Protecting Heritage Trees in Weifang City, Shandong Province, Northern China

Heritage trees are long-lived trees or notable trees with great historical significance, scientific value, or commemorative importance. Many heritage trees have been preserved in Weifang City, Shandong Province, Northern China. In this paper, the origin, species diversity, age structure, health, surrounding habitats, distribution, genera floristic composition, and challenges of protecting the heritage trees were investigated using literature analysis, field survey, and interview. There are 864 heritage trees in the city, composed of 49 species, 41 genera, and 25 families. The heritage trees are divided into three original types: religious trees, naturally dispersed and preserved wild trees, and trees with agricultural backgrounds or used as offerings. Particularly, Sophora japonica, Ziziphus jujube, Ginkgo biloba, Sabina chinensis, Platycladus orientalis, and Osmanthus fragrans are the six most common species. There are 208 individuals of 500 years or elder, 293 individuals of 300–499 years old, 359 individuals of 100–299 years old, and 4 individuals of notable trees. Most of them are distributed in low-urbanized areas of the 4 county-level cities and Linqu county, and few are distributed in high-urbanized areas of the 4 districts of Weifang City. There are 14, 12, and 6 genera belonging to the areal-types of Temperate, Cosmopolitan, and Tropic, respectively, similar to that of wild seed plants in Yishan Mountain. There are some challenges in protecting heritage trees, such as urbanization, habitat deterioration, natural disasters, anthropic activities, health decline, and inadequate management. Some protection measures that have been taken previously are summarized, and some measures that should be taken in the future are proposed

Concurrence-Aware Long Short-Term Sub-Memories for Person-Person Action Recognition

Recently, Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) has become a popular choice to model individual dynamics for single-person action recognition due to its ability of modeling the temporal information in various ranges of dynamic contexts. However, existing RNN models only focus on capturing the temporal dynamics of the person-person interactions by naively combining the activity dynamics of individuals or modeling them as a whole. This neglects the inter-related dynamics of how person-person interactions change over time. To this end, we propose a novel Concurrence-Aware Long Short-Term Sub-Memories (Co-LSTSM) to model the long-term inter-related dynamics between two interacting people on the bounding boxes covering people. Specifically, for each frame, two sub-memory units store individual motion information, while a concurrent LSTM unit selectively integrates and stores inter-related motion information between interacting people from these two sub-memory units via a new co-memory cell. Experimental results on the BIT and UT datasets show the superiority of Co-LSTSM compared with the state-of-the-art methods

Mitochondrial DNA heteroplasmy analysis in keratoconus patients from China

Background: Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variants have been implicated in keratoconus (KC). The present study aimed to characterize the mtDNA heteroplasmy profile in KC and explore the association of mitochondrial heteroplasmic levels with KC.Methods: Mitochondrial sequencing of peripheral blood samples and corneal tomography were conducted in 300 KC cases and 300 matched controls. The number of heteroplasmic and homoplasmic variants was calculated across the mitochondrial genome. Spearman’s correlation was used to analyze the correlation between the number of heteroplasmic variants and age. The association of mtDNA heteroplasmic level with KC was analyzed by logistic regression analysis. Moreover, the relationship between mitochondrial heteroplasmic levels and clinical parameters was determined by linear regression analysis.Results: The distribution of mtDNA heteroplasmic variants showed the highest number of heteroplasmic variants in the non-coding region, while the COX3 gene exhibited the highest number in protein-coding genes. Comparisons of the number of heteroplasmic and homoplasmic non-synonymous variants in protein-coding genes revealed no significant differences between KC cases and controls (all p > 0.05). In addition, the number of heteroplasmic variants was positively associated with age in all subjects (r = 0.085, p = 0.037). The logistic regression analyses indicated that the heteroplasmic levels of m.16180_16181delAA was associated with KC (p < 0.005). Linear regression analyses demonstrated that the heteroplasmic levels of m.16180_16181delAA and m.302A>C were not correlated with thinnest corneal thickness (TCT), steep keratometry (Ks), and flat keratometry (Kf) (all p > 0.05) in KC cases and controls separately.Conclusion: The current study characterized the mtDNA heteroplasmy profile in KC, and revealed that the heteroplasmic levels of m.16180_16181delAA were associated with KC

Accuracy of tomographic and biomechanical parameters in detecting unilateral post-LASIK keratoectasia and fellow eyes

Background: Patients with unilateral post-LASIK keratectasia (KE) have clinical ectasia in one eye but not in the fellow eye. As serious complications, these cases are rarely reported but are worth investigating. This study aimed to explore the characteristics of unilateral KE and the accuracy of corneal tomographic and biomechanical parameters to detect KE and distinguish fellow eyes from control eyes.Methods: The study analyzed 23 KE eyes, 23 KE fellow eyes, and 48 normal eyes from age- and sex-matched patients who had undergone LASIK. The Kruskal–Wallis test and further paired comparisons were performed to compare the clinical measurements of the three groups. The receiver operating characteristic curve was used to evaluate the ability to distinguish KE and fellow eyes from the control eyes. Binary logistic regression with the forward stepwise method was performed to produce a combined index, and the DeLong test was used to compare the discriminability difference of the parameters.Results: Males accounted for 69.6% of patients with unilateral KE. The duration between corneal surgery and the onset of ectasia ranged from 4 months to 18 years, with a median time of 10 years. The KE fellow eye had a higher posterior evaluation (PE) value than the control eyes (5 vs. 2, p = 0.035). Diagnostic tests showed that PE, posterior radius of curvature (3 mm), anterior evaluation (FE), and Corvis biomechanical index–laser vision correction (CBI-LVC) were sensitive indicators for distinguishing KE in the control eyes. The ability of PE to detect the KE fellow eye from the control eye was 0.745 (0.628 and 0.841), with 73.91% sensitivity and 68.75% specificity at a cut-off value of 3. The ability of a combined index, constructed using PE and FE, to distinguish fellow eyes of KE from controls was 0.831 (0.723 and 0.909), which was higher than that of PE and FE individually (p < 0.05).Conclusion: The fellow eyes of patients with unilateral KE had significantly higher PE values than control eyes, and a combination of PE and FE enhanced this differentiation in a Chinese population. More attention should be paid to the long-term follow-up of patients after LASIK and to be wary of the occurrence of early KE

Machine learning analysis with the comprehensive index of corneal tomographic and biomechanical parameters in detecting pediatric subclinical keratoconus

Background: Keratoconus (KC) occurs at puberty but diagnosis is focused on adults. The early diagnosis of pediatric KC can prevent its progression and improve the quality of life of patients. This study aimed to evaluate the ability of corneal tomographic and biomechanical variables through machine learning analysis to detect subclinical keratoconus (SKC) in a pediatric population.Methods: Fifty-two KC, 52 SKC, and 52 control pediatric eyes matched by age and gender were recruited in a case-control study. The corneal tomographic and biomechanical parameters were measured by professionals. A linear mixed-effects test was used to compare the differences among the three groups and a least significant difference analysis was used to conduct pairwise comparisons. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and the Delong test were used to evaluate diagnostic ability. Variables were used in a multivariate logistic regression in the machine learning analysis, using a stepwise variable selection to decrease overfitting, and comprehensive indices for detecting pediatric SKC eyes were produced in each step.Results: PE, BAD-D, and TBI had the highest area under the curve (AUC) values in identifying pediatric KC eyes, and the corresponding cutoff values were 12 μm, 2.48, and 0.6, respectively. For discriminating SKC eyes, the highest AUC (95% CI) was found in SP A1 with a value of 0.84 (0.765, 0.915), and BAD-D was the best parameter among the corneal tomographic parameters with an AUC (95% CI) value of 0.817 (0.729, 0.886). Three models were generated in the machine learning analysis, and Model 3 (y = 0.400*PE + 1.982* DA ratio max [2 mm]−0.072 * SP A1−3.245) had the highest AUC (95% CI) value, with 90.4% sensitivity and 76.9% specificity, and the cutoff value providing the best Youden index was 0.19.Conclusion: The criteria of parameters for diagnosing pediatric KC and SKC eyes were inconsistent with the adult population. Combined corneal tomographic and biomechanical parameters could enhance the early diagnosis of young patients and improve the inadequate representation of pediatric KC research

Review of CHINARE chemical oceanographic research in the Southern Ocean during 1984–2016

Between 1984 and 2016, China executed 33 Antarctic cruises with the icebreaker R/V Xuelong, which have provided opportunities for Chinese scientists to investigate the status and changes of the Southern Ocean. Research in chemical oceanography constitutes one of the primary missions of the Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition (CHINARE). This paper reviews nearly 30 years of Chinese Antarctic expeditions, focusing on the major progress achieved in chemical oceanographic research. Specifically, the sea-surface distributions and air–sea fluxes of CO2 and N2O are considered, and the transport, flux, and budget of organic matter are investigated based on isotopes in the Southern Ocean, especially in Prydz Bay. In addition, the nutrient distribution and deep-water particle export in Prydz Bay and the study of aerosol heavy metal characteristics are considered. Finally, the prospects for future Chinese Antarctic chemical oceanographic research are outlined

Prevention of Wogonin on Colorectal Cancer Tumorigenesis by Regulating p53 Nuclear Translocation

The tumor suppressor protein p53 plays an important role in the development and progression of colon cancer, and the subcellular organelle localization directly affects its function. Wogonin (5,7-dihydroxy-8-methoxyflavone), a mono-flavonoid extracted from root of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, possesses acceptable toxicity and has been used in colorectal cancer (CRC) chemoprevention in pre-clinical trials by oncologist. However, the underlying anti-colon cancer mechanisms of wogonin are not yet fully understood. In the present study, the effect of wogonin on the initiation and development of colitis-associated cancer through p53 nuclear translocation was explored. AOM-DSS CRC animal model and human CRC HCT-116 cell model were used to evaluate the in vivo and in vitro anti-colon cancer action of wogonin. We observed that wogonin showed a dramaticlly preventive effect on colon cancer. Our results showed that wogonin caused apoptotic cell death in human CRC HCT-116 cell through increased endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Meanwhile, excessive ER stress facilitated the cytoplasmic localization of p53 through increasing phosphor-p53 at S315 and S376 sites, induced caspase-dependent apoptosis and inhibited autophagy. Furthermore, we verified the chemoprevention effect and toxicity of wogonin in vivo by utilizing an AOM-DSS colon cancer animal model. We found that wogonin not only reduced tumor multiplicity, preserved colon length to normal (6.79 ± 0.34 to 7.41 ± 0.56, P < 0.05) but also didn’t induce side effects on various organs. In conclusion, these results explain the anti-tumor effect of wogonin in CRC and suggest wogonin as a potential therapeutic candidate for the therapeutic strategy in CRC treatment

Distribution of pediatric keratoconus by different age and gender groups

PurposeTo evaluate the distribution of pediatric keratoconus patients and the disease severity based on different age and gender groups in China.Materials and methodsA total of 446 keratoconus eyes in 266 pediatric patients from January 2019 to January 2022 were included in the cross-sectional study. The clinical findings and severity of keratoconus were recorded and Kruskal–Wallis test, chi-squared test, and Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel (CMH) test were used to compare the parameters between different gender and age groups.ResultsThe male/female ratio was 353/93 (3.8:1), and the median age was 16 years (range: 6–17 years). Male patients were statistically younger than female patients (P = 0.041). The male/female ratio decreased with age (P for trend = 0.011). The distribution of the topographic keratoconus classification (TKC) stage was significantly different between gender and age groups (all P < 0.05). Male patients had a higher ratio of advanced keratoconus eyes (TKC ≥ 3) than female patients (P < 0.001), and CMH analysis indicated that being a male was a risk factor for advanced keratoconus after controlling for age (odds ratio: 2.581, P < 0.001).ConclusionMale keratoconus patients were younger, with a higher ratio of advanced keratoconus than female patients in the Chinese pediatric patients evaluated. Multicenter studies with larger sample sizes are necessary in the future