Search

To evaluate the feasibility of isotropic 3D high-resolution T2-weighted imaging (T2WI) MRI sequences and compare the images reconstructed by integrating artificial intelligence-compressed sensing (AI-CS), compressed sensing (CS), and conventional 2D T2WI sequences for quality.Fifty-two female patients (ages: 26-80 years) with suspected breast cancer were enrolled. They underwent breast MRI examinations using three sequences: conventional T2WI, CS 3D T2WI, and AI-CS 3D T2WI. Image quality, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio, tumor volume, and maximal tumor diameter were compared using the Friedman test. Image quality was scored on a 5-point scale, with 1 indicating nonassessable quality and 5 indicating excellent quality. Tumor volume and maximal tumor diameter were compared based on AI-CS 3D T2WI (slightly high signal), conventional T2WI, and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) sequences.All three T2WI were successfully performed in all patients. 3D CS and AI-CS were significantly better than conventional T2WI in terms of lesion conspicuity and morphology, structural details, overall image quality, diagnostic information for breast lesions, and breast tissue delineation (P 0.001). The SNR of conventional T2WI was significantly higher for 3D T2WI sequences. The contrast-to-noise ratio was significantly higher for AI-CS 3D T2WI than for conventional T2WI sequence. There was no significant difference in tumor volume between DCE (8.08 ± 16.51) and AI-CS 3D T2WI (8.25 ± 16.29) sequences and no significant differences in tumor diameter among DCE, AI-CS 3D T2WI, and conventional T2WI sequences.Isotropic-resolution 3D T2WI sequences can be acquired using AI-CS while maintaining image quality and diagnostic value, which may pave the way for isotropic 3D high-resolution T2WI for clinical application.

Malvids is one of the largest clades of rosids, includes 58 families and exhibits remarkable morphological and ecological diversity. Here, we report a high-quality chromosome-level genome assembly for Euscaphis japonica, an early-diverging species within malvids. Genome-based phylogenetic analysis suggests that the unstable phylogenetic position of E. japonica may result from incomplete lineage sorting and hybridization event during the diversification of the ancestral population of malvids. Euscaphis japonica experienced two polyploidization events: the ancient whole genome triplication event shared with most eudicots (commonly known as the γ event) and a more recent whole genome duplication event, unique to E. japonica. By resequencing 101 samples from 11 populations, we speculate that the temperature has led to the differentiation of the evergreen and deciduous of E. japonica and the completely different population histories of these two groups. In total, 1012 candidate positively selected genes in the evergreen were detected, some of which are involved in flower and fruit development. We found that reddening and dehiscence of the E. japonica pericarp and long fruit-hanging time promoted the reproduction of E. japonica populations, and revealed the expression patterns of genes related to fruit reddening, dehiscence and abscission. The key genes involved in pentacyclic triterpene synthesis in E. japonica were identified, and different expression patterns of these genes may contribute to pentacyclic triterpene diversification. Our work sheds light on the evolution of E. japonica and malvids, particularly on the diversification of E. japonica and the genetic basis for their fruit dehiscence and abscission.

In order to enhance the economic benefits of fruit and vegetable cash crop facilities for agriculture, precise stereotactic of compensatory pollination technology in effective pollination period, is the effectively improve the fruit setting rate and the economic benefits of crop. The effects of honeybee pollination on the flowering can provide theoretical support for crop yield and ecological security. However, manual spraying of compensatory pollination technology is high, the working efficiency is low, and the control strategies based on single multiple UAV faces great challenges, which are the effects of flight heights on the droplet deposition and distribution. In this paper, firstly, flow chart of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles in facility agriculture for precise stereotactic of compensatory pollination method is given. Then, the thermogenesis and precise detection of the flower tissues is studied. Last, simulation of 16 UAVs and the effectiveness of the theoretical results is given in Matlab environment. Time varying formation control, formation tracking control of UAVs in facility agriculture, which based on precise stereotactic of compensatory pollination technology, provides a feasible solution scheme for ecological unmanned farm.

Summary The influence of the Wenchuan earthquake on semen quality of adult male survivors is unclear. We investigated the semen quality included 673 male survivors from the worse-affected counties in the earthquake between Aug 2008 and July 2013. Semen parameters including pH, volume, concentration, motility and morphology were measured according to the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. Kruskal–Wallis analysis of variance was used to examine the statistical differences between years, and a logistic regression was used to analyse the impacts caused by earthquake on the changes of semen quality. We found the medians (5th and 95th) were 2.5 ml (0.6–5.5) for semen volume, 59.0 × 106 ml−1 [(13.0–133.0)] × 106 ml−1 for semen concentration, 46% (13–64%) for sperm progressive motility and 3.0% (0–17.5%) for normal morphology for adult male survivors. Semen concentration, the percentage of sperm progressive motility, total motility and sperm normal morphology were all decreased in the first 3 years, and the differences among years 1, 2 and 3 were significant except the percentage of sperm progressive motility (P

To search for an effective method for cryopreservation of rare human sperm (RHS) by comparing the effect of RHS cryopreservation technology with that of conventional cryopreservation technology on post-thaw sperm from patients with severe oligozoospermia.Semen samples obtained from 82 patients with severe oligozoospermia were preserved by RHS cryopreservation technology, and another 24 samples cryopreserved by conventional technology, the former divided into groups A (sperm concentration1×10⁶/ml, n = 54) and B (1×10⁶/ml ≤ sperm concentration5×10⁶/ml, n = 28), and the latter included in group C (sperm concentration15×106 /ml, n = 24). The survival rate of post-thaw sperm and recovery rate of progressively motile sperm (PMS) were compared among the three groups.The survival rate of post-thaw sperm was significantly higher in groups A and B than in C (［62.8 ± 18.7］% and ［61.9 ± 17.2］% vs ［50.7 ± 13.5］%, P0.05), and so was the recovery rate of PMS (［68.7 ± 18.4］% and ［70.7 ± 15.5］% vs ［29.2 ± 12.4］% , P0.05), but there were no statistically significant differences between groups A and B in either of the two parameters (P0.05).The cryopreservation technology for rare human sperm may yield relatively stable post-thaw results and deserves a wide clinical application in preserving male fertility.目的： 回顾性分析常规精子冷冻技术和稀少精子冷冻技术对重度少精子症患者精子冷融效果，探索稀少精子冷冻保存的有效方法。 方法： 收集82例重度少精子症患者精液，采用稀少精子冷冻技术冷冻标本，与24例采用常规冷冻技术冷冻的少精子症（精子浓度15×10⁶/ml）标本进行比较。前者又根据按不同浓度分为A组（精子浓度1×106 /ml，n=54）、和B组（1×10⁶/ml≤精子浓度5×10⁶/ml，n=28），后者为C组。比较3组精子冷冻复苏率和回收率。 结果： A、B、C组3组复苏率分别为（62.8±18.7）%、（61.9±17.2）%、（50.7±13.5）%，回收率分别为（68.7±18.4）%、（70.7±15.5）%、（29.2±12.4）%；以上指标，A、B组之间均无显著差异（P0.05），但A组和B组均显著高于C组（P0.05）。 结论： 稀少精子冷冻技术在临床中已趋于成熟，冻融结局相对稳定，是一种值得推广的男性生育力保存方式。.

Deeply-buried carbonate-reservoirs from the Lower Triassic Feixianguan Formation in the Sichuan Basin of China host extensive natural gas resources. These reservoirs are predominantly found in oolitic shoals, with the reservoir quality of dolomitized zones being higher than that of undolomitized limestone counterparts. Here we present a combination of petrographic, isotopic, fluid inclusion, and quantitative porosity data in order to understand and predict the diagenetic processes that have impacted the reservoir quality of dolostones and limestones. The porosity of limestones has been reduced to ∼7.5% due to calcite cementation, whereas the porosity in oolitic dolostones is not cemented with calcite and typically has ∼23.5% porosity. Dolomitization and concurrent early-diagenetic gypsum growth played crucial roles on the development and preservation of high porosity in the oolitic dolostone, first by stabilizing the rock fabric to inhibit loss of porosity during burial, and secondly through the generation of new porosity by dissolution of carbonate and anhydrite. A negative shift of δ 18 O and salinity values ( 13 C values (∼−20‰ VPDB) and δ 18 O (∼−10‰ VPDB) together with elevated calcite precipitation temperatures (>110 °C). It is likely that TSR was responsible for the formation of enlarged dissolution vugs that increased porosity by ∼2% in dolostones due to: i) anhydrite dissolution, ii) production of significant amounts of water resulting in formation water undersaturated with respect to calcite and dolomite, iii) generation of H 2 S, and CO 2 , and the consequent reaction of H 2 S with the siderite (FeCO 3 ) component in calcite and dolomite. This study demonstrates the importance of diagenesis in the formation of deeply-buried, high-quality reservoirs in ooid-dominated grainstones influenced by the presence of evaporites. Our results should be useful for guiding future exploration and reservoir developments in similar paleogeographic and diagenetic settings.

In the view point of ecological holism, deep neural networks can be view as a machine cognitive agent with overall multi-level nested structure, the representation learning and problem-solving ability of machine cognitive agent with multi-modal perception function is also the results from the perception and judgment of ambient situation environment. In the paper, a machine cognitive method based on ecological holism was deconstructed. Then, two core questions to characterize learnability of AlphaGo were answered, one is how to explain the characteristics of the hierarchical gradient and update parameters between different layers of networks? Two is how to understand the effective ability to choose the drop sampling at the strongest level of game of Go. These core controlling structural and functional roles proposed in this study may be further improved to a new type of artificial intelligence law of machine cognitive system.

The trends in semen quality are conflicting. Although many previous surveys on semen quality indicated a decline, the trends in semen quality in Sichuan area of south-west China are not clear. We analysed the semen parameters in a cohort of 28,213 adult males close to general population in Sichuan between July 2007 and June 2012, and investigated the changes on semen quality. The semen parameters including pH, volume, concentration, motility, morphology were measured according to the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance was used to examine the statistical differences of semen quality between groups. We found that the medians (5th and 95th percentiles) were 2.4 ml (1.0-5.0) for semen volume, 62.0 × 10(6) ml(-1) (15.0-142.0) for semen concentration, 39% (18-60%) for sperm progressive motility and 10.5% (1.0-34.5%) for normal morphology. In these 5 years, sperm concentration and the percentage of sperm normal morphology were decreased from 66.0 × 10(6 ) ml(-1) to 49.0 × 10(6) ml(-1) and from 13.5% to 4.5%, respectively; among different reproductive history groups, sperm concentration and the percentage of sperm normal morphology were also decreased in these 5 years. And the incidence of azoospermia was increasing. These may imply that there is a decline in semen quality of adult males in Sichuan area.

Background Phytohormone synergies and signaling interdependency are important topics in plant developmental biology. Physiological and genetic experimental evidence for phytohormone crosstalk has been accumulating and a genome-scale enzyme correlation model representing the Arabidopsis metabolic pathway has been published. However, an integrated molecular characterization of phytohormone crosstalk is still not available. Results A novel modeling methodology and advanced computational approaches were used to construct an enzyme-based Arabidopsis phytohormone crosstalk network (EAPCN) at the biosynthesis level. The EAPCN provided the structural connectivity architecture of phytohormone biosynthesis pathways and revealed a surprising result; that enzymes localized at the highly connected nodes formed a consecutive metabolic route. Furthermore, our analysis revealed that the transcription factors (TFs) that regulate enzyme-encoding genes in the consecutive metabolic route formed structures, which we describe as circular control units operating at the transcriptional level. Furthermore, the downstream TFs in phytohormone signal transduction pathways were found to be involved in the circular control units that included the TFs regulating enzyme-encoding genes. In addition, multiple functional enzymes in the EAPCN were found to be involved in ion and pH homeostasis, environmental signal perception, cellular redox homeostasis, and circadian clocks. Last, publicly available transcriptional profiles and a protein expression map of the Arabidopsis root apical meristem were used as a case study to validate the proposed framework. Conclusions Our results revealed multiple scales of coupled mechanisms in that hormonal crosstalk networks that play a central role in coordinating internal developmental processes with environmental signals, and give a broader view of Arabidopsis phytohormone crosstalk. We also uncovered potential key regulators that can be further analyzed in future studies. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12918-016-0333-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

As data streams are gaining prominence in a growing number of emerging applications, advanced analysis and mining of data streams is becoming increasingly important. In this paper, an immune-inspired incremental feature selection algorithm called ISFaiNET is proposed as a solution for mining data streams, immune network memory antibody set which is far less than the size of data streams is design as a sketch data set. We can get the change features to the most extent by this set. ISFaiNET have the ability of feature extraction of dynamically tracking increasing huge size information by introducing increment strategy such as window mechanism. The empirical results for our algorithm are presented and discussed which demonstrate acceptable accuracy coupled with efficiency in running time.

This paper proposes a novel behavior-based anti-spam technology for email service based on an artificial immune-inspired clustering algorithm. The suggested method is capable of continuously delivering the most relevant spam emails from the collection of all spam emails that are reported by the members of the network. Mail servers could implement the anti-spam technology by using the “black lists” that have been already recognized. Two main concepts are introduced, which defines the behavior-based characteristics of spam and to continuously identify the similar groups of spam when processing the spam streams. Experiment results using real-world datasets reveal that the proposed technology is reliable, efficient and scalable. Since no single technology can achieve one hundred percent spam detection with zero false positives, the proposed method may be used in conjunction with other filtering systems to minimize errors.

It is difficult to derive all qualitative proteomic and metabolomic experimental data in male (pollen tube) and female (pistil) reproductive tissues during pollination because of the limited sensitivity of current technology. In this study, genome-scale enzyme correlation network models for plants (Arabidopsis/maize) were constructed by analyzing the enzymes and metabolic routes from a global perspective. Then, we developed a data-driven computational pipeline using the “guilt by association” principle to analyze the transcriptional coexpression profiles of enzymatic genes in the consecutive steps for metabolic routes in the fast-growing pollen tube and stigma during pollination. The analysis identified an inferred pattern of pollen tube-stigma ethanol coupling. When the pollen tube elongates in the transmitting tissue (TT) of the pistil, this elongation triggers the mobilization of energy from glycolysis in the TT cells of the pistil. Energy-rich metabolites (ethanol) are secreted that can be taken up by the pollen tube, where these metabolites are incorporated into the pollen tube's tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, which leads to enhanced ATP production for facilitating pollen tube growth. In addition, our analysis also provided evidence for the cooperation of kaempferol, dTDP-alpha-L-rhamnose and cell-wall-related proteins; phosphatidic-acid-mediated Ca2+ oscillations and cytoskeleton; and glutamate degradation IV for γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) signaling activation in Arabidopsis and maize stigmas to provide the signals and materials required for pollen tube tip growth. In particular, the “guilt by association” computational pipeline and the genome-scale enzyme correlation network models (GECN) developed in this study was initiated with experimental “omics” data, followed by data analysis and data integration to determine correlations, and could provide a new platform to assist inachieving a deeper understanding of the co-regulation and inter-regulation model in plant research.

Aquaporins are multifunctional membrane channels that facilitate the transmembrane transport of water and solutes. When transmembrane mineral nutrient transporters exhibit the same expression patterns as aquaporins under diverse temporal and physiological conditions, there is a greater probability that they interact. In this study, genome-wide temporal profiling of transcripts analysis and coexpression network-based approaches are used to examine the significant specificity correlation of aquaporins and transmembrane solute transporters in developing maize leaf. The results indicate that specific maize aquaporins are related to specific transmembrane solute transporters. The analysis demonstrates a systems-level correlation between aquaporins, nutrient transporters, and the homeostasis of mineral nutrients in developing maize leaf. Our results provide a resource for further studies into the physiological function of these aquaporins.

Sperm membrane fluidity is one of the causes of male infertility, and it is thought to be related with temperature, reactive oxygen species, oxygen free radicals, anti-sperm antibodies, stilbestrol, and fenvalerate. A deeper insight into the influencing factors of sperm membrane fluidity is of vital importance for in vitro sperm preservation, revival of frozen-thawed sperm, in vitro fertilization and management of male infertility.

To observe the effect of the compound Chinese traditional drug Xianling Gubao Capsule on the semen quality of infertile males.We treated 66 infertile men with Xianling Gubao Capsule for 24 months, and analyzed the semen quality and sperm morphology before and after the treatment.Two months after the medication, sperm concentration was increased by a small margin, but no statistically significant changes were observed in sperm vitality and motility (P0.05), the rate of morphologically normal sperm was significantly raised from 25.8% before treatment to 57.6% (P0.05) in those with the normal rateor = 15%, but decreased from 53.0% to 25.8% (P0.05) in those with the normal rate9%. Among the 7 cases of oligospermia, the rate of morphologically normal sperm was elevated to an average of 10.9% after the 4-month medication, significantly different from the baseline rate of 5.8% (P0.05). Five spontaneous pregnancies and 1 successful IVF-ICSI were achieved during the treatment.Xianling Gubao Capsule can improve semen quality and significantly increase the percentage of morphologically normal sperm.

The paper describes a novel behavior-based anti-Spam technology at email service based on an immune-inspired clustering algorithm. Compared with popular client anti-Spam filtering system based on content classification technology, our approach is capable of continuously delivering the most relevant Spam from the collection of all Spam that is reported by members of the network., then mail servers shall implement anti-Spam technology by using the “Black lists” that have been recognized. Experiment are discussed with real-world datasets, the conclusion have shown the technology is reliable, efficient and scalable, because no single technology can achieve one hundred percent Spam detection with zero false positives, however, it can be used in conjunction with other filtering systems to minimize errors.

In order to classify data with noises or outliers, Fuzzy support vector machine (FSVM) improve the generalization power of traditional SVM by assigning a fuzzy membership to each input data point. In this paper, an improved FSVM based on vague sets is proposed by assigning a truth-membership and a false-membership to each data point. And we reformulate the improved FSVM so that different input points can make different contributions to decision hyperplane. The effectiveness of the improved FSVM is verified in credit rating; the experiment results show that our method is promising.

Experimental evidences support that the circadian rhythm regulates the transcription levels of genes encoding the enzymes involved in plant metabolism. However, there is no paper to refer the correlation of the circadian rhythms and the metabolic processes for facilitating pollen tube growth. In this study, we found that many central components of the circadian clock were highly enriched and specifically present in the in vivo grown Arabidopsis pollen tubes. Our analysis also identified the significant differentially expressed genes encoding co-expressed enzymes in the consecutive steps of fatty acid β-oxidation II, pentose phosphate pathway (oxidative branch) and phosphatidic acid biosynthesis pathway in the in vivo grown Arabidopsis pollen tubes during pollination. Thus, it is implicated that the circadian rhythms of pollen tube may be adjusted and have a greater probability of the direct or indirect functional relationship with enhanced intracellular Ca(2+) dynamics and ATP production for facilitating pollen tube growth in vivo.

To examine the semen quality and the sperm morphology in infertile men with varicocele.Semen from 98 infertile men with varicocele were studied and those of 130 normal semen donors were taken as the control. Semen analysis was performed based on the methods described in the WHO manual and sperm morphology was evaluated by WHO criteria.A significantly reduced percentage of normal morphologic sperm and of forward progression were found in patients with varicocele comparing with those of the control (P0.001). The head defects were observed as the predominant type of sperm malformation.The varicocele increases malformed sperm in ejaculates, which may result from impaired male fertility by varicocele. Sperm morphologic assessment with WHO criteria provides a sensitive and practical measurement of sperm damage in infertile men with varicocele.

Leaf senescence is an important biological process that contributes to grain yield in crops. To study the molecular mechanisms underlying natural leaf senescence, we harvested three different developmental ear leaves of maize, mature leaves (ML), early senescent leaves (ESL), and later senescent leaves (LSL), and analyzed transcriptional changes using RNA-sequencing. Three sets of data, ESL vs. ML, LSL vs. ML, and LSL vs. ESL, were compared, respectively. In total, 4,552 genes were identified as differentially expressed. Functional classification placed these genes into 18 categories including protein metabolism, transporters, and signal transduction. At the early stage of leaf senescence, genes involved in aromatic amino acids (AAAs) biosynthetic process and transport, cellular polysaccharide biosynthetic process, and the cell wall macromolecule catabolic process, were up-regulated. Whereas, genes involved in amino acid metabolism, transport, apoptosis, and response to stimulus were up-regulated at the late stage of leaf senescence. Further analyses reveals that the transport-related genes at the early stage of leaf senescence potentially take part in enzyme and amino acid transport and the genes upregulated at the late stage are involved in sugar transport, indicating nutrient recycling mainly takes place at the late stage of leaf senescence. Comparison between the data of natural leaf senescence in this study and previously reported data for Arabidopsis implies that the mechanisms of leaf senescence in maize are basically similar to those in Arabidopsis. A comparison of natural and induced leaf senescence in maize was performed. Athough many basic biological processes involved in senescence occur in both types of leaf senescence, 78.07% of differentially expressed genes in natural leaf senescence were not identifiable in induced leaf senescence, suggesting that differences in gene regulatory network may exist between these two leaf senescence programs. Thus, this study provides important information for understanding the mechanism of leaf senescence in maize.

To investigate the effects of cryoprotectant with glycerol and the freezing-thawing procedure on the motility ofThe motion characteristics of human sperm from 18 selected specimens were assessed by computer-assisted human sperm. sperm analysis before and after adding hyper-osmolarity cryoprotectant with glycerol and the freeze-thaw procedure, and the data were evaluated in pairs.The adding of cryoprotectant caused an increase in the proportion of rapid linear motile sperms (P0.05) and sperm velocities, including VCL, VSL and VAP (P0.005). But no changes were observed in the proportion of progressively motile sperms and sperm motility. Compared with the data from pre-frozen samples, velocities of post-thawed sperms and the percentage of motile sperms in each grade significantly declined (Por = 0.01), so did ALH, while WOB, LIN and STR remained unchanged (P0.05). Significant differences in ALH, WOB, LIN and STR were observed only in comparison between the post-thawed and pre-treated samples.The number of Grade a sperms and sperm velocity increased after adding hyper-osmolarity cryoprotectant with glycerol. The sperm motile potential was impaired and even entirely destroyed in some cases by cryodamage. The influences on the sperm motion were differently induced in freezing-thawing procedures.