Large Increase Research Articles

Global, regional, and national burden of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections in older adults aged 60–89 years from 1990 to 2019: results from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Sexually active older adults are often more susceptible to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) due to various health conditions (especially a weakened immune system) and low use of condoms. We aimed to assess the global, regional, and national burdens and trends of HIV and other STIs in older adults from 1990 to 2019. We retrieved data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 on the incidence and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) of HIV and other STIs (syphilis, chlamydia, gonorrhoea, trichomoniasis, and genital herpes) for older adults aged 60-89 years in 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019. Estimated annual percentage changes in the age-standardised incidence and DALY rates of HIV and other STIs, by age, sex, and Socio-demographic Index (SDI), were calculated to quantify the temporal trends. Spearman correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between age-standardised rates and SDI. In 2019, among older adults globally, there were an estimated 77 327 (95% uncertainty interval 59 443 to 97 648) new cases of HIV (age-standardised incidence rate 7·6 [5·9 to 9·6] per 100 000 population) and 26 414 267 (19 777 666 to 34 860 678) new cases of other STIs (2607·1 [1952·1 to 3440·8] per 100 000). The age-standardised incidence rate decreased by an average of 2·02% per year (95% CI -2·38 to -1·66) for HIV and remained stable for other STIs (-0·02% [-0·06 to 0·01]) from 1990 to 2019. The number of DALYs globally in 2019 was 1 905 099 (95% UI 1 670 056 to 2 242 807) for HIV and 132 033 (95% UI 83 512 to 225 630) for the other STIs. The age-standardised DALY rate remained stable from 1990 to 2019, with an average change of 0·97% (95% CI -0·54 to 2·50) per year globally for HIV but decreased by an annual average of 1·55% (95% CI -1·66 to -1·43) for other STIs. Despite the global decrease in the age-standardised incidence rate of HIV in older people from 1990 to 2019, many regions showed increases, with the largest increases seen in eastern Europe (average annual change 17·84% [14·16 to 21·63], central Asia (14·26% [11·35 to 17·25]), and high-income Asia Pacific (7·52% [6·54 to 8·51]). Regionally, the age-standardised incidence and DALY rates of HIV and other STIs decreased with increases in the SDI. Although the incidence and DALY rates of HIV and STIs either declined or remained stable from 1990 to 2019, there were regional and demographic disparities. Health-care providers should be aware of the effects of ageing societies and other societal factors on the risk of HIV and other STIs in older adults, and develop age-appropriate interventions. The disparities in the allocation of health-care resources for older adults among regions of different SDIs should be addressed. Natural Science Foundation of China, Fujian Province's Third Batch of Flexible Introduction of High-Level Medical Talent Teams, Science and Technology Innovation Team (Tianshan Innovation Team) Project of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, Cure Alzheimer's Fund, Helse Sør-Øst, the Research Council of Norway, Molecule/VitaDAO, NordForsk Foundation, Akershus University Hospital, the Civitan Norges Forskningsfond for Alzheimers Sykdom, the Czech Republic-Norway KAPPA programme, and the Rosa Sløyfe/Norwegian Cancer Society & Norwegian Breast Cancer Society.

Trajectory of multimorbidity before dementia: A 24-year follow-up study.

Although the multimorbidity-dementia association has been widely addressed, little is known on the long-term trajectory of multimorbidity (TOM) in preclinical dementia. Based on the Health and Retirement Study, burden of multimorbidity was quantified with the total number of eight long-term conditions (LTC). Patterns of TOM before dementia diagnosis were investigated with mixed-effects models. In 1752 dementia cases and 5256 matched controls, cases showed higher and faster increasing predicted number of LTC than controls, with a significant case-control difference from 20 years prior to dementia diagnosis. Larger increases in number of LTC during preclinical phase of dementia were found in White participants, females, those whose age at dementia onset was younger, and those who were less educated. Our findings emphasize the faster accumulation of multimorbidity in prodromal dementia than in natural aging, as well as effect modifications by age and sex. TOM increased faster in prodromal dementia than in natural ageing.Patterns of TOM by dementia status diverged at 20 years before dementia diagnosis.Patterns of TOM were modified by age and sex.

Electrolytic Reduction of CO2 Using Perovskite-Type La-Based Oxide Anodes in Chloride Molten Salts

CO2 decomposition in molten salt is an attractive process as a new method for achieving carbon neutrality, for which the development of inert anodes and electrolytic bath suitable for CO2 decomposition is essential. Previous studies mostly investigated the electrode material but did not investigate the relationship between the electrolysis bath and electrode reaction. The effects of the electrolytic bath on anode reaction and the development of inert anode material with high current density were investigated in this study. Electrolytic bath of LiCl–CaCl2 and NaCl–CaCl2 with similar oxide solubilities were compared, finding that LiCl–CaCl2 melts exhibited higher oxidation current density in cyclic voltammetry and more stable potential transition in galvanostatic electrolysis. Among the five anodes with a perovskite-type La-based oxide were investigated, La0.6Sr0.4CoO3−δ showed the highest electrical conductivity and the largest increase in oxidation current density. CO2 decomposition tests were performed in LiCl–CaCl2 with CaO and CaCO3 added as a CO2 source at 873 K using La0.6Sr0.4CoO3−δ anode. Only C and O2 were recovered from CO2 by electrolysis test. The current efficiencies were 78.3% and 54.4%, respectively. The La0.6Sr0.4CoO3−δ anode exhibited excellent corrosion resistance, demonstrating its potential as a promising inert anode for CO2 decomposition.

Does green mean clean? Volatile organic emissions from regular versus green cleaning products.

Cleaning products emit a range of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including some which are hazardous or can undergo chemical transformations to generate harmful secondary pollutants. In recent years, "green" cleaners have become increasingly popular, with an implicit assumption that these are better for our health and/or the environment. However, there is no strong evidence to suggest that they are better for indoor air quality compared to regular products. In this study, the VOC composition of 10 regular and 13 green cleaners was examined by headspace analysis. Monoterpenes were the most prevalent VOCs, with average total monoterpene concentrations of 8.6 and 25.0 mg L-1 for regular and green cleaners, respectively. Speciated monoterpene emissions were applied to a detailed chemical model to investigate the indoor air chemistry following a typical cleaning event. Green cleaners generally emitted more monoterpenes than regular cleaners, resulting in larger increases in harmful secondary pollutant concentrations following use, such as formaldehyde (up to 7%) and PAN species (up to 6%). However, emissions of the most reactive monoterpenes (α-terpinene, terpinolene and α-phellandrene), were observed more frequently from regular cleaners, resulting in a disproportionately large impact on the concentrations of radical species and secondary pollutants that were formed after cleaning occurred.

Assessment of water-related ecosystem services based on multi-scenario land use changes: focusing on the Poyang Lake Basin of southern China

A scientific understanding of the trends of water-related ecosystem services (WESs) under different scenarios is crucial to improving WESs and maintaining ecological security. However, there is a lack of high-resolution land use simulation and assessment of WESs under the SSP-RCP scenarios, and the impacts of different land-use change (LUC) on WESs are not clear. This study focused on the Poyang Lake Basin (PYLB), utilizing the SSP-RCP scenarios, the PLUS model and the InVEST model to explore the dynamic changes of land use and WESs historically and in the future, and to reveal the impacts of specific LUC on WESs from 2000 to 2020. The results demonstrated that: (1) The forest land increased under both SSP1-2.6 and SSP2-4.5 scenarios but increased first and then decreased under SSP5-8.5 scenarios; Cropland increased significantly under SSP5-8.5 scenarios, and the construction land showed an expansion trend under the three scenarios. (2) From 2000 to 2020, only the water purification capacity decreased, while the rest of the WESs increased. Under the SSP1-2.6 scenario, the overall benefits of the WESs in the PYLB were the highest. (3) Between 2000 and 2020, deforestation in the PYLB brought about the greatest increase in the water yield (+9.06 × 108 m3). The increase in the construction land brought about the most water conservation loss (−18.19 × 108 m3). Additionally, the forest expansion and cropland reduction brought about the largest increase in soil retention (+3.94 × 105 t and +4.79 × 105 t) and enhanced water purification, and the opposite was true for deforestation. The conclusions can provide an important basis for the ecological protection and high-quality development of the PYLB.

Role of Atlantification in Enhanced Primary Productivity in the Barents Sea

AbstractRecent changes in the Arctic sea‐ice are strongly influenced by the recent increase in heat transport from vigorous Atlantic inflows, so‐called Atlantification. This Atlantification can induce physical and ecological changes near the Atlantic gateway. Here, we used the observational data sets and 26 Earth system models to estimate Atlantic water intrusion, and firstly suggest the impact of Atlantification on marine productivity in the Barents Sea in a warming climate, especially on boreal spring. In a warming climate, the heat transport across the Barents Sea Opening (BSO) is projected to be enhanced (45.5 ± 34.9 TW) by the end of the 21st century compared to the present climate. This poleward intrusion of the Atlantic water is likely to increase productivity with the largest increase in spring (70%). In a warming climate, the productivity is enhanced by Atlantification‐induced changes in physical states—ocean temperature, circulations, stratification, and sea‐ice. Based on inter‐model analyses, we estimated that the Atlantification can explain approximately 26% of the productivity changes in the Barents Sea. Thus, Atlantification is critical for future changes in biological productivity and physical states over the Arctic Ocean.

Wildland-urban interface wildfire increases metal contributions to stormwater runoff in Paradise, California.

The 2018 Camp Fire was a large late-year (November) wildfire that produced an urban firestorm in the Town of Paradise, California, USA, and destroyed more than 18 000 structures. Runoff from burned wildland areas is known to contain ash, which can transport contaminants including metals into nearby watersheds. However, due to historically infrequent occurrences, the effect of wildland-urban interface (WUI) fires, such as the Camp Fire, on surface water quality has not been well-characterized. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of widespread urban burning on surface water quality in major watersheds of the Camp Fire area. Between November 2018 and May 2019, 140 surface water samples were collected, including baseflow and stormflow, from burned and unburned watersheds with varying extent of urban development. Samples were analyzed for total and filter-passing metals, dissolved organic carbon, major anions, and total suspended solids. Ash and debris from the Camp Fire contributed metals to downstream watersheds via runoff throughout the storm season. Increases in concentration up to 200-fold were found for metals Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn in burned watersheds compared to pre-fire values. Total concentrations of Al, Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn exceeded EPA aquatic habitat acute criteria by up to 16-fold for up to five months after the fire. To assess possible transport mechanisms and bioavailability, a subset of 18 samples was analyzed using four filters with nominal pore sizes ranging from 0.22 to 1.2 μm to determine the particulate size distribution of metals. Trace and major metals (Al, Ba, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn) were found mostly associated with larger grain sizes (>0.45 μm), and some metals (Al, Cr, Fe, and Pb) also included a substantial colloidal phase (0.22 to 0.45 μm). This study suggests that fires in the wildland-urban interface increase metal concentrations, mainly through particulate driven transport. The metals with the largest increases are likely from anthropogenic disaster materials, though biomass ash also is a major contributor to water quality. The increase in metals following WUI burning may have adverse ecological impacts.

Adaptive HEVC Video Steganography With High Performance Based on Attention-Net and PU Partition Modes

With the increasing popularity of digital video, video steganography has become a hot research topic in the field of covert communication and privacy protection. The existing prediction unit (PU) based video steganography often tends to result in large bit rate increase, which is also easily noticeable to the steganography analyst. To solve this problem, an adaptive steganography for HEVC video based on attention-net and PU partition modes is proposed. First, the distortion of modified PUs is analyzed from the perspective of rate distortion optimization at the group of pictures (GOP) level, and we find that modifying PU will lead to distortion accumulation and abnormal bitrate increase. Therefore, an adaptive distortion function based on the improved rate distortion cost is designed, and the embedding distortion is minimized by using Syndrome-Trellis Code (STC) steganography coding. Meanwhile, a super-resolution convolutional neural network with non-local sparse attention-net filter is proposed to replace the in-loop filter in HEVC to reconstruct the reference frame, thereby reducing the bitrate cost and improving the visual quality of stego-video. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve superior perceptual quality and bitrate performance comparing with the sate-of-the-art works.

Biostimulants of growth in the production process of grain crops

The role of biostimulants of growth of various natures in the production process of spring wheat variety Zlata was studied, depending on nitrogen nutrition conditions, and was carried out under field conditions.The experiments assessed the activity of the plant assimilation apparatus and the formation of the yield of wheat plants using biostimulants of various natures by spraying vegetative plants. The studies found that the greatest effectiveness of the studied drugs was observed under conditions of optimal provision of nitrogen nutrition to wheat plants. It has been established that the preparations Epin-Extra, Emistim and Hardy increase the efficiency of the assimilation apparatus of spring wheat plants, which led to the receipt of large increases in grain weight under conditions of optimal provision of wheat plants with nitrogen nutrition.

Ratiometric near-infrared fluorescent probe for nitroreductase activity enables 3D imaging of hypoxic cells within intact tumor spheroids.

Fluorescent molecular probes that report nitroreductase activity have promise as imaging tools to elucidate the biology of hypoxic cells and report the past hypoxic history of biomedical tissue. This study describes the synthesis and validation of a "first-in-class" ratiometric, hydrophilic near-infrared fluorescent molecular probe for imaging hypoxia-induced nitroreductase activity in 2D cell culture monolayers and 3D multicellular tumor spheroids. The probe's molecular structure is charge-balanced and the change in ratiometric signal is based on Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) from a deep-red, pentamethine cyanine donor dye (Cy5, emits ∼660 nm) to a linked near-infrared, heptamethine cyanine acceptor dye (Cy7, emits ∼780 nm). Enzymatic reduction of a 4-nitrobenzyl group on the Cy7 component induces a large increase in Cy7/Cy5 fluorescence ratio. The deep penetration of near-infrared light enables 3D optical sectioning of intact tumor spheroids, and visualization of individual hypoxic cells (i.e., cells with raised Cy7/Cy5 ratio) as a new way to study tumor spheroids. Beyond preclinical imaging, the near-infrared fluorescent molecular probe has high potential for ratiometric imaging of hypoxic tissue in living subjects.

The causal role of numerical and non-numerical order processing abilities in the early development of mathematics skills: Evidence from an intervention study

Understanding the basis of mathematical development is essential for supporting mathematics learning and to develop efficient interventions for remediating early problems. In the past decade, evidence has accumulated in support of the importance of ordering skills (i.e., tasks that tap into children's ability to recall the order of items or to judge the correctness of the order of items) in predicting early mathematics performance. Nevertheless, so far these studies have only provided correlational evidence, and intervention studies are lacking. The aim of the current study was to fill this gap by investigating the potential causal role of three types of ordering abilities (number ordering, daily event ordering and order working memory) in the development of mathematics skills during the first year of primary school. Children participated in six brief training sessions over a three-week period, and their mathematics skills and mathematics anxiety were measured before and after the training. In addition to the three training conditions, an active control group was also involved, with children completing reading comprehension exercises. Our findings showed that children's performance improved substantially on all ordering tasks as a result of training. Additionally, training in daily event ordering and number ordering has led to large increases in children's formal mathematics skills. Mathematics anxiety was not affected by the interventions. The current results provide initial evidence for the usefulness of order processing training in developing children's early mathematics skills. They also show that these results are not specific to the domain of numerical ordering.

재건축사업의 단계별 개선방안의 중요도 연구

1. CONTENTS (1) RESEARCH OBJECTIVES IIn order to revitalize the reconstruction project, there is a lack of research divided from the project preparation stage to the project implementation, management and disposal plan, and completion and liquidation stage. Therefore, this study aims to provide implications by identifying problems that occur step by step when promoting reconstruction projects, ways to improve the satisfaction of members, and deriving important factors when promoting the project.me was studied. Data on the actual transaction price of apartments representatively inhabited by the general public among real estate near the high-speed railway station were collected and analyzed. Through (2) RESEARCH METHOD Through the results of the survey, differences in satisfaction between groups and post-verification were conducted on the items of each stage of the reconstruction project according to demographic characteristics. In addition, the AHP analysis was conducted with a structured second questionnaire in a pairwise comparison method for executives of reconstruction associations and experts such as related public officials, maintenance companies, municipal construction, and architects (3) RESEARCH FINDINGS As a result of analyzing the unconstrained potential growth model, it was confirmed that apartments located within 5km of the high-speed railway station rose in price after the location of the high-speed railway station, and apartments within 2km of the station had a much larger increase in sales price than apartments after 2km. In the pharmaceutical potential growth model, it was confirmed that the distance between apartments and high-speed railway stations, and the rate of increase in apartment sales prices as the aging period after construction increased, and there was no difference between regions. 2. RESULTS It was found that the promotion committee's operating regulation system was supplemented, the prior feasibility review for project promotion was strengthened, the general meeting of the union was held, and the decision procedure was implemented. The reason why all experts and administrative experts were ranked first is that the city and provincial governor should prepare and distribute the standard articles of incorporation, so it was selected as an important factor because it is necessary to supplement the operating regulation system to meet the changed conditions such as the revision of the law.

Study the Relevance of the Development of a Garbage Power Plant to the Large Increase in Waste Volume in Indonesia

Garbage endangers the community in terms of health, the economy, and the land that is taken up. Indonesia is a country with many waste piles, but there is waste management in terms of recycling, the use of computers, and other things, even from energy sources for power plants. The Waste Power Plant (PLTSa) is an electric power plant that helps add electrical energy for the PLN to be distributed to the community. The source of combustion and the driving point for garbage power plan (PLTSa) is waste; therefore, most of these locations are located in landfills in big cities. This research article aims to strengthen the argument that the development of PLTSa can be accelerated because the increase in waste piles every year will cause unmanaged waste to also increase. The results of studies and literacy studies show that the average managed waste pile is 15,000 tons/year and still leaves 5 million tons/year of waste that is not appropriately managed; however, the PLTSa capacity is still small at 10 MWh/year. It is necessary to increase the quality of waste containers as a source of PLTSa energy to reduce the amount of unmanaged waste.

ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT STATE AND DEVELOPMENT TRENDS OF THE HOTEL INDUSTRY IN EU COUNTRIES

Objective. The objective of the article is to analyze the main indicators of the functioning of the hotel industry in the EU countries and determine the current development trends. Methods. In order to achieve the set goals and objectives, the following research methods are used: analysis and synthesis (to determine indicators of the development of the hospitality industry of EU countries suitable for further analysis), statistical research, namely the construction and analysis of dynamic series (to determine and evaluate trends and regularities development of the hospitality industry of the EU countries), comparative analysis (for a country comparison of the EU countries hotel industry development indicators), cartographic method (for a visual demonstration of the spatial location of hotels and similar accommodation facilities in the EU countries), graphic and tabular methods (for a visual representation of statistical material ). Results. A study of the hotel industry development in EU countries is carried out based on the analysis of the main indicators of its functioning over the period 2012-2022, namely: the number of hotels and similar accommodation establishments; number of beds in hotels and similar accommodation establishments; the number of persons staying in accommodation establishments; number of overnight stays in accommodation establishments. The analysis of the main indicators of the EU countries hotel industry development in 2012-2022 allows us to identify the following trends: 1) constant growth in the number of hotels and similar accommodation facilities with an average growth rate of 2.19% and a negative growth of 3.8% in each of 2020; 2) significant national disparity in the number of hotels and similar accommodation facilities, as well as the rates of their positive and negative growth. Thus, the highest rates of growth were observed in Croatia, Romania, Slovenia, Portugal, Lithuania and Malta, while negative growth was recorded in Germany, Greece, Hungary, Finland, Luxembourg; 3) a significant difference in the number and dynamics of beds in hotels and similar accommodation facilities by EU countries. Thus, the largest increase in hotel capacity occurred in Croatia, Portugal, Slovenia and Lithuania, while the most significant negative increase was recorded in Hungary and Luxembourg; 4) a gradual steady increase in the number of arrivals at tourist accommodation establishments in the period 2012-2019 and a sharp decrease in 2020 by 53.28% under the influence of the Covid-19 pandemic and quarantine restrictions; 5) a gradual steady increase in the number of overnight stays in accommodation facilities of EU countries, their rapid reduction due to the impact of Covid-19 in 2020 (-50.54%) and the restoration of a positive trend in 2021 due to the relaxation of quarantine restrictions and the introduction of vaccination ( +28.8%).

Study on the Development Path of Cultural, Sports, Tourism and Education Integration in West Sichuan in the Context of High Quality Development of Regional Economy Supported by Big Data

Abstract West Sichuan has long been affected by factors such as geographic location, transportation conditions, economic base and political and economic marginalization, resulting in a general lag in economic development. Based on the mechanism of coordinated development of culture-sports-tourism-education, this paper constructs the evaluation index system of coordinated development of the four systems. Using the TOPSIS entropy weight comprehensive evaluation method can measure the development index of each system of culture, sports, tourism and education in western Sichuan, and using the coupled coordination degree model GWR spatial analysis method, the spatial and temporal differentiation characteristics of the integrated and coordinated development of culture-sports-tourism-education in the four regions of western Sichuan, namely, Ya’an City, Aba Prefecture, Ganzi Prefecture, and Liangshan Prefecture, are studied. The results show that the education subsystem in western Sichuan has the largest increase from 0.258 in 2008 to 0.573 in 2022, indicating that western Sichuan has continued to strongly support education in recent years. However, it is also found that the region with the largest change is Aba Prefecture, with an increase of 0.287, and the smallest is only 0.112, which shows that there is a certain degree of variability in the development of the regions in western Sichuan. This study analyzes the development status and characteristics of the regions in western Sichuan, which is of guiding significance for the construction and development of these regions.

Inhibitor design for TMPRSS2: insights from computational analysis of its backbone hydrogen bonds using a simple descriptor

Transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2) is an important drug target due to its role in the infection mechanism of coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-2. Current understanding regarding the molecular mechanisms of known inhibitors and insights required for inhibitor design are limited. This study investigates the effect of inhibitor binding on the intramolecular backbone hydrogen bonds (BHBs) of TMPRSS2 using the concept of hydrogen bond wrapping, which is the phenomenon of stabilization of a hydrogen bond in a solvent environment as a result of being surrounded by non-polar groups. A molecular descriptor which quantifies the extent of wrapping around BHBs is introduced for this. First, virtual screening for TMPRSS2 inhibitors is performed by molecular docking using the program DOCK 6 with a Generalized Born surface area (GBSA) scoring function. The docking results are then analyzed using this descriptor and its relationship to the solvent-accessible surface area term ΔGsa of the GBSA score is demonstrated with machine learning regression and principal component analysis. The effect of binding of the inhibitors camostat, nafamostat, and 4-guanidinobenzoic acid (GBA) on the wrapping of important BHBs in TMPRSS2 is also studied using molecular dynamics. For BHBs with a large increase in wrapping groups due to these inhibitors, the radial distribution function of water revealed that certain residues involved in these BHBs, like Gln438, Asp440, and Ser441, undergo preferential desolvation. The findings offer valuable insights into the mechanisms of these inhibitors and may prove useful in the design of new inhibitors.

The Effect of Geographical Factors on Agricultural Activities in Altınekin District

Agriculture is still the most populous sector among the areas of economic activity in the world. Nearly 60% of the world's population can maintain their lives thanks to the agricultural economy. Agriculture is the most closely associated and compatible sector with nature among manufacturing activities. Agriculture, the first of economic activity, can be shaped by geographical factors. Human environmental factors are highly effective on agricultural activities as well as natural environmental factors. This study reveals the natural and human environmental factors that influence agricultural activities in the Altınekin district and examines the relationship between agricultural production and the future of these factors. Much of the data obtained in this study is based on field observations. In light of field observations and agricultural statistics, the ArcGIS10 program produced maps of the work area. Altınekin district, which is unfavorable for climatic features and superficial water resources, is abundant in groundwater resources. With the rise of groundwater wells throughout the county, which have been dry agriculture in the past, there have been large increases in the cultivation and production of plants that require more water such as sugar beets, sunflowers, corn and carrots, and the agricultural structure of the region has completely changed. The lack of annual average rainfall and surface water resources in the county, the irrigation of much larger farmland by year, and the continued cultivation of excess water supply poses significant threats to the future of groundwater resources.

Crystal Structure, Steady-State, and Pre-Steady-State Kinetics of Acinetobacter baumannii ATP Phosphoribosyltransferase.

The first step of histidine biosynthesis in Acinetobacter baumannii, the condensation of ATP and 5-phospho-α-d-ribosyl-1-pyrophosphate to produce N1-(5-phospho-β-d-ribosyl)-ATP (PRATP) and pyrophosphate, is catalyzed by the hetero-octameric enzyme ATP phosphoribosyltransferase, a promising target for antibiotic design. The catalytic subunit, HisGS, is allosterically activated upon binding of the regulatory subunit, HisZ, to form the hetero-octameric holoenzyme (ATPPRT), leading to a large increase in kcat. Here, we present the crystal structure of ATPPRT, along with kinetic investigations of the rate-limiting steps governing catalysis in the nonactivated (HisGS) and activated (ATPPRT) forms of the enzyme. A pH-rate profile showed that maximum catalysis is achieved above pH 8.0. Surprisingly, at 25 °C, kcat is higher when ADP replaces ATP as substrate for ATPPRT but not for HisGS. The HisGS-catalyzed reaction is limited by the chemical step, as suggested by the enhancement of kcat when Mg2+ was replaced by Mn2+, and by the lack of a pre-steady-state burst of product formation. Conversely, the ATPPRT-catalyzed reaction rate is determined by PRATP diffusion from the active site, as gleaned from a substantial solvent viscosity effect. A burst of product formation could be inferred from pre-steady-state kinetics, but the first turnover was too fast to be directly observed. Lowering the temperature to 5 °C allowed observation of the PRATP formation burst by ATPPRT. At this temperature, the single-turnover rate constant was significantly higher than kcat, providing additional evidence for a step after chemistry limiting catalysis by ATPPRT. This demonstrates allosteric activation by HisZ accelerates the chemical step.

Evaluation of In Vitro Protein Hydrolysis in Seven Insects Approved by the EU for Use as a Protein Alternative in Aquaculture.

Rapid population growth is leading to an increase in the demand for high-quality protein such as fish, which has led to a large increase in aquaculture. However, fish feed is dependent on fishmeal. It is necessary to explore more sustainable protein alternatives that can meet the needs of fish. Insects, due to their high protein content and good amino acid profiles, could be a successful alternative to fishmeal and soybean meal traditionally used in sectors such as aquaculture. In this work, seven species of insects (Hermetia illucens, Tenebrio molitor, Acheta domestica, Alphitobius diaperinus, Gryllodes sigillatus, Gryllus assimilis, and Musca domestica) approved by the European Union (UE) for use as feed for farmed animals (aquaculture, poultry, and pigs) were studied. Their proximate composition, hydrolysis of organic matter (OMd), hydrolysis of crude protein (CPd), degree of hydrolysis (DH/NH2 and DH/100 g DM), and total hydrolysis (TH) were analyzed. The results showed that Tenebrio molitor had digestibility similar to that of fishmeal, while Acheta domestica and Hermetia illucens provided similar digestibility to that of soybean meal. The acid detergent fiber (ADF) data were negatively correlated with all protein digestibility variables. The differences in the degree of hydrolysis (DH) results and the similarity in total hydrolysis (TH) results could indicate the slowing effects of ADF on protein digestibility. Further in vivo studies are needed.

Im5C-DSCGA: A Proposed Hybrid Framework Based on Improved DenseNet and Attention Mechanisms for Identifying 5-methylcytosine Sites in Human RNA.

5-methylcytosine (m5C) is a key post-transcriptional modification that plays a critical role in RNA metabolism. Owing to the large increase in identified m5C modification sites in organisms, their epigenetic roles are becoming increasingly unknown. Therefore, it is crucial to precisely identify m5C modification sites to gain more insight into cellular processes and other mechanisms related to biological functions. Although researchers have proposed some traditional computational methods and machine learning algorithms, some limitations still remain. In this study, we propose a more powerful and reliable deep-learning model, im5C-DSCGA, to identify novel RNA m5C modification sites in humans. Our proposed im5C-DSCGA model uses three feature encoding methods initially-one-hot, nucleotide chemical property (NCP), and nucleotide density (ND)-to extract the original features in RNA sequences and ensure splicing; next, the original features are fed into the improved densely connected convolutional network (DenseNet) and Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM) mechanisms to extract the advanced local features; then, the bidirectional gated recurrent unit (BGRU) method is used to capture the long-term dependencies from advanced local features and extract global features using Self-Attention; Finally, ensemble learning is used and full connectivity is used to classify and predict the m5C site. Unsurprisingly, the deep-learning-based im5C-DSCGA model performed well in terms of sensitivity (Sn), specificity (SP), accuracy (Acc), Matthew's correlation coefficient (MCC), and area under the curve (AUC), generating values of 81.0%, 90.8%, 85.9%, 72.1%, and 92.6%, respectively, in the independent test dataset following the use of three feature encoding methods. We critically evaluated the performance of im5C-DSCGA using five-fold cross-validation and independent testing and compared it to existing methods. The MCC metric reached 72.1% when using the independent test, which is 3.0% higher than the current state-of-the-art prediction method Deepm5C model. The results show that the im5C-DSCGA model achieves more accurate and stable performances and is an effective tool for predicting m5C modification sites. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first time that the improved DenseNet, BGRU, CBAM Attention mechanism, and Self-Attention mechanism have been combined to predict novel m5C sites in human RNA.