Impaired speech input and output processing abilities in children with cleft palate speech disorder.

BACKGROUND: Cleft lip and palate is one of the most common oral and maxillofacial deformities associated with a variety of functional disorders. Cleft palate speech disorder (CPSD) occurs the most frequently and manifests a series of characteristic speech features, which are called cleft speech characteristics. Some scholars believe that children with CPSD and poor speech outcomes may also have weaknesses in speech input processing ability, but evidence is still lacking so far. AIMS: (1) To explore whether children with CPSD and speech output disorders also have defects in speech input processing abilities; (2) to explore the correlation between speech input and output processing abilities. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Children in the experimental group were enrolled from Beijing Stomatological Hospital, Capital Medical University, and healthy volunteers were recruited as controls. Then three tasks containing real and pseudo words were performed sequentially. Reaction time, accuracy and other indicators in three tasks were collected and then analysed. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: The indicators in the experimental group were significantly lower than those in the control group. There was a strong correlation between speech input and output processing tasks. The performance of both groups when processing pseudo words in the three tasks was worse than that when dealing with real words. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: Compared with normal controls, children with CPSD have deficits in both speech input and output processing, and there is a strong correlation between speech input and output speech processing abilities. In addition, the pseudo words task was more challenging than the real word task for both groups. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: What is already known on the subject Children with cleft lip and palate often have speech sound disorders known as cleft palate speech disorder (CPSD). CPSD is characterised by consonant errors called cleft speech characteristics, which can persist even after surgery. Some studies suggest that poor speech outcomes in children with CPSD may be associated with deficits in processing speech input. However, this has not been validated in mainland China. What this paper adds to existing knowledge The results of our study indicate that children with CPSD exhibit poorer performance in three tasks assessing speech input and output abilities compared to healthy controls, suggesting their deficits in both speech input and output processing. Furthermore, a significant correlation was observed between speech input and output processing abilities. Additionally, both groups demonstrated greater difficulty in processing pseudo words compared to real words, as evidenced by their worse performance in dealing with pseudo words. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? The pseudo word tasks designed and implemented in our study can be employed in future research and assessment of speech input and output abilities in Chinese Mandarin children with CPSD. Additionally, our findings revealed the significance of considering both speech output processing abilities and potential existence of speech input processing ability for speech and language therapists when evaluating and developing treatment options for children with CPSD as these abilities are also important for the development of literacy development.

[Analysis of constituents in different parts of Forsythia suspensa by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS and evaluation of their anti-inflammatory activity].

This study aims to characterize and identify the chemical constituents in 11 parts of Forsythia suspensa by using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time of flight-mass spectrometry(UPLC-Q-TOF-MS) combined with a self-established chemical constituent database, including leaves, flowers, fruits, green F. suspensa, old F. suspensa, and seeds. The quality attributes and differences of different parts of F. suspensa were evaluated by principal component analysis, partial least square discriminant analysis, and other stoichiometric methods. A total of 79 compounds were identified, including 13 phenylethanol glycosides, 10 lignans, 12 flavonoids, 10 organic acids, 14 terpenoids, and 20 other types of compounds. Among them, 34 compounds were the main variables of difference between the different parts of F. suspensa, and the content of each component was relatively higher in the leaves and green F. suspensa. The LPS-induced inflammation model of RAW264.7 cells was applied to study the anti-inflammatory activity of the extracts of the different parts of F. suspensa and the main constituents. The results show that the extracts of green F. suspensa, flower, twig, and stem exhibited anti-inflammatory activity, and the constituents such as forsythoside A, phyllyrin, phillygenin, and(+)-pinoresinol-ß-D-glucopyranoside could significantly inhibit anti-inflammatory activity released by NO. The chemical constituent in different parts of F. suspensa is analyzed comprehensively, and the anti-inflammatory activity is evaluated in this study, which provides a reference for the development and comprehensive utilization of F. suspensa resources.

Hepatocyte mitochondrial DNA mediates macrophage immune response in liver injury induced by trichloroethylene.

We have previously shown that excessive activation of macrophage proinflammatory activity plays a key role in TCE-induced immune liver injury, but the mechanism of polarization is unclear. Recent studies have shown that TLR9 activation plays an important regulatory role in macrophage polarization. In the present study, we demonstrated that elevated levels of oxidative stress in hepatocytes mediate the release of mtDNA into the bloodstream, leading to the activation of TLR9 in macrophages to regulate macrophage polarization. In vivo experiments revealed that pretreatment with SS-31, a mitochondria-targeting antioxidant peptide, reduced the level of oxidative stress in hepatocytes, leading to a decrease in mtDNA release. Importantly, SS-31 pretreatment inhibited TLR9 activation in macrophages, suggesting that hepatocyte mtDNA may activate TLR9 in macrophages. Further studies revealed that pharmacological inhibition of TLR9 by ODN2088 partially blocked macrophage activation, suggesting that the level of macrophage activation is dependent on TLR9 activation. In vitro experiments involving the extraction of mtDNA from TCE-sensitized mice treated with RAW264.7 cells further confirmed that hepatocyte mtDNA can activate TLR9 in mouse peritoneal macrophages, leading to macrophage polarization. In summary, our study comprehensively confirmed that TLR9 activation in macrophages is dependent on mtDNA released by elevated levels of oxidative stress in hepatocytes and that TLR9 activation in macrophages plays a key role in regulating macrophage polarization. These findings reveal the mechanism of macrophage activation in TCE-induced immune liver injury and provide new perspectives and therapeutic targets for the treatment of OMDT-induced immune liver injury.

Data-Independent Acquisition-Based Quantitative Proteomic Analysis Reveals Potential Salivary Biomarkers of Primary Sjögren's Syndrome.

Objective As primary Sj?gren's syndrome (pSS) primarily affects the salivary glands, saliva can serve as an indicator of the glands' pathophysiology and the disease's status. This study aims to illustrate the salivary proteomic profiles of pSS patients and identify potential candidate biomarkers for diagnosis.Methods The discovery set contained 49 samples (24 from pSS and 25 from age- and gender-matched healthy controls [HCs]) and the validation set included 25 samples (12 from pSS and 13 from HCs). Totally 36 pSS patients and 38 HCs were centrally randomized into the discovery set or to the validation set at a 2:1 ratio. Unstimulated whole saliva samples from pSS patients and HCs were analyzed using a data-independent acquisition (DIA) strategy on a 2D LC?HRMS/MS platform to reveal differential proteins. The crucial proteins were verified using DIA analysis and annotated using gene ontology (GO) and International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPA) analysis. A prediction model for SS was established using random forests.Results A total of 1,963 proteins were discovered, and 136 proteins exhibited differential representation in pSS patients. The bioinformatic research indicated that these proteins were primarily linked to immunological functions, metabolism, and inflammation. A panel of 19 protein biomarkers was identified by ranking order based on P-value and random forest algorichm, and was validated as the predictive biomarkers exhibiting good performance with area under the curve (AUC) of 0.817 for discovery set and 0.882 for validation set.Conclusions The candidate protein panel discovered may aid in pSS diagnosis. Salivary proteomic analysis is a promising non-invasive method for prognostic evaluation and early and precise treatments for pSS patients. DIA offers the best time efficiency and data dependability and may be a suitable option for future research on the salivary proteome.

Critical success factors and collaborative governance mechanism for the transformation of existing residential buildings in urban renewal: From a social network perspective.

The renovation of urban residential buildings in the context of urban renewal presents social challenges due to the involvement of diverse stakeholders and complex interest relations. This study identifies 28 critical success factors (CSFs) and 9 stakeholders, drawing insights from literature and on-site research of 45 old residential renewal projects in Jiangsu Province, China. Employing social network analysis, the intricate interplay between CSFs and stakeholders is explored, emphasizing the imperative for collaborative governance and elucidating governance mechanism principles. Focusing on stakeholders' resource contributions to transformation projects, the study devises a collaborative governance mechanism based on the specific types of resources required to support each CSF. This approach ensures that CSFs receive the necessary resources, enhancing project success. The paper concludes by outlining nine governance mechanisms and their implementation paths, anchored in the relationships between 13 CSFs and their respective stakeholders.

Source apportionment and predictable driving factors contribute to antibiotics profiles in Changshou Lake of the Three Gorges Reservoir area, China.

Lakes, crucial antibiotic reservoirs, lack thorough exploration of quantitative relationships between antibiotics and influencing factors. Here, we conducted a comprehensive year-long investigation in Changshou Lake within the Three Gorges Reservoir area, China. The concentrations of 21 antibiotics spanned 35.6-200 ng/L, 50.3-348 ng/L and 0.57-57.9 ng/g in surface water, overlying water and sediment, respectively. Compared with abundant water period, surface water and overlying water displayed significantly high antibiotic concentrations in flat and low water periods, while sediment remained unchanged. Moreover, tetracyclines, fluoroquinolones and erythromycin posed notable risks to algae. Six primary sources were identified using positive matrix factorization model, with aquaculture contributing 21.2%, 22.7% and 25.4% in surface water, overlying water and sediment, respectively. The crucial predictors were screened through machine learning, redundancy analysis and Mantel test. Our findings emphasized the pivotal roles of water quality parameters, including water temperature (WT), pH, dissolved oxygen, electrical conductivity, inorganic anions (NO3⁻, Cl⁻ and F⁻) and metal cations (Ca, Mg, Fe, K and Cr), with WT influencing greatest. Total nitrogen (TN), cation exchange capacity, K, Al and Cd significantly impacted sediment antibiotics, with TN having the most pronounced effect. This study can promise valuable insights for environmental planning and policies addressing antibiotic pollution.

Integrated control strategy for dual sludge ages in the high-concentration powder carrier bio-fluidized bed (HPB) technology: Enhancing municipal wastewater treatment efficiency.

The high-concentration powder carrier bio-fluidized bed (HPB) technology is an emerging approach that enables on-site upgrading of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). HPB technology promotes the formation of biofilm sludge with micron-scale composite powder carriers as the core and suspended sludge mainly composed of flocs surrounding the biofilm sludge. This study proposed a novel integrated strategy for assessing and controlling the sludge ages in suspended/bio-film activated sludge supported by micron-scale composite powder carrier. Utilizing the cyclone unit and the corresponding theoretical model, the proposed strategy effectively addresses the sludge ages contradiction between denitrifying bacteria and polyphosphate-accumulating organisms (PAOs), thereby enhancing the efficiency of municipal wastewater treatment. The sludge age of the suspended (25 d) and bio-film (99 d) sludge, calculated using the model, contribute to the simultaneous removal of nitrogen and phosphorus. Meanwhile, the model further estimates distinct contributions of suspended and bio-film sludge to chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total nitrogen (TN), which are 55% and 42% for COD, 20% and 57% for TN of suspended sludge and bio-film sludge, respectively. This suggests that the contribution of suspended sludge and bio-film sludge to COD and TN removal efficiency can be determined and controlled by the operational conditions of the cyclone unit. Additionally, the simulation values for COD, ammonia nitrogen (NH4+-N), TN and total phosphorus (TP) closely align with the actual values of WWTPs over 70 days (p < 0.001) with the correlation coefficients (R2) of 0.9809, 0.9932, 0.9825, and 0.837, respectively. These results support the theoretical foundation of HPB technology for simultaneous nitrogen and phosphorus removal in sewage treatment plants. Therefore, this model serves as a valuable tool to guide the operation, design, and carrier addition in HPB technology implementation.

Perfect cubic metallo-borospherenes TM8B6 (TM = Ni, Pd, Pt) as superatoms following the 18-electron rule.

Transition-metal (TM)-doped metallo-borospherenes exhibit unique structures and bonding in chemistry which have received considerable attention in recent years. Based on extensive global minimum searches and first-principles theory calculations, we predict herein the first and smallest perfect cubic metallo-borospherenes Oh TM8B6 (TM = Ni (1), Pd (2), Pt (3)) and Oh Ni8B6- (1-) which contain eight equivalent TM atoms at the vertexes of a cube and six quasi-planar tetra-coordinate face-capping boron atoms on the surface. Detailed canonical molecular orbital and adaptive natural density partitioning bonding analyses indicate that Oh TM8B6 (1/2/3) as superatoms possess nine completely delocalized 14c-2e bonds following the 18-electron principle (1S21P61D10), rendering spherical aromaticity and extra stability to the complex systems. Furthermore, Ni8B6 (1) can be used as building blocks to form the three-dimensional metallic binary crystal NiB (4) (Pm3̄m) in a bottom-up approach which possesses a typical CsCl-type structure with an octa-coordinate B atom located exactly at the center of the cubic unit cell. The IR, Raman, UV-vis and photoelectron spectra of the concerned clusters are computationally simulated to facilitate their experimental characterization.

Oriented Gradient Doping of Zirconium in Ni-Rich Cathode to Achieve Ultrahigh Stability and Rate Capability.

Ni-rich layered oxide materials exhibit great prospects for practical applications in lithium-ion batteries due to their high specific capacity. However, the poor cycling performance and suboptimal rate performance have caused obstacles for their widespread application. Herein, we developed a gradient Zr element doping method based on the bulk gradient concentration of Ni-rich layered oxide material to reinforce the cycle stability and rate performance of the cathode. In particular, the orientations of the gradient Zr doping were achieved via coprecipitation in a positive or negative correlation between the concentrations of Zr and Ni, and it was revealed that the material behaves better when the Zr content is abundant in the core. The gradient doping of Zr decreases the content of Ni2+ and mitigates the mixing degree of Li+ and Ni2+, implying the superior performance of doped cathode material. Compared with the bare sample (70.7%, 121.4 mAh g-1), the Zr-doped sample delivered a higher capacity retention of 85.6% after 300 cycles at 1C (1C = 180 mA g-1) and exhibited a considerable rate performance of 122.5 mAh g-1 at 20C. In particular, the Zr-doped cathodes performed dramatically on high rate cycling at 10C, with an initial capacity of 143.6 and 103.9 mAh g-1 after 300 cycles. Furthermore, the Zr-doped cathode delivered significant stability at a high potential of 4.5 V with a capacity retention of 72.1% after 300 cycles, while that of the bare sample was only 37.4%. The concept of gradient doping strategies during coprecipitation offers new insight into the design of advanced cathodes with excellent cycling stability and rate capability.

Bioavailability-based risk assessment of various heavy metals via multi-exposure routes for children and teenagers in Beijing, China.

Assessing the health risks of sensitive population, such as children and teenagers, through multiple exposure routes (MERs) such as ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact is critical for policy creation that protects or reduces exposure to pollutants for all populations. Heavy metal (HM) contents in food and environmental media in Beijing, capital of China, were collected. Furthermore, on the basis of considering the bioavailability of HMs, we evaluated the multiple environmental routes and health risks to HMs in children and teenagers of eight age groups (2-<3, 3-<4, 4-<5, 5-<6, 6-<9, 9-<12, 12-<15, and 15-<18) in Beijing, China by Monte Carlo simulation approach. The main findings are as follows: lead exposure in children aged 2-<3 years exceeds the exposure dose (0.3 µg·kg-1·d-1) of 0.5 point reduction in intelligence quotient. Moreover, children aged 2-<3 and 6-<9 years have relatively high non-carcinogenic risk (NCR) of 1.32 and 1.30, respectively. The carcinogenic risk (CR) for children aged 6-<9 and 9-<12 years is 2.73×10-6 and 2.39×10-6, respectively. Specifically, the contributions of oral ingestion, dermal contact, and inhalation to the NCR were 69.5%, 18.9%, and 11.6%, respectively. Moreover, the combined NCR contributions of copper, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic (As) were about 69.4%. The contributions of the above three routes to the CR were 93.4%, 4.1%, and 2.5%, in that order, with the largest CR contribution of As being about 92.0%. This study can provide new ideas for accurately assessing the exposure and health risks of HMs in the population, and we believe that it is necessary to update the national standards for food and soil based on the bioavailability of HMs.

Relationship among low baseline muscle mass, skeletal muscle quality, and mortality in critically ill children.

BACKGROUND: Studies in adults have shown that low baseline muscle mass at intensive care unit (ICU) admission was associated with poor clinical outcomes. However, no information on the relationship between baseline muscle quality or mass and clinical outcomes in critically ill children was found. METHODS: 3775 children were admitted to the pediatric ICU (PICU), 262 were eligible for inclusion. Abdominal computed tomography was performed to assess baseline skeletal muscle mass and quality. Patients were categorized to normal or low group based on the cutoff value for predicting hospital mortality of the skeletal muscle index (SMI; 30.96 cm2 /m2 ) and skeletal muscle density (SMD; 41.21 Hounsfield units). RESULTS: Body mass index (BMI) (18.07 ± 4.44 vs 15.99 ± 4.51) and BMI-for-age z score (0.46 [-0.66 to 1.74] vs -0.87 [-1.69 to 0.05]) were greater in the normal-SMI group, the length of PICU stay was longer in the low-SMI group (16.00 days [8.50-32.50] vs 13.00 days [7.50-20.00]), and the in-PICU mortality rate in the normal-SMI group (10.00%) was lower than the low-SMI group (22.6%). Children with low SMD had a higher in-PICU mortality rate (25.6% vs 7.7%), were younger (36.00 months [12.00-120.00] vs 84.00 months [47.50-147.50]) and weighed less (16.40 kg [10.93-37.25] vs 23.00 kg [16.00-45.00]). Mortality was greater in patients with lower SMD and prolonged hospital stay (log-rank, P = 0.007). SMD was an independent predictor for length of PICU stay and in-PICU mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Low baseline skeletal muscle quality in critically ill children is closely tied with a higher in-PICU mortality and longer PICU stay and is an independent risk factor for unfavorable clinical outcomes.

Mechanistic study on the formation of the alkyl acrylates from CO2, ethylene and alkyl iodides over nickel-based catalyst.

The catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) and olefins into acrylates has been a long standing target, because society attempts to synthesize commodity chemicals in a more economical and sustainable fashion. In this work, two alkylation reaction pathways were investigated to explore the role of methylene linkage (-CH2-) on the formation of alkyl acrylate from coupling of CO2 and ethylene, catalyzed by a nickel catalyst in the presence of different alkyl iodides. The energy barrier of Ni-O bond cleavage decreases with increasing methylene linkage of alkyl iodides, which may be due to NPA charge transfer of alkyl iodides. Meanwhile, the O1 (ester sp3 O atom) attack route leading to the formation of alkyl acrylate competes with the O2 (carboxylic sp2 O atom) attack route in terms of energy barriers. Further studies on the fluoro-substituted alkyl acrylates show that neither CF3I nor CF3CH2I is effective in releasing trifluoroalkyl acrylates from the nickellacycle, which explains why only negligible amounts of the desired product were detected in the experiment. In addition, we investigated the non-productive pathways leading to byproducts, such as propionic acid, propionates and ion pair complexes, etc. By comparing the results obtained with CH3I, the use of C2H5I as an electrophilic reagent may stabilize the non-productive intermediates. The methylene linkage has little effect on the main productive pathway. However, it has a significant influence on the side reactions, which is detrimental to the formation of alkyl acrylate in competing with the main productive pathway.

Clinical value of perivascular fat attenuation index and computed tomography derived fractional flow reserve in identification of culprit lesion of subsequent acute coronary syndrome.

Purpose: To explore the potential of perivascular fat attenuation index (FAI) and coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) derived fractional flow reserve (CT-FFR) in the identification of culprit lesion leading to subsequent acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Methods: Thirty patients with documented ACS event who underwent invasive coronary angiography (ICA) from February 2019 to February 2021 and had received CCTA in the previous 6 months were collected retrospectively. 40 patients with stable angina pectoris (SAP) were matched as control group according to sex, age and risk factors. The study population has a mean age of 59.3 ± 12.3 years, with a male prevalence of 81.4%. The plaque characteristics, perivascular fat attenuation index (FAI), and coronary computed tomography angiography-derived fractional flow reserve (CT-FFR) of 32 culprit lesions and 30 non-culprit lesions in ACS patients and 40 highest-grade stenosis lesions in SAP patients were statistically analyzed. Results: FAI around culprit lesions was increased significantly (-72.4 ± 3.2 HU vs. -79.0 ± 7.7 HU, vs. -80.4 ± 7.0HU, all p < 0.001) and CT-FFR was decreased for culprit lesions of ACS patients [0.7(0.1) vs. 0.8(0.1), vs.0.8(0.1), p < 0.001] compared to other lesions. According to multivariate analysis, diameter stenosis (DS), FAI, and CT-FFR were significant predictors for identification of the culprit lesion. The integration model of DS, FAI, and CT-FFR showed the significantly highest area under the curve (AUC) of 0.917, compared with other single predictors (all p < 0.05). Conclusions: This study proposes a novel integrated prediction model of DS, FAI, and CT-FFR that enhances the diagnostic accuracy of traditional CCTA for identifying culprit lesions that trigger ACS. Furthermore, this model also provides improved risk stratification for patients and offers valuable insights for predicting future cardiovascular events.

Analyzing Nitrogen Effects on Rice Panicle Development by Panicle Detection and Time-Series Tracking.

Detailed observation of the phenotypic changes in rice panicle substantially helps us to understand the yield formation. In recent studies, phenotyping of rice panicles during the heading-flowering stage still lacks comprehensive analysis, especially of panicle development under different nitrogen treatments. In this work, we proposed a pipeline to automatically acquire the detailed panicle traits based on time-series images by using the YOLO v5, ResNet50, and DeepSORT models. Combined with field observation data, the proposed method was used to test whether it has an ability to identify subtle differences in panicle developments under different nitrogen treatments. The result shows that panicle counting throughout the heading-flowering stage achieved high accuracy (R2 = 0.96 and RMSE = 1.73), and heading date was estimated with an absolute error of 0.25 days. In addition, by identical panicle tracking based on the time-series images, we analyzed detailed flowering phenotypic changes of a single panicle, such as flowering duration and individual panicle flowering time. For rice population, with an increase in the nitrogen application: panicle number increased, heading date changed little, but the duration was slightly extended; cumulative flowering panicle number increased, rice flowering initiation date arrived earlier while the ending date was later; thus, the flowering duration became longer. For a single panicle, identical panicle tracking revealed that higher nitrogen application led to earlier flowering initiation date, significantly longer flowering days, and significantly longer total duration from vigorous flowering beginning to the end (total DBE). However, the vigorous flowering beginning time showed no significant differences and there was a slight decrease in daily DBE.

The value of CT-based energy imaging to discriminate dominant side lesions in primary aldosteronism.

Purpose: The current clinical discrimination of the dominant side of primary aldosteronism (PA) mainly relies on invasive adrenal venous sampling (AVS) examination. This study investigated the feasibility of dual-energy CT energy imaging parameters as a novel biomarker in identifying bilateral adrenal dominant lesions. Methods: Fifty PA patients with bilateral lesions who underwent CT and AVS of the adrenal glands at Shaanxi Provincial People's Hospital from October 2019 to June 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. Forty-eight patients had successful bilateral blood collection and two failed right-sided blood collection due to venous variation. Forty patients who were classified based on AVS underwent unilateral adrenalectomy and pathological findings confirmed adenoma in all cases. Quantitative dual-energy CT parameters were measured for all adrenal lesions, and the differences in dual-energy CT energy spectrum imaging parameters between the dominant and nondominant adrenal lesions were compared. Results: Among forty-eight PA patients with bilateral lesions, forty patients with preoperative AVS-determined lesions on the dominant side underwent unilateral adrenalectomy, and eight patients without the dominant side were treated with medication. The iodine concentration difference (ICD) in the arteriovenous phase was more significant in the 40 cases of primary aldosteronism with dominant adrenal lesions than in the nondominant adrenal lesions (1.18 ± 0.45 vs 0.41 ± 0.42). The NICAP was higher in the dominant adrenal lesions than in the non-dominant lesions (0.39 ± 0.39 vs 0.14 ± 0.05). The sensitivity and specificity of the diagnosis of the dominant adrenal lesion were 88.2% and 82.4% using the ICD of 0.68 as the threshold value. Conclusion: Conventional CT has lower diagnostic value for dominant adrenal lesions, and CT-based energy imaging can be a new assessment method as a complement to AVS in identifying bilateral dominant adrenal lesions.

Automatic Branch-Leaf Segmentation and Leaf Phenotypic Parameter Estimation of Pear Trees Based on Three-Dimensional Point Clouds.

The leaf phenotypic traits of plants have a significant impact on the efficiency of canopy photosynthesis. However, traditional methods such as destructive sampling will hinder the continuous monitoring of plant growth, while manual measurements in the field are both time-consuming and laborious. Nondestructive and accurate measurements of leaf phenotypic parameters can be achieved through the use of 3D canopy models and object segmentation techniques. This paper proposed an automatic branch-leaf segmentation pipeline based on lidar point cloud and conducted the automatic measurement of leaf inclination angle, length, width, and area, using pear canopy as an example. Firstly, a three-dimensional model using a lidar point cloud was established using SCENE software. Next, 305 pear tree branches were manually divided into branch points and leaf points, and 45 branch samples were selected as test data. Leaf points were further marked as 572 leaf instances on these test data. The PointNet++ model was used, with 260 point clouds as training input to carry out semantic segmentation of branches and leaves. Using the leaf point clouds in the test dataset as input, a single leaf instance was extracted by means of a mean shift clustering algorithm. Finally, based on the single leaf point cloud, the leaf inclination angle was calculated by plane fitting, while the leaf length, width, and area were calculated by midrib fitting and triangulation. The semantic segmentation model was tested on 45 branches, with a mean Precisionsem, mean Recallsem, mean F1-score, and mean Intersection over Union (IoU) of branches and leaves of 0.93, 0.94, 0.93, and 0.88, respectively. For single leaf extraction, the Precisionins, Recallins, and mean coverage (mCoV) were 0.89, 0.92, and 0.87, respectively. Using the proposed method, the estimated leaf inclination, length, width, and area of pear leaves showed a high correlation with manual measurements, with correlation coefficients of 0.94 (root mean squared error: 4.44°), 0.94 (root mean squared error: 0.43 cm), 0.91 (root mean squared error: 0.39 cm), and 0.93 (root mean squared error: 5.21 cm2), respectively. These results demonstrate that the method can automatically and accurately measure the phenotypic parameters of pear leaves. This has great significance for monitoring pear tree growth, simulating canopy photosynthesis, and optimizing orchard management.

Interactions and quantification of multiple influencing factors on cadmium accumulation in soil-rice systems at a large region.

The accumulation of Cd in soil-rice systems at a large region is often extremely complicated due to environmental heterogeneity and the interactions of multiple influencing factors. However, the interactive effects and quantification of the contributions of influencing factors on Cd accumulation in large regions remain unclear. In this study, conditional inference trees and random forest analysis were used to identify the interactions of various factors (soil properties, topography and demographic-economic), and quantify their contributions to Cd accumulation in soil-rice systems of Sichuan-Chongqing region, China. The results showed that Cd content in the soil was the most significant influencing factor on Cd accumulation in soil-rice systems, especially bioavailable Cd in soil contributed to 35.73 % and 54.78 % for soil total Cd (Cdsoil) and brown rice Cd (Cdrice), respectively. Population density (PD) and elevation contributed 31.16 % and 27.40 % to Cdsoil content, respectively, and their interaction promoted the increase in Cdsoil content. Moreover, PD played a leading role in Cdsoil content when the elevation exceeded 324 m. The relative importances of slope and elevation for Cdrice content were 16.81 % and 8.49 %, respectively, and their interaction facilitated the increment of Cdrice content. As soil pH, gross domestic product (GDP) and slope decreased, the interaction of soil pH with GDP led to the increase of bioavailability factor (BAF), and that with slope enhanced the bioaccumulation factor (BCF). In addition, soil pH, PD and elevation were of considerable importance for the migration and transformation of Cd, with contributions of 22.11 %, 12.90 % and 12.52 % to BAF, and 5.05 %, 5.62 % and 5.50 % to BCF, respectively. This study is hopeful to provide a scientific insight into the prevention and control of Cd contamination in soil-rice systems at a large region.

Field-measured canopy height may not be as accurate and heritable as believed: evidence from advanced 3D sensing.

Canopy height (CH) is an important trait for crop breeding and production. The rapid development of 3D sensing technologies shed new light on high-throughput height measurement. However, a systematic comparison of the accuracy and heritability of different 3D sensing technologies is seriously lacking. Moreover, it is questionable whether the field-measured height is as reliable as believed. This study uncovered these issues by comparing traditional height measurement with four advanced 3D sensing technologies, including terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), backpack laser scanning (BLS), gantry laser scanning (GLS), and digital aerial photogrammetry (DAP). A total of 1920 plots covering 120 varieties were selected for comparison. Cross-comparisons of different data sources were performed to evaluate their performances in CH estimation concerning different CH, leaf area index (LAI), and growth stage (GS) groups. Results showed that 1) All 3D sensing data sources had high correlations with field measurement (r > 0.82), while the correlations between different 3D sensing data sources were even better (r > 0.87). 2) The prediction accuracy between different data sources decreased in subgroups of CH, LAI, and GS. 3) Canopy height showed high heritability from all datasets, and 3D sensing datasets had even higher heritability (H2 = 0.79-0.89) than FM (field measurement) (H2 = 0.77). Finally, outliers of different datasets are analyzed. The results provide novel insights into different methods for canopy height measurement that may ensure the high-quality application of this important trait.

Heptacoordinate transition-metal-decorated metallo-borospherenes and multiple-helix metallo-boronanotubes.

The recent discovery of lanthanide-metal-decorated metallo-borospherenes LM3B18- (LM = La, Tb) marks the onset of a new class of boron-metal binary nanomaterials. Using the experimentally observed or theoretically predicted borospherenes as ligands and based on extensive first-principles theory calculations, we predict herein a series of novel chiral metallo-borospherenes C2 Ni6 ∈ B39- (1), C1 Ni6 ∈ B41+ (3), C2 Ni6 ∈ B422+ (4), C2 Ni6 ∈ B42 (5), and C2 Ni8 ∈ B56 (6) as the global minima of the systems decorated with quasi-planar heptacoordinate Ni (phNi) centers in η7-B7 heptagons on the cage surfaces, which are found to be obviously better favoured in coordination energies than hexacoordinate Ni centers in previously reported D2d Ni6 ∈ B40 (2). Detailed bonding analyses indicate that these phNi-decorated metallo-borospherenes follow the σ + π double delocalization bonding pattern, with two effective (d-p)σ coordination bonds formed between each phNi and its η7-B7 ligand, rendering spherical aromaticity and extra stability to the systems. The structural motif in elongated axially chiral Ni6 ∈ B422+ (4), Ni6 ∈ B42 (5), and Ni8 ∈ B56 (6) can be extended to form the metallic phNi-decorated boron double chain (BDC) double-helix Ni4 ∈ B28 (2, 0) (P4̄m2) (8), triple-helix Ni6 ∈ B42 (3, 0) (P3̄m1) (9), and quadruple-helix Ni8 ∈ B56 (4, 0) (P4mm) (10) metallo-boronanotubes, which can be viewed as quasi-multiple-helix DNAs composed of interconnected BDCs decorated with phNi centers in η7-B7 heptagons on the tube surfaces in the atomic ratio of Ni : B = 1 : 7.

Adrenomedullin in paraventricular nucleus attenuates adipose afferent reflex and sympathoexcitation via receptors mediated nitric oxide-gamma-aminobutyric acid A type receptor pathway in rats with obesity-related hypertension.

BACKGROUND: Hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) is an important central site for the control of the adipose afferent reflex (AAR) that increases sympathetic outflow and blood pressure in obesity-related hypertension (OH). METHOD: In this study, we investigated the effects of nitric oxide (NO) and cardiovascular bioactive polypeptide adrenomedullin (ADM) in the PVN on AAR and sympathetic nerve activity (SNA) in OH rats induced by a high-fat diet. RESULTS: The results showed that ADM, total neuronal NO synthase (nNOS) and phosphorylated-nNOS protein expression levels in the PVN of the OH rats were down-regulated compared to the control rats. The enhanced AAR in OH rats was attenuated by PVN acute application of NO donor sodium nitroprusside (SNP), but was strengthened by the nNOS inhibitor nNOS-I, guanylyl cyclase inhibitor (1H-[1,2,4]Oxadiazolo[4,3-a]quinoxalin-1-one, ODQ) and gamma-aminobutyric acid A type receptor (GABAA) antagonist Bicuculline. Moreover, PVN ADM microinjection not only decreased basal SNA but also attenuated the enhanced AAR in OH rats, which were effectively inhibited by ADM receptor antagonist ADM22-52, nNOS-I, ODQ or Bicuculline pretreatment. Bilateral PVN acute microinjection of ADM also caused greater increases in NO and cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) levels, and nNOS phosphorylation. Adeno-associated virus vectors encoding ADM (AAV-ADM) transfection in the PVN of OH rats not only decreased the elevated AAR, basal SNA and blood pressure (BP), but also increased the expression and activation of nNOS. Furthermore, AAV-ADM transfection improved vascular remodeling in OH rats. CONCLUSION: Taken together, our data highlight the roles of ADM in improving sympathetic overactivation, enhanced AAR and hypertension, and its related mechanisms associated with receptors mediated NO-cGMP-GABAA pathway in OH condition.