To explore the feasibility of using UAV-LiDAR for measuring the leaf area index (LAI) of crop canopies, we employed UAV-LiDAR to scan sugarcane canopies during the tillering and elongation stages, acquiring canopy point cloud data. Subsequently, features such as average row height, projected row area, point cloud density at different canopy layers, and the ratios between these parameters were extracted. Three feature selection methods-partial least squares regression (PLSR), XGBoost feature importance (XGBoost-FI), and random forest-recursive feature elimination (RF-RFE)-were adopted to evaluate and identify the optimal input variables for modeling. With these selected variables, LAI inversion models were developed based on random forest (RF) and adaptive boosting (AdaBoost) algorithms, and their performance was assessed. Among the extracted features, the projected row area S_p and the total row point count C_total exhibited strong correlations with LAI, with correlation coefficients of 0.73 and 0.72, respectively. The AdaBoost-based LAI inversion model, using the projected row area S_p, average height H_avg, mid-layer point cloud density C_m, and total row point count C_total as input variables, achieved the best performance, with a coefficient of determination (R_v²) of 0.713 and a root mean square error (RMSE_v) of 0.25 on the validation set. This study provides an effective method for high-throughput acquisition of LAI in field crops, offering valuable scientific support for sugarcane field management and breeding efforts.
Plant Leaves/growth & development* ; Saccharum/growth & development* ; Algorithms ; Unmanned Aerial Devices ; Remote Sensing Technology/methods* ; Crops, Agricultural/growth & development*

Objective To observe the clinical efficacy of Feisu Granules,and its effects on quality of life,coagulation and immune function in acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(AECOPD)with syndrome of phlegm-heat and blood stasis of lung.Methods Totally 120 AECOPD patients were divided into observation group and control group according to random number table method,with 60 cases in each group.The control group was given conventional Western medicine treatment,and the observation group received Feisu Granules treatment on the basis of the control group,one bag each time,three times a day,orally.The treatment for both groups lasted for 7 d.The clinical efficacy of both groups were observed.TCM symptom scores,St.George's respiratory questionnaire(SGRQ)score,coagulation function indexes(fibrinogen,D-dimer),and immune function indexes(CD4+,CD8+,CD4+/CD8+)of both groups were compared.The side effects were observed.Results The total effective rate in the observation group(93.10%)was significantly higher than that of the control group(79.66%),with statistical significance(P<0.05).Compared with before treatment,TCM symptom scores,scores of cough,wheezing,venous congestion,and SGRQ score decreased in both groups after treatment(P<0.05);after treatment,the observation group had lower above scores than the control group(P<0.05).Compared with before treatment,both groups showed a decrease in plasma fibrinogen and D-dimer levels after treatment(P<0.05);after treatment,the observation group showed lower levels of plasma fibrinogen and D-dimer compared with the control group(P<0.05).Compared with before treatment,the peripheral blood CD4+ and CD4+/CD8+ levels in both groups significantly increased after treatment,while CD8+ levels significantly decreased(P<0.05);after treatment,the peripheral blood CD4+ and CD4+/CD8+ in the observation group were higher than those in the control group,while CD8+ was lower than those in the control group(P<0.05).Neither group had any drug-related side effects.Conclusion On the basis of conventional Western medicine,the combination of Feisu Granules in the treatment of AECOPD with syndrome of phlegm-heat and blood stasis of lung can significantly improve clinical efficacy,improve patient quality of life,facilitate coagulation function recovery,and enhance cellular immune function.

Objective:To study the protective effects and mechanism of Melastoma sanguineum Sims fruit extract (MSE) on chronic chemical liver injury induced by ethanol, acetaminophen and carbon tetrachloride in mice; To discuss it mechanism.Methods:Totally 96 mice were divided into normal control group, ethanol model group, ethanol+bifendate control group and ethanol+MSE high-, medium- and low-dosage groups, APAP model group, APAP+bifendate control group and APAP+MSE high-, medium- and low-dosage groups, CCl 4 model group, CCl 4+bifendate control group and CCl 4+MSE high-, medium- and low-dosage groups, with 6 mice in each group. Except for the normal control group, the other groups were respectively prepared for the ethanol model, the APAP model and the CCl 4 model. The mice in the MSE high-, medium- and low-dosage groups were intragastrically administrated with 10, 5 and 2.5 g/kg of MSE, respectively; the bifendate control group was intraperitoneally injected with 15 mg/ml bifendate solution at 75 mg/kg; the normal control group was intraperitoneally injected with equal volume of normal saline/peanut oil solution once a day for 25 consecutive days. The levels of GPT, GOT and total bilirubin (TBIL) in serum were detected; the activities of SOD and GSH-Px and the content of MDA in liver tissue were detected; the mRNA expressions of TNF-α, IL-6, alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) were detected by qRT-PCR; the protein expressions of cytochrome P450 CYP1A1, CYP1A2, and CYP3A in liver tissue were detected by Western blot; the pathological changes of the liver tissue were observed by HE staining. Results:Compared with the corresponding ethanol, APAP and CCl 4 model groups, the serum GPT, GOT and TBIL levels of mice in the ethanol+bifendate control group and ethanol+MSE high- and medium-dosage groups, the APAP+bifendate control group and APAP+MSE high- and medium-dosage groups, and the CCl 4+bifendate control group and CCl 4+MSE high- and medium-dosage groups decreased ( P<0.01 or P<0.05), the activities of SOD and GSH-Px in the liver tissue increased ( P<0.01 or P<0.05), and the MDA level decreased ( P<0.01 or P<0.05), and the mRNA levels of IL-6 and TNF-α decreased ( P<0.01); the mRNA levels of ADH and ALDH in the ethanol+MSE high-, medium-, and low-dosage groups decreased ( P<0.01). Compared with the APAP model group, the expressions of CYP1A1 and CYP1A2 in the APAP+MSE groups increased ( P<0.01), and the expression of CYP3A protein decreased ( P<0.05); compared with the CCl 4 model group, the expressions of CYP1A1, CYP1A2 and CYP3A proteins in the CCl 4+MSE groups decreased ( P<0.05). Conclusion:MSE has a protective effect on chronic chemically-induced liver injury induced by ethanol, APAP, and CCl 4 in mice, and its mechanism may be related to antioxidant stress, inhibition of inflammatory response, and regulation of the expression of cytochrome P450-related enzymes.

Objective:To evaluate the early assessment of hepatocardiac integration based on ultrasonic elasticity and blood flow vector imaging (VFM) technology, in conjunction with unsupervised cluster analysis and supervised machine learning methods.Methods:An observational research design without any intervention was adopted from December 2021 to September 2022, 45 patients with liver cirrhosis, 43 patients with liver fibrosis, and 42 healthy volunteers were selected from the First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University. Liver combined elasticity technology and VFM technology were used to obtain information on the liver and heart of the subjects, respectively. The acquired data were standardized, and then clustered using topological data analysis (TDA) technology on the processed data. Subsequently, the clustering results were evaluated based on statistical analysis, and finally, supervised multi-classification tasks were realized through machine learning methods.Results:Patients were stratified into five distinct groups based on a network of patient similarities. The average characteristics of each group were as follows: Group 1 exhibited the most severe hepatocardiac conditions relative to the other groups. Groups 2 and 3 displayed moderately severe conditions.In contrast, Group 4 comprised entirely of healthy controls, all of whom presented with normal hepatocardiac function. Group 5 presented a unique case among the categories.Participants in this group showed poor liver conditions. However, according to the guidelines for cardiac diastolic function assessment, their heart function was generally unremarkable, with only a minority of indicators deviating significantly. Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest Tree (RFT), and Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) were employed for multi-classification tasks on the test dataset. The average accuracies achieved by these models were 70%, 81%, and 84%, respectively.Conclusions:By combining liver combined ultrasonic elasticity, cardiac VFM technology and TDA technology to construct a patient similarity network, we successfully identified patients with liver fibrosis who did not show abnormalities in conventional cardiac indicators but may have potential abnormal cardiac function, which has important implications for guiding the selection of clinical intervention measures, and optimizing patient management stratification.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the disease burden of prostate cancer (PC) and assess key influencing factors associated with the disease expenditures of PC in the United States. METHODS: The total deaths, incidence, prevalence, and disability-adjusted life-years of PC were obtained from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey was used to estimate healthcare expenditures and productivity loss and to investigate patterns of payment and use of healthcare resources in the United States. A multivariable logistic regression model was conducted to identify key factors influencing expenditures. RESULTS: For patients aged 50 and older, the burden for all age groups showed a modest increase over the 6-year period. Annual medical expenditures were estimated to range from US$24.8 billion to US$39.2 billion from 2014 to 2019. The annual loss in productivity for patients was approximately US$1,200. The top 3 major components of medical costs were hospital inpatient stays, prescription medicines, and office-based visits. Medicare was the largest source of payments for survivors. In terms of drug consumption, genitourinary tract agents (57.0%) and antineoplastics (18.6%) were the main therapeutic drugs. High medical expenditures were positively associated with age (p=0.005), having private health insurance (p=0.016), more comorbidities, not currently smoking (p=0.001), and patient self-perception of fair/poor health status (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS From 2014 to 2019, the national real-world data of PC revealed that the disease burden in the United States continued to increase, which was partly related to patient characteristics.

Perinatal loss is one of the most serious childbirth trauma,which seriously affects maternal physical and mental health.At present,the management strategy of maternal lactation can be divided into two aspects:milk return and milk donation.Breast milk donation may build new values of perinatal loss,which can promote maternal physical and mental recovery.This article reviewed the conception,status,motivations,facilitators,barriers and interventions of lactation management in women following perinatal loss,so as to provide bases for improving the awareness of obstetric nursing staff,quality of obstetric care and future research on lactation management in women following perinatal loss in China.

Humans ; Asthma/drug therapy* ; Biological Therapy

Objective:To develop a specialized clival-cervical plate fixation (CCPF) for anterior surgery to treat craniovertebral instability, and to compare it with a posterior occipitocervical fixation (POCF) in biomechanical validation.Methods:Based on the measurement of 40 adult dry bones and 30 volunteers CT images, the clival-cervical plate was designed and manufactured. 8 cadaveric specimens (occiput-C 3) were tested in five conditions including the intact status, the intact+CCPF status, the injury status, the injury+CCPF status, and the injury+POCF status. Specimens were applied a pure moment of 1.5 N·m in flexion, extension, lateral bending, and axial rotation. Calculating and comparing the range of motion (ROM) and neutral zone (NZ) for the occiput to C 2. The effects of different fixation methods on the distribution of ROMs at the occipitocervical region were compared. Results:The injury+CCPF status constrained ROMs to 1.7° in flexion ( q=4.68, P=0.055) , 1.2° in extension ( q=0.39, P=0.9922) , 2.8° in lateral bending ( q=1.25, P=0.814) , and 4.3° in axial rotation ( q=5.08, P=0.035) , resulted in larger ROM in axial rotation but similar ROMs in other directions ( P>0.05) when compared with the injury+POCF status. There were no significant differences between the above two fixation methods in flexion-extension ( q=1.94, P=0.554) , lateral bending ( q=1.79, P=0.611) and axial rotation ( q=2.14, P=0.478) for the NZs. For the flexion, extension,lateral bendingand axial rotation direction, the proportion of the C 1, 2 ROM to the overall ROM was 28%, 25%, 34% and 56% respectively in the injury+CCPF status, and it was 59%, 53%, 42% and 71% respectively in the injury+POCF status. Conclusion:CCPF is a biomechanically effective alternative or supplemental method of POCF for the craniocervical instability.

Objective:To analyze the competence assessment examinations of registered dietitians in China during 2017-2021 to inform the training of dietetic professionals.Methods:A systematic review was conducted about the composition and changing trends of examination participants during 2017-2021. Participants were divided into subgroups based on gender, age, education, professional background and affiliations and the qualification rate was compared across different subgroups.Results:The number of examination participants showed an increasing trend overall, with the majority being females and aged 26-35 years. The ratio of participants with bachelor's: master's: doctor's degree was about 15: 9: 1. The proportion of participants majoring in nutrition science decreased from 32.1% to 20.3%, while that of participants majoring in other medical and food sciences increased. Among participants from healthcare institutions, a decreasing proportion of participants were with a major in nutrition science, while this proportion among participants from companies were stable at 38.8% to 50.2%. The average qualification rate was 35.7%, showing no significant differences among different gender and age groups. But the qualification rate varied significantly across subgroups with different education level, professional background, and affiliations ( P < 0.05). Subgroups with more advanced degrees showed higher qualification rate and the best rate was observed in the subgroups with professional background in nutrition science and from nutrition-related institutions. Conclusion:The training of dietetic professionals in China should be improved, lifelong learning should be promoted in nutrition practitioners, and the sustainable development of dietitians should be impelled.

Background: In suckling piglets, transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) causes lethal diarrhea accompanied by high infection and mortality rates, leading to considerable economic losses. This study explored methods of preventing or inhibiting their production.Bovine antimicrobial peptide-13 (APB-13) has antibacterial, antiviral, and immune functions. Objectives: This study analyzed the efficacy of APB-13 against TGEV through in vivo and in vitro experiments. Methods: The effects of APB-13 toxicity and virus inhibition rate on swine testicular (ST) cells were detected using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT). The impact of APB-13 on virus replication was examined through the 50% tissue culture infective dose (TCID50 ). The mRNA and protein levels were investigated by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot (WB). Tissue sections were used to detect intestinal morphological development. Results: The safe and effective concentration range of APB-13 on ST cells ranged from 0 to 62.5 µg/mL, and the highest viral inhibitory rate of APB-13 was 74.1%. The log10 TCID50 of 62.5 µg/mL APB-13 was 3.63 lower than that of the virus control. The mRNA and protein expression at 62.5 µg/mL APB-13 was significantly lower than that of the virus control at 24 hpi. Piglets in the APB-13 group showed significantly lower viral shedding than that in the virus control group, and the pathological tissue sections of the jejunum morphology revealed significant differences between the groups. Conclusions APB-13 exhibited good antiviral effects on TGEV invivo and in vitro.