Blooming charge assessment in apple orchards for automatic thinning activities

Summary This work aims to develop an automatic system capable of providing objective information about the bloom charge in an apple orchard in order to manage flower-thinning activities. The article presents and discusses the use of a mobile lab (ByeLab) equipped with several optical sensors to carry out a site-specific bloom charge assessment in apple trees. The data collected by the sensors were processed by a specific algorithm implemented in MatLab®. Investigations of the flower reflectance signature indicated that the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is the most suitable parameter to distinguish leaves from flowers. Pure flowers produce NDVI values slightly negative or at least very near to 0. Despite the homogeneous behavior of the NDVI flower response, OptRx™ sensors, which provide an average assessment of an area, were not able to highlight a significant correlation between the number of flowers and the NDVI values. In the future, further studies will be conducted to assess if other techniques based on image analyses can provide better and more sensitive results regarding the bloom charge assessment. Such results could then be used as a reference in automating machines for thinning operations according to a site-specific approach

Conservative Surgery in Endometrial Cancer

Endometrial cancer (EC) is the sixth most common female cancer worldwide. The median age of diagnosis is 65 years. However, 4% of women diagnosed with EC are younger than 40 years old, and 70% of these women are nulliparous. These data highlight the importance of preserving fertility in these patients, at a time when the average age of the first pregnancy is significantly delayed and is now firmly established at over 30 years of age. National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN guidelines state that the primary treatment of endometrial endometrioid carcinoma, limited to the uterus, is a total hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy and surgical staging. Fertility-sparing treatment is not the standard of care, and patients eligible for this treatment always have to undergo strict counselling. Nowadays, a combined approach consisting of hysteroscopic resection, followed by oral or intrauterine-released progestins, has been reported to be an effective fertility-sparing option. Hysteroscopic resection followed by progestins achieved a complete response rate of 95.3% with a recurrence rate of 14.1%. The pregnancy rate in women undergoing fertility-sparing treatment is 47.8%, but rises to 93.3% when only considering women who tried to conceive during the study period. The aim of the present review is to provide a literature overview reflecting the current state of fertility-sparing options for the management of EC, specific criteria for considering such options, their limits, the implications for reproductive outcomes and the latest research trends in this direction

Hysteroscopic and ultrasound evaluation of a novel degradable polymer film for the prevention of intrauterine adhesion formation after hysteroscopic surgery

•Womed Leaf is a degradable polymer film barrier for the prevention of intrauterine adhesions.•We captured a set of images for the first time that illustrates the behavior of DPF after insertion.•None of our participants reported adverse events in relation to Womed Leaf use.•Six weeks post hysteroscopic surgery and Womed Leaf insertion no film or synechiae were present. To collect information on the application and behavior of a novel degradable polymeric film (DPF) developed to prevent intra-uterine adhesions (IUAs) after hysteroscopic surgery. A prospective observational study conducted in a university hospital in Naples, Italy. Women undergoing hysteroscopic myomectomy, metroplasty or adhesiolysis, were eligible for the study. Women had their uterine cavity assessed by transvaginal ultrasound scan before their hysteroscopic surgery, which was followed by the DPF insertion. Ultrasonographic and hysteroscopic assessments were undertaken immediately after insertion then at 2 h, 2–5 days, and 6 weeks postoperative. The main outcome of interest was to assess the behavior of the DPF, from insertion to degradation, by ultrasound and hysteroscopy. Other outcomes included ease of DPF insertion, any patient reported adverse events and the presence of IUAs at 6 weeks. A total of 15 patients were enrolled into the study. The DPF insertion was reported to be very easy in almost all the cases and was visualized immediately and 2 h after insertion in all patients. At the 2–5 day follow-up 5 and 2 of the 15 participants still had the entire or partially hydrolyzed film respectively. By 6 weeks there was no evidence of the DPF in all women. No adverse events were reported at the time of insertion or follow-up. None of the study participants had IUAs at the 6-week assessment. According to this pilot study, the solid degradable polymer film, Womed Leaf, is a promising, easy to apply and well tolerated novel option for the prevention of intrauterine adhesion formation after hysteroscopic surgery

A Graph Theoretical Approach To The Shunting Problem

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Perspectives on the incidence of Acanthamoeba Keratitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

TOPIC: To provide an overview on the incidence of Acanthamoeba Keratitis (AK). CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Although being a major and sight-threatening cause of infectious keratitis in the population, a comprehensive assessment of the incidence of this condition is lacking. METHODS: Incidence of AK was computed as the number of AK eyes, per healthcare center, per year (annualized-center-incidence, or ACI). Two meta-analytical ratios were also calculated: a) the ratio of AK eyes to the count of non-viral microbial keratitis (MK) eyes; b) the ratio of AK eyes to the overall population (i.e., the total number of subjects of a nation or region, as indicated by the authors in each study). Center was defined as the healthcare facility (e.g., Hospital, Private Practice, Clinic) where the study took place. Actual and projected estimates of the number of AK eyes in years were calculated multiplying the ratio of AK to the total population and the corresponding present and projected population estimates (age range: 15 to 70), sourced from the United Nations (UN) Population Prospects. RESULTS: Overall, 105 articles were included, published between 1987 and 2022. The total number of eyes identified was 91,951, with 5,660 affected by AK and 86,291 by non-viral MK. The median ACI was 1.9 new AK eyes per healthcare center per year (95%CI of the median: 1.5 to 2.6), with no statistically significant differences observed among continents. The ratio of AK eyes to the total number of MK eyes was 1.52% (95%CI: 1.02% to 2.24%), while the ratio of AK in relation to the entire population was estimated at 0.0002% (95%CI: 0.0001 to 0.0006), or 2.34 eyes per 1,000,000 subjects (95%CI: 0.98 to 5.55 per 1.000.000 subjects). The projected increase in the numbers of AK eyes indicates a rise of +18.5% (15,356 AK eyes) in 2053 and +25.5% (16,253 AK eyes) in 2073, compared to the baseline of 2023 (12,954 AK eyes) CONCLUSION: AK emerged as a relatively low-incident disorder, and no significant differences in terms of its incidence were found among different continents

PDGF-BB Carried by Endothelial Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles Reduces Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Apoptosis in Diabetes

Endothelial cell-derived extracellular vesicles (CD31EVs) constitute a new entity for therapeutic/prognostic purposes. The roles of CD31EVs as mediators of vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) dysfunction in type 2 diabetes (T2D) are investigated herein. We demonstrated that, unlike serum-derived extracellular vesicles in individuals without diabetes, those in individuals with diabetes (D CD31EVs) boosted apoptosis resistance of VSMCs cultured in hyperglycemic condition. Biochemical analysis revealed that this effect relies on changes in the balance between antiapoptotic and proapoptotic signals: increase of bcl-2 and decrease of bak/bax. D CD31EV cargo analysis demonstrated that D CD31EVs are enriched in membrane-bound platelet-derived growth factor-BB (mbPDGF-BB). Thus, we postulated that mbPDGF-BB transfer by D CD31EVs could account for VSMC resistance to apoptosis. By depleting CD31EVs of platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB) or blocking the PDGF receptor β on VSMCs, we demonstrated that mbPDGF-BB contributes to D CD31EV-mediated bak/bax and bcl-2 levels. Moreover, we found that bak expression is under the control of PDGF-BB-mediated microRNA (miR)-296-5p expression. In fact, while PDGF-BB treatment recapitulated D CD31EV-mediated antiapoptotic program and VSMC resistance to apoptosis, PDGF-BB-depleted CD31EVs failed. D CD31EVs also increased VSMC migration and recruitment to neovessels by means of PDGF-BB. Finally, we found that VSMCs, from human atherosclerotic arteries of individuals with T2D, express low bak/bax and high bcl-2 and miR-296-5p levels. This study identifies the mbPDGF-BB in D CD31EVs as a relevant mediator of diabetes-associated VSMC resistance to apoptosis

Activated Stat5 trafficking Via Endothelial Cell-derived Extracellular Vesicles Controls IL-3 Pro-angiogenic Paracrine Action.

Soluble factors and cell-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) control vascular cell fate during inflammation. The present study investigates the impact of Interleukin 3 (IL-3) on EV release by endothelial cells (ECs), the mechanisms involved in EV release and paracrine actions. We found that IL-3 increases EV release, which is prevented by IL-3Ralpha blockade. EVs released upon IL-3 stimulation were able to induce pro-angiogenic signals as shown by chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay performed on the promoter region of cyclin D1 and tridimensional tube-like structure formation. We herein demonstrate that these effects rely on the transfer of miR-126-3p, pre-miR-126 and, more importantly, of activated signal transduction and activator of transcription 5 (pSTAT5) from IL-3-EV cargo into recipient ECs. We show, using the dominant negative form (ΔN)STAT5 and an activated STAT5 (1*6STAT5) constructs, that STAT5 drives IL-3-mediated EV release, miR-126-3p and pSTAT5 content. Finally, using EVs recovered from ΔNSTAT5 expressing ECs, we provide evidence that miR-126-3p and pSTAT5 trafficking is relevant for IL-3-mediated paracrine pro-angiogenic signals. These results indicate that IL-3 regulates EC-EV release, cargo and IL-3 angiogenic paracrine action via STAT5. Moreover, these results provide evidence that EC-derived IL-3-EVs can serve as pro-angiogenic clinical delivery wound healing devices

YOLOLens: A Deep Learning Model Based on Super-Resolution to Enhance the Crater Detection of the Planetary Surfaces

The impact crater detection offers a great scientific contribution in analyzing the geological processes, morphologies and physical properties of the celestial bodies and plays a crucial role in potential future landing sites. The huge amount of craters requires automated detection algorithms, and considering the low spatial resolution provided by the satellite jointly with, the solar illuminance/incidence variety, these methods lack their performance in the recognition tasks. Furthermore, small craters are harder to recognize also by human experts and the need to have a sophisticated detection algorithm becomes mandatory. To address these problems, we propose a deep learning architecture refers as “YOLOLens5x”, for impact crater detection based on super-resolution in a unique end-to-end design. We introduce the entire workflow useful to link the Robbins Lunar catalogue with the tiles orthoprojected from the Lunar mosaic LROC mission in order to train our proposed model as a supervised paradigm and, the various optimization due to provide a clear dataset in the training step. We prove by experimental results a boost in terms of precision and recall than the other state-of-the-art crater detection models, reporting the lowest error estimated craters diameter using the same scale factor given by LROC WAC Camera. To simulate the camera satellite at the lowest spatial resolution, we carried out experiments at different scale factors (200 m/px, 400 m/px) by interpolating the source image of 100 m/px, bringing to light remarkable results across all metrics under consideration compared with the baseline used

Downregulation of Anger by Mental Contrasting With Implementation Intentions (MCII)

As anger can lead to aggressive behavior aiming at intentionally hurting somebody, the prevention of its destructive consequences with effective emotion regulation strategies is crucial. Two studies tested the idea that mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII) interventions would be effective in down-regulating anger. In Study 1, participants who adopted the self-regulation strategy of MCII showed significantly less anger-related negative affect after the anger induction than participants in a control condition, with positive affect staying unaffected. Results from a second study with a control condition plus three self-regulation conditions – a reappraisal, a MCII, and a reappraisal + MCII condition – suggest that participants using MCII were effective in down-regulating anger, irrespective of whether it was supplemented by reappraisal or not. The present research contributes to emotion regulation research by introducing MCII as an effective strategy that can be tailored to satisfy individual emotion regulation demands, such as dealing with experienced anger