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Summary: Accurate pathological classification and grading of gliomas is crucial in clinical diagnosis and treatment. The application of deep learning techniques holds promise for automated histological pathology diagnosis. In this study, we collected 733 whole slide images from four medical centers, of which 456 were used for model training, 150 for internal validation, and 127 for multi-center testing. The study includes 5 types of common gliomas.A subtask-guided multi-instance learning image-to-label training pipeline was employed. The pipeline leveraged “patch prompting” for the model to converge with reasonable computational cost. Experiments showed that an overall accuracy of 0.79 in the internal validation dataset. The performance on the multi-center testing dataset showed an overall accuracy to 0.73. The findings suggest a minor yet acceptable performance decrease in multi-center data, demonstrating the model’s strong generalizability and establishing a robust foundation for future clinical applications.

Abstract Background Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in the regulation of plant responses to environmental stress by acting as essential regulators of gene expression. However, whether and how lncRNAs are involved in cold acclimation-dependent freezing tolerance in plants remains largely unknown. Medicago truncatula is a prominent model for studies of legume genomics, and distinguished by its cold-acclimation characteristics. To determine the roles of lncRNAs in plant cold stress response, we conducted genome-wide high-throughput sequencing in the legume model plant M. truncatula. Results RNA-seq data were generated from twelve samples for the four treatments, i.e., non-cold treated leaves and roots, cold-treated leaves and roots of M. truncatula Jemalong A17 seedlings. A total of 1204 million raw reads were generated. Of them, 1150 million filtered reads after quality control (QC) were subjected to downstream analysis. A large number of 24,368 unique lncRNAs were identified from the twelve samples. Among these lncRNAs, 983 and 1288 were responsive to cold treatment in the leaves and roots, respectively. We further found that the intronic-lncRNAs were most sensitive to the cold treatment. The cold-responsive lncRNAs were unevenly distributed across the eight chromosomes in M. truncatula seedlings with obvious preferences for locations. Further analyses revealed that the cold-responsive lncRNAs differed between leaves and roots. The putative target genes of the lncRNAs were predicted to mainly involve the processes of protein translation, transport, metabolism and nucleic acid transcription. Furthermore, the networks of a tandem array of CBF/DREB1 genes that were reported to be located in a major freezing tolerance QTL region on chromosome 6 and their related lncRNAs were dissected based on their gene expression and chromosome location. Conclusions We identified a comprehensive set of lncRNAs that were responsive to cold treatment in M. truncatula seedlings, and discovered tissue-specific cold-responsive lncRNAs in leaves and roots. We further dissected potential regulatory networks of CBF Intergenic RNA (MtCIR1) and MtCBFs that play critical roles in response and adaptation of M. truncatula to cold stress.

Color is an important trait of pearls which significantly affects their economic value. Golden seawater pearls with excellent luster are becoming popular among consumers, but golden freshwater pearls are rare. Hyriopsis cumingii is the most important freshwater mussel for pearl production in China and a selective breeding program has recently been developed to improve the yellowness and luster of the inner shell of H. cumingii for better production of golden freshwater pearls. As part of this breeding program, it has been necessary to evaluate the genetic parameters of the target traits and possible genotype-by-environment interactions. In this study, we investigated the effects of the environment on the genetic parameters of the inner shell color and luster of F1 golden strain H. cumingii, reared at two sites (Chongming and Wuyi). Inner shell color parameters and inner shell luster were recorded in 570 19-month-old individuals. Microsatellite-based DNA parentage analysis was used to assign the mussels to 19 maternal half-sib families, including 41 full-sib families. The results showed that the estimated heritability of the inner shell color parameters L*, a*, b* and dE were low, 0.13 ± 0.04, 0.14 ± 0.04, 0.12 ± 0.03 and 0.14 ± 0.05, respectively. The heritability of inner shell luster was medium (0.28 ± 0.07). The correlations between the genetic and phenotypic parameters for inner shell color and inner shell luster were insignificant at less than 0.8. Genetic correlations between the inner shell color parameters and inner shell luster in Chongming and Wuyi ranged from −0.07 ± 0.28 to −0.37 ± 0.24 and showed significant genotype-by-environment interaction. This study demonstrated that inner shell color parameters and inner shell luster could be improved by selective breeding. Environmental influences on genotype for inner shell color and inner shell luster should be taken into account in future selective breeding programs in golden strain H. cumingii.

This review presents some key issues in the mainland Chinese research on literary works of Chinese emigrants and authors of Chinese descent examining a series of recently published and representative papers. After a brief retrospection of the development of relative studies in the country, the author discusses the questions of denomination, methodology, and canon by juxtaposing opinions of various scholars. In the analysis a particular attention is given to the “Chineseness”, a concept sometimes mythicized by some essentialist discourses in the Chinese academia.

Precise control of the filamentation of an ultrashort and intense near-infrared laser pulse in air is crucial for many applications but remains challenging. By combining inverse design for shaping of a pulse at the output of a laser with simulation of the nonlinear propagation of the pulse in air, we numerically investigate the way to simultaneously control the length and position of a plasma filament at an arbitrary remote distance for the first time. An intermediate state, with a Bessel-Gauss beam profile, is introduced between the laser output and the filament. Through forward and backward propagations of the intermediate state, an end-to-end design of the initial laser pulse is achieved to match the desired filament characteristics. Our calculations show that a properly engineered torus pulse can project such a Bessel-Gauss beam at remote distance and generate a long plasma filament without requiring any feedback loop. We also proposed an experimental arrangement to project such an intermediate state and generate the corresponding filament remotely. The method can be further extended to other types of filaments or targets that may be reached from different intermediate states.

This article discusses the book by Zhang Gaoheng Migration and the Media. Debating Chinese Migration to Italy, 1992-2012, which focuses on the depiction in various media of Chinese migrants resided in Italy during the twenty years that witnessed the expansion of their ethnic economy, as well as conflicts and reconciliations between the locals and the new residents of the country.

The rise of global value chains (GVCs) characterized by the so-called "outsourcing", "fragmentation production", and "trade in tasks" has been considered one of the most important phenomena for the 21st century trade. GVCs also can play a decisive role in trade policy making. However, due to the increasing complexity and sophistication of international production networks, especially in the equipment manufacturing industry, conventional trade statistics and the corresponding trade indicators may give us a distorted picture of trade. This paper applies various network analysis tools to the new GVC accounting system proposed by Koopman et al. (2014) and Wang et al. (2013) in which gross exports can be decomposed into value-added terms through various routes along GVCs. This helps to divide the equipment manufacturing-related GVCs into some sub-networks with clear visualization. The empirical results of this paper significantly improve our understanding of the topology of equipment manufacturing-related GVCs as well as the interdependency of countries in these GVCs that is generally invisible from the traditional trade statistics.