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Objective: To systematic study for different chemical components of swim bladder and donkey skin, and their improvement effects on cyclophosphamide-induced anemia mice. Methods: The chemical characterizations, including total protein content, amino acid composition and molecular weight were measured, respectively. Pepsin-soluble collagens were extracted from swim bladder and donkey skin by hydrochloric acid-pepsin method, and analyzed the content, composition and structure. The anemia model was established by intraperitoneal injected with cyclophosphamide at a dosage of 80 mg/kg. The coefficient of visceral organs and the hematological indexes were observed in mice with swim bladder glue (1.52 g/(kg·d)) or donkey skin glue (1.39 g/(kg·d)) by gavage administration per day. Results: The total protein contents of swim bladder and donkey skin reached more than 97%. The molecular weights of swim bladder glue and donkey skin glue ranged from 50 Da to 328 kDa. Swim bladder collagen and donkey skin collagen were both type Ⅰ collagen. While the content of collagen in swim bladder was 6.51 times than that in donkey skin. However the collagen triple helix structures were different. The swim bladder collagen had an α-helix structure, and the donkey skin collagen structure was mainly anti-parallel. After 28 days of administration, both swim bladder glue and donkey skin glue could promote the recovery of hematopoietic function in cyclophosphamide-induced anemia mice, and swim bladder glue exhibited a better effect. Compared with the model, the erythrocyte, hemoglobin, platelet, reticulocyte, spleen and thymus coefficients of the swim bladder glue were significantly improved (P

Blue honeysuckle seeds are often overlooked by the processing industry, but they are a good source of healthy oil. The composition, volatiles, and antioxidant capacity of blue honeysuckle seeds and seed oil were investigated for the first time. The fatty acid profile of the seed oil was analysed using GC–MS. The seed oil was particularly rich in polyunsaturated fatty acid, especially linoleic acid (71.24 ± 1.64 %). HS-SPME-GC–MS analysis temporarily detected 34 and 37 volatiles in the seeds and seed oil, respectively. Notably, aldehydes were identified as the major contributors to the aroma. The phytosterols, tocopherols, and triglycerides were identified in the seed oil. Interestingly, the total phenolic content and antioxidant capacity of the seeds were found to be much higher than the seed oil. This study evaluates the nutritional profile and value of blue honeysuckle seed oil, and suggests that it can be used as new functional oil.

Abstract This study was to develop a computer vision evaluation method to automatically measure the degree of scoliosis based on the machine learning algorithm. For the X-ray images of 204 patients with idiopathic scoliosis who underwent full-spine radiography, histogram equalization of original image was performed before a flipping method was used to magnify asymmetric elements, search for the global maximum pixel value in each line, and scan local maximal pixel value, with the intersection set of two point sets being regarded as candidate anchor points. All fine anchors were fitted with cubic spline algorithm to obtain the approximate curve of the spine, and the degree of scoliosis was measured by the standardized integral area. All measured data were analyzed. In manual measurement, the Cobb angle was 11.70–25.00 (20.15 ± 3.60), 25.20–44.70 (33.89 ± 5.41), and 45.10–49.40 (46.98 ± 1.25) in the mild, moderate and severe scoliosis group, respectively, whereas the value for the standardized integral area algorithm was 0.072–0.298 (0.185 ± 0.040), 0.100–0.399 (0.245 ± 0.050), and 0.246–0.901 (0.349 ± 0.181) in the mild, moderate and severe scoliosis group, respectively. Correlation analysis between the manual measurement of the Cobb angle and the evaluation of the standardized integral area algorithm demonstrated the Spearman correlation coefficient r = 0.643 (P

A study was conducted to examine the production and characterization of monoclonal antibodies to alveolar type II cell lamellar body membranes. Lamellar bodies were obtained from rat lungs which had been cleared of blood while elastase digestion was utilized to isolate alveolar type II cells. Results indicated that the lbm180 protein is a lung lamellar body protein. Findings also showed that secretory granules from various tissues accommodated a number of common features.

There appears to be two surfactant lipid internalization pathways for uptake of liposomes by alveolar type II cells. Intact internalization of liposomes by type II cells seems to be dependent on clathedrin. Cytochalasin D decreases uptake by half, indicating a separate actin-dependent pathway. Liposome uptake appears to occur near intracellular lamellar bodies in a temperature- and energy-dependent manner.

Animals detect targets using a variety of visual cues, with the visual salience of these cues determining which environmental features receive priority attention and further processing. Surround modulation plays a crucial role in generating visual saliency, which has been extensively studied in avian tectal neurons. Recent work has reported that the suppression of tectal neurons induced by motion contrasting stimulus is stronger than that by luminance contrasting stimulus. However, the underlying mechanism remains poorly understood. In this study, we built a computational model (called Generalized Linear-Dynamic Modulation) which incorporates independent nonlinear tuning mechanisms for excitatory and inhibitory inputs. This model aims to describe how tectal neurons encode contrasting stimuli. The results showed that: (1) The dynamic nonlinear integration structure substantially improved the accuracy (significant difference (p < 0.001, paired t-test) in the goodness of fit between the two models) of the predicted responses to contrasting stimuli, verifying the nonlinear processing performed by tectal neurons. (2) The modulation difference between luminance and motion contrasting stimuli emerged from the predicted response by the full model but not by that with only excitatory synaptic input (spatial luminance: 89 ± 2.8% (GL_DM) vs. 87 ± 2.1% (GL_DMexc); motion contrasting stimuli: 87 ± 1.7% (GL_DM) vs. 83 ± 2.2% (GL_DMexc)). These results validate the proposed model and further suggest the role of dynamic nonlinear spatial integrations in contextual visual information processing, especially in spatial integration, which is important for object detection performed by birds.

This study investigated the impact of chitosan (CH, 1%) and aloe vera gel (AL, 30%) edible coatings on the preservation of blue honeysuckle quality during a 28-day storage at −1 °C. Coating with CH, AL, and CH+AL led to notable enhancements in several key attributes. These included increased firmness, total soluble solids, acidity, pH, and antioxidant capacity (measured through DPPH, ABTS, and FRAP assays), as well as the preservation of primary (ascorbic acid) and secondary metabolites (TPC, TAC, and TFC). The TAC and TFC levels were approximately increased by 280% and 17%, respectively, in coated blue honeysuckle after 28 d compared to uncoated blue honeysuckle. These coatings also resulted in reduced weight loss, respiration rate, color, abscisic acid, ethylene production, and malondialdehyde content. Notably, the CH+AL treatment excelled in preserving secondary metabolites and elevating FRAP-reducing power, demonstrating a remarkable 1.43-fold increase compared to the control after 28 days. Overall, CH+AL exhibited superior effects compared to CH or AL treatment alone, offering a promising strategy for extending the shelf life and preserving the quality of blue honeysuckle during storage.

Schaller-Bals, S., S. R. Bates, K. Notarfrancesco, J. Q. Tao, A. B. Fisher, and H. Shuman. Surface-expressed lamellar body membrane is recycled to lamellar bodies. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 279: L631-L640, 2000.--Monoclonal antibody (MAb) 3C9, an antibody generated to the lamellar body of rat lung type II pneumocytes, specifically labels the luminal face of the lamellar body membrane. To follow the retrieval of lamellar body membrane from the cell surface in these cells, MAb 3C9 was instilled into rat lungs. In vivo, it was endocytosed by type II cells but not by other lung cells. In type II cells that were isolated from rat lungs by elastase digestion and cultured on plastic for 24 h, MAb 3C9 first bound to the cell surface, then was found in endosomes, vesicular structures, and multivesicular bodies and, finally, clustered on the luminal face of lamellar body membranes. The amount internalized reached a plateau after 1.5 h of incubation and was stimulated with the secretagogue ATP. In double-labeling experiments, internalized MAb 3C9 did not completely colocalize with NBD-PC liposomes or the nonspecific endocytic marker TMA-DPH, suggesting that lamellar body membrane is retrieved back to existing lamellar bodies by a pathway different from that of bulk membrane and may be one pathway for surfactant endocytosis. The lamellar body membrane components are retrieved as subunits that are redistributed among the preexisting lamellar bodies in the cell. endocytosis; membrane trafficking; organelle biogenesis; type II pneumocytes

Relay-aided Device-to-Device (D2D) communication combining visible light communication (VLC) with radio frequency (RF) is a promising paradigm in the internet of things (IoT). Static relay limits the flexibility and maintaining connectivity of relays in Hybrid VLC/RF IoT systems. By using a drone as a relay station, it is possible to avoid obstacles such as buildings and to communicate in a line-of-sight (LoS) environment, which naturally aligns with the requirement of VLC Systems. To further support the application of VLC in the IoT, subject to the challenges imposed by the constrained coverage, the lack of flexibility, poor reliability, and connectivity, drone relay-aided D2D communication appears on the horizon and can be cost-effectively deployed for the large-scale IoT. This paper proposes a joint resource allocation and drones relay selection scheme, aiming to maximize the D2D system sum rate while ensuring the quality of service (QoS) requirements for cellular users (CUs) and D2D users (DUs). First, we construct a two-phase coalitional game to tackle the resource allocation problem, which exploits the combination of VLC and RF, as well as incorporates a greedy strategy. After that, a distributed cooperative multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) algorithm, called WoLF policy hill-climbing (WoLF-PHC), is proposed to address the drones relay selection problem. Moreover, to further reduce the computational complexity, we propose a lightweight neighbor–agent-based WoLF-PHC algorithm, which only utilizes historical information of neighboring DUs. Finally, we provide an in-depth theoretical analysis of the proposed schemes in terms of complexity and signaling overhead. Simulation results illustrate that the proposed schemes can effectively improve the system performance in terms of the sum rate and outage probability with respect to other outstanding algorithms.

BackgroundCorynebacterium accolens (C. accolens) is a common nasal colonizer, whereas Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is typically regarded a pathogenic organism in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). This study aims to evaluate the interaction of the two bacteria in vitro.MethodsClinical isolates of C. accolens and S. aureus from sinonasal swabs, as well as primary human nasal epithelial cells (HNECs) cultured from cellular brushings of both healthy and CRS patients were used for this study. The cell-free culture supernatants of all isolates grown alone and in co-cultures were tested for their effects on transepithelial electrical resistance (TER), FITC-Dextran permeability, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and IL-6 and IL-8 secretion of HNECs. Confocal scanning laser microscopy and immunofluorescence were also used to visualize the apical junctional complexes. C. accolens cell-free culture supernatants were also tested for antimicrobial activity and growth on planktonic and biofilm S. aureus growth.ResultsThe cell-free culture supernatants of 3\C. accolens strains (at 60% for S. aureus reference strain and 30% concentration for S. aureus clinical strains) inhibited the growth of both the planktonic S. aureus reference and clinical strains significantly. The C. accolens cell-free culture supernatants caused no change in the TER or FITC-Dextran permeability of the HNEC-ALI cultures, while the cell-free culture supernatants of S. aureus strains had a detrimental effect. Cell-free culture supernatants of C. accolens co-cultured with both the clinical and reference strains of S. aureus delayed the S. aureus-dependent mucosal barrier damage in a dose-dependent manner.ConclusionCorynebacterium accolens cell-free culture supernatants appear to inhibit the growth of the S. aureus planktonic bacteria, and may reduce the mucosal barrier damage caused by S. aureus.

Background: Congenital hearing loss is remarkably heterogeneous, with over 130 deafness genes and thousands of variants, making for innumerable genotype/phenotype combinations. Understanding both the pathophysiology of hearing loss and molecular site of lesion along the auditory pathway permits for significantly individualized counseling. Electrophysiologic techniques such as electrocochleography (ECochG) and electrically-evoked compound action potentials (eCAP) are being studied to localize pathology and estimate residual cochlear vs. neural health. This review describes the expanding roles of genetic and electrophysiologic evaluation in the precision medicine of congenital hearing loss.The basics of genetic mutations in hearing loss and electrophysiologic testing (ECochG and eCAP) are reviewed, and how they complement each other in the diagnostics and prognostication of hearing outcomes. Used together, these measures improve the understanding of insults to the auditory system, allowing for individualized counseling for CI candidacy/outcomes or other habilitation strategies. Conclusion: Despite tremendous discovery in deafness genes, the effects of individual genes on neural function remain poorly understood. Bridging the understanding between molecular genotype and neural and functional phenotype is paramount to interpreting genetic results in clinical practice. The future hearing healthcare provider must consolidate an ever-increasing amount of genetic and phenotypic information in the precision medicine of hearing loss.

For a clamp-on ultrasonic flowmeter based on transit-time differential method, the flow rate calculation model with flow velocity correction is established and verified by experiments carried out in a flow standard facility. Based on established flow rate calculation model, a systematic methodology incorporating the parametric uncertainty distribution is proposed to analyze the influences of multiple parameters with uncertainty on measurement error by establishing the sample-based stochastic model. Monte Carlo sampling (MCS) method is used to randomly select the value of each parameter from its prescribed Gaussian distribution and then combining them together as one sample, and the number of selected samples is determined by conducting stochastic convergence analysis of mean value and the standard deviation of input and output parameters. And finally the influence degrees of multiple parameters are analyzed and compared quantitatively on the same dimension to find out which parameters are influential and which are negligible. The results reveal the different influences of multiple parameters with uncertainty, which can be used as reference for performance improvement and measuring error analysis of the clamp-on ultrasonic flowmeter in industrial local measurement.

Birds have acute vision and many remarkable visual cognition abilities, due to their unique living environment. The underlying neural mechanisms have also attracted interests of researchers in neuroscience. Here, we firstly summarize the visual cognition abilities of birds, and make a comparison with mammals. Secondly, the underlying neural mechanisms are presented, including histological structure of avian brain and visual pathways, typical experimental results and conclusions in electrochemistry and electrophysiology. The latter mainly focuses on several higher brain areas related to visual cognition, including mesopallium ventrolaterale, entopallium, visual Wulst, and nidopallium caudolaterale. Finally, we make a conclusion and provide a suggestion about future studies on revealing the neural mechanisms of avian visual cognition. This review presents a detailed understanding of avian visual cognition and would be helpful in ornithology studies in the field of cognitive neuroscience.

Moving target detection in cluttered backgrounds is always considered a challenging problem for artificial visual systems, but it is an innate instinct of many animal species, especially the avian. It has been reported that spatio-temporal information accumulation computation may contribute to the high efficiency and sensitivity of avian tectal neurons in detecting moving targets. However, its functional roles for moving target detection are not clear. Here we established a novel computational model for detecting moving targets. The proposed model mainly consists of three layers: retina layer, superficial layers of optic tectum, and intermediate-deep layers of optic tectum; in the last of which motion information would be enhanced by the accumulation process. The validity and reliability of this model were tested on synthetic videos and natural scenes. Compared to EMD, without the process of information accumulation, this model satisfactorily reproduces the characteristics of tectal response. Furthermore, experimental results showed the proposed model has significant improvements over existing models (EMD, DSTMD, and STMD plus) on STNS and RIST datasets. These findings do not only contribute to the understanding of the complicated processing of visual motion in avians, but also further provide a potential solution for detecting moving targets against cluttered environments.

Birds can rapidly and accurately detect moving objects for better survival in complex environments. This visual ability may be attributed to the response properties of neurons in the optic tectum. However, it is unknown how neurons in the optic tectum respond differently to moving objects compared to static ones. To address this question, neuronal activities were recorded from domestic pigeon (Columba livia domestica) optic tectum, responsible for orienting to moving objects, and the responses to moving and flashed stimuli were compared. An encoding model based on the Generalized Linear Model (GLM) framework was established to explain the difference in neuronal responses. The experimental results showed that the first spike latency to moving stimuli was smaller than that to flashed ones and firing rate was higher. The model further implied the faster and stronger response to a moving target result from spatiotemporal integration process, corresponding to the spatially sequential activation of tectal neurons and the accumulation of information in time. This study provides direct electrophysiological evidence about the different tectal neuron responses to moving objects and flashed ones. The findings of this investigation increase our understanding of the motion detection mechanism of tectal neurons.