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Obesity is closely associated with numerous adipogenic regulatory factors, including coding and non-coding genes. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play a major role in adipogenesis. However, differential expression profiles of lncRNAs in inguinal white adipose tissue (iWAT) between wild-type (WT) and ob/ob mice, as well as their roles in adipogenesis, are not well understood. Here, a total of 2809 lncRNAs were detected in the iWAT of WT and ob/ob mice by RNA-Sequencing (RNA-Seq), including 248 novel lncRNAs. Of them, 46 lncRNAs were expressed differentially in WT and ob/ob mice and were enriched in adipogenesis signaling pathways as determined by KEGG enrichment analysis, including the PI3K/AKT/mTOR and cytokine–cytokine receptor interaction signaling pathways. Furthermore, we focused on one novel lncRNA, which we named lnc-ORA (obesity-related lncRNA), which had a seven-fold higher expression in ob/ob mice than in WT mice. Knockdown of lnc-ORA inhibited preadipocyte proliferation by decreasing the mRNA and protein expression levels of cell cycle markers. Interestingly, lnc-ORA knockdown inhibited adipocyte differentiation by regulating the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. In summary, these findings contribute to a better understanding of adipogenesis in relation to lncRNAs and provide novel potential therapeutic targets for obesity-related metabolic diseases.

High-performance selector devices are essential for emerging nonvolatile memories to implement high-density memory storage and large-scale neuromorphic computing. Device uniformity is one of the key challenges which limit the practical applications of threshold switching selectors. Here, high-uniformity threshold switching HfO 2-based selectors are fabricated by using e-beam lithography to pattern controllable Ag nanodots (NDs) with high order and uniform size in the cross-point region. The selectors exhibit excellent bidirectional threshold switching performance, including low leakage current (<1 pA), high on/off ratio (>10 8), high endurance (>10 8 cycles), and fast switching speed (≈75 ns). The patterned Ag NDs in the selector help control the number of Ag atoms diffusing into HfO 2 and confine the positions to form reproducible filaments. According to the statistical analysis, the Ag NDs selectors show much smaller cycle-to-cycle and device-to-device variations (C V < 10%) compared to control samples with nonpatterned Ag thin film. Furthermore, when integrating the Ag NDs selector with resistive switching memory in one-selector-one-resistor (1S1R) structure, the reduced selector variation helps significantly reduce the bit error rate in 1S1R crossbar array. The high-uniformity Ag NDs selectors offer great potential in the fabrication of large-scale 1S1R crossbar arrays for future memory and neuromorphic computing applications.

Drivers of and barriers to consumer adoption of product‐service systems (PSS) deviating strongly from the current consumption paradigm remain unidentified. This study quantitatively investigates purchase intentions of a hypothetical branded fashion subscription service. This service features use‐ and result‐oriented PSS attributes in a lack of ownership, newness, and choice, and is investigated from a Prospect Theory perspective using a mixed method design combining an experiment with a survey (n = 524). Results show that even if the PSS provider is highly trusted by consumers, this only mitigates some of the worries consumers have about wearing used clothing and being held financially liable for product damage. The only driver of adoption is the opportunity to save money. Additional specific product information is also explored and shows that PSS providers have scope to change consumer perceptions. Overall, it appears that fashion ownership and choice are lesser issues than the literature suggests, although financial incentives are important. Furthermore, having a trusted brand allows a potential PSS provider to alleviate only some of the concerns consumers have. The contribution of this paper lies in its empirical findings as well as in its validation of Prospect Theory as a valid approach to enquiring into reasons for or against consumer adoption of complex PSS such as subscription services.

The voltage-dependent anion channel (VDAC) is the major transport protein in the outer membrane of mitochondria and plays crucial roles in energy metabolism, apoptosis, and metabolites transport. In plants, the expression of VDACs can be affected by different stresses, including drought, salinity and pathogen defense. In this study, we investigated the expression pattern of AtVDAC2 in A. thaliana and found ABA suppressed the accumulation of AtVDAC2 transcripts. Further, phenotype analysis of this VDAC deregulated-expression transgenic Arabidopsis plants indicated that AtVDAC2 anti-sense line showed an ABA-insensitivity phenotype during the early seedling development under ABA treatment. The results suggested that AtVDAC2 might be involved in ABA signaling in A. thaliana.

Background Intramuscular fat (IMF) content is a vital parameter for assessing pork quality. Increasing evidence has shown that microRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in regulating porcine IMF deposition. Here, a novel miRNA implicated in porcine IMF adipogenesis was found, and its effect and regulatory mechanism were further explored with respect to intramuscular preadipocyte proliferation and differentiation. Results By porcine adipose tissue miRNA sequencing analysis, we found that miR-146a-5p is a potential regulator of porcine IMF adipogenesis. Further studies showed that miR-146a-5p mimics inhibited porcine intramuscular preadipocyte proliferation and differentiation, while the miR-146a-5p inhibitor promoted cell proliferation and adipogenic differentiation. Mechanistically, miR-146a-5p suppressed cell proliferation by directly targeting SMAD family member 4 (SMAD4) to attenuate TGF-β signaling. Moreover, miR-146a-5p inhibited the differentiation of intramuscular preadipocytes by targeting TNF receptor-associated factor 6 (TRAF6) to weaken the AKT/mTORC1 signaling downstream of the TRAF6 pathway. Conclusions MiR-146a-5p targets SMAD4 and TRAF6 to inhibit porcine intramuscular adipogenesis by attenuating TGF-β and AKT/mTORC1 signaling, respectively. These findings provide a novel miRNA biomarker for regulating intramuscular adipogenesis to promote pork quality.

In many real-world problems of real-time monitoring high-dimensional streaming data, one wants to detect an undesired event or change quickly once it occurs, but under the sampling control constraint in the sense that one might be able to only observe or use selected components data for decision-making per time step in the resource-constrained environments. In this paper, we propose to incorporate multi-armed bandit approaches into sequential change-point detection to develop an efficient bandit change-point detection algorithm. Our proposed algorithm, termed Thompson-Sampling-Shiryaev-Roberts-Pollak (TSSRP), consists of two policies per time step: the adaptive sampling policy applies the Thompson Sampling algorithm to balance between exploration for acquiring long-term knowledge and exploitation for immediate reward gain, and the statistical decision policy fuses the local Shiryaev-Roberts-Pollak statistics to determine whether to raise a global alarm by sum shrinkage techniques. Extensive numerical simulations and case studies demonstrate the statistical and computational efficiency of our proposed TSSRP algorithm.