Search

Mineral image segmentation based on computer vision is vital to realize automatic mineral analysis. However, current image segmentation methods still cannot effectively solve the problem of sandstone grains that are adjoined and concealed by leaching processes, and the segmentation performance of small and irregular grains still needs to be improved. This investigation explores and designs a Mask R-CNN-based sandstone image segmentation model, including a hybrid attention mechanism, loss function construction, and receptive field enlargement. Simultaneously, we propose a high-quality sandstone dataset with abundant labels named SMISD to facilitate comprehensive training of the model. The experimental results show that the proposed segmentation model has excellent segmentation performance, effectively solving adhesion and overlap between adjacent grains without affecting the classification accuracy. The model has comparable performance to other models on the COCO dataset, and performs better on SMISD than others.

Broccoli (Brassica oleracea L. var. italica) is a globally popular vegetable because of its nutrient richness, especially its glucosinolates (GSLs). The content of GSLs in different organs of broccoli varies greatly. However, few studies have focused on the differences in the GSLs biosynthesis-related genes in different organs. In this study, we selected extreme individuals from an F2 population of broccoli and mixed them to form low and high glucoraphanin content pools of leaf, stalk and floret, respectively. Transcriptome and metabolome analyses showed that 539, 755 and 617 genes are significantly differentially expressed, and 44, 66 and 118 metabolites are significantly differentially accumulated in leaf, stalk and floret comparison groups, respectively. The combined analysis revealed that some genes such as Bo5g113720, Bo2g161100 and Bo7g09800, Bo4g018590, Bo5g021810, and Bo2g011730 showed different expression trends between low and high glucoraphanin content pools, which increased the accumulation of glucoraphanin. These genes have different expression levels in the three plant parts. Strikingly, the accumulation of glucoraphanin upregulated the expression of plant hormone signal transduction-related genes TIFY, JAR1, IAA, GH3 and SAU, and also increased the levels of tentatively identified flavonoid metabolites. Our study deepens the understanding of glucosinolate biosynthesis in different organs at the molecular level, and also provides evidence for the crosstalk between glucosinolates and flavonoids biosynthesis pathways.

The millimeter wave (mmWave) channel is dominated by line-of-sight propagation. Therefore, the acquisition of angle-of-arrival (AoA) and polarization state of the wave is of great significance to the receiver. In this paper, we investigate AoA and polarization estimation in a mmWave system employing dual-polarized antenna arrays. We propose an enhanced AoA estimation method using a localized hybrid dual-polarized array for a polarized mmWave signal. The use of dual-polarized arrays greatly improves the calibration of differential signals and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the phase offset estimation between adjacent subarrays. Given the estimated phase offset, an initial AoA estimate can be obtained, and is then used to update the phase offset estimation. This leads to a recursive estimation with improved accuracy. We further propose an enhanced polarization estimation method, which uses the power of total received signals at dual-polarized antennas to compute the cross-correlation-to-power ratio instead of using only one axis dipole. Thus the accuracy of polarization parameter estimation is improved. We also derive a closed-form expression for mean square error lower bounds of AoA estimation and present an average SNR analysis for polarization estimation performance. Simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the enhanced AoA and polarization parameter estimation methods compared to the state of the art.

Different cutting types not only affect the quality and bioactive substances of broccoli but may produce wounding stress that influences the quantity and diversity of microorganisms and finally leads to safety concerns. In this study, three different fresh-cutting types (floret (F), quarterly cut floret (QF) and shredded floret (FS)) and four storage stages (0, 1, 2 and 3 day(s)) were designed to detect the bacterial diversity in broccoli. Results showed that the quantity and growth of microorganisms in fresh-cut broccoli were positively correlated with the intensity of fresh-cut damage, and the 97 strains isolated using 16S rRNA gene sequences were mainly classified into four phyla: Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes. The predominant phylum was Proteobacteria, dominated by Pseudomonas spp. and Acinetobacter spp. Four representative strains of different species were selected to analyze their spoilage potential on fresh-cut broccoli. Pseudomonas spp. had great impacts on the corruption of broccoli, which affected fresh-cut broccoli by metabolizing to produce nitrite and consuming nutrition. Moreover, Comamonas spp. and Acinetobacter spp. also affected the quality of broccoli, but received little attention previously. This study provides a reference for precise bacteriostasis and preservation of fresh-cut vegetables such as broccoli.

Sugars, which are critical osmotic compounds and signalling molecules in plants, and Sugars Will Eventually be Exported Transporters (SWEETs), which constitute a novel family of sugar transporters, play central roles in plant responses to multiple abiotic stresses. In the present study, a member of the SWEET gene family from cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.), CsSWEET2, was identified and characterized. Histochemical analysis of β-glucuronidase expression in transgenic Arabidopsis plants showed that CsSWEET2 is highly expressed in the leaves; subcellular localization indicated that CsSWEET2 proteins are localized in the plasma membrane and endoplasmic reticulum. Heterologous expression assays in yeast demonstrated that CsSWEET2 encodes an energy-independent hexose/H+ uniporter that can complement both glucose and fructose transport deficiencies. Compared with wild-type Arabidopsis plants, transgenic Arabidopsis plants overexpressing CsSWEET2 had much lower relative electrolyte leakage levels and were much more resistant to cold stress. Sugar content analysis showed that glucose and fructose levels in the transgenic Arabidopsis plants were significantly higher than those in the wild-type plants. Taken together, our results suggest that, by mediating sugar metabolism and compartmentation, CsSWEET2 plays a vital role in improving plant cold tolerance.

Glucosinolates (GSLs) are important precursor compounds with anticancer activities in Brassicaceae vegetables and are readily hydrolyzed by myrosinase. Given the diversity of these species, establishing an accurate and universal method to quantify intact GSLs in different plant tissues is necessary. Here, we compared and optimized three tissue disruption methods for sample preparation. After microwave treatment for 90 s, 13 GSLs in homogenized Chinese cabbage samples were recovered at 73–124%. However, a limitation of this method was that different tissues could not be processed under the same microwave conditions. Regarding universality, GSLs in Brassicaceae vegetables could be extracted from freeze-dried sample powder with 70% methanol (v/v) or frozen-fresh sample powder with 80% methanol (v/v). Moreover, heating extraction is necessary for GSLs extracted from frozen-fresh sample powder. Average recoveries of the two optimized methods were 74–119% with relative standard deviations ≤ 15%, with the limits of quantification 5.72–17.40 nmol/g dry weight and 0.80–1.43 nmol/g fresh weight, respectively. Notably, the method for analyzing intact GSLs was more efficient than that for desulfo-GSLs regarding operational complexity, detection speed and quantification accuracy. The developed method was applied to identify the characteristic GSLs in 15 Brassicaceae vegetables, providing a foundation for further research on GSLs.

The effects of resveratrol on osteoarthritis (OA) pathogenesis have been demonstrated in vitro and in animal models employing intra-articular injections. However, the potential for oral resveratrol supplements to mediate protective effects on OA have not been examined. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the potential anti-OA effects of oral resveratrol on mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD). C57BL/6J male mice were fed either a standard diet or a HFD, and a subset of the latter also received varying doses of resveratrol. Twelve weeks later, all of the animals were sacrificed and knee joints were evaluated with histological, immunohistochemical, and TUNEL analyses. Mice that received a HFD had significantly greater body weights than the control mice and also exhibited features consistent with knee OA. The mice that received a HFD in combination with low, intermediate, or high doses of resveratrol were only slightly heavier than the control mice at the end of 12 weeks. Quantitative histological assessments indicated that resveratrol treatment partly recovered joint structure in the mice that received a HFD, while high doses of resveratrol prevented the degradation of type II collagen into C-telopeptide of type II collagen (CTX-II) and retained type II collagen expression in cartilage. Furthermore, TUNEL analyses revealed a reduction in chondrocyte apoptosis in the resveratrol-treated mice compared with the HFD mice. Thus, oral resveratrol appears to exert anti-OA effects in a mouse model of HFD-induced OA, thereby highlighting the potential preventive and therapeutic value of administering resveratrol for obesity-associated OA.

Autoimmune diseases are usually accompanied by tissue injury caused by autoantigen-specific T-cells. KV1.3 channels participate in modulating calcium signaling to induce T-cell proliferation, immune activation and cytokine production. Effector memory T (TEM)-cells, which play major roles in many autoimmune diseases, are controlled by blocking KV1.3 channels on the membrane. Toxins derived from animal venoms have been found to selectively target a variety of ion channels, including KV1.3. By blocking the KV1.3 channel, these toxins are able to suppress the activation and proliferation of TEM cells and may improve TEM cell-mediated autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and type I diabetes mellitus.