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Pine wood nematode (PWN) disease is one of the major disasters in forests of southern China, causing substantial forest resources and ecological and economic losses. Based on field surveys and WFV image data from the GF-1 satellite, we constructed a spatial identification model of PWN disease with the random forest model to explore the relative influences of topography, human activities and stand factors on the occurrence of diseases and predict their spatial distribution. We then used the spatial autocorrelation analysis to assess the distribution characteristics of PWN disease at the regional scale. The results showed that the random forest model constructed in this study was effective in identifying pine nematode diseases (AUC value=0.99, overall accuracy=0.96). The norma-lized difference greenness index (NDGI), the distance to the highway, and normalized vegetation index (NDVI) were important factors in explaining the spatial variations of PWN disease occurrence. There was a positive spatial correlation in the occurrence of PWN disease (not randomly distributed but with obvious spatial aggregation characteristics). The high occurrence areas of pine wood nematode disease concentrated in Chitu Township, Zhufang Township and Shibatang Township, low occurrence areas concentrated in the vicinity of Rongjiang Street. The areas far away from the highway, low in elevation, and close to county roads were suffered to PWN disease. The results could serve the regional monitoring of pine nematode disease occurrence and provide practical guidance for PWN disease management.

Background: HMO (Hereditary Multiple Osteochondroma), an uncommon autosomal dominant disorder, is characterized by the development of multiple osteochondromas, which are nonmalignant cartilage-capped bone tumors growing outwards from long bone metaphyses., Methods: The present work retrospectively analyzed seven children with HMO who were enrolled for routine clinical diagnosis and treatment, including X-ray examination. Subsequent genetic detection was carried out using whole exome sequencing (WES). In addition, this work applied Sanger sequencing to be the validation approach. Moreover, this work also examined amino acid (AA) evolutionary conservatism under the influence of certain missense variants., Results: The clinical indications of all seven patients and their family members were thoroughly indexed. WES identified diagnostic variants in the EXT1 or EXT2 gene in these patients. In these variants, four were reported for the first time, namely EXT1 : c.1285-2A>T, EXT2 : c.1139delT, EXT1 : c.203G>A, and EXT1 : c.1645_1673del. Familial validation revealed that three of the variants were hereditary, while the other four were de novo , which was consistent with the phenotype in each case., Conclusion: Our results expanded HMO variation spectrum, and laid certain foundations for the precise counseling of those affected families., Competing Interests: None., (AJTR Copyright © 2022.)