Small, Dynamic Clusters of Tir-Intimin Seed Actin Polymerization.

The understanding of actin pedestal formation by enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) relies mainly on static ensemble information obtained from cell lysates. Here, the dynamic nature of signaling components on the subsecond timescale, which resemble phase condensates, is demonstrated. Unlike in vitro phase condensates, transfected intimin receptor (Tir) and downstream component form clusters 200 nm in diameter that are spaced ≈500 nm on average, indicating cellular regulation. On supported lipid bilayers with diffusive intimin, Tir-expressing fibroblasts formed Tir-intimin clusters even without Tir tyrosines, although Tir tyrosine phosphorylation is necessary for actin polymerization from clusters. Single-molecule tracking showed that Tir is diffusive in the clusters and exchanges with Tir in the plasma membrane. Further, Nck and N-WASP bind to the clusters and exchange with cytoplasmic molecules. Tir has a similar cluster lifetime to Nck, but longer than that of N-WASP. Actin polymerization from the clusters requires N-WASP binding, involved Arp2/3 activation, and stabilized N-WASP clusters. These dynamic properties are distinct from larger in vitro systems and do not depend significantly upon crosslinking. Thus, Tir-intimin clusters in the plasma membrane are limited in size by exchange and enhance signaling needed for actin polymerization that enables strong and stable bacterial attachment to host cells.

Is routine drainage necessary after thyroid surgery? A randomized controlled trial study.

Objective: To evaluate whether no drainage has an advantage over routine drainage in patients with thyroid carcinoma after unilateral thyroid lobectomy and central neck dissection. Methods: A total of 104 patients with thyroid cancer who underwent unilateral thyroid lobectomy and central lymph node dissection were randomly assigned into no drainage tube (n=52) and routine drainage tube (n=52) placement groups. General information of each patient was recorded, including the postoperative drainage volume/residual cavity fluid volume, postoperative complications, incision area comfort, and other data, and the thyroid cancer-specific quality of life questionnaire (THYCA-QoL) and patient and observer scar assessment scale (POSAS) were evaluated after surgery. At the 3-6 month follow-up exam, the differences between the two groups were compared based on univariate analysis. Results: Significant differences were not observed in the general and pathological information (including sex, age, body weight, body mass index (BMI), incision length, specimen volume, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and number of lymph nodes dissected), operation time, and postoperative complications (postoperative bleeding, incision infection, lymphatic leakage, and temporary hypoparathyroidism) between the two groups. The patients in the non-drainage group had a shorter hospital stay (2.11 ± 0.33 d) than the patients in the drainage group (3.38 ± 0.90 d) (P<0.001). The amount of cervical effusion in patients in the non-drainage group (postoperative 24h: 2.20 ± 1.24 ml/48 h: 1.53 ± 1.07 ml) was significantly less than that in the drainage group (postoperative 24 hours: 22.58 ± 5.81 ml/48 h: 36.15 ± 7.61 ml) (all P<0.001). The proportion of incision exudation and incision numbness in the non-drainage group was lower than that in the drainage group (all P<0.05), and the pain score (VAS) and neck foreign body sensation score (FBST) decreased significantly (P<0.05). During the 3- and 6-month follow-up exams, significant differences were not observed between the THYCA-QoL and drainage groups and the non-drainage group, although the scarring and POSAS values were lower than those in the drainage group. In addition, the length of stay and cost of hospitalization in the non-drainage group were lower than those in the drainage group (P<0.05). Conclusion: Routine drainage tube insertion is not needed in patients with unilateral thyroid lobectomy and central neck dissection.

Potential role of LPAR5 gene in prognosis and immunity of thyroid papillary carcinoma and pan-cancer.

Papillary carcinomas account for the largest proportion of thyroid cancers, with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) being prone to early lymph node metastasis. Some studies have confirmed that LPAR5 can promote the progression of PTC, but immune-related analyses of LPAR5 and PTC have not been widely discussed. This study aimed to determine the role of LPAR5 in PTC prognosis and immunity. We will further explore the role of LPAR5 in 33 different tumor types. Regarding PTC, we analyzed the effect of LPAR5 expression on overall survival (OS). Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses were performed. Immune-related analyses of immune checkpoints (ICPs) and immune cell infiltration were also performed. For pan-cancer, R packages were used to analyze prognosis, tumor mutational burden (TMB), microsatellite instability (MSI), and immune cell infiltration. Analysis of tumor microenvironment (TME) and ICPs was performed using Sangerbox ( http://vip.sangerbox.com/home.html ). The TISIDB database ( http://cis.hku.hk/TISIDB/index.php ) was used to identify immune and molecular subtypes. LPAR5 expression is associated with PTC prognosis and immunity as well as various human tumors. LPAR5 may be a potential biomarker for multiple malignancies and may provide a new target for cancer immunotherapy.

Automatic Detection of Small Sample Apple Surface Defects Using ASDINet.

The appearance quality of apples directly affects their price. To realize apple grading automatically, it is necessary to find an effective method for detecting apple surface defects. Aiming at the problem of a low recognition rate in apple surface defect detection under small sample conditions, we designed an apple surface defect detection network (ASDINet) suitable for small sample learning. The self-developed apple sorting system collected RGB images of 50 apple samples for model verification, including non-defective and defective apples (rot, disease, lacerations, and mechanical damage). First, a segmentation network (AU-Net) with a stronger ability to capture small details was designed, and a Dep-conv module that could expand the feature capacity of the receptive field was inserted in its down-sampling path. Among them, the number of convolutional layers in the single-layer convolutional module was positively correlated with the network depth. Next, to achieve real-time segmentation, we replaced the flooding of feature maps with mask output in the 13th layer of the network. Finally, we designed a global decision module (GDM) with global properties, which inserted the global spatial domain attention mechanism (GSAM) and performed fast prediction on abnormal images through the input of masks. In the comparison experiment with state-of-the-art models, our network achieved an AP of 98.8%, and a 97.75% F1-score, which were higher than those of most of the state-of-the-art networks; the detection speed reached 39ms per frame, achieving accuracy-easy deployment and substantial trade-offs that are in line with actual production needs. In the data sensitivity experiment, the ASDINet achieved results that met the production needs under the training of 42 defective pictures. In addition, we also discussed the effect of the ASDINet in actual production, and the test results showed that our proposed network demonstrated excellent performance consistent with the theory in actual production.

Advances in the treatment of secondary and tertiary hyperparathyroidism.

Secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT) and tertiary hyperparathyroidism (THPT) are common and complicated clinical endocrine diseases. The parathyroid glands maintain endocrine homeostasis by secreting parathyroid hormone to regulate blood calcium levels. However, structural alterations to multiple organs and systems occur throughout the body due to hyperactivity disorder in SHPT and THPT. This not only decreases the patients' quality of life, but also affects mortality. Since current treatments for these diseases remains unclear, we aimed to develop a comprehensive review of advances in the treatment of SHPT and THPT according to the latest relevant researches.

DS-MENet for the classification of citrus disease.

Affected by various environmental factors, citrus will frequently suffer from diseases during the growth process, which has brought huge obstacles to the development of agriculture. This paper proposes a new method for identifying and classifying citrus diseases. Firstly, this paper designs an image enhancement method based on the MSRCR algorithm and homomorphic filtering algorithm optimized by Laplacian (HFLF-MS) to highlight the disease characteristics of citrus. Secondly, we designed a new neural network DS-MENet based on the DenseNet-121 backbone structure. In DS-MENet, the regular convolution in Dense Block is replaced with depthwise separable convolution, which reduces the network parameters. The ReMish activation function is used to alleviate the neuron death problem caused by the ReLU function and improve the robustness of the model. To further enhance the attention to citrus disease information and the ability to extract feature information, a multi-channel fusion backbone enhancement method (MCF) was designed in this work to process Dense Block. We use the 10-fold cross-validation method to conduct experiments. The average classification accuracy of DS-MENet on the dataset after adding noise can reach 95.02%. This shows that the method has good performance and has certain feasibility for the classification of citrus diseases in real life.

DNA-binding proteins studied by mechanical manipulation and AFM imaging of single DNA molecules.

The functions of DNA-binding proteins are dependent on protein-induced DNA distortion, the binding preference to special sequences, DNA secondary structures, the binding kinetics and the binding affinity. Recent rapid progress in single-molecule imaging and mechanical manipulation technologies have made it possible to directly probe the DNA binding by proteins, footprint the positions of the bound proteins on DNA, quantify the kinetics and the affinity of protein-DNA interactions, and study the interplay of protein binding with DNA conformation and DNA topology. Here, we review the applications of an integrated approach where the single-DNA imaging using atomic force microscopy and the mechanical manipulation of single DNA molecules are combined to study the DNA-protein interactions. We also provide our views on how these findings yield new insights into understanding the roles of several essential DNA architectural proteins.

An Improved Technique for Isolation and Characterization of Single-Spore Isolates of Plasmodiophora brassicae.

Clubroot, caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae, is a soilborne disease that occurs in cruciferous crops worldwide. P. brassicae usually exists as a mixture of several pathotypes, which has hampered the research on resistance mechanisms of cruciferous crops against P. brassicae. In this study, clubroot galls were collected from a field in Shenyang, China, as a pathogen source to develop an efficient protocol for a single-spore isolation system of P. brassicae by optimizing the seedling age for inoculation, host inoculation method, and plant culture method. The operational steps of the single-spore isolation method were optimized as follows: the use of 2-day-old seedlings for inoculation, substituting a cryobox (100 × 2.0-ml vials) for culture dishes, the addition of nutrient solution culture, and microscopic observations of single spores. The rate of infection success was substantially improved, and single-spore isolates of four pathotypes (4, 8, 9, and 11) were acquired in this system. Subsequently, the optimized system was used to isolate and characterize the pathotypes of single-spore isolates of P. brassicae collected from five fields in regions in China. Approximately four to nine pathotypes were isolated from each region. Among these, pathotype 4 was the most prevalent. This study provides a source of valuable information that can eventually be used for the genetic analysis of host-P. brassicae interaction.