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Summary: Background: Liver fibrosis is the strongest histological risk factor for liver‐related complications and mortality in metabolic dysfunction‐associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD). Second harmonic generation/two‐photon excitation fluorescence (SHG/TPEF) is a powerful tool for label‐free two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional tissue visualisation that shows promise in liver fibrosis assessment. Aim: To investigate combining multi‐photon microscopy (MPM) and deep learning techniques to develop and validate a new automated quantitative histological classification tool, named AutoFibroNet (Automated Liver Fibrosis Grading Network), for accurately staging liver fibrosis in MAFLD. Methods: AutoFibroNet was developed in a training cohort that consisted of 203 Chinese adults with biopsy‐confirmed MAFLD. Three deep learning models (VGG16, ResNet34, and MobileNet V3) were used to train pre‐processed images and test data sets. Multi‐layer perceptrons were used to fuse data (deep learning features, clinical features, and manual features) to build a joint model. This model was then validated in two further independent cohorts. Results: AutoFibroNet showed good discrimination in the training set. For F0, F1, F2 and F3‐4 fibrosis stages, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROC) of AutoFibroNet were 1.00, 0.99, 0.98 and 0.98. The AUROCs of F0, F1, F2 and F3‐4 fibrosis stages for AutoFibroNet in the two validation cohorts were 0.99, 0.83, 0.80 and 0.90 and 1.00, 0.83, 0.80 and 0.94, respectively, showing a good discriminatory ability in different cohorts. Conclusion: AutoFibroNet is an automated quantitative tool that accurately identifies histological stages of liver fibrosis in Chinese individuals with MAFLD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hilar cholangiocarcinoma (HCC) is a common malignant tumor of the biliary system. The structural characteristics of the bile duct tissue can reflect the changes in its function. The visualization of these specific features is of special significance for understanding the degree of invasion of HCC and tumor borders. Radical R0 resection is the only cure for HCC. Currently, the commonly used medical imaging diagnostic methods can only provide a rough tumor range and require a histopathological analysis. Multiphoton microscopy (MPM) not only has an ultra-high spatial resolution but is also extremely sensitive to collagen fibers with noncentrosymmetric structures. In this study, MPM is applied to image the boundaries of HCC tumors. First, the experimental results show that MPM can clearly reveal the existence of residual cancer cells at the surgical margin. Second, the density of the collagen fibers and the dispersion of the 2D direction angle of the collagen fibers of normal and cancerous tissues are further calculated quantitatively. The collagen fiber signals before and after cancer cell invasion into the different tissues are found to be different. Finally, through a logistic regression prediction curve, combined with the collagen fiber density and 2D direction angle as indicators, it is further judged whether the resection margin is negative, which is closely related to the prognosis of HCC. The experimental results indicate that MPM imaging can serve as a new tool for diagnosing whether the HCC tumor boundary reaches R0 resection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Warm winters and hot springs may promote panicle leaf growing and repress floral development. To identify genes potentially involved in litchi panicle leaf senescence, eight RNA-sequencing (RNA-Seq) libraries of the senescing panicle leaves under low temperature (LT) conditions and the developing panicle leaves under high temperature (HT) conditions were constructed. For each library, 4.78–8.99 × 106 clean reads were generated. Digital expression of the genes was compared between the senescing and developing panicle leaves. A total of 6477 upregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) (from developing leaves to senescing leaves), and 6318 downregulated DEGs were identified, 158 abscisic acid (ABA)-, 68 ethylene-, 107 indole-3-acetic acid (IAA)-, 27 gibberellic acid (GA)-, 68 cytokinin (CTK)-, 37 salicylic acid (SA)-, and 23 brassinolide (BR)-related DEGs. Confirmation of the RNA-Seq data by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis suggested that expression trends of the 10 candidate genes using qRT-PCR were similar to those revealed by RNA-Seq, and a significantly positive correlation between the obtained data from qRT-PCR and RNA-Seq were found, indicating the reliability of our RNA-Seq data. The present studies provided potential genes for the future molecular breeding of new cultivars that can induce panicle leaf senescence and reduce floral abortion under warm climates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to investigate the effect of ablation on the re-entry capsule, numerical simulation is used to analyze the trim characteristic of Soyuz re-entry capsule. The aerodynamic characteristic and the trim characteristic are researched as the aerodynamic configuration is changed due to the recession of thermal protection thickness. The result indicates that absolute value of the trim angle of attack and trim lift-drag ratio of Soyuz re-entry capsule are decreased with mach number increasing in hypersonic flow (Ma>8),and the effect of recession is to increase absolute value of the trim angle of attack and trim lift-drag ratio. The results compare well with the conclusion of CEV in overseas reference. The Soyuz and CEV have same changes in the law about trim characteristic, and recessed configuration of them also have similar changes in trends. The research offers reference for the aerodynamic configuration design and improve of the Soyuz re-entry capsule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]