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Using machine learning techniques to predict brain age from multimodal data has become a crucial biomarker for assessing brain development. Among various types of brain imaging data, structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) are the most commonly used modalities. sMRI focuses on depicting macrostructural features of the brain, while dMRI reveals the orientation of major white matter fibers and changes in tissue microstructure. However, their differential capabilities in reflecting newborn age and clinical implications have not been systematically studied. This study aims to explore the impact of sMRI and dMRI on brain age prediction. Comparing predictions based on T2-weighted(T2w) and fractional anisotropy (FA) images, we found their mean absolute errors (MAE) in predicting infant age to be similar. Exploratory analysis revealed for T2w images, areas such as the cerebral cortex and ventricles contribute most significantly to age prediction, whereas FA images highlight the cerebral cortex and regions of the main white matter tracts. Despite both modalities focusing on the cerebral cortex, they exhibit significant region-wise differences, reflecting developmental disparities in macro- and microstructural aspects of the cortex. Additionally, we examined the effects of prematurity, gender, and hemispherical asymmetry of the brain on age prediction for both modalities. Results showed significant differences (p<0.05) in age prediction biases based on FA images across gender and hemispherical asymmetry, whereas no significant differences were observed with T2w images. This study underscores the differences between T2w and FA images in predicting infant brain age, offering new perspectives for studying infant brain development and aiding more effective assessment and tracking of infant development.
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Premature birth is associated with a high prevalence of neurodevelopmental impairments in surviving infants. The hippocampus is known to be critical for learning and memory, yet the putative effects of hippocampal dysfunction remain poorly understood in preterm neonates. In particular, while asymmetry of the hippocampus has been well noted both structurally and functionally, how preterm birth impairs hippocampal development and to what extent the hippocampus is asymmetrically impaired by preterm birth have not been well delineated. In this study, we compared volumetric growth and shape development in the hippocampal hemispheres and structural covariance (SC) between hippocampal vertices and cortical thickness in cerebral cortex regions between two groups. We found that premature infants had smaller volumes of the right hippocampi only. Lower thickness was observed in the hippocampal head in both hemispheres for preterm neonates compared with full-term peers, though preterm neonates exhibited an accelerated age-related change of hippocampal thickness in the left hippocampi. The SC between the left hippocampi and the limbic lobe of the premature infants was severely impaired compared with the term-born neonates. These findings suggested that the development of the hippocampus during the third trimester may be altered following early extrauterine exposure with a high degree of asymmetry.
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Nascimento Prematuro , Córtex Cerebral , Feminino , Hipocampo/diagnóstico por imagem , Humanos , Lactente , Recém-Nascido , Recém-Nascido Prematuro , Imageamento por Ressonância MagnéticaRESUMO
PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy of levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine device (LNG-IUD) during controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) in patients with early-stage endometrioid endometrial cancer (EEC). METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted on patients with stage IA1 EEC who achieved complete response after fertility-sparing treatment from December 2018 to December 2021, with all the women who underwent COS having LNG-IUDs inserted in their uterine cavity. RESULTS: 16 patients were enrolled who underwent 26 COS cycles and average age was 33.19 ± 4.04 years. 12 patients had 19 subsequent frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET) cycles. Among the other four patients, no embryos were obtained in 1 patient, 1 patient got pregnancy spontaneously with term delivery after COS, 1 patient relapsed before FET, and 1 patient did not receive embryo transfer for personal reason. Among 19 FET cycles, the clinical pregnancy and live birth rates in each ET cycle were 36.84% (7/19) and 26.32% (5/19), respectively. 7 clinical pregnancies resulted in 2 miscarriages (28.6%), and 5 live births (71.4%). Totally 6 patients achieved 7 live births, and the cumulative live birth rate was 37.5% (6/16). Three (18.75%) out of 16 patients relapsed after COS during the follow-up period (31.31 ± 15.89 months) and two of them were initially diagnosed with moderately differentiated EEC. Time interval from COS to relapse was 6.63,11.67 and 16.23 months, respectively. CONCLUSION: The combination of LNG-IUD treatment and segmented IVF may be a viable treatment strategy to improve oncological and reproductive outcomes for patients with early-stage EEC.
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Carcinoma Endometrioide , Neoplasias do Endométrio , Dispositivos Intrauterinos , Gravidez , Humanos , Feminino , Adulto , Levanogestrel/uso terapêutico , Estudos Retrospectivos , Recidiva Local de Neoplasia , Neoplasias do Endométrio/tratamento farmacológico , Fertilização in vitro , Transferência Embrionária/métodos , Taxa de GravidezRESUMO
RESEARCH QUESTION: What is the relationship between uterine volume before frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET) and reproductive outcomes among adenomyosis patients? DESIGN: Clinical characteristics and outcomes of adenomyosis patients undergoing IVF and FET in a tertiary academic hospital were retrospectively analysed. Only first blastocyst transfer cycles were included. The main outcome measures included clinical pregnancy rate (CPR), miscarriage rate and live birth rate (LBR). RESULTS: A total of 158 adenomyosis patients were enrolled. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis indicated that uterine volume before FET was negatively related to LBR, with area under the curve of 0.622 (95% confidence interval [CI]â¯=â¯0.531-0.712, Pâ¯=â¯0.012). The cut-off value for the curve was 98.81 cm3. Grouped by the cut-off of uterine volume, 83 women were included in group A (≤98.81 cm3) and 75 in group B (>98.81 cm3). No significant difference was found in CPR between two groups. Compared with group A, the incidence of miscarriage in group B was significantly increased (51.28% versus 16.28%, Pâ¯=â¯0.001). LBR in group B was markedly lower than in group A (25.33% versus 43.37%, Pâ¯=â¯0.020). Logistic regression analysis revealed that, after adjusting for potential confounders, uterine volume before FET was not associated with CPR (odds ratio [OR] 1.149, 95% CI 0.577-2.286, Pâ¯=â¯0.693) but was positively related to miscarriage rate (OR 8.509, 95% CI 2.290-2.575, Pâ¯=â¯0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Adenomyosis patients with larger uterine volume (>98.81 cm3) before FET might have a lower LBR due to higher incidence of miscarriage. Reduction of uterine volume before embarking on FET procedures should be recommended.
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Adenomiose/patologia , Coeficiente de Natalidade , Transferência Embrionária/estatística & dados numéricos , Útero/patologia , Adulto , Feminino , Humanos , Tamanho do Órgão , Gravidez , Resultado da Gravidez , Estudos RetrospectivosRESUMO
BACKGROUND: Endometriosis is thought to affect the effectiveness of ART by an increased risk of miscarriage. We aimed to investigate the impact of endometriosis in women achieving singleton pregnancies through IVF fresh cycles and risk of miscarriage. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included all women undergoing a first IVF cycle and achieving singleton pregnancies after fresh embryo transfer in a tertiary university hospital reproductive medical center between January 2008 and June 2016. Women with endometriosis were compared with women with no endometriosis. Women in the endometriosis group were all with a history of laparoscopy or laparotomy for endometriosis and/or with ovarian endometrioma. The control group was matched 1:2 according to age and study period. RESULTS: Among the cohort, we identified 1006 women with endometriosis as study group and 2012 unaffected women matched in a 1:2 ratios as control group. The miscarriage rate between women with and without endometriosis was similar (22.4 and 20.1%, P = 0.085). The odds ratio after adjusting for the risk factors for miscarriage was 1.14 (95% confidence interval 0.95-1.37). In the study group, the women with and without endometrioma did not show a significant risk of miscarriage, (19.8 and 23.8%, P = 0.152, OR 0.79, 95% CI 0.58-1.09). The miscarriage rate in women with endometrioma ≥30 mm (37.3 ± 7.1 mm) and < 30 mm (19.3 ± 5.5 mm) was not significantly different, (24.7 and 18.5%, P = 0.229, OR 1.44, 95% CI 0.79-2.63). After adjustment for risk factors for miscarriage, the presence of endometrioma and the size of endometrioma, regression model confirmed no significant increase for the risk of miscarriage in the subgroup analyses. CONCLUSIONS: The risk of miscarriage did not statistically increase in women with endometriosis who achieved pregnancy through IVF fresh cycles.
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Aborto Espontâneo/etiologia , Endometriose/complicações , Fertilização in vitro/métodos , Adulto , Transferência Embrionária/métodos , Feminino , Hospitais Universitários , Humanos , Gravidez , Taxa de Gravidez , Estudos Retrospectivos , Medição de Risco , Fatores de Risco , Centros de Atenção TerciáriaRESUMO
Radiological heart damage (RIHD) is damage caused by unavoidable irradiation of the heart during chest radiotherapy, with a long latency period and a progressively increasing proportion of delayed cardiac damage due to conventional doses of chest radiotherapy. There is a risk of inducing diseases such as acute/chronic pericarditis, myocarditis, delayed myocardial fibrosis and damage to the cardiac conduction system in humans, which can lead to myocardial infarction or even death in severe cases. This paper details the pathogenesis of RIHD and gives potential targets for treatment at the molecular and cellular level, avoiding the drawbacks of high invasiveness and immune rejection due to drug therapy, medical device implantation and heart transplantation. Injectable hydrogel therapy has emerged as a minimally invasive tissue engineering therapy to provide necessary mechanical support to the infarcted myocardium and to act as a carrier for various bioactive factors and cells to improve the cellular microenvironment in the infarcted area and induce myocardial tissue regeneration. Therefore, this paper combines bioactive factors and cellular therapeutic mechanisms with injectable hydrogels, presents recent advances in the treatment of cardiac injury after RIHD with different injectable gels, and summarizes the therapeutic potential of various types of injectable hydrogels as a potential solution.
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Hidrogéis , Injeções , Hidrogéis/química , Humanos , Animais , Lesões por Radiação/terapia , Lesões por Radiação/etiologia , Cardiopatias/terapia , Cardiopatias/etiologia , Engenharia Tecidual , Infarto do Miocárdio/terapiaRESUMO
Purpose: To investigate the oncologic outcomes of patients with early-stage endometrioid endometrial cancer (EEC) treated with in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI) following fertility-sparing treatment (FST). Methods: A total of 62 patients who underwent IVF/ICSI treatment in a single fertility center between June 2010 and December 2021 after conservative treatment for early-stage EEC were assigned to a recurrence group and a non-recurrence group. Their clinical characteristics and disease outcomes were retrospectively evaluated. Results: The 62 women with complete remission (CR) after FST for EEC underwent 103 IVF cycles, resulting in 41 fresh embryo transfers (ETs) and 70 frozen-thawed transfers; 27 (43.55%) achieved clinical pregnancies, and 20 (32.26%) gave birth to a total of 23 live neonates. Additionally, nine patients had live births from natural pregnancies after IVF failure, bringing the cumulative live birth rate to 46.77% (29/62). After a median follow-up period of 53.88 months (range 20.2-127.5 months), 17 patients (27.42%) experienced recurrence within 2.8 to 57.9 months after the first controlled ovarian stimulation (COS). The probability of relapse at 1, 2, and 3 years after the initiation of COS was 14.52% (9/62), 21% (13/62), and 25.81% (16/62), respectively. Factors such as the time to CR, the time to IVF, the frequency of COS, maintenance treatment before IVF, and histology type were not found to significantly affect recurrence (p = 0.079, 0.182, 0.093, 0.267, and 0.41, respectively). Live births (hazard ratio (HR): 0.28, 95% CI: 0.082-0.962, p = 0.043) and the protocol of letrozole plus gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist/agonist used during IVF (HR: 0.1, 95% CI: 0.011-0.882, p = 0.038) were identified as independent favorable factors for recurrence. Conclusions: Live birth was associated with decreased recurrence of EEC. Reducing estrogen levels during COS may serve to mitigate the risk of endometrial cancer recurrence.
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Neoplasias do Endométrio , Infertilidade , Gravidez , Recém-Nascido , Humanos , Masculino , Feminino , Estudos Retrospectivos , Taxa de Gravidez , Recidiva Local de Neoplasia/epidemiologia , Sêmen , Fertilização in vitro/métodos , Infertilidade/terapia , Fatores de RiscoRESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies evaluating the oncological and fertility outcomes of early-stage endometrial cancer (EC) treated with the levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system (LIUS)-based regimens. METHODS: The Meta-analyses Of Observational Studies in Epidemiology statement for meta-analyses was followed. Searches were conducted on MEDLINE, Embase, PubMed, Preprints, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials from January 1990 to August 4, 2022. The Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist was used for quality assessment. The primary endpoint was the complete response (CR) rate and the secondary endpoints were relapse, pregnancy, and live birth rate. RESULTS: A total of 25 studies (821 women) were included. The CR rate of LIUS-based regimens was 63.4% (95% confidence interval [CI]=52.3%-73.2%), with 29.6% (95% CI=23.3%-36.8%) of cases experiencing recurrence during follow-up. In sensitivity analyses, patients younger than 45 years of age with a body mass index <30 kg/m² who were treated with LIUS-based regimens achieved a high CR rate of 84.6% (95% CI=80.3%-88.1%) over a median follow-up of more than 24 months. Overall pregnancy and live birth rates were 37.9% (95% CI=24.1%-53.9%) and 39.3% (95% CI=24.0%-57.0%), respectively. No statistical differences were apparent in CR or relapse rates among the LIUS+GnRH agonist, LIUS+oral progesterone, or hysteroscopic resection followed by LIUS subgroups. CONCLUSION: LIUS-based therapies are viable for the conservative management of early-stage endometrioid EC on CR and fertility outcome. TRIAL REGISTRATION: PROSPERO Identifier: CRD42022352890.
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Carcinoma Endometrioide , Neoplasias do Endométrio , Dispositivos Intrauterinos Medicados , Gravidez , Humanos , Feminino , Pré-Escolar , Levanogestrel , Recidiva Local de Neoplasia/epidemiologia , Endométrio , Neoplasias do Endométrio/tratamento farmacológicoRESUMO
To explore the association between uterine volume and in vitro fertilization (IVF) reproductive outcomes of infertile patients with adenomyosis, we performed a retrospective cohort study of infertile patients with adenomyosis who underwent IVF from January 2009 to December 2019 in our clinical center. Patients were divided into five groups according to the uterine volume before the IVF cycle. A line graph was drawn to demonstrate the linear trend of IVF reproductive outcomes with uterine volume. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to explore the association between uterine volume of adenomyosis patients and IVF reproductive outcomes in first fresh embryo transfer (ET) cycle, first frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET) cycle, and per ET cycle. Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression were conducted to evaluate the association between uterine volume and cumulative live birth. A total of 1155 infertile patients with adenomyosis were included. Clinical pregnancy rate showed no significant correlation with uterine volume in first fresh ET cycle, first FET cycle, and per ET cycle; miscarriage rate showed an upward trend with uterine volume increasement, in which the uterine volume turning point was 8 weeks of gestation; live birth rate showed a downward trend with turning point of 10 weeks of gestation. Subsequently, patients were divided into two groups (uterine volume ≤ 8 weeks of gestation vs. uterine volume > 8 weeks of gestation). Univariate and multivariate analyses showed that patients with a uterus larger than 8 weeks of gestation had a higher miscarriage rate and a lower live birth rate in all ET cycles. Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression demonstrated lower cumulative live birth rate in patients with a uterine volume larger than 8 weeks of gestation. IVF reproductive outcome gets worse as uterine volume increases in infertile patients with adenomyosis. Adenomyosis patients with a uterus larger than 8 weeks of gestation had a higher miscarriage rate and a lower live birth rate.
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Aborto Espontâneo , Adenomiose , Infertilidade Feminina , Gravidez , Feminino , Humanos , Adenomiose/complicações , Estudos Retrospectivos , Aborto Espontâneo/etiologia , Fertilização in vitro , Útero , Taxa de Gravidez , Infertilidade Feminina/complicações , Infertilidade Feminina/terapiaRESUMO
Fruit detection and recognition has an important impact on fruit and vegetable harvesting, yield prediction and growth information monitoring in the automation process of modern agriculture, and the actual complex environment of orchards poses some challenges for accurate fruit detection. In order to achieve accurate detection of green fruits in complex orchard environments, this paper proposes an accurate object detection method for green fruits based on optimized YOLOX_m. First, the model extracts features from the input image using the CSPDarkNet backbone network to obtain three effective feature layers at different scales. Then, these effective feature layers are fed into the feature fusion pyramid network for enhanced feature extraction, which combines feature information from different scales, and in this process, the Atrous spatial pyramid pooling (ASPP) module is used to increase the receptive field and enhance the network's ability to obtain multi-scale contextual information. Finally, the fused features are fed into the head prediction network for classification prediction and regression prediction. In addition, Varifocal loss is used to mitigate the negative impact of unbalanced distribution of positive and negative samples to obtain higher precision. The experimental results show that the model in this paper has improved on both apple and persimmon datasets, with the average precision (AP) reaching 64.3% and 74.7%, respectively. Compared with other models commonly used for detection, the model approach in this study has a higher average precision and has improved in other performance metrics, which can provide a reference for the detection of other fruits and vegetables.
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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a prevalent neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the progressive cognitive decline. Among the various clinical symptoms, neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) commonly occur during the course of AD. Previous researches have demonstrated a strong association between NPS and severity of AD, while the research methods are not sufficiently intuitive. Here, we report a hybrid deep learning framework for AD diagnosis using multimodal inputs such as structural MRI, behavioral scores, age, and gender information. The framework uses a 3D convolutional neural network to automatically extract features from MRI. The imaging features are passed to the Principal Component Analysis for dimensionality reduction, which fuse with non-imaging information to improve the diagnosis of AD. According to the experimental results, our model achieves an accuracy of 0.91 and an area under the curve of 0.97 in the task of classifying AD and cognitively normal individuals. SHapley Additive exPlanations are used to visually exhibit the contribution of specific NPS in the proposed model. Among all behavioral symptoms, apathy plays a particularly important role in the diagnosis of AD, which can be considered a valuable factor in further studies, as well as clinical trials.
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Doença de Alzheimer , Disfunção Cognitiva , Aprendizado Profundo , Humanos , Doença de Alzheimer/diagnóstico por imagem , Imageamento por Ressonância Magnética/métodos , Redes Neurais de Computação , Disfunção Cognitiva/diagnóstico por imagem , Neuroimagem/métodosRESUMO
Prepaid service is not only a financial tool, but also a common promotion mode in tourism and hospitality. Due to the limited resources of the enterprise, the enterprise needs to reasonably allocate the promotion resources to maximize the effectiveness of the promotion. As two common promotion purchase restrictions, limited-time promotion and limited-quantity promotion how to interact with prepaid services in the form of discounts or freebies to enhance consumers' willingness to share is the focus of this study. This study carried out three experiments based on framing effect theory, stimulus-organism-response theory, and social capital theory, which has found that the prepaid service mode moderates the relationship between promotion purchase restrictions and consumers' willingness to share. When the prepaid service mode is a discount type, the limited-quantity promotion can generate higher sharing willingness than the limited-time promotion, and the perceived scarcity plays a mediating role. When the prepaid service mode is a freebie type, the limited-time promotion can generate higher sharing willingness than the limited-quantity promotion, and the perceived certainty of opportunity plays a mediating role.
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Background: Adenomyosis is commonly encountered in infertile women; however, it is still unclear whether adenomyosis has a detrimental effect on in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) outcomes. Method: We enrolled 1146 patients with adenomyosis and 1146 frequency-matched control women in a 1:1 ratio based on age, BMI, and basal follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) level. After controlling for other factors, the rates of clinical pregnancy, miscarriage, live birth, and obstetric complications were compared between two groups. Results: There was no significant difference in clinical pregnancy rate between the two groups (38.1% vs. 41.6%; P=0.088). The implantation rate (25.6% versus 28.6%, P=0.027) and live birth rate (26% versus 31.5%, P=0.004) were significantly lower in the women with adenomyosis than in the controls. The miscarriage rate in the adenomyosis group was higher than that in the control group (29.1% versus 17.2%, P=0.001). After adjusting for confounding factors, multivariate analysis showed the clinical pregnancy rate was not statistically different between the two groups (OR: 0.852, P=0.070). In the adenomyosis group, the rate of miscarriage(OR: 1.877, P=0.000), placenta previa (OR: 2.996, P=0.042)and preeclampsia (OR: 2.287, P=0.042)were increased significantly, while live birth rate (OR: 0.541, P=0.000) was reduced significantly than control group. Conclusion: Adenomyosis has negative effect on IVF-ET outcomes in which miscarriage risk increased, live birth rate reduced and obstetric complications increased.
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Aborto Espontâneo , Adenomiose , Infertilidade Feminina , Aborto Espontâneo/epidemiologia , Aborto Espontâneo/etiologia , Adenomiose/complicações , Transferência Embrionária , Feminino , Fertilização in vitro , Humanos , Infertilidade Feminina/complicações , Infertilidade Feminina/terapia , Gravidez , Estudos RetrospectivosRESUMO
Fruit and vegetable picking robots are affected by the complex orchard environment, resulting in poor recognition and segmentation of target fruits by the vision system. The orchard environment is complex and changeable. For example, the change of light intensity will lead to the unclear surface characteristics of the target fruit; the target fruits are easy to overlap with each other and blocked by branches and leaves, which makes the shape of the fruits incomplete and difficult to accurately identify and segment one by one. Aiming at various difficulties in complex orchard environment, a two-stage instance segmentation method based on the optimized mask region convolutional neural network (mask RCNN) was proposed. The new model proposed to apply the lightweight backbone network MobileNetv3, which not only speeds up the model but also greatly improves the accuracy of the model and meets the storage resource requirements of the mobile robot. To further improve the segmentation quality of the model, the boundary patch refinement (BPR) post-processing module is added to the new model to optimize the rough mask boundaries of the model output to reduce the error pixels. The new model has a high-precision recognition rate and an efficient segmentation strategy, which improves the robustness and stability of the model. This study validates the effect of the new model using the persimmon dataset. The optimized mask RCNN achieved mean average precision (mAP) and mean average recall (mAR) of 76.3 and 81.1%, respectively, which are 3.1 and 3.7% improvement over the baseline mask RCNN, respectively. The new model is experimentally proven to bring higher accuracy and segmentation quality and can be widely deployed in smart agriculture.
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Accurate detection and segmentation of the object fruit is the key part of orchard production measurement and automated picking. Affected by light, weather, and operating angle, it brings new challenges to the efficient and accurate detection and segmentation of the green object fruit under complex orchard backgrounds. For the green fruit segmentation, an efficient YOLOF-snake segmentation model is proposed. First, the ResNet101 structure is adopted as the backbone network to achieve feature extraction of the green object fruit. Then, the C5 feature maps are expanded with receptive fields and the decoder is used for classification and regression. Besides, the center point in the regression box is employed to get a diamond-shaped structure and fed into an additional Deep-snake network, which is adjusted to the contours of the target fruit to achieve fast and accurate segmentation of green fruit. The experimental results show that YOLOF-snake is sensitive to the green fruit, and the segmentation accuracy and efficiency are significantly improved. The proposed model can effectively extend the application of agricultural equipment and provide theoretical references for other fruits and vegetable segmentation.
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The detailed morphometry alterations of the human hippocampal formation (HF) for blind individuals are still understudied. 50 subjects were recruited from Yantai Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical University, including 16 congenital blindness, 14 late blindness, and 20 sighted controls. Volume and shape analysis were conducted between the blind (congenital or late) and sighted groups to observe the (sub)regional alterations of the HF. No significant difference of the hippocampal volume was observed between the blind and sighted subjects. Rightward asymmetry of the hippocampal volume was found for both congenital and late blind individuals, while no significant hemispheric difference was observed for the sighted controls. Shape analysis showed that the superior and inferior parts of both the hippocampal head and tail expanded, while the medial and lateral parts constrained for the blind individuals as compared to the sighted controls. The morphometry alterations for the congenital blind and late blind individuals are nearly the same. Significant expansion of the superior part of the hippocampal tail for both congenital and late blind groups were observed for the left hippocampi after FDR correction. Current results suggest that the cross-model plastic may occur in both hemispheres of the HF to improve the navigation ability without the stimuli of visual cues, and the alteration is more prominent for the left hemisphere.
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BACKGROUND: Differentially expressed microRNAs (miRNAs) and their target mRNAs may lead to alterations in normal physiological status of the tissues and initiate pathological processes. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of the most relevant miRNAs in the eutopic endometrial tissue during the window of implantation in women with endometriosis-related infertility. METHODS: In the study, 76 infertile women with a regular menstrual cycle were recruited from the Center for Reproductive Medicine, Peking University Third Hospital between January 2014 and June 2016. We performed a combined messenger RNA and miRNA microarray and bioinformatics analysis of eutopic endometrium in 6 women with and without endometriosis-related infertility at the time of implantation window. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction arrays were utilized to examine the expression levels of selected miRNAs (from 35 patients with endometriosis and 35 disease-free individuals at different menstrual stages). RESULTS: Five differentially expressed miRNAs (miR-142-5p, miR-146a-5p, miR-1281, miR-940, and miR-4634) were significantly upregulated, whereas miR-543 was significantly downregulated in the eutopic endometrium during the window of implantation in patients with endometriosis. Further analysis showed that miR-543 was significantly upregulated at the peri-implantation phase compared with that at proliferative phase in the endometrium of disease-free patients (P < .05). However, the expression level of miR-543 was significantly decreased in patients with endometriosis (P < .05), especially downregulated at the window of implantation phase (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: miR-543 plays an important role during embryo implantation process and is associated with endometrial receptivity. Downregulation of miR-543 may affect embryo implantation, resulting in the pathogenesis of endometriosis-related infertility.