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Chestnuts are known for their unique sensory characteristics and nutritional value. However, the changes in their sensory attributes after processing remain unclear. This study used instrumental analysis and sensory evaluation combined with multivariate statistical analysis to investigate the effect of packaging and thermal sterilization procedures on the sensory characteristics of chestnuts. The results showed that the significant variations (p

Medical image registration is a fundamental and indispensable element in medical image analysis, which can establish spatial consistency among corresponding anatomical structures across various medical images. Since images with different modalities exhibit different features, it remains a challenge to find their exact correspondence. Most of the current methods based on image-to-image translation cannot fully leverage the available information, which will affect the subsequent registration performance. To solve the problem, we develop an unsupervised multimodal image registration method named DTR-GAN. Firstly, we design a multimodal registration framework via a bidirectional translation network to transform the multimodal image registration into a unimodal registration, which can effectively use the complementary information of different modalities. Then, to enhance the quality of the transformed images in the translation network, we design a multiscale encoder–decoder network that effectively captures both local and global features in images. Finally, we propose a mixed similarity loss to encourage the warped image to be closer to the target image in deep features. We extensively evaluate methods for MRI-CT image registration tasks of the abdominal cavity with advanced unsupervised multimodal image registration approaches. The results indicate that DTR-GAN obtains a competitive performance compared to other methods in MRI-CT registration. Compared with DFR, DTR-GAN has not only obtained performance improvements of 2.35% and 2.08% in the dice similarity coefficient (DSC) of MRI-CT registration and CT-MRI registration on the Learn2Reg dataset but has also decreased the average symmetric surface distance (ASD) by 0.33 mm and 0.12 mm on the Learn2Reg dataset.

Abstract Objective Sarcopenia in older adults is closely related to vitamin D deficiency and reduced levels of physical activity, but little has been reported on the interaction between physical activity and the positive effects of vitamin D. The purpose of this study was to explore the interactive effect of vitamin D and physical activity on muscle mass and function through animal experiments and population surveys. Methods Male 4‐week‐old C57BL/6J mice were fed different purified diets: a vitamin D‐deficient diet (with increased calcium and phosphorus to prevent the effects of abnormal mineral levels on muscle) or a 1,25‐dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25D)‐supplemented diet. After 24 weeks on the assigned diets, the mice were immobilized. The level of skeletal muscle atrophy in the mice was determined by grip strength, gastrocnemius (GA) muscle mass and muscle fiber cross‐sectional area (CSA); additionally, the protein expression levels of FOXO3a and the E3 ubiquitin ligases MuRF1 and MAFbx were detected. A cross‐sectional study included data from 4139 older adults (64.9% women, 67.9 ± 6.7 years) as part of a survey in Shenyang, Northeast China. The associations of serum 25(OH)D3 and physical activity with timed up and go test (TUG) performance, handgrip strength, calf circumference, and body muscle mass were assessed by a linear regression analysis that was adjusted for covariates. Results In activity‐limited mice, vitamin D deficiency accelerated the decrease in GA muscle weight, muscle fiber CSA, and grip strength and increased the protein expression of MuRF1, MAFbx, and FOXO3a (all P < 0.05). In addition, 1,25D supplementation may inhibit the grip‐strength reduction induced by limited activity (P = 0.069). Serum 25(OH)D3 and physical activity were linearly related to TUG time (P < 0.001) and handgrip strength (P < 0.05) after adjustment for sex, age, body mass index (BMI), education level, smoking status, and serum calcium level. Serum 25(OH)D3 and physical activity had interactive effects on TUG (P < 0.001) and handgrip strength (P < 0.05) but not calf circumference or body muscle mass in older adults. Conclusions The effect of vitamin D on muscle strength and physical performance depends on physical activity level in the elderly. It is recommended that older adults strive to avoid both physical inactivity and vitamin D deficiency. Because physical inactivity and vitamin D deficiency may exacerbate muscle atrophy, the biological mechanism may involve synergistic effects of vitamin D and physical activity on the promotion of muscle protein ubiquitination and degradation.

Multimodal medical image registration has an important role in monitoring tumor growth, radiotherapy, and disease diagnosis. Deep-learning-based methods have made great progress in the past few years. However, its success depends on large training datasets, and the performance of the model decreases due to overfitting and poor generalization when only limited data are available. In this paper, a multimodal medical image registration framework based on few-shot learning is proposed, named reverse-net, which can improve the accuracy and generalization ability of the network by using a few segmentation labels. Firstly, we used the border enhancement network to enhance the ROI (region of interest) boundaries of T1 images to provide high-quality data for the subsequent pixel alignment stage. Secondly, through a coarse registration network, the T1 image and T2 image were roughly aligned. Then, the pixel alignment network generated more smooth deformation fields. Finally, the reverse teaching network used the warped T1 segmentation labels and warped images generated by the deformation field to teach the border enhancement network more structural knowledge. The performance and generalizability of our model have been evaluated on publicly available brain datasets including the MRBrainS13DataNii-Pro, SRI24, CIT168, and OASIS datasets. Compared with VoxelMorph, the reverse-net obtained performance improvements of 4.36% in DSC on the publicly available MRBrainS13DataNii-Pro dataset. On the unseen dataset OASIS, the reverse-net obtained performance improvements of 4.2% in DSC compared with VoxelMorph, which shows that the model can obtain better generalizability. The promising performance on dataset CIT168 indicates that the model is practicable.

Abstract Aims/Introduction In the present meta‐analysis, we aimed to determine the effects of sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor (SGLT‐2i) in addition to insulin therapy on cardiovascular risk factors in type 2 diabetes patients. Materials and Methods Randomized controlled trials were identified by searching the PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library databases published before September 2017. The intervention group received SGLT‐2i as add‐on treatment to insulin therapy, and the control group received placebos in addition to insulin. We assessed pooled data, including weighted mean differences and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using a random‐effects model. Results A total of 10 randomized controlled trials (n = 5,159) were eligible. The weighted mean differences for systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure were −3.17 mmHg (95% CI −4.53, −1.80, I2 = 0%) and −1.60 mmHg (95% CI −2.52, −0.69, I2 = 0%) in the intervention groups. Glycosylated hemoglobin, fasting plasma glucose, postprandial glucose and daily insulin were also lower in the intervention groups, with relative weighted mean differences of −0.49% (95% CI −0.71, −0.28%, I2 = 92%), −1.10 mmol/L (95% CI −1.69, −0.51 mmol/L, I2 = 84%), −3.63 mmol/L (95% CI −4.36, −2.89, I2 = 0%) and −5.42 IU/day (95% CI −8.12, −2.72, I2 = 93%). The transformations of uric acid and bodyweight were −26.16 μmol/L (95% CI −42.14, −10.17, I2 = 80%) and −2.13 kg (95% CI −2.66, −1.60, I2 = 83%). The relative risk of hypoglycemia was 1.09 (95% CI 1.02, 1.17, P < 0.01). The relative risks of urinary tract and genital infection were 1.29 (95% CI 1.03, 1.62, P = 0.03) and 5.25 (95% CI 3.55, 7.74, P < 0.01). Conclusions The results showed that in the intervention group, greater reductions were achieved for blood pressure, glucose control, uric acid and bodyweight. This treatment regimen might therefore provide beneficial effects on the occurrence and development of cardiovascular events.