RotatedStomataNet: a deep rotated object detection network for directional stomata phenotype analysis.

KEY MESSAGE: Innovatively, we consider stomatal detection as rotated object detection and provide an end-to-end, batch, rotated, real-time stomatal density and aperture size intelligent detection and identification system, RotatedeStomataNet. Stomata acts as a pathway for air and water vapor in the course of respiration, transpiration, and other gas metabolism, so the stomata phenotype is important for plant growth and development. Intelligent detection of high-throughput stoma is a key issue. Nevertheless, currently available methods usually suffer from detection errors or cumbersome operations when facing densely and unevenly arranged stomata. The proposed RotatedStomataNet innovatively regards stomata detection as rotated object detection, enabling an end-to-end, real-time, and intelligent phenotype analysis of stomata and apertures. The system is constructed based on the Arabidopsis and maize stomatal data sets acquired destructively, and the maize stomatal data set acquired in a non-destructive way, enabling the one-stop automatic collection of phenotypic, such as the location, density, length, and width of stomata and apertures without step-by-step operations. The accuracy of this system to acquire stomata and apertures has been well demonstrated in monocotyledon and dicotyledon, such as Arabidopsis, soybean, wheat, and maize. The experimental results that the prediction results of the method are consistent with those of manual labeling. The test sets, the system code, and their usage are also given ( https://github.com/AITAhenu/RotatedStomataNet ).

Emerging Roles of Extracelluar Vesicles Derived from Bacteria, Mammalian or Plant Cells in the Pathogenesis and Clinical Application of Neurodegenerative Diseases.

A growing number of studies have indicated that extracellular vesicles (EVs), such as exosomes, are involved in the development of neurodegenerative diseases. Components of EVs with biological effects like proteins, nucleic acids, or other molecules can be delivered to recipient cells to mediate physio-/pathological processes. For instance, some aggregate-prone proteins, such as ß-amyloid and α-synuclein, had been found to propagate through exosomes. Therefore, either an increase of detrimental molecules or a decrease of beneficial molecules enwrapped in EVs may fully or partly indicate disease progression. Numerous studies have demonstrated that dysbiosis of the gut microbiota and neurodegeneration are tightly correlated, well-known as the "gut-brain axis". Accumulating evidence has revealed that the gut bacteria-derived EVs play a pivotal role in mediating microbe-host interactions and affect the function of the "gut-brain axis", which subsequently contributes to the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. In this review, we first briefly discuss the role of EVs from mammalian cells and microbes in mediating the progression of neurodegenerative diseases, and then propose a novel strategy that employs EVs of plants (plant cell-derived exosome-like nanoparticles) for treating neurodegeneration.

SLPA-Net: a real-time recognition network for intelligent stomata localization and phenotypic analysis.

Plant stomatal phenotype traits play an important role in improving crop water use efficiency, stress resistance and yield. However, at present, the acquisition of phenotype traits mainly relies on manual measurement, which is time-consuming and laborious. In order to obtain high-throughput stomatal phenotype traits, we proposed a real-time recognition network SLPA-Net for stomata localization and phenotypic analysis. After locating and identifying stomatal density data, ellipse fitting is used to automatically obtain phenotype data such as apertures. Aiming at the problems of small stomata and high similarity to background, we introduced ECANet to improve the accuracy of stoma and aperture location. In order to effectively alleviate the unbalance problem in bounding box regression, we replaced the Loss function with a more effective Focal EIoU Loss. The experimental results show that SLPA-Net has excellent performance in the migration generalization and robustness of stomata and apertures detection and identification, as well as the correlation between stomata phenotype data obtained and artificial data. For convenience, we developed SLPA-Net into a freely available software, the software can be obtained at https://github.com/AITAhenu/SLPA.

Clinical evaluation of the reference intervals for diabetes in Chinese geriatric population: a cross-sectional cohort study protocol.

INTRODUCTION: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is an important health issue that affects the ageing population. China has the largest geriatric population and the largest number of diabetes cases in the world. This poses a significant challenge for healthcare providers and policymakers. Haemoglobin A1C (HbA1c), which is one of the diagnostic criteria for diabetes, is affected by many factors such as pregnancy, age, race and anaemia. Glycated albumin (GA) is not influenced by factors that affect HbA1c concentrations, although it has been used in the diagnosis of diabetes in a few people. The aim of this study protocol is to determine reference intervals (RIs) of HbA1c and GA for the diagnosis of older adults with diabetes in China and to assess the optimal cut-off values for these parameters from a health economic perspective. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This cross-sectional survey study will recruit 1278 community-dwelling older adults aged 60-89 in Chengdu City. The data collection process will involve a questionnaire survey, a comprehensive physical examination and the collection of blood samples for laboratory testing. Data analyses will be conducted on the pooled sample and stratified by gender, age or other demographic features if necessary. Rates will be compared using the χ2 test or Fisher test and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves will be used to identify the most effective threshold values for HbA1c and GA for diagnosing diabetes among older adults in China. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study protocol was approved by the ethics review board of the Bioethics Subcommittee of West China Hospital, Sichuan University (Approval No. 1705 in 2022). The study's results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ChiCTR2300070831.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of magnetic resonance and computed tomography enterography in the diagnosis of small intestinal tumors.

Objective: To explore the potential value of magnetic resonance (MR) and computed tomography (CT) enterography in the diagnosis of small intestinal tumor (SIT). Methods: Articles reporting on the diagnosis of SIT by MR and CT enterography deposited in Chinese and foreign literature databases were identified and evaluated using the quality assessment of diagnostic accuracy studies (QUADAS). The diagnostic data extracted from the articles were adopted for meta-analysis using Meta-disc 1.40 software. Analysis was undertaken to compare the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratios, and the diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) of MR and CT enterography in the diagnosis of SIT. The diagnostic values of the two imaging methods were analyzed by summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curves. The meta-analysis was registered at INPLASY (202380053). Results: A total of eight articles, including 551 cases of SIT were included in this analysis. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of MR enterography were 0.92 (95% CI [0.89-0.95]) and 0.81 (95% CI [0.74-0.86]), respectively, whilst CT enterography had a sensitivity of 0.93 (95% CI [0.90-0.95]) and a specificity of 0.83 (95% CI [0.76-0.88]). For MR enterography, the combined positive likelihood ratio was 4.90 (95% CI [3.50-6.70]), the combined negative likelihood ratio was 0.10 (95% CI [0.07-0.14]), and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) was 0.940. For CT enterography, the corresponding values were 5.40 (95% CI [3.90-7.40]), 0.08 (95% CI [0.06-0.12]), and 0.950, respectively. When the pretest probability for MR was assumed to be 50%, the posterior probabilities for positive and negative results were calculated as 83% and 9%, respectively. For CT enterography with a pretest probability of 50%, the posterior probabilities of positive and negative results were 84% and 8%, respectively. Conclusion: MR and CT enterography have high accuracy in the diagnosis of SIT and have a valuable role in the diagnosis and management of these tumors.

Desert Abiotic Carbon Sequestration Weakening by Precipitation.

Desert carbon sequestration plays an active role in promoting carbon neutralization. However, the current understanding of the effect of hydrothermal interactions and soil properties on desert carbon sequestration after precipitation remains unclear. Based on the experiment in the hinterland of the Taklimakan Desert, we found that the heavy precipitation will accelerate the weakening of abiotic carbon sequestration in deserts under the background of global warming and intensified water cycle. The high soil moisture can significantly stimulate sand to release CO2 at an incredible speed by rapidly increasing microbial activity and organic matter diffusion. At this time, the CO2 flux in the shifting sand was synergistically affected by soil temperature and soil moisture. As far as soil properties are concerned, with less organic carbon substrate and stronger soil alkalinity, the carbon sequestration of shifting sand is gradually highlighted and strengthened at low temperature. On the contrary, the carbon sequestration of shifting sand is gradually weakened. Our study provides a new way to assess the contribution of desert to the global carbon cycle and improve the accuracy and scope of application.

Evolution law of atmospheric boundary layer in Gurbantünggüt Desert based on reanalysis dataset and in situ observation data.

As a special geographical unit on the earth, deserts have certain differences in planetary boundary layer (PBL) characteristics from other surface types. In order to find out the long-term evolution law of the Gurbantünggüt Desert, on the basis of evaluating the availability of reanalysis data, using the most effective reanalysis data and situ measured data in this area, the evolution law of the atmospheric boundary layer in the desert area was studied. The results show that among the ERA5, MERRA2, JRA-55 and NCEP-FNL reanalysis data, the ERA5 data has the smallest error with the measured data in the comparison of ground elements or high-altitude meteorology parameters, and can be used for the long-term evolution of the atmospheric boundary layer in desert areas. Based on the ERA5 dataset, the annual planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) of the desert fluctuated between 1979 and 1985, but showed a downward trend overall. From 1986 to 2019, the PBLH generally shows an upward trend, and by 2020, the PBLH decreases again. The PBLH in the summer of the desert was contrary to the inter-annual change trend of the PBLH throughout the year. The spatial distribution shows that the PBLH has the characteristics of north-south anisotropy. The characteristics of the ABL in the Gurbantünggüt Desert in different thermal states in summer vary greatly. Based on the sounding observational data, the average PBLH of the stable boundary layer in the Gurbantünggüt Desert in summer is 496 m, the average PBLH of the convective boundary layer is 1693 m, and the average PBLH of the neutral boundary layer is 1208 m. The ABL in desert areas from 02:00 to 08:00 and 23:00 is dominated by stable boundary layers, of which the proportion of stable boundary layers at 05:00 is as high as 67%. During the day, the boundary layer from 14:00 to 17:00 is mainly the convective boundary layer, accounting for more than 50%, and the boundary layer at 20:00 is mainly a neutral boundary layer, accounting for 55%.

Enhancement and Manipulation of Near-Field Thermal Radiation Using Hybrid Hyperbolic Polaritons.

Owing to a high electromagnetic confinement and a strong photonic density of states, hyperbolic surface plasmon polaritons (HSPPs) provide a fascinating promise for applications in thermal photonics. In this work, we theoretically predict a possibility for the improvement of the near-field radiative heat transfer on the basis of tailoring the electromagnetic state of hyperbolic metasurfaces by the uniaxial hyperbolic substrate. By using the photonic tunneling coefficient and the polaritons dispersion, we present a comprehensive study of the hybrid effect of the hyperbolic substrate on HSPPs. We find that due to the hybrid effect of the hyperbolic substrate, the anisotropy surface state of hyperbolic metasurfaces would undergo significant deformations and even topological transition. Moreover, we systematically exhibit the evolution of such hybrid hyperbolic mode with different thicknesses of the hyperbolic substrate and analyze the thickness effect on radiative properties of the hybrid system. It is shown that the resulting heat transfer with the assistance of the hybrid hyperbolic mode by optimizing the substrate parameters is many times stronger than that of monolayer hyperbolic metasurface at the same vacuum gap. Taken together, our results provide a platform to tailor 2D hyperbolic plasmons as a potential strategy toward passive or active control of the near-field heat transfer, and the hybrid hyperbolic mode presented here may facilitate the system design for near-field energy harvesting, thermal imaging, and radiative cooling applications.

Evaluation of carbon sink in the Taklimakan Desert based on correction of abnormal negative CO2 flux of IRGASON.

Studies showing that deserts can sequester CO2 through non-photosynthetic processes have contributed to locating missing carbon sinks. However, the contradiction between the desert CO2 flux obtained by different observation methods leads to uncertainty in evaluating desert carbon sequestration. This has caused scepticism regarding desert carbon sequestration after years of research. Through a comparative experiment in the non-vegetated shifting sand of the Taklimakan Desert (TD), it was found that if the abnormal negative CO2 flux observed by IRGASON during the day was not corrected, the carbon sequestration of the TD would be overestimated. The CO2 flux observed by EC155 is highly consistent with that of LI-COR8100A and can reflect the real CO2 exchange in the desert. The CO2 flux observed by EC155 was used to correct the results of IRGASON. Results show that the expansion/contraction of soil air containing CO2 caused by the change in the daily average soil temperature difference (T0-10cm) drives CO2 exchange in shifting sand. This results in diurnal variation of CO2 release caused by shifting sand during the day and CO2 absorption at night, and a unimodal distribution of CO2 exchange caused by shifting sand throughout the year. From April to September (T0-10cm > 2 °C), the shifting sand releases CO2 as a carbon source. In the other months (T0-10cm < 2 °C), the shifting sand absorbs CO2 as a carbon sink. The stronger absorption shows that the shifting sand in the TD provides carbon sequestration, with a CO2 uptake rate of ~148.85 × 104 tons a-1. This suggests that deserts play an active role in locating the missing carbon sinks and mitigating climate change, and that the status of deserts in the global carbon cycle cannot be ignored.

Effects of changing culture medium on preimplantation embryo development in rabbit.

Many studies have focused on the optimization of the composition of embryo culture medium; however, there are few studies involving the effect of a culture medium changing procedure on the preimplantation development of embryos. In this study, three groups were designed: a non-renewal group, a renewal group and a half-renewal group. The levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), apoptotic index, blastocyst ratio and blastocyst total cell number were analyzed in each group. The results showed that the ROS level and the apoptotic index of blastocyst in the non-renewal group were significantly higher than in the renewal group and the half-renewal group (P < 0.05). The blastocyst ratio and blastocyst total cell number were significantly higher in the half-renewal group than that in non-renewal group and the renewal group (P < 0.05). These results demonstrated that the procedure of changing the culture medium influenced ROS level, apoptotic index, blastocyst ratio and total cell number of blastocysts. In addition, the result suggested that changing the culture medium may lead to a loss of important regulatory factors for embryos, while not changing the culture medium may lead to the accumulation of toxic substances. Half-renewal can alleviate the defects of both no renewal and renewal, and benefit embryo development. This study will be of high value as a reference for the optimization of embryo culture in vitro, and is very significant for assisted reproduction.

Complexity Evaluation of an Environmental Control and Life-Support System Based on Directed and Undirected Structural Entropy Methods.

During manned space missions, an environmental control and life-support system (ECLSS) is employed to meet the life-supporting requirements of astronauts. The ECLSS is a type of hierarchical system, with subsystem-component-single machines, forming a complex structure. Therefore, system-level conceptual designing and performance evaluation of the ECLSS must be conducted. This study reports the top-level scheme of ECLSS, including the subsystems of atmosphere revitalization, water management, and waste management. We propose two schemes based on the design criteria of improving closure and reducing power consumption. In this study, we use the structural entropy method (SEM) to calculate the system order degree to quantitatively evaluate the ECLSS complexity at the top level. The complexity of the system evaluated by directed SEM and undirected SEM presents different rules. The results show that the change in the system structure caused by the replacement of some single technologies will not have great impact on the overall system complexity. The top-level scheme design and complexity evaluation presented in this study may provide technical support for the development of ECLSS in future manned spaceflights.

Prenatal diagnosis of skeletal dysplasias using whole exome sequencing in China.

BACKGROUND: Skeletal dysplasias account for nearly 10% of fetal structural malformations detected by ultrasonography. This clinically heterogeneous group of genetic anomaly includes at least 461 genetic skeletal disorders with extreme clinical, phenotypic, and genetic heterogeneities, thus, significantly complicates accurate diagnosis. Researches have used whole exome sequencing (WES) for prenatal molecular diagnoses of skeletal dysplasias, however, data are still limited. METHODS: DNA extracted from umbilical cord blood or amniocytes from fetuses suspected of skeletal dysplasias based on ultrasound evaluations were analyzed by WES. Blood samples were taken from the parents of the positive fetuses for co-segregation analysis using Sanger sequencing. RESULT: Definitive molecular diagnosis was made in 6/8 (75%) cases, comprised of 5 de novo disease-causing changes in 3 genes (FGFR3, COL2A1, and COL1A2) and one proband with a biallelic deficiency for Lamin B Receptor(LBR),and including 3 novel variants. All fetuses had no detectable copy number variation (CNV) from sequencing results. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that WES is an efficient approach for prenatal diagnosis of fetuses suspected of skeletal abnormalities and contributes to parental genetics counseling and pregnancy management.

PCR detection for syphilis diagnosis: Status and prospects.

Syphilis, a re-emerging public health problem worldwide caused by Treponema pallidum subsp pallidum (T. pallidum), usually induces systemic and chronic inflammation in hosts who do not receive timely therapy after exposing to high-risk factors such as leprous sexual contact. Before the treatment, rapid and accurate detection of syphilis is essential. However, the existing detection methods, which focus on the treponemal or non-treponemal antibody test, both have inherent limitations. For instance, both of them cannot distinguish the stage and severity of syphilis. Non-treponemal test such as RPR, which is generally deemed to be used for assessing treatment response, is influenced by biological false positives. Therefore, it is imperative to seek out a new and effective diagnostic test. With recent advancements in molecular biology and whole-genome sequencing, the molecular diagnosis has increased in popularity, especially the use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Here, we firstly present a mini-review on the research of PCR detection methods used for syphilis diagnosis over the past decade, and we then compare these methodologies to assess their potential and the challenges faced. This information can provide a fresh perspective to help researchers address the current challenges.

Data on the generation of rabbit infections and RPR titre changes in serum samples from syphilis patients at follow-up.

The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled "Performance of novel infection phase-dependent antigens in syphilis serodiagnosis and treatment efficacy determination". The rabbit model [1], [2] is an appropriate animal model for studying syphilis, a classic sexually transmitted disease (STD). Live Treponema pallidum (T. pallidum, Tp) and inactivated T. pallidum were inoculated in the backs of New Zealand rabbits. RT-PCR was performed to determine whether T. pallidum DNA could be detected in different groups. Sixty paired serum samples from patients at follow-up were tested by RPR and recombinant Tp0971-, Tp0768-, Tp0462- and Tp92-based ELISA.

The outer membrane protein Tp92 of Treponema pallidum induces human mononuclear cell death and IL-8 secretion.

Treponema pallidum is the pathogen that causes syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease; however, the pathogenic mechanism of this organism remains unclear. Tp92 is the only T. pallidum outer membrane protein that has structural features similar to the outer membrane proteins of other Gram-negative bacteria, but the exact functions of this protein remain unknown. In the present study, we demonstrated that the recombinant Tp92 protein can induce human mononuclear cell death. Tp92 mediated the human monocytic cell line derived from an acute monicytic leukemia patient (THP-1) cell death by recognizing CD14 and/or TLR2 on cell surfaces. After the stimulation of THP-1 cells by the Tp92 protein, Tp92 may induce atypical pyroptosis of THP-1 cells via the pro-caspase-1 pathway. Meanwhile, this protein caused the apoptosis of THP-1 cells via the receptor-interacting protein kinase 1/caspase-8/aspase-3 pathway. Tp92 reduced the number of monocytes among peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Interestingly, further research showed that Tp92 failed to increase the tumour necrosis factor-α, interleukin (IL)-1ß, IL-6, IL-10, IL-18 and monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP)-1 levels but slightly elevated the IL-8 levels via the Nuclear Factor (NF)-κB pathway in THP-1 cells. The data suggest that Tp92 recognizes CD14 and TLR2, transfers the signal to a downstream pathway, and activates NF-κB to mediate the production of IL-8. This mechanism may help T. pallidum escape recognition and elimination by the host innate immune system.

Crosslinked Carbon Nanotubes/Polyaniline Composites as a Pseudocapacitive Material with High Cycling Stability.

The poor cycling stability of polyaniline (PANI) limits its practical application as a pseudocapacitive material due to the volume change during the charge-discharge procedure. Herein, crosslinked carbon nanotubes/polyaniline (C-CNTs/PANI) composites had been designed by the in situ chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline in the presence of crosslinked carbon nanotubes (C-CNTs), which were obtained by coupling of the functionalized carbon nanotubes with 1,4-benzoquinone. The composite showed a specific capacitance of 294 F/g at the scan rate of 10 mV/s, and could retain 95% of its initial specific capacitance after 1000 CV cycles. Such high electrochemical cycling stability resulting from the crosslinked skeleton of the C-CNTs makes them potential electrode materials for a supercapacitor.