Phenolic constituents isolated from Senna tora sprouts and their neuroprotective effects against glutamate-induced oxidative stress in HT22 and R28 cells.

The consumption of sprouts has been steadily increasing due to their being an excellent source of nutrition. It is known that the bioactive constituents of legumes can be increased after germination. In this study, the extract from Senna tora sprouts is shown to exhibit improved radical scavenging activities and better neuroprotective effects in HT22 hippocampal neuronal (HT22) and R28 retina precursor (R28) cells than those from seeds due to an increased content of phenolic constituents, especially compounds 1 and 3-6. A phytochemical investigation of S. tora sprouts resulted in the isolation of two new naphthopyrone glycosides (1-2) with 27 previously reported compounds. Their structures were determined via interpreting spectroscopic data. Compounds 1 and 3-6 were found to possess radical scavenging activities and neuroprotective effects against oxidative stress in both neuronal cells. Hence, Senna tora sprouts and their constituents may be developed as natural neuroprotective agents via antioxidative effects.

LONG-TERM VISUAL CHANGES IN INITIALLY STRONGER FELLOW EYES IN PATIENTS WITH UNILATERAL TYPE 3 NEOVASCULARIZATION.

PURPOSE: To evaluate long-term visual changes in initially stronger fellow eyes in patients with unilateral Type 3 neovascularization. METHODS: This retrospective study included 102 patients who were newly diagnosed with unilateral Type 3 neovascularization and in whom the best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of the fellow eye was initially better than that of the involved eye. All patients were treated with intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor injections. The BCVAs were compared at diagnosis, 12 months, 24 months, and the final visit. In patients who experienced ≥3 lines of visual deterioration in the BCVA of the fellow eye, the reason for visual deterioration was also verified. RESULTS: The patients were followed for 45.9 ± 18.5 months after diagnosis. At diagnosis, the fellow-eye BCVA was better than that of the initially involved eye in all 102 patients. However, the fellow-eye visual acuity was the same or worse than that of the initially involved eye in 13 patients (12.7%) at 12 months, in 20 patients (19.6%) at 24 months, and in 24 patients (23.5%) at the final visit. At the final visit, 53 patients (51.9%) had experienced ≥3 lines of deterioration in the BCVA of the fellow eye. Fellow-eye neovascularization occurred in 42 patients, and geographic atrophy involving the fovea was noted in the remaining 11 patients. CONCLUSION: Deterioration of the visual acuity of the fellow eye is frequently noted in unilateral Type 3 neovascularization. As a result of this deterioration, the initially stronger fellow eye did not remain stronger in 23.5% of the patients, suggesting the need for long-term strict treatment of the initially involved eye even when the visual acuity of the fellow eye is good.

Fusion of Spectroscopy and Cobalt Electrochemistry Data for Estimating Phosphate Concentration in Hydroponic Solution.

Phosphate is a key element affecting plant growth. Therefore, the accurate determination of phosphate concentration in hydroponic nutrient solutions is essential for providing a balanced set of nutrients to plants within a suitable range. This study aimed to develop a data fusion approach for determining phosphate concentrations in a paprika nutrient solution. As a conventional multivariate analysis approach using spectral data, partial least squares regression (PLSR) and principal components regression (PCR) models were developed using 56 samples for calibration and 24 samples for evaluation. The R2 values of estimation models using PCR and PLSR ranged from 0.44 to 0.64. Furthermore, an estimation model using raw electromotive force (EMF) data from cobalt electrodes gave R2 values of 0.58-0.71. To improve the model performance, a data fusion method was developed to estimate phosphate concentration using near infrared (NIR) spectral and cobalt electrochemical data. Raw EMF data from cobalt electrodes and principle component values from the spectral data were combined. Results of calibration and evaluation tests using an artificial neural network estimation model showed that R2 = 0.90 and 0.89 and root mean square error (RMSE) = 96.70 and 119.50 mg/L, respectively. These values are sufficiently high for application to measuring phosphate concentration in hydroponic solutions.

INTRAVITREAL AFLIBERCEPT AND RANIBIZUMAB INJECTIONS FOR TYPE 3 NEOVASCULARIZATION.

PURPOSE: To compare the effectiveness of intravitreal injection of aflibercept with ranibizumab in patients with Type 3 neovascularization. METHODS: Sixty-three treatment-naive eyes with Type 3 neovascularization (58 patients) were retrospectively analyzed. The eyes had received intravitreal aflibercept or ranibizumab injections. All patients were treated using an initial series of three monthly loading injections, followed by further injections as required. The visual and anatomical outcomes of treatment were evaluated after 12 months. RESULTS: The mean best-corrected visual acuity in the aflibercept-treated group (21 eyes), expressed as the logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution, improved from 0.71 ± 0.42 (Snellen equivalent; 20/102) to 0.54 ± 0.39 (20/69) after 12 months of treatment (P = 0.022). Similarly, in the ranibizumab-treated group (42 eyes), the best-corrected visual acuity improved from 0.68 ± 0.38 (20/95) to 0.53 ± 0.36 (20/67) (P = 0.013) at 12 months. The central foveal thickness decreased in the aflibercept-treated group from 356 ± 139 µm to 212 ± 155 µm and in the ranibizumab-treated group from 348 ± 177 µm to 208 ± 161 µm (P = 0.014 and P = 0.017, respectively). There was no significant difference between the groups about improvement in best-corrected visual acuity or decrease in central foveal thickness. However, geographic atrophy was significantly more frequent in the aflibercept-treated group, occurring in 42.9% of eyes, than in the ranibizumab-treated group (19.0% of eyes; P = 0.045). CONCLUSION: There was no difference between the aflibercept and ranibizumab treatments in terms of visual acuity improvement after 12 months in patients with Type 3 neovascularization. However, geographic atrophy developed more frequently in the aflibercept-treated group.

MACULAR EDEMA AFTER CATARACT SURGERY IN EYES WITH PREOPERATIVE RETINAL VEIN OCCLUSION.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the incidence of pseudophakic macular edema (PME) in eyes with a history of retinal vein occlusion before cataract surgery and to identify any associated risk factors. METHODS: The records of 21,332 eyes that underwent cataract surgery were retrospectively reviewed. Eyes that had retinal vein occlusion preoperatively with no evidence of macular pathology on optical coherence tomography at the time of surgery and no macular edema treatment at least 6 months before surgery were included. Eyes with diabetes or diabetic retinopathy, those with a history of previous intraocular surgery or with intraoperative complications, and those administered glaucoma and nonsteroidal antiinflammatory eye drops were excluded. RESULTS: Pseudophakic macular edema developed in 31 (27.4%) of 113 eyes within 3 months of cataract surgery. Mean visual acuity for eyes with PME (0.48 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution [logMAR; 20/60 Snellen equivalent]) at 3 months after surgery was significantly worse than that for eyes without PME (0.28 logMAR; 20/38, P = 0.020). However, there was no significant difference in the visual acuity between the 2 groups 6 months after the surgery. Taking into consideration various baseline factors, a history of previous treatment of macular edema was significantly associated with an increased risk of PME (odds ratio, 11.022; 95% confidence interval, 7.258-17.712; P = 0.009). A higher number of intravitreal injections used to treat macular edema also significantly increased the risk of PME (odds ratio, 1.902; 95% confidence interval, 1.032-4.227; P = 0.031). CONCLUSION: Pseudophakic macular edema frequently developed after phacoemulsification cataract surgery in patients with a history of retinal vein occlusion. The risk of PME further increased when the patient had undergone macular edema treatment and had a higher prevalence of intravitreal injection treatment.

Long-term visual outcome and prognostic factors of Intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor treatment for retinal angiomatous proliferation.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the long-term visual outcomes and investigate the prognostic factors of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy for retinal angiomatous proliferation (RAP). METHODS: Thirty-eight treatment-naïve RAP eyes (38 patients) that received intravitreal anti-VEGF (ranibizumab and/or bevacizumab) injections were included and analyzed in this retrospective case series. All patients were treated with an initial series of three monthly intravitreal anti-VEGF injections, followed by as-needed injections for a total of 36 months. RESULTS: The mean number of anti-VEGF injections was 9.61 ± 3.1 during the 36-month follow-up. Mean baseline best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 0.79 ± 0.56 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR; 20/123 Snellen equivalent), and 0.75 ± 0.41 logMAR (20/112 Snellen equivalent) at 36 months (P = 0.55). Mean BCVA significantly improved at 3 months (P = 0.001), and the significant improvement persisted until 18 months from baseline (P = 0.02). However, the mean BCVA between 18 and 36 months showed no statistical in comparison with baseline values. Geographic atrophy developed in 14 eyes (36.8 %) during the entire 36-month follow-up period. Among baseline characteristics, baseline BCVA, greatest lesion diameter (GLD), and lesion size were significantly correlated with long-term visual outcome (P = 0.008, 0.02, and 0.002 respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Intravitreal anti-VEGF injections for RAP showed a favorable visual outcome during the first year; however, the visual gains declined after the second year from baseline. Better baseline BCVA, smaller lesion size, and smaller baseline GLD are associated with better long-term visual outcomes in patients with RAP.

DIAGNOSIS OF TYPE 3 NEOVASCULARIZATION BASED ON OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY IMAGES.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the concordance of an optical coherence tomography (OCT)-based diagnosis of Type 3 neovascularization and an indocyanine green angiography (ICGA)-based diagnosis in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD). METHODS: This observational case series includes 263 eyes from 263 patients who were diagnosed with treatment-naive neovascular AMD. Patients exhibiting at least three of the following OCT features were diagnosed with Type 3 neovascularization: subfoveal choroidal thickness <200 µm, presence of intraretinal fluid accumulation, absence of subretinal fluid, gently-sloping dome-shaped retinal pigment epithelial detachment or trapezoid-shaped retinal pigment epithelial detachment without an obvious peak, and intraretinal mass lesion. The incidence of cases exhibiting three or more OCT features was compared among different subtypes of neovascular AMD. Additionally, the concordance of OCT-based diagnosis and ICGA-based diagnosis was evaluated. RESULTS: Three or more OCT features were noted in 8 of 82 (9.8%) eyes with typical neovascular AMD, 4 of 147 (2.7%) eyes with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy, and 30 of 34 (88.2%) eyes with Type 3 neovascularization, respectively. The incidence was significantly greater in Type 3 neovascularization than in the other subtypes of neovascular AMD (P < 0.001). Of patients diagnosed with Type 3 neovascularization using ICGA-based methods, 88.2% were also diagnosed with Type 3 neovascularization using OCT-based methods. Only 5.2% of patients diagnosed with other subtypes of neovascular AMD using ICGA-based methods were diagnosed with Type 3 neovascularization using OCT-based methods. CONCLUSION: Optical coherence tomography-based diagnosis of Type 3 neovascularization showed relatively high concordance compared with ICGA-based diagnosis. This method may be useful in clinical practice.

RETINAL PIGMENT EPITHELIAL TEAR AFTER INTRAVITREAL RANIBIZUMAB TREATMENT FOR NEOVASCULAR AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the risk factors for retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) tears after intravitreal ranibizumab injections in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) and to determine the efficacy of continued ranibizumab treatment after RPE tears. METHODS: A total of 407 treatment-naïve eyes (377 patients) with nAMD were retrospectively included. All patients were treated with an initial series of 3 monthly loading injections, followed by further injections as required. Baseline characteristics and pigment epithelial detachment (PED) lesion features were evaluated as potential risk factors for RPE tear. The visual and anatomical outcomes after treatment during 12 months were also evaluated. RESULTS: By 12 months, RPE tears developed in 32 eyes (7.9%). Pigment epithelial detachment height was associated with a higher risk of RPE tear (odds ratio [OR], 1.318; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.217-2.031, P = 0.018). Fibrovascular PED compared with serous PED had a higher risk of developing tears (OR, 9.129; 95% CI, 6.228-32.124, P = 0.039), and typical nAMD (OR, 4.166; 95% CI, 2.030-14.913, P = 0.031) and retinal angiomatous proliferation (OR, 3.778; 95% CI, 2.185-9.277, P = 0.040) had a higher risk of developing tears compared with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy. Mean best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of RPE tear patients showed no significant improvement after treatment at 12 months; however, patients with RPE tears without foveal involvement (19 eyes) showed significant BCVA improvement at 12 months (P = 0.034). CONCLUSION: PED type and nAMD subtype are associated with the development of RPE tears after intravitreal ranibizumab injections. Continued ranibizumab therapy after RPE tear development can maintain visual acuity when the fovea is not involved.

Glutaredoxin AtGRXC2 catalyses inhibitory glutathionylation of Arabidopsis BRI1-associated receptor-like kinase 1 (BAK1) in vitro.

Reversible protein phosphorylation, catalysed by protein kinases, is the most widely studied post-translational modification (PTM), whereas the analysis of other modifications such as S-thiolation is in its relative infancy. In a yeast-two-hybrid (Y2H) screen, we identified a number of novel putative brassinosteroid insensitive 1 (BR1)-associated receptor-like kinase 1 (BAK1) interacting proteins including several proteins related to redox regulation. Glutaredoxin (GRX) C2 (AtGRXC2) was among candidate proteins identified in the Y2H screen and its interaction with recombinant Flag-BAK1 cytoplasmic domain was confirmed using an in vitro pull-down approach. We show that BAK1 peptide kinase activity is sensitive to the oxidizing agents H2O2 and diamide in vitro, suggesting that cysteine oxidation might contribute to control of BAK1 activity. Furthermore, BAK1 was glutathionylated and this reaction could occur via a thiolate-dependent reaction with GSSG or a H2O2-dependent reaction with GSH and inhibited kinase activity. Surprisingly, both reactions were catalysed by AtGRXC2 at lower concentrations of GSSG or GSH than reacted non-enzymatically. Using MALDI-TOF MS, we identified Cys353, Cys374 and Cys408 as potential sites of glutathionylation on the BAK1 cytoplasmic domain and directed mutagenesis suggests that Cys353 and Cys408 are major sites of GRXC2-mediated glutathionylation. Collectively, these results highlight the potential for redox control of BAK1 and demonstrate the ability of AtGRXC2 to catalyse protein glutathionylation, a function not previously described for any plant GRX. The present work presents a foundation for future studies of glutathionylation of plant receptor-like protein kinases (RLKs) as well as for the analysis of activities of plant GRXs.

Intravitreal ranibizumab injections with and without pneumatic displacement for treating submacular hemorrhage secondary to neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy of intravitreal ranibizumab with and without pneumatic displacement for the treatment of submacular hemorrhage secondary to neovascular age-related macular degeneration. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 93 treatment-naive patients (93 eyes) with submacular hemorrhage secondary to neovascular age-related macular degeneration. All patients were treated with an initial series of 3 monthly intravitreal ranibizumab injections, followed by as-needed injections. For the patients treated with pneumatic displacement, expansive gas was injected at the time of the first ranibizumab injection. RESULTS: Mean submacular hemorrhage area was 8.2 ± 5.8 disk areas, and mean symptom duration was 8.2 ± 5.2 days at baseline. Twelve months into treatment, the mean logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution of best-corrected visual acuity of all subjects significantly improved from 1.19 ± 0.55 (20/309) at baseline to 0.96 ± 0.39 (20/182, P = 0.007) at 12 months. The mean central foveal thickness also significantly improved from 473 ± 223 µm at baseline to 279 ± 134 µm (P < 0.001) at 12 months. However, no significant difference in best-corrected visual acuity and mean central foveal thickness between ranibizumab monotherapy (58 eyes) and combination therapy groups (35 eyes) was observed at 12 months. CONCLUSION: Intravitreal ranibizumab injections with and without pneumatic displacement are viable treatment options for submacular hemorrhage secondary to neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

Protective effect of dieckol against chemical hypoxia-induced cytotoxicity in primary cultured mouse hepatocytes.

Hepatic ischemic injury is a major complication arising from liver surgery, transplantation, or other ischemic diseases, and both reactive oxygen species (ROS) and pro-inflammatory mediators play the role of key mediators in hepatic ischemic injury. In this study, we examined the effect of dieckol in chemical hypoxia-induced injury in mouse hepatocytes. Cell viability was significantly decreased after treatment with cobalt chloride (CoCl2), a well-known hypoxia mimetic agent in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Pretreatment with dieckol before exposure to CoCl2 significantly attenuated the CoCl2-induced decrease of cell viability. Additionally, pretreatment with dieckol potentiated the CoCl2-induced decrease of Bcl-2 expression and attenuated the CoCl2-induced increase in the expression of Bax and caspase-3. Treatment with CoCl2 resulted in an increased intracellular ROS generation, which is inhibited by dieckol or N-acetyl cysteine (NAC, a ROS scavenger), and p38 MAPK phosphorylation, which is also blocked by dieckol or NAC. In addition, dieckol and SB203580 (p38 MAPK inhibitor) increased the CoCl2-induced decrease of Bcl-2 expression and decreased the CoCl2-induced increase of Bax and caspase-3 expressions. CoCl2-induced decrease of cell viability was attenuated by pretreatment with dieckol, NAC, and SB203580. Furthermore, dieckol attenuated CoCl2-induced COX-2 expression. Similar to the effect of dieckol, NAC also blocked CoCl2-induced COX-2 expression. Additionally, CoCl2-induced decrease of cell viability was attenuated not only by dieckol and NAC but also by NS-398 (a selective COX-2 inhibitor). In conclusion, dieckol protects primary cultured mouse hepatocytes against CoCl2-induced cell injury through inhibition of ROS-activated p38 MAPK and COX-2 pathway.

AraDQ: an automated digital phenotyping software for quantifying disease symptoms of flood-inoculated Arabidopsis seedlings.

BACKGROUND: Plant scientists have largely relied on pathogen growth assays and/or transcript analysis of stress-responsive genes for quantification of disease severity and susceptibility. These methods are destructive to plants, labor-intensive, and time-consuming, thereby limiting their application in real-time, large-scale studies. Image-based plant phenotyping is an alternative approach that enables automated measurement of various symptoms. However, most of the currently available plant image analysis tools require specific hardware platform and vendor specific software packages, and thus, are not suited for researchers who are not primarily focused on plant phenotyping. In this study, we aimed to develop a digital phenotyping tool to enhance the speed, accuracy, and reliability of disease quantification in Arabidopsis. RESULTS: Here, we present the Arabidopsis Disease Quantification (AraDQ) image analysis tool for examination of flood-inoculated Arabidopsis seedlings grown on plates containing plant growth media. It is a cross-platform application program with a user-friendly graphical interface that contains highly accurate deep neural networks for object detection and segmentation. The only prerequisite is that the input image should contain a fixed-sized 24-color balance card placed next to the objects of interest on a white background to ensure reliable and reproducible results, regardless of the image acquisition method. The image processing pipeline automatically calculates 10 different colors and morphological parameters for individual seedlings in the given image, and disease-associated phenotypic changes can be easily assessed by comparing plant images captured before and after infection. We conducted two case studies involving bacterial and plant mutants with reduced virulence and disease resistance capabilities, respectively, and thereby demonstrated that AraDQ can capture subtle changes in plant color and morphology with a high level of sensitivity. CONCLUSIONS: AraDQ offers a simple, fast, and accurate approach for image-based quantification of plant disease symptoms using various parameters. Its fully automated pipeline neither requires prior image processing nor costly hardware setups, allowing easy implementation of the software by researchers interested in digital phenotyping of diseased plants.

Calcium/calmodulin inhibition of the Arabidopsis BRASSINOSTEROID-INSENSITIVE 1 receptor kinase provides a possible link between calcium and brassinosteroid signalling.

The receptor kinase BRI1 (BRASSINOSTEROID-INSENSITIVE 1) is a key component in BR (brassinosteroid) perception and signal transduction, and has a broad impact on plant growth and development. In the present study, we demonstrate that Arabidopsis CaM (calmodulin) binds to the recombinant cytoplasmic domain of BRI1 in a Ca2+-dependent manner in vitro. In silico analysis predicted binding to Helix E of the BRI1 kinase subdomain VIa and a synthetic peptide based on this sequence interacted with Ca2+/CaM. Co-expression of CaM with the cytoplasmic domain of BRI1 in Escherichia coli strongly reduced autophosphorylation of BRI1, in particular on tyrosine residues, and also reduced the BRI1-mediated transphosphorylation of E. coli proteins on tyrosine, threonine and presumably serine residues. Several isoforms of CaM and CMLs (CaM-like proteins) were more effective (AtCaM6, AtCaM7 and AtCML8, where At is Arabidopsis thaliana) than others (AtCaM2, AtCaM4 and AtCML11) when co-expressed with BRI1 in E. coli. These results establish a novel assay for recombinant BRI1 transphosphorylation activity and collectively uncover a possible new link between Ca2+ and BR signalling.

Integrative analysis of metabolite and transcriptome reveals biosynthetic pathway and candidate genes for eupatilin and jaceosidin biosynthesis in Artemisia argyi.

Artemisia argyi (A. argyi) is a medicinal plant belonging to the Asteraceae family and Artemisia genus. Flavonoids abundant in A. argyi are associated with anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and antioxidative effects. Eupatilin and jaceosidin are representative polymethoxy flavonoids with medicinal properties significant enough to warrant the development of drugs using their components. However, the biosynthetic pathways and related genes of these compounds have not been fully explored in A. argyi. This study comprehensively analyzed the transcriptome data and flavonoids contents from four different tissues of A. argyi (young leaves, old leaves, trichomes collected from stems, and stems without trichomes) for the first time. We obtained 41,398 unigenes through the de-novo assembly of transcriptome data and mined promising candidate genes involved in the biosynthesis of eupatilin and jaceosidin using differentially expressed genes, hierarchical clustering, phylogenetic tree, and weighted gene co-expression analysis. Our analysis led to the identification of a total of 7,265 DEGs, among which 153 genes were annotated as flavonoid-related genes. In particular, we were able to identify eight putative flavone-6-hydroxylase (F6H) genes, which were responsible for providing a methyl group acceptor into flavone basic skeleton. Furthermore, five O-methyltransferases (OMTs) gene were identified, which were required for the site-specific O-methylation during the biosynthesis of eupatilin and jaceosidin. Although further validation would be necessary, our findings pave the way for the modification and mass-production of pharmacologically important polymethoxy flavonoids through genetic engineering and synthetic biological approaches.

Unicentric Castleman disease relapsed after rituximab-CHOP chemotherapy or radiation therapy in an adolescent.

Castleman disease (CD), an atypical lymphoproliferative disorder of unknown etiology, is rare. Unicentric CD can be cured after resection of the involved lymph nodes. However, rarely, patients with the unicentric-plasma cell variant may require additional therapy after resection for persistent systemic symptoms. The clinical course of such patients has not been well characterized. We report the case with relapsed unicentric-plasma cell variant CD who was eventually treated with complete surgical resection. This patient had no response to combination chemotherapy with rituximab after incomplete resection and no response to radiation after relapse.

Translating CO[Formula: see text] variability in a plant growth system into plant dynamics.

Plant growth occurs owing to the continuous interactions between environmental and genetic factors, and the analysis of plant growth provides crucial information on plant responses. Recent agronomic and analytical methodologies for plant growth require various channels for capturing broader and more dynamic plant traits. In this study, we provide a method of non-invasive growth analyses by translating CO[Formula: see text] variability around a plant. We hypothesized that the cumulative coefficient of variation (CCV) of plant-driven ambient CO[Formula: see text] variation in a plant growth system could yield a numerical indicator that is connected to the plant growth dynamics. Using the system outside-plant growth system-plant coupled dynamic model, we found that the CCV could translate dynamic plant growth under environmental and biophysical constraints. Furthermore, we experimentally demonstrated the application of CCV by using non-airtight growth chamber systems. Our findings may enrich plant growth information channels and assist growers or researchers to analyze plant growth comprehensively.

Towards greenhouse cultivation of Artemisia annua: The application of LEDs in regulating plant growth and secondary metabolism.

Artemisinin is a sesquiterpene lactone produced in glandular trichomes of Artemisia annua, and is extensively used in the treatment of malaria. Growth and secondary metabolism of A. annua are strongly regulated by environmental conditions, causing unstable supply and quality of raw materials from field grown plants. This study aimed to bring A. annua into greenhouse cultivation and to increase artemisinin production by manipulating greenhouse light environment using LEDs. A. annua plants were grown in a greenhouse compartment for five weeks in vegetative stage with either supplemental photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) (blue, green, red or white) or supplemental radiation outside PAR wavelength (far-red, UV-B or both). The colour of supplemental PAR hardly affected plant morphology and biomass, except that supplemental green decreased plant biomass by 15% (both fresh and dry mass) compared to supplemental white. Supplemental far-red increased final plant height by 23% whereas it decreased leaf area, plant fresh and dry weight by 30%, 17% and 7%, respectively, compared to the treatment without supplemental radiation. Supplemental UV-B decreased plant leaf area and dry weight (both by 7%). Interestingly, supplemental green and UV-B increased leaf glandular trichome density by 11% and 9%, respectively. However, concentrations of artemisinin, arteannuin B, dihydroartemisinic acid and artemisinic acid only exhibited marginal differences between the light treatments. There were no interactive effects of far-red and UV-B on plant biomass, morphology, trichome density and secondary metabolite concentrations. Our results illustrate the potential of applying light treatments in greenhouse production of A. annua to increase trichome density in vegetative stage. However, the trade-off between light effects on plant growth and trichome initiation needs to be considered. Moreover, the underlying mechanisms of light spectrum regulation on artemisinin biosynthesis need further clarification to enhance artemisinin yield in greenhouse production of A. annua.

A Hyperspectral Data 3D Convolutional Neural Network Classification Model for Diagnosis of Gray Mold Disease in Strawberry Leaves.

Gray mold disease is one of the most frequently occurring diseases in strawberries. Given that it spreads rapidly, rapid countermeasures are necessary through the development of early diagnosis technology. In this study, hyperspectral images of strawberry leaves that were inoculated with gray mold fungus to cause disease were taken; these images were classified into healthy and infected areas as seen by the naked eye. The areas where the infection spread after time elapsed were classified as the asymptomatic class. Square regions of interest (ROIs) with a dimensionality of 16 × 16 × 150 were acquired as training data, including infected, asymptomatic, and healthy areas. Then, 2D and 3D data were used in the development of a convolutional neural network (CNN) classification model. An effective wavelength analysis was performed before the development of the CNN model. Further, the classification model that was developed with 2D training data showed a classification accuracy of 0.74, while the model that used 3D data acquired an accuracy of 0.84; this indicated that the 3D data produced slightly better performance. When performing classification between healthy and asymptomatic areas for developing early diagnosis technology, the two CNN models showed a classification accuracy of 0.73 with regards to the asymptomatic ones. To increase accuracy in classifying asymptomatic areas, a model was developed by smoothing the spectrum data and expanding the first and second derivatives; the results showed that it was possible to increase the asymptomatic classification accuracy to 0.77 and reduce the misclassification of asymptomatic areas as healthy areas. Based on these results, it is concluded that the proposed 3D CNN classification model can be used as an early diagnosis sensor of gray mold diseases since it produces immediate on-site analysis results of hyperspectral images of leaves.

Immediate Vitrectomy for Acute Endophthalmitis in Patients with a Visual Acuity of Hand Motion or Better.

PURPOSE: To determine the efficacy of immediate pars plana vitrectomy as the primary treatment for acute endophthalmitis in patients with a visual acuity (VA) of hand motion (HM) or better. METHODS: A total of 149 patients who were referred to a single center for acute endophthalmitis after cataract surgery over the 13-year study period were retrospectively analyzed. Only patients presenting with a VA of at least HM were included. Patients were initially treated with either primary vitrectomy or intravitreal antibiotic injection alone, and their visual outcomes and reintervention rates after initial treatment were compared. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the proportion of good (final VA ≥20 / 40) and poor (VA ≤ counting finger) visual outcomes between the groups. However, subgroup analysis of patients with a VA of HM (92 eyes) showed that the incidence of reintervention (14 of 72 eyes [19.4%] vs. 9 of 20 eyes [45.0%]) and poor visual outcomes (10 of 72 eyes [13.9%] vs. 8 of 20 eyes [40.0%]) were lower after prompt vitrectomy than after intravitreal antibiotic injection alone (p = 0.019 and p = 0.022, respectively). For those with a VA of at least counting finger, no significant difference was observed between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: For patients with endophthalmitis presenting with a VA of HM, performing a prompt vitrectomy reduced the incidence of reintervention and poor visual outcomes than the administration of intravitreal antibiotics alone. Our results suggest that primary vitrectomy for patients with endophthalmitis presenting with a VA of HM could be more beneficial than intravitreal antibiotic injection alone.

Caveolin-1 and integrin ß1 regulate embryonic stem cell proliferation via p38 MAPK and FAK in high glucose.

The involvement of caveolin-1 (Cav-1) and integrin ß1 (IN ß1) in regulation of embryonic stem (ES) cell growth by high glucose is by no means clear cut. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the influence of high glucose on Cav-1 and IN ß1 expression in mouse ES cells and their signaling pathways to modulate proliferation. High glucose significantly increased Cav-1 and IN ß1 expression. In addition, increased IN ß1 expression was inhibited by Cav-1 small interfering RNA (siRNA). High glucose caused reactive oxygen species generation and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) phosphorylation. Inhibition of p38 MAPK blocked high glucose-induced Cav-1 and fibronectin (FN) expression. Moreover, phosphorylation of both Src and focal adhesion kinase (FAK) were increased by high glucose, which were inhibited by IN ß1 antibody. In addition, high glucose increased the expression levels of PINCH1/2, integrin-linked kinase (ILK), and α-parvin [PIP] complex proteins, which were all inhibited by the FAK siRNA and Src specific inhibitor (PP2, 10(-7) M). High glucose also increased F-actin expression, which was inhibited by ILK, PINCH1/2, and α-parvin siRNAs. Finally, high glucose-induced increase of ES cell proliferation was inhibited by TRIO and F-actin binding protein (TRIOBP) siRNA. The results demonstrate that high glucose-induced Cav-1 and IN ß1 activation can stimulate ES cell proliferation through the modification of focal adhesion signaling pathways.