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The North Atlantic sea surface temperature tripole (NAT) is a predominant boreal spring oceanic mode, which notably influences Northern Hemispheric climates. However, the NAT pattern and its corresponding Northern Hemispheric surface air temperature (SAT) anomalies exhibit large year-to-year disparities. Here, we identified three types of NAT pattern based on the relative significance of sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) among the three poles. The first type is characterized by more dominant SSTA at the southern pole, which corresponds to the pronounced positive SAT anomalies over North America and negative SAT anomalies over the Ural Mountain regions. The second type features more intensive SSTA at the central pole, which is linked with more zonally oriented barotropic low-pressure anomalies and negative SAT anomalies stretching from western Europe to Northeast Asia. The third type exhibits more significant SSTA over the northern pole, which corresponds to the high-pressure anomalies and positive SAT anomalies over the Turan Plain.

Accurately describing and evaluating the effects of unsafe acts on maritime accidents is critical to establishing practical accident prevention and control options. This paper proposes a framework for the probabilistic analysis of maritime accidents caused by seafarers’ unsafe acts by incorporating a navigation simulation and dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) modeling. First, the unsafe acts of seafarers are identified according to an in-depth analysis of global maritime investigation reports. Then, a navigation simulation experiment is designed to collect the ship-handling data of seafarers during hazardous accident scenarios. Consequently, a dynamic probabilistic model is proposed using a DBN to describe the phases of maritime accidents based on the navigation simulation experiment data. Furthermore, an evolution analysis of maritime accidents is conducted to explore the causal chain of such accidents through sensitivity analysis. The typical navigational accident-collision is chosen as the case to interpret the proposed framework, considering the formation process of ship collision risks, from the occurrence of ship collision risk (phase 1) to the close-quarters situation (phase 2) and to immediate danger (phase 3). This framework is applied to explore the causal chain of collision accidents caused by the unsafe acts of seafarers.

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is an important foodborne pathogen. The increasing incidence of non-O157 STEC has posed a great risk to public health. Besides the Shiga toxin (Stx), the adherence factor, intimin, coded by eae gene plays a critical role in STEC pathogenesis. In this study, we investigated the prevalence and polymorphisms of eae gene in non-O157 STEC strains isolated from different sources in China. Among 735 non-O157 STEC strains, eae was present in 70 (9.5%) strains. Eighteen different eae genotypes were identified in 62 eae -positive STEC strains with the nucleotide identities ranging from 86.01% to 99.97%. Among which, seven genotypes were newly identified in this study. The eighteen eae genotypes can be categorized into five eae subtypes, namely β1, γ1, ε1, ζ3 and θ. Associations between eae subtypes/genotypes and serotypes as well as origins of strains were observed in this study. Strains belonging to serotypes O26:H11, O103:H2, O111:H8 are associated with particular eae subtypes, i.e., β1, ε1, θ, respectively. Most strains from diarrheal patients (7/9, 77.8%) carried eae -β1 subtype, while most isolates from cattle (23/26, 88.5%) carried eae -ζ3 subtype. This study demonstrated a genetic diversity of eae gene in non-O157 STEC strains from different sources in China.

Liver and tumor segmentation is an important technology for the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma. However, most existing methods struggle to accurately delineate the boundaries of the liver and tumor due to significant differences in their shapes, sizes, and distributions, which leads to unclear segmentation of the liver contour and incorrect delineation of the lesion area. To address this gap, we propose a hybrid gabor attention convolution and transformer interaction network with hierarchical monitoring mechanism for liver and tumor segmentation, named HyborNet. Generally, the proposed HyborNet consists of a local and a global feature extraction branch. Specifically, the local feature extraction branch consists of several cascaded gabor attention convolutional blocks, each of which contains a multi-dimensional interactive attention module and a gabor convolutional module. In this way, fine-grained information about the liver and tumor can be extracted, which refines the edge details of the target area and accurately depicts the lesion area. The global feature extraction branch is constructed with a transformer model, which is capable of extracting coarse-grained information about the liver and tumor and accurately distinguishing them from similar tissues. Additionally, we propose a cross-attention-based dual-branch interaction module that adaptively fuses features from different perspectives to emphasize the target region, thereby enhancing the network’s segmentation performance. Finally, a hierarchical monitoring mechanism is employed in the decoding stage, which provides additional feedback from deeper intermediate layers to optimize the segmentation results. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that HyborNet significantly outperforms other state-of-the-art models in liver and tumor segmentation tasks. The proposed model effectively enhances liver image segmentation accuracy, assisting doctors in making more precise diagnoses.

Northeast China (NEC) is China’s national grain production base, and the local precipitation is vital for agriculture during the springtime. Therefore, understanding the dynamic origins of the NEC spring rainfall (NECSR) variability is of socioeconomic importance. This study reveals an interdecadal change in the atmospheric teleconnections associated with the NECSR during a recent 60-year period (1961–2020). Before the mid-1980s, NECSR had been related to a Rossby wave train that is coupled with extratropical North Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST), whereas, since the mid-1980s, NECSR has been linked to a quite different Rossby wave train that is coupled with tropical North Atlantic SST. Both Rossby wave trains could lead to enhanced NECSR through anomalous cyclones over East Asia. The weakening of the westerly jet over North America is found to be mainly responsible for the alternation of the atmospheric teleconnections associated with NECSR during two epochs.

Long-term use of low-dose adefovir dipivoxil (ADV) has been increasingly associated with Fanconi syndrome; however, cases of Fanconi syndrome combined with peripheral neuropathy remain rare. Here, we report a 67-year-old man who developed progressive limb weakness and sensory abnormalities after approximately 6 years of treatment with 10 mg ADV. He was diagnosed with ADV-associated Fanconi syndrome accompanied by peripheral neuropathy. Following the substitution of ADV with entecavir and 5 months to 6 months of phosphate supplementation, the patient’s muscle weakness nearly resolved, and peripheral nerve damage showed significant improvement.

Shiga toxin (Stx) is the key virulent factor in Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC). To date, three Stx1 subtypes and seven Stx2 subtypes have been described in E. coli , which differed in receptor preference and toxin potency. Here, we identified a novel Stx2 subtype designated Stx2h in E. coli strains isolated from wild marmots in the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, China. Stx2h shares 91.9% nucleic acid sequence identity and 92.9% amino acid identity to the nearest Stx2 subtype. The expression of Stx2h in type strain STEC299 was inducible by mitomycin C, and culture supernatant from STEC299 was cytotoxic to Vero cells. The Stx2h converting prophage was unique in terms of insertion site and genetic composition. Whole genome-based phylo- and patho-genomic analysis revealed STEC299 was closer to other pathotypes of E. coli than STEC, and possesses virulence factors from other pathotypes. Our finding enlarges the pool of Stx2 subtypes and highlights the extraordinary genomic plasticity of E. coli strains. As the emergence of new Shiga toxin genotypes and new Stx-producing pathotypes pose a great threat to the public health, Stx2h should be further included in E. coli molecular typing, and in epidemiological surveillance of E. coli infections.

N6‐methyladenosine (m6A) has emerged as the most prevalent post‐transcriptional modification on mRNA that contributes prominently to tumorigenesis. However, the specific function of m6A methyltransferase methyltransferase‐like 3 (METTL3) in colorectal cancer (CRC) remains elusive. Herein, we explored the biological function of METTL3 in CRC progression. Clinically, METTL3 was frequently upregulated in CRC tissues, cell lines, and plasma samples and its high expression predicted poor prognosis of CRC patients. Functionally, knockdown of METTL3 significantly repressed CRC cell proliferation and migration in vitro, while its overexpression accelerated CRC tumor formation and metastasis both in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, METTL3 epigenetically repressed YPEL5 in an m6A‐YTHDF2‐dependent manner by targeting the m6A site in the coding sequence region of the YPEL5 transcript. Moreover, overexpression of YPEL5 significantly reduced CCNB1 and PCNA expression. Collectively, we identified the pivotal role of METTL3‐catalyzed m6A modification in CRC tumorigenesis, wherein it facilitates CRC tumor growth and metastasis through suppressing YPEL5 expression in an m6A‐YTHDF2‐dependent manner, suggesting a promising strategy for the diagnosis and therapy of CRC. Here, we demonstrate that methyltransferase‐like 3 (METTL3)‐catalyzed N6‐methyladenosine (m6A) modification facilitates tumor growth and metastasis in colorectal cancer (CRC). METTL3 can reduce YPEL5 expression in an m6A‐YTHDF2‐dependent manner. Our findings highlight a novel m6A regulatory mechanism, with ‘writer’ METTL3, ‘reader’ YTHDF2, and ‘target’ YPEL5 being promising diagnostic or therapeutic targets in CRC.

Objective: This study aims to investigate peroxiredoxin 3 (PRDX3) expression in gastric cancer tissue and its effects on cisplatin resistance in gastric cancer cells and its possible mechanism. Methods: PRDX3 expression in human gastric cancer tissue microarrays was detected via immunohistochemistry. The PRDX3 small interfering RNA (siPRDX3 group) and the negative control siNC (siNC group) were transfected into AGS and MKN-74 cell lines, respectively, whereas a blank control group was set up. Each group was treated with different cisplatin concentrations (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 μg/ml), and the half-inhibitory concentration (IC50) of each group of the two cell lines was calculated using the CCK8 assay. The corresponding IC50 concentration of the siPRDX3 group in the two cell lines was used to treat cells of each group. Flow cytometry was used to detect cell apoptosis, and Western blotting was used to detect the expression levels of cleaved caspase-3 and Bax in each group. Results: PRDX3 was overexpressed in gastric adenocarcinoma tissue compared with adjacent noncancer tissue (P = 0.0053). After cisplatin treatment, the IC50 in the siPRDX3 group of AGS cells (5.91 ± 0.18 μg/ml) and the siPRDX3 group of MKN-74 cells (3.48 ± 0.30 μg/ml) was significantly lower than in the corresponding siNC groups (10.01 ± 0.99 and 6.39 ± 0.70 μg/ml; P = 0.0022 and 0.0027, respectively). AGS cells (38.81% ± 1.69%) and MKN-74 cells (25.03% ± 2.80%) in the siPRDX3 group showed significantly higher apoptosis rates than in the corresponding siNC groups (23.17% ± 1.43% and 16.7% ± 1.39%; P = 0.0003 and 0.0099, respectively). The expression levels of cleaved caspase-3 and Bax were significantly higher in the siPRDX3 group of both cell lines than in the siNC group (P < 0.0001). Conclusion: PRDX3 increases the gastric cancer cell resistance to cisplatin by reducing apoptosis and thus may serve as a target to overcome cisplatin resistance.

As a near-Arctic state and a shipping power, China shows great interest in developing polar shortcuts from East Asia to Europe against the background of shrinking Arctic sea ice. Due to the Arctic’s historic inaccessibility and corresponding vulnerable ecosystems, Arctic shipping activities must be carried out sustainably. In this study, a content analysis method was adopted to detect Chinese perspectives toward sustainable Arctic shipping based on qualitative data collected from the websites of several Chinese government agencies. Results show that, first, China emphasizes the fundamental role played by scientific expeditions and studies in developing Arctic shipping routes. Second, China encourages its shipping enterprises to conduct commercial and regularized Arctic voyages and intends to strike a good balance between shipping development and environmental protection. Third, China actively participates in Arctic shipping governance via extensive international cooperation at the global and regional levels. Several policy recommendations on how China can develop sustainable Arctic shipping are proposed accordingly.