Gh4CL20/20A involved in flavonoid biosynthesis is essential for male fertility in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.).

Flavonoids have been shown to play an essential role in plant growth and fertility. 4-Coumarate CoA ligase (4CL) is one of the indispensable enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of flavonoids. However, the role of 4CL and flavonoids in impact on cotton fertility is still unknown. In this study, on the basis of identification of an additional Gh4CL gene, Gh4CL20A, by using an updated G. hirsutum genome, we found that Gh4CL20A and its homologous Gh4CL20 were preferentially expressed in petals and stamens. The petals of the loss-of-function Gh4CL20/Gh4CL20A mutant generated by CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing remained white until wilting. Notably, the mutant showed indehiscent anthers, reduced number of pollen grains and pollen viability, leading to male sterility. Histological analysis revealed that abnormal degradation of anther tapetum at the tetrad stage and abnormal pollen grain development at the mature stage caused male sterility of the gene editing mutant. Analysis of the anther transcriptome identified a total of 10574 and 11962 genes up- and down-regulated in the mutant, respectively, compared to the wild-type. GO, KEGG, and WGCNA analyses linked the abnormality of the mutant anthers to the defective flavonoid biosynthetic pathway, leading to decreased activity of 4CL and chalcone isomerase (CHI) and reduced accumulation of flavonoids in the mutant. These results imply a role of Gh4CL20/Gh4CL20A in assuring proper development of cotton anthers by regulating flavonoid metabolism. This study elucidates a molecular mechanism underlying cotton anther development and provides candidate genes for creating cotton male sterile germplasm that has the potential to be used in production of hybrid seeds.

Magnetic field-assisted cascade effects of improving the quality of gels-based meat products: A mechanism from myofibrillar protein gelation.

Physics-assisted processing technologies have huge potential in the meat processing industry. By modeling two essential procedures (pickling and preheating) of gels-based meat products, this work investigated the cascade effects of a new physical technology (magnetic field) on the conformational structures and gel properties of myofibrillar proteins (MPs). Samples were subjected with four magnetic field (MF)-assisted treatments (group A, both processes without MF; group B, pickling without MF combining with preheating with 4.5 mT MF; group C, pickling with 3.0 mT MF combining with preheating without MF; group D, pickling with 3.0 mT MF combining with preheating with 4.5 mT MF). The result showed that MF-assisted treatments significantly improved water holding capacity (WHC) of MP gels compared with group A (46.9%), reaching the maximum value of 52.1% in group D.According to the low-field nuclear magnetic results, group D decreased the percentages of P22 (6.97%) and increased the percentages of P21 (93%), which showed that water molecules were more tightly bound to each other. Meanwhile, the unfolding of α-helix and the formation of random coil of MF-assisted treatments resulted in more exposure of internal groups, leading to the formation of a dense network. These findings would provide new insights to improve the quality of gels-based meat products via the MF.

FDMLNet: A Frequency-Division and Multiscale Learning Network for Enhancing Low-Light Image.

Low-illumination images exhibit low brightness, blurry details, and color casts, which present us an unnatural visual experience and further have a negative effect on other visual applications. Data-driven approaches show tremendous potential for lighting up the image brightness while preserving its visual naturalness. However, these methods introduce hand-crafted holes and noise enlargement or over/under enhancement and color deviation. For mitigating these challenging issues, this paper presents a frequency division and multiscale learning network named FDMLNet, including two subnets, DetNet and StruNet. This design first applies the guided filter to separate the high and low frequencies of authentic images, then DetNet and StruNet are, respectively, developed to process them, to fully explore their information at different frequencies. In StruNet, a feasible feature extraction module (FFEM), grouped by multiscale learning block (MSL) and a dual-branch channel attention mechanism (DCAM), is injected to promote its multiscale representation ability. In addition, three FFEMs are connected in a new dense connectivity meant to utilize multilevel features. Extensive quantitative and qualitative experiments on public benchmarks demonstrate that our FDMLNet outperforms state-of-the-art approaches benefiting from its stronger multiscale feature expression and extraction ability.

The surgical safety checklist: a quantitative study on attitudes and barriers among gynecological surgery teams.

BACKGROUND: Implementation of the surgical safety checklist (SSC) plays a significant role in improving surgical patient safety, but levels of compliance to a SSC implementation by surgical team members vary significantly. We aimed to investigate the factors affecting satisfaction levels of gynecologists, anesthesiologists, and operating room registered nurses (OR-RNs) with SSC implementation. METHODS: We conducted a survey based on 267 questionnaires completed by 85 gynecologists from 14 gynecological surgery teams, 86 anesthesiologists, and 96 OR-RNs at a hospital in China from March 3 to March 16, 2020. The self-reported questionnaire was used to collect respondent's demographic information, levels of satisfaction with overall implementation of the SSC and its implementation in each of the three phases of a surgery, namely sign-in, time-out, and sign-out, and reasons for not giving a satisfaction score of 10 to its implementation in all phases. RESULTS: The subjective ratings regarding the overall implementation of the SSC between the surgical team members were different significantly. "Too many operations to check" was the primary factor causing gynecologists and anesthesiologists not to assign a score of 10 to sign-in implementation. The OR-RNs gave the lowest score to time-out implementation and 82 (85.42%) did not assign a score of 10 to it. "Surgeon is eager to start for surgery" was recognized as a major factor ranking first by OR-RNs and ranking second by anesthesiologists, and 57 (69.51%) OR-RNs chose "Too many operations to check" as the reason for not giving a score of 10 to time-out implementation. "No one initiates" and "Surgeon is not present for 'sign out'" were commonly cited as the reasons for not assigning a score of 10 to sign-out implementation. CONCLUSION: Factors affecting satisfaction with SSC implementation were various. These factors might be essentially related to heavy workloads and lack of ability about SSC implementation. It is advisable to reduce surgical team members' excessive workloads and enhance their understanding of importance of SSC implementation, thereby improving surgical team members' satisfaction with SSC implementation and facilitating compliance of SSC completion.

A survey of surgical team members' awareness and perceptions toward the implementation of the surgical safety checklist in gynecological and obstetrical operations.

ABSTRACT: The World Health Organization Surgical Safety Checklist was developed to improve communication in perioperative care, reduce mortality and complications of patients, and ensure the consistent use of procedures for safe surgery. Despite the increased awareness of the checklist, the implementation compliance is reported as low and the degree of completeness varies. This study aimed to explore the possible supportive factors for the effective implementation and to identify potential awareness and barriers to its implementation in gynecological and obstetrical operation.A survey using a cross-sectional design that included surgeons, anesthetists, and operating room nurses was performed. We used an online link to distribute the survey to all eligible surgical team members in our hospital. The survey contained various aspects of perceptions on the Surgical Safety Checklist and an open-ended question that allowed respondents to offer their opinions on the topic.The overall self-reported awareness of the checklist within each professional group was high. The awareness of surgeons was lower than that of operating room nurses, particularly in the Time-out section. Most participants believed that operating room nurses ranked the highest compliance to the protocols, while surgeons stayed the lowest. Active leadership with experienced operating room nurses, good training for surgical team members, and simplification of the checklist would be the positive factors for the effective implementation.Although there is a high acceptance and adequate self-reported awareness of the Surgical Safety Checklist, it is not always possible to implement it successfully. Our findings suggest that with experienced and effective leadership, barriers to implementation can be overcome. With positive perception and commitment, the Surgical Safety Checklist is easy to implement and it can make a profound improvement on the safety of surgical care. Moreover, a strategy of repetitive training and assessment on the part of the involved health care professionals may be necessary to further improve patients' safety during surgery.

Traffic-related metrics and adverse birth outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Given the inconsistency of epidemiologic evidence for associations between maternal exposures to traffic-related metrics and adverse birth outcomes, this manuscript aims to provide clarity on this topic. Pooled meta-estimates were calculated using random-effects analyses. Subgroup analyses were conducted by study area, study design, and Newcastle-Ottawa quality score (NOS). Funnel plots and Egger's test were conducted to evaluate the publication bias, and Fail-safe Numbers (Fail-safe N) were measured to evaluate the robustness of models. From the initial 740 studies (last search, July 11, 2019), 26 studies were included in our analysis. The pooled odds ratio for the change in small for gestational age associated with per 500 m decrease in the distance to roads was 1.016 (95% CI: 1.004, 1.029). Subgroup analyses revealed significant positive associations between term low birth weight and traffic density in higher-quality literatures with higher NOS [1.060 (95% CI: 1.002, 1.121)], cohort studies [1.020 (95% CI: 1.006, 1.033)], and studies in North America [1.018 (95% CI: 1.005, 1.131)]. The buffer of traffic density made no difference in the effect size. Traffic density seemed to be a better indicator of traffic pollution than the distance to roads.

Xylitol Gum Chewing to Achieve Early Postoperative Restoration of Bowel Motility After Laparoscopic Surgery.

Our objective was to evaluate the effects of postoperative xylitol gum chewing on gastrointestinal functional recovery after laparoscopy. Altogether, 120 patients undergoing elective gynecologic laparoscopy were randomly divided into 2 groups of 60 each (final numbers: 53 controls, 56 patients). Controls underwent a routine postoperative regimen. Starting 6 hour after surgery, study patients chewed mint-flavored, sugarless xylitol gum until flatus occurred thrice a day. Other postoperative management was routine. First bowel sounds, first flatus, first bowel movement, and discharge times were recorded. Symptoms included abdominal distension, nausea, and vomiting. First flatus and first bowel sounds occurred significantly (P<0.001) earlier in the study patients. No significant differences were found for first defecation time, hospitalization duration, or mild/severe intestinal obstruction (all P>0.05). Thus, xylitol gum chewing after laparoscopy can effectively shorten the time to first flatus and helps with postoperative gastrointestinal functional recovery. It is simple, convenient, and well tolerated.