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Background Diabetic nephropathy (DN) and diabetic retinopathy (DR) are common microvascular complications of diabetes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between retinal vascular geometric parameters and pathologically diagnosed type 2 DN and to determine the capacity of retinal vascular geometric parameters in differentiating DN from non-diabetic renal disease (NDRD). Methods The study participants were adult patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and chronic kidney disease who underwent a renal biopsy. Univariate and multivariable regression analyses were performed to evaluate associations between retinal vessel geometry parameters and pathologically diagnosed DN. Multivariate binary logistic regression analyses were performed to establish a differential diagnostic model for DN. Results In total, 403 patients were examined in this cross-sectional study, including 152 (37.7%) with DN, 157 (39.0%) with NDRD and 94 (23.3%) with DN combined with NDRD. After univariate logistic regression, total vessel fractal dimension, arteriolar fractal dimension and venular fractal dimension were all found to be associated with DN. In multivariate analyses adjusting for age, sex, blood pressure, diabetes, DR and other factors, smaller retinal vascular fractal dimensions were significantly associated with DN (P  < .05). We developed a differential diagnostic model for DN combining traditional clinical indicators and retinal vascular geometric parameters. The area under the curve of the model established by multivariate logistic regression was 0.930. Conclusions Retinal vessel fractal dimension is of great significance for the rapid and non-invasive differentiation of DN. Incorporating retinal vessel fractal dimension into the diagnostic model for DN and NDRD can improve the diagnostic efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lindernia crustacea (L.) F. Muell 1882, a species in the Linderniaceae family, holds traditional medicinal value in China. To investigate its genetic diversity, we assembled, annotated, and characterized the first complete chloroplast genome of L. crustacea using Illumina sequencing data and various bioinformatics tools. The genome is 153,647 bp in length, with a GC content of 37.6%. It exhibits a typical quadripartite structure, consisting of a large single-copy region (LSC) of 85,411 bp, a small single-copy region (SSC) of 18,724 bp, and two inverted repeat sequences (IRa and IRb) of 25,816 bp each. The genome was predicted to contain 131 genes, including 87 protein-coding genes, 36 tRNA genes, and eight rRNA genes. Phylogenomic analysis indicated that L. crustacea is closely related to L. stricta. These findings provide a foundation for further research on the evolution and potential medicinal applications of the Linderniaceae family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Young lung cancer is a rare subgroup accounting for 5% of lung cancer. The aim of this study was to compare the causes of death (COD) among lung cancer patients of different age groups and construct a nomogram to predict cancer‐specific survival (CSS) in young patients with advanced stage. Methods: Lung cancer patients diagnosed between 2004 and 2015 were extracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database and stratified into the young (18–45 years) and old (> 45 years) groups to compare their COD. Young patients diagnosed with advanced stage (IVa and IVb) from 2010 to 2015 were reselected and divided into training and validation cohorts (7:3). Independent prognostic factors were identified through the Fine‐Gray's test and further integrated to the competing risk model. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), consistency index (C‐index), and calibration curve were applied for validation. Results: The proportion of cancer‐specific death (CSD) in young patients was higher than that in old patients with early‐stage lung cancer (p < 0.001), while there was no difference in the advanced stage (p = 0.999). Through univariate and multivariate analysis, 10 variables were identified as independent prognostic factors for CSS. The AUC of the 1‐, 3‐, and 5‐year prediction of CSS was 0.688, 0.706, and 0.791 in the training cohort and 0.747, 0.752, and 0.719 in the validation cohort. The calibration curves demonstrated great accuracy. The C‐index of the competing risk model was 0.692 (95% CI: 0.636–0.747) in the young patient cohort. Conclusion: Young lung cancer is a distinct entity with a different spectrum of competing risk events. The construction of our nomogram can provide new insights into the management of young patients with lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amaranthus roxburghianus H.W. Kung 1935, belonging to the Amaranthaceae family, is recognized for its significant medicinal properties. However, molecular research on this species has been limited. This study represents the inaugural documentation of the sequencing and assembly of the complete plastome of A. roxburghianus. The genome spans a total length of 149,969 base pairs (bp), exhibiting a conventional quadripartite structure. This structure comprises a large single-copy (LSC) region of 83,917 bp, a small single-copy (SSC) region of 18,124 bp, and two inverted repeat (IR) regions, each extending to 23,964 bp. In its entirety, the A. roxburghianus plastome encompasses 128 genes, of which 107 are unique, encompassing 77 individual protein-coding genes, 26 unique tRNA genes, and four unique rRNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis has shown a close resemblance between A. roxburghianus and A. polygonoides, both part of the subgenus Albersia. Although the genus Amaranthus is roughly divided into three subgenera, additional plastid genomic data are required for a more accurate assignment of A. albus and A. blitoides. The sequencing of this plastome is a significant step forward, likely to expedite the development of molecular markers and significantly contribute to genetic assays involving this distinctive species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The identification of safflower filament targets and the precise localization of picking points are fundamental prerequisites for achieving automated filament retrieval. In light of challenges such as severe occlusion of targets, low recognition accuracy, and the considerable size of models in unstructured environments, this paper introduces a novel lightweight YOLO-SaFi model. The architectural design of this model features a Backbone layer incorporating the StarNet network; a Neck layer introducing a novel ELC convolution module to refine the C2f module; and a Head layer implementing a new lightweight shared convolution detection head, Detect_EL. Furthermore, the loss function is enhanced by upgrading CIoU to PIoUv2. These enhancements significantly augment the model's capability to perceive spatial information and facilitate multi-feature fusion, consequently enhancing detection performance and rendering the model more lightweight. Performance evaluations conducted via comparative experiments with the baseline model reveal that YOLO-SaFi achieved a reduction of parameters, computational load, and weight files by 50.0%, 40.7%, and 48.2%, respectively, compared to the YOLOv8 baseline model. Moreover, YOLO-SaFi demonstrated improvements in recall, mean average precision, and detection speed by 1.9%, 0.3%, and 88.4 frames per second, respectively. Finally, the deployment of the YOLO-SaFi model on the Jetson Orin Nano device corroborates the superior performance of the enhanced model, thereby establishing a robust visual detection framework for the advancement of intelligent safflower filament retrieval robots in unstructured environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ΔN6 truncation is the main posttranslational modification of β2-microglobulin (β2M) found in dialysis-related amyloid. Investigation of the interaction of wild-type (WT) β2M with N-terminally truncated variants is therefore of medical relevance. However, it is unclear which residues among the six residues at the N-terminus are crucial to the interactions and the modulation of amyloid fibril propagation of β2M. We herein analyzed homo- and heterotypic seeding of amyloid fibrils of WT human β2M and its N-terminally-truncated variants ΔN1 to ΔN6, lacking up to six residues at the N-terminus. At acidic pH 2.5, we produced amyloid fibrils in vitro from recombinant, WT β2M and its six truncated variants, and found that ΔN6 β2M fibrils exhibit a significantly lower conformational stability than WT β2M fibrils. Importantly, under more physiological conditions (pH 6.2), we assembled amyloid fibrils in vitro only from recombinant, ΔN4, ΔN5, and ΔN6 β2M but not from WT β2M and its three truncated variants ΔN1 to ΔN3. Notably, the removal of the six, five or four residues at the N-terminus leads to enhanced fibril formation, and homo- and heterotypic seeding of ΔN6 fibrils strongly promotes amyloid fibril formation of WT β2M and its six truncated variants, including at more physiological pH 6.2. Collectively, these results demonstrated that the residues 4 to 6 at the N-terminus particularly modulate amyloid fibril propagation of β2M and the interactions of WT β2M with N-terminally truncated variants, potentially indicating the direct relevance to the involvement of the protein’s aggregation in dialysis-related amyloidosis.