The use of nitrification inhibitors has been suggested as a strategy to decrease cadmium(Cd)accumulation in crops.However,the most efficient nitrification inhibitor for mitigating crop Cd accumulation remains to be elucidated,and whether and how changes in soil microbial structure are involved in this process also remains unclear.To address these questions,this study applied three commercial nitrification inhibitors,namely,dicyandiamide(DCD),3,4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate(DMPP),and nitrapyrin(NP),to pakchoi.The results showed that both DCD and DMPP(but not NP)could efficiently decrease Cd concentrations in pakchoi in urea-and ammonium-fertilized soils.In addition,among the three tested nitrification inhibitors,DMPP was the most efficient in decreasing the Cd concentration in pakchoi.The nitrification inhibitors decreased pakchoi Cd concentrations by suppressing acidification-induced Cd availability and reshaping the soil microbial structure;the most effective nitrification inhibitor was DMPP.Ammonia oxidation generates the most protons during nitrification and is inhibited by nitrification inhibitors.Changes in environmental factors and predatory bacterial abundance caused by the nitrification inhibitors changed the soil microbial structure and increased the potential participants in plant Cd accumulation.In summary,our study identified DMPP as the most efficient nitrification inhibitor for mitigating crop Cd contamination and observed that the soil microbial structural changes caused by the nitrification inhibitors contributed to decreasing Cd concentration in pakchoi.

Objective:To construct an artificial intelligence-assisted diagnosis system to recognize the characteristics of Helicobacter pylori ( HP) infection under endoscopy, and evaluate its performance in real clinical cases. Methods:A total of 1 033 cases who underwent 13C-urea breath test and gastroscopy in the Digestive Endoscopy Center of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from January 2020 to March 2021 were collected retrospectively. Patients with positive results of 13C-urea breath test (which were defined as HP infertion) were assigned to the case group ( n=485), and those with negative results to the control group ( n=548). Gastroscopic images of various mucosal features indicating HP positive and negative, as well as the gastroscopic images of HP positive and negative cases were randomly assigned to the training set, validation set and test set with at 8∶1∶1. An artificial intelligence-assisted diagnosis system for identifying HP infection was developed based on convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory network (LSTM). In the system, CNN can identify and extract mucosal features of endoscopic images of each patient, generate feature vectors, and then LSTM receives feature vectors to comprehensively judge HP infection status. The diagnostic performance of the system was evaluated by sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Results:The diagnostic accuracy of this system for nodularity, atrophy, intestinal metaplasia, xanthoma, diffuse redness + spotty redness, mucosal swelling + enlarged fold + sticky mucus and HP negative features was 87.5% (14/16), 74.1% (83/112), 90.0% (45/50), 88.0% (22/25), 63.3% (38/60), 80.1% (238/297) and 85.7% (36 /42), respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and AUC of the system for predicting HP infection was 89.6% (43/48), 61.8% (34/55), 74.8% (77/103), and 0.757, respectively. The diagnostic accuracy of the system was equivalent to that of endoscopist in diagnosing HP infection under white light (74.8% VS 72.1%, χ2=0.246, P=0.620). Conclusion:The system developed in this study shows noteworthy ability in evaluating HP status, and can be used to assist endoscopists to diagnose HP infection.

Objective:To assess the diagnostic efficacy of upper gastrointestinal endoscopic image assisted diagnosis system (ENDOANGEL-LD) based on artificial intelligence (AI) for detecting gastric lesions and neoplastic lesions under white light endoscopy.Methods:The diagnostic efficacy of ENDOANGEL-LD was tested using image testing dataset and video testing dataset, respectively. The image testing dataset included 300 images of gastric neoplastic lesions, 505 images of non-neoplastic lesions and 990 images of normal stomach of 191 patients in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from June 2019 to September 2019. Video testing dataset was from 83 videos (38 gastric neoplastic lesions and 45 non-neoplastic lesions) of 78 patients in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from November 2020 to April 2021. The accuracy, the sensitivity and the specificity of ENDOANGEL-LD for image testing dataset were calculated. The accuracy, the sensitivity and the specificity of ENDOANGEL-LD in video testing dataset for gastric neoplastic lesions were compared with those of four senior endoscopists.Results:In the image testing dataset, the accuracy, the sensitivity, the specificity of ENDOANGEL-LD for gastric lesions were 93.9% (1 685/1 795), 98.0% (789/805) and 90.5% (896/990) respectively; while the accuracy, the sensitivity and the specificity of ENDOANGEL-LD for gastric neoplastic lesions were 88.7% (714/805), 91.0% (273/300) and 87.3% (441/505) respectively. In the video testing dataset, the sensitivity [100.0% (38/38) VS 85.5% (130/152), χ2=6.220, P=0.013] of ENDOANGEL-LD was higher than that of four senior endoscopists. The accuracy [81.9% (68/83) VS 72.0% (239/332), χ2=3.408, P=0.065] and the specificity [ 66.7% (30/45) VS 60.6% (109/180), χ2=0.569, P=0.451] of ENDOANGEL-LD were comparable with those of four senior endoscopists. Conclusion:The ENDOANGEL-LD can accurately detect gastric lesions and further diagnose neoplastic lesions to help endoscopists in clinical work.

Objective:To construct a real-time artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted endoscepic diagnosis system based on YOLO v3 algorithm, and to evaluate its ability of detecting focal gastric lesions in gastroscopy.Methods:A total of 5 488 white light gastroscopic images (2 733 images with gastric focal lesions and 2 755 images without gastric focal lesions) from June to November 2019 and videos of 92 cases (288 168 clear stomach frames) from May to June 2020 at the Digestive Endoscopy Center of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University were retrospectively collected for AI System test. A total of 3 997 prospective consecutive patients undergoing gastroscopy at the Digestive Endoscopy Center of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from July 6, 2020 to November 27, 2020 and May 6, 2021 to August 2, 2021 were enrolled to assess the clinical applicability of AI System. When AI System recognized an abnormal lesion, it marked the lesion with a blue box as a warning. The ability to identify focal gastric lesions and the frequency and causes of false positives and false negatives of AI System were statistically analyzed.Results:In the image test set, the accuracy, the sensitivity, the specificity, the positive predictive value and the negative predictive value of AI System were 92.3% (5 064/5 488), 95.0% (2 597/2 733), 89.5% (2 467/ 2 755), 90.0% (2 597/2 885) and 94.8% (2 467/2 603), respectively. In the video test set, the accuracy, the sensitivity, the specificity, the positive predictive value and the negative predictive value of AI System were 95.4% (274 792/288 168), 95.2% (109 727/115 287), 95.5% (165 065/172 881), 93.4% (109 727/117 543) and 96.7% (165 065/170 625), respectively. In clinical application, the detection rate of local gastric lesions by AI System was 93.0% (6 830/7 344). A total of 514 focal gastric lesions were missed by AI System. The main reasons were punctate erosions (48.8%, 251/514), diminutive xanthomas (22.8%, 117/514) and diminutive polyps (21.4%, 110/514). The mean number of false positives per gastroscopy was 2 (1, 4), most of which were due to normal mucosa folds (50.2%, 5 635/11 225), bubbles and mucus (35.0%, 3 928/11 225), and liquid deposited in the fundus (9.1%, 1 021/11 225).Conclusion:The application of AI System can increase the detection rate of focal gastric lesions.

Primary aldosteronism(PA) is a common cause of secondary hypertension, with adrenal vein sampling(AVS)being the gold standard for etiological typing diagnosis. This retrospective study analyzed data from patients diagnosed with PA who underwent AVS or unilateral adrenalectomy at Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital′s Endocrinology Department from July 2018 to August 2021. Using multivariate logistic regression analysis, factors associated with unilateral aldosterone hypersecretion were identified. Based on these factors, a predictive model for diagnosing unilateral primary aldosteronism(UPA)was established: age <40 years, plasma aldosterone concentration(PAC)>15 ng/dL, adrenal CT indicating an unilateral typical adenoma, and spontaneous hypokalemia. This predictive model could help 14% of PA patients avoid unnecessary AVS procedures.

Objective:To compare the cost-effectiveness before and after using an artificial intelligence gastroscopy-assisted system for early gastric cancer screening.Methods:The gastroscopy cases before (non-AI group) and after (AI group) the use of artificial intelligence gastroscopy-assisted system were retrospectively collected in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from January 1, 2017 to February 28, 2022. The proportion of early gastric cancer among all gastric cancer was analyzed. Costs were estimated based on the standards of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University and the 2021 edition of Wuhan Disease Diagnosis-related Group Payment Standards. Cost-effectiveness analysis was conducted per 100 thousand cases with and without the system. And the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was calculated.Results:For the non-AI group, the proportion of early gastric cancer among all gastric cancer was 28.81% (70/243). The cost of gastroscopy screening per 100 thousand was 54 598.0 thousand yuan, early gastric treatment cost was 221.8 thousand yuan, and a total cost was 54 819.8 thousand yuan. The direct effectiveness was 894.2 thousand yuan, the indirect effectiveness was 1 828.2 thousand yuan and the total effectiveness was 2 722.4 thousand yuan per 100 thousand cases. For the AI group, the early gastric cancer diagnositic rate was 36.56%(366/1 001), where gastroscopy cost was 53 440.0 thousand yuan, early gastric treatment cost 315.8 thousand yuan, the total cost 53 755.8 thousand yuan. The direct effectiveness was 1 273.5 thousand yuan, indirect effectiveness 2 603.1 thousand yuan and the total effectiveness 3 876.6 thousand yuan per 100 thousand cases. The use of the system reduced the cost of early gastric cancer screening by 1 064.0 thousand yuan, and increased the benefit by 1 154.2 thousand yuan per 100 thousand cases. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was -0.92.Conclusion:The use of artificial intelligence gastroscopy-assisted system for gastric early cancer screening can reduce medical costs as well as improve the efficiency of screening, and it is recommended for gastroscopy screening .

Objective:To explore the value of ultra-short echo time magnetization transfer (UTE-MT) techniques for quantitatively dynamic monitoring of anterior patellar tendon (patellar tendon, quadriceps tendon) changes in amateur marathon runners before and after competition.Methods:Between October 2020 and January 2021, 23 amateur marathoners in Zhuhai, aged 28-50 (40±6) years, were prospectively recruited. Three-dimensional UTE-MT and dual-echo UTE-T 2* sequence scans of bilateral knee joints were performed before, 48 hours and 4 weeks after the marathon running, respectively. Another 5 non-running volunteers were recruited for verification of sequence stability. UTE-magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) and UTE-T 2* value of the patellar tendon, quadriceps tendon, and 3 tendon-bone insertion points (patellar tendon-tibial insertion point, patellar tendon-patellar insertion point, and quadriceps tendon-patellar insertion point) were measured independently on sagittal images of the knee joint by 2 radiologists. The stability of the 2 serial measurements and consistency tests between the 2 radiologists were assessed with a two-way mixed intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to compare the differences in UTE-MTR and UTE-T 2* values of the prepatellar tendon before and after the marathon running. Results:Both UTE-MT and dual-echo UTE-T 2* sequence measurements had good stability, with ICC values of 0.98 and 0.92, respectively. Measurements of UTE-MTR and UTE-T 2* value of the patellar tendon, quadriceps tendon, and the 3 tendon-bone insertion points by the 2 radiologists were in good agreement (ICC>0.80). Forty-eight hours after the marathon running, the UTE-MTR of the patellar tendon, quadriceps tendon, and the 3 tendon-bone insertion points decreased, and UTE-MTR of the patellar tendon continued to decrease 4 weeks after the race, while UTE-MTR of other regions increased. Only the difference in UTE-MTR for the patellar tendon was statistically significant ( F=7.46, P=0.001) among pre-marathon (0.34±0.04), 48 h after the race (0.32±0.04), and 4 weeks after the race (0.31±0.04). UTE-T 2* value was mildly elevated in all regions at 48 h after the marathon running, but the differences among the three points were not statistically significant ( P>0.05). Conclusion:The UTE-MT has better reproducibility and inter-rater reliability. The UTE-MT can be used to monitor the dynamic changes of the prepatellar tendon before and after marathon exercise, where the UTE-MTR of the patellar tendon consistently decreases after marathon exercise.

Objective:To analyze the expression of circular RNA circ_0008274 in cetuximab-resistant colorectal cancer cells using bioinformatics technology and to explore its involvement in the development of cetuximab resistance.Methods:Five concentrations of cetuximab (10, 50, 100, 150, 200 nmol/L) were set. Cetuximab-resistant cells DiFi-R and Caco-2-R were screened out and established by concentration increasing method using colorectal cancer cells DiFi and Caco-2. The expression of circ_0008274 in DiFi-R and Caco-2-R cells was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR). The interaction and regulation between circ_0008274 and microRNA(miR)-140-3p were analyzed by double-luciferase reporter assay. The highly expressed gene SMARCC1 related to cetuximab resistance was determined by Western blotting. Circ_0008274 in DiFi-R and Caco-2-R cells were knocked out with small interfering RNA si-circ_0008274 transfection. After knock out, the differences in the colony formation and cell proliferation in DiFi-R and Caco-2-R cells were compared. MiR-140-3p mimic and blank control miR were transfected into DiFi-R and Caco-2-R cells. After transfection the difference in cell proliferation between transfected with miR-140-3p mimic and blank control miR in DiFi-R and Caco-2-R cells were analyzed. After Caco-2-R cell was knocked out with si-circ_0008274, the changes of SMARCC1 protein expression rescued by pcDNA3.1 SMARCC1 and cell viability were analyzed. The tumor specimens of 15 colorectal cancer patients hospitalized in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from March 2019 to August 2020 were included. According to the treatment effect, the patients were divided into sensitive group (11 cases) and drug-resistant group (4 cases). The relative expression levels of circ_0008274, downstream SMARCC1and miR-140-3p in colorectal cancer tissues in the two groups were detected by RT-PCR. Independent sample t test was used for statistical analysis. Results:The level of circ_0008274 in DiFi-R cells was 2.33±0.12 times of that of DiFi cells, while the level in Caco-2-R was (2.92±0.42) times of that of Caco-2 cells, and the differences were statistically significant ( t=19.97 and 7.80, both P<0.05). The results of double-luciferase reporter showed that after miR-140-3p mimic combined with wild-type circ_0008274, the relative fluorescence intensity was lower than before (0.28±0.04 vs. 1.00±0.00), and the difference was statistically significant ( t=-30.71, P=0.001). The expression of SMARCC1 protein in DiFi-R and Caco-2-R cells was significantly increased, the expression at protein level was higher than that of DiFi and Caco-2 cells (2.22±0.36 vs. 0.61±0.17, 0.85±0.11 vs. 0.35±0.08), and the differences were statistically significant ( t=6.23 and 6.32, both P<0.01). After circ_0008274 was knocked out, the numbers of colony formation of DiFi-R and Caco-2-R cells were both lower than those of before knockout (36.67±4.04 vs. 66.00±9.54, 17.35±4.04 vs. 52.33±8.02), the relative active cell ratios after interventing by 10, 50, 100, 150 and 200 nmol/L cetuximab were also lower than those of before knockout (DiFi-R cells: (73.75±2.75)% vs. (88.10±2.48)%, (56.50±6.66)% vs. (75.15±6.03)%, (35.75±5.32)% vs. (59.63±6.67)%, (24.25±3.30)% vs. (52.40±6.71)%, (6.25±2.75)% vs. (48.60±5.38)%; Caco-2-R cells: (63.74±5.25)% vs. (85.76±4.79)%, (56.50±4.20)% vs.(83.50±3.90)%, (46.00±2.94)% vs. (80.00±6.05)%, (35.30±5.56)% vs. (68.30±4.57)%, (12.25±7.37)% vs. (62.40±7.51)%), and the differences were statistically significant ( t=4.90, 6.71, -7.75, -4.16, -5.60, -7.53, -14.02, -6.19, -8.33, -10.10, -9.17 and -9.56, all P<0.01). After transfecting with miR-140-3p mimic, the relative active cell ratios of DiFi-R and Caco-2-R cells interventing by 10, 50, 100, 150 and 200 nmol/L cetuximab were both lower than those transfected with blank control miR (DiFi-R cells: (71.55±4.97)% vs. (85.90±2.66)%, (51.58±3.91)% vs. (74.95±6.35)%, (41.23±8.84)% vs. (58.43±7.05)%, (28.60±5.26)% vs. (53.75±5.65)%, (18.90±5.13)% vs. (51.30±3.30)%; Caco-2-R cells: (61.75±2.22)% vs. (90.10±1.41)%, (53.25±4.17)% vs. (86.18±2.69)%, (46.38±4.55)% vs. (77.75±6.70)%, (36.10±8.76)% vs. (70.15±4.18)%, (24.25±2.63)% vs. (65.10±7.62)%), and the differences were statistically significant ( t=-5.09, -6.47, -3.05, -6.28, -10.30, -21.48, -12.83, -8.01, -6.79 and -10.12, all P<0.01). After circ_0008274 was knocked out, the SMARCC1 protein level of Caco-2-R cells rescued by pcDNA3.1 SMARCC1 was higher than that of before rescue (0.63±0.19 vs. 0.09±0.03), and the relative active cell ratios after interventing by 10, 50, 100, 150 and 200 nmol/L cetuximab were also higher than that of before rescue ((93.10±3.56)% vs. (83.83±3.97)%, (83.28±4.26)% vs. (60.90±7.02)%, (61.83±2.12)% vs. (50.10±5.59)%, (53.20±3.74)% vs. (40.50±3.42)%, (46.20±4.08)% vs. (30.80±4.82)%), and the differences were statistically significant( t=3.55, 3.52, 5.44, 3.87, 4.64 and 4.88, all P<0.01). The relative expression levels of circ_0008274 and downstream SMARCC1 of colon cancer tissues in the drug-resistant group were higher than those in the sensitive group (6.45±1.32 vs. 2.26±1.39, 12.53±1.60 vs. 3.82±1.56), and the relative expression level of miR-140-3p was lower than that in the sensitive group (3.91±1.25 vs. 7.43±2.23), and the differences were statistically significant ( t=5.22, 9.51, -2.93, all P<0.01). Conclusions:Circular RNA circ_0008274 is highly expressed in colorectal cancer tissues and cetuximab resistant cells, interacts and inhibits miR-140-3p expression, up-regulates SMARCC1, and participates in the occurrence of cetuximab resistance. PcDNA3.1 SMARCC1 rescue can block the sensitization effect of si-circ_0008274 on cetuximab, and can significantly increase cetuximab resistance of colorectal cancer cells.

OBJECTIVE To establish the method for monitoring the dynamic changes of odor components in Cornus officinalis during processing . METHODS The decoction pieces of C. officinalis with different processing time were prepared by the wine steaming method . The dynamic changes of odor components were obtained by using ultra -fast gas electronic nose ；odor components were identified by comparing with AroChemBase database ；the dynamic changes of odor compounds were analyzed in combination with peak area ，and the chemical pattern recognition analysis were carried out . RESULTS A total of 12 common peaks of odor components were identified in the fingerprints of raw C. officinalis，and 21 in the fingerprints of decoction pieces of C. officinalis. Eight odor components with the high proportion of peak area during processing were ethanol ， isopropyl alcohol ， 2- methylpropylaldehyde，ethyl acetate ，2-methylbutanal，isoamyl alcohol ，2-hexanol and furfural ，among which ，the peak areas of ethanol，isoamyl alcohol and 2-hexanol showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing ；at 24 h of processing ，their peak areas were still higher than those of raw products . The peak areas of ethyl acetate ，2-methylbutanal and furfural nearly increased with the increase of processing time . Variable importance in projection of above eight odor components were all greater than 1. CONCLUSIONS The method is established for monitoring the dynamic changes of odor components of C. officinalis during processing. Eight odor components such as ethanol can be used as monitoring indicators of C. officinalis dring processing .

Focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) is one of the most common causes of drug-resistant epilepsy. Dysmorphic neurons are the major histopathological feature of type II FCD, but their role in seizure genesis in FCD is unclear. Here we performed whole-cell patch-clamp recording and morphological reconstruction of cortical principal neurons in postsurgical brain tissue from drug-resistant epilepsy patients. Quantitative analyses revealed distinct morphological and electrophysiological characteristics of the upper layer dysmorphic neurons in type II FCD, including an enlarged soma, aberrant dendritic arbors, increased current injection for rheobase action potential firing, and reduced action potential firing frequency. Intriguingly, the upper layer dysmorphic neurons received decreased glutamatergic and increased GABAergic synaptic inputs that were coupled with upregulation of the Na⁺-K⁺-Cl^- cotransporter. In addition, we found a depolarizing shift of the GABA reversal potential in the CamKII-cre::PTEN^flox/flox mouse model of drug-resistant epilepsy, suggesting that enhanced GABAergic inputs might depolarize dysmorphic neurons. Thus, imbalance of synaptic excitation and inhibition of dysmorphic neurons may contribute to seizure genesis in type II FCD.
Animals ; Drug Resistant Epilepsy/surgery* ; Epilepsy/pathology* ; Malformations of Cortical Development/pathology* ; Malformations of Cortical Development, Group I ; Mice ; Neurons/pathology* ; Seizures/pathology*