Improved multi-scale inverse bottleneck residual network based on triplet parallel attention for apple leaf disease identification

Accurate diagnosis of apple leaf diseases is crucial for improving the quality of apple production and promoting the development of the apple industry. However, apple leaf diseases do not differ significantly from image texture and structural information. The difficulties in disease feature extraction in complex backgrounds slow the related research progress. To address the problems, this paper proposes an improved multi-scale inverse bottleneck residual network model based on a triplet parallel attention mechanism, which is built upon ResNet-50, while improving and combining the inception module and ResNext inverse bottleneck blocks, to recognize seven types of apple leaf(including six diseases of alternaria leaf spot, brown spot, grey spot, mosaic, rust, scab, and one healthy). First, the 3×3 convolutions in some of the residual modules are replaced by multi-scale residual convolutions, the convolution kernels of different sizes contained in each branch of the multi-scale convolution are applied to extract feature maps of different sizes, and the outputs of these branches are multi-scale fused by summing to enrich the output features of the images. Second, the global layer-wise dynamic coordinated inverse bottleneck structure is used to reduce the network feature loss. The inverse bottleneck structure makes the image information less lossy when transforming from different dimensional feature spaces. The fusion of multi-scale and layer-wise dynamic coordinated inverse bottlenecks makes the model effectively balances computational efficiency and feature representation capability, and more robust with a combination of horizontal and vertical features in the fine identification of apple leaf diseases. Finally, after each improved module, a triplet parallel attention module is integrated with cross-dimensional interactions among channels through rotations and residual transformations, which improves the parallel search efficiency of important features and the recognition rate of the network with relatively small computational costs while the dimensional dependencies are improved. To verify the validity of the model in this paper, we uniformly enhance apple leaf disease images screened from the public data sets of Plant Village, Baidu Flying Paddle, and the Internet. The final processed image count is 14,000. The ablation study, pre-processing comparison, and method comparison are conducted on the processed datasets. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method reaches 98.73% accuracy on the adopted datasets, which is 1.82% higher than the classical ResNet-50 model, and 0.29% better than the apple leaf disease datasets before preprocessing. It also achieves competitive results in apple leaf disease identification compared to some state-ofthe-art methods.

High temperature treatment induced production of unreduced 2n pollen in Camellia oleifera

Unreduced gametes through chromosome doubling play a major role in the process of plant polyploidization.Our previous work confirmed that Camellia oleifera can produce natural 2n pollen,and it is possible to induce the 2n pollen formation by high temperature treatment.This study focused on the optimization of the 2n pollen induction technique and the mechanisms of high temperature-induced2n pollen formation in C.oleifera.We found that the optimal protocol for inducing 2n pollen via high temperature was to perform 45℃with4 h at the prophaseⅠstage of the pollen mother cells(PMCs).Meanwhile,high temperature significantly decreased the yield and fertility of2n pollen.Through the observation of meiosis,abnormal chromosome and cytological behaviour was discovered under high-temperature treatment,and we confirmed that the formation of 2n pollen is caused by abnormal cell plate.Based on weighted gene co-expression network analysis,fifteen hub genes related to cell cycle control were identified.After male flower buds were exposed to heat shock,polygalacturonase gene(CoPGX3)was significantly upregulated.We inferred that high temperature causes the CoPGX3 gene to be overexpressed and that CoPGX3 is redistributed into the cytosol where it degrades cytoplasmic pectin,which leads to an abnormal cell plate.Furthermore,abnormal cytokinesis resulted in the formation of dyads and triads,and PMCs divided to produce 2n pollen.Our findings provide new insights into the mechanism of 2n pollen induced by high temperature in a woody plant and lay a foundation for further ploidy breeding of C.oleifera.

Development of a KASP Marker on Chromosome A05 for Seed Oil Content of Brassica napus

In order to identify the molecular markers that can be widely used in the breeding of Brassica napus L.varieties with high seed oil content under different genetic backgrounds,we developed a Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR(KASP)marker for seed oil content on the basis of the results from available studies.The verification in the F_(2) population showed that the marker was closely linked to the quantitative trait locus(QTL)for oil content on chromosome A05.The findings helped to breed the‘Fengyou’varieties with high seed oil content in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

Dietary silymarin improves performance by altering hepatic lipid metabolism and cecal microbiota function and its metabolites in late laying hens

Background Liver lipid dysregulation is one of the major factors in the decline of production performance in latestage laying hens.Silymarin(SIL),a natural flavonolignan extracted from milk thistle,is known for its hepatoprotective and lipid-lowering properties in humans.This study evaluates whether SIL can provide similar benefits to late-stage laying hens.A total of 48068-week-old Lohmann Pink laying hens were randomly assigned into 5 groups,each group consisting of 6 replicates with 16 hens each.The birds received a basal diet either without silymarin(control)or supplemented with silymarin at concentrations of 250,500,750,or 1,000 mg/kg(SIL250,SIL500,SIL750,SIL1000)over a 12-week period.Results The CON group exhibited a significant decline in laying rates from weeks 9 to 12 compared to the initial4 weeks(P=0.042),while SIL supplementation maintained consistent laying rates throughout the study(P>0.05).Notably,the SIL500 and SIL750 groups showed higher average egg weight than the CON group during weeks 5 to 8(P=0.049).The SIL750 group had a significantly higher average daily feed intake across the study period(P<0.05),and the SIL500 group saw a marked decrease in the feed-to-egg ratio from weeks 5 to 8(P=0.003).Furthermore,the SIL500 group demonstrated significant reductions in serum ALT and AST levels(P<0.05)and a significant decrease in serum triglycerides and total cholesterol at week 12 with increasing doses of SIL(P<0.05).SIL also positively influenced liver enzyme expression(FASN,ACC,Apo-VLDLⅡ,FXR,and CYP7A1;P<0.05)and altered the cecal microbiota composition,enhancing species linked to secondary bile acid synthesis.Targeted metabolomics identified 9 metabolites predominantly involved in thiamin metabolism that were significantly different in the SIL groups(P<0.05).Conclusions Our study demonstrated that dietary SIL supplementation could ameliorate egg production rate in late stage laying hens,mechanistically,this effect was via improving hepatic lipid metabolism and cecal microbiota function to achieve.Revealed the potentially of SIL as a feed supplementation to regulate hepatic lipid metabolism dysregulation.Overall,dietary 500 mg/kg SIL had the best effects.

Effects of different ratios of soluble to insoluble dietary fiber on growth performance and intestinal health of piglets

This study investigated the impact of different ratios of soluble to insoluble dietary fiber(SDF:IDF)formulations by sugar beet pulp(SBP)supplementation on piglet growth performance,nutrient digestibility,immune function,intestinal morphology,intestinal microbiota and intestinal health.A total of 60 crossbred piglets(Duroc×[Landrace×Yorkshire])at 40 d old with body weight of 10.0±0.3 kg were randomly assigned to 5 treatments with 6 replicates per treatment and 2 piglets per replicate in a 21-d trial.The dietary treatments included a corn-soybean meal diet(0%SBP supplementation;CON),and diets supplemented with 2%,4%,6%,and 8%SBP,representing different SDF:IDF ratios at 10.16%,13.53%,16.79%,19.86%,and 24.81%,respectively.The results indicated that the 8%SBP treatment had a negative effect on feed-to-gain ratio(linear,P=0.009)compared with the CON treatment(P=0.021).The apparent total tract digestibility(ATTD)of crude protein was lower in treatments supplemented with SBP(P=0.002)and showed a linear decrease(P=0.001),while the ATTD of IDF showed a linear increase(P=0.037)in four SBP treatments compared to the CON treatment.The 4%SBP treatment increased serum concentrations of triglyceride(quadratic,P=0.019)and K(linear,P<0.0037),and decreased alanine transaminase concentration(quadratic,P=0.015)compared with the CON treatment.The concentrations of Cit,Cys,Ile,Leu,Orn,Arg,taurine,urea,1-methylhistidine,α-aminoadipic acid,α-aminobutyric acid and cystathionine in the 4%SBP treatment were highest among all treatments(P<0.05).The serum concentrations of interleukin-6,interleukin-8,interleukin-10,transforming growth factor-β,and tumor necrosis factor-αin the 6%SBP treatment were higher than those in the CON treatment(P<0.05),which also increased mucin-2 and G protein-coupled receptor 41 mRNA expression(P<0.05)in colonic mucosa compared with the CON treatment and improved the intestinal barrier function.Diets containing more than 19.86%SDF:IDF could impair the intestinal health in piglets when SBP was used as the SDF source.Supplementing nursery piglet diets with 16.79%to 19.86%SDF:IDF is recommended for improving intestinal barrier function,increasing short-chain fatty acids concentrations,and improving intestinal microbiota composition.

When will dual-purpose pigs fly?

Domestic pigs(Sus scrofa domesticus)have a rich history,intertwined with diverse religious and cultural contexts,as well as intriguing biological characteristics.Since Neolithic times,these medium-sized mammals have been domesticated fromwild boars in various regions,such as East Asia and Europe.For thousands of years,they have been primarily raised formeat purpose and have been featured prominently inmany popular cuisines.

The initiative for consensus and standards in pig-to-human xenotransplantation in China

The global organ shortage is critically severe,withmany patients at risk of lifethreatening conditions due to the scarcity of suitable donor organs.Gene-edited porcine organs for human transplantation have emerged as a promising solution and a focus of scientific research.We urge all relevant parties in China to collaborate in establishing consensus and standards for xenotransplantation using genetically modified pigs to benefit patients worldwide.

应用物联网技术加速畜禽精准饲喂:从概念到实施

Maximizing sow reproductive performance is vital for ensuring healthy piglet supply,feed efficiency,and profitability,which requires understanding factors such as nutrition,disease control,genetics,herd management,and their interplay.It is well documented that most reproductive issues in sows stem from extreme fluctuations in body reserves[1].Thus,optimizing reproduction should prioritize regulating body reserves and making continuous nutritional adjustments throughout a sow’s life[1,2].However,the traditional one-size-fits-all feeding strategy may not meet individual sow needs under varying conditions.This feeding strategy leads to nutrient under-or over-feeding,which may result in a lack of performance and health issues on the one hand,and economic loss and negative environmental effects on the other.