A network’s reliability is closely tied to its fault tolerance. When a connected network is fragmented by vertex failures, an increase in the number of small components aggravates network fragmentation and reduces reachability, thereby degrading fault tolerance. Thus, analyzing the abundance and structure of small components provides a useful measure of network reliability. This paper focuses on all possible structures of small components in an arbitrary regular interconnection network G after removing at most κr(G)−1 vertices, where κr(G) is the r-extra connectivity of G. Applying the results, we study the component reliability of (n, k)-bubble-sort network Bn,k and (n, k)-star network Sn,k. Besides, we propose an algorithm for calculating the minimum size of neighborhood of all small components by using Bn,k and Sn,k as application cases. Moreover, we verify the availability and effectiveness of the algorithm by conducting simulation experiments and analyzing their performance.
Nitroxyl (HNO), the one-electron reduced form of nitric oxide, is a highly reactive nitrogen species, and its transient nature presents substantial challenges for reliable detection in biological systems. HNO can modulate cellular redox balance and has been linked to various oxidative stress-related diseases. In this study, we monitor endogenous HNO levels in cancer cells and compare them with those of normal cells. A 3-pyridyl coumarin-based fluorescent probe, Cyto-HNO, was developed to detect both exogenous and endogenous HNO in live cells. Upon excitation at 410 nm, the probe displayed a significant fluorescence enhancement at 468 nm following incubation with Angeli's salt (AS, an HNO donor). Cyto-HNO is highly selective for HNO and produces significant emission signals within the physiological pH range. The probe is primarily localized in the cytosol of cancer cells, whereas it is found in the lysosomes of normal cells. The level of endogenous HNO formation in cancer cells, such as HepG2 and A549, was found to be approximately twice that of normal Beas-2B cells. For the first time, this study suggests that endogenous HNO production is higher in cancer cells than in normal cells, potentially offering insights into the mechanisms of HNO formation in cancer biology.
Recently, China witnessed a rapidly growing interest among urban women in bodybuilding and fitness. They made up nearly 62% of gym members nationwide by 2022 (Santi Yundong Shuju Zhongxin, 2023), and more than 13,000 women had competed in professional bodybuilding contests by 2023. With slightly plump slenderness being a traditional marker of feminine health and beauty (Jung, 2018), what motivates women to take up strength-training? What bodies do they consider “beautiful”? Using the concept of post-feminist healthism (Evans et al., 2018) to frame ethnographic fieldwork data gathered in Kunming, we maintain that socio-economic anxieties about the “disordered body” drive urban women to epitomize the bodies of Western-style fitness competitors as “healthy beauty.” Contrary to the individualistic neoliberalism embedded in post-feminist healthism, however, the Chinese iteration is also strongly shaped by the family, the nation-state, and pre-existing ideals of femininity and bodily restraint. As much as advertisements sell the hope of achieving the desired “healthy beautiful” body, most women cannot attain it unless they too restrict their diets and train like professional fitness athletes. Thus, our research highlights how post-feminist healthism needs further qualification in China.
Animal gut microbiomes—comprising bacteria, archaea, fungi, viruses, and protozoa—are fundamental to host evolution, physiology, and ecosystem resilience. This review synthesizes 21st-century advances in their diversity, spatiotemporal dynamics, and functional roles across the animal kingdom. Although high-throughput metagenomics has transformed the field, major biases remain: most studies still focus on domesticated vertebrates and fecal samples, leaving substantial “microbial dark matter” in wild hosts, invertebrates, and non-bacterial domains unexplored. We highlight how gut microbiomes mediate adaptation to environmental extremes, including hypoxia, temperature stress, and toxins, and how industrialization disrupts these communities, contributing to biodiversity loss and disease risk. We further integrate eco-evolutionary theory, multi-omics, and spatial modeling to clarify cross-kingdom interactions and functional networks. Finally, we discuss translational applications—including probiotics, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), phage therapy, and synthetic consortia—and emphasize the need for global collaborative initiatives, artificial intelligence (AI)-driven discovery, and standardized databases to unlock the full potential of animal gut microbiomes for biodiversity conservation, climate resilience, and planetary health in the coming decades.
Soil heterotrophic respiration (Rh) is critical for ecosystem carbon balance, but how microbial genomic adaptation to extreme drought across plant growth stages regulates Rh remains poorly understood. This study aimed to determine how drought-enriched bacteria adjust genome size, functional traits, and carbon acquisition capacity, and how these changes affect Rh in an alpine peatland. We conducted a field extreme-drought manipulation experiment in an alpine peatland during the early, middle, and late plant growth stages. Metagenomic sequencing was used to identify drought-enriched bacteria and characterize their genome size, KEGG functional potential, drought-resistance genes, and carbon-acquisition-related genes. Soil hydrolytic enzyme activities and Rh were measured, and structural equation modeling was used to assess direct and indirect pathways regulating Rh. Drought-enriched bacteria consistently had smaller genomes than drought-depleted bacteria, supporting genome streamlining under drought stress. However, among drought-enriched groups, genome size and functional potential peaked in the middle stage, with genome size reaching 4.83 Mb compared with 4.04 Mb in the early stage and 3.66 Mb in the late stage. Under extreme drought, carbon-acquisition-related genes were most enriched in the middle stage, increasing by 15.8
