Fast Building Instance Proxy Reconstruction for Large Urban Scenes.

Digitalization of large-scale urban scenes (in particular buildings) has been a long-standing open problem, which attributes to the challenges in data acquisition, such as incomplete scene coverage, lack of semantics, low efficiency, and low reliability in path planning. In this paper, we address these challenges in urban building reconstruction from aerial images, and we propose an effective workflow and a few novel algorithms for efficient 3D building instance proxy reconstruction for large urban scenes. Specifically, we propose a novel learning-based approach to instance segmentation of urban buildings from aerial images followed by a voting-based algorithm to fuse the multi-view instance information to a sparse point cloud (reconstructed using a standard Structure from Motion pipeline). Our method enables effective instance segmentation of the building instances from the point cloud. We also introduce a layer-based surface reconstruction method dedicated to the 3D reconstruction of building proxies from extremely sparse point clouds. Extensive experiments on both synthetic and real-world aerial images of large urban scenes have demonstrated the effectiveness of our approach. The generated scene proxy models can already provide a promising 3D surface representation of the buildings in large urban scenes, and when applied to aerial path planning, the instance-enhanced building proxy models can significantly improve data completeness and accuracy, yielding highly detailed 3D building models.

The endophytic fungal community plays a crucial role in the resistance of host plants to necrotic bacterial pathogens.

Konjac species (Amorphophallus spp.) are the only plant species in the world that are rich in a large amount of konjac glucomannan (KGM). These plants are widely cultivated as cash crops in tropical and subtropical countries in Asia, including China. Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum (Pcc) is one of the most destructive bacterial pathogens of konjac. Here, we analyzed the interactions between Pcc and susceptible and resistant konjac species from multiple perspectives. At the transcriptional and metabolic levels, the susceptible species A. konjac and resistant species A. muelleri exhibit similar molecular responses, activating plant hormone signaling pathways and metabolizing defense compounds such as phenylpropanoids and flavonoids to resist infection. Interestingly, we found that Pcc stress can lead to rapid recombination of endophytic microbial communities within a very short period (96 h). Under conditions of bacterial pathogen infection, the relative abundance of most bacterial communities in konjac tissue decreased sharply compared with that in healthy plants, while the relative abundance of some beneficial fungal communities increased significantly. The relative abundance of Cladosporium increased significantly in both kinds of infected konjac compared to that in healthy plants, and the relative abundance in resistant A. muelleri plants was greater than that in susceptible A. konjac plants. Among the isolated cultivable microorganisms, all three strains of Cladosporium strongly inhibited Pcc growth. Our results further elucidate the potential mechanism underlying konjac resistance to Pcc infection, highlighting the important role of endophytic microbial communities in resisting bacterial pathogen infections, especially the more direct role of fungal communities in inhibiting pathogen growth.

First Report of Paramyrothecium breviseta Causing Target Spot on Amorphophallus muelleri in Yunnan, China.

Amorphophallus muelleri is an Araceae plant with perennial tuber, widely used in food, pharmaceutical and chemical industry due to its richness in glucomannan. In April 2022, an outbreak of a target spot on A. muelleri plantlets was observed in a nursery in Ruili, Yunnan, China. The leafstalks of the diseased plantlets in the nursery turned brown and decayed (Fig.1 A-B), then gradually some water-soaked spots on the true leaves developed along the veins (Fig.1 A). Subquencely, the spots on the true leaves turned dark green to white-grayish in the center, which formed light to dark brown concentric rings with a target-like appearance surrounded by a yellow halo (Fig.1 C). When the temperature was 20-34℃ and the relatively humidity was 25-80%, dark-green to black sporodochia with white hypha appeared on the lower and upper leaf surfaces. Finally, 5-8% of the plants surveyed on 800 m2 of one-year-old plantlets in the nursery showed the symptoms and some plants with infected leafstalks would be death. Similar symptoms were also observed on about 10% of the transplanted plants surveyed on 12000 m2 (1.2 ha) of two-year-old plantlets in the field. Five diseased leaves from five distinct plantlets in the nursery were collected for pathogen isolation. Leaf pieces(5 x 5 mm) were cut from the edge of necrotic lesions, and surface-sterilized with 2.5% sodium hypochlorite for 1 min, 75% ethanol for 30 s, then rinsed 5 times by sterilized distilled water, finally put the leaf pieces on sterilized filter paper for 3-5 minutes to dry them and transferred onto potato dextrose agar (PDA) in petri dishes at 25℃ for three days. Five pure cultures identical to colony and conidial characteristics were isolated from five individual plants. The representative pure culture (M1) was grayish-white and circular colonies were 7.50 cm in diamter after 15 days at 25℃, with dark green concentric rings of sporodochia, the dorsal view of the colonies were yellowish. Conidia were aseptate, smooth, cylindrical, 5.00-6.25 (5.71) x 1.25-1.67 (1.63) µm (n = 20) rounded at both ends. A spore suspension (1 x 106 spores/ml) was prepared by harvesting spores from 15-day-old cultures grown in the dark at 25℃, then a thirty-ml of spore suspension was sprayed on the healthy leaves of 10 two-year-old plantlets. Thirty-ml of sterile water was sprayed on the healthy leaves of another 10 seedlings and used as the control. All seedlings were placed in a nursery at 20 to 34℃ and a relative humidity of 25 to 80%. Similar symptoms (Fig.1 D-F) to those observed in the nursery and field developed on all the 10 seedlings inoculated with M1 after two days, but not on the control leaves. The pathogenicity tests were repeated for three times. Fungal cultures reisolated from the infected leaves were identical to the original colonies and conidia, completing Koch's postulates. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS, primers ITS1 and ITS4) region of ribosomal DNA (OQ553785), calmodulin (cmdA, primers CAL-228F and CAL2Rd)(OQ559103), RNA polymerase II second largest subunit (rpb2, primers RPB2-5F2 and RPB2-7cR) (OQ559104) and ß-tubulin (tub2, primers Bt2a and Bt2b) (OQ559105) of M1 had 100%, 98.52%, 98.98% and 98.98% identity with the sequences of Paramyrothecium breviseta CBS544.75 (KU846289 for ITS, KU846262 for cmdA, KU846351 for rpb2, and KU846406 for tub2), respectively. In the phylogenic tree based on ITS, cmdA, rpb2 and tub2 gene sequences, the pure culture M1 clustered with P. breviseta CBS544.75, SDBR-CMU387, DRL4 and DRL3, which has been reported as the pathogen of leaf spot of Coffea arabica in China, C. canephora in China and Thailand (Wu et al. 2021; Withee et al. 2022). Molecular and morphological observations showed the pure culture M1 were P. breviseta (Withee et al. 2022), in addition the disease was named as target spot dueing to the typical target symptom on the leaves. To our knowledge, this is the first report of P. breviseta on A. muelleri from Yunnan, China, as well as worldwide. This disease can caused serious economic losses of A. muelleri dueing to that it can result 5-8% death of the plants in the nursery.

Phenylpropane biosynthesis and alkaloid metabolism pathways involved in resistance of Amorphophallus spp. against soft rot disease.

Soft rot of konjac (Amorphophallus spp.) is a devastating disease caused by the bacterium Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum (Pcc) with serious adverse effects on plantation development, corm quality and crop yield due to the current lack of effective control measures. The main objective of the present study was to elucidate the mechanisms underlying plant resistance to soft rot disease. A combination of transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses demonstrated significant enrichment of differentially expressed genes (DEG) and differentially accumulated metabolites (DAM) associated with plant hormones, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis and, in particular, alkaloid metabolism, in Amorphophallus muelleri following Pcc infection compared with A. konjac, these data implicate alkaloid metabolism as the dominant mechanism underlying disease resistance of A. muelleri. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis further revealed involvement of PAL, CYP73A16, CCOAOMT1, RBOHD and CDPK20 genes in the response of konjac to Pcc. Analysis of the bacteriostatic activities of total alkaloid from A. muelleri validated the assumption that alkaloid metabolism positively regulates disease resistance of konjac. Our collective results provide a foundation for further research on the resistance mechanisms of konjac against soft rot disease.

ResGEM: Multi-scale Graph Embedding Network for Residual Mesh Denoising.

Mesh denoising is a crucial technology that aims to recover a high-fidelity 3D mesh from a noise-corrupted one. Deep learning methods, particularly graph convolutional networks (GCNs) based mesh denoisers, have demonstrated their effectiveness in removing various complex real-world noises while preserving authentic geometry. However, it is still a quite challenging work to faithfully regress uncontaminated normals and vertices on meshes with irregular topology. In this paper, we propose a novel pipeline that incorporates two parallel normal-aware and vertex-aware branches to achieve a balance between smoothness and geometric details while maintaining the flexibility of surface topology. We introduce ResGEM, a new GCN, with multi-scale embedding modules and residual decoding structures to facilitate normal regression and vertex modification for mesh denoising. To effectively extract multi-scale surface features while avoiding the loss of topological information caused by graph pooling or coarsening operations, we encode the noisy normal and vertex graphs using four edge-conditioned embedding modules (EEMs) at different scales. This allows us to obtain favorable feature representations with multiple receptive field sizes. Formulating the denoising problem into a residual learning problem, the decoder incorporates residual blocks to accurately predict true normals and vertex offsets from the embedded feature space. Moreover, we propose novel regularization terms in the loss function that enhance the smoothing and generalization ability of our network by imposing constraints on normal consistency. Comprehensive experiments have been conducted to demonstrate the superiority of our method over the state-of-the-art on both synthetic and real-scanned datasets.

Effects of ulinastatin combined with dexmedetomidine on cognitive dysfunction and emergence agitation in elderly patients who underwent total hip arthroplasty.

BACKGROUND: With the continuous growth of the modern elderly population, the risk of fracture increases. Hip fracture is a common type of fracture in older people. Total hip arthroplasty (THA) has significant advantages in relieving chronic pain and promoting the recovery of hip joint function. AIM: To investigate the effect of ulinastatin combined with dexmedetomidine (Dex) on the incidences of postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) and emergence agitation in elderly patients who underwent THA. METHODS: A total of 397 patients who underwent THA from February 2019 to August 2022. We conducted a three-year retrospective cohort study in Shaanxi Provincial People's Hospital. Comprehensive demographic data were obtained from the electronic medical record system. We collected preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative data. One hundred twenty-nine patients who were administered Dex during the operation were included in the Dex group. One hundred fifty patients who were intravenously injected with ulinastatin 15 min before anesthesia induction were included in the ulinastatin group. One hundred eighteen patients who were administered ulinastatin combined with Dex during the operation were included in the Dex + ulinastatin group. The patients' perioperative conditions, hemodynamic indexes, postoperative Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores, Ramsay score, incidence of POCD, and serum inflammatory cytokines were evaluated. RESULTS: There was a significant difference in the 24 h visual analogue scale score among the three groups, and the score in the Dex + ulinastatin group was the lowest (P < 0.05). Compared with the Dex and ulinastatin group, the MMSE scores of the Dex + ulinastatin group were significantly increased at 1 and 7 d after the operation (all P < 0.05). Compared with those in the Dex and ulinastatin groups, incidence of POCD, levels of serum inflammatory cytokines in the Dex + ulinastatin group were significantly decreased at 1 and 7 d after the operation (all P < 0.05). The observer's assessment of the alertness/sedation score and Ramsay score of the Dex + ulinastatin group were significantly different from those of the Dex and ulinastatin groups on the first day after the operation (all P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Ulinastatin combined with Dex can prevent the occurrence of POCD and emergence agitation in elderly patients undergoing THA.

Talaromyces sedimenticola sp. nov., isolated from the Mariana Trench.

Two fungal strains (K-2T and S1) were isolated from the deepest ocean sediment of the Challenger Deep located in the Mariana Trench. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) gene sequences of the isolates K-2T and S1 differed from those of closely related species, such as Talaromyces assiutensis and T. trachyspermus. Phylogenetic analyses based on single and concatenated alignments of the genes, namely ITS, ß-tubulin (benA), calmodulin (cam), and the second-largest subunit fragment of the RNA polymerase II (rpb2) showed that the isolates K-2T and S1 were clustered together with other Talaromyces species, such as T. trachyspermus and T. assiutensis, as evidenced by the position on a terminal branch with high bootstrap support. They could also be distinguished from their closest relatives with valid published names via morphological and physiological characteristics, for example, growth at 4 °C-50 °C with a pH in the range of 1.5-12. Based on their phylogenetic, morphological, and physicochemical properties, the isolates K-2T and S1 represent a novel species in the genus Talaromyces, and the proposed name is Talaromyces sedimenticola sp. nov. The type strain is K-2T (= GDMCC 3.746T = JCM 39451T).

Endoscopic Revision Strategies and Outcomes for Recurrent L4/5 Disc Herniation After Percutaneous Endoscopic Transforaminal Discectomy.

Objective: We explore the endoscopic revision and surgical techniques for L4/5 recurrent disc herniation (rLDH) after percutaneous endoscopic transforaminal discectomy (PETD). Methods: A retrospective study was conducted. From January 2016 to September 2022, 96 patients who underwent percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy for L4/5 rLDH after PETD were enrolled in the study. Based on the revision approach, the patients were divided into PETD group (57 cases) and percutaneous endoscopic interlaminar discectomy (PEID) group (39 cases). Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for back and leg pain, Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), and modified MacNab standard were recorded to evaluate the clinical outcomes. Results: No significant differences were found in the demographic data and intraoperative blood loss between the two groups (P>0.05), but the time of operation and intraoperative X-ray fluoroscopy exposures in the PEID group were significantly less than that in the PETD group (P<0.05). The patients' postoperative clinical indexes gradually improved, and the VAS score, ODI index, and JOA score of the patients in both groups showed significant improvement compared with the preoperative period at the 1-week, 1-month, and 6-month postoperative follow-ups (P < 0.05). There was no serious complication observed during the follow-up. Conclusion: For recurrent LDH after PETD of L4/5 segments, percutaneous endoscopic revision can achieve satisfactory results. Among them, PEID has a shorter operative and fluoroscopy time and allows avoidance of the scar that forms after the initial surgery, so it can be considered preferred when both procedures can remove the disk well. However, for some specific types of herniation, a detailed surgical strategy is required.

The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Amorphophallus konjac (Araceae) from Yunnan, China and its phylogenetic analysis in the family Araceae.

This work determined and analyzed the complete chloroplast genome sequence of Amorphophallus konjac K. Koch ex N.E.Br 1858 from Yunnan, China. The genome size was 167,470 bp, of which contains a large single-copy region (LSC 93,443 bp), a small single-copy region (SSC 21,575 bp), and a pair of inverted repeat regions (IR 26,226 bp). The chloroplast genome has 131 genes, including 86 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNAs, and eight rRNAs. A previous study reported deletion of accD, psbE, and trnG-GCC genes in the A. konjac chloroplast genome. Our study supports the conservative structure of A. konjac and does not support the gene deletion mentioned above. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that A. konjac shares a close relationship with another A. konjac (collected from Guizhou) and A. titanium by forming a clade in the genus Amorphophallus. Our results provide some useful information to the evolution of the family Araceae.

Analysis of the Screw Accuracy and Postoperative Efficacy of Screw Placement in Single Position and Bipedal Position in Robot-Assisted Oblique Lumbar Interbody Fusion: Preliminary Results of Mazor X Stealth Usage.

OBJECTIVE: Traditional manual OLIF combined with pedicle screw implantation has many problems of manual percutaneous screw implantation, such as high difficulty of screw placement, many fluoroscopies, long operation time, and many adjustments, resulting in greater trauma. The robot can perform various types of screw placement in the lateral recumbent position, which allows OLIF combined with posterior screw placement surgery to be completed in a single position. To compare the screw accuracy and initial postoperative results of oblique anterior lumbar fusion with robot-assisted screw placement in the lateral position and screw placement in the prone position for the treatment of lumbar spondylolisthesis. METHODS: From May to June 2022, 45 patients with single-segment lumbar spondylolisthesis underwent Mazor X-assisted oblique lumbar fusion in one position and Renaissance-assisted surgery in two different positions, and screw accuracy was assessed on computed tomography scans according to a modified Gertzbein-Robbins classification. Patients were divided into a single position group and a bipedal position group (the lateral position for complete oblique lumbar fusion and then changed to the prone position for posterior screw placement), and the perioperative parameters, including operative time, number of fluoroscopies, and operative complications, were recorded separately. The results of the clinical indicators, such as the visual analog scale (VAS) for back and leg pain and the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) score, were obtained. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the patients' demographic data between the two groups. The single position group had a shorter operative time and fewer fluoroscopies than the bipedal position group; the single position group had a higher percentage of screw accuracy at the A level than the bipedal position group, but there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups at the acceptable level (A + B) (p > 0.05). The single-position group had better outcomes at the 1-week postoperative follow-up back pain VAS scores (p < 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in the postoperative leg pain VAS scores or the ODI scores when compared to the control group. CONCLUSION: Robot-assisted lateral position oblique lumbar interbody fusion with pedicle screw placement has the same accuracy as prone positioning. Single position surgery can significantly shorten the operation time and reduce the fluoroscopy. There was no significant difference in the long-term efficacy between the two groups.

Comparison of Percutaneous Endoscopic Transforaminal and Interlaminar Approaches in Treating Adjacent Segment Disease Following Lumbar Decompression Surgery: A Clinical Retrospective Study.

BACKGROUND: Adjacent segment disease (ASD) is a common complication following posterior disc decompression and fusion surgery. Percutaneous endoscopic lumbar decompression surgery (PELD) has been used to treat ASD through either a transforaminal or interlaminar approach. However, to our limited knowledge there are no reports comparing the 2 approaches for treating ASD. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate clinical outcomes of PELD in treating ASD and comparing the surgical results and complications between the 2 approaches. This may be helpful for spinal surgeons when decision-making ASD treatment. STUDY DESIGN: A clinical retrospective study. SETTING: This study was conducted at the Department of Orthopedics of the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University. METHODS: From January 2015 through December 2019, a total of 68 patients with ASD who underwent PELD after lumbar posterior decompression with fusion surgery were included in this study. The patients were divided into a percutaneous endoscopic transforaminal decompression (PETD) group and a percutaneous endoscopic interlaminar decompression (PEID) group according to the approach used. The demographic characteristics, radiographic and clinical outcomes, and complications were recorded in both groups through a chart review. RESULTS: Of the 68 patients, 40 underwent PEID and 28 patients underwent PETD. Compared with their preoperative Visual Analog Scale (VAS) pain score and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) score, all patients had significant postoperative improvement at 3 months, 6 months, one year and at the latest follow-up. There were no significant statistical differences in the VAS and ODI scores between PETD and PEID groups with a P value > 0.05. There was a significant statistical difference in the average fluoroscopy times between the PETD and PEID groups with a P value = 0.000. Revision surgery occurred in 8 patients: 6 patients who underwent PETD and 2 patients who underwent PEID. The revision rate showed a significant statistical difference between the 2 approaches with a P value = 0.039. LIMITATIONS: Firstly, the number of patients included in this study was small. More patients are needed in a further study. Secondly, the follow-up time was limited in this study. There is still no conclusion about whether the primary decompression with instruments will increase the reoperation rate after a PELD, and a longer follow-up is needed in the future. Thirdly, this study was a clinical retrospective study. Randomized or controlled trials are needed in the future in order to achieve a higher level of evidence. Fourthly, there were debates about PELD approach choices for ASDs, which may affect the comparison results between PETD and PEID. In our study, the approaches were mainly determined by the level and types of disc herniation, and the surgeons' preference. More patients with an ASD with different levels and types of disc herniation and surgical approaches are needed in the future to eliminate these biases. CONCLUSION: Percutaneous endoscopic lumbar decompression surgery is a feasible option for ASD following lumbar decompression surgery with instruments. Compared with PETD, PEID seems to be a better approach to treat symptomatic ASDs.

Clinical, Radiographic and Fusion Comparison of Oblique Lumbar Interbody Fusion (OLIF) stand-alone and OLIF with posterior pedicle screw fixation in patients with degenerative spondylolisthesis.

PURPOSE: To compare the outcomes and characteristics of oblique lumbar interbody fusion stand-alone (OLIF-SA) and OLIF with posterior pedicle screw fixation (OLIF-PPS) in the treatment of Grade I or Grade II degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between January 2019 and May 2022, 139 patients with degenerative spondylolisthesis were treated with OLIF-SA (n = 85) or OLIF-PPS (n = 54). The clinical and radiographic records were reviewed. RESULTS: The clinical and radiographic outcomes were similar in both groups. The operative time and intraoperative blood loss in the OLIF-SA group were lower than those in the OLIF-PPS group (P < 0.05). However, the OLIF-PPS group had significantly better disc height (DH) and postoperative forward spondylolisthesis distance (FSD) improvement at 6 months (P < 0.05). The OLIF-PPS group had a significantly lower cage subsidence value than the OLIF-SA group (P < 0.05). Improvement of the lumbar lordotic angle (LA) and fusion segmental lordotic angle (FSA) in the OLIF-PPS group was significantly better than that in the OLIF-SA group (P < 0.05). In terms of fusion types, the OLIF-SA group tended to undergo fusion from the edge of the vertebral body. Fusion in the OLIF-PPS group began more often in the bone graft area of the central cage of the vertebral body. The fusion speed of the OLIF-SA group was faster than that of the OLIF-PPS group. CONCLUSION: OLIF-SA has the advantages of a short operative time, less intraoperative blood loss, and reduced financial burden, while PPS has incomparable advantages in the reduction of spondylolisthesis, restoration of lumbar physiological curvature, and long-term maintenance of intervertebral DH. In addition, the SA group had a unique vertebral edge fusion method and faster fusion speed.

Association of glycemic control with hypertension in patients with diabetes: a population-based longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: Diabetes increases the risk of hypertension morbidity, but whether this association is varied with glycemic control remains unknown. We aimed to examine the association of glycemic control with hypertension among individuals with diabetes. METHODS: Data was from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) between 2011 and 2018. Participants were categorized as having adequate glycemic control (HbA1c < 7%) and inadequate glycemic uncontrol (HbA1c ≥ 7%) by combining blood glucose tests and physician's diagnoses in 2011. Incident hypertension was ascertained through self-reported physician diagnoses from 2011 to 2018. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to examine the effect of glycemic control on hypertension. RESULTS: Among 436 participants with diabetes in this study, 102 met the glycemic control standard, and 334 were insufficient glycemic control. During 7 years of follow-up, 141 individuals developed hypertension. Compared with adequate glycemic control, the hazard ratio of inadequate glycemic control on hypertension was 1.54 (95% CI, 1.07-2.21) in the multivariate model. Additionally, the influence of glycemic control on hypertension varied based on educational attainment and the presence of depressive symptoms (P for interaction < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Insufficient glycemic control was associated with a higher risk of hypertension among individuals with diabetes. Notably, the effect of glycemic control on hypertension was more pronounced among those with lower educational attainment and those exhibiting depressive symptoms. These findings underscore the significance of vigilant glycemic monitoring, educational background considerations, and mental health assessments in managing diabetic individuals.

The Cortical Bone Trajectory Screw Technique Assisted by the Mazor Renaissance Robotic System as a Salvage Strategy for Failed Lumbar Spine Surgery: Technical Note and Case Series.

Purpose: The objective of this study was to describe the Mazor Renaissance robotic system-assisted CBT (cortical bone trajectory) screw technique as a salvage strategy for failed lumbar spine surgery. Patients and Methods: Between January 2018 and June 2022, 7 patients underwent salvage surgery with the CBT screw fixation technique assisted by the Mazor Renaissance robot system in our institution. Intraoperative observations were recorded for blood loss, duration of operation, and fluoroscopy time. Complications related to CBT screws were also recorded. The accuracy of CBT screws was recorded in accordance with the modified Gertzbein-Robbins classification. The JOA (Japanese Orthopedic Association) score for low back pain was used to evaluate surgical outcomes. Results: A total of 26 CBT screws were placed in 7 patients, including 4 females and 3 males. Three patients underwent ASD (adjacent segment disease) and four patients underwent lumbar union failure with loose or compromised PSs (pedicle screws). The mean operation time was 129.29 ± 32.97 minutes, the mean blood loss was 180 ± 52.60 mL, and the mean intraoperative fluoroscopy time was 14.29 ± 3.15 s. All screws were clinically acceptable according to the Gertzbein-Robbins classification. There were no complications related to CBT screws in any of the cases. The JOA scores for low back pain of all patients were significantly improved at the final follow-up. Conclusion: The CBT screw fixation technique supplemented the traditional PS fixation technique, which can be performed as a salvage strategy for failed lumbar spine surgery and achieved good clinical results. The spinal robot was very helpful in evaluating pedicle size and determining CBT screw direction, especially in a previously instrumented lumbar pedicle.

Molecular and Morphological Identification of Monilia yunnanensis Causing Brown Rot on Chinese Quince and Peach in Yunnan, China.

More than 30% of fruits of Chinese Quince (Chaenomeles speciosa) and peach (Prunus persica) showed circular, water-soaked and brown spots in July 2022 in Kunming, Yunnan, China. The center of these spots was covered by a large number of earthy brown and oblate sporogeneous mycelium containing conidiophore and conidia, which were one-celled, limoniform, hyaline (13.73 to 22.77 x 8.17 to 12.84 µm, n=50). By September 2022, almost 100% of fruits showed symptoms. Later, most of them fell or a few stiff, black and mummified fruits were left on the trees. Fungal isolates were isolated by single-spore technique on Potato Dextrose agar (PDA) from the diseased fruits, and incubated at room temperature (20-28 °C) in darkness for 14 days. The colony was gray, smooth at margins, 7.6-8.0 cm in diameter. To fullfill Koch's postulates, mycelial plugs of one representative isolate YHD611 from Chinese Quince and another YHD610 from peach were used to inoculate three wounded and three non-wounded surface-disinfected fruits of both hosts at room temperature (19-27 °C), respectively. Three wounded and three non-wounded fruits inoculated with sterile PDA plugs served as the control. The wounded peaches appeared water-soaked and had brown lesions after three days of inoculation, then completely decayed after nine days, while non-wounded fruits showed symptoms after five days. The wounded fruits of Chinese Quince developed similar symptoms after eight days of inoculation, and completely decayed after 13 days, while non-wounded fruits showed obvious symptoms after 15 days. In a subsequent study, isolate YHD611 was inoculated to peach while isolate YHD610 was inoculated to Chinese Quince to understand host specificity of the isolates. The results showed that when peaches were infected with YHD611, symptoms were observed on wounded fruits after three days while on non-wounded fruits after five days. When Chinese Quince was infected with YHD610, symptoms were observed on wounded fruits after 14 days while on non-wounded fruits after 21 days. Fungal isolates from symptomatic fruits were identical to the original isolates. There were no symptoms on the control fruits of both hosts. Molecular identification was confirmed based on the sequences of internal transcribed spacer (ITS, primers ITS1 and ITS4) and ß-tubulin (TUB2, primers Bt2a and Bt2b) genes (Niu et al. 2016). BLASTn analysis of the ITS (OQ15519and OQ155196) and TUB2 (OQ185202 and OQ185201) of YHD611 and YHD610 revealed a 100% sequence identity, respectively, to Monilia yunnanensis AH7-2 (KT735924.1 for ITS, KT736008.1 for TUB2). In the phylogenetic analyses based on ITS and TUB2 sequence data, the isolates YHD611 and YHD610 belonged to the M. yunnanensis clade. Based on morphological and molecular identification, both isolates were identified as M. yunnanensis, which was reported as the pathogen causing brown rot of plum, peach, apple and pear in Yunnan, China (Hu et al. 2011; Yin et al. 2015). To our knowledge, this is the first report of M. yunnanensis causing brown rot on the fruits of Chinese Quince in Yunnan, China. This study also reports that M. yunnanensis from Chinese Quince can infect peach, and the pathogen from peach can infect Chinese Quince. These findings suggest that M. yunnanensis can transfer from one host to another and causing serious economic losses in multiple fruit crops in Yunnan, China. References: Hu, M. J., et al. 2011. PLoS One. 6:e24990. Niu, C. W., et al. 2016. Mycosystema, 35(10):1. Yin, L. F., et al. 2015. Plant Dis. 99:1775.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on physical activity and sleep among healthy adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on physical and mental health, while physical activity and sleep are two important indicators of the impact that have been explored in recent studies. However, the results of studies with different measurement methods and populations with different levels of physical activity have been diverse in that physical activity and sleep are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in some studies but not in others. Our study aimed to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on physical activity and sleep and the role of measurement methods and populations on results. Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, and CNKI databases were used to search for related studies systematically. Study characteristics and data on physical activity and sleep were collected and analyzed from each included study. Standardized mean differences (SMDs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to estimate pooled effect sizes. Results: A total of 13 articles were included in the systematic review, 11 of which were included in the meta-analysis. We found that moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) time was 0.33 (95% CI 0.07 to 0.59) and sleep quality was 0.37 (95% CI 0.21 to 0.53) decreased, while sleep duration was -0.24 (95% CI -0.28 to -0.20) increased during the lockdown; overall physical activity time had no significant difference (p = 0.07) during the lockdown. The "wearables" subgroup had no heterogeneity (p = 0.89, I2 = 0) in sleep duration, while MVPA time measured by subjective scales was not significantly changed. The "elite athletes" subgroup had lower heterogeneity (p = 0.69, I2 = 0) in sleep duration than general adults, while the results of sleep quality for population subgroups were significant and there was no heterogeneity within either. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on MVPA time, sleep duration, and sleep quality, instead of overall physical activity time among healthy adults. The results of MVPA time and sleep duration were greatly influenced by the measurement methods, and sleep behavior differed among populations with varying physical activity levels. Thus, when researching physical activity, especially MVPA time, should consider measurement methods, and more attention should be given to differences in populations when researching sleep behavior.

Irreversible Electroporation Combined With Dendritic Cell-based Vaccines for the Treatment of Osteosarcoma.

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary bone malignancy, and surgical resection combined with neoadjuvant chemotherapy is the gold-standard treatment for affected patients. Although the overall survival rates for patients with osteosarcoma currently range from 60% to 70%, outcomes remain disappointing for patients with recurrent, metastatic, or unresectable disease. Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a novel ablation technique with the potential to elicit an immune response in solid tumors. Dendritic cell (DC)-based tumor vaccines have shown promising therapeutic efficacy in preclinical studies focused on osteosarcoma; however, only limited therapeutic efficacy has been observed in clinical trials. Thus, there is considerable potential therapeutic value in developing combination osteosarcoma treatments that involve IRE and DC-based tumor vaccines. In this review, we discuss recent advances in preclinical and clinical DC-based immunotherapies, as well as potential combinations of DC-based vaccines and IRE, that may improve therapeutic outcomes for patients with osteosarcoma.

Application of the oblique lateral interbody fusion technique in salvage surgery: technical note and case series.

Objective: The oblique lateral interbody fusion (OLIF) technique is a promising interbody fusion technique. This study summarizes the technical aspects of OLIF as a salvage surgery and the preliminary outcomes of a series of cases. Patients and methods: A retrospective review of patients with leg or back pain induced by pseudoarthrosis or adjacent segment disease after posterior lumbar interbody fusion/transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion was done. These patients underwent salvage OLIF surgeries in our institution from January 2021 to March 2022. Variables such as the demographic, clinical, surgical, and radiological characteristics of the enrolled patients were recorded and analyzed. Results: Eight patients (five females and three males; mean age 69.1 ± 5.7 years, range 63-80 years) were enrolled in this study. The mean operative time was 286.25 min (range: 230-440 min), and the estimated blood loss was 90 ml (range: 50-150 ml). Only one of the eight patients experienced a complication of lower limb motor weakness, which disappeared within 5 days after surgery. The latest data showed that the mean intervertebral space height increased from 8.36 mm preoperatively to 12.70 mm and the mean segmentary lordosis increased from 8.92° preoperatively to 15.05°. Bone fusion was achieved in all but one patient, who was followed up for only 3 months. The JOA scores Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) Scores for low back pain of all patients significantly improved at the final follow-up. Conclusion: OLIF provides a safe and effective salvage strategy for patients with failed posterior intervertebral fusion surgery. Patients effectively recovered intervertebral and foraminal height with no additional posterior direct decompression.

Molecular Design-Based Breeding: A Kinship Index-Based Selection Method for Complex Traits in Small Livestock Populations.

Genomic selection (GS) techniques have improved animal breeding by enhancing the prediction accuracy of breeding values, particularly for traits that are difficult to measure and have low heritability, as well as reducing generation intervals. However, the requirement to establish genetic reference populations can limit the application of GS in pig breeds with small populations, especially when small populations make up most of the pig breeds worldwide. We aimed to propose a kinship index based selection (KIS) method, which defines an ideal individual with information on the beneficial genotypes for the target trait. Herein, the metric for assessing selection decisions is a beneficial genotypic similarity between the candidate and the ideal individual; thus, the KIS method can overcome the need for establishing genetic reference groups and continuous phenotype determination. We also performed a robustness test to make the method more aligned with reality. Simulation results revealed that compared to conventional genomic selection methods, the KIS method is feasible, particularly, when the population size is relatively small.

Differentiation of benign versus malignant indistinguishable vertebral compression fractures by different machine learning with MRI-based radiomic features.

OBJECTIVES: To explore an optimal machine learning (ML) model trained on MRI-based radiomic features to differentiate benign from malignant indistinguishable vertebral compression fractures (VCFs). METHODS: This retrospective study included patients within 6 weeks of back pain (non-traumatic) who underwent MRI and were diagnosed with benign and malignant indistinguishable VCFs. The two cohorts were retrospectively recruited from the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University (QUH) and Qinghai Red Cross Hospital (QRCH). Three hundred seventy-six participants from QUH were divided into the training (n = 263) and validation (n = 113) cohort based on the date of MRI examination. One hundred three participants from QRCH were used to evaluate the external generalizability of our prediction models. A total of 1045 radiomic features were extracted from each region of interest (ROI) and used to establish the models. The prediction models were established based on 7 different classifiers. RESULTS: These models showed favorable efficacy in differentiating benign from malignant indistinguishable VCFs. However, our Gaussian naïve Bayes (GNB) model attained higher AUC and accuracy (0.86, 87.61%) than the other classifiers in validation cohort. It also remains the high accuracy and sensitivity for the external test cohort. CONCLUSIONS: Our GNB model performed better than the other models in the present study, suggesting that it may be more useful for differentiating indistinguishable benign form malignant VCFs. KEY POINTS: • The differential diagnosis of benign and malignant indistinguishable VCFs based on MRI is rather difficult for spine surgeons or radiologists. • Our ML models facilitate the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant indistinguishable VCFs with improved diagnostic efficacy. • Our GNB model had the high accuracy and sensitivity for clinical application.