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BackgroundThe prevalence of thyroid nodules (TNs) has been increasing rapidly. However, little is known about the drivers of its high prevalence and tendency of malignancy. This study aimed to analyze the factors influencing the prevalence and malignancy of TNs in the adult population.MethodsA multi-stage stratified cluster random sampling was used to conduct a cross-sectional survey of the population in different iodine uptake areas in Anhui Province. The areas with deficient, adequate, and excess iodine intake were grouped according to population's urine iodine. A questionnaire, laboratory examination and ultrasound diagnosis were conducted on the participants. Nodules were diagnosed and distinguished using ultrasonography. Spearman rank correlation, random forest importance ranking, ROC curve, and unconditional binary logistic regression analyses were used to screen for risk factors.ResultsA total of 1,697 participants (539 males and 1,158 females) aged 18–60 years were included, 355 of whom were diagnosed with TN. The prevalence of TNs was 20.9% and varied in different areas, with 21.9%, 25.8%, and 18.0% in the iodine deficient, adequate, and iodine excess areas, respectively. The prevalence of TNs in females was significantly higher than that in males (24.5% vs. 13.2%) and it increased with age. Female sex (OR, 1.67 [1.21–2.30]), old age (>41 years, OR, 2.00 [1.14, 3.50]) and smoking were risk factors for the development and deterioration of TNs.ConclusionsPatients with TNs should exercise caution when consuming goitrogens and adhere to a scientifically balanced diet. Given the high incidence of TNs in field setting, it is necessary to raise public health awareness among residents and perform regular thyroid ultrasound screening to facilitate early detection and treatment.

Objective To analyze the influencing factors of delayed postoperative bleeding (DPPB) after endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) for early gastric cancer and construct a Nomogram model. Methods The clinical information of 234 patients who underwent ESD treatment at our hospital and pathologically diagnosed with early gastric cancer from April 2021 to April 2023 were collected. The patients were grouped based on the presence or absence of DPPB. Logistic regression analysis was applied to screen for risk factors affecting DPPB after ESD in early gastric cancer patients. R software was applied to construct a Nomogram model for predicting the risk of DPPB in early gastric cancer patients after ESD. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve, calibration curve, and Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness of fit test were plotted to evaluate the Nomogram model. Results A total of 23 (9.8%) of 234 early gastric cancer patients who underwent ESD treatment developed DPPB. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that the number of biopsies ≥ 3 (95%CI: 2.482-20.424, P=0.000), the maximum diameter of lesions ≥ 3 cm (95%CI: 1.620-13.244, P=0.004), the depth of invasion to submucosa (95%CI: 1.421-10.536, P=0.008), and intraoperative bleeding (95%CI: 1.160-11.300, P=0.027) were independent risk factors for DPPB after ESD in early gastric cancer patients. The area under ROC curve (AUC) was 0.838 (95%CI: 0.743-0.932). The slope of the calibration curve was close to 1. Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness of fit test showed χ2=3.328, P=0.505. Conclusions The number of biopsies ≥ 3, the maximum diameter of lesion ≥ 3 cm, the depth of invasion to submucosa, and intraoperative bleeding are independent risk factors for DPPB after ESD in early gastric cancer patients. The Nomogram model based on these four independent risk factors can effectively predict the risk of DPPB after ESD in early gastric cancer patients.

When monitoring crop growth using top-down images of the plant canopies, leaves in agricultural fields appear very dense and significantly overlap each other. Moreover, the image can be affected by external conditions such as background environment and light intensity, impacting the effectiveness of image segmentation. To address the challenge of segmenting dense and overlapping plant leaves under natural lighting conditions, this study employed a Bilayer Convolutional Network (BCNet) method for accurate leaf segmentation across various lighting environments. The major contributions of this study are as follows: (1) Utilized Fully Convolutional Object Detection (FCOS) for plant leaf detection, incorporating ResNet-50 with the Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM) and Feature Pyramid Network (FPN) to enhance Region of Interest (RoI) feature extraction from canopy top-view images. (2) Extracted the sub-region of the RoI based on the position of the detection box, using this region as input for the BCNet, ensuring precise segmentation. (3) Utilized instance segmentation of canopy top-view images using BCNet, improving segmentation accuracy. (4) Applied the Varifocal Loss Function to improve the classification loss function in FCOS, leading to better performance metrics. The experimental results on cucumber canopy top-view images captured in glass greenhouse and plastic greenhouse environments show that our method is highly effective. For cucumber leaves at different growth stages and under various lighting conditions, the Precision, Recall and Average Precision (AP) metrics for object recognition are 97%, 94% and 96.57%, respectively. For instance segmentation, the Precision, Recall and Average Precision (AP) metrics are 87%, 83% and 84.71%, respectively. Our algorithm outperforms commonly used deep learning algorithms such as Faster R-CNN, Mask R-CNN, YOLOv4 and PANet, showcasing its superior capability in complex agricultural settings. The results of this study demonstrate the potential of our method for accurate recognition and segmentation of highly overlapping leaves in diverse agricultural environments, significantly contributing to the application of deep learning algorithms in smart agriculture.

Abstract Background Hip adductor and abductor strength were both reduced in KOA patients. But to date, most of the researches have only focused on quadriceps combined with hip abductor strengthening versus quadriceps strengthening. Objective The aim of the study is to evaluate the effect of adding hip abductor and adductor strengthening to quadriceps strengthening on lower limb strength, knee pain and physical function in patients with medial compartmental knee osteoarthritis. Methods In this study, 42 participants, were randomly divided into two groups: the general treatment group (GT group) and the added-hip-exercise group (AH group). All participants were given a general rehabilitation treatment. The AH group performed hip abductor and adductor strengthening in addition to the general rehabilitation treatment. Knee and hip muscle strength, Five Times Sit-to-Stand Test (FTSST), the Timed Up and Go Test (TUGT), Numerical Rating Scale (NRS), and Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) scores were assessed at baseline and 6 weeks. A two-sided 2-sample unpaired t test was performed to compare the difference in mean change scores between AH and GT groups. Results Finally, 36 participants completed the study: both groups consist of 18 participants. In the per-protocol analysis, the AH group had a greater improvement in knee extension strength (mean changes, 7.84 versus 36.48; P

Phthalates are positioned as potential risk factors for health-related diseases. However, the effects of exposure to phthalates on accelerated aging and the potential modifications of physical activity remain unclear. A total of 2317 participants containing complete study-related information from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007–2010 were included in the current study. We used two indicators, the Klemera-Doubal method biological age acceleration (BioAgeAccel) and phenotypic age acceleration (PhenoAgeAccel), to assess the accelerated aging status of the subjects. Multiple linear regression (single pollutant models), weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression, Quantile g-computation, and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) models were utilized to explore the associations between urinary phthalate metabolites and accelerated aging. Three groups of physical activity with different intensities were used to evaluate the modifying effects on the above associations. Results indicated that most phthalate metabolites were significantly associated with BioAgeAccel and PhenoAgeAccel, with effect values (β) ranging from 0.16 to 0.21 and 0.16–0.37, respectively. The WQS indices were positively associated with BioAgeAccel (0.33, 95% CI: 0.11, 0.54) and PhenoAgeAccel (0.50, 95% CI: 0.19, 0.82). Quantile g-computation indicated that phthalate mixtures were associated with accelerated aging, with effect values of 0.15 (95% CI: 0.02, 0.28) for BioAgeAccel and 0.39 (95% CI: 0.12, 0.67) for PhenoAgeAccel respectively. The BKMR models indicated a significant positive association between the concentrations of urinary phthalate mixtures with the two indicators. In addition, we found that most phthalate metabolites showed the strongest effects on accelerated aging in the no physical activity group and that the effects decreased gradually with increasing levels of physical activity (P < 0.05 for trend). Similar results were also observed in the mixed exposure models (WQS and Quantile g-computation). This study indicates that phthalates exposure is associated with accelerated aging, while physical activity may be a crucial barrier against phthalates exposure-related aging.

IntroductionTo characterize the influence of female-specific hormones on women’s thyroid function, the study investigated the influence of extra progestin from oral contraceptives on inducing thyroid dysfunction.MethodsSixty female Wistar rats were divided into six groups based on levonorgestrel or desogestrel administration as the main active agents: control, low (0.0039 mg*20-fold), medium (0.0039 mg*100-fold), high (0.0318 mg*100-fold) levonorgestrel (pure product); and low (0.0083 mg*20-fold) and high (0.0083 mg*100-fold) desogestrel (pure product). Progestin was administered by gavage every 4 days for 1 month. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way analysis of variance and the Kruskal–Wallis test.ResultsFollowing levonorgestrel gavage, serum free T4 and thyroidstimulating hormone levels were significantly lower in the experimental group than that in the control group (p=0.013 and 0.043). After desogestrel gavage, the serum free T4 and free T3 levels were lower in the experimental group than that in the control group (p=0.019 and 0.030). Thyroid hormone antibody concentrations were lower in rats administered levonorgestrel and desogestrel than that in control rats. Moreover, exposure to progestin upregulated the expression of the thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor and sodium iodide symporter in thyroid.DiscussionProgestin stimulation enhanced the proliferation of follicular epithelial cells in rat thyroid tissues. Progestin exposure could cause thyroid dysfunction by upregulating the transcription of thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor and sodium iodide symporter in thyroid, thus inducing pathomorphological changes in rats’ thyroid.

Abstract Elevated extrachromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA) has been reported to accelerate tumor pathogenesis. Although the eccDNA profiles of other tumors have been established, the landscape of the eccDNA of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has not been revealed. Our study first depicted the eccDNA profile of normal hematopoiesis and AML evolution by exploiting the ATAC-seq and RNA-seq data from nine healthy donors and 12 AML patients, which contained a total of 137 cell samples and 96 RNA-seq samples (including 16 blood cell types of the normal hematopoietic and AML hierarchies). We found the number of eccDNAs generally increased with the evolution of normal hematopoiesis and AML. The ecDNAs and ring chromosomes were found to reappear both in normal hematopoiesis and AML cells. Furthermore, we compared the eccDNAs of AML with normal cells. There were almost 300 AML-specific genes, including the known oncogenes NRAS, MCL1, EVI1, GATA2, WT1, and PAK1. And the ecDNA (chr11: 58668376-58826008) occurred in five out of 17 AML evolution-related cells, which was associated with the high expression of the GLYATL1 gene and the high expressed GLYATL1 was a poor prognostic factor. In conclusion, the eccDNA profiles of normal hematopoiesis and AML evolution were depicted and the recurrent eccDNAs we revealed might be utilized in the treatment of AML as biomarkers.

This study investigates the interdecadal change in the covariability between the Tibetan Plateau (TP) east–west dipole precipitation and Indian precipitation during summer and primarily explores the modulation of atmospheric circulation anomalies on the covariability. The results reveal that the western TP precipitation (WTPP), eastern TP precipitation (ETPP), and northwestern Indian precipitation (NWIP) have covariability, with an in-phase variation between the WTPP and NWIP and an out-of-phase variation between the WTPP and ETPP. Moreover, this covariability was unclear during 1981–2004 and became significant during 2005–2019, showing a clear interdecadal change. During 2005–2019, a thick geopotential height anomaly, which tilted slightly northward, governed the TP, forming upper- and lower-level coupled circulation anomalies (i.e., anomalous upper-level westerlies over the TP and lower-level southeasterlies and northeasterlies around the southern flank of the TP). As such, the upper- and lower-tropospheric circulation anomalies synergistically modulate the summer WTPP, ETPP, and NWIP, causing the covariability of summer precipitation over the TP and India during 2005–2019. The upper- or lower-level circulation anomalies cannot independently result in significant precipitation covariability. During 1981–2004, the upper- and lower-level circulation anomalies were not strongly coupled, which caused precipitation non-covariability. The sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) in the western North Pacific (WNP) and tropical Atlantic (TA) may synergistically modulate the upper- and lower-level coupled circulation anomalies, contributing to the covariability of the WTPP, ETPP, and NWIP during 2005–2019. The modulation of the WNP and TA SSTs on the coupled circulation anomalies was weaker during 1981–2004, which was therefore not conducive to this precipitation covariability. This study may provide valuable insights into the characteristics and mechanisms of spatiotemporal variation in summer precipitation over the TP and its adjacent regions, thus offering scientific support for local water resource management, ecological environment protection, and social and economic development.

Three novel types of exopolysaccharides (EPS) EPS-S8, EPS-S5, and EPS-F10 were extracted and purified from bacterial isolates Bacillus sp. GHS8, Pseudoalteromonas sp. GHS5 and Psychrobacter sp. GHF10, which were originated from natural bioflocculant of Ruditapes philippinarum conglutination mud (RPM), respectively. The EPS had similar function groups C-H, N-H, C-O, and C = O. The EPS were composed of different monosaccharides (EPS-F10, Man: GlcN: GlcUA: GalUA = 1:0.66:5.75:0.51; EPS-S5, Man: Gal: GlcN: Rib = 1: 0.50: 2.94: 0.26; EPS-S8, Man: Gal: GlcN = 1:1.54:7.69). The molecular weights (Mw) of EPS were ordered as 51.4 kDa (EPS-S5) > 9.15 kDa (EPS-S8) > 4.41 kDa (EPS-F10). Three types of EPS all showed higher peak flocculation activities than the reported crude EPS from the RPM. Besides, the EPS also exhibited efficient decoloration and antioxidation activities, especially for EPS-S8, which might be due to the low Mw and specific monosaccharide composition.

As the most common type of stroke, ischemic stroke, also known as cerebral infarction (CI), with its high mortality and disability rate, has placed a huge burden on social economy and public health. Treatment methods for CI mainly include thrombectomy, thrombolysis, drug therapy, and so on. However, these treatments have certain timeliness and different side effects. In recent years, the gut-brain axis has become a hot topic, and its role in nervous system diseases has been confirmed by increasing evidences. The intestinal microbiota, as an important part of the gut-brain axis, has a non-negligible impact on the progression of CI through mechanisms such as inflammatory response and damage-associated molecular patterns, and changes in the composition of intestinal microbiota can also serve as the basis for predicting CI. At the same time, the diagnosis of CI requires more high-throughput techniques, and the analysis method of metabolomics just fits this demand. This paper reviewed the changes of intestinal microbiota in patients within CI and the effects of the intestinal microbiota on the course of CI, and summarized the therapeutic methods of the intervention with the intestinal microbiota. Furthermore, metabolic changes of CI patients were also discussed to reveal the molecular characteristics of CI and to elucidate the potential pathologic pathway of its interference.

Accurate detection and reconstruction of branches aid the accuracy of harvesting robots and extraction of plant phenotypic information. However, the complex orchard background and twisting growing branches of vine fruit trees make this challenging. To solve these problems, this study adopted a Mask Region-based convolutional neural network (Mask R-CNN) architecture incorporating deformable convolution to segment branches in complex backgrounds. Based on the growth posture, a branch reconstruction algorithm with bidirectional sector search was proposed to adaptively reconstruct the segmented branches obtained by an improved model. The average precision, average recall, and F1 scores of the improved Mask R-CNN model for passion fruit branch detection were found to be 64.30%, 76.51%, and 69.88%, respectively, and the average running time on the test dataset was 0.75 s per image, which is better than the compared model. We randomly selected 40 images from the test dataset to evaluate the branch reconstruction. The branch reconstruction accuracy, average error, average relative error of reconstructed diameter, and mean intersection-over-union (mIoU) were 88.83%, 1.98 px, 7.98, and 83.44%, respectively. The average reconstruction time for a single image was 0.38 s. This would promise the proposed method to detect and reconstruct plant branches under complex orchard backgrounds.

Abstract Background The high degree of heterogeneity brought great challenges to the diagnosis and treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Although several different AML prognostic scoring models have been proposed to assess the prognosis of patients, the accuracy still needs to be improved. As important components of the tumor microenvironment, immune cells played important roles in the physiological functions of tumors and had certain research value. Therefore, whether the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) can be used to assess the prognosis of AML aroused our great interest. Methods The patients’ gene expression profile from 7 GEO databases was normalized after removing the batch effect. TIME cell components were explored through Xcell tools and then hierarchically clustered to establish TIME classification. Subsequently, a prognostic model was established by Lasso-Cox. Multiple GEO databases and the Cancer Genome Atlas dataset were employed to validate the prognostic performance of the model. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and the concordance index (C-index) were utilized to assess the prognostic efficacy. Results After analyzing the composition of TIME cells in AML, we found infiltration of ten types of cells with prognostic significance. Then using hierarchical clustering methods, we established a TIME classification system, which clustered all patients into three groups with distinct prognostic characteristics. Using the differential genes between the first and third groups in the TIME classification, we constructed a 121-gene prognostic model. The model successfully divided 1229 patients into the low and high groups which had obvious differences in prognosis. The high group with shorter overall survival had more patients older than 60 years and more poor-risk patients (both P

ObjectiveTo analyze the clinical features, ultrasonographic manifestations, pathological features, treatment and prognosis of primary thyroid squamous cell carcinoma (PSCTC) and summarize the experience in diagnosis and treatment of this condition.MethodsA retrospective analysis was conducted on patients who were admitted to Zhejiang Cancer Hospital from 2007 to 2021 due to thyroid nodules or thyroid malignant tumors that were ultimately confirmed by postoperative pathology as primary thyroid squamous cell carcinoma. We summarize the general situation, clinical information, laboratory examination, ultrasonic image characteristics, pathological examination, clinical treatment and prognosis of the patients.ResultsPSCTC is most often seen in older men and progresses rapidly. In laboratory tests, some patients had elevated levels of tumor markers (CA199, squamous cell carcinoma antigen level), thyroglobulin levels and tumor-related substances, but all these indicators lacked specificity. The ultrasound features of PSCTC are mainly hypoechoic, hard, substantial nodules with gross borders and a grade 1-2 blood flow signal, sometimes with signs of necrosis and calcification. In terms of treatment, PSCTC is mainly surgically resected, though some patients in this study underwent iodine-131 radiation therapy, local radiotherapy, and chemotherapy with unclear results. None of the patients survived for very long after treatment, but the prognosis of patients with highly differentiated squamous carcinoma was significantly better than that of patients with poorly differentiated squamous carcinoma. Papillary thyroid carcinoma may be one of the causes of PSCTC.ConclusionPSCTC is a malignant tumor with high malignancy and rapid clinical progression. Treatment options are mainly based on surgical resection and can be supplemented with radiotherapy and chemotherapy, but there is still a lack of a standardized treatment management system, and more cases and reports are needed to accumulate data.

BackgroundDifferent iodine supplement measures emerge along with the economy development in China. The article objectives are to compare and explore the relationship between iodine sources and nutrition of pregnant women and adults.MethodsA total of 2,145 pregnant women and 1,660 adults were investigated by multi-stage random method. Questionnaire was used to collect basic information and the consumption of food, water, and iodine preparations. Household salt and individual urine and blood samples were collected, and thyroid function and morphology of pregnant women were measured.ResultsThe median urinary iodine concentration (MUIC) of pregnant women (164.49 μg/L) was lower than adults (187.30 μg/L, p < 0.05). Iodine supplement with IS (iodized salt) was the main measure for pregnant women and adults, and the difference was mainly on the consumption of iodine preparations between pregnant women (5.19%) and adults (0.85%). Moreover, adults’ dietary iodine intake from food (100.6 μg/day), IS (140.8 μg/day), and drinking water (6.0 μg/day) was higher than those of pregnant women (86.5, 107.2, and 3.5 μg/day, respectively). Compared with iodine supplement with IS, ISFP (IS + iodine-rich food + iodine preparations) could reduce the risk of iodine deficiency for pregnant women. The MUICs for pregnant women and adults of iodine supplements with IF (iodine-rich food) and ISF (IS + iodine-rich food) were lower. For pregnant women, thyroid nodule (11.90%) and peroxidase antibody (TPOAb) positive (9.32%) were high prevalent thyroid diseases, and habitation (urban/rural), gestation, annual income, and drinking water type would affect them.ConclusionPregnant women and adults had adequate iodine nutrition in four provinces. Their iodine supplement measures were different, the consumption of iodine preparations in pregnant women was higher, and their dietary iodine intake was lower than adults. ISFP was an effect measure for pregnant women to supplement iodine.

Abstract This study aimed to investigate the contribution of renal dysfunction to enhanced hyperuricemia prevalence in older people. A cohort of 13,288 Chinese people aged between 40 and 95 years were recruited from January to May 2019. Serum uric acid concentration and estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR] were measured. The associations between age or eGFR and serum uric acid or hyperuricemia were analyzed using linear or binary logistic regression adjusting for risk factors. Uric acid concentration and prevalence of hyperuricemia were greater in older participants. Adjustment for reduced renal function (eGFR

Aims: This study aimed to investigate whether both high and low levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), i.e., hypercholesterolemia and hypocholesterolemia, were associated with diabetes in Chinese adults. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 22,557 Chinese adults. The LDL-C reference interval was determined from a healthy sub-cohort. Associations between hypocholesterolemia or hypercholesterolemia with diabetes were analyzed using binary logistic regression. Results: The LDL-C reference interval was 1.48–3.77 mmol/L (57.23–145.78 mg/dL). Therefore, hypocholesterolemia, normocholesterolemia, and hypercholesterolemia were defined as an LDL-C concentration of 3.77 mmol/L, respectively. Prevalence of diabetes was higher in people with hypocholesterolemia or hypercholesterolemia than that in people with normocholesterolemia. Hypocholesterolemia was associated with an increased multivariable-adjusted risk for diabetes diagnosis (odds ratio, 1.57; 95% confidence interval, 1.18–2.08), and so was hypercholesterolemia (odds ratio, 1.29; 95% confidence interval, 1.10–1.51). The results remained significant after exclusion of those who took lipid-lowering drugs from the analysis. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that both low and high levels of LDL-C were associated with a higher risk of diabetes diagnosis. Patients with either high or low LDL-C may need to be closely monitored for the risk of diabetes .

To study and model changes in the development of pak choi (Brassica rapa ssp. chinensis Makino), three pak choi cultivars—Xinxiaqing No. 5 (Xinxiaqing 5), Haiqing, and Huawang—were grown in a modern greenhouse. Four structural parameters, including leaf length, leaf width, and plant height and width, were measured regularly every 3 days. The results showed that the changes in plant height and width, and leaf length and width of the three cultivars followed sigmoidal trends. Logistical regression models {Y = K/[1 + (K – L0)/L0 × exp(–r × t)]; Y = K/[1 + (K – L0)/L0 × exp(−r × rad)]} of the leaf length and width accumulated with growth days and with accumulated radiation fit the actual data very well, with the correlation coefficient R2 all greater than 0.98. The R2 values of the plant width accumulation models were all greater than 0.93, whereas the R2 values of the plant height regression models were not robust. In this study, the regression models of changes in plant height and width, and leaf length and width of pak choi were used to study the changes of morphological characteristics and analyze the change rules of pak choi growth and development.

The extraction and analysis of plant phenotypic characteristics are critical issues for many precision agriculture applications. An improved YOLOv5 model was proposed in this study for accurate node detection and internode length estimation of crops by using an end-to-end approach. In this improved YOLOv5, a feature extraction module was added in front of each detection head, and the bounding box loss function used in the original network of YOLOv5 was replaced by the SIoU bounding box loss function. The results of the experiments on three different crops (chili, eggplant, and tomato) showed that the improved YOLOv5 reached 90.5% AP (average precision) and the average detection time was 0.019 s per image. The average error of the internode length estimation was 41.3 pixels, and the relative error was 7.36%. Compared with the original YOLOv5, the improved YOLOv5 had an average error reduction of 5.84 pixels and a relative error reduction of 1.61%.

Accurate structural phenotyping analysis is essential to understand plant architectural adaptation strategy to environment change. The aim of this study was to analyze leaf arrangement and geometry influenced by azimuthally generated light gradient; and to simulate static and heterogeneous cucumber canopies using regression equations by considering more geometric parameters. Three continuous measurements of structural organ parameters were obtained to fit the organ initiation and expansion curves. Four measurements with three density treatments were obtained to validate model accuracy. To describe leaf distribution and orientation characteristics in more detail, azimuth and elevation models were introduced into canopy structure modelling. Leaf distribution frequency was simulated based on leaf area index and solar elevation angle while leaf elevation was simulated based on leaf azimuth and acropetal phytomer number. This study provides an important basis for structural phenotyping analysis of cucumber canopy, which is essential for more accurate functional-structural modelling in the future. Keywords: Phenotyping, Structure, Heterogeneity, Model calibration, Azimuth, Elevation

Abstract Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a malignant tumor of the immature myeloid hematopoietic cells in the bone marrow (BM). It is a highly heterogeneous disease, with rising morbidity and mortality in older patients. Although researches over the past decades have improved our understanding of AML, its pathogenesis has not yet been fully elucidated. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), and circular RNAs (circRNAs) are three noncoding RNA (ncRNA) molecules that regulate DNA transcription and translation. With the development of RNA-Seq technology, more and more ncRNAs that are closely related to AML leukemogenesis have been discovered. Numerous studies have found that these ncRNAs play an important role in leukemia cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. Some may potentially be used as prognostic biomarkers. In this systematic review, we briefly described the characteristics and molecular functions of three groups of ncRNAs, including lncRNAs, miRNAs, and circRNAs, and discussed their relationships with AML in detail.

The identification of cucumber fruit is an essential procedure in automated harvesting in greenhouses. In order to enhance the identification ability of object detection models for cucumber fruit harvesting, an extended RGB image dataset (n = 801) with 3943 positive and negative labels was constructed. Firstly, twelve channels in four color spaces (RGB, YCbCr, HIS, La*b*) were compared through the ReliefF method to choose the channel with the highest weight. Secondly, the RGB image dataset was converted to the pseudo-color dataset of the chosen channel (Cr channel) to pre-train the YOLOv5s model before formal training using the RGB image dataset. Based on this method, the YOLOv5s model was enhanced by the Cr channel. The experimental results show that the cucumber fruit recognition precision of the enhanced YOLOv5s model was increased from 83.7% to 85.19%. Compared with the original YOLOv5s model, the average values of AP, F1, recall rate, and mAP were increased by 8.03%, 7%, 8.7%, and 8%, respectively. In order to verify the applicability of the pre-training method, ablation experiments were conducted on SSD, Faster R-CNN, and four YOLOv5 versions (s, l, m, x), resulting in the accuracy increasing by 1.51%, 3.09%, 1.49%, 0.63%, 3.15%, and 2.43%, respectively. The results of this study indicate that the Cr channel pre-training method is promising in enhancing cucumber fruit detection in a near-color background.

With the development of the economy and society, more attention is being paid to energy costs and the potential environmental pollution caused by vegetable cultivation. The aim of this study was to investigate the impacts of zero discharge of nutrient solutions on cucumber growth, leaf photosynthesis, and the yield and quality of cucumber under greenhouse conditions. The results show that zero discharge treatment did not change plant height, stem diameter, internode length, leaf area, net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs), intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci), transpiration rate (Tr), and leaf relative chlorophyll content on the most measurement days. Only Pn and relative chlorophyll content were significantly reduced after 16 days of treatment but soon recovered over time. Cucumber plants can adapt to treatment circumstances over the course of days. Leaf mineral element contents showed significant differences on some treatment days compared to the control, and trace elements of Fe, Mn, Cu, and Mo can be appropriately supplied during the treatment days. The cucumber yield and fruit quality in the zero discharge treatment did not change during the whole experimental period. This study confirmed that the irrigation method of a nutrient solution with zero discharge can be applied in cucumber cultivation practices. The strict management of irrigation strategy, plant growth, and greenhouse climate are very important for zero discharge cultivation. The cultivation method with zero discharge of nutrient solution can reduce the energy costs of disinfection, save water and fertilizers, and reduce the environmental pollution in cucumber cultivation.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a highly heterogeneous disease that requires fine-grained risk stratification for the best prognosis of patients. As a class of small non-coding RNAs with important biological functions, microRNAs play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of AML. To assess the prognostic impact of miR-20b on AML in the presence of other clinical and molecular factors, we screened 90 AML patients receiving chemotherapy only and 74 also undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. In the chemotherapy-only group, high miR-20b expression subgroup had shorter event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS, both P < 0.001); whereas, there were no significant differences in EFS and OS between high and low expression subgroups in the allo-HSCT group. Then we divided all patients into high and low expression groups based on median miR-20b expression level. In the high expression group, patients treated with allo-HSCT had longer EFS and OS than those with chemotherapy alone (both P < 0.01); however, there were no significant differences in EFS and OS between different treatment subgroups in the low expression group. Further analysis showed that miR-20b was negatively correlated with genes in “ribosome,” “myeloid leukocyte mediated immunity,” and “DNA replication” signaling pathways. ORAI2, the gene with the strongest correlation with miR-20b, also had significant prognostic value in patients undergoing chemotherapy but not in the allo-HSCT group. In conclusion, our findings suggest that high miR-20b expression is a poor prognostic indicator for AML, but allo-HSCT may override its prognostic impact.

With the development of the economy, the demand for cucumber quality is quickly increasing. The aim of this study was to elucidate the role that plant density plays in leaf photosynthesis, shoot dry matter distribution, yield and quality of cucumber in different cultivation periods under greenhouse conditions. Experimental treatments based on three plant density treatments (2.25, 3.0 and 3.75 plants m−2) were conducted in turn during three growth and harvest periods in a year. The results showed that the changes in photosynthesis and weekly yield per unit area were different and dependent on the harvest time, which was mainly induced by temperature and radiation. Interestingly, we found that reducing plant density did not significantly affect the photosynthesis of leaves and did not decrease weekly yield per unit area and total yield. Low-density treatment had the highest weekly yield per plant and total yield per plant in the three harvest periods, the highest ratio of dry matter being allocated to fruits and the highest contents of soluble sugar, total phenols, flavonoid, soluble protein, vitamin C (Vc), chlorophyll and carotenoids in fruits. Moreover, a relatively low nitrite content was found in fruits following low-density treatment. The study indicated that low-density treatment was associated with a high quality of fruits without reducing the cucumber’s total annual yield under natural light in the greenhouse. Hence, our study suggests that properly reducing cucumber plant density to 2.25 plants m−2 could be a practicable approach for greenhouses in Shanghai, China.

The primary goal of this experiment was to investigate the effects of nutrient electrical conductivity (EC) on the growth and physiological responses of sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) in hydroponic culture in a greenhouse. The plant growth parameters, leaf photosynthesis, root activity, soluble protein, malondialdehyde (MDA), proline, activities of antioxidant enzymes (AE), and the contents of plant mineral elements (PME) were measured in six different EC treatments. The results showed that very high or low EC treatments clearly decreased the plant height, stem diameter, shoot dry weight, and leaf net photosynthetic rate, while increasing the content of MDA and the activities of ascorbate peroxidase and guaiacol peroxidase. The contents of proline and soluble protein increased gradually from the low to high EC treatments. The root activities decreased significantly, and the main PME clearly did not increase or even decreased at high EC levels. Very high EC treatments suppressed growth even more than those of very low EC. Treatments that were too low or high EC suppressed plant growth, owing to abiotic stress (either nutrient deficiency or salinity), since the plants had to regulate the activities of AE and increase the accumulation of osmolytes to adjust to the abiotic stresses.

Plant photosynthesis and biomass production are associated with the amount of intercepted light, especially the light distribution inside the canopy. Three virtual canopies (n = 80, 3.25 plants/m2) were constructed based on average leaf size of the digitized plant structures: ‘small leaf’ (98.1 cm2), ‘medium leaf’ (163.0 cm2) and ‘big leaf’ (241.6 cm2). The ratios of diffuse light were set in three gradients (27.8%, 48.7%, 89.6%). The simulations of light interception were conducted under different ratios of diffuse light, before and after the normalization of incident radiation. With 226.1% more diffuse light, the result of light interception could increase by 34.4%. However, the 56.8% of reduced radiation caused by the increased proportion of diffuse light inhibited the advantage of diffuse light in terms of a 26.8% reduction in light interception. The big-leaf canopy had more mutual shading effects, but its larger leaf area intercepted 56.2% more light than the small-leaf canopy under the same light conditions. The small-leaf canopy showed higher efficiency in light penetration and higher light interception per unit of leaf area. The study implied the 3D structural model, an effective tool for quantitative analysis of the interaction between light and plant canopy structure.

The leaf is the organ that is crucial for photosynthesis and the production of nutrients in plants; as such, the number of leaves is one of the key indicators with which to describe the development and growth of a canopy. The irregular shape and distribution of the blades, as well as the effect of natural light, make the segmentation and detection process of the blades difficult. The inaccurate acquisition of plant phenotypic parameters may affect the subsequent judgment of crop growth status and crop yield. To address the challenge in counting dense and overlapped plant leaves under natural environments, we proposed an improved deep-learning-based object detection algorithm by merging a space-to-depth module, a Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM) and Atrous Spatial Pyramid Pooling (ASPP) into the network, and applying the smoothL1 function to improve the loss function of object prediction. We evaluated our method on images of five different plant species collected under indoor and outdoor environments. The experimental results demonstrated that our algorithm which counts dense leaves improved average detection accuracy of 85% to 96%. Our algorithm also showed better performance in both detection accuracy and time consumption compared to other state-of-the-art object detection algorithms.

One of the key features of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a group of very aggressive myeloid malignancies, is their strikingly heterogenous outcomes. Accurate biomarkers are needed to improve prognostic assessment. Glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase 1 (GOT1) is essential for cell proliferation and apoptosis by regulating cell's metabolic dependency on glucose. It is unclear whether the expression level of GOT1 has clinical implications in AML. Therefore, we analyzed the data of 155 AML patients with GOT1 expression information from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Among them, 84 patients were treated with chemotherapy alone, while 71 received allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). In both treatment groups, high GOT1 expression was associated with shorter event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) (all P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis identified several independent risk factors for both EFS and OS in the chemotherapy-only group, including high GOT1 expression, age ≥60 years, white blood cell count ≥15 × 109/L, bone marrow blasts ≥70%, and DNMT3A, RUNX1 or TP53 mutations (all P < 0.05); but in the allo-HSCT group, the only independent risk factor for survival was high GOT1 expression (P < 0.05 for both EFS and OS). Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis showed that the genes related to GOT1 expression were mainly concentrated in “hematopoietic cell lineage” and “leukocyte transendothelial migration” signaling pathways. Collectively, GOT1 expression may be a useful prognostic indicator in AML, especially in patients who have undergone allo-HSCT.

Conductive materials have been applied to assist syntrophic metabolism in anaerobic digestion. However, their role in the transformation of organic compounds, particularly recalcitrant compounds, has not been revealed. In this study, iron-based materials – magnetite nanoparticles and Fe2+– were employed to explore their effects on the transformation of different organic matters in anaerobic system. Prompted methane production rates and quantity in iron–based materials groups were found due to the improved solubilization of organic particles, enhanced degradation of recalcitrant compounds, and maintained microbial activity under substrate–limited conditions. Specifically, the proportion of the reducing functional groups (C–C/H or CC) and O/C ratio were always significantly lower in iron–based materials supplemented groups (Fe groups) compared to Control group, despite hydrolysis was greatly enhanced in Fe groups. The greater dehydrogenation oxidation was confirmed in the presence of iron–based materials. The remaining humic-like substances (HS), a typical type of recalcitrant compound, was about 2.5 times higher in Control group (221.2 ± 5.3 mg/L-C) compared to Fe groups after 30 days degradation. By tracking the aromaticity of HS and individual compounds at molecular level, this study reveals that iron–based materials were more effective in stimulating the degradation of aliphatic moieties than the aromatic moieties of recalcitrant compounds. When readily biodegradable substrates were limited, Fe groups continued methane generation by using recalcitrant compounds (e.g. thiethylperazine and fluvoxamino acid) as carbon source, and the microbial activity was maintained according to higher relative abundance of protonated nitrogen and continuous methanogenesis activity at starvation phase. Keywords: Magnetite nanoparticles, Anaerobic digestion, Dissolved organic compounds, Humic–like substances, Aromaticity, Recalcitrant compounds

Diurnal variations of gravity waves over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) in summer 2015 were investigated based on high-resolution downscaled simulations from WRF-EnKF (Weather Research and Forecasting model and an ensemble Kalman filter) regional reanalysis data with particular emphasis on wave source, wave momentum fluxes and wave energies. Strong diurnal precipitations, which mainly happen along the south slope of the TP, tend to excite upward-propagating gravity waves. The spatial and temporal distributions of the momentum fluxes of small-scale (10–200 km) and meso-scale (200–500 km) gravity waves agree well with the diurnal precipitation distributions. The power spectra of momentum fluxes also show that the small- and meso-scale atmospheric processes become important during the period of the strongest rainfall. Eastward momentum fluxes and northward momentum fluxes are dominant. Wave energies are described in terms of kinetic energy (KE), potential energy (PE) and vertical fluctuation energy (VE). The diurnal variation and spatial distribution of VE in the lower stratosphere correspond to the diurnal rainfall in the troposphere.

PurposeMajor histocompatibility complex class I-related chain A (MICA), a non-classical major histocompatibility complex molecule, can stimulate or co-stimulate CD8+ T cells or natural killer (nk) cells, thus affecting cornea allograft survival. This study investigated IFN-γ regulation of MICA expression levels in human corneal epithelium by miRNA4448.MethodsMICA expression levels in human corneal epithelial cells (HCECs) stimulated with IFN-γ were detected by qRT-PCR and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and differential miRNA expression levels were measured. qRT-PCR, Western blotting, and immunofluorescence staining revealed nuclear factor kappa B (NFκB)/P65 expression in IFN-γ-treated and miRNA4448-overexpressed HCECs. A luciferase reporter assay was used to predict the interaction between NFκB and MICA. Additionally, HCECs were transfected with MICA plasmid or treated with IFN-γ and NKG2D-mAb and cocultured with NK cells and CD8+ T cells. Cell apoptosis was measured using Annexin V/PI staining. qRT-PCR detected the expression of anti-apoptosis factor Survivin and apoptosis factor Caspase 3 in MICA-transfected and IFN-γ-treated HCECs after co-culturing with NK cells and CD8+ T cells.ResultsIFN-γ (500 ng/ml, 24 h) upregulated MICA expression in HCECs in vitro. Among six differentially expressed microRNAs, miRNA4448 levels decreased the most after IFN-γ treatment. The overexpression of miRNA4448 decreased MICA expression. miRNA4448 downregulated NFκB/P65 expression in IFN-γ-induced HCEC, and it was determined that NFκB/P65 directly targeted MICA by binding to the promotor region. A coculture with NK cells and CD8+ T cells demonstrated that MICA overexpression enhanced HCEC apoptosis, which could be inhibited by NKG2D-mAb. Simultaneously, Survivin mRNA expression decreased and Caspase3 mRNA expression increased upon the interaction between MICA and NK (CD8+ T) cells in HCECs.ConclusionIFN-γ enhances the expression of MICA in HCECs by modulating miRNA4448 and NFκB/P65 levels, thereby contributing to HCEC apoptosis induced by NK and CD8+ T cells. This discovery may lead to new insights into the pathogenesis of corneal allograft rejection.

This paper aims to analyze Chinese elements and their intercultural transmission in the film Mulan. Disney's live-action film Mulan set off a global craze after its release in 2020. A large quantity of Chinese elements appeared in the film have aroused foreign audiences' interest, attention and heated discussion, thus spreading Chinese culture worldwide. Based on Stuart Hall's Encoding and Decoding theory, this paper finds that the film reflects both material and spiritual cultural elements of China, such as tulou architecture (the earthen buildings constructed in Fujian province in southern China), traditional clothing, kung fu. However, the results of the study reveal that the film encodes and decodes these elements at various levels so that it produces different cultural psychology for the target language audience. Therefore, in the process of intercultural transmission, appropriate methods, including in-depth exploration of Chinese elements and correct encoding and decoding, must be adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]