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This study aimed to identify whether gyrate atrophy of the choroid and retina (GACR) heterozygous individuals have possible clinical manifestations and to explore the potential pathogenic mechanism. In this retrospective study, we surveyed a two-generation pedigree of an individual diagnosed with GACR. Two family members underwent ophthalmological, hematologic, and genetic tests. An arginine-restricted diet with vitamin B6 supplementation was implemented; clinical assessments were repeated every 3 months during follow-up. The relative OAT mRNA expression was determined using a real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The 19-year-old compound heterozygous daughter (OAT: c.1186C>T; c.748C>T) had bilateral pathologic myopia, posterior staphyloma, chorioretinal atrophy, macular abnormalities, and elevated hematologic ornithine. The 54-year-old heterozygous mother (OAT: c.1186C>T) presented with bilateral pathologic myopia, asymmetric posterior staphyloma, retina and choroidal capillary layer atrophy, retinal pigment epithelium abnormalities, and mildly elevated hematologic ornithine. Compared to normal individuals, the daughter and mother had 29% and 46% relative OAT mRNA expression, respectively (p < 0.001). We believe that this is the first report of a carrier of one OAT variant allele exhibiting a mild phenotype, suggesting that family members should be aware of the possibility of clinical involvement in carriers with some autosomal recessive conditions. Additional data suggest that nonsense-mediated, decay-initiated mRNA degradation may cause GACR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vaccination is a public health cornerstone that protects against numerous infectious diseases. Despite its benefits, immunization implications on ocular health warrant thorough investigation, particularly in the context of vaccine-induced ocular inflammation. This review aimed to elucidate the complex interplay between vaccination and the eye, focusing on the molecular and immunological pathways implicated in vaccine-associated ocular adverse effects. Through an in-depth analysis of recent advancements and the existing literature, we explored various mechanisms of vaccine-induced ocular inflammation, such as direct infection by live attenuated vaccines, immune complex formation, adjuvant-induced autoimmunity, molecular mimicry, hypersensitivity reactions, PEG-induced allergic reactions, Type 1 IFN activation, free extracellular RNA, and specific components. We further examined the specific ocular conditions associated with vaccination, such as uveitis, optic neuritis, and retinitis, and discussed the potential impact of novel vaccines, including those against SARS-CoV-2. This review sheds light on the intricate relationships between vaccination, the immune system, and ocular tissues, offering insights into informed discussions and future research directions aimed at optimizing vaccine safety and ophthalmological care. Our analysis underscores the importance of vigilance and further research to understand and mitigate the ocular side effects of vaccines, thereby ensuring the continued success of vaccination programs, while preserving ocular health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four undescribed sesquiterpenoids, lemneolemnanes A–D (1–4), have been isolated from the marine soft coral Lemnalia sp. The absolute configurations of the stereogenic carbons of 1–4 were determined by single-crystal X-ray crystallographic analysis. Compounds 1 and 2 are epimers at C-3 and have an unusual skeleton with a formyl group on C-6. Compound 3 possesses an uncommonly rearranged carbon skeleton, while 4 has a 6/5/5 tricyclic system. Compound 1 showed significant anti-Alzheimer's disease (AD) activity in a humanized Caenorhabditis elegans AD pathological model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1), a virus that affects 5–10 million people globally, causes several diseases, including adult T-cell leukemia-lymphoma and HTLV-1-associated uveitis (HU). HU is prevalent in Japan and often leads to secondary glaucoma, which is a serious complication. We investigated the efficacy of ripasudil, a Rho-associated coiled coil-forming protein kinase inhibitor, in alleviating changes in human trabecular meshwork cells (hTM cells) infected with HTLV-1. HTLV-1-infected hTM cells were modeled in vitro using MT-2 cells, followed by treatment with varying concentrations of ripasudil. We assessed changes in cell morphology, viability, and inflammatory cytokine levels, as well as NF-κB activation. The results showed that ripasudil treatment changed the cell morphology, reduced the distribution of F-actin and fibronectin, and decreased the levels of certain inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, and IL-12. However, ripasudil did not significantly affect NF-κB activation or overall cell viability. These findings suggest that ripasudil has the potential to treat secondary glaucoma in patients with HU by modulating cytoskeletal organization and alleviating inflammation in HTLV-1-infected hTM cells. This study lays the foundation for further clinical studies exploring the effectiveness of ripasudil for the treatment of secondary glaucoma associated with HU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interior problem, a persistent ill-posed challenge in CT imaging, gives rise to truncation artifacts capable of distorting CT values, thereby significantly impacting clinical diagnoses. Traditional methods have long struggled to effectively solve this issue until the advent of supervised models built on deep neural networks. However, supervised models are constrained by the need for paired data, limiting their practical application. Therefore, we propose a simple and efficient unsupervised method based on the Cycle-GAN framework. Introducing an implicit disentanglement strategy, we aim to separate truncation artifacts from content information. The separated artifact features serve as complementary constraints and the source of generating simulated paired data to enhance the training of the sub-network dedicated to removing truncation artifacts. Additionally, we incorporate polar transformation and an innovative constraint tailored specifically for truncation artifact features, further contributing to the effectiveness of our approach. Experiments conducted on multiple datasets demonstrate that our unsupervised network outperforms the traditional Cycle-GAN model significantly. When compared to state-of-the-art supervised models trained on paired datasets, our model achieves comparable visual results and closely aligns with quantitative evaluation metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports the outcomes of a secondary IOL implantation technique in patients that suffered from rhegmatogenous retinal detachment combined with a cataract, which included reopening the capsular bag, enabling secondary intracapsular intraocular lens (IOL) implantation. We included consecutive cases with rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) treated with vitrectomy and silicone oil tamponade, and subsequent secondary IOL implantation during silicone oil removal between September 2019 and June 2022. Demographics, pre- and postoperative clinical data, and complications were collected. Visual and refractive outcomes and IOL position were evaluated. Thirty eyes were included and followed up for a mean of 24.2 ± 5.06 months. Compared with the preoperative values, no significant changes were observed in the intraocular pressure (p = 0.170) and endothelial cell density (p = 0.336); however, the best-corrected visual acuity (Snellen: 20/83 vs. 20/38; logMAR: 0.66 ± 0.23 vs. 0.37 ± 0.32; p < 0.001) and spherical equivalent (p < 0.001) improved significantly. The mean prediction error (ME) was −0.45 ± 0.68 D (−1.9–0.54 D), and the mean absolute prediction error (MAE) was 0.62 ± 0.52 D (0.01–1.9 D). The macula-on subgroup demonstrated significantly better refractive outcomes than the macula-off subgroup (ME, p = 0.046; MAE, p = 0.008). The IOL was well positioned, with a mean horizontal and vertical tilt and decentration of 0.53 ± 0.49° and 0.21 ± 0.16 mm, and 0.54 ± 0.45° and 0.22 ± 0.16 mm, respectively. Secondary intracapsular IOL implantation provided a good and stable IOL position and satisfactory refractive outcomes, and is a feasible treatment option for patients with RRD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the introduction of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) in Japan in 2008, the spectrum of ocular manifestations in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has changed. This study, conducted at Tokyo Medical and Dental University Hospital between January 2012 and August 2023, aimed to understand the epidemiology and clinical features of ocular manifestations in patients with HIV during the cART era. Of the 218 patients diagnosed with HIV, 23 (10.55%) exhibited ocular manifestations; all were male, aged 32–73. The most prevalent ocular complication was uveitis (60.67%). Notably, the prevalence of uveitis in this cART era has surged compared to earlier Japanese studies. Our data also suggest a potential direct link between uveitis and HIV, particularly in patients who have not yet undergone cART. However, cytomegalovirus retinitis, another prevalent ocular disease in our study, appeared more strongly associated with patients who commenced cART. Neither ocular condition was significantly correlated with CD4+ T-cell count. Importantly, our observed ocular manifestation prevalence (10.55%) was lower than that in previous studies, emphasizing the potential influence of cART and national healthcare support. These findings provide unique insights into the evolution of ocular manifestations in patients with HIV in Japan amidst cART availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flammulina velutipes is a renowned edible and medicinal fungus. Commercially cultivated F. velutipes occurs in two distinct phenotypes: white and yellow. However, the underlying mechanism contributing to the yellow phenotype and high nutritional value remain uncertain. We reconfirmed that the browning process in F. velutipes is attributable to melanin accumulation, although the initial yellow cap seemed unrelated to melanin. A transcriptomic and metabolomic joint analysis revealed that 477 chemical compounds categorized into 11 classes, among which 191 exhibited significantly different levels of accumulation between different phenotypes. Specifically, 12 compounds were unique to the yellow F. velutipes, including ferulic acid, and 3-Aminosalicylic acid. Free fatty acids and xanthine were identified as the primary compounds correlating with the yellow and oily cap. A total of 44,087 genes were identified, which were more homologous to Pleurotus ostreatus PC15. Structural genes such as PAL (phenylalanine ammonialyase), C4H (cinnamate 4-hydroxylase), C3H (Coumarin-3-hydroxylase), AoMT (caffeoyl coenzyme A-O-methyltransferase), and 4CL (4-coumarate: CoA ligase) were up-regulated, thereby activating the lignin biosynthesis and metabolism pathway. Additionally, FvbHLH1 can lead to the consumption of a huge amount of phenylalanine while generating flavonoids and organic acid compounds. Meanwhile, ferulic acid biosynthesis was activated. Therefore, this study clarifies the chemical and molecular bases for the yellow phenotype and nutritional value of F. velutipes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The association between vaccines and ocular disorders has attracted significant attention in scientific research. Numerous mainstream vaccines are associated with a range of uveitis types, including anterior, intermediate, and posterior uveitis. Additionally, they are associated with distinct ocular diseases such as multifocal choroiditis, Vogt–Koyanagi–Harada (VKH) disease, acute posterior multifocal placoid pigment epitheliopathy (APMPPE), and multiple evanescent white dot syndrome (MEWDS). These ocular conditions are often transient, with a vast majority of patients experiencing improvement after steroid intervention. To date, numerous cases of vaccine-induced uveitis have been reported. This study analyzed the correlation between antiviral vaccines, including the hepatitis B virus (HBV), human papillomavirus (HPV), measles–mumps–rubella (MMR), varicella zoster virus (VZV), and influenza vaccines, and different manifestations of uveitis. This is the first comprehensive study to offer a detailed analysis of uveitis types induced by antiviral vaccines. Through an extensive database search, we found a particularly strong link between influenza vaccines, followed by VZV and HPV vaccines. While anterior uveitis is common, conditions such as APMPPE, MEWDS, and VKH are particularly notable and merit careful consideration in clinical practice. Corticosteroid treatment was effective; however, half of the observed patients did not achieve full recovery, indicating potentially prolonged effects of the vaccine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multimodal emotion recognition (MER) refers to the identification and understanding of human emotional states by combining different signals, including—but not limited to—text, speech, and face cues. MER plays a crucial role in the human–computer interaction (HCI) domain. With the recent progression of deep learning technologies and the increasing availability of multimodal datasets, the MER domain has witnessed considerable development, resulting in numerous significant research breakthroughs. However, a conspicuous absence of thorough and focused reviews on these deep learning-based MER achievements is observed. This survey aims to bridge this gap by providing a comprehensive overview of the recent advancements in MER based on deep learning. For an orderly exposition, this paper first outlines a meticulous analysis of the current multimodal datasets, emphasizing their advantages and constraints. Subsequently, we thoroughly scrutinize diverse methods for multimodal emotional feature extraction, highlighting the merits and demerits of each method. Moreover, we perform an exhaustive analysis of various MER algorithms, with particular focus on the model-agnostic fusion methods (including early fusion, late fusion, and hybrid fusion) and fusion based on intermediate layers of deep models (encompassing simple concatenation fusion, utterance-level interaction fusion, and fine-grained interaction fusion). We assess the strengths and weaknesses of these fusion strategies, providing guidance to researchers to help them select the most suitable techniques for their studies. In summary, this survey aims to provide a thorough and insightful review of the field of deep learning-based MER. It is intended as a valuable guide to aid researchers in furthering the evolution of this dynamic and impactful field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyperspectral image (HSI) super-resolution is a practical and challenging task as it requires the reconstruction of a large number of spectral bands. Achieving excellent reconstruction results can greatly benefit subsequent downstream tasks. The current mainstream hyperspectral super-resolution methods mainly utilize 3D convolutional neural networks (3D CNN) for design. However, the commonly used small kernel size in 3D CNN limits the model's receptive field, preventing it from considering a wider range of contextual information. Though the receptive field could be expanded by enlarging the kernel size, it results in a dramatic increase in model parameters. Furthermore, the popular vision transformers designed for natural images are not suitable for processing HSI. This is because HSI exhibits sparsity in the spatial domain, which can lead to significant computational resource waste when using self-attention. In this paper, we design a hybrid architecture called HyFormer, which combines the strengths of CNN and transformer for hyperspectral super-resolution. The transformer branch enables intra-spectra interaction to capture fine-grained contextual details at each specific wavelength. Meanwhile, the CNN branch facilitates efficient inter-spectra feature extraction among different wavelengths while maintaining a large receptive field. Specifically, in the transformer branch, we propose a novel Grouping-Aggregation transformer (GAT), comprising grouping self-attention (GSA) and aggregation self-attention (ASA). The GSA is employed to extract diverse fine-grained features of targets, while the ASA facilitates interaction among heterogeneous textures allocated to different channels. In the CNN branch, we propose a Wide-Spanning Separable 3D Attention (WSSA) to enlarge the receptive field while keeping a low parameter number. Building upon WSSA, we construct a wide-spanning CNN module to efficiently extract inter-spectra features. Extensive experiments demonstrate the superior performance of our HyFormer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, the world is at the tipping point of the outbreak of mpox. The World Health Organization has declared the current mpox outbreak a 'public health emergency of international concern'. Mpox has been shown to be associated with several ocular manifestations. Given the current state of the mpox outbreak, healthcare providers, particularly ophthalmologists, need to be aware of these ophthalmic symptoms and how to manage them. In this review, we highlight current knowledge on the ocular symptoms of mpox virus (MPXV) infections and how to detect them. In addition, we summarize the treatment strategies for these ocular manifestations of MPXV infections and outline the relationship between vaccination and the ocular symptoms of mpox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Objectives: To investigate the difference in prevalence of depression between patients with CL/P (cleft lip and/or palate) and analyze the possible demographic factors that affect the prevalence of depression in Chinese patients with CL/P. (2) Methods: Patients with CL (cleft lip only), CP (cleft palate), and CLP (cleft lip and palate) were included in the study group. Non-CL/P individuals were included in the control group. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) was used to screen the depression of Chinese patients with CL/P. The different proportions of different depression groups between the CL/P group and the control groups were tested by the Fisher–Freeman–Halton test and Bonferroni correction. The scores between the study groups and the control group were analyzed by one-way ANOVA. In the study groups, demographic and clinical data of the patients, including diagnosis (CL, CP, CLP), gender, age, the only child or not, and region were collected to analyze whether they were the possible factors affecting depression through one-way independent-samples t-test. Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between monthly family income and depression. (3) Results: 111 and 80 valid questionnaires were collected from the study and control groups, respectively. The mean PHQ-9 score of the study group (5.459 ± 6.082) was relatively higher than the control group (4.362 ± 3.384), and the difference in proportions of depression groups was statistically significant between the CL/P group and the control group (p = 0.01), especially in the mild depression (p < 0.05) and moderately severe depression groups (p < 0.05). Statistically significant differences in PHQ-9 scores were observed between the individuals of different genders (p = 0.036) and ages (p = 0.007) in patients with CL/P, the individuals who were the only child or not in patients with CL (p = 0.007), and the individuals of different ages in patients with CP (p = 0.016). (4) Conclusions: The prevalence of depression in Chinese patients with CL/P was different compared with those without CL/P, while gender, age, the only child or not, and region played significant roles in affecting depression psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-database micro-expression recognition (MER) is a more challenging task than the conventional one because its labeled training (source) and unlabeled testing (target) micro-expression (ME) samples are from different databases. In this circumstance, a large feature-distribution gap may exist between the source and target ME samples due to the different sample sources, which decreases the recognition performance of existing MER methods. In this paper, we focus on this challenging task by proposing a simple yet effective method called the transfer kernel regression model (TKRM). The basic idea of TKRM is to find an ME-discriminative, database-invariant and common reproduced kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) to bridge MEs belonging to different databases. For this purpose, TKRM has the ME discriminative ability of learning a kernel mapping operator to generate an RKHS and build the relationship between the kernelized ME features and labels in such RKHS. Meanwhile, an additional novel regularization term called target sample reconstruction (TSR) is also designed to benefit kernel mapping operator learning by improving the database-invariant ability of TKRM while preserving the ME-discriminative one. To evaluate the proposed TKRM method, we carried out extensive cross-database MER experiments on widely used micro-expression databases, including CASME II and SMIC. Experimental results obtained proved that the proposed TKRM method is indeed superior to recent state-of-the-art domain adaptation methods for cross-database MER. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uveitis is one of the most common ocular complications in people living with the Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and can be classified into HIV-induced uveitis, co-infection related uveitis, immune recovery uveitis, and drug-induced uveitis. The introduction of antiretroviral therapy has considerably changed the incidence, diagnosis, and treatment of different types of HIV-related uveitis. Furthermore, the specific immune condition of patients infected with HIV makes diagnosing HIV-related uveitis difficult. Recent studies have focused on the growing prevalence of syphilis/tuberculosis co-infection in uveitis. Simultaneously, more studies have demonstrated that HIV can directly contribute to the incidence of uveitis. However, the detailed mechanism has not been studied. Immune recovery uveitis is diagnosed by exclusion, and recent studies have addressed the role of biomarkers in its diagnosis. This review highlights recent updates on HIV-related uveitis. Furthermore, it aims to draw the attention of infectious disease physicians and ophthalmologists to the ocular health of patients infected with HIV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brown planthopper (BPH), a monophagous phloem feeder, consumes a large amount of photoassimilates in rice and causes wilting. A near-isogenic line 'TNG71-Bph45' was developed from the Oryza sativa japonica variety 'Tainung 71 (TNG71) carrying a dominant BPH-resistance locus derived from Oryza nivara (IRGC 102165) near the centromere of chromosome 4. We compared the NIL (TNG71-Bph45) and the recurrent parent to explore how the Bph45 gene confers BPH resistance. We found that TNG71-Bph45 is less attractive to BPH at least partially because it produces less limonene. Chiral analysis revealed that the major form of limonene in both rice lines was the L-form. However, both L- and D-limonene attracted BPH when applied exogenously to TNG71-Bph45 rice. The transcript amounts of limonene synthase were significantly higher in TNG71 than in TNG71-Bph45 and were induced by BPH infestation only in the former. Introgression of the Bph45 gene into another japonica variety, Tainan 11, also resulted in a low limonene content. Moreover, several dominantly acting BPH resistance genes introduced into the BPH-sensitive IR24 line compromised its limonene-producing ability and concurrently decreased its attractiveness to BPH. These observations suggest that reducing limonene production may be a common resistance strategy against BPH in rice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known regarding anterior uveitis (AU), the most common ocular disease associated with cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in immunocompetent populations. CMV AU is highly prevalent in Asia, with a higher incidence in men. Clinically, it manifests mainly as anterior chamber inflammation and elevated intraocular pressure (IOP). Acute CMV AU may resemble Posner–Schlossman syndrome with its recurrent hypertensive iritis, while chronic CMV AU may resemble Fuchs uveitis because of its elevated IOP. Without prompt treatment, it may progress to glaucoma; therefore, early diagnosis is critical to prognosis. Knowledge regarding clinical features and aqueous humor analyses can facilitate accurate diagnoses; so, we compared and summarized these aspects. Early antiviral treatment reduces the risk of a glaucoma surgery requirement, and therapeutic effects vary based on drug delivery. Both oral valganciclovir and topical ganciclovir can produce positive clinical outcomes, and higher concentration and frequency are beneficial in chronic CMV retinitis. An extended antiviral course could prevent relapses, but should be limited to 6 months to prevent drug resistance and side effects. In this review, we have systematically summarized the pathogenesis, clinical features, diagnostic and therapeutic aspects, and immunological mechanisms of CMV AU with the goal of providing a theoretical foundation for early clinical diagnosis and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, cross-dataset facial expression recognition (FER) has obtained wide attention from researchers. Thanks to the emergence of large-scale facial expression datasets, cross-dataset FER has made great progress. Nevertheless, facial images in large-scale datasets with low quality, subjective annotation, severe occlusion, and rare subject identity can lead to the existence of outlier samples in facial expression datasets. These outlier samples are usually far from the clustering center of the dataset in the feature space, thus resulting in considerable differences in feature distribution, which severely restricts the performance of most cross-dataset facial expression recognition methods. To eliminate the influence of outlier samples on cross-dataset FER, we propose the enhanced sample self-revised network (ESSRN) with a novel outlier-handling mechanism, whose aim is first to seek these outlier samples and then suppress them in dealing with cross-dataset FER. To evaluate the proposed ESSRN, we conduct extensive cross-dataset experiments across RAF-DB, JAFFE, CK+, and FER2013 datasets. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed outlier-handling mechanism can reduce the negative impact of outlier samples on cross-dataset FER effectively and our ESSRN outperforms classic deep unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) methods and the recent state-of-the-art cross-dataset FER results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A micro-expression (ME) is a kind of involuntary facial expressions, which commonly occurs with subtle intensity. The accurately recognition ME, a. k. a. micro-expression recognition (MER), has a number of potential applications, e.g., interrogation and clinical diagnosis. Therefore, the subject has received a high level of attention among researchers in affective computing and pattern recognition communities. In this paper, we proposed a straightforward and effective deep learning method called uncertainty-aware magnification-robust networks (UAMRN) for MER, which attempts to address two key issues in MER including the low intensity of ME and imbalance of ME samples. Specifically, to better distinguish subtle ME movements, we reconstructed a new sequence by magnifying the ME intensity. Furthermore, a sparse self-attention (SSA) block was implemented which rectifies the standard self-attention with locality sensitive hashing (LSH), resulting in the suppression of artefacts generated during magnification. On the other hand, for the class imbalance problem, we guided the network optimization based on the confidence about the estimation, through which the samples from rare classes were allotted greater uncertainty and thus trained more carefully. We conducted the experiments on three public ME databases, i.e., CASME II, SAMM and SMIC-HS, the results of which demonstrate improvement compared to recent state-of-the-art MER methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we focus on a challenging, but interesting, task in speech emotion recognition (SER), i.e., cross-corpus SER. Unlike conventional SER, a feature distribution mismatch may exist between the labeled source (training) and target (testing) speech samples in cross-corpus SER because they come from different speech emotion corpora, which degrades the performance of most well-performing SER methods. To address this issue, we propose a novel transfer subspace learning method called multiple distribution-adapted regression (MDAR) to bridge the gap between speech samples from different corpora. Specifically, MDAR aims to learn a projection matrix to build the relationship between the source speech features and emotion labels. A novel regularization term called multiple distribution adaption (MDA), consisting of a marginal and two conditional distribution-adapted operations, is designed to collaboratively enable such a discriminative projection matrix to be applicable to the target speech samples, regardless of speech corpus variance. Consequently, by resorting to the learned projection matrix, we are able to predict the emotion labels of target speech samples when only the source label information is given. To evaluate the proposed MDAR method, extensive cross-corpus SER tasks based on three different speech emotion corpora, i.e., EmoDB, eNTERFACE, and CASIA, were designed. Experimental results showed that the proposed MDAR outperformed most recent state-of-the-art transfer subspace learning methods and even performed better than several well-performing deep transfer learning methods in dealing with cross-corpus SER tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the problem of cross-corpus speech emotion recognition (SER), in which the training (source) and testing (target) speech samples belong to different corpora. This case thus leads to a feature distribution mismatch between the source and target speech samples. Hence, the performance of most existing SER methods drops sharply. To solve this problem, we propose a simple yet effective transfer subspace learning method called joint distribution implicitly aligned subspace learning (JIASL). The basic idea of JIASL is very straightforward, i.e., building an emotion discriminative and corpus invariant linear regression model under an implicit distribution alignment strategy. Following this idea, we first make use of the source speech features and emotion labels to endow such a regression model with emotion-discriminative ability. Then, a well-designed reconstruction regularization term, jointly considering the marginal and conditional distribution alignments between the speech samples in both corpora, is adopted to implicitly enable the regression model to predict the emotion labels of target speech samples. To evaluate the performance of our proposed JIASL, extensive cross-corpus SER experiments are carried out, and the results demonstrate the promising performance of the proposed JIASL in coping with the tasks of cross-corpus SER. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-corpus speech emotion recognition (SER) is a challenging task, and its difficulty lies in the mismatch between the feature distributions of the training (source domain) and testing (target domain) data, leading to the performance degradation when the model deals with new domain data. Previous works explore utilizing domain adaptation (DA) to eliminate the domain shift between the source and target domains and have achieved the promising performance in SER. However, these methods mainly treat cross-corpus tasks simply as the DA problem, directly aligning the distributions across domains in a common feature space. In this case, excessively narrowing the domain distance will impair the emotion discrimination of speech features since it is difficult to maintain the completeness of the emotion space only by an emotion classifier. To overcome this issue, we propose a progressively discriminative transfer network (PDTN) for cross-corpus SER in this paper, which can enhance the emotion discrimination ability of speech features while eliminating the mismatch between the source and target corpora. In detail, we design two special losses in the feature layers of PDTN, i.e., emotion discriminant loss L d and distribution alignment loss L a . By incorporating prior knowledge of speech emotion into feature learning (i.e., high and low valence speech emotion features have their respective cluster centers), we integrate a valence-aware center loss L v and an emotion-aware center loss L c as the L d to guarantee the discriminative learning of speech emotions except an emotion classifier. Furthermore, a multi-layer distribution alignment loss L a is adopted to more precisely eliminate the discrepancy of feature distributions between the source and target domains. Finally, through the optimization of PDTN by combining three losses, i.e., cross-entropy loss L e , L d , and L a , we can gradually eliminate the domain mismatch between the source and target corpora while maintaining the emotion discrimination of speech features. Extensive experimental results of six cross-corpus tasks on three datasets, i.e., Emo-DB, eNTERFACE, and CASIA, reveal that our proposed PDTN outperforms the state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HTLV-1 uveitis (HU) is the third clinical entity to be designated as an HTLV-1-associated disease. Although HU is considered to be the second-most frequent HTLV-1-associated disease in Japan, information on HU is limited compared to that on adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) and HTLV-1-associated myelopathy (HAM). Recent studies have addressed several long-standing uncertainties about HU. HTLV-1-related diseases are known to be caused mainly through vertical transmission (mother-to-child transmission), but emerging HTLV-1 infection by horizontal transmission (such as sexual transmission) has become a major problem in metropolitan areas, such as Tokyo, Japan. Investigation in Tokyo showed that horizontal transmission of HTLV-1 was responsible for HU with severe and persistent ocular inflammation. The development of ATL and HAM is known to be related to a high provirus load and hence involves a long latency period. On the other hand, factors contributing to the development of HU are poorly understood. Recent investigations revealed that severe HU occurs against a background of Graves' disease despite a low provirus load and short latency period. This review highlights the recent knowledge on HU and provides an update on the topic of HU in consideration of a recent nationwide survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: Yellow mushroom (Floccularia luteovirens) is a natural resource that is highly nutritional, has a high economic value, and is found in Northwest China. Despite its value, the chemical and molecular mechanisms of yellow phenotype formation are still unclear. (2) Methods: This study uses the combined analysis of transcriptome and metabolome to explain the molecular mechanism of the formation of yellow mushroom. Subcellular localization and transgene overexpression techniques were used to verify the function of the candidate gene. (3) Results: 112 compounds had a higher expression in yellow mushroom; riboflavin was the ninth most-expressed compound. HPLC showed that a key target peak at 23.128 min under visible light at 444 nm was Vb2. All proteins exhibited the closest relationship with Agaricus bisporus var. bisporus H97. One riboflavin transporter, CL911.Contig3_All (FlMCH5), was highly expressed in yellow mushrooms with a different value (log2 fold change) of −12.98, whereas it was not detected in white mushrooms. FlMCH5 was homologous to the riboflavin transporter MCH5 or MFS transporter in other strains, and the FlMCH5-GFP fusion protein was mainly located in the cell membrane. Overexpression of FlMCH5 in tobacco increased the content of riboflavin in three transgenic plants to 26 μg/g, 26.52 μg/g, and 36.94 μg/g, respectively. (4) Conclusions: In this study, it is clear that riboflavin is the main coloring compound of yellow mushrooms, and FlMCH5 is the key transport regulatory gene that produces the yellow phenotype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore rhizosphere effects, geographical differences and their effects on the bacterial community associated with the geoherb Fritillaria thunbergii, some physicochemical properties of soil samples (3 sampling sites × 2 habitats (rhizosphere and bulk soil)) were measured and the soil bacterial community detected by PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Among the three regions, soil pH varied between 4.48 and 7.73 indicating that F. thunbergii could grow both in acid and slightly alkaline soil. As the authentic Dao-di producing area, Ningbo showed the highest soil quality with the highest content of organic matter (OM) (2.46%), phosphatase (268 mg kg-1 24 h-1) and urease activity (1481 mg kg-1 24 h-1). In comparison with the bulk soil, pH, organic carbon content, and phosphatase and urease activities were all lower in the rhizosphere, suggesting that the roots may secrete some unique metabolites in root exudates. Statistical analyses showed that soil properties of Ningbo and Panan in Zhejiang province were more similar to each other than those in Nantong in Jiangsu province. In addition, PCR-DGGE analysis showed that main bacterial population identified in F. thunbergii was proteobacteria (18 bands, 55%), acidobacteria (4, 12%), actinobacteria (4, 12%) and bacterioidetes (6, 18%). Overall, soil properties and microbial communities varied not only between the rhizosphere and bulk soil but also among the three regions. We suggest that the plant, together with the soil properties, cooperatively shape the structure of the rhizosphere bacteria, and that the soil properties have a close relationship with the geoherbalism of F. thunbergii. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potentilla anserina is a perennial stoloniferous plant with edible tuberous roots in Rosaceae, served as important food and medicine sources for Tibetans in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP), China, over thousands of years. However, a lack of genome information hindered the genetic study. Here, we presented a chromosome-level genome assembly using single-molecule long-read sequencing, and the Hi-C technique. The assembled genome was 454.28 Mb, containing 14 chromosomes, with contig N50 of 2.14 Mb. A total of 46,495 protein-coding genes, 169.74 Mb repeat regions, and 31.76 Kb non-coding RNA were predicted. P. anserina diverged from Potentilla micrantha ∼28.52 million years ago (Mya). Furthermore, P. anserina underwent a recent tetraploidization ∼6.4 Mya. The species-specific genes were enriched in Starch and sucrose metabolism and Galactose metabolism pathways. We identified the sub-genome structures of P. anserina, with A sub-genome was larger than B sub-genome and closer to P. micrantha phylogenetically. Despite lacking significant genome-wide expression dominance, the A sub-genome had higher homoeologous gene expression in shoot apical meristem, flower and tuberous root. The resistance genes was contracted in P. anserina genome. Key genes involved in starch biosynthesis were expanded and highly expressed in tuberous roots, which probably drives the tuber formation. The genomics and transcriptomics data generated in this study advance our understanding of the genomic landscape of P. anserina, and will accelerate genetic studies and breeding programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The basic helix-loop helix (bHLH) transcription factor has been inferred to play an important role in blue and purple grain traits in common wheat, but to date, its overexpression has not been reported. In this study, the bHLH transcription factor ThMYC4E, the candidate gene controlling the blue grain trait from Th. Ponticum, was transferred to the common wheat JW1. The positive transgenic lines displayed higher levels of purple anthocyanin pigments in their grains, leaves and glumes. Stripping the glumes (light treatment) caused white grains to become purple in transgenic lines. RNA-Seq and qRT-PCR analysis demonstrated that the transcript levels of structural genes associated with anthocyanin biosynthesis were higher in transgenic wheat than the wild-type (WT), which indicated that ThMYC4E activated anthocyanin biosynthesis in the transgenic lines. Correspondingly, the anthocyanin contents in grains, roots, stems, leaves and glumes of transgenic lines were higher than those in the WT. Metabolome analysis demonstrated that the anthocyanins were composed of cyanidin and delphinidin in the grains of the transgenic lines. Moreover, the transgenic lines showed higher antioxidant activity, in terms of scavenging DPPH radicals, in the ethanol extracts of their grains. The overexpression of ThMYC4E sheds light on the traits related to anthocyanin biosynthesis in common wheat and provide a new way to improve anthocyanin content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overexpression of R2R3-MYB transcriptor can induce up-expression of anthocyanin biosynthesis structural genes, and improve the anthocyanin content in plant tissues, but it is not clear whether the MYB transcription factor overexpression does effect on other genes transcript and chemical compounds accumulation. In this manuscript, RNA-sequencing and the stepwise multiple ion monitoring-enhanced product ions (stepwise MIM-EPI) strategy were employed to evaluate the comprehensive effect of the MYB transcription factor LrAN2 in tobacco. Overexpression of LrAN2 could promote anthocyanin accumulation in a lot of tissues of tobacco cultivar Samsun. Only 185 unigenes express differently in a total of 160,965 unigenes in leaves, and 224 chemical compounds were differently accumulated. Three anthocyanins, apigeninidin chloride, pelargonidin 3-O-beta-D-glucoside and cyanidin 3,5-O-diglucoside, were detected only in transgenic lines, which could explain the phenotype of purple leaves. Except for anthocyanins, the phenylpropanoid, polyphenol (catechin), flavonoid, flavone and flavonol, belong to the same subgroups of flavonoids biosynthesis pathway with anthocyanin and were also up-accumulated. Overexpression of LrAN2 activated the bHLH (basic helix-loop-helix protein) transcription factor AN1b, relative to anthocyanin biosynthesis and the MYB transcription factor MYB3, relative to proanthocyanin biosynthesis. Then, the structural genes, relative to the phenylpropanoid pathway, were activated, which led to the up-accumulation of phenylpropanoid, polyphenol (catechin), flavonoid, flavone, flavonol and anthocyanin. The MYB transcription factor CPC, negative to anthocyanin biosynthesis, also induced up-expression in transgenic lines, which implied that a negative regulation mechanism existed in the anthocyanin biosynthesis pathway. The relative contents of all 19 differently accumulated amino and derivers were decreased in transgenic lines, which meant the phenylalanine biosynthesis pathway completed the same substrates with other amino acids. Interestingly, the acetylalkylglycerol acetylhydrolase was down-expressed in transgenic lines, which caused 19 lyso-phosphatidylcholine and derivatives of lipids to be up-accumulated, and 8 octodecane and derivatives were down-accumulated. This research will give more information about the function of MYB transcription factors on the anthocyanin biosynthesis and other chemical compounds and be of benefit to obtaining new plant cultivars with high anthocyanin content by biotechnology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Red coleoptiles can help crops to cope with adversity and the key genes that are responsible for this trait have previously been isolated from Triticum aestivum, Triticum urartu, and Aegilops tauschii. This report describes the use of transcriptome analysis to determine the candidate gene that controls the trait for white coleoptiles in T. monococcum by screening three cultivars with white coleoptiles and two with red coleoptiles. Fifteen structural genes and two transcription factors that are involved in anthocyanin biosynthesis were identified from the assembled UniGene database through BLAST analysis and their transcript levels were then compared in white and red coleoptiles. The majority of the structural genes reflected lower transcript levels in the white than in the red coleoptiles, which implied that transcription factors related to anthocyanin biosynthesis could be candidate genes. The transcript levels of MYC transcription factor TmMYC-A1 were not significantly different between the white and red coleoptiles and all of the TmMYC-A1s contained complete functional domains. The deduced amino acid sequence of the MYB transcription factor TmMYB-A1 in red coleoptiles was homologous to TuMYB-A1, TaMYB-A1, TaMYB-B1, and TaMYB-D1, which control coleoptile color in corresponding species and contained the complete R2R3 MYB domain and the transactivation domain. TmMYB-a1 lost its two functional domains in white coleoptiles due to a single nucleotide deletion that caused premature termination at 13 bp after the initiation codon. Therefore, TmMYB-A1 is likely to be the candidate gene for the control of the red coleoptile trait, and its loss-of-function mutation leads to the white phenotype in T. monococcum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The red flesh trait gives red pitayas more healthful components and a higher price, while the genetic mechanism behind this trait is unknown. In this manuscript, transcriptome analysis was employed to discover the genetic differences between white and red flesh in pitayas. A total of 27.99 Gb clean data were obtained for four samples. Unigenes, 79,049 in number, were generated with an average length of 1333 bp, and 52,618 Unigenes were annotated. Compared with white flesh, the expression of 10,215 Unigenes was up-regulated, and 4853 Unigenes were down-regulated in red flesh. The metabolic pathways accounted for 64.6% of all differentially expressed Unigenes in KEGG pathways. The group with high betalain content in red flesh and all structural genes, related to betalain biosynthesis, had a higher expression in red flesh than white flesh. The expression of the key gene, tyrosine hydroxylase CYP76AD1, was up-regulated 245.08 times, while 4,5-DOPA dioxygenase DODA was up-regulated 6.46 times. Moreover, the special isomers CYP76AD1α and DODAα were only expressed in red flesh. The competitive anthocyanin biosynthesis pathway had a lower expression in red flesh. Two MYB transcription factors were of the same branch as BvMYB1, regulating betalain biosynthesis in beet, and those transcription factors had expression differences in two kinds of pitayas, which indicated that they should be candidate genes controlling betalain accumulation in red pitayas. This research would benefit from identifying the major gene controlling red flesh trait and breed new cultivars with the red flesh trait. Future research should aim to prove the role of each candidate gene in betalain biosynthesis in red pitayas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The basic helix-loop helix (bHLH) transcription factor has been inferred to play an important role in blue and purple grain traits in common wheat, but to date, its overexpression has not been reported. In this study, the bHLH transcription factor ThMYC4E , the candidate gene controlling the blue grain trait from Th. Ponticum , was transferred to the common wheat JW1. The positive transgenic lines displayed higher levels of purple anthocyanin pigments in their grains, leaves and glumes. Stripping the glumes (light treatment) caused white grains to become purple in transgenic lines. RNA-Seq and qRT-PCR analysis demonstrated that the transcript levels of structural genes associated with anthocyanin biosynthesis were higher in transgenic wheat than the wild-type (WT), which indicated that ThMYC4E activated anthocyanin biosynthesis in the transgenic lines. Correspondingly, the anthocyanin contents in grains, roots, stems, leaves and glumes of transgenic lines were higher than those in the WT. Metabolome analysis demonstrated that the anthocyanins were composed of cyanidin and delphinidin in the grains of the transgenic lines. Moreover, the transgenic lines showed higher antioxidant activity, in terms of scavenging DPPH radicals, in the ethanol extracts of their grains. The overexpression of ThMYC4E sheds light on the traits related to anthocyanin biosynthesis in common wheat and provide a new way to improve anthocyanin content.

The red coleoptile trait can help monocotyledonous plants withstand stresses, and key genes responsible for the trait have been isolated from Triticum aestivum , Triticum urartu , and Triticum monococcum , but no corresponding research has been reported for Aegilops tauschii . In this research, transcriptome analysis was performed to isolate the candidate gene controlling the white coleoptile trait in Ae. tauschii . There were 5348 upregulated, differentially-expressed genes (DEGs) and 4761 downregulated DEGs in red coleoptile vs. white coleoptile plants. Among these DEGs, 12 structural genes and two transcription factors involved in anthocyanin biosynthesis were identified. The majority of structural genes showed lower transcript abundance in the white coleoptile of accession 'As77' than in the red coleoptile of accession 'As60', which implied that transcription factors related to anthocyanin biosynthesis could be the candidate genes. The MYB and MYC transcription factors AetMYB7D and AetMYC1 were both isolated from Ae. tauschii accessions 'As60' and 'As77', and their transcript levels analyzed. The coding sequence and transcript level of AetMYB7D showed no difference between 'As60' and 'As77'. AetMYC1p encoded a 567-amino acid polypeptide in 'As60' containing the entire characteristic domains, bHLH-MYC&#95;N, HLH, and ACT-like, belonging to the gene family involved in regulating anthocyanin biosynthesis. AetMYC1w encoded a 436-amino acid polypeptide in 'As77' without the ACT-like domain because a single nucleotide mutation at 1310 bp caused premature termination. Transient expression of AetMYC1p induced anthocyanin biosynthesis in 'As77' with the co-expression of AetMYB7D , while AetMYC1w could not cause induced anthocyanin biosynthesis under the same circumstances. Moreover, the transcript abundance of AetMYC1w was lower than that of AetMYC1p . AetMYC1 appears to be the candidate gene controlling the white coleoptile trait in Ae. tauschii , which can be used for potential biotech applications, such as producing new synthetic hexaploid wheat lines with different coleoptile colors., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

To explore rhizosphere effects, geographical differences and their effects on the bacterial community associated with the geoherb Fritillaria thunbergii, some physicochemical properties of soil samples (3 sampling sites × 2 habitats (rhizosphere and bulk soil)) were measured and the soil bacterial community detected by PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Among the three regions, soil pH varied between 4.48 and 7.73 indicating that F. thunbergii could grow both in acid and slightly alkaline soil. As the authentic Dao-di producing area, Ningbo showed the highest soil quality with the highest content of organic matter (OM) (2.46%), phosphatase (268 mg kg(-1) 24 h(-1)) and urease activity (1481 mg kg(-1) 24 h(-1)). In comparison with the bulk soil, pH, organic carbon content, and phosphatase and urease activities were all lower in the rhizosphere, suggesting that the roots may secrete some unique metabolites in root exudates. Statistical analyses showed that soil properties of Ningbo and Panan in Zhejiang province were more similar to each other than those in Nantong in Jiangsu province. In addition, PCR-DGGE analysis showed that main bacterial population identified in F. thunbergii was proteobacteria (18 bands, 55%), acidobacteria (4, 12%), actinobacteria (4, 12%) and bacterioidetes (6, 18%). Overall, soil properties and microbial communities varied not only between the rhizosphere and bulk soil but also among the three regions. We suggest that the plant, together with the soil properties, cooperatively shape the structure of the rhizosphere bacteria, and that the soil properties have a close relationship with the geoherbalism of F. thunbergii.