated-green tea attenuates colonic barrier dysfunction and inflammation in high-fat diet-induced mice by modulating gut microbiota.

Colonic barrier dysfunction and inflammation arising from dysbiosis gut microbiota (GM) are strongly associated with a high-fat diet (HFD). Yellow leaf green tea (YLGT), a novel variety of etiolated-green tea, improving the intestinal barrier and inflammation is related to the regulation of GM disorders. To explore the ameliorative mechanism of YLGT, mice were fed an HFD with or without YLGT at doses of 150, 300, and 450 mg kg for 12 weeks.

Differential potassium channel inhibitory activities of a novel thermostable degradation peptide BmKcug1a-P1 from scorpion medicinal material and its N-terminal truncated/restored peptides.

Thermally stable full-length scorpion toxin peptides and partially degraded peptides with complete disulfide bond pairing are valuable natural peptide resources in traditional Chinese scorpion medicinal material. However, their pharmacological activities are largely unknown. This study discovered BmKcug1a-P1, a novel N-terminal degraded peptide, in this medicinal material.

Pre-trained language models in medicine: A survey.

With the rapid progress in Natural Language Processing (NLP), Pre-trained Language Models (PLM) such as BERT, BioBERT, and ChatGPT have shown great potential in various medical NLP tasks. This paper surveys the cutting-edge achievements in applying PLMs to various medical NLP tasks. Specifically, we first brief PLMS and outline the research of PLMs in medicine.

Improving Classification Performance in Dendritic Neuron Models through Practical Initialization Strategies.

A dendritic neuron model (DNM) is a deep neural network model with a unique dendritic tree structure and activation function. Effective initialization of its model parameters is crucial for its learning performance. This work proposes a novel initialization method specifically designed to improve the performance of DNM in classifying high-dimensional data, notable for its simplicity, speed, and straightforward implementation.

Cationicity Enhancement on the Hydrophilic Face of Ctriporin Significantly Reduces Its Hemolytic Activity and Improves the Antimicrobial Activity against Antibiotic-Resistant ESKAPE Pathogens.

The ESKAPE pathogen-associated antimicrobial resistance is a global public health issue, and novel therapeutic strategies are urgently needed. The short cationic antimicrobial peptide (AMP) family represents an important subfamily of scorpion-derived AMPs, but high hemolysis and poor antimicrobial activity hinder their therapeutic application. Here, we recomposed the hydrophilic face of Ctriporin through lysine substitution.

Function and Mechanism of Antiviral Wasp Venom Peptide Protopolybia-MP III and Its Derivatives against HSV-1.

Viruses are one of the leading causes of human disease, and many highly pathogenic viruses still have no specific treatment drugs. Therefore, producing new antiviral drugs is an urgent matter. In our study, we first found that the natural wasp venom peptide Protopolybia-MP III had a significant inhibitory effect on herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) replication by using quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR), Western blotting, and plaque-forming assays.

Yellow leaf green tea modulates the AMPK/ACC/SREBP1c signaling pathway and gut microbiota in high-fat diet-induced mice to alleviate obesity.

Background: Yellow leaf green tea (YLGT) is a new variety of Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Ktze, which has yellow leaves and the unique qualities of 'three green through three yellow'.

Application of deep learning in the diagnosis and evaluation of ulcerative colitis disease severity.

Background: Achieving endoscopic and histological remission is a critical treatment objective in ulcerative colitis (UC). Nevertheless, interobserver variability can significantly impact overall assessment performance.

Objectives: We aimed to develop a deep learning algorithm for the real-time and objective evaluation of endoscopic disease activity and prediction of histological remission in UC.

Schizophrenia plausible protective effect of microRNA-137 is potentially related to estrogen and prolactin in female patients.

Background: Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a serious chronic mental disorder. Our previous case-control genetic association study has shown that microRNA-137 (miR-137) may only protect females against SCZ. Since estrogen, an important female sex hormone, exerts neuroprotective effects, the relationship between estrogen and miR-137 in the pathophysiology of SCZ was further studied in this study.

Genetic contribution of synapse-associated protein 97 to cerebellar functional connectivity changes in first-episode schizophrenia.

Our previous study data suggested that the synapse-associated protein 97 (SAP97) rs3915512 polymorphism is significantly related to clinical performance in schizophrenia. The cerebellum exhibits abundant expression of SAP97, which is involved with negative symptoms, cognition and emotion in schizophrenia. As functional dysconnectivity with the cortical-subcortical-cerebellar circuitry has been widely shown in patients with schizophrenia, cortical-subcortical-cerebellar dysconnectivity can therefore be considered a possible intermediate phenotype that connects risk genes with schizophrenia.

Interpretability Diversity for Decision-Tree-Initialized Dendritic Neuron Model Ensemble.

To construct a strong classifier ensemble, base classifiers should be accurate and diverse. However, there is no uniform standard for the definition and measurement of diversity. This work proposes a learners' interpretability diversity (LID) to measure the diversity of interpretable machine learners.

Semantic matching based legal information retrieval system for COVID-19 pandemic.

Recently, the pandemic caused by COVID-19 is severe in the entire world. The prevention and control of crimes associated with COVID-19 are critical for controlling the pandemic. Therefore, to provide efficient and convenient intelligent legal knowledge services during the pandemic, we develop an intelligent system for legal information retrieval on the WeChat platform in this paper.