Multiparametric MRI-based radiomics nomogram for identifying cervix-corpus junction cervical adenocarcinoma from endometrioid adenocarcinoma.

OBJECTIVE: To developed a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) radiomics nomogram to identify adenocarcinoma at the cervix-corpus junction originating from the endometrium or cervix in order to better guide clinical treatment. METHODS: Between February 2011 and September 2021, the clinicopathological data and MRI in 143 patients with histopathologically confirmed cervical adenocarcinoma (CAC, n = 86) and endometrioid adenocarcinoma (EAC, n = 57) were retrospectively analyzed at the cervix-corpus junction. Radiomics features were extracted from fat-suppressed T2-weighted imaging (FS-T2WI), diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps, and delayed phase contrast-enhanced T1-weighted imaging (CE-T1WI) sequences. A radiomics nomogram was developed integrating radscore with independent clinical risk factors. The area under the curve (AUC) was used to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of the radscore, nomogram and two different experienced radiologists in differentiating CAC from EAC at the cervix-corpus junction, and Delong test was applied to compare the differences of their diagnostic performance. RESULTS: In the training cohort, the AUC was 0.93 for radscore; 0.97 for radiomics nomograms; 0.85 and 0.86 for radiologists 1 and 2, respectively. Delong test showed that the differential efficacy of nomogram was significant better than those of radiologists in the training cohort (both P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The nomogram based on radscore and clinical risk factors could better differentiate CAC from EAC at the cervix-corpus junction than radiologists, and preoperatively and non-invasively identify the origin of adenocarcinoma at the cervix-corpus junction, which facilitates clinicians to make individualized treatment decision.

Complex effects of testosterone level on ectoparasite load in a ground squirrel: an experimental test for the immunocompetence handicap hypothesis.

BACKGROUND: The immunocompetence handicap hypothesis suggests that males with a higher testosterone level should be better at developing male secondary traits, but at a cost of suppressed immune performance. As a result, we should expect that males with an increased testosterone level also possess a higher parasite load. However, previous empirical studies aimed to test this prediction have generated mixed results. Meanwhile, the effect of testosterone level on parasite load in female hosts remains poorly known. METHODS: In this study, we tested this prediction by manipulating testosterone level in Daurian ground squirrels (Spermophilus dauricus), a medium-sized rodent widely distributed in northeast Asia. S. dauricus is an important host of ticks and fleas and often viewed as a considerable reservoir of plague. Live-trapped S. dauricus were injected with either tea oil (control group) or testosterone (treatment group) and then released. A total of 10 days later, the rodents were recaptured and checked for ectoparasites. Fecal samples were also collected to measure testosterone level of each individual. RESULTS: We found that testosterone manipulation and sex of hosts interacted to affect tick load. At the end of the experiment, male squirrels subjected to testosterone implantation had an averagely higher tick load than males from the control group. However, this pattern was not found in females. Moreover, testosterone manipulation did not significantly affect flea load in S. dauricus. CONCLUSIONS: Our results only lent limited support for the immunocompetence handicap hypothesis, suggesting that the role of testosterone on regulating parasite load is relatively complex, and may largely depend on parasite type and gender of hosts.

Synthesis of Spirooxindole-1,2-oxazinan-5-ones through 2,2,2-Trifluoroethanol Promoted [3 + 3] Cycloaddition of N-Vinyl Oxindole Nitrones and Oxyallyl Cations.

A variety of spirooxindole-1,2-oxazinan-5-one derivatives were prepared in moderate to excellent yields through 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (TFE)-promoted [3 + 3] cycloaddition of N-vinyl oxindole nitrones with oxyallyl cations generated from α-tosyloxy ketones under mild reaction conditions. Mechanistic studies revealed that [3 + 3] cycloaddition might involve two possible reaction pathways, including direct [3 + 3] cycloaddition of N-vinyl oxindole ntirones with oxyallyl cations, or the addition of TFE to N-vinyl oxindole nitrones, sequential addition to oxyallyl cations, elimination, and cyclization. The present method features mild reaction conditions, broad substrate scope, good functional group tolerance, easy gram scalable preparation, and new applications of TFE.

Compact continuous-wave solid-state Raman lasers at 707 and 714†nm for laser trapping and cooling of atomic strontium and radium.

Two compact laser sources at 707 and 714 nm are realized efficiently by using a diode-pumped a-cut Nd:YVO4 laser with intracavity stimulated Raman scattering and sum-frequency generation (SFG). The fundamental wave at 1342 nm is generated by the 4F3/2 → 4I13/2 transition in Nd:YVO4 crystal. The Raman Stokes waves at 1496 and 1526 nm were obtained by placing the c-axis of the Nd:YVO4 crystal along the Ng and Nm axes of an Np-cut KGW crystal, respectively. LBO crystals with critical phase matching are used to perform the intracavity SFG of fundamental and Stokes waves. At a pump power of 36 W, the maximum output powers at 707 and 714 nm can reach 2.72 and 3.14 W, corresponding to light-to-light conversion efficiencies of 7.5% and 8.7%, respectively. The developed 707 and 714 nm laser sources are practically useful in laser trapping and cooling related to atomic strontium and radium.

The pathophysiology and current treatments for the subcutaneous panniculitis-like T cell lymphoma: An updated review.

Subcutaneous panniculitis-like T cell lymphoma (SPTCL) is a rare cutaneous T cell lymphoma, which is indolent in nature but could claim life if not correctly diagnosed and promptly treated. SPTCL is usually presented clinically as painless subcutaneous and erythematous nodules over the trunk or extremities. Active clinical vigilance for these subcutaneous nodules or panniculitis-like lesions is warranted. A biopsy must be performed in order to make a correct diagnosis. Positron emission tomography scan is utilized for disease staging and treatment follow-up. Due to the rarity of this lymphoma, a standard treatment protocol is not established yet. However, most cases of SPTCL could be treated well under immunosuppressive or polychemotherapeutic drugs except in cases with hemophagocytic syndrome. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation may be used in refractory or relapse cases. In this review, we presented a case of SPTCL with long-term complete remission. Meanwhile, since most clinical evidences and experiences of SPTCL are based mostly on case reports or small case series, and the understanding of the SPTCL pathophysiology is limited, we reviewed and updated the pathophysiology and treatments of SPTCL.

Synergistic Effect of Cation Composition Engineering of Hybrid Cs1-x FAx PbBr3 Nanocrystals for Self-Healing Electronics Application.

Mixed-cation hybrid perovskite nanocrystal (HPNC) with high crystallinity, color purity, and tunable optical bandgap offers a practical pathway toward next-generation displays. Herein, a two-step modified hot-injection combined with cation compositional engineering and surface treatment to synthesize high-purity cesium/formamidinium lead bromide HPNCs(Cs1-x FAx PbBr3 ) is presented. The optimized Cs0.5 FA0.5 PbBr3 light-emitting devices (LEDs) exhibit uniform luminescence of 3500 cd m-2 and a prominent current efficiency of 21.5 cd A-1 . As a proof of concept, a self-healing polymer (SHP) integrated with white LED backlight and laser prototypes exhibited 4 h autonomous self-healing through the synergistic effect of weak reversible imine bonds and stronger H-bonds. First, the SHP-HPNCs-initial and SHP-HPNCs-cut possess high long-term stability and dramatically suppressed lead leakage as low as 0.6 ppm along with a low leakage rate of 1.11 × 10-5 cm2 and 3.36 × 10-5 cm2 even over 6 months in water. Second, the Cs0.5 FA0.5 PbBr3 HPNCs and SHP-induced shattered-repaired perovskite glass substrate show the lowest lasing threshold values of 1.24 and 8.58 µJ cm-2 , respectively. This work provides an integrative and in-depth approach to exploiting SHP with intrinsic and entropic self-healing capabilities combined with HPNCs to develop robust and reliable soft-electronic backlight and laser applications.

Revisiting ancient polyploidy in leptosporangiate ferns.

Ferns, and particularly homosporous ferns, have long been assumed to have experienced recurrent whole-genome duplication (WGD) events because of their substantially large genome sizes, surprisingly high chromosome numbers, and high degrees of polyploidy among many extant members. As the number of sequenced fern genomes is limited, recent studies have employed transcriptome data to find evidence for WGDs in ferns. However, they have reached conflicting results concerning the occurrence of ancient polyploidy, for instance, in the lineage of leptosporangiate ferns. Because identifying WGDs in a phylogenetic context is the foremost step in studying the contribution of ancient polyploidy to evolution, we here revisited earlier identified WGDs in leptosporangiate ferns, mainly the core leptosporangiate ferns, by building KS -age distributions and applying substitution rate corrections and by conducting statistical gene tree-species tree reconciliation analyses. Our integrative analyses not only identified four ancient WGDs in the sampled core leptosporangiate ferns but also identified false positives and false negatives for WGDs that recent studies have reported earlier. In conclusion, we underscore the significance of substitution rate corrections and uncertainties in gene tree-species tree reconciliations in calling WGD events and advance an exemplar workflow to overcome such often-overlooked issues.

OsMADS58 Stabilizes Gene Regulatory Circuits during Rice Stamen Development.

Rice (Oryza sativa) OsMADS58 is a C-class MADS box protein, and characterization of a transposon insertion mutant osmads58 suggested that OsMADS58 plays a role in stamen development. However, as no null mutation has been obtained, its role has remained unclear. Here, we report that the CRISPR knockout mutant osmads58 exhibits complex altered phenotypes, including anomalous diploid germ cells, aberrant meiosis, and delayed tapetum degeneration. This CRISPR mutant line exhibited stronger changes in expression of OsMADS58 target genes compared with the osmads58 dSpm (transposon insertion) line, along with changes in multiple pathways related to early stamen development. Notably, transcriptional regulatory circuits in young panicles covering the stamen at stages 4-6 were substantially altered in the CRISPR line compared to the dSpm line. These findings strongly suggest that the pleiotropic effects of OsMADS58 on stamen development derive from a potential role in stabilizing gene regulatory circuits during early stamen development. Thus, this work opens new avenues for viewing and deciphering the regulatory mechanisms of early stamen development from a network perspective.

The genome of homosporous maidenhair fern sheds light on the euphyllophyte evolution and defences.

Euphyllophytes encompass almost all extant plants, including two sister clades, ferns and seed plants. Decoding genomes of ferns is the key to deep insight into the origin of euphyllophytes and the evolution of seed plants. Here we report a chromosome-level genome assembly of Adiantum capillus-veneris L., a model homosporous fern. This fern genome comprises 30 pseudochromosomes with a size of 4.8-gigabase and a contig N50 length of 16.22 Mb. Gene co-expression network analysis uncovered that homospore development in ferns has relatively high genetic similarities with that of the pollen in seed plants. Analysing fern defence response expands understanding of evolution and diversity in endogenous bioactive jasmonates in plants. Moreover, comparing fern genomes with those of other land plants reveals changes in gene families important for the evolutionary novelties within the euphyllophyte clade. These results lay a foundation for studies on fern genome evolution and function, as well as the origin and evolution of euphyllophytes.

Graph pangenome captures missing heritability and empowers tomato breeding.

Missing heritability in genome-wide association studies defines a major problem in genetic analyses of complex biological traits1,2. The solution to this problem is to identify all causal genetic variants and to measure their individual contributions3,4. Here we report a graph pangenome of tomato constructed by precisely cataloguing more than 19 million variants from 838 genomes, including 32 new reference-level genome assemblies. This graph pangenome was used for genome-wide association study analyses and heritability estimation of 20,323 gene-expression and metabolite traits. The average estimated trait heritability is 0.41 compared with 0.33 when using the single linear reference genome. This 24% increase in estimated heritability is largely due to resolving incomplete linkage disequilibrium through the inclusion of additional causal structural variants identified using the graph pangenome. Moreover, by resolving allelic and locus heterogeneity, structural variants improve the power to identify genetic factors underlying agronomically important traits leading to, for example, the identification of two new genes potentially contributing to soluble solid content. The newly identified structural variants will facilitate genetic improvement of tomato through both marker-assisted selection and genomic selection. Our study advances the understanding of the heritability of complex traits and demonstrates the power of the graph pangenome in crop breeding.

Investigation of anisotropic thermal lens effect in a dual-polarized Nd:YLF laser.

The anisotropic thermal lens effect of a dual-polarization Nd:YLF laser is experimentally investigated by measuring the transverse beat frequency between TEM0,0 and TEM1,0 modes in the self-pulsing operation, and focal lengths of thermal lensing for both polarizations can be accurately determined. The focal length of the thermal lens for π polarization was observed to be negative and varies from -1.1 to -0.5m for the absorbed pump power increasing from 1.7 to 3.8 W. For σ polarization, the focal length of the thermal lens was determined to be positive and varies from 1.2 to 0.9 m for the absorbed pump power increasing from 8.4 to 10.9 W. The sensitivity factors of the thermal lens for both polarizations were evaluated to be Mπ=-0.54m-1/W and Mσ=0.1m-1/W, respectively.

Light Down-Converter Based on Luminescent Nanofibers from the Blending of Conjugated Rod-Coil Block Copolymers and Perovskite through Electrospinning.

We demonstrated a novel strategy for the preparation of light down-converter by combining rod-coil block copolymers with perovskite quantum dots (QDs) through electrospinning. Reports have shown that polymer deformability can be enhanced by incorporating a soft segment and controlled by varying the rod/coil ratio. Therefore, we first synthesized the rod-coil block copolymer through the click reaction of polyfluorene (PF) and poly(n-butyl acrylate) (PBA). Next, the CsPbBr3@PF8k-b-PBA12k composite fibers were fabricated by blending perovskite through electrospinning. Optical spectral evidence demonstrated the success of the strategy, as light down-converters were prepared through the controlled variance of QD/polymer ratios to achieve tunable color and stretchability. This result reveals the potential of using rod-coil block copolymers to fabricate color-tunable perovskite light down-converters.

Expression Analyses of Embryogenesis-Associated Genes during Somatic Embryogenesis of Adiantum capillus-veneris L. In vitro: New Insights into the Evolution of Reproductive Organs in Land Plants.

An efficient in vitro regeneration system via somatic embryogenesis (SE) was developed for a fern species Adiantum capillus-veneris. Adventitious shoots, green globular bodies (GGBs) and calli were obtained with the maximal induction rate on the Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium of low concentrations of 6-benzyladenine (BA) (0-1.0 mg/L), 2.0 mg/L BA without 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), 0.5 mg/L 2,4-D and 0.5-1.0 mg/L 6-BA, respectively. Cyto-morphological and histological changes in the shoot development via calli and GGBs were examined. For a better understanding of these developmental events, expression patterns of six genes, AcLBD16, AcAGL, AcBBM, AcWUS, AcRKD, and AcLEC1, were characterized during SE. AcBBM and AcLEC1 were ubiquitously expressed in direct SE (adventitious shoots and GGBs) the maximal expression of AcBBM in mature GGBs, and the high expression of AcLEC1 in GGB initiation and adventitious shoots. During the indirect SE, AcLBD16, AcLEC1, AcRKD, and AcWUS were highly expressed in mature calli. Additionally, phylogenetic analyses showed that AcWUS, AcBBM, AcLBD, AcAGL, AcRKD, and their homologs of other green plants formed monophyletic clades, respectively. Some of these gene families, however, diversified rapidly with the occurrence of embryophytes, suggesting that embryogenesis-associated genes could experience a rapid evolution with the colonization of plants to terrestrial environments. Expression and phylogenetic analyses of those embryogenesis-associated genes by the aid of in vitro regeneration system of A. capillus-veneris provide new insights into the evolution of reproductive organs in land plants.

Sugar Treatments Can Induce AcLEAFY COTYLEDON1 Expression and Trigger the Accumulation of Storage Products during Prothallus Development of Adiantum capillus-veneris.

A seed is an intricate structure. Of the two development processes involved in seed formation, seed maturation, or seed program includes accumulation of storage products, acquisition of desiccation tolerance, and induction of dormancy. Little is known about how these processes were originated and integrated into the life cycle of seed plants. While previous investigation on seed origin was almost exclusively through fossil comparison in paleobotany, a wealth of information about the key role of LEAFY COTYLEDON1 (LEC1) in seed formation of spermatophyte inspired a new approach to investigating the seed origin mystery. Here, we examined the expression pattern of AcLEC1 during the entire life cycle of Adiantum capillus-veneris, a non-seed plant, confirmed no AcLEC1 gene expression detectable in prothalli, demonstrated inductive expressed by both sucrose and glucose in prothalli. As expected, we found that sugar treatments delayed prothallus development, promoted differentiation of reproductive organs, and triggered accumulation of storage products. These findings demonstrated links between the sugar treatments and the induction of AcLEC1 expression, as well as the sugar treatments and the events such as accumulation of storage products, which is similar to those considered as seed maturation process in seed plants. These links support a modified hypothesis that inductive expression of LEC1 homologs during embryogenesis might be a key innovation for the origin of the seed program.