Deep learning-based high-throughput detection of in vitro germination to assess pollen viability from microscopic images.

In vitro pollen germination is considered the most efficient method to assess pollen viability. The pollen germination frequency and pollen tube length, which are key indicators of pollen viability, should be accurately measured during in vitro culture. In this study, a Mask R-CNN model trained using microscopic images of tree peony (Paeonia suffruticosa) pollen has been proposed to rapidly detect the pollen germination rate and pollen tube length. To reduce the workload during image acquisition, images of synthesized crossed pollen tubes were added to the training dataset, significantly improving the model accuracy in recognizing crossed pollen tubes. At an Intersection over Union threshold of 50%, a mean average precision of 0.949 was achieved. The performance of the model was verified using 120 testing images. The R2 value of the linear regression model using detected pollen germination frequency against the ground truth was 0.909 and that using average pollen tube length was 0.958. Further, the model was successfully applied to two other plant species, indicating a good generalizability and potential to be applied widely.

Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis caused by traumatic brain injury complicating thyroid storm: a case report and discussion.

INTRODUCTION: Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) is an uncommon cerebrovascular disease with diverse predisposing factors. We report a case of CVST caused by a thyroid storm induced by traumatic brain injury. CASE PRESENTATION: A 29-year-old male patient with a history of Graves' disease with hyperthyroidism presented to our hospital with head trauma of cerebral contusion and laceration in both frontal lobes confirmed by admission CT scan. He received mannitol to lower intracranial pressure, haemostatic therapy, and antiepileptic treatment. Eight days later, he presented with signs of thyroid storms, such as tachycardia, hyperthermia, sweating and irritation, and his thyroid function tests revealed high levels of TPO-Ab, TR-Ab, TG-Ab, FT3 and FT4. Then, he entered a deep coma. His brain CT showed a thrombosis of multiple venous sinuses, along with the opening of peripheral collateral vessels, congestive infarction with haemorrhage and brain swelling. He regained consciousness after treatment with antithyroid drugs, anticoagulants, respiratory support and a regimen of sedation/analgesia. After a half-year follow-up, most of the patient's blocked cerebral venous sinuses had been recanalized, but there were still some sequelae, such as an impaired fine motor performance of the right hand and verbal expression defects. CONCLUSIONS: CVST can be induced by thyroid storms, and trauma-related thyroid storms can develop on the basis of hyperthyroidism. The purpose of this case report is to raise clinicians' awareness and improve their ability to diagnose CVST early in patients with traumatic brain injury complicating thyroid storms to improve the neurological prognosis among similar patients.

Integrated Lipidomics and Transcriptomics Characterization upon Aging-Related Changes of Lipid Species and Pathways in Human Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells.

Aberrant differentiations of bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) have proved to be associated with the occurrence of senile osteoporosis. However, mechanisms of this phenomenon relative to abnormal lipid metabolism remain unclear. This study was conducted to characterize the lipidomics alterations during BMSC passaging, aiming at uncovering the aging-related lipid metabolism that may play an important role in aberrant differentiations of BMSCs. Principal component analysis presented the sequential lipidomics alterations during BMSC passaging. The majority of glycerophospholipids, including phosphatidylcholines, phosphatidylethanolamines, phosphatidylglycerols, as well as sphingolipids, revealed significant elevations, whereas the others, including phosphatidic acids, phosphatidylinositols, and phosphatidylserines, presented decreases in aged cells. Double-bond equivalent versus carbon number plots demonstrated that the changing trends and significances of lipids during passaging were associated with the chain length and the degree of unsaturation. In the correlation networks, the scattering patterns of lipid categories suggested the category-related metabolic independence and potential conversion among phosphatidic acids, phosphatidylinositols, and phosphatidylserines. The lipid-enzyme integrated pathway analysis indicated the activated metabolic conversion from phosphatidic acids to CDP-diacylglycerol to phosphatidylinositols and from sphingosine to ceramides to sphingomyelins with BMSC passaging. The conversions among lipid species described the lipidomics responses that potentially induced the aberrant differentiations during BMSC aging.

Metabolic profiling analysis upon acylcarnitines in tissues of hepatocellular carcinoma revealed the inhibited carnitine shuttle system caused by the downregulated carnitine palmitoyltransferase 2.

The carnitine shuttle system (CSS) plays a crucial role in the transportation of fatty acyls during fatty acid ß-oxidation for energy supplementation, especially in cases of high energy demand, such as in cancer. In this study, to systematically characterize alterations of the CSS in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), acylcarnitine metabolic profiling was carried out on 80 pairs of HCC tissues and adjacent noncancerous tissues (ANTs) by using ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Twenty-four acylcarnitines classified into five categories were identified and characterized between HCCs and ANTs. Notably, increased saturated long-chain acylcarnitines (LCACs) and decreased short- and medium-chain acylcarnitines (S/MCACs) were simultaneously observed in HCC samples. Subsequent correlation network and heatmap analysis indicated low correlations between LCACs and S/MCACs. The mRNA and protein expressions of carnitine palmitoyltransferase 2 (CPT2) was significantly downregulated in HCC samples, whereas CPT1A expression was not significantly changed. Correspondingly, the relative levels of S/MCACs were reduced and those of LCACs were increased in BEL-7402/CPT2-knockdown cells compared to negative controls. Both results suggested that decreased shuttling efficiency in HCC might be associated with downregulation of CPT2. In addition, decreases in the mRNA expression of acetyl-CoA acyltransferase 2 were also observed in HCC tissues and BEL-7402/CPT2-knockdown cells, suggesting potential low ß-oxidation efficiency, which was consistent with the increased expression of stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 in both samples. The systematic strategy applied in our study illustrated decreased shuttling efficiency of the carnitine shuttle system in HCC and can provide biologists with an in-depth understanding of ß-oxidation in HCC.

The Effect of Coupling Agents and Graphene on the Mechanical Properties of Film-Based Post-Consumer Recycled Plastic.

This study aims to improve the mechanical properties of post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic composed primarily of polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE), which generally exhibit poor miscibility, by applying coupling agents and graphene. Here, we compare a commercially available coupling agent with a directly synthesized maleic anhydride (MA) coupling agent. When applied to a 5:5 blend of recycled PP and PE, an optimum tensile strength was achieved at a 3 wt% coupling agent concentration, with the MA coupling agent outperforming the commercial one. Characterization through Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and thermogravimetry analysis (TGA) revealed a PP:PE ratio of approximately 3:7 in the PCR plastics, with 4.86% heterogeneous materials present. Applying 3 wt% of the commercial and MA coupling agents to the PCR plastics resulted in a significant 53.9% increase in the tensile strength, reaching 11.25 MPa, and a remarkable 421.54% increase in the melt flow index (MFI), reaching 25.66 g/10 min. Furthermore, incorporating 5 wt% graphene led to a notable 64.84% increase in the tensile strength. In addition, the application of MA coupling agents and graphene improved the thermal stability of the PCR plastics. These findings show significant promise for addressing environmental concerns associated with plastic waste by facilitating the recycling of PCR plastics into new products. The utilization of coupling agents and graphene offers a viable approach to enhance the mechanical properties of PCR plastics, paving the way for sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions.

[Prognostic value of admission B-type natriuretic peptide on outcome for patients with congestive heart failure].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the prognostic value of admission B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) on outcome for patients with congestive heart failure (CHF). METHODS: Blood BNP levels, routine echocardiography and tissue Doppler image were obtained in 162 CHF patients [95 male, mean age: (71.8±3.7) years] at admission. Patients were divided into high BNP (BNP>1500 ng/L, n=104) and low BNP (BNP≤1500 ng/L, n=58) groups. All patients were followed up for 2 years and clinical characteristics, echocardiography including Doppler image and cardiovascular events results were analyzed. Data were also compared between patients with (n=48) or without (n=107) cardiovascular events. RESULTS: Left ventricular ejection fractions (LVEF) was significantly lower [(40.9±5.6)% vs. (44.0±5.9)%, P<0.01] while the total cardiovascular events rate (49.1% vs. 21.0%, P<0.01) and cardiac mortality rate (25.5% vs. 9.0%, P<0.01) were significantly higher in high BNP group than in low BNP group. BNP level at admission in event group was significantly higher than in event-free group [(2875.4±325.7) ng/L vs. (1136.9±298.6) ng/L, P<0.000]. BNP level was positively related to Tei-index (r=0.793, P<0.001) and negatively correlated with LVEF (r=-0.57, P<0.001). Multiple logistic regression analysis demonstrated that BNP, LVEF, Tei-index and ß-blocker use were independent risk factors for cardiovascular events. The area under the ROC curve for predicting cardiovascular death within 2 years in event group by BNP was 0.795 (95%CI 0.693-0.935, sensitivity: 72.31% and specificity: 84.62%, cut-off BNP value: 1910 ng/L). The event risk was 2.17 times higher in CHF patients with admission BNP>1910 ng/L compared CHF patients with admission BNP≤1910 ng/L (95%CI: 1.852-2.954, P=0.000). CONCLUSION: Admission BNP level, LVEF, Tei-index and ß-blocker use are independent risk factors for cardiovascular events in patients with CHF. Patients with higher admission BNP level (>1910 ng/L) is linked with worse prognosis in this patient cohort.

[Study of multimodal monitoring in neurocritical care patients].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the significance of multimodal monitoring in the monitoring and treatment of neurocritical care patients. METHODS: 104 neurocritical care patients admitted to the department of Critical Care Medicine of Fujian Provincial Hospital from March 2019 to January 2020 were enrolled. Patients were randomly assigned into two groups, with 52 in each group. In the routine monitoring treatment group, heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate and the changes in consciousness and pupils were monitored after operation. The patients were treated with routine medicine to reduce intracranial pressure (ICP), maintain proper cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP), balance fluid intake and output, and maintain the airway clear. Patients in the multimodal monitoring treatment group were treated with invasive ICP monitoring, ultrasound to assess brain structure, ultrasound to measure optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD), transcranial color doppler (TCCD), internal jugular venous blood oxygen saturation monitoring, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), non-invasive cerebral blood oxygen saturation monitoring and quantitative electroencephalogram monitoring. According to the monitoring results, the patients were given targeted treatment with the goal of controlling ICP and improving brain metabolism. The length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay, the incidences of neurological complications (secondary cerebral infarction, cerebral hemorrhage, high intracranial pressure, etc.), and the incidences of poor prognosis [6 months after the onset of Glasgow outcome score (GOS) 1 to 3] were compared between the two groups. Spearman rank correlation analysis of the correlation between invasive ICP and the ICP value which was calculated by TCCD. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of invasive ICP and pulsatility index of middle cerebral artery (PIMCA) were used to predict poor prognosis. RESULTS: The length of ICU stay in the multimodal monitoring treatment group was significantly shorter than that of the routine monitoring treatment group (days: 6.27±3.81 vs. 9.61±5.09, P < 0.01), and the incidence of neurological complications was significantly lower than that in the routine monitoring treatment group (9.62% vs. 25.00%, P < 0.05). In the multimodal monitoring treatment group, 37 cases had a good prognosis and 15 cases had a poor prognosis, while the routine monitoring treatment group had a good prognosis in 27 cases and a poor prognosis in 25 cases. The incidence of poor prognosis in the multimodal monitoring treatment group was lower than that of the routine monitoring treatment group (28.85% vs. 48.08%, P < 0.05). In the multimodal monitoring treatment group, the invasive ICP and PIMCA of patients with good prognosis were significantly lower than those of patients with poor prognosis [invasive ICP (mmHg, 1 mmHg = 0.133 kPa): 16 (12, 17) vs. 22 (20, 24), PIMCA: 0.90±0.33 vs. 1.39±0.58, both P < 0.01]. There was no significant difference in resistance index of the middle cerebral artery (RIMCA) between the good prognosis group and the poor prognosis group (0.63±0.12 vs. 0.66±0.15, P > 0.05). There was a positive correlation between the invasive ICP and the ICP value which was calculated by TCCD (r = 0.767, P < 0.001). ROC curve analysis showed that the area under ROC curve (AUC) of invasive ICP for poor prognosis prediction was 0.906, the best cut-off value was ≥ 18 mmHg, the sensitivity was 86.49%, and the specificity was 86.67%. The AUC of PIMCA for poor prognosis prediction was 0.759, the best cut-off value was ≥ 1.12, the sensitivity was 81.08%, and the specificity was 60.00%. The AUC of invasive ICP was greater than PIMCA (Z = 2.279, P = 0.023). CONCLUSIONS: Comprehensive analysis of multimodal monitoring indicators for neurocritical care patients to guide clinical treatment can reduce the length of hospital stay, and reduce the risk of neurosurgery complications and disability; invasive ICP can predict poor prognosis of neurocritical care patients.

Novel Metabolomics Serum Biomarkers for Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma by the Comparison of Pre-, Postoperative and Normal Samples.

Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most aggressive human malignancies. The metabolomic approaches are developed to discover the novel biomarkers of PDAC. Methods: 550 preoperative, postoperative PDAC and normal controls (NCs) serums were employed to characterize metabolic alterations in training and validation sets by LC-MS. Results: The results of PLS-DA analysis indicated that three groups could be distinguished clearly and the post-PDAC group is adjacent to a normal group as compared with pre-PDAC group. Further results showed that histidinyl-lysine significantly increased whereas docosahexaenoic acid and LysoPC (14:0) decreased in pre-PDAC patients as compared with NCs. And these three markers had a significant tendency to recover after tumor resection. The validation set results revealed that for CA19-9 negative patients, 92.3% (12/13) of them can be screened using these three metabolites. The combination of these markers could significantly improve the diagnostic performance for PDAC, with higher sensitivity (0.93), specificity (0.92) and AUC (0.97). Moreover, network and pathways analyses explored the latent relationship among differential metabolites. The glycerolipid metabolism and primary bile acid synthesis showed variation in network and pathway analysis. Conclusions: These three markers combined with CA199 displayed high sensitivity and specificity for detecting PDAC patients from NCs. The results indicated that these three metabolites could be regarded as potential biomarkers to distinguish PDAC from NCs.

SCIA: A Novel Gene Set Analysis Applicable to Data With Different Characteristics.

Gene set analysis is commonly used in functional enrichment and molecular pathway analyses. Most of the present methods are based on the competitive testing methods which assume each gene is independent of the others. However, the false discovery rates of competitive methods are amplified when they are applied to datasets with high inter-gene correlations. The self-contained testing methods could solve this problem, but there are other restrictions on data characteristics. Therefore, a statistically rigorous testing method applicable to different datasets with various complex characteristics is needed to obtain unbiased and comparable results. We propose a self-contained and competitive incorporated analysis (SCIA) to alleviate the bias caused by the limited application scope of existing gene set analysis methods. This is accomplished through a novel permutation strategy using a priori biological networks to selectively permute gene labels with different probabilities. In simulation studies, SCIA was compared with four representative analysis methods (GSEA, CAMERA, ROAST, and NES), and produced the best performance in both false discovery rate and sensitivity under most conditions with different parameter settings. Further, the KEGG pathway analysis on two real datasets of lung cancer showed that the results found by SCIA in both of the two datasets are much more than that of GSEA and most of them could be supported by literature. Overall, SCIA promisingly offers researchers more reliable and comparable results with different datasets.

Numerical simulations of wall contact angle effects on droplet size during step emulsification.

Terrace-based microfluidic devices are currently used to prepare highly monodisperse micro-droplets. Droplets are generated due to the spontaneous pressure drop induced by the Laplace pressure, and so the flow rate of a dispersed phase has little effect on droplet size. As a result, control over the droplet is limited once a step emulsification device has been fabricated. In this work, a terrace model was established to study the effect of the wall contact angle on droplet size based on computational fluid dynamics simulations. The results for contact angles from 140° to 180° show that a lower contact angle induces wall-wetting, increasing the droplet size. The Laplace pressure equations for droplet generation were determined based on combining pressure change curves with theoretical analyses, to provide a theoretical basis for controlling and handling droplets generated through step emulsification.

MARVELD1 depletion leads to dysfunction of motor and cognition via regulating glia-dependent neuronal migration during brain development.

The establishment of functional neuronal connectivity is dependent on the neuronal migration and the accurate positioning of neurons in the developing brain. Abnormal neuronal migration can trigger neuronal maturation defects and apoptosis. However, many genetic bases remain unclear in neuronal migration disorders during brain development. In this study, we reported that MARVELD1-defected mice displayed motor and cognitive dysfunction resulting from aberrant neuronal migration during brain development. The laminar organization of the cerebral cortex and cerebellum in MARVELD1 knockout (KO) mice is disrupted, indicating impaired radial neuronal migration. Furthermore, we used the cerebellum as a model to explore the radial neuronal migration processes, and the results demonstrated that the proper neuronal migration depended on MARVELD1 expression in glial cells of the developing brain. MARVELD1 suppressed the expression of ITGB1 and FAK Tyr397 phosphorylation in glia-dependent manner. The inhibition of the MARVELD1/ITGB1/FAK signalling pathway in MARVELD1 KO mice could reverse the defects in neuronal migration in vitro. Our findings revealed that MARVELD1 regulated neuronal migration by mediating the formation of glial fibres and ITGB1/FAK signalling pathway. The depletion of MARVELD1 during mouse brain development led to the abnormity of motor and cognition functions.

Walk-run training improves the anti-inflammation properties of high-density lipoprotein in patients with metabolic syndrome.

CONTEXT: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a constellation of cardiovascular risk factors, including central obesity, dysglycemia, hypertension, and dyslipidemia. The anti-inflammatory properties of high density lipoprotein (HDL) can be compromised in MetS. Exercise is recognized as an important factor in the prevention and treatment of MetS. OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to investigate whether walk/run training without any specific diet could enhance anti-inflammation capacity of HDL from MetS patients. DESIGN: This was a case control study. SETTING: The study was conducted in a Zhoudian community, Taian. PATIENTS: Thirty nine patients with MetS were recruited and divided into a control group (n = 12) remaining in an untrained state and exercise group (n = 27) performing a 10-week walk/run training program. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The anti-inflammation capacities of HDL3 (HDL subfractions) from MetS patients with or without exercise were investigated by co-incubating with TNF- α-injured endothelial cells in vitro. RESULTS: The training did not influence serum lipoprotein level in MetS patients and cholesterol efflux capacity of circulating HDL. However, walk/run training increased paraoxonase-1 (PON1) activity and decreased the levels of malondialdehyde in either serum or isolated HDL from MetS patients prominently. More importantly, HDL3 isolated from MetS patients with 10 weeks training protected endothelial cells against tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a) -induced injury, decreased monocyte chemotactic protein-1 levels in media and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 expression markedly. Furthermore, HDL3 isolated from MetS patients with walk/run training inhibited the TNF-á-induced monocyte adhesion to endothelial cells and obviously increased nitric oxide production by activating endothelial nitric oxide synthase. CONCLUSION: Walk/run training leads to a significant improvement in HDL anti-inflammation capacity in subjects with MetS without restricted diet, the mechanism underlying which at least partially is due to increased PON1 activity in HDL, NO production, and eNOS expression in endothelial cells.