To unveil the adaptation of Litopenaeus vannamei to elevated ambient ammonia-N, crustacean hyperglycemic hormone (CHH) was knocked down to investigate its function in glucose metabolism pathway under ammonia-N exposure. When CHH was silenced, haemolymph glucose increased significantly during 3-6 h, decreased significantly during 12-48 h, and recovered to the control groups’ level at 72 h. After CHH knockdown, DA contents reduced significantly during 3-24 h, which recovered after 48 h. Besides, the expressions of GC and DA1R in the hepatopancreas decreased significantly, while DA4R increased significantly. Correspondingly, the contents of cAMP, cGMP and DAG and the expressions of PKA, PKG, AMPKα and AMPKγ were significantly downregulated, while the levels of PKC and AMPKβ were significantly upregulated. The expressions of CREB and GLUT2 decreased significantly, while GLUT1 increased significantly. Moreover, glycogen content, glycogen synthase and glycogen phosphorylase activities in hepatopancreas and muscle were significantly increased. Furthermore, the levels of key enzymes HK, PK and PFK in glycolysis, rate-limiting enzymes CS in TCA, and critical enzymes PEPCK, FBP and G6P in gluconeogenesis were significantly decreased in hepatopancreas. These results suggest that CHH affects DA, and then they affect their receptors respectively to transmit glucose metabolism signals into the hepatopancreas of L. vannamei under ammonia-N stress. CHH acts on cGMP-PKG-AMPKα-CREB pathway through GC, and CHH affects DA to influence cAMP-PKA-AMPKγ-CREB and DAG-PKC-AMPKβ-CREB pathways, thereby regulating GLUTs, inhibiting glycogen metabolism and promoting glycolysis and gluconeogenesis. This study contributes to further understand glucose metabolism mechanism of crustacean in response to environmental stress.

In this article, I propose a typology of thinking pattern that helps us understand the variants of the so-called ‘both/and thinking’ shared by many organizational paradox scholars in the West and China. The variants are distinguished by the ‘primary thinking-secondary thinking’ structure between the combined elementary thinking. One of the variants, i.e., Neither-And thinking, is associated with James March's discussion of logic of consequences and logic of appropriateness. An examination of March's writings reveals an additional ‘principle-practice’ structure underlining March's unique solution to paradox. Incorporating the ‘principle-practice’ structure into the proposed typology in turn helps us better understand the other variants of ‘both/and thinking’ such as ambidexterity, contingency, and Zhong-Yong. The typology shows March's Neither-And solution is unique because it embraces a primary neither/nor thinking while all the other variants do not. To demonstrate the value of March's unique solution, I apply Neither-And thinking characterized by the ‘principle-practice’ relationship to paradoxes outside organization studies, e.g., in Deconstruction, Buddhism, and quantum physics. The wide application of Neither-And thinking implies that James March's unique solution to organizational paradox may have provided a key to understanding paradox in general.

Embryogenic callus induction and regeneration are useful in many aspects of plant biotechnology, especially in the functional characterization of economically important genes. However, in sugarcane, callus induction and regeneration vary across genotypes. Saccharum spontaneum is an important wild germplasm that confers disease resistance and stress tolerance to modern sugarcane cultivars, and its genome has been completely sequenced. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of genetic variations on embryogenic callus induction and regeneration in S. spontaneum and to screen genotypes having high tissue culture susceptibility. The study was performed using nine genotypes of S. spontaneum and the following five parameters were assessed to determine the response of genotypes to embryogenic callus induction and regeneration: callus induction, embryogenic callus ratio, embryogenic callus induction, embryonic callus regeneration and regeneration capacity. All the genotypes varied significantly (P < 0.01) in all the parameters, except for embryonic callus regeneration, which was high (>80%) for all the genotypes. High broad-sense heritability (86.1–96.8%) indicated that genetic differences are the major source of genotypic variations. Callus induction was found to be strongly positively correlated with embryogenic callus induction (r = 0.890, P < 0.01) and regeneration capacity (r = 0.881, P < 0.01). Among the nine tested genotypes, VN2 was found to be the most responsive to tissue culture and could therefore be used to characterize functional genes in S. spontaneum. We also suggested an approach with potential applications in facilitating the rapid identification of sugarcane genotypes susceptible to tissue culture.

The architectural connections between western Central Asia and China are not well understood. Recent investigations at the Haermodun site in central Xinjiang reveals new evidence of the influence of western Central Asia on the construction of fortifications in China during the early first millennium AD.

The TanDEM-X DEM is a valuable data source for estimating glacier mass balance. However, the accuracy of TanDEM-X elevation over glaciers can be affected by microwave penetration and phase decorrelation. To investigate the bias of TanDEM-X DEMs of glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau, these DEMs were subtracted from SPOT-6 DEMs obtained around the same time at two study sites. The average bias over the studied glacier areas in West Kunlun (175.0 km2) was 2.106 ± 0.012 m in April 2014, and it was 1.523 ± 0.011 m in Geladandong (228.8 km2) in October 2013. By combining backscatter coefficients and interferometric coherence maps, we found surface decorrelation and baseline decorrelation can cause obvious bias in addition to microwave penetration. If the optical/laser data and winter TanDEM-X data were used as new and historic elevation sources for mass-balance measurements over an arbitrary observation period of 10 years, the glacier mass loss rates in West Kunlun and Geladandong would be potentially underestimated by 0.218 ± 0.016 and 0.158 ± 0.011 m w.e. a−1, respectively. The impact is therefore significant, and users should carefully treat the bias of TanDEM-X DEMs when retrieving a geodetic glacier mass balance.

Supraglacial lakes and rivers dominate the storage and transport of meltwater on the southwest Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) surface. Despite functioning as interconnected hydrologic networks, supraglacial lakes and rivers are commonly studied as independent features, resulting in an incomplete understanding of their collective impact on meltwater storage and routing. We use Landsat 8 satellite imagery to assess the seasonal evolution of supraglacial lakes and rivers on the southwest GrIS during the 2015 melt season. Remotely sensed meltwater areas and volumes are compared with surface runoff simulations from three climate models (MERRA-2, MAR 3.6 and RACMO 2.3), and with in situ observations of proglacial discharge in the Watson River. We find: (1) at elevations >1600 m, 21% of supraglacial lakes and 28% of supraglacial rivers drain into moulins, signifying the presence of high-elevation surface-to-bed meltwater connections even during a colder-than-average melt season; (2) while supraglacial lakes dominate instantaneous surface meltwater storage, supraglacial rivers dominate total surface meltwater area and discharge; (3) the combined surface area of supraglacial lakes and rivers is strongly correlated with modeled surface runoff; and (4) of the three models examined here, MERRA-2 runoff yields the highest overall correlation with observed proglacial discharge in the Watson River.

Fossil charcoals from archaeological sites provide direct evidence for the relationship between environmental change and ancient peoples’ livelihoods in the past. Our identification of 5811 fossil charcoal fragments from 84 samples suggested temperate deciduous and mixed conifer-broadleaved forests as the dominant vegetation at the Erdaojingzi site in northeastern China ca. 3500 cal yr BP; the major representative taxa were Quercus, Pinus, and Ulmus. Four woody plants probably supplied humans with food resources at the Erdaojingzi site, including Quercus, Ulmus, Amygdalus/Armeniaca, and Ziziphus. The nuts of Quercus were utilized as staple foods because of their rich starch content. The leaves of Ulmus may have been used by humans because of their massive dietary fibre. Amygdalus/Armeniaca and Ziziphus probably provided fruits for humans. Based on the coexistence approach (CA) used on the fossil charcoals, we found that the MAT anomaly was 7.9 ± 5.9°C at ca. 3500 cal yr BP, which is almost the same as the modern one (7.8°C), while the MAP was halved from 772 ± 301 mm at ca. 3500 cal yr BP to 370 mm currently. The wet climate might have facilitated significant development of rain-fed agriculture, promoted the emergence of large settlements, and eventually facilitated the birth of civilization.

The objective of this study was to analyze differences in birth weight and overweight/obesity in a Shanghai twin cohort. We also wanted to study their association and explore possible risk factors for the discordance of overweight/obesity within twins. This was an internal case–control study designed for twins. The 2012 Shanghai Twin Registration System baseline survey data of a total of 3417 twin pairs were statistically analyzed using SPSS22 software. Results show that the body mass index (BMI) of the Shanghai twin population increased with age. Twins with a high birth weight had a higher BMI and a higher rate of overweight and obesity; 0- to 6-year-old twins, male twins and dizygotic (DZ) twins had higher rates of overweight/obesity than other groups. The greater the discordant birth weight rate of twins, the more obvious the difference in BMI (p < .05). There was a significant difference in overweight/obesity between twins with a relative difference of birth weight ≥15% in DZ twins (p < .05). DZ twins, male twins and 0- to 6-year-old twins were more likely to be discordant in overweight/obese than others. The discordant birth weight within twins was not a risk factor for discordant overweight/obesity. However, attention should be paid to childhood obesity, and appropriate interventions should be made at the appropriate time. Genetics may play an important role in the occurrence and development of overweight/obesity. In conclusion, discordant growth and development in the uterus early in life may not lead to discordant weight development in the future.

Ship domain is an important theory in ship collision avoidance and an effective collision detection method. First, several classical ship domain models are used in experiments. The results show that the alarm rate is too high in busy waters, leading to greatly reduced practicality of the model. Potential collision risk cannot be detected effectively, especially for a ship with restricted manoeuvrability, which is usually regarded as an overtaken ship due to its navigation characteristics. Therefore, it is necessary to fully consider the interference of other ships to ships with limited manoeuvrability in an encounter situation. A novel ship domain model for ships with restricted manoeuvrability in busy waters is proposed. Considering the navigation characteristics of a ship with restricted manoeuvrability and the influence of the ship–ship effect, an algorithm to determine the boundary of the ship domain model is given by force and moment equations. AIS trajectory data of the North Channel of the Yangtze River Estuary are used to perform a comparative experiment, and four classical ship domain models are employed to perform comparative experiments. The results show that the alarm rates of the novel ship domain model are 7⋅608%, 15⋅131%, 55⋅785% and 7⋅608% lower than those of the other four classical models, and this outcome can effectively reduce the high false alarm rate produced by other models in this environment.

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) holds vast potential in agriculture. However, its applications are still limited by its low efficiency. Histone 3 lysine 9 trimethylation (H3K9me3) was identified as an epigenetic barrier for this. Histone demethylase KDM4D could regulate the level of H3K9me3. However, its effects on buffalo SCNT embryos are still unclear. Thus, we performed this study to explore the effects and underlying mechanism of KDM4D on buffalo SCNT embryos. The results revealed that compared with the IVF embryos, the expression level of KDM4D in SCNT embryos was significantly lower at 8- and 16-cell stage, while the level of H3K9me3 in SCNT embryos was significantly higher at 2-cell, 8-cell, and blastocyst stage. Microinjection of KDM4D mRNA could promote the developmental ability of buffalo SCNT embryos. Furthermore, the expression level of ZGA-related genes such as ZSCAN5B, SNAI1, eIF-3a, and TRC at the 8-cell stage was significantly increased. Meanwhile, the pluripotency-related genes like POU5F1, SOX2, and NANOG were also significantly promoted at the blastocyst stage. The results were reversed after KDM4D was inhibited. Altogether, these results revealed that KDM4D could correct the H3K9me3 level, increase the expression level of ZGA and pluripotency-related genes, and finally, promote the developmental competence of buffalo SCNT embryos.

The aim of this study was to explore the impact of polymorphism of PD-1 gene and its interaction with tea drinking on susceptibility to tuberculosis (TB). A total of 503 patients with TB and 494 controls were enrolled in this case–control study. Three single-nucleotide polymorphisms of PD-1 (rs7568402, rs2227982 and rs36084323) were genotyped and unconditional logistic regression analysis was used to identify the association between PD-1 polymorphism and TB, while marginal structural linear odds models were used to estimate the interactions. Genotypes GA (OR 1.434), AA (OR 1.891) and GA + AA (OR 1.493) at rs7568402 were more prevalent in the TB patients than in the controls (P < 0.05). The relative excess risk of interaction (RERI) between rs7568402 of PD-1 genes and tea drinking was −0.3856 (95% confidence interval −0.7920 to −0.0209, P < 0.05), which showed a negative interaction. However, the RERIs between tea drinking and both rs2227982 and rs36084323 of PD-1 genes were not statistically significant. Our data demonstrate that rs7568402 of PD-1 genes was associated with susceptibility to TB, and there was a significant negative interaction between rs7568402 and tea drinking. Therefore, preventive measures through promoting the consumption of tea should be emphasised in the high-risk populations.

It was reported that about 10% of people suffer from painful knee arthritis, and a quarter of them were severely disabled. The core activities of daily living were severely limited by knee osteoarthritis (KOA). In order to reduce knee pain and prolong the life of the knee joint, there has been an increasing demand on the development of exoskeletons, for prevention and treatment. The course of KOA was closely related to the biomechanics of knee joint, and the pathogenesis was summarized based on the biomechanics of knee joint. For the prevention and clinical treatment, exoskeletons are classified into three categories: prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation after the operation. Furthermore, the design concepts, actuators, sensors, control strategies, and evaluation criteria were presented. Finally, the shortcomings and limitations were summarized. It is useful for researchers to develop suitable exoskeletons in the future.

A study was conducted to identify whether composted manure and straw amendments (replacement of a portion of chemical fertilizer [50% of the total nitrogen application] with composted pig manure, and straw return [all straw from the previous rice crop] combined with chemical fertilizer) compared with no fertilization and chemical fertilizer only would change the dominant species of wheat-associated weeds as well as influence their growth and seed yield in a rice (Oryza sativa L.)–wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) rotation system. The study was initiated in 2010, and the treatment effects on the species, density, plant height, shoot biomass, seed yield of dominant weeds, and wheat yields were assessed in 2017 and 2018. Fertilization significantly increased the height, density, and yield of wheat, as well as the shoot biomass of wheat-associated weeds, but decreased the weed species number. A total of 17 and 14 weed species were recorded in the experimental wheat fields in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The most dominant weed species were American sloughgrass [Beckmannia syzigachne (Steud.) Fernald] and catchweed bedstraw (Galium aparine L.), which made up more than 64% of the weed community in all treatments. When the chemical fertilizer application was amended with pig manure compost and straw return, the relative abundance of B. syzigachne significantly decreased, while the relative abundance of G. aparine significantly increased. The application of the chemical fertilizer-only treatment resulted in increases in the density, shoot biomass, and seed yield of B. syzigachne, while the composted manure and straw amendments applied together with chemical fertilizer led to significant increases in the density, shoot biomass, and seed yield of G. aparine. Consequently, further research on ways to promote greater cropping system diversity will be needed to prevent the selection of weed species that are adapted to a limited suite of crop management practices.

Microglia, the main immune cell of the central nervous system (CNS), categorized into M1-like phenotype and M2-like phenotype, play important roles in phagocytosis, cell migration, antigen presentation, and cytokine production. As a part of CNS, retinal microglial cells (RMC) play an important role in retinal diseases. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the most common complications of diabetes. Recent studies have demonstrated that DR is not only a microvascular disease but also retinal neurodegeneration. RMC was regarded as a central role in neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation. Therefore, in this review, we will discuss RMC polarization and its possible regulatory factors in early DR, which will provide new targets and insights for early intervention of DR.

We aimed to examine whether baseline neutrophil counts affected the risk of new-onset proteinuria in hypertensive patients, and, if so, whether folic acid treatment is particularly effective in proteinuria prevention in such a setting. A total of 8208 eligible participants without proteinuria at baseline were analysed from the renal substudy of the China Stroke Primary Prevention Trial. Participants were randomised to receive a double-blind daily treatment of 10 mg of enalapril and 0·8 mg of folic acid (n 4101) or 10 mg of enalapril only (n 4107). The primary outcome was new-onset proteinuria, defined as a urine dipstick reading of ≥1+ at the exit visit. The mean age of the participants was 59·5 (sd, 7·4) years, 3088 (37·6 %) of the participants were male. The median treatment duration was 4·4 years. In the enalapril-only group, a significantly higher risk of new-onset proteinuria was found among participants with higher neutrophil counts (quintile 5; ≥4·8 × 109/l, OR 1·44; 95 % CI 1·00, 2·06), compared with those in quintiles 1–4. For those with enalapril and folic acid treatment, compared with the enalapril-only group, the new-onset proteinuria risk was reduced from 5·2 to 2·8 % (OR 0·49; 95 % CI 0·29, 0·82) among participants with higher neutrophil counts (≥4·8 × 109/l), whereas there was no significant effect among those with neutrophil counts <4·8 × 109/l. In summary, among hypertensive patients, those with higher neutrophil counts had increased risk of new-onset proteinuria, and this risk was reduced by 51 % with folic acid treatment.

Interception by plant canopies during wind dispersal can affect the final destination of diaspores. However, how the interaction of wind speed, canopy type and diaspore attributes affects interception of diaspores by the plant canopy has rarely been studied. We investigated canopy interception for 29 species with different diaspore attributes, six canopy types and six wind speeds in controlled experiments in a wind tunnel. Shrub canopy interception of diaspores were controlled by wind speed and diaspore attributes, but the latter had a greater influence on canopy interception than the former. At low wind speed, diaspore wing loading had a large influence on canopy interception, whereas at high wind speed, diaspore projection area had a large influence. The chance of canopy interception at a particular wind speed was additionally affected by the type of canopy. This study increases our knowledge of the dispersal process, corrects the previous understanding of diaspore dispersal potential and improves the theoretical basis for predicting spatial pattern and dynamics of plant populations.