Prediction of heading date, culm length, and biomass from canopy-height-related parameters derived from time-series UAV observations of rice.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are powerful tools for monitoring crops for high-throughput phenotyping. Time-series aerial photography of fields can record the whole process of crop growth. Canopy height (CH), which is vertical plant growth, has been used as an indicator for the evaluation of lodging tolerance and the prediction of biomass and yield. However, there have been few attempts to use UAV-derived time-series CH data for field testing of crop lines. Here we provide a novel framework for trait prediction using CH data in rice. We generated UAV-based digital surface models of crops to extract CH data of 30 Japanese rice cultivars in 2019, 2020, and 2021. CH-related parameters were calculated in a non-linear time-series model as an S-shaped plant growth curve. The maximum saturation CH value was the most important predictor for culm length. The time point at the maximum CH contributed to the prediction of days to heading, and was able to predict stem and leaf weight and aboveground weight, possibly reflecting the association of biomass with duration of vegetative growth. These results indicate that the CH-related parameters acquired by UAV can be useful as predictors of traits typically measured by hand.

Waves Out of the Korean Peninsula and Inter- and Intra-Species Replacements in Freshwater Fishes in Japan.

The Japanese archipelago is located at the periphery of the continent of Asia. Rivers in the Japanese archipelago, separated from the continent of Asia by about 17 Ma, have experienced an intermittent exchange of freshwater fish taxa through a narrow land bridge generated by lowered sea level. As the Korean Peninsula and Japanese archipelago were not covered by an ice sheet during glacial periods, phylogeographical analyses in this region can trace the history of biota that were, for a long time, beyond the last glacial maximum. In this study, we analyzed the phylogeography of four freshwater fish taxa, Hemibarbus longirostris, dark chub Nipponocypris temminckii, Tanakia ssp. and Carassius ssp., whose distributions include both the Korean Peninsula and Western Japan. We found for each taxon that a small component of diverse Korean clades of freshwater fishes migrated in waves into the Japanese archipelago to form the current phylogeographic structure of biota. The replacements of indigenous populations by succeeding migrants may have also influenced the phylogeography.

A regulatory module controlling stress-induced cell cycle arrest in Arabidopsis.

Cell cycle arrest is an active response to stresses that enables organisms to survive under fluctuating environmental conditions. While signalling pathways that inhibit cell cycle progression have been elucidated, the putative core module orchestrating cell cycle arrest in response to various stresses is still elusive. Here we report that in Arabidopsis, the NAC-type transcription factors ANAC044 and ANAC085 are required for DNA damage-induced G2 arrest. Under genotoxic stress conditions, ANAC044 and ANAC085 enhance protein accumulation of the R1R2R3-type Myb transcription factor (Rep-MYB), which represses G2/M-specific genes. ANAC044/ANAC085-dependent accumulation of Rep-MYB and cell cycle arrest are also observed in the response to heat stress that causes G2 arrest, but not to osmotic stress that retards G1 progression. These results suggest that plants deploy the ANAC044/ANAC085-mediated signalling module as a hub which perceives distinct stress signals and leads to G2 arrest.

Leukocytoclastic vasculitis with purpura and renal failure induced by the anti-epidermal growth factor receptor antibody panitumumab: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Panitumumab is the first human combinatorial antibody for the treatment of metastatic colorectal carcinoma. Dermatologic toxicity of all grades occurs in more than 90% of patients. However, there are few reports of purpura induced by anti-epidermal growth factor receptor antibody. Renal failure is also uncommon as an adverse event of anti-epidermal growth factor receptor antibody. CASE PRESENTATION: A 67-year-old Japanese man with advanced colon cancer received monotherapy with panitumumab. General malaise, bilateral edema of his legs, and bilateral purpura of his forearms developed 2 days after the second cycle of panitumumab. A skin biopsy was performed to evaluate the purpuric lesions on his left leg and leukocytoclastic vasculitis was diagnosed. Blood tests showed grade III acute renal failure with a blood urea nitrogen level of 33.8 mg/dL and a creatinine level of 3.10 mg/dL. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first reported case of leukocytoclastic vasculitis followed by purpura and acute renal failure associated with panitumumab.

Resection of lesions in the ileum of patients with IgG4-related disease may ameliorate disease progression without steroid administration.

BACKGROUND: IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) is a pathological condition that is characterized by an infiltrate composed of IgG4-positive plasma cells and recently recognized as an immune-mediated condition. It causes tissue throughout the body to become stiff and thickened due to autoimmune reactions that cause fibrosis and scarring. Disease-related changes commonly occur in the salivary glands, bile duct, pancreas, and lungs, but are seldom seen in the small bowel. A diagnosis of IgG4-RD is suspected if a high level of IgG4 is found on a blood test. The ideal diagnostic method is pathological examination, but because the clinical manifestations of IgG4-RD are very diverse and nonspecific, the disease may often go undiagnosed until an unrelated biopsy or resection specimen is obtained. The most common treatment for IgG4-RD is steroid use. However, tapering or stopping steroid administration is seen to result in recurrence in approximately 50% of cases. A complete cure is therefore considered extremely difficult. CASE PRESENTATION: A 69-year-old man with gastrointestinal obstruction underwent small bowel resection for two lesions. On histopathological examination, the specimen showed features of IgG4-RD. We performed several tests to detect other characteristics of IgG4-RD, but were unable to find any. The patient is being followed up regularly for a year and is being observed for any symptoms of recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: We present a case of IgG4-RD wherein the ileum wall was significantly sclerosed, leading to gastrointestinal tract obstruction; therefore, we resected two sections of the ileum. We believe that resection of IgG4-RD lesions can help avoid long-term steroid use in patients, because the surgery completely eliminates the pathological origins of the condition.

Duodenal mucosal damage is associated with proliferative activity of Brunner's gland hamartoma: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Brunner's gland hamartoma is a rare tumor, predominantly found in the fifth to sixth decades of life. Generally, it is a single pedunculated polyp, rarely larger than 5 cm. Asymptomatic cases are found incidentally, but cases with a large polyp tend to have gastrointestinal bleeding and/or obstructive symptoms. Polyp size increases in a time-dependent manner, however, the growth mechanism is unknown. We report a Japanese male case in his mid-twenties with an over 6 cm sized polyp. CASE PRESENTATION: A 26-year-old man presented black stools and anemia. Endoscopic examination revealed a large pedunculated polyp at gastroduodenal junction. The polyp, subsequently resected by distal gastrectomy, was lobulated with random surface erosions and sized 6.4 × 3 cm. Histological examination revealed that the polyp arose from duodenal mucosa and was composed of hyperplastic Brunner's glands in lobules separated by fibromuscular septa, associated with lymphocytic infiltrate and lymphoid follicles. No evidence of malignancy was found. Thus, the lesion was diagnosed as Brunner's gland hamartoma. Further immunohistochemical studies indicated that gastric foveolar metaplasia is associated with surface epithelium covering upper two thirds of the polyp, showing immunohistochemical positivity for mucin 5 AC (MUC5AC). Below the metaplastic surface epithelium, Brunner's glands had high proliferative activity (MIB-1 labeling index: 7.9%). The similar staining pattern was observed at surface erosive sites (MIB-1 labeling index in Brunner's glands: 9%). On the other hand, surface epithelium in the lower side of the polyp still preserved intestinal nature, containing CDX2-positive nuclei and MUC2-positive goblet cells. Brunner's glands below the surface epithelium with intestinal characteristics showed low proliferative activity (MIB-1 labeling index: 0.77%). CONCLUSION: Proliferative activity of Brunner's glands was high at the sites with surface erosion and also below the epithelium showing gastric foveolar metaplasia. As gastric foveolar metaplasia occurs along with a mucosal repair process in the duodenum, mucosal damages underlay the hamartomatous proliferation of Brunner's glands and eventually resulted in a formation of large polypoid mass in this case.

Microstructure analysis of Fe3O4 heated by microwaves in a TE10 mode cavity: surface and volume characterization.

Detailed observations of the single mode H-field heated magnetite was conducted. The heated magnetite contains a shiny area, which exists in the width of 5 mm and thickness in 1 mm. The observation of the area reveals wavy surface patterns. The microstructures of the shiny area consists of an undefined phase and a magnetite phase which fills the space among the undefined phases. The XRD pattern from the shiny area is different from that of the random magnetite crystals, which is caused by the magnetite grains having almost same orientation in large area. There are banded areas surrounding the undefined phase of several microns in thickness, in which the existence of nano-sized crystals is indicated by means of EBSD and TEM.

Alkali borosilicate glass by fly ash from a coal-fired power plant.

The possibility of using coal fly ash as a silica source for alkali borosilicate glass was investigated. Alkali borosilicate glasses were prepared from the coal fly ash mixed with 30 wt.% reagents composed of Na(2)O and B(2)O(3) by susceptor-induction heating. Their densities ranged from 2.24 to 2.55 g cm(-3) and decreased as the amount of B(2)O(3) addition increased. However, the Vickers microhardness showed a different tendency with the density since the glass network connectivity improved by boron anomaly, which was identified by a nuclear magnetic resonance analysis. The Vickers microhardness of the glass product, with the addition of 15 wt.% B(2)O(3) and 15 wt.% Na(2)O, was about 4030 MPa. Furthermore, the changes in microstructure were consistent with those in the chemical stability by the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP).

Microwave heating characteristic of multilayered structures in a single-mode cavity.

In this study, nonconductor (PZT), semiconductor (Si) and conductor (Pt/Ti) whose permittivity and permeability are distinctive are prepared into various multilayered structures for exploring the heating behavior of microwave (2.45 Hz) in a single-mode cavity. The heating efficiency of the semiconductor and conductor was much higher at the maximum of H field than that of E field. At the H maximum, the Si layer was useful to generate high temperature and the Pt/Ti accelerated the heating rate. At the E maximum, the Si layer was also in favor of obtaining high temperature, but the Pt/Ti layer partially suppressed the microwave heating. The effect of PZT on the heating processing was not obviously observed at the maximum of both H and E fields.

Intraoperative fluoroscopic detection of an occult jejunal arteriovenous malformation.

A case of chronic gastrointestinal hemorrhage caused by a small jejunal arteriovenous malformation is presented. After microcatheter and microcoil placement, the patient underwent laparoscopically assisted jejunal resection. Intraoperative localization was accomplished by combined use of methylene blue injection and contrast medium injection. Methylene blue injection demarcated the segment of bowel involved and fluoroscopy by contrast medium injection revealed the arteriovenous malformation. This technique located the arteriovenous malformation during surgery and insured adequate but not excessive bowel resection.

Spontaneous clearance of psoriasis during the course of Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease.

A 23-year-old woman had psoriasis vulgaris since childhood. She noted painless enlargement of several lymph nodes in the cervical region accompanied by fever and malaise. A biopsy specimen from a cervical lymph node revealed histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis without granulocyte infiltration (Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease), a rare and benign lymphadenopathy of unknown cause. During the course of the Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease, the patient's recalcitrant psoriatic lesions spontaneously subsided. Complete clearance of psoriatic lesions continued until remission of Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease.