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IntroductionEarly screening for diabetic retinopathy (DR) with an efficient and scalable method is highly needed to reduce blindness, due to the growing epidemic of diabetes. The aim of the study was to validate an artificial intelligence-enabled DR screening and to investigate the prevalence of DR in adult patients with diabetes in China.Research design and methodsThe study was prospectively conducted at 155 diabetes centers in China. A non-mydriatic, macula-centered fundus photograph per eye was collected and graded through a deep learning (DL)-based, five-stage DR classification. Images from a randomly selected one-third of participants were used for the DL algorithm validation.ResultsIn total, 47 269 patients (mean (SD) age, 54.29 (11.60) years) were enrolled. 15 805 randomly selected participants were reviewed by a panel of specialists for DL algorithm validation. The DR grading algorithms had a 83.3% (95% CI: 81.9% to 84.6%) sensitivity and a 92.5% (95% CI: 92.1% to 92.9%) specificity to detect referable DR. The five-stage DR classification performance (concordance: 83.0%) is comparable to the interobserver variability of specialists (concordance: 84.3%). The estimated prevalence in patients with diabetes detected by DL algorithm for any DR, referable DR and vision-threatening DR were 28.8% (95% CI: 28.4% to 29.3%), 24.4% (95% CI: 24.0% to 24.8%) and 10.8% (95% CI: 10.5% to 11.1%), respectively. The prevalence was higher in female, elderly, longer diabetes duration and higher glycated hemoglobin groups.ConclusionThis study performed, a nationwide, multicenter, DL-based DR screening and the results indicated the importance and feasibility of DR screening in clinical practice with this system deployed at diabetes centers.Trial registration numberNCT04240652.

BACKGROUND This study aimed to investigate the composition of bacteria in the bovine rectum and their functions during growth, in relation to different diets. Fecal samples were collected from 6-, 12-, 18- and 24-month cattle fed high-fat diet, and healthy female parents fed regular diet. Total DNA was amplified (V3–V4 of 16S rRNA) and submitted to barcode-DNA pyrosequencing. Intestinal microbiota profiles and functions were then analyzed. RESULTS A total of 114 512 operational taxonomic units were detected from the 1 802 243 sequences obtained. In 6-month-old and female parent groups, the top three abundant phyla were Bacteroidetes (37.6%, 32.2%), Firmicutes (34.4%, 48.2%) and Proteobacteria (9.1%, 6.3%); in the 12-, 18- and 24-month groups, they were Proteobacteria (45.5%, 47.1%, 38.8%), Firmicutes (27.4%, 22.2%, 20.1%) and Bacteroidetes (14.9%, 19.4%, 17.7%), respectively. Paludibacter and Desulfopila in abundance showed negative (P < 0.001) and positive (P < 0.05) correlation, respectively, to cattle weight gain through metagenomic functional prediction of methane, cysteine and methionine metabolism. Meanwhile, cofactor/vitamin and amino acid metabolic processes were significantly higher in bacteria from the regular diet group than high-fat diet groups, with markedly lower cellular processes and signaling, and reduced glycan biosynthesis and metabolism (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS The 6-month cattle and female parents shared similar intestinal bacteria; the community structure of fecal microbiota was significantly affected by high-fat diet in older cattle. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry

Growth retardation of calves is defined as a symptom of impaired growth and development, probably due to growth hormone disorder as well as natural and environmental factors in livestock. The growth-promoting effects of probiotics were determined in 50 growth-retarded growth calves. They were supplied with Bacillus amyloliquefaciens C-1 (Ba, 4 × 1010CFU/d, n = 16), B. subtilis (Bs, 4 × 1010CFU/d, n = 18), and negative control (NC, n = 16) for 30 days. Pre- and post-intervention, the growth performance (weight gain rate, feed intake and feed conversion rate) was analyzed, the serum GH, IGH-1 and immunoglobulin levels were assayed, and the fecal microbiota was detected. Calves in Ba and Bs groups demonstrated increased body weight gain, feed intake and GH/IGF-1 levels, as well as a more efficient feed conversion rate, compared with NC group (P < 0.05). Additionally, the abundances of bacteria contributing to the production of energy and SCFAs (short chain fatty acids), including Proteobacteria, Rhodospirillaceae, Campylobacterales, and Butyricimonas were increased compared with NC group (P < 0.05, FDR < 0.1); and the suspected pathogens, which included Anaeroplasma and Acholeplasma were decreased (P < 0.05, FDR < 0.1) in both the Bs and Ba groups. Akkermansia, which is involved in the intestinal mucosal immune response, was increased in Bs group after intervention (P < 0.05, FDR < 0.1), but exhibited no obvious difference in Ba group. The increased bacterial genera in Ba group were Sphaerochaeta and Treponema (P < 0.05, FDR < 0.1). These results indicate that the probiotics B. amyloliquefaciens and B. subtilis exhibited similar therapeutic potential in terms of growth performance by regulating hormones, and improving the intestinal and rumen development in growth-retarded animals.

Degenerate Clostridium beijerinckii strain (DG-8052) can be partially recovered by supplementing CaCO3 to fermentation media. Genome resequencing of DG-8052 showed no general regulator mutated. This study focused on transcriptional analysis of DG-8052 and its response to CaCO3 treatment via microarray. The expressions of 5168 genes capturing 98.6% of C. beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 genome were examed. The results revealed that with addition of CaCO3 565 and 916 genes were significantly up-regulated, and 704 and 1044 genes significantly down-regulated at acidogenic and solventogenic phase of DG-8052, respectively. These genes are primarily responsible for glycolysis to solvent/acid production (poR, pfo), solventogensis (buk, ctf, aldh, adh, bcd) and sporulation (spo0A, sigE, sigma-70, bofA), cell motility and division (ftsA, ftsK, ftsY, ftsH, ftsE, mreB, mreC, mreD, rodA), and molecular chaperones (grpE, dnaK, dnaJ, hsp20, hsp90), etc. The functions of some altered genes in DG-8052, totalling 5.7% at acidogenisis and 8.0% at sovlentogenisis, remain unknown. The response of the degenerate strain to CaCO3 was suggested significantly pleiotropic. This study reveals the multitude of regulatory function that CaCO3 has in clostridia and provides detailed insights into degeneration mechanisms at gene regulation level. It also enables us to develop effective strategies to prevent strain degeneration in future.

Degeneration of solventogenic Clostridium strains is one of the major barriers in bio-butanol production. A degenerated Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 strain (DG-8052) was obtained without any genetic manipulation. Supplementation of CaCO3 to fermentation medium could partially recover metabolism of DG-8052 by more than 50 % increase of cell growth and solvent production. This study investigated the protein expression profile of DG-8052 and its response to CaCO3 treatment. Compared with WT-8052, the lower expressed proteins were responsible for disruption of RNA secondary structures and DNA repair, sporulation, signal transduction, transcription regulation, and membrane transport in DG-8052. Interestingly, accompanied with the decreased glucose utilization and lower solvent production, there was a decreased level of sigma-54 modulation protein which may indicate that the level of sigma-54 activity may be associated with the observed strain degeneration. For the addition of CaCO3, proteomic and biochemical study results revealed that besides buffer capacity, Ca2+ could stabilize heat shock proteins, increase DNA synthesis and replication, and enhance expression of solventogenic enzymes in DG-8052, which has a similar contribution in WT-8052.