Based on the deep learning method, a network model that can quickly and accurately identify the species of Fritillaria cirrhosa species was constructed. The learning method based on deep residual ...convolutional neural network was used to input the unprocessed original image directly as input, and the features of the image were extracted through convolution and pooling operations. On this basis, the ResNet34 model was improved, and the additional fully connected layer was added in front of the Softmax classifier to improve the learning ability of the network model. Total of 3915 images of three kinds of Fritillaria cirrhosa were used as data sources for the experiments, among which 160 images of each type were randomly selected to form the validation set. The final training set recognition accuracy rate was 95.8%, the validation set accuracy rate reached 92.3%, and the test set accuracy rate was 88.7%. The image recognition method of Fritillaria cirrhosa based on deep learning proposed in this paper is effective and feasible, which can quickly and accurately identify the species of Fritillaria cirrhosa species, and provides a new idea for the intelligent recognition of Chinese medicinal materials.
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•Critical roles of hypoxia-inducible factor-1 in hypoxia environment.•Two important protein-protein interactions in HIF-1 pathways.•Recent small molecular compounds in inhibition of ...HIF-1α/HIF-1β dimerization.•Recent small molecular compounds in inhibition of HIF-1α/p300 interaction.•Structure-activity relationships of the reported compounds.
Hypoxia is a common characteristic of many types of solid tumors and is associated with tumor propagation, malignant progression, and resistance to anti-cancer therapy. HIF-1 pathway is one of the survival pathways activated in tumor in response to hypoxia. In hypoxic condition, hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) is stabilized and translocated into nucleus where it forms heterodimer with HIF-1β and regulates the expression of a plethora of genes involved in different processes, such as cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, vascularization/angiogenesis, tumor invasion and metastasis. Recruitment of co-activator p300 or CBP to HIF-1α is critical to the transactivation activity of HIF-1 dimer, therefore, small molecules which can block the dimerization of HIF-1α and HIF-1β or inhibit the interaction between HIF-1α and p300 can function as inhibitors of HIF-1 and have the potential to be developed as novel therapies for the treatment of human cancers. In this review, recent progress of small molecular inhibitors of protein-protein interactions targeting HIF-1 is summarized, the mechanism of functions of these compounds and their potential usage as anti-cancer agents have also been discussed.
Inflammatory mediators in the synovial fluid (SF) play critical roles in the initiation and development of pain in knee osteoarthritis (KOA). However, data for inflammatory marker expression are ...conflicting, and the role of SF inflammatory mediators in neuropathic pain is not clear. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify SF inflammatory mediators associated with nociceptive and neuropathic pain in KOA.
Levels of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, macrophage colony-stimulating factor, MMP-3, MMP-13, metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs 5, calcitonin gene-related peptide, neuropeptide Y, substance P and bradykinin were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays in 86 patients. Nociceptive pain was assessed using the numeric rating scale (NRS), visual analog scale (VAS) and Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) pain score. Neuropathic pain was determined using the PainDETECT questionnaire. Moreover, knee function was evaluated by the WOMAC score and range of motion (ROM) assessments. Radiological grade was defined using the Kellgren-Lawrence (K-L) grading scale.
Pain scores measured using different methods correlated highly with each other. A worse K-L grade and knee function were associated with worse pain. Expression of IL-1β and IL-6 was increased in the early stage compared with the late stage. The NRS score correlated positively with age, K-L grade, and the WOMAC score and negatively with ROM and TNF-α expression. The VAS correlated positively with age, K-L grade, and the WOMAC score but negatively with ROM and levels of IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α. The WOMAC pain score did not correlate with any of the inflammatory mediators measured; it correlated only with ROM. The PainDETECT score correlated only with the WOMAC score. Expression of other inflammatory mediators did not correlate with any of the pain scores.
IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α play critical roles in pain in the early stage of KOA and correlate with pain. The catabolic enzymes and neuropeptides measured do not correlate with nociceptive and neuropathic pain. New biomarkers related to pain in the late stage need to be further investigated.
Small-angle neutron scattering was used to investigate poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) polymer solutions in d-water/d-ethanol mixtures. A wide poor-solvent region was observed for mixtures near ...60% d-water/40% d-ethanol mixture. Spinodal lines were determined, permitting a mapping of the mixing/demixing regions of the phase diagram which comprises two main branches: the left branch (with mostly d-ethanol) where phase separation occurs upon cooling (UCST) and the right branch (with mostly d-water) where phase separation occurs upon heating (LCST). The ternary random phase approximation model was used to analyze SANS data. Three Flory–Huggins interaction parameters (PNIPAM/d-water, PNIPAM/d-ethanol and d-water/d-ethanol) were obtained. These display the reassuring 1/T behavior but show strong dependence on d-water/d-ethanol fraction. The conformation of polymer chains was determined by monitoring of the radius of gyration. Chains tend to swell with increasing temperature except close to the boundary of the left branch of the phase diagram (40% d-water) where they are observed to shrink.
Amyloid peptides and proteins are associated with the pathologies of numerous diseases. In the progression of a disease, amyloids exist in soluble and insoluble forms, which are the dominant species ...at different stages of the disease and they have different degrees of toxicity. However, differentiating between the soluble and insoluble forms is very challenging with small molecule probes due to multiple obstacles that need to be overcome. Inspired by the recognition principle of antibodies for sAβ, we hypothesized that the accessibility/tightness of soluble and insoluble amyloids could be utilized to design imaging probes to recognize different amyloid forms and the stereo-hindrance tuning strategy could be used to design imaging probes for selectively detecting the soluble amyloid beta (sAβ) species in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Herein, we demonstrated that tuning the stereo-hindrance of the phenoxy-alkyl chains at the 4-position of a curcumin scaffold could lead to certain selectivity for sAβ over insoluble Aβs (insAβ). Among the designed compounds,
showed a 68-fold higher affinity for sAβ than for insAβ (7.5 ± 10 nM
505.9 ± 275.9 nM). Moreover, our imaging data indicated that
was indeed capable of detecting sAβ
using 4 month old APP/PS1 mice, in which sAβ is the predominant species in the brain. In addition, we also demonstrated that
could be used to monitor the increase in sAβ loading from the ages of 4 months old to 12 months old. We believe that
can be a useful probe for selectively detecting sAβ species in AD and that our probe designing strategy can be applied to other amyloids and will have tremendous impact on AD drug development and other amyloid research.
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•The distribution of pesticides was affected by the harvest interval and Kow.•The residues removal order was peeling > ozone water washing > tap water washing.•Pesticides with low Kow ...were more easily transferred to juice or wine.•Prediction models for processing factors for grape juice and wine were established.
Grapes' growth and processing conditions have various effects on pesticides with different physicochemical properties. Therefore, it is important for the healthy human diet to investigate pesticide residue behavior. To explore the relationship between pesticide residue behavior and physicochemical properties, the distribution of ten pesticides and one metabolite on grape peel and pulp was examined and the results showed that pesticides with low octanol–water partition coefficient (Kow) were more likely to be transferred to the pulp as the harvest interval increases. The removal methods were ranked according to pesticide removal effectiveness as follows: peeling > ozone water washing > tap water washing. Furthermore, the logKow played a key role in pesticide transfer rates during the juicing and winemaking. Notably, drying was the process of increasing pesticide residues. Additionally, the prediction models for the PFs of the pesticides in the juicing and winemaking processes were constructed as PFj = 0.952–0.116logKow (r = 0.886) and PFw = 0.736–0.143logKow (r = 0.959) by stepwise regression analysis. The prediction models recommended that Kow could be used to predict pesticide residues in grape juice and wine, which can predict the effect of pesticide physicochemical properties on PFs.
In hyperspectral image (HSI) reconstruction tasks, due to the lack of ground truth in real imaging processes, models are usually trained and validated on simulation datasets and then tested on real ...measurements captured by real HSI imaging systems. However, due to the gap between the simulation imaging process and the real imaging process, the best model validated on the simulation dataset may fail on real measurements. To obtain the best model for the real-world task, it is crucial to design a suitable no-reference HSI quality assessment metric to reflect the reconstruction performance of different models. In this paper, we propose a novel no-reference HSI quality assessment metric via ranking feature learning (R-NHSIQA), which calculates the Wasserstein distance between the distribution of the deep features of the reconstructed HSIs and the benchmark distribution. Additionally, by introducing the spectral self-attention mechanism, we propose a Spectral Transformer (S-Transformer) to extract the spatial-spectral representative deep features of HSIs. Furthermore, to extract quality-sensitive deep features, we use quality ranking as a pre-training task to enhance the representation capability of the S-Transformer. Finally, we introduce the Wasserstein distance to measure the distance between the distribution of the deep features and the benchmark distribution, improving the assessment capacity of our method, even with non-overlapping distributions. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed metric yields consistent results with multiple full-reference image quality assessment (FR-IQA) metrics, validating the idea that the proposed metric can serve as a substitute for FR-IQA metrics in real-world tasks.
ABSTRACT
Seed dormancy is an important agronomic trait in crops, and plants with low dormancy are prone to preharvest sprouting (PHS) under high‐temperature and humid conditions. In this study, we ...report that the GATA transcription factor TaGATA1 is a positive regulator of seed dormancy by regulating TaABI5 expression in wheat. Our results demonstrate that TaGATA1 overexpression significantly enhances seed dormancy and increases resistance to PHS in wheat. Gene expression patterns, abscisic acid (ABA) response assay, and transcriptome analysis all indicate that TaGATA1 functions through the ABA signaling pathway. The transcript abundance of TaABI5, an essential regulator in the ABA signaling pathway, is significantly elevated in plants overexpressing TaGATA1. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assay (ChIP) and transient expression analysis showed that TaGATA1 binds to the GATA motifs at the promoter of TaABI5 and induces its expression. We also demonstrate that TaGATA1 physically interacts with the putative demethylase TaELF6‐A1, the wheat orthologue of Arabidopsis ELF6. ChIP–qPCR analysis showed that H3K27me3 levels significantly decline at the TaABI5 promoter in the TaGATA1‐overexpression wheat line and that transient expression of TaELF6‐A1 reduces methylation levels at the TaABI5 promoter, increasing TaABI5 expression. These findings reveal a new transcription module, including TaGATA1–TaELF6‐A1–TaABI5, which contributes to seed dormancy through the ABA signaling pathway and epigenetic reprogramming at the target site. TaGATA1 could be a candidate gene for improving PHS resistance.
The wheat GATA‐type transcription factor TaGATA1 directly binds to the promoter of TaABI5 to activate its expression and thereby improve seed dormancy. In addition, TaGATA1 could be a candidate gene for improving preharvest sprouting resistance in crop.
yeyachun and danshen exist as Chinese patent medicine, Xuemai Tong, and are clearly effective at alleviating liver fibrosis (LF). Previous studies have indicated that triterpenoids from yeyachun ...(EFT), and phenolic acids from danshen (SMP) are effective in the treatment of LF. The regulation of intestinal flora is an effective method for treating LF. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a mixture of EFT and SMP on carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) induced LF. Our results showed the mixture significantly decreased liver damage and fibrosis index, and maintained liver tissue composition, compared to the model group. Moreover, the imbalance of symptoms of intestinal flora was improved. The mixture also caused changes to metabolites of gut flora. Furthermore, the expression of CD68 in liver tissues from the treated groups was significantly decreased when compared to the model group. However, no significant difference was observed from microstructure of gut tissues and LPS concentrations in the serum between mixture treated mice and model mice. This study suggests that the mixture of EFT and SMP had a significant effect on CCl4 induced LF, and the mechanism of this action, at least in part, involved the regulation of intestinal flora and their metabolites.
NETosis is a new form of cell death, marked by DNA chromatin release from dead neutrophils. While it aids in microbe defense, it may worsen inflammation in autoimmune diseases, causing tissue harm. ...The impact of NETosis on Anti-neutrophil Cytoplasmic Antibody-associated Glomerulonephritis (ANCA-GN) remains unexplored and requires investigation.
First, a weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was conducted to uncover differential expression of neutrophil extranuclear trap-associated genes (DE-NETs) in ANCA-GN. The NETosisScore model was established through the single sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA), which categorized all patients into high-risk and low-risk groups. The accuracy of model was assessed by ROC curve. The biological function of various subgroups was explored through Gene Set Variation Analysis (GSVA), while the abundance of immune cell infiltration was measured with CIBERSORT. Furthermore, the key NETosis-related genes (NRGs) were identified using three machine learning algorithms, and their relationship with renal function was analyzed through the NephroseqV5 database. Through the application of qPCR and immunohistochemical staining techniques, the mRNA and protein expression levels of NRGs were determined in patients with ANCA-GN and control.
A NETosisScore model was developed from 18 DE-NETs using the ssGSEA algorithm. The model's ability to predict ANCA-GN patients with a ROC AUC of 0.921. The high-risk group in ANCA-GN showed enrichment of immune-related pathways and greater infiltration of immune cells, as revealed by KEGG enrichment analysis and CIBERSORT. Using three machine learning algorithms, we identified six NRGs. Significant positive correlations were found between NRGs and CCR, macrophages, T-cell co-inhibition, and TIL. Further KEGG analysis revealed that the functions of NRGs may be closely related to the toll-like receptor signaling pathway. The levels of NRGs increased as kidney function declined and were positively correlated with Scr (serum creatinine) and negatively correlated with GFR (glomerular filtration rate), qPCR analysis showed increased expression of most NRGs in ANCA-GN patients. Furthermore, immunohistochemical staining confirmed higher expression of all NRGs in ANCA-GN patients.
NETosisScore model accurately predicts high-risk patients in ANCA-GN with enriched immune pathways, 6 NRGs identified as potential biomarkers.
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