The Born in Guangzhou Cohort Study enables generational genetic discoveries.

Genomic research that targets large-scale, prospective birth cohorts constitutes an essential strategy for understanding the influence of genetics and environment on human health1. Nonetheless, such studies remain scarce, particularly in Asia. Here we present the phase I genome study of the Born in Guangzhou Cohort Study2 (BIGCS), which encompasses the sequencing and analysis of 4,053 Chinese individuals, primarily composed of trios or mother-infant duos residing in South China. Our analysis reveals novel genetic variants, a high-quality reference panel, and fine-scale local genetic structure within BIGCS. Notably, we identify previously unreported East Asian-specific genetic associations with maternal total bile acid, gestational weight gain and infant cord blood traits. Additionally, we observe prevalent age-specific genetic effects on lipid levels in mothers and infants. In an exploratory intergenerational Mendelian randomization analysis, we estimate the maternal putatively causal and fetal genetic effects of seven adult phenotypes on seven fetal growth-related measurements. These findings illuminate the genetic links between maternal and early-life traits in an East Asian population and lay the groundwork for future research into the intricate interplay of genetics, intrauterine exposures and early-life experiences in shaping long-term health.

Comparative Study on the Effects of Four Plant Protein Sources on the Liver and Intestinal Health of Largemouth Bass, Micropterus salmoides.

The effects of plant protein sources (PPSs) on the health of the liver and intestine of the largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides, were compared to verify the potential damaging effects of dietary fiber (DF). A diet containing 55% fish meal (FM) was used as the control. The test diets contained 25% soybean meal (SBM), rapeseed meal (RSM), cottonseed meal, or peanut meal, and the FM content was decreased to 30%. The protein and lipid contents of these five diets were balanced by casein and oil. Fish were raised for 8 weeks. The fish fed the diet containing PPS showed a trend of decreasing growth and apparent digestibility coefficients. The contents of total bile acid, lipid, and collagen in the liver were increased, and the mRNA expression levels of genes encoding inflammatory factors and enzymes involved in de novo fatty acid synthesis and bile acid synthesis were upregulated. Both the lipid and collagen contents in the liver were positively correlated with the DF content in the diet significantly. Morphology and histology showed reduced liver size, hepatic steatosis, and fibrosis in fish fed diets containing PPS. The lowest hepatosomatic index was observed in fish fed the SBM diet, and the most severe damage was observed in fish fed the RSM diet. No obvious histological abnormalities were observed in the hindgut. The bile acid profile in the liver could be used to distinguish the types of PPS very well by Fisher discriminant analysis. These results indicated that 25% of each of the four PPSs in the diet exceeded the tolerance range of largemouth bass and caused liver damage, which might be mediated by bile acid. DF in PPS might be an important agent contributing to liver damage.

Incremental predictive value of platelet parameters for preeclampsia: results from a large prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Platelet parameters during pregnancy were associated with the risk of preeclampsia (PE), but the predictive value of these parameters for PE remained unclear. Our aim was to clarify the individual and incremental predictive value of platelet parameters, including platelet count (PC), mean platelet volume (MPV), plateletcrit (PCT), and platelet distribution width (PDW) for PE. METHODS: This study was based on the Born in Guangzhou Cohort Study in China. Data on platelet parameters were extracted from medical records of routine prenatal examinations. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was performed to analyze the predictive ability of platelet parameters for PE. Maternal characteristic factors proposed by NICE and ACOG were used to develop the base model. Detection rate (DR), integrated discrimination improvement (IDI) and continuous net reclassification improvement (NRI) were calculated compared with the base model to assess the incremental predictive value of platelet parameters. RESULTS: A total of 30,401 pregnancies were included in this study, of which 376 (1.24%) were diagnosed with PE. Higher levels of PC and PCT were observed at 12-19 gestational weeks in women who developed PE later. However, no platelet parameters before 20 weeks of gestation reliably distinguished between PE complicated pregnancy and non-PE complicated pregnancy, with all values of the areas under the ROC curves (AUC) below 0.70. The addition of platelet parameters at 16-19 gestational weeks to the base model increased the DR for preterm PE from 22.9 to 31.4% at a fixed false positive rate of 5%, improved the AUC from 0.775 to 0.849 (p = 0.015), and yielded a NRI of 0.793 (p < 0.001), and an IDI of 0.0069 (p = 0.035). Less but significant improvement in prediction performance was also observed for term PE and total PE when all the four platelet parameters were added to the base model. CONCLUSIONS: Although no single platelet parameter at the early stage of pregnancy identified PE with high accuracy, the addition of platelet parameters to known independent risk factors could improve the prediction of PE.

Combined effects of air pollutants on gestational diabetes mellitus: A prospective cohort study.

Exposures to multiple air pollutants during pregnancy have been associated with the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). However, their combined effects are unclear. We aimed to evaluate the combined associations of five air pollutants from pre-pregnancy to the 2nd trimester with GDM. This study included 20,113 participants from the Born in Guangzhou Cohort Study (BIGCS). The inverse distance-weighted models were used to estimate individual air pollutant exposure, namely ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), particulate matter less than 10 µm in diameter (PM10), and less than 2.5 µm in diameter (PM2.5). We estimated stage-specific associations of air pollutants with GDM using generalized estimating equation, and departures from additive joint effects were assessed using the relative excess risk (RERI) and the joint relative risk (JRR). Of the 20,113 participants, 3440 women (17.1%) were diagnosed with GDM. In the adjusted model, increased concentrations of O3 and SO2 3-6 months before pregnancy were associated with GDM occurrence, as well as O3 and PM10 in the 1st trimester, the adjusted relative risk (95% confident intervals) [RRs (95%CI)] ranged from 1.05 (1.00, 1.09) to 1.21 (1.04, 1.40). The largest JRR for GDM was the combination of SO2, NO2, and PM10 in the 1st trimester (JRR = 1.32, 95% CI: 1.10, 1.59). The JRR for O3 and SO2 was less than their additive joint effects [RERI = -0.25 (-0.47, -0.04), P for interaction = 0.048]. Associations of air pollutants with GDM differed somewhat by pre-pregnancy BMI and season. This study added new evidence to the current understanding of the combined effects of multiple air pollutants on GDM. Public health strategies were needed to reduce the adverse effects of air pollution exposure on pregnant women.

Gestational weight gain rates in the first and second trimesters are associated with small for gestational age among underweight women: a prospective birth cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Despite the well-studied effects of gestational weight gain (GWG) on offspring health, little is known about the association of trimester-specific GWG with offspring birth weight among underweight pregnant women. This study aimed to explore the association of trimester-specific GWG rate with small for gestational age (SGA) in underweight women. METHODS: The GWG rate of underweight pregnant women (pre-pregnancy body mass index [BMI] lower than 18.5 kg/m2) of the Born in Guangzhou Cohort Study was calculated as the weight gain during a specific trimester divided by the corresponding duration of week. Total GWG was calculated as the weight difference between pre-pregnancy and delivery, and was categorized into inadequate, adequate, and excessive weight gain based on the 2009 Institute of Medicine (IOM) weight gain recommendation. The INTERGROWTH-21st standards were used to define SGA. Logistic regression models were used to examine the associations of total GWG and trimester-specific GWG rates with SGA. Associations between trimester-specific GWG rates and SGA were also analyzed separately based on different total GWG categories (i.e. inadequate and adequate/excessive GWG). RESULTS: Of the 3839 participants, SGA births occurred in 397 (10.3%), and mean GWG was 14.9 kg (SD 3.9). A lower risk of SGA was observed among women with higher GWG rate (per 0.5 kg/week increase) during the first (adjusted OR [aOR] 0.74, 95%CI 0.57, 0.96) and second (adjusted OR [aOR] 0.40, 95%CI 0.30, 0.55) but not third trimester. Similar association between higher GWG rate during the second trimester and a decreased risk of SGA were observed among women with inadequate (< 12.5 kg) and adequate/excessive (≥12.5 kg) total GWG, respectively. Compared to women with adequate GWG rate, women with inadequate GWG rate during the second trimester had a significantly increased risk of SGA (aOR 1.58, 95% CI 1.14, 2.20). CONCLUSIONS: Second-trimester GWG might be the key driver for the association between inadequate GWG and increased risk of SGA births in underweight women.

Bias Stability Investigation of a Triaxial Navigation-Compatible Accelerometer with an Electrostatic Spring.

The bias stability performance of accelerometers is essential for an inertial navigation system. The traditional pendulous accelerometer usually has a flexible connection structure, which could limit the long-term bias stability. Here, based on the main technologies employed in previous space missions of our group, we developed a terrestrial triaxial navigation-compatible accelerometer. Because there is no mechanical connection between the inertial test mass and the frame, the bias performance relies on the stability of the equivalent electrostatic spring, where further sources are analyzed to get the optimal electrostatic force scheme. To investigate the bias stability under different ranges, the vertical and horizontal measurement ranges are designed at 5 g and ±10 mg, respectively. A low-noise high-voltage levitation scheme is adopted to extend the vertical measurement range from sub-mg to more than earth's 1-g gravity. Finally, the experimental validation results show that the 24-h bias stability of vertical and two horizontal directions come to 13.8 µg, 0.84 µg, and 0.77 µg, respectively.

Effects of Low or High Dosages of Dietary Sodium Butyrate on the Growth and Health of the Liver and Intestine of Largemouth Bass, Micropterus salmoides.

The concentration of butyric acid in the intestine increased with the increase in the content of fermentable dietary fibre; however, the potential physiological impact of a high dose of butyric acid on fish has not been sufficiently studied. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of two dosages of butyric acid on the growth and health of the liver and intestine of the largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides). Sodium butyrate (SB) was added to the diet at 0 g/kg (CON), 2 g/kg (SB2), and 20 g/kg (SB20), and the juvenile largemouth bass were fed to apparent satiation for 56 days. No significant difference was observed in the specific growth rate or hepatosomatic index among the groups (P > 0.05). The concentration of ß-hydroxybutyric acid in the liver, the activities of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, and alkaline phosphatase, and the concentrations of triglyceride and total cholesterol in serum increased significantly in the SB20 group compared to the CON group (P < 0.05). The relative expression of fas, acc, il1b, nfkb, and tnfa in the liver of the SB20 groups was also significantly higher than that of the CON group (P < 0.05). The above indicators in the group SB2 had similar change tendencies. The expression of nfkb and il1b in the intestine of both the SB2 and SB20 groups was significantly downregulated compared with that in the CON group (P < 0.05). The size of hepatocytes was enlarged, and the intracellular lipid droplets and the degree of hepatic fibrosis were increased in the SB20 group compared to the CON group. There was no significant difference in intestinal morphology among the groups. The above results indicated that neither 2 g/kg nor 20 g/kg SB had a positive effect on the growth of largemouth bass, while a high dosage of SB induced liver fat accumulation and fibrosis.

Investigation on Stray-Capacitance Influences of Coaxial Cables in Capacitive Transducers for a Space Inertial Sensor.

Ultra-sensitive inertial sensors are one of the key components in satellite Earth's gravity field recovery missions and space gravitational wave detection missions. Low-noise capacitive position transducers are crucial to these missions to achieve the scientific goal. However, in actual engineering applications, the sensor head and electronics unit usually place separately in the satellite platform where a connecting cable is needed. In this paper, we focus on the stray-capacitance influences of coaxial cables which are used to connect the mechanical core and the electronics. Specially, for the capacitive transducer with a differential transformer bridge structure usually used in high-precision space inertial sensors, a connecting method of a coaxial cable between the transformer's secondary winding and front-end circuit's preamplifier is proposed to transmit the AC modulated analog voltage signal. The measurement and noise models including the stray-capacitance of the coaxial cable under this configuration is analyzed. A prototype system is set up to investigate the influences of the cables experimentally. Three different types and lengths of coaxial cables are chosen in our experiments to compare their performances. The analysis shows that the stray-capacitance will alter the circuit's resonant frequency which could be adjusted by additional tuning capacitance, then under the optimal resonant condition, the output voltage noises of the preamplifier are measured and the sensitivity coefficients are also calibrated. Meanwhile, the stray-capacitance of the cables is estimated. Finally, the experimental results show that the noise level of this circuit with the selected cables could all achieve 1-2 × 10-7 pF/Hz1/2 at 0.1 Hz.

A Yolk-Shell Structured Silicon Anode with Superior Conductivity and High Tap Density for Full Lithium-Ion Batteries.

The poor cycling stability resulting from the large volume expansion caused by lithiation is a critical issue for Si-based anodes. Herein, we report for the first time of a new yolk-shell structured high tap density composite made of a carbon-coated rigid SiO2 outer shell to confine multiple Si NPs (yolks) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with embedded Fe2 O3 nanoparticles (NPs). The high tap density achieved and superior conductivity can be attributed to the efficiently utilised inner void containing multiple Si yolks, Fe2 O3 NPs, and CNTs Li+ storage materials, and the bridged spaces between the inner Si yolks and outer shell through a conductive CNTs "highway". Half cells can achieve a high area capacity of 3.6 mAh cm-2 and 95 % reversible capacity retention after 450 cycles. The full cell constructed using a Li-rich Li2 V2 O5 cathode can achieve a high reversible capacity of 260 mAh g-1 after 300 cycles.

Lifestyle-based subtypes of childhood obesity and their association with cardiometabolic factors: A cluster analysis.

BACKGROUND: Lifestyle factors play an important role in the development and management of childhood obesity and its related cardiometabolic complications. OBJECTIVE/METHODS: We aimed to explore childhood obesity subtypes based on lifestyle factors and examine their association with cardiometabolic health. We included 1550 children with obesity from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Cluster analysis identified obesity subtypes based on four lifestyle factors (physical activity, diet quality, sedentary time and smoking). Multiple linear regression assessed their association with cardiometabolic factors. RESULTS: Five subtypes of childhood obesity were identified: unhealthy subtype (n = 571; 36.8%), physically active subtype (n = 185; 21.1%), healthy diet subtype (n = 404; 26.1%), smoking subtype (n = 125; 8.1%) and non-sedentary subtype (n = 265; 17.1%). Compared with the unhealthy subtype, the physically active subtype had lower insulin and HOMA-IR levels, and smoking subtype was associated with lower HDL levels. When compared with children with normal weight, all obesity subtypes had worse cardiometabolic profile, except the physically active subtype who had similar DBP, HbA1c and TC levels; smoking subtype who had similar TC levels; and healthy diet and non-sedentary subtypes who had similar DBP levels. CONCLUSION: Children of different lifestyle-based obesity subtypes might have different cardiometabolic risks. Our new classification system might help personalize assessment of childhood obesity.

How to enhance the applicability of a risk prediction model for term small-for-gestational-age neonates in clinical settings?

OBJECTIVE: To construct a simple term small-for-gestational-age (SGA) neonate prediction model that is clinically practical. METHODS: This analysis was based on the Born in Guangzhou Cohort Study (BIGCS). Mothers who had a singleton pregnancy, delivered a term neonate, and had an ultrasonography within 30 + 0 to 32 + 6 weeks of gestation were included. Term SGA was defined with customized population percentiles. Prediction models were constructed with backward selection logistic regression in a four-step approach, where model 1 contained fetal biometrics only, models 2 and 3 included maternal features and a time factor (weeks between ultrasonography and delivery), respectively; and model 4 contained all features mentioned. The prediction performance of individual models was evaluated based on area under the curve (AUC) and a calibration test was performed. RESULTS: The prevalence of SGA in the study population of 21 346 women was 11.5%. With a complete-case analysis approach, data of 19 954 women were used for model construction and validation. The AUC of the four models were 0.781, 0.793, 0.823, and 0.834, respectively, and all were well-calibrated. Model 3 consisted of fetal biometrics and corrected for time to delivery was chosen as the final model to build risk prediction graphs for clinical use. CONCLUSION: A prediction model derived from fetal biometrics in early third trimester is satisfactory to predict SGA.

Synthesis of CePO4 nano-wires with improved photoluminescent properties by co-crystallizing with nano-sized CeO2.

By adjusting experimental parameters, such as reaction time and ratios, CeO2/CePO4 composites have been prepared through a single-step hydrothermal process, in which CeO2 octahedra and CePO4 nanowires mingled with each other to form many interfaces. The formation of the particular structure can be explained by heterogeneous nucleation theory: the existed CePO4 nanowires at the early stage of hydrothermal process provide many thermodynamically favorable sites, on which the nucleation energy of octahedral CeO2 is the lowest. The photoluminescent (PL) properties of CeO2/CePO4 composites showed that the strongest PL emission can be achieved with initial Ce/P of 4 and hydrothermal time of 24 h. And final Ce/P of the samples at this point was the maximum value by the EDS analysis. So it was proposed that the interaction between more CeO2 and the more coatings of CeO2 to CePO4 are responsible for the best PL properties.

Distinct H3K27me3 and H3K27ac Modifications in Neural Tube Defects Induced by Benzo[a]pyrene.

The pathological mechanisms of neural tube defects (NTDs) are not yet fully understood. Although the dysregulation of histone modification in NTDs is recognized, it remains to be fully elucidated on a genome-wide level. We profiled genome-wide H3K27me3 and H3K27ac occupancy by CUT&Tag in neural tissues from ICR mouse embryos with benzo[a]pyrene (BaP)-induced NTDs (250 mg kg-1) at E9.5. Furthermore, we performed RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to investigate the regulation of histone modifications on gene expressions. Gene ontology and KEGG analysis were conducted to predict pathways involved in the development of NTDs. Our analysis of histone 3 lysine 27 modification in BaP-NTD neural tissues compared to BaP-nonNTD revealed 6045 differentially trimethylated regions and 3104 acetylated regions throughout the genome, respectively. The functional analysis identified a number of pathways uniquely enriched for BaP-NTD embryos, including known neurodevelopment related pathways such as anterior/posterior pattern specification, ephrin receptor signaling pathway, neuron migration and neuron differentiation. RNA-seq identified 423 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between BaP-NTD and BaP-nonNTD group. The combination analysis of CUT&Tag and RNA-seq found that 55 DEGs were modified by H3K27me3 and 25 by H3K27ac in BaP-NTD, respectively. In the transcriptional regulatory network, transcriptional factors including Srsf1, Ume6, Zbtb7b, and Cad were predicated to be involved in gene expression regulation. In conclusion, our results provide an overview of histone modifications during neural tube closure and demonstrate a key role of genome-wide alterations in H3K27me3 and H3K27ac in NTDs corresponding with changes in transcription profiles.

A method and its validation for measuring the absolute time-delay of the read-out system of a space electrostatic accelerometer.

High-precision accelerometers play an important role in satellite gravity field missions to measure the non-conservative forces acting on the satellites. To map the Earth's gravity field, the accelerometer data must be time-tagged using the on-board global navigation satellite system time reference. For example, in the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment mission, the time-tag error of the accelerometers must be within 0.1 ms with respect to the satellite clock. To realize this requirement, the time delay between the actual measurement time and the nominal time of the accelerometer should be considered and corrected. This paper presents the techniques for measuring the absolute time delay of an electrostatic accelerometer on the ground, where this delay is mainly introduced by the low-noise scientific data read-out system, which is based on a Σ-Δ (sigma-delta) analog-to-digital converter (ADC). First, the time-delay sources of the system are theoretically analyzed. Then, a time-delay measurement method is proposed, and its principle and system error are presented. Finally, a prototype is built to demonstrate and investigate the feasibility of the method. Experimental results show that the absolute time delay of the read-out system is 150.80 ± 0.04 ms. This important value is the basis for the final time-tag error correction of the scientific accelerometer data. Meanwhile, the time-delay measurement method described in this paper is also useful for other data acquisition systems.

Ultrathin and Robust Composite Electrolyte for Stable Solid-State Lithium Metal Batteries.

Solid-state polymer electrolytes (SPEs) are considered as one of the most promising candidates for the next-generation lithium metal batteries (LMBs). However, the large thickness and severe interfacial side reactions with electrodes seriously restrict the application of SPEs. Herein, we developed an ultrathin and robust poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)-based composite polymer electrolyte (PPSE) by introducing polyethylene (PE) separators and SiO2 nanoparticles with rich silicon hydroxyl (Si-OH) groups (nano-SiO2). The thickness of the PPSE is only 20 µm but possesses a quite high mechanical strength of 64 MPa. The introduction of nano-SiO2 fillers can tightly anchor the essential N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) to reinforce the ion-transport ability of PVDF and suppress the side reactions of DMF with Li metal, which can significantly enhance the electrochemical stability of the PPSE. Meanwhile, the Si-OH groups on the surface of nano-SiO2 as a Lewis acid promote the dissociation of the lithium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (LiFSI) and immobilize the FSI- anions, achieving a high lithium transference number (0.59) and an ideal ionic conductivity (4.81 × 10-4 S cm-1) for the PPSE. The assembled Li/PPSE/Li battery can stably cycle for a record of 11,000 h, and the LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2/PPSE/Li battery presents an initial specific capacity of 173.3 mA h g-1 at 0.5 C, which can stably cycle 300 times. This work provides a new strategy for designing composite solid-state electrolytes with high mechanical strength and ionic conductivity by modulating their framework.

Divergence and convergence of gut microbiomes of wild insect pollinators.

Pollination services provided by wild insect pollinators are critical to natural ecosystems and crops around the world. There is an increasing appreciation that the gut microbiota of these insects influences their health and consequently their services. However, pollinator gut microbiota studies have focused on well-described social bees, but rarely include other, more phylogenetically divergent insect pollinators. To expand our understanding, we explored the insect pollinator microbiomes across three insect orders through two DNA sequencing approaches. First, in an exploratory 16S amplicon sequencing analysis of taxonomic community assemblages, we found lineage-specific divergences of dominant microbial genera and microbiota community composition across divergent insect pollinator genera. However, we found no evidence for a strong broad-scale phylogenetic signal, which we see for community relatedness at finer scales. Subsequently, we utilized metagenomic shotgun sequencing to obtain metagenome-assembled genomes and assess the functionality of the microbiota from pollinating flies and social wasps. We uncover a novel gut microbe from pollinating flies in the family Orbaceae that is closely related to Gilliamella spp. from social bees but with divergent functions. We propose this novel species be named Candidatus Gilliamella eristali. Further metagenomes of dominant fly and wasp microbiome members suggest that they are largely not host-insect adapted and instead may be environmentally derived. Overall, this study suggests selective processes involving ecology or physiology, or neutral processes determining microbe colonization may predominate in the turnover of lineages in insect pollinators broadly, while evolution with hosts may occur only under certain circumstances and on smaller phylogenetic scales. IMPORTANCE Wild insect pollinators provide many key ecosystem services, and the microbes associated with these insect pollinators may influence their health. Therefore, understanding the diversity in microbiota structure and function, along with the potential mechanisms shaping the microbiota across diverse insect pollinators, is critical. Our study expands beyond existing knowledge of well-studied social bees, like honey bees, including members from other bee, wasp, butterfly, and fly pollinators. We infer ecological and evolutionary factors that may influence microbiome structure across diverse insect pollinator hosts and the functions that microbiota members may play. We highlight significant differentiation of microbiomes among diverse pollinators. Closer analysis suggests that dominant members may show varying levels of host association and functions, even in a comparison of closely related microbes found in bees and flies. This work suggests varied importance of ecological, physiological, and non-evolutionary filters in determining structure and function across largely divergent wild insect pollinator microbiomes.

A method for high-precision measuring differential transformer asymmetry.

The differential transformer is an important component in the front-end electronics of high-precision capacitive position sensing circuits, which are widely employed in space inertial sensors and electrostatic accelerometers. The position sensing offset, one of the space inertial sensors' most critical error sources in the performance range, is dominated by the differential transformer asymmetry and requires a high-precision evaluation. This paper proposes a method to assess differential transformers' asymmetry and realize a prototype circuit to test a transformer sample. The results show that the asymmetry measurement precision can achieve 0.6 ppm for the transformer with an asymmetry level of about -278.2 ppm.

Convolutional autoencoder joint boundary and mask adversarial learning for fundus image segmentation.

The precise segmentation of the optic cup (OC) and the optic disc (OD) is important for glaucoma screening. In recent years, medical image segmentation based on convolutional neural networks (CNN) has achieved remarkable results. However, many traditional CNN methods do not consider the cross-domain problem, i.e., generalization on datasets of different domains. In this paper, we propose a novel unsupervised domain-adaptive segmentation architecture called CAE-BMAL. Firstly, we enhance the source domain with a convolutional autoencoder to improve the generalization ability of the model. Then, we introduce an adversarial learning-based boundary discrimination branch to reduce the impact of the complex environment during segmentation. Finally, we evaluate the proposed method on three datasets, Drishti-GS, RIM-ONE-r3, and REFUGE. The experimental evaluations outperform most state-of-the-art methods in accuracy and generalization. We further evaluate the cup-to-disk ratio performance in OD and OC segmentation, which indicates the effectiveness of glaucoma discrimination.

Self-Healable Lithium-Ion Batteries: A Review.

The inner constituents of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are easy to deform during charging and discharging processes, and the accumulation of these deformations would result in physical fractures, poor safety performances, and short lifespan of LIBs. Recent studies indicate that the introduction of self-healing (SH) materials into electrodes or electrolytes can bring about great enhancements in their mechanical strength, thus optimizing the cycle stability of the batteries. Due to the self-healing property of these special functional materials, the fractures/cracks generated during repeated cycles could be spontaneously cured. This review systematically summarizes the mechanisms of self-healing strategies and introduces the applications of SH materials in LIBs, especially from the aspects of electrodes and electrolytes. Finally, the challenges and the opportunities of the future research as well as the potential of applications are presented to promote the research of this field.

Incidence of Eczema in Early Infancy and the Prenatal Risk Factors - Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, 2018-2019.

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ON THIS TOPIC?: Eczema is a common allergic disease in children, which seriously affects the quality of life of children and their families. WHAT IS ADDED BY THIS REPORT?: The results showed that the incidence of very-early-onset eczema was 12.4%. Primiparity was associated with a higher risk of eczema [risk ratio (95% confidence interval): 1.23 (1.06-1.42)]. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH PRACTICE?: Very-early-onset eczema is common. Given its adverse impact on children's health and life quality, this previously neglected public health issue needs to be prioritized. In addition, maternal parity could serve as an indicator in risk assessment and prediction for infant eczema.