An improved U-Net-based in situ root system phenotype segmentation method for plants.

The condition of plant root systems plays an important role in plant growth and development. The Minirhizotron method is an important tool to detect the dynamic growth and development of plant root systems. Currently, most researchers use manual methods or software to segment the root system for analysis and study. This method is time-consuming and requires a high level of operation. The complex background and variable environment in soils make traditional automated root system segmentation methods difficult to implement. Inspired by deep learning in medical imaging, which is used to segment pathological regions to help determine diseases, we propose a deep learning method for the root segmentation task. U-Net is chosen as the basis, and the encoder layer is replaced by the ResNet Block, which can reduce the training volume of the model and improve the feature utilization capability; the PSA module is added to the up-sampling part of U-Net to improve the segmentation accuracy of the object through multi-scale features and attention fusion; a new loss function is used to avoid the extreme imbalance and data imbalance problems of backgrounds such as root system and soil. After experimental comparison and analysis, the improved network demonstrates better performance. In the test set of the peanut root segmentation task, a pixel accuracy of 0.9917 and Intersection Over Union of 0.9548 were achieved, with an F1-score of 95.10. Finally, we used the Transfer Learning approach to conduct segmentation experiments on the corn in situ root system dataset. The experiments show that the improved network has a good learning effect and transferability.

Research Progress of Chinese Herbal Medicine Intervention in Renal Interstitial Fibrosis.

Chronic kidney diseases usually cause renal interstitial fibrosis, the prevention, delay, and treatment of which is a global research hotspot. However, no definite treatment options are available in modern medicine. Chinese herbal medicine has a long history, rich varieties, and accurate treatment effects. Hitherto, many Chinese herbal medicine studies have emerged to improve renal interstitial fibrosis. This paper reviews the mechanisms of renal interstitial fibrosis and recent studies on the disease intervention with Chinese herbal medicine through literature search, intend to reveal the importance of Chinese herbal medicine in renal interstitial fibrosis. The results show that Chinese herbal medicine can improve renal interstitial fibrosis, and the effects of Chinese herbal medicine on specific pathological mechanisms underlying renal interstitial fibrosis have been explored. Additionally, the limitations and advantages of Chinese herbal medicine in the treatment of renal interstitial fibrosis, possible research directions, and new targets of Chinese herbal medicine are discussed to provide a basis for studies of renal interstitial fibrosis.

Plant Disease Detection Using Generated Leaves Based on DoubleGAN.

Plant leaves can be used to effectively detect plant diseases. However, the number of images of unhealthy leaves collected from various plants is usually unbalanced. It is difficult to detect diseases using such an unbalanced dataset. We used DoubleGAN (a double generative adversarial network) to generate images of unhealthy plant leaves to balance such datasets. We proposed using DoubleGAN to generate high-resolution images of unhealthy leaves using fewer samples. DoubleGAN is divided into two stages. In stage 1, we used healthy leaves and unhealthy leaves as inputs. First, the healthy leaf images were used as inputs for the WGAN (Wasserstein generative adversarial network) to obtain the pretrained model. Then, unhealthy leaves were used for the pretrained model to generate 64*64 pixel images of unhealthy leaves. In stage 2, a superresolution generative adversarial network (SRGAN) was used to obtain corresponding 256*256 pixel images to expand the unbalanced dataset. Finally, compared with images generated by DCGAN (Deep convolution generative adversarial network). The dataset expanded with DoubleGAN, the generated images are clearer than DCGAN, and the accuracy of plant species and disease recognition reached 99.80 and 99.53 percent, respectively. The recognition results are better than those from the original dataset.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of integrated traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine in treating glomerulosclerosis.

BACKGROUND: The combination of Traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine (TCM+WM) has been widely used in the treatment of glomerulosclerosis, but the results are still controversial. This study will assess the clinical efficacy of TCM+WM for glomerulosclerosis and provide evidence-based medical data via meta-analysis. METHOD: The MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, Cochrane Central Registry of Controlled Trials, and multiple Chinese databases (Wan Fang, CNKI, and VIP) were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCT) that compared the effects of WM and TCM+WM. Review Manager 5.3 software was used for the meta-analysis of selected studies, and appropriate tests were performed to determine the quality, heterogeneity and sensitivity of these studies. RESULTS: Sixteen RCTs met the inclusion criteria and were selected for the analysis. Compared with the placebo or WM-treated glomerulosclerosis patients, TCM+WM intervention significantly improved renal function indices including 24-hour urine protein quantity (24 h U-Pro), serum creatinine (Scr), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine clearance (Ccr). In addition, the serum albumin (ALB), triglyceride (TG), and cholesterol (CHOL) levels were also significantly improved (P < .05) in patients receiving the combination therapy. Finally, the combination of TCM+WM reduced the indices of glomerulosclerosis more effectively compared with WM alone. CONCLUSION: The combination of TCM+WM can significantly improve the renal function and prognosis of patients with glomerulosclerosis.

A dual-sensitized luminescent europium(iii) complex as a photoluminescent probe for selectively detecting Fe3.

A new luminescent EuIII complex, namely [Eu2(BTFA)4(OMe)2(dpq)2] (1), in which BTFA = 3-benzoyl-1,1,1-trifluoroacetone and dpq = dipyrido [3,2-d:2',3'-f] quinoxaline, has been designed and synthesized by employing two different ligands as sensitizers. Crystal structure analysis reveals that complex 1 is composed of dinuclear EuIII units crystallized in the monoclinic P1̄ space group. Notably, 1 exhibits high thermal stability up to 270 °C and excellent water stability. The photoluminescence property of the complex is investigated. Further studies show 1 can recognize Fe3+ ions with high selectivity from mixed metal ions in aqueous solution through the luminescence quenching phenomenon. Furthermore, the recyclability and stability of 1 after sensing experiments are observed to be adequate. By virtue of the superior stability, detection efficiency, applicability and reusability, the as-prepared EuIII complex can be a promising fluorescent material for practical sensing.

An unusual double T5(2) water tape trapped in silver(I) coordination polymer hosts: influence of the solvent on the assembly of Ag(I)-4,4'-bipyridine chains with trans-cyclohexanedicarboxylate and their luminescent properties.

In this paper, four silver(I) compounds, namely, {[Ag(4)(bipy)(4)(chda)]·2NO(3)·10H(2)O}(n) (1), {[Ag(2)(bipy)(2)(chda)]·14H(2)O}(n) (2), {[Ag(2)(bipy)(2)(chda)]·3EG·2H(2)O}(n) (3) and {[Ag(2)(bipy)(2)(chda)]·H(2)chda}(n) (4) (where bipy = 4,4'-bipyridine, H(2)chda = trans-cyclohexane-dicarboxylate and EG = ethylene glycol), have been synthesized and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses. In all of these compounds, the Ag(I) centers are linked by bipy ligands to form 1D Ag(I)-bipy chain structures. The chda(2-) anions of compound 1 adopt a µ(4)-coordination mode to connect the Ag(I)-bipy chains, forming a H-beam-like chain. In 2, the chda(2-) anions adopt a µ(2)-coordination mode to connect the Ag(I)-bipy chains resulting in two distinct 2D brick wall-like layers. These layers are further stacked in an ···ABAB··· fashion through interlayer π···π stacking interactions giving rise to a 3D framework consisting of quasi-rectangular channels, in which an unusual double T5(2) water tape is trapped. For 3 and 4, the chda(2-) anions show a similar µ(4)-coordination mode to that of 1 and connect the Ag(I)-bipy chains to form 2D grid layers with identical compositions and connective topologies. The experimental studies show that the final structures are greatly influenced by the molar ratio of the components and the solvents, which can be rationally interpreted by the existence of various supramolecular interactions between the host and guest molecules within these compounds through a systematic structural comparison. Additionally, the thermal stability and luminescent properties of these compounds were also studied.

The kinetic change of the serum angiogenin level in patients with acute cerebral infarction.

Serum angiogenin (ANG) levels were measured with ELISA in 30 cerebral infarction patients at different time points (within 48 h and on days 3, 7 and 14 after onset of cerebral infarction) and in 20 control subjects. Serum ANG levels in patients were 415.1 +/- 76.8, 410.6 +/- 82.1, 443.6 +/- 91.1 and 395.3 +/- 83.9 ng/ml within 48 h and on days 3, 7 and 14 after cerebral infarction, respectively. Serum ANG level in control group was 334.9 +/- 93.9 ng/ml. Serum ANG levels were significantly higher in patients with cerebral infarction within 48 h and on days 3 and 7 than in the control group (p < 0.05). Serum ANG level decreased on day 14. Serum ANG levels were significantly higher in patients with large infarction than in those with moderate and small infarction at each time point (p < 0.05). Our observations that serum ANG levels increase significantly in patients with cerebral infarction and the increase in ANG levels correlates with the infarct size suggest that ANG might be involved in the pathophysiologic process of ischemic brain damage.

Serial measurement of serum basic fibroblast growth factor in patients with acute cerebral infarction.

Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) has been reported to be involved in the pathophysiological changes following cerebral infarction. Basic fibroblast growth factor is upregulated in the brain and conduces to neuroprotection and angiogenesis in experimental brain ischemia, but the change of serum bFGF in cerebral infarction patients has not been reported. In the present study, we investigated the dynamic changes of serum bFGF in 30 patients with acute cerebral infarction and found that serum bFGF increased significantly after cerebral infarction compared with the control group (p<0.05). Serum bFGF peaked on day 3 (15.46 +/- 5.58 pg/ml; p<0.01) and remained significantly elevated on day 14 following cerebral infarction. In this study, it was also found that the levels of bFGF with large infarction were higher at each time point than those with moderate or small infarction (p<0.05). There was a positive correlation between the peak level of bFGF and improvement of clinical neurological deficits scored by Scandinavian Stroke Scale (SSS) (r=0.596; p<0.05). These results suggest that the serum bFGF level increased significantly after cerebral infarction and the level of serum bFGF could be of value to estimate the infarction size and clinical prognosis.