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Objective: To develop an algorithm using deep learning methods to calculate the volume of intraretinal and subretinal fluid in optical coherence tomography (OCT) images for assessing diabetic macular edema (DME) patients’ condition changes. Design: Cross-sectional study. Participants: Treatment-naive patients diagnosed with DME recruited from April 2020 to November 2021. Methods: The deep learning network, which was built for autonomous segmentation utilizing an encoder-decoder network based on the U-Net architecture, was used to calculate the volume of intraretinal fluid (IRF) and subretinal fluid (SRF). The alterations of retinal vessel density and thickness, and the correlation between best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and OCT parameters were analyzed. Results: 2,955 OCT images of fourteen eyes from DME patients with IRF and SRF who received anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) agents were obtained. The area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of the algorithm was 0.993 for IRF and 0.998 for SRF. The volumes of IRF and SRF were significantly decreased from 1.93 ± 0.58 /1.14 ± 0.25 mm3 (baseline) to 0.26 ± 0.13 /0.26 ± 0.18 mm3 (post-injection), respectively (p = 0.0170 for IRF, and p = 0.0004 for SRF). The Spearman correlation demonstrated that the reduction of IRF volume was negatively correlated with age (coefficient = −0.698, p = 0.006). Conclusion: We developed a deep learning assisted fluid volume calculation algorithm with high sensitivity and specificity for assessing the volume of IRF and SRF in DME patients. Key words: deep learning; diabetic macular edema; optical coherence tomography.

Background and Study Aim. Comparative analysis of physical development and body composition using the index method in kickboxing athletes with different training experience. Material and Methods. Participants: 30 kickboxing athletes, group 1 – 15 people, (13.20±0.60) years old, training experience (0.71±0.13) years. Group 2 - 15 people, (15.20±1.14) years old, training experience (6.80±1.16) years. 18 anthropometric indicators were determined. 21 indices were calculated based on them. The median (Me), 1 (25%) and 3 (75%) quartiles were determined. The somatotype was determined by the bioimpedance method using the OMRON BF-511 body composition monitor (Japan). The significance of differences in the groups was assessed by the nonparametric Rosenbaum test (Q). Results. A significant excess of indicators of the 2nd group in terms of Erisman's index (Q=10), Pignet's index (Q=7), Livy's index (Q=12), Isakson's body surface area (Q=11) and relative body surface (Q=21) was established , relative length of arm (Q=11) and leg (Q=14), index of arm circumference (Q=15) and leg (Q=6), shoulder index (Q=10), indices of massiveness of segments of the forearm (Q=11) and shoulder (Q=30), conditional moments of force of the forearm (Q=30), shoulder (Q=30), lower leg (Q=30) and thigh (Q=30). A trend towards a decrease in fat content and an increase in muscle tissue in more trained athletes has been confirmed. Conclusions. A comparative analysis of the physical development and body composition of kickboxing athletes with different training experience confirmed certain differences. More trained kickboxers had better indicators of the shoulder index, which reflects the posture of the athletes. The Erisman index illustrated the increase in the muscles of the torso under the influence of training loads. The increase in body surface area and relative body surface reflects the greater adaptive potential of more trained kickboxers. The large relative length of the arms and legs, the indices of the ratio of the segments of the limbs, the indices of massiveness and the conditional moments of the segments' strength reflect the best technical capabilities of more trained athletes, the ability to blow at a greater distance and with greater force. The adequacy of using the method of indices as more informative than anthropometric indicators is shown. It is proposed to use these indices in monitoring the state of kickboxing athletes.

BACKGROUND The zircon U-Pb dating and analysis of major, trace and rare earth elements of rocks are the main research methods used to study the genesis of intrusive rocks. OBJECTIVES To constrain the genesis of neoproterozoic gneissic moyite of the Yangsanzhai, Xiaotian volcanic basin. METHODS Chemical composition of rocks was analyzed by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF), inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and the zircon U-Pb age was determined by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). RESULTS Results show that the rock was characterized by high silicon, kalium and sodium, and low iron, magnesium, calcium and phosphorus. The content of SiO2, Al2O3, MgO, K2O and Na2O were 65.86%-78.29%, 10.89%-16.02%, 0.17%-1.17%, 1.37%-6.44% and 0.53%-6.50%, respectively. The rock belonged to the high potassic calc-alkaline series. The samples were characterized by depletion of Nb, Sr, P and Ti, and enrichment of La, Ce, Nd and Zr. The samples had high content of rare earth elements (ΣREE=152.70-650.88μg/g) with light rare earth enrichment (LREE/HREE=6.77-20.64). Most of the samples had weakly negative europium anomalies (δEu=0.29-1.15) without cerium anomaly. The normalized curve of rare earth elements was characterized by right-incline. The 206Pb/238U ages of the 30 zircon points ranged from 720 to 828Ma, with a weighted average age of 776±11Ma (MSWD=2.1). CONCLUSIONS The discovery of Neoproterozoic gneissic moyite in the Xiaotian Basin indicates that there is uplift in the center of this basin, not the 'bucket' shape of thick in the middle and thin at the sides, as previously recognized. This has important guiding significance for the understanding of the tectonic morphology of the basin and further prospecting.

Abstract Background Fatty liver is a high incidence of perinatal disease in dairy cows caused by negative energy balance, which seriously threatens the postpartum health and milk production. It has been reported that lysine acetylation plays an important role in substance and energy metabolism. Predictably, most metabolic processes in the liver, as a vital metabolic organ, are subjected to acetylation. Comparative acetylome study were used to quantify the hepatic tissues from the severe fatty liver group and normal group. Combined with bioinformatics analysis, this study provides new insights for the role of acetylation modification in fatty liver disease of dairy cows. Results We identified 1841 differential acetylation sites on 665 proteins. Among of them, 1072 sites on 393 proteins were quantified. Functional enrichment analysis shows that higher acetylated proteins are significantly enriched in energy metabolic pathways, while lower acetylated proteins are significantly enriched in pathways related to immune response, such as drug metabolism and cancer. Among significantly acetylated proteins, many mitochondrial proteins were identified to be interacting with multiple proteins and involving in lipid metabolism. Furthermore, this study identified potential important proteins, such as HADHA, ACAT1, and EHHADH, which may be important regulatory factors through modification of acetylation in the development of fatty liver disease in dairy cows and possible therapeutic targets for NAFLD in human beings. Conclusion This study provided a comprehensive acetylome profile of fatty liver of dairy cows, and revealed important biological pathways associated with protein acetylation occurred in mitochondria, which were involved in the regulation of the pathogenesis of fatty liver disease. Furthermore, potential important proteins, such as HADHA, ACAT1, EHHADH, were predicted to be essential regulators during the pathogenesis of fatty liver disease. The work would contribute to the understanding the pathogenesis of NAFLD, and inspire in the development of new therapeutic strategies for NAFLD.

Flash flood in small catchments of hilly area is an extremely complicated nonlinear process affected by catchment properties and rainfall spatio-temporal variation characteristics including many physical-geographical factors, and thus accurate simulation of flash flood is very difficult. Given the fact that hundreds of hydrological models are available in the literature, how to choose a suitable hydrological model remains an unsolved task. In this paper, we selected five widely used hydrological models including three lumped hydrologic models, a semi-distributed hydrological model and a distributed hydrological model for flash flood simulation, and studied their applicability in fourteen typical catchments in hilly areas across China. The results show that the HEC-HMS distributed hydrological model outperforms the other models and is suitable to simulate the flash floods caused by highly intense rainfall. The Dahuofang model (lumped) has higher precision in peak runoff time simulation. However, its performance is quite poor on the flood volume simulation in the small catchments characterized by intense vegetation coverage and highly developed stream network. The Antecedent precipitation index and Xinanjiang models (lumped) can obtain good simulation results in small humid catchments as long as long-term historical precipitation and runoff data are provided. The TOPMODEL also shows good performance in small humid catchments, but it is unable to simulate the flash floods characterized by the rapid rise and recession. Our results could be very beneficial in practice, since these provide a solid foundation in the selection of hydrological model for flash flood simulation in small catchments in hilly area.

Drought impact on crop production is well known as crop yield is strongly controlled by climate variation. Previous studies assessed the drought impact using a drought index based on a single input data set, while the variability of the drought index to the input data choice is notable. In this study, a drought index based on the standardized precipitation index with multiple timescales using several global precipitation datasets was compared with the detrended anomaly based on the global dataset of historical yield for major crops over 1981–2016. Results show that the drought index based on the ensemble precipitation dataset correlates better with the crop yield anomaly than a single dataset. Based on the drought index using ensemble datasets, global crop areas significantly affected by drought during the study period were around 23%, 8%, 30%, and 29% for maize, rice, soybean, and wheat, respectively, induced mainly by medium to longer drought timescale (5–12 months). This study indicates that most crops cultivated in dry regions were affected by droughts worldwide, while rice shows less correlation to drought as it is generally irrigated and cultivated in humid regions with less drought exposure. This study provides a valuable framework for data choices in drought index development and a better knowledge of the drought impact on agriculture using different timescales on a global scale towards understanding crop vulnerability to climate disruptions.

BACKGROUND:Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) via colonoscopy or enema has become a commonly used treatment of recurrent C. difficile infection (CDI). AIMS:To compare the safety and preliminary efficacy of orally administered lyophilized microbiota product compared with frozen product by enema. METHODS:In a single center, adults with ≥ 3 episodes of recurrent CDI were randomized to receive encapsulated lyophilized fecal microbiota from 100-200 g of donor feces (n = 31) or frozen FMT from 100 g of donor feces (n = 34) by enema. Safety during the three months post FMT was the primary study objective. Prevention of CDI recurrence during the 60 days after FMT was a secondary objective. Fecal microbiome changes were examined in first 39 subjects studied. RESULTS:Adverse experiences were commonly seen in equal frequency in both groups and did not appear to relate to the route of delivery of FMT. CDI recurrence was prevented in 26 of 31 (84%) subjects randomized to capsules and in 30 of 34 (88%) receiving FMT by enema (p = 0.76). Both products normalized fecal microbiota diversity while the lyophilized orally administered product was less effective in repleting Bacteroidia and Verrucomicrobia classes compared to frozen product via enema. CONCLUSIONS:The route of delivery, oral or rectal, did not influence adverse experiences in FMT. In preliminary evaluation, both routes appeared to show equivalent efficacy, although the dose may need to be higher for lyophilized product. Spore-forming bacteria appear to be the most important engrafting organisms in FMT by the oral route using lyophilized product. TRIAL REGISTRATION:ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02449174.

Two kinds of fluorescent hyaluronan (HA) analogs, one serving as normal imaging agent and the other used as a biosensitive contrast agent, were developed for the investigation of HA uptake and degradation. Our approach of developing HA imaging agents depends on labeling HA with varying molar percentages of a near-infrared (NIR) dye. At low labeling ratios, the hyaluronan uptake can be directly imaged while at high labeling ratios, the fluorescent signal is quenched and signal generation occurs only after degradation. It is found that the conjugate containing 1%–2% NIR dye can be used as a normal optical imaging agent, while bioactivable imaging agents are formed at 6% to 17% dye loading. It was determined that the conjugation of dye to HA with different loading percentages does not impact HA biodegradation by hyaluronidase (Hyal). The feasibility of using these two NIR fluorescent hyaluronan analogs for HA investigation was evaluated in vivo with optical imaging. The data demonstrates that the 1% dye loaded fluorescent HA can be used to monitor the behavior of HA and its fragments, whereas bioactivatable HA imaging agent (17% dye in HA) is more suitable for detecting HA fragments.

Guanine-rich RNA oligonucleotides display many novel structural motifs in recent crystal structures. Here we describe the procedures of the chemical synthesis and the purification of such RNA molecules that are suitable for X-ray crystallographic studies. Modifications of the previous purification methods allow us to obtain better yields in shorter time. We also provide 24 screening conditions that are very effective in crystallization of the guanine-rich RNA oligonucleotides. Optimal crystallization conditions are usually achieved by adjustment of the concentration of the metal ions and pH of the buffer. Crystals obtained by this method usually diffract to high resolution.