Efficient crop improvement depends on the application of accurate genetic information contained in diverse germplasm resources. Here we report a reference-grade genome of wild soybean accession W05, ...with a final assembled genome size of 1013.2 Mb and a contig N50 of 3.3 Mb. The analytical power of the W05 genome is demonstrated by several examples. First, we identify an inversion at the locus determining seed coat color during domestication. Second, a translocation event between chromosomes 11 and 13 of some genotypes is shown to interfere with the assignment of QTLs. Third, we find a region containing copy number variations of the Kunitz trypsin inhibitor (KTI) genes. Such findings illustrate the power of this assembly in the analysis of large structural variations in soybean germplasm collections. The wild soybean genome assembly has wide applications in comparative genomic and evolutionary studies, as well as in crop breeding and improvement programs.
Background
Rhino‐orbito‐cerebral mucormycosis (ROCM) is an opportunistic pathogenic fungal disease caused by the fungus mucor, and it is a life‐threatening fungal infection. The ulceration on the ...skin of the head and neck, accompanied by rhinitis, headache, orbital inflammation, and eyelid edema, should raise a high suspicion of Mucor infection in diabetic patients with inadequately controlled blood glucose.
Case Description
The clinical data of a patient with ROCM were analyzed retrospectively, and the clinical features were analyzed. The patient was admitted to the hospital with “diabetic hyperosmotic coma” after presenting with fatigue, poor appetite, and disturbances in consciousness as initial symptoms. After improving relevant examinations, controlling underlying diseases, and administering antifungal treatment, the final clinical outcome was death.
Conclusion
ROCM is more prevalent in patients with uncontrolled diabetes and varied clinical manifestations. The characteristic feature is an eschar‐like necrosis of the local skin or mucosa. The gold criteria for diagnosis are pathology and fungal culture; imaging examination does not reveal any specific manifestations. Early diagnosis and effective treatment are the keys.
Rhino‐orbito‐cerebral mucormycosis is more prevalent in patients with uncontrolled diabetes and varied clinical manifestations. The characteristic feature is an eschar‐like necrosis of the local skin or mucosa. The gold criteria for diagnosis are pathology and fungal culture; imaging examination does not reveal any specific manifestations. Early diagnosis and effective treatment are the keys.
Abstract
There is currently insufficient evidence of correlation between on-admission serum uric acid and in-hospital mortality of patients with acute type A aortic dissection. Thus, this study ...analysed the relation between serum uric acid and in-hospital deaths in patients with acute type A aortic dissection. A total of 1048 patients with acute type A aortic dissection participated in this study between January 2010 and December 2018. The independent variable was on-admission serum uric acid, whilst the dependent variable was in-hospital deaths. The covariates of the study included patient age, gender, body mass index, smoking status, hypertension, diabetes, Marfan syndrome, bicuspid aortic valve, chronic renal insufficiency, stroke, atherosclerosis, time to presentation, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, aortic diameter, aortic regurgitation, abdominal vessel involvement, arch vessel involvement, ejection fraction value, laboratory parameters, symptom, coronary malperfusion, mesenteric malperfusion, cerebral malperfusion, hypotension/shock, cardiac tamponade and operation status. The mean age of the sample was 50.17 ± 11.47 years, with approximately 24.24% of the participants being female. After analysis, it was found that the admission serum uric acid of patients with acute type A aortic dissection was positively correlated with in-hospital death (OR = 1.04, 95% CI 1.02–1.06). Subsequently, a non-linear relationship was determined between admission serum uric acid (point 260 µmol/L) and in-hospital mortality for patients with acute type A aortic dissection. The effect sizes and confidence intervals of the right (serum uric acid > 260 µmol/L) and left (serum uric acid ≤ 260 µmol/L) aspects of the inflection point were 1.04 (1.02–1.05) and 1.00 (0.99–1.02), respectively. Furthermore, subgroup analysis indicated a stable relationship between serum uric acid and in-hospital mortality, whilst an insignificant difference was found for the interactions between different subgroups. Overall, a non-linear correlation was determined between admission serum uric acid and in-hospital mortality of patients with acute type A aortic dissection. When serum uric acid > 260 µmol/L, it showed a positive correlation with in-hospital mortality.
Aims
For plants, elemental nutrients are important belowground resources that sustain growth and survival. To understand how tropical plant nutrient status responds to environmental variation, we ...asked whether concentrations of nutrients in root and leaf tissues track gradients in soil nutrient concentrations and if tissue nutrient concentrations respond independently or in concert to soil nutrient concentrations.
Methods
We measured soil nutrient concentrations of rhizosphere soil and root and leaf tissue elemental concentrations of saplings from 14 Angiosperm families in montane tropical forest of Jianfengling, China. Using mixed-effects models, we modeled the nutrient concentration of plant tissues as a function of soil resources.
Results
Of fourteen elements measured, seven —nitrogen, boron, phosphorus, potassium, manganese, copper and zinc— increased in concentrations in root and leaf tissues with higher soil nutrient availability; two decreased —aluminum and carbon; three were invariant —magnesium, sulfur, and calcium; and two —sodium and iron— showed contrasting patterns between leaves and roots. Eight elements necessary to leaf physiological function, but also used in root functioning —nitrogen, boron, magnesium phosphorus, sulfur, potassium, calcium, manganese— were more concentrated in leaves than roots. Additionally, most elements showed tradeoffs in concentrations between roots and leaves. Plant lineage (i.e. family) explained very little of the variation about this overall trend.
Conclusions
Overall, increases in tissue nutrient concentrations with soil fertility were subtle if present at all. Thus, we conclude that tissue nutrients of juvenile tropical trees have a high degree of elemental homeostasis with local-scale soil nutrient content in Jianfengling.
The energy band alignment and photocatalytic performance of α‐In2Se3/g‐C3N4 heterojunctions of two configurations (A and B) are studied through first‐principles calculations. The spontaneous ...out‐of‐plane electric polarization of α‐In2Se3 points away from g‐C3N4 for configuration A, in which the layer spacing and formation energy are lower than those of configuration B. Configuration A of α‐In2Se3/g‐C3N4 is characteristic of the I‐type energy band alignment and S‐scheme heterojunction for photocatalytic performance, which is different from the II‐type band alignment characteristic of the previous traditional Z‐scheme heterojunctions with a larger built‐in electric field. The existence of a stronger intrinsic electric field of α‐In2Se3 causes the photogenerated electrons in α‐In2Se3 to migrate across the interface region of α‐In2Se3/g‐C3N4 to reach the valence band maximum (VBM) of g‐C3N4 for configuration A. The recombination of the photogenerated electrons from the conduction band minimum (CBM) of α‐In2Se3 with holes from the VBM of g‐C3N4 reduces the number of photogenerated holes in the VBM of g‐C3N4. The photogenerated electrons in the CBM of g‐C3N4 due to the absence of holes move toward the surface of g‐C3N4 and play a significant role in the hydrogen generation activity.
α‐In2Se3 has excellent photoresponsiveness. The intrinsic electric field of α‐In2Se3 can make photogenerated electrons near the interface of the heterojunction. The photogenerated electrons can pass through the interface region under the effect of the built‐in electric field. the results show that the 2D α‐In2Se3/g‐C3N4 type‐I heterostructure is a promising S‐scheme photocatalyst for hydrogen precipitation.
Short-read sequencing has enabled the de novo assembly of several individual human genomes, but with inherent limitations in characterizing repeat elements. Here we sequence a Chinese individual HX1 ...by single-molecule real-time (SMRT) long-read sequencing, construct a physical map by NanoChannel arrays and generate a de novo assembly of 2.93 Gb (contig N50: 8.3 Mb, scaffold N50: 22.0 Mb, including 39.3 Mb N-bases), together with 206 Mb of alternative haplotypes. The assembly fully or partially fills 274 (28.4%) N-gaps in the reference genome GRCh38. Comparison to GRCh38 reveals 12.8 Mb of HX1-specific sequences, including 4.1 Mb that are not present in previously reported Asian genomes. Furthermore, long-read sequencing of the transcriptome reveals novel spliced genes that are not annotated in GENCODE and are missed by short-read RNA-Seq. Our results imply that improved characterization of genome functional variation may require the use of a range of genomic technologies on diverse human populations.
Pain is the main symptom of osteoarthritis, which severely reduces the patients' quality of life. Stimulated neuroinflammation and elevated mitochondrial oxidative stress are associated arthritis ...pain. In the present study, arthritis model was established by intra-articular injection of complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) on mice. Knee swelling, pain hypersensitivity and motor disability were observed in CFA-induced mice. In spinal cord, neuroinflammation was triggered and presented as severe infiltration of inflammatory cells and up-regulated expressions of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-κB), PYD domains-containing protein 3 (NLRP3), cysteinyl aspartate specific proteinase (caspase-1) and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β). Mitochondrial function was disrupted and characterized as elevated expressions of B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2)-associated X protein (Bax), dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH) and cytochrome C (Cyto C), and reduced expressions of Bcl-2 and Mn-superoxide dismutase (Mn-SOD) activity. Meanwhile, as a potential target for pain management, glycogen synthase kinase-3 beta (GSK-3β) activity was up-regulated in CFA induced mice. To explore potential therapeutic options for arthritis pain, GSK-3β inhibitor TDZD-8 was intraperitoneally injected for three days on CFA mice. Animal behavioral tests found that TDZD-8 treatment elevated mechanical pain sensitivity, suppressed spontaneous pain and recovered motor coordination. Morphological and protein expression analysis indicated that TDZD-8 treatment decreased spinal inflammation score and inflammatory related protein levels, recovered mitochondrial related protein levels, and increased Mn-SOD activity. In summary, TDZD-8 treatment inhibits GSK-3β activity, reduces mitochondrial mediated oxidative stress, suppresses spinal inflammasome response, and alleviates arthritis pain.
Loss or dysfunction of trabecular meshwork (TM) cells has been associated with the development of pathologically elevated IOP, and it is conceivable that replacement of damaged TM cells could restore ...function to the TM. We propose that the use of TM-like cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) created from a patient's own dermal fibroblasts offers the best solution to this challenge. Here we demonstrate that mouse iPSCs can be induced to differentiate into TM-like cells suitable for autologous transplantation.
Directed induction of stem cell differentiation was achieved through coculture of mouse iPSCs with human TM cells for up to 21 days. The resultant TM-like cells (iPSC-TM) were characterized morphologically, immunohistochemically, and functionally.
The iPSC-TM cells closely resembled cultured human TM cells morphologically and began to express many markers of TM cells while ceasing to express pluripotency markers such as Nanog, Oct4, and Sox2. Functionally, these cells developed the ability to phagocytose particles. Finally, exposure to dexamethasone or phorbol 12-myristate acetate caused a distinct increase in the production and secretion of myocilin and matrix metalloproteinase-3, respectively, behavior characteristic of TM cells.
Our data demonstrate that iPSCs can be induced to assume a phenotype that resembles native TM cells in many important aspects. Not only do these cells represent a valuable research tool, but transplantation into glaucomatous eyes with elevated IOP may also restore function to the TM, resulting in re-establishment of IOP.
► We design a vision inspection system for surface defects of strongly reflected metal. ► We use wavelet transform to eliminate noise and Otsu method to segment images. ► Five spectral ...characteristics are collected and input into support vector machine. ► The proposed method can identify seven classes of metal surface defects effectively.
This paper describes the designing and testing process of a vision system for strongly reflected metal’s surface defects detection. In the authors’ view, an automatic inspection system has the following stages: image acquisition, image pre-processing, feature extraction and classification. Thus, the system including four subsystems is designed, and image processing method and pattern recognition algorithm that perform specific functions are outlined. First, the study uses wavelet smoothing method to eliminate noise from the images. Then, the images are segmented by Otsu threshold. At last, five characteristics based on spectral measure of the binary images are collected and input into a support vector machine (SVM). Furthermore, kernel function selection and parameters settings which are used for SVM method are evaluated and discussed. Also, a very difficult detection case for the surface defects of strongly reflected metal is depicted in details. The classification results demonstrate that the proposed method can identify seven classes of metal surface defects effectively, and the results are summarized and interpreted.
Airborne laser scanning LiDAR systems deliver not only geometric (X,Y,Z) information of the scanned surfaces but also the returned intensity of the laser pulse. Recent studies have shown the ...potential of using intensity data for many applications. However, there are limitations in using the raw intensity data because of radiometric system bias, reflectance noise and variations between adjacent strips. To overcome these limitations, a three-step LiDAR intensity correction algorithm is proposed. Following corrections for environmental and surface effects, an overlap-driven least-squares adjustment model that does not rely on the selection of homologous points minimizes intensity differences in the overlap area of strips. Finally, the Phong reflection model, which describes both diffuse and specular reflectance, is used to attenuate the effects of strong reflections that typically occur over wet or water dominated areas. The algorithm was applied to a multi-strip LiDAR dataset that covers wetlands in the estuary of the Yellow River, People’s Republic of China. Results demonstrated a significant reduction in radiometric differences in the overlap areas, and strong specular reflections in the nadir regions were reduced. Objects which were obscured by the specular reflection in the original intensity data were clearly identifiable after the adjustment.
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