These findings suggest that oxLDL-induced NLRP3 inflammasome activation mainly depends on CD36 involved in the progression of atherosclerosis by promoting oxLDL-mediated inflammation and foam cell formation.

High entropy alloys (HEAs) and compositionally complex alloys (CCAs) have recently attracted great research interest because of their remarkable mechanical and physical properties. Although many useful HEAs or CCAs were reported, the rules of phase design, if there are any, which could guide alloy screening are still an open issue. In this work, we made a critical appraisal of the existing design rules commonly used by the academic community with different machine learning (ML) algorithms. Based on the artificial neural network algorithm, we were able to derive and extract a sensitivity matrix from the ML modeling, which enabled the quantitative assessment of how to tune a design parameter for the formation of a certain phase, such as solid solution, intermetallic, or amorphous phase. Furthermore, we explored the use of an extended set of new design parameters, which had not been considered before, for phase design in HEAs or CCAs with the ML modeling. To verify our ML-guided design rule, we performed various experiments and designed a series of alloys out of the Fe-Cr-Ni-Zr-Cu system. The outcomes of our experiments agree reasonably well with our predictions, which suggests that the ML-based techniques could be a useful tool in the future design of HEAs or CCAs.

BackgroundMicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short, highly conserved small noncoding RNAs that had fundamental roles in post-transcriptional gene expression, and they are crucial for proper control of biological processes and known to participate in embryo implantation. However, miRNA expression profiles in the pre-receptive and receptive phases of the goat endometrium during embryo implantation are unknown.ResultsA total of 1,069 and 847 miRNAs were expressed in receptive (R) and pre-receptive (P) goat endometrium, and 632 miRNAs were co-expressed in both phases. We identified 545 (50.98%) known miRNAs in the R library and 522 (61.63%) in the P library. There were 110 up-expressed miRNAs and 33 down-expressed miRNAs in receptive endometrium compared with the pre-receptive endometrium meeting the criteria of P-values< 0.05. Moreover, GO and KEGG analysis of the target genes of the differentially expressed miRNAs revealed some candidate miRNAs, genes and pathways that may involve in the formation of the receptive endometrium. Based on stem-loop RT-qPCR, 15 miRNAs were detected and the results suggested that the majority of the miRNA expression data measured by Solexa deep sequencing could represent actual miRNA expression levels.ConclusionsOur data revealed the first miRNA profile related to the biology of the goat receptive endometrium during embryo implantation, and the results suggested that a subset of miRNAs might play important roles in the formation of endometrial receptivity. Thus, elucidating the physiological roles of endometrial miRNAs will help us better understand the genetic control of embryo implantation in goats.

Testis development and spermatogenesis are strictly regulated by numbers of genes and non-coding genes. However, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) as key regulators in multitudinous biological processes have not been systematically identified in bovine testes during sexual maturation. In this study, we comprehensively analyzed lncRNA and mRNA expression profiling of six bovine testes at 3 days after birth and 13 months by RNA sequencing. 23,735 lncRNAs and 22,118 mRNAs were identified, in which 540 lncRNAs ( P -value < 0.05) and 3,525 mRNAs ( P -adjust < 0.05) were significantly differentially expressed (DE) between two stages. Correspondingly, the results of RT-qPCR analysis showed well correlation with the transcriptome data. Moreover, GO and KEGG enrichment analyses showed that DE genes and target genes of DE lncRNAs were enriched in spermatogenesis. Furthermore, we constructed lncRNA–gene interaction networks; consequently, 15 DE lncRNAs and 12 cis -target genes were involved. The target genes ( SPATA16 , TCF21 , ZPBP , PACRG , ATP8B3 , COMP , ACE , and OSBP2 ) were found associated with bovine sexual maturation. In addition, the expression of lncRNAs and cis -target genes was detected in bovine Leydig cells, Sertoli cells, and spermatogonia. Our study identified and analyzed lncRNAs and mRNAs in testis tissues, suggesting that lncRNAs may regulate testis development and spermatogenesis. Our findings provided new insights for further investigation of biological function in bovine lncRNA.

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