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In the task of power line inspection, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are frequently used for capturing images. With the rapid advancement of sensor technology, the spatial, radiometric, and spectral resolutions of UAV images are constantly improving, leading to an increased storage requirement for individual images. Given that UAVs usually operate with limited computational resources, transmission capability and storage space, there are significant challenges in image compression, storage and transmission. This underscores the importance of a high-performance image compression technique. To solve the above problem, we unveil a compression strategy for images that have been acquired through learning utilizing discrete Gaussian mixture-based probability distributions to increase the efficiency of image compression and the fidelity of reconstruction. In addition, to speed up decoding, we employ a parallel context model, which facilitates decoding in a highly parallel manner. Experimental evidence indicates that our approach attains performance that is at the forefront of the field while significantly expediting the decoding process (speeding up the decoding process by more than 49.78%) in our experiments, outpacing traditional coding standards and existing learned compression approaches by 5.75 dB and 1.23 dB in PSNR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: Grain weight, grain number per panicle, and the number of panicles are the three factors that determine rice (Oryza sativa L.) yield. Of these, grain weight, which not only directly determines rice yield but also influences appearance and quality, is often considered the most important for rice production. Here, we describe OsNF‐YC1, a member of the NF‐Y transcription factor family that regulates rice grain size. OsNF‐YC1 knockout plants (osnf‐yc1), obtained using CRISPR‐Cas9 technology, showed reduced grain weight due to reduced width and thickness, with no change in grain length, leading to a slenderer grain shape. Downregulation of OsNF‐YC1 using RNA interference resulted in similar grain phenotypes as osnf‐yc1. OsNF‐YC1 affects grain formation by regulating both cell proliferation and cell expansion. OsNF‐YC1 localizes in both the nucleus and cytoplasm, has transcriptional activation activity at both the N‐terminus and C‐terminus, and is highly expressed in young panicles. OsNF‐YC1 interacts with OsMADS1 both in vivo and in vitro. Further analysis showed that the histone‐like structural CBFD‐NFYB‐HMF domain of OsNF‐YC1 conserved in the OsNF‐YC transcription factor family can directly interact with the MADS‐box domain of OsMADS1 to enhance its transcriptional activation activity. This interaction positively regulates the expression of OsMADS55, the direct downstream target of OsMADS1. Therefore, this paper reveals a potential grain size regulation pathway controlled by an OsNF‐YC1‐OsMADS1‐OsMADS55 module in rice. Significance Statement: This paper described the molecular mechanism of OsNF‐YC1 regulating rice grain size formation, a potential pathway of OsNF‐YC1‐OsMADS1‐OsMADS55. OsNF‐YC1 knockout plants displayed the slender grain size with the narrower grain width than the controls, the yield of which was not changed due to the number of grains per panicle of the osnf‐yc1 mutant is increased. Therefore, OsNF‐YC1 can be used for improving rice appearance quality and yield, which has a potential value in practical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Defective decidualization of endometrial stromal cells (ESCs) in endometriosis (EM) patients leads to inadequate endometrial receptivity and EM‐associated infertility. Hypoxia is an inevitable pathological process of EM and participates in deficient decidualization of the eutopic secretory endometrium. Enhancer of zeste homology 2 (EZH2) is a methyltransferase which catalyses H3K27Me3, leading to decreased expression levels of target genes. Although EZH2 expression is low under normal decidualization, it is abundantly increased in the eutopic secretory endometrium of EM and is induced by hypoxia. Chromatin immunoprecipitation‐PCR results revealed that decidua marker IGFBP1 is a direct target of EZH2, partially explaining the increased levels of histone methylation modification in defected decidualization of EM. To mechanism controlling this, we examined the effects of hypoxia on EZH2 and decidualization. EZH2 mRNA showed decreased m6A modification and increased expression levels under hypoxia and decidualization combined treatment. Increased EZH2 expression was due to the increased expression of m6A demethylase ALKBH5 and decreased expression of the m6A reader protein YTHDF2. YTHDF2 directly bind to the m6A modification site of EZH2 to promote EZH2 mRNA degradation in ESCs. Moreover, selective Ezh2 depletion in mouse ESCs increased endometrial receptivity and improved mouse fertility by up‐regulating decidua marker IGFBP1 expression. This is the first report showing that YTHDF2 can act as a m6A reader to promote decidualization by decreasing the stability of EZH2 mRNA and further increasing the expression of IGFBP1 in ESCs. Taken together, our findings highlight the critical role of EZH2/H3K27Me3 in decidualization and reveal a novel epigenetic mechanism by which hypoxia can suppress EM decidualization by decreasing the m6A modification of EZH2 mRNA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of drones and traditional navigation equipment to detect overhead transmission lines has such limitations as high costs of sensors, difficulties in data processing, and vulnerability to weather and environmental factors. Therefore, they can hardly guarantee the safety of drones and power systems. To improve the intelligent inspection of transmission lines, this paper proposes an autonomous navigation of UAVs with a single camera on transmission lines. Since monocular vision cannot provide in-depth information, a machine learning model Faster R-CNN for obstacle detection is introduced. In the detection model, the image height of the detected power lines represents the distance to the UAV, and the image width between the power lines is employed to obtain the widest unobstructed space. The experimental results show the positioning detection algorithm is highly applicable since it makes marked improvements with its positioning error within the range of the use error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mechanism by which endometriosis, a common gynecological disease characterized by chronic pelvic pain and infertility, causes infertility remains elusive. Luteinized unruptured follicle syndrome, the most common type of ovulatory dysfunction, is a cause of endometriosis-associated infertility involving reduced numbers of retrieved and mature oocytes. Ovulation is controlled by luteinizing hormone and paracrine signals produced within the follicle microenvironment. Generally, interleukin (IL)-1β is elevated in endometriosis follicular fluid, whereby it amplifies ovulation signals by activating extracellular-regulated kinase 1/2 and CCAAT/enhancer binding protein β pathways. However, this amplification of ovulation by IL-1β does not occur in patients with endometriosis. To illuminate the mechanism of ovulatory dysfunction in endometriosis, we analyzed the effect of oxidative stress and IL-1β expression on endometriosis follicles. We found that oxidative stress decreased EZH2 expression and reduced H3K27Me3 levels in endometriosis ovarian granulosa cells (GCs). Selective Ezh2 depletion in mice ovarian GCs reduced fertility by disturbing cumulus-oocyte complex expansion and reducing epidermal growth factor-like factor expression. Gene expression and H3K27Me3 ChIP-sequencing (ChIP-Seq) of GCs revealed IL-1 receptor 2 (IL-1R2), a high-affinity IL-1β-receptor that suppresses IL-1β-mediated inflammatory cascades during ovulation, as a crucial target gene of the EZH2-H3K27Me3 axis. Moreover, IL-1β addition did not restore ovulation upon Ezh2 knockdown, indicating a vital function of IL-1R2 in endometriosis. Thus, our findings show that reducing EZH2 and H3K27Me3 in GCs suppressed ovulatory signals by increasing IL-1R2 expression, which may ultimately contribute to endometriosis-associated infertility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]