Effects of four bolete species on ectomycorrhizae formation and development in Pinus thunbergii and Quercus acutissima.

BACKGROUND: Bolete cultivation is economically and ecologically valuable. Ectomycorrhizae are advantageous for plant development and productivity. This study investigated how boletes affect the formation of Pinus thunbergii and Quercus acutissima ectomycorrhizae using greenhouse-based mycorrhizal experiments, inoculating P. thunbergii and Q. acutissima with four species of boletes (Suillus bovinus, Suillus luteus, Suillus grevillei, and Retiboletus sinensis). RESULTS: Three months after inoculation, morphological and molecular analyses identified S. bovinus, S. luteus, S. grevillei and R. sinensis ectomycorrhizae formation on the roots of both tree species. The mycorrhizal infection rate ranged from 40 to 55%. The host plant species determined the mycorrhiza morphology, which was independent of the bolete species. Differences in plant growth, photosynthesis, and endogenous hormone secretion primarily correlated with the host plant species. Infection with all four bolete species significantly promoted the host plants' growth and photosynthesis rates; indole-3-acetic acid, zeatin, and gibberellic acid secretion increased, and the abscisic acid level significantly decreased. Indole-3-acetic acid was also detected in the fermentation broths of all bolete species. CONCLUSIONS: Inoculation with bolete and subsequent mycorrhizae formation significantly altered the morphology and hormone content in the host seedlings, indicating growth promotion. These findings have practical implications for culturing pine and oak tree species.

Oyster Mushroom Spherical Virus Crosses the Species Barrier and Is Pathogenic to a New Host Pleurotus pulmonarius.

Oyster mushroom spherical virus (OMSV) is a mycovirus with a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome that infects the edible mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus. OMSV is horizontally transferred from an infected strain to a cured strain via mycelia. The infection results in significant inhibition of mycelial growth, malformation of fruiting bodies, and yield loss in oyster mushrooms. This study successfully transferred OMSV from P. ostreatus to Pleurotus pulmonarius. However, transmission was not successful in other Pleurotus species including P. citrinopileatus, P. eryngii, P. nebrodensis, and P. salmoneostramineus. The successful OMSV infection in P. pulmonarius was further verified with Western blot analysis using a newly prepared polyclonal antiserum against the OMSV coat protein. Furthermore, OMSV infection reduced the mycelial growth rate of P. pulmonarius. The OMSV-infected strain demonstrated abnormal performance including twisted mushrooms or irregular edge of the cap as well as reduced yield of fruiting bodies in P. pulmonarius, compared to the OMSV-free strain. This study is the first report on the infection and pathogenicity of OMSV to the new host P. pulmonarius. The data from this study therefore suggest that OMSV is a potential threat to P. pulmonarius.

Perception and Navigation in Autonomous Systems in the Era of Learning: A Survey.

Autonomous systems possess the features of inferring their own state, understanding their surroundings, and performing autonomous navigation. With the applications of learning systems, like deep learning and reinforcement learning, the visual-based self-state estimation, environment perception, and navigation capabilities of autonomous systems have been efficiently addressed, and many new learning-based algorithms have surfaced with respect to autonomous visual perception and navigation. In this review, we focus on the applications of learning-based monocular approaches in ego-motion perception, environment perception, and navigation in autonomous systems, which is different from previous reviews that discussed traditional methods. First, we delineate the shortcomings of existing classical visual simultaneous localization and mapping (vSLAM) solutions, which demonstrate the necessity to integrate deep learning techniques. Second, we review the visual-based environmental perception and understanding methods based on deep learning, including deep learning-based monocular depth estimation, monocular ego-motion prediction, image enhancement, object detection, semantic segmentation, and their combinations with traditional vSLAM frameworks. Then, we focus on the visual navigation based on learning systems, mainly including reinforcement learning and deep reinforcement learning. Finally, we examine several challenges and promising directions discussed and concluded in related research of learning systems in the era of computer science and robotics.

Multiplex Detection of Pleurotus ostreatus Mycoviruses.

Mycoviruses are viruses that specifically infect and replicate in fungi. Several mycoviruses have been previously reported in Pleurotus ostreatus, including the oyster mushroom spherical virus (OMSV), oyster mushroom isometric virus (OMIV), Pleurotus ostreatus spherical virus (POSV), and Pleurotus ostreatus virus 1 (PoV1). This study was designed to develop a multiplex RT-PCR for simultaneous detection and differentiation of the four P. ostreatus mycoviruses. Four pairs of primers were designed from conserved regions based on the reported sequences and the multiplex RT-PCR products were 672 bp for OMSV, 540 bp for OMIV, 310 bp for POSV, and 200 bp for PoV1. The optimal annealing temperature of the multiplex RT-PCR was 62 °C and the detection limits of the plasmids were 100 fg for OMSV and OMIV and 1 pg for POSV and PoV1. This technique was successfully applied for the detection of OMSV, OMIV, and POSV from different P. ostreatus strains and the plasmid containing the PoV1 sequence. This methodology can serve as a powerful diagnostic tool for the survey of the incidence and epidemiology of the four P. ostreatus mycoviruses, further contributing to the prevention and treatment of mycoviral diseases in P. ostreatus.

Preliminary Studies on the Effects of Oyster Mushroom Spherical Virus China Strain on the Mycelial Growth and Fruiting Body Yield of the Edible Mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus.

Oyster mushroom spherical virus (OMSV) is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA mycovirus which is associated with a devastating oyster mushroom die-back disease. However, little is known about its diversity, and the effects of OMSV infection on its fungal host are not well understood. In this study, we determined the nearly complete nucleotide sequence of OMSV isolated from cultivated oyster mushrooms in China. Sequence analysis suggested that the virus represents a new strain of OMSV (referred to here as OMSV-Ch). A GenBank BLAST search of the genomic sequences demonstrated that the OMSV-Ch had the highest identity (74.9%) with the OMSV from Korea (OMSV-Kr). At the amino acid-sequence level, these two strains shared 84.1% identity in putative replication protein (RP) and 94.1% identity in coat protein (CP). Phylogenetic analysis based on RP showed that OMSV-Ch clustered with OMSV-Kr, closely related to Tymoviridae. Phylogenetic analysis based on both the RP and CP showed that OMSV had a distant clade relationship with tymoviruses, marafiviruses, and maculaviruses. We obtained the OMSV-Ch-free Pleurotus ostreatus strain via single hyphal tip cultures combined with high-temperature treatment. Preliminary studies indicate that OMSV-Ch can significantly inhibit mycelial growth, cause malformations of the fruiting bodies, and reduce the yield of P. ostreatus. Co-cultivation resulted in horizontal transmission of the OMSV-Ch to a virus-cured strain. The findings of our study contribute to the prevention and control of mycoviral diseases in the future.

When Autonomous Systems Meet Accuracy and Transferability through AI: A Survey.

With widespread applications of artificial intelligence (AI), the capabilities of the perception, understanding, decision-making, and control for autonomous systems have improved significantly in recent years. When autonomous systems consider the performance of accuracy and transferability, several AI methods, such as adversarial learning, reinforcement learning (RL), and meta-learning, show their powerful performance. Here, we review the learning-based approaches in autonomous systems from the perspectives of accuracy and transferability. Accuracy means that a well-trained model shows good results during the testing phase, in which the testing set shares a same task or a data distribution with the training set. Transferability means that when a well-trained model is transferred to other testing domains, the accuracy is still good. Firstly, we introduce some basic concepts of transfer learning and then present some preliminaries of adversarial learning, RL, and meta-learning. Secondly, we focus on reviewing the accuracy or transferability or both of these approaches to show the advantages of adversarial learning, such as generative adversarial networks, in typical computer vision tasks in autonomous systems, including image style transfer, image super-resolution, image deblurring/dehazing/rain removal, semantic segmentation, depth estimation, pedestrian detection, and person re-identification. We furthermore review the performance of RL and meta-learning from the aspects of accuracy or transferability or both of them in autonomous systems, involving pedestrian tracking, robot navigation, and robotic manipulation. Finally, we discuss several challenges and future topics for the use of adversarial learning, RL, and meta-learning in autonomous systems.

Research on Enrichment of P2O5 from Low-Grade Carbonaceous Phosphate Ore via Organic Acid Solution.

The theory of using dilute organic acid solutions to leach the carbonaceous part from low-grade carbonaceous phosphate ore has been proposed by researchers as an effective approach to increase the proportion of P and to utilize the abundant low-grade resource. In this paper, a comprehensive experimental study was carried out to confirm the feasibility of organic acid leaching and investigate the optimized leaching conditions. Utilizing the low-grade carbonaceous phosphate ore produced in Zhijin, southwest of China, the effects of different types of acid, acid concentrations, reaction temperatures, reaction times, and liquid-solid ratios on leaching rate of P2O5 were evaluated using single-factor experiments and orthogonal experiments. The reaction mechanism, examined by SEM technique and the reaction thermodynamic analysis suggested that the leaching of P2O5 mainly resulted from the process of dissolution of dolomite (the main gangue mineral) in organic acid, consequently enriching the phosphate rock (the mineral of value). The effectiveness and impacts of different types of acid and reaction conditions were also studied. To conclude, this study first confirmed the viability of enriching P2O5 from low-grade ores through organic acid leaching the carbonaceous part by experimental data, and the experimental results will provide an essential scientific support for further upgrade of the technology to commercial scale utilization.

Innovative Solution for Grasping Forceps Support Suction to Facilitate Uniportal Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery.

Uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery has been limited to the use of very few instruments, which but at least include energy device, grasping forceps, and suction. The last two instruments must be temporarily replaced by each other in response to situation. This step prolongs operative duration and potentially impairs the surgical efficiency. We describe a novel instrument design of grasping forceps support suction. Its continuous suction can clear the smoke and blood simultaneously to keep the operative field dry and clean, minimize the requirement to exchange surgical devices, and allow for optimized surgical workflow.

The association between phospholipase C epsilon gene (PLCE1) polymorphisms and colorectal cancer risk in a Chinese Han population: a case-control study.

BACKGROUND: Heritable factors contribute to the development of colorectal cancer (CRC). We investigated the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms in phospholipase C epsilon 1 (PLCE1) and CRC susceptibility. METHODS: We selected eight tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (tSNPs) and investigated whether they were associated with CRC in Chinese Han population. In this study, we used Sequenom MassARRAY technology and genotyped 276 CRC cases and 385 controls. The effects of the polymorphisms on the risk of CRC were expressed as odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs), evaluated by different genetic models using unconditional logistic regression analysis adjusted for age and gender. We also analyzed the risk of the eight PLCE1 tSNPs in different histology of CRC. RESULTS: Based on x(2) tests, rs753724 (OR = 1.49, 95% CI: 1.10-2.03, P = 0.010) and rs10882424 (OR = 1.32, 95% CI: 1.02-1.70, P = 0.037) in PLCE1 were associated with CRC. In genetic model analyses, we found that rs753724 in PLCE1 may increase CRC risk (OR = 1.48, 95% CI: 1.09-2.03, P = 0.013) in the log-additive model, and rs11187842 in PLCE1 may increase CRC risk (OR = 3.09, 95% CI: 1.17-8.14, P = 0.018) in the recessive model. Rs753724 TT (OR = 4.31, P = 0.010), rs11187842 TT (OR = 5.78, P = 0.003), and rs10882424 GG (OR = 2.64, P = 0.022) in PLCE1 may increase rectal cancer in a recessive model. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that PLCE1 may be associated with CRC in Han Chinese population.

[Surgical approach for lung cancer larger than 10 cm].

OBJECTIVE: To discuss the surgical techniques for lung cancer larger than 10 cm. METHODS: Via a modified anterolateral thoracotomy entered through the 4th or 5th intercostal space, intrapericardial access to pulmonary vessels was obtained for pneumonectomy or extended pneumonectomy in all patients, after excluding the feasibility of lobectomy. RESULTS: From March 2009 to October 2011, 13 consecutive patients with lung cancer larger than 10 cm, were admitted to surgical resection via this approach for intrapericardial pneumonectomy/extending pneumonectomy. The whole processes were smooth and without any major morbidity. CONCLUSIONS: The main approach for lung cancer larger than 10 cm is pneumonectomy. The key to surgical success is intrapericardial controlling of the hilum vascular. The modified anterolateral thoracotomy may facilitate this procedure.

Reconstruction of cervical esophagectomy defects using laryngotracheal bloc.

Surgical treatment of cervical esophagus cancers generally requires a cervical esophagectomy followed by a reconstruction of the removed segment of the upper digestive tract. We describe the use of laryngotracheal bloc for the reconstruction of a resected cervical esophageal defect. Three patients were submitted to this technique. All operations were successfully performed without major procedure-related complications. Ability to swallow was preserved. During a period of ten to twenty-four months of follow-up, all the patients have survived, and can resume a regular diet. The preliminary results show that laryngotracheal bloc is an excellent choice for the reconstruction of the cervical esophagus segment after cancer resections, offering patients fast rehabilitation, lower morbidity, and recovery of satisfactory swallowing function.

Modified anterolateral approach provides improved accessibility to the lung hilum vascular region for giant mass lung cancer pneumonectomy.

Surgical management of patients with a huge pulmonary mass remains a challenge. The surgical risk is amplified by potential hemorrhage, problematic surgical exposure, difficult handling of the tumor, and poor vascular control. We describe a technique that uses a modified anterolateral thoracotomy to accomplish pneumonectomy. An anterolateral thoracotomy was entered through the 4th or 5th intercostal space. The intercostal muscles of the involved interspace were dissected off long enough but without dividing the overlying chest wall muscles. This crucial maneuver allowed a wide rage of rib spreading. The pulmonary hila and lateral aspect of the mediastinum were thus best exposed. Seven patients with large mass pulmonary cancer were admitted for surgical resection via this approach. Intrapericardial access to pulmonary vessels was obtained for pneumonectomy in all patients, including combined carinoplasty and superior vena cava reconstruction for one case. The perioperative courses were smooth and R0-resection was achieved in all cases. The modified anterolateral approach permits very good exposure and control of the pulmonary vessels at the hilum, enabling the resection maneuver to be effective, quick, and safe.