Effective risk assessment and control of environmental antibiotic resistance depend on comprehensive information about antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and their microbial hosts. Advances in sequencing technologies and bioinformatics have enabled the identification of ARG hosts using metagenome-assembled contigs and genomes. However, these approaches often suffer from information loss and require extensive computational resources. Here we introduce a bioinformatic strategy that identifies ARG hosts by prescreening ARG-like reads (ALRs) directly from total metagenomic datasets. This ALR-based method offers several advantages: (1) it enables the detection of low-abundance ARG hosts with higher accuracy in complex environments; (2) it establishes a direct relationship between the abundance of ARGs and their hosts; and (3) it reduces computation time by approximately 44–96% compared to strategies relying on assembled contigs and genomes. We applied our ALR-based strategy alongside two traditional methods to investigate a typical human-impacted environment. The results were consistent across all methods, revealing that ARGs are predominantly carried by Gammaproteobacteria and Bacilli, and their distribution patterns may indicate the impact of wastewater discharge on coastal resistome. Our strategy provides rapid and accurate identification of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, offering valuable insights for the high-throughput surveillance of environmental antibiotic resistance. This study further expands our knowledge of ARG-related risk management in future.
Salt crystallization within micro-fractures poses a significant challenge in shale gas production by impeding gas diffusion. This study investigates the real-time behavior of gas flow-induced salt crystallization within a visualized micro-fracture network. Observations reveal that salt crystals initially propagate along the fracture surface before exhibiting perpendicular growth. Crystal nucleation during the saturation stage occurs within a few seconds, while subsequent growth in the supersaturated stage takes approximately 15–20 s. Gas flow drives the evaporation of immobile water, leading to salt precipitation. Furthermore, increasing gas flow rate and decreasing solution salinity are found to accelerate crystal growth. To mitigate plugging damage caused by salt crystallization, controlling pressure differences and solution salinity is crucial.
Despite its critical role in regulating the global climate and carbon cycle, the evolution of deep Pacific circulation has not been fully deciphered during the last glacial cycle. The effect of deep Pacific hydrographic change (e.g. oxygenation and circulation) on atmospheric CO2 variation is still uncertain. Here, we study redox-sensitive elements including V-U-Mn and benthic foraminiferal δ13C at the HYIV2015-B9 site in the southern South China Sea (SCS) to reconstruct the oxygenation and δ13C signals of water masses during the last glacial cycle. The intra-basin benthic foraminiferal δ13C gradient suggests enhanced stratification of the deep Pacific during the glacial compared to the interglacial, implying sluggish abyssal Pacific overturning. This is consistent with weak Pacific Deep Water (PDW) ventilation, as indicated by high contents of authigenic V and U, and low authigenic Mn. The inferred sluggish abyssal Pacific overturning is probably associated with less transport of Lower Circumpolar Deep Water, facilitating the expansion of respired carbon storage in the glacial deep Pacific. Meanwhile, the atmospheric CO2 rise is closely related to active abyssal Pacific overturning since late MIS 5, particularly when considering the impact of Southern Ocean upwelling modulated by Earth's obliquity. Overall, our data indicate the critical role of abyssal Pacific overturning in the carbon cycle, revealing the potential pathway for deep carbon dioxide outgassing in the North Pacific.
OBJECTIVES: Patients with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) exhibit variability in response to anti-VEGF therapy. This study aimed to analyse the aqueous humour proteomic profiles of PCV patients and provide preliminary insights for the identification of biomarkers associated with anti-VEGF drug responsiveness. METHODS: PCV patients who were treatment-naïve or untreated for more than 3 months were prospectively recruited from two hospitals in Beijing and Tianjin. Based on the relative changes in central macular thickness (ΔCMT/baseline-CMT) before and after anti-VEGF treatment, the PCV patients were divided into a good response (GR) group (≤-25%) and a poor response (PR) group (>-25%). Aqueous humour proteomics was performed by the Data-independent Acquisition-Mass Spectrometry (DIA-MS) method, and differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) analysis between the different PCV groups and the control group was conducted. Key DEPs were selected for preliminary validation in the aqueous humour using the Luminex method retrospectively. RESULTS: A total of 31 PCV patients (31 eyes) were included, 13 in the GR group and 18 in the PR group. A total of 414 DEPs were identified, including 36 significantly upregulated proteins, such as G protein regulatory factor 10 (RGS10), podocin (PODN) and epidermal growth factor (EGF), and 32 downregulated proteins, including RAB11FIP4 (Rab11 family-interacting protein 4), α-synuclein (SNCA), haemoglobin subunit δ (HBD) and interleukin 6 (IL6). Compared to the cataract control group (10 eyes), 134 proteins were significantly upregulated, and 72 were downregulated. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis revealed that the GR and PR groups differ in terms of cell communication, and cell signal transduction. Protein-protein interaction analysis revealed interactions between EGF and various DEPs. Validation of aqueous humour proteins using the Luminex method revealed that changes in the levels of EGF were associated with the anti-VEGF treatment response in PCV patients. CONCLUSIONS: PCV patients with good or poor anti-VEGF responses exhibit distinct aqueous humour proteomic profiles. Aqueous EGF may serve as a biomarker for the 'precise treatment' of PCV.
Cyanobacteria are promising platforms for light-driven carbon fixation and carbohydrate biosynthesis. However, optimization strategies that focus solely on carbon allocation are insufficient to achieve substantial improvements in yield and sustainability. Here, Synechococcuselongatus PCC 7942 was engineered to enhance sucrose production by simultaneously increasing total carbon input and reinforcing the artificial sink. The engineered strain secreted 5.821 g L−1 sucrose, which was 27.4 times higher than the wild-type. Transcriptomic analysis revealed upregulation of abundant genes involved in carbon fixation, sucrose biosynthesis, and electron transport chains. Furthermore, a synthetic light-driven consortium was established to directly convert CO2 into value-added compounds. This system produced 323.5 mg L−1 polyhydroxybutyrate, reducing CO2 emissions by 12.4 g per g of polyhydroxybutyrate compared to conventional heterotrophic processes. These findings highlight the potential of cyanobacteria-based systems for carbon-negative biomanufacturing, demonstrating their role in advancing sustainable carbohydrate and biochemical production while exemplifying circular bioeconomy principles.
Traditional methods for inferring room geometry from sound signals are predominantly based on Room ImpulseResponse (RIR) or prior knowledge of the sound source location. This significantly restricts the applicability ofthese approaches. This paper presents a method for estimating room geometry based on the localization of directsound source and its early reflections from First-Order Ambisonics (FOA) signals without the prior knowledge ofthe environment. First, this method simultaneously estimates the Direction of Arrival (DOA) of the direct sourceand the detected first-order reflected sources. Then, a Cross-attention-based network for implicitly extractingthe features related to Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) between the direct source source and the first-orderreflected sources is proposed to estimate the distances of the direct and the first-order reflected sources. Finally,the room geometry is inferred from the localization results of the direct and the first-order reflected sources. Theeffectiveness of the proposed method was validated through simulation experiments. The experimental resultsdemonstrate that the method proposed achieves accurate localization results and performs well in inference of roomgeometry.
Abstract Vanadium dioxide (VO2), renowned for its reversible metal-to-insulator transition (MIT), has been widely used in configurable photonic and electronic devices. Precisely tailoring the MIT of VO2 on micro-/nano-scale is crucial for miniaturized and integrated devices. However, existing tailoring techniques like scanning probe microscopy, despite their precision, fall short in efficiency and adaptability, particularly on complex or curved surfaces. Herein, this work achieves the local engineering of the phase of VO2 films in high efficiency by employing laser writing to assist in the hydrogen doping or dedoping process. The laser doping and laser dedoping technique is also highly flexible, enabling the fabrication of reconfigurable, non-volatile, and multifunctional VO2 devices. This approach establishes a new paradigm for creating reconfigurable micro/nanophotonic and micro/nanoelectronic devices.