Impacts of Drought on Maize and Soybean Production in Northeast China During the Past Five Decades.

Climate change has a distinct impact on agriculture in China, particularly in the northeast, a key agriculture area sensitive to extreme hydroclimate events. Using monthly climate and agriculture data, the influence of drought on maize and soybean yields-two of the main crops in the region-in northeast China since 1961 to 2017 were investigated. The results showed that the temperature in the growing season increased by 1.0 °C from the period 1998-2017 to the period 1961-1980, while the annual precipitation decreased slightly. However, precipitation trends varied throughout the growing season (May-September), increasing slightly in May and June, but decreasing in July, August and September, associated with the weakening of the East Asian summer monsoon. Consequently, the annual and growing season drought frequency increased by 15%, and 25%, respectively, in the period 1998-2017 relative to the period 1961-1980. The highest drought frequency (55%) was observed in September. At the same time, the drought intensity during the growing season increased by 7.8%. The increasing frequency and intensity of drought had negative influences on the two crops. During moderate drought years in the period 1961-2017, 3.2% and 10.4% of the provincial maize and soybean yields were lost, respectively. However, during more severe drought years, losses doubled for soybean (21.8%), but increased more than four-fold for maize (14.0%). Moreover, in comparison to the period 1961-1980, a higher proportion of the yields were lost in the period 1998-2017, particularly for maize, which increased by 15% (increase for soybean was 2.4%). This change largely depends on increasing droughts in August and September, when both crops are in their filling stages. The impact of drought on maize and soybean production was different during different growth stages, where a strong relationship was noted between drought and yield loss of soybean in its filling stage. Given the sensitivity of maize and soybean yields in northeast China to drought, and the observed production trends, climate change will likely have significant negative impacts on productivity in the future

Dysregulation of sphingolipid metabolism in pain

Pain is a clinical condition that is currently of great concern and is often caused by tissue or nerve damage or occurs as a concomitant symptom of a variety of diseases such as cancer. Severe pain seriously affects the functional status of the body. However, existing pain management programs are not fully satisfactory. Therefore, there is a need to delve deeper into the pathological mechanisms underlying pain generation and to find new targets for drug therapy. Sphingolipids (SLs), as a major component of the bilayer structure of eukaryotic cell membranes, also have powerful signal transduction functions. Sphingolipids are abundant, and their intracellular metabolism constitutes a huge network. Sphingolipids and their various metabolites play significant roles in cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, etc., and have powerful biological activities. The molecules related to sphingolipid metabolism, mainly the core molecule ceramide and the downstream metabolism molecule sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), are involved in the specific mechanisms of neurological disorders as well as the onset and progression of various types of pain, and are closely related to a variety of pain-related diseases. Therefore, sphingolipid metabolism can be the focus of research on pain regulation and provide new drug targets and ideas for pain

Identify optimal HAP series scores for unresectable HCC patients undergoing TACE plus sorafenib: A Chinese multicenter observational study

BackgroundHepatoma arterial-embolization prognostic (HAP) series scores have been proposed for prognostic prediction in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (uHCC) undergoing transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). However, their prognostic value in TACE plus sorafenib (TACE-S) remains unknown. Here, we aim to evaluate their prognostic performance in such conditions and identify the best model for this combination therapy.MethodsBetween January 2012 and December 2018, consecutive patients with uHCC receiving TACE-S were recruited from 15 tertiary hospitals in China. Cox regression analyses were used to investigate the prognostic values of baseline factors and every scoring system. Their prognostic performance and discriminatory performance were evaluated and confirmed in subgroup analyses.ResultsA total of 404 patients were enrolled. In the whole cohort, the median follow-up period was 44.2 (interquartile range (IQR), 33.2–60.7) months, the median overall survival (OS) time was 13.2 months, and 336 (83.2%) patients died at the end of the follow-up period. According to multivariate analyses, HAP series scores were independent prognostic indicators of OS. In addition, the C-index, Akaike information criterion (AIC) values, and time-dependent area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) indicated that modified HAP (mHAP)-III had the best predictive performance. Furthermore, the results remained consistent in most subsets of patients.ConclusionHAP series scores exhibited good predictive ability in uHCC patients accepting TACE-S, and the mHAP-III score was found to be superior to the other HAP series scores in predicting OS. Future prospective high-quality studies should be conducted to confirm our results and help with treatment decision-making

Potential candidates for liver resection in liver-confined advanced HCC: a Chinese multicenter observational study

BackgroundAdvanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is characterized as symptomatic tumors [performance status (PS) score of 1-2], vascular invasion and extrahepatic spread, but patients with PS1 alone may be eliminated from this stage. Although liver resection is used for liver-confined HCC, its role in patients with PS1 alone remains controversial. Therefore, we aimed to explore its application in such patients and identify potential candidates.MethodsEligible liver-confined HCC patients undergoing liver resection were retrospectively screened in 15 Chinese tertiary hospitals, with limited tumor burden, liver function and PS scores. Cox-regression survival analysis was used to investigate the prognostic factors and develop a risk-scoring system, according to which patients were substratified using fitting curves and the predictive values of PS were explored in each stratification.ResultsFrom January 2010 to October 2021, 1535 consecutive patients were selected. In the whole cohort, PS, AFP, tumor size and albumin were correlated with survival (adjusted P<0.05), based on which risk scores of every patient were calculated and ranged from 0 to 18. Fitting curve analysis demonstrated that the prognostic abilities of PS varied with risk scores and that the patients should be divided into three risk stratifications. Importantly, in the low-risk stratification, PS lost its prognostic value, and patients with PS1 alone achieved a satisfactory 5-year survival rate of 78.0%, which was comparable with that PS0 patients (84.6%).ConclusionSelected patients with PS1 alone and an ideal baseline condition may benefit from liver resection and may migrate forward to BCLC stage A

Effects of Pattern Complexity on Information Integration: Evidence from Eye Movements

The present study employed empty cell localization paradigm and eye-tracking method to investigate the effects of memorized stimuli complexity on information integration between in visual short-term memory (VSTM) and visual perception. Two arrays of dots were displayed in sequence within a grid. Between the two arrays, one cell was always empty, and the participants’ task was to specify the location of this “missing dot” It was found that the accuracy decreased as dot pattern of array 1 increased in complexity, especially under long ISI condition. The analysis of eye movement behavior, especially fixation location, demonstrated that participants were more likely to try to remember the location of the empty cells of array 1 other than locations of dots. From aspect of eye movement, these results offered the first evidence supporting convert-and-compare hypothesis

Modulation of the object/background interaction by spatial frequency

With regard to the relationship between object and background perception in the natural scene images, functional isolation hypothesis and interactive hypothesis were proposed. Based on previous studies, the present study investigated the role of spatial frequency in the relationship between object and background perception in the natural scene images. In three experiments, participants reported the object, background, or both after seeing each picture for 500 ms followed by a mask. The authors found that (a) backgrounds were identified more accurately when they contained a consistent rather than an inconsistent object, independently of spatial frequency; (b) objects were identified more accurately in a consistent than an inconsistent background under the condition of low spatial frequencies but not high spatial frequencies; (c) spatial frequency modulation remained when both objects and backgrounds were reported simultaneously. The authors conclude that object/background interaction is partially dependent on spatial frequency

Retinal Image Denoising via Bilateral Filter with a Spatial Kernel of Optimally Oriented Line Spread Function

Filtering belongs to the most fundamental operations of retinal image processing and for which the value of the filtered image at a given location is a function of the values in a local window centered at this location. However, preserving thin retinal vessels during the filtering process is challenging due to vessels’ small area and weak contrast compared to background, caused by the limited resolution of imaging and less blood flow in the vessel. In this paper, we present a novel retinal image denoising approach which is able to preserve the details of retinal vessels while effectively eliminating image noise. Specifically, our approach is carried out by determining an optimal spatial kernel for the bilateral filter, which is represented by a line spread function with an orientation and scale adjusted adaptively to the local vessel structure. Moreover, this approach can also be served as a preprocessing tool for improving the accuracy of the vessel detection technique. Experimental results show the superiority of our approach over state-of-the-art image denoising techniques such as the bilateral filter

Information Representation and Mechanism in the Integration of Sequential Arrays: Evidences from Eye Movements

Were sequential visual arrays represented as separate representations or as a combine representation in the visual short-term memory (VSTM) and whether the information of individual object in the first array could be represented in the VSTM? We investigated these two questions by manipulatingtopological property of objects in the first array and tracking the participants' eye movement when subjects were required to perform empty cell localization task. The results showed that during integration of sequential arrays, the participants paid more attention to the empty cell locations in the first array, which supporting convert-and-compare hypothesis. The results also showed that the variation of the topological property of objects in the first array would impact on eye movement behavior, though this effect could only be observed in complex pattern condition. This suggested that topological property of objects in the first array would be represented in the VSTM to some extent