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Plant micro-phenotype mainly refers to the phenotypic information at the tissue, cell, and subcellular levels, which is an important part of plant phenomics research. In view of the problems of low efficiency, large error, and few traits of traditional methods for detecting kernel microscopic traits, Micro-CT scanning technology was used to carry out precise identification of micro-phenotype on 11 varieties of maize kernels. A total of 34 microscopic traits were obtained based on CT sequence images of 7 tissues, including seed, embryo, endosperm, cavity, subcutaneous cavity, endosperm cavity and embryo cavity. Among the 34 microscopic traits, 4 traits, including endosperm cavity surface area, kernel volume, endosperm volume ratio and endosperm cavity specific surface area, were significantly different among maize types (P-value

Summary: The microphenotype plays a key role in bridging the gap between the genotype and the complex macro phenotype. In this article, we review the advances in data acquisition and the intelligent analysis of plant microphenotyping and present applications of microphenotyping in plant science over the past two decades. We then point out several challenges in this field and suggest that cross‐scale image acquisition strategies, powerful artificial intelligence algorithms, advanced genetic analysis, and computational phenotyping need to be established and performed to better understand interactions among genotype, environment, and management. Microphenotyping has entered the era of Microphenotyping 3.0 and will largely advance functional genomics and plant science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stomatal complex on the surface of maize leaves is closely related to photosynthesis and transpiration, and the study of maize stomatal phenotypes and the discovery of their regulatory genes are of great importance for the breeding of high-quality and high-yielding maize. In this study, rapid scanning electron microscopy was used to obtain images of the abaxial stomata of 457 maize inbred lines with extensive genetic variation, and stomata density was obtained by counting. The results of correlation showed that stomata density was significantly correlated with leaf width, and Analysis of variance found that there were significant differences (P value < 0.05) in stomata density among different leaf width and 100-grain weight. The highest stomata density was found in the inbred lines with wide and short leaves and higher 100-grain weight. Furthermore, genome-wide association analysis was performed using a mixed linear model. It showed that eight SNPs significantly associated with stomata density were obtained, which could explain 35.507% of the phenotypic variation. Among these, four SNPs on chromosome 5 were tightly linked, mainly formatting two haplotypes, CTTA (0.636) and TCCG (0.330). Twelve genes with functional annotation were identified within 100 kb upstream and downstream of the eight SNPs. One gene, GRMZM2G068277, which had been shown to be involved in plant mitotic processes and exhibited high expression at the leaf base, was therefore the most likely candidate gene for stomata density. The results presented here could provide references for further cloning of functional genes related to stomata density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many gene expression profiling studies of maize leaves infected with Ustilago maydis have been published, heterogeneity of the results, caused by various data processing methods and pathogenic strains in different data sets, remains strong. Hence, we conducted a combined analysis of six genome-wide expression data sets of maize leaves infected with five different U. maydis strains by using the same pre-processing and quality control procedures. Six data sets were regrouped into five groups according to pathogenic strain used. Subsequently, each group of data set was processed by Multi-array Average for pre-processing and by pair-wise Pearson correlation for quality control. The differentially expressed genes were calculated by a standard linear mixed-effect model and then validated by various sensitivity analysis and multiple evidences. Finally, 44 unique differentially expressed genes were identified. Pathway enrichment analysis indicated that these genes related to response to fungus, oxidation-reduction, transferase activity, and several carbohydrate metabolic and catabolic processes. In addition, the hub genes within protein--protein interaction networks showed high relevance with the basic pathogenesis. We report a highly credible differentially expressed list, and the genes with multiple validations may denote a common signature of U. maydis in maize, which provides a new window for disease-resistant protection of maize plants. Key words: maize, gene expression, Ustilago maydis, differentially expressed genes. Bien que de nombreuses études transcriptomiques sur les feuilles de maïs infectées par l'Ustilago maydis aient été publiées, l'hétérogénéité des résultats, occasionnée par diverses méthodes de traitement des données et l'emploi de souches différentes de l'agent pathogène, demeure considérable. Ici, les auteurs ont réalisé une analyse combinée de six jeux de données transcriptomiques dérivés de feuilles de maïs infectées par cinq souches de l'U. maydis en faisant appel aux mêmes procédures pour le pré-traitement et le contrôle de qualité des données. Les six jeux de données ont été groupés en cinq groupes sur la base de la souche employée. Ensuite, chaque groupe de données a été soumis à un pré-traitement par l'approche << Multi-array Average >> et un contrôle de qualité a été réalisé en calculant une corrélation Pearson pour ces jeux deux à deux. Les gènes exprimés de manière différentielle ont été identifiés à l'aide d'un modèle linéaire standard à effets mixtes et ceux-ci ont ensuite été validés via des analyses de sensibilité et d'autres évidences. Enfin, 44 gènes uniques exprimés de manière différentielle ont été identifiés. Une analyse d'enrichissement des sentiers a révélé que ces gènes étaient impliqués dans la réponse aux champignons, l'oxydoréduction, les activités transférase ainsi que plusieurs processus métaboliques et cataboliques des hydrates de carbone. De plus, les gènes centraux au sein de réseaux d'interactions protéine-protéine étaient très significatifs en rapport avec la pathogénie de base. Les auteurs rapportent ainsi une liste de grande qualité des gènes différentiellement exprimés, et les gènes validés via diverses approches peuvent constituer une signature commune de l'U. maydis chez le maïs, laquelle fournit de nouvelles avenues pour le développement de maïs résistants. [Traduit par la Rédaction] Mots-clés : maïs, expression génique, Ustilago maydis, gènes exprimés de manière différentielle., Introduction Maize (Zea mays L.) is the highest yielding cereal crop, grown worldwide for grain yield or silage. Inrecent years, except for food crops, maize has also been used to [...]

Soil salinization is a worldwide problem that limits agricultural production. It is important to understand the salt stress tolerance ability of maize seedlings and explore the underlying related genetic resources. In this study, we used a high-throughput phenotyping platform with a 3D laser sensor (Planteye F500) to identify the digital biomass, plant height and normalized vegetation index under normal and saline conditions at multiple time points. The result revealed that a three-leaf period (T3) was identified as the key period for the phenotypic variation in maize seedlings under salt stress. Moreover, we mapped the salt-stress-related SNPs and identified candidate genes in the natural population via a genome-wide association study. A total of 44 candidate genes were annotated, including 26 candidate genes under normal conditions and 18 candidate genes under salt-stressed conditions. This study demonstrates the feasibility of using a high-throughput phenotyping platform to accurately, continuously quantify morphological traits of maize seedlings in different growing environments. And the phenotype and genetic information of this study provided a theoretical basis for the breeding of salt-resistant maize varieties and the study of salt-resistant genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of the Internet of things stimulates the pursuit of flexible and miniaturized supercapacitors. As an advanced technology, screen printing displays vigor and tremendous potential in fabricating supercapacitors, but the adoption of high-performance ink is a great challenge. Here, hierarchical V3O7 with rodlike texture was prepared via a facile template–solvothermal route; and the morphology, component, and valence bond information are characterized meticulously. Then, the screen-printed inks composed of V3O7, acetylene black, and PVDF are formulated, and the rheological behaviors are studied detailedly. Benefitting from the orderly aligned ink, the optimal screen-printed electrode can exhibit an excellent specific capacitance of 274.5 F/g at 0.3 A/g and capacitance retention of 81.9% after 5000 cycles. In addition, a flexible V3O7 symmetrical supercapacitor (SSC) is screen-printed and assembled on the Ag current collector, exhibiting a decent areal specific capacitance of 322.5 mF/cm2 at 0.5 mA/cm2, outstanding cycling stability of 90.8% even after 5000 cycles, satisfactory maximum energy density of 129.45 μWh/cm2 at a power density of 0.42 mW/cm2, and remarkable flexibility and durability. Furthermore, a single SSC enables the showing of an actual voltage of 1.70 V after charging, and no obvious self-discharge phenomenon is found, revealing the great applied value in supply power. Therefore, this work provides a facile and low-cost reference of screen-printed ink for large-scale fabrication of flexible supercapacitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structure of the maize kernels plays a critical role in determining maize yield and quality, and high-throughput, non-destructive microscope phenotypic characteristics acquisition and analysis are of great importance. In this study, Micro-CT technology was used to obtain images of maize kernels. An automatic CT image analysis pipeline was then developed to extract 20 traits related to the three-dimensional structure of kernel, embryo, endosperm, and cavity. The determination coefficients for five volume-related traits (embryo, endosperm, silty endosperm, embryo cavity, and endosperm cavity) were 0.95, 0.95, 0.77, 0.73, and 0.94, respectively. Further, we analyzed the phenotypic variations among a group of 303 inbred lines and conducted genome-wide association studies (GWAS). A total of 26 significant SNP loci were associated with these traits that are closely related to kernel volume, and 62 candidate genes were identified. Functional analysis revealed that most candidate genes corresponding to cavity traits encoded stress resistance proteins, while those corresponding to embryo and endosperm traits encoded proteins involved in regulating plant growth and development. These results will improve the understanding of the phenotypic traits of maize kernels and will provide new theoretical support for in-depth analysis of the genetic mechanism of kernel structure traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ear leaf veins are an important transport structure in the maize "source" organ; therefore, the microscopic phenotypic characteristics and genetic analysis of the leaf veins are particularly essential for promoting the breeding of ideal maize varieties with high yield and quality. In this study, the microscopic image of the complete blade cross section was realized using X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) technology with a resolution of 13.5 µm. Moreover, the veins' phenotypic traits in the cross section of the complete maize leaf, including the number of leaf veins, midvein area, leaf width, and density of leaf veins, were automatically and accurately detected by a deep-learning-integrated phenotyping pipeline. Then, we systematically collected vein phenotypes of 300 inbred lines at the silking stage of the ear leaves. It was found that the leaf veins' microscopic characteristics varied among the different subgroups. The number of leaf veins, the density of leaf veins, and the midvein area in the stiff-stalk (SS) subgroup were significantly higher than those of the other three subgroups, but the leaf width was the smallest. The leaf width in the tropical/subtropical (TST) subgroup was the largest, but there was no significant difference in the number of leaf veins between the TST subgroup and other subgroups. Combined with a genome-wide association study (GWAS), 61 significant single-nucleotide polymorphism markers (SNPs) and 29 candidate genes were identified. Among them, the candidate gene Zm00001d018081 regulating the number of leaf veins and Zm00001d027998 regulating the midvein area will provide new theoretical support for in-depth analysis of the genetic mechanism of maize leaf veins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detecting and localizing objects in the real 3D space, which plays a crucial role in scene understanding, is particularly challenging given only a monocular image due to the geometric information loss during imagery projection. We propose MonoGRNet for the amodal 3D object detection from a monocular image via geometric reasoning in both the observed 2D projection and the unobserved depth dimension. MonoGRNet decomposes the monocular 3D object detection task into four sub-tasks including 2D object detection, instance-level depth estimation, projected 3D center estimation and local corner regression. The task decomposition significantly facilitates the monocular 3D object detection, allowing the target 3D bounding boxes to be efficiently predicted in a single forward pass, without using object proposals, post-processing or the computationally expensive pixel-level depth estimation utilized by previous methods. In addition, MonoGRNet flexibly adapts to both fully and weakly supervised learning, which improves the feasibility of our framework in diverse settings. Experiments are conducted on KITTI, Cityscapes and MS COCO datasets. Results demonstrate the promising performance of our framework in various scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of high-throughput phenotypic detection techniques makes it possible to obtain a large number of crop phenotypic information quickly, efficiently, and accurately. Among them, image-based phenotypic acquisition method has been widely used in crop phenotypic identification and characteristic research due to its characteristics of automation, non-invasive, non-destructive and high throughput. In this study, we proposed a method to define and analyze the traits related to leaf sheaths including morphology-related, color-related and biomass-related traits at V6 stage. Next, we analyzed the phenotypic variation of leaf sheaths of 418 maize inbred lines based on 87 leaf sheath-related phenotypic traits. In order to further analyze the mechanism of leaf sheath phenotype formation, 25 key traits (2 biomass-related, 19 morphology-related and 4 color-related traits) with heritability greater than 0.3 were analyzed by genome-wide association studies (GWAS). And 1816 candidate genes of 17 whole plant leaf sheath traits and 1,297 candidate genes of 8 sixth leaf sheath traits were obtained, respectively. Among them, 46 genes with clear functional descriptions were annotated by single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) that both Top1 and multi-method validated. Functional enrichment analysis results showed that candidate genes of leaf sheath traits were enriched into multiple pathways related to cellular component assembly and organization, cell proliferation and epidermal cell differentiation, and response to hunger, nutrition and extracellular stimulation. The results presented here are helpful to further understand phenotypic traits of maize leaf sheath and provide a reference for revealing the genetic mechanism of maize leaf sheath phenotype formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vascular bundle of the shank is an important 'flow' organ for transforming maize biological yield to grain yield, and its microscopic phenotypic characteristics and genetic analysis are of great significance for promoting the breeding of new varieties with high yield and good quality. In this study, shank CT images were obtained using the standard process for stem micro-CT data acquisition at resolutions up to 13.5 μm. Moreover, five categories and 36 phenotypic traits of the shank including related to the cross-section, epidermis zone, periphery zone, inner zone and vascular bundle were analyzed through an automatic CT image process pipeline based on the functional zones. Next, we analyzed the phenotypic variations in vascular bundles at the base of the shank among a group of 202 inbred lines based on comprehensive phenotypic information for two environments. It was found that the number of vascular bundles in the inner zone (IZ_VB_N) and the area of the inner zone (IZ_A) varied the most among the different subgroups. Combined with genome-wide association studies (GWAS), 806 significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified, and 1245 unique candidate genes for 30 key traits were detected, including the total area of vascular bundles (VB_A), the total number of vascular bundles (VB_N), the density of the vascular bundles (VB_D), etc. These candidate genes encode proteins involved in lignin, cellulose synthesis, transcription factors, material transportation and plant development. The results presented here will improve the understanding of the phenotypic traits of maize shank and provide an important phenotypic basis for high-throughput identification of vascular bundle functional genes of maize shank and promoting the breeding of new varieties with high yield and good quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endosperm cavity (EC) in maize grain reduces yield and causes grain breakage during mechanical harvesting, hence representing a major problem in the maize industry. Despite this, little is known regarding the biological processes governing EC formation. Here, we attempted to address this issue by (i) determining the spatial and temporal progression of EC in a non-invasive manner and (ii) identifying candidate genes that may be linked to the formation of EC by using a genome wide association study (GWAS). Visualization and measurement using X-ray micro-computed tomography established that EC first appeared at the central starch endosperm at about 12 days after pollination (DAP) and became enlarged thereafter. GWAS-based screening of a panel of 299 inbred lines with a wide range of EC size identified nine candidate genes that showed significant association with EC formation. Most of the candidate genes exhibited a decrease at 12 DAP, coinciding with the timing of EC appearance. Among them, ZmMrp11 was annotated as a member encoding a multidrug resistance-associated protein that has been shown in other studies to sequestrate toxic metabolites from the cytosol to the vacuole, thereby detoxifying the cellular environment. This, together with the reduced expression of ZmMrp11 in maize grains from 12 DAP, prompted us to propose that the low expression of ZmMrp 11 may block cellular detoxification in the maize endosperm cells, leading to cell death and ultimately the formation of EC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADSCs) are ideal sources for the treatment of diabetes, and the differentiation of ADSCs into insulin-producing cells (IPCs) through transfection of exogenous regulatory genes in vitro has been studied in depth. The differentiation of ADSCs is strictly regulated by a variety of transcription factors such as Pdx1, Ngn3, Pax4, Nkx2.2, and Sox9. However, whether these genes can coordinately regulate the differentiation of ADSCs into IPCs is still unknown. In this study, five multigene coexpressing adenovirus vectors (pAdTrack-Pdx1-Ngn3-AdEasy, pAdTrack-Pdx1-Ngn3-Sox9-AdEasy, pAdTrack-Pdx1-Ngn3-Pax4-Sox9-AdEasy, pAdTrack-Pdx1-Ngn3-Nkx2.2-Sox9-AdEasy, and pAdTrack-Pdx1-Ngn3-Nkx2.2-Pax4-AdEasy) were constructed, and then the stocks of the packaged adenoviruses were used to infect the canine ADSCs (cADSCs). Based on results of morphological observation, dithizone staining, sugar-stimulated insulin secretion test, cellular insulin immunofluorescence assays, and the detection of pancreatic β-cell development–related genes in the induced cells, the best induction combination (pAdTrack-Pdx1-Ngn3-Nkx2.2-Pax4-AdEasy) was identified after comparative screening. This study provides a theoretical reference and an experimental basis for further research on stem cell replacement therapy for diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dry matter accumulation and partitioning during the early phases of development could significantly affect crop growth and productivity. In this study, the aboveground dry matter (DM), the DM of different organs, and partition coefficients of a maize association mapping panel of 412 inbred lines were evaluated at the third and sixth leaf stages (V3 and V6). Further, the properties of these phenotypic traits were analyzed. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) were conducted on the total aboveground biomass and the DM of different organs. Analysis of GWAS results identified a total of 1,103 unique candidate genes annotated by 678 significant SNPs (P value < 1.28e–6). A total of 224 genes annotated by SNPs at the top five of each GWAS method and detected by multiple GWAS methods were regarded as having high reliability. Pathway enrichment analysis was also performed to explore the biological significance and functions of these candidate genes. Several biological pathways related to the regulation of seed growth, gibberellin-mediated signaling pathway, and long-day photoperiodism were enriched. The results of our study could provide new perspectives on breeding high-yielding maize varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: High‐throughput phenotyping is increasingly becoming an important tool for rapid advancement of genetic gain in breeding programmes. Manual phenotyping of vascular bundles is tedious and time‐consuming, which lags behind the rapid development of functional genomics in maize. More robust and automated techniques of phenotyping vascular bundles traits at high‐throughput are urgently needed for large crop populations. In this study, we developed a standard process for stem micro‐CT data acquisition and an automatic CT image process pipeline to obtain vascular bundle traits of stems including geometry‐related, morphology‐related and distribution‐related traits. Next, we analysed the phenotypic variation of stem vascular bundles between natural population subgroup (480 inbred lines) based on 48 comprehensively phenotypic information. Also, the first database for stem micro‐phenotypes, MaizeSPD, was established, storing 554 pieces of basic information of maize inbred lines, 523 pieces of experimental information, 1008 pieces of CT scanning images and processed images, and 24 192 pieces of phenotypic data. Combined with genome‐wide association studies (GWASs), a total of 1562 significant single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) were identified for 30 stem micro‐phenotypic traits, and 84 unique genes of 20 traits such as VBNum, VBAvArea and PZVBDensity were detected. Candidate genes identified by GWAS mainly encode enzymes involved in cell wall metabolism, transcription factors, protein kinase and protein related to plant signal transduction and stress response. The results presented here will advance our knowledge about phenotypic trait components of stem vascular bundles and provide useful information for understanding the genetic controls of vascular bundle formation and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although ataxia-telangiectasia and Rad3 related (ATR) has an established role in the DNA damage response of various cancers, its clinical and prognostic significance in ovarian cancer remains largely unknown. The aims of this study were to assess the expression, function, and clinical prognostic relationship of ATR and phospho-ATR ser428 (p-ATR) in ovarian cancer. Methods: We confirmed ATR and p-ATR expression by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in a unique ovarian cancer tissue microarray constructed of paired primary, recurrent, and metastatic tumor tissues from 26 individual patients. ATR-specific small interfering RNA (siRNA) and ATR inhibitor VE-822 were applied to determine the effects of ATR inhibition on ovarian cancer cell proliferation, apoptosis, and DNA damage. ATR expression and the associated proteins of the ATR/Chk1 pathway in ovarian cancer cell lines were evaluated by Western blotting. The clonogenicity was also examined using clonogenic assays. A three dimensional (3D) cell culture model was performed to mimic the in vivo ovarian cancer environment to further validate the effects of ATR inhibition on ovarian cancer cells. Results: We show recurrent ovarian cancer tissues express higher levels of ATR and p-ATR than their patient-matched primary tumor counterparts. Additionally, higher expression of p-ATR correlates with decreased survival in ovarian cancer patients. Treatment of ovarian cancer cells with ATR specific siRNA or ATR inhibitor VE-822 led to significant apoptosis and inhibition of cellular proliferation, with reduced phosphorylation of Chk1 (p-Chk1), Cdc25c (p-Cdc25c), Cdc2 (p-Cdc2), and increased expression of cleaved PARP and γH2AX. Inhibition of ATR also suppressed clonogenicity and spheroid growth of ovarian cancer cells. Conclusion: Our results support the ATR and p-ATR pathway as a prognostic biomarker, and targeting the ATR machinery is an emerging therapeutic approach in the treatment of ovarian cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reliable, automatic, multifunctional, and high-throughput phenotypic technologies are increasingly considered important tools for rapid advancement of genetic gain in breeding programs. With the rapid development in high-throughput phenotyping technologies, research in this area is entering a new era called 'phenomics.' The crop phenotyping community not only needs to build a multi-domain, multi-level, and multi-scale crop phenotyping big database, but also to research technical systems for phenotypic traits identification and develop bioinformatics technologies for information extraction from the overwhelming amounts of omics data. Here, we provide an overview of crop phenomics research, focusing on two parts, from phenotypic data collection through various sensors to phenomics analysis. Finally, we discussed the challenges and prospective of crop phenomics in order to provide suggestions to develop new methods of mining genes associated with important agronomic traits, and propose new intelligent solutions for precision breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Recent studies highlight the role of autophagy in cancer tumorigenesis, recurrence, metastasis, and chemoresistance. p62 is an adapter protein that is crucial for the autophagy pathway. In this study, we will describe the expression of p62 and its correlation with clinic prognosis in osteosarcoma. Methods: Western blot was used to test the expression of p62 in osteosarcoma cell lines (U2OS, KHOS, MG63, Saos-2, U2OSR2, KHOSR2, and 143B). A tissue microarray (TMA) was analyzed by immunohistochemistry to determine the expression levels of p62 in osteosarcoma patients and evaluate any correlation between p62 and clinical characteristics in osteosarcoma patients. Results: p62 was expressed differently in all cell lines. The TMA also showed differential expression in osteosarcoma tissues. Seventy-five of 79 (94.9%) patient tissues exhibited p62 immunostaining, ranging from no staining (4 of 97, 5.1%) to 1+ staining (40 of 79, 50.6%), 2+ staining (17 of 79, 21.5%), and 3+ staining (18 of 79, 22.8%). The low staining (1+) was classified as the p62 weak group (50.6%), the medium staining (2+) and intense staining (3+) were classified as the p62 strong group (44.3%). Analyzing the clinical data of the osteosarcoma TMA, we found that the 5-year survival rate of patients with weak p62 expression was significantly lower than that of the patients with strong p62 expression (p = 0.0165). Furthermore, the decreased p62 expression may be associated with higher metastatic and chemoresistant rates in osteosarcoma patients. Conclusion: Our results suggest that p62 may be an effective predictor of prognosis and a potential target for therapy in osteosarcoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reconstructed building models using stereo-based methods inevitably suffer from noise, leading to the lack of regularity which is characterized by straightness of structural linear features and smoothness of homogeneous regions. We leverage the structural linear features embedded in the mesh to construct a novel surface scaffold structure for model regularization. The regularization comprises two iterative stages: (1) the linear features are semi-automatically proposed from images by exploiting photometric and geometric clues jointly; (2) the scaffold topology represented by spatial relations among the linear features is optimized according to data fidelity and topological rules, then the mesh is refined by adjusting itself to the consolidated scaffold. Our method has two advantages. First, the proposed scaffold representation is able to concisely describe semantic building structures. Second, the scaffold structure is embedded in the mesh, which can preserve the mesh connectivity and avoid stitching or intersecting surfaces in challenging cases. We demonstrate that our method can enhance structural characteristics and suppress irregularities in the building models robustly in some challenging datasets. Moreover, the regularization can significantly improve the results of general applications such as simplification and non-photorealistic rendering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Horses (n = 20) were divided into 2 groups: oligofructose (OF)-induced equine laminitis group (group OF; n = 11) which received 10 g/kg b.w. of OF dissolved in 4 L water via nasogastric intubation, and control group (NS; n = 9) which received 4 L of saline. Blood was collected at 4 h intervals over 72 h study period and analysed by ELISA, kinetic limulus amoebocyte lysate assay, and glucose-oxidase methods. The level of insulin changed significantly in horses which received OF (P < 0.01); there was a significant negative correlation between the level of adiponectin and insulin over time. The results suggested that insulin may play an important role in the development of OF-induced equine laminitis by altering the level of endothelin-1 and nitric oxide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was conducted on 24 Mongolian horses, with oligofructose-induced equine laminitis (10 g/kg b.w.). The objective of the study was to investigate the relationships among matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2), P38 mitogen-activated protein kinases (P38 MAPK), tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 2 (TIMP-2), lipopolysaccharides (LPS), and tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) during acute developmental phase of laminitis, and to determine whether there are any characteristic tendencies. Moreover, plasma concentrations of LPS and TNF-α were measured in order to determine the time of leukocytes' activation. Eleven of the 12 horses showed clinical signs of laminitis. The contents of MMP-2 and P38 MAPK increased significantly from 8 h to 64 h, and the content of TIMP-2 decreased significantly at the same time. Plasma LPS concentrations increased significantly between 8 h and 20 h and reached a peak of 0.024 ± 0.009 EU/mL (equivalent to 3.04 ± 1.19 pg/mL) at 12 h. TNF-α concentration increased between 20 h and 36 h. This data indicates that MMP-2 plays an important role during the early acute developmental phase of oligofructose-induced equine laminitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a novel method for the parsing of images and scanned point cloud in large-scale street environment. The proposed method significantly reduces the intensive labeling cost in previous works by automatically generating training data from the input data. The automatic generation of training data begins with the initialization of training data with weak priors in the street environment, followed by a filtering scheme to remove mislabeled training samples. We formulate the filtering as a binary labeling optimization problem over a conditional random filed that we call object graph, simultaneously integrating spatial smoothness preference and label consistency between 2D and 3D. Toward the final parsing, with the automatically generated training data, a CRF-based parsing method that integrates the coordination of image appearance and 3D geometry is adopted to perform the parsing of large-scale street scenes. The proposed approach is evaluated on city-scale Google Street View data, with an encouraging parsing performance demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been extensively explored over the past decade, including mice and humans. However, their impact on the transdifferentiation of canine bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (cBMSCs) into insulin-producing cells (IPCs) is largely unknown. In this study, we used a three-step induction procedure to induce cBMSCs into IPCs, and samples (two biological replicates each) were obtained after each step; the samples consisted of "BMSCs" (B), "stage 1" (S1), "stage 2" (S2), "stage 3" (S3), and "islets" (I). After sequencing, 15,091 lncRNAs were identified, and we screened 110, 41, 23, and 686 differentially expressed lncRNAs (padjusted < 0.05) in B vs. S1, S1 vs. S2, S2 vs. S3, and I vs. S3 pairwise comparisons, respectively. In lncRNA target prediction, there were 166,623 colocalized targets and 2,976,362 correlated targets. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis showed that binding represented the main molecular functions of both the cis- and trans-modes. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis suggested that the insulin signaling pathway, Rap1 signaling pathway, tight junctions, MAPK signaling pathway, and cell cycle were enriched for these relative genes. The expression of lncRNAs was verified using qRT-PCR. This study provides a lncRNA catalog for future research concerning the mechanism of the transdifferentiation of cBMSCs into IPCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]