As an integrated part of national marine supervision system, ship monitoring plays a critical role in ensuing efficient exploitation of marine resources and safety of territorial sea. In this paper semantic segmentation networks are trained using high-resolution satellite ship data to facilitate more detailed ship inspection. Using the UNet network, the network performance is optimized by improving the structure of the convolutional an attention mechanism is incorporated to enhance useful features and suppress useless features so as to improve segmentation accuracy. The encoder module obtains high-level semantic information of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) remote sensing of ship images layer by layer, and the decoder module recovers spatial information step by step. Experimental results show that this method can effectively enhance accuracy of image segmentation and retain more image details.
Nowadays, smart wearable devices are widely used and Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems technology (MEMS) sensors are usually embedded in them. In this paper, a novel gesture recognition framework based on the 3D accelerometer and 3D gyroscope of smart phone is prpposed. Currently, most of the effort is focused on manually extracting features from MEMS sensors. However, without relevant domain knowledge, it is difficult to extract valid features to classify specific tasks. Instead of manual feature extraction, we propose 1D Convolutional Neural Network model to automatically extract features and gesture recognition from acceleration and gyroscope data. The best average recognition of ten Arabic numerals was 89.63%. The experimental results show that gesture-based Human-computer Interaction (HCI) can be applied as a new type of HCI for consumer electronics and mobile devices.
The primary goal of modern wheat breeding is to develop new high-yielding and widely adaptable varieties. We analyzed four yield-related agronomic traits in 502 wheat accessions under normal conditions (NC) and drought treatment (DT) conditions over three years. The genome-wide association analysis identified 51 yield-related and nine drought-resistance-related QTL, including 13 for the thousand-grain weight (TGW), 30 for grain length (GL), three for grain width (GW), five for spike length (SL) and nine for stress tolerance index (STI) QTL in wheat. These QTL, containing 72 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), explained 2.23 - 7.35% of the phenotypic variation across multiple environments. Eight stable SNPs on chromosomes 2A, 2D, 3B, 4A, 5B, 5D, and 7D were associated with phenotypic stability under NC and DT conditions. Two of these stable SNPs had association with TGW and STI. Several novel QTL for TGW, GL and SL were identified on different chromosomes. Three linked SNPs were transformed into kompetitive allele-specific PCR (KASP) markers. These results will facilitate the discovery of promising SNPs for yield-related traits and/or drought stress tolerance and will accelerate the development of new wheat varieties with desirable alleles.
Abstract Background: Starch is the main component of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grain and a key factor in determining wheat processing quality. The Wx gene encodes the granule bound starch synthase I (GBSS I) and is the sole gene responsible for amylose synthesis. Results: A waxy mutant (Wx-null) was isolated by screening M3 seeds derived from 1.0% EMS mutagenized materials with I2-KI staining of endosperm starch. SDS-PAGE electrophoresis confirmed that the Wx-null line lacked all three waxy proteins. DNA sequencing revealed three SNPs and a 3-bp InDel in the first exon, and a 16-bp InDel at the junction region of the first Wx-A1 intron from the Wx-null line. Six SNPs were identified in Wx-B1 gene of Wx-null line compared to the wild-type Gao 8901, including four missense mutations. One nonsense mutation was found at position 857 in the fourth exon, which resulted in a premature stop codon. Expression levels of Wx genes were dramatically reduced in the Wx-null line. Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) may be triggered to degrade the non-functional Wx mRNA. There were no detectable differences in granule size and morphology between Wx-null and wild-type, but the Wx-null line contained a larger proportion of B-type starch granules. The amylose content of the Wx-null line (0.22%) was remarkably lower compared to the wild-type Gao 8901 (20.82%). Total starch is also lower in the Wx-null line. Conclusions: All three waxy proteins were non-functional in the Wx-null line. NMD may be the cause for reduced expression levels of Wx genes in the Wx-null line. The Wx-null line exhibited more B-type starch granules, dramatically lower amylose content, and decreased total starch. The Wx-null line may provide a potential waxy material with high agronomic performance in wheat breeding programs.
Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) is characterized by heterogeneous inflammatory endotypes of unknown etiology. Invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells are multifunctional innate T cells that exhibit Th1-, Th2-, and Th17-like characteristics. We investigated functional relationships between iNKT cells and inflammatory subtypes of CRSwNP. Eighty patients with CRSwNP and thirty-two control subjects were recruited in this study. Flow cytometry was used to analyze the frequencies and functions of iNKT cells and their subsets in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and tissues. Polyp tissue homogenates were used to study the multifunctionality of iNKT cells. iNKT cells were significantly increased in polyps (0.41%) than in control mucosa (0.12%). iNKT cells were determined in the paucigranunlocytic (n=20), eosinophilic (n=22), neutrophilic (n=23), and mixed granulocytic (n=13) phenotypes of CRSwNP. The percentages of iNKT cells and HLA-DR + PD-1 + subsets were lower in eosinophilic or mixed granulocytic polyps than those of other phenotypes. iNKT cells and subsets were enriched in polyp tissues than in matched PBMCs. The evaluation of surface markers, transcription factors, and signature cytokines indicated that the frequencies of iNKT2 and iNKT17 subsets were significantly increased in eosinophilic and neutrophilic polyps, respectively, than in the paucigranulocytic group. Moreover, the production of type 2 (partially dependent on IL-7) and type 17 (partially dependent on IL-23) iNKT cells could be stimulated by eosinophilic and neutrophilic homogenates, respectively. Our study revealed that type 2 and type 17 iNKT cells were involved in eosinophilic and neutrophilic inflammation, respectively, in CRSwNP, while different inflammatory microenvironments could modulate the functions of iNKT cells, suggesting a role of iNKT cells in feedback mechanisms and local inflammation.
With the ever-increasing demand for marine products with high nutritional value in the sea, rapid and accurate detection of target organisms is highly desired. In this context, a novel underwater object detection algorithm based on improved Single Shot MultiBox Detector (SSD) is proposed to improve the detection accuracy and real-time performance in complex underwater environment. The proposed algorithm employs ResNeXt-50 instead of VGGNet-16 as the backbone network to improve the ability to obtain details and position information of the target object. To be more specific, a channel-spatial attention mechanism is incorporated in the deep layers of the improved XC-SSD model to enhance semantic information of high-level feature maps and reduce missed detection rate and false detection rate. Comprehensive experiments on the URPC-2019 dataset show that the detection accuracy and speed of the proposed algorithm are 79.76% and 18.95 FPS, respectively, which are 3.49% and 2.8 FPS higher than the original SSD algorithm. Experimental results clearly demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is highly efficient and suitable for real-time object detection.
The processing quality of wheat is affected by seed storage substances, such as protein and starch. High-molecular-weight glutenin subunits (HMW-GSs) are the major components of wheat seed storage proteins (SSPs); they are also key determinators of wheat end-use quality. However, the effects of HMW-GSs absence on the expression of other storage substances and the regulation mechanism of HMW-GSs are still limited. Previously, a wheat transgenic line LH-11 with complete deletions of HMW-GSs was obtained through introducing an exogenous gene Glu-1Ebx to the wild-type cultivar Bobwhite by transgenic approach. In this study, comparative seed transcriptomics and proteomics of transgenic and non-transgenic lines at different seed developmental stages were carried out to explore the changes in genes and proteins and the underlying regulatory mechanism. Results revealed that a number of genes, including genes related to SSPs, carbohydrates metabolism, amino acids metabolism, transcription, translation, and protein process were differentially enriched. Seed storage proteins displayed differential expression patterns between the transgenic and non-transgenic line, a major rise in the expression levels of gliadins were observed at 21 and 28 days post anthesis (DPA) in the transgenic line. Changes in expressions of low-molecular-weight glutenins (LMW-GSs), avenin-like proteins (ALPs), lipid transfer proteins (LTPs), and protease inhibitors (PIs) were also observed. In addition, genes related to carbohydrate metabolism were differentially expressed, which probably leads to a difference in starch component and deposition. A list of gene categories participating in the accumulation of SSPs was proposed according to the transcriptome and proteome data. Six genes from the MYB and eight genes from the NAC transcription families are likely important regulators of HMW-GSs accumulation. This study will provide data support for understanding the regulatory network of wheat storage substances. The screened candidate genes can lay a foundation for further research on the regulation mechanism of HMW-GSs.
Medical AI has transformed modern medicine and created a new environment for future doctors. However, medical education has failed to keep pace with these advances, and it is essential to provide systematic education on medical AI to current medical undergraduate and postgraduate students. To address this issue, our study utilized the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model to identify key factors that influence the acceptance and intention to use medical AI. We collected data from 1,243 undergraduate and postgraduate students from 13 universities and 33 hospitals, and 54.3% reported prior experience using medical AI. Our findings indicated that medical postgraduate students have a higher level of awareness in using medical AI than undergraduate students. The intention to use medical AI is positively associated with factors such as performance expectancy, habit, hedonic motivation, and trust. Therefore, future medical education should prioritize promoting students' performance in training, and courses should be designed to be both easy to learn and engaging, ensuring that students are equipped with the necessary skills to succeed in their future medical careers.
Abstract Starch is the main component of wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) grain and a key factor in determining wheat processing quality. The Wx gene is the gene responsible for amylose synthesis. An ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) mutagenized population was generated using common wheat cv. Gao 8901, a popular and high-quality cultivar in China. A waxy mutant (Wx-null) was isolated by screening M3 seeds with KI-I 2 staining of endosperm starch. No obvious waxy proteins in Wx-null line were detected using Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). DNA sequencing revealed three SNPs and a 3-bp InDel in the first exon, and a 16-bp InDel at the junction region of the first Wx-A1 intron from the Wx-null line. Six SNPs were identified in Wx-B1 gene of Wx-null line compared to the wild-type Gao 8901, including four missense mutations. One nonsense mutation was found at position 857 in the fourth exon, which resulted in a premature stop codon. Expression levels of Wx genes were dramatically reduced in the Wx-null line. There were no detectable differences in granule size and morphology between Wx-null and wild-type, but the Wx-null line contained more B-type starch granules. The amylose content of the Wx-null line (0.22%) was remarkably lower compared to the wild-type Gao 8901 (24.71%). Total starch is also lower in the Wx-null line. The Wx-null line may provide a potential waxy material with high agronomic performance in wheat breeding programs.
Abstract Background Non-pharmaceutical measures and travel restrictions have halted the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and influenza. Nonetheless, with COVID-19 restrictions lifted, an unanticipated outbreak of the influenza B/Victoria virus in late 2021 and another influenza H3N2 outbreak in mid-2022 occurred in Guangdong, southern China. The mechanism underlying this phenomenon remains unknown. To better prepare for potential influenza outbreaks during COVID-19 pandemic, we studied the molecular epidemiology and phylogenetics of influenza A(H3N2) and B/Victoria that circulated during the COVID-19 pandemic in this region. Methods From January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2022, we collected throat swabs from 173,401 patients in Guangdong who had acute respiratory tract infections. Influenza viruses in the samples were tested using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, followed by subtype identification and sequencing of hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) genes. Phylogenetic and genetic diversity analyses were performed on both genes from 403 samples. A rigorous molecular clock was aligned with the phylogenetic tree to measure the rate of viral evolution and the root-to-tip distance within strains in different years was assessed using regression curve models to determine the correlation. Results During the early period of COVID-19 control, various influenza viruses were nearly undetectable in respiratory specimens. When control measures were relaxed in January 2020, the influenza infection rate peaked at 4.94% (39/789) in December 2021, with the influenza B/Victoria accounting for 87.18% (34/39) of the total influenza cases. Six months later, the influenza infection rate again increased and peaked at 11.34% (255/2248) in June 2022; influenza A/H3N2 accounted for 94.51% (241/255) of the total influenza cases in autumn 2022. The diverse geographic distribution of HA genes of B/Victoria and A/H3N2 had drastically reduced, and most strains originated from China. The rate of B/Victoria HA evolution (3.11 × 10 −3 , P < 0.05) was 1.7 times faster than before the COVID-19 outbreak (1.80 × 10 −3 , P < 0.05). Likewise, the H3N2 HA gene’s evolution rate was 7.96 × 10 −3 ( P < 0.05), which is 2.1 times faster than the strains’ pre-COVID-19 evolution rate (3.81 × 10 −3 , P < 0.05). Conclusions Despite the extraordinarily low detection rate of influenza infection, concealed influenza transmission may occur between individuals during strict COVID-19 control. This ultimately leads to the accumulation of viral mutations and accelerated evolution of H3N2 and B/Victoria viruses. Monitoring the evolution of influenza may provide insights and alerts regarding potential epidemics in the future.
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