Comparative 3-dimensional kinematic analysis of snatch technique between top-elite and sub-elite male weightlifters in 69-kg category

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the differences in technical characteristics between top-elite and sub-elite male weightlifters performing the snatch style in the 69-kg category. The obtained results can provide valuable information for lower level lifters and coaches to achieve better competition performance by altering their training methods accordingly. Methods: Six top-elite and six sub-elite weightlifters participated in this study. The heaviest successful snatch lift from the three attempts of each subject was analyzed. The video data were recorded under competition conditions at China National Weightlifting Championship and China Olympic Trial, which were analyzed by SIMI°Motion7.50 3D analysis system. Results: The results showed that the maximum vertical- and relative vertical height (normalized by athletes' height) of the barbell, the maximal vertical linear velocity and acceleration of the barbell were significantly greater in top- elite lifters (p < 0.05). In addition, the flexion angles of the knee joint were significantly greater in top-elite lifters during the first phase and the third phase of the snatch lift. Sub-elite lifters showed less flexion and significantly slower angular velocity in knee joint than top-elite lifters during the second phase of the snatch lift (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The findings of the present study demonstrated the differences in technical characteristics between the two levels. According to these findings, coaches of sub-elite lifters should focus on exercises suitable to the strength characteristics of the first and the third phase of the snatch lift. In addition, the flexor muscles of knee joint among the sub-elite lifters should be strengthened and the ability of generating and utilizing elastic energy during the second phase of the snatch lift should be improved

Expression of miR-126 and its potential function in coronary artery disease

Objective: This study aimed to explore the role of miR-126 in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients and the potential gene targets of miR-126 in atherosclerosis.Methodology: A total of 60 CAD patients and 25 healthy control subjects were recruited in this study. Among the 60 CAD patients, 18 cases were diagnosed of stable angina pectoris (SAP), 20 were diagnosed of unstable angina pectoris (UAP) and 22 were diagnosed of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Plasma miR-126 levels from both groups of participants were analyzed by real-time quantitative PCR. ELISA was used to measure plasma level of placenta growth factor (PLGF).Results: The results showed that the miR-126 expression was significantly down-regulated in the circulation of CAD patients compared with control subjects (P&lt;0.01). Plasma PLGF level was significantly upregulated in patients with unstable angina pectoris and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) compared with controls (both P&lt;0.01) the miR-126 expression in AMI was significantly associated with PLGF.Conclusion: miR-126 may serve as a novel biomarker for CAD.Keywords: miR-126; PLGF; PCR; coronary artery disease; atherosclerosi

Semantic segmentation of remote sensing imagery for road extraction via joint angle prediction: comparisons to deep learning

Accurate road network information is required to study and analyze the relationship between land usage type and land subsidence, and road extraction from remote sensing images is an important data source for updating road networks. This task has been considered a significant semantic segmentation problem, given the many road extraction methods developed for remote sensing images in recent years. Although impressive results have been achieved by classifying each pixel in the remote sensing image using a semantic segmentation network, traditional semantic segmentation methods often lack clear constraints of road features. Consequently, the geometric features of the results might deviate from actual roads, leading to issues like road fractures, rough edges, inconsistent road widths, and more, which hinder their effectiveness in road updates. This paper proposes a novel road semantic segmentation algorithm for remote sensing images based on the joint road angle prediction. By incorporating the angle prediction module and the angle feature fusion module, constraints are added to the angle features of the road. Through the angle prediction and angle feature fusion, the information contained in the remote sensing images can be better utilized. The experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms existing semantic segmentation methods in both quantitative evaluation and visual effects. Furthermore, the extracted roads were consecutive with distinct edges, making them more suitable for mapping road updates

Expression of miR-126 and its potential function in coronary artery disease.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the role of miR-126 in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients and the potential gene targets of miR-126 in atherosclerosis. Methodology: A total of 60 CAD patients and 25 healthy control subjects were recruited in this study. Among the 60 CAD patients, 18 cases were diagnosed of stable angina pectoris (SAP), 20 were diagnosed of unstable angina pectoris (UAP) and 22 were diagnosed of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Plasma miR-126 levels from both groups of participants were analyzed by real-time quantitative PCR. ELISA was used to measure plasma level of placenta growth factor (PLGF). Results: The results showed that the miR-126 expression was significantly down-regulated in the circulation of CAD patients compared with control subjects (P&lt;0.01). Plasma PLGF level was significantly upregulated in patients with unstable angina pectoris and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) compared with controls (both P&lt;0.01) the miR-126 expression in AMI was significantly associated with PLGF. Conclusion: miR-126 may serve as a novel biomarker for CAD

Integrated transcriptomic and metabolomic data reveal the cold stress responses molecular mechanisms of two coconut varieties

Among tropical fruit trees, coconut holds significant edible and economic importance. The natural growth of coconuts faces a challenge in the form of low temperatures, which is a crucial factor among adverse environmental stresses impacting their geographical distribution. Hence, it is essential to enhance our comprehension of the molecular mechanisms through which cold stress influences various coconut varieties. We employed analyses of leaf growth morphology and physiological traits to examine how coconuts respond to low temperatures over 2-hour, 8-hour, 2-day, and 7-day intervals. Additionally, we performed transcriptome and metabolome analyses to identify the molecular and physiological shifts in two coconut varieties displaying distinct sensitivities to the cold stress. As the length of cold stress extended, there was a prominent escalation within the soluble protein (SP), proline (Pro) concentrations, the activity of peroxidase (POD) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) in the leaves. Contrariwise, the activity of glutathione peroxidase (GSH) underwent a substantial reduction during this period. The widespread analysis of metabolome and transcriptome disclosed a nexus of genes and metabolites intricately cold stress were chiefly involved in pathways centered around amino acid, flavonoid, carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. We perceived several stress-responsive metabolites, such as flavonoids, carbohydrates, lipids, and amino acids, which unveiled considerably, lower in the genotype subtle to cold stress. Furthermore, we uncovered pivotal genes in the amino acid biosynthesis, antioxidant system and flavonoid biosynthesis pathway that presented down-regulation in coconut varieties sensitive to cold stress. This study broadly enriches our contemporary perception of the molecular machinery that contributes to altering levels of cold stress tolerance amid coconut genotypes. It also unlocks several unique prospects for exploration in the areas of breeding or engineering, aiming to identifying tolerant and/or sensitive coconut varieties encompassing multi-omics layers in response to cold stress conditions

Dynamics of NDVI and its influencing factors in the Chinese Loess Plateau during 2002–2018

Understanding the spatio-temporal changes of vegetation and its climatic control factors can provide an important theoretical basis for the protection and restoration of eco-environments. In this study, we analyzed the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) from 2002 to 2018 via trend analysis, stability analysis, and Mann-Kendall mutation test to investigate the change of vegetation. In addition, we also used the skewness analysis and correlation analysis to explore the contribution of climate change and human activities on regional vegetation changes. The results indicated that the overall increasing trend of NDVI from 2002 to 2018 was significant. The areas showing increased NDVI were mainly distributed in the southeastern CLP and the irrigation districts of the Yellow River to the north and west of the CLP, while the areas showing decreased NDVI were concentrated in the desert of the western Ordos Plateau, Longzhong Loess Plateau, and the built-up and adjacent areas. Precipitation was the dominant factor contributing to vegetation growth in the CLP, while vegetation was less dependent on precipitation in the irrigation districts. The increasement of NDVI has led to a prolonged response time of vegetation to water stress and a lag effect of less than two months in the CLP. The effect of temperature on NDVI was not significant; significant negative correlations between NDVI and temperature were found only in the desert, the Guanzhong Plain, the southern Liupan Mountains, and the southeastern Taihang Mountains, owing to high temperatures, urban heat islands, and large cloud cover in mountainous areas. Affected by the “Grain for Green Program” (GGP), NDVI in the CLP increased from 2002 to 2018; however, the increasing trends of NDVI for different vegetation cover types were significantly different owing to the difference in background status. The increasing contribution rate of NDVI in the CLP mainly came from crops and steppes. Urban not only led to the destruction of vegetation but also had radiation effect causing negative impact of NDVI around the cities. This resulted in the aggravation of the negative bias of NDVI with time in the CLP. The results provide a long-term perspective for regional vegetation protection and utilization in the CLP

Radar Emitter Signal Recognition Based on One-Dimensional Convolutional Neural Network with Attention Mechanism

As the real electromagnetic environment grows complex and the quantity of radar signals turns massive, traditional methods, which require a large amount of prior knowledge, are time-consuming and ineffective for radar emitter signal recognition. In recent years, convolutional neural network (CNN) has shown its superiority in recognition so that experts have applied it in radar signal recognition. However, in the field of radar emitter signal recognition, the data are usually one-dimensional (1-D), which takes more time and storage space than by using the original two-dimensional CNN model directly. Moreover, the features extracted from convolutional layers are redundant so that the recognition accuracy is low. In order to solve these problems, this paper proposes a novel one-dimensional convolutional neural network with an attention mechanism (CNN-1D-AM) to extract more discriminative features and recognize the radar emitter signals. In this method, features of the given 1-D signal sequences are extracted directly by the 1-D convolutional layers and are weighted in accordance with their importance to recognition by the attention unit. The experiments based on seven different radar emitter signals indicate that the proposed CNN-1D-AM has the advantages of high accuracy and superior performance in radar emitter signal recognition

Integrative Omics Analysis of Three Oil Palm Varieties Reveals (Tanzania &times; Ekona) TE as a Cold-Resistant Variety in Response to Low-Temperature Stress

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is an economically important tropical oil crop widely cultivated in tropical zones worldwide. Being a tropical crop, low-temperature stress adversely affects the oil palm. However, integrative leaf transcriptomic and proteomic analyses have not yet been conducted on an oil palm crop under cold stress. In this study, integrative omics transcriptomic and iTRAQ-based proteomic approaches were employed for three oil palm varieties, i.e., B &times; E (Bamenda &times; Ekona), O &times; G (E. oleifera &times; Elaeis guineensis), and T &times; E (Tanzania &times; Ekona), in response to low-temperature stress. In response to low-temperature stress at (8 &deg;C) for 5 days, a total of 5175 up- and 2941 downregulated DEGs in BE-0_VS_BE-5, and a total of 3468 up- and 2443 downregulated DEGs for OG-0_VS_OG-5, and 3667 up- and 2151 downregulated DEGs for TE-0_VS_TE-5 were identified. iTRAQ-based proteomic analysis showed 349 up- and 657 downregulated DEPs for BE-0_VS_BE-5, 372 up- and 264 downregulated DEPs for OG-0_VS_OG-5, and 500 up- and 321 downregulated DEPs for TE-0_VS_TE-5 compared to control samples treated at 28 &deg;C and 8 &deg;C, respectively. The KEGG pathway correlation of oil palm has shown that the metabolic synthesis and biosynthesis of secondary metabolites pathways were significantly enriched in the transcriptome and proteome of the oil palm varieties. The correlation expression pattern revealed that TE-0_VS_TE-5 is highly expressed and BE-0_VS_BE-5 is suppressed in both the transcriptome and proteome in response to low temperature. Furthermore, numerous transcription factors (TFs) were found that may regulate cold acclimation in three oil palm varieties at low temperatures. Moreover, this study identified proteins involved in stresses (abiotic, biotic, oxidative, and heat shock), photosynthesis, and respiration in iTRAQ-based proteomic analysis of three oil palm varieties. The increased abundance of stress-responsive proteins and decreased abundance of photosynthesis-related proteins suggest that the TE variety may become cold-resistant in response to low-temperature stress. This study may provide a basis for understanding the molecular mechanism for the adaptation of oil palm varieties in response to low-temperature stress in China

Comparative 3-dimensional kinematic analysis of snatch technique between top-elite and sub-elite male weightlifters in 69-kg category

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the differences in technical characteristics between top-elite and sub-elite male weightlifters performing the snatch style in the 69-kg category. The obtained results can provide valuable information for lower level lifters and coaches to achieve better competition performance by altering their training methods accordingly. Methods: Six top-elite and six sub-elite weightlifters participated in this study. The heaviest successful snatch lift from the three attempts of each subject was analyzed. The video data were recorded under competition conditions at China National Weightlifting Championship and China Olympic Trial, which were analyzed by SIMI°Motion7.50 3D analysis system. Results: The results showed that the maximum vertical- and relative vertical height (normalized by athletes' height) of the barbell, the maximal vertical linear velocity and acceleration of the barbell were significantly greater in top-elite lifters (p < 0.05). In addition, the flexion angles of the knee joint were significantly greater in top-elite lifters during the first phase and the third phase of the snatch lift. Sub-elite lifters showed less flexion and significantly slower angular velocity in knee joint than top-elite lifters during the second phase of the snatch lift (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The findings of the present study demonstrated the differences in technical characteristics between the two levels. According to these findings, coaches of sub-elite lifters should focus on exercises suitable to the strength characteristics of the first and the third phase of the snatch lift. In addition, the flexor muscles of knee joint among the sub-elite lifters should be strengthened and the ability of generating and utilizing elastic energy during the second phase of the snatch lift should be improved