Analysis of fuzzy tea leaf images to predict a quality by DCGAN

Purpose of our research is to classify tea image at each shooting time.The flavor and quality of tea leaves change greatly depending on the time of picking.The more Umami ingredient “theanine”, the higher the quality.The more Astringent ingredient “catechin”, the lower the quality.Therefore, it is important to pick the tea at the timing when the theanine content is maximized.In an actual farm, the timing of picking is decided at the leaf opening stage, not at the component analysis.The leaf opening period consists of 8 stages, from the germination period until the 7th leafopening period.As a rule of thumb, the highest quality is achieved at the 5th leaf opening stage.Skilled technique is required to determine the leaf stage.We shoot a tea plantation with a large drone and analyze the shot image by deep learning.Analyzing each leaf opening stage leads to quality prediction.And I've been thinking about how to predict quality.In order to determine the leaf opening stage, we tried to classify the images using a well-known method, Luminance histogram,Spectrum analysis by FFT and AKAZE.However, none of the conventional methods were able to classify well.The cause is that it is difficult to extract the features due to the fuzzy of the tea image.Therefore, we devised a classification method using deep learning.We use DCGAN, SAE, LSTM and CWD.The originality of this research lies in the fact that these analyzes are not performed individually but continuously

POEMS Syndrome in a 20-year-old Patient Diagnosed Following a Complaint of Reduced Visual Acuity

We report a case of POEMS syndrome in a 20-year-old patient diagnosed after visiting an eye clinic with a chief complaint of reduced visual acuity. A male university student aged 20 years was referred to our department complaining of blurred vision in both eyes that had persisted for 1 month. He also noted headache, nausea, and paresthesia in the lower extremities around the same time. The visual acuity of his right and left eye was 20/40 and 20/20, respectively. Optic disc edema and serous retinal detachment were present. Brain magnetic resonance imaging showed no intracranial abnormalities, while elevated cerebrospinal fluid pressure, reduced nerve conduction velocity in both lower extremities, hepatosplenomegaly, M proteinemia, high blood VEGF levels, osteoblastic and osteolytic changes in the spine, and atypical plasma cells in bone lesions were noted. From the above findings, the patient was diagnosed with POEMS syndrome. He received high-dose dexamethasone, thalidomide, and radiotherapy on the sacral mass, followed by high-dose melphalan with autologous stem-cell support, and showed subsequent systemic and ophthalmologic improvement. Here, we report the youngest case ever of POEMS syndrome with ocular manifestation. If patients have optic disc edema in both eyes with no intracranial space-occupying lesion, POEMS syndrome should be considered in differential diagnosis, regardless of age

Impact of Polyp Regression on 2-year Outcomes of Intravitreal Aflibercept Injections: A Treat-and-Extend Regimen for Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy

We conducted intravitreal aflibercept injections (IVAs) for 37 Japanese patients (28 males, 9 females, mean age 73.4 years) with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV), with a treat-and-extend regimen (TER). We evaluated the impact of polyp regression after a loading dose (2-mg IVA 1×/month for 3 months) on the patients' 2-year treatment outcomes. Thirty-seven eyes were treated with IVA by a TER for 2 years. We divided the patients into 2 groups based on their polyp status after the loading dose: polyp regression (PR+) (n=19) and no polyp regression (PR−) (n=18). We compared the groups’ best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), central retinal thickness (CRT), recurrence rate, total number of injections, and final treatment interval. Both the BCVA and CRT were significantly improved by the treatment in both groups, with no between-group difference in the amount of change (p=0.769). In the polyp regression (+) group, recurrence was significantly less common (p=0.03), the mean total number of injections was significantly lower (p=0.013), and the mean treatment interval was significantly longer (0.042). Regarding the 2-year outcomes for PCV, the eyes with post-loading-dose polyp regression demonstrated less frequent recurrence and required fewer numbers of injections compared to the eyes without polyp regression

Results of a Treat-and-Extend Regimen of Intravitreal Ranibizumab Injection for Macular Edema due to Branch Retinal Vein Occlusion

To investigate the effectiveness of a treat-and-extend regimen (TAE) of intravitreal ranibizumab injections (IVR) for macular edema (ME) due to branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO). We retrospectively examined 35 eyes of 35 patients with ME due to BRVO who underwent TAE for 1 year. Patients whose treatment interval extended to 12 weeks were switched to a pro re nata regimen (PRN; TAE to PRN group), while TAE was continued for patients whose treatment interval was less than 12 weeks (continued TAE group). Changes in best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), central retinal thickness (CRT), and predictive factors for inclusion in the TAE to PRN group were analyzed. BCVA and CRT both improved significantly at 1 year compared with baseline (p<0.001). Sixteen eyes (45.7%) were included in the TAE to PRN group, while 19 eyes (54.3%) were included in the continued TAE group. BCVA in the TAE to PRN group was significantly better than that in the continued TAE group at 1 year (p=0.047). BCVA at baseline and macular BRVO were significant predictive factors for inclusion in the TAE to PRN group. TAE was effective for improving BCVA and CRT. The TAE to PRN group showed significantly better prognosis

Two-year Results of Intravitreal Ranibizumab Injections Using a Treat-and-extend Regimen for Macular Edema due to Branch Retinal Vein Occlusion

We investigated the effectiveness of a treat-and-extend regimen (TAE) of intravitreal ranibizumab injections for macular edema (ME) due to branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO). We retrospectively examined 2-year results of 32 eyes of 32 patients who underwent TAE to treat ME due to BRVO. The patients whose treatment interval extended to ≥ 12 weeks were switched to a pro re nata regimen (PRN). For the patients whose treatment interval was <12 weeks, TAE was continued. At 2 years, 10 eyes had required no additional injections after the initial treatment period [recurrence(−) group], whereas the other 22 eyes required additional treatment [recurrence(+) group]. Among the recurrence(+) patients, 11 eyes (34.4% of total) were eventually switched from TAE to PRN; the other 11 eyes (34.4%) continued TAE for 2 years. Visual acuity and central retinal thickness were significantly improved in both the recurrence(+) and (−) groups, and there was no significant betweengroup difference in visual acuity at 2 years. Univariate analyses revealed significant differences in visual acuity (p=0.004), age (p=0.014), and vessel occlusion site (p=0.018) between these groups. Our results suggest that TAE may be effective for BRVO patients with lower visual acuity, older age, and occlusion of a major vein

Curated genome annotation of Oryza sativa ssp. japonica and comparative genome analysis with Arabidopsis thaliana

We present here the annotation of the complete genome of rice Oryza sativa L. ssp. japonica cultivar Nipponbare. All functional annotations for proteins and non-protein-coding RNA (npRNA) candidates were manually curated. Functions were identified or inferred in 19,969 (70%) of the proteins, and 131 possible npRNAs (including 58 antisense transcripts) were found. Almost 5000 annotated protein-coding genes were found to be disrupted in insertional mutant lines, which will accelerate future experimental validation of the annotations. The rice loci were determined by using cDNA sequences obtained from rice and other representative cereals. Our conservative estimate based on these loci and an extrapolation suggested that the gene number of rice is ~32,000, which is smaller than previous estimates. We conducted comparative analyses between rice and Arabidopsis thaliana and found that both genomes possessed several lineage-specific genes, which might account for the observed differences between these species, while they had similar sets of predicted functional domains among the protein sequences. A system to control translational efficiency seems to be conserved across large evolutionary distances. Moreover, the evolutionary process of protein-coding genes was examined. Our results suggest that natural selection may have played a role for duplicated genes in both species, so that duplication was suppressed or favored in a manner that depended on the function of a gene