Effects of ionic strength and bentonite ratio on the migration of Cr(VI) in clayey soil-bentonite engineered barrier.

Soil-bentonite (S-B) barriers have been widely used for heavy metal pollution containment. This study conducted batch adsorption tests and diffusion-through tests to evaluate how ionic strength and bentonite ratio influence the migration of Cr(VI) in natural clay-bentonite mixtures. The test results indicated that the adsorption of Cr(VI) exhibited an obvious anion adsorption effect, the pH of the soil mixture increased with the addition of bentonite, resulting in a decrease in the positive surface charge. This change led to a decrease in Cr(VI) adsorption capacity, from 775.19 mg/kg for pure clay to 378 mg/kg for mixture samples with excessive bentonite. Furthermore, as the ionic strength increases from 0 to 0.1 M, the Cr(VI) adsorption capacity increases slightly due to the weakening of electrostatic repulsion on the clay particle surface, but the effective diffusion coefficient (De) increases by 21.97%. The compression of the diffusion double layer (DDL) under high ionic strength conditions enlarges the diffusion path and enhances the migration of Cr(VI) through the pore flow paths. Moreover, hydrated bentonite effectively fills the interaggregate pores of natural clay, thus creating narrower and more tortuous flow paths. However, excessive bentonite increases the pH value and pore volume, resulting in changes to the soil microstructure and disrupting the continuous skeleton of natural clay, which is unfavorable for Cr(VI) containment. Based on the study of the Cr(VI) contaminated site, a bentonite ratio of 2:10 is recommended for optimal natural performance of the natural clay-bentonite barrier.

Roles of the SOM and clay minerals in alleviating the leaching of Pb, Zn, and Cd from the Pb/Zn smelter soil: Multi-surface model and DFT study.

Soil organic matter (SOM) and clay minerals are important sinks for reactive heavy metals (HMs) and exogenous hydrogen ions (H+). Therefore, HMs are likely to be released into soil porewater under acid rainfall conditions due to the competitive adsorption of H+. However, negligible Lead, Zinc, and Cadmium (<6 ‰) in the Pb/Zn smelter soil were leached, and the effects of SOM and clay minerals on HMs leaching were unclear. Herein, the H+ consumption and HMs redistribution on SOM and clay minerals were quantitated by the multi-surface model and density functional theory calculations to reveal the roles of SOM and clay minerals in alleviating HMs' leaching. Clay minerals consumed 43.2 %-52.0 % of the exogenous H+, serving as the dominant sink for the exogenous H+ due to its high content and hindering H+ competitive adsorption on SOM. Protonation of the functional groups constituted >90 % of the total H+ captured by clay minerals. Meanwhile, some H+ also competed with HMs for adsorption sites on clay minerals due to its 0.497-fold to 1.54-fold higher binding energies than HMs, resulting in the release of HMs. On the contrary, SOM served as an accommodator for taking over the released HMs from clay minerals. The HMs complexation on the low-affinity sites (R-L-) of SOM was responsible for the recapture of HMs. In Ca-enriched soil, the released HMs were also recaptured by SOM via ion exchange on the R-L-Ca+ and the high-affinity sites (R-H-Ca+) sites due to the 30.8 %-178 % higher binding energies of HMs on these sites than those of Ca. As a result, >63.4 % of the released HMs from clay minerals were transferred to the SOM. Thus, the synergy of SOM and clay minerals in alleviating the leaching of HMs in Pb/Zn smelter soils cannot be ignored in risk assessment and soil remediation.

Structure Embedded Nucleus Classification for Histopathology Images.

Nuclei classification provides valuable information for histopathology image analysis. However, the large variations in the appearance of different nuclei types cause difficulties in identifying nuclei. Most neural network based methods are affected by the local receptive field of convolutions, and pay less attention to the spatial distribution of nuclei or the irregular contour shape of a nucleus. In this paper, we first propose a novel polygon-structure feature learning mechanism that transforms a nucleus contour into a sequence of points sampled in order, and employ a recurrent neural network that aggregates the sequential change in distance between key points to obtain learnable shape features. Next, we convert a histopathology image into a graph structure with nuclei as nodes, and build a graph neural network to embed the spatial distribution of nuclei into their representations. To capture the correlations between the categories of nuclei and their surrounding tissue patterns, we further introduce edge features that are defined as the background textures between adjacent nuclei. Lastly, we integrate both polygon and graph structure learning mechanisms into a whole framework that can extract intra and inter-nucleus structural characteristics for nuclei classification. Experimental results show that the proposed framework achieves significant improvements compared to the previous methods. Code and data are made available via https://github.com/lhaof/SENC.

[Real-time traking and virtual reality technology-assisted trauma orthopaedic surgery robot for femoral neck fractures].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effectiveness of real-time tracking and virtual reality technology（RTVI） used to assist the intraoperative alignment of the trauma orthopaedic surgery robot for the treatment of femoral neck fractures and its impact on the treatment outcome. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 60 patients with femoral neck fractures treated with trauma orthopedic robotic surgery from September 2020 to September 2022. Patients were divided into two groups according to whether RTVI technology was used during surgery to assist robotic surgery. There were 28 patients in the RTVI group （12 males and 16 females）, with an average age of （46.2±9.3） years old ranging from 28 to 60 years old. There were 32 patients in the simple Tianji surgical robot group, including 15 males and 17 females, aged （48.2±7.8） years old ranging from 32 to 58. The number of registered fluoroscopy, operation time, total number of intraoperative fluoroscopy, intraoperative blood loss, and hospitalization time of the two groups of patients were observed and recorded. All patients received regular follow-up after surgery, and hip X-rays were routinely reviewed to record Garden alignment index, fracture healing time, postoperative complications, and Harris score. RESULTS: All 60 patients were followed up. The RTVI group was followed up for 9 to 16 months with an average of （13.0±1.2） months, and the Tianji surgical robot group alone was followed up for 10 to 14 months with an average of （12.0±1.3） months. During the follow-up period, the femoral neck fractures of both groups of patients healed well, and no complications such as internal fixation loosening and incision infection occurred. The number of registered fluoroscopy, operation time, and number of intraoperative fluoroscopy of patients in the RTVI group were significantly better than those in the simple Tianji surgical robot group（P<0.01）. There was no statistically significant difference in intraoperative blood loss, hospital stay, Garden alignment index, fracture healing time, and hip Harris score between two groups（P>0.05）. CONCLUSION: Although RTVI technology assisted by the surgical robot for femoral neck fracture surgery has little impact on its postoperative outcome, it can effectively reduce the operating time, the number of intraoperative X-ray projections, and the risk of intraoperative radiation exposure to patients. It also shortened the learning curve of the operator and better reflected the precision and efficiency of the trauma orthopaedic surgery robot.

The multimodality cell segmentation challenge: toward universal solutions.

Cell segmentation is a critical step for quantitative single-cell analysis in microscopy images. Existing cell segmentation methods are often tailored to specific modalities or require manual interventions to specify hyper-parameters in different experimental settings. Here, we present a multimodality cell segmentation benchmark, comprising more than 1,500 labeled images derived from more than 50 diverse biological experiments. The top participants developed a Transformer-based deep-learning algorithm that not only exceeds existing methods but can also be applied to diverse microscopy images across imaging platforms and tissue types without manual parameter adjustments. This benchmark and the improved algorithm offer promising avenues for more accurate and versatile cell analysis in microscopy imaging.

Improving Accuracy of In-The-Bag Intraocular Lens Power Calculation in Adult Eyes with Unilateral Subluxated Lenses by Using the Anterior Chamber Depth of the Unaffected Eye.

INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to determine the interchangeability of bilateral anterior chamber depth (ACD) in intraocular lens (IOL) power calculations for cataractous eyes and refractive outcomes using the unaffected fellow eye's ACD in subluxated crystalline lenses. METHODS: The predicted postoperative spherical equivalent (SE) calculated using the Kane formula with and without fellow eye's ACD in 202 cataract patients was compared. Refractive outcomes of the newer formulas (the Kane, Barrett Universal II [BUII], and Pearl-DGS formulas) with affected eye's ACD and with unaffected fellow eye's ACD were compared in 33 eyes with lens subluxation (the affected eye) undergoing in-the-bag IOL implantation. The SD of the prediction error (PE) was assessed using the heteroscedastic method. RESULTS: In 202 paired cataractous eyes, no marked ACD difference was found bilaterally; the predicted SE obtained without the fellow eye's ACD was comparable with that calculated with the fellow eye one (p = 0.90), with a mean absolute difference of 0.03 ± 0.03 D. With the affected eye AL, keratometry, and ACD, the median absolute error (MedAE) was 0.38-0.64 D, and the percentage of PE within ±0.50 D was 30.30-57.58%. The unaffected eye's ACD improved the results (MedAE, 0.35-0.49 D; the percentage of PE within ±0.50 D, 54.55-63.64%). The SDs of the BUII (0.82 D) and Pearl-DGS formulas (0.87 D) with the affected eye's ACD were significantly larger than those of the Kane and Pearl-DGS formulas (both 0.69 D) with the unaffected eye's ACD. CONCLUSION: Bilateral ACD was interchangeable in IOL power calculation for cataractous eyes when using the Kane formula. Unaffected eye's ACD in lieu of affected eye's ACD can enhance the accuracy of newer formulas in patients with unilateral subluxated lenses undergoing in-the-bag IOL implantation.

IGFBP3 promotes resistance to Olaparib via modulating EGFR signaling in advanced prostate cancer.

Olaparib is a pioneering PARP inhibitor (PARPi) approved for treating castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) tumors harboring DNA repair defects, but clinical resistance has been documented. To study acquired resistance, we developed Olaparib-resistant (OlapR) cell lines through chronic Olaparib treatment of LNCaP and C4-2B cell lines. Here, we found that IGFBP3 is highly expressed in acquired (OlapR) and intrinsic (Rv1) models of Olaparib resistance. We show that IGFBP3 expression promotes Olaparib resistance by enhancing DNA repair capacity through activation of EGFR and DNA-PKcs. IGFBP3 depletion enhances efficacy of Olaparib by promoting DNA damage accumulation and subsequently, cell death in resistant models. Mechanistically, we show that silencing IGFBP3 or EGFR expression reduces cell viability and resensitizes OlapR cells to Olaparib treatment. Inhibition of EGFR by Gefitinib suppressed growth of OlapR cells and improved Olaparib sensitivity, thereby phenocopying IGFBP3 inhibition. Collectively, our results highlight IGFBP3 and EGFR as critical mediators of Olaparib resistance.

HO-1-Mediated Autophagic Restoration Protects Lens Epithelial Cells Against Oxidative Stress and Cellular Senescence.

Purpose: Oxidative stress and cellular senescence are risk factors for age-related cataract. Heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) is a critical antioxidant enzyme and related to autophagy. Here, we investigate the crosstalk among HO-1, oxidative stress, and cellular senescence in mouse lens epithelial cells (LECs). Methods: The gene expression of HO-1, p21, LC3, and p62 was measured in human samples. The protective properties of HO-1 were examined in hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-damaged LECs. Autophagic flux was examined by Western blot and mRFP-GFP-LC3 assay. Western blotting and lysotracker staining were used to analyze lysosomal function. Flow cytometry was used to detect intracellular reactive oxygen species and analyze cell cycle. Senescence-associated ß-galactosidase assay was used to determine cellular senescence. The crosstalk between HO-1 and transcription factor EB (TFEB) was further observed in TFEB-knockdown cells. The TFEB binding site in the promoter region of Hmox1 was predicted by the Jasper website and was confirmed by chromatin immunoprecipitation assay. Results: HO-1 gene expression decreased in LECs of patients with age-related nuclear cataract, whereas mRNA expression levels of p21, LC3, and p62 increased. Upon H2O2-induced oxidative stress, LECs showed the characteristics of autophagic flux blockade, lysosomal dysfunction, and premature senescence. Interestingly, HO-1 significantly restored the impaired autophagic flux and lysosomal function and delayed cellular senescence. TFEB gene silencing greatly reduced the HO-1-mediated autophagic restoration, leading to a failure to prevent LECs from oxidative stress and premature senescence. Conclusions: We demonstrated HO-1 effects on restoring autophagic flux and delaying cellular senescence under oxidative stress in LECs, which are dependent on TFEB.

Therapeutic Resistance Models and Treatment Sequencing in Advanced Prostate Cancer.

Current common treatments for castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) typically belong to one of three major categories: next-generation anti-androgen therapies (NGAT) including enzalutamide, abiraterone acetate, apalutamide, and darolutamide; taxane therapy represented by docetaxel; and PARP inhibitors (PARPi) like olaparib. Although these treatments have shown efficacy and have improved outcomes for many patients, some do not survive due to the emergence of therapeutic resistance. The clinical landscape is further complicated by limited knowledge about how the sequence of treatments impacts the development of therapeutic cross-resistance in CRPC. We have developed multiple CRPC models of acquired therapeutic resistance cell sublines from C4-2B cells. These include C4-2B MDVR, C4-2B AbiR, C4-2B ApaR, C4-2B DaroR, TaxR, and 2B-olapR, which are resistant to enzalutamide, abiraterone, apalutamide, darolutamide, docetaxel, and olaparib, respectively. These models are instrumental for analyzing gene expression and assessing responses to various treatments. Our findings reveal distinct cross-resistance characteristics among NGAT-resistant cell sublines. Specifically, resistance to enzalutamide induces resistance to abiraterone and vice versa, while maintaining sensitivity to taxanes and olaparib. Conversely, cells with acquired resistance to docetaxel exhibit cross-resistance to both cabazitaxel and olaparib but retain sensitivity to NGATs like enzalutamide and abiraterone. OlapR cells, significantly resistant to olaparib compared to parental cells, are still responsive to NGATs and docetaxel. Moreover, OlapR models display cross-resistance to other clinically relevant PARP inhibitors, including rucaparib, niraparib, and talazoparib. RNA-sequencing analyses have revealed a complex network of altered gene expressions that influence signaling pathways, energy metabolism, and apoptotic signaling, pivotal to cancer's evolution and progression. The data indicate that resistance mechanisms are distinct among different drug classes. Notably, NGAT-resistant sublines exhibited a significant downregulation of androgen-regulated genes, contrasting to the stable expression noted in olaparib and docetaxel-resistant sublines. These results may have clinical implications by showing that treatments of one class can be sequenced with those from another class, but caution should be taken when sequencing drugs of the same class.

Spatiotemporal distribution and pollution control of pollutants in a Cr(VI)-contaminated site located in Southern China.

Soil and groundwater Cr(VI) pollution resulting from improper disposal and accidental spills is a critical problem worldwide. In this study, a comprehensive study was conducted to assess the hydrogeological conditions of a contaminated site, obtain spatiotemporal distribution and trend forecasts of pollutant Cr(VI), and determine the feasibility of applying clayey engineered barriers for pollution control. The results showed that the hydraulic conductivity (K) of the clayey barrier (1.56E-5 m/d) is several orders of magnitude lower than that of the stratum beneath the contaminated site, with K values ranging from 0.0014 to 4.76 m/d. Cr(VI) exhibits high mobility and a much higher concentration in the vadose zone, with maximum values of 6100 mg/kg in topsoil and 2090 mg/L in the perched aquifer. The simulation results indicated that the groundwater in the vicinity of the contaminated site, as well as downstream of the Lianshui River, is seriously threatened by Cr(VI). Notably, the pollution plume could occur downstream of the Lianshui River after 8 years. The retention efficiency of clayey engineered barriers will decrease over time, at 61.6% after 8 years and 33% after 20 years. This work contributes to an in-depth understanding of Cr(VI) migration at contaminated sites.

Towards a global partnership model in interprofessional education for cross-sector problem-solving.

OBJECTIVES: A partnership model in interprofessional education (IPE) is important in promoting a sense of global citizenship while preparing students for cross-sector problem-solving. However, the literature remains scant in providing useful guidance for the development of an IPE programme co-implemented by external partners. In this pioneering study, we describe the processes of forging global partnerships in co-implementing IPE and evaluate the programme in light of the preliminary data available. METHODS: This study is generally quantitative. We collected data from a total of 747 health and social care students from four higher education institutions. We utilized a descriptive narrative format and a quantitative design to present our experiences of running IPE with external partners and performed independent t-tests and analysis of variance to examine pretest and posttest mean differences in students' data. RESULTS: We identified factors in establishing a cross-institutional IPE programme. These factors include complementarity of expertise, mutual benefits, internet connectivity, interactivity of design, and time difference. We found significant pretest-posttest differences in students' readiness for interprofessional learning (teamwork and collaboration, positive professional identity, roles, and responsibilities). We also found a significant decrease in students' social interaction anxiety after the IPE simulation. CONCLUSIONS: The narrative of our experiences described in this manuscript could be considered by higher education institutions seeking to forge meaningful external partnerships in their effort to establish interprofessional global health education.

Flapless and Conjunctiva-Sparing Technique for Transscleral Fixation of Intraocular Lens to Correct Refractive Errors in Eyes without Adequate Capsular Support.

Purpose: To evaluate refractive outcomes, intraocular lens (IOL) power calculation, and IOL position following a novel conjunctiva-sparing transscleral fixation technique. Methods: Forty-one eyes of 40 patients managed with a flapless transscleral-sutured technique were included. Preoperative and postoperative refractive errors (spherical equivalents, SE) were compared. IOL position was assessed on the Scheimpflug images. IOL power was calculated by SRK/T, Holladay 1, and Hoffer Q formulas. Results: The mean age was 57.39 ± 14.83 years (range: 26 to 79 years), and the mean follow-up was 7.46 ± 6.42 months (range: 1 to 24 months). Surgical indications were aphakia (n = 14), subluxated lenses (n = 3), and IOL dislocation (n = 24). The SE was 4.50 ± 6.38 diopter (D) (range: -3.75 to 13.75 D) preoperatively and -1.68 ± 1.57 D (range: -5.50 to 1.13 D) postoperatively (P < 0.001). The mean tilt angle and decentration were 2.90° ± 1.93° (range: 0.39° to 9.10°) and 0.23 ± 0.19 mm (range: 0.02 to 0.94 mm) vertically, and 1.75° ± 1.41° (range: 0.24° to 7.65°) and 0.18 ± 0.19 mm (range: 0.02 to 1.06 mm) horizontally, which were clinically insignificant. All three IOL formulas produced myopic errors (range: -0.29 to -0.50 D). The SRK/T had the lowest median absolute error (0.55 D), followed by the Holladay 1 (0.70 D) and the Hoffer Q (0.74 D). The three formulas had the same percentage of prediction errors (PEs) within ±0.5 D (43.48%), while the Hoffer Q had the highest percentage of PEs within ±1.0 D (82.61%). Conclusion: The present technique can serve as an alternative approach for transscleral IOL fixation and refractive correction in eyes with compromised capsular support, ensuring the stability of IOLs and reasonable IOL power calculation accuracy.

Real-World Prescribing Patterns for Hypertensive Children in China from 2018 to 2021: A Cross-Sectional Multicenter Study.

Background: Pediatric hypertension become an early marker of cardiovascular diseases, but their antihypertensive drug use patterns are rarely known. Purpose: To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of pediatric hypertension and the use of antihypertensive drugs in the real world in China. Methods: In this study, the demographic, diagnosis, and medication prescription data including the antihypertensive drug types and comorbidities, were analyzed. The antihypertensive drugs use were evaluated according to the Chinese guidelines for hypertension. Results: 1301 prescriptions (number of visits) containing 1880 antihypertensive medical orders were collected. The average number of antihypertensive drugs per prescription was 1.45 (±0.75). The patients aged 16 to 18 (70.18%) accounted for the highest proportion. Kidney diseases (33.28%) were the most common comorbidities. Calcium channel blocker (CCB), angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB), and ß receptor blocker (BB) were the most used antihypertensive drugs. The most frequent monotherapy was CCB, while that of two and three drugs combination were ARB+CCB and ARB+BB+CCB, respectively. Metoprolol (11.44%), nifedipine (10.64%), amlodipine (10.59%), valsartan (6.12%) were the most commonly used antihypertensive drugs. The utilization rate of fixed compound preparations was 7.34%. However, the percentage of recommended antihypertensive drugs was just 14.20%, while the recommended drug combination was 84.93% according to the guidelines. Conclusion: For the first time ever we reported the antihypertensive prescription analysis in children in a large area of China. Our data provided new insights into the epidemiological characteristics and drug use in hypertensive children. We found that the guidelines for medication management in hypertensive children were not routinely followed. The wide use of antihypertensive drugs in children and those with weak clinical evidence raised concerns regarding its rational use. The findings could lead to more effective management of hypertension in children.

Laboratory investigation on the retention performance of a soil-bentonite mixture used as an engineered barrier: insight into the effects of ionic strength and associated heavy metal ions.

Soil-bentonite (S-B) materials are promising backfill materials for use as engineered barriers in heavy metal-contaminated sites. The effects of contaminant exposure on the retention performance of the S-B barrier remain unrevealed. In this study, based on the pollution status of an abandoned ferroalloy factory located in southern China, the retention performance of the S-B mixture toward Cr(VI) and Zn(II) was studied through adsorption and diffusion experiments sequentially; the separate effect of ionic strength (binary solution) and the combined effect of ionic strength and associated heavy metal ion (ternary solution) were discussed. In NaCl-Cr(VI)/Zn(II) binary solutions, the adsorption of Zn(II) onto the S-B mixture is larger than that of Cr(VI). Kd, Qmax, and ɛacc (accessible porosity) of Cr(VI) increase through increasing ionic strength, while Zn(II) shows the opposite trend; De (effective diffusion coefficient) values for both Cr(VI) and Zn(II) increased with increasing ionic strength and follow a sequence of Cr(VI) > Zn(II), indicating a better retention performance of the S-B mixture to Zn(II). For a given ionic strength, the adsorption of Zn(II) was larger than that of Cr(VI), which can be attributed to the retention specificity of the S-B mixture to anion and cation. In Cr(VI)-Zn(II)-NaCl ternary solutions, the adsorptions of Cr(VI) and Zn(II) are enhanced in varying degrees when compared with their binary solution, which probably could be attributed to the ion bridge role of Cr(VI)/Zn(II) to connect each other that relatively increased the adsorption capacity of S-B material. This work will contribute to an in-depth understanding of the retention performance of the S-B mixture in complicated chemical environments and facilitate the selection of future remediation strategies.

Retinal Vascular Geometry in Hypertension: cSLO-Based Method.

INTRODUCTION: We aim to introduce a method using confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (cSLO) images for measuring retinal vascular geometry, including vessel branch angle (BA), vessel diameter, vessel tortuosity, and fractal dimension (Df), and to elucidate the relationship between hypertension and these metrics. METHODS: A total of 119 participants (119 eyes) were enrolled, among which 72 were normotensive and 47 were hypertensive. Infrared cSLO images were extracted from the circular scan around the optics disc using a commercial cSLO + optical coherence tomography instrument. Preprocessed cSLO images were further analyzed using the appropriate tool/macro/plugin of ImageJ. RESULTS: Intraclass correlation coefficients of selected methods used for conducting the cSLO-based geometric analyses were all higher than 0.80. Arterial/arteriolar BA, arteriolar vessel diameter, and total Df in normotensive subjects were 85.80 ± 7.79°, 116.80 ± 12.58 µm, and 1.430 ± 0.037, respectively, significantly higher than those of hypertensive subjects (82.13 ± 10.83°, 108.2 ± 11.12 µm, and 1.361 ± 0.044, all P < 0.05). The aforementioned metrics remained negatively correlated with hypertension even after adjusting for age alone or age and gender (P < 0.05). However, the difference between arteriolar tortuosity and all studied venous/venular geometric parameters in both subjects was insignificant (all P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Proposed cSLO-based methods for assessing various vascular geometric parameters were highly repeatable and reproducible. Arterial/arteriolar BA, arteriolar vessel diameter, and total Df were retinal vascular parameters significantly correlated with hypertension in a negative manner.

Spatial distribution, environmental risks, and sources of potentially toxic elements in soils from a typical abandoned antimony smelting site.

The rapid development of the smelting industry increases the release of antimony (Sb) into the soil environment, which threatens human health and ecosystems. A total of 87 samples were collected from an abandoned Sb smelting site to evaluate pollution characteristics and environmental risks of the potentially toxic elements (PTEs). The contents of As, Cu, Ni, Pb, Sb, and Zn in the fresh soils determined by P-XRF were 131, 120, 60, 145, 240, and 154 mg/kg, respectively, whilst following drying, grinding, and sieving pretreatments, the corresponding contents increased to 367, 179, 145, 295, 479, and 276 mg/kg, respectively. There was a significant correlation between the data obtained by P-XRF and ICP-OES in the treated samples, which showed the application feasibility of P-XRF. The average contents of Sb and As were 440.6 and 411.6 mg/kg, respectively, which exceeded the control values of the development land in GB 36600-2018. The ecological risk levels of the six PTEs decreased in the following order: As > Sb > Pb > Zn > Ni > Cu. Non-carcinogenic risk revealed that As, Pb, and Sb posed health risks for children, whilst for carcinogenic risk, the risk values for As and Ni were higher than the limit values for both children and adults. Anthropogenic sources accounted for more than 70.0% of As, Pb, and Sb concentrations in soils, indicating a significant influence on PTEs accumulation. The findings provide a basis for quick determination of the contamination characteristics and risk control of PTEs at Sb smelting sites.

Which Pixel to Annotate: A Label-Efficient Nuclei Segmentation Framework.

Recently deep neural networks, which require a large amount of annotated samples, have been widely applied in nuclei instance segmentation of H&E stained pathology images. However, it is inefficient and unnecessary to label all pixels for a dataset of nuclei images which usually contain similar and redundant patterns. Although unsupervised and semi-supervised learning methods have been studied for nuclei segmentation, very few works have delved into the selective labeling of samples to reduce the workload of annotation. Thus, in this paper, we propose a novel full nuclei segmentation framework that chooses only a few image patches to be annotated, augments the training set from the selected samples, and achieves nuclei segmentation in a semi-supervised manner. In the proposed framework, we first develop a novel consistency-based patch selection method to determine which image patches are the most beneficial to the training. Then we introduce a conditional single-image GAN with a component-wise discriminator, to synthesize more training samples. Lastly, our proposed framework trains an existing segmentation model with the above augmented samples. The experimental results show that our proposed method could obtain the same-level performance as a fully-supervised baseline by annotating less than 5% pixels on some benchmarks.

Comparison of anterior corneal aberrations measured by Scheimpflug and Placido Disc System for myopes.

BACKGROUND: To ascertain the agreement of corneal aberrations obtained from the Pentacam and the KR-1W in myopic populations and to investigate the influence of the level of myopia as well as the laterality on the agreement. METHODS: In this observational study, a rotating Scheimpflug camera (Pentacam AXL) and a Hartmann-Shack wavefront analyzer with Placido-disc topographer (KR-1W) were used to measure the aberrations of myopes in the anterior corneal surface by one experienced operator. All examinations were computed across a 6 mm diameter. Six subgroups were generated according to the degree of myopia (mild, moderate, and severe myopia) and the laterality of eyes (right and left eyes). RESULTS: The study included 245 eyes of 170 participants. For certain anterior corneal aberrations, statistically significant differences existed between the Pentacam and the KR-1W (all P < .05). The values of Zernike (Z)(2,0), Z(2,2), Z(3,1), and Z(4,0) varied in all levels of myopia regardless of the laterality, with the values of the Pentacam constantly larger than the KR-1W in the measurement of Z(2,0), Z(2,2), and Z(4,0). For 2nd to 6th aberrations, both instruments correlated poorly to moderately. The width of limits of agreement between the two instruments was clinically too wide (> 0.1 µm) for aberrations closely correlated with visual quality, including Z(3, ± 3), Z(3, ± 1), and Z(4,0), and almost all aberrations, indicating poor agreement. CONCLUSIONS: In clinical practice, the Pentacam based on Scheimpflug technology and the KR-1W based on Placido Disc System are not interchangeable in measuring anterior corneal aberration for myopes regardless of myopia degree and the laterality, suggesting that a consistent instrument should be selected for surgical design as well as follow-up.

Wntless expression promotes lineage plasticity and is associated with neuroendocrine prostate cancer.

Resistance to androgen receptor (AR) targeted therapies remains as the main reason for most prostate cancer related deaths. Lineage plasticity resulting in altered, treatment insensitive prostate tumor cell phenotypes such neuroendocrine differentiated prostate cancer is a common manifestation within resistant tumors upon AR-targeted therapies. The mechanisms responsible for lineage plasticity in prostate cancer remain incompletely understood. Here we demonstrate that the enzalutamide resistant MDVR cell line possesses lineage plastic characteristics associated with overexpression of the Wnt transporter Wntless (WLS). Furthermore, we present evidence that overexpression of WLS is common in varying cell line models of lineage plastic prostate cancer, is higher in neuroendocrine patient samples, and positively correlates with the neuroendocrine marker SYP in clinical data. Targeting WLS in lineage plastic cellular models reduces viability and represses lineage plasticity associated gene expression. Our study provides insight into the importance of WLS to the development of lethal resistant prostate cancer and provides a potential target for the treatment of advanced disease.