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Red light significantly affects the expression of plant photoreceptor genes and influences stomatal development through crosstalk of the constitutive photomorphogenic 1–cryptochrome–phytochrome signaling pathway. When blue light was replaced with red light, the expression levels of ZmCry1, ZmPhyB1, ZmEPF2, and ZmEPFL9 were enhanced, whereas that of ZmCOP1 was restricted. Moreover, the expression levels of ZmSPCH and ZmMUTE were also enhanced, but they were generally lower than those under white light. Consequently, stomatal formation, which was determined by net photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, intercellular CO2 concentration, and transpiration rate, was inhibited through decreased stomatal index and stomatal density. We conclude that red light positively regulates EPFL9 in the intercellular signaling but reduces the positive regulation of blue light on COP1 and epidermal patterning factor 2 in the intracellular and intercellular signaling; therefore, though red light promotes the gene’s function on stomatal development of seedling maize, blue light maybe dominant to red light in seedling stage.

Transmembrane protein 43 (TMEM43), a member of the transmembrane protein subfamily, was found to be associated with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. But it’s role in cardiac hypertrophy have not been elucidated. Here we used a pressure over load induced cardiac hypertrophy model to explore the role of TMEM43 on heart failure. Mice were subjected to aortic banding (AB) to induce cardiac hypertrophy. Mice were also randomly received injection of adeno-associated virus 9 (AAV9)-shTMEM43 or control AAV9 (ScRNA) to knockdown TMEM43 in cardiomyocytes. Four weeds after AB, mice were subjected to echocardiography to evaluate cardiac function. Neonatal rat cardiomyoctes (NRCMs) were stimulated with phenylephrine (PE) and transfected with adenovirus to overexpress TEME43. As a result, we found that TMEM43 was down-regulated in mice heart and cardiomyocytes post stimulus. Mice with TMEM43 knockdown showed deteriorated heart failure 4 weeks post AB with deteriorating cardiac function and aggregated cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis. While, NRCMs with TMEM43 overexpression revealed ameliorated hypertrophy response. Moreover, we found that TMEM43 deficiency increased NF-κB activation in mice heart post AB, while TMEM43 overexpression reduced NF-κB activation in cardiomyocytes upon PE stimuli. Thus, we conclude that reduced expression of TMEM43 during cardiac hypertrophy leading to deteriorating heart failure in mice.

Conclusions: Molecular classification could provide reliable supplementary information for evaluating prognostic and contribute to treatment option decision-making in EEC patients. Fertility-sparing treatment is not recommended for EEC patients with CNH and MSI-H. Furthermore, fertility-sparing treatment can be attempted in EEC patients with CHL, but regular follow-up should be carried out to early detection of EC relapse and prevention of disease progression.

Symmetry is a structural feature of Chinese characters which influences the aesthetics of the whole character. Beginners to Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) often tend to write asymmetrical characters due to insufficient knowledge of Chinese character orthography and a lack of skill in the strokes. Symmetry deviations in the handwriting characters are usually assessed manually. However, this task is time-consuming and somewhat subjective, with potentially inconsistent results when evaluated by different people. The aim of this paper is to propose a bilateral symmetry measurement approach that uses the center of gravity of Chinese characters (CGCC) and convex hull vertices, both of which are obtained by digital ink technology, to construct the symmetry axis (SA) and detect symmetry point pairs (SPPs) of Chinese characters, computing the symmetry score (SS) of Chinese characters from the horizontal and vertical symmetry of SPPs. In addition, a symmetry information knowledge base is constructed to label the SS of standard reference characters and to measure the symmetry of handwritten characters by comparing the differences between the SS of them and that of the reference characters in the knowledge base. Experiments with digital ink character data from CFL beginners have proven that the proposed method is effective.

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The compositions of Chinese students and international students in China are usually written on paper with square grids, which is helpful for the neatness and standardization of writing. However, the existence of the kind of grid background makes it difficult to detect and recognize each character after scanning these compositions to obtain digital images. Therefore, these grids need to be preprocessed in some way. This paper proposes an approach based on Cycle-Consistent Generative Adversarial Networks (CycleGAN) to automatically remove these grid background. CycleGAN does not require paired data to train, and can complete the style conversion between the two image types. Through CycleGAN with UNet and L1 loss, it is convenient for us to prepare the unpaired training data and the image with grids can turn into image only with text by adversarial learning, which means the grid background of the original image can be removed, and characters will not be changed. In the paper, different styles of digital image with handwritten Chinese texts are tested, and the experimental results show that the proposed approach can effectively remove grids from these digital images. And the results of detecting and recognizing characters are more accurate.

A new redox graphene/copper–nickel solid solution/polyaniline (RGO/Cu–Ni/PANI) composite as a supercapacitor electrode is designed and successfully prepared by a flexible two-step method: first nano copper–nickel is supported on the surface of the oxide graphene, forming the RGO/Cu–Ni composite, followed by PANI is coated on RGO/Cu–Ni via in-situ polymerization process. The structure of the ternary composite is characterized by X-ray power diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, fourier transform infrared and scanning electron microscope. The RGO/Cu–Ni/PANI composite material shows better electrochemical performances than the pure PANI. The results show that the RGO/Cu–Ni/PANI composite have a great specific capacitance 674.7 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 current density and good cyclic stability of 90.1% over 1000 charge–discharge cycles, which can be attributed to the synergistic effect between RGO, Cu–Ni and PANI. Thus, the RGO/Cu–Ni/PANI composite is excellent electrode material in supercapacitor with high specific capacitance and the long-term cycle stability, and that is helpful in developing new kinds of portable energy storage devices.

For neatness, many Chinese and international students write on paper with grid lines in horizontal and vertical directions. The lines have a few styles, such as composition format, post format and so on. The approaches of Chinese text detection in natural scenes focus on complex and changeable objects, paying less attention to grid lines. Therefore, the results of their application are mostly unsatisfactory. In Chinese text image with grid lines, characters are surrounded by similar rectangular boundary lines. This paper proposes an approach based on grid lines to detect characters. The approach can effectively avoid the omissions and overlaps that easily occurs in other approaches. The image is firstly converted into a binary edge one using adaptive Canny edge detection. Horizontal and vertical lines are extracted from the binary edge image using Hough transform. Rectangles bounding characters are identified from the transformed lines. The experimental results show that this presented approach can accurately detect characters from different formats of Chinese text images with the grid lines.

Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) has made it possible for computers to generate images autonomously. There are many approaches based on GAN, including Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks (CGAN), Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Networks (DCGAN) and Cycle-Consistent Generative Adversarial Networks (CycleGAN) and so on. Photos can be transformed into western oil painting styles using unpaired data based on CycleGAN. But so far, no research has been found using it to generate images with Chinese Classical Landscape Paintings' style. This paper examines the effects of different generator models and loss functions on training time and results under this framework. In order to save the training time, the Unet generator is used in CycleGAN. To get a better quality, L2 Loss is chosen. Experiments are conducted on the PyTorch platform using Python programming language. Different styles of photos are tested and satisfactory results are attained.

Objective: Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), a lipocalin, is implicated in many cardiovascular diseases (CVD). The effect of NGAL on endothelial cells (ECs), particularly on ECs injured because of hypoxia, is unclear. In this study, we aim to explore the effect of NGAL in an EC injury in response to hypoxia. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, we isolated and cultured mouse heart ECs (MHECs). The EC injury model was established by exposure of the ECs to hypoxia for 24 hours. The ECs were treated with NGAL (30, 60, 120, 250 and 500 ng/ml). Cell inflammation and oxidative stress were detected by corresponding assays. Apoptotic cells were stained by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labelling (TUNEL) assay. Results: NGAL increased the inflammatory response at the baseline level and further augmented the hypoxia-induced inflammation response. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels increased upon NGAL treatment, which caused antioxidase/oxidase imbalance. NGAL also exaggerated hypoxia-induced oxidative stress. The cell apoptosis rate also increased in both the NGAL-treated normoxic and hypoxic conditions. NGAL also reduced endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS)-nitric oxide (NO) signalling, thus decreasing the expression and nuclear translocation of nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor 2 (NRF2), which was confirmed by overexpression of NRF2. Conclusion: NGAL exaggerates EC injury in both normoxic and hypoxic conditions by inhibiting the eNOS-NRF2 pathway.

Rationale: The aim of the present study was to assess the efficacy and safety of percutaneous cannulated screw (PCS) implantation assisted by screw view model of navigation (SVMN) to treat femoral neck fracture (FNF). Patient concerns: A 42-year-old male patient suffered from a high falling injury, causing pain, swelling, deformity, and limited mobility on his right hip. Diagnoses: He was diagnosed with Garden type I of FNF. Interventions: PCS implantation assisted by SVMN was used to treat fracture of femoral neck in this patient. Outcomes: The follow up lasted for 48 months. A total of 3 screws were inserted into femoral neck, all exhibiting excellent position. The mean screw deviation was 0.43° and 5.73° of femoral neck-shaft and anteversion angle, respectively. The guide wire drilling attempt of each screw was one-time. The fluoroscopic time lasted 6.3 minutes, the Harris hip scores improved from 67 to 88, and the blood loss was 35 mL. It took 11.7 minutes for designing the screws, 13.9 minutes for implanting the guide wires, and 37.3 minutes for placing the screws. No clinical complications were found during 48-month follow-up visit, including head penetration, implant failure, fracture nonunion, and femoral head osteonecrosis. Lessons: The study revealed that SVMN is conducive to the PCS insertion for FNF. Our lesson is that the FNF must be well reduction before SVMN assisted PCS placement.

Rationale: The purpose of this study is to introduce the application of screw view model of navigation (SVMN) for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). It is a challenge to insert pedicle screw into the vertebral body of scoliosis, and the misplaced screw may lead to neurovascular injury. In order to minimize surgical complications, we used a novel method of SVMN technology to facilitate pedicle screw insertion. Patient concerns: Her mother brought her to our outpatient department upon noticing the girl's different heights of shoulders and unbalance of the trunk. Diagnoses: She was diagnosed with AIS and syringomyelia. Interventions: We used an SVMN technology to assist pedicle screw insertion and correction surgery in this 20-year-old patient. Outcomes: This study indicates that the SVMN could obtain a satisfactory surgical effect for AIS. The Cobb angle of segmental scoliosis (T7-L2) was 55° before surgery, and 3.5° after surgery, and the rate of correction was 93.6%. The segmental kyphosis (T7-L1) was 56.8° preoperatively and 32° postoperatively with the rate of correction of 43.6%. The distance between the center sacral vertical line (CSVL) and the C7 plumb line (CPL) was reduced from 56.2 mm to 0.2 mm, and the sagittal imbalance of 35.8 mm was improved to 3.5 mm. In addition, the misplacement of pedicle screws, the volume of blood loss, the operation time, and surgical complications were also recorded. The follow-up duration was 33 months. Lessons: The utilization of SVMN in AIS might reduce the incidence of screw misplacement and avoid neurovascular damage, as well as a satisfactory correction. The application of SVMN for AIS is an efficacious and safe method.

Rationale: Granulosa cell tumors (GCT) have an incidence of 0.6 to 0.8/100,000. Short-term relapsed ovarian GCT is extremely rare. Herein, this report aims to present 2 rare cases of disseminated ovarian GCT and analyze the causes of recurrence. Patient concerns: The 2 patients presented with abdominal pain. Diagnosis: Both the patients were diagnosed with relapsed ovarian GCT (IIIc stage) in the adult type. Interventions: The 2 patients had a medical history of surgery for ovarian GCT by using laparoscopic with power morcellators (LPM). They experienced relapsed ovarian GCT postoperatively. Subsequently, they received a repeated operation through a laparotomy approach. Numerous malignant metastasis neoplasms were detected at the port-sites. Then, tumor resection was performed. Outcomes: The postoperative pathologies of both case 1 and case 2 reported ovarian GCT (IIIc stage) in adult type. The 2 patients presented disease-free survival for more than 33 months follow-up period. Lessons: The application of LPM may be a risk factor of disseminated ovarian GCT. However, laparoscopic surgery is still an optimal treatment strategy for ovarian tumors. Besides, gynecologists should comply with the tumor-free principle during surgery.

The performance of supercapacitors electrode materials depends on not only their structures but also selected electrolyte as well as proper potential window. The 3D hierarchical NiCo2O4@MnO2 hybrid nanomaterial was grown on stainless-steel mesh through a two-step electrodeposition process. The resultant interconnecting network consisting of porous nanosheets possesses open geometry and porous nature. When being employed in supercapacitor, the pseudocapacitive contributions (redox reaction on surface or near-surface) of two components are taken into account comprehensively in a wide potential window. This makes such a hybrid network deliver a high specific capacitance of 913.6 F/g at 0.5 A/g and 12.9% capacitance loss after 3000 cycles in KOH solution. Remarkably, an asymmetric supercapacitor based on NiCo2O4@MnO2 hybrid networks as the positive electrode and activated carbon (AC) as the negative electrode achieves an energy density of 37.5 Wh/kg and a maximum power density of 7500 W/kg. These attractive findings make this NiCo2O4@MnO2 hybrid networks hold promise in energy storage device as an efficient electrode.

Rationale: Dysgerminoma is an extraordinarily rare neoplasm arising from the malignant germ cells of the ovary. Early antenatal diagnosis and proper management of the neoplasm to improve maternal-neonatal results are the considerable challenges facing the gyne-oncologist. We summarize the clinical features and discuss treatment strategies of the ovary dysgerminoma (OD). Besides, we also review the literature on OD in PubMed, Web of Science Core Collection, Library of Congress, and LISTA from 1939 to 2019 to evaluate its clinical characteristics, feto-maternal compromise, management, and fertility outcome. Patient concerns: A 25-year-old pregnant woman reported lower abdominal pain and vomiting. Diagnosis: The patient was diagnosed as right OD. Interventions: She received a cesarean section due to severe abdominal pain, delivered a healthy girl at 38 C 4 weeks of gestation, and accepted fertility-preserving surgery. However, the patient refused chemotherapy postoperatively. Outcomes: The patient was followed up 42 days, 3 months, and 6 months after surgery, and no tumor recurrence was observed. Lessons: OD has non-specificity characteristics, including age, symptoms, image date, and tumor marks. However, these abnormal indicators may provide some evidence for accurate antenatal diagnosis. The management strategies should be considered comprehensively on an individual basis, and fertility-preserving surgery should be carried out in the second trimester if further pregnancy is desired. Adjuvant chemotherapy needs to be applied to the treatment of OD patients with The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stages II, III, and IV and timely chemotherapy is suggested if there are several weeks before the expected date of delivery. The overall prognosis of OD patients is excellent.

Introduction: Carcinoid tumor is one of the most frequent neuroendocrine tumors, and the majority of which are usually observed in the lungs and gastrointestinal tract. The prevalence of ovarian carcinoids is merely 0.1% in ovarian neoplasms and 1% in carcinoid tumors. We described 2 rare cases in our hospital of primary ovarian carcinoid (POC), causing carcinoid syndrome (CS) of the diarrhea, constipation, and carcinoid heart disease. Besides, we also reviewed related literatures about its origin, variant, clinical manifestation, diagnosis methods, pathological features, treatment strategies and prognosis from 2009 to 2019. Patient concerns: Case 1 was a 61-year-old postmenopausal woman and presented with diarrhea, abdominal pain, enlargement, bloating and dizziness. Case 2 was a 49-year-old patient who complained of constipation, abdominal pain, bloating, and headache. Diagnosis: Both patients were diagnosed as primary ovarian carcinoid, insular type. Interventions: Total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH), bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (BSO), omentectomy, pelvic lymphadenectomy, and appendectomy without chemotherapy were performed in case 1. Cervix resection, right salpingo-oophorectomy, appendectomy, and pelvic lesion resection with chemotherapy was conducted in case 2. Outcomes: Both patients achieved satisfactory treatment effects. The follow-up period was 18 and 17 months in case 1 and case 2, respectively. Case 1 encountered carcinoid heart disease and received percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) postoperatively. Case 2 suffered multiple metastases postoperatively. However, after effective treatment, both patients were in good condition during follow-up duration. Conclusion: POC is an extraordinarily rare disease, and commonly with a satisfactory outcome. TAH+BSO with or without postoperative chemotherapy has been considered as an acceptable treatment strategy for POC patients.

In this study, the axial compressive behavior of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP)-confined recycled glass aggregate concrete (RGAC) was experimentally investigated. In the FRP-confined RGAC, the FRP, a high performance material with high strength and excellent corrosion resistance, is utilized both as confinement and cover to the core concrete in order to increase mechanical performance (strength and deformability) and durability resistance to harsh environmental attack, respectively. Axial compression tests were carried out on a series of RGAC cylindrical columns, including 21 unconfined RGAC specimens and 42 CFRP-confined RGAC specimens. The key test variables examined in this study include the FRP jacket thickness and replacement ratio of aggregates. The test results showed that the compressive behavior (e.g. strength and elastic modulus) of FRP-confined RGAC is comparable to that of FRP-confined normal concrete when the replacement ratio of RGAs is not large than 50%, although the compressive behavior of RGAC has a notable decrease with increasing replacement ratio of recycled glass aggregates (RGAs). The test results also demonstrated that a combined use of coarse and fine RGAs slightly improved the compressive behavior of both confined and unconfined RGAC. Based on this study, an effective way of re-using glass waste can be developed.

Objective To study the coronary microvascular function in older patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) using an invasive pressure–temperature sensor guidewire. Methods Patients undergoing echocardiography and cardiac catheterization examinations for exertional dyspnea and a positive stress test were retrospectively enrolled from January 2014 to November 2017, and were allocated into the control group or HFpEF group. The HFpEF group was secondary divided into two groups according to the age of 65. Comparing the clinical features and values obtained in examinations between the three groups, multivariate regression analysis was used to analyze the predictors of left ventricle end diastolic pressure (LVEDP). Results There were 87 patients enrolled in this study. The older HFpEF patients (n = 32) were more likely to be female; and had the most comorbidities, such as diabetes mellitus, atrial fibrillation, and chronic kidney dysfunction (CKD) with a low estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and had a similar hypertensive prevalence as the adult HFpEF group (n = 24), whose mean LVEDP and index of microcirculatory resistance (IMR) were highest in comparison to the adult HFpEF patients and controls (n = 31). The coronary flow reserve (CFR) in the older HFpEF and adult HFpEF groups was similarly reduced. In the regression analysis, the IMR linearly correlated to LVEDP, and was the only independent predictor of LVEDP. Conclusions An increased IMR and reduced CFR were characteristics of microvascular dysfunction in older HFpEF patients. The IMR independently had a positive linear correlation with LVEDP. Microvascular rarefaction might be a subsequent pathological progression in the development of HFpEF.

3D virtual fitting based on human body contours can greatly improve the try-on effect of some tight-fitting clothes. This paper presents a fitting approach requiring merely a single RGB image and transferring clothing texture onto the human body contour, under the instruction of a UV texture guide map. DensePose is used to segment a human body into 24 patches and predict UV coordinates of each patch. 24 clothing UV patches and their textures are extracted from SURREAL dataset. Clothing patches are filtered by the patch index and the alpha value of each pixel in the patch, avoiding unnecessary replacement such as users' heads and exposed skin. They are subsequently transformed into human body corresponding patches by UV mapping. Human bodies with various figures, poses and perspectives can be fitted with clothes. Some users and clothes are tested, and satisfactory results are attained.

Various metal oxides and metallic salts were used as a catalyst in the synthesis of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) from urea and methanol in an autoclave. The results indicated that the hydrated metallic salt is most catalytically active in DMC synthesis among various metal oxides and salts considered in this work. Furthermore, a binary catalyst, viz, Zn(NO 3 ) 2 combined with hydroxyl containing compounds, can noticeably enhance the yield of DMC, in comparison with the single catalyst of both Zn(NO 3 ) 2 and the hydroxyl containing compound, which may be ascribed to a synergistic effect between Zn(NO 3 ) 2 and the hydroxyl group. Among various binary catalysts, Zn(NO 3 ) 2 -SiO 2 exhibits the best catalytic performance; the yield of DMC reaches 4.5% over Zn(NO 3 ) 2 -SiO 2 with a Zn(NO 3 ) 2 to SiO 2 weight ratio of 2.

The development of nanocomposites promising a wide range of interesting properties such as mechanical, optical and electrical conductivity is under intense investigation. One key challenge towards practical applications lies in effective dispersion of nanofillers in the polymer matrices. An one-pot wet-chemistry synthesis approach was developed for successful fabrication of surface modified SiO2nanoparticles@epoxy nanocomposites (1 wt%). Homogeneous nanofiller dispersion was obtained in SiO2-epoxide@epoxy. Importantly, the SiO2-epoxide@epoxy presented its enhanced mechanical properties with reference to pure epoxy, i.e., ~ 77% increase in maximum tensile stress and ~ 19% increase in Young’s modulus. This was attributed to the much improved dispersion of nanofillers and the optimized interaction between nanofillers and matrix. Further, SiO2-epoxide@epoxy prepared from master batch with 80 wt% SiO2loading retained the good dispersion of nanofillers and enhanced mechanical properties. This demonstration allows future implementation of the developed approach for the surface modified SiO2@epoxy nanocomposites towards industrial applications.