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Breast-conserving surgery (BCS) is commonly used for the treatment of early-stage breast cancer. Following BCS, approximately 20% to 30% of patients require reexcision because postoperative histopathology identifies cancer in the surgical margins of the excised specimen. Quantitative micro-elastography (QME) is an imaging technique that maps microscale tissue stiffness and has demonstrated a high diagnostic accuracy (96%) in detecting cancer in specimens excised during surgery. However, current QME methods, in common with most proposed intraoperative solutions, cannot image cancer directly in the patient, making their translation to clinical use challenging. In this proof-of-concept study, we aimed to determine whether a handheld QME probe, designed to interrogate the surgical cavity, can detect residual cancer directly in the breast cavity in vivo during BCS. In a first-in-human study, 21 BCS patients were scanned in vivo with the QME probe by five surgeons. For validation, protocols were developed to coregister in vivo QME with postoperative histopathology of the resected tissue to assess the capability of QME to identify residual cancer. In four cavity aspects presenting cancer and 21 cavity aspects presenting benign tissue, QME detected elevated stiffness in all four cancer cases, in contrast to low stiffness observed in 19 of the 21 benign cases. The results indicate that in vivo QME can identify residual cancer by directly imaging the surgical cavity, potentially providing a reliable intraoperative solution that can enable more complete cancer excision during BCS. Significance: Optical imaging of microscale tissue stiffness enables the detection of residual breast cancer directly in the surgical cavity during breast-conserving surgery, which could potentially contribute to more complete cancer excision.

IntroductionThe geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI), a nutritional screening tool specifically for the aging population, has been proven to be associated with worse outcomes in chronic kidney disease patients, especially in the hemodialysis population. However, the predictive validity of GNRI in critically ill elderly patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) is yet to be determined. This analysis sought to examine the prognostic effects of GNRI on elderly AKI patients in intensive care units (ICUs).MethodsWe collected elderly AKI patient-relevant data from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care III database. AKI was diagnosed and staged according to the “Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes” criteria. In the study, 1-year mortality was considered the primary outcome, whereas in-hospital, ICU, 28-day and 90-day mortality, and prolonged length of stay in ICU and hospital were selected as the secondary outcomes.ResultsIn all, 3,501 elderly patients with AKI were selected for this study, with a 1-year mortality rate of 36.4%. We classified the study population into low (≤98) and high (>98) GNRI groups based on the best cutoff value. The incidence of endpoints was remarkably lower in patients with elevated GNRI (p < 0.001). When stratified by the AKI stage, patients with high GNRI at AKI stages 1, 2, and 3 had markedly lower 1-year mortality than those with low GNRI (all p < 0.05). The multivariable regression analysis identified the independent prognostic ability of GNRI on the research outcomes (all p < 0.05). Restricted cubic spline exhibited a linear correlation between GNRI and 1-year death (p for non-linearity = 0.434). The prognostic implication of GNRI on 1-year mortality was still significant in patients with the most subgroups.ConclusionIn critically ill elderly patients with AKI, elevated GNRI upon admission was strongly correlated with a lower risk of unfavorable outcomes.

Breast-conserving surgery (BCS) is commonly used for the treatment of early-stage breast cancer. Following BCS, approximately 20% to 30% of patients require reexcision because postoperative histopathology identifies cancer in the surgical margins of the excised specimen. Quantitative micro-elastography (QME) is an imaging technique that maps microscale tissue stiffness and has demonstrated a high diagnostic accuracy (96%) in detecting cancer in specimens excised during surgery. However, current QME methods, in common with most proposed intraoperative solutions, cannot image cancer directly in the patient, making their translation to clinical use challenging. In this proof-of-concept study, we aimed to determine whether a handheld QME probe, designed to interrogate the surgical cavity, can detect residual cancer directly in the breast cavity in vivo during BCS. In a first-in-human study, 21 BCS patients were scanned in vivo with the QME probe by five surgeons. For validation, protocols were developed to coregister in vivo QME with postoperative histopathology of the resected tissue to assess the capability of QME to identify residual cancer. In four cavity aspects presenting cancer and 21 cavity aspects presenting benign tissue, QME detected elevated stiffness in all four cancer cases, in contrast to low stiffness observed in 19 of the 21 benign cases. The results indicate that in vivo QME can identify residual cancer by directly imaging the surgical cavity, potentially providing a reliable intraoperative solution that can enable more complete cancer excision during BCS.Significance:Optical imaging of microscale tissue stiffness enables the detection of residual breast cancer directly in the surgical cavity during breast-conserving surgery, which could potentially contribute to more complete cancer excision.

Supplementary Data from Quantitative Micro-Elastography Enables In Vivo Detection of Residual Cancer in the Surgical Cavity during Breast-Conserving Surgery

Male sterility is a valuable trait for watermelon breeding, as watermelon hybrids exhibit obvious heterosis. However, the underlying regulatory mechanism is still largely unknown, especially regarding the related non-coding genes. In the present study, approximately 1035 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), as well as 80 DE-lncRNAs and 10 DE-miRNAs, were identified, with the overwhelming majority down-regulated in male-sterile floral buds. Enrichment analyses revealed that the general phenylpropanoid pathway as well as its related metabolisms was predicted to be altered in a mutant compared to its fertile progenitor. Meanwhile, the conserved genetic pathway DYT1-TDF1-AMS-MS188-MS1, as well as the causal gene ClAMT1 for the male-sterile mutant Se18, was substantially disrupted during male reproductive development. In addition, some targets of the key regulators AMS and MS188 in tapetum development were also down-regulated at a transcriptional level, such as ABCG26 (Cla004479), ACOS5 (Cla022956), CYP703A2 (Cla021151), PKSA (Cla021099), and TKPR1 (Cla002563). Considering lncRNAs may act as functional endogenous target mimics of miRNAs, competitive endogenous RNA networks were subsequently constructed, with the most complex one containing three DE-miRNAs, two DE-lncRNAs, and 21 DEGs. Collectively, these findings not only contribute to a better understanding of genetic regulatory networks underlying male sterility in watermelon, but also provide valuable candidates for future research.

Adaptive immune responses and T lymphocytes have been implicated as important mechanisms of parasite-induced protection. However, the role of CD8 + T lymphocytes in the resolution of C. parvum infection is largely unresolved.

The ECL behaviors of NaBiF4 : Yb3+/Er3+ UCNPs synthesized via a fast and environment-friendly method are reported for the first time. UCNPs-based ECL biosensor shows a wide detection range with low detection limit of 138 CFU mL−1 for E. coli O157 : H7.

Cryptosporidium parvum has gained much attention as a major cause of diarrhea in the world, particularly in those with compromised immune systems. The data currently available on how the immune system recognizes C. parvum are growing rapidly, but we lack data on the interactions among host major histocompatibility complex (MHC) diversity and parasitic T-cell epitopes. To identify antigenic epitopes in a murine model, we performed systematic profiling of H-2K

Perioperative neurocognitive disorders (PNDs) are frequent complications associated with cognitive impairment during the perioperative period, including acute postoperative delirium and long-lasting postoperative cognitive dysfunction. There are some risk factors for PNDs, such as age, surgical trauma, anesthetics, and the health of the patient, but the underlying mechanism has not been fully elucidated. Pyroptosis is a form of programmed cell death that is mediated by the gasdermin protein and is involved in cognitive dysfunction disorders. The canonical pathway induced by nucleotide oligomerization domain (NOD)-, leucine-rich repeat (LRR)- and pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasomes contributes to PNDs, which suggests that targeting NLRP3 inflammasomes may be an effective strategy for the treatment of PNDs. Therefore, inhibiting upstream activators and blocking the assembly of the NLRP3 inflammasome may attenuate PNDs. The present review summarizes recent studies and systematically describes the pathogenesis of NLRP3 activation and regulation and potential therapeutics targeting NLRP3 inflammasomes in PNDs patients.

Evolution of dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) has been studied using the enzyme from Escherichia coli DHFR (ecDHFR) as a model, but less studies have used the enzyme from Homo sapiens DHFR (hsDHFR). Each enzyme maintains a short and narrow distribution of hydride donor-acceptor distances (DAD) at the tunneling ready state (TRS). Evolution of the enzyme was previously studied in ecDHFR where three key sites were identified as important to the catalyzed reaction. The corresponding sites in hsDHFR are F28, 62-PEKN, and 26-PPLR. Each of these sites was studied here through the creation of mutant variants of the enzyme and measurements of the temperature dependence of the intrinsic kinetic isotope effects (KIEs) on the reaction. F28 is mutated first to M (F28M) and then to the L of the bacterial enzyme (F28L). The KIEs of the F28M variant are larger and more temperature-dependent than wild-type (WT), suggesting a broader and longer average DAD at the TRS. To more fully mimic ecDHFR, we also study a triple mutant of the human enzyme (F32L-PP26N-PEKN62G). Remarkably, the intrinsic KIEs, while larger in magnitude, are temperature-independent like the WT enzymes. We also construct deletion mutations of hsDHFR removing both the 62-PEKN and 26-PPLR sequences. The results mirror those described previously for insertion mutants of ecDHFR. Taken together, these results suggest a balancing act during DHFR evolution between achieving an optimal TRS for hydride transfer and preventing product inhibition arising from the different intercellular pools of NADPH and NADP+ in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.

AIM To understand the social network status of older adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Beijing, China and explore its related factors. DESIGN A cross-sectional survey using a sample of convenience was conducted. METHODS From April to September 2019, Lubben Social Network Scale-6 (LSNS-6) was used to evaluate the social network of 300 older adults with T2DM from the outpatient and inpatient departments of three hospitals and five communities in Beijing. Self-designed demographics and clinical sheets, Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities Scale, Social Support Rating Scale and Geriatric Depression Scale-15 were used to investigate the related factors of their social networks. The Equator Research Checklist used in this study is STROBE checklist. RESULTS The score of LSNS-6 of the older adults was 16.75 ± 7.02 (scale: 0 ~ 30), the score of family network dimension was 8.32 ± 3.63 (scale: 0 ~ 15), and friends network dimension was 8.43 ± 4.74 (scale: 0 ~ 15). Additionally, 22.67% of the older adults had social isolation. Social support, medical payment, self-assessed health status, residential arrangement and smoking status were associated with the social network level of the older adults with T2DM (p

Verticillium dahliae is a soil-borne hemi-biotrophic fungal pathogen and inflicts major losses in agricultural production worldwide. Although the pathogenicity of the fungus and plant immunity have been extensively studied, how cotton leaf necrosis is induced by defoliating strains of V. dahliae is poorly understood. In this study, reference-grade genomes were determined for two representative V. dahliae isolates: V991, which is defoliating and aggressive, and 1cd3-2, which is non-defoliating and has weak pathogenicity. Transcriptome analysis showed that cotton resistance to V. dahliae mainly depends on cell wall structure or physical barrier generation in the early stage of infection (3-9 days post inoculation, dpi). However, a large number of pathogenic factors could be detected from 12 dpi and accumulated quickly in cotton stems, accompanied by the burst of reactive oxygen species (ROS), leaf necrosis and defoliation. A V991 specific virulence gene SP3 was identified through comparative genome analysis and found to be highly expressed after colonization. Knock-out of SP3 clearly attenuated pathogenicity, with less ROS produced. These results indicate that disease symptoms in cotton may be due to abnormal immune activation and excessive ROS induced by the pathogen. To further investigate this, Polyethyleneimine coated MXene quantum dots (PEI-MQDs), a type of nano material that possesses the ability to remove ROS in vitro, were used. Cotton seedlings maintain ROS homeostasis with enhanced peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activities after exogenous treatment with PEI-MQDs and show significant tolerance to V. dahliae isolate V991. Our results suggest that excessive ROS and constitutive immune activation in cotton induced by the defoliating strain of V. dahliae is responsible for disease symptoms such as leaf necrosis, and PEI-MQDs application improve cotton tolerance to V. dahliae by maintaining ROS homeostasis.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has become the development trend in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. BIM discipline competition is an effective way for students of AEC-related disciplines to integrate theory with practice, and it is a key link to cultivate qualified BIM practitioners. This study takes participants of the 8th National College BIM Graduation Design Innovation Competition as the research objects. The Technology Acceptance Model and the Theory of Planned Behavior are combined to build a driving factor model of the competitions. Contestants of the competition were asked to complete online questionnaires, and 451 valid samples were finally obtained. Structural Equation Modeling was used to fit the theoretical model, and it was found that: Behavioral Intention to use BIM is directly and positively affected by Attitude, Perceived Behavioral Control, and Perceived Usefulness, as well as indirectly and positively affected by Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Eased of Usefulness. Competition Results is directly and positively affected by Behavioral Intention to use BIM, Perceived Behavioral Control, and Facilitating Conditions. It is also indirectly and positively affected by Attitude, Perceived Behavior Control, Perceived Usefulness, and Perceived Eased of Usefulness. The results show that the situation of students’ participation in BIM competition can be optimized by increasing the publicity and promotion of BIM and related policies, strengthening the construction of supporting teaching facilities, building the integrated curriculum system of BIM technology, and strengthening teacher training. This study provides a theoretical reference for further BIM practice, and it would help improve the corresponding teaching organization and enhance the internal drive of students’ BIM learning.

Foodborne or water-borne pathogens pose great threats to human beings and animals. There is an urgent need to detect pathogens with cheap, rapid and sensitive point-of-care diagnostic assays. Herein, we report the electrochemiluminescent (ECL) behaviors of NaBiF

In order to reduce the influence of occlusion on the overall feature representation of tracks and improve the accuracy of track correlation between cameras, this paper proposes a cross camera multi-target tracking method based on person appearance and spatial-temporal constraints: a new cross-camera multi-object tracking framework is constructed. Then the person spatial-temporal probability model is established. Finally, the spatial-temporal probability model and the person appearance similarity are jointly measured and the person trajectory correlation under cross-camera is completed by using data correlation; Comparative experiments on the dataset proved that the method is effective.

A 1,2-dicarbonyl moiety on a cage-opened fullerene skeleton is one of suitable building blocks for the further derivatization. Herein, we discuss the chemical transformation of a 1,2-dicarbonyl compound into β -oxo-phosphorus ylide, acid anhydride, and α -methylene carbonyl derivatives. Despite possessing a sterically small methylene unit in the last one, the release of an encapsulated water molecule was significantly supressed whereas the β -oxo-phosphorus ylide bearing three bulky p -tolyl groups on the P-atom enabled the faster insertion/release dynamics, implying the flexibility of the phosphonium substituent. The replacement of the carbonyl group with phosphorus ylide and methylene units largely varied electrochemical properties of the fullerene skeleton, likely arising from the anionic charge delocalized over the entire molecule and removal of an electron-withdrawable carbonyl group, respectively.

Low temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) ridge waveguide filters are attractive candidates in implementing microwave filters in modern communication systems because of their competitive features, such as low loss, low cost, compact size, lightweight, high-power handling capability, wide spurious-free out-of-band response, and easy integration. However, optimization of LTCC ridge waveguide filters suffers from low speed or imperfect accuracy when the traditional full-wave simulation or the mode-matching method is utilized for analysis. This article makes research on an alternative analysis method based on the network theory for LTCC inline ridge waveguide filters. The method has high speed since it evaluates filter properties by simply making the cumulative product of transfer matrices of all constitutive laminated ridge waveguide (LRWG) sections and laminated coupling (LCP) sections according to their arranging sequence, and transfer matrices of all these sections are calculated from their characteristic parameters (transmission line or equivalent circuit parameters for LRWG or LCP sections) analytically. Another key feature of the method is that all characteristic parameters of LRWG and LCP sections are obtained by searching precreated database. In order to guarantee the analysis accuracy, two special strategies have been proposed and utilized. First, accurate extraction methods of characteristic parameters have been introduced and applied to the creation of a database for LRWG and LCP sections. Second, a piecewise interpolation scheme has been designed and adopted in the database searching process for both kinds of sections. The efficiency of the promoted analysis method has been verified by two analysis examples of LTCC LRWG filters. One is a three-order narrow-band filter and the other is a nine-order wide-band filter. The curves of scattering parameters calculated using the promoted method agree well with the simulated curves and the time consumed by the method is negligible when compared with the simulation time. The effectiveness of the proposed analysis method in filter design is also briefly introduced in this article.

Partial occlusion and background clutter in camera video surveillance affect the accuracy of video-based person re-identification (re-ID). To address these problems, we propose a person re-ID method based on random erasure of frame sampling and temporal weight aggregation of mutual information of partial and global features. First, for the case in which the target person is interfered or partially occluded, the frame sampling–random erasure (FSE) method is used for data enhancement to effectively alleviate the occlusion problem, improve the generalization ability of the model, and match persons more accurately. Second, to further improve the re-ID accuracy of video-based persons and learn more discriminative feature representations, we use a ResNet-50 network to extract global and partial features and fuse these features to obtain frame-level features. In the time dimension, based on a mutual information–temporal weight aggregation (MI–TWA) module, the partial features are added according to different weights and the global features are added according to equal weights and connected to output sequence features. The proposed method is extensively experimented on three public video datasets, MARS, DukeMTMC-VideoReID, and PRID-2011; the mean average precision (mAP) values are 82.4%, 94.1%, and 95.3% and Rank-1 values are 86.4%, 94.8%, and 95.2%, respectively.

The incidence of congenital heart diseases (CHDs) shows an increasing trend and results in large health burdens in China. However, there have been inconsistent results of the relationship between lead (Pb) level and risk of CHDs. We performed a pair-matched case-control study and included 97 cases and 194 controls to investigate the association between pregnancy Pb exposure and the risk of CHDs in a birth cohort study conducted in Lanzhou, China. The results showed that compared to the lowest Pb tertile, both highest tertile levels of maternal blood and umbilical cord blood Pb were associated with an increased risk of CHDs. The similar significant results were found in cases with isolated CHDs. Compared to both lowest tertiles of Pb level in maternal blood and umbilical cord blood, the highest tertile was associated with an increased risk of CHDs, especially for isolated CHDs. Overall, our study suggests a significant association between pregnancy Pb exposure and risk of CHDs, especially for isolated CHDs. Future studies are needed to elucidate the underlying mechanism.

An improved bagging algorithm, combined with a resample strategy, a neural network, and a support vector machine (SVM), is proposed for in-hospital mortality prediction using imbalanced data with very uneven ratio of positive and negative samples. This approach was compared with other machine learning algorithms such as SVM, neural network and GBDT to evaluate its effectiveness. Permutation importance algorithm was employed to assess risk factors for heart failure patients and experimental validation was conducted using medical data from the Chinese PLA General Hospital which consisted of 207 positive and 5975 negative samples, achieving area under curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity values of 0.850, 0.800, and 0.752, respectively. The top 5 risk factors extracted are creatinine, serum albumin, lactate dehydrogenase, platelet count, and lymphocytes. These results suggest that the proposed method has the potential to be a valuable new tool for in-hospital mortality prediction using electronic health record data.

Previous studies have revealed that the perceived quality of the parent–child relationship is essential for both physical health and psychological well-being. However, most studies have treated the perceived quality of this relationship as an independent variable. In this study, we considered it a dependent variable and examined the role of parents’ education and parent–child literacy activities on children’s perceived quality of the parent–child relationship. One hundred and eighty-six Chinese primary school students and their parents from low socioeconomic backgrounds participated in this study. Parents’ educational level and the parent–child literacy activity status were assessed based on parents’ reports, whereas parent–child relationships were assessed based on children’s reports. Results showed that parents’ educational level positively correlated with the frequency of parent–child literacy activities and children’s perceptions of the quality of the parent–child relationship. There was also a significant positive correlation between the frequency of parent–child literacy activities and children’s perceptions of the quality of the parent–child relationship. Further analyses showed that the frequency of parent–child literacy activities mediated the connection between parents’ educational level and children’s perceived quality of the parent–child relationship. These results suggest that boosting the frequency of parent–child literacy activities may be a useful strategy for facilitating the parent–child relationship.

Shipbuilding is a complex process and needs plentiful suppliers. Knowing how to select ship suppliers according to the customer requirements is a pivotal task. A dynamic self-optimization evaluation model for ship suppliers is presented in this paper, which is accomplished by an improved particle swarm optimization. The experiment shows that the novel method can not only accomplish the intelligent evaluation of ship suppliers and avoid redundant experts’ dependence but also adjust the evaluation function dynamically according to the annual situations and maintain the practicability of the evaluation model.

Compression optical coherence elastography (OCE) is a variant of OCE that maps mechanical parameters, or properties of a sample by measuring the deformation in response to quasi-static compressive loading. Relative to other OCE techniques, to date, compression OCE has provided higher acquisition speed, and the capability to scan over wider fields of view. In early compression OCE studies, it was not possible to estimate quantitative mechanical properties, such as elasticity, instead these early studies calculated qualitative mechanical parameters, typically strain. More recently, quantitative compression OCE has been developed to enable the estimation of elasticity, extending its use to broader applications. However, physical contact between the sample, and loading mechanism is typically required, which is a drawback in applications involving delicate tissues, such as ophthalmology. This chapter focuses on the technical development of compression OCE, beginning with the mechanical model used to determine elasticity. An overview of methods for estimating mechanical parameters, and properties; in particular, strain, stress, and elasticity, is provided. In addition, image quality metrics defined to characterize the imaging performance, such as spatial resolution, and sensitivity, are described.

Background Internet medical care has been advancing steadily, especially during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, the development momentum of Internet medical care in China is more vigorous. This study aimed to explore the factors associated with using the Internet for medical information, to examine the popularisation and implementation of Internet medical treatment and feasible strategies, and promote the further development of Internet medical treatment. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on 408 medical patients who had used online medical services. The one-way analysis of variance or independent samples t-test was used to compare the differences in the influence of demographic characteristics on behavioural intentions of different people seeking medical care. Pearson’s correlation was used to evaluate the correlation between different measurement variables. A mediation regression analysis was used to explore the mediating role of trust in Internet medical care. Results The difference in the influence of Internet medical use frequency on the behavioural intention of different participants was statistically significant (F = 3.311, P = 0.038). Among the influencing factors, personal trust propensity (r = 0.387, P r = 0.662, P r = 0.629, P r = 0.746, P r = 0.874, P Conclusions This study found defects in various factors that produce distrust in Internet medical treatment. It also reveals the positive effect of trust factors on the development and implementation of Internet medical treatment and provides some ideas for improving the use of Internet medical treatment by the masses.

Thirty dog bone-shaped specimens were tested to study the effects of steel fiber mixed with seven kinds of non-metallic fibers on the tensile properties of ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC). Through experiments and micromorphological analysis, the effects of hybrid fibers on the compressive strength, tensile strength, peak strain, fracture energy, and characteristic length of UHPC were analyzed. The results showed that the hybrid fiber-reinforced UHPC showed good ductile failure characteristics, which reflected the good crack resistance and toughening effect of different fibers. The tensile stress–strain curves of UHPC with different hybrid fibers can be divided into two parts: ascending section and softening section, and the softening section was greatly affected by the type and content of fibers. Basalt fiber with a diameter of 0.02 mm had the most obvious strengthening effect on UHPC, and polyvinyl alcohol fiber with a diameter of 0.2 mm and length of 8 mm had the best toughening effect. The mixing of steel fiber and non-metallic fiber cannot only reduce the preparation cost but also improve the fracture energy and toughness of UHPC.

In compression optical coherence elastography (OCE), deformation is quantified as the local strain at each pixel in the OCT field-of-view. A range of strain estimation methods have been demonstrated, yet it is unclear which method provides the best performance. Here, we analyze the two most prevalent strain estimation methods used in phase-sensitive compression OCE, i.e., weighted least squares (WLS) and the vector method. We introduce a framework to compare strain imaging metrics, incorporating strain sensitivity, strain signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), strain resolution, and strain accuracy. In addition, we propose a new phase unwrapping algorithm in OCE, fast phase unwrapping (FPU), and combine it with WLS, termed WLSFPU. Using the framework, we compare this new strain estimation method with both a current implementation of WLS that incorporates weighted phase unwrapping (WPU), termed WLSWPU, and the vector method. Our analysis reveals that the three methods provide similar strain sensitivity, strain SNR, and strain resolution, but that WLSFPU extends the dynamic range of accurate, measurable local strain, e.g., measuring a strain of 2.5 mɛ with ∼4% error, that is ×11 and ×15 smaller than the error measured using WLSWPU and the vector method, respectively. We also demonstrate, for the first time, the capability to detect sub-resolution contrast in compression OCE, i.e., changes in strain occurring within the strain axial resolution, and how this contrast varies between the different strain estimation methods. Lastly, we compare the performance of the three strain estimation methods on mouse skeletal muscle and human breast tissue and demonstrate that WLSFPU avoids strain imaging artifacts resulting from phase unwrapping errors in WLSWPU and provides improved contrast over the other two methods.

Homeodomain-leucine zipper (HD-ZIP) transcription factors are one of the plant-specific gene families involved in plant growth and response to adverse environmental conditions. However, little information is available on the HD-ZIP gene family in watermelon. In this study, forty ClHDZs were systemically identified in the watermelon genome, which were subsequently divided into four distinctive subfamilies (I–IV) based on the phylogenetic topology. HD-ZIP members in the same subfamily generally shared similar gene structures and conserved motifs. Syntenic analyses revealed that segmental duplications mainly contributed to the expansion of the watermelon HD-ZIP family, especially in subfamilies I and IV. HD-ZIP III was considered the most conserved subfamily during the evolutionary history. Moreover, expression profiling together with stress-related cis-elements in the promoter region unfolded the divergent transcriptional accumulation patterns under abiotic stresses. The majority (13/23) of ClHDZs in subfamilies I and II were downregulated under the drought condition, e.g., ClHDZ4, ClHDZ13, ClHDZ18, ClHDZ19, ClHDZ20, and ClHDZ35. On the contrary, most HD-ZIP genes were induced by cold and salt stimuli with few exceptions, such as ClHDZ3 and ClHDZ23 under cold stress and ClHDZ14 and ClHDZ15 under the salt condition. Notably, the gene ClHDZ14 was predominantly downregulated by three stresses whereas ClHDZ1 was upregulated, suggesting their possible core roles in response to these abiotic stimuli. Collectively, our findings provide promising candidates for the further genetic improvement of abiotic stress tolerance in watermelon.

Background: Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is a complex metabolic disease caused by complicated factors, the pathogenesis of which has not been determined. Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) could effectively regulate blood sugar and influence gut microbiota in T2DM patients. Preliminary studies showed that the coptis root and ginseng (RG) formula could relieve insulin resistance and regulate the progression of diabetes in mice. The purpose of this study is to explore the efficacy and safety of RG formula in the treatment of adult patients with T2DM, as well as observing its effects on gut microbiota.Methods and analysis: This trial is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. A total of 60 participants will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio into an experiment group (RG formula) and a control group (placebo). Patients in both groups will be given diabetes education and basic blood glucose control. Glucose-lowering drugs with significant influence on gut microbiota will be avoided. This trial will last 25 weeks including 1 week run-in, 12 weeks intervention and 12 weeks follow-up visit. The primary outcome is the change in the HbA1c. The secondary outcomes comprise the change in the fasting blood glucose(FBG), postprandial blood glucose(PBG) fasting insulin(FIL), fasting C-peptide(C-P), insulin resistance index(IRI), inflammatory factors and species abundance of gut microbiota between the two groups. Safety in medication will also be evaluated. The correlation analysis will be explored between the glycemic indicators,inflammatory factors and abundance of gut microbiota.Discussion: This study will provide the clinical evidence for the efficacy of RG formula in regulating blood sugar and influencing gut microbiota, which will be beneficial to form the integrated therapeutic regimen in T2DM with TCM.Trial registration: “Clinical Study on the Intervention of Coptis Root and Ginseng”, Chinese Clinical Trials Registry ChiCTR 2100042126. Registered on 14 January, 2021, http://www.chictr.org.cn/edit.aspx?pid=42669&htm=4

Cold stress is a major environmental factor that detrimentally affects plant growth and development. Melatonin has been shown to confer plant tolerance to cold stress through activating the C-REPEAT BINDING FACTOR (CBF) pathway, however, the underlying modes that enable this function remain obscure. In this study, we investigated the role of H2O2 and Ca2+ signaling in the melatonin-induced CBF pathway and cold tolerance in watermelon (Citrullus lanatus L.) through pharmacological, physiological, and genetic approaches. According to the results, melatonin induced H2O2 accumulation, which was associated with the upregulation of respiratory burst oxidase homolog D (ClRBOHD) during the early response to cold stress in watermelon. Besides, melatonin and H2O2 induced the accumulation of cytoplasmic free Ca2+ ([Ca2+]cyt) in response to cold. This was associated with the upregulation of cyclic nucleotide-gated ion channel 2 (ClCNGC2) in watermelon. However, blocking of Ca2+ influx channels abolished melatonin- or H2O2-induced CBF pathway and cold tolerance. Ca2+ also induced ClRBOHD expression and H2O2 accumulation in early response to cold stress in watermelon. Inhibition of H2O2 production in watermelon by RBOH inhibitor or in Arabidopsis by AtRBOHD knockout compromised melatonin-induced [Ca2+]cyt accumulation and melatonin- or Ca2+-induced CBF pathway and cold tolerance. Overall, these findings indicate that melatonin induces RBOHD-dependent H2O2 generation in early response to cold stress. Increased H2O2 promotes [Ca2+]cyt accumulation, which in turn induces H2O2 accumulation via RBOHD, forming a reciprocal positive-regulatory loop that mediates melatonin-induced CBF pathway and subsequent cold tolerance.