Phenotyping Key Fruit Quality Traits in Olive Using RGB Images and Back Propagation Neural Networks

To predict oil and phenol concentrations in olive fruit, the combination of back propagation neural networks (BPNNs) and contact-less plant phenotyping techniques was employed to retrieve RGB image-based digital proxies of oil and phenol concentrations. Fruits of cultivars (×3) differing in ripening time were sampled (∼10-day interval, ×2 years), pictured and analyzed for phenol and oil concentrations. Prior to this, fruit samples were pictured and images were segmented to extract the red (R), green (G), and blue (B) mean pixel values that were rearranged in 35 RGB-based colorimetric indexes. Three BPNNs were designed using as input variables (a) the original 35 RGB indexes, (b) the scores of principal components after a principal component analysis (PCA) pre-processing of those indexes, and (c) a reduced number (28) of the RGB indexes achieved after a sparse PCA. The results show that the predictions reached the highest mean R2 values ranging from 0.87 to 0.95 (oil) and from 0.81 to 0.90 (phenols) across the BPNNs. In addition to the R2, other performance metrics were calculated (root mean squared error and mean absolute error) and combined into a general performance indicator (GPI). The resulting rank of the GPI suggests that a BPNN with a specific topology might be designed for cultivars grouped according to their ripening period. The present study documented that an RGB-based image phenotyping can effectively predict key quality traits in olive fruit supporting the developing olive sector within a digital agriculture domain

Image-based sensing of salt stress in grapevine

Grapevine is among the most economically important crops suffering environmental constraints, including drought and salt stress. Although imaging is increasingly used to detect abiotic stress in agriculture, image-based phenotyping in grapevine still needs optimisation. This study presents the RGB-(red, green, blue)-based phenotyping of the early stage of salt stress response in potted grapevine (Aleatico/SO4) irrigated with saline water (100 mM NaCl) for 9 days in contrast with vines irrigated with fresh water. The response was measured using stomatal conductance (gs), net photosynthetic rate (A), transpiration (E), maximum potential photosynthetic efficiency (Fv/Fm), stem water potential (SWP) concurrently with RGB imaging via a robotised platform. The image-based phenotyping of salt-stressed vines employed two sets of measurements: (i) the pixel fraction of specific colour bands (Yellow, Green, Brown and Dark Green) and (ii) the mean pixel value of R, G and B and other RGB-based colorimetric indexes. Results show that the responses of gs, A, E, Fv/Fm were closely related to increasing soil electrical conductivity (EC) and that imaging could detect the EC threshold of approx. 4 dS m-1 causing a 60 % decrease in these physiological traits compared to the pre-stress level. The SWP declined to about -0.7 MPa at the end of the experiment. The change of the relative pixel fraction of Dark Green to increasing EC has been analysed within a dose-response context, showing that a decrease of 1 % of the Dark Green colour band corresponded to the 4 dS m-1 EC threshold. This study also examined the use of the mean pixel value of the R, G and B channels as proxies of EC along with new RGB-based indexes resulting from the rearrangement of original R, G and B mean pixel values. Results show the suitability of the mean pixel value of R and Coloration Index [(R-B)/R] to serve as predictors of EC (R2 >= 0.80)

Radiogenomics in clear cell renal cell carcinoma: correlations between advanced CT imaging (texture analysis) and microRNAs expression

Purpose: A relevant challenge for the improvement of clear cell renal cell carcinoma management could derive from the identification of novel molecular biomarkers that could greatly improve the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment choice of these neoplasms. In this study, we investigate whether quantitative parameters obtained from computed tomography texture analysis may correlate with the expression of selected oncogenic microRNAs. Methods: In a retrospective single-center study, multiphasic computed tomography examination (with arterial, portal, and urographic phases) was performed on 20 patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma and computed tomography texture analysis parameters such as entropy, kurtosis, skewness, mean, and standard deviation of pixel distribution were measured using multiple filter settings. These quantitative data were correlated with the expression of selected microRNAs (miR-21-5p, miR-210-3p, miR-185-5p, miR-221-3p, miR-145-5p). Both the evaluations (microRNAs and computed tomography texture analysis) were performed on matched tumor and normal corticomedullar tissues of the same patients cohort. Results: In this pilot study, we evidenced that computed tomography texture analysis has robust parameters (eg, entropy, mean, standard deviation) to distinguish normal from pathological tissues. Moreover, a higher coefficient of determination between entropy and miR-21-5p expression was evidenced in tumor versus normal tissue. Interestingly, entropy and miR-21-5p show promising correlation in clear cell renal cell carcinoma opening to a radiogenomic strategy to improve clear cell renal cell carcinoma management. Conclusion: In this pilot study, a promising correlation between microRNAs and computed tomography texture analysis has been found in clear cell renal cell carcinoma. A clear cell renal cell carcinoma can benefit from noninvasive evaluation of texture parameters in adjunction to biopsy results. In particular, a promising correlation between entropy and miR-21-5p was found

A synthetic cytokinin primes photosynthetic and growth response in grapevine under ion-independent salinity stress

Aiding optimal plant–environment interaction would favor plant resilience against environmental constrains including salt stress. We test the hypothesis that 6-Benzylaminopurine (BAP) primes grapevine’s salt tolerance in vines (Vitis vinifera) received salt water (NaCl 100 mM) through the modulation of gene expression of BAP (AHK4, AHP1) and salt-stress (CAT, APX) inducible genes and morpho-physiological traits. A subgroup of vines had previously (48 h) been primed with BAP (80 mg/L) before salt stress. The gene expressions were 30% (CAT) and 56% (APX) lower in primed salt-stressed vines than that in un-primed. Salt treatment did not increase leaf Na+ but it lowered stomatal conductance (g s), photosynthesis (A), stem water potential (less negative) and photosystem-II efficiency (F v/F m). Chlorophyll-a concentrations were 30% higher in BAP-primed compared to un-primed. Adverse effects of salt were significantly reduced, maintaining high A/g s, F v/F m and growth. After the relief of the stress, the BAP primed vines had a fast recovery

A late onset widespread skin rash in a previous Covid-19 infected patient. Viral or multidrug effect?

In the end of 2019, a series of pneumonia cases emerged in China, with clinical presentations greatly resembling viral pneumonia, caused by Covid-19 o SARS-CoV-2. Currently, several clinicians described an increasingly cases of coronavirus-positive patients reporting skin problems, either in early stage of infection or as late onset manifestation. Recently, Dr. Sebastiano Recalcati analyzed the cutaneous involvement in 148 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the Lecco Hospital, Lombardy, Italy

Black and pink. Single lesion or double diagnosis?

Fibroepithelioma of Pinkus (FeP) is an uncommon skin lesion considered to be a rare variant of basal cell carcinoma (BCC), even though some researchers have argued for its classifica- tion as a trichoblastoma. FeP appears frequently as a solitary, flesh-colored, well-demarcated plaque, typically localized on the lumbosacral area of patients aged 40 to 60 years. It often develops in patients with a history of BCC, most commonly in wome

Nature of Charge Carriers in a High Electron Mobility Naphthalenediimide Based Semiconducting Copolymer

The nature of charge carriers in recently developed high mobility semiconducting donor-acceptor polymers is debated. Here, localization due to charge relaxation is investigated in a prototypal system, a good electron transporting naphthalenediimide based copolymer, by means of current-voltage I-V electrical characteristics and charge modulation spectroscopy (CMS) in top-gate field-effect transistors (FETs), combined with density functional theory (DFT) and time dependent DFT (TDDFT) calculations. In particular, pristine copolymer films are compared with films that underwent a melt-annealing process, the latter leading to a drastic change of the microstructure. Despite the packing modification, which involves also the channel region, both the electron mobility and the energy of polaronic transitions are substantially unchanged upon melt-annealing. The polaron absorption features can be rationalized and reproduced by TDDFT calculations for isolated charged oligomers. Therefore, it is concluded that in such a high electron mobility copolymer the charge transport process involves polaronic species which are intramolecular in nature and, from a more general point of view, that interchain delocalization of the polaron is not necessary to sustain charge mobilities in the 0.1 to 1 cm2 V–1 s–1 range. These findings contribute to the rationalization of the charge transport process in the recently developed class of donor-acceptor π-conjugated copolymers featuring high charge mobilities and complex morphologies

Evaluation of the oncogenic risk of diffuse gastric polyposis. A case report

Benign polyps of the stomach undergo malignant transformation at a rate correlating to the histological type and size of the proliferative lesion. We report a case of a 50-year-old Caucasian woman, affected by a diffuse gastric polyposis of both hyperplastic and adenomatous type. At endoscopy polyps were more than 1,000, scattered over the entire gastric cavity. The patient underwent total gastrectomy. The perilesional gastric mucosa was characterized by the presence of either atrophic or metaplastic areas and by a mild dysplasia. A single tubulo-villous adenomatous polyp was also present in the ascending tract of the colon. The absence of both high-grade dysplastic lesions and outbreaks of neoplastic transformation well correlated with the histochemical and molecular features, confirming the highly proliferative pattern of the polyps in the lack of signs of malignant progression

The nucleolar protein nucleophosmin is physiologically secreted by endothelial cells in response to stress exerting proangiogenic activity both in vitro and in vivo

Nucleophosmin (NPM), a nucleolar multifunctional phosphoprotein, acts as a stress sensor in different cell types. NPM can be actively secreted by inflammatory cells, however its biology on endothelium remains unexplored. In this study, we show for the first time that NPM is secreted by human vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) in the early response to serum deprivation and that NPM acts as a pro-inflammatory and angiogenic molecule both in vitro and in vivo. Accordingly, 24 h of serum starvation condition induced NPM relocalization from the nucleus to cytoplasm. Interestingly, NPM was increasingly excreted in HUVEC-derived conditioned media in a time dependent fashion upon stress conditions up to 24 h. The secretion of NPM was unrelated to cell necrosis within 24 h. The treatment with exogenous and recombinant NPM (rNPM) enhanced migration as well as the Intercellular Adhesion Molecule 1 (ICAM-1) but not Vascular cell adhesion protein 1 (VCAM-1) expression and it did not affect cell proliferation. Notably, in vitro tube formation by Matrigel assay was significantly increased in HUVEC treated with rNPM compared to controls. This result was confirmed by the in vivo injection of Matrigel plug assay upon stimulation with rNPM, displaying significant enhanced number of functional capillaries in the plugs. The stimulation with rNPM in HUVEC was also associated to the increased expression of master genes regulating angiogenesis and migration, including Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-A (VEGF-A), Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF), Stromal derived factor-1 (SDF-1), Fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2), Platelet Derived Growth Factor-B (PDGF-B), and Matrix metallopeptidase 9 (MMP9). Our study demonstrates for the first time that NPM is physiologically secreted by somatic cells under stress condition and in the absence of cell necrosis. The analysis of the biological effects induced by NPM mainly related to a pro-angiogenic and inflammatory activity might suggest an important autocrine/paracrine role for NPM in the regulation of both phenomena

Shear wave elastography in varicocele patients. Prospective study to investigate correlation with semen parameters and histological findings

Aims: Shear wave elastosonography (SWE) is a non-invasive ultrasound imaging modality used to assess the mechanical properties of tissues such as rigidity and elasticity. In this prospective study, we investigated the effect of laparoscopic varicocelectomy on the elasticity, degree of fibrosis and function of the testes through SWE and we evaluated the correlation with semen parameters and histology findings. Methods: Male patients with monolateral left varicocele and a progressive alteration of the semen quality were enrolled prospectively. Patients were evaluated before varicocelectomy,3 and 6 months after surgery with semen analysis, ecocolordoppler US and SWE. In all patients a left testicular biopsy was performed at the time of varicocelectomy and it was repeated after 6 months in 55% of patients in order to investigate the histological findings and to correlate with SWE results. Results: The study was conducted on 82 patients. SWE showed a statistically significant difference between left and right testicles. Three months after surgery the mean left testicular volume increased, mean left SWE features decreased, and sperm count increased (p values < 0.0001). The SWE parameters, testicular volume and semen analysis values showed a statistically significant positive correlation between the pre and post-operative results (p value < 0.0001). The histological alterations were significantly changed 6 months postoperative with a complete morphology recovery in accordance with SWE results. Conclusions: SWE showed a statistically significant positive correlation with testicular volume, semen analysis, and histological findings. This study represents the first investigation that correlates the varicocele, the testis volume, the quality of the seminal fluid ant the histological findings with the ultrasound and SWE values